Don't let this fic fool you. I love Remus. I just think it'd be a nice twist to make him the bad guy fer once and have Severus be the good guy. ;)
Song "Everybody's Fool" (c) Evanescence
Characters (c) J.K. Rowling
"Perfect by nature"
Hermione belted out, sarcastically. In her devastated state, she was struggling to pull herself reluctantly down the hallway...
"Icons of self indulgence"
She threw a hatred filled glare through tear stained eyes back down the hallway, to his chamber.
"Just what we all need,
More lies about a world that"
She ran her hand over the wall, Hoping for some sort of support from the cobblestone that built the castle.
"Never was and never will be,
Have you no shame? Don't you see me?
You know you've got everybody fooled"
She sneered back down the narrow pathway at Remus... Wishing he was watching her spill her heart out.
He did have everyone fooled... Everyone thought he was so kind... But they didn't feel the pain he was putting her through.
Remus leaned back against his door. He could hear Hermione. He could hear her words, those words laced with hurt and betrayal.
His head lolled back against the door and tears started to form from him. His chest cavity ached as he gripped the door in suffering; splinters penetrating his fingers.
He felt the pain... She just didn't understand why he had to do this... Why he had to end this with her... It was for her own protection! Even if Remus' heart was against this decision, his mind seemed to have a sadistic dictatorship over him.
"Look, here she comes now"
Hermione said giving an obviously fake smile that strained her cheeks.
"Bow down and stare in wonder"
She sang out, almost screamed, as hard as her lungs would allow as she doubled over clutching her heart.
"'Oh, how we love you'"
Hermione spoke to herself, giving off another fake smile and resting her chin on her shoulder... Putting on a sunshine with cheery topping facade like Parvati or Lavender would do... One of those so-sugary-it-makes-you-want-to-vomit acts.
"No flaws when you're pretending"
She lightly ran her fingertips over the inconspicuous dusty mirror that was hung on hogwarts' wall.
"But now I know she-"
Tailing off, Hermione swiped her nails across her reflection with frustration. Marring the appearance.
"Never was and never will be..."
"You don't know how you've betrayed me" She whispered, tears flowing anew upon her face. Incredulously Hermione continued - "And somehow you've got everybody fooled"
"Without the mask... where will you hide?" She questioned Remus rhetorically.
Hermione placed herself against the wall, sliding herself down to the ground and hitting the floor with a bounce. She put a hand to her forehead and pulled her hair tightly.
"Can't find yourself?... Lost in your lies"
Hermione's fingers scratched her face harshly as they trailed down from the grip they held on her hair.
"I know the truth now!"
She sobbed, banging her fists on the floor.
"I know who you are."
Her arm flung back to hit the wall, pointing in Remus' direction as it clawed at the stone.
"And I don't love you anymore"
She sang, shaking her head vigorously.
"It never was and never will be,
You don't know how you've betrayed me,
And somehow you've got everybody fooled"
Her heart seemed like it was dying... The thumping was so hard she could swear it was creating it's own melody to her words.
"It never was and never will be,
You're not real and you can't save me"
Hermione seemed to have spoken the missing pieces of the puzzle... He wasn't real and he couldn't save her... from himself.
"Somehow now you're everybody's fool"
Hermione smirked as she said the last phrase... The biggest Cheshire grin on her face. The gears in her head had switched from brilliance to madness.
It seemed that string of sanity snapped as Hermione slumped over - exhausted.
Severus watched from the shadows as Miss Granger's soul was poured all over the walls. He could sympathize with her emotional turmoil. What had that bastard of a dog done to her to make her break so violently?
Severus had noticed their little glances at each other at headquarters... those secret smiles and blushing faces.
It hadn't been particularly complicated for Severus to see clear through their masks. His evidence increase as he noticed Granger's chronic tardiness to his class, which happened to be after her Defense Against the Dark Arts.
These tidbits weren't noticeable to everyone but Severus wasn't everyone. He was the spy. He had to know these hair-splitting details to survive. He knew there was something between Granger and the wolf, against his better judgement he neglected to notify the headmaster.
'Hell, with that damned twinkle, the headmaster probably knew about it anyway.' He sneered in his mind.
Severus watched as she flailed herself from wall to wall, as she scratched at the mirror and neglected to notice as it fell to the ground and shattered. He watched the blood roll down her face from where she had clawed herself and failed to notice when she broke the skin.
Severus listened to the lines of her song and pieced together a conclusion... Oh, he'd fix this... he'd fix it with a silver chain and a stream of moonlight, he would.
Severus' blood was boiling.
...and yet he couldn't do anything... He could do nothing but watch as Granger, Head Girl and ideal student, drove herself to madness with the tribulations of love.
'She wouldn't want his comfort.' his mind argued. 'That would be like going straight from one monster into the arms of another.'
Yet, Severus had an odd yearning to hold her tightly against him so that this would all just disappear.
"You're not real and you can't save me." He heard her whisper.
Oh, but Severus could save her... Severus WOULD save her.
He watched then as her body relaxed - slumped awkwardly against the wall.
All her energy had been drained from her... she was emotionally and physically spent.
Slowly, making sure no one was of witness Severus approached her. He stopped momentarily to gaze at her. The blood had trickled down her cheek and onto her blouse, her hair was in restless tangles, and her eyes were bloated from tears.
Carefully, as one would treat a china doll, Severus scooped her up and carried her with ease back to his quarters.
Neglecting to notice the portraits alive with scandal, Severus cradled Hermione tightly to him as he proceeded to his rooms.
Placing her on his bed, her tended to her cuts. Healing them with a bit of anti-infection salve, he then trailed his thumb over the newly perfected flesh.
'No scarring would entail.' He assured himself.
He noticed how warm she was compared to his cold hands... from days spent in the dungeons, one wouldn't commonly have a warm temperature. Welcoming the heat, he placed his whole hand upon her face.
Apparently noticing the sudden drop in temperature, Hermione stirred in her sleep, making a slight 'mewing' sound.
Severus' body froze and he held his breath... it would not do for Hermione Granger to wake up to Severus Snape: Bat of the Dungeons, cradling her face in his bed chambers, it would certainly not do.
Observing that she would not wake from her slumber, Severus straightened himself from her side and proceeded to the door.
He had a wolf to hunt.