Chapter 15: Where Your Priorities Lie

"All I am saying is that I really don't think you should be too hard on her, sir. She's still struggling with being so far away from her family for the majority of the year," Granger said as the pair made their way up one of the narrow staircases connecting the remote dungeons to the rest of the castle. "She's very sensitive, you know."

Severus snorted at her defence of the Hufflepuff student; she certainly took her job as Head Girl just too seriously sometimes.

"I do believe that this is Miss Zeller's third year at this school now. Sensitive or not," he spat the word out with some disgust. "It is about time that she gets a hold of herself. I already expect nothing from her, and yet she still somehow manages to disappoint me every single time that she enters my classroom."

The witch shook her head in disagreement as she gave him a disapproving look, but Severus thought that he could see the corners of her mouth lift a little.

Reaching the Grand Staircase, their conversation shifted to something more academic: an interesting Potions Weekly article they'd both read. It really seemed as though the ice between the teacher and his student had broken even more ever since their little nighttime encounter in front of the Hospital Wing. Over the past two weeks, Granger had ventured into the dark depths of the dungeons on a daily basis; once or twice, she had even gone two times in a single day. Splitting their time between Snape's office and the Potions classroom, the two masterminds had prepared assignments, maintained Poppy's ever-dwindling medicine stock and even discussed the wizarding world's newest scientific achievements here and there. Whenever there'd been time, Severus had tried to quench his apprentice's thirst for knowledge by teaching her about exotic potions that were way too complex to even be mentioned on the regular Hogwarts syllabus. And while he had been trying hard to keep up his guard in front of his inamorata, Granger had slowly started to share more and more personal details of her life during each exchange – like the time she had opened up about the pressure put on her from a very young age by her dentist parents to live the healthiest lifestyle possible. "Can you believe that I never had a bite of chocolate before my very first ride on the Hogwarts Express? That was the first time that I'd ever been without their supervision. I felt like I had committed a criminal act!"

Deeply engaged in their discussion about a particularly fascinating part of the article, the both of them startled in unison when the large, old door leading to the Great Hall suddenly swung open just a few feet ahead of them. Out came three familiar figures: A tall and lanky freckled ginger and another slightly smaller boy with untidy jet-black hair who had his arm slung loosely around the shoulders of a thin redhead.

"Oh!" Granger let out a small gasp as she recognised her peers. "I'm sorry, Professor, but I need to go now. I think that I'll spent the evening studying since I have the feeling that there is going to be a surprise quiz tomorrow in Charms; but I'll try to stop by in the morning before breakfast to drop off those essays I corrected last week, if that would be all right?"

All Severus could do was to give her a curt nod before he watched her run off after her idiotic friends.

"Hey, you guys! Wait up!"

Hermione greeted her fellow Gryffindors with a big smile when they finally turned around to face her. With a few more bounding strides, she caught up to them.

"Where are you going? I thought that we were having lunch together today." It took her a moment to catch her breath. "You know, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages!"

Instead of a response, all she was met with were three blank stares. After several excruciatingly long seconds of awkward silence, it was Harry who spoke up first.

"Hermione, lunch ended ten minutes ago. We waited over an hour for you," he said softly.

"What?!" It only took the brunette one quick look at her trusty wristwatch to realise that he was right. "Merlin, I am so sorry! I didn't notice that it's already this late …" she muttered perplexed.

"This is the fourth time you have stood us up now!" snapped Ron, his ears turning red. "What were you even doing that's more important than your own friends?"

"Professor Snape and I were just finishing up some potions to use in a demonstration for the second-years on Friday. I'm really so sorry, I didn't think it would take this long!"

"Hermione, you've been spending an awful lot of time down there with that git lately," Ginny said with a slight pout on her face. "We barely get to see you anymore."

"Well, I guess it's true that the apprenticeship is taking up a lot of my time and energy at the moment. Together with my duties as Head Girl, I –"

"It just feels like you care a lot more about Snape and his stupid potions than you do about us," Ron interrupted her, his lips nothing but a thin line.

Hermione looked absolutely baffled. "But that's not true! I love you guys, and you know that! I admit that perhaps I've been spending a little bit too much time with Professor Snape as part of my studies, but I have just been … I guess I didn't realise that –"

"Yeah, you didn't realise, just like you never do. With you, it's always just books and grades." The youngest Weasley boy snorted. "Let's go!" he then gestured to the other two to follow him as he stormed off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.

Ginny did not even say a single word before turning to follow her older brother, her gaze pinned to the floor. Harry, however, gave his best friend a quick shoulder squeeze paired with an empathetic look before running off as well.

Before she knew it, Hermione was all alone. Still somewhat in a state of shock, her bottom lip began to quiver, and it looked like she was holding back tears as she too wandered off, most likely to seclude herself in the library, entirely unaware that a pair of dark eyes was following her.