Let Me In

Chapter Two

Monday morning Hermione sat at breakfast, anxiously nibbling her toast. She had no idea what the outcome of today would bring. She only hoped it would at least bring her one step closer to discovering the truth about Professor Snape. She realised, somewhere over the weekend, in between making notes about her new project (which she has code named Project Panther – Professor Snape has always reminded her of a black panther, silently and invisibly stalking his prey, waiting for the right moment to attack) and thinking about how much she dislikes professor Dumbledore for putting her new favourite professor in danger constantly, that she has developed somewhat of an obsession over this. She then realised that she doesn't care. As long as she finds out the truth, what does it matter the lengths she has to go to? Constant vigilance, right? Anyway, she's always been insufferable, according to Professor Snape. She smiled at that thought.

She scurried off to her first class, after abandoning her toast, with her bag slung over her shoulder and her astronomy books clutched tightly to her chest. She always hated Mondays; Astronomy at first period was too much for even Hermione Granger. A persons' brain can only function so much this early in the morning, even if that person is 'the brightest witch of her age'. She reached the astronomy tower a few minutes earlier than her peers and pulled her cloak tightly around her to fight off the October chill. Monday morning astronomy is theory, obviously because no stars are visible in daylight, but she never understood why theory has to be done on the tower too. Why couldn't it be in a warm classroom? Like normal lessons.

Her fellow students began to pile in, followed by the professor just as the bell rang for first period, she opened her books and barely paid attention all lesson; Professor Snape right at the front of her mind. In fact, she barely paid attention in any of her lessons, unable to think of anything other than Project Panther and all the different ways it could go wrong. He could reject her help, he could report her to Dumbledore for interfering in a professors life, he could call her an insufferable know it all and publicly shun and embarrass her in front of her peers or, worst of all, he could laugh at her, tell her he doesn't want her help, and to stay away from him. The thought made her stomach turn and she started to feel sick as she made her way to the hospital wing. Wishing she hadn't have dropped her bag off in her dorm before she came, it was in times of nervousness, such as this, that she would play with the loose thread on the strap of her bag, now her arms hung loosely at her sides, suddenly feeling too long and out of place and she became aware of every part of her body and how out of place she felt.

She reached the door to the hospital wing quicker than she expected and took a deep breath before knocking and entering.

"Hermione, wonderful! Come in, have a seat" Madame Pomfrey said. Hermione approached the matrons' desk and sat in the seat opposite her, composing herself and steadying her shoulders, adopting the same look she has in all of her classes, the sheer look of determination her professors have grown accustomed to and expect. Madame Pomfrey reached into her desk draw and pulled out a notebook and a quill with an inkwell before sliding them all over to Hermione.

"This will be your healing notebook. Everything you learn in this room will be noted in this book. Over the next few months this book will be your life, your guideline, your best friend. This book will be everything you know. Do you understand?" Hermione nodded and sat up even straighter, momentarily forgetting all about project Panther, focusing only on Madame Pomfrey's words and feeling more Hermione-like than she has in days, knowledge – this, she knew and could cope with; professor Snape, she felt she could not. Madame Pomfrey looked at the clock

"Right now it's 4:45. Around this time we usually get all the children that have been feeling unwell during the day but felt it wasn't serious enough to leave classes. Your general stomach aches, headaches, a sore foot and things like that. Your job for the rest of this week is to follow me around the hospital wing. I want you to write down the details of everyone who walks in into your notebook. Age, height, gender, symptoms and my diagnosis and treatment. Every night you will go over every patient from that day and write down how, in your opinion, I came to my diagnosis and why I gave them the treatment I did. This will help you to understand diagnostics quicken your reaction times to different cases, and teach you the best treatments to different ailments. You will return your reports to me every Monday morning before classes and I will have them checked and feedback ready for the afternoon. I must warn you though, Hermione, if you have any doubts, any whatsoever, I advise you to tell me now. Healing isn't something one jumps into lightly. Its long hours, hard work and plenty of stress. Not something just anyone can do" Hermione thought about this for a second. All of those reports, every night, on top of her ever growing stack of homework and revision for her N.E.W.T. exams next year, it would be a lot of stress, and would exhaust her and for what? A professor that has done nothing but bully her, her friends and, come to think of it, the entire student body for numerous years. A man that wouldn't applaud her for her efforts to help him, nor appreciate it, probably wouldn't even acknowledge it but this was Hermione Granger; the insufferable know-it-all that stuck her nose in wherever it wasn't wanted. Hermione Granger was a relentless, pestering, irritating swot who had to get involved in every bodies business to give her opinion and help which was neither wanted nor necessary. Hermione Granger was exactly the type of person to take on the role of an apprentice healer, suffer hours upon hours of stress and work and take up her already limited time just because her curiosity was peaked and had to uncover the mysterious life of a man who has shown nothing but, at best, a cold tolerance to her; and that's exactly what she did. She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and said:

"Madame Pomfrey; I'm ready to learn healing."

Madame Pomfrey was right about the amount of work that goes into healing. Three days in and she was already beginning to feel the strenuous effects. She was more tired than usual, her wrists constantly ached from writing all day in class, all afternoon in the hospital wing, and then all night in her dorm and she was constantly hungry, often having to skip meals to ensure she stayed on top of her homework and apprenticeship work. But, she'd never felt better for it. Not only was she constantly excited that any moment could be the one she found professor Snape, she'd also learned that she actually really enjoys healing. Naturally, she'd picked it up fast and, by the end of her second night, she'd already prescribed potions to two pupils – one had fallen off their broom during Quidditch practise and fractured their ankle, the other had turned their hands into feet accidentally during transfiguration. Madame Pomfrey was immensely proud of her and her progress and, by the end of her second week; Madame Pomfrey would leave Hermione alone in the hospital wing to deal with the patients as she retired to her office for an hour to keep on top of paperwork. Hermione was in her element.

"Hermione?" Hermione turned stopped redressing the wounds of a third year Ravenclaw and turned to Madame Pomfrey who had walked out of her office, presumably having finished her paperwork

"remember when you first asked about this apprenticeship and I said I might need you to brew me some potions?" Hermione nodded "well I need a couple of batches of Dreamless Sleep, if it's not too much trouble. I know you do a lot of work already, it's just, professor Snape is still out and, if I ask Slughorn, he'll forget what I asked him by the end of dinner."

"Of course Madame Pomfrey but, I'll need Flobberworm mucus which isn't available in the students storage"

"Of course dear, you will have full access to Professor Snapes' storage while he's out" Hermione smiled.

"Thank you Madame Pomfrey, I'll get started on it tonight."

Madame Pomfrey took Hermione down to the dungeons at 9:00 that night and showed her through to Professor Snapes personal storage, also telling her she will have full access to Professor Slughorns' classroom after hours to brew the potion. Hermione hadn't felt this excited since the beginning of her project. She was sure she was going to get nowhere closer to finding professor Snape but this gave her a whole other upper hand. She was sure Professor Snape was still in the hospital wing, but, he had to be moved back to his private chambers at some point, which, were still in the dungeons. He had to come down here at some point in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, she would spend all her time in Professor Slughorn's classroom after finishing in the hospital wing. She could brew the potion, do her homework and continue project panther down here. She couldn't help but smile as she began chopping the ingredients for the potion and lighting a flame to put the cauldron on. Today has been a good day, and she wrote down her progress that night in her dorm in her 'project panther' notebook and all the possible ways her new advantage could lead her to professor Snape.