Tale of a Smart Witch: Rebrewed
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes. Warnings: completely AU. Time travel.
After dinner, Professor Vector introduced Hermione to none other than a young-looking, sixteen-year-old Severus Snape and informed the boy that Hermione would be his partner for a combined Arithmancy – Potions project.
"Library tomorrow after dinner," Severus hissed to her before following his classmates out of the Great Hall without even bothering to wait for her response.
'Who does he think he is, ordering me around?' Hermione thought, shaking her head in annoyance. 'In this time, he's not a professor yet.'
HP
"What happened?" Lily asked, when she followed her housemates back to the Gryffindor common room. "You seem upset."
Surprised as to how observing Lily was, Hermione sighed. "Oh, nothing really. I have to do an Arithmancy project together with Severus Snape, and he just ordered me to be in the library tomorrow night. I mean, he could have asked me."
"Oh," Lily replied in apparent understanding. "He's been my friend for many years, but he's much into the dark arts, and after he called me a really bad word, I ended our friendship," she explained in a small voice.
"Oh well, maybe I can prevent him from becoming the frustrated, unfair git that he was in the future," Hermione replied, just when they stepped through the portrait hole into the common room.
"Good luck," Lily whispered, smiling, causing Hermione to mouth, "Thanks."
HP
During her classes, Hermione had been distracted enough to not mull about her new situation, however, when she was sitting in the common room doing her homework, she could not help thinking about Harry and Ron and how she missed her friends.
Suddenly, Remus lowered himself into the empty spot next to her on the sofa. "Hermione, are you all right?" he asked, gently.
"Of course," Hermione replied, giving the boy a faint smile. "I just miss my friends," she added in a small voice.
"Oh, but don't tell us that we're not more charming than your old friends could ever be," Sirius spoke up, cheering at her from across the table.
"Exactly," James added before asking, "Do you play Quidditch by the way?"
"Not at all," Hermione admitted. "I'm more interested in studying."
"Well, then you're better off with Remus in any case," Sirius commented. "He's the studious one."
"We'll see if we can manage to change your opinion of flying nonetheless," James added, grinning.
Hermione could not help smiling at their antics, before her eyes fell onto Alice and Frank, who were quietly studying together in front of the fireplace. 'Only a few more years, and four of them will be gone forever,' she recalled, unable to keep the smile on her face.
Suddenly, she remembered her earlier class and cast Sirius a questioning look. "In which way is Regulus Black related to you?"
Sirius' expression darkened some. "He's my brother, the good brother who is following into my parents' footsteps."
Hermione cast him a pensive look. 'Perhaps, I can still try to become friends with him,' she thought. Somehow, she felt disgusted on the one hand but intrigued on the other by the Slytherin boy, not that she would admit such a thing to any of the Marauders.
HP
At their Herbology class the following morning, Hermione shared a table with her Gryffindor roommates, Marina, who was one of the fifth-year prefects, and Anna. Happy that the girls invited her, she sat with them, relieved when her Herbology class went as well as every other class so far.
Their second morning class was Transfiguration, and the three girls headed back towards the castle to be on time for the class with their head of house.
They had just crossed the entrance hall, when Hermione saw what she knew to be Bellatrix Black and who she thought could be Rudolphus Lestrange, her future husband, pester two much younger girls.
"Leave them in peace!" she shouted and was just about to take points from Slytherin, when she remembered that she was not a prefect in this time. 'Too bad, after Professor McGonagall promised that I was going to be one,' she thought in annoyance.
"And why does that concern you?" Bellatrix enquired, turning around with her wand pointed at Hermione, Marina and Anna.
"Fighting in the corridors is forbidden," Hermione insisted and managed just in time to cast a strong shield charm to save her and her roommates from the curse that Bellatrix sent at them – which rebound, hitting Bellatrix square in the chest.
"What's happening here?" a strict voice came from behind the two Slytherins, and Hermione saw the Potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, arrive.
"She hexed Bella," Rudolphus complained, causing the professor to turn to her.
"That's not true," Marina immediately came to her defence. "Black cast the spell, and Hermione merely put up a shield charm which reflected the spell."
"Exactly," Hermione agreed, "and she only turned on us, because I reprimanded her for harassing younger students."
The professor reached for Bellatrix' wand and cast the Prior Incantatem spell. "The girls are obviously right," he commented and took twenty points from Slytherin before instructing, "Lestrange, take Black to the hospital wing."
"Let's go then, we're late for class," Anna whispered to Hermione and Marina, who immediately set to follow her.
"Thank you very much," the two younger girls said to her, eyeing her with what seemed to be admiration.
"You're welcome," Hermione replied, smiling.
However, when she entered the Transfiguration classroom behind her roommates, explaining that they had to help younger students against two Slytherins, McGonagall was not pleased and informed her that she should leave such things to prefects or teachers.
'Oh well, for her I'm just a normal student in this time,' Hermione thought in disappointment, used to being her head of house's favourite pupil as well as a reliable student to all professors and soon-to-be prefect.
HP
After dinner, Hermione headed to the library to work on her Arithmancy project together with Severus. Noticing that he was already occupying one of the tables, she quickly sat on the chair next to him.
"Finally," Severus commented, grimly.
"I'm sorry, but I just only now finished dinner," Hermione replied, trying to keep her voice void of anger. "Now let's begin." Ignoring his grumpy expression, she began to work, talking to the boy as if he were the best company that she could imagine. To her relief, it only took a few minutes, before Severus dove into the matter as well and seemed to have forgotten any animosity towards her.
"I thought that we could try to improve the Wolfsbane potion through Arithmancy and possibly try to find a cure for Lycanthropy," Hermione suggested after separately skimming a few Arithmancy books.
"The Wolfsbane potion?" Severus queried, quirking an eyebrow.
'Oh no, maybe it wasn't even invented in this time,' Hermione thought, however, replied, "Yes, the potion that makes a werewolf keep his mind during the transformation." 'I really need to pay better attention to what I say,' she reprimanded herself, letting out a small sigh.
"I've never heard of it," Severus replied. "Are you sure that you didn't merely dream about such a thing?"
"Absolutely," Hermione informed him, took a small parchment and wrote down the recipe, having studied that specific potion in detail before to possibly brew it for Remus one day.
"Hmmm, interesting," Severus commented. "I'll have to check that out later. Your idea is surprisingly good though. Let's work on it then."
From that time onwards, Hermione and Severus met in the library every other evening and sometimes even spent large parts of the weekend working on their project.
HP
"I don't understand why you always hang out with Snape," Sirius told her one evening, when she returned to the common room just before curfew.
"We're working on an Arithmancy project," Hermione replied for the umpteenth time. "We were assigned the project together."
"What kind of project is it?" Frank Longbottom enquired. He was also a sixth-year and was said to love Arithmancy.
"It's a combined Arithmancy – Potions project, and we're trying to find a remedy for an illness by improving a potion through Arithmancy," Hermione explained. "Of course, we don't know if it'll ever work, but we'll try," she added, shrugging.
"What illness is that?" Lily asked with apparent interest.
Knowing that Lily intended to become a healer after finishing Hogwarts, Hermione supplied in a small voice, "Lycanthropy."
"What?" Sirius blurted out, looking at her, wide-eyed.
"Shhh," Hermione replied, giving him a stern look. "As I said, we have no clue if it's going to work, so please don't talk about it."
"All right," Sirius promised, glancing at Remus, who had fortunately been otherwise occupied and had missed that part of the conversation.
HP
In spite of the grumpy expression that Severus used to wear, he soon became used to Hermione's company and slowly began to open up towards her. Hermione realised that he was much friendlier to her than his older self had ever been. He even once asked her about a Transfiguration homework, which he just could not understand, and Hermione patiently explained the matter. After a few weeks of studying together, she had the impression as if they were on the way to become something close to friends.
Frequently, Hermione sat next to Regulus Black in some of their classes, and her Slytherin classmate did not protest in spite of the attitude he had shown her at their first encounter. He even slowly opened up to her just like his older housemate and exchanged one or the other word with her. 'Thank Merlin the Slytherins don't know that I'm muggleborn; otherwise, they'd harass Regulus and Severus about it,' she thought one day after witnessing another fight between Slytherins and Gryffindors in a corridor.
tbc...