Remember When It Rained

Remember When It Rained
Chapter Fourteen
A Day In The Life of a Seventh Year Girl


She wasn’t a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, especially these days. Her nights were filled with dreams of her love and the erotic tone of the dreams made for a decidedly disturbed sleep. After all, waking up all wet with perspiration and throbbing with desire disturbed her needed sleep pattern.

This morning was no different from the mornings prior, and those had been many. Four months worth in fact.

Not that anyone really noticed, for she had become quite adept with glamour’s lately, concealing the dark circles under her eyes and the pallid appearance of her complexion. She had begun using said glamour’s after Ginny remarked on morning over breakfast that she was getting to look like Snape. She had run up to her room, thinking that perhaps Ginny had been exaggerating. One look in the mirror told her that her friend was not. Hence the charms.

Her parents had even been fooled for she had passed the whole of the Christmas holidays in an apparently cheerful manner to them, participating with more enthusiasm in the usual family visits and such than she had in years prior. The break had seemed painfully long to her, for she had in her mind spent the whole of it wondering what Severus was doing and whether or not he was missing her.

Apparently he had not, for her return to class was not remarked upon by him. And so the weeks went on.

So this morning began the first day of the fifth month that Severus Snape refused to look at her or indeed even talk to her outside of what was necessary for instruction. Even then his tone was acerbic to say the least.

Hermione’s heart was broken.

She finished casting the glamour and sighed. It wasn’t getting any easier, his treatment of her. Her heart refused to admit that perhaps he didn’t love her after all, in spite of the intensity of his kisses that night. Yet the practical side of her head was telling her that she had to move on.

It was something that she could not permit herself to do.

She walked to her bed and grabbed her book bag. Slinging it over her shoulder, she pasted a smile on her face and exited the room.

Down the staircase she went, where she was greeted by the smiling faces of Harry, Ron and Ginny. All oblivious to the tumult inside of her. The talk naturally turned to subjects like Quidditch and other mundane topics after their general inquiries into her night. She suppressed a frustrated sigh and squelched the urge to run and hide in her room for the day.

Her breakfast was picked at, as usual, with her eating only enough to keep her going and to keep her friends and Professors from remarking. Her conversation was forced, but not beyond her traditional bounds. Her morning crankiness was something that her housemates were accustomed to.

History of Magic passed the same as usual, followed by Transfiguration, lunch and a free period.

Which she used for a trip to the library, of course.

Her friends had other ideas apparently for they were lying in wait for her. Immediately upon her entrance they were dragging her out into the hall and clamoring for a snowball fight.

“Come on Hermione,” Ron whined. “It’s a nice layer of snow and a snow ball fight with out you isn’t a snowball fight!”

“Ron,” she replied sharply. “It’s NEWTS this year, in case you hadn’t noticed and I have to study.”

“You study too much Hermione,” Harry chimed in with a gentle tone. His hand caressed her cheek. “You look like you need sometime out of doors anyway.”

She looked at him, her expression one of surprise. He had the grace to blush slightly as he answered,

“Your glamour is slipping, Mione.”

He had noticed. Hermione felt done for. Her expression was one of incredulity for Harry gave a bark of a laugh.

“You have been studying then!” she exclaimed in delight as the realization dawned on her.

He rewarded her with a light hearted chuckle. “See? You’re rubbing off on me. Finally. Surely that deserves a reward?”

Thus she found herself bundled in her warmest cloak, out of doors and covered in snow. She hadn’t felt this light hearted in months, she thought as another snowball smacked her in her face. She squealed from the coldness and threw hers in Harry’s direction, missing him entirely. Ron rode to her rescue however and managed to land his over Harry’s glasses. His gloating was cut off by his high pitched scream, for Ginny had managed to sneak up on him and drop a good sized snowball down his back.

His squealing attracted the attention of several Hufflepuff third years, who threw themselves into the game with unrestrained enthusiasm.


All too soon it was time to head in, for their next class started soon and it wouldn’t do to show up sopping wet and shivering. Professor Snape would surely find a way to deduct points for their appearance. Not to mention the fact that the dungeons were always chilly.

Hermione’s mood sobered very quickly as she descended the stairs. Once again she was exposing herself to the sweet torture of his presence. Once again she found herself filling with the hope that today would be different.

And it was. But not for the reasons she was hoping for.

It was different because she was paired once again with Neville and he was in rare form.

For once, she didn’t catch the error that caused the reaction inside of his cauldron. For once she was completely oblivious to the roiling going on inside of the vessel. She was the only one who didn’t duck as the cauldron exploded, spattering its contents on her and spraying her form with shards of iron.

The last thing she did note, before darkness claimed her was the concerned eyes of Severus Snape gazing down at her causing her to smile.