A Sad and Happy Story

Chapter Two

Hermione knew what he was doing as flashes of the past few hours were revealed to both of them. She didn’t resist. She knew from what little she had learned from Harry that in her state, she couldn’t if she tried. Much to Hermione’s surprise, even after he was no longer inside her mind, he didn’t speak. Instead, his head was cocked slightly, and he was looking at her appraisingly.

“Well, Sir, are you going to give me detention?”

“Whatever for, Miss Granger? It isn’t past curfew, and though this is an odd place for you to be, it is not restricted.”

“What about house points?”

“There was no offense. Believe it or not, I am not entirely unfeeling. Also, I was young once, and have some understanding of such crises.”

She muttered something that sounded like “You aren’t old,” but he was unable to be sure.

“Now, would you like me to Disillusion you so that you can make it to bed with your dignity intact?”

“Yes, sir,” she barely said, with her head hanging as it had been since he relinquished his hold.

He did and she left. He watched until the strange outline of her figure was no longer discernable.

“You’re getting soft,” Severus Snape admonished himself in an undertone.

Albus always said it would happen one day. Damn it.

What did it mean? He had shown her… kindness? He wasn’t sure. Not pity, certainly not pity. He had only given her what he would have died for when he was her age: a chance to be invisible. It would only have improved his life at that age.

Turning back toward his quarters, Severus shook his head. Who knows why we do the things we do?

This time of year had always been hard on him. It was the chilly, late autumn air that reminded him of what was undoubtedly the worst day of his life… the day he had learned of -her- fate. He resigned himself not to go down that road, it was too much for one night; it was too much for one lifetime.

Once inside the sanctuary that was his home, his real home, Severus found that it was extremely difficult to get Miss Granger out of his mind. She had been so… forlorn. He had seen flashes of her evening, how awful Weasley had been, how her other friends had been absent, how no one in her house defended her. He made a mental note to make them suffer. Power was nice when one did the right thing with it.

Severus Snape had never been perfectly clear on what doing the right thing consisted of, but he felt sure this was what it was like.

For her part, Hermione was utterly baffled. She hadn’t said those things to try to evoke some sense of pity in her professor; she honestly didn’t think him capable. He had never shown her anything more than slightly-less-than fair, Slytherin favoring bias. She liked this new development, but what did it mean, if anything?

Silently climbing into her bed, Hermione resolved that she would be nicer to him. She had always defended him to her friends, but she did admit guilt over thinking that he was on Voldemort’s side; and certainly, in her earlier years as a student she had cursed him like every other student. No more.

Smiling softly, she curled up in her bed and fell into a pleasant sleep.

It was not in any way startling that she should dream of school; it was dreaming of him that struck her as odd. Well, it wasn’t that he didn’t make cameos in her most stressful of exam-time dreams, it was more what he was doing; his conduct was, well, not professorial. He was not himself, either. He was somehow younger, like Harry had described; that was it, he knew how she felt. It would have been weird if it had not been so comfortable.

They conversed pleasantly for most of the night. She enjoyed his company. Upon awaking, it was as though the previous night had never happened, the bad parts, anyway.

Hermione went about her morning routine, humming and ignoring the odd looks she was receiving from her dorm mates.

The night had not passed so easily for Severus. Hermione noticed over breakfast that his face was visibly altered from lack of sleep. Indeed, he had tossed and turned most of the night, unable to get his student’s face and memory out of his mind. Even after he resolved to do everything in his power to make the remainder of her year as pleasant as possible (without being obvious about it, of course), sleep was slow in coming.

Severus caught Miss Granger looking, no, staring, in his direction. He resisted the temptation to peek into her mind when the Headmaster caught his attention and started some inane conversation about sweets. Well, whatever she was thinking, she looked decidedly happier this morning. Maybe the last year of her education would go better than his had.

Hermione smiled slightly; he had met her eyes. It was the most contact she would get over breakfast as her friends were otherwise engaged—but she wasn’t bothered by that as she had been last night. She had a new and intriguing development to ponder. Professor Severus Snape. Being nice. To her. Without a superior’s direct instructions.

This inspired her; she had been lacking motivation recently for reasons she couldn’t understand. But since Professor Snape had been so… whatever he was that she appreciated very much, she resolved to do even better in his class. He was back to potions, which honestly was where she preferred him. The Headmaster was right, DADA did bring out some odd qualities in him.

As it stood, his class was last on her schedule for the day; a double period. That probably meant that the relatively small advanced level class would be doing some nearly impossible task and that was exciting.



A/N: I wanted to crank out another chapter tonight before bed. Hopefully it was okay. Tomorrow will be stressful, so odds are pretty good I’ll need an escape. You should get a good two chapters before Thursday.

P.S. Albus lives. Another layer of AU-ness. And don’t worry, Ron will get his. Thanks for the review! It made me smile.

Please, please review!