The Diary

“Lemon drop?”

“No thank you, Albus. I wanted to talk with you about Miss Granger. She’s been giving some serious thought to her future, and she has decided that she definitely wants to do an apprenticeship with a Potions Master,” Minerva began.

Albus Dumbledore smiled. “Good. I knew it would take her some time to recognize that Severus has amazing talent hidden under his rough exterior.”

“Well, that’s the issue here. She doesn’t want to study him. She’s found some Potions Master in Scandinavia—“

“Ah. Yes. Ole Something-or-other.” He nodded. “A good choice. He’s widely known, draws from a variety of different fields, and from what I hear, is technically very good.” He paused. “And, of course, he doesn’t have the demons that Severus does.” He nodded again. “I can see why our Miss Granger would be interested in apprenticing herself to him… Not quite what I had in mind, but she is still young. And she may have a change of heart…” His voice trailed off.

“Albus. Stop your match-making. She has asked me to talk to you about two issues. First, she would like an interview with him – to talk with him, and see if he would consider taking her on as an apprentice. And, second, she is concerned about money. She doesn’t have the funding to readily apprentice herself, but I had mentioned that you might know of some,” she paused briefly, “Some private funding.”

He smiled. “Ah. I understand what you are saying, Minerva. Yes, I think I might be able to ‘create a scholarship’ that would be directed at 7th year Hogwarts students looking to further their Potions knowledge. I think my budget could probably handle that.” His eyes twinkled. “But, I think I might make it so that she has to at least consider working with our Severus. She may still have a change of heart…”

Minerva smiled briefly, but then looked sternly over at her friend and colleague. “Just make sure that she has a choice, Albus. A real choice.”

****

“I don’t know what to do, Albus’m s’m sure that she never meant for me to read this. Well, I think she didn’t, although I still have no idea how it ended up in my mail, addressed to me.”

Albus hid his smile, urging his Potions Master to continue.

“I’m torn. I don’t want to encourage Miss Granger. I don’t know the source of her dreams, other than to blame them on over-active teenage hormones, and I don’t really want to know. But I wanted to talk with her about an apprenticeship. She would be an excellent candidate – I have debated the possibility, and after some thought, I had decided that I would be willing to consider he application. But now, I’m not sure.”

Dumbledore smiled. “You aren’t even the slightest bit flattered by her dreams?”

Severus said nothing. Flattered? Certainly. Turned on, even? Definitely. Buere ere was no way that he was going to mention that to his boss.

Dumbledore sighed. Stubborn man. Perhaps, in time. “I may have a solution that will be acceptable to you, Severus. She has mentioned to Minerva about wanting to study with on Seestram, in Scandinavia, but she is concerned about the apprentice fee.” Severus started to say something, but Albus continued on. “I have decided to provide a scholarship for Miss Granger from my personal funds. I do not plan on telling her that the money is from me; instead, she will apply for the scholarship, and as part of the application process, she will have to speak to at least two Potions Masters. Minerva has agreed to persuade her to talk with you. I am going to be setting up a meeting for Miss Granger with Ole. I want her to consider her options before making a final decision. And this will give you the opportunity to talk with her, without you having to approach her. She will approach you. Does that sound satisfactory?”

Snape nodded, so Dumbledore continued. “And I wouldn’t trouble yourself about Miss Granger’s dreams. I believe that if she truly wanted something – or someone – she’d take action. I think her dreams are, as you say, merely hormones looking for a release.” And if you believe that Severus, Dumbledore thought, it’s only because you don’t want to believe that maybe she is actually attracted to you. Dumbledore smiled again as Severus left his office.

****

Posted in the Common Room was the notice that all students staying at school over the Christmas break had to notify their House Heads by 7pm that evening.

“You’re going to stay here over Christmas? You know that my Mom is always happy to have you come home with me – you’re like part of the family. And she’ll give me a hard time if you don’t come home – she’ll say that you’re pushing yourself too hard, and that if I can’t get you to come home with me, then it’s somemy fmy fault, too.”

Hermione smiled. Molly Weasley really was a dear woman – it was amazing that she wanted to invite even more chaos into her home than was usual. The woman had to be a saint in witches’ robes. “Tell you what, Ron. I’ll owl her, and let her know that you tried desperately to get me to come visit over the holidays. But I’ve got this scholarship application that I’ve got to finish up – it has to be submitted no later than January 5th. And besides, Professor Dumbledore thinks that he’ll been able to set up a meeting for me with Professor Seerstram. Seerstram is going to be stopping at Hogwarts for a day or two, and I need to prepare, so he’ll want to take me on as an apprentice. The man doesn’t take just anyone on, you know.” She paused. “And, besides, I’ve got to set up an interview with Snape, too,” she added, a little more quietly.

Ron looked at Harry. Ron shrugged his shoulders, so Harry started, “Tell you what, Herm. Now that we’ve got our licenses, we’ll Apparate to the gates, and come into the school every couple of days, just to make sure that you get out of the library once in a while. And to make sure that you haven’t become Snape’s new best friend, now that he s ths that you want to study Potions.”

Ron shook his head. “I don’t get it. Really, I don’t. I can see how you might want to keep studying after Hogwarts, because we already know that you’re a little strange in the head that way. But to want to study potions. And with Snape?!? I knew that inhaling those fumes in the Potions classroom would get to you, one of these years.”

“I’ve told you, Ron. I don’t want to apprentice myself to Snape. But the scholarship says that I have to talk to at least two different Potions Masters, and well, Snape is the most convenient. I doubt it’ll take very long.”

Harry laughed. “Yeah. Just long enough to ask you some insanely difficult question, and then take 50 points from Gryffindor because you have the audacity to make him talk to someone over the break.”

Hermione nodded.

“All right, Herm. We’ll let you stay here, if you agree to us checking on you every once in a while, and we’ll send all your presents here – we’ll stop by Christmas afternoon, so that we can spend part of the day at home, at part here. Okay?” The mock seriousness in Harry’s voice made her smile.

“Okay you guys, you win.”

*****

It was the last day of Potions before the Christmas holiday. Hermione was screwing up her courage to talk to Snape. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But she’d had another dream about him the night before last.

What is the deal?!? Is my brain trying to tell me something, and I am just too stupid to pick up on it? Why do I keep having these dreams about Snape? Is it because I am thinking about the apprenticeship so much, or is my subconscious mind so severely twisted that somewhere I seem to think he’s sexy? (Or maybe I am just masochistic! I hadn’t thought about that!)

Last night was a slightly different twist. I had done something that had merited detention. (Merlin knows what – probably glancing Neville’s direction or something). But I was serving detention in his private lab, not in the classroom. I had gone to his private lab, and he shut the door, putting wards on it, so no one else could enter. Then, in that nasty voice of his, he informed me that I would be helping him test a potion that he had been working on. The potion was some sort of anti-love potion. (Which would make perfect sense with him! Merlin forbid anyone love anyone else in this world! I don’t think the guy has the capability to understand why someone might want a love potion…)

Anyway, I somehow understood that the potion was supposed to prevent erections in men. He told me that he taken some of it, and now I was needed to “test the efficacy of the potion.” Teehee. The best way to test whether the potion worked or not was to take his cock in my mouth and see if I could get him hard.

So, all of a sudden, I am on my knees, naked (no idea where my clothes went – Snape was still mostly dressed), on the stone floor of the dungeon, with Snape’s cock in my mouth. The potion wasn’t working – I began to lick the head of his cock, and I could feel him getting hard. Soon, he was rock hard, and so I began to tease the length of his cock with my tongue. (I figured that since I was there, I might as well go for it!) Then, when he started to whimper a little bit, I took his cock in my mouth, and swallowed as much of him as I could. (Funny – in this dream, he was bigger than Viktor. I wonder if that means something!) I continued to work on his cock – sometimes teasing the tip, or running my tongue down the length of it, sometimes taking as much of him in my mouth as I could.

His hips began to move, and I could tell that he was trying to fuck my mouth. I could tell he was getting close to coming when he held my head to his cock, not letting me move my mouth, while he thrust himself in and out of me. He came in my mouth with a deep groan. Before I woke up, I remember saying, “I don’t think the potion works, professor.”

And when I woke up, I was so wet, and so turned on. I don’t know what the deal is. And I don’t know where my brain is getting the idea that Snape is my idea of a good time. I mean, I guess he could be, if you gave him a personality transplant, washed his hair a little more often, and dressed him in something slightly less bat-like. Even then, it might be a bit of a stretch, but it would be a start!

But Merlin! I’m going to do this apprenticeship interview with him, and I am going to be thinking about this dream and how his potion didn’t work. Teehee! Gah. I’ve just got to drop that from my line of thinking.

Alright, girl. Just go ask him. It’s not like he knows anything about these dreams. And it’s not like he can read your mind. Just go make the appointment. Now. She looked at Harry, and he gave her an encouraging nod.

As the rest of the class filed out of the classroom, she approached his desk. “Professor, may I speak to you for a moment?”

“You probably will anyway. What did you want, Miss Granger?”

“I’d like to make an appointment with you. I, uh, I am applying for a scholarship that would fund an apprenticeship in Potions for me. As part of the application, I need to interview with two separate Potions Masters, and I’ve got one appointment lined up, but I still need another one, and I was wondering if I might speak with you, and if it was possible, set up an apprenticeship interview with you.”

He paused looking at her. Hermione could feel her face flush; it would be so much more difficult to arrange an interview with another Potions Master.

Snape raised one eyebrow briefly, and then responded, “Very well, Miss Granger. I will meet you in my private laboratory tomorrow afternoon, at 3:30. Please don’t be late, as this meeting will already be an interruption of my personal research time. From that I will be able to determine whether or not to offer you an apprenticeship interview.”

At the words ‘private laboratory’, Hermione bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling; the images from her dream were still fresh in her mind. “Thank you, Professor. I’ll be there tomorrow. I really appreciate your time.” Grabbing her book bag, she left the classroom to meet up with Ron and Harry.

Snape watched her go. ‘I will be able to determine whether or not to offer you an apprenticeship interview’? What the hell did he say that for? He’d already told Albus that he would interview her. Maybe he just wanted to make her sweat a little bit, or maybe he just wanted to see how she’d react.

****

Tomorrow?!? Hermione bade a hasty farewell to Ron and Harry, and then dashed off to the library; if she was going to talk with Snape tomorrow, she wanted to make sure that she knew enough a his his research to talk intelligently about it. She buried herself in the last 3 years’ worth of journals, looking for anything that Snape had written, or had been a contributor on.

****

Snape poured himself a generous Scotch. Most of the students had left for the holidays, and with no papers to grade, no hallways to patrol, and no Gryffindors from whom to relieve house points – well, almost no Gryffindors – he was looking forward to a quiet break.

Well, it would be a quiet break, as soon as he dealt with Miss Granger, and got that done with. He stared intently into his Scotch for a moment, musing on the girl – no, he corrected himself, young lady. Not that he would ever admit it, but it did sting a bit that she wanted to apprentice herself to someone else. Still, it wasn’t like he had done anything to encourage her to apprentice herself to him. And, he wasn’t sure that he really would want to deal with Miss Granger for another five years, and he could guarantee that she wouldn’t want to spend five years with him. But still, it would have been nice if the girl had asked him because she really wanted to work with him, and not just because the scholarship required her to apply to work with two different Potions Masters.

Oh gods. This was Albus’ doing. He was the one who was providing the ‘scholarship’ – and he was the one that required that she talk with him, as well as with Seerstram. He took another swallow of the Scotch; what was Albus trying to do? Gods only knew – trying to figure out the motives behind A Dum Dumbledore’s actions would take a lot more effort than he was willing to expend.

He poured himself another Scotch, and watched the flames dance in the fireplace. Perhaps he would get a better understanding of Miss Granger if he just took a quick look in her diary. Just once.

What is the deal?!? Is my brain trying to tell me something, and jus just too stupid to pick up on it? Why do I keep having these dreams about Snape?

Oh gods, Severus. Don’t read this. And yet he couldn’t tear himself away from the images of the young woman on her knees…