As Long As You Need Me

Chapter X

Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.
- J.M. Barrie (The Little Minister)
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Hermione showered and got ready to begin work for the day, but when she checked, she found that Snape wasn't up yet. She presumed that he had done one of his late nights, doing whatever he was doing in that room, or perhaps hadn't had any sleep at all, so she decided to just let him be.

Her cat wasn't anywhere to be seen, so she ambled back to her room and reluctantly spent some alone time, applying nail-polish on her fingers. While she was admiring her hands, a voice made her jump.

"Yes, if you're quite done with your personal grooming," Snape stood at her door, as if conjured out of thin air, "We could finally start the class."

He swept away and Hermione's mouth remained open. Then she gritted her teeth. I was waiting for him to wake up and now he's behaving like I was the one who kept him waiting! But arguing with him would lead nowhere, so she decided to quickly dry her hair before heading out.

As soon as she waved her wand around her head, muttering the spell that would do the job, she screamed out loud, watching her reflection in the mirror, as all of her hair suddenly stood on end. Her mouth dropped open and she shrieked again, watching her cartoonish self in the mirror, looking as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

She clasped a hand over her mouth as Snape rushed back to her door. "What?! What is it?"

She turned towards him, her eyes bulging out of shock and she let him see her condition. His shoulders drooped as he visually relaxed. "Oh..I thought you were getting bloody murdered...!"

But to Hermione, this was no less cause for concern. "My hair....look at my hair..." she gasped, almost in tears.

"I see no difference." Snape shrugged and walked away. Her eyes grew wider at his condescension. Anger boiled inside of her as she wondered who would prank her like this, but more so as she remembered about the time that this incident had been repeated, that time with her teeth; and he had said the exact same thing.

She stomped out to the bathroom and checked the bottle of her shampoo, and sure enough, the substance had been switched or had been tampered with; she had been in a hurry that morning so as not to notice the distinctive smell. But she couldn't comprehend why anyone would do such a thing.

She shot a glance at Snape, who was biting into his lip to stop himself from laughing. Her mind accused him once but then she dismissed it to be ridiculous. She ran back to her room and tried to comb her hair down but to no avail. She decided that if he had been kept waiting for this much time, then he could bear with her for a little more, and if he was the one behind this, then he deserved to be kept waiting.

Finally, when she dragged herself out into the office, Hermione looked defeated. She didn't utter a single word the whole time, and thankfully, Snape also didn't poke at her raw emotion. It was at the end of class that she couldn't stop herself from asking, whether there was any potion to counter this.

"I'm afraid not," he told her, "It should wear off by next morning. Maybe you should refrain from visiting your friends till then."

Hermione thought he looked quite pleased with that idea and rather amused at her inconvenience; she growled loudly at him and stormed off to her room, slamming the door shut. Snape, on the other hand could not understand why she was upset with him and channeling her anger out on him, who was completely innocent of any of this.
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In her frustration, Hermione had kicked down the table made of books that she had in her room. After spending quite a bit of time just fuming and then doing breathing exercises, that she finally managed to calm herself.