Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter related.
The next morning the Great Hall was buzzing with conversation. Apparently the news of the new three professors didn't affect anyone for long, except the Gryffindors. Most appeared with a grave look on their face.
Hermione's eyes kept traveling to the head table. Snape was giving his customary glare to all the students. Suddenly, it was like he knew she was watching him, and he turned to glare right into her eyes. She felt an involuntary shiver run through her. His black eyes narrowed slightly until she realized what she was doing and turned her head.
Lucius was walking up the Gryffindor table handing out class schedules. His serpent handled cane in his right hand while shuffled papers. His mood was black, and appeared none to pleased about his new position as the Head of Gryffindor.
"What is wrong with your tie boy?" he asked to a nervous Neville. "Well? Aren't going to answer me? Five points from Gryffindor for your incompetence, then five points for the tie. Perhaps next time you won't stare at me like a bloody idiot and will dress right."
Harry and Ron were doing their normal, shoving as much food down their throat as possible, when Lucius came over with their schedules. The look on his face showed pure disgust.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley," he said silkily. "Perhaps next time I see you, you'll have better table manners than that. While you're at it, you need to do something with that wretched hair. I expecteven Gryffindors to be well groomed."
With that he handed each of them a schedule and continued down the line. Looking down at the list, Hermione groaned. What a perfect day, starting out their first day back at school with advanced potions. Sighing she stood up.
"Best get going to the dragon's lair. Wouldn't want to be late."
Upon entering, the first thing the three noticed was, they made up half of the class, literally. Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and Lavender Brown were the other students. Lavender smiled invitingly to Ron and he rushed forward to take a seat with her. Rolling her eyes, Hermione sat down next to Harry.
Not even thirty seconds later, Snape briskly walked into the class room. His hair stayed down around his face while his robes flew out behind him. His movements were quick, but still graceful. Hermione was entranced as he moved to the front of the classroom.
Standing with his hands behind his back, he took in all six students. He should have known his little insufferable know-it all would be in this class. It was like God wanted to torture him. But of course, where ever Hermione was, those two sods she called best friends were not far behind sniffling around her feet.
"Who can tell me what exactly we will be studying in this class and why?" Snape asked.
Stopping himself from sneering, he looked right past Hermione's hand. His first bloody day back to teaching, and she was already on the edge of her seat, not even five minutes into the lesson. Looking around, he noticed Weasley avoiding eye contact.
"Perhaps, Mr. Weasley, you could tell me."
"Well…advanced potions, sir." Ron replied.
"Notjust any kind of advanced potions class. The art of giving or taking a life, Mr. Weasley. The ability to change ones appearance, the ability to save a life. We will study dangerous elements in this class. If you can not handle that, any of you, get up and leave, now." he regarded the class. "Today we will start out simple. I want you to pair up, we're going to be making energy replenishing potions. Any potion can be highly dangerous if done wrong, but in advanced potions making, this could cost more than a few days in the hospital."
Pairing with Harry, they got to work. Starting out with a simple boiling cauldron with water. A couple drops of dragons blood was added while Harry cut up some exotic roots.
Class went on slowly. The heat in the room was getting almost unbearable, even with just three cauldrons. This potions, however, required a great deal of heat. The students lost their school robes and hats. Hermione put her hair up into a loose ponytail while undoing her tie and buttoning the first two buttons. Everyone else followed suit.
Snape sat at his desk and took a potion to cool his body temperature. No reason why he should have to suffer. He watched the three groups work. His eyes kept drifting over to Hermione. Her movements precise and sure. She started to scold Harry, he was apparently trying to blow everyone up from the looks of it.
"Mr. Potter, if you can't follow the simple directions to this potion, I will have to ask you and your partner to dump the contents of your potion out and fail this assignment."
Harry's face grew red and Hermione's eyes briefly flashed. Bending over slightly, Hermione whispered into Harry's ear for a moment. Snape's eyes traveled over her neck, gritting his teeth at how close she was to Harry. There was only then minutes left to class, he could manage.
Two minutes later, Hermione came up to his desk with a flask full of their potion. It sparkled a royal purple. The potion looked to be exact. She then laid down a piece of parchment rolled up and tied. Apparently she was the only one that was going to finish his essay for the assignment. He didn't expect anything less from her.
"Alright class, time is up. Clean up. You have five minutes before class ends." Snape warned.
Everybody started to put away their things and clean up their work stations.
"What class next?" Harry asked Hermione.
She smiled. "Advanced Transfigurations."
"Could my morning get any worse?" Ron mumbled as he stuffed a book in his backpack.
"It can't be that bad. Surely Professor Malfoy will be a great teacher." Hermione said.
Malfoy snickered. "Apparently you haven't seen father around younger people."
"Thanks, Malfoy. That was real assuring." Hermione sighed.
"Anytime, Granger."
"Alright class, time is up. Get out." Snape snapped.
...
Transfiguration was a nightmare. It was like the other side of Snape, bad then worse. Upon entering the class, Lucius had taken away a total of forty points. No one knew exactly why. Standing to his full height he began to explain what he expected of the class, his rules, and what he would and would not expect out of work.
"As of right now, no one in this class has talent to me. You are all equally worthless. In order for me to think different, you must prove me wrong. Good luck, because I'm hardly ever, if at all, proved wrong." Lucius said haughtily.
He stood in front of the class explaining how they would conduct lessons. He called the first person that caught his eye up to the classroom.
"Miss Granger," he Lucius called. "Would you be so kind as to grace us with your presence up here?" Although he asked her, she knew it to be a silent demand.
Standing obediently, she made her way to the front of the classroom.
"Transfiguration is very complex and can be very dangerous. We do not want accidents. I will not tolerate them. I will show you once, and I want you to mimic me, Miss Granger."
Calling out a spell, he turned her robe into a red jacket that fit over her white uniform shirt snuggly. The students awed. Hermione looked down at the warm jacket, just as Lucius turned it back into her black school robes.
Pointing her wand at him she was about to call out the spell when his voice stopped her. "Stop, Miss Granger! I hope you do not think that you're going to try this spell on me. Draco, get up here and assist, Miss Granger."
Draco grudgingly came forward. Standing five feet away from Hermione, he heard the snickering of the students. Looking down, he saw the same jacket that Hermione had just been wearing. Laughter exploded around the room.
"Silence!" Lucius yelled. "Miss Granger, this tasteless display of magic will not go unwarranted. Detention tomorrow night at seven."
Hermione gasped. "But Professor! I was only doing what you told me to. Surely…" he cut her off before she got any further.
"Arguing with a professor. Five more points from Gryffindor. Sit down and do not say another word. Professor Snape did warn me about how insufferable and dim witted you could be."
With a hurt look on her face, Hermione sat down next to Harry and did not say another thing during class. She sat while he lectured and took notes. When he dismissed class, she made sure she did not waste time by staying around.
Going straight to the Great Hall for lunch, she sat down moodily in the same spot she'd been sitting at for almost seven years now. Draco slowly made his way up the Gryffindor table to where Hermione sat and whispered lightly, "I told you." Smirking her walked over to the Slytherin table.
Lucius and Snape both glared at Draco, both for different reasons. Lucius still didn't really want his son to associate with anything or anyone less than himself. Snape didn't like Draco doing anything that looked remotely intimate with Hermione. He didn't know what these possessive feelings were, but he wasn't sure where they came from. Nor really how to get rid of them.
Ron and Harry sat down across from Hermione and started the ceremony of piling food on their plates.
"Tonight we need to start to look for horcruxes. Where would you put one?" She asked the boys.
"The Room of Requirements." Both of them answered around the food in their mouths.
"Okay, tonight we look in The Room of Requirements. We'll sneak out of the common room after everyone has gone to bed" she sipped her pumpkin juice.
"I might fall down! In all my days, Harry, I didn't think I'd ever hear Hermione suggest that we break a rule. Especially as the Head Girl." Ron said laughingly.
Rolling her eyes at him, she took a bite out of a roll. Tonight they'd start the quest of finding horcruxes again. Hopefully tonight, they'd get lucky.
...
When the last Gryffindor went to bed; Harry, Hermione, and Ron bunched under the invisibility cloak. Slipping through the portal, the fat lady jerked, frantically looking for who was leaving. Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map, whispering, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
Snape appeared on the map near the dungeons while Lucius was by the library. Filtch and Mrs. Norris were in his office. Picking up the pace, they went to the part of the castle where a door formed in the wall. Harry reached out and grasped the cold handle. Swinging the door open, it revealed a room they had never seen.
It was like an abandoned closet filled with years and years of junk. Piles of books and various objects stacked dangerously high towards the ceiling. Walking into the room cautiously, they walked down through the middle of the room. Avoiding from bumping into objects that laid askew, from this way or that.
They had no clue what they were looking for. They were in awe from the objects in the room, they forgot what exactly they were supposed to be doing. Hermione had never seen so many books in all her life. Piles upon piles that reached the roof. Quidditch equipment was left lying around. Anything you could possibly think of was in here.
It seemed like hours that they were walking around the maze of mess when she felt the pull of an object. The magic around it was so strong, Hermione couldn't help but follow it. She went to the far end of the room, there stood a large armoire with a cup on top of it. "Accio cup" Hermione said.
The cup did not so much as move. Staring up there for a moment, she decided she needed the assistance of Harry and Ron. Calling them over, she couldn't seem to move away from the seductive pull of the magic. Biting her bottom lip, she pulled open the armoire. The boys were taking too long to get over there. She wanted, no, she needed the cup. She couldn't seem to get that feeling out of her system.
She started to climb up the shelves of the armoire. It started to shake dangerously. It was unsteady against her weight. She knew she needed to get down, she wanted to. Her body was craving for the cup. Breathing heavily she was frantically scrambling up towards it. She felt her fingers wrap around the stem of the silver cup. It had intricate designs she could quite make out.
"HERMIONE!" Ron yelled.
She was so startled she jumped, that she lost her footing. Keeping her fingers securely wrapped around the stem of the cup, she tumbled backwards. Landing on her arse, then laying down, she started to shake violently. The cup started to glow a crimson red.
"Hermione!" Harry came running behind Ron. They tried to wrench the cup from her hand, but it stung them. They couldn't get her to let go. Her breathing was coming out in rasps. Her eyes were closed now, but her body was still shaking.
"Go get help Ron. Take the map, find someone, anyone!" Harry levitated Hermione up in the air as carefully as he could. Ron took off through the maze of things in the room. Steadily guiding Hermione as quickly as he could, he made it out of the room.
Up a head he could see Snape running down the corridor ahead of Ron. Lucius Malfoy came around the corner right behind them. Snape stopped short when he saw Hermione, but it only lasted a moment. Gripping the cup, he tried to pull it free from her hands. It stung him, the second his fingers touch the red cup.
"Quick, Lucius. To my classroom." Snape said quickly.
"But, sir." Harry interrupted. "Shouldn't she be taken to Madam Pomfrey?"
"You stupid boy! She can't do anything for her. She will die if she doesn't get down there, and fast." Lucius was already making his way towards Snape's classroom. Picking Hermione up, he made haste after him. Snape could feel her body convulsing, she was whimpering lightly while her breath was rasping.
Snape ran as fast as he could with her pressed against his body to keep her from jolting too much. The cup burned into his chest, but the adrenaline running through his body helped mask the pain. He flew into his classroom and laid her down on one of the desks at the front of the room.
Lucius was already getting various potions out. Snape hovered over Hermione and assessed the damages being done. He knew what he had to do. It was an old spell, one that they weren't sure should be dark arts or not. It was the only thing that would save her.
Speaking the ancient incantations over her body, he slowly waved his wand over her body. He closed his eyes and felt the energy off of the cup fighting back against his magic. The words were slipping from his lips, faster, harsher, louder. He wasn't aware of anyone else around, the magic was starting to fail against his own.
Harry and Ron stood in the back of the room watching Snape. They were afraid they would lose Hermione. But Snape stood over her, chanting something over and over. The energy in the room was almost suffocating. It felt like two opposing sides fighting for the whole.
Finally, after a few minutes of his chanting, the red light burst into blue flames. Hermione lifted off of the table coughing and gagging. She could seem to catch her breath. The inside of her body was on fire. Snape pulled the cup from her hands and tossed it to the ground. Gripping her thighs, he turned her to face him and Lucius.
Lucius handed Snape the potions he needed, while he poured them down her throat. She was so weak he had to support her while he did it. Harry and Ron kept their distance, Snape was glaring at them like he was about to hex them through a wall.
Hermione couldn't figure out why she was so weak and why Severus Snape was supporting her body. She couldn't turn her head away from the rancid potions he was forcing down her throat. Finally, she felt the cool flow of liquid ice spread through her body. She no longer like she was going to burn to death. Closing her eyes, sleep took over.
...
Hermione was in the hospital wing when she awoke the next evening. Sitting up, she felt light headed and nauseated. Harry, Ron, and Ginny all rushed forward. Smiling a little Hermione closed her eyes and listened to their explanations to what happened. Ginny couldn't tell her much because she hadn't been there.
Opening her eyes she realized she was surrounded by flowers and then a gift basket from all of the Gryffindors. She could vaguely remember what had happened. She remembered feeling the power source, going after it because the pull was so strong, afterwards, she didn't remember much. Then her memory was of Snape holding her in his arms while he poured several potions down her throat.
"We thought we might have lost you, Hermione." Ron said quietly.
"I'm here now, nothing happened." Hermione tried to placate him.
"Something almost did happen. We didn't know what to do. We couldn't get the cup away from you. It burned every time we touched it." Harry patted her hand.
Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room when she heard talking. She ran a few spells over Hermione, then determined her well enough to leave. As the four were walking out of the wing, Remus showed up.
"Hermione, I noticed you missed my class today." he smiled slightly. "If Harry, Ron, and Hermione, you would follow me."
He started to walk away, leaving them to say their goodbyes to Ginny and ran to catch up with Remus. They were headed towards the Headmistress's office. Stopping at the gargoyles, Remus said, "Lemon drop." Gaining entrance, they made their ways up the swirling stairs.
Upon reaching their destination, they spotted Lucius and Snape sitting in front of McGonagall's desk. She motioned them to sit on the couch at the side of her desk.
"It would appear that you had another close one last night." McGonagall started. "We will not be having that again. We can not risk any student's lives."
"But ma'am, we found a horcrux! Surely it was destroyed last night." She looked around anxiously.
Snape's black eyes were on her, staring daggers. He stood up and started to pace around the room.
"Would you like to know why you are not dead, Miss Granger? Would you like to know, most importantly, what was trying to kill you?" Snape asked silkily.
"What do you mean, tried to kill me?" Hermione asked, almost fearing his answer.
"That horcrux, that your stupid Gryffindor bravery forced you to get, was what tried to kill you. That horcrux you just so happened to blindly grab, was trying to pour a piece of Voldemort's soul into you. It was trying to make you the next horcrux. That is why no one could grab the cup." Snape explained.
"A…a piece of his soul?" she asked horrified.
"Glad to see you have the brains to be afraid. It was enchanted that way. The first person with a pure soul to grab it, would be forced into carrying his soul. Not a very pleasant experience, to have evil taint your being." he taunted.
Lucius stepped forward and smoothly cut in. "Had it not of been for Severus, Miss Granger, you'd be a horcrux, or dead. Your half wits for friends couldn't help you." he said casually.
Remus's cough brought their attention on him. "Harry, I do not remember you coming to me and telling me where you three would be off to, last night. Nor does Severus or Lucius. So I'm assuming my assumption is right that you never told anyone."
"We went to the Room of Requirements. We honestly didn't think anything would happen. How many times have you been in there and something bad happened?" Harry asked.
"The fact of the matter is, Mister Potter, that we were not aware of your location." Lucius cut in again.
"It will not happen again." McGonagall severely told them.
"You're right, it won't happen again. We'll tell someone next time." Harry agreed.
"That's not good enough. Now we're taking things into our own hands. Each one of you have a guardian, picked out from Order Members." Snape told them.
"Guardians? Why would we need those?" asked Ron.
"I swear, Gryffindors can be awfully dense." Lucius muttered.
"You need guardians because you obviously aren't smart enough to tell us where you're going to be at. Because you pull little stunts that almost end up costing someone their life. Twice in a row now." Snape snapped.
"So…so who is our guardian?" Hermione asked from the sofa.
"Not guardian," Lucius said "but guardians. One person could not keep up with the lot of you."
"Fine then, who are our guardians?" she asked again.
"Professor Lupin was asked to take over the responsibility of Harry." Harry grinned at Remus and McGonagall rushed a head to keep explaining. "Professor Malfoy was asked and kind enough to accept Ron." Ron's eyes grew and his faced paled, while Lucius looked like he might jump out of the window. "Then for you, Hermione, Professor Snape has been appointed yours."
Hermione stared at McGonagall, not sure what she heard was correct. Professor Snape? Well that explained why he had hung around Grimmauld Place and his reasoning for showing up in both times of trouble. But Professor Snape ended up saving them on several occasions.
"So we're going to have you follow us around? We're getting back to the beginning! This is why we don't tell you what we have planned!" Harry fumed.
"Now that's just too bad, Potter. You've endangered your friends twice now. Miss Granger could be dead. What then?" Snape taunted quietly.
Harry was turning a deep red. McGonagall decided she needed to get this meeting moving into a better directions.
"They don't need to necessarily follow you all of the time. They have come up with an object each, that they have to match. The objects are charmed to allow the guardian to know where you are. When you're in potential danger, the object will let the guardian know." McGonagall explained.
Lucius threw Ron a silver necklace with a serpent charm on it. Remus handed Harry a necklace, too, but this one had a werewolf on it. Snape moved forward and slipped a silver necklace over her head, looking down at the charm, a phoenix sparkled. Their eyes met as he slipped on the necklace, gently letting the backs of his fingers brush over the sides of her neck. Then he moved away.
"Alright, you three, back to your common room. Oh, and Hermione, you and Draco will be organizing the Halloween ball with the Prefects help this year."
With that, she dismissed them.
...
Hermione made sure she wasn't late to detention. The last thing she needed was to spend anymore time with him than necessary. She almost wished it were Professor Snape instead. Walking into the classroom, she didn't see Lucius anywhere.
Sitting down at one of the desks at the front of the room, she sat her backpack down next to her. She was leaning her on her hand and playing with the phoenix on her necklace when Snape stalked into the room. At first Hermione didn't notice. She still didn't feel up to par from her recent experience.
Snape stopped short when he saw Hermione. She was falling asleep at her desk, chin in her hand stroking over the neck he'd given her. Her hair was down and in a mess of brown frizzy curls. She wasn't wearing her robes, so he could see her legs crossed, causing her skirt ride up on the outside of her thigh.
Making his way to the desk she was falling asleep at, he slammed down a two thousand page textbook. "Miss Granger, instead of falling asleep at your detention, perhaps you could make yourself useful and take some notes." Snape said.
Hermione gave a startled jump. "Where is Professor Lucius?" she asked.
"Taking care of something that is none of your concern. What you need to be concerned about, however, is taking these notes. I expect adequate ones from chapter five in an hour." she sat their staring up at him. Getting highly annoyed he lifted a sardonic brow. "Well?" he inquired.
The hour slowly ticked by. She scanned through the texts, taking notes on the key context. Every once and a while she peeked up through her lashes to watch Snape grade papers. He was grumbling to himself about what a waste of space first years were.
By the end of the hour, he had gotten up and come to look over her shoulder. Picking up the parchment he nodded his head and dismissed her.
"Professor…" Hermione started out hesitantly.
"Yes?" he asked absently while he read over what she'd written down.
"Is it necessary that I wear this necklace? I understand that this is supposed to protect us." she said.
"Not us. You." he stated
Furrowing her brow she leaned her hip against the side of the table. "I don't get it. Why me?"
Spinning around to face her, he took the few steps to her and pressed her against the table, putting his hands on the edge of the table beside both of her hips. "Because," he said harshly. "I am your guardian. The Dark Lord is after," pausing for a moment, he bent down to whisper against her lips, "you."
Fear flashed in Hermione's eyes. Pulling away from Hermione, he walked down the row of desks and out of the classroom. Leaving her to think about what had just happened.
...
So! I updated this in not even twenty-four hours. I kept getting really good reviews and it inspired me to write more! I'm sure my next update will be anywhere from two to four days. If that.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!