Chapter 3

Severus was stirring when she appeared again.

"Just a moment, Miss Granger. I need to put the Stasis Spell on this potion." He quickly murmured the charm, then turned back to her. "Good evening, how are you tonight?"

"I'm doing well, Professor Snape. Which potion are you making?"

He hesitated and looked at her. The expression on her face was so similar to the one he had always seen when she was a child. She was hungry for knowledge. In his mind, he debated whether he should tell her or keep it a secret.

Before he could come to a decision, the words began spilling out of his mouth. "I'm making a potion to cheat death."

She looked surprised.

"You mean... for yourself?"

"Yes, I suppose that I will be the test subject," he said in a neutral voice.

She sat in silence for a few moments. Then she spoke. "Maybe I can help you, sir."

"You, Miss Granger? What could you possibly help with?" The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to think about them. He had been unnecessarily harsh. Although she was not the greatest Potioneer the Wizarding world had ever seen, the girl's potion-making skills were above average, and she was, at a young age, already above most of the others in her field. He had originally doubted her ability, but after reading her thesis, he realized that he had been wrong.

But she didn't appear to be particularly upset about his comment, or maybe she hid her feelings very well.

"You forget, Professor, that I have a distinct advantage over you in that I am alive. I have access to many things that you don't. I can dig up your body if necessary. I also am in possession of the Resurrection Stone, one of the few bridges between the dead and the living."

"I suppose that I have no control over your activities in your spare time. If you wish to brew potions that coincide with mine, you may. My only request is that you consult me before you exhume my body and conduct experiments on it."

"Of course, sir, I would never do that without your knowledge and consent." She was smiling. Was she happy to be working with him?

"So, sir, can you tell me a bit about what you are planning to do with the potion?"

"Very well. Do you know about the Philosopher's Stone?"

Hermione nodded. Of course she knew about it.

"Then as you probably know, the Philosopher's Stone was created with a potion called the Elixir of Life. It allows the user to resist death. Another question, Miss Granger: What are the ingredients in the Elixir of Life?"

"Unicorn horn, unicorn blood, phoenix tears, wormwood, and asphodel. And it must be brewed in a silver cauldron and cannot be touched by anything other than silver after the unicorn blood is added."

"Excellent, Miss Granger. One point to Gryffindor." She smiled at his wry attempt at humor. She could probably recite every single step, all the potential side effects, and the entire history of the potion. "And, Miss Granger, what happens if the person brewing the potion adds too much unicorn blood?"

"The person will die."

"And if the person is already dead?" He could see the thoughts forming in her head as she worked through what he was saying. "Miss Granger, the unicorn blood is the main ingredient of the potion. It's what gives the potion its potency. However, one can be hurt by too much of a good thing. But if there were some way to avoid being killed by it, the effects of the potion would be substantially greater."

"Great enough to bring back the dead?" She was skeptical, understandably. If a dead man had told Snape that he was making a potion to come back to life, he would have thought that the man was mad.

"I cannot be sure, but I believe that if I make modifications to the Elixir of Life, I can negate death."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Another question. Where will you get all the ingredients?"

"You forget, Miss Granger, that I am dead and in a sort of 'Heaven' where I can obtain anything I want. Procuring the ingredients is the easiest part of making the potion."

"This is so... fascinating. I'm going to sleep now, but I'll talk to you again tomorrow."

"Goodnight."

As soon as she had left, it occurred to Severus that she would probably never try to contact him again. His ideas were insane and morally wrong. Not only was it impossible to bring back the dead, but it was something that humans were not supposed to do.

For some reason, he felt almost sad about that. It wasn't that he liked her, but he had come to enjoy her company. She was no longer the annoying girl she once had been; she had matured into an intelligent and interesting woman.

Much to his surprise, Hermione Granger came at the same time the next evening.

"Good evening, Professor. I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly yesterday. I spent the rest of the evening and most of today reading everything I could find about the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life so that I could better discuss them with you. Did you know that Nicolas Flamel was the third person to brew a potion of that nature...but the others had less success than he did?"

"Yes, Miss Granger, I was aware of that."

"Oh," she said, looking a little disappointed. He smirked, amused. She had been trying to impress him with her knowledge. She didn't realize that he had also read everything that he could find about the Philosopher's Stone.

"I have an idea, though. In addition to increasing the amount of unicorn's blood, why don't we decrease the number of phoenix tears?"

"Miss Granger, what is the reasoning behind that?"

She began showing him several pages of complex chemical equations. He looked through them with surprise. The girl clearly had an understanding of potions that was deeper than that of most. She had broken each of the ingredients down into their Muggle counterparts, something that most people in the Wizarding world knew nothing about.

He would never tell her, but he was impressed.

After looking at all the work she had done, he nodded. "Very well, I can try that."

She was glowing with pride. Typical Granger.

"Sir, we need a way to connect our two worlds. I've been thinking about how we can use the Resurrection Stone. Your potion will bring you back to life, but you will still be in the world of the dead." She paused.

"Yes, Miss Granger, I realized that problem years ago when I first started the potion. I didn't know what to do about it until the day you came into my lab."

She smiled. "I'd like to use the Resurrection Stone in a way that's similar to a Portkey between the two worlds. I'll create a potion that connects the two."

"Miss Granger, have you ever created a Portkey before?"

"Yes, I have, sir. It's rather easy."

"Creating a Portkey is one thing, but this completely different. You do realize that it requires a lot of dark magic?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that. Anything that involves death is bound to fall under the category of Dark Arts." He didn't know why, but her nonchalant tone irritated him.

"Miss Granger, you're taking this too lightly. Using dark magic harms your soul. After using just one potion, performing one charm, you'll never be the same again. Are you sure that it's worth it?"

She looked straight into his eyes. "Yes, Professor, it's worth it."

Both of them sat there, deep in thought. Why was she willing to use dark magic to help him? Did she really know what it could do to a person?

She was the first to break the silence. "I didn't tell you this before, but I think I figured out why I can only contact you with the Resurrection Stone." Looking straight into his eyes with a sad expression, she said, "I could've saved you. I've thought about it often since you died. We were in the Shrieking Shack and I saw you on the ground. I'll never forget the way you looked. We thought you were already dead. Later, the Healers told us that you had died at least thirty minutes after the snakebite. You were lying there in pain the entire time, just waiting to die a slow death. I could have run back to the castle, got some antivenin. Or at least something for the pain..."

"Hermione, stop it!" Her eyes widened in surprise at his use of her given name, which had just slipped out. He never called students by their first names, even long after they graduated...it had always been important for him to maintain a distance between them.

"I am being completely honest when I tell you that there was nothing anyone could do. The snake venom began attacking my nervous system immediately. Even if you had managed to get to the castle and back quick enough to save me...which would have been impossible...I would be living the rest of my life as a vegetable, unable to use my mind properly."

"I'm sorry that you had to die in such a way, Professor Snape. You did so much for the Wizarding world, yet you never got anything in return. You didn't even get to live to see how good the world has become because of you. That's why I want to help you."

The world had become good because of him?

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight, sir," she said. Then she was gone.

****************************

They spoke every night over the next two weeks about the experiments they were working on. If he brought up a point that she was unsure about, she would spend the next day in the library doing research.

Finally, the night of August thirty-first came.

"Good evening, Miss Granger," he said after appearing in front of her.

"Good evening. The children arrive tomorrow," Hermione told him.

"Oh?" he said. She nodded. "One thing I noticed as the years went by is that the students get lazier and more stupid every year. It's been eight years since the last time I taught Potions, which means that they're probably eight times as idiotic as they were before."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You've always been so cynical."

"And you've always been too quick to accept mediocrity. That's why you always allowed those two simpletons to tag along with you."

"As you know, Harry and Ron have become very successful Aurors and are much more intelligent than you give them credit for." He was baiting her, trying to get her angry. Although he would never admit it, she knew that his opinion of Harry and Ron had improved immensely over the years.

"That's good. Their performance in my class was absolutely abysmal. By the way, how is your relationship with Mr Weasley?"

She was surprised that he asked. This was the first time he had mentioned anything about her personal life. "Ron and I only dated for about two months. He's currently in a relationship with Lucy Bennet."

Snape smirked. "At least you quickly figured out that you were too good for him."

"Is that a compliment, Professor Snape?" Hermione asked with a small smile.

"Not so much a compliment as a statement of fact. Everyone thought that you and Weasley were wrong for each other...even Minerva and Albus."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm sure all you teachers had more important things to do than gossip about students' love lives."

Snape laughed. "You haven't been at the Head Table at lunch time yet. I had more important things to do than talk about my students, but all the other teachers ever did was gossip. They had nothing better to think about than their students' love lives."

"You have an overly critical view of your colleagues. And your students."

"I do not. The students need someone to cast a critical eye upon them...they're too lazy. And don't forget, Hermione," he said, they're not my colleagues anymore. They're your colleagues now. I'm still dead."

Hermione was quiet for a moment. When she talked to him like this, she always forgot that he wasn't much more than a ghost.

"It's funny," she said. "Recently, I've talked to you much more often than anyone else, including my friends and other teachers here. I wish I could have spoken to you like this while you were still alive." She sighed, and stared at a point on the ground.

"Hermione..." he said. Her heart began pounding as she lifted her head to look at him. His eyes were serious, and he looked as sad as she felt.

Slowly, he reached his hand up towards her face, as if to touch her cheek, then stopped, quickly pulling it away.

He stood up suddenly. She jumped when he moved so quickly...usually they would both stay seated, him in his laboratory, her in her sitting room. He began pacing. It didn't escape her notice that he was walking right through her table.

"Hermione, I hate this." She was surprised by his tone. He was so... serious and intense. "Being dead is like being alive, only there is less importance to it. I always thought that the afterlife would be peaceful and happy. I suppose it's peaceful, but it's certainly not happy. I spend every day alone with nothing to do. There's no point in making potions...dead people don't need them. I can read any book that was ever written in any language, but books are no substitute for human contact. I spend everyday waiting for you to call me. All of the people I loved during my lifetime don't want to spend this life with me."

Hermione felt sad for him. He didn't deserve this fate; after all of his sacrifices, he should be happy!

She tried to be positive. "Well, once we complete our potions, you can try again and get a second chance."

"Hermione," he said, staring at her intently. "Please don't get your hopes up. The probability that our ridiculous scheme will actually work is so small."

How could he say that? They had been working so hard, and she had been so hopeful!

"Who cares if the odds are against us? That it probably won't work? At least there's some chance! If there's any hope at all that you can live again, then we have to at least try!" Her voice was pleading.

"Hermione, I envy you. I wish that I could be optimistic in the way that you are."

"I wish you could too, Professor Snape."

"Severus."

"What?"

"Please call me Severus. Hermione, you're one of the only people I talk to anymore. The only one that I actually enjoy talking to. Can you humor me and pretend that you're my friend by calling me by my first name?"

She felt a smile form on her face. He enjoyed talking to her? That was surprising. She looked directly into his eyes. "I am your friend, Severus," she said quietly. "I really like talking to you. It's something to look forward to everyday."

A smile...a real smile...formed on his face. She couldn't remember ever seeing one before. "Hermione, I'm afraid that you should say goodbye to me for the night. The students will be arriving tomorrow, and I imagine that you have a busy day ahead of you."

Hermione nodded. It was after midnight, so she really needed to sleep. Minerva wanted them to arrive in the Great Hall by seven thirty for breakfast. "You're right. Goodnight, Severus," she said.

"Goodnight, Hermione." His eyes met hers once more.

Then she set the Stone on the table and he was gone.

That night, her dreams were about Severus Snape...begging her for mercy while she tortured him, telling Nagini to kill her, giving her a failing mark for her efforts in the war, kissing her then casting the Cruciatus Curse on her. She awoke at six thirty and felt exhausted.

Hermione pulled her hair back into a bun and put on a set of black robes. After using a charm to get rid of the dark circles under her eyes, she felt like her appearance was at least acceptable for meeting her colleagues and former professors.

When Hermione arrived in the Great Hall, two minutes early, most of the other teachers were already there. Hermione quickly greeted everyone before Minerva McGonagall arrived, exactly at seven thirty. She sat in the empty seat next to Neville.

"Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to all teachers old and new. I'd especially like to welcome our two newest staff members...both of whom are former students that you all know well...Neville Longbottom, who will be taking over the Herbology post, and Hermione Granger, who will be taking over as our Potions professor." The staff members around the table clapped for them.

Then Headmistress McGonagall began distributing their assignments for the day as last minute preparation for the impending arrival of the students. Hermione was glad that she had finished her lesson plans already...McGonagall needed their help to do the final check of the wards on the school.

She and Neville walked around the castle grounds together, casting various charms. They were having a rather one-sided conversation, with Neville talking and her being lost in thought. She couldn't stop thinking about Severus. She was beginning to realize what the Resurrection Stone was doing...bringing two lonely, like-minded people together to attempt the impossible. She actually enjoyed talking to him, more than she could imagine talking to anyone else that she knew, dead or alive.

Unfortunately, he was right that they would probably be unsuccessful. Then what would she do? Continue talking to him? Probably. But then she would fall into the trap of the Resurrection Stone. She knew that it couldn't really bring back the dead, only tease the user until it slowly drove him or her mad.

"Hermione, did you hear what I just said?" Neville said. She snapped back to reality, noticing that they were standing near the Quidditch pitch.

"Oh sorry, Neville. I was zoning out for a moment."

"Oh. I asked if you would like to come to my rooms after the students are in their Houses. We can have a drink to celebrate getting through the Welcoming Feast."

She paused and examined him for a moment. He had truly grown up over the last five years. He was no longer the pudgy, insecure boy that she had known in the past. His face had matured and his body had grown rather nicely. Many women would now call him handsome. In addition, he had a confident air about him that had only appeared after the war was over.

"Sorry, Neville, but I have a lot to do before classes start tomorrow. Maybe another time."

"Yeah, sure."

She wondered if he saw through her lie. After the children were all settled in, she had been planning to talk to Severus, then do more research.

Damn, she thought. This isn't good. I'm declining my friends to talk to a dead man. What's wrong with me?

She realized that talking to him at night was not only becoming a part of her routine, but an obsession.