After All This Time

Three

Weeks had passed since my meeting with Snape. I began to think that he had either forgotten about me or decided against needing my assistance. It wasn't until two nights before the first event of the Tri Wizard tournament that I finally heard from him.

It was late in the evening, a half hour before midnight. I was drifting off to sleep when a loud thud echoed through my room. I shot up in bed, looking around to see if any of my roommates had been woken up by the sound. None of them had. Curious as to what that sound had been I slid out of my bed and turned to my window, immediately coming face to face with a rather pissed looking owl. As quietly as I could, I slid open the window and grabbed a small roll of parchment from the birds leg, just barely escaping a nasty peck from it.  

Stupid bird, I thought as I closed the window and climbed back into my bed. I opened the letter which, unfortunately, informed me that I would be assisting Snape the next evening after my potions class. Was it not bad enough that I already had to spend an hour of my Friday nights with him?

I sighed, laying down in my bed. I seriously considered checking myself into the hospital wing just to avoid spending time with him. Why had I, of all people, been chosen to assist Severus Snape?

~

As soon as class had been dismissed, Snape started barking orders at me. It was pretty apparent that he was just about as thrilled about the whole arrangement as I was. I sighed and began brewing the potions, the faster I finished the faster I could get out of there. Initially I had thought that I would be assisting Snape in brewing the potions. I was wrong. As soon has he had finished instructing me on what to do, Snape sat down at his desk and began to grade papers. As annoyed as I was, I was also relieved. At least I wouldn't have to spend my time actually interacting with the man.

I finished preparing the potion quite fast, all that was left to do was wait for it to brew. I stood there staring at the cauldron, my mind reeling with questions I had about our meeting. I decided not to ask him about my transcripts, it wasn't that important. However, hundreds of other questions still flooded my mind.

"Professor?" I asked, my voice cutting through the silence. I was trying to sound calm and collected, yet there was a slight tremble to my voice.

"Yes," he replied irritably, never once moving his eyes from his papers.

"If I may ask, why was I the one chosen to assist you?"

Snape's quill stopped, a silence fell over the room once again. He sat there staring at his papers for a moment before his eyes looked up and met mine.

"Well if you must know, Dumbledore was the one who recommended you. I couldn't argue with him, by the look of your marks from previous potions classes you're obviously very competent in brewing."

His dark eyes darted back down to his papers, "I would be lying if I said I wasn't mildly impressed. I won't keep my hopes up though."

I wasn't exactly sure how to respond to a complement from Snape, so I didn't. He had insulted me in the process anyways. I continued watching the potion brew. An hour passed before Snape got up to check on my work. He walked up behind me, standing so closely I swear I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. He must've sensed me tensing up and moved a couple steps over so that he was standing next to me.

"Potter, I'm impressed."

I looked up at him, trying to catch any glimpse of emotion on his face, but there was none. Snape turned his face and his eyes met mine. A chill ran down my spine, but for the first time since I had met him it wasn't from fear. I quickly broke eye contact, looking back down at the deep purple liquid in the cauldron.

"I can finish from here. You should go get some rest before tomorrow's event."

I nodded and turned to walk out of the classroom, keeping my head down so that Snape wouldn't see the redness that had spread across my face. Just as I reached for the door I heard a voice behind me.

"Professor?" I asked, turning to meet eyes with him from across the room.

"Tell Harry good luck. He'll need it."

I nodded. "I will. Goodnight Professor."

"Goodnight."

~

As soon as I got back into the tower I ran to the bathroom, trying to avoid any questions from Hermione. I locked the door behind me and walked over to the mirror. My face was still bright red from my encounter with Snape, and I had no idea why. As far as I knew I didn't like the man, most of the time I could barely even stand being around him. 

I changed into my pajamas and splashed some water onto my face, trying to rid it of the redness. I huffed, seeing as it hadn't changed one bit, and walked out of the bathroom. No sooner had I entered the bedroom, Hermione was all over me.

"You look awfully flushed, what happened?"

"Nothing," I replied. "I'm just a little flustered from assisting Snape." As soon as his name left my mouth I could feel my cheeks getting hot again.

"Your face is getting all red again," Hermione exclaimed. "Are you sure you're okay? What's going on, Snape didn't give you too hard of a time or anything did he?"

"No," I said, stepping around Hermione and heading towards my bed. "I'm just tired. I'll be better in the morning."

Hermione opened her mouth again as if to say something, then closed it and walked off to her bed. I buried myself in my covers, hiding my face from the world. I was happy Hermione had actually given up on interrogating me. I knew that if she questioned me any more she would figure something out, and the last thing I wanted to do at that moment was talk about the possibility of me having feelings for Severus Snape.