Author's Note: Here's a late Christmas present for you all! A new chapter at last! It was has been far too long since I updated this story, and I apologize. I had a bit of a writer's block, and then I just didn't have time to write and least write anything that I felt would good enough to post. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter, and I plan on having the next chapter up far sooner.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Canon Harry Potter and all canon characters belong to JKR! I am certainly not JKR, so the Harry Potter series is not mine, I only wish.
Chapter 14 - Slytherin Secrets
People were slowly trickling into the badly lit Potions room for their class. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were rushing down the hallway together to the dungeons were the classroom was, running behind because Ron had woken up late and then insisted on having one more helping of eggs and bacon at breakfast before the food was cleared away.
"If we're late, I will tell Professor Snape that it's because of your gluttonous eating habits!" Hermione said in irritation, her checks flushed from exertion and her eyes flashing.
Ron pretended to ignore her though he immediately looked very cross. Harry offered to take some of Hermione's books, which he was sure were slowing her down. She always seemed to being toting around twice as many as he or Ron was.
"Do you have to have the school library's entire collection of books with you at all times?" asked Ron scornfully as he watched Hermione hand several books to her boyfriend.
"As a matter of fact, this isn't even close to how many books I own, or how many books are housed in the school's library. Clearly you have forgotten how to count. Besides, unlike you Ronald, I find that is useful to actually bring the books the book to class that professors ask us to."
Ron opened his mouth as if to say something in reply, but thought the better of it and simply sulked for a few minutes.
The three friends entered the room, quite out of breath, but looked around in surprise to see that the annoyingly punctual Professor Snape was nowhere to be seen. They exchanged joyful glances, hardly believing their luck.
Harry took a seat next to Hermione across the aisle from where Ron plopped his things down. The two boys exchanged confused glances.
"Oi, Seamus, where's our git of a Potions master??" Ron asked as he plopped down in the seat next to him.
"Don't know," Seamus said with a shrug, "Then again, I really don't care if he never shows up. Where's Neville? Maybe Snape cornered him in the hallway and is yelling at him for something even before class."
"I'm right behind you actually," Neville piped up, sounding rather indignant but looking a little concerned about the prospect that he would probably get yelled at by Snape at some point that day anyway.
"Well, maybe he decided to finally take a bath, and he's having trouble figuring out how a faucet works," Ron joked causing a ripple of laughter among the students in hearing distance from him.
Hermione set about getting out her books and some parchment, but looked up in curiosity when she noted that Harry's laugh wasn't among the group of people chuckling at Ron's joke. His mind clearly seemed to be elsewhere. Lightly she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Harry, is something the matter? You look a bit funny. Not worried about Snape are you?" she asked in a concern, her mouth twisting into a smile as she asked the last bit.
"Hey, did you notice that Malfoy's not here either?" he whispered urgently, ignoring her questions and joke.
Hermione glanced around the room. Draco was nowhere to be seen, though his thugs of best friends were in their usually seats. She frowned slightly knowing where Harry's mind had run off to with this piece of information.
"I know we have a reason to be suspicious of Malfoy, but I'm sure he's just running a bit late or something," she told him quickly.
"Hermione, he's never late to Snape's class. He wouldn't dare jeopardize his status as professor's pet," he argued. Harry abruptly grabbed his bag and got up. He slid the shoulder strap firmly onto his shoulder, quickly making his way towards the exit of the classroom before she could object.
"Watch my books, Ron!" she told her friend forcefully before racing out of the room after Harry.
No one had been paying attention to Harry and Hermione's conversation. Several people exchanged amused glances, making their own guess as to why the couple ran off together.
"Getting to be like rabbits those two, off to have a quick snog while the Professor's away, I supposed," commented Pansy maliciously, making a little noise of disgust and then directing her taunting gaze at Ron who frowned darkly.
"Hermione wouldn't miss class for something like that," was the best retort he could manage as his ears turned red in anger.
"Harry must be good," Seamus commented. Ron turned and looked for a moment as though he was going to punch Seamus in the jaw.
"So, you've snogged Harry too then?" grumbled Ron, his expression dark. Seamus looked amusingly horrified, giving Ron a bit of satisfaction while he wondered where his friends truly had gone off to. Wherever they'd gone, he hoped they stopped Snape from coming to class today.
"Harry, where are you even going?" Hermione called after Harry.
She ran after, and desperately grabbed onto his arm, trying to halt his rapid stride. Harry tried to shake off her grip.
"Hermione, let me go!" he demanded in irritation. She frowned and just held on more firmly.
"No, Harry. You can not just go rushing off in who knows what kind of trouble. Remember the mess you got yourself into when you obsessively followed Malfoy around 6th yea. You can't get caught," she warned him, her dark eyes pleading.
She felt a flood of relief as she felt him relax and stop resisting her hold on him.
"You're right, I guess. I still think we should find out where he is, and more importantly were Snape is," he told her.
"Maybe I'm right? When are you going to learn that I'm always right, Harry?" she teased him. He shook his head.
"Fine, you're always right. But what are we going to do?"
Hermione sighed, realizing that Harry might be right to be suspicious about Snape and Malfoy.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to look for them, but we're going to be careful. We're not going to rush into any danger. I've had my fill for a lifetime, thank you," she replied.
Harry rolled his eyes, but didn't offer any resistance to her plan. He opened his bag and pulled out his father's invisibility cloak, used often during his years at Hogwarts. Throwing it around himself and Hermione they slowly walked down the corridor together. Hermione whispered a silencing spell to mask the noise of their loud shoes pounding against the stone floor.
She suddenly paused and gripped Harry's arm tightly and put a hand over her own mouth to suppress her exclamation of surprise. She'd heard was seemed to Snape and Draco Malfoy's voices echoing slightly in the stone hallway. The sound of them talking seemed to be coming from the closet-like room were Snape stored all his Potions ingredients.
Carefully she and Harry crept closer to the room. "Listen!" she whispered to Harry.
"I told you to give up this foolish plan," Snape was saying in harsh whisper.
"Professor, need to finish up what my father wants me to do or I'll never prove myself in his eyes," Draco replied, sounding desperate and very determined. "Besides, don't tell me you wouldn't like to see Potter dead, despite your loyalties."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance of surprise and confusion. Wasn't Snape loyal to the Death Eaters?
Snape laughed mirthlessly.
"What do you know of my loyalties? I don't know what lies your father has been feeding you, but you'd be wise not bring up this subject to me again if you're trying to enlist my help," Snape snarled.
"I see now that it was pointless to come to you for help sir. It doesn't matter though. I can handle this all on my own," Malfoy sniffed indignantly, clearly not appreciating that way Snape was talking to him.
Snape muttered an oath under his breath.
"Getting moving, Draco, Potions was supposed to begin 15 minutes ago. You've held me up with this foolhardy plan of yours long enough," Snape announced coldly.
Harry and Hermione had to quickly press up against a walls as an angry Draco nearly collided with them on his way out.
Hermione's eyes widened.
"Harry! We have to hurry; Snape will be on his way to Potions an moment. How will we explain not being there to him?"
"Don't worry," Harry replied calmly. He grabbed her arm and ran down the hall with her, nearly catching up with Malfoy. Snape unfortunately was hot on there heels.
The couple though made it to the door of classroom well ahead of him, but Hermione gasped. "He'll notice we're out of breath, Harry!"
Harry grinned mischievously. "Then we'll just have to provide a reason for being out of breath than won't we?"
Hermione looked at him quizzically as she tried to catch her breath. Harry whipped the cloak off of them and shoved it in his bag. Then without warning he grabbed her in his arms and planted a firm kiss on her mouth. She smiled beneath his kiss, understanding his plan. For a moment she thought to protest, but really didn't want to and kissed him back quite enthusiastically.
Not a moment later Snape came around the corner. Seeing two of his least favorite students involved in some rather passionate kissing.
Halting his stride, he stopped right by them, clearing his throat loudly.
They pretended not to notice. Snape sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes. When the two continued to ignore to him, Snape proceeded to grab Harry by the back of his robe and pull him away from Hermione.
She stifled a laugh when she saw the look on Snape's face, while Harry did his best to look convincingly indignant about being caught.
"I see you two decided that having an inappropriate public display of affection in the hallway was far more important than my Potions class," Snape began.
"But you were late, and I personally was getting a little tired of waiting around for you," Harry interrupted.
"Potter, you'll be losing enough House Points as it stands. I would suggest keeping your smart mouth closed if I were you. I know that you don't care at all about Potions, but Miss Granger, I expected better from you. I always thought you had some skill in Potions, and that school work came first for you. It's seems I may have been mistaken. You always act like such a know-it-all that I would expect you to know better than to date Potter and forget about classes," Snape lectured them solemnly.
Hermione turned red, more from anger than embarrassment. She knew she had a talent for Potions, and that she cared very much about the class, despite Professor Snape's harsh comments.
"You're wrong sir. Perhaps you're the insufferable know-it-all," she said in anger, wishing very much that she hadn't said anything as soon as the words left her mouth. Talking back to a teacher was highly uncharacteristic for Hermione Granger.
She turned crimson, and glanced over at Harry. He was grinning quite cheekily at her and then at Snape.
He was feeling pretty proud of his girlfriend for standing up to Snape.
Snape looked rather surprised himself.
"Well, you two have further delayed the start of class long enough. I want to see both of you after class though," Snape snapped at them, and then gestured for them to follow him into the classroom.
Harry and Hermione took their seats again, trying to ignore their classmates' inquisitive stares.
"Where'd you two go off to?" Ron asked them as they opened their books, but a glare from Snape in his direction silenced him and kept Harry and Hermione from having to answer his question.
"Where were you Professor?" Seamus asked boldly as Professor Snape took his place at the front of the room. Snape shifted his cold gaze to him.
"It's really none of your business, but I think that you would all be interested to know that I was further delayed by two of your classmates who felt that my absence would be a good excuse to steal off for a romantic moment," Snape replied, sneering at Harry and Hermione.
The couple flushed red in unison.
Lavender turned and smirked at Ron, looking pleased with herself for having guessed correctly, or so she thought, about Harry and Hermione's absence.
"Looks like I won my bet," she whispered loudly.
Ron avoided her look, and looked rather like he was going to be ill as the rest of the room burst into laughter.
"Now that we have had out laughter for the day it's time to actual have a productive class," Snape announced interrupting the laughter. "Turn to page 382 in your books."
Harry felt like Snape was going to go on lecturing forever, though at least today he didn't have to make a potion for Snape to criticize. Hermione tried to focus her thoughts on the lecture, but she really wanted to talk to Harry about the conversation they'd overheard and wanted to get talking to Snape after class over with.
Finally the class ended, and everyone filed out leaving Harry and Hermione behind. They slowly approached his desk. He looked up at them impassively.
"I hope you both enjoyed today's class. As for your punishment I decided to take 50 points each away from Gryffindor, and I would like for both of you to write me a nice long essay on the effects of a love potion gone bad," he told them, his expression about as happy as really ever got.
They said nothing and glumly left the room.
"That wasn't as bad as it could have been," Hermione said brightly.
"Speak for yourself Hermione, you love writing essays," Harry grumbled.
"Hey, guys!" Ron greeted them; he'd waited for them outside the classroom. "Way to take off and snog."
Harry and Hermione rolled their eyes.
"There's more to it, Ron!" Hermione told him in irritated tone.
"Yeah, we went to go see exactly what was holding up our favorite professor," Harry explained.
"The kissing was a cover-up because he almost caught up with us on the way back, and we were out of breath after running to get here before him," Hermione added.
"Oh," Ron said looking quite relieved. "So, did you guys find anything out?"
"Yes and no. We're not really sure how to interpret what we overheard. Malfoy, as we always suspected does have some horrible plan, and it involves doing something to get revenge on Harry, which figured too, but it seems he wanted to get Professor Snape involved, but strangely it seems like he's not interested in helping the little weasel," Hermione told him.
"Yeah, it seems like that git Snape would go along with any that involves causing Harry harm," Ron said.
"So, we don't really know much more than we did before. And Snape became more confusing than ever," Harry said.
"Well, let's all think about and keep our eyes open. There's really nothing more we can do at the moment," Hermione sighed.
"I'm glad you two didn't disappear just to snog in the hall, I thought I wasn't going to be able to eat any lunch because I was a bit grossed out, but my appetite is back," Ron commented happily.
Harry and Hermione laughed.
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