Hermione\'s Revenge

Day 6: Double Potions

Snape brought out a jar of preserved bats for their next potion and sat them down on the table.

“Friends of yours Severus?” chirped Hermione, but she was ignored.

“The purpose of preserving the vampire bat is to capture the properties of their blood at the exact time of death. This can only occur if they were submersed in a charmed gel at the time of death,” said Snape as he glared at the students.

Hermione had a pile of books at her desk and she was reading one of them.

“You know, he’s right! He is absolutely right! I just read it here in this book and every word of it is true!” beamed Hermione. “We have the most brilliant professor in the world!”

“ENOUGH!” he growled as the class snickered.

“Sir, you seem so full of anxiety and from what I have read, it could be a sign of depression, so I have taken the privilege of signing you up for Madam Hooch’s Physical Fitness Class for the Mentally Depressed sir,” and she held out a brochure for him.

“The only class I am interested in is How To Prevent Myself From Strangling A-Know-It-All!” he hissed. “Everybody, brew your potions now!”

“Yes, oh lord and master of all slimy things!” said Hermione as she bowed to him.

“Miss Granger, if you do not shut up, I am going to transfigure you into a slug and put you into Hagrid’s cabbage patch!” he hissed.

“I will not be swayed by your sweet words of temptation,” she said winking at him.

“Out! Get out now!” he boomed.

She stood up, gathered her books, and she slowly said, “See you tonight, professor, same bat time, same bat channel!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

That evening in the Great Hall during dinner, she noticed Snape was keeping a close eye on her as she kept staring at him. He looked very edgy while eating.

“Watch this,” she told Harry and Ron as she stood up on the Gryffindor table and walked across it so she was in the middle.

“Professor Snape!” she yelled. Everyone in the hall grew silent, realizing that she was about to entertain them again. He looked away. “Professor Snape!” she yelled again ahis his time he slowly looked back at her.

“Professor Snape,” she got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and held it up to him, “Will you marry me?” The entire hall froze at the question and Snape’s head fell in his hands.

“Okay,” he said, cringing.

“What?” asked Hermione in disbelief, clearly not expecting that answer.

“OKAY!” he repeated, “Just get off of the table and come here!”
Hermione jumped off of the table and cautiously walked over to the High Table to stand directly in front of Snape.

“You win,” he hissed at her, low enough that only she could hear. “You can help me brew the potion.” Hermione smiled as she left back to her table. All eyes were following her, wondering if she was really going to become Mrs. Snape.

“It was a joke!” she told them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day after classes, Hermione headed down to the dungeons with her notes and knocked on the door.

“Enter!” he growled. Instantly she walked in wearing a big smile on her face as if to say, ‘I told you so!’

“Good Eve -” she began but Snape got right in her face.

“First things first, Miss Granger. You will address me as Professor Snape,” he hissed.

“If you had let me finish!” she snapped at him, “I was going to say good evening Professor Snape. My gosh, you act like I have been tormenting you or something!” She desperately tried to keep a serious tone, but started laughing.

“If you are finished, we have work to do,” he growled. As he turned and walked back to his cauldron, she joined him.

“Explain to me your theories,” he said dryly, looking at her with his dark black eyes. She explained her theories and reasoning behind them, discussing the possibilities and probabilities of the potion working.

‘Absolutely amazing,’ he thought as he listened to her. Her reasoning for her theories was beyond brilliant as he truly saw her, if only for a moment, as an equal.

They began to work on the potion, brewing four different versions at one time, making careful observations and taking detailed notes. Even though they worked in silence, he studied her methods and movement while they worked.

At the end of the night, Hermione cleaned the work area and went to the sink to wash her hands. She turned on the water and adjusted it, but could only get warm water.

“Professor Snape, why is the water in your sink barely warm?” she asked.

“Because Miss Granger, the deterioration of my nerves have caused my skin to become extra sensitive to extreme temperatures,” he answered without looking at her. He inwardly cringed knowing that his physical appearance had to be repulsive, but he just could not deal with that right now. It especially pained him to look this way because he wanted to actually look good for Hermione, but couldn’t.

She studied him for a while and realized why his hair was so greasy. She smiled because she had a simple solution to that, but she needed to wait until she got back to her own lab.