Lessons In Love

Chapter 45: Fear No More

Hermione was tense as she packed more of her clothing into her trunk. It was raining that day, the snow becoming scarcer now that spring was coming, and a loud thunder and lightning storm was displaying the element's power by displaying streaks across the sky with the beating of a drum. Although she was not afraid of fanatical and wild storms that could be best described in a muggle horror flick or a traditional scary story, she had a strong distaste for them that could rival Professor Snape's hatred for all things Gryffindor. Her days with Figgy had become much more awkward and she and the little elf had grown very much apart. At least she had probably been the one that had grown distant. Figgy still remained the same except for the occasional off day where he was either extremely frustrated with her, although still respectful, or exceedingly inconsolable with tears. The house elf was beginning to become an emotional mess. Figgy was helping to fold her smaller articles of clothing and was currently perfecting the art of a folded scarf. He would fold it, smooth it over, then fold it again but if it ever became uneven in the least bit, he would completely start over. Figgy had been doing this for over ten minutes when a loud tap sounded against the glass window pain and Hermione yelped in fright and dropped the book she was planning to take with her to study from.

"Don't worry Miss Granger, Figgy will protect you." He patted her hand lovingly as she dropped to her knees to retrieve the damaged text before sneaking over to see an owl that was extremely upset from having to transport the post in the rainstorm, "Miss Granger has received some mail."

Hermione looked up from the floor to see Figgy carrying two letters and she sighed, not seeing the normal sized envelope that she would collect from Harry, "Just set it on the side table, I will look at it after we are done packing."

"Yes, Miss." He sighed and did as he was told.

She stared down at her mess. The old book that Snape had lent to her was now in shambles. The spine finally split open as well as the pages that were no longer bound together and were sprawled out on the floor, "Oh no…" she mumbled trying to salvage the book, hoping to be able to get it back to one piece.

Figgy came to her side and picked up a few pages, trying to collect and order them by number. Hermione picked up the hard cover with the loosely knit paper that had not fallen out of the binding yet. When she did this she saw rogue pieces of parchment fall out and they looked to be written on and stained. Setting the damaged book back down, now more interested in what had fallen out, she gingerly grabbed the many folded up notes that had escaped the old pages. The parchment looked reasonably newer than the book. Picking them up, Hermione sat cross-legged and unfurled the messy paper,

"Figgy did you know about these?" She asked before looking at the content within.

The house elf sat down next to her and pointed towards the writing, "Mister Snape's lesson plans for Miss Granger."

Hermione looked back at the sheet in her hands and saw familiar content with a recognizable script. She was speechless. All of his notes that he had been writing during their lessons at Hogwarts… even the notes stained in Salamander blood were in her grasp. She bit her lip and took a deep breath, "These are the notes he was making while he was teaching me."

Her breathing became quicker, "It's true then… it really is true… he was preparing for me to leave. All of these notes and plans," she referred to the pages, "were written and prepared right in front of me and I didn't even realize."

Figgy looked a little uneasy as Hermione sounded as if she were hyper ventilating and he could not tell if it was out of anger or sadness, "Miss Granger?" he whispered, hoping she was alright.

"How could he do this, Figgy?" she went limp and the sheets fell out of her hands.

He gave an expression of confusion but rubbed Hermione's hand in his own, "Figgy is here for Miss Granger."