A Perfect Match

“I’ve been awake most of the night after you’d been to see me Severus. I wanted to make sure that Draco would be as safe as possible. I gave it a lot of thought and I don’t think it would be wise to keep him in the dungeon.”

“Why is that ? He would be close to me.” Snape seemed surprised.

“I’d like to visit Draco often. Now it’s common knowledge I don’t like going to the dungeons too much and if students were to see me there once or twice a day, they’d start wondering about what I’m doing there. We are talking about Slytherin students here Severus.” This last thing he said with a twinkle in his eye, but they all realised he was right.

“Therefore, I think it might be best if he got a room at Hagrid’s place.”

All looked up in surprise. Maybe Hagrid the most. Draco seemed to not care about where he would stay.

“We will go now. Everyone is still in the Great Hall having breakfast and Draco can hide under Hagrid’s cloak.”

And so they all went to Hagrid’s to install the fugitive Malfoy. Fang immediately adopted the young wizard and sat right next to him, clearly not planning to leave his side. This display of affection made them believe that Draco really was willing to change.

All but Hagrid were leaving the place, but Draco signalled Hermione he wanted to talk to her.

“So, I hear you’re working as potion’s assistant this year. Must have really freaked Weasley and Potter out to hear you’d be working with Snape.” He grinned.

“Not really, they’re not biased, unlike other people I know.” She answered snappy.

“Ouch, I guess I had that one coming ! Oh, at least yon’ton’t treat me like I’m made of glass like everyone else around here.” He smiled at her, looking a lot more relaxed than the previous night.

“I suppose I’ll have to get used to you being on our side.” Hermione sighed.

“Of all the shocks we’ve had over the past years, this surely is a major one.”

Smiling, she left for work.

As she crossed the school grounds she met Ginny, who was carrying a load of books and was heading for Hagrid’s place.

“Don’t you have a class to go to ?”

“Er, not until 10 and Hagrid asked me to come by to discuss my project about centaurs.”

“Ok, fine, just be in time for your class.”

“Will do miss Granger !” Ginny laughed and Hermione joined in.

It was a happy Hermione that entered the lab that morning.

She immediately started her research for the weakening potion.

Snape didn’t show up that morning. He had classes to teach. She would take over his first years that afternoon and she was looking forward to it.

Suddenly she heard a plop, followed by hissing in the nroomroom. Reluctant to enter Snape’s private rooms, she opened the door just a little to see Harry’s face in the fireplace.

“Severus, are you there ?” he asked.

Quickly, Hermione entered the room and Harry’s face lit when he saw his friend.

“Ah, finally, I was beginning to think nobody was home !”

“He’s teaching you know.”

“Of course, I forgot. Say, any news on Malfoy ? He has been signalled not far from Hogsmeade, so ..”

Before he could continue, Hermione filled him in on the news.

“Mmmm, interesting. Well, if Fang is willing to accept him, why shouldn’t we ?”

He was a bit more worried that Ginny also knew about Draco being there.

“She’s just a kid Hermione, don’t want to get her involved in something messy.”

Hermione laughed.

“Oh she’s no kid, trust me on that one. You seem to be forgetting she’s in her final year. It wouldn’t do you any harm either to return one of her letters some day, you know.” She added.

“Well, I don’t want to give her false hope. She’s a friend, that’s all.”

“Even friends write letters.”

“OK, if you say so. I might come to Hogwarts for Halloween though, so if I’m there in person, I wouldn’t need to write, would I ?” and then his head disappeared.

“Boys” Hermione sighed deeply.

When she came back from teaching, she found Snape deeply immersed in research.

She was still high on adrenaline from her first teaching experience. It had been great and she had found it a real thrill to pass on her knowledge to the children. They had been eager to learn and all cauldrons had stayed intact. This was what she wanted to do with her life !

She was already seated when she saw Snape looking at her. He seemed desperate.

He grumbled and threw away his quill.

“The good news is I found the recipe for the weakening potion we are looking for. The bad news is that it has an unexpected ingredient.” He sighed.

“It’ll take some research on the properties of this ingredient to be sure if the recipe is of any use.”

“Which ingredient are we talking about ?” Hermione forgot at once about her teaching aspirations.

“It’s the blood of a virgin. To counterpart the unicorn blood apparently.”

“That’s actually used as an ingredient for potions ?” Hermione was astonished.

“Not frequently, I can assure you. And mostly it is used in the same way unicorn blood is. That’s what troubles me. It usually makes a wizard stronger by drinking it, not weaker.”

“You mean like a vampire ?”

“Vampires do not live on virgin blood alone, you should know that. But it does make them stronger than regular blood.”

Hermione couldn’t help herself chuckle a bit, remembering Ron and Harry used to think Snape was a vampire. Then he would have known all the properties for sure.

“Why are you laughing ?” Snape didn’t seem amused at all.

For a moment she wanted to make an excuse, but feeling daring, she decided to tell him.

“Well, Ron and Harry used to think you were a vampire and I was just imagining it would have come in handy today.” She waited for his sneer.

“Sadly I have to disappoint you, I do not drink blood, nor can I transform myself into a bat. The obscure properties of virgin blood are a mystery to me.” He did sneer, but she could also see that the right end of his mouth had curled as if he was trying very hard not to laugh.

Returning to the problem at hand, Hermione stayed her practical self.

“Isn’t there a book where we can find it ?”

“Of course there is, I just don’t know in which one. First we have to look into a reference book, which is what I’ve been doing all afternoon.” He looked exhausted and his eyes were red from browsing the books for so long.

He resumed his search and Hermione selected another reference book to help him.

A half hour was passed in silence.

Suddenly he jumped up.

“Here it is. It’s in Most Obscure Ingredients Vol. 3. I even have a copy of it here, on my bookshelf.”

He started to get up, but Hermione, noticing his fatigue, turned to the bookshelf and started looking herself. It was – of course – on the top shelf.

Learning from experience, she took the ladder and climbed it.

TBC
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