HEY! See, I remembered it was Tuesday today...about ten minutes ago :)
So, nothing new here. Drowning in work.
Enjoy!
The next morning, she awoke with a jolt, not remembering what had awoken her. A seed of panic had planted itself in her stomach refusing to allow her fall back asleep. Finally, with a sigh of frustration, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater before snatching her wand. No one else was awake at the time, making it easy for her to slip from the room. As Hermione made her way down the stairs, she realized that she should have taken Harry's map to show her where Malfoy was. Instead, she spent nearly twenty minutes sneaking around corners and ducking behind pillars and statues.
Once she reached the corridor, she glanced quickly around, and seeing that no one was there, made a mad dash to the classroom. Hermione winced as the sounds of her steps echoed through the hall, but quickly and silently slid inside the room. It was then she realized that she should have checked his personal quarters instead of his classroom and office. Nevertheless, she made her way to the office and pushed against the door which was slightly ajar.
The sight inside the room nearly made her faint.
Snape, who had apparently been waiting for an intrusion, had jumped up and was pointing his wand at the door. Upon seeing her, his face went deathly pale and his hand dropped limply to his side as his wand slipped from his fingers, coming to rest forgotten on his desk.
"You're not hurt, are you?" she instantly asked in a hushed voice, not thinking she could speak any louder.
He shook his head, and she leaned on the doorway for support because she found her knees shaking slightly due to her relief.
"You?" he prompted looking her over thoroughly.
She shook her head, and he sunk into his chair paler than she had ever seen him before. Hermione didn't know what else to do but close the door and take a seat in front of his desk. Snape kept his face buried in his hand for a long minute before raising his eyes to her face.
"You look as if you've seen a ghost." he commented giving a reluctant smirk.
"You don't look much better." she said, too panicked to smile in return.
"Draco Malfoy was found in the hallway last night," he commented. "Stunned."
Panic welled in her chest, nearly choking her with the words she was trying to get out.
"I did as you said," she whispered frantically, fearful to speak much louder. "But he was looking for me, he was muttering out loud, and the only thing I could think of was attacking him before he found me."
His face was still pale, and Hermione noticed that his hands were trembling slightly.
"I shouldn't have been so foolish, so careless." he muttered.
Hermione just looked at him, afraid of what he was about to tell her. Snape raised his eyes to hers and spoke in a low voice because he was struggling to keep himself calm.
"Even though Draco is a student in my House, I…I am glad that you defended yourself, and listened to my instructions."
"Does he know who it was?"
"No…he doesn't have any evidence, but he has a good inkling. He told me he suspected you, but had no proof of it."
Hermione felt the room spin as she forced herself to focus on Snape.
"I am under the assumption that Draco knows of our…meetings."
"But how?"
He shrugged, and continued.
"Needless to say, he informed his father…and you know of my connection with his father. Lucius has been desperate to get back in the Dark Lord's good graces after the disaster at the Ministry, and apparently will go to any lengths to do so."
Hermione felt herself clutching the arms of the chair feeling as if she were about to be physically attacked.
"Lucius and his son have been devising a plan…" he cut himself off here, realizing he had said too much.
"Please," she nearly begged him. "I need to know."
Glancing at her, and seeing the plea in her eyes, he waved his wand, locking the door. He finished with a Silencing Charm that wrapped around the room.
"What I am about to tell you cannot be repeated again. Not to anyone, not even your friends. Dumbledore strictly forbids me to speak to you about it, but I feel that you have a right to know. Do you understand?"
She nodded.
"There has been a discussion of you and your value to the Dark Lord. You know things about Potter that no one else knows, and he has been debating whether or not to extract this information from you. But he's afraid, seeing as many people would notice your disappearance. Lucius Malfoy and his son have been concocting a plan to lure you to the Dark Lord, therefore being placed above his other followers. They grow fearful, all of the Malfoy's, which makes them increasingly more desperate. Draco, at the first opportunity, is to snatch you and take you to the Malfoy Manor, where he will perform the Imperius Curse on you. From there, he will force you to marry him, legally binding yourself to him. Then, he will turn you over to the Dark Lord. You will be disposed of when you have no more to divulge."
Hermione was sure he could hear her heart beating in her chest, threatening to explode from her body and onto the floor. His words echoed in her head, chilling her to her very core.
"Last night Lucius, knowing that you would be in the corridors at that time, due to the fact that his son most likely informed him of our meetings, told his son to look for you as the Dark Lord ordered a meeting. That would ensure that I would be out of the way, leaving you alone in the hallway."
Hermione noticed that his eyes darkened as he said this.
"I've been expecting this, since the moment Lucius opened his mouth about the plan." he muttered shaking his head.
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
"What about you, won't Lucius know that someone tipped me off? You're the only one who could have told me!"
"Miss Granger, I've practiced for years covering my tracks, I'll manage." he said with a smirk as some of the color was coming back to his face.
She felt her heart slightly drop; Hermione had quite enjoyed the fact that he had used her name last night.
"What?" he asked noticing her sudden mood change.
"It's just that last night, you used my first name." she said.
He froze for a moment as his face became a cold mask.
"This familiarity between the two of us cannot continue."
The sentence hung in the air like a dark storm cloud threatening her silently. Swallowing deeply, she calmed her voice.
"So, you're saying that…that you don't want to talk to me anymore, is that it?"
"Of course not!" he said with so much passion that it made her jump slightly. "It would be wiser if you and I did not continue this…acquaintance."
"I…well, I…"
He almost looked sorry for her; as if he knew what she was feeling at that moment. The prospect of not talking to Snape anymore…well, it quite frankly made her want to cry. Never in all of her years had she expected to have such a relationship with her ex-Potions master, and she was not anxious to see the end of it this soon.
"I'm not going to let Malfoy…well, I'm not going to let him scare me away." she snapped, sounding childish.
"I forbid you to come here anymore. I will not be blamed for something that happens to you on your way here. He knows when you come here, it will be only too easy for him to catch you off guard." he said sternly.
"I'll have Harry and Ron and Ginny with me, I'll be fine."
"And he will have his little following with him."
"Then I'll take Harry's map, and his cloak."
"No." he said through his teeth.
"I am not scared of Malfoy!"
"Well, you should be! He is not to be taken lightly."
"And neither am I!"
There was a moment of silence as she watched him calming himself down.
"If I catch you in this corridor, I will give you detention."
"Might as well give me detention now then." she said defiantly while standing up and heading toward the door.
As she reached it, she heard the lock click loudly.
"You will not come to this room any longer."
"You're letting a teenage boy scare you." she snapped turning on him.
"It's not him that is scaring me, you fool! Don't you use your head!?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" she demanded without thinking.
But in an instant it dawned on her, taking in his pale face, strained and drawn. It wasn't Malfoy that scared him; it was what Malfoy would do to her that scared him the most. She felt a rush of gratitude towards him as her anger drained away.
Taking a deep breathe, she chose her words carefully.
"I don't want you to be offended by what I'm about to say…but when you were in school, from what I can tell from your memories, you never had very many friends, and even the friends that you had were lousy. Even now, you shut yourself up, never speaking to anyone but Professor Dumbledore. I hope I don't sound presumptuous, but I consider us friends, even to the smallest degree. I know how you feel when we talk, because I feel the same way. It's a handful of hours where the outside world is completely lost to us. You always seem less tense when we speak; more relaxed and less worrisome of what Professor Dumbledore is making you do. I believe that you deserve that, no matter what you think of yourself and your actions of the past, I believe you deserve those moments of peace, and I am fully willing to do what I need to in order for you to have those moments. If that means sneaking around with Malfoy after me, then so be it. Through all of this, people tend to forget you, and I think you prefer it that way, but I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not going to forget you, and you can't make me forget you."
His eyes were blazing by the end of her little speech, and she met his gaze evenly, telling him with a look that she had meant every word she had just spoken.
"You care too much." was his choked response.
"Friends are supposed to care for each other." she answered easily.
"I'd rather have no friends at all. It prevents one from becoming attached."
"But that's what life is! You form relationships with people, have friends, people you can fall on if you need help."
"These relationships can be used against you!"
"Whether you like it or not, we both know that you feel the same way I do."
"No, Miss Granger, you are wrong there." he said smoothly.
"Really? Because I'm pretty sure that you were worrying about me as much as I was worrying about you last night, and you were just as relieved to know that I was safe as I was to know that you were safe."
His knuckles had turned white, and he was fuming at her.
"I will not have one of my students tell me how I feel!"
"I am not going to abandon you just because you shout at me. Lily Evans may have stopped being your friend, but I certainly will not."
And with that final sentence, Hermione stormed from the room (after opening the door with her wand) and left the classroom to join the others in the Great Hall for breakfast.
The day passed slowly, and when Defense came, she noticed that Snape took extra care to ignore her all period. She didn't mind because his behavior told her that she had struck a nerve with him, and Hermione couldn't be happier about that.
She anxiously sat in the common room, waiting for night to fall, and when it did, Hermione asked Harry for his cloak and map. He questioned her, and she told him quite plainly what she was doing. He looked at her oddly for a while before fetching the items for her. Hermione thanked him, and set off for the classroom. Looking at the map, she saw clearly that Snape was still in his office, and instantly set off for the classroom.
But when she got there, she found the door locked and warded quite heavily, and she became slightly upset. Did he honestly hate her that much? Still, Hermione was not to be so easily shaken. She took up a spot on the bench across from the door, and waited.
Like she had expected, Malfoy was stalking the corridor, looking in every nook and cranny. He passed several times as the hallway became darker and colder. He was heading toward the end of the corridor when the door to the classroom suddenly opened, scaring him off. Hermione looked on the map and saw him moving quickly away from the corridor.
Snape stepped into the hallway, looked both ways, and began walking away. Hermione stood and pulled the cloak off in the middle of the corridor.
"Honestly, did you think a bunch of wards were going to scare me off?" she asked.
He spun around, clearly frightened by the voice, but then anger quickly found its way onto his face.
"Are you," he paused, looking for the right word to describe his feelings. "Insane? You're bloody mental! What the hell are you doing here?" he snapped, trying to convey his anger, but trying to remain quiet all the while.
"I told you, you're not getting rid of me."
"What did I do to deserve this?" he muttered to the ceiling.
"I've been sitting out here for two hours and-"
"Two? Two! What were you thinking, you fool! Anyone could have come walking down here and seen you! Anyone!"
"Malfoy already walked passed at least two dozen times; he's still looking for me. Of course, I'd be much safer if I wasn't stuck sitting in the hallway." she said pointedly at him.
"Come on," he bit out, grabbing her arm and dragging her along with him.
"No one's coming; you don't have to be so protective."
"I'm not being protective." he snapped dropping her arm quickly.
"Sure," she muttered looking at the map again. "See? You scared him off when you left the classroom."
He peered at the map, noting the small dot that said DRACO MALFOY darting in the opposite direction. Snape was grumbling under his breath nearly the entire way back to Gryffindor Tower. Still, the whole time he kept his wand out and tightly clenched in his hand. He ordered her to do the same.
"And I thought Potter had no brains!" he mumbled loud enough for her to hear him. "I'd never expect you to do something so stupid, idiotic, thoughtless, reckless…of course being around Potter for so long was bound to do damage at some point. You're going to get yourself killed one day because of these bloody noble habits of yours."
Hermione said nothing, though his cursing amused her, but continued to silently walk beside him in the darkness. When they reached the tower, he immediately turned to leave quickly.
"I'll be in the same spot tomorrow, Professor." she said, causing him to stop on the stairs.
"Being that you are so blatantly going to disobey my orders, you might try ways to avoid getting caught by Draco."
"Like what?"
"Perhaps going to the same destination at the same time every night is a little extreme." he said.
"Then I'll see you at lunch." she stated with a shrug.
"Fine." he snapped after a moment.
"Goodnight, Professor." she said before stepping through the portrait hole.
The next day, she quickly grabbed something from the Great Hall and darted to the Defense room while eating. Making sure that no one was in the hallway at the time, she slipped into the room and made her way to his office.
"Did anyone see you?" he barked.
"No, I made sure I was alone." she answered taking a seat.
Snape slammed his book down and glared at her fiercely.
"Why do you insist on doing this?" he asked.
"I want to be your friend." she answered simply.
"I don't want friends."
"Everyone wants friends. Whether they admit that is a whole other story."
They would switch up their meeting times every day to throw Malfoy off of their trail, and as the weeks went by, Snape became a little more cordial with her. Christmas was drawing near, and a common topic of discussion between them was a party that Professor Slughorn was throwing.
"Too flashy for my taste." Snape mumbled tossing a stack of graded papers aside.
"Any party for you would be too flashy." Hermione responded scribbling another sentence of an essay she was writing.
They often talked and worked at the same time.
"I'd rather be sitting home, alone and reading, then attend such an event."
"But you are going, aren't you?" she asked raising her eyes to him.
"I have to be a damn chaperone."
Hermione couldn't help but smile as she thought of a scowling Snape, shouting at kids left and right.
"Slughorn said each person is permitted to bring a guest, and I suppose you're taking Weasley?" he inquired while reaching for another pile of papers.
"Er…no, he has been…we've been fighting." she replied, lowering her head over her paper so her hair covered her eyes.
"Oh?"
"It's nothing; really, he's just being stupid…and jealous, not to mention flamboyantly flashing that ditzy Brown girl to everyone with two eyes."
"If I didn't know any better, Granger, it sounds as if you're jealous."
She sat up then, and gently blew the ink on her essay willing it to dry faster.
"No, I'm not. Well, you already knew I…I had feelings for him. You saw in my memories. But he's such a hypocrite! When I was with Viktor he nearly bit my head off, yet now he's with that…that girl and is angry that I'm taking someone else? It's ridiculous!"
Hermione realized what she had just said.
"I'm sorry, I know you don't want to hear about these things, and I detest talking about them."
"Weasley was never the brightest of you three."
"No, he's not," she sighed as she waited for the ink to dry. "And when I told him I wasn't taking him, instead I'm going with Cormac, he nearly screamed at me. I'm sorry again, my personal life must bore you half to death." she added giving a sheepish smile.
"No, on the contrary, I rather enjoy hearing how idiotic Mr. Weasley really is. I like to know that I'm right every now and then." he drawled causing Hermione to laugh.
The weeks passed slowly, and Hermione made a point to avoid Malfoy at all costs. But even Hermione knew that her luck was bound to run out at some point.
