Black-eyed, black-haired man.
Tied to a chair.
Knife.
Wand.
Hermione.
It felt familiar and wrong.
She desperately tried to remember where she had seen it before and at the notice she couldn't, frustration and anger started to boil in her veins.
She walked over to the man, who was looking at her with his bottomless, black eyes and an irritated gaze.
A piece of Hermione wanted to stop, but a bigger piece wanted to go on.
'Don't you dare!' the small piece threatened.
The anger boiled up and suddenly the big piece became smaller.
Very slowly, but enough to hesitate before doing something with the knife, or the wand.
'You are lazy, arrogant….' The silky voice of the man started.
'…and weak.'
The big piece grew, but the small piece became angrier by the second.
'Drop. That. knife.' She said to herself. But she didn't listened.
Slowly, Hermione began to remember why she knew what she was going to do.
She had done this before, 11 times. And this man in front of her had something to do with it, other than being the next victim.
He showed no fear, no anger, just irritation.
And that pushed the little piece of Hermione over the edge.
She forced the big piece smaller and smaller, untill she was all herself again and she opened her eyes.

It was raining outside, and the dormitory was empty.
Slowly Hermione stepped out of bed and as in a kind of trance she put on her clothes. A jeans with a big, warm, pale blue sweater.
She did it.
She had done it.
It had worked.
Her frustration and anger forced Voldemort out of her mind, her veins, her… body.
Just like she did with her Potions Master. Who was probably hating her now.
She walked to the Great Hall for breakfast, her mind miles away from where she actually was.
She sat down next to Ron who was just telling Ginny, Harry, Luna and Neville a story.
She didn't know about what. She didn't really care either.
'Hermione?' Luna asked.
Everyone was looking at her, and she became aware of that Luna had asked her something.
'I'm sorry… yes Luna? What is it?'

'Never mind.' She said with one of her mysterious smiles.

'Should be the Nargels.'

'Are you okay 'Mione?' Ron asked.

'Yes Ron. I'm okay.'

A concerned look crossed his face and Ginny frowned worried.
Hermione ignored it and sipped her tea.
She wasn't really hungry, but then she felt two eyes burning into her back.
She turned around and found Draco glaring at her.
He quickly turned his eyes back to his plate, but the burning feeling didn't left.
She turned to the staff table.
Two black eyes drilled into hers and the longer Hermione stared back, the more his gaze softened. Untill, when you could call it a friendly look, he returned to his food.
Hermione smiled slightly as she looked at him. There was something about him that made him worth tolerating his sarcasm.
She wanted to walk over to him and tell him what she had done last night.
That she finally did it, that it had worked.
But she didn't.
He would cock one eyebrow and ask her if she wanted a party, or something like that.
She looked back at her plate and she felt his gaze again.
She felt that he wanted her to eat something, so he would not have to worry.
So, she forced herself to eat two bites from her pancake, and only then she would allow herself to go study in the library.
After her first bite she felt the eyes moving away from her.

The library was empty and quiet as Hermione started working on her schoolwork.
She sat down in the furthest corner next to the window, it was still raining.
She loved the rain, almost more than sundown.
Its rhythmical tick calmed her and helped her focus on the things she was doing.
She finished her schoolwork quickly and began reading all the books in the library, starting by the bookcase she was sitting nearest to.
After she was done reading the first book, she had another four hours left to read.
After three hours she slowly began to forget the things that happened the last few days, including her love for Severus Snape.
She was reading her fifth book when Hermione noticed it was time for dinner.
With the excuse that she had to finish the book, or she couldn't sleep that night, and that she wasn't hungry, she stayed in the library until after dinner.

Then she brought her books and parchment back to the dormitory and slowly began to walk to the dungeons. As she entered them, she felt strange. Somewhat between empty and happy.
She stood still and took her wand.

'Expecto Patronum' She whispered.
An otter escaped from her wand and began jumping and running through the corridors.
She was five minutes too early and she would wait untill the last second of the hour.
As the otter went running circles around Hermione, she felt her happiness increasing.
For three minutes she was just looking at it and filling the emptiness inside her with happiness.
Then she took a deep breath and walked to the potions classroom.
She knocked at the door and after an 'Enter.' from her "beloved" Potions Master, she went in.
'Sit.'
He looked at her with a cold gaze and Hermione's happiness disappeared like snow.
At that moment Hermione had the urge to slap herself in the face.
One look from Severus Snape and she was empty again, she shouldn't give him that power.

He pointed his wand at her, but she was faster.

'Expelliarmus!'

She missed him and the spell hit the wall behind him.
It had been more a reflex from Hermione and she wished she hadn't done it.
With a cold gaze her Potions Master looked at her.
Slowly, he walked towards her and when he was right in front of her, he stood still.
She could smell his scent.

'I dreamed again. I defeated him, sir.' Hermione said in a try to save herself from what was coming.

For a moment, her Potions Master gazed at her. Still cold and angry.

'What did you dream.'

His iron voice cut through the air like a knife through butter.

Hermione hesitated but reminded herself at the fact that she started this, so she had to finish it.

'The same as last time, but I managed to stop him before I did anything but walk towards the victim, sir.'

'Who was the victim.'

'You were, sir.'

'Imperio.'

The dozing feeling took he by surprise. It overwhelmed her. She stood up once again and walked towards the burning fire. Hermione decided to take a try with happiness this time. She thought of the day she got the Hogwarts letter, the days she laughed with Ron and Harry, her first kiss, her Patronus. By the time she felt it worked, she was in front of the fire and about to pick up the poker.
She felt she smiled and dropped it, she turned around, still smiling and slowly she became aware of the fact that this was a record.
She made it in less than 30 seconds.
Her Potions Master looked down at her, smirking.

'You were not at dinner. How come.' He asked flat.

Hermione swallowed. How to answer that properly?

'I was reading and I…' Hermione hesitated, she didn't want him to think that she really was as clumsy as he thought.

'Well?' he cocked an eyebrow.

'I wasn't hungry.' She finished.

'You were not hungry?' he repeated, both eyebrows raised.

Hermione thought to hear a bit of concern through his voice, but that must be a mistake.

'No, sir.'

'In that case, let we move on to the next spell.'

He pointed his wand at her and she felt a hungry feeling coming up.
Of course, she definitely shouldn't have tried to unarm him.
And she should have come to dinner.

'Locomotes'

Once again, I'm sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, I'll try to post soon.
I'm going to try to post every Saturday or Sunday.
Enjoy reading