Severus was distraught by the news that Dumbledore gave him. He didn't understand why it would come to this. "What do you mean I need an assistant?" Albus gave Miss. Granger and myself a cheeky smile, "I do not need help with my work."
"I never said you did, Severus," Dumbledore popped another candy into his mouth. Severus rolled his eyes and looked at Miss Granger. She sat there in silence.
Hermione was stunned by what Dumbledore said. How could she not get the assistant position with Professor McGonagall?
"Another student got the position with Professor McGonagall, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said, "if that is what you were thinking."
"W-why," Hermione stuttered as she looked at Professor Snape. He looked as stunned as she did. "Shouldn't Professor Snape have someone from Slytherin helping him?"
"Exactly," Professor Snape interjected.
"This is my decision and I thought it would be best if Miss Granger took over as your assistant," Dumbledore said.
"But I am not good at potions," Hermione said.
"She's not lying," Professor Snape said, "she is great on paper but when it comes to making potions she is not great."
Hermione was hurt by his words, but he wasn't wrong.
"I do not care what either of you says," he paused, "this is my decision. Miss Granger, you will be in Professor Snape's office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays at four in the afternoon. This will be perfect for you, Severus to teach Miss Granger how to make the potions and Miss. Granger will be able to grade tests for you. Now you both may leave."
Hermione stood up from the chair and walked closer to Professor Snape. They both made their way down the stairs.
"I will see you later for detention, Professor Snape," Hermione smiled at the potion master.
Severus didn't do much but nod at Miss. Grangers comment. He still didn't understand why Dumbledore assigned the insufferable know-it-all Gryffindor to him. Why couldn't he have done Draco instead? At least he was good at potions. Severus turned on his heel and walked towards the dungeons.
Hermione didn't know how she was going to deal with being Professor Snape's assistant. She only had potions three times a week and now she would be seeing him every day. Potions classes happened on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Fridays sounded awful, she would be getting double Professor Snape. How would she tell her friends? Making her way to her other classes she noticed she was more dazed than usual. Sure, she found him attractive but what if her attraction turned into a crush? How would she deal with having a crush on the second most hated Professor at Hogwarts? Professor Umbridge was the first.
After a long day of being Hermione, she made her way to the potions classroom. She knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. "Enter," he bellowed in her ears. She opened the door slightly and walked in. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk as usual and was writing aggressively. "Professor Snape?" Hermione said quietly.
Professor Snape sighed and looked up. "I would like you to clean out the cauldrons with no magic and then after you are done let me know."
Hermione nodded and made her way over to the dirty cauldrons. She hated the fact that she had to clean them. All because students were too lazy to do it themselves. Hermione brought over a cauldron to the table. "Sir," she said quietly. Professor Snape lifted his head and looked at the young Gryffindor. "What?" He snarled.
"Where do you want me to get the soap and water from?"
Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Miss Granger," he sighed, "you are a fifth year you should know this."
Hermione nodded as she stared at her potions Professor. "Miss. Granger, what do you want?" He put his quill down and crossed his arms.
"Did you not know Dumbledore was going to assign me as your assistant?" She mumbled.
"Speak up, Miss Granger, I cannot hear you."
"Did you not know Dumbledore was going to assign me as your assistant?" She spoke loudly. She watched as her professor shook his head, no. "I did not," he said softly.
After the short conversation, Hermione had with the potions Professor she got to cleaning the cauldrons.
An hour later she was finally done with the last cauldron. She walked over to Professor Snapes' desk dripping with sweat. "What else do you need help with, Professor?"
Professor Snape looked up at her and cringed. "Here," he grabbed a towel from underneath and threw it at her. "You look filthy." Hermione cleaned herself up and noticed Professor Snape was staring menacingly at the papers he was grading.
"Do you need help with those?" Hermione put down the towel and walked closer to him.
"No," he said, "Plus if I get these done quicker tonight then you will have nothing to do tomorrow."
Hermione quirked an eyebrow.
"Did the insufferable Gryffindor already forget that she is going to be my assistant?" He started to smirk at Hermione.
"I did not forget Professor," she paused, "I just felt like you would want them to get done quicker so you could start your weekend".
"The thing is, Miss Granger, if I finished them quicker today then it would be too much wiggle room for conversation," he paused, "and I would rather not engage in conversation," he snarled.
God, he is such an asshole, Hermione thought. Professor Snape's eyes started to narrow at her. "What time do you want me here tomorrow?"
"If I had it my way I would say never," he paused, "but since we are under Professor Dumbledores' rules then I would say you shall be here at 2 in the afternoon on Fridays and we will work until dinner."
"What about Mondays and Tuesdays?" Hermione questioned.
"Monday you shall be here at 6 in the afternoon after dinner, the same for Tuesdays." He started to write them down on his parchment. He looked up to see Hermione staring at him. "Now, you may go, Miss Granger."
She nodded, "Bye, Professor Snape," but as always he didn't budge and say anything.
October 16th, 1995
The past couple of weeks flew by with Hermione helping Professor Snape. Hermione felt like it was strange seeing her Professor this much, but she knew it would look good on her resume. Sure, she sucked at certain aspects of potions but she felt like she was getting better. It had only been two weeks but she felt like she was getting closer to her potions Professor, if that was possible. She hadn't gotten detention since the good last time but she sure felt like she was in detention with him. Hermione was sitting with her friends at the Gryffindor table eating dinner. "Has anyone asked you to the Halloween Dance?" She looked at Ginny who was smiling.
Hermione shook her head, no. She started to shovel more into her mouth since she only had a couple more minutes before she had to go to the potions classroom. Hermione never had a date for the Halloween dance besides last year with her ex-boyfriend Viktor Krum.
"What about you, Ginny? Are you going with Dean?"
"Bloody hell, why do we have to talk about that wanker at the dinner table?" Ron said.
"Shut up, Ron," Hermione said, "I have to get going," she looked at the clock and noticed she only had a couple of minutes to get to Professor Snape's classroom. Hermione stood up from her seat and started walking fast towards the doors. As she escaped the great hall she started to run to the dungeons. "Miss Granger!" Hermione stopped in her tracks, it was Professor Umbridge.
"Yes?" She turned around slowly to see the lady in pink staring at her.
"No running the hall," Umbridge said, "detention with me tomorrow before dinner."
Hermione nodded, she knew not to question her or say she didn't deserve that detention. As Umbridge turned the corner she started to run to the potions classroom. She knocked on the door and waited. "Enter," Professor Snape said. She opened the door to see Professor Snape with his feet up on his desk.
"You are late!" He barked.
"Sorry, Professor Snape, I had a run-in with Professor Umbridge and she stopped me so she could give me detention."
Professor Snape abruptly removed his legs from his desk and looked at Hermione. "Be careful around her," he said. Hermione quirked an eyebrow at her professor.
He cleared his throat, "I mean, you probably deserved it, you insufferable know it all."
There's the Professor Snape she knew. Hermione found it strange that he would say to be careful around her. He most definitely knew that she had been using the black quill on students as punishment. Hermione wondered if Umbridge would use the black quill on her.
October 17th, 1995
"You are doing it wrong, Miss Granger," Professor Snape looked at Hermione with concern. "Here let me show you what I mean," he said as he stepped behind Hermione and wrapped his arms around her so he was behind her. Hermione breathed out hard as he wrapped his hands around her hands. She slightly winched but he didn't notice. "You don't chop these you squish them," he started to help her squish the ingredients.
"Thanks," she smiled. Professor Snape must've noticed that she had her hand wrapped because he grabbed her hand. "What is this?" He looked concerned as he looked back and forth between her hand and her face.
"Nothing," she tried to pull away from her Professor's grip but he was too strong. "I just hurt myself in the bathroom, Professor Snape."
"Let me see," he grabbed her arm more and started to pull off the bandage. Hermione couldn't look at her Professors face when he took off the bandage.
"Was this Umbridge?" He snarled.
"Y-yes," she stuttered. Still not looking at her Professor she heard him sigh.
"We must tell Professor Dumbledore," he said, "this is uncalled for."
"Stop, it will only make it worse," Hermione looked at her Professor with tearful eyes.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Hermione sniffled, she hadn't ever cried in front of Professor Snape even when he made her cry.
"I wouldn't use the black quill because I knew what would happen. I saw what happened to Harry and I didn't want it to happen to me. She told me I had two choices."
"What were the choices?" He started to draw small circles on her hand with his thumb.
"She said," Hermione paused, "I either use the black quill or she would use the crucio curse on me," she looked away from her Professor.
"Granger," Professor Snape said softly.
"It doesn't matter," Hermione pulled her arm away from her Professor. She didn't want to let him know that she was getting more detentions with Professor Umbridge for not listening the first time.
"How many?" He asked.
"What?"
"How many detentions did you receive?" His lips started to twitch as he stared at Hermione.
Hermione was confused, had he heard her say that? "I have detention with Professor Umbridge for the next week."