A Very Horrible Idea?

Hermione slammed the door shut behind her, breathing heavily. Harry and Ron must have already gone to bed, as she hadn't seen them down in the common room. But then again, she had been running, so she might have missed them. In fact, she had been running like the hounds of hell were on her heels; something about her encounter with Snape had made her very uneasy.

Slowly, she got ready for bed and found one of the books from the library to read. She got into bed and was about to start reading when something on her bedside table caught her eye. She put the book on the table and picked up the piece of parchment that was a record of only one of her detentions.

She had taken it from Ron and forgotten to put it back before she left. She wondered whether Snape realized it was gone yet. When he did, he would know it was her. He might blame Harry in the end - as he always did - but he would know she had it, even if she hadn't taken it on purpose.

Hermione stared at the parchment. She would have to find a way to get it back, but she was not going to try and sneak down to the dungeons and return it; Snape would probably have some kind of alarms after the thefts (Hermione in her second year and Moody/Crouch in her fourth). She was definitely not that stupid. She wasn't going to purposely get another detention to put it back, when he would just add that detention to it when it was returned!

Maybe he would just forget about it and she could keep the record until his detention-giving spree was over. Yawning, Hermione put the Parchment back on the table, turned the lights out and tried to sleep.

The next morning, Hermione met Harry and Ron in the Common room and they all headed down to breakfast.

"Seamus said you were back early last night. He said you were in a bit of a hurry." Ron said in a would-be-casual voice.

Hermione sighed, telling them bluntly, "I had a run-in with Malfoy and then Snape came along, we had words and then he told me to go back to the common room. I don't know what I’ll do if Malfoy tells on me again."

"Just tell McGonagall that Snape sent you back to the common room." Harry said, shrugging.

"I would have to, but then she would talk to Snape again -"

"Professor Snape, Hermione." Ron cut in smugly.

Hermione glared at him and carried on, "And he would be even angrier than he is now!"

They entered the Great Hall and sat down. Looking over the food, Harry said, "Yeah, but surely he couldn't do anything. Malfoy is the one telling McGonagall, not you. And why would it matter anyway? He told you to go back to the common room and you did. Why is it such a big deal, apart from the obvious fact that Snape is a nasty, greasy, Gryffindor-hating git that would do anything to put us in detention?"

Hermione shook her head, "You've got half of it right Harry. Professor Snape -" She glared at Ron again, "- is all the things that you said he is. Professor McGonagall is very competitive and protective, so she will use her authority to overrule Snape - the Head of the opposing House - if she thinks the time calls for it. And Snape, being the way his is, doesn't like that, obviously. It has nothing to do with me... well, maybe a bit with McGonagall... But all I really am is a way for them to score points against each other."

Ron stared at Hermione, "In English, please?"

Harry nodded, "Actually, Hermione, that makes sense... sort of. I can just imagine Snape thinking like that - I can imagine the way his head works..."

Ginny made a face from across the table, obviously listening to the conversation, "Ew! Don't Harry! You'll give yourself brain damage!" She looked up at Hermione, "Don't worry. It'll all blow over soon."

Hermione nodded, "Of course,"

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

Severus was not in the best of moods. It was lucky for the students that it was Sunday. He had hoped that perhaps he had come to the wrong conclusions the night before, but it seemed not, because he was now staring surreptitiously over the edge of his cup.

No, not staring. Glaring.

Merlin, the urge to hex that girl was stronger than ever. There was nothing remotely interesting about her; in fact, she was the most annoying, loathsome, obnoxious girl ever imaginable.

But then again, Severus thought, between Hermione Granger and the masculine Slytherin girls, she was definitely the lesser of the two evils to become obsessed with. He had hoped that, after admitting that he may be a little caught up in her, it would go away. But it had only got worse.

Now there was no way he could stop thinking about her. He found himself waiting for a huge flood of obsessiveness to come, but it didn't. Severus found that he seemed to take some sort of unnatural pleasure in watching her, and he realized that that was the obsessiveness, creeping in slowly.

And while he was going through all of this, she had the absolute cheek to be completely oblivious!

So, technically, she couldn't help it, but the irony was almost too much. She was supposed to be the one with raging hormones and confused thoughts, but no! She sat there, right where he could see her, eating her breakfast like she wasn't causing someone great personal anguish.

Well, it was more anger and frustration than anguish. Anguish was something that people pitied, and to be pitied was just unacceptable to Severus.

Still, she was causing it and she didn't even know!

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

Harry, Ron and Hermione watched as the Potions Master left the room in a swish of black.

Ginny sniffed, "What got up his nose?"

Ron shrugged, "Who knows?" He grinned, "Knows, get it? Knows, nose!"

Hermione shook her head, "Are you ever going to grow up?"

Harry smiled, "You should know the answer to that, Hermione. You're meant to be the clever one."

The door of the Great Hall opened and a group of Ravenclaw’s walked in. Ginny looked up, watched their progress until they were seated and then leaned over the table towards Hermione, "Can you come with me a minute? I need some help with something!"

Hermione nodded, "Of course."

She finished her breakfast and followed Ginny out of the hall. The red head pulled Hermione after her and Hermione asked, "Where are we going?"

"Your favorite place! The library!"

"Why?"

"You know the boys who just walked in?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded. "One of them wants to take me to Hogsmeade next weekend. He’s a year younger than me, but he's cute and I need some help because... well, my clothes aren't exactly the greatest. Fred and George send mum money all the time, but the house needs repairing, so I don't get much. I thought you might be able to show me some spells so that I can make the most of the stuff I’ve got."

Hermione nodded, "There are lots of books in the library for that sort of thing."

Ginny grinned, "Great!"

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

Severus had just about got the point of what was going on. It seemed that Ginny Weasley was dating a Ravenclaw. Both the Weasley and HER - as he had affectionately named her - were reading every book the library had to offer on clothes and beauty; the normal teenage girl things, he imagined.

Severus had noticed - and he was not happy about all the noticing he was doing around HER - that the earrings she played with nervously were tiny and silver, but he was too far away to make out much more. And also, when the light was right, he sometimes caught a flash of gold from around her neck, but he wasn't sure about that.

He felt like his mind was playing tricks on him, but he knew that was part of the package that one got when one became obsessed. The paranoia had been much worse when it was Dark Magic he had been obsessed with. He shuddered with the memory.

Still, he wanted to find out if she was wearing a necklace and what, exactly, her earrings were. He wanted to find out so much that it was getting to the point of stupidity.

Slowly, he moved through the bookcases and walked past their table as slowly as he could without it being suspicious.

Ginny Weasley looked up at him, and hastily averted her eyes at his glare. Severus quickly noted that Granger was indeed wearing a necklace and her earrings were tiny, silver... cauldrons! That was... surprising, to say the least and something inside him performed a few acrobatics, leaving him feeling slightly sick.

And she didn't even looked up! She just carried on reading! Practically ignoring him!

Severely frustrated, Severus gave her one last hard glare and left the library in a state of resentment and mild shock.