Chapter 4
Laid in bed that night Hermione mulled over the protective enchantments of Dot’s connection to Severus’ family and before letting her dreams take her briefly mulled over when she began calling him Severus in her head.
….
“Mione! Where were you last night? Ron asked the following morning at breakfast with a mouth full of scrambled egg.
“I was studying Ronald” she sighed.
“Not in the library you weren’t! Harry and I went looking for you, didn’t we Harry?”
Harry smiled at her with a little nod and Hermione appreciated the difference between their motives with Harry likely wishing to spend time with her and Ron wanting her to do his homework.
Before this thought had fully formed in her head Ron began his questioning on the properties of moonstone and Hermione was reminded of Professor McGonagalls speech from this time yesterday.
Deciding internally that enough was enough she spent the next 15 minutes giving Ron misinformation whilst Harry watched on with a mixture of surprise and discord.
The question of her whereabouts had clearly disappeared from Ron’s mind and Harry respected her privacy enough not to ask.
Once her coffee and her drivel of fantastical information had ended she stood from the table and made her way to Herbology with a smile on her face and a set of eyes watching her with satisfaction from the Head Table.
…
On Wednesday at 7pm she knocked on the door of Snape’s room only for it to open magically at her touch.
Once the door had closed behind her she saw her Professor enter the room from a door situated behind his desk which she had never seen before.
Her professor was in a white Oxford shirt, a waist coat, trousers and cat adorned socks holding a piece of parchment in his house and jovially reading aloud to her.
“Powdered moonstone when combined with that of elephant semen has been known to increase the size of the penis by up to 3 inches!” He laughed, “tell me Miss Granger. Is this why I spent my free period yesterday creating an ointment for a Mr Ronald Weasley who spent his Charm’s lesson up in the hospital wing?”
Giggling quietly she straightened up, looked him directly in the eye and said “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about Sir, perhaps these benefits should be further researched?”
“Ha! Insolent girl, take another 10 points and your shoes off, let’s get cracking”.
…
Unbeknownst to Hermione she had begun to hum and on the following Monday morning following 4 successful dancing lessons with her new and improved Professor, Hermione had to admit that her mood was brighter and although she refused to think too much on this, Ron had decided to make it his business.
He had not mentioned to her about his difficulties with the moonstone, nor had he requested further help with his homework and so she was taking the win and feeling rather free spirited until he sat down beside her with a determined thump.
“Mione!” He bellowed overconfident to the acknowledgment of the great hall.
Eyes firmly placed on the newspaper before her she drawled in an impressive impersonation of her newly favourited Professor “yeesssssssss?”
“I would like to cordially invite you to go to the yule ball with me! How does 7 sound?”
“Noppee”.
“What do you mean no?” he asked, flabbergasted.
Looking up at him in bewilderment aware that students and staff were observing them she responded “Exactly that Ronald, I have a date who asked me to attend the ball with him weeks ago”.
Standing and collecting her belongings she added “and not as a last resort”.
“Mione!” he called after her to a smattering of giggles throughout the hall, “I know you aren’t being serious! I don’t want you to have to go alone!”
Turning around in front of the open doors she pointed her wand into the air above her head and quietly spoke flamanuntius and there, 6 feet above her head in her neat handwriting written in flame were the words “fuck you Ronald Weasley”.
The hall exploded with noise. A mixture of laughter, shouting and the scraping of seats surrounded Hermione and without wanting to think about the why she looked up into the face of Severus Snape who, eyes twinkling with amusement mouthed “20 points to Gryffindor” just as McGonagall swooped in grasping her arm tightly and steering her out of the hall shouting “50 points from Gryffindor!” to the bellows and whoops of her fellow students and friends.
Hermione entered the hall that lunchtime to the pleasant surprise of her words still floating there. Whilst standing in the doorway pondering over this she was surprised to see Theodore Nott at her side, hands in his pockets and a small smile on his lips “apparently Granger, they are struggling to get it down” and chuckling as he walked away he added “big fan of your work”.
Smiling to herself she walked over and seated herself next to a smiling Harry, helped herself to some cottage pie and spoke about their next class.
Walking to Potions after lunch, Ron caught up with them red faced and quiet and Hermione who had decided to wait for an apology before removing the writing in the Great Hall was fine with this delay and smiling to herself joined the others waiting outside of the classroom.
….
“Say that again Malfoy!” Harry seethed.
Disrupted from her daydreams of Pink Floyd and dances Hermione spun around to face the ensuing argument of her friend and the arduous Draco Malfoy.
“Oh please Potty, I am only saying what everyone is thinking, your desperation for power and fame surpasses that of even the most powerful Slytherins! If it weren’t for your mudlblood mother I should think you’d be living in the dungeons with us”.
“Furnunculus!” Harry shouted.
“Densaugeo!” Shrieked Malfoy.
Quick as a whip both spells were deflected with screeches from Goyle and Hermione and further damage was averted only by the arrival of Snape.
“What is going on here?” he demanded.
In response to the overwhelming noise in response he clarified “Malfoy! You.”
“Sir, Potter attacked Goyle unprovoked. Look at him Sir!”
Turning, Snape looked at Goyle and the green fungi sprouting off of his face and with revulsion directed Crabbe to take him to the hospital wing.
“Sir! Sir!” Harry practically screamed, “Malfoy attacked me and he deflec-”.
“Oh do be quiet Potter, why is Miss Granger facing the wall? A dunce spell?”
Harry grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around to face Snape. She was clearly trying to cover her quickly growing front teeth and within his peripheral vision he could see Malfoy smirking.
She looked at him with so much desperation he felt sure others could sense her attempting to gain comfort from him.
As her teeth began to reach her chest he looked directly into her eyes and said “I see no difference”.
She ran.