Chapter 4: The Offer

Bathed in sweat he started from his sleep. While he was waiting for his heartbeat to calm down, pictures of his nightmare crossed his mind. Again it was the blood-curdling scream of the read-head woman , but this time it was much more desperate and louder than the last time and in her beautiful green eyes was pure fear.

He tried to fall asleep again but as soon as he closed his eyes he listened to her terrible yell again.

Finally he gave up and crawled out of his bed. After putting on his dressing gown he scuffled to his office. He inflamed the fireplace's wood with magic and sat down at his desk. While he was waiting for the tea water to boil, he stooped over his student's essays. "If he couldn't sleep, he would spent the time well at least." But to his disappointment his enthusiasm for his work was flying by while he waded through the bad essays. Nobody without a mistake. Even his Slytherins were too bad as if he could turn a blind eye. His anger at this large number of fools at this school was developed to the maximum, when a faultless essay fell into his hands. Certainly it was Miss Granger's. Not only that she answered his questions accurate and by the pageful, but also her font was pin sharp.

He couldn't help getting his anger off his mind to get into the girl's splendour because the fact that she was brilliant was undeniable for him now. Suddenly he was trapped in officiousness and he started to think about how it could be to work with her together. Quite a few times he had wished for some help by his numerous potion experiments but until now he hadn't found anyone – until now. It was just a question, if she would help him after all – means he had almost killed her and victimised her because of her smart-alec behaviour all this years. His enthusiasm was flying by again – probably not.

Hermione didn't sleep well this night either and had nightmares of a dirty laughing Snape who poisoned her. So it was no wonder that she was in a bad mood when she appeared to breakfast.

"What's eating you? Did you get out of the wrong side of bed?", Harry asked her, who tried to finish his essay for Professor Flitwick's lesson hopelessly. "If you dreamed about Snape, who…", she said in her anger but stopped herself when she noticed what she was going to tell her friends, who didn't know what happened yesterday. "Who did what?", Ron wanted to know. Her friends looked at her interrogatively. "Who..", she said haltingly, but then Ginny arrived and helped her. "Hey, Hagrid asked me if I could tell you that you are invited for afternoon tea!", she bolted in the delicate situation. "Oh no, he baked his stone cookies for sure!", Ron groaned. "Much better than his caramel candy", Harry laughed and they started to discuss what kind of Hagrid's biscuits were the worst - Hermione was totally forgotten but she was really relived about that. She and Ginny left the great hall, but just ahead of the stairs their ways parted company because Ginny had to go to her Defence against the dark arts lesson and Hermione had to go to her Charms lesson in the second corridor. Just before the lesson started Harry and Ron arrived in dribs and drabs but luckily all seats next to her were taken. There were just two seats in the last row of the class.

Nervously Hermione stood in front of the classroom, which she never wanted to enter again. The whole day she tried to think of anything else but not of the forthcoming potion lesson. When Snape appeared, her heart dived for a few seconds. But he just shoot a glance at her and ignored her the whole lesson.

When the lesson was drawing to an end they got their essays back. As always Snape looked daggers at them and put their tasks on their desks with magic.

Also Hermione was accustomed that she got no compliment for her hard work. Today it changed. Under her essay stood in a small tidy font: "Excellent work – please stay after class". She beamed with joy – the first positive words for years. "But why must I stay after class?", she asked herself and her enthusiasm was flying away.

When the school bell rang she dropped her bag as if it was an accident. While the others were leaving the class, she knelled down and collected the books which fell out of her bag. As soon as she finished she got up and noticed that Snape surveyed her amused. She smiled sheepishly and asked: "You'd like to talk to me, Sir?". To her relief her voice didn't wobble.

"Indeed, Miss Granger", he agreed. "I wonder if you might help me by a poison experiment", he disclosed.

At first she was numbed. "Snape asks my hand? Is he kidding me?", she thought confused. "It's just a request, you have not...", he said and broke the silence. But before he could continued, Hermione wanted to know: "When and where should I come and which poison is it ?".

Snape couldn't primarily get over the fact that she agreed because he had almost poisoned her some days before. That was the reason why he answered a little bit ruder than he wanted to : "Meet me in my office this evening. You will be informed eventually."

"Stop!", Hermione answered back, "at first I wanted to know which poison it is!" - she was really proud of herself that her voice didn't wobble. "The Invisible Poison", he nagged and regretted his advice directly, when Hermione looked at him speechlessly.