Chapter 4: A Living Science

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

Thanks go out to VIVAvivacious for all her help beta-ing this chapter for me.

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Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less – Marie Curie

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Piccadilly, London: 10th June 2009

Hermione wanted so desperately to concentrate on the lecture being presented, but she found herself otherwise preoccupied with thoughts of none other than Severus Snape.

He sat stiffly in his chair on the other side of the room, not looking a day older than the last time she had seen him. In fact, he looked a little younger than she remembered, but her memory of his face was vague. The last time she had seen him, she had been too occupied with fuming over his rude behaviour towards her to even care what the man had looked like. This time, however, she no longer cared about his attitude from four years before and was interested in the man. He was the top of the field and the one man who everyone sought out when they were stuck.

She thought back on the last time they had spoken. She had broken off her yearlong engagement to Viktor Krum just days before the conference, and his words had dealt a heavy blow to her already shaky self-esteem. He had been unnecessarily harsh towards her, saying cruel words that reminded her of just how single she was. At the time, she had been hurt and had taken his rejection of her company poorly. But she knew now he could hardly have known about Viktor Krum when so few of her friends had even known she was involved with the Bulgarian Seeker.

With four more years of growing up, learning, and discovering new things, Hermione could look back on that day with barely a hint of annoyance.

She let her eyes wander back up to the podium where the speaker was rambling away about the importance of Veritaserum and its various uses in Magical Law Enforcement. She snorted. Surely there were more interesting things to talk about than that. She wondered for a moment just how much the Ministry of Magic must have invested into the symposium in order for that to be a featured talk. She flipped open her progress journal on her lap, casting a charm over the pages to deter the eyes of others who thought to pry, and began to go through her calculations.

She continued in that manner until the lecture was finally over and those who were in the room began filing out. Hermione watched Snape dodge a few people who tried to talk to him, beating a hasty retreat through the exit. Hermione made her way out at the same pace as everyone else, her colleague from the Institute, Maria Savvedra, walking along beside her.

'Thank the lord that is over,' Maria commented as they followed the crowd down the stairs towards the Music Room.

Hermione grinned at that comment. 'Yes, I did expect something like that here, but I certainly didn't think it would be the very first lecture,' she agreed. 'The Ministry has too much influence here, and the organisers must have been short on sponsorship from individuals this year.'

The other witch nodded in agreement. They made their way to the buffet and collected some sandwiches and juice before looking around for a table to sit at. Everything looked to be fairly full, save for two seats: one, at a table of younger witches and wizards, and one seat directly across from Severus Snape. Hermione thought that fate had a terrible sense of humour.

'I'll go sit with Snape,' Hermione offered, watching Maria's expression turn to one of relief.

'Thank you, Hermione,' she said with a smile. 'You have no idea how horrible that man is. I tried to talk to him once last year, and he told me to shut my mouth and leave. I'd be too scared to even try something like that again.'

Hermione shook her head. 'It's no trouble,' she said, lying with some success. 'He was my professor at Hogwarts for six years – trust me, I know exactly what he is like. I'm actually happy to sit with him. I'll make him more uncomfortable than anyone else here.'

Maria laughed at that, and the two parted ways. Hermione made her way over to Snape with a determined expression on her face. On arriving at his table, she placed her plate down and seated herself gracefully in the chair across from him. Without bothering to look up or acknowledge him, she picked up one of her sandwiches and began to eat. When she was about halfway through that piece, she finally did look up at him and saw the indignant look that he was directing at her.

'Is there a problem, Professor Snape?' she asked.

He didn't reply and instead looked back down at the newspaper he had spread out on the table before him, picking up his own sandwich and beginning to chew on it. She almost smiled at his obvious discomfort in her presence and returned to eating her food in silence. After she was finished, she picked up her journal, and without giving him a second glance, left the dining room, her robes swishing around her legs.

The afternoon drew on even longer than the morning sessions had, and Hermione found that she had to pinch herself awake more often than she would have liked. It was exceedingly annoying, as she had to save up a lot of her money in order to attend the symposium, only to be bored to death and feel like it had all been a waste. After the last session of the day, she left the house and went back to her room in the hotel, taking a long, hot bath before drying herself and setting an alarm. She crawled under the covers of her freshly made bed nude and fell asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow.

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Piccadilly, London: 11th June, 2009

Hermione smirked inwardly as she observed her breakfast companion from across the table.

The night before she had awoken after her nap and attended dinner, only to impose her presence on Snape once more. He didn't speak to her the entire time, and she didn't bother talking to him either, which she could see was having an interesting effect on the man's mood. He appeared to be neither angry nor annoyed at her any more, but rather was confused by her lack of questions or chatter. Pleased by his reaction, she decided that it was time to begin attempting to converse with Snape.

'You know, if you have a question, you are more than welcome to ask it of me,' she said, looking up from her porridge to her companion's face.

'What are you doing here?' he asked gruffly, not returning her gaze.

'Well, I am a Potions master,' she answered with a smile, know exactly what he meant by his question but choosing to skirt around the correct answer. 'I was invited to this symposium, the same as everyone else in attendance.'

'You know that's not what I meant, woman,' he growled, his deep voice as resonant as ever despite his delivery.

Hermione's eyebrows rose at his use of the term 'woman' as opposed to 'girl,' as he had the last time he had spoken to her. 'There are very few other places to sit, and I happen to be the only person here who is not scared of you, Severus Snape,' she answered with a smug smile.

'You were much less audacious when you were younger,' he murmured with a slight frown creasing his brow.

'And you were much more intimidating when I was younger,' she retorted. 'But people change, Professor.'

He grunted noncommittally at her response and went back to reading his paper while he spooned porridge into his mouth. She smiled in satisfaction. So far, so good. Snape hadn't snapped, nor had he rejected her like he had the last time. He seemed determined to pay her as little notice as he was able. But Hermione had already decided that it was going to change. While she was not the most sociable person in the world, he was a total recluse and was far too antisocial for his own good.

After breakfast, everyone adjourned to the main lecture room at the top of the stairs. Hermione beckoned Maria over to sit with her, and in her determined way, sat herself right beside Snape. Her colleague's eyes were wide with apprehension when she sat on Hermione's other side, and she looked pointedly at Snape before looking back to the younger witch with a question in her eyes.

Shaking her head, Hermione turned to watch the Master of Ceremonies announce the program for the day. After the schedule was passed around the group, everyone began dispersing to the various different sessions that were available. Hermione watched Snape beside her circle the few he was attending and found she was going to be attending the very same ones. As she and Maria were passing through the doors, Hermione felt her friend tug her sleeve to pull her aside.

'Be careful with Snape, Hermione,' she said seriously. 'He's not the sort of person you need to be hanging around. I don't trust anyone when I can't tell what they're thinking by their eyes, and that man's eyes are inscrutable.'

Hermione nodded and smiled. 'It's all right, Maria,' she informed her confidently. 'I can take care of myself as far as Severus Snape is concerned.'

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Hermione barely contained her flinch when Snape narrowed his eyes at her when she joined him at his table at dinner after the second night of the symposium.

While ignoring his death stares and cold looks was coming more easily to her, she still got caught off balance sometimes and would end up feeling chastened by him in his presence. Although they did not speak often when they were in each other's company, Hermione felt like she understood him better. Even so, there was still much more that she wanted to know about the reclusive man.

She took a bite of her pasta and observed Snape discretely from beneath her lashes. He had a book open with pages that were blank. She smiled. It was probably the same spell she used on her journals to prevent others from being able to read her notes. She respected that – his intellectual property was his own to do with as he pleased. Clearing her throat slightly, she managed to earn another narrowed gaze from her former professor.

'Oh, come off it,' she exclaimed in exasperation. 'You don't need to always glare around at everyone suspiciously as though they are out for your blood.'

'You might be surprised, Miss Granger, by just how many people are still out for my blood,' he murmured back, surprising Hermione.

'That's not true!' she said insistently.

'Oh, really? Miss Granger, while I do not fear any eminent threat from the convicted Death Eaters who are all locked up in Azkaban, the fact still remains that I am the known murderer of one of the greatest wizards known to our world,' he said without expression. 'Though it has been many years, there are some people who are unwilling to forgive that I was forced to kill Albus Dumbledore.'

'What do you mean by that?' she asked, a frown creasing her brow.

'What I mean, Miss Granger, is that I still receive the occasional letter describing in great detail what the person wished to do in order to exact their punishment upon me,' he said simply.

Hermione drew in a sharp breath at that, covering her gaping mouth quickly. 'But, you should report these people for that!' she said.

'And what, pray tell, will such a thing achieve?' he replied, focussing his eyes back on his journal. 'If I were to live my life afraid of a few little death threats, I doubt I would have managed to survive this long.'

Hermione's next question stilled on her the end of her tongue. Perhaps she had pried into the man's life enough for that day. She ate the rest of her meal in silence and left with a murmured goodnight before leaving the table and heading back to her room to read herself to sleep.

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Piccadilly, London: 16th June, 2009

The morning of the final day of conference was bright and reasonably warm.

After spending breakfast sitting with an extremely silent Snape, Hermione walked into the first session for the day alone. She pulled out her notebook straight away, her hopes for the conference sufficiently curbed. It really had been a waste of her time – she had learned very little, and though she had tried as hard as she could, Snape was still as reclusive as he had been three days earlier. The speaker was at the front organising a stack of notes and was about to begin just as Snape swept in and took his seat beside Hermione.

She turned to look at him and saw he was staring straight back at her with an unreadable expression. She smiled at him, regardless of his reasoning, and turned to look back at the raised platform and try to pay attention to the talk about medicinal potions in the Dark Ages. Like these people knew half of what there was to know about those kinds of potions. She snorted mentally. The man seated beside her had more knowledge than any of the buffoons who had spoken in his little finger alone. The rest of the day continued in the same fashion: Hermione pretending to listen whilst hiding behind her work journal, Snape seated beside her in silence.

At lunch, Snape shared their usual table with her without complaint or raised eyebrow.

'There is only one more of those god-awful sessions before this whole experience is over,' she commented as she poked at a cherry tomato.

'I have never been more relieved,' Snape said dryly as he pushed his copy of Ars Alchemica across the table towards her. 'There is an interesting article on page twenty about the discovery of a new use for the Midnight Orchid as an ingredient in nerve regeneration.'

'Interested in that sort of thing, are you?' she asked with a cheeky smile, earning herself a glare from the man opposite.

'You're awfully cheeky,' he stated as he picked up a sandwich and took a bite. 'I was under the impression that know-it-alls such as yourself were always respectful towards your betters.'

'No one could ever accuse you of being charming,' she muttered under her breath as she slipped through the periodical to the page her companion had suggested.

Her eyes scanned the article, and a twinkle soon appeared in them when she understood what it was she was reading. This flower might be the answer to all the problems she had come up against with her potion. If she was reading it correctly, she could cut back on her ingredients for the potion by about a third and replace most of the other nerve regenerative ingredients she had included with this one plant. The only problem was that the plant grew in subtropical climates and would be extremely expensive to first acquire and then maintain. What she would have given for England to have more variation in its weather patterns – it was usually either cold, wet, or both.

'This is quite a breakthrough!' she exclaimed when she sat back after reading it.

'Indeed,' Snape said, accepting the journal back with a nod. 'It could mean a lot to the medical community if the discovery was put to good use in potions and the like.'

'I can't believe we sat through that boring lecture this morning when we could have been hearing about this,' Hermione said, nodding her head towards the journal on the table. 'I do not think I will be attending in future.'

'I have been asking myself the same thing since my arrival,' Snape said, finishing off his sandwich in two bites. 'That article was just the beginning of a new era of potion making. Mark my words: someone will put this new knowledge to good use very soon.'

Hermione's eyebrow lifted slightly at that comment. 'Do you intend to use it?'

He frowned at her then. 'Whether or not I do intend this knowledge to serve any purpose is hardly any of your business, Miss Granger.'

'I apologise if it seems as though I'm prying,' she said, looking at her hands. 'I can tell that you seemed somewhat enthusiastic about the article. I thought it may have some significance to you or your work.'

'Your Gryffindor curiosity will get the better of you one day,' he said quietly.

'And your Slytherin penchant for hoarding information and keeping secrets all of the time will do the same to you,' she retorted.

He smirked. 'Touché, Miss Granger.'

As lunch drew to a close, everyone made their way to the main lecture room that they had begun the conference in. The last talk was being held in there, along with the departure ceremony and the last chance for everyone to socialize afterwards. Hermione sat with Maria to her left and Snape on her right side, seated at the end of the row closest to the nearest exit. He sat stiffly the entire time, and two long hours later, it was finally time to bring the weekend to a close and send everyone packing. Before Snape could get too far ahead, Hermione called out to him.

'I look forward to seeing you again, Professor,' she told him, holding out her hand to shake his.

Unexpectedly, Snape took her hand and swept it up to his mouth, brushing his lips over the back of her hand in a gentlemanly fashion. 'Until next time, Miss Granger,' he said formally, and releasing her hand, he turned on his heel and strode out.

Hermione looked at her hand to the spot where her skin still tingled from the contact with his lips. Shaking her head, she continued on, eager to go home.

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To be continued.