A Very Horrible Idea?

A week had gone by very slowly for Hermione.

At the back of the Potions classroom Ron swore quietly, not wanting to catch Snape's attention. "I can't believe that great greasy bat! How dare he! It's... He's..." He looked up at Hermione, "Go to Dumbledore! Tell him what Snape's doing!"

Hermione shook her head, stirring her potion carefully, "I can't... it would make me sound really stupid!"

Harry was scowling blackly, "You should, Hermione. Snape just can't get away with this. What's he going to give you detention for next? Breathing?"

Hermione gave him a deadly look, "Be quiet! You might give him ideas!"

The Potions Master turned to glare in their direction, before moving towards a poor unsuspecting Ravenclaw. Hermione glared at his back. What was his problem? She knew he had always hated her - and the feeling was certainly mutual - but it was getting to the point of ridiculousness.

Every night for the past week he had found a reason to give her detention. She even had one tonight for blinking too much. Blinking too much! Hermione knew he was doing it to get a rise out of her, to get her to say something that he could really punish her for, but she refused to say anything that would get her in more trouble.

It was stupid! Of course, she always managed to do her homework early, but it was frustrating that she didn't have the evenings to check things or look things up in the library.

Yes, Hermione recognized his high intelligence, but she could hardly say she respected someone who was making her life a living hell. However, she still realized that his life was probably strange now that he didn't have to spy.

But that didn't mean he had to pick on her to fill a gap in his grouchy, miserable existence!

Hermione shook her head, "Maybe I should speak to Dumbledore."

Ron gave a firm nod, "Yeah. Don't worry; we'll come with you. Snape won't get away this."

""""""""""""""""""""

It was a vicious circle. Severus loved to watch her silently fuming, but he loved to watch her explode with anger and smart retorts even more; so he found himself thinking of ways to make that happen in every free second that he got (and he found he had a lot of them after the death of the Dark Lord); and realizing that made him frustrated with himself and angry with her; so he gave her another detention; yet she was so annoyingly good that he had to find something really stupid to give her a detention for; and then she was silently fuming again.

It had been the same, going round and round, every day of that week, and he was running out of things for her to do every evening. But that didn't matter; he had all day to think of something for tonight.

""""""""""""""""""""

Harry pushed Hermione out of the Great Hall after dinner, shouting, "Professor!"

Professor McGonagall turned, eyeing the three students beadily, "Yes, Mr. Potter."

"Do you know where Professor Dumbledore is? We didn't see him at dinner." Ron asked.

"The Head Master is out at the moment, on urgent business at the Ministry." She sniffed.

Hermione had a sense of Déjà Vu. The situation reminded her of her first year - although this had nothing to do with Voldemort trying to steal the stone and didn't threaten the whole of the Wizarding world; only Hermione’s sanity.

As the Transfiguration Professor walked off, Harry shook his head, "I'm sure he'll be back soon, Hermione. If not, we'll think of something."

All three of them frowned and started going up to the common room; suddenly Ron said, "What will he make you do tonight? Surely he must be running out of ideas."

Hermione rattled off all the cleaning and ingredient-sorting that she had been made to do, then paused and sighed, saying acidly, "He'll probably want to have a staring contest! Blinking too much! I still can't believe it..."

Ron smiled, and Harry said, "Have you sorted out those record things yet? The ones that have everyone’s crimes and punishments on? I was quite... interesting, in a weird way."

Hermione thought for a moment, "No, I..." She stopped suddenly, her hand rising to covering her mouth.

Ron and Harry turned to her, and Ron frowned, "What's up?"

She lowered her hand and swallowed hard, "All these detentions are going on my record, aren't they."

Harry put his arm around her, "Don't worry, Hermione. Once we tell Dumbledore what's happening, he'll take them off."

Ron nodded, "Yeah, Dumbledore's fair and your Head Girl. He won't let any of those detentions stay on you record for long."

Hermione nodded, taking a deep breath, "Of course... Come on. If you want help with that Charms essay we'll have to be quick. I won't be late and give Snape a proper reason to give me detention..." Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows, and Hermione walked off, muttering, "Professor Snape, I mean..."

""""""""""""""""""""

Harry and Ron waited for an hour after Hermione left for her detention, then slipped out of the Gryffindor common room quietly.

Without the invisibility cloak or the Marauders Map.

""""""""""""""""""""

Hermione put down her quill beside the box on the desk, and flexed her aching wrist. It clicked. Either Harry was suddenly seeing into the future or Snape really was running out of ideas for detentions.

Most of the records were almost beyond recognition, blurred and torn, with nasty looking liquid stains, and they had to be rewritten.

Snape looked up from whatever he was doing as she rubbed her wrist, "Are you finished, Miss Granger?"

She shook her head wearily, "No, sir."

He sneered, his black eyes gloating, "Get on with it then. You haven't done nearly enough yet."

Clenching her fist and taking a deep breath to calm herself, Hermione was about to look down again when there was a knock at the door.

The Potions Master glared at the door, "Enter!"

The door opened and Harry and Ron shuffled in, followed by Filch, wheezing, "Found these two brats down the hall, Professor. Torturing poor, young Mr. Malfoy, they were..."

"Can't you find enough competence within yourself to deal with them on your own!" Professor Snape snarled.

Filch flinched, "Just thought you would like to be the one to discipline 'em, sir."

Snape sneered, "What state is Mr. Malfoy in?"

"I think it was just superficial hexes, Professor - he looks pretty bad."

"Fine. Leave Potter and Weasley with me. Send Draco back to his common room; I will be there a soon as possible." Snape ground out through what sounded like clenched teeth.

Ron glanced over at Hermione and winked. Hermione smiled back. Soon they were set to work doing the same thing as her, though the three of them were at different tables, unable to communicate.

Some time later, Snape stood up, snapped a warning and left the classroom. As soon as he was gone, Ron got up and rushed over to Hermione, "Look at this!"

He shoved a relatively new looking record under Hermione's nose, as Harry peered over her shoulder. Hermione looked at the record then looked up at the boys, puzzled, "But there's only one..."

Harry nodded, "Yeah... only your detention in our first year. You've never had any others... apart from these."

Hermione looked back down at her own record, "Maybe he hasn't got round to updating it yet? It's Friday, do you think he spends his Saturdays doing these?"

Ron laughed, "Yeah, probably. What else would that great greasy bat be doing, when everyone else is having fun?"

Harry smirked, "Adding to these probably is his idea of fun!"

Hermione frowned suddenly, "Why were you fighting with Malfoy? What were you even doing down here?"

"Well, we didn't want you doing you detention all alone." Harry shrugged, "So we came down here. We didn't know Malfoy would come along, but he did so we argued with him on purpose."

Ron nodded, "We hoped that Snape would come out and find us, but Filch came along instead and brought us here, so we could keep you company. He thinks he was punishing us, of course."

Harry raised his voice an octave, "Please, Mr. Filch, sir, please don't take us to Professor Snape, please! I wasn't sure when Ron started, but Filch is so thick that it actually worked and he practically dragged us here!"

Hermione began to laugh, but the door banged open and Snape strode in. He stopped and glared at them, "What are you up to, Potter?"

Ron and Harry spun around and Ron nudged Hermione with her record as Harry muttered under his breath, "It's always me, isn't it..."

Hermione took the record from Ron and stuffed it in her pocket as Snape stalked closer, "What was that, Potter? You had better tell me, or I will deduct point for mumbling."

Harry cleared his throat, "I said Hermione needed me... and Ron."

"And why would that be, Miss Granger?"

"I...ah..." Hermione pressed her hand to her head, "I... don't feel well... at all... Not very well at all."

Ron nodded, "Feeling really dizzy and sick, aren't you, Hermione? And we were about to take her to the Hospital wing."

"Then you must go, Miss Granger..." Snape smirked. Harry and Ron sighed with relief, glad that their excuse worked and that they would be able to get out of the Dungeons, and Hermione began to stand up, when Snape said: "Potter, Weasley, get back to work. You will need to finish her boxes as well, before you are allowed to leave."

Harry and Ron muttered under their breath as they went back to their seats and Hermione could hear Snape taking point for mumbling. She was out of the classroom and a little way down the corridor when she heard him again.

"Miss Granger..." She turned to see him standing just outside the classroom door, "Detention tomorrow... for lying to a teacher."

Hermione stood there, bewildered, as Snape turned and re-entered the classroom, slamming the door behind him.

"!"!"!"!"!"!"!"

A/N: Thanks to everybody who has reviewed!

This is the link for the site where i read part of the interview, and for anyone who likes JKR and Alan Rickman talking about snape:

http://www.geocities.com/lilysnape03/snape_excerpts.html

:)

x x x