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Hermione sat up in bed and pulled the old tome onto her lap. It was a little rough around the edges, suggesting that it had been read several times already. She slowly opened the front cover, barely noting the "This book is the property of Severus Snape" scrawled in familiar spidery writing inside. A quick flip through the pages told her that this text had been heavily annotated. A thrill ran down her spine at the prospect of reading her professor's notes on the material. She was amazed that he had trusted her with his own copy. And yet, there was something familiar about that dark ink slashed across the margins.
Turning back to the Table of Contents, her eager eyes scanned the list of chapters. Oh yes, this looks much more promising! Hermione dove into the text, absorbing the information like a dehydrated sponge.
Magic is more than a phenomenon; it is an entity. Once a successful spell has been invented, Magic recognizes the connection of Incantation, Wand Movement, and Intention as a complete spell. The spell that has been created can then be copied by other wizards. It is in this way that we are able to build upon the works of other witches and wizards.
Hermione had never thought of it that way. In a way, it was a little creepy to think of Magic as being somehow aware, but it was also rather fascinating.
The Incantation is usually selected from the Latin words for what the caster wishes to accomplish. This is due to the fact that the use of Incantation with Magic began in Ancient Rome with the Cult of Trivia (the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hecate), the Goddess of Witchcraft.
Hermione made a mental note to read the section on Trivia in her Mythology book.
The movements selected for a particular spell are dependent on the complexity of the spell itself. The last movement of the wand sends the magic toward the object at which it is directed. All preceding movements layer the pieces of the spell together before it is cast. Therefore, the more a particular spell is supposed to accomplish, the more complicated the movements of the wand must be. Pairing incorrect movements with an Incantation is far more dangerous than choosing an Incantation that is inappropriate for the Intent, itself.
Fascinating! Hermione's stomach began to growl and she decided to head down to the kitchen, reading her book all the way.
They were back on the staircase of Grimmauld Place. Her body was pressed against his as it had been the other night. Sliding down. Her soft, round breasts were crushed against his chest. And she was in a towel. He did not take the time to notice whether or not the towel was right-side-out. His mind was more occupied with the fact that said towel was slowly slipping off. In an instant, she was naked before him. And he was naked too. Soft flesh. Sliding down, lower and lower. Her breasts slipped over the hardened muscle of his thighs and soon her mouth was level with his throbbing erection. "Do it." He commanded, but they had found a way to circumvent the law. She didn't have to comply.
And yet, she did. Slowly, her pretty, little lips wrapped around his aching cock. It was almost more than he could bear. And then, he was fucking her into a mattress; the mattress in his potions lab. And she was shouting his name as she cried out in ecstasy beneath him. He was going to come.
Severus bolted up in the bed, his member throbbing painfully. The guilt instantly began to wash over him again. Here she was, innocent of innocents, stuck in a situation where she would have to have sex with her professor, and he was having dreams about it! He was fucking looking forward to it! Not allowing himself release from this perversion, Severus jumped out of bed and hurried to a cold shower.
Once he had cooled the fire inside of him, Severus decided to head down to the kitchen. Slipping through the door with silent ease, he saw the Granger girl long before she noticed him. Her nose was buried in his book as she sipped her tea. A plate of untouched toast sat in front of her. He knew the moment she registered his appearance. Her head snapped up and for a moment, they were both frozen, calculating. The wariness in her eyes made another surge of guilt well up inside of him. She was afraid of him. How could he fantasize about her when all she felt for him in return was fear?
Suddenly, a small smile spread across her face. "Thank you for the book, professor." He blinked in surprise before grunting his reply and heading to the tea kettle. Hiding behind a mug of the hot brew, he sat across from the girl and studied her concentrated features. She was still the bushy haired know-it-all who had been the bane of his existence in every potions class for six years. And yet, she had certainly blossomed without his noticing. Her slim face drew attention to those big, cinnamon eyes, and the faint spattering of freckles across her pale cheeks no longer seemed childish. Her teeth were straight now. He wondered when that had been corrected, and if it had been done magically or at the hands of her dentist parents. As her eyes flitted rapidly across the page, her teeth worried a plump, red lip. It was the only color on her face in this dim light and thus captured his attention.
A sudden flash of the scene from his dream came to mind and he quickly suppressed the image of those soft, red lips wrapped around his hard, aching…
"Professor?" Severus met the girl's eyes, silently cursing himself for his train of thought even as he felt himself growing hard again. Perhaps he had just been neglecting himself for too long. He raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "You obviously have a lot of thoughts on the subject of spell creation. Have you ever created a spell?" Severus quirked a lip in mocking disdain.
"No, Miss Granger. I have enough insight into the subject to correct many of the ideas presented in the text you have before you, and I have theoretical hypotheses scribbled in the margins; but no, Granger, I have never actually created a spell." He was surprised to see her impatient glare in his direction. In the past, Granger had reacted to his sarcasm with the same understandable fear that the rest of his students generally showed. And yet, now, when she should have been more afraid of him than ever, she was merely impatient with his stubborn attitude.
"There's no need to be snippy. It may have been a stupid question, but you don't usually respond to abruptness and I needed a segue." He curled a lip. So, she thought she had him pinned, did she?
"What do you want, Granger?" How's that for abruptness? She gave a short harrumph of impatience before lifting her chin and sitting up straighter. He recognized the posture as her I'm-about-to-answer-a-question pose.
"Well, I've been researching spell creation, and the theory is pretty straightforward," he snorted disbelievingly, "In theory," she continued with a glare. "The only thing is, I understand that experimenting with spell creation can be rather hazardous and I was hoping to get some advice directly from someone who has gone through the process before." Severus set his mug on the table and leaned forward, steepling his fingers under his chin as his elbows rested on the tabletop. Ah, yes. Nothing like Hermione Granger in full-blown know-it-all mode to deflate his growing enthusiasm.
"What kind of spell are you hoping to create, Miss Granger?" His condescension had no effect on the girl who jumped excitedly into her explanation.
"Well, I spent the first half of the summer with my parents, and I was using their internet. It occurred to me that finding information in the muggle world is so much easier than it is in the magical world. Well, I thought, that was pretty ridiculous. Surely we must have come up with something by now that would make research more efficient. And yet, I was unable to find any such spell. So, I've been thinking, if only there were some way to point a person in the direction of a book that contained information on a particular subject, it would be so much easier to find what that person was looking for." Severus kept his face blank, but he was secretly impressed with this idea. The Internet was only a vague, abstract idea to him, but it was an interesting proposition.
"That sounds rather complex for a first spell. Perhaps you should start with something smaller?" He watched the girl's face drop in disappointment, and was satisfied that he had been the cause.
"I don't have any simpler ideas," she said softly.
"Start with something basic; a charm." He suggested. She shrugged her shoulders, almost as if in defeat, and picked her book back up. Something in the lines of her face, however, told him that she thought she could handle a more difficult spell than he expected. The frustrated annoyance that he would have expected to feel at that was replaced by a sort of amused pride. Odd. Their silence continued until Black arrived to disturb the peace.
"Hermione!" he said, much to the girl's obvious chagrin.
"Oh, hello Sirius." The mongrel leaned close to Granger and Severus could feel anger rising up within him even before he heard Black whisper loudly in the girl's ear.
"Snape isn't bothering you, is he?" Her cinnamon eyes met his immediately and he could see a blush spreading across her pretty face as her lips parted in horrified surprise. "Because I can get rid of him, if you need me to."
"Can you?" Snape challenged, unable to stop himself. Granger froze like a cornered rabbit.
"If I find that you have been harassing Hermione, I won't hesitate." Severus grinned knowingly at the girl before responding.
"And what will you do?" he teased. Black was getting all worked up, his hands on the back of Granger's chair, his dark gaze fixed on Severus, and his hand twitching to grab his wand.
"I'll send you back to the depths of hell, where you belong!" It took Severus a moment to process the fact that the girl had blanched at this, and before he could respond, she butted in.
"Sirius! Professor Snape has not been bothering me. In fact, you ought to show him a bit more respect, because really he saved my life." Black backed away in shock, but his eyes darted cynically back to Severus's rigid form.
"Did he now?" The mutt's crazed features twisted with malice. "And how did he go about that? I suppose he just waltzed into Voldemort's lair and plucked you up? And the dark lord still trusts him unconditionally?" Severus leapt to his feet, feeling pulses of pure loathing in his veins. The girl had paled, but Severus did not even take the time to notice. His attention was focused on Black.
"For your information, Black, that is exactly what I did! On Dumbledore's orders. And aren't you glad that the dark lord believes in me so completely? Because if he didn't, Miss Granger would not be here with us at the moment! Instead, she would either have lost her mind from the effects of the Cruciatus, or she would likely be slowly being digested in the stomach of a giant snake!" Black paled immediately and he felt a rush of satisfaction before his gaze swept over to Granger. Her own face had turned a shade of green and she lurched out of her seat, running from the room as if she was about to be sick.
Fuck! He hadn't even been thinking of the effect those words might have on the girl. Fuck! He, himself, was so desensitized to the horrors of the dark side that he hadn't even realized how horrible that thought could be. Until now. He turned back to Black, realizing that the other man was glaring daggers at him. And for once, he knew he absolutely deserved it. For that reason only, he did not stop the mutt as he ran out of the room to find the girl. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Hermione retched into the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that the scenario Snape had outlined in such vivid detail was exactly what would have happened to her. Tears ran down her face, both from the physical pain and humiliation of being sick and from the emotional torment and fear that swirled inside of her. Part of her knew she should probably be angry with Snape for bringing about these feelings, but all she could feel was gratitude toward the man for saving her from that ghastly fate. What was she to him, after all? She played a small part in the upcoming war, but it was nothing substantial enough to warrant him jeopardizing his position as a spy. Of course, he hadn't ever actually jeopardized it, she supposed.
"Hermione?" came Sirius's voice through the door. "Are you alright?" She groaned, more from irritation than from pain.
"I'm fine. Please, just leave me alone." But Sirius was persistent.
"Do you need help with anything?" Hermione resisted the urge to retort that she could very well gag on her own.
"No. Thank you." Would the man just go away? Apparently not.
"You know, I'm here to talk if you ever need somebody." He continued. She stood and faced her reflection in the mirror.
"I'm alright, Sirius. Really." Besides being a little green. She rinsed her mouth out several times before gulping down some of the sweet water and splashing it on her face. Some of the color was returning to her cheeks, at least.
"Alright, well, my offer stands." Then, Sirius's voice grew low. "If you ever need anything… Hermione…" The way he said her name was like a caress and she suppressed the urge to gag again. Couldn't he just leave her alone? Apparently not. "You know, you have grown into a beautiful, young woman, and it just isn't fair that this is happening to you. I just want you to know that I'm there, alright? Promise me you'll come to me if you need something?" Hermione felt anger bubbling up inside of her. The last thing she needed was another man to answer to.
"Thanks, Sirius. I'll keep that in mind," she said evasively.
"Promise?" Hermione felt like throttling him, but knew that his intentions were good. Well, she supposed they were good.
"I promise," she said, finally. I promise to keep it in mind, she thought ruefully. Please let that be the end of it!
"Thank you," he murmured softly against the door. She listened for his retreating footsteps, but he lingered outside the bathroom for a few moments before finally slipping away. Merlin, what the bloody hell has happened to my life?
Severus reluctantly stepped inside Lucius's study. His aristocratic friend had extended an elegant invitation to the Slytherin Head to join him for a brandy that evening. It was not unusual, and was usually harmless, but Severus had a sense of foreboding about the visit. It was likely that his friend wanted to talk about Granger.
"Severus!" came the cheerful greeting of his oldest friend. "So good of you to come! I was afraid you might be… otherwise occupied." His suggestive tone, coupled with a leering wink left Severus with no doubt about his meaning.
"Ah, yes," the younger wizard replied, "But I can usually manage to pull myself away long enough for a brandy with an old friend." He sneered as he accepted a tumbler of the amber liquid and made himself comfortable in one of the wingback chairs beside the fireplace. Many nights he had sat in this very place, talking to Lucius, warming his frozen soul with a bit of brandy and a toasty fire. It was rather late in the summer for a fire tonight, and he knew that nothing about this meeting would leave him warmer.
"Hermione Granger, is it?" Ah, so we're jumping right to it, then? He inclined his head in reply and watched the features of the elegant blond twist into a horrible leer. "Do her little friends know?"
"No." Lucius laughed.
"All the better!"
"Well, as the entire point is that she is supposed to spy on them for me, I suppose it is better that way." Lucius grinned back at him.
"Ah, yes. I had forgotten." Of course he had. All that concerned him was the prospect of sex. "Was she a virgin?" Exhibit A. Severus forced himself to leer back at the other wizard.
"Yes." Lucius's eyes lit up with lust and Severus knew what he was going to ask next.
"Would you care to share her with an old friend?" Snape curled his lip in a knowing smirk.
"No." He watched Lucius pout over that. But really, had he expected anything different?
"Fine. You've always been strange about that, Severus. You will bring her to a revel, of course? At least allow me the pleasure of watching." Severus inclined his head. This was something he hoped to avoid for as long as he could.
"We will see."
"You won't be able to avoid it for long, old friend. Once the rest of our brothers realize what a prize you have been given, they will demand that you share her."
"She belongs to me. I will not share what is rightfully mine." Severus was vehement on this point. The worst he would allow to happen to the girl was for her to sleep with himself, and that was pretty much a necessity, he realized. It was too risky hoping that no one discovered her virginity and began asking questions.
"Fine. Fine, Severus. I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to challenge you for her. But they will demand a show. You know they will." Severus nodded solemnly, sipping his brandy.
"I know."
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