Chapter 2 The Man in Black
Skipping two or three steps at a time, Hermione became more and more nervous as she hasted towards her classroom. The other students had already emptied the corridor. A little too fast and a little too clumsy she pushed open the large ebony door in hopes to arrive just before Professor Snape would, not paying enough attention to her surroundings. And then it happened. A slender, dark figure stood right in front of her, facing away from her. With an audible thud the rushed young woman slammed right into her professor which caused her to stumble back a few steps, disoriented.
Professor Snape's head sprung back and the furious expression in his black eyes got her hackles up immediately. "What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing, Miss Granger?", he snorted with his nostrils trembling, "Get your pitiful self together and sit down, before I give you detention for the rest of the term that has, in fact, scarcely begun." Her gaze held to the ground and turning crimson, Hermione mumbled an "Excuse me, sir" and made her way to the last available seat. Of course, it had to be the one up front in perfect view of his desk. Cursing her bad luck in her head she sat down quietly and opened her books, still red as a beetroot. In the meantime, the angry looking teacher had approached the blackboard and was swiftly scribbling ingredients on it in his spiky handwriting. Hermione only had to look at it once to know what they were assigned to brew for today's lesson – Veritaserum.
Over the years the Gryffindor had been exposed to plenty of incidence involving the serum. Images of Barty Crouch Jr., who had infiltrated the castle and posed for Mad Eye Moody in her fourth year under the excessive use of Polyjuice, flashed before her eyes. And then a disgusted feeling ached in her stomach as she thought about what Dolores Umbridge had used it for in her fifth year at Hogwarts. Due to those horrific events, she had been obsessively reading about the substance whenever she could find any information about it. Hermione realized that this was not going to be an ordinary assignment. After all it would take the Veritaserum a whole Lunar cycle to mature which meant there were 28 long days ahead of trying not to screw it up to badly.
She gathered all the ingredients and started preparing everything accordingly.
Having her work cut out for her, she found herself lost deep in thought throughout most of the lesson. So much so that she didn't even notice that Professor Snape hadn't been in her line of vision for quite a while. A heartly cough from behind her, followed by a whisper of "Mione", finally made her look up. Hermione turn around to see what was going on, only to be scared nearly to death by the dark man standing behind her, but inches away. Involuntarily, she dropped the wooden spoon onto the stone floor. Little drops of the concoction went flying in all directions, some splashing right onto Snape's black ropes. He had something menacing about him as he looked into her eyes with a devilish smirk. He didn't even yell at her, but the predominant way he was speaking next had her hackle up once again. "Well, well. What a shame that being a member of the so-called Golden Trio doesn't render you perfect after all, Miss Granger", he said plainly, "Ten points from Gryffindor." He looked rather pleased with himself. A mere flick of wand was all it took for him to change his dirty ropes. Hermione opened her mouth to defend herself, but Ginny, who had been the one raising her attention just moments ago, cleared her throat again in a cautioning way. The brown-haired witch sighed faintly and returned to her assignment, frustrated and embarrassed at the same time. After she had cleaned up the mess, the rest of Potion's thankfully went without any more incidence.
As soon as Snape dismissed the class, Hermione collected her things and hurried out of the dungeons, still feeling a bit awkward about her mishap. Ginny caught her on the way to the next period, heading towards the greenhouse for her Herbology lesson with Professor Sprout. "Hey, Moine! I am sorry for what happened with the old git. He seems to find even greater joy in messing with the students these days", the young Weasley said, "I heard from Eliza Beckford that he gave one of the Ravenclaws a solid month's detention for slightly altering a recipe during class, even though the potion turned out even better afterwards. What a prick." Hermione realized that apparently Harry hadn't mentioned anything about Snape's involvement in the downfall of Voldemort to Ginny yet. She was fairly certain it was due to the fact that her friend had pretty much despised the teacher for the greater part of his life at Hogwarts and almost everyone was aware that the feeling had been quite mutual. The more disturbed it had left Harry to find out that Snape had actually been on their side for a long time. He had been a spy for Dumbledore for many years, gathering information from Voldemort's inner circle while feeding him lie after lie to protect the Order and Hogwarts as much as possible, living in constant danger doing so. The worst part of it was that he'd done it for one reason and one reason alone – he'd loved Lilly Evans, Harry's mother.
The Order found out about some of it and when Snape suddenly reappeared on the face of the earth, they managed to persuade the new Minister to pardon him and clear his name, at least superficially. No one really had an idea as to why he'd decided to return to Hogwarts and start teaching again. Some parents were highly dismayed by it, but Headmistress McGonagall had been rather pleased by his return, not only because she hadn't been able to find a proper replacement for him anyway.
Hermione had hated the man relentlessly for so long. He had exposed her and her friends on so many occasions. He had belittled them regularly, given them more detentions than they could count, with only few of them actually being called for. And above all, he had insulted her personally and without any sign of remorse when Draco Malfoy had hit her with the Densaugeo Hex during their fourth year.
And yet, she couldn't hate him anymore. What he had done for them, for the outcome of the entire war. His bravery and loyalty had been overlooked by so many. Sure, he had been acquitted on the accounts of being a Death Eater and faithful follower of You-Know-Who, but to the wizarding world it was the Golden Trio who'd been seen as heroes at the end. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Looking at Ginny, she simply shrugged and said, "Some things never change and I am pretty sure that Severus Snape is one of those absolutes that will remain as they are forever." In her head, though, she wondered, whether she was being too biased about him. Hermione slightly shook her head to get rid of these thoughts. Her red-headed friend seemed to notice her discomfort about the matter and quickly redirected the conversation towards her life at the Burrow and how she and Harry had thought about getting an apartment somewhere to have a little bit more privacy to themselves. They kept blabbering about this and that until they reached the greenhouse.
Herbology went rather smoothly, which improved Hermione's mood immensely. By the time she made it to the Great Hall for lunch, she was in such a good mood that she had forgotten all about the disasters of the morning. Hermione was nibbling on her Cornish Pasty, when a long, black cloak hasted through the aisle between the long tables. Professor Snape had a tense expression on his face, even more tense than usual. He went up to the staff table, bent down towards Professor McGonagall and whispered something into her ear. A stern look appeared on her face, as she replied to him. The unusual scene was finished so suddenly that most students didn't even register any of it. The man in black ropes nodded and vanished through a small ebony door in the back of the hall. Observant as always, Hermione had watched the scene vigilantly. She was wondering to herself what that might had been about, but her pondering was quickly distracted by amused laughter echoing from Ginny and some of the other Gryffindors sitting next to her.