Aletheia

Hermione’s dithering outside of the potion classroom’s door came to an abrupt end when it flew open, missing the tip of her nose by centimetres.

“Are you conducting an experiement on how long it takes your body heat to transfer through the soles of your shoes and into the stone floor?” came a familiar, deadpan voice across the room, loud and clear despite the echo.

Severus Snape sat at his desk, not even bothering to glance upward at his guest, instead focusing on the hasty scratches he was making on some poor student’s essay. Hermione flinched in sympathy.

“No, Professor, I was—”

“Shut the door behind you, Miss Granger, I wouldn’t want to inadvertently invite any other meandering students in,” Snape interrupted.

Hermione sighed. His attitude was precisely why she had almost turned around the moment she had reached the classroom door, but admittedly, she had few other options but to bear it. Besides, compared to what he would be like in about five minutes, this was downright pleasant.

Hermione took a few steps into the room, leaving the relative safety of the hallway for the dim, empty room whose only other occupant was Hogwarts’ most notoriously foul-tempered Professor. The heavy stone door closing behind her was like a death knell.

“Professor Snape, I have a problem—”

“Only one?” Finally, Snape deigned her a glance. It could have made freshly bloomed mallowsweet wither.

Hermione felt her pulse ratchet up in annoyance at being interrupted for the second time in a row. She quickly tamped it down, knowing that any retaliating cheek would only make the situation worse.

“You know how, last class, you gave us time to choose any potion from our textbook to try and make?”

“You mean the class I taught you approximately eight hours ago? Yes, I remember.”

Color rose to Hermione’s cheeks. Curse this man for making it so hard to talk to him!

“Well, I got a little ambitious and chose to replicate a potion that was mentioned in a book I was reading about the Goblin Rebellion. I had to translate it because it was in runic, and I think I may have made a small mistake. It was a little water-damaged and I think I mistook the rune for 3 as the rune for 9 when adding powdered root of asphodel, which really was an understandable mistake, especially since—”

“Get to your point, Miss Granger, you’re babbling,” Snape sighed, having not looked up at her since his mallowsweet-withering glance. Instead of slashing, he was writing a note at the bottom of the parchment, his fine wrist flexing as the quill sped along the paper—

Come on, Hermione, be a Gryffindor. You are currently aiding in the war to kill the darkest wizard in recent wizarding history, so surely you can do this.

She wasn’t so sure.

“I w-wanted to impress you—”  curse her wavering voice!— “and I thought it was a variation of a Verituserum and it was, but I was rushing to get it done so I made that silly mistake.”

“And what, precisely, does this potion supposedly do?”

She hesitated. “Well… it binds two people together so that whenever one of them speaks a lie, they feel—um—consequences. But since I messed it up, I can’t figure out how to brew the antidote.”

Snape looked up sharply, eyes flashing dangerously. “What kind of consequences?”

“Pain,” she admitted sheepishly. “But not a lot! Just a little magical sting. Like a mild stinging hex, really. Just a—”

Snape’s gaze grew absolutely murderous. “Miss Granger, if you tell me you tested this nonsense on yourself—”

“It wasn’t on purpose!” she burst out, trying not to squeak in terror at the way he was looking at her. Gryffindor my arse when it comes to this man. “I knocked over the vial while writing down my notes, and some of it must have splashed onto me! And apparently, the potion needs a second person to complete the bond, and—” She winced. “Just then, you told us to pack up, and I think the potion heard your voice and...”

She trailed off, unsure how to finish. The air between them went deathly silent, Snape’s expression going blank.

Slowly, deliberately, Snape set down his quill. “Are you telling me,” he said in a voice so calm it was terrifying, “that you and I are now magically bound by a potion that will punish us if either of us speaks a lie?”

“The pain will gradually increase as the bond strengthens. I felt a few zaps already at dinner, but you may not have noticed them,” she added quickly before she could lose her nerve.

Part of her was curious—what could he have been lying about over a plate of shepherd’s pie with Professor McGonagall? However, knowing what little she knew of his role in the war, she had a feeling they were going to need to find a cure, fast.

Snape had closed his eyes, palms resting flat on the table. A vein twitched in his temple. She had a feeling that she had never seen him this angry before, even though he was hiding it well at the moment.

“Get out,” Snape finally managed. His eyes did not open.

“But Professor, I—”

Snape flicked a hand at the closed door, placing what she assumed was Muffliato on it.

“Miss Granger, your asinine attempt to prove how incredibly clever you are has put the entire war at risk. If I see your face again in the next twenty-four hours while I attempt to come to terms with how incredibly fucked this makes me, you will be serving daily detention with Mr. Filch until you pass your N.E.W.T.S. with what I don’t doubt you will ensure are flying colours. Do I make myself clear?” He had stood from his desk and looked as if he wanted to hex her; his wand hand twitched. His shouts echoed in the large room, and Hermione felt her heart rate increase in genuine fear. She had never heard him use vulgar language nor talk so openly about his role as spy. He must be truly angry to lose his composure this much.

Without a word, Hermione shakily withdrew the textbook she had been referencing in class—with a floral bookmark marking the precise page she had been on—and set it on the nearest table before fleeing the dungeons, the door swinging open before she even reached it and her feet scarcely touching the floor as she flew up the endless flights of stairs to Gryffindor tower.