Chapter Four
Beyond the door, the chamber split into two. Between the halls stood Bogga-mort, still clad in the green dress and vulture hat of Augusta Longbottom. Judging by the way he held it close to his side, he seemed to favor the large red purse.
"Oh great. It's you again," said Severus.
Bogga-mort would have raised an eyebrow, but as he had none, he merely nodded his head, vulture included. "Indeed, it is I. I am here to inform you of the next task you must face. But this challenge, you must face alone. Down these hallways, you will travel solo to see what lies beyond. Know only that for each of you, it shall be different. After your task is complete – should you complete it – you will be joined together once again for you final task."
"Oh, goody," remarked Severus as Hermione kicked him briefly in the shin.
Hermione looked down both halls, but she could see nothing from their vantage point.
Noticing her curiosity, Bogga-mort informed them that Severus was to go to his left and Hermione to her right.
She looked over her shoulder at her ex-professor. "See you on the other side."
"I'll be waiting for you."
"Unless I'm there first."
"Except you won't be."
Hermione huffed and began cautiously walking away while Severus did the same.
The person in the chair let a long, slow smile cover their face as they watched the couple part ways. "Ah, now this is when things will get interesting."
Crookshanks had wandered off to find his bowl, but at the low, gleeful voice, he jumped back up to his resting place on the arm of the chair and continued to look into the large mirror.
Severus kept his wand up and senses alert as he walked the quiet hallway. Almost too quiet, he thought.
After a nonverbal Lumos, he waved his wand about the area. Nothing jumped out at him. Nothing attempted to grab his ankle. No sounds could be heard.
Odd.
He approached a larger room and assumed this was where his challenge would be. Severus wondered what he would face.
Something personal. A potion, perhaps? That would be logical. Or maybe a Dark spell that only he, after his years of extensive spying and research, would be knowledgeable of.
Or maybe it was to be a fierce creature! They had yet to face a creature. Yes, that must be it. It must be a huge, ferocious beast! Miss Granger would have to face her own task because only he would be able to defeat such a horrifying monstrosity.
He crafted the creature in his mind. It would stand at least ten meters high and breathe fire. The skin would be poisonous, and there would be sharp horns on its scalp and spine. The large monster, at least two meters long, would be covered in razor-sharp scales, ready to slice and gore at a moment's notice. The hide would be thick and spell resistant.
Yes, that was why it was to be his personal challenge. Poor Granger would weep and faint at the mere sight of what he was to single-handedly defeat, as only a wizard of his caliber could. After he and Hermione had their rendezvous, he would listen to her own, much weaker challenge, and then show her the severed head of the monster he had destroyed. She would be in awe of his prowess. She would be his.
With his cocksure attitude, he entered the room. The cavernous ceilings were adequate for his beast. It must be lurking in the darkness. He smelled the damp air to see if he could get a whiff of its no doubt pungent odor and identify its location.
As he let his hunter's gaze pierce the surroundings to spot his prey, he noticed a faint movement in the corner. He heard a low rustle. He had found it.
Slowly, he crept along the wall, keeping low to ambush the creature. As he approached, he could see the dim outline of…
Hermione.
"Miss Granger, what in the name of Merlin's third testicle are you doing here!"
Hermione's startled hands flew over her heart. "Oh my, Severus! You scared me! I was looking around, but I didn't find anything, and then I discovered this room, but there was nothing here!"
A speculative brow was raised. "You saw no creature?"
"No. There was nothing. It was a bit nerve-wracking actually. I'm glad I found you."
Hermione stepped a little closer to him in the darkness, to where he could feel the soft brush of her robes against his twill trousers.
Perhaps he need not slay a beast to have her.
She was quite the challenge herself.
"It is alright now. I'm here, and we will find our way out together." He stood a little taller as he casually draped an arm around her waist.
"Do you think so?" she asked, politely ignoring his arm but looking up at his firm chest and warm lips. "It is awfully dark in here. Perhaps we'd be better off…waiting…for a while."
"Perhaps," he said slowly, bringing up his thumb to lightly brush her lips. "Perhaps you are right."
Hermione had started off her trek with caution and her senses on full alert. Creeping down the hall, she was prepared for anything. The hall moved around a shallow bend, just long enough to prevent her from seeing what was in front of her.
She was becoming unnerved as step by step fell with nothing happening. Eventually, the hall straightened out to show a large door at the end.
Hermione didn't know whether to be more frightened or relieved.
She had wracked her brain for ideas of what a personal challenge could be for her. They had yet to cover creatures, herbology, Divination, Arithmancy…
She hoped for a difficult Arithmancy equation but had a feeling it would be something more along the lines of Divination. Hermione was certain that her exit from that class would haunt her for the rest of her life. Perhaps she needed to take some lessons or an independent study from someone who wasn't Sybil. Even after five years on staff, she and the older woman still didn't get on.
As the large door loomed closer, she could hear voices. But not from the door. They seemed to be coming from the stone wall beside her.
She walked closer, pressing her ear to the wall. She knew those voices. "Harry! Ron!"
There was no answer. Just the panicked voices she couldn't reach. She looked down the hall to the doorway at the end that would be her challenge, but she knew if something was happening to her friends, she could not leave them behind. "Alohomora!" she yelled at the wall, to no avail.
"Reducto!"
Nothing happened.
"Specialis Revelio!"
Finally, the outline of a door appeared in the stone, with a corner of a rock jutting out for a handle.
As she grabbed it, the handle turned. Hermione peered in the crack and stifled a gasp. Harry and Ron were indeed inside, sitting strapped to chairs surrounding a table. And in the room were at least five Death Eaters. They wore their signature masks and robes, hiding their identity, threatening the two boys.
Hermione knew there was no one to summon. She didn't even know for sure where she was, and Severus could be anywhere. Casing the room, she decided that with a quick Stunner, she might be able to take out three before they saw her. That left two to one.
She'd had worse odds.
Opening the door a fraction more, she motioned to Harry and Ron. Placing a finger over her lips, she prayed they would be silent.
"Stupefy!" she yelled. "Stupefy!"
Two bodies hit the floor as she rounded on the third.
"You'll never escape alive!" said the third Death Eater, who sounded remarkably like Severus.
Severus? Wait a minute. It was true there were some rogue Death Eaters lingering after the Dark Lord's defeat, but Severus was certainly not one of them.
Then is dawned on her.
This was her challenge.
"Alright, alright, I get it! This is my challenge, and these people aren't real!"
A long, frightening moment passed, but then Harry, Ron, and the three remaining conscious apparitions laughed and vanished.
Hermione sat for a moment with her head resting on the table. She had almost blown that royally.
Standing up with a stretch, it was time to find the end and Severus.
Continuing down the hall, she opened the door to find an empty hall behind. In the hall, there was a door to her left and a door to her right, but no indication of which one to take. With a shrug, she opened the left door.
Beyond that door was a sight she never would have imagined to behold.
Severus Snape was snogging Hermione Granger. And not just snogging. Part of her robe was unfastened with Severus' hand inside, feeling up Circe knew where. One of her hands was in his hair, the other down the back of his trousers, gripping his bum. He held her pinned to the wall with his free arm wrapped around her waist, and both were making unnatural animal noises as they rutted in the darkness.
"Ahem," said the real Hermione. "Am I interrupting something?"
Severus jumped back as though she had set his robes on fire – again – eliciting a mew of disappointment from the phantom Hermione.
"Hermione!...Hermione?...But you were lost. You came in here looking for me. You couldn't find anything."
"Or, you just drastically, epically, and completely failed your challenge, Severus."
The phantom Hermione frowned and crossed her arms at the words of the real Hermione.
The real Hermione pointed her wand at her copy and cast the Homorphus Charm. The phantom Hermione cried out and latched onto Severus, clinging to his robes as she slowly transfigured. Severus could only watch in horror.
When it was finished, a small fox sat before them.
"Cute. You were duped by a kitsune, Severus. The way you were grabbing its bum, I would have thought you would have felt the tail. Oh well. I suppose I should be flattered, they are known for impersonating beautiful women."
Severus looked at her, his cheeks flaming red against his sallow skin. He knew he had been caught with his hand literally in the cookie jar. "Not a word, Miss Granger. I was merely feeling her out for…duplicity."
"Oh, you were feeling her alright," she told him as she headed out through the door toward the other one, which was presumably the exit.
She stopped as something occurred to her. "I was your challenge?"
"Shut it, Granger. The kitsune probably frightened off my real challenge."
"No, no, I'm pretty sure that was it. Funny. I mean, I would have thought you would have had some big, scary monster to take care of." She failed to see her companion as he paled. "But, nope. You just had me. I wonder why? Mine was Charms. I shouldn't have been surprised really. They tried to fool me into thinking that five Death Eaters held Ron and Harry captive. I was going to attack them, of course. I stunned two before I realized they were fake."
She realized she was babbling, but there was no way of cutting her off when she was nervous. Why was she his challenge? Was she his…weakness?
"And how did you manage to figure that out, Granger?" asked Snape, clearly still testy.
"It was easy. One sounded like you. I knew you wouldn't do anything that reprehensible. Not now."
A little more color returned to his cheeks, but sadly, it was rosy and not sallow.
"Severus?"
"Hmm?" he answered, not wishing to carry on this conversation or this stupid challenge any further.
"My challenge contained an important decision. To help my friends or to go for the exit. I think I know why you would never have been my challenge."
"Why indeed, Miss Granger? Enlighten us with your logic, for we both know you can't keep quiet."
"Because I already know what I'd do with you."
