Year Seven:Blindsided

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of these characters or places; they belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. It’s her world; I just play in it.


Chapter 14-Polyjuice Potion


Severus had not felt at all himself since his conversation with Dumbledore at the Halloween Ball. It couldn’t be possible that Hermione would fall for that young upstart. He had been so cruel to her for the entirety of the years that the two of them had spent at Hogwarts. Surely she was too smart to get involved with someone who had been so horrible to her for so long.


His head felt like it was spinning. He had never been so…so consumed with thoughts of any woman let alone a student. The more pragmatic part of him was thoroughly disgusted by the mere idea of dating a student. Alas, there was not much that one could do in order to get the heart to think, or the brain to feel. So Severus found that he was hopelessly caught in a cycle of thoughts that brought him nothing, save guilt anger and still more guilt.


This obsession was, in fact, beginning to affect his teaching. Fortunately, he was the only one to have noticed this. No student would be as bold as to demand the attention of the Potions Professor. When he did not respond to the queries of a student this did not seem to be out of character. It was, however, quite out of character, as he no longer heard the inane inquiries of said students at all. He used to hear them and ignore them.


He had to stop thinking of her during the hours that he was teaching, lest Dumbledore find him suddenly unfit to remain at his post as Potions Master at Hogwarts. That would be a serious danger to his safety, with the Dark Lord running about in a body of flesh and bone. He did not think that it was a very likely possibility, but where Dumbledore was concerned he must tread carefully. The man knew far more than he’d ever admit to knowing and if he decided to sacrifice Severus’ life for the good of the world, then Snape would not argue.


Some of the time he thought that his feelings for Hermione were likely to destroy him before he could do anything about them. At other times he dreamt of slowly strangling a certain young blond wizard. Yet at other times his thoughts were quite rational; he had no concrete evidence that the two of them had any idea that they’d spent so much time it the company of the other at the Ball. They did not seem to be any closer, nor did they seem farther apart when he was near them.


Another part of him gave a sound bit of advice that Severus found nearly impossible to listen to, eventhough he knew that it was true. He had already waited for six and a half years for Hermione, certainly he could hold off for another six months? No. There was no way that he could wait any longer.


Snape dove into his personal stores of pre-made potions with rabid fervor. He was searching for something very specific, Polyjuice Potion. With the use of this tiny vial he could, once and for all confirm his sneaking suspicion that the two of them were, indeed, a couple.


The only thing left for him to collect in order to set his plans into motion was for him to somehow get a small piece of hair from young Master Malfoy. ‘This is almost too easy,’ thought Severus as he gathered the list of potions for his Independent Study of Advanced Potion Making class and he left his office smirking.


Hermione kissed the real Draco on the lips before heading down to breakfast a few moments before him, to keep up the pretense that there was nothing going on between the two of them. She smiled and she said that she’d see him in Potions and that she loved him. Hermione found that she was a bit later than she would have been usually. She hadn’t wanted to get up this morning, no woman who’d just spent the night with the talented and beautiful Draco Malfoy would want the night to end.


The Great Hall was nearly full as she took the seat next to Ginny and across from Harry. Harry must have just broken some poor unfortunate girls heart, as he was wearing his most innocent of expressions. Hermione was not fooled for a moment and made sure that Harry knew that that kind of crap wasn’t going to earn him any sympathy from her. He put on another look of faux indignation before smiling broadly and wishing her a good morning. Then he was off, with two bowls of cereal balanced precariously in his hands, to the other end of the Hall and yet another unsuspecting girl.


“What in the name of Merlin are we going to do with that rogue? Pretty soon there won’t be any girls in the school left for him to date.” Hermione shook her head as she watched Harry amble to the front of the Hall.


“Yeah, maybe he’ll run out of girls and have to go for my brother,” said Ginny, only half-jokingly.


“What is the matter with you lately?”


“Nothing…”


“Fine, you aren’t ready to talk yet. When you are, I’m here for you.” Hermione pulled a book from her bag and began to read. She hadn’t managed to get more than three paragraphs into the book before she was interrupted by Ginny frantic and urgent emotional explosion, “I like Harry.” Her hands flew to her mouth and she flushed the deep red that it seemed that only a Weasley could manage.


Hermione had no need of clarification. Her meaning was written on her face. “But what about…”


“Ron? I don’t know.” She looked as miserable as Hermione had felt prior to the Halloween Ball. There had to be something that she could do to help Ginny. She looked up at the doors as Draco swaggered into the Hall, he smirked at her; she met his eyes and smirked back at him. But both of them were smiling on the inside.


As Draco walked up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables he drew on all of the of the mannerisms that he had learned in his seventeen years of life as a Malfoy. This arrogant posturing had a way of driving the female student population at Hogwarts wild.


This suited him fine; his end of the ruse was to appear at all times to be a very available bachelor. He was actually quite surprised when Hermione suggested that he make small, non-committal overtures of affection towards some of the other female students. This was clearly not something that he’d been expecting, but the longer he thought on it the more sense it made to him. No girl in her right mind, however trusting she might be, would encourage her boyfriend to hit on another woman. It was the perfect deception.


He had almost reached his preferred seat near the head of the Slytherin table when he turned on his heel and took the hand of Lavender Brown. “Hello, Beautiful. I hope that this morning finds you well,” he said in a silky voice as he took her hand in his. He gracefully bent into a half bow and raised her hand to his lips with a practiced ease. He then winked at Lavender like the smarmy fop that he was pretending to be. Her knees would have buckled, from all the attention she was receiving from the best-looking guy in the school, had she been standing.


He engaged her in a few moments of inane conversation before taking his breakfast in cheerful discussion with his “friends” in Slytherin. Once again he was astounded at how easy it had been to deceive them, then again they were not known for their powers of perception. He was glad that they were so dim, it made his job a lot easier.


After taking his time to finish his breakfast he wandered down to the dungeon where he had four hours with his beloved. He had never been happier that Snape never stuck around to supervise the two of them working. He turned the corner to see the Potions Master standing in the hall wearing his usual sour expression and holding a piece of rolled parchment in his pallid hands.


Snape smiled crookedly at the young blond wizard and extended the rolled parchment for him to take. “Draco, I need you to run to the library and research these potions and ingredients for me.”


“Certainly Professor.” Snape patted him on the back and snuck a stray hair into his fist. Draco walked to the library scowling and whistling at the same time, which is not easy.


Snape knew that the list he gave Draco would take him well over an hour to complete, this would give him ample time to answer his question and be returned to his true form by the time he had his class of first-years. He reached into his pocket and produced a small vile of Polyjuice Potion, to which he added the hair that he’d plucked from Draco’s robes. The potion turned the color and consistency of month-old pea soup.


He slipped into an unused dungeon and swallowed a few mouthfuls of the sludge-like draught. It tasted like month-old pea soup as well. Snape did his best not to gag on the putrid muck he’d concocted. The sensation he felt was like nothing that he’d ever felt before. It was not painful, exactly; it was like his bones had turned to mush and his flesh was tingling for a few moments. All in all, not a very pleasant experience.


He drew a mirror from his pocket and was astonished to see that the handsome young face that stared back at him was not his own. It was one thing to know what a potion did, it was quite another to actually experience it for oneself. He took a few deep breaths and entered the dungeon where he found Hermione hard at work on her latest potion.


She looked up to see Draco standing in the doorway smiling at her. “What is so amusing?” She smiled back at him.


“I ran into Snape in the hall, he wants me to research some potions and ingredients for him today.”


“I know, he told me before he left.”


“So I have to get going.” Snape, in the guise of Draco, turned and started to open the door. This was the moment that he’d waited for.


“Draco?” He turned to her at the sound of the name of that little prat, “Did you really think that I was going to let you go without a kiss?”


She crossed the room to meet him in the doorway. He took her by the shoulders and kissed her with more passion and experience than Draco had. Hermione was so swept up in the moment that she didn’t even bother to note that this kiss was vastly different from all of the others that Draco had given her.


He pulled her to him and held her firmly, his heart racing. He’d finally managed to taste the sweet lips he’d longed for! It was magical. And the way she had responded to him! The two of them fit together as though molded to the body of the other. ‘The body of the other.’


This thought seemed to bring Severus back to himself. Her body did not fit well with his; it fit well with that little snipe’s! Snape gathered all of his composure and turned to exit the room once more. Then he heard the most disturbing thing of all, “I love you.”


He turned on all the charm, which Draco was capable of and smiled beautifully at her, “I love you more.” He left the room and was nearly in tears at what he’d discovered. What a fool he’d been to doubt Dumbledore! The man was never wrong, well almost never.


Snape decided to make a list of what he’d learned this morning, while it was still fresh in his memory. It was odd, before today he had no idea what she could have possibly seen in Draco, now he knew. These realizations didn’t make his plans any easier to go through with, but they increased the urgency that he felt in his soul. He sat in silence trying not to think of anything until the potion wore off.


Meanwhile, the real Draco was sitting in the library finishing up the assignment for Professor Snape. He re-corked the bottle of ink and neatly rolled the parchment back up before leaving the library. He was nearly skipping by the time he reached the dungeon wherein he would find Hermione, hard at work and covered in all manner of indiscernible ingredients. He entered the dungeon and paused to look at her; completely unaware that the last man she’d kissed was not him.


He loved to see her when she was at her best, while working in class. It was poetry in motion to behold the way in which she’d carefully slice her potions ingredients and the graceful way she stirred the simmering contents of her cauldron. He paused to listen to himself think, this was silly. He knew then that it had to be love.