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The Dark Encounter by Justice180482

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TWO
Hermione spent the whole night thinking about what had happened. She tossed and turned in her four-poster, replaying the scene in dungeons over and over again in her mind. So, of course, she got no sleep that night. By the time double Potions came around the next day, she could hardly keep her eyes open. Sleep wasn’t an option, since she fully expected Snape to be in a foul mood, and she did not want to discover the consequences of dozing off in his class.

On autopilot, Hermione trekked down to the dungeons and arrived at the Potions classroom just in time. She yawned as she slumped in her seat between Harry and Ron. Both gave her a curious look.

"I couldn't sleep last night. I’m exhausted," she whispered in response to their looks.

Snape burst through the door, causing it to slam back against the wall. Hermione's suspicions were confirmed; he was in a fouler mood than usual. He glided to the front of the classroom, his black robes billowing out behind him, giving him the appearance of a large bat.

"Today we will be brewing the Blood-Replenishing potion. You will find the ingredients on page 789," Snape growled. “Begin.”

There was a flurry of flipping pages before the whole class settled into silent concentration. Hermione couldn't keep her eyes open and dropped belladonna in her cauldron before the doxy eggs. Her potion instantly turned neon yellow. Quickly realizing her mistake, she compensated and got her potion back to the correct deep purple colour, but not before Snape had seen.

Snape floated around the room, looking down into various cauldrons, grunting and taking away House points here and there. Hermione thought his face looked much better. There were still lines from where the curse had slashed his skin, but the bleeding had stopped and most of the wounds were closed. Hermione doubted anyone would notice anything different about his face.

Snape approached Hermione and loomed over her, peering down into her cauldron. She looked up at him, and for a brief moment their eyes met before contact was broken. Snape snarled, "Yellow, Miss Granger? Ten points from Gryffindor."

Ron and Harry looked at Hermione, bewildered. It was not like her to be so off with her potions-making; they knew something was up. The eye contact left Hermione unhinged, and she spent the rest of class trying to correct her potion without drawing attention to herself. Finally, when she thought she would not be able to keep her eyes open one moment longer, Snape said, "Stop working. Put a vial of your potion on my desk, clean up, and get out of here."

There was a whirl of movement as the class bottled their potions and set them on Snape's desk. Hermione walked her bottle to the front of the room and set it down. As she turned to walk back to her cauldron, Snape appeared at her side, out of nowhere. Startled, Hermione gave a slight jump, but quickly recovered. "Miss Granger, a word after class," Snape breathed so only she could hear him.

Hermione returned to her desk and slowly began packing up her belongings. "Are you coming, 'Mione?" asked Ron, noticing she was dawdling.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied. "I'm coming, just go on ahead and I’ll catch up." She didn't want them to know that Snape wanted to speak with her. It would raise too many questions she just did not feel like dealing with.

Hermione continued to slowly pack up her things, postponing the inevitable conversation. Although she didn't have a clue what he wanted to talk to her about, she was confident it had something to do with the previous night.

After Ron and Harry left, Hermione was the last one in the classroom. Snape drifted over to her, staring down at her menacingly. Hermione tentatively looked up at her Potions professor.

"Miss Granger," Snape said in a low, silky voice, "as a member of the Order of the Phoenix, I expect nothing less than complete discretion about last night's…" he paused, "…incident," Snape finished in a strained voice. He turned, brushed past her and left the classroom, leaving Hermione alone and completely unnerved. Although she hadn’t decided whom, if anyone, she should tell about the previous night, she now knew for sure she would never mention it to anyone.

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The day after the dungeon encounter, Snape was furious. How could I let that know-it-all see me in that vulnerable position? he thought. He was sure it would end up causing problems for him, and that was the last thing he needed.

Thankfully, sleep had come easily to him the previous night, so he had not dwelt on his dilemma with Hermione; but now awake, he was forced to face it head on. I have to stop this from spiralling out of control, thought Snape. If I am lucky maybe the only people she told were Potter and Weasley. Maybe the whole Gryffindor House doesn’t know yet. Snape made up his mind to speak to Hermione as soon as possible, which turned out not to be until after lunch when he had the Gryffindors for Potions.

The thing Snape liked best about Gryffindor Potions was he didn’t have to pretend to like the students; he could take his miserable mood out on them. And today his mood was exceptionally foul, resulting in a larger than normal number of House points being deducted, but it didn’t matter how many points he deducted: his mood did not improve. Normally, the look of horror on the Gryffindors’ faces from losing points was enough to lift his sprits, but not today. Even deducting points from Gryffindor’s infamous know-it-all wasn’t enough to soothe his anger.

He had to make his move. As the students packed up, Snape glided by Hermione and made his demand that she stay after class. He knew his nearly silent request would guarantee he’d have a private audience. Granger wouldn’t dare announce she had to stay after, Snape thought.

He was right; Hermione made excuses to her friends, who left her alone with Snape. After everyone had left the classroom, Snape descended on Hermione. She looked up at him with nervous brown eyes. "Miss Granger, since you are a member of the Order of the Phoenix, I expect nothing less than complete discretion about last night's…" Snape paused, "…incident." Snape watched as her face fell.

“Professor,” she began, “I didn’t tell any…” Snape didn’t give her a chance to finish. He brushed past her and walked out of the classroom.

Did she just say she didn’t tell anyone? That can’t be, she must have told at least Potter and Weasley. But even as Snape thought it, he knew it wasn’t true. The way her face had fallen told him she hadn’t told a soul. As Snape walked down the dungeon corridor, he found himself feeling bad about doubting Hermione’s loyalties. The sad look on her young face had told him she had just wanted to help. She hadn’t wanted to gain any leverage over him, she hadn’t wanted to spread any rumours, and she certainly hadn’t wanted to make his life harder. She had wanted to fulfil an Order duty.

Although Snape’s anger had dissipated somewhat after his conversation with Hermione, he still found himself tense at the thought of her seeing him in a weakened position. I’ll just have to be more careful, he thought. He wouldn’t let her, or anyone else for that matter, see him like that again.