Love is Blind

Love is Blind

Friday Afternoon

“Miss Granger, the dried lacewing?” the potion master
said as he held out his hand expectantly toward the young lady stirring the
smoking cauldron across from him.

The bushy-haired woman peered over her glasses at the
brooding man as she stiffly pushed the jar of lacewing across the table
silently. Professor Snape noticed the icy glare and cool silence of his
research partner. Frustration and annoyance loomed in his brain as he looked at
the obviously angered woman. He bit his tongue before he made the situation any
more tense than it already was and went for what he hoped was a subtle
approach. “Miss Granger, is something bothering you?” he asked, trying to sound
as sincere as he could muster.

“Her brown eyes burned holes through him as she sent
another frozen look his way. “Is something bothering me? Why would you
think something’s bothering me?” she fumed. “Professor Snape, I am no
longer your student. Please stop treating me like an insolent child. There are
a few words in the English language that you need to familiarize yourself with
if this project is to progress.”

Snape was shocked at her audacity and was about to
retort when she continued her tirade. “If we are going to work together on
this, I will NOT be ordered around constantly. You can at least try to
be civil to me. Try saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ once in a
while.” She watched as his jaw tensed but he remained silent. Her courage was
coming in an unstoppable current and was not about to let him intimidate her.
His eyes were black orbs, cold and unfeeling. She removed her spectacles and
stared into the nothingness in his eyes and went  on with her ranting. “I
am here to help Remus. I put up with you as a professor for seven years and I
have put up with six weeks of you as a partner. If it wasn’t for Professor
Lupin, I would have walked out the day after we started this project. But, I
cannot take one more minute of being treated like a first year. Do you
understand, Professor?”

He stared is shock at the fiery woman standing in
front of him. He was speechless. At his silence, she slammed her wand onto the
table and placed her hands on her hips. Her eyes were dark with fury. Snape
felt a surge of pride flow through him as she stood there berating him. She was
definitely a Gryffindor, but her attitude just now showed a Slytherin side that
he never expected from this ex-student.

“Miss Granger, you are correct. I am no longer your
professor. But as a ‘partner’ – as you so eloquently put it – I am no different
as I am everyday. I will treat you as I treat my other colleagues. If you have
a problem with that, please don’t let the door hit you in the ass,” he said
flatly but still carrying his usual cold undertones. “I must say, Miss Granger,
if we are indeed going to find the cure for lycanthropy, or at least work
toward it, neither of us can accomplish it without the other. I am certain that
the wolfsbane alteration you have created is the first step toward our goal.”
It was not her turn to be speechless. She figured that that was the closest
thing to a compliment she would ever hear from Severus Snape, as backhanded as
it was. She was still staring into his cold dark eyes and saw a slight shimmer
of something in them. Respect? Was that what she saw? Did he respect
her?

“Now, Miss Granger, if we are finished with the
pissing contest, can we please return to our work?” he said with a small
smirk… or was it a smile?

Hermione nodded her head in acknowledgement and
without another word, she picked up her wand and added a small amount of
something into the potion in front of her. Snape suddenly started when he saw
that the potion was bubbling violently.

“MISS GRANGER, BACK AWAY!” he yelled, but it was too
late. The cauldron erupted, spewing the hot red potion into the face of the
surprised woman. Her hands moved up to wipe the potion from her eyes, but in
her hast she accidentally knocked a vile of dragon’s blood over into the
flames. When the blood hit the flames, the cauldron exploded, hurtling her
backwards onto the stone floor.

Snape pulled his wand from his cloak and immediately
doused the flame and knelt beside the mass of brown curls and red goo that was
Hermione Granger. He saw that she was breathing, but the red slime, that
covered her body, hid any other injuries she may have incurred.

“Miss Granger?” Severus said as he softly shook the
woman to respond. A weak groan left her as he jostled her.

“Miss Granger?” Nothing.

“Hermione?” Still nothing.

With the wave of his wand the red goo disappeared and
Severus took a good look at the effects of the accident. He gasped at what he
saw. Her eyes were burned shut, her face and arms blistered. There was still
some red slime under her head that his cleansing spell must have missed. He
gently lifted her head and realized that the red slime under her head was her…
blood. Merlin help me, he prayed.

Snape carefully picked her up into his arms and
rushed to the hospital wing as fast as he could.