Summer School

Chapter 8 Lovely and Enlightening

Hermione carried her book bag when they went up to the Room of Requirement that evening. Snape was again waiting for them when they arrived. He had the brochure open before him on the table, as well as the parchment list that Hermione had written previously. He looked up as they came in the door and motioned them into their seats. Without further mention of the morning's meeting with Dumbledore, he began, "Perhaps we should spend some time with Mr. Potter and Miss Granger telling me about what they remember a Muggle school being like. I confess that the description in this brochure makes everything sound rather bland."

"Well, it is an advertisement of sorts, isn't it? They want it to sound positive don't they? They're not likely to come right out and tell parents, 'send us your hopelessly failing child and we will try to stuff their empty head with knowledge'." Harry smiled.

Hermione looked at him coolly. "Professor Snape mentioned that accelerated students were included as well. That means there will be students who are motivated to succeed on their own."

"Yes, 'Mione. We do know what accelerated means, you know," Ron spoke up.

Snape sighed and interrupted them before they could continue, "I realize that my earlier behaviour may have set you on edge. However, let us put that aside for the time we are in this room. The Headmaster is correct in that we have much to do in little time. With that in mind, I will attempt to keep to the task at hand, if you all will do so, as well." He looked each one of them in the eye. For Snape, he was speaking very calmly and almost in normal tones.

When they had all nodded, Hermione spoke up again, "Professor, an owl came with this after I had left the Great Hall this morning. It's the books I asked my father to send for you." She pulled the books from her book bag and handed them to Snape.

He looked at the three titles: Highlights of Organic Chemistry: An Advanced Textbook, A Textbook of Physical Chemistry, and An Intermediate textbook of physiological chemistry with experiments. After glancing at the table of contents of one of the books, he looked up at Hermione. "I am certain these will help me teach the subjects adequately. Thank you. I will send an owl to your father as well thanking him for his assistance."

"My parents want to help. As a matter of fact-" She hesitated, as if unsure that she wanted to proceed. "They asked if you would want to come to dinner next weekend. Mum said that seeing a Muggle family in its natural setting might be helpful."

"You wrote to your parents about what I needed the books for then?" he asked.[Author ID1: at Sun Oct 8 13:40:00 2006 ]

"Well, yes, sir. That was okay, wasn't it?" Hermione asked anxiously.

Snape regarded her for a moment, his fingers unconsciously tracing over the engraved title on the cover of the top book in his lap. "I'm sure that no harm has been done. However, please use discretion in the future. We do not know all the ways the Dark Lord may be watching, as concerns half-bloods and Muggle-born students." After another few moments of thought, he added, "You may inform them that dinner would be lovely."

Ron silently mouthed the word lovely in disbelief. Harry tried hard to keep a straight face and Hermione beamed with delight.

After that, he settled back and listened as Harry and Hermione reminisced about Muggle school. It was easier than he expected; he had to ask few questions with Ron sitting there. Ron asked about everything they said, with no end to his disbelief. Snape was rather glad that he had allowed Weasley to participate, as this allowed him to remain apart and yet observant. There was no need for him to look inept or ignorant about anything, as long as Weasley was asking for all the clarifications to aid their understanding. The time they had drew to a close, and they all stood.

Snape inclined his head at them. "Thank you all for this most enlightening 'detention'. I look forward to tomorrow evening." With that, he turned and left the room in his customary billow of black robes.

Now that they had come to terms, the evenings passed easily and productively. The four of them seemed to have reached a place where they could at least temporarily put animosities aside for the greater good. Snape even found himself enjoying the tales of Muggle teachers and students and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from smiling in response. While Harry had the expected stories of bullies and schoolyard altercations, he had also been a fairly good student academically. Most of his problems appeared to have been caused by his cousin Dudley, and that one's promise to pound anyone who dared to be Harry's friend either in school or out. Hermione had been an exceptional student in her Muggle school, much like she was at Hogwarts. While she didn't say as much, Snape concluded that she had found it difficult to make friends in that world, and as a result had developed her penchant for perfection in her schoolwork. She had been reading ahead of her level even back in her early primary school years. Finding out that she was a witch had been as much of a shock for her as it had been for Harry. Snape hid his own shock when he discovered just how cruel Harry's family had always been to him. It was unsettling to learn that he had been wrong about Harry being arrogant about his heritage, when in fact he had not even known he was a wizard until he'd been invited to Hogwarts. All the traits Snape had chalked up to Harry's arrogance had been defensive walls thrown up by a boy who was thrust head first into waters well over his understanding. As for Hermione, the student he had always considered an insufferable know-it-all was just an insecure girl trying to make up for her lack of friends by immersing herself in books. The habit was well set by the time she arrived at Hogwarts, and one that he found he had unfairly belittled her for. The fact that he himself had been much the same in his own years as a student pricked his conscience.

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By the time the weekend came around, they were focusing on other aspects of 'Muggledom', as Ron had taken to calling it. By far the most incredible to Snape and Ron was the area of food. While both Snape and Ron had heated up, or cooked food themselves over a stove or in a fireplace, they had availed themselves of magic to accomplish at least part of it. In Ron's case, he might have had to peel potatoes when his mum decided to make it a punishment, but the cooking itself was always done by his Mum and her wand. The food itself had mostly come out of their garden, and if not that, then from the nearby market in a Muggle village. Snape had grown up with house-elves supplying meals. When he cooked on his own, it was always with food provided by elves. Ron and Snape were both enthralled with stories of Muggle grocery markets.

Hermione looked at Harry at one point and asked him, "Do you think they can handle learning about can openers and mixers?"

"Electric or hand-held?" Harry quipped. "Don't forget about microwave ovens, when we talk about ovens. Oh, and pharmacies."

Ron stared at them as if he thought they were joking. "I've heard about electricity, you know. Dad finds it fascinating. He's brought home loads of Muggle stuff, and I don't recall ever hearing about 'mixers' or-- microwaves, did you call it?"

"No offence, Ron, but the stuff your dad has is usually useless to a Muggle, not to mention a wizard. You don't have electricity at the Burrow, even if your dad brought home something that wasn't broken." He said this gently, not wanting to cause embarrassment to his friend. Ron nodded to show he understood. Harry continued, "Microwave ovens are something Muggles came up with to cook faster. You put the food in and set a timer for however long it takes to cook what you put in. I'm not sure exactly what it does to do the cooking. The oven itself doesn't get hot, but the food does. I do know that people who have pacemakers aren't supposed to go near them when they're on, though. There's always a sign saying that wherever a microwave is."

"Pacemaker?" Snape asked with narrowed eyes. Now he looked as if he thought that Harry and Hermione might be playing them for fools.

Hermione hurriedly spoke up, "That's a device that Muggle doctors implant into a Muggle whose heart isn't beating correctly, Professor. It just means that it makes the heart to keep up a proper pace or rhythm at times when it fails to do so."

Snape looked impressed with this piece of Muggle medical information, even if the thought of something foreign being 'implanted' in a person was wholly disgusting. "Perhaps, we will need to hear what you know of common Muggle maladies. It occurs to me that there will be much in that area that would be useful to know."

"It's on the list, sir. We just haven't gotten to it yet." She spoke with a bland voice, so as not to remind Snape too much of how he had insulted the list she had come up with.

Snape merely nodded. Then, as the evening had passed, he reminded them. "Tomorrow evening, we will Portkey to Miss Granger's home. Be in the Headmaster's office at six."

"We?" Harry and Ron looked at each other, and then at Hermione.

She smiled and grabbed their hands in excitement, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, it's been so busy ... mum and dad asked you two to come as well, and Professor Dumbledore has said yes! You've never been to my home, so it'll be great fun to have you there!"

Harry and Ron smiled back at her. A glance at Snape said he didn't think too much of the idea, but he was reserving his opinion for the moment. The trio walked out of the Room of Requirement, leaving the silent professor to stare after them in deep thought.