It just...happened...

note: * * * means flashback
___________________

Harry looked to Hermione with an unreadable look, “Everyone’s been so miserable lately.”
Harry said curtly, as Hermione nodded.

“Not just Snape. McGonagal, Sprout…Lupin…
everyone.” He trailed off, not liking to think of
his deceased Godfather. Hermione nodded once more, in complete agreement.

“It’s because of well…you know. They’re just scared…
it was so close Harry.”

Harry winced at the recollection, she meant death.
He had almost defeated he-who-must-not-be-named.
But he had choked. No, not choked…something else.
He could feel it now, he and Voldemort many months before...

* * *

He had been making his way back to his dormitories
last Christmas a bit for from the castle of Hogwarts, whistling and over all just feeling quite happy in general.

Who needs a reason to feel happy at Christmas?

The holiday in itself is enough and he had just bought Christmas presents, a large book of spells for Hermione and a new wand for clumsy Ron. He had been lost in his own thoughts, thinking about their faces when
they received the gifts when he realized there
was a large snowman up ahead of him.

‘Bizarre.’ He had thought, as usually all snowmen
and women were usually destroyed by Malfoy,
Crabbe and Goyle by this time of the season.
He had long since stopped wishing for their
maturity to develop, for it seemed fruitless. It was
barren across the dark landscape, as most children
had gone home for the holidays, and none were
usually out when it was this cold.

Suddenly the mound of snow had started moving,
shifting a bit and intriguing Harry to no end. He had
stepped up to the large mound, about to see what
was happening when it stopped…keeled over and
became like the glistening, white blanket that
surrounded it and he all around.

Suddenly it had seemed that out of nowhere,
a large hand whipped him on the back, sending
him face first into the snow. He had coughed over
and over, his glasses fallen into the snow as he
spat out the blood that had collected from his now
cut mouth, and looked furiously at the perpetrator.

Voldemort.

Harry had felt his courage leave him, and he felt
the sudden urge to relieve his bladder. He could
only stare into the depths of evil that surfaced
before him, in a man that looked so familiar and
different at the same time.

“Harry Potter.” That voice rasped, causing his
legs to tremble, as he remained steadfast, glaring
at the embodiment of evil before him. He looked for
his glasses behind him, but it was too dark to see
them.

Voldemort had stepped closer, looking at Harry
with ease, as Harry looked to his discarded parcels.
So much for that book for Hermione, it was slowly
growing damp in snowsnow and as for the new
wand for Ron well…it was just fine.

Harry licked his lips and feigned a slip on the
barren land, falling into the snow that crunched
beneath him, Harry remained motionless, almost…
his hand craftily snuck under the bed of snow as
Voldemort seemed oblivious.

His eyes were alight, as he greedily took in
Harry’s frightened face. Another step closer,
the air seemed to go more frigid with every
well-placed step. “Potter…” he hissed venomously,
trying not to appear too eager…but oh, he was…
he had been waiting a long time for this...

* * *

Harry looked to Hermione’s hand that waved in front
of his, a worried look on her pale face. He nodded,
pushing her hand lightly to show he was indeed
paying attention to her and what she was saying.

They trudged on to Transfiguration class, he kicking
at a stray pebble in the hallway. Hermione looked to
him a moment, sensing the silence and said rather
hesitantly.

“He is a greasy git...don’t you think Harry?” She asked
in that ladylike business manner, her head nodding
rapidly as they made their continued trepidation to
the foreboding classroom. “I can’t believe all the
stuff he does…what a prat.”

elt elt his anger boil over, as he looked to her
with fury…she had no right saying the things
she did, she was always the one saying how
he had helped him so often, the damned hypocrite
was spouting how he was so horrible and so on
and so forth…

Harry rolled his green eyes dramatically,
looking to his old friend with irritation and
clenched teeth.

“If you hate him Hermione then stop talking about him.”

Hermione scowled at him, thrusting the small
parchment from her hand into her bookbag, and
walked faster than him, marching late into the classroom
with a suddenly regretting Harry Potter trailing
behind.

“Ah, so glad you could join us today Granger…Potter.” McGonagall said with a miserable look as he entered
the classroom after a furious Hermione Granger.

Harry looked to Hermione, wanting to explain
what had happened that night, but he had made
a solemn oath. He couldn’t break it, not after what
he had seen Snape do. It would be wrong.

So they reached their respective seats, squirming
a bit to get used to the cold wood that awaited them.
Hermione glared at Harry from the other side of the
room before writing something hurriedly down on
parchment and shoving it into her pocket. Ron nudged
Harry to pay attention as McGonagal was giving him a
severe look from the front of the classroom.

Classes after that didn’t seem to go too well for Harry.
He made his way with Ron at his side to the Potions classroom. Suddenly Ron clutched his stomach, and
grasped the wall next to him, Harry grasped his friend
by the shoulder and peered into his paling face.

“Ron, what’s the matter?”

Ron looked to Harry, his wide blue eyes in a confused
gaze, droplets of sweat dripped down his face as he
now possessed a waxy, pale look on his face.
“I feel sick…” he said choking, “I…lavatory.” was
all he managed t choke out before rushing into the said lavatory.

Harry moved so his friend could move past him, and shrugged feeling suddenly alone. Hermione came up
behind him, out of nowhere and looked to where Ron
had just bustled.

“Is he okay?” she asked timidly. Ever since that last
winter Harry hadn’t been the same, so very volatile
and explosive at the stupidest of things. She supposed
she had just angered him in constantly complaining
about Snape…renowned Death Eater. She decided
to put it all behind her, the whole morning and move
on, hopefully Harry would do the same.

He did.

“He’s just sick, I suppose.” Harry said playfully putting
an arm around her shoulders as Hermione welcomed
the embrace, Harry was back. She nodded laughing a
bit as they made their way to Potions.

They had reached the door of the elusive classroom
when a chill went up Hermione’s spine, she hated
this classroom. Snape was always peering at her,
sneering at her…anything to make certain that the
simple point was clarified.

She sighed heavily, looking to the door and then
to her shoes, trying to hide the tears that built up
everytime she entered his class. Harry looked to
her tenderly, brushing the hair from her face as
she looked to him, looking suddenly brave.

“What’s the matter?”

Hermione shrugged, “Nothing. Let’s go to class.”

Harry frowned, stopping her with his arm,
“C’mon Hermione, I’ve known you long enough.
What’s the matter?”

Hermione looked all around, making sure they were
alone and decided to finally tell him, it was horrible to
keep it bottled up inside. “Harry,” She started painfully,
“I think Snape really hates me.”

Harry shook his head, “No, no he doesn’t Hermione.
He doesn’t hate his students that-“

She cut him off, her chin trembling, “Sometimes
Harry he looks at me with this look…a look that says;
‘I hate you Granger, you stupid Gryffindor know-it-all,
silly little girl, and if I have to hear one more inquiring
thing from you-“

“I’ll give you detention for a month.” Came the silky
reply from behind thHermHermione bristled a moment,
as Harry caught her wide eyed stare that Severus was
aloof of. Hermione countered, looking to him a moment as
Harry headed into the classroom, this was something
Hermione needed to deal with herself.

Hermione internally berated her cowardly friend
looking to where he had just entered…betrayed her.
Boy wonder indeed. She looked back to the cloudy
look of Severus Snape ahead of her, wondering what
on earth she had done to deserve this one. Never again
would she say anything about anyone unless in the
confines of her own room.

“You think that I hate you, Miss Granger?” said Snape
with a raised eyebrow, looking down to her shorted
frame, seeing mostly her eyes under that mop of hair
she never felt the need to tie back. “And why’s that?”

Hermione didn’t like the sarcastic undertone he
always contained, and tried not to slap that smirk
off his greasy, sallow face. She frowned, crossing
her own arms over her chest.

“It’s not amusing, Professor.” She stated blankly,
“You’re always making fun of me, always being
cruel to me especially, and trying to humiliate me for
no good reason. I want to know why…why me?“

Snape looked to her, and she felt the rushing
feeling of adrenaline go coursing through her, every
inch of her pulsating as she tried to keep his steady gaze.

“Get in my classroom, Granger.” He spat; looking at her
with an unprecedented irritated fury that she hadn’t even
contemplated would turn out. She felt her normally brave
face drop as did her arms, as she whirled around and
walked into his classroom, concealing the tears that pricked
her dark eyes.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The class was a horrible disaster, Snape hadn’t even
bothered looking at her the entire class, but saw to her distinct happiness that he wasn’t picking on her either…
not calling on her to recite names of ingredients or
passagesfrom the text…in fact, he was just ignoring her.


And she hated it.

She tried to concentrate, tried not to screw up on her
own cauldron, which was growing increasingly harder
by the moment. She heard Neville’s short whimper from
behind her, and her heart melted. She looked back to him
with small wounded look of understanding, poor boy.

“Neville.” She whispered fiercely, “Two drops dragon blood. Not three.”

Neville looked to her, thanking her silently with
his eyes and dropped the stopper next to him,
not adding that extra droplet. He looked almost
confident with himself, happy and he was almost
nearing the end of this class when he was about to
add some frugal skin. He heard an almost unrecognizable
tsking as he looked up. Snape was standing in front of
him, arms crossed with a furious look on his face.

“Mister Longbottom.” He commented harshly, “You appear to be doing everything right.”

Neville nodded, looking up to the man that he was
so afraid of, one that was his own personal boggart
and tried to remain steadfast, not an easy task for a
young man with quivering legs as he stared up at his
own personal demon.

“Thank you sir?” he asked timidly. Snape rolled his
eyes emphatically, looking to Neville with distinct irritation.
A look that Neville was unfortunately used to at the
moment. He had only taken Potions this long because
Gram had told him it was needed for his career
choice, Snape suddenly spoke in low tones,
commanding attention.

“It’s not a compliment Longbottom.” He hissed,
looking around the room at the busy students,
listening carefully to Snape’s lecturing on poor
Neville. “This is indeed suiousious. I suspect you
may have had assistance.” He drawled the last
word, making his way over to Hermione.

Hermione herself had been busy adding some
nettles to her cauldron when she felt the distinct
presence of someone standing behind her. She
decided to ignore it, and continued…probably just
Malfoy being a bother. No…that familiar scent of sandalwood and other inciting spices invaded her
nostrils and she knew at once-

“Miss Granger.” Came the low voice, a voice that
caused Hermione to give a little squeak of surprise
and whirl around, even though she knew it was he.
He gave her a disapproving look and continued,
“Mister Longbottom is doing remarkably well…wouldn’t
you say?” he stepped closer and Hermione tried to
back away further, bumping into the table behind.

“Do you not find it odd that Mister Longbottom has
managed to do so well, without assistance?”

Hermione shrugged, giving a small smile to Neville
whom was shaking but looking at Hermione with pride
…she wasn’t afraid of Snape. Hermione saw this and
looked back to Snape definitely. “No, I don’t think this
is suspicious. Neville is a good student, always tries
his best, I’m happy for him.”

With this she whirled around and went back to
her cauldron, adding the nettles now as Snape
gaped at her, then after a moment of silence all
around looked to the open mouths of the students
around the classroom.

“Get back tok, ak, all of you.” He snarled looking
at them furiously. They did so, without much speaking
and much clattering. He stalked to the front of the room,
and marked something down on the paper.

“Fifteen points off of Gryffindor, Miss Granger.”
He said walking back to her side of the room,
“For your cheek and Mister Longbottom’s obvious cheating.”

There was a sudden thump as Hermione dropped a
large amount of harckle lard onto the table, and said
with an exasperated voice. “Oh enough already!”

A horrible silence filled the room, one that had every
student looking at Hermione as if she were bloody
mad. Snape’s back went straighter suddenly as he
slowly turned to look at the furious Gryffindor.

“Excuse me?” he asked in almost incredulous awe,
had she just gone against him? He? Severus Snape? Perhaps he had heard wrong…but no, her hands on
her hips and a frown on her face gave straight
indication that she was none too impressed with him.

“I said, Enough already!” Hermione spat, looking
more furious than any other student Severus had encountered, “I am sick of you berating all of us,
telling us were all stupid and acting like Neville’s a
great bloody dolt! He is an intelligent young man, Professor.” She said grinding her teeth a moment and then continued
with her dark eyes flashing, “Why can\'t you just give him a
break?!”

A distinct intake of breath from Snape indicated
she had just signed her life away, and she felt her
face pale. What the bloody hell had she just done?
Snape took a careful step towards her, hands
clenched as if he were going to punch her…
would he kill her? No…so many witnesses,
surely she wasn’t worth Azkaban?

“Miss Granger.” He said dangerously gruff,
“See me after class.”

The rof tof the hour had gone by painfully, Snape
sat at the front of the class sulking and looking at
Hermione the whole time, glaring at her and making
her nervous as hell…more so than usual.

Finally the class ended and everyone gathered their
books, as did Hermione as she walked beside Harry
…maybe Snape would forget? She tried to slip out the
door when she heard him behind her.

“Not so fast Granger.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“So he’s given you detention?”

“Yes for a week…” Hermione sighed nodding,
“And he says that it’s not going to be ‘kid stuff’
as he so articulately put it. Why did I do it Harry?”

Harry shrugged, he honestly didn’t know why she
would have done such a thing, especially to Snape.
God, the man even scared him at times, and he’d
been up against he-who-must-not-be-named.
“You couldn’t take it anymore, I suppose.”

Hermione was about to speak more, to go on
when Harry suddenly interjected, pointing ahead
as they tried to see over the heads of student
around them.

“There’s Ron. I can’t believe he skipped Potions.”

Ron brushed past the stampede of Hogwarts
students as he made his way to his two friends.
He smiled nervously and ran a hand through his red
hair timidly, as if were going to fall out if he touched it. Hermione cocked her head to the side…
something was different about him.

“Hey Ron, feeling better?” Harry asked lazily,
looking at his friend with bored compliance. Ron
nodded, looking from Hermione to Harry with a
suddenly forced smile on his face. He was smiling
using almost all his teeth, this was a very bizarre
face for the normally worried or sullen Ron Weasely.

“Yes. Hello Hermione…Harry.” He said the last
name slowly, with harsh clarity that even Harry
had to peer to him for. Ron stared at the boy who
lived, looking at him with wary firmness.

“Snape’s going to kill you when he figures you
skipped Potions.” Hermione told her redheaded
friend orderly, her hands on her hips as she gave
him a disapproving look.

Ron looked to her, suddenly frowning as if Hermione
were beneath him and gave a shrug.
“I suppose I just felt like it Hermione. Not like that pathetic
worm Severus could do anything if I opposed him.”

Harry shot Ron a wary look,
“Did you just call him Severus?”

Ron shrugged himself, an uncharacteristically
confident smile on his pale, freckled face.
“Perhaps. What does it matter? Let’s go to the hall,
I haven’t eaten in ages.”

Hermione and Harry chuckled softly, looking to their unnaturally bright-eyed friend. “You had breakfast not even three hours ago Ron.”

The three of them made their way down the
hall, not really paying attention to the dark figure
that watched every step with careful deliberation,
a dark scowl upon his pale face.