Chapter 11:

Strip My Mind

Hermione awoke the next day with her body in the most blinding, excruciating pain. She could just barely manage to sit up in her bed before her back, hips, legs, and every other body part screamed in protest at the process of normal muscle function. She let out a whimper as she went to stand up fully, hearing her legs making a cracking noise as she did so. Wincing as she walked, she took a detour to the bathroom and turn the shower on its hottest setting.

She let the hot water caress her aching body, paying no mind to the scalding sensation it left on her skin. She let her head rest against the cool wall, and just stood stock still in the water. Yesterday's events were coming back to her now. She had taken a potion the night before for a dreamless sleep, just to get away from her own mind. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could stop her thought processes from functioning normally during the day.

Professor Snape had managed to etch himself a place in her mind's eye, as well as in her body in numerous places on her skin, and all throughout her aching muscles and body. Her lower abdomen was aching with the pains of her encounter. She ran her hand along the skin on it and felt the muscle twitch in pain beneath her own touch.

It was your own damn fault, she thought, annoyed with herself. You were the one that took off his pants, for crying out loud!

Ah, another voice said in her head, and weren't you the one that practically jumped on it when you saw how enormous it–

But...said the Voice of Reason, anyone could understand that this is all deeply emotionally rooted in the fact that Ron lied to me about something I valued, which also happened to be sexual. And it is NOT about the Professor... it's about me. And Ron. The Professor... well, it can't happen again. It just...won't.

Hermione stepped out of the shower, slowly and carefully, resolving not to let Snape cross her mind and to also avoid Ron at all costs, today. She needed a day without the thought of any sort of thing with a penis.

The day inched by slower than any day she had previously encountered. Her hands seemed to be the only thing that functioned without too much pain, which was lucky–at least she could take notes properly and not draw too much attention to herself in class. Walking down the hall, however, was no easy task. As she hobbled with pain, she knew she attracted some wayward stares and glances. It was an act of grace when she found Ginny by her side, instinctively putting an arm under her shoulder and displacing her weight so it was easier for her to walk.

"Thank you, Ginny," she said with a sigh. "I feel like such a fool, staggering all around like some geriatric old woman."

Ginny just smiled and said, "Don't worry about it, really. You might want to go see Madam Pomfrey about it. What exactly is 'it', anyway?"

Hermione scrambled for an answer. "Erm... well, I was running a bit yesterday." The truth was better than nothing, after all, she did run quite a bit yesterday.

"Running?"asked Ginny with a snort. "You don't run, Hermione."

"I do run..." she said. "I run from your brother when he trying to talk me into sneaking into classrooms with him."

"So you are back together, then?" she asked happily. "Oh that's... it's wonderful. I can't wait to tell Mum!"

"Erm... yeah," she said, trying to hide the worry from her voice. She cast into her mind to try and find something to take the subject off of Ron and her. "So... um... was Quidditch practice alright?"

"It went rather well," she said brightly. "Ron played brilliantly, it was a great change of pace for the team." Suddenly, a look of surprise played across her features and she stopped them both dead in their tracks. Ginny turned Hermione so they were face to face, and then leaned into her, whispering, "I totally forgot to mention this to you but,"–she looked around to make sure no one was within earshot–"the team went for a jaunt in the castle and we heard something absolutely scandalous coming from the dungeons!"

Hermione's face blanched, and her stomach fell towards her feet. "W-what kind of scandal would happen in the dungeons?" She inwardly kicked herself for sounding so mundane towards her best friend.

Ginny leaned in even closer, whispering in her ear, "We heard Snape getting busy with someone... we're pretty sure it was a student!" Ginny pulled away from her friend, saying, "Scandalous, right?"

"Absolutely..." said Hermione, unable to look Ginny in the face completely. "Absolutely scandalous..."

--

Hermione decidedly hobbled at a much slower rate when it was time to attend Potions' class. Perhaps, if she moved slowly enough, she would miss the double class entirely, and she would forgo seeing either of them until she could really settle it all in her mind. Unfortunately, the door to his oh-so familiar classroom came upon her sooner than she would have liked, and she walked in, trying not to wince as she moved.

She took a seat in the back, alone. She looked over at Ron, who looked disappointed that she did not go and sit with him. She eyed him and just waved him off. He shrugged and let it go, most likely thinking that it was her fictitious "period" that was making her cranky. As she took out the chair from beneath the desk, a loud and shrill scraping noise filled the otherwise silent dungeon.

"Fifteen minutes tardy?" said the deadly silky voice of Professor Snape from the board at the front of the room. "I'm... I'm at a loss for words."

Hermione simply ignored his statement and began taking her texts and notebooks from out of her bag, wincing in the process.

The Professor continued on his tirade. "For a girl that has spent her life polishing apples and being a professional note-taker, taking school so seriously... I am just astonished at the bad behavior that you have succumbed to in recent weeks."

Her head snapped up at this comment. Did he just dare to go into the territory of bad things that she may have recently done? She simply glared at him.

"I'll forgo the detention this time," he said. "Instead, you will write out my notes today on the board as punishment. I'm not going to let you sit all day in your cushy little note-taking seat."

She just shook her head as she painfully rose from her seat and hobbled to the front of the room with her wand in hand.

"Ah," he said, slipping her wand out of her grip with his long fingers. "No magic... you'll be using chalk, Hermione."

She swayed on her feet, not entirely sure if it was because her pained legs were giving out from underneath of her, or due to the sheer fact that her name leaving his lips in such a manner in front of the class threw her. She lost her balance and fell right onto her bottom in the front of the room, causing the class to roar with laughter. She burned scarlet in her cheeks as she attempted to get up. The pain in her legs, however, had reached a point where it too much for her to handle, and try as she might, she simply could not stand.

The laughing class clearly did not take notice of their professor's face twisting with concern, and the fact that he lent the girl a hand to lift her upright. She staggered to the chalkboard and balanced her weight in a way that did not hurt her so much. He handed her a piece of chalk as the laughter died away, and then said, "I trust you've read the material."

"Yes, sir," she said quietly, grimacing at the agony that ensued when she moved any part of her body, especially the lower half. She waited for the professor to begin his lecture, and then began to furiously scrape the chalk against the blackboard, quickly, as he spoke.

Barely fifteen minutes into the lecture, she felt her muscles convulsing beneath her skin, trying to resist the pacing that she did in front of the chalkboard as she wrote. Suddenly, she turned too quickly and pulled the muscle in her hip in such an agonizing way that she cried out in pain.

The Professor whipped around and looked infuriated. "Miss Granger!"

"My legs hurt," she said, slowly, red in the face. "I can barely stand, sir."

He raised his eyebrows impassively, his lips tightening white over his teeth. With a calculating stare, he eventually said, "Fine. Take this,"–he took out a piece of parchment and quill from his pocket and scrawled a note onto it–"and go to Madam Pomfrey."

Hermione shuffled over to Professor Snape as fast as her legs would allow, and snatched the parchment out of her hand. "Thank you, sir," she said under her breath. As she walked to the back and gathered her things, the class was whispering quietly. She tried to block out the whispers, fearing that what Ginny had told her had gotten out into the rest of the student body.

Before she walked out the door, she couldn't help but hear two Ravenclaws whispering and looking at her in what they thought was a discreet manner.

"...yeah, did you see his face when she fell?"

"Bet you she's polishing his apples for sure..."

(A/N: Chap. Title is Red Hot Chili Peppers)