Dumbledore watched the students carefully from his position at the Head table during dinner. He made sure his eyes didn't stay too long on any one student and forced a small smile upon his face, as though he were just happy to see the students. Internally he was wracking his brain with all the new information Molly had laid into him. Harry had blood bonded right under his nose to that muggleborn.

'It was probably her idea too,' he grumbled.

The old wizard was upset that the witch had burrowed herself into the boy's life making it near impossible for him to separate them should he feel the necessity. It also made it hard for him to justify sacrificing her to the boy. The only bright part was she was officially out of the running for the boy's attentions, so he needn't worry about that.

The elderly wizard was also upset since he had just gotten over the fact that Severus had made her his apprentice. Meaning the witch was important to two of his key players! He was wracking his brain on how to make her a key player in order to keep things in his favor. Either that or he was going to try to sow discord, but that was a bad plan considering he needed his people to stand together now more than ever. Perhaps during a less crucial moment since he needed his key players undistracted.

Until the curse took care of the Undersecretary posing as a professor he had to keep the water as calm as he could, so to speak. When he tried to 'warn' her about the curse she scoffed, but at least he had the memory to prove that he gave a token effort to warn her should the worst come to happen.

Once dinner was over Hermione settled herself into a chair at an open table in the common room; Crookshanks was happy to see his mistress and weaved around her legs before laying at her feet. She decided to forego her perfect prim poise so she'd be able to work faster, however she still managed to look properly poised for her status. She had found Fred and George's flyer earlier and wanted to hex them sideways. However she managed calm herself and decided to play it by ear to see what the prefects would do before she felt she had to step in.

Harry had run up to his dorm to take a shower and change before he did his homework. Normally he would put it off until the last minute, but he didn't feel like fighting over the shower or talk to two of his dorm mates. Specifically Ron and Seamus. Both were infuriating and the less he had to talk to them the better.

Neville decided to sit next to Hermione, getting at least his potions homework done.

They both worked in companionable silence, Neville asking for clarification here and there.

The messy black haired wizard finally made his reappearance, his hair still wet, and sat down next to his sister wearing plaid flannel pajama bottoms and a black t-shirt to go with it. They looked nice and fit comfortably, much like his relaxed pose. Hermione mentally nodded with approval. Mum and dad had bought Harry a whole new wardrobe so he would look and feel good.

She noticed peripherally that he garnered a few appreciative looks from other Gryffindors. Mostly from the girls, but she noticed a few boys give him a double take, and was please for her brother.

"What are you working on, Hermione?" he asked as he too started to work on his potions homework.

"Arithmancy. We were assigned homework today due Thursday, but she also wrote our next few homework assignments on the board. The more I get done now the more free time I have to work on my apprenticeship," she answered.

"Time management," Harry confirmed, learning the importance of it from their mum.

The curly haired witch looked at him and beamed, glad he understood.

"Well aside from this potions paper, we have to keep a month long dream journal for divination, that I am not looking forward to," he informed her.

Hermione made a face, "I don't even have a regular journal, let alone a dream journal," she said conversationally.

"It's going to be hard since we don't have dreams every night," Neville mumbled, still writing.

"I would tell you to drop it, but it's too late now –" the witch was cut off by the sound of Ron's loud laughing.

Looking over to see what had the redheaded wizard had found so funny, Hermione froze seeing little firsties fainting and falling in chairs, one hit their head falling out of the chair rather hard. A few of the other room's occupants were laughing too, but none as loud as Ron.

The hazel eyed witch stood up imperiously and walked over to the twins who were writing on a chart.

"Fred, George," her voice came out impassively.

The twins looked up confused before seeing the hard look in the witch's eyes.

"What can we do for you, Apprentice Granger?" Fred asked with a smile.

"Have we mentioned how lovely you look in your new robes?" the follow up compliment came from George.

"No you haven't, but thank you," she replied before moving on, "I noticed your fliers earlier and I had hoped someone," she glared at Ron and Romilda, "would at least bring it up with you. I understand you're paying students to be test subjects, something that also happens in the muggle world, but I feel I must bring up how unsafe this is," she answered firmly.

"Don't worry your pretty head, Hermione," George said.

"We try everything on ourselves first. We just need to see how it affects others, not just ourselves," his twin finished.

"I understand, and that's all well in good but –"

"We're paying them 'Mione. So they know what they're getting into," the first one said hoping to brush off her concerns.

At that moment Lee was putting purple sweets into their mouths, waking the fainted students. Some looked confused as to what happened, proving her point.

She fixed a heavy stare on him making him squirm, "I understand, but I can't allow you to test on the firsties."

One of them was going to butt in but she kept talking, "I know you're paying them, and I can't stop you from testing since I know you'll just find another way to do it, but not the firsties. Every other year is fine, but no testing on the first years," she finished sounding eerily similar to Snape with and underlying growl.

One them was tempted to ask 'Or what?', but she sounded so much like Snape in that moment they didn't dare. In that moment she was like an angry lion and Snape combined, namely: scary.

"Come off it, Hermione! They can test their candy on whoever will take their gold," Ron huffed with his arms crossed.

"No, Weasley, they cannot," she said coldly, "Should you continue to neglect your duties I shall inform Professor McGonagall that you allowed first years to place themselves in potential harm's way. As I'm sure you didn't read the prefect handbook, you should know that you are not just in charge of handing out punishments for breaking school rules, but helping your fellow students and being a role model. As such you are obligated to help lead the younger years and give them proper guidance, helping them succeed instead of fail, and keeping them out of harm's way."

Ron's ears went red and he went to retort, but the witch continued with a hard edge in her voice,

"Meaning Prefect Weasley," she hissed, "that you are supposed to help them so they don't get lost in the castle, provide them with homework help should they ask, and give them good advice that will help them in their educational career here at Hogwarts."

The wizard sneered at the older witch.

"You're just mad you didn't make prefect on top of your apprenticeship!" he snarled.

Hermione curled her lip at him in disgust, "For your information you cannot be an apprentice and a prefect at the same time. My position is higher than that of a prefect, and even Head Girl. Besides," she paused, "Professor McGonagall already informed me I was her first choice but had to change it since I'm not allowed to hold be a prefect while an apprentice."

Romilda watched from her seat on a chair across the room. She knew she wasn't Hermione Granger and was surprised when the other witch didn't get prefect, now she knew why. She shrugged off the fact that she was second choice since she was at least a top contender. Romilda watched as the other witch turned on her heel after looking down her nose at Weasley as though she'd seen something repulsive.

Hermione took her place back at the table and started working furiously on the arithmancy equations in front of her. Neville and Harry let her be knowing how angry she'd be after the confrontation with Ron. Neville was amazed at how fast Hermione was working compared to earlier. Harry however was impressed and looked back at his own work with an internal sigh and got back to work.

'At least she doesn't room with him. She'd probably be in Azkaban already for killing him.'

The next day was another full schedule, double charms, double transfiguration, and care of magical creatures.

All the professors reiterated about the OWLs, reminding them that it was an exam encompassing not just this year, but the previous 4 as well. Flitwick had stressed about how the exams would follow them and influence their futures. Those who had barely passed felt dread settle in and knew they would either be studying harder or asking for help, or both.

McGonagall had sternly reminded them that it wasn't just about studying but also about application and practice. Some students had paled knowing they would have to relearn how to perform certain spells and transfigurations they had given up on previously. Neville had made a sad little disbelieving noise while Goyle whimpered quietly.

The cat animagus pinned the Slytherin with a look while she said, "That includes you as well, Mr. Longbottom," departing the message to both boys.

She proceeded to teach them the vanishing spell, which she announced was one of the hardest spells that would be on the exam. Most of the class found she was telling them nothing but the truth as they struggled to perform it.

Hermione had gotten it down quickly, earning 10 points for Gryffindor and no homework.

Ron had growled under his breath that their Head of House was favoring the witch, not giving her homework only because of her stupid apprenticeship. It didn't matter that she cast the spell correctly, perfectly even not long after the lesson began, just that she had been excluded from more hard work. He wouldn't even be able to pilfer her paper to copy since there would be no original!

Hermione had spent her lunch hour eating and reading ahead in the Great Hall. Harry decided to spend time in the library to work more on his potions homework before he moved on to transfiguration. Luna had skipped over and joined the witch, sitting on her left side to enjoy the company of her friend.

The curly haired witch was amused as the younger witch spooned pudding into her mouth after propping her potions book on a small bookstand she had carried in her bag.

"Where did you get that, Luna?" she asked.

"At Florish and Blotts."

"The bookstand?" Hermione replied confused, knowing she would have seen one.

"Oh! No," Luna said turning to look at the other witch, "Daddy transfigured one for me when I told him I was in Ravenclaw. The nargles took it and hid it away a few days later."

"You got it back last year, didn't you?" The potions apprentice asked concernedly.

"Oh yes. Thimi managed to find it and Crookshanks protected it," she answered quietly with her head tilted to the side.

Hermione smiled, "Good. Would you mind letting me see it so I can cast a spell on it. Nothing bad, just an anti-theft spell so the nargles won't be able to touch it," she added knowing the girl tried not to believe that people would steal. If blaming magical creatures helped her, she wouldn't take them away. Even if said creatures existed she was sure they wouldn't be found in Ravenclaw Tower.

Luna smiled thankfully and moved her book.

"Antifurta pernamsus."

"Oh I've never heard of that one," the sandy blond said.

"I tweaked it a bit," Hermione admitted with a bashful smile.

"You would make a great Spells Mistress," she placed her book back on the stand, "if you weren't so good with… well you know, and I don't think you want other people to know since you're studying potions."

Hermione raised her eyebrows knowing what the little blond was saying. She had a keen sight to see that what others could not and was glad that the little witch was a gentle spirit. After a moment though she nodded.

"Do you know of a better way to hold a sopophorus bean? Daddy has a few and they're quite hard. I'm sure cutting them would just make them slip. He tried to make something that would hold it tightly, but the juice fell through and the shell popped up and hit him in the forehead. I figured asking a potions apprentice would be the best person to ask."

The petite witch smiled, "Crush it with the flat side of the knife."

Luna nodded sagely, "Of course. It can't hit anyone in the forehead if it can't slip anywhere."

"You get more juice out of it too," Hermione said.

Luna grinned at her first Hogwarts friend.

Care of Magical Creatures had gone pretty well, but boring. Malfoy had needled Ron without sniping at Hermione or Harry, even if some of what was said grated on Harry's nerves.

The green eyed wizard missed his friend, missed him teaching, and wanted the sharp toned Grubbly-Plank gone. The wizard had taken extra care not take out his anger on the bowtruckle knowing that he would be ashamed to look at Hagrid if he hurt one of his precious beasties. Big or small, the beasties were beasties and Hagrid loved them.

Harry had tried to ask the professor where his friend was only to be told to mind his business. Hermione stood stoically by her brother's side, silently letting the woman know she didn't like the way she had spoken to them.

The woman was knowledgeable, but lacked the kindness that was almost intimately mutual with the position. Rumor had it that Kettleburn loved the creatures, even though they took some of him with them, and was a joyous professor. Hagrid seemed to be the same. Grubbly-Plank however, not so much.

Her lesson plans were year appropriate, OWL related, her behavior however was lacking. She was as cold to the creatures as she was to the students, which was not as beneficial as one may think. Socializing creatures was just as important as the information to properly care for them. To carefully handle a creature as a student, one needed the creatures to be pre-handled and shown affection so they wouldn't be as weary of the students, which could lead to injuries.

The affection shown by the professors to the creatures often lead to more respect and affection from another person. Much like one would lovingly pet a dog, another person would then be more inclined to pet the dog as well.

Hermione silently admitted that Hagrid was the better professor, just he needed to pick more year appropriate creatures. If they worked together as co-professors it would probably be a universally well liked class.

Herbology had gone much the same as Charms and Transfiguration though, stressing OWLs. They were all given an essay for homework and smelled like dragon dung fertilizer. It was a weary bunch of Gryffindors that trudged up the stairs for a quick shower. Even weary, Hermione still managed to walk with her head held high in a prim manner, Harry walked slightly behind her with a more Devil May Care attitude. He held the air of subtle confidence that Hermione had, but was less stiff. Thankfully it wasn't a cocky swagger, he just looked more relaxed. He felt better too.

He realized earlier in Care of Magical Creatures that he wasn't Hermione, and holding the same position left him tired. Prim suited Hermione, it was like a shear veil, practically natural on her, but not Harry. His emotional frustration, even with his mental teachings, showed. He noticed in public when Hermione disapproved, whomever she was talking to or upset with, she would either be frosty with clipped tones or heated like an angry fire.

When she was taking "the high road" she became frosty. Getting down to it and taking care of things herself though, that's when her heat blazed. Often the cold shoulder worked better than not, especially with those who were of "authority" positions. Much like their Head of House behaved he noticed. Witches were scary.

Going down to dinner, feeling much better after a hot shower, they took their seats. As Harry was piling his plate however an irate Ron was standing intimidatingly over a familiar blond and shouting.

"You can't sit here!" he spat, "Nobody wants you here! Go back and sit with the Claws!"

Luna however looked up at him calmly, as though seeing through him which made him angrier.

"Can't you hear me, Loony!?" he yelled.

Harry felt a burning anger and knew it didn't belong to him, before he knew it Hermione was walking to the pair with purpose.

"I can hear you, Ronald Weasley," the dreamy blond said.

"THEN WHY AREN'T YOU MOVING!?" he clenched his fists to his side as his ears turned red, "I SHOULD GIVE YOU DETENTION FOR THIS!"

Students turned and looked, Albus Dumbledore sat there watching and not doing anything about it. McGonagall had not yet come to dinner, dealing with an errant student. Umbridge had not seen fit to leave her office just yet.

"Because Prefect Weasley," her tone making it sound like an insult again, "it is not against school rules to sit at other tables aside from the Opening and Leaving feast. She is my friend and I want her sitting with me," Hermione said with her arms crossed over her chest. Her tone was angry with an underlying warning hidden in it.

"You would know," Ron growled, the red started to branch out to his face.

"Yes, as you should know," she replied in clipped tones walking closer and standing beside her dreamy friend.

"Come on, Luna, let's go eat. I'm sure they'll be pudding later. I think we can try it with some sort of sweet bread," Hermione appealed after a slow blink at the redheaded wizard, dismissing him.

The next few days went by as they settled into a routine. Severus and Hermione would take an hour before lunch to at least go over NEWT level material. He even had her practicing her ingredient preparations, forcing her to make them as perfect as possible. He would use those he considered barely passable for his first years, and those that were better he would store so they could be used at a later time.

"Wouldn't the ingredients be better if they were freshly prepared?" she asked curiously, "Does it make a difference?"

Severus looked at her, "Good question. It's not so much as it being freshly prepared that helps improve the quality, but it makes it easier to measure out. I often have some students take the eyes out of beetles for the stores. It's an inane task, but helps in the classroom. Less of a chance of a student also using part of an antenna and bollocksing up their potion."

"Which is part of ingredient prep," Hermione concluded, "Instead of dealing with the whole, we just deal with the parts that we need."

"The inane tasks that I have them do are part of what we have to do after harvesting, should we decide to harvest ourselves."

Hermione looked at him in question.

"We get so many beetles because they're found around Hogwarts and they can be used. I don't actually go out looking for them," he explained.

Hermione grinned at her master. While he often saw the glass as half empty, Severus was also an opportunist it seemed.

Dolores Umbridge was quite upset. While it had been a few days, she had been extremely condescending in her class, hoping someone would speak out of turn. You-Know-Who's return had been kept quiet, even though it was (barely) acknowledged thanks to Pettigrew's trial. It was her goal to make sure Potter, Dumbledore, Diggory, and that Granger chit, were not stirring up trouble or inciting panic. Inciting panic by making that knowledge extremely public.

They had managed to have the Prophet make small columns about Potter's scar being unusual and possibly causing hallucinations. They had worded everything as speculation that was highly probable so they wouldn't be in the position to be sued for defamation of character. Every piece was ended in a way that managed to say it was possible, and with it being unprecedented they were unsure.

They also managed to drag Dumbledore through the mud a bit by mentioning as Potter's magical guardian he should have brought the boy to St. Mungos to be examined. The boy was never looked at, as he should have been taken to Spell Damage as soon as possible. While he was defacto guardian for all muggleborns and some orphans, he was obviously unfit for the position. Possible endangerment of the wizarding youth lost him the Chief Warlock position. Loss of that position left the rest of the ICW wary, if he was unfit to head Britain, how was he fit to be Supreme Mugwump?

Naturally it was unwise to head both to begin with, but he managed. It came to bite him back in the ass as it caused a domino effect. It was merely a happy accident for the Ministry.

However Potter was quiet, Dumbledore for the most part just smiled at the students if he wasn't in his office doing paperwork, Diggory was Head Boy and spent most of his time helping the younger students like a good pureblood. Granger however… that little uppity mudblood was simply spitting in her face! She praised the Ministry in her class when she was allowed to speak, she asked every few days about practical tutoring, and she was an Apprentice! She was just a step below Professors in terms of authority! NO mudblood should be allowed to have that much power, let alone above purebloods.

It bothered her more that purebloods had nothing bad to say about her! Just earlier that year in Teen Witch Weekly there were quotes from students claiming how much of a miscreant she was! Now they had nothing bad to say. Parkinson was the only one who mentioned something, but it was nothing worthwhile and ended up with her complimenting the mudblood.

"Her hair used to be such a bushy rat's nest, but she's learned to take care of it now."

The Minister was scared that Dumbledore wanted his job despite losing two of his other positions. It would be easy to convince the masses to flock to him and save them from this Dark Lord as he had done before. To discredit him by claiming he was trying to scare the people instead of helping them would have to work out well. They had managed to relieve him of his Chief Warlock position when he started talking about parlaying with the Giants. The ICW had not been involved last war and they were not inclined to do so should another happen.

She had no problem waiting, but giving herself extra work was a problem she was annoyed with. Reading and correcting homework was such a bother. Seven years' worth had her grinding her teeth. Usually she made someone else do it, but she couldn't here, it was extremely frustrating. The sooner she found someone screwing up the sooner she could initiate step two of her plan!

The day of tryouts Hermione went to watch and give her brother, and the team, moral support. She even managed to convince Ginny to tryout.

"All right you lot!" Angelina shouted, "Today we're holding quidditch tryouts! Everyone will be trying out for a position, even if they're already on the team!"

A few members of the team made faces at that.

"I want the best team we can have!"

Hermione watched dispassionately before she went down to the field.

Everyone there looked at Hermione in surprise, her distaste of flying was legendary.

"Apprentice Granger, Are you trying out for the team?" Angelina asked, her brows furrowed extremely confused at the other witch's sudden appearance from the stands.

"No, but I thought I could help you out a little so you don't strain your voice or pop a blood vessel doing so," she replied.

Angelina frowned in slight distaste, but admitted she could feel her throat scratching up already. It wasn't like the petite witch was judging her or said anything negative.

"What would you suggest?" she huffed instead.

Ron growled as his face turned red further in the back with the other hopeful keepers.

"A sonorus."

Angelina blinked at the other witch and gave her a lopsided grin, "You are brilliant, Granger. Do you know how?"

The curly haired witch nodded and moved closer, "Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Sonorus."

"All right you lot, Chasers first," the witch said, her voice loud enough to be heard but not hurt anyone's ears. Her throat didn't hurt anymore either.

Harry was still seeker, the twins were still beaters, and Alicia, Angelina, and Katie, were still chasers.

Tryouts for keepers was going better than they thought it would. There were a few who were neck and neck. Ron and some third year were the best so far. McLaggen had complained the whole time in the tower that he wasn't going to be there to show them what real keeping was because he had detention with Snape. Apparently the wizard threw a few newt eyes into a Slytherin's potion that caused it to bubble over and burn the other wizard's hands as he tried to move it off the fire to stop the excessive bubbling.

In the end Ron made keeper.

"Thanks for trying out guys –"

"Angelina?"

Instead of talking the witch looked over at the hazel eyed witch. The last time she spoke it was useful, but she was still under the sonarus charm.

"Have you thought it might be a good idea to have a few reserves?"

Angelina grinned.

"Ginny Weasley, Lily Moon, Demelza Robins, stay." She said happily before nodding to Hermione and pointing to her throat.

"Quietus," the witch responded, canceling the charm.

"Weasley, Moon, Robins, you're reserves," Angelina said writing on her clipboard.

"Weasley you're reserve for seeker and chaser. Moon, chaser and beater. We'll have you practice more with the twins so you can synch up with them. Robins, chaser. I'll let you know when practice is," she smirked at the new team members.

Turning around the witch looked at the apprentice, "Thanks for the idea. If I didn't know how uninterested you were in quidditch I'd ask you to join the team, even as an honorary member since you don't like to fly," she grinned at the shorter witch.

Hermione blushed, "Thank you. I just know how important quidditch is to Harry, and I know important it is to Gryffindor to win the Cup."

"You're alright, Granger. Whenever we have practice and you see something, don't be afraid to speak up," Angelina finished with a grin.

The following day was the first weekend and Hermione left Harry to his quidditch practice while she went down to the dungeons to meet with Severus. Half way down however she saw Luna walking around barefoot again and stopped.

"Luna?"

The little blond looked up and smiled, "Good morning, Hermione."

"Good morning. Luna, are your shoes missing again?" she asked calmly.

Luna looked down and wriggled her toes before looking up at her curly haired friend.

"Actually yes. I had just taken my morning shower with my clothes laid out, and when I got back none of them were there," the younger witch answered serenely, "The nargles must have taken them since no one else was in the room when I got back."

Hermione took a deep calming breath. Not even a whole week into the first term…

"Thimi, I would like you to get Luna's missing belongings and place them in her trunk please. I would also like you to get my fuzzy slippers. The slippers first please," she murmured so the elf would hear her.

With a light brush against her hand the witch knew the house-elf heard her. Hermione finished walking down the stairs and stopped in front of Luna. She felt a pair of slippers being pressed into her hand and grabbed them.

"Here. These are my slippers. They're very warm, and I know the castle stone must be so cold. They'll warm your toes right up!" Hermione handed them over with a grin.

"I couldn't possibly! What about your toes? Won't they get cold tonight?" Luna replied with furrowed brows.

"Don't worry. If you're that concerned about my toes you can give them back after dinner. I'm going to spend most of the day with Master Snape," she smiled at her young friend.

"I was going to do some self-study in the library," the silver eyed witch admitted.

Hermione bit her lip as she thought about something furiously. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes were shifting in color. The gold and green were becoming more prominent the harder she focused. It was obvious when she came to her conclusion as the colors dimmed.

"Why don't you come with me? You may be able to learn a bit more about potions than what the Hogwarts' library may have," Hermione suggested instead.

"Are you sure you want to spend time with me? Wouldn't I be intruding on time meant for you and Master Snape?"

The petite witch's face twisted a bit.

"Luna, I was serious. I'm your friend. I want to spend time with you, not just at meal times. Come on," she finished with a light head nod in the direction of the dungeons.

The little blond grinned and nodded, she bend down to put on the oatmeal colored fuzzy slippers. She was surprised that they were extremely soft inside despite the obvious used appearance. They fit snuggly, the backs covered half of her heels.

After wiggling her feet with a smile, Luna turned and started skipping towards the dungeons with Hermione following her, a smile on her face.

Severus was setting up his private lab for his apprentice. He was going to have her brew a NEWT level potion today and gathered all of the ingredients for her. The book he had propped up was the standard text, which she knew by now to alter as her instincts told her. Her affinity laid in wards and ley lines, but she was started to gain an intuition for potions with constant lessons and exposure.

Hermione smiled as she led the younger witch past the classroom and knocked on a door before opening it.

"Master Snape, I hope you don't mind, but I brought one of my friends," she said walking in.

Luna walked in behind her, although it looked more like the young witch was floating.

Thankfully Severus looked up when his apprentice knocked and watched her enter. At her words he immediately made a small scowl before seeing the young witch. Seeing her bright blond hair he allowed his face to reform its previous passive expression.

"Miss Lovegood," he greeted and nodded in her direction.

"Good morning, Master Snape. I hope you don't mind me being here, Hermione insisted," Luna remarked airily.

"Yes, my apprentice does have that way about her," he replied. "Apprentice, today you will be brewing Elixir to Induce Happiness. Should it be good enough we will be sending it to St. Mungos. Care to guess why?"

Hermione confidently walked into the room, pulling out a stool for Luna to sit on the opposite side of the table, as she made her way to the cauldron.

"In small doses it can help with depression. While a full dose simply induces happiness that's well, exuberant, partial doses can make a person relatively happy enough to function," Hermione answered, "Because of that it has the possibility to be abused by people who suffer from depression, but the proper dosage admitted by a healer helps people manage their depression enough to function, much like antidepressants used by muggles."

Severus nodded, "Good. You've been doing the extra reading and making connections between potions and muggle medicines."

Hermione smiled at the praised for what it was.

"As you can see, before you is the standard book with the standard recipe," he finished with a raised eyebrow that was a signature of Snape.

"I'm to make the proper changes to improve the formula," she stated in understanding.

"Oh goodie," Luna said clapping lightly with a large smile.

Hermione grinned at her friend while Severus looked at her with a 'Hn', his expression that of mildly impressed.

Brewing with Severus and Luna had Hermione smiling the whole time, even as she focused on her cauldron studiously. When she added the sprig of peppermint she took 3 leaves from another sprig. She stirred anticlockwise and added one leaf each turn, the fourth turn was alone. She let it simmer for 45 second exactly as she crushed 3 of the 7 sophorus beans. She put in 4 whole beans with the juice from the other 3. She let the potion shimmer as she squeezed the innards partially out of the shivelfig before she shook it into the cauldron. Again she let the potion shimmer before putting in the wormwood that she deftly removed from the sprig.

Once she was done and removed the cauldron from the fire the elixir was a perfect sunshine yellow with a brilliant rainbow.

Severus waited until the rainbow disbursed and looked at it, taking a clean stirring rod and turning it.

"The consistency is smoother." He waved his hand over the cauldron to waft the smell, "the smell is correct and also induces calmness," he looked at her impressed, "and there is enough peppermint to counteract the common side effects. Well done, Apprentice."

"Why did you only juice 3 of the 7 beans?" Luna asked curiously.

Severus allowed a quirk of his lips, "It is a good question apprentice. Explain your thought process."

Hermione blushed as she grinned at her friend, "The beans help add the consistency instead of making it entirely water like, the shells and the shrivelfig give it its syrup like consistency. The potion needs the juice of 7, but only 4 shells, and removing the other 3 shells it removes the cloying part of the syrup like property making it smoother to take."

Severus nodded, "And the wormwood?"

"The main body has no real purpose, but the common witch and wizard struggle removing the leaves in one go, and measuring the plucked leaves is too…" she thought of a word, "elaborate, considering the texture of the plant. It's easier to grab a sprig, so to speak, as it has just the right amount. Estimating what would be a proper amount leaves an expansive margined for a mistake and would essentially ruin the potion."

"Good."

"How do you do that?"

Severus and Hermione looked at the sandy blond.

"Do what?" Hermione asked.

"When you took the wormwood off the base, it just slid off," she clarified.

"Oh. I pinch the bottom of the sprig and hold it firmly, then with my other hand I grip it and slide my hand up so it takes everything up with it."

"Not everyone can strip a sprig cleanly. The proper pressure and grip cannot be… explained properly in a book. It's very easy for a few sprigs to have stubborn… branches, which would startle an ordinary witch or wizard, causing abrupt motions that may carelessly cause bits of the ingredient to fall into the cauldron at the wrong time," Severus explained.

Luna tilted her head and nodded.

"Are potion instincts and ley lines similar for you?" she asked.

Hermione froze for a moment before relaxing. She figured the other witch could see more things that others did not. Her small interaction last year with Luna's mention of the Thimi was a fine example. Her start of S.P.E.W. was wide spread, her care of Thimi was not.

Taking a small breath she answered, "No. The ley lines… they speak to me. When I'm… interacting with them it's like they're hugging me and welcoming me. Then they help guide me with what I want or need to do. It's very… intimate. With potions it's like… a little tickle in my head."

Luna nodded, as though agreeing with the weather.

"We are done with today's lesson, Apprentice. You may clean up your station and bottle your potion," Severus intoned.

"Yes, Master."

The dark wizard looked at the light witch. Her skin was pale, her eyes were silver, even her sandy hair was a bright blond with ash brown roots.

"Miss Lovegood, should you end up in another one of our lessons I will be more prepared and set aside something for you to do unless you would like to just observe."

Luna grinned at the potions master, "I would love that Master Snape. Watching Hermione work is enlightening, but I know not all lessons are just brewing. I would like to help or do something during those lessons."

"Even if I were to have you relabel the potions store?"

The blond tilted her head as though listening to something in the distance, "Yes."

Severus nodded at her, "Very well. As long as you remain unobtrusive you may join us during your free time."

Normally he would push other people away and would rather secrete Hermione away, but this was his chance to further help the young witch.

She was now Hermione's friend and he would endeavor not to push her away. He noticed her wearing what were obviously Hermione's slippers and felt a cold anger settle inside him. At least with the marauders he fought back, Miss Lovegood took it in stride. If there was one student in the whole castle he wanted to help protect that wasn't a Slytherin (excluding Potter), it was Miss Lovegood.