Chapter 8 - Excuse me?

Hermione was ready to start her day after the fun she had at breakfast. Students were still whispering, but most pitied her because she was now stuck with Snape. Hermione wondered what would the rest of the day hold, but she wasn't too worried. So she made her way to Snape's class.

After arriving at the dungeon, she made her way to the back of the class, silently awaiting instructions from Snape.

The students filed in, no-one paying her much attention. The seventh years all sat looking glum and waiting for the professor to enter. They learned after seven years he will come in slamming the door, robes billowing, ready to take away house points from an unsuspecting student.

They weren't disappointed. He strode in, looking for a victim, found none and started to scowl even more. "Instructions are on the board. There will be no need to talk. You have an hour."

The students reluctantly started to copy the potion and a few went to gather ingredients. Hermione sat patiently waiting for Snape to give her something to do. He however was busy with some parchments on his desk, most likely marking the papers he received yesterday. She sighed.

What could she do? It wouldn't do to sit and do nothing. So she looked in her bag, found a parchment and quill when a ribbon caught her eye. She still had a letter to write. She took out her parchment and sat, chewing the back of her quill.

Dear SS

I hope this letter finds you well and happy.

It was quite a surprise to see such lovely poetry, especially when it is one of my favourites. I adore poetry and most classic writing. I enjoy Shakespeare the most because of his use of imagery.

Other pastimes I enjoy are listening to classical music, I prefer Mozart, but any will do.

I like going to the theatre to see opera's and ballets. I know it's old-fashioned, but there is something beautiful in the graceful way the ballerina moves or the notes when the soprano sings her solo for the evening.

Hope to hear from you soon

Yours

HJG

She reread her letter. Hermione was thoughtful. Maybe this wizard would think she was bookish and nerdy. But then, she also decided that she should be herself. There would be no use pretending to be something she was not. If he didn't appreciate her for who she was then it wouldn't work out in the end anyway. She touched the parchment with her wand, concealing her letter to look like scribbles and random notes.

Hermione looked up to see Professor Snape had just finished his marking and was now prowling the desks of the students, walking ever so silently. He really did enjoy making the students squirm. He reached the back of the class just as the bell rang.

"Bottle your samples and leave it on my desk," was all he said.

He waited for the students to leave and turned to look at Hermione with cold black eyes.

"Apprentice Granger, please enlighten me as to what you have learned from this lesson?" he asked her without even looking at her.

"Not much Master Snape," she replied. What was she supposed to learn from him sitting and marking essays while his students struggled?

"Very well then, we will continue your education after lunch." With that he turned and left her alone in the dungeon.

Well that is odd, Hermione thought. There was obviously more to what Snape was doing, but what she couldn't fathom.

She made her way to the Great Hall for lunch. Afterwards she would mail her letter.

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Severus was quite upset as he stormed out of his classroom after his conversation with Hermione. The fact of the matter is he didn't quite know what to do with her as of yet. He couldn't let her brew from her first day; apprentices were supposed to do grunt work and made to suffer their first year. Three years of torture that is what a potions apprenticeship was.

He sighed. Because she was a full time apprentice she would only have to do two years. But even those two years seemed like an extremely long time to Severus.

And he still didn't know what to do with Hermione. Maybe she could scrub out all the cauldrons after today's lesson and catalogue the student, as well as, his private storeroom tonight. It should keep her busy until eleven. Then he could have his quarters to himself for a while.

Severus smiled. He was quite happy with his thinking. She would suffer and he would be happy.

Severus made his way to the Great Hall, a silly grin on his face. Students scattered as he walked past them, when the potions professor was smiling someone was going to get it. He sat down at the Head table, looking at his plate and wondering what he was feeling like for lunch.

While he contemplated he eyed the witch sitting next to him. She was eating and absurd muggle meal: a hamburger with chips.

Such a child, Severus thought, why can't she eat something more sophisticated?

Hermione was enjoying her hamburger immensely. She never knew the house elves could make this type of food. Normally as a student they had healthy fare, consisting of muffins and porridge, bacon and eggs, toast and jam with tea for breakfast. Lunch consisted of sandwiches, fruits and salads. Dinner was usually a roast, meatloaf and a selection of starches, but all of it extremely healthy.

The hamburger was so good Hermione had to stop herself from groaning in appreciation. But she had to remind herself that it couldn't become a habit – there was a reason people had to eat healthy.

After lunch Hermione made her way back to the potions classroom and settled in the back. This time she would watch Snape like a hawk.

His sixth year class followed the exact same pattern. She watched him the whole time. As with the previous lesson, he sat working on parchments and at the end of the lesson he walked through the class. Just as the bell rang he reached her.

"Bottle your samples and leave it on my desk," was all he said.

He waited for the students to leave and turned to look at Hermione with cold black eyes.

"Apprentice Granger, please enlighten me as to what you have learned from this lesson?" He asked her without even looking at her.

"Not much Master Snape," she replied. She really didn't know what he expected of her.

"Very well then, we will continue your education tomorrow. However, since you so blatantly do not want to learn, I want you to clean the cauldrons used by the students today. When you are finished with the cleaning, I want a complete inventory list of the student supply cupboard." He stood looking at her one eyebrow raised.

Hermione pulled up her sleeve, took her wand, and pointed it at the cauldrons: "Scourgify!"

"Apprentice Granger, your stupidity knows no bounds! Why do we not scourgify cauldrons?" he barked.

"Because we use the dirty cauldrons as punishment for students?" she tried.

If it was possible, Snape's scowl deepened: "Apprentice Granger, for a know-it-all your knowledge is severely lacking. After the cauldrons have be scrubbed by hand, as well as your inventory list completed, you will memorize the properties of all cauldrons as well as the impact of magical cleaning on all of the types of cauldrons. When you have realized your error of judgement, I will expect a full report on the proper use, cleaning and maintaining of all laboratory equipment. This knowledge should be captured in a report which should reach me by no later than seven o'clock tomorrow morning." He bowed and left the room.

Hermione was furious. Who did he think he was? He had her scrubbing cauldrons like a naughty first year! Well, she would show him that his silly manoeuvres won't get her down. He was just playing mind games. With a huff, she looked at the thirty odd cauldrons and started scrubbing. It was going to be a long night.