Let Me In

Chapter Four

Hermione, true to her word to the boys, slept in late the next morning; not getting up until 1:00pm. She headed down to the Great Hall for lunch and smiled at how empty the room was. There were two Ravenclaws, three Slytherins, a Hufflepuff and no Gryffindors, apart from Hermione. Hogwarts was empty, apart from the professors and seven students. Hermione loved it. Never had she known the castle to be so peaceful and beautiful. She was almost sad that the rest of the students that went home for the holidays would never know just how mesmerising Hogwarts was when decorated for Christmas. She wished she'd have stayed here over the holidays more often. She didn't really fancy eating alone though, so she picked up her plate and headed over to the Hufflepuff sat on her own. Her name was Lacey Beaman, seventh year; she was doing her charms assignment when Hermione approached her. Hermione decided she liked Lacey; she was shy – but seemed to become a bit more talkative the longer they spoke- she was incredibly smart and funny

"Anyway, thank you for coming to eat with me, but I gotta go to the library and finish this assignment"

"you're welcome Lacey, I might see you in there at some point over the holidays" Hermione waved goodbye to Lacey as she left the Great Hall.

After lunch, Hermione went to Slughorn's classroom to continue with the potion and her reports. She knew she wasn't going to be needed much in the infirmary over the Christmas holidays due to the lack of students so she made a mental note to start on her classwork this holiday, if she got a couple of weeks ahead during this time then she wouldn't have to worry about falling behind in the new term when her schedule becomes hectic again. While she was tending to the potion she made a list of the other potions that the infirmary was running low on. As long as she was capable of making them, she couldn't see why she shouldn't. After all, they didn't know when professor Snape was going to be well enough again. She began to think about professor Snape and how grateful he must be to be back in his own chambers over Christmas. Chambers that were only around the corner. Chambers that Hermione knew the password to. She shook her head. As if she'd sneak into a Professors private chambers just because she was curious about him. Haven't you done worse things than that though? Just because you were curious. She thought to herself. She shook her head again, she was being ridiculous, and besides, what would Snape do if he caught her? It didn't bear thinking about. But didn't Professor Dumbledore say Madame Pomfrey would be there at 9:30 every night to give him his dreamless sleep? She thought to herself again, wishing she could find a way to shut herself up. She heard footsteps outside of the door and looked up quickly, she vaguely made out the shadow of madam Pomfrey and she went running over to the door

"Madame Pomfrey?" She called "what are you doing down here?"

"Oh hello, Hermione, really taking advantage of the potions lab aren't we? I was just visiting Professor Snape, checking on him"

"But, I thought Professor Snape was in the infirmary" Hermione said, digging for information, she found she was naturally quite good at it, she found Madame Pomfrey seemed to be quite trusting in Hermione, and Hermione seemed to take advantage of it

"he was, he's back in his rooms now though"

"oh, that's good. How is he?" Madame Pomfrey looked astounded that a student would care for the wellbeing of Professor Snape but quickly cleared her throat to cover it

"well, to tell you the truth, he's not progressing the way I'd like. He's stable, he comes around every day now, he speaks and eats but he doesn't seem to be getting any better. I suppose it's a good thing that he's not getting any worse but I thought he'd be improving" Madame Pomfrey looked both exhausted and exasperated and Hermione felt her itching impulse to help people rising in her chest