Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hermione Granger stood outside her office impatiently. Franco DiGregorio had come to hang Professor Snape's picture, and she was waiting for him to finish. It didn't take long, and soon he was descending the stairs with a smile on his face.

"He's all ready, Signorina Granger. He's in a mood, though, and has been ever since he came alive. I'd be careful with what you say if I were you."

Hermione smiled and shook Franco's hand. "Thank you, Franco. I appreciate your hard work. I'm excited to see him."

The artist shook her hand vigorously and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Remember, Professore, any time you need a painting for Hogwarts, or for anything, I am here."

Hermione nodded as Franco released her hand and made his way down the corridor, waving before turning and descending the stairs. Hermione turned to her own staircase, which was moving in anticipation of her ascending to her office. She was excited and nervous.

She got on the bottom stair and let the staircase bring her up to her door. Entering the office, she gazed above her chair. There he was. Her breath hitched as she eyed him. It was him down to the curve of his nose and the black of his hair. Franco had truly captured Severus Snape. Even his scowl was perfectly placed.

"What are you staring at?" Severus snapped.

"Welcome back, Professor," Hermione said in awe.

Severus snorted. "Why would you welcome me here, Granger? Didn't you dance on my grave after the war?"

Hermione's mouth dropped open as she gave him a mortified look. "Certainly not! I'll have you know I cried at your funeral, and I still lay a bouquet of flowers at your grave every year on your birthday!"

A slightly shocked expression came across Snape's face as he seemed taken aback at that. His expression turned back into a scowl instantly.

"That may be, but I am in no mood to be welcomed by you," he snarled.

Hermione marveled at the reality of the man before her. If she wasn't staring at a painting, she would have sworn that Severus Snape was alive and as grouchy as ever. That made her smile.

"What's so funny?" Severus demanded in a regal tone.

"I'm sorry; I'm not laughing at you. It's just that Mr. DiGregorio has done a wonderful job, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were still alive."

Severus harrumphed at that. "Sorry to disappoint you, but from what I understand, I've been dead for twenty years now."

Hermione's smile faded. "That's right," she said softly.

"Miss Granger..."

"Please, sir, I am the Headmistress now, just like you were. Either address me as professor or refer to me by my given name."

"You expect me to use that mouthful of a name whenever I address you?"

"This coming from a man with your moniker?"

He smirked then. Hermione was quite taken aback that she'd possibly amused him.

"Touché, Hermione."

Her eyebrows rose. "May I call you Severus, or would you prefer I continued to use 'professor' when speaking to you?"

Severus stared at her, seemingly amazed that she'd given him a choice.

"How old are you, Hermione? You certainly don't look like the little girl I remember with her hand stuck in the air all the time."

Hermione blushed. "I'm thirty-eight."

He gave her a curt nod. "And you are no longer my student, correct?"

She nodded.

"Then you may call me Severus."

Her radiant smile made her face light up. "Thank you. As I was saying... welcome back, Severus. I'm sorry it's taken so long to get your portrait done. Minerva... well, she was very preoccupied with running the school, and the artist who..."

"Don't... Hermione. Don't make up excuses for her. She was unwilling to forgive me. I understand."

Hermione shook her head vehemently. "No, it's not that."

"Professor Granger, I am not stupid. Now if you're done blathering on about how wonderful it is to see me, I have been cooped up in here long enough. I am anxious to get out of this blasted prison."

Hermione looked at him curiously. "Blasted prison?" she asked incredulously.

Severus motioned about him. "This frame. This limited space behind me." His hand shot backwards, indicating the winged-back chair where he sat, the table and the book next to him, the only other things in the portrait. "That idiot who painted this didn't think that perhaps I might feel like only a chair and table were stifling. He didn't think to paint in more of a room... no. Just this bloody chair and a book I have now read three times since I got here."

Hermione didn't quite know what to say.

"And the background... dark green. Why would I want to look at dark green for the rest of my life?"

"I can have him repaint it red," Hermione quipped.

Severus sneered. "Very funny. I bet you think you're quite clever getting one over on the painting. I would expect much more from the brightest witch of her age."

His comment stung just as badly as his comments had in the past. The venom in his voice seeped through her veins and chilled her good will toward him. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Fine. If you don't like your portrait, then by all means leave it. You know you are free to wander the place." Her tone was harsh and her gaze accusatory.

Severus blinked. He nodded to her crisply, then turned and was gone. Hermione stared at the empty leather chair and dark green background. She wondered if her decision to honor Severus Snape would come back to make her life miserable.

Shaking her head, she made her way to her desk and sat down. She really didn't have time to worry about it right now. The school term had not been going on for long. She had much to do.

Severus glided from his frame and found himself outside the Headmistress' office across from the gargoyle. He took in his surroundings. He was standing by a pond looking out at three swans. The swans floated on the water majestically. To the left of the pond sat a huge willow tree.

"Ah, finally," Severus muttered to himself. "This is a tree worthy of reading under. I wonder why I never noticed this painting before?"

His eyes studied the large trunk of the tree as he contemplated the painting. "Probably because I was always concentrating on either going to see Dumbledore or what horrific thing Dumbledore had just told me."

He had no desire to review his tenure as Headmaster and why he'd never noticed the painting then.

He walked around the edge of the pond and went over to the tree. He felt the trunk. It certainly felt like a tree trunk. Reaching up, he felt the leaves of one of the hanging vines that made up the body of the tree. It, too, felt real.

"At least if I have something that seems real, this hell might be tolerable," he mumbled to himself.

Looking around, he noticed a bird flying off in the distance. That was a nice touch.

"But I need something to read. Off to the library."

It was odd, but Severus just instinctively knew how to move from picture to picture. He wondered if the spell DiGregorio had used gave him that knowledge. He was glad of it, because he was in no mood to be popping into paintings he had no intention of ever visiting. A shudder came over him as he thought of the Fat Lady. May he never bump into her in the eternity he'd be trapped here. If Trelawney was bad in the real world, the Fat Lady would be ten times worse. She was well known for her flirtatious nature as all the paintings mumbled about her throwing herself at the painted men.

Severus quickly appeared in the painting of the library. He'd never quite understood why the library had a painting of itself here, but now he was very thankful it existed. Perhaps the main reason was to give the portraits something to do in their spare time.

Heading for the Restricted section, he smirked as he rounded the corner. There seemed to be many more books in this Restricted section than in the 'real' area of the library. His fingers brushed some of the dusty texts as the truth dawned on him. These were all the texts that ever had been here, even those that were now removed for one reason or another.

His hand stilled on one dusty tome: Potions and Spells before Merlin's Time His eyebrow arched as he pulled it from the shelf and gingerly flipped through the brittle, old pages. Closing the book, he tapped the cover with his finger and disappeared, heading for his tree.

A/N: Thanks to slytherinlaurel for the fine beta work!