Dedication: For Jade, my partner-in-crime for spamming the Arrows chat and pissing everyone off. Love you, darling. Happy birthday and have the best year ever!
A/N: As per Jade's request, this has a Pureblood!Hermione with Snamione and a Dark Side Wins!au. This isn't my forte, so please, no hate.
Thank you so much to Shay for editing!
Written for:
The Leaky Cauldron: Write a 1K fic.
The After School Club: Skyrim: (scenario) someone having to choose between two groups, (object) sweet roll, (word) voice
Book Club: Bezu Fache: (word) police, (word) crime, (word) clues
Showtime: Right Hand Man: (word) Assistance
Tv Show of the month: Wallance Fennel: (action) giving advice (dialogue) "Suddenly, it sounds like a lot less fun." (word) sarcastic
o.O.o
Hermione Granger is: a Muggleborn, a liar, a prodigy with rage bubbling in her bones.
One out of three of those is a lie.
(Hint: it's not the second or the third one)
(Hint: it's always the things you are so sure about that end up being lies)
o.O.o
"Ms. Granger," Severus Snape asks carefully, trying to keep the tone of his voice kind instead of sarcastic. He clearly isn't cut out for this kind of genuineness. "Were you really unaware of your parentage?"
And then Hermione Granger, girl wonder and the brightest witch of her era, collapses in his arms, sobbing. "I didn't know, Severus! Bellatrix Lestrange and Rodolphus Lestrange are my parents, I couldn't have hidden that had I known."
Severus sighs to himself. This isn't his department, he doesn't deal with crying, infuriating, formerly Gryffindor girls, but since the youngest Weasley boy had decided to reveal Granger's newfound secret to the public in a fit of rage upon her denying his courting request, Dumbledore has assigned this to him.
"Listen to me," he says sharply, lifting her chin up so they are eye-to-eye. Granger's eyes are a deep, rich brown but he ignores the feeling in his stomach when they meet his. "Ms. Granger, do you believe in the light side's ideals?"
He knows she doesn't but this is a matter of trust. He works two sides for a reason.
"Severus," she whispers and for no damn reason (he can't bear to think of the reason), he's so grateful he's not her Professor anymore, just her partner in gathering knowledge for the Order, him by spying and her in the library.
Granger takes a deep breath and he wonders where this kind of trust comes from. "No, I don't."
(Hint: he knows, no matter how hard he denies it)
o.O.o
"My Lord," Severus says carefully. "Granger and the rest of wizarding Britain have found out—"
The Dark Lord smirked. "Her parentage, yes, it has reached my ears. It is your job now, Severus, to bring the girl back to our side. Bella has been particularly interested in her, far before knowing she was her own daughter."
Severus wants to run away some days, to leave Wizarding Britain and never look back. Today is yet another one of those days.
o.O.o
He doesn't know how he ends up in situations like this one constantly, but blaming Dumbledore is the easiest way to go and exactly what he does now, as Granger sips tea in his office.
"You asked me last night if I believed," Granger says softly, sipping from her tea cup. "You don't either, right?"
Severus glares, rubbing his temples. "Let me give you some advice, Granger," he says with a glare. "You don't ask a spy about his loyalties."
"You don't ask a girl about her loyalties when she's just found out her parents follow Voldemort, either," Granger snaps back and Severus's lips almost curve into a smirk. Clearly wanting the last word is reason enough for Granger to start acting like her own self again.
A pause ensues as they sip tea, lost in their own thoughts, until Granger says, "Suddenly, it sounds like a lot less fun."
"What are you talking about?" Severus demands and Grangers lips curve up into a ghost of a smile.
"All this." Granger gestures, encompassing the room. "Fighting a war knowing my parents are on the opposite side. Knowing I don't believe in what Dumbledore and Harry are fighting for."
"Do you want a piece of advice, Ms. Granger?" Severus says sharply and she nods. "Never let anyone hear you say that again."
And for the first time since the reveal, Hermione Jean Granger laughs genuinely.
o.O.o
Another day, another routine. Severus doesn't know how his life has come to this, but not even blaming Dumbledore or the Dark Lord is enough anymore.
"My parents stole me." Granger tosses her teacup to the floor as she paces around the room, wringing her hands in anger. "I checked the police records for clues and they didn't even legally adopt me!"
"That's a crime in the Muggle world, no?" Severus sips his tea, side-eyeing the sweet rolls Dumbledore had brought him.
Granger stops to glare. "Yes, of course! But that's not the point, I just don't even know what's worse — my birth parents giving me up or my… other parents kidnapping me."
"They were taken to Azkaban, they couldn't exactly take you with them," Severus points out mildly, biting into a scone. It's too sweet and he scowls. "They left you and your parents found you. Stop exaggerating."
The next cup Granger breaks is far too close to his face for comfort. Severus scowls. He really owe to poison both his master's for this torture he endures.
o.O.o
He gets the news on a Tuesday — Potter, the famous, golden Boy-Who-Lived, couldn't even do just that. The light side's hope is gone.
He watches that night as Granger rips apart the library in her anger.
"We can't win this," she says eventually, her anger ebbing away to resignment. "I don't want to lose hope, but we can't. We're overpowered."
Severus watches her — his partner, the woman who he drinks tea with, the person both his master's need him to get close to — fall apart. He has grown close to her and it's not just for them. He has come to admire her, the ruthlessness and intelligence that defines her. Maybe that's why he offers.
"If you are in need of my assistance," he says slowly. "I am capable of making introductions."
And Hermione Granger, former member of the rebellion, shakes away her tears and nods.
o.O.o
The Dark Lord is impressed, proud almost. The rebellion crumbles without Hermione Granger. Dumbledore dies fast, along with the Weasleys, leaving a power vacuum nobody steps up to fill.
Within months, Hermione Granger is making her way through the ranks, the same way she made her ascent through her class' ranking.
He isn't even surprised.
o.O.o
He never does regret helping her. Not when it means having her around to challenge him, scream at him, partner with him.
He doesn't think she regrets it either.