Chapter 6. Agape

As Hermione kept her gaze upon the billowing mass of Snape’s robes, she frowned. This is a cruel reenactment of all the detention fantasies I had in my sixth year, she thought, her eyes following the swish, swish of the fabric.

The short and misguided crush she had on her Potions professor had been a mistake, surely. Yet the way he had looked at her when she first entered the ball…

She shook her head, still keeping her eyes on the man. She sensed someone looking at her, and realised that the figure in black had stopped in front of an unfamiliar corridor in the dungeon. Another pair of eyes was trained upon her; Fred, despite his hostage-like situation, was grinning at her. A quick glance at him that made her head spin confirmed her suspicions. What else is the prat up to? she wondered as Snape murmured unintelligible words to reveal a door leading to his private lab.

Hermione wished she could take in her surroundings fully; instead, she peered at the many shelves of glass jars and bottles, long wooden tables, and empty cauldrons through the corners of her eyes.

I can do this, she thought, shutting her eyes to experience the calming darkness of her closed eyelids.

Opening them once more, Hermione saw more black – this time it belonged to the impatient gaze of the Potions Master.

“Miss Granger, are you adequately rested at this point in time?” He crossed his arms, his pale long fingers vanishing in the darkness of his frock coat.

“Wonderfully so, Professor,” she snapped back. Focusing back on the matter at hand, she asked, “Fred, what ingredients did you use to brew the potion in the chocolates?”

“Er… it was produced in a very complicated procedure that I am sure will be extremely difficult to–”

“Don’t you try to defend your trade secrets now, Weasley. Just tell the girl what you used.” Snape kept his arms crossed, waiting.

Fred nodded, yet Snape’s warning did not fully register in his mind. “First, we used a cauldron, some water, and a stirring rod… er, ingredients, right.” Fred’s grin faded as he saw the growing ire in Snape’s face.

“We used a large bowl of lovage, three or four foxglove plants, a pinch of ground vervain, and about this much of salamander blood.” Fred made a gesture with his thumb and forefinger to give an approximate amount.

“That’s it?” Hermione found it hard to believe those were the only ingredients for such a horrible potion.

“Well,” said Fred, “We did use a carrot or two.”

“Carrots?” Hermione looked at Snape in disbelief.

“Do not mock the magical properties of carrots. Miss Granger. They are used in many healing potions for the eye, or their orange pigment is harvested for color-changing potions. Besides,” he added, his lips twitching upward into a smirk, “carrot roots can be used as a powerful aphrodisiac in some lust potions.”

“We were also hungry when we made the potion,” Fred muttered, trying to pretend he did not just hear Snape say ‘lust’ and ‘aphrodisiac’ to his friend in suggestive manner – and see Hermione enjoy it.

“Good,” Hermione finally responded, her gaze resting on Snape’s hooked nose. “We should have all the inhibitors we need here.”

“Inhibitors?” Snape raised an eyebrow in question.

“Well, I’ve been doing research on antidotes for the Ministry,” Hermione elaborated, occasionally pausing to scrunch her eyebrows together in thought. “Although we already have the traditional ways to brew the more common antidotes, one could theoretically create an antidote for a new or modified potion based on the ingredients of the original potion. The inhibitors, or the ingredients countering the effects of the potion, could specifically work with a new, untested potion, which leads us back here.” At the end of her lecture, Hermione tried to walk to a clear table, but her head swam. She turned back to Snape as she perched herself on the table’s edge.

“Professor, could you please fetch some moonstone? The calming effect would overcome the Levisticum officinale.”

“Lovage,” Snape translated out loud as he searched through the shelves in the front of the lab. Hermione felt a jolt in her spine as he said the word. If only he could remove the last syllable, she thought as she stared at Snape’s back. When he returned to her, he set up a cauldron on the desk in front of hers.

“I think that we also need some poppies, Professor – although a concentrated amount can cause blindness, a few could go against the carrots in the potion. Could you bring some eel eyes as well? We’d have to damage them so that it will bring a weakening effect on the potion.”

“With pleasure.” As Hermione stared at Snape’s retreating figure gathering more ingredients, she couldn’t help but shiver again at his words – even though he said them with his usual biting sarcasm. Imagine if he said those words kneeling before her in bed…

Hermione’s thoughts flew out of the gutter as a knock sounded on the door. Fred left her limited line of vision and reappeared with another redhead and an unfamiliar head of untidy brown hair.

“What are you still doing here, Hermione?” Ginny’s voice sounded throughout the lab. “Don’t you know that there’s a cure?”

“A cure?” Hermione asked hopefully. “Did George come back with the antidote?”

“No. All you have to do is ki–”

“I know about that already, Gin. I’m not doing it.”

“Why not? Fred isn’t going to snog you or anything…” Seeing that Hermione wasn’t not even looking at her and her brother, but at the smirking man over a simmering cauldron, she said, “It’s perfect, though. Remember what I told you earlier?”

“Ginny, we cannot discuss this here,” Hermione said with a nervous glance at Snape. “If the cure works so well, why is that wizard so ‘attached’ to you?” Hermione noticed that the brown and red heads of hair were blurring together.

“Oh, he never ate a chocolate – he’s just my new date for the evening.”

Now she has a date, and I’m stuck in the dungeons, Hermione thought with a grimace.

“Come on, Hermione, don’t be that way. Just kiss him, and Fred can go home,” said Ginny.

Hermione threw her hands up in the air. I picked his brains the best I could. “Professor Snape and I can put our heads together for this,” she admitted.

“It will work out for the best. I’ll go to George now,” said Fred, eager to escape.

“I suppose you could use the report I was working on; you know, the one you ogled a few hours ago,” Hermione murmured, staring at Snape’s sallow features. I hope he wasn’t offended, Hermione thought, remembering her repeated refusals to kiss him.

She shook her head. “Ginny, please go and drop off Crooks before you acquaint yourself with your date.”

“I can’t, Hermione. Crookshanks is… preoccupied.”

The brown-haired wizard spoke up.

“You mean that old orange cat?” After receiving a nod from Hermione, he continued.

“It was shagging another cat. They were going at it in a corner of the Great Hall.” Before Hermione could ask what cat Crookshanks was “going at it” with, Ginny let out a giggle.

“Mrs. Norris.”

Fred laughed, Hermione had a concerned look on her face, and Snape’s lips twitched to show his amusement.

“Mrs. Norris was licking a chocolate – we didn’t think it was one of those ‘spiked’ ones – it was wrapped in black foil. The next thing you know, they can’t keep their paws off each other. Sure there was lots of snarling at first, but then nature took its course… I should go now, shouldn’t I?”

“Oh yes, Ginny, please. I’ll see you when I get out of this mess.” Ginny left the lab, walking hand in hand with her companion. Fred gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek, said goodbye, and shut the heavy wooden door behind him.

And with that, two floundering souls were left together in the dungeons.