Hermione stared at her dinner plate, not wanting to eat. She still thought that she was fat, although she truly wasn't. Severus had no clue what was really going on, because every time that he asked her why she wasn't eating, she merely said that it was period cramps making her sick. He dropped the topic, assuming that he was telling the truth. Eventually, Hermione couldn't take looking at the dinner that she still assumed would make her fat, and got up, leaving her dinner and Hogwarts staff. She couldn't take the fact that she was getting heavier than she used to be when she was in her seventh year. Come on, you need to lose more weight! Just a few more pounds! That little voice screamed in the back of her head. She almost couldn't take it anymore, so she took out her favourite red pocketknife from her back pocket, slowly opening it, not noticing the cold on the ground since she was in the dungeons. Slowly, she made a small gash on one of her legs and one on her stomach. She vowed that she wouldn't show her body anywhere until she lost the weight that she needed to lose to make herself "more beautiful". Suddenly, the blade was yanked from her hand by a pale hand. She found herself looking into the eyes of a furious Severus Snape.
"Why?" The one word was the only thing he needed to say to make her burst into tears, collapsing against the chair, burying her head in her arms. Why did she do this to herself? What was wrong with her? Well, everything, obviously, but she couldn't help herself. Not with the cutting. It was too addictive! Didn't he understand that?
"I'm Sorry!" She nearly screamed. Severus sighed and got down on knees, taking Hermione's hands in his and staring into her dark brown eyes, silently pleading for her to stop this all.
"Hermione… why?" She couldn't stare into his eyes much longer. The one gaze always able to melt her mind into a simple nothing.
"I-I don't want to talk about it." She finished lamely. Severus breathed in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Too slowly.
"You don't want to talk about it? You don't want to talk about it?" Severus's voice was rising steadily until it was a near shout, causing Hermione to flinch away from him.
"Severus, I just- just… just go. Please." She got up, indicating that he should leave, but he didn't.
"Give me one reason why I should leave and I will." She tried to look at him in the eyes, but she just couldn't bear to do it.
"Because-because I asked you to, okay?" Her voice was wavering, but Severus took her wrists in his hands, making her look at him. There were tears in his eyes.
"That's not a good enough reason, Hermione. Please! Please tell me what is so bad that you feel the need to cut yourself!" Hermione looked away from him, refusing to look into his eyes.
"Please Severus," she began, trailing off.
"Please what? Hermione, what is this about? You didn't eat dinner tonight or lunch today or even breakfast! Hermione, you haven't eaten all day! What are you thinking?" She mumbled a response, but he couldn't hear her.
"What?"
"BECAUSE I'LL GET FAT!" Severus's eyes widened, showing his surprise.
"You're torturing yourself because you're too afraid of gaining weight? Hermione, you're already too thin without starving yourself!" Hermione began to cry again, hating herself for being so weak.
"I'm not thin, so stop saying that!" She screams with tears slipping down her cheek faster and faster, her not even bothering to wipe them away while she stares at the one person who loves her. Severus steps closer to her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her to him, sniffing her hair and burying his face in it, no matter how bushy it was.
"Hermione, you are beautiful no matter what you think or anyone else thinks. Don't try to change yourself, because it's not going to be successful. I love you just the way you are, so stop striving to be someone that you aren't. Okay?" She tried to avoid his eyes, but found that she couldn't and didn't want to, either.
"Severus… I- I think I love you." There were tears shining in her eyes as he kissed her slowly, taking time to fully appreciate her soft, full lips and her lovely, shining hair.
"Hermione, I love you more than you'll ever know. I want to be with you forever." These words shocked Hermione, but she didn't show it, just looked at Severus, trying to see if he was lying; he wasn't.
"Severus, I- I don't know what to say…." He smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Whatever you want to say, love." He whispered in her ear, making her shiver.
"I want to stay with you for the rest of my life, Severus." She hoped that she wasn't moving too fast. Severus pulled back to look at her face, looking, searching for the truth in her gaze. It was there. He smiled widely; one of the few times he's ever done that, and picked her up, kissing her over and over again.
"Hermione, if I wanted to-to marry you when the school year was over with… what would you say?" Severus knew how big of a chance he was taking by asking this question, but he needed to know.
"I would love to, Severus." Hermione smiled and kissed the tip of his nose, favouring that body part almost as much as his chest. He smiled again, finally realizing that all was good with the world. Well, almost. He still hadn't heard from the Ministry about Ronald Weasley and he was still unsure what to do about her father. Soon, they'd get what's coming to them.
Hermione was sitting in her room, braiding her hair when an owl pecked on the window. She smiled and walked over to it, taking the letter from its leg.
Dear daughter,
I'm quite ashamed that you didn't come home like I told you to. You never were a good bitch, were you? Well, don't worry, I'm coming for you soon, and we'll be reunited again. Just as soon as I'm able to find someone to get me into your stupid school, that is.
Can't wait to see you, darling!
Your father
Hermione couldn't move. She couldn't even breathe. He knew! He knew that she didn't come because of him, and now he was going to get into Hogwarts! Everyone would know about him raping her! She sat down on her bed, falling sideways, looking straight ahead without really seeing anything she appeared to be looking at. Severus soon walked in and saw her with the letter in her hand. He gently took the letter from her hand, reading it, his anger raising steadily as he read it.
"No, he won't be hurting you, Hermione. I don't care what he says he'll do. He can't just charge into Hogwarts and try to hurt you. He'd be on our territory now. If we hurt him with magic, since we aren't in the Muggle world, he couldn't charge us with a thing. I promise you that I will NOT let him take a step near you." The look in Severus's eyes was so intense that Hermione couldn't bear to look away from the dark look in his gaze; instead, she just stared into his black eyes, slowly becoming lost into the fathomless orbs, as if they were the only thing keeping her on the Earth. They probably were, actually.
"Severus, I'm scared." She looked at him and he embraced her in his arms, soothing her, running his hands through her hair, smoothing out the tangles in hair.
"Shh, honey, you're going to be fine, I promise." She kept crying, but she calmed down quite a bit.
"I just don't want anymore people to be hurt because of me! It's not fair!" He quickly calmed her down, relaxing her until she wasn't as scared anymore.
"No one will, love. I promise, I promise." She wrapped her arms around Severus's neck, pulling him closer to her until he had to sit her on his lap on their bed.
"Severus, I'm kind of tired…." He gave her a half-smile and pulled out the covers for her to get under.
"Then we'll go to bed." She smiled at him and curled up to him, feeling his arms fold her to him. They both drifted off to a somewhat peaceful sleep.
"Ginny, I don't want to talk about this, okay? Ron's probably going to Azkaban for a good reason, okay? And just because I'm with Draco doesn't mean that you can be mean to me or him! Just leave us alone!" Harry told his ex-girlfriend. After that nasty comment she made about Mudbloods and whores, he broke up with her, never wanting to see her again, but the bloody chit just wouldn't quit!
"Harry…." She whined, but he was already walking down the hall, leaving her gritting her teeth, hands balled in fists. Mark my words, Draco Malfoy, you'll pay for this. You'll pay for everything!
"Alright, class, today you all shall attempt to brew Veritiserum. Given the fact that you won't completely ruin you're potions by adding either the wrong ingredients or cutting the wrong lengths or, Gods forbid, forgetting to even add an ingredient. Get started. This potion is worth 25% of your grade this semester. Get started!" Everyone began working, all trying to finish in time. The only one who managed to finish brewing the potion was Draco, not assuming that he made it correctly. Now to test it….
"Malfoy! Bring Lavender Brown up here and test it on her. Ask her anything."
"Uh, okay. Lavender, drink the potion. Good, now, um. What's your biggest secret?" Try as she may, Lavender couldn't keep the truth out.
"I'm a lesbian!" She quickly shut her mouth, covering it with her hands, eyes widening.
"Well, class, I suppose Draco is the only one with enough potential to actually make it, he may keep it. Although, he WILL have a spell put on it so that he can only use it for times of need. You are dismissed. Go." The students began filing out by twos and fours, all wanting to get out before she decided to target them. Not that she would, though. She only did it to Lavender because the girl had been talking in her class the entire time to someone who wanted to get their potion done, but couldn't because of Lavender's constant chatter. The silly chit deserved everything she got. Hermione got busy grading papers. It would be a long day. The nest class had to make blood replenishing potions. She didn't know how many cauldrons would explode in the next hour. Now she knew why Severus always called his students dunderheads. With the exception of her. To be honest, Insufferable Know-It-All was one of the smallest compliments you could give someone. But with Severus, that's all he would say to her for a compliment. At least he gave her one, though. She smiled at the paper she was grading. It was one of the best in the entire fifth year. It was a young girl with the name of… Isabella Colvin. Ah, the Muggleborn girl in her third period. She seemed to be very… deep. Always thinking about something interesting. She was an object of the teachers' concern, as well. Every time that she came back from a break, there would be markings on her, but no one except Madam Pomphrey really cared enough to ask her about it. The girl didn't answer, she just ran. Maybe someone should go help her, Hermione thought. Perhaps I should be that very one…. She silently groaned as the students filed into the classroom, infiltrating her room with noise and stupidity. This would be a long day. A very long day.
"Okay, Hermione, let me get this straight. You want to go over to Miss Colvin's house, asking if her parents abuse her? After what you've already gone through?" She flinched at the coldness in Severus's voice, but steeled herself.
"Yes. I remember how it was before you came to help me, and what if she's suffering through the same thing? Then what? No one's going to be there to help her if something bad happens!" Severus stared at the woman in front of him, marvelling at her beauty and obvious annoyance.
"Look, Hermione, I will let you after one month of the end of Summer Break. How does that sound?" She huffed in annoyance. Did he not understand this?
"But what if she's already hurt even more by then? Then what are you going to do after this 15 year old girl dies? Just shrug it off? Well, I can't do that! I'm going to find her and ask her if everything's alright." Hermione got up to leave, but Severus's hand clamped down on her wrist.
"No, you won't. If anything's happening, we can NOT push her away from us any more than how isolated she already is!" Hermione yanked her arm away from him.
"Fine! I'll just leave her alone, but as soon as Summer Break begins, I'm waiting for a WEEK. Only that, and then I'm going to find her." Severus's eyes narrowed.
"No you aren't! I just told you that you are to wait for a MONTH!"
"Well I don't want to!" Severus had her against the wall, so she couldn't run even if she tried to. She tried to push him away from her, but he took both wrists of hers in one of his hands and kept them above her head. Hermione glared at him, and began trying to kick her way out, causing him to place his right knee in between her legs, effectively trapping her, rendering her unable to move.
"Listen, young lady, and listen well! I'm your elder and the Headmaster, while you are a professor working here. You aren't entitled to telling me what you can and can't do, understood?" They were both breathing heavily, as if they both just realized how compromising their position was. Severus leaned down, placed his mouth to her neck, and gently bit her. She felt a tingling sensation run through her, going straight to her core, silently wishing for more, while he felt a smug, proud feeling by marking her as his, slowly sucking on that one small area that his teeth were latched onto. Hermione tilted her head to the left to give him better access as he raised his knee to meet that one forbidden place while she gasped and struggled to free her wrists, yearning to touch him, to run her hands along his chest while he touched her in places she could never imagine him doing so without blushing.
Severus didn't let go of her wrists, however, just kept her against the wall while he ran a hand over her breasts, slipping his hand under her black robes, feeling the pure beauty of her curvaceous body. Slowly, he edged her robes off, throwing them somewhere in his office while casting a strong Silencio on his office, along with a warding charm, knowing that most likely, no one would come in, but still wanting to ensure privacy. Slowly, he edged his hand to her skirt, making her whimper with need as he stopped every couple of inches, slipping his hand underneath the offending garment, realizing that she had no panties on. His eyes widened and flew up to meet hers while she just stared at him innocently, without a care in the world. Severus began tracing patterns on her core, slowly dipping inside, then taking his fingers out while he watched her every reaction to his ministrations. When he circled her clit, she jerked, when he dragged his finger against the slit of her pussy, she whimpered, he committed every action that she did because of him to memory. He slowly, torturously slipped one long finger inside of her wet core, groaning when he felt how wet and hot she was.
"Gods, Severus! Severus!" He felt her walls clench around the one finger, felt her release all over his hand. While she was recovering, he lifted his hand to his mouth and licked up all of her cum that was residing on her hand.
"That was… intense." Severus said while Hermione blushed, looking at her feet. He swooped down for a kiss, deepening it when she responded back. Apparently the witch liked the taste of her own cum. Damn, did she realize how sexy she was just by being herself? He cast a wandless Tempus, seeing that it was already time for dinner. Thankfully, she came to him as soon as her classes ended. If she had left in between classes, he'd have kept her, not giving a damn what happened if she didn't show up to teach.
"It was very much so, but you need to get down to the Great Hall." Severus's eyes narrowed. He knew that she was going to try to get out of eating again, but he wouldn't let her.
"I won't go unless you go with me." She let out an annoyed breath.
"Okay… fine, I guess I could go to dinner with you." Severus kissed her hand.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, Severus." Yeah, I'll go to dinner, but that doesn't mean that you can make me eat.