Chapter Seven
Hermione awoke with a splitting headache. She rolled out of bed with a groan and pulled on her dressing gown that she had been wearing last night; not remembering that it was too short. She couldn't remember anything after arriving at her old house, apart from the kiss with Seversus, that was unforgettable.
Hermione stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen where Snape was sat at the table eating scrambled eggs on toast.
"Mmmm...That smells delicious." Hermione said as she fumbled around in the cupboard, looking for some Milk Thistle tablets that were a proven hangover cure.
"Yes it does doesn't it." Severus said stiffly. He picked up his half-empty plate, dropped it into the sink with a crash and stalked down the hallway and into the living room.
"Fine. Good morning to you to." Hermione muttered to herself. What was his problem? What had she done wrong? Maybe something had happened between them kissing and her waking up this morning. What had happened? Oh Merlin. What if something had happened between them, but surely Severus wouldn't be angry with her. Would he?
Hermione gulped back the tablets and some water and headed into the lounge to face Severus.
"Severus. What's the matter?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing." Severus grunted. Typical man, Hermione thought. Not that she had had much experience of real men. You could hardly call Ron and Harry real men. She had dated Victor Krum during the year he had spent at Hogwarts but after he had left Hermione was glad to see the back of him. He had been grumpy, foul-tempered and had never listened to what Hermione had said to him.
"No. Tell me what the matter is?" Hermione persisted gently, trying not to provoke him any further. "What did I do?"
"Why do you automatically assume, Miss Granger, that my mood today is because of you?" Severus snapped.
"I just thought..." Hermione mumbled.
"Don't think then, you don't normally." Severus shouted and stormed out of the lounge and into the garden.
Hermione was incredibly angry with him but she also felt about the size of a peanut. She had been shouted at by him before but that was before she had kissed him and dare she say it...developed feelings for him.
"No what are you thinking Hermione?" She asked herself out loud. "You don't have feelings for him, it was just a kiss, you were upset and he was taking advantage of you." Hermione decided that it was his fault that she had humiliated herself by thrusting herself upon him.
Hermione stalked up the stairs and into her bedroom, she showered, got changed and pulled out her Charms books to do some of the homework she had been set. She wrenched open her curtains only to find Snape staring up at her from her favourite bench at the bottom of the garden.
OOOOOO
Out in the garden Severus pulled off his thick outer robes. He sat on the bench at the bottom of the garden, looking back at the house and at Hermione's bedroom window where he could see her studying at her desk. Typical Hermione, he thought. Earlier, Hermione had opened the curtains and Snape's heart had leapt. She looked just like Lily had when he used to throw stones at her window when they were children and she would look down at him with a pretend annoyed look on her face, only Hermione wasn't pretending to be annoyed. For a split second he thought it was her but Hermione scowled at him and turned her back on him and Snape realised that Hermione wasn't Lily and would never be.
On the other hand, at least it seemed like Hermione wanted him which was more than Lily had ever. If last night was anything to go by then she liked him a lot. Perhaps he shouldn't have given her any Fire Whiskey, she had tried to kiss him once again and more. Snape and Hermione were sat in the lounge debating whether or not Harry Potter was gay (Hermione was adamant that he wasn't but Snape didn't believe her) when Hermione had suddenly stopped talking. She had tried to kiss him again, and he let her. Hermione was attractive but as much as he craved her attention he knew that he could never like Hermione as much as he had loved Lily and that wasn't fair on Hermione. Besides, it was wrong, he was her teacher. Snape knew that when Hermione had tried to remove her dressing gown in a striptease like way, not that there was much of it to remove anyway, it had gone too far. Hermione had looked delicious in just a skimpy, lacy set of matching red underwear but he had to stop her. He threw her dressing gown at her and had marched her upstairs into bed. It had been clear that she had had too much alcohol.
But when Hermione had come down stairs this morning, Severus had been expecting an apology but it seemed that Hermione had completely forgotten what had happened last night, it must have been the alcohol. But the fact that she hadn't apologised wasn't what had pissed him off, it was the fact that she didn't seem to remember what had passed between them. Perhaps he wasn't important enough to her for her to remember.
Severus was pulled out of his reverie by a searing pain in his arm. A feeling of impending doom washed over him. Severus shot up from the bench, grabbed his robe and ran towards the house. Severus just hoped he could find his Death Eater robes before the shock off pain called him again.
"Granger!" Severus shouted as he took the stairs three at a time. Hermione found Severus in her parents room where he had dumped his trunk the night before.
"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, worried. She had never seen the calm and collected Severus Snape so panicked before.
"It's the Dark Lord, he's calling me." Severus hissed as another wave of pain swept over him. Oh dear, Voldemort wasn't going to be happy that he had to call Snape twice.
"The Dark Lord? Why is he calling you?" Hermione asked. Hermione was confused, she had heard rumours once or twice that Snape had been a Death Eater, but she didn't realise he was still one.
Snape looked at her in surprise, he was shocked that Hermione didn't know about his situation with Dumbledore and Voldemort.
"Don't worry, I'll explain it all when I return." Snape muttered 'if I return' under his breath and pulled down his mask. With a swish of his dark robes Snape was gone, leaving Hermione alone in her parents bedroom.
OOOOOO
"Ah Severus, how nice of you to join us." Lord Voldemort hissed from his place up on his throne-like chair. Severus bowed his head in greeting. It appeared as if they were in Malfoy's summer house in Belfast. Snape had only been there once before but it had been dark and now the ballroom was lit up with the day light that was spilling through the floor to ceiling windows, highlighting the beautiful features in the grand ballroom.
"Now we are all present we can proceed. This evening we are here to celebrate. As you will all have heard we killed Ronald Weasley." Voldemort sneered, the closest thing he could get to a smile. Bellatrix danced around near her equally deranged husband and giggled menacingly.
"As a reward to you all I have brought you a little present." Voldemort hissed and signalled with his left hand for the double doors to the ballroom to open. Two young Death Eaters dragged a screaming woman into the room.
Behind Severus' mask he growled, even though he was used to seeing women being abused as a 'reward' to the Death Eaters, he still couldn't stop himself from boiling over with anger.
"Enjoy her my brothers and sisters." Voldemort told them as he stood up and almost floated towards Severus. "Severus, if you wouldn't mind joining me in Malfoy's study."
Severus nodded and followed Voldemort, Petigrew and Malfoy into the large study.
"My Lord?" Severus asked, bowing low.
"Have you any more information for me? Did you find out where the Granger girl is being kept now?" Voldemort asked.
It had been Snape who had informed Voldemort of Ron's whereabouts. Snape didn't feel responsible for his death, Severus blamed Dumbledore as it had been him who had told Snape to tell Voldemort where he could find Ron to kill him. But now, when Voldemort was asking for Hermione's whereabouts, he couldn't tell him, even if Dumbledore had said he could.
"I don't know my Lord." Severus lied, hoping that Voldemort wouldn't use legilimency on him. Severus controlled himself and tried to strengthen his occlumency shields.
"Don't lie to me." Voldemort hissed. "We know that you were with Granger before in the Scottish borders and if it wasn't for you we could have destroyed the brat as well. If Potter has no friends left he won't want to fight for Dumbledore. He will realise that Dumbledore is using him because he's too weak to fight me himself. Now tell me where the Granger girl is."
"Dumbledore hasn't informed me." Snape lied again. Voldemort started to laugh menacingly.
"You may be good at occlumency Severus, but you are not good enough." Voldemort said and immediately Severus felt a blinding pain at the front of his head.
Memories from the night before came flooding back, the kiss, the flirting and Hermione's almost-striptease. But not only could Voldemort see Severus memories he could also see how Severus felt about Hermione.
"I suppose she is quite pretty for a mudblood." Voldemort sneered as he released Severus' mind from his grip. "You silly, silly man. You shouldn't keep information from me. You know that I will always find out."
Severus was breathing deeply, the legilimency a drain on his energy. Voldemort turned to Lucius Malfoy, who was sneering at Severus.
"Lucius will you please deal with the Granger problem. Severus has, unwillingly, informed us that she is at her parents house." Voldemort hissed.
"Of course My Lord." Lucius sneered. "My pleasure."
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