Disregarding Reality

"Why did she have to be so complicated?" Snape asked himself. He had been thinking about what had happened that evening since he had returned from bringing Hermione back to the hospital wing. When he had returned to his office, he had begun to correct the essays that he was supposedly correcting when Hermione had been sitting in the chair across from his desk. He had really only had pieces of scrap paper that he had scribbled down potion instructions on, but they looked very similar to an essay. He never liked the idea of someone staring at him when he was correcting, and since he had to make it look like he was doing something productive, that seemed the best route. "Well, at least she said something," he said aloud, since he was the only one in the dark office. He began to think of all the possible reasons she would say that "It's been going on forever; it's just gotten worse lately" but came to no reasonable solutions. At least he knew that she was beginning to trust him. No one had ever truly trusted Severus Snape. Ever since the fiasco with the prophecy and him joining Dumbledore's side, everybody was always questioning him. All that mattered to him was that Dumbledore trusted him. He was on the good side, even if people didn't believe it. And because of this, he treated people arrogantly.

He was not afraid of the Dark Lord. He had been serving as a spy for Dumbledore all these years now and the Dark Lord had not figured out that he was two-timing him yet.

But back to Hermione, he thought. What would he have to do tomorrow night to get her to open up even more? He would have to tell her something about his past, something that would make her sympathize him. Maybe it would trigger a memory of her own. He was too tired to think of anything tonight, as it was now 3:30 in the morning and he was getting drowsy. He pushed the pieces of parchment that was in front of him into a pile, got up, blew out the candles, and retired to his private quarters

Hermione tossed and turned for a long time thinking about the night's events. When she had returned to the Hospital Wing accompanied by Professor Snape, she was so tired that she thought she was going to fall into a deep sleep, but that did not happen. All she could think about was how much of an idiot she was for even speaking about what was wrong with her to Professor Snape. Harry and Ron didn't even know. What was she going to do if Snape told them? They would hate her for choosing to tell Snape over them. "Get a hold of yourself Hermione," she told herself. She had only said one sentence to him, and it wasn't as if he could have it figured out already. "But now he knows something's wrong, he's going to expect me to tell him more tomorrow night," she said to herself. What was she going to tell him? She would have to figure this out in the morning. The pillow was feeling very inviting right now.

"Shh, Ron, I think she's still asleep," said a whispering voice.

"Man, I can't wait much longer for breakfast, I'm famished. Maybe we should just come back after we eat."

"Fine, but if we're late for potions, I'm going to make slugs come out of your mouth."

"Don't remind me of that, mate."

Both boys chuckled to themselves at this remark. Hermione heard the door of the Hospital Wing close behind Harry and Ron as they left. She had been awake for a while now but was just not in the mood to talk to her two best friends. She knew that they would be back soon and she would have to talk to them then, but for now she just wanted to be alone. Hermione looked around the Hospital Wing and saw that it was still empty. She wondered where Madam Pomfrey was, but as soon as this thought went through her head she regretted it. Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office holding a small container of pills in her hand.

"Here you go dear, these should help. I take it that you're used to muggle pills, so that's what I got for you."

"Thank you. I've never really had much of a liking for wizard pills."

"Yes... well, these should help. You'll have to stay here until I see an improvement in your eating habits and when your fever and headache go away."

"How long do you expect that to be?"

"Well, your headache and fever are probably due to stress, so these pills will help with that, but as for your eating habits, that's up to you and your body."

"Oh."

"In any case, if you are here more than three days the headmaster will have to call in a tutor so you don't fall behind in your school work."

"I wouldn't want that," said Hermione sarcastically to herself.

"Well then, I'll just leave you to do whatever," said Madam Pomfrey as she walked back to her office.

Hermione lay back on her pillow with a yawn. "More than three days? That will get boring," she thought to herself. But before she had even a minute to think of what she will do with all her spare time, Harry and Ron entered the Hospital Wing, with Ron still eating a croissant.

"Hey Hermione," said Harry, seeing that she was awake.

"Hae Her-mo-ni," said Ron with his mouth full of food.

"Hi, you two."

"We came up earlier, but you were still asleep," said Harry.

"And then Harry made me rush through breakfast to run up here, I didn't even get a chance to finish my croissant," said Ron, gesturing to the pastry in his hand.

"Well, I didn't want to miss you if you woke up and then fell back asleep, and I'd really prefer not to be late for potions, Snape will kill us."

"Well you better get going, you've only got five minutes," said Hermione with a giggle.

Harry cursed under his breath and Ron dropped his croissant in surprise.

"We'll see you later than," said Harry as both boys ran out of the Hospital Wing.

"Oh my, that's why they're my friends, I guess," said Hermione to herself. She decided to get some rest as she didn't have a very good sleep the night before and she didn't know what else to do.