Once Upon a Potion's Class [Complete]

Once Upon a Potion's Class by Destiny M. Elkins
Chapter Nine - Magical, Smagical

Summary: Hermione loves fairy tales. Ron likes Hermione. So, he decides to give her a enchanted book of Muggle fairy tales from Flourish and Blott's. An incident in potion's class sends her and Professor Snape into the book where they will have to follow the stories to get out. Will they survive each other? [For the Inspired by Jack & the Beanstalk prompt on Mission:Insane via LJ.]

Title: Once Upon a Potion's Class
Chapter: 9 - Magical, Smagical
Author: MallowCakes
E-Mail: DestinyElkins04@gmail.com
Rating: R; HG/SS
Warnings: None so much.
Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise I would be off being rich somewhere... and Snape would've lived... Ron would've died... you get the picture.
Distribution: By appointment only.
AN: Thank you to my beta reader, Lo. Without her I don't think I'd survive! ^_^

When Severus could see again, he was standing in the middle of a dirt path, looking at a worn cabin and he could feel something small and pebble like, in his hand.

Opening his palm and looking into it, he found 5 small beans. He smiled and walked forward to the cabin, happy that their journey was nearly over.

“Mother!” He called loudly as he opened the door of the cabin and walked inside. The cabin was small with only three rooms and a short, tubby woman with mousey hair and tired features was already standing beside the table waiting for him to return.

“Jack! There you are! I told you not to dawdle. Have you brought me supper?” She demanded haughtily.

“Not exactly.” He admitted warily, looking at the ground.

“Not exactly?” She parroted in a shrill voice, “What do you mean 'not exactly'?

“Well, you see, mother, a man stopped me in the road and asked me to trade him our cow for these magical beans!” He held out his palm to show her what he had brought and smiled encouragingly at her.

“Are you mad!?” The woman yelled in outrage,“ That cow was the we had to sell and now we shall have no food! I don't know what we're going to do with three beans. We can't eat three beans!”

“Magical beans, mother.” Severus corrected again.

“Magical, Smagical, Jack.” She grabbed the beans from him and tossed them out the open window, “Don't believe everything you hear.”

With a sigh, she turned and sat at a chair.

“I'm sorry. I just thought that maybe the beans could help us somehow.”

“It's fine.” She said, finally her anger all but dissipated for now, “We'll just have to think of something else. For now, just go and finish cutting us some wood. I've got two spoonfuls of day-old gravy and stale bread we can have for tonight.”

Severus nodded and went to cut the wood as he was told, when he returned it was dark. He found a small bit of food on the table and his mother asleep in one of the small cots in the next room.

Grudgingly, he set down and nibbled at his portion of food before walking to the other cot and laying down. He tried to force himself to go to sleep, but it just wouldn't happen. All he could think about was the weird feeling deep inside the recesses of his stomach and the girl that made him feel that way.

'I'm not 14!' Severus growled inside his head, “This is ridiculous! She makes me feel like a bloody schoolboy.'

He sighed and rolled over trying to think of something to say to her to stop this from escalating into something neither of them could control. He knew, of course, that it was far too late for that.

Finally, he fell asleep to be awoken a few hours later to a loud scream from the next room. In a flash he was up and in the room with his mother who was staring with wide eyes out the window.

“Jack, look, it's a gigantic stalk.” She said, “It must of grew from those beans. Should we cut it down?”

“On the contrary, I'll climb up and see where it leads.” He told her, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and wishing for a pot of coffee. He yawned as he walked outside with her.

They stood beside it with their eyes skyward, straining their necks to see where it might end, but to no avail.

“Be careful.” The worried woman offered, unsure, her motherly nature finally making an appearance.

Severus nodded and stretched a bit before grabbing onto the large, green stalk and hoisting himself up. He used the huge leaf stems as footing as he climbed and climbed with no end in sight. He made great time in the young, unfamiliar body and within the hour he had made it to the very top.

Looking around him before lifting himself onto the clouds he could see the castle in the distance. That was his destination. He was slightly out of breath and cursed that fact that this would not be his only trip within the coming days. He walked slowly and carefully, unsure of himself. As he neared the castle he could see the huge woman kneeling in front of it, working at her garden.

He walked within hearing distance and spoke, “Excuse me, if you could, I'm just a young boy from far away and I'm starving. I was wondering if you might have any bits of food to spare?”

How humiliating, he thought to himself as he waited for her reply.

“Oh, hello there little boy.” She said, cheerily, leaning down to look at him, “I'm afraid my husband doesn't like humans very much. He's half-ogre, you see and very angry. He'll be back soon, but if you promise to eat quickly, I will get you a small bite of our breakfast.”

Severus followed the woman inside the castle and she picked him up and set him on their large table before giving him a rather large plate with human sized portions of eggs and toast. He ate quickly and wiped his mouth as he chatted with the giantess about the day he'd had.

Just as he was getting ready to leave he heard large footsteps approaching from the direction of the front door.

The giantess gasped quietly and shooed Severus out the back. “Go, go, go.” She called silently, “Before he finds you here.”

A large man entered the room just as he was leaving the room. Behind him a loud booming voice called out, "Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman; Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!"

“Nonsense.” The large woman replied, “There is no Englishman here. That must be the Ox-Hide you smell.”

Severus turned to watch the rest of the exchange.

Her husband sat down and ate the rest of the food and then turned to her, “Bring me my money bag, wife.” He said in a harsh voice. If the man wasn't so mean, Severus could've mistaken him for Hagrid, the way he looked.

The giantess brought him two sacks of coins and he sat at the table an proceeded to count them until he nodded off, filling the castle with the loud rumble of his snores.

When it was safe for him to do so, Severus left his hiding spot to go an fetch one of the giant bags of coins, fleeing as fast as he could from the castle and down to his mother's house.

The woman that was his mother, cried tears of joy and set about the next day to buy them new clothes and add on to their small shack. A week went by before Severus knew it was time to return to the castle in the clouds.

Just like before he climbed the great stalk and went to the giant woman, who at this time didn't recognize him in the different clothes and the hair cut.

“Please ma'am.” He called up to her, “Can you spare a little breakfast for a hungry passerby?”

The woman leaned down and regarded him silently before answering in the cheeriest tone she could muster, “Be gone with you, child. Last time I fed a child he made off with my husband's gold. I cannot be sure that you won't do the same.”

But, the giant woman had a kind heart and couldn't leave him to starve, so she invited Severus into the kitchen and fed him some more breakfast.

He had barely had a chance to finish when the same loud footsteps entered the house followed by the same loud booming voice, "Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman; Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!"

Again, Severus ran to his hiding spot and again his wife lied and served him breakfast without even batting an eyelash. After her finished eating he turned to his wife, his greasy lips spitting pieces of food as he talked, “Wife, bring me my fat, brown, hen!”

A large belch rang through the halls as the wife brought him a giant-sized hen and set it in front of him. If Severus didn't know any better, he'd swear the man was going to inhale the bird whole.

The giant looked at the bird and repeated the word lay three times. Each time he said it, the hen laid a huge golden egg.

“That'll do.” The giant told the hen before going to bed, leaving the hen set on the table.

'You would think he would learn to put his things away.' Severus thought to himself as he sneaked up and grabbed the hen, dashing for the beanstalk with it. The hen was clucking wildly and he was sure he was going to get caught, but he made it home before the giant had a chance to catch him.

His would-be mother was so excited that she almost laid an egg. She was so happy, she didn't even care to ask where he had gotten all this money recently by going up this beanstalk.

She told him there was no need to go up there again and made him promise that he wouldn't. Severus promised but the very next day he made a dash for the beanstalk. Excitedly, he sneaked around the castle and to the back door. Creeping in, he found his hiding place to wait silently for the giant to fall asleep again.

The giant entered as usual with his loud, floor-shaking footsteps and repeated "Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman; Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!"

The wife, sure there was no little boys in the room this time told him again that there was no Englishmen to be found. The giant ate in silence, oils and greases spilling down into his beard as he gnawed at bones and breads. Each time Severus had to witness this it got worse and worse. It was too much to watch. Finally, the disgusting display was over and the large, beast called to his wife, as usual.

“Wife,” He grumbled loudly, “Bring me my harp!”

Severus heart leapt to his throat and he cursed it silently. This was silly, just the mere sight or mentioning of a name could do this to a grown man. How ridiculous.

The wife brought the giant his harp. The most beautiful, Severus thought, that he had ever seen in his life. A golden Hermione standing, attached to the instrument struck him in an odd way and a tinge of jealousy surged. This uncouth, sloppy man shouldn't own something so beautiful. She was untouchable... she was his.

'No,' He told himself at once, 'She is young. She belongs to no one. I shouldn't be toying with these ideals.'

“Play.” The giant demanded and the harp started playing, Hermione's angelic voice singing along with it. It was all Severus could do to wait until the giant lay on his side and nod off to sleep. Hermione went quiet and the harp went silent beside her as Professor Snape crept closer to where she stood.

As Hermione spied her professor she smiled at him and waved him closer.

“Hi.” She whispered at him.

“Hello.” He whispered back.

She leaned down to catch his lips on hers with a quick whisper, “Let's get this over with.”

He picked her up and she sighed as he started running off. After he has a bit of a head start she called as loud as she could, “Master, master!”

The giant woke up with just enough time to see Severus dashing out the door. With a fearful roar, he seized his oak-tree club, and dashed after him. His large strides had him just on the heels of the fleeing potions professor.

Severus had just made it to the ground had laid down the Hermione harp when the giant started down the vine above him. As quick as he could, he dashed for the ax he had left near-by. He lifted the ax and cut the bean-stalk right in two. Down came the giant with a terrible crash, and that, you may be sure, was the end of him.

As Severus turned to Hermione they smiled at each other, but by that time the smoke had already covered their eyes.

'Two left.' Hermione thought to herself as the smoke cleared and she saw that she was in a dark hallway by herself.

Having a slight fear of being alone in dark places, she took a small breath to steady her breathing and listened closely to the sounds around her. Somewhere to her left she could hear small noises. Turning, she went towards them and started feeling around until she found what she was looking for. A doorknob.

She turned the cold metal in her hand until she heard a click and she pushed forward. The door opened with a creak and she saw in front of her an old wooden spindle working of it's own accord. With a sigh, she started walking toward it, not even able to stop if she wanted to.