A Dark Scenario

Chapter 20 ~ Last Minute Details

"By broom?" Hermione gasped, frowning at the stone-faced DADA teacher as they stood in the staff room discussing travel plans. "You want us to travel everywhere by broom?"

Snape looked at her, not responding to her repeated question. Hermione pressed on, trying to make him see reason.

"But—we could Apparate. It's so much faster and much more convenient—"

"This is not a trip of convenience, Miss Granger. We have work to do."

"I know it isn't, but brooms? How about Port Keys?"

"No."

Hermione scowled at Snape. He was making this purposely difficult. He had to remember she had trouble as a student with both Divination and Flying classes. She knew how to fly a broom of course. She just didn't like it.

"Well, it doesn't make any sense," she declared.

Snape studied her, his mouth lifting unpleasantly in one corner.

"As you 'should' be aware, Miss Granger, some of the ingredients we intend to harvest can be ruined if they are transported or tampered with in any way by magic. Unless you suggest we walk to every location, in which case Minerva will have to find substitute teachers for our classes until the end of the school year and there will be no Potions classes at all for lack of ingredients, brooms are our only answer concerning expediency."

Hermione scowled.

"Potions ingredients are harvested with magic all the time," she countered.

"Which accounts for the poor quality and results," Snape responded. "Why do you think I am known for the excellence of my potions, Miss Granger?"

Hermione really didn't feel like singing the praises of Severus Snape's brewing skills when he was acting like such a mule-headed git, but she muttered, "Your skill."

"Partially, but ingredients harvested without magic create stronger potions. I intend to add some of these ingredients to my personal stores, so they must be collected properly."

He didn't need to say anything else as Hermione sighed, rolled her eyes then held out her hand for the paper he was holding.

"Fine. We'll go by broom," she conceded. She thought Snape smirked a little but it could have been the torchlight flickering. Snape handed her the ingredient list.

Hermione's brown eyes slid down the list, then widened.

"Dragon scales?" she asked incredulously.

"Fresh dragon scales. Newly shed," Snape responded, turning and heading for the staff exit.

"Wait!" Hermione called to him.

Snape turned around, his eyes resting on the witch as she shook the paper at him.

"Freshly shed? How the hell are we supposed to harvest freshly shed dragon scales?"

Snape stared at her for a moment then replied.

"Carefully. Very carefully, Miss Granger. I'll meet you outside the castle tomorrow morning at eight. Have your broom."

Snape exited the staff room with his trademark billow of robes, closing the door behind him.

Hermione scowled after him and looked back down at the list.

"Hinkypink toenails? Manticore Nose Hairs? Oh, good Grindylows!" she hissed. "Where the hell are all the herbs?"

She flipped the paper over. There they were, and some of them weren't much better than fresh dragon scales.

Take Cliff-Hanging Snapdragons for example. These magical relatives of the mundane Venus Flytrap plant were awful to harvest. It had to be done by broom because they grew out of the sides of mountains. The entire root system was needed intact and it required plenty of muscle to separate the plant from the stone.

It didn't help that Snapdragons were extremely sensitive to movement and would bite and emit small bursts of flames when provoked.

Hermione shook her head slowly as she read the required amount. They were supposed to collect ten pounds of the stuff? Ten pounds?

Circe. She'd better bring burn salve.

Hermione's eyes slowly narrowed. She didn't remember ever using Snapdragons in Potions class. This list stunk of opportunism as she wondered how much of these ingredients were actually for the students and how much were for Snape. She wouldn't put it past the snarky so-and-so to take advantage of the situation and add his own little wishlist to the venture.

At first, Hermione was tempted to take the list to Minerva and see if it reflected the list the headmistress initially gave Snape. But then, she decided against it. If Snape had indeed added ingredients for his own use, the least she could do was help him collect them, considering all he'd done for her.

It would have been nice if he had just asked her if she would help him harvest a few extra life-endangering ingredients, but—this was Snape.

Enough said.

Hermione folded up the list and put it in her pocket, then left the staff room. She needed to be well-rested for tomorrow morning. She smiled a little as she walked up the corridor.

She could be sure of one thing: Harvesting ingredients with Severus Snape was going to be a real adventure.

How she had missed adventure.

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A/N: PAAAAIN! Sorry I had to whine. My tooth is hurting. I have an April 6th appointment for extraction. I couldn't get it done the first two appointments because my blood pressure was too high. So now I'm on BP meds and trying to get it low enough so I can have this tooth removed. But I think my being scared in the office raises my pressure too. I don't know. I just took my last handful of Advil and can tell it's not going to be a good day. But at least I wrote something this morning. Please forgive any pain-related errors, and thank you for reading. ***