Never Give Up, It's A Wonderful Life

Chapter song: Rodgers & Hammerstein, "Getting to Know You"

Chapter 2

When Hermione awoke, she had no sense of time or place. It was pitch black, and it was only the fact that she felt a soft mattress under her and a warm duvet over her that, after a few brief moments of panic, she was able to place herself in Hogwarts. She was unused to sleeping in a room without a window or at least semi-opaque canvas walls that let in the morning light. She quickly decided to have another one of those window-pictures mounted in the bedroom as well. At the moment, however, in lieu of that, she spoke a single-word command to increase the magical illumination so she could check the time. As soon as the ambient light increased enough for her eyes to react, her heart nearly leapt out of her chest, and she emitted an ear-piercing scream that would certainly have cracked all the windows in the room, had there been any.

Severus Snape was standing next to her bed.

Hermione scrambled back, gathering the covers around her, scrabbling on the night stand for her wand, all the while not letting Snape out of her sight.

"Stop that shrieking this instant!" he thundered, putting his hands over his ears. "And get out of my bed!"

"This-- What-- Minerva said--" Hermione didn't even know where to start. She had now got hold of her wand and held it up in front of her for protection. "Minerva -- Professor McGonagall -- She assigned me these rooms. I'm not--" Hermione looked more closely at Snape, still breathing heavily. It slowly dawned on her that he was not quite corporeal. She was able to see through him, although not as easily as she could see through the castle ghosts. This was due to the fact that he did not appear in the drab, pearly gray she was used to ghosts being, but in the same colors he bore in real life. In other words, his robes were black, his skin sallow but not colorless -- in fact, there were two spots of high color on his cheeks -- and his eyes were that bottomless, piercing black that always made her shiver and look away in class.

"Wait," she said, gaining mastery over her racing heart. "You're a ghost. I think," she added uncertainly, slightly perplexed by his non-standard appearance. She loosened her grasp on the covers as she leaned forward to get a better look.

"Regardless," he replied through clenched teeth. "These are still my rooms, and you have no business in them. What have you done with my things?"

"Nothing," Hermione replied defensively. "This is how everything was when I arrived. You'll have to ask Minerva."

"Nosy meddling Gryffindors," Snape growled. "Think as soon as one's dead, they can just take over."

"Are you really..." Hermione's curiosity got the better of her and she relaxed as she realized he couldn't actually do anything to her. "So you're a ghost. Ha! I thought you would be glad to be done with the lot of us. And here you are, decided to come back."

"I didn't decide anything," he spat bitterly. "I simply found myself here. Now will you get out of my bed? There is something decidedly indecent about the sight of you wallowing about among my sheets. Why aren't you in Gryffindor tower? Was it destroyed?" A sudden look of horror overtook him. "I'm not going to find Potter on my couch, am I?"

"They're my sheets now, and my bed," Hermione said. "It's been months since the Battle. Gryffindor tower is still standing, but the castle was extensively damaged. These are the only rooms available. I'm a professor now. Minerva's the Headmistress."

"Merlin save us," Snape groaned.

"You mean you really don't know what's happened?"

"How should I?" he asked snidely. "I'm dead, after all. I assume Potter won."

"Yes. Harry won. We won. Voldemort was destroyed. But it's been months. Where have you been this whole time?"

"I don't know!" Snape exploded. "Argh, if only I could--" He made a grab at Hermione, trying to catch her arm. She flinched away, reflexively, but it didn't matter; Snape's hand passed right through her without her feeling a thing.

"This isn't going to get us anywhere," Hermione said firmly. "I don't see why you're making such a fuss. It's not as if you need to sleep anymore. And the shortage of accommodations is due to the damage the castle took from the battle launched by your compatriots."

"You're treading on thin ice, Miss Granger," Snape warned.

"Yes, yes, I know you were actually trying to help our side. But you had a strange way of showing it, letting Death Eaters into the castle and putting students directly in harm's way."

"I don't need to answer to you!"

"No, but maybe that's why you're still here. Maybe you need to make up for your past, balance out your karma."

"I don't need your lectures about the state of my soul or my afterlife. I had enough of that from Dumbledore when he was alive."

"Have you seen him?" Hermione asked, curious. "Dead, I mean? Like Harry did when he died, before he came back?"

"No!" Snape retorted. "I haven't seen anyone, just an intrusive, troublesome Gryffindor who won't get out of my bed!"

Hermione growled in the back of her throat, threw the covers back, and hopped out of bed. "There! Happy now?"

Snape's eyes widened. "Is this what passes for sleepwear among Gryffindors these days? I won't have to worry about you being here much longer if that's how you dress," he said with a sneer. "You'll catch your death and be out of my hair within the week."

Hermione looked down at herself. She was wearing a white spaghetti-strap cotton camisole on top and nothing but her knickers on the bottom. Admittedly, it wasn't the most appropriate thing for the dungeon, but it was what she was used to, and it had been warm enough under the covers. Now that she was out of bed and standing on the unheated floor, however, she was mortified to realize that the chill was causing an embarrassing reaction, and she crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to cover it up.

"No one asked to you look!" she exclaimed.

"Don't flatter yourself," Snape drawled. "I can assure you the sight of you stirs nothing in me aside from gratitude for Hogwarts' dress code, which ensures that in the classroom at least, I am not subject to such indecent displays."

Hermione struggled with her temper, a tart retort on the tip of her tongue about no one wanting to subject him to such displays anywhere else either. She was only able to bite it back because of the innate respect she still held for the professor -- or at least, for his title, and for some of the good things he had done.

"Fine," she said instead, with forced calm. "If you would be so good as to go into the other room so I can get dressed, I will be out in a moment and we can discuss things in an adult manner. I'm certain we can come to some sort of agreement."

"The only thing I will be agreeing to is you packing up your things and finding another place to sleep!" Nevertheless, Snape turned and moved toward the door, fading away when he reached it.

Hermione quickly visited the bathroom, then pulled on a pair of trousers, a jumper, and some socks, and ran a de-tangling charm over her hair. When she arrived in the living room, she found Snape standing with his back to her, perusing the bookcase.

"'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'?" Snape sounded both derisive and amused.

"It's for research," Hermione said firmly. "I'm teaching Muggle Studies." Although to tell the truth, she had mostly bought it for personal reasons; after all the mixed signals sent to her by Ron, she despaired of ever understanding the male of the species, much less being involved in a satisfactory relationship with one.

"It sounds more like something the centaurs would spout," Snape said. "But then I hardly imagined you would be teaching something of importance."

"I'm not surprised to hear that from you," Hermione returned. "It's attitudes like that which provide fertile ground for Death Eater propaganda."

"Do not presume you know my motivations," Snape said in a low voice.

"I know about Harry's mother," she told him loftily. "I also know you were a half-blood yourself, but you never stood up for other half-bloods or Muggle-borns when they were the subject of taunting by your Slytherins and other purebloods. You would have been in the perfect position to disabuse them of their misinformed and frankly idiotic prejudices, but you kept the fact of your own heritage a well-guarded secret from everyone. Why? If not that you held those same prejudices against Muggles and Muggle-borns."

"My personal life is not the subject here! Your invasion of my privacy is, and there will be no further discussion of either subject. You will pack up your things, or instruct the house-elves to do so, and retreat to Gryffindor tower, Hogsmeade, or camp out on the front lawn for all I care."

"I would gladly do any of those things, if it were possible or convenient for me to take up my teaching position whilst doing so. These are the quarters assigned to me by the Headmistress. I'm sorry about your things being removed. I meant to ask Minerva about them anyway. Now I have a reason to. Better yet, why don't you come with me? We can go up to her office right now and get this settled."

"Gladly. Now that I am finally free, I have no intention of living out eternity subject to the whims of supposedly well-meaning Gryffindors."

"Someone needs a lesson in interhouse unity," Hermione muttered underneath her breath.

"I heard that," Snape said crisply.

Hermione merely rolled her eyes as she put on her shoes. When she was ready to leave, she looked around, but Snape was already gone.