Fair and Foul by Lemon Curd
Summary: Ginny's is not the only valentine Harry gets. After eating the chocolate gifted to him by an anonymous admirer, Harry realizes he is very much in love with none other than the handsome Gildery Lockhart. But will Gilderoy love him back? Why is Hermione suddenly in love with Snape? And who is the mysterious blonde beauty Snape has been seen with? (Warning: Mention of rape. But no worries, it is not overly dark, and no inappropriate relationships between students and teachers actually happen.)
Categories: Healer Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Hermione
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Mystery
Media Type: None
Tags: None
Takes Place: 2nd Year
Warnings: Character Death, Out of Character, Rape
Prompts: Teacher Attack!
Challenges: Teacher Attack!
Series: None
Chapters: 17 Completed: No Word count: 40632 Read: 27231 Published: 06 Aug 2019 Updated: 03 Aug 2021
Chapter 3 by Lemon Curd
The Easter holidays approached, and to Harry’s horror, Dumbledore announced that the school would be closed over the holidays, as to protect students from Slytherin’s monster at least during that time.

Before he could panic in earnest, though, Hermione invited him to spend the holidays with her family.

“Are you sure? Your parents don’t even really know me.” Somehow, what with how nice Mrs. Weasley had been that day at King’s Cross, he had been confident that she would like him to visit.

Hermione’s parents, though ...

“They did meet you”, she reminded him. “And they insisted I invite you. Ron, too, but they’d understand if his parents want him at home.”

Not only did the Weasleys want their children to come home, they, too, wanted to invite Harry.

“It’s okay, though”, Ron said when Harry explained he’d already been invited by Hermione and accepted the invitation. “They won’t mind that you can’t come. Just were worried about you having to stay with your relatives. And we had you over in the summer, I figure it’s fair that you stay with Hermione now.”



The Grangers picked them up at the train station, and only when Harry and his luggage were all in the car already did they mention they wouldn’t stay at their home for long. “We are going to France”, Mrs. Granger announced as she started the car. “Have you been to France, Harry?”

“Um, no.” And, what was more, he wasn’t sure he could. “Won’t I need a passport or something?” The Dursleys had never taken him abroad, so he wouldn’t know, but he was pretty sure he had heard something about documents being needed to get over the border.

“Hogwarts sent us the documents. According to the headmaster, your aunt and uncle are very pleased you are visiting with a friend.” Mrs. Granger didn’t seem to buy that, though. “Everything seems to be in order.”

Harry was sure there must be magic involved. Surely it took ages to apply for such a document – and the Dursleys had never applied for a passport for him or anything. And they’d never voluntarily agree to let him stay with a friend, let alone travel to France.

The very thought he was getting a proper holiday would probably make their heads explode or something.

He grinned at the mental image.

Then, reality caught up with him again. “I don’t want to impose on you ...” Staying with the Weasleys while they were at home was one thing, but travelling was expensive. And they probably wanted to spend time with Hermione without some boy they didn’t know awkwardly standing around ...

“We wouldn’t have asked Hermione to invite you if we didn’t want you to come”, Mr. Granger said firmly. “She told us a lot about you. How was school so far?”

“Pretty okay, I guess.”

“Which subject do you like best?”

“I’m not sure.” He found DADA most interesting in theory, but every teacher they’d had had managed to make it boring. “Transfiguration, I guess.”

“Hermione says you are good at flying with a broomstick.”

“Oh, right. That’s not really a subject, though. It doesn’t really matter what grades you get.” Harry felt a little awkward. It was easier to talk to Mrs. and Mr. Weasley, probably because they had been to Hogwarts, too. Or because they didn’t just make small talk – Mr. Weasley’s fascination with muggle object made for plenty conversation topics. “There’s subjects I would like if the teachers were different”, he added.

“So Professor Snape is really as nasty as Hermione tells us?”

“Probably worse”, Harry blurted out. “I mean, Hermione is very respectful to teachers. He picks on her for knowing things, it’s ridiculous.”

“He also picks on you, doesn’t he?”, Mr. Granger probed.

“Yeah, but I am not that good at potions, so at least he has reasons. He’s totally unfair to Hermione.”



When Mrs. Granger parked the car in front of a very nice detached house, it dawned on Harry that both Granger parents being dentists meant they had some money.

It was weird, he mused as he got out of the car, because the car itself wasn’t all that big, or new.

The house wasn’t very large, and the garden, for all that it was larger, wasn’t as immaculate as that of the Dursleys – but then, Harry thought bitterly, the Grangers didn’t have an unwanted nephew living with them whom they could make do the work for free.

“I’ll show you the guest room”, Hermione announced. “We can take your luggage up later.”

The guest room was a very large, very bright room with windows that went out to the garden. It was the most anonymous room Harry had ever stayed in – decorated in dark wood and cowslip yellow, curtains matching the bedclothes – and he almost didn’t dare put Hedwig’s cage down on the immaculate desk.

Hermione opened a window. “You can let Hedwig out, there’s plenty mice in the garden, they’re eating all the flower bulbs, dad complains about it every year.”

As if she had understood her, Hedwig gave a delighted hoot and as soon as Harry opened a cage, she went out through the window, swooping down on some unsuspecting small rodent.

The back garden was even wilder than the front garden, with plenty old trees and wildflowers growing in what might once have been intended as lawn.



“My room is right next door”, Hermione told him. “Come, I’ll show you.”

At the sight of her room, Harry couldn’t suppress a wide grin. It looked exactly as he had imagined it – every wall was covered in bookshelves.

The only non-book decoration was a large Gryffindor flag. When he stepped closer, he saw the crest was done in cross-stitch. “Where’d you buy that?” He never had seen anything the like.

“Made it myself.”

“That must have taken you an eternity!”

She smiled proudly. “I needed something to do over the summer, to keep me busy and distracted. I had to ask my parents to lock away my wand so I wouldn’t get tempted.”

“I didn’t have to ask the Dursleys to do that.” And he also hadn’t needed to find anything to do, they did that, too. And he didn’t have a cool flag to show for it.

Hermione grimaced. “The more you tell me about them, the less I like them. You should spend summer here, too, if Ron doesn’t invite you – or you could just spend half with him and half with us.”

“Are you sure your parents don’t mind?”

“Very sure – they’re delighted I found friends at school.”

Suddenly it hit Harry – Hermione hadn’t ever mentioned any muggle friends. She must have been more lonely that he’d thought. He’d seen her being a bit of a loner in Hogwarts during first year, but they had all been new to the school.

Did the muggle children hate her for being a bit of a know-it-all, too? She wasn’t that bad, really. And unlike Harry, she didn’t have a bully follow her around who made it his mission to beat up everyone who wanted to be friends with her.

Or at least Harry hoped so.



Hermione didn’t dwell on it. She showed him the house, helped him carry his things upstairs, and, being Hermione, suggested they do their homework together.


When, two days later, they sat in the car, packed like sardines because the Grangers were apparently used to only taking one child and much of the space was taken up by luggage and a giant basket of food between them on the backseat, Harry was quite glad Hermione had made him do his homework.

Now, he could look forward to the rest of the holidays without worrying about it.



They took the ferry to Calais, and walking around aboard the ship, Harry couldn’t wipe the big grin off his face.

A ship! He was on a ship, and under him was the sea! Life was great.

Holidays at Hogwarts had been nice, but there’d still been the risk of meeting Snape in the corridors.

Here, he was blessedly free of Dursleys and Snape, something he’d only experienced once before, in his weeks at the Burrow.

Wait – was that Snape? Harry turned, but then realized he must be mistaken.

Snape would never stoop so low as to travel with a muggle ship.

He chuckled.

“What are you thinking of?”, Hermione asked.

“Oh, I just thought I’d seen Snape. I didn’t know I was so paranoid about him – not like he could take any points when we’re not at Hogwarts, anyway.”

“And you even did your homework”, Hermione said, laughing. “There’s nothing he could punish you for.”

The Grangers had booked a cabin on the ferry, or actually, they’d booked two. Harry shared with Hermione.

“Your parents don’t mind you sharing rooms with a boy?”, he asked when he turned his back so Hermione could get into her pyjamas.

“They know we’re just friends. And they aren’t very strict, anyway. I’m always allowed to do everything I want, as long as I ask beforehand.”

Harry suppressed a chuckle. What could they do? Tell Hermione she wasn’t allowed to go to the library?

The most reckless thing he had seen her do so far was accept a chocolate frog from him, even though she wasn’t allowed sweets before lunch. And she had dutifully brushed her teeth afterwards.

Compared to Dudley who had, among other things, played with petrol and matches, and even tried to burn one of Mrs. Figg’s cats (Harry had been able to save the cat), accepted – and actually smoked - cigarettes from the older kids who met on the playground in the evenings, and ruined a neighbour’s car by trying to jump over it with his bicycle and a ramp, all without being punished even the tiniest bit ...

Hermione just was too sensible to want to do anything like that – she always lectured others about being careful with fire, would never harm an animal, had no doubt paid attention when they’d learnt in school that smoking led to lung cancer, and was so worried about accidents she hovered close to the ground when Harry persuaded to try out his Nimbus 2000 – an experiment her parents had eagerly approved of and watched with fascination.

The only way to be strict with her was to make absolutely nonsensical rules and then punish her for not following them, like Snape did.

Granted, “no talking unless asked” was not in itself a nonsensical rule, but every teacher but Snape was sensible enough to just pick Hermione when she was the only one who knew the answer, and when she wasn’t provoked by someone ignoring her, she didn’t talk out of turn, so it never came up.

So. Still Snape's fault.
To be continued...


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