Severus was up rather early the next morning, still running on his schedule for school. He changed out of his pajamas and into something comfortable before leaving his room to see if Hermione was up. They might as well work together, even if they didn't talk to each other. He wanted to keep up with his class, if not get ahead of it.

By the time he made it downstairs, Hermione was already setting up a place for them to study. "Good morning," she said over her shoulder as he came in. "There's some breakfast in the kitchen if you want anything."

He glanced at her, frowning slightly, as he went to get breakfast. When he came back, she had almost everything set up. Now, he felt kind of bad that he had made her do all the work to set up something for the both of them. Only a little bad though. He had thought he would be up first and giving her crap about keeping him behind. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked shortly as he came back in with some toast.

"I always get up this early. It's not my fault that you like to sleep in," Hermione said as she took a step back and looked at it. "All done. Now, when you're done with your food, would you mind getting to work? I don't want to fall behind, and now I'm able to work at almost my own pace."

Raising an eyebrow, Severus ate his toast. "I'm sorry. I had a long day yesterday. Excuse me for catching a few extra minutes of sleep," he said, anything but sincere. "If you don't mind, I'm going to get my textbooks. You can wait a few more minutes." He turned away and walked upstairs. Apparently, she was as impatient as he was when it came to being held back from doing his work. Hopefully, she wouldn't hold him back when it came to Potions. He knew he could make it through the book rather quickly if he was left to his own work.

He came back downstairs a few minutes later and put his books on the side of the table. "What subject do you want to start with?" he asked, taking a seat across the table from her.

"I was thinking Transfiguration. Unless you have an objection," Hermione said, practically daring him to disagree with her. Her brown eyes glared into his black ones, waiting for him to disagree with her. He had already given the idea that they couldn't get along so it wouldn't surprise her.

Severus smirked slightly. "Transfiguration it is," he said, just because she wanted him to disagree with her. He flipped open his book to where his class left off. "Is this where you are?"

She moved the book slightly so she could see and nodded. "Yep. Exactly where I am," Hermione said, brushing some hair out of her face.

"Good. Then I don't have to spend time catching you up," he said simply.

They went through their lessons easily, Severus slowly finding out how intelligent Hermione really was. It was nice to talk to someone that was actually smart enough to hold a conversation, not that he'd tell her that. They swapped the occasional insult or jibe as they worked but getting it done until they finally made it to Potions, which Severus was glad was last. It would end on at least a decent note if she was any good at it.

Severus stretched before reaching for his potions book. He was kind of stiff after sitting down for so long, even if they had taken a lunch break earlier. "So how good are you at Potions?" he asked, pulling out his old book. It wasn't in the best condition since he had flipped through it so much, and there was so many notes in it but he liked it. He had even put Property of the Half-Blood Prince in the front of it since he was the son of Eileen Prince but a half-blood. He would never admit to being related to his father.

Hermione sighed as she opened her text book, frowning slightly. Her book was the opposite of his, making it pristine and clean while his was tattered and full of notes. "It's not my best subject, though I do decently in it," she said simply, not looking at him.

Unable to resist a smirk, Severus shook his head in amusement. "Finally found something you aren't good at." he said, glad to know he had an advantage on her with something. Though he was better than almost everyone at Potions. "We can start over with Draught of Living Death then. I don't want you to explode a cauldron on me or anything."

"Says you! An exploded cauldron was how you got here!" Hermione retorted quickly, glaring at him. "And I haven't made many cauldrons explode, thank you very much!"

Severus almost laughed at her retorts. She was practically shouting. It was quite amusing, considering that she probably wouldn't do anything. This whole system had practically been her idea. "Of course you haven't," he said simply, amused. "We'll start over anyways. Turn to Draught of Living Death, and I'll teach you how to make it."

"Fine," Hermione grumbled. She glared at him but opened her book to it and then glanced at his book. "Wait a minute..." she trailed off softly, realizing something. "You're the Half-Blood Prince!"

"Excuse me? How do you know that name?" Severus asked, frowning. No one knew that nickname.

"It's in the front of Harry's book! And that look's exactly like his book," she explained quickly. "So you must be him! Which is odd because I thought Slytherin only accepted purebloods. That explains why Harry was suddenly really good at Potions this year. He was using your books and notes."

Severus frowned. So someone was using his book and actually doing good with it, but no one should have his book. There was dangerous spells in there. Like Sectumsempra. "Write your friend and tell him to throw that book out. It's not good for anyone who doesn't completely understand my notes. Which is no one but me. Write him and tell him to throw it out. Now," he said shortly.

Hermione frowned slightly, not expecting him to react so strongly about it. "What's wrong with it? Did you put something bad in it?" she asked quietly.

He hadn't wanted to tell her yet. Despite the fact that they were from different houses, they had managed to get along semi-well so far despite their occasional insults and jibes. But whoever her friend was couldn't have that book with things he probably didn't understand. "It's full of dark magic," Severus said quietly, looking away. That's why he hadn't been able to stay friends Lily, his interesting in the dark arts.

"WHAT?"

(Hehe. Hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to review and tell me how I'm doing on this. Thanks for reading. I'll update soon.)