Making sure the boy who lives, actually does...

Chapter 15: The boy who lived?

Hermione\'s breath caught in her chest as she gaped at Harry from the side of his hospital bed. Harry continued to survey her with a look of utter confusion intermingled in his features. Hermione\'s own minimal freckles seemed to jump out of her now ghastly pale complexion.

\"W-what?\"

Harry frowned deeply, a single crease deepening in the middle of his eyebrows as he sat up straighter in his bed. His lips were set in a thin line of displeasure, as if he felt he was the butt of a joke he wasn\'t privy to. He pulled the covers more tightly around his frame and glared more severely at the shaking Hermione.

\"I said,\" he offered rudely. \"Who are you?\"

Hermione gaped a moment longer before pulling herself together. Evidently this wasn\'t Harry trying to be funny, for it was hardly the time or the place. Along with that, Harry just wasn\'t the type to do such a thing, and the hollow look in his light eyes made it all too clear that he wasn\'t in jest.

\"Just a moment.\" Hermione said breathlessly, moving from the bed to the window. Her hands were shaking, and the pit in her stomach seemed to be growing larger, so large in fact she was finding it almost impossible to breath properly. Harry himself sat in his hospital bed, glancing at the large haired girl with a puzzled look on his face.

Harry wasn\'t joking. But then, why would Harry say it? Was it possible that in this time travel he\'d lost track of his own identity? Hermione mentally scanned her mind, through all the books she\'d read on time travel, and never had she come across such a case. There were tales of those who knew too much of their future and past, but none who had actually forgotten.

Hermione turned then, her dark eyes set on Harry\'s solemn figure in the bed, looking around the room suddenly as if he\'d never seen it before. She slowly sat herself in the chair again, seeing that Harry was still rigid with unease.

\"Ha-...do you know who you are?\" Hermione offered tentatively, punctuating her point by pointing her trembling finger at Harry. His green eyes surveyed the movement and then grew cloudy once more.

\"Of course.\" he said indignantly, \"I\'m....\"

He trailed off then, his brows furrowing as he looked to the comforter he was wrapped in, as if it would give some sort of clue to his persona. Nothing. He looked up at the strange girl once more, frowning deeply and spoke gently.

\"I don\'t know.\"

Hermione nodded, her mind still whirring with explanations but finding none that were plausible. Why would Harry forget who he was? She frowned deeply, looking to Harry in earnest.

\"Harry. That\'s your name. Harry Potter.\"

\"Harry?\" Harry scoffed with a laugh, \"That can\'t be my name.\"

\"Why not?\" Hermione asked confused, cocking her head to one side in question. Harry offered a simple shrug, looking skyward a moment, considering the facts before speaking darkly to her once more.

\"Well...it\'s just such a....wanky name.\"

Hermione let a glimmer of a smirk cross her features before they went back to being stoic. This was serious. She let her hand fall on the bed beside him and frowned as he pulled away as if he\'d been burned.

\"And my name is Hermione.\" she said with a wince, looking at Harry wrinkled his nose in distaste.

\"Hermione? What kind of name is that?\"

\"Never mind that.\" Hermione said huffily, \"The matter at hand is that you are a most powerful wizard, why it was you that killed Voldemort at the tender age of sixteen! You\'re a legend, a hero...a miracle. And the fact that you don\'t even know who you are is more than frightening.\"

Harry who had listened patiently to the story almost bemused and leaning back into his pillow, now narrowed his eyes at the girl -Hermione?- and got a completely serious look on his face. She looked so desperately truthful that he almost believed the story.

\"I\'m a wizard?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"So I can do magic? Spells? Frogs? The whole lot?\"

\"Yes Harry, but-\"

\"Do I ride a broomstick too, brillo pad?\"

Hermione shook her head a moment, clearing it as she glared at Harry defiantly. \"What did you call me?\"

\"Brillo pad?\"

\"And just what is that supposed to mean?\"

\"Looked in the mirror lately?\" the changed Harry said with a malicious grin, \"You\'re hair is absolute, tangled madness. How can you get a comb through it?\"

Hermione touched a rough lock in defense, looking to Harry with a hurt expression on her face. She let her eyes fall to her hands a moment, her cheeks burning with anger. This wasn\'t Harry at all. This was a boy who had no idea of who he was, and resorted to angry defense. This was worse that Hermione could have imagined.

\"You mean, you don\'t remember anything?\"

Harry shrugged aimlessly, looking around the hospital wing in boredom. \"Look, I don\'t know what to tell you. I don\'t even know who I am.\"

\"You don\'t remember Ron?\"

\"Who?\"

\"The Dursleys?\"

\"Are you mad girl? Or just deaf? I told you, I don\'t know anything.\"

\"Aren\'t you worried?\" Hermione insisted, looking to Harry with an absolutely horrified look on her face. Harry frowned, not liking the way she looked when she got all antske tke that. She was being far too annoying for his liking.

\"Of course I\'m worried.\" Harry spat angrily, finding this whole ordeal to be overwhelming. He didn\'t know where or who he was. He didn\'t know if this was some dream or nightmare. He didn\'t know any of the answers to the questions this girl was asking. He was growing frantic and suddenly wanted nothing more than to be left alone. \"Why don\'t you just bugger off?\"

Hermione felt as if she\'d been slapped. She frowned deeply, her dark eyes watering in humiliated anger. Harry didn\'t notice, for he\'d already rolled onto his side, his back to her. Hermione sat at his side a while longer, trying to formulate a plan.

Suddenly Snape walked past the door to their room, glancing in the room and at Hermione the moment she decided to look up from Harry\'s side. Her heart jumped into her throat as she looked to his tall, dark familiar frame. All prior thoughts of embarrassment in front of him left her, for now she had hope.

Professor Snape! Hermione thought on a whim, her heart beating furiously as theies les locked. He\'ll know what to do! I just have to talk to him after classes today! He\'ll help me, I know he will...he has to.

Snape caught Hermione\'s eyes then as he glanced in the room at the Boy Wonder, and viewed the sudden tearful look in the girl\'s eyes. What\'s she crying about? He saw that Harry was facing the wall and assumed they\'d sod some sort of tiff. Finding this notion strange he made a slightly puzzled look in her direction before then facing in front of him, continuing his walk to his classroom.

Hermione looked back to Harry, seeing that he was still ignoring her. Slipping the smooth wand from her pocket into her palm, Hermione winced in agitation at her current train of thoughts...why, she could be expelled.

\"Forgive me Harry.\" she whispered darkly, \"This is for the best...\"

Snape continued his way down the hall, still puzzled at the look Granger had given him as he passed her in that room. A look of hope perhaps? No. What could he ever give her that even resembled hope? He frowned more deeply, wanting the thoughts of Miss Granger to cease. He sighed deeply as his thoughts turned to that of the potion making persuasion.

Whatever was bothering Miss Granger, was of no consequence to him.

* * *

\"Hermione!\" Ron shouted down the busy halls, se her her distractedly bumping into various students. She looked utterly dejected, and by the time he made his way to her she looked more than jumpy.

As he approached her, she realized they were in the very spot she\'d known Severus was more caring than he let on. That he cared for her as she cared for him. It was the spot they\'d shared that moment before he left for his Death Eater’s meeting. She looked to the lanky Ron and held in a grimace.

There really was no comparison.

\"Oh, hello Ron.\" she said dimly, forcing a smile on her face. She refused to tell Ron what was the matter, for there was nothing he could do for her. Plus, he\'d only offer some idiotic idea that she\'d get angry with him for suggesting in the first place. Ron gathered her into a warm hug and kissed her forehead gently.

\"What\'s the matter?\"

\"Just tired.\" she offered lamely, looking to him with a gentle smile.

\"Too much studying.\" he joked with a sweet smile. He grasped her hand absently, then making a face looked to her hand in confusion. Hermione gritted her teeth as she realized what he was doing, and waited for the explosion.

\"You\'re not wearing the ring.\" Ron said sulkily, lifting her hand in his own. Hermione tore her hand from his quickly, offering a small shrug of embarrassment. She hadn\'t wanted to wear it, she felt all too stupid, and she could just imagine all the fuss that would be made over their tentative \'engagement\'. And then what if it didn\'t work out between her and Ron? Things would just be easier if it was between she and Ron.

\"I know.\" She said gently, kissing his cheek softly. \"Don\'t be angry. You see Ron, I just want to keep this whole between us. It makes it much more special that way. Plus-\" at this she reached into her robe and produced the ring on the silver chain she had around her neck. \"It\'s not as if I\'m not wearing it at all.\"

Ron gave a small grin, nodding as she placed it back into her blouse. The hallway was growing deserted, and on impulse Ron grasped Hermione around the middle and drew her closer to him. She offered a shy smile as he lowered his lips to meet her own, and closed her eyes as his soft, warm mouth covered her own.

Still, through all that she and Ron had been through lately, thoughts of a younger Severus floated through her mind. Ron\'s hand traveled down her side, bringing her closer to him as they continued to kiss fervently. She tried to focus all her aroused energy into imagining Ron, but it was growing harder by the day. Why...just now she could imagine Snape\'s voice right-

\"Thirty points from Gryffindor, for this disgusting display in the public school halls.\"

Ron and Hermione pulled away instantly, their faces drawing pale as they looked to the tall figure scant steps away from them. Snape had his arms folded angrily in front of him, looking to the two of them in disgust. Hermione met his eyes shakily, seeing something foreign in them before they hardened and he continued his tirade that Hermione assumed he\'d been itching to issue.

\"There are first years that come down these very halls.\" Snape said with a sardonic glare, pointedly at Hermione. She went pink, looking to the floor as he continued. \"They\'ve come here to learn magic, not to run into amorous couples near copulation in the halls. Especially when one of them is Head Girl.\"

Hermione was scarlet then, and Ron wasn\'t far behind. Snape surveyed them both, finding his attention drawn especially to Hermione. He wasn\'t sure if it was because she\'d claimed to be in love with his younger self then thrown herself into Weasley\'s arms, or the fact that she was supposed to be the mature one...either way, he found he was far more furious at her than at Weasley who stood silently fuming.

Hermione was humiliated, feeling as if she were getting \'the sex talk\' from the most despised teacher in all of Hogwarts. Severus Snape and the birds and the bees...doesn\'t get much worse than that. It didn\'t matter that she knew somewhere underneath those teacher\'s robes Snape did have a raging sex drive, she was still beyond mortification at this current event.

\"If you two feel this burning desire overtake you again,\" Snape continued sadistically, the corner of his mouth turning up ever so slightly (for a part of Hermione knew he was enjoying making them squirm.) \"Confine your activities to the Gryffindor common room. Your head of house may tolerate such, but I do not.\"

\"Yes sir.\" Hermione answered for she and Ron, deciding that now as a most inopportune time to ask for favors. She\'d have to see him later on to ask about the whole Harry problem. She was still furious though, he had no right to behave like that.

Copulating? Really...the man had such a penchant for the dramatic. He made it sound as if they were naked and going at it against the stonewalls while students stood by watching and Colin Creevy took pictures.

Ron said nothing, preferring to twitch his hands and merely watch as Snape stared at Hermione far longer than normal, before twirling dramatically around and swishing his way down the hall. There was something Ron didn\'t trust about the way Snape was looking at Hermione just then. Ron glanced at Hermione, seeing the fury in her face and decided it was nothing.

It was Snape, after all.

* * *

The afternoon had been a total bust. Not only had Snape been distracted beyond all normal rationality, he was also brimming with agitated anger. And what was the cause of this inner outpour of emotion? One person.

Hermione Annoying Granger.

Snape had spent the entire duration of the afternoon in a haze of distraction. He\'d started in on labeling his newly harbored ingredients, and that had failed. His writing on the labels had been abominable, even for his tastes.

Deciding that the mundane task was draining him, he decided on working on marking some of his younger classes\' essays. Again he found himself beyond distracted and looking back on the papers now, some hours later he found he had been far too lenient. Why, half the C- in the group deserved to be D\'s.

To add to his misery, Albus had been keeping rather close tabs on him lately. Checking in on all hours, convenient visits. Questions Snape could barely stomach. Snape could only imagine he was unsettled with what he\'d had reported back to him after his talk with the little chit Granger. Hermione Granger falling in love with him thirty years back...he could almost smile at the absurdity of it all if he weren\'t so vexed with her.

He supposed it had to do with catching she and Weasley in the hall this morning. He supposed he was angry with himself for being lenient with Hermione in classes, assuming she was laboring under a broken heart. Hmph, broken heart indeed. She didn\'t look to brokenhearted in Weasley\'s arms hours before as they snogged like there was no tomorrow. Why, it wasn\'t even a week after the whole incident in which she pledged her undying love for his younger self and she was already in another boy\'s arms? Snape felt deceived.

There was also the matter of this foreign, strange little nagging feel in thee ofe of his abdomen. One that tugged on occasion when he thought of her now, and one he had been sure to dismiss as indigestion. But, somewhere in the very darkest recesses of Snape\'s mind he was fairly certain he knew what he was feeling now. Jealousy.

But, over what? Granger girl? Surely not. She was a speck of irritating dust in his eye, an annoying pebble in his shoe. Why, before now she\'d been near invisible. Snape assumed that these feelings, -which he assumed would leave him rather quickly- were the mere backlash of her tampering with the past. But, why still? Shouldn\'t his younger self have forgotten all about this trivial lusting?

Snape went back to the potion he was making for Draco and Granger, seething as he did so. Her whiny little voice reverberated within his mind as he added the dried asphodel. I just don\'t want to remember...you.

\"Well,\" Snape muttered to himself bitterly, \"The feeling is mutual you little-.\"

Before he could finish his muttered insult to no one in particular, there came a soft knock at his classroom door. A student. He scowled at the though, glancing at his pocket watch in irritation. Whoever it was had guts, for curfew was in less than half an hour. It had to be a student, for Albus merely clamored his way anywhere and Snape\'s fellow Professor\'s knocked with much more confidence. No, this was a student, a respectful one at that...and Snape was fairly certain he knew exactly who it was.

Snape wiped his hands and made his way to the door, sighing deeply to calm his strung out nerves. The last person he wanted to see tonight was her. Opening the door a mere crack he peered out to attest to his prior thoughts of who his unexpected visitor could be.

Hermione stood outside the door, hands respectfully at her sides, and shifting from foot to foot nervously. She smoothed her hair down absently, then noticed the small crack of light that shone from the left. Slowly her dark eyes made their way up the door and she held in a surprise gasp as she viewed one of Snape\'s dark eyes surveying her coldly.

\"The potion isn\'t ready yet.\"

Snape began to close the door and was genuinely surprised when Hermione placed a small hand upon its wooden frame, tentatively pushing it back open. \"It\'s not about that sir.\" she offered breathlessly, looking more and more like a frantic madwomen than usual.

\"What do you want then?\"

\"Hello sir.\" Hermione managed to squeak out, forcing a smile and ignoring the curt tone from him. \"I was wondering if I could talk to you.\"

\"You are talking to me, Miss Granger.\"

Hermione nodded, ducking her head a bit in embarrassment. \"Right, well I meant in private, sir. If it isn\'t too much trouble.\"

She watched as Snape\'s dark eye surveyed her once more before rolling his eye and opening the door wider for her to come in. Hermione tentatively stepped forward, making sure she didn\'t inhale when this close to him. He always smelled delicious, even now. But a different, more adult sort of musk. One that tantalized her senses more than the young Severus\' had.

Snape watched the top of her dark head make its way into the classroom. He closed the door behind them and smirked at her sudden start. Stepping in front of her he directed her to his private office, pointed to a nearby chair and ordered her to sit whilst he sat behind his own mahogany desk. When they were situated across from each other and the air had settled, Snape placed his folded hands on top of the shining desk and inhaled deeply.

\"Well Miss Granger.\" Snape said sardonically, \"I assume this will be a quick meeting, I have much to do and not enough time to do it in.\"

\"Yes sir.\" Hermione said dutifully, assuming that he meant the potion in the classroom. She idly wondered if that was the potion she was to be taking soon. It didn\'t matter though, there were much bigger things at hand. \"Professor Snape, what I came here tonight to say was...Harry\'s in trouble.\"

The side of Snape\'s mouth began to twitch once more, as if some invisible string were pulling it ever so slightly in odd intervals. Soon it ceased though, in enough time for Snape to say barely above a whisper:

\"Nothing too serious I hope...\"

Hermione refused to give him the satisfaction of looking perturbed, and instead brushed her fringe from her brow and tried to look composed. Evidently Snape thought that she and everything she stood for was a joke. Giving him a look with as much tenacity and reflex ion as she could muster, Hermione began to speak.

\"Sir, Harry\'s completely forgotten who he is.\"

\"Excuse me?\"

\"Harry.\" Hermione repeated, ignoring the rolling of Snape\'s dark eyes. My, how he looked like his younger self when he did such immature motions such as that. \"He doesn\'t remember who he is, or what he is, or where he is. Or who I am, or what I am or-\"

\"Fine fine.\" Snape said, holding his hand up to stop her rambling. Suddenly his eyes narrowed on her own and she grew decidedly uncomfortable. \"He remembers nothing at all?\"

\"Nothing about his life here or before.\"

\"And he doesn\'t even believe he\'s a wizard?\"

\"No sir.\"

For a horrible moment Hermione thought Snape was going to throw back hiad aad and give out a mighty cackle, gleefully exclaiming that this was a miracle in disguise. Instead he turned his head slightly, almost as if inspecting all of her.

There was something searching in his gaze, and Hermione knew he was up to something, trying to catch her in a lie of some sort. Just as he\'d double-crossed her about pilfering ingredients in her earlier years in his class.

\"And why am I being informed of these events just now, Miss Granger? From you of all people?\"

Hermione shifted in her seat a moment, licking her lips nervously before finding her voice. \"I...I cast a paralyzing spell on him this morning...\" seeing the objecting look in his eyes, she continued brusquely, \"And I didn\'t want to alarm more people than necessary. The Headmaster has far too much on his plate as it is. So, you\'re the only one besides me who knows.\"

\"Not even your love mate Weasley knows?\" Snape asked rudely, his hands flattening he dhe desk in front of him. Hermione looked to him in question, wondering why he\'d mention Ron at a time like this.

\"Ron? No sir. Just you.\"

Snape nodded, his lips curving into that strange sneering movement, his steely eyes finding the need to bore into her own. Hermione closed her eyes briefly before looking away, knowing full well he was trying to break into her mind. She\'d known Harry long enough to know about Snape\'s underhanded tactics.

How could I fall in love with such a man?

\"And why would you come to me with this sort of quandary, Miss Granger?\"

Snape\'s voice broke into her thoughts and Hermione winced a bit, knowing that her words were going to come out just as lame as they sounded in her head. She moved her hands in worry along the desk absently, noticing as she brushed his pinky finger with her own. Something jolted in the contact and they both pulled back simultaneously, but it was only Hermioho lho looked away as she continued.

\"I thought sir, that you would be the most apt to help me...I don\'t really know why. I suppose I thought you were educated in the subject...more so than the Headmaster...I just knew you\'d be the one to help me. Call it gut instinct-\"

\"That will do, Miss Granger.\" Snape was quiet a moment later, nodding and obviously accepting her answer as adequate. Hermione noticed he\'d fallen into a lapse of silence, surveying the stone wall around them and frowning. Feeling that time was slipping away as it was, Hermione broke into his thoughts loudly.

\"What are we going to do sir?\"

\"We?\" Snape scoffed rudely, causing Hermione to look up in perplexity. She saw the almost mocking look on his features. \"This entire ordeal was a result of you and your little friends tampering with the past.\" it was on Hermione\'s tongue to tell him that Draco wasn\'t a friend, and that it hadn\'t been her fault when he continued on.

\"This falls completely on your shoulders Miss Granger, I\'ll have none of it.\"

Hermione felt her eyes welling with angry and desperate tears, but she refused to shed them. She had Harry to think about. She set her jaw, refusing to lose his gaze now trained on his current victim, instead of being intimidated she was furious.

\"Then, what do I do, sir?\" she said in a low, firm voice, leaving no real verbal escape for Snape. He rolled his eyes at her obviously false confidence and gave her a severe, leveling look that he hoped would send her out of the office stammering. Instead they stared at each other a long moment, neither backing down. Time seemed to stand still and it was in the final moments of Hermione\'s patience that Snape gave her one final shrewd look and was greeted with her silence, in which he himself spoke darkly.

\"The real question at hand is, why is all of this happening in the first place?\"

Hermione\'s heart swelled, knowing full well that this was Snape\'s subtle way of lending a hand to her. Quickly her hope fell to solemn disappointment as she found the words that she felt had already been said.

\"I was hoping you\'d know sir.\"

Snape nodded, suddenly looking more and more like the researcher Hermione knew he wanted to be, and less like the monstrous teacher he loathed to be. He stood, slowly circling around the room, his pale hands folded in front of him as he took minute steps one after the other. Hermione watched his tall frame in interest, wondering what he would feel like now. He\'d filled out all the way now, much more a man than a boy. Broader shoulders, leaner chest if she remembered from their brief embrace on her return.

Mostly she wondered -as she watched his lips purse on occasion in thought- what his kisses would be like now. Would they still be flaming? Fiery with passion like before? Or now was he different? More detached? Perhaps more advanced in technique? She hadn\'t much time to debate this for Snape had already glided over to where she sat and glowered down at her.

\"When did you first see the signs of this malady?\"

Hermione thought a moment, squinting her dark eyes in thought. \"I suppose..the night you...\'rescued\' us.\"

\"Hmmm.\" A finger tapped Snape\'s bottom lip impatiently. \"Do you remember anything strange about that night? Strange spells cast by any of those trying to harm you and Potter?\"

\"No sir-\" Hermione paused suddenly, Lucius\' words from that night flying back at her. Of course...she\'d been so stupid! Lucius had proclaimed he\'d spiked the very punch everyone at the dance was drinking...besides Draco - who of course was in on the whole thing- and herself when James spilled her punch all over Lily.

\"There was one thing!\" Hermione said excitedly, as if she\'d just uncovered a goldmine. \"Lucius...he said that he spiked the punch at the dance with a memory serum one that meant that none of the students would remember us come daybreak!\"

\"Obviously the foolish Potter imbibed a large amount.\" Snape almost smiled at the girl\'s deduction, but of course caught himself before doing so. Instead he put on a bored face and gave a shrug, \"Well then I think it\'s rather obvious.\"

\"Really?\" Hermione said excitedly, \"Can you help him?\"

\"Not yet.\" Snape answered with a miserable look on his face, seating himself behind his desk once more, trying not to appear to haggard. \"I can\'t help Potter unless I know exactly what started this whole mess.\"

\"But I thought you said it was obvious...you must know the potion Lucius used.\"

\"Don\'t take that tone with me.\" Snape said unnerved, fixing Hermione with an irritated look before continuing. \"I merely insinuated that it would be obvious when I knew the mixture of the potion. You may not know this Miss Granger, but although he was horrid in spells, when it came to potion making, Lucius rivaled that of the most talented of potion makers in the entire history of the school.\"

Hermione could have laughed, knowing that Snape meant himself. But things were far too dire, and humor was lost on her at the moment. \"So you\'re saying?...\"

\"I\'m insinuating that while I may be very talented in potion making, I\'m not exactly sure of which specific potion Lucius\' used that night.\" At this he stood once more, pacing nervously. \"There are far too many to count, and if I were to give Potter the wrong counter potion, the results could be fatal.\"

\"Oh God...\" Hermione muttered, putting her face in her hands. She was beyond feeling embarrassed in front of Snape now. She was distraught, and seemingly to her this was all her fault. If she hadn\'t been so keen on making sure she got enough time with Severus, she could have stopped all of this...somehow.

\"Now now,\" Snape tsked in a patronizing tone, \"We\'ll have none of that. You\'re crying will do nothing to save your friend.\"

Large tears were rolling down Hermione\'s cheeks, not that she cared. She looked to Snape furiously through her damp lashes that were now starting to clump together, giving her an almost starry look. \"I don\'t know what else to do...I can\'t help Harry. There\'s no way I can just ask Lucius what potion he used...why you cleared his memory that night...not as if he\'d tell me anyway.\"

Snape who had been rather somber for the latter of Hermione\'s speech now seated himself behind his desk for what seemed to be the millionth time that night. Giving the young girl a rather fixed, glaring look he began to speak in low, rumbling tones.

\"Then it would appear there\'s only one course of action.\"

Hermione sniffled lightly, ignoring the passing look of distaste that crossed Snape\'s features. She leaned forward, as if they were in a conspiracy together, planning their next move...which in a strange way, they were.

\"What sir?\"

Snape let out a whisper of air through the minuscule part of his lips, wondering how this girl could have made it as Head Girl. Did he have to spell it out for her? Although he hesitated to give the girl the option, he had a feeling it was their only course of action that wouldn\'t alarm the rest of the school.

\"We\'ll have to go back to the very night this all occurred. We\'ll take note of what potion Potter drank, gather a sample, come back and brew the counter potion. No alarm, no panic, no real problem. We\'ll be gone an hour at the most.\"

Hermione\'s dark eyes grew large at his words, scarcely believing them herself. Snape was talking about breaking the rules? Part of her wanted to know just exactly what his motivation on ton this subject, but decided he just saw this whole thing as a challenge...perhaps another shot at the Order of Merlin. Bloody drama queen.

\"Well, how will we get back?\"

\"I\'ll brew a potion that will do so.\"

\"You can do that?\"

\"I won\'t dignify that with an answer.\"

\"When will it be ready?\"

There was a small pause. \"Four O\'clock tomorrow afternoon. You shall meet me here at three thirty, I trust all your classes will be done by then?\"

Hermione nodded in response, now with the time turner in shambles she\'d been forced to limit her classes. Dumbledore\'s orders. The result was a reprieve as well as a disappointment in her opinion. Still, something nagged her about this whole expedition.

\"Why do you have to come?\" Hermione said politely, wincing as he glared at her. \"Or, even me for that matter? I mean, you could just as easily do all of this yourself...couldn\'t you?\"

Snape gave a curt nod, answering slowly. \"It\'s always safer to travel in pairs. Also, as a student you have access to places in the school that I do not. It will be easier for you to retrieve the potion sample. As for why am I coming along? Not only to see that you are not harmed in this expedition, but as well to see that you make it back without any ample distractions.\"

Hermione felt the blush rising to her cheeks then, knowing full well what Snape meant. She didn\'t give him the benefit of answering, but she had a feeling her fierce blush was enough to satiate the sadist in him for the moment. \"I understand sir...but, are you sure this isn\'t just a passing thing? Perhaps Harry will be better in a week?\"

Snape gave Hermione a withering gaze, as if insulted in his judgment. She immediately regretted her words for the one\'s he spoke next would haunt her until the hours in which she saw him again after classes.

\"No Miss Granger, it is most certainly not as you put it, \'a passing thing\'. If my theories are correct...it won\'t stop at this.\"

\"What do you mean?\" Hermione said in a strangled voice, looking to Snape with such despair that he himself had to look away from her face. Students weren\'t supposed to worry like this, it was his job to protect them...even if they were beyond annoying. Slowly his seemingly aged eyes met Hermione\'s panicked face, and along with a deep sigh Snape spoke barely above a whisper, showing extreme severity in the subject.

\"If I\'m correct in my diagnosis, by next week, Potter may not even exist.\"
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I know I know, it\'s been bloody forever! I apologize, and without further adu I just want to thank all those lovely, splendid people who left me a review! Thank you! cheers. holden.