Half the World Away

Chapter 2 Snape reads the test

"Miss Granger, Miss Brown, Miss Patil, what are you doing here?"

"Speak of the devil," Hermione, who was the first to recover, murmured slamming the magazine shut and hiding it behind her. "Nothing, Professor... we are going now."

"What are you hiding behind you?" Snape asked, eyeing Hermione dangerously. Reluctantly, Hermione showed him the magazine. "Ten points from Gryffindor for taking readings onto the grounds. Ten more points for being Head Girl while breaking the rules." Snape took the magazine from Hermione. "This is confiscated." Then he walked away, his robe bellowing behind him.

Hermione turned to Lavender and Pavarti, "I am sorry about the magazine. I'll get a new one for you." She noticed that they were still rather pale. "Are you two okay?"

"Erm... Hermione, do you think Snape would read it by any chance?" Lavender asked, carefully.

"Him?! No way. Why are you asking this?"

"There is this last bit of the test that would explain how your answers for the questions indicated your perfect match... " Pavarti swallowed, "and Snape was your perfect match..."

"Lavender, Pavarti, it is just a test, not reality. Okay? We better get back inside before we lose more points."

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He was expecting her to be doing some university level reading, but this? This is the last thing in the world he would expect to see her with, especially with those incidents two years ago... No one would believe, and even Snape was a bit surprised that, he was not pleased to find Hermione with a copy of Witches' Weekly. He always saw her as one of the most mature among her peers, and he actually had high hopes for her, even though she was a Gryffindor. His stream of thoughts was interrupted by the muffled voice from the magazine he had rolled up. Out of curiosity, he opened the magazine. Once it was opened, the presenter screamed, "Miss Granger, even if your love match turned out to be Professor Snape, still you don't need to... Speak of the devil." The presenter shut up immediately, mentally hitting herself.

Snape arched an eyebrow at her. "Love match?" This was getting more interesting than he thought.

"Nothing." The presenter wouldn't say another word except for nothing.

"Fine, then you wait 'til the end of world to tell Miss Granger." Snape was prepared to close the magazine again, but his action was stopped by the screaming from the presenter, "Professor! You know that I have to finish explaining the test before I can go back to rest! It will bore me to hell if you don't give me back to Miss Granger!"

Snape smirked at her, "You have two choices, shut up or say whatever you need to finish the test."

The presenter was in a very difficult situation. If she didn't give out the explanation of the test, she would be conscious. If she did, Snape would know what the hell was happening, and it was not professional for her to tell him.

"Okay, here we go."

"First question, Miss Granger preferred to be home alone rather than going out, which showed that she was rather introverted.

"Second question, she didn't care much about her looks, which shows that she is not really confident in herself, even though she might already be fairly successful in reality. She sees people for who they are, not their appearance.

"She chose to keep the skin on her knees in good condition which means that she is both sensible and courageous, but she prefers to stick with her own experience and knowledge, rather than asking help from someone else. She cares far too much about people's opinions of her.

"The next six questions show that the kind of man she needs is someone who is sensitive, understanding and experienced, but not necessarily a romantic, as she couldn't stand mushy situations herself either. She needs a partner, not a boyfriend."

"Before you go back to rest, tell me, why am I her perfect match?"

"Seriously, Professor, I have no idea. I'm only responsible for administering the test, not criticizing the result." With that the picture was as lifeless as before.

Chapter 3 Hermione's nightmare

"Miss Granger, would you be so kind as to tell me what are you doing?"

Hermione jumped at the voice. Professor Snape? How... Oh shit. Potions lesson. "Nothing, Professor." When she stole a look around, she was surprised to see that she was the only one in the classroom.

"Miss Granger, obviously you are day-dreaming. Ten points from Gryffindor," Snape said, walking back to his office, and closing the door behind him. Hermione quickly scrambled her things back into her bag and ran out of the dungeon.

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Snape sighed after he closed the office door behind him. He could 'understand' why she was 'preoccupied'. Who would want to find out that her perfect match would be him? Especially a student? Okay, he was old-fashioned not to believe in relationships between a teacher and a student, but him? No one would want to get into a relationship like that. Anyway, it was just an amateur test in a gossip magazine. He didn't need to worry about it. He was sure that Hermione would come to this same conclusion quickly. Anyway... it was quite frightening that the test did point out her character accurately, at least as far as he could tell.

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Hermione had the same feelings that Snape had. Well, it was just a test, but surely there should be soof reference or proof for it to come up with a conclusion like this. Anyway, she wouldn't take it seriously, really. She was not really that 'desperate' for a lover or anything like that. She just hoped that Lavender and Pavarti would keep their mouths shut about the test. Although it was already a week since that incident, you never knew when the news could break out.

When she was about to tell the Fat Lady the password to enter her common room, the Fat Lady said instead, "I am really sorry about the test, Hermione. Obviously there is a fault there."

Shit! "It's alright, I don't believe it either. Spyglass." The portrait flung open, and Hermione went through the portrait hole. Once she was inside, she could feel the attention that was focused on her. She was going to kill Lavender and Pavarti. She looked around, and saw them sitting at the table near the fireplace, busy writing something. She walked towards them, and banged her fist on the table, "What the hell did you two think you were doing? Are you two crazy? Telling the Fat Lady about the test in Witches' Weekly?"

"Hermione, relax." Lavender pulled her down on the seat next to them and protested, "We are writing a letter with everyone's signature on to Witches' Weekly, to complain about your particular result."

Hermione was stunned. They what?! "So you told everyone in Gryffindor about it, and..."

"... and the Fat Lady heard that by chance," Pavarti finished off.

"Are you two out of your minds?!" Hermione screamed at Lavender and Pavarti, who were puzzled about Hermione's sudden anger. "What you are doing is exactly you shouldn't be doing! Do you know that you are spreading this ridiculous result when you are trying to defend me?"

"But Hermione! This test is obviously trying to ruin your reputation! Linking you with Snape!" Lavender still didn't get it why Hermione was so furious. They were just trying to protect her... Well, she didn't really try to, but surely, someone needed to care for her image! They knew she was intelligent and confident, but this was just not what she would need after graduation in the wizarding world, unless she was going back to the Muggle world...

"I don't want to hear anything about this again." Hermione took the letter and the signatures from the table. She turned around and said to everyone in the room, "I don't want to hear a word about this again, not in here, not outside. Never. Have I made myself clear?"

No one dared to say a word, not even Ron and Harry. "Good." Hermione burnt the letter and the signatures in front of everyone, and went back to her Head Girl room.

Although Hermione had left them, no one had the nerve to breathe too deeply, afraid that she would return any minute. Slowly, Ron said, "Wow, that is bloody impressive."

Yes, and everyone was freaked out. (Suddenly, everyone freaked out.)

Chapter 4 Is the nightmare over? Not exactly... I think

That evening, everyone was still 'under' Hermione's 'pressure' (antagonism), but they tried to act normally. They still could sense the awkwardness, not only in Gryffindor, but the whole hall, excluding the staff. Harry had a really bad feeling about this. It felt exactly like the atmosphere in fourth year at the Feast. Something wrong was going to happen, possibly the Slytherins were up to something.>

The Gryffindors were careful to watch for any kind of outbreak, and when Hermione walked into the Hall...

"Oh, so that's the future Mrs. Snape, Pansy?" Blaise said so loudly that the whole hall heard it.

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Immediately the whole hall burst into gasps, as well as the sounds of the breaking of plates, the dropping of knifes, forks, goblets etc on the floor, and a few loud hammerings of fits on tables. Up on the High Table, the staff was shocked at what Blaise had said. The spoon in McGonagall's hand slid down and landed in her bowl of soup, which splashed out onto the table and on her. Lupin had choked on the bread he was eating. Hagrid physically broke his fork in half. Vector acted like she was having a heart attack, clutching her chest. As for Flitwick, Sprout and Pince, they had passed out due to the shock, while Pomfrey and Hooch were too busy to be shocked as they were checking on the three passed out staff. No one dared to look at Snape except for Dumbledore, who was as shocked as everyone else, although he as everyone else didn't notice that he himself had dipped his beard in his soup too. Snape noticed the stare of question and shock from Dumbledore, but he just arched his eyebrow, implying, "You are an idiot if you believe it."

Dumbledore got his expression straightened out right away, but there was that twinkle in his eyes that Snape felt must be disappointment. He better do something to end this outrageous scene. He really doubted that Pansy and Blaise had any idea what they were doing. They brought humiliation upon Hermione, but they forgot that they also brought that to him too. A teacher and student? For God's sake! What should he do to end it without favouring either side? Before he could come up with a solution, Hermione had already taken it into her own hands... with shocking effects.

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Normally, the Gryffindors did not give a damn if the Slytherins all died, but this time they were actually worried for them. With Hermione's outburst last night... well, the Slytherins better pray for salvation, especially Blaise and Pansy.

Hermione changed direction, and walked towards the Slytherin table. Blaise and Pansy were both confident that Hermione wouldn't dare to do anything with everyone looking at them, but they were wrong this time.

"Expelliarmus!" Blaise and Pansy's wands had flown away from their robes, and Hermione's hands had reached out and grabbed their ties tightly, one in each hand, and lifted them slightly off the floor. She said, looking them in the eyes seriously, "This is not a funny thing to say. Pansy Parkinson. Blaise Zabini. If you two wanted to humiliate me, that's fine, but NEVER EVER pull anyone else into this mess. DO YOU HEAR ME?! That is a teacher you are pulling in, and he's your Head of House. When you do this, you are not just humiliating me, but also yourselves, and I don't just mean you two," Hermione now looked at the rest on the Slytherin table, "but all of you. This is far too childish for my level, and far too low for your 'pure-blood'. DO I make myself clear?" Blaise and Pansy could only nod at her slightly for the pressure they had on their necks.

Hermione released them, and they both fell hard onto the floor, as they had both fainted. Ignoring what the rest of the school thought about this, she left the Hall, closing the door behind her loudly, and leaving everyone in the Hall speechless.

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Back on the High Table, there was a little 'riot' going on again. McGonagall couldn't quite believe that that was Hermione speaking. It was totally out of character. Lupin was so shocked that he forgot he was still choking on the bread. Hagrid had fallen off his chair. Vector had a heart attack and Pomfrey was tending to her. Flictwick, Sprout and Pince were awake, but fainted again after they heard Hermione's outburst. Hooch was so busy making sure that the fainted staff was alright, that she didn't faint herself. Dumbledore, who was taking his beard out from the soup, said, "Severus, I actually think Miss Granger would be perfect for you if she was not a student."

This resulted in angry glares from the staff still conscious, especially the ones who were restraining Snape from strangling Dumbledore.

The staff was so busy 'cleaning up the mess' that they had totally forgotten one of the staff who was at the table that night too --- Sibyll Trelawney, who was mumbling, "I knew it a long time ago."

TBC