Hermione still couldn't believe it. She brought Brendon to the castle to introduce him to Professor Snape, and Snape had been nice. Not merely polite, not barely tolerable, not almost mean, but nice.
"It will be an honor to work with you," Snape said. "I heard from your Potions Master at Beauxbatons that you're very skilled. And I see you've already been acquainted with Miss Granger. I'm sure it will be an interesting year tutoring you."
Why couldn't Snape be nice when it was her? What was it about Hermione's personality that just seemed to drive him crazy, and in turn made him lash out at her? Brendon had just bounced right up to him and introduced himself. If Hermione tried that, she'd be sneered at, ridiculed, and finally, hollered at until she removed herself from his presence. Was Brendon really that much more talented at Potions than she was? Maybe his professor at Beauxbatons was even better than Snape. Maybe Brendon was related to Snape? No, Brendon was too good looking to be related to Snape. What the hell!
Hermione was in tears as she left the two men talking. She walked away five minutes into their conversation, realizing that she was not going to be acknowledged after introducing them. She always tried, always did her best, and apparently that was never going to be good enough for Professor Severus Snape. As soon as she rounded the corner, leaving the corridor where they were talking, Hermione started sobbing and began running back to her room. Once there, she locked the door and threw herself on the couch, crying. She didn't move from that spot for the rest of the night. Crookshanks was her only consolation in her tears – the rest of the world went on, not noticing her distress.
--
Severus felt a little pang in his chest when Hermione walked away from him and Brendon. Of course he meant to alienate her. He never wanted to teach her in the first place, and was basically blackmailed into agreeing to it. However, Hermione had been one of the first to announce that she found Minerva's tactics disturbing. She didn't want a tutor who was forced to teach. She also offered to take some of his teaching burden from him so that he would feel more comfortable spending time tutoring her. She even accepted the fact that he wanted a second apprentice, even though he had only extended the offer to Mr. Hamilton to irritate her. He sighed.
Why was he feeling bad for the Know-It-All-Who-Lived-to-Annoy-Him? The answer hit him like a ton of bricks, and he was none too happy about that answer. She was attempting to treat him with the respect that he had never earned from her. She was trying to treat him like a higher-ranking equal, her tutor and private teacher with whom she would work closely to develop revolutionizing potions. He was treating her like a naughty third year, though none of the events that had conspired were her fault. Though Severus was little concerned with being fair, he did not like being disrespectful or rude unless the recipient deserved it. Minerva diserved his attitude – Hermione did not. Miss Granger, rather. Indeed, it would not do to become too familiar with his star pupil.
Tomorrow he would invite her to tea to hammer out the remaining details of her apprenticeship. There, he could try to make some headway into restoring her respect for him.
His spying skills included exceptional hearing, and at that moment, he cursed his ability. Though it had saved his life several times in the past, he wished he was not burdened with it then. Miss Granger thought she was out of earshot and had begun sobbing before taking off running somewhere. Severus felt even worse. Normally, he reveled in students' tears and their moping. With Hermione – Miss Granger – he felt bad, knowing that she was only trying to impress him. He sighed again. He cut his conversation short with Brendon and told him he'd owl more details on the apprenticeship later that week. Bidding goodnight to the young man, he strode off down the hall to where he thought Miss Granger might have gone, and heard the slamming of the door to the Head Girl's room. Why was the girl so dramatic?
He toyed with the idea that Brendon was her date for the evening, or her boyfriend. Obviously not. Brendon had been nothing but courteous, trying to draw her into the conversation several times, but Severus had never paid any attention to her. He also thought Brendon mentioned something about meeting just a couple days ago at the ministry, that he had been helping her magically update her library, or something. It was a good thing they weren't dating. He wouldn't tolerate them playing around while studying with him. It would quite probably ruin the quality of their work, and it would prove a distraction when the relationship didn't work out.
Yes, "when." Severus was nothing if not a realist, and he knew that no relationships could last forever. Those who thought they could were mistaken, and would learn of their mistake the hard way. He hadn't always been a cold-hearted bastard, and had been in love once before, during his days as a student at Hogwarts. Lily had broken his heart after taking his virginity, and had left him a broken, bitter mess. He had hardened into the man he was today through his days as a Death Eater, true, but because he never gave another woman a chance after Lily.
That wasn't to say that he hadn't dated. No, there had been a handful of women over the years who found his dark bitterness intriguing. He took them out to dinner, bedded them, and that was usually the end of it. Occasionally there was a woman who came back one or two more times, but that was rare. He stopped seeing them all after three dates, because he knew that much longer than that, and his heart might become attached again. Severus was not willing to put himself through the heartache he had experienced with Lily again, and purposely never let another woman close enough to hurt him. And never would.
He went back down to his rooms in the dungeons, and immediately poured himself a firewhiskey. He stared into space contemplatively, thinking about how to smooth things over with Herm – Miss Granger – so that he would have a peaceful and productive semester with the brilliant young woman. Her ideas had merit, and with enough thought and work put into them, he had no doubt that she could find a way to somehow make it work. It would be interesting to see what she could come up with.
In the mean time, he planned on downing the rest of his bottle of firewhiskey and reading a novel he'd picked up earlier that week. He'd face Hermione tomorrow. Miss Granger.