Every morning I wake up just the same, another victim of ordinary fame
I don't see myself as invincible, it's not true at all
I'm just your average ordinary everyday superhero
Trying to save the world, but never really sure
I'm just your average ordinary everyday superhero
Nothing more than that, that's all I really am
Just a day job that's someone's gotta do
It's kinda hard when everyone looks up to you
Try to make it look easy, gonna make it look good
Like anybody would
I'm just like everybody else, after all the hype it's hard to tell
I keep my game face on so well
Trying to save the world
I try to hide my true identity
But no one knows it's only me
Everyday Superhero
It was now two months later, snow fallen on the grounds at Hogwarts, and he was in his office, grading papers.
Suddenly, the door to his office swung open and then slammed shut, and he was surprised to see Hermione Granger now leaning her back against his door and sinking to the floor to sit on the ground.
He was so surprised, he said absolutely nothing, but listened as she started to mutter under her breath…
"Please be gone, please not have followed me….please, please, please…"
Her eyes had closed in concentration and he wondered for a moment what was going on, and then he realized that she was hiding from someone. But the question remained: why was she hiding in his office? Finally, he could take it no longer.
"Miss Granger, will you tell me, by any chance, what you are doing in my office on a Saturday afternoon?"
At hearing his voice, her eyes snapped open in shock and she quickly stood and began to stutter out an apology.
"I-I'm so sorry, sir…I didn't know you were even in here-"
He cut her off. "You didn't know I was in here?" he said, arching a disbelieving eyebrow in her direction, and then he let loose, standing to his full intimidating height as he did so. "You stupid girl, this is my office and you barge in here unannounced during improper hours, and all you can say is 'you didn't know I was in here'?"
Her breath became thready and broken, and that was when he took notice of what she was wearing.
Muggle jeans and boots, along with an open jacket…and a blood-soaked sweater underneath. He noticed that a large amount of blood had soaked through her sweater and that she was most likely breathing rapidly from loss of blood. Too much blood. He then noticed her shaking on her feet, and barely got to her in time before she collapsed. He caught her in his arms, and, without thinking, quickly moved the both of them through the door that led into his private chambers.
Damnit, he thought to himself as he laid her on his sofa. There goes my quiet morning.
Quickly acting, not thinking about what he was actually doing, he stripped off the girl's coat and then using a silent spell, sliced her sweater off of her.
Ignoring the black satin of her undergarment, he carefully inspected the wounds across her chest and stomach, and he grimaced. He knew this spell.
Acting quickly, he rushed over to his private stores of ready-made potions, and found the potion that was needed to help ease the pain of this particular spell. It was a particularly painful slicing hex that was used in the Dark Arts, and he knew that Karkaroff had been fond of it in the past, but it couldn't have been Karkaroff…Severus had been keeping a close eye on him and the man couldn't have so much as sneezed without him knowing about it…so what had happened here?
He slid his hand under her neck and tilted her head back slightly and then gently poured the potion into her mouth. He rubbed her neck and then saw her instinctively swallowing and he murmured, "Good girl," and then looked once more at the fierce cuts that decorated her front.
They went from her left shoulder down towards her right hip...the person who'd cast this had been left handed and facing her.
And then he knew.
Krum.
That was when he remembered that Viktor Krum had been following the girl to the library, watching her, and he realized that something must have happened between the two of them.
However, he was at a loss as to how an intelligent young woman such as Miss Granger could have let herself be alone with such a young man. Did the girl have no sense? He snorted in his mind as he realized that she most likely actually believed that the Tri-Wizard Tournament was to foster unity among schools, not seeing it for the ego competition that it really was.
However, he'd met the Krum family once and this wasn't their style…but it was Karkaroff's.
There was only one explanation: Karkaroff had Imperiused him.
It was quite possible that he wanted Potter to be off his game, so he went after one of the brat's friends to throw him off and distract him.
In fact, the more and more Severus thought about it, the more and more likely it became. Igor was brash at times, not thinking about possible repercussions, instead too focused on obtaining his own personal vendettas and making things easier for himself, when in truth it made things harder.
Quickly debating in his mind whether or not to tell the Granger girl when she awoke, the decision was taken from him when she suddenly stirred.
"Where…where am I?" she muttered as she slowly sat up on his couch, not yet aware of her state of undress.
Realizing he had no choice, Snape spoke up. "Miss Granger, you are in my private quarters because it seems that you have been attacked. And I have an idea as to who did it, but I would like to have your first-hand account of the incident, if you don't mind."
She faintly nodded, and then winced as she tried to straighten up even further. She looked down at herself to see the cuts…and then he watched in amusement as her face flushed a bright red and she hastily grabbed for the blanket that lay on the back of the sofa, covering up her bare skin. Her gaze was embarrassed and she couldn't seem to meet his eye, but he cleared his throat, catching her attention, and her eyes finally met his.
"Miss Granger?"
She simply nodded her head, her hand still tightly clasping the blanket to her chest.
"Yes, sir. Of course." Situating herself on the sofa, she began to talk. "Viktor said he wanted to meet with me this morning, so I said yes. We were supposed to meet at the library, but he sent me a letter saying that he was detained, and could we meet, instead, near McGonagall's office, as he wanted to talk to her afterwards. I walked to her office and found Viktor, only for him to suddenly attack me without provocation. Then I ran down here…"
Her voice trailed off, and she gave him a look, but then quickly retracted her eyes, as though embarrassed.
The professor's brow furrowed in concentration.
Why had she come down to his office? Feeling disconcerted by the unanswered question, he voiced it.
"Miss Granger, why did you come to my office?"
She looked surprised at his question and he saw her look turn pensive as she thought it over. It was several long seconds before she opened her mouth and started to speak, only to cut herself off, a flush of red across her cheeks.
Finally, she stuttered out, "I-I don't know, sir. I just…did."
He could see as well as hear the blatant lie, and it annoyed him that she would try to do so to him.
"Miss Granger, I am well aware that you are lying to me, now kindly please explain why you are doing so, so that I can give your Head of House a proper explanation for as to why Gryffindor is suddenly one hundred points behind in the House Cup."
She looked up at him in shock, her eyes widening almost comically large, and her mouth dropped open.
He merely stared back at her, his arms crossed across his chest, and then he became vaguely aware of the fact that he was not in his black teaching robes, only wearing black trousers and a white oxford, the top two buttons undone, and he felt uncomfortably exposed, but he kept his unruffled appearance and instead lifted an eyebrow once more in her direction, and she finally caved.
"I…I…" She paused, and then once more pulled her gaze away, looking to some point on his rug. Her voice was barely audibly as she said…
"Because I feel safe here."
He was all at once grateful that she could not see his face, as he felt himself shocked by her words, unsure of how to respond.
He would have known if she was lying in an instant, but he could hear the naked honesty in her voice, the slight downward tone that indicated a thought remembered and not one that was created to appease. She truly meant it.
He had to know.
"Why?"
Hermione's gaze did not meet his, but he saw her head move slightly in his direction just before she said, "Because…because I always have. I honestly don't know why. It could be several reasons." She began to run on. "I've always enjoyed the challenge of Potions, and you're the one teacher that's always pushed me to analyze things from my own perspective and not just by what the book says. I try my hardest in your class, and always look forward to asking you about how I could do better…"
Her voice faded slightly, her energy winding down, and then he saw her wince again and he knew that it was time for him to give her another dose.
"Accio Pain Potion," he softly intoned, wandlessly summoning the small vial from his private Potions storage.
He stepped towards her and knelt on the floor next to the sofa, and then handed her the vial, which she took with a shaky hand, her fingers barely brushing against his.
Without even a moment's hesitation, she drank it, and he felt something strange. She had just showed absolute trust in him by taking that potion without asking any questions. She had just shown him how much she trusted him…and it frightened him.
The only other people who had ever trusted him for the past eighteen years had been Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort.
And now her…
It was a strange feeling, one that he wasn't accustomed to, and didn't care to become accustomed to.
He quickly brushed it off, and instead firmly grabbed her chin between his fingers and turned her eyes to lock onto his, focusing her.
"Miss Granger, you still have some wounds to attend to and it would be best if I attended to them while you were under the effects of the pain potion. So, if you could please remove the blanket, I can take care of your injuries…"
He saw the slight fear in her eyes, but then she nodded and he let her go and watched with clinical detachment as she leaned back and slid the blanket from her body.
Carefully, he touched the tip of his right forefinger at the top of one her cuts closest to her left collarbone.
She unconsciously took a deep breath and his eyes were momentarily distracted by the rise of her chest, but he quickly averted them, putting himself to the task at hand. Silently, he summoned a topical solution from his cabinet, his own recipe for this particular slicing hex.
Carefully, he smoothed the salve over the cut that he had previously touched, watching as the skin carefully began to knit together.
She would not, however, escape unscathed. The scars would remain, though faint, for the rest of her life.
As he moved down her chest, applying it as he went, he couldn't help but realize that some of the cuts he couldn't get to because of her…undergarment.
Clearing his throat, he pulled back and asked her as politely as he could… "Miss Granger, you are further injured than I expected, and your…undergarment," he said, cringing as he said the word, "Is hindering access to those injuries."
It took her a moment, but she then said, "Oh!" with a small embarrassed look on her face, but then, with a trust he'd never seen anyone place in him, let alone a young woman, she sat up slightly, worked one hand behind her back, her other arm in front of her, covering her chest, and then he saw the material slide out from underneath it, her face flushing an even deeper crimson as she pulled the strap off the arm protecting her modesty and placed the garment on the floor.
His eyes flickered to the black satin on the floor, his mind briefly noting that that would most definitely be the only time a woman's undergarments lay on the floor in his private quarters.
Severus gave her a look, and then looked to her arm, and he felt his cheeks warm slightly even as he said between gritted teeth,
"Miss Granger, I need access to your wounds in order to treat them. I assure you, you have nothing that I haven't seen before, and I will not infringe upon your modesty any longer than I have to, is that understood?"
Her cheeks reddened even further and she nodded.
Slowly, she dropped her arm and lay back on the couch, and he quickly applied the topical ointment, the entire time his photographic memory taking in every inch of bare skin in front of him, his body betraying him even as he tried to stay clinically detached from the young woman bared in front of him.
Severus shifted slightly on his knees, hoping his bodily reaction would go away on its own, but it doggedly persisted.
Soon enough, he was finished, and as soon as he was, he quickly turned around and stood, vaguely wishing for the sweep of his cloak behind him, achingly aware that his metaphorical armor was absent.
He heard her shift behind him, leaning down and then sitting back up.
Though he couldn't see it, he could imagine it all too vividly in his mind the image of her sliding the silky material back on over her skin.
No! he thought to himself. She's a student, you are her teacher, she is a Gryffindor, a know-it-all and she is Potter's friend…everything that you hate… But then his heart quickly corrected the logic that his mind had given him and said, A Gryffindor? A know-it-all? Potter's friend? Not everything you hate…
He ignored the thought and waited for her to get decent.
After at least a minute of waiting, he heard her stand and say…
"Professor?"
He still didn't trust himself to turn, but finally did and was surprised to see her left hand lifted as though to touch him on the shoulder. She pulled back her hand slightly when he turned to face her, and then instead used it to pull a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes uncertain.
She had put her sweater back on, obviously having cast a cleansing charm on it as it no longer had any bloodstains on it. Her jacket was flung over her right arm, and as he looked at her sweater once more, telling himself he was just checking to see if she had missed any spots with her charm, he couldn't help but remember what she wore underneath the gray wool. And what the black satin covered.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, he motioned her to the door that led back to his office and she followed his lead and walked in front of him through the door.
Back in his office, it seemed as though everything that had happened hadn't actually happened.
"Good day, Miss Granger," he said, dismissing her, and he turned back to his desk, preparing to sit back down and grade papers, but stopped when he heard her break the silence.
"Professor…" He turned his head slightly, catching her profile in the periphery of his vision. "Thank you. Thank you, very much."
Her voice was low, but it was unshaken and firm and he could tell that her words were just as honest as they had been earlier when they had been in his quarters. Again, it was disorienting to hear such honesty from someone, especially from someone who, by all accounts, should loathe him, but didn't.
He saw her about to open the door to leave, but he stopped her.
"Miss Granger…" She turned her head slightly. "Should Viktor Krum, or anyone for that matter, ever attempt to meet you privately during the school year, for anything, mind you…tell me, first."
He then watched in surprise as a faint smile crossed the corner of her mouth.
"Of course, Professor."
And with that, she left the office, her footsteps echoing down the hallway, leading back up to her dormitories. He stood and stared at his door for minutes afterward, still feeling as though the events of that morning weren't quite real…that it had all been a dream.
Finally, he sat back down at his desk and continued to grade.
This was going to be an interesting year.
PART 2/5
Lyrics by Smashmouth