Dream

"Hermione, could you please explain the Deflating Draught Professor Snape was on about today?" sweet Eloisa Haply asked with a frown on her face, "I really don't understand how the Deflating Draught is related to the Boil Cure Potion that we were taught in our first year."

Hermione smiled sympathetically at the 3^rd Year girl and turned to Orion Johnson and Nathan Choy who sat on both sides of the petite blond.

"Orion? Nat? Do you know how the two potions are related?" she asked the boys.

Eloisa, Orion and Nathan were in their first year when Hermione found them miserable and tearful after a month of Potions classes. As their 5^th Year Prefect, Hermione had listened to their fears of failing Potions class and had generously offered to tutor them in the subject. Hermione knew that the traditional Gryffindor-Slytherin combination for Potions classes usually meant that Professor Snape's brusque tendencies were more often than not directed at the Gryffindors, causing some of the younger ones to develop a phobia for the subject. Neville Longbottom was a good example of that - after his first botched potion and Professor Snape came down hard on him, Neville not only developed a fear for Potions class, his mind would blank out and he would be unable to remember even the basics of potions making! Added to the fact that Professor Snape had a rather inapproachable demeanour to all students except from Slytherin House, it meant that these students had nowhere to go to clear up their doubts.

Since starting a remedial session with Eloisa's group in her 5^th Year, she had pre-empted the problem of Potions for the Gryffindors by organising remedial sessions for in-coming 1^st Years in need of help. She roped in the older Gryffindors who were doing well in Potions to tutor the younger Gryffs who needed help. Now in the third year, Gryffindor House's overall improvement in Potions exams could well be attributed to Hermione's effort.

It was very peculiar, Hermione noted; how the Houses seem to do relatively well in one subject, but not in another. The Gryffindors traditionally do better than the other Houses at Care of Magical Creatures, but were the worst at Potions. The Ravenclaws were best at History of Magic, but were not so adept at Herbology. Herbology for Hufflepuffs were a piece of cake, but they did not fair as well in Charms. As for the Slytherins, Defence of the Dark Arts were their speciality, but Care of Magical Creatures brought them no end of frustration. Of course, this was a generalisation, for there were students who performed well in the traditionally weak subjects in all the Houses.

"Umm...both potions... use the same technique of stirring the potion in the counterclockwise direction?" Nat answered, tentatively.

Hermione gave him an encouraging smile, "Yes, that's right. Also, both potions require you to add an ingredient after removing the cauldron from the flames. Now, Isa, does that answer your question?"

Eloisa gave her a thoughtful nod.

"You know, Hermione," she said as she slumped back in her chair, "Potions would be so much easier with you teaching it! Professor Snape!" she scowled, "He was so mean to us this morning. That Slytherin git O'Brian called Corrine a 'mudblood' and when she started crying, Snape deducted 10 points from Gryffindor because she was endangering her potions with her tears! Can you imagine that?"

"Oh and don't forget what he said," Orion attempted a parody of the teacher's whispery threat and sneer, "'If Miss Sabres fails to rein in her emotions, I'll simply have to deduct a further 10 points from Gryffindor for grating our hearing with that incessant snivelling.'"

Hermione merely shook her head with an amused glint in her eyes.

"It true, Hermione! Snape's such a greasy git! It's like he's on a personal vendetta against us Gryffindors," complained Nat, agreeing with his classmates.

"Honestly, you'd think I've never been in his class before, the way you go on," she rolled her eyes and smiled in reply. "Actually, Professor Snape's style of teaching may be a little harsh -"

"A little harsh? I'd say he's very harsh!" stressed Nat. The others nodded in agreement.

"Actually," Hermione repeated herself, "he may be harsh, but he is very accomplished in his field. In fact, according to Potions Today, he is one of the top ten Potions Masters in Europe. Hogwarts is very fortunate to have a Potions Master of his calibre teaching." She paused, pursed her lips and twisted it to a side, and with a burgeoning twinkle in her eyes, added, "But honestly, there are times I wish I could wring his neck for being so nasty in class!"

~*~

Sitting in her Potions Special Paper class after yesterday evening's remedial session with the 3^rd Years, Hermione couldn't help but be amused by the Professor's surly entrance to class. After spending 6 years in Snape's Potions class, his scowls, sneers and melodramatics had lost some of that potency to intimidate the older pupils. Unlike 1^st Years who saw adults as mere caricatures, the older pupils were able to look at their teachers beyond their façade, and were not so easily cowed by Snape's threats and dramatics. Some of them even looked forward to Snape's biting black wit - as long as it was not directed at themselves. That said, none of them would ever willingly serve detention with Snape, and no one wanted to be there when his temper erupted, but most of the 7^th Years were used to Snape's bark. Besides, at their age, loss of House points did not threaten their standing in their Houses as much as it did for the younger students. Nevertheless, the Uppers were still wary of igniting Snape's latent temper.

The Professor swept into the room and sat in front of the five pupils, silently glaring into each pupil's face, drumming his long tapered fingers on the desk before him. Satisfied that all his students were alert and accounted for, he launched into the day's curricula, without wasting time on frivolous pleasantries.

After the OWLs in her 5^th Year, Hermione and her peers were allowed to specialise in three subjects for their NEWTs (Hermione had opted to specialise in four subjects, after consulting Professor McGonagall). Therefore, it came as no surprise that most of the Gryffindors dropped Potions, in favour of less aggravating subjects. Hermione wasn't sure, but she suspected that part of the reason for Professor Snape's theatrics in her earlier years was to discourage many from specialising in Potions. Her theory was to some extent validated when her Potions Professor seem to be less antagonistic in his teaching from her 6^th Year on. However, Snape's less hostile teaching methods could very well be attributed to the fewer Gryffindor pupils, in particular a certain Neville Longbottom and his infamous exploding cauldron, or that pupils choosing to study Potions in spite of the truculent Professor really did have some interest and more than adequate competence in Potions.

Not all students were able to drop the study of Potions, though. Pupils who wanted to specialise in the field of Mediwizardry were required to have a Potions background, which was why Hermione could not drop Potions, despite Ron and Harry's prodigious persuasion. However, it did not mean that Hermione wanted to enter the field of Mediwizardry - she was merely keeping her options open by taking a combination of subjects that offered her a broad base of wizarding skills that will allow her to enter almost any profession that she desired.

The Potions class for the Uppers therefore consisted of 27 pupils, mostly Hufflepuffs and Slytherins. Potions was a compulsory subject to Apothecary Studies, a field most Hufflepuffs enter into as a profession. Many Slytherins continued with the subject because Snape was Housemaster, and felt that he would continue to favour them. However, Snape left no uncertainty as to his dealing with the Slytherins in their first lesson, where he deducted an unprecedented 50 House points from the Snakes for not being prepared in their reading. Needless to say, the Slytherins understood the subtext of his actions and were well nigh prepared for lessons from then on. Snape's other unprecedented behaviour of not deducting House points from Gryffindor did not count - there were only three pupils from Gryffindor, after all.

The Special Paper (or S-paper) class, on the other hand, was very different from the normal Potions class. The S-paper class was opened only to those students who scored distinctions in Potions for both their OWLs and their examinations at the end of their 6^th Year. There were only five students in the S-paper class, comprising of two students from Hufflepuff, and one each from Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Because the class was so small and made up of highly adept pupils of potions, Snape's teaching style was less threatening, but no less caustic. Potion theories, ethics, philosophy were discussed and sometimes very complex potions were attempted by the five under the watchful eyes of the Master.

The topic of discussion for that week was Transfiguring Potions, in particular the one used by the witch Magdalena Mayhem in the better known Muggle fairytale of the Frog Prince.

"How does this Potion differ from the Polyjuice potion which we covered in Potions class?" the Potions Master asked the five, settling his eyes on the lone Gryffindor.

Hermione did not know if he knew about her escapade in brewing the Polyjuice in her second year, but it seemed likely. However, the question did not daunt her, so she spoke out.

"The potions have the same basic ingredients of shredded boomslang skin and bicorn powder. However, a correctly brewed Polyjuice potion allows the transfiguration to last for about an hour for human to human transfiguration, and up to five weeks for a human to animal transfiguration, that is, if the stabilising ingredient of a single bee sting is added to the final step of the Polyjuice potion. Otherwise, the human will be trapped in an in-between state for the duration of the potion's effect," Hermione paused and blushed, remembering her five weeks in the Hospital wing after her botched Polyjuice potion with the cat fur. Snape merely raised a single eyebrow at her pause, prompting Hermione to continue, "Transfiguration potion, on the other hand causes the person ingesting the potion to remain in the permanent state of an animal. The only way to revert back to human form would be the administering of a kiss by the person's true love."

For her effort, the dark Professor merely nodded his head in acknowledgement. At least he did not deride her nor give her a sarcastic put down, which he would have in the normal Potions class. The S-paper class was certainly different in that the five scholars were expected to be well-read and ready to share their what they gleaned. The topics they covered were very detailed and it was very satisfying for Hermione to keep up with the rest of the gifted as they looked at the various facets of Potions.

Besides S-paper for Potions, Hermione also took S-papers for her three other subjects of Transfiguration, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. The depth into which the subjects go into at S-paper levels both engaged her and challenged her, and sharing the class with like-minded individuals only made her look forward to her S-paper classes, much more than her usual classes.

~*~

It was already October, and the usual Halloween Feast would be celebrated at the end of the month. Unknown to Hermione, who was just ending another week's remedial lesson with her 3^rd Years in the Common Room, going over the theoretical aspects of dangerous potions ingredients mix, Lavender and Parvati were going through all the wardrobe and dressers in the dormitory for clothing inspiration for the upcoming feast.

"Well, hello! What do we have here?" crowed Parvati as she delicately lifted Hermione's red nightgown up to show Lavender.

Lavender was dumbstruck at the very sexy nightwear.

"Hmm... looks like Miss Granger has been keeping a few skeletons in her closet, eh?" Parvati winked at Lavender, as she laid the negligee on Hermione's bed.

"It's gorgeous! Why haven't she worn it yet?" Lavender touched the smooth satin and took in the lace details. "I'm soooo jealous. It must have cost quite a few galleons! I wonder where she bought it?"

Just then, Hermione trudged into the room. It was somewhat tough going with her 3^rd Years - Orion was in a bad mood today, after having 20 points taken off for a botched potion in class today. Taking in the sight of the two girls sitting on her four-poster bed, she walked over and saw her birthday present from her mum all laid out on the mattress.

"What, may I ask, are you doing?" she asked tersely, arms folded in front of her chest. She was tired and moody and the last thing she wanted to be doing was to find out what the girls were doing going through her things.

Lavender and Parvati turned as red as the nightgown.

"Oops!" grinned Parvati.

"Erm..." hesitated Lavender.

"Well, we were just going through the wardrobes to get some inspiration for what to wear to the Halloween Feast, when we found this," said Parvati, as she gently smoothed the nightgown.

"Oh, it's so beautiful, Hermione," gushed Lavender. "How come we've never seen you wear it? Where did you get it?"

Hermione blushed. She forgot about her tiredness, her moodiness and anger. She softened as she remembered her mother's accompanying letter to the gift.

"Er...It's a gift from Mum for my birthday," she shrugged.

"Oh you lucky thing!" beamed Lavender.

"I wish my mum were so open-minded!" joined the other. "Where did she buy this?"

Hermione shook her head, "Beats me. I haven't the faintest idea."

Parvati frowned as she looked at the dress tag - vero amore, Italia - "Erm...it says 'vee-ro ah-more, ee-ta-lee-ah'?"

"Let me see that," sighed Hermione, peering at the very tiny tag. "Honestly, Parvati, if you'd pay more attention in Charms..." Whipping out her wand from her sleeve pocket, she pointed to the tag with a declaro dictum, and the tag read out, "ver-ro ah-mor-ray i-ta-li-a, True Love Italy."

"Wow," whispered Parvati in awe.

"It's rather simple Parvati, Professor Flitwick taught us this Charm in our 4^th Year."

"No, no, no. I mean vero amore. True Love," sighed the girl.

"How romantic," cooed Lavender.

Hermione could barely contain herself. Trust the girls to miss the point.

"I think," she addressed them with a mocking wan smile, "vero amore is the name of the design house that nightgown is from. It's probably made in Italy."

"So it's Italian?" asked a disappointed Lavender.

"I guess," shrugged Hermione. "Mum probably bought this over the summer during our Tuscany holidays."

Lavender pouted, "That makes it practically impossible for us to get something similar! Oh why isn't it made in Hogsmeade? Or even in London?"

Parvati did not even care about Lavender's obvious disappointment. "You were in Italy over the summer? Woman, I so want to be you! I'm so jealous! My parents never take me anywhere."

Hermione smiled and shook her head at both girls' behaviours.

"Have you worn it to bed yet?" asked Lavender slyly.

Hermione gave the girls a shrug and said, "I haven't even tried it on yet." At the girls' cries of protest, she reluctantly agreed to model the nightwear later that evening.

"Shall we go down for dinner, then?" she asked, as she pulled the other two girls off her bed, towards the door of the dormitory.