Snape is gone for the entire weekend. When she still hasn't seen him by Sunday dinner, it takes all of her self control to keep from sending her patronus to check on him. On Monday morning when Snape doesn't appear at breakfast Hermione breaks down and sends her otter. Then she sits glumly at the table, picking at her toast, too nervous to eat.
The looks on the faces of her fellow Gryffindors sitting opposite her alert her to Snape's presence behind her a moment later. She turns around in her seat to look up at him looming over her, delight and relief written on her face.
"Miss Granger," says Snape, sounding bored, "Come see me in my office after your breakfast, hmm?"
Hermione makes to get up but Snape puts a hand on her shoulder and gently pushes her back down on the bench. "Finish your-" he starts in, but doesn't get the words out.
Ginny is on her feel, wand drawn on Snape. "Don't you DARE touch her!" she shouts, so angry red Sparks fly unsummoned from her wand. Then, before Hermione can stop her, Ginny flicks her wand. A flock of bats pours from the tip and descends on Snape, flying around his face in a swarm.
The dining hall has become completely silent. Everyone is too terrified to move, or even breathe. The only sound is the screeching and flapping of Ginny's bats, flapping about Snape's Head.
Snape stands perfectly still, making no move to swipe the bats away, or even to banish them. Then he says, in a perfectly polite conversational tone, "How long must I let this farce continue, Miss Granger, so that your friend feels like she has sufficiently defended your honor and assaulted my dignity?"
"I think it's been long enough, Professor Snape," Hermione says, feeling slightly nauseous.
Snape makes an irritable gesture with his wand and the bats promptly vanish. He sets his gaze on Ginny. She quails. "How very Gryffindor of you Miss Weasley. So quick on the mark that you fail differentiate friend from foe. Fifty points from Gryffindor. Detention, all day Saturday, with Filch."
Ginny nods and takes her seat. She doesn't tremble, and she doesn't break eye contact with Snape. Hermione is impressed.
"Finish your breakfast, Miss Granger," Snape says to her, the edge promptly fading from his tone.
"Yes, sir," Hermione says, and picks up her spoon. As soon as Snape exits the hall all of Gryffindor stands and applauds Ginny. It is a mark of their hatred from Snape that not one student grouses about the points. When Ginny reminds them of the Quidditch game she will be forced to miss on Saturday, though, their mood deflates a little.
Hermione enters Snape's office cautiously a few minutes later. He is seated behind his desk. She stops well across the room from him, waits for him to speak first.
"Why are you standing halfway across the room quivering like a whipped dog, Miss Granger? Sit down!" Snape gestures to the seat in front of his desk.
Hermione makes her way across the room and sits down. Snape raises his eyebrows at her. She realizes the question wasn't rhetorical. "Ginny hexed you?" Hermione says, as if it should be obvious, "Sir?"
Snape waves his hand irritably. "You warned me. Besides, I shouldn't have touched you so casually in front of that den of lions. I'm sure you will get no small amount of grief over that. Please forgive me, Miss Granger."
"There's nothing to forgive, Professor," Hermione mumbles, a little embarrassed.
"Look at me, Miss Granger."
Hermione looks up. Snape's expression is blank.
"What was so important this morning that you sent that ridiculous otter to track me down?"
Hermione reddens a bit more, but doesn't look away. "I haven't seen you since, well, I got worried."
He raises an eyebrow. "I'm touched by your concern. As you can see, I am unharmed. Are you reassured?"
"What did you find out, Professor… After I left?"
Snape purses his lips and scowls a little at her. She looks back at him calmly.
"I didn't find out nearly enough, Miss Granger. Their memories had been tampered with. They only knew they were supposed to incapacitate you and then wait for someone unknown to them to show up."
"Inside Hogwarts?" Hermione is shocked.
"Yes," says Snape, "That is what troubles me the most. I modified their memories and put tracking spells on them. When their master attempts to contact them again, I will know. And rest assured, they will be expelled when I have no further use for them. Until I get to the bottom of this, please be on your guard. No more patrols on your own, please." He looks across the desk; his eyes are pleading with her.
"Okay," she capitulates.
Snape breathes an audible sigh of relief. "Come, then, I have something exciting to show you." He rises from his desk and goes to the laboratory door. He opens and door and stands aside, motioning her through it.
Shocked at the courtesy, Hermione stumbles silently through the door. On the wooden table in front of her in Snape's lab rests very old book. Ancient, in fact. Hermione reaches out toward it instinctually, then jerks her hand away. She glances back at her Professor. His expression is amused.
"It won't bite you, Miss Granger," he says. "I'm not Hagrid."
Hermione picks up the book and reads its title. "The Aurora of the philosophers by Paracelsus," she reads aloud. Then, "Is this what I think it is, sir?"
"That depends," muses Snape, "on what you think it is."
Hermione opens the text. "An ancient alchemical text," she breathes, barely above a whisper.
"Five points to Gryffindor," he says.
"Where did you find it?" Hermione asks, unable to tear her eyes away from the book.
"I paid a visit to Malfoy Manor this weekend," he says, "They left me waiting in the library for over an hour. A not so subtle insult. But when I came across that, it was worth having to put up with Lucius' pompous bullshit."
This gets Hermione's attention. She looks up at Snape, her mouth agape. "You stole a priceless artifact from Lucius Malfoy?"
"For you? Without hesitation!" He looks inordinately pleased with himself.
"Professor!" Hermione tries unsuccessfully to bite back a smile.
"What? You want to study Alchemy, do you not? I can't just go down to Flourish and Blotts and buy something like this, now can I? Oh, don't look at me like that. Lucius didn't even know what he had. And besides, he was lucky to stay out of Azkaban. When you're done with that one, I'll steal you another. He owes you."
Hermione doesn't know what to say, so she just shakes her head. But she is still smiling.
Snape is thinking that he would steal the Malfoy's entire library to keep her smiling like that.
Reluctantly, he turns to leave the lab. "I have a class, Miss Granger. Stay as long as you like. That book is yours, but if you prefer not to harbor stolen property, you can leave it here."
"M- Mine?" she asks, stunned.
"Yes, Miss Granger, I stole it for you. That makes it yours."
Before she can thank him properly, he is gone.