Snake Skin

AN: see disclaimer in earlier chapter

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Hermione couldn't remember the last time she had felt this nervous before a potions class. She took a deep breath before pushing the door open and making her way to her customary seat near the back. Severus hadn't gotten there yet and students were still filing in. She sat down and concentrated on looking as normal as possible.

She wasn't nervous about the class, even if the prospect of skinning a two-headed snake was a bit nerve racking. No, it was the actual potion-making that was making her nervous. She had already decided on what ingredient she could slip in to cause a minor explosion followed by the melting of her cauldron. She was vain enough to hate the idea of ruining her perfect potions record, but one time wouldn't hurt her grade.

But she didn't know how Severus would react. Last night, he hadn't believed that anything would really happen in class today. What would he do when her cauldron melted? When faced with the truth of their dream sharing, how would he react towards her? She knew him well, but she couldn't predict something of this magnitude. What would he say to her? Would he acknowledge her or would he ignore her? He had shown an emotional and vulnerable side of himself to her in their dreams. She knew he wouldn't like the idea that one of his students had managed to get so close to him.

Hermione sat through the first hour of potions, even managing to cleanly skin her two-headed snake. The task ended up being a lot less daunting than she had originally thought. She had imagined a large snake roughly the size of Nagini, but in reality the two-headed snake was no larger than a common garden snake. It was quite easy to make a few incisions and peel the skin back.

Her heart started to beat quickly and she felt beads of sweat pop up on her forehead when Severus pointed his wand at the chalkboard. Potions instructions and ingredients appeared, detailing the creation of a basic animate potion. It was just as he said it would be last night.

Hermione added the two-headed snake skin to her potion and watched the brew turn mustard yellow as she stirred. She had made the potion perfectly, now she just had to mess it up. She tried to ignore the tremors in her hand when she picked up her jar of dried puffpod worms; she had predicted that the leathery skin of the worms would react badly to the dandelion milk in the potion.

She dropped three puffpod worms into the brew and took one step back as her potions started to make a soft gurgling sound. Severus' head snapped up at the no-doubt familiar sound of a badly made potion. He had been across the room, berating a Hufflepuff student about their potion when he heard the sound. His eyes met hers as the resulting explosion occurred. She caught his look of stunned realization just as something slimy landed in her hair and steam started to hiss up from the melting cauldron.

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Severus Snape could recite this lecture in his sleep. It was one he did every year for his seventh year class and had not deviated from it yet. Skinning a two-headed snake actually sounded a lot more interesting than it ended up being in reality. He quickly demonstrated the technique and ordered the class to do just as he did. After that it was a simple matter of putting directions on the board and letting the class begin their potions. He anticipated no real problems. The basic animate potion was a rather easy but necessary part of the curriculum.

He caught sight of the real Hermione Granger as he walked around the classroom. She was diligently peeling back the skin from her snake. He had to stifle a smile as he thought of the dream he had experienced the night before. It was amazing what a man's imagination could conjure up, he thought as he watched her. No doubt the student would be horrified if she knew he was imagining what she looked like after a particularly satisfying bout of lovemaking.

He felt a slight pang of sadness as he thought over his latest dream. It had felt so real, and he wondered, not for the first time, if he should stop himself from having them. Not only had his dream Hermione mentioned taking dreamless sleep potion; he was beginning to wish for more than just the dream. Perhaps his head was telling him that he should take dreamless sleep potion himself.

He had laughed and loved and enjoyed a certain amount of intimacy with his dream Hermione. He wanted that all the time, not just in his dreams.

Severus let his scowl show as he strode back to the front of the classroom and tried to get his mind back on task. He needed to keep himself focused and not let his night life distract him during the day. He whipped his wand out and pointed it to the chalkboard where the potions instructions appeared.

'You should all be finished skinning your snakes by now. Let's see if you have done everything correctly. You will be using your snake skin in this potion. I will know if you improperly skinned the snake.'

He stifled the urge to smile as the students wordlessly pulled out their potions kits and began to prepare their ingredients. He enjoyed seventh-year Potions class because, after several years in his class, the students knew to obey him without complaint. He moved to his desk and sat down; he could wait 15 minutes before he began moving around the classroom to personally check on their potions attempts.

Thirteen minutes later he sighed and looked up from the Potions journal he had been reading. It was time to intervene. Particularly with a certain Hufflepuff who was headed towards disaster: there were pieces of snake skin all over his work table. No doubt his potion would be an abysmal failure. Severus strode towards said student and started in on improperly skinned snakes.

Just as he was warming to the subject, he was interrupted by a familiar gurgling sound. Apparently this potion, easy as it should have been, was too much for at least one of his students. He turned to scan the room and it was then that he saw whose cauldron was now bubbling and hissing. His eyes met Hermione's across the room; she looked both apprehensive and hopeful as she smiled shyly at him.

Severus felt himself freeze as his mind quickly ran over his dreams last night and the resultant class today.

Severus watched as her cauldron managed to spit out masses of green potion as well as melt and hiss at the same time. It was both more impressive and more horrifying than most of the cauldron explosions he had seen during his days as a potions professor. Trust Hermione Granger to make sure that even when it came to melting a cauldron, she would be an over-achieving know-it-all.

He shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times... He couldn't think straight. The implications of what this meant... He didn't quite know what to do about them. So he did what he normally did when he didn't have any clear direction or answers; he went into defensive mode.

He scowled as he raked Miss Granger with a scathing glance.

'Well, well, it seems we are seeing history today, class. Miss Granger, our resident know-it-all, apparently doesn't actually know it all. Especially when it comes to a basic animate potion that even the most dunderheaded of students should have managed. Perhaps you could attend my first-year Potions class, Miss Granger, and try to learn something useful.'

The class had gone silent. He thought it was probably due to the combination of seeing Hermione Granger mess up a potion as well as fear in regards to his reaction to it. He suddenly felt like he needed to be alone... He couldn't handle this any longer. He whipped his wand out and Evanesco'ed the entire potion and cauldron.

'Class dismissed! Bottle what you have completed and leave them on my desk. We will continue this lesson when we meet again.' His voice was hard enough to snap each student into action as they quietly followed his orders.

He turned on his heel and stalked back towards his office, slamming the door behind him.

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Hermione watched her potions master slam the door to his office and sighed, ignoring the din of the students around her as they frantically packed up their belongings and got out of the classroom. He had been so upset, he had let class out thirty minutes early. Hermione ran her hands through her hair, trying to remove a majority of the congealed potion residue that had landed on her head.

That hadn't gone well at all, she thought as she slowly cleaned up her mess and packed up her satchel.

After she had finished she squared her shoulders and walked towards his office, knocking twice.

'Professor, its Hermione Granger, sir. Could we-'

He didn't bother to open the door, merely bellowing through it, 'Miss Granger, I am fairly certain I told the class to get out. Now, leave.'

'But, Severus...'

'Get. OUT!'

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AN: Sorry this is such a short chapter, but it was a good time to break it before my next installment. I'm having trouble figuring out how Severus would react in this situation. Please review.