She had no idea what had gotten into her. All she knew was that, in that moment, she simply couldn't accept Harry's deception.
When she thought about everything Harry had done since they started school, and realized he hadn't merely been trying to protect her—he'd wanted to get her expelled along with him—Hermione felt an overwhelming sadness she couldn't hold back.
In that situation, Hermione hadn't been able to listen to any of Harry's explanations. She'd only wanted to hide somewhere by herself.
But after going through this crisis, Hermione had finally understood. Harry's antics to get himself expelled had also been meant to protect her.
Hogwarts wasn't as safe as she'd imagined, and Harry had only wanted her to stay away from danger.
In fact, if he hadn't asked Professor McGonagall to let her live with him, she might have been kidnapped before this incident.
She really had misjudged him. She'd gone too far this time...
"No, this time I was in the wrong. No matter what my reasons were, it's a fact that I deceived you."
While Hermione was blaming herself, Harry was reflecting too.
He realized that, at their core, his actions weren't any different from Dumbledore's. Both of them were acting like parents, treating the people they cared about as immature children.
Dumbledore wanted Harry to grow up properly along a carefully planned path, while Harry wanted Hermione to stay away from danger as he saw fit... Both of them had simply assumed they knew best and forced their ideas on someone else.
That was why Harry hadn't thought he was deceiving Hermione before. After all, making things up on the spur of the moment to a child—or making all kinds of empty promises... In many parents' dictionaries, that was called "placating."
Placating was the most common way to deal with troublesome little brats.
To most parents, or adults who took the parental role, children were born to cause trouble.
They were young and didn't know any better. When they ran into trouble, they only knew how to cry and fuss instead of communicating. They only did things that hurt themselves, and they would never willingly accept anything that was good for them.
Driven by that underlying logic, children were easily labeled as bad kids, while parents—whether or not they were any good at parenting—were always acting in their children's best interests. So no matter how controlling or even violent they were, they were still good parents, good adults.
This was the "parental conspiracy" born of "adult arrogance"!
But the truth was that even children could have their own ideas. Their innermost wishes deserved respect, and they deserved to be treated as equals!
Harry's biggest mistake had been overlooking Hermione's need for equality while trying to have an equal conversation with Dumbledore!
"Harry, I know you care about me, but if something like this happens again..."
"Hermione, I won't hide anything from you again!" Before tears could glisten in the girl's eyes, Harry gave her his solemn promise.
From now on, he would never act like Dumbledore and ignore Hermione's wishes from an adult's lofty vantage point!
Their eyes met, and they smiled at each other. All the misunderstandings caused by their crisis of trust and mismatched thinking vanished in that moment.
"By the way... why did you come to the Girls' Bathroom?" Hermione suddenly seemed to remember something and asked the question that cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"I... Yeah, why did I come to the Girls' Bathroom?" Harry was struck speechless, instantly breaking into a cold sweat.
Was he supposed to say he thought she was in the Girls' Bathroom, barged in to look for her, and ended up trapped inside by a Troll?
That would be so embarrassing...
Mm-hmm, someone had only just made a big promise not to hide anything from Hermione again... and he'd already been caught out!
"I and the other professors would also very much like to know why you two were in the Girls' Bathroom!" Professor McGonagall's strained voice rang out. She crossed the rubble at the entrance with Snape and Quirrell, then gave Harry and Hermione a stern talking-to.
As Professor McGonagall lectured him, Harry secretly squeezed Hermione's hand.
Harry: Want to stay here and listen to Professor McGonagall go on?
Hermione: Not at all~
Harry: Then let's run!
In perfect agreement, Harry and Hermione made faces at Professor McGonagall, then dashed away hand in hand, leaving her behind to stomp her foot in helpless frustration.
But as they passed, Harry couldn't help glancing at the blood streaming down Snape's leg...
Being Bitten by a Dog Means You Need a Vaccine (8/10)
The Granger Siblings had successfully taken down the Troll, and peace had returned to the school. But for Harry, one thing after another kept cropping up to worry about.
For example, the House-elf who had apparently been sent by a Pure-blood Family to target him and Hermione, and the strange Mirror of Erised in the abandoned classroom on the fifth floor.
And then there was... Snape.
The following evening, Harry finally got his owl.
"Hedwig, you must be exhausted~"
Seeing his beloved pet panting and looking listless, Harry's heart ached. He hurriedly offered her some of his special feed.
In less than a day, Hedwig had flown back and forth between Hogwarts Castle and Harry's home in the suburbs of London, delivering his letter and bringing back the package he needed. She'd barely had a moment's rest.
Harry also couldn't help complaining that the Wizarding World was terribly inconvenient for young wizards.
A phone call would have taken care of it, but as a first-year student, Harry could only send messages by owl. It exhausted Hedwig and wasted time.
"What's that little package Hedwig brought?" Hermione asked, puzzled, as she looked at the small parcel in Harry's hand.
"It's medicine. Snape was bitten by a dog earlier, wasn't he? I asked my parents to get me a course of Rabies Vaccine and some syringes," Harry explained with a mischievous look.
"Vaccine, syringes..." Hermione stared at him blankly. After a long pause, she asked in disbelief, "Y-you're going to give Snape a shot?!"
"Of course." Harry looked entirely serious. "Being bitten by a dog isn't a small matter. If he doesn't take precautions now, he won't even get the chance to cry about it once the illness sets in. I'm doing this entirely out of kindness~"
"He should really thank you, Snape," Hermione said, rolling her eyes helplessly. "He might even be delighted to take a hundred points from Ravenclaw~"
Out of kindness?
Yeah, right!
Hermione figured Harry was simply unable to go a single day without causing trouble~
"So, are you coming with me? You might get to see Snape crying and begging not to get a shot~" Harry completely ignored Hermione's sarcasm and asked with a grin.
"I'm not going!" Hermione refused without a moment's thought. "You're trouble enough on your own. If I go with you, won't we lose two hundred points?"
"Hey, fine, I'll go by myself... Oh, could you do me a favor and handle tonight's homework?"
"You little brat... Harry, you're such a pain!"
Harry winked at Hermione, stood up, and headed downstairs to the Staff Room with the medical kit Hedwig had brought. He left the little lion fuming behind him, her teeth grinding in frustration~
The day before, Harry had noticed Snape's leg injury. After thinking it over, he realized it must have been caused by the Three-headed Dog, so he'd immediately written to his parents.
He'd asked Mr. and Mrs. Granger to prepare a course of Rabies Vaccine, syringes, and a medical kit that could maintain a constant low temperature, then had Hedwig rush them back as fast as possible.
Of course, giving the Bat Professor a shot was just a mischievous whim. Harry's real goal was to use the opportunity to have a proper chat with him.
When Harry pushed open the Staff Room door, he was met with a horrifying sight.
There were only two people in the room: Snape and Filch. Snape was slumped on the floor, his robe hitched above his knees and his trousers apparently pulled down. Dark red bloodstains remained on the floor between his legs.
Filch stood opposite him, bent over and leaning toward him...
"Ahem. Looks like I've come at a bad time?"
At Harry's two coughs, Snape and Filch froze in place.
They mechanically turned their heads toward the door, then saw Harry standing there with a faintly amused smile.
"Granger!"
Before Filch could react, Snape was already bristling. He quickly lowered his robe to cover his injured leg, glaring at Harry with such fury that his face seemed about to twist out of shape.
"It's all right. You can carry on. Just pretend I'm not here~"
Harry's cheeky grin only made Snape more furious.
"Hey, Professor Snape, that's not fair! Mr. Filch is here to bandage you, and I'm here to treat you too. We're all on the same side, so why are you only yelling at me?"
Harry paid no attention to Snape's threatening glare. Instead, he strolled into the room and took the bandages from Filch.
He'd called out because he'd seen Filch about to bandage Snape.
Come on, with Snape's injury bleeding like that, there was no way wrapping it directly in bandages would be enough.
"Hmph!" Snape gave a gloomy snort and turned away, refusing to deal with Harry.
Who was on the same side as you, you little brat!
"Mr. Filch, I'll take it from here. You can go about your business."
As he spoke, Harry took a series of items for treating wounds out of the pocket of his oversized wizard's robe—which was really his Space Ring.
"Fine." Filch promptly turned and left.
Snape's expression tightened at this. He'd never heard of Filch being so friendly with a student before.
"The way you've been treating that wound is wrong. No wonder it's taking so long to heal."
Harry picked up a bottle of saline and came over to Snape, poised to pour it.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Snape's hand, hidden in his sleeve, clenched into a fist. It looked as though he might hex Harry at any moment.
"I told you, I'm here to treat your injury." Harry met Snape's gaze calmly, but didn't stop what he was doing. He carefully poured most of the bottle of saline over Snape's wound. "Bear with it. It'll hurt a bit."
"Ugh!" Pain from the wound made Snape grit his teeth. He glared furiously at Harry, but in the end, held back his anger.
Perhaps even he knew that Harry really was there to help.
Harry had already started cleaning the wound with clean tweezers and gauze.
"I could tell you'd been bitten badly just by the way you walked yesterday. Looks like I was right."
After wiping away the blood and disinfecting the wound, Harry took a piece of gelatin sponge for stopping the bleeding and placed it on Snape's leg. Only then did he carefully wrap it with bandages.
Snape had been bitten badly. His leg had several deep, bloody holes, and a chunk of skin and flesh had even been torn away!
And yet he'd refused to go to Madam Pomfrey for treatment, only letting Filch wrap it in bandages. If Harry hadn't stepped in today, Snape would probably have been limping for the next two weeks.
Snape Can Be Won Over (9/10)
Watching Harry treat the wound so carefully and feeling the pain in his leg ease, Snape's hard expression finally began to soften.
"Granger... what exactly did you come to see me about today?" Snape asked hoarsely after a moment's hesitation.
"The thing Hagrid took from Gringotts was the Sorcerer's Stone, wasn't it..." Harry tightened the bandage around Snape's leg and asked as if the thought had just occurred to him. "Is it really at Hogwarts now?"
"The Sorcerer's Stone... You'd better stay out of this!"
"Fine~" Harry shrugged indifferently, opened the medicine kit Hedwig had brought, and began preparing the vaccine.
As expected of Snape. His lips were sealed, unlike Hagrid, whose mouth was as wide as a bottle.
Harry had always had a theory about the Sorcerer's Stone: he thought it might not be at Hogwarts at all. That was why he'd come to test Snape's reaction, but he hadn't managed to find anything out.
Judging by Snape's reaction, there might be some things even he didn't know...
"All right, roll up both sleeves and come over here to get disinfected." Harry put aside his thoughts for the moment and held up a cotton swab dipped in iodine and a syringe filled with medicine.
"Your treatment is already finished. What else do you want?"
Snape eyed the needle in Harry's hand warily, his face spelling out his complete refusal.
"Obviously, I'm giving you a vaccine. It's a necessary treatment after being bitten by a canine. That Three-headed Dog of Hagrid's came from who knows where, so it's better to be careful," Harry patiently explained. "Besides, it's been more than two days already. If you wait longer than seventy-two hours, it might not work even if you want the shot."
"Harry Granger, don't you think you've carried this nonsense far enough?!" Snape suddenly swept his hand out. A gust of magic forced Harry back several steps. "Don't think you can do whatever you want just because someone here has your back!"
"You think I'm fooling around? Fine, then let me ask you this: do you know what can happen if a dog bites you? Do you know that the Rabies Virus can have an incubation period of over a year? Do you know that Rabies is almost one hundred percent fatal?"
The three questions left Snape speechless again. Harry widened his eyes slightly. "Now that you know all that, do you still think I'm fooling around? Besides... if it weren't for my late mother's sake, do you think I'd care about your injury?!"
"Lily..." At Harry's mention of the person he treasured most in the world, Snape froze.
"Professor... are you taking this shot or not?!"
"I am..."
At Harry's question, Snape nodded woodenly and let him pull his arm out from his robe.
"See? That wasn't so hard~" Harry gave him a scornful look. The old tsundere said one thing and meant another. He clearly needed to be taught a lesson.
After disinfecting the upper-arm muscles on both of Snape's arms with iodine swabs, Harry stuck a needle into each arm, one after the other.
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