Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Again, pay attention to the dates each chapter/scene takes place. The story will not be in chronological order.

The Potions' Master

Tuesday, September 17th, 1996

"Tutor me."

"Miss Granger, please remove yourself from my sight."

"I will… When you agree to tutor me."

"I will not," he enunciated, arching a brow at her mulish expression.

"Why not?" she demanded, affronted. "I'm your best student – "

"You are the most intelligent student in my class, that is correct, Miss Granger, but you are not my best student."

"What?" Outraged.

Professor Snape sighed heavily, finally admitting defeat, and gave up on the papers he'd been trying to grade before Miss Granger rudely barged into his classroom and started making demands of him. Regarding her scornfully, he did his best to hide his amusement at her peeved look; Severus would rather throw himself from the Ravenclaw Tower than admit this out loud, but Miss Granger was probably the brightest student to pass through the Halls of Hogwarts in years.

She was intelligent, meticulous, and was not satisfied with mediocrity; she was a perfectionist, like himself, and expected the same perfection from her fellow peers.

But she lacked imagination; she was narrow-minded, and wouldn't think outside the box, thus unnecessarily limiting her potential.

So, he told her that.

She didn't take it so well, but that was expected of her; pride was her fatal flow, another similarity they shared, but he refused to acknowledge.

"Miss Granger, you ask me to spend a great deal of my time, my personal time, in tutoring you in the Art of Potion Making. Even if I considered it, and I'm not," he added sneering when he saw her smug smile, "your complete denial over your shortcomings is enough to disabuse me of any notion of actually helping you."

Miss Granger frowned, her eyes downcast.

There was silence – blessedly, – for a few minutes as she considered her words; Severus appreciated her unwillingness to argue with him without proper thought.

"My intelligence," she started slowly, "has always been my most defining trait. I've always been the 'smart girl'. Without it… I… I don't know who I am."

A pang of uneasiness crept down his spine; he so did not sign up for this!

"Miss Granger, no one denies your genius," he hastily said. He did not want to deal with an emotional teenage girl. Also, Minerva would have his bollocks in a vice if her most prized student had a confidence crisis and screw up in her studies because of him. "Hogwarts rarely sees a student of your intelligence – "

"But I must not be so smart if I can't figure out what I did wrong, isn't that so?" she bemoaned, carding a hand through her messy curls. "I did everything according to the book! I did everything right, and I still screwed it up!"

Merlin, things were going downhill and fast.

"Miss Granger – "

"Why did my Potion not work, Professor?" she demanded, standing up in agitation.

"No one's did, Miss Gr – "

"I don't care!" she screeched, throwing her hands in the air. "Everyone else is an idiot, but I'm supposed to be smart! I'm supposed to always have the answer!"

"For God's sake, girl, sit down!" he snapped, finally giving up. From now on, his door will always be locked between classes. Maybe he should add a student repellent charm, just in case. "We've established that you are smart – "

"But – "

"For once in your life, Miss Granger, shut up!"

She did.

"As you may have noticed, I don't give out compliments easily. At all, really."

"That's an understatement," she muttered, then promptly snapped her mouth shut at his glower.

"I don't believe in mollycoddling the students," he explained, frowning.

She fought down a derisive snort. His eye twitched. She pretended not to notice.

"Like I previously said, you are smart. You apply yourself and strive for perfection. Those are not traits most of your peers share. Most are content with Exceed Expectations, but you are not. You wish to be Outstanding, and you are not easily dissuaded."

A subtle dig at her disastrous third year; her pathological need to be the best had almost sent her to St Mungo's with magical exhaustion. If it weren't for Lily Potter, Hermione did not know how she'd have handled herself.

The older witch, seeing how exhausted and miserable the young girl was, had taken her for a walk around Godric's Hollow – the village where Harry and his family were living – and advised her to drop a couple of classes. After all, she could tell Hermione didn't enjoy Divination, and Muggle Studies were redundant for a Muggle-born.

After a lot of thinking, Hermione had finally followed Lily's advise, and dropped both classes after Christmas break.

After that, her schedule had returned to some normalcy, and she got to enjoy a life outside of academia with her friends.

"Potions is not like your other subjects," he said calmly, eyeing her with trepidation. He really, really, did not want the girl to start raving about her feelings of inadequacy again, so he chose his words carefully. "You can't swing your wand, mutter a few words, and be done with it."

"But there are proper instructions and right dosages for making potions! You can't just start throwing things in the cauldron and hope it will come out alright!"

"You are right of course. And not."

"What?"

"Storage, properly collected ingredients, the right dosage of each component for a certain potion, are all integral for brewing a perfect potion. But the way to prepare the ingredients, and to brew the potion… Well, let us just say, the Ministry approved textbooks are not always right. Especially in the instructions for the most volatile potions."

Hermione remained silent, slowly absorbing her Professor's words.

"I've never heard of that," she admitted quietly, scowling at her hands.

Severus scoffed.

"I'd be surprised if you had, Miss Granger. Most wizards and witches don't even know it, because it requires experimentation. And most are content with brewing an average Potion. And someone of your background – "

"My background? And what is that supposed to mean, Professor?" Fire danced in her eyes, and Severus fought down a smirk. Sometimes, Miss Granger strongly reminded him of another brilliant, Muggle-born student, one he had called a friend for many years before his petty jealously screwed up things between them.

"Calm down, Miss Granger, I was not insulting you," he explained. "I was merely pointing out that growing up as a Muggle, would have made experimenting on brewing potions a tad more difficult for you than your pure-blood or half-blood classmates."

"That is true." Mollified.

She stared at him, her expression determined.

"I still want you to tutor me."

Merlin's saggy balls!

"Listen, I know what I'm asking will take up a lot of your free time, and I'm sure you have a life outside of terrorizing your students despite what the twins say, but I really – "

She kept rambling on, unaware of the amused quirk of his lips as he watched her get all worked up. Not many students had the balls to insult him to his face, but Miss Granger did so thoughtlessly, flippantly, whilst asking him a favour.

Yes, Miss Granger was very similar to Lily Evans.

It took him only a few seconds, but he made a decision; he only hoped it wouldn't come back to bite him in the arse later.

"Alright. I will tutor you."

xxXxx

Later that evening

"Professor Snape will tutor you. For real."

Her friends' reactions to her news were hilarious; Neville dropped his pudding, his eyes wide as he stared at her open-mouthed. Harry had started laughing hysterically, imagining Snape's reaction when she told him she accidentally insulted him, Ron offered to take her to the Hospital Wing because 'you are obviously ill, Hermione, you must be if you're considering spending time alone with that Bat!', Ginny just nodded along with her brother, and Luna smiled serenely.

"Will you stop?" she finally snapped and pushed Ron's hands away. "I'm not ill, Ronald, so stop it already!"

"But – "

"No buts! Professor Snape is doing me a great favour. He's one of the greatest Potions Masters' in the country, and I'm glad he agreed to my request. I will learn so much from him! I cannot wait!"

"But... He's Snape!"

"I think it's great!" Luna chirped, patting Ron's back comfortingly. "Hermione needs some help opening her mind, and Professor Snape needs someone to lighten him up. Your relationship will be beneficial to both of you!"

"Argh! Don't use that word when referring to Hermione and that git!"

"Ron, if you don't stop, I swear, I'll punch you."