... A Snape/Hermione fic. ... Disclaimer: See Ch. 1. ... A/N: Thanks for the great reviews, guys. You rock! I'll respond to some reviews here:
Chapter Thirteen.
Potioness: A fight between Ron and Snape would definitely be possible ... through I don't know if I'd make it a fist-fight or a duel ... Snape would kick his ass either way. Thanks for the great review, you're so great at inflating my ego.
Readerforlife: Yes. Stupid Ron. Always stupid Ron ... I've honestly never really liked him as a character. But, Rupert Grint ain't too bad to look at, so I don't mind him as much in the movies.
Everyone else: Thanks for the great reviews, I'm glad you're still enjoying this story.
Sorry for the long wait, I've been in a Supernatural phase. I'll try to bounce back and forth between the two, 'cause I'm really enjoying Supernatural right now.
Alrighty-roo, let's get on with the story, shall we?
As always, please read and review, I live for feedback!
Hermione paced around her kitchen, checking the clock every twenty seconds or so. She knew that Snape wouldn't be late, but she didn't know if he would be early.
He had asked Harry and Ginny to take Samantha that night, telling them she would explain later. She hadn't wanted Samantha to be in the next room if something should happen. They had dropped off Crookshanks when they'd picked up Samantha, and he was currently in the process of sniffing out a spot to call his own.
She had just looked at the clock again when she heard a knock at the door and almost jumped in surprise. Forcing air slowly out of her nose to try and calm herself she smoothed her hands down her stomach and moved to open the door.
"Hi," she greeted nervously.
Snape tipped his head in response, waiting for her to invite him in.
She held the door open wider, allowing him entrance and feeling her heart rate speeding up. She so hoped she wouldn't have another panic attack. Closing the door behind him, she wondered aloud, "Would you like a drink or anything?"
He turned, shaking his head. It was then that she noticed he was holding her folded up robes in his hands.
"Oh, right ... thanks," she said, holding her hands out for the garment.
"This is becoming a habit," he half-joked, handing her the robes and reminding her of when he'd left his robes in her rooms the night he'd helped her set up her furniture. That felt like ages ago now.
"Right," Hermione replied. "We should really stop doing that." She took the robes and placed them on the hook by the door, fiddling with them for longer than necessary as an excuse to do something with her hands. "Are you sure I can't get you anything to drink?" Hermione asked again.
"Miss Granger ... if you are uncomfortable, we can try this another time," Snape suggested, seeing her discomfort.
Hermione shook her head. "No, I want to get this done with ... I'm just nervous."
Snape nodded. "Understandable."
Hermione forced herself to calm down and looked up at the man in her kitchen. "Okay, so where should we do this?"
Snape looked around. "Wherever you'd feel most comfortable."
Hermione reasoned that she'd feel most comfortable asleep in her bed, but that was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about at the present moment, and she forced the thought out of her head. "Um ... living room couch?"
Snape nodded his agreement, following behind her as she moved into the other room slowly.
Hermione glanced down at the couch before sitting down awkwardly, waiting for her colleague to simply begin. She wanted the entire ordeal to be done and over with.
Snape took his time removing his outer robe and pulling out of his pocket a pair of vials.
"Are we going to have to do it more than once?" Hermione asked him.
"No," Snape replied, shaking his head. "I always carry a spare, just in case."
Hermione nodded, playing with her fingers. "That's practical, I suppose."
Snape sighed, sitting down beside Hermione on the couch so that he was facing her. "This will not work unless you are calm and relaxed. I need you to let me into your mind, to become a part of your own mind so that I can extract the memory. Take as long as you need to feel comfortable."
Hermione nodded, thinking the feat was surely impossible, but steadying her breaths as best as she could. After a few minutes had passed she felt reasonably able to begin. "Okay, so what do I do? Just think about that night?"
Snape shook his head. "Not right away. I believe that in order for this to work, I'll need to enter your mind before you access that memory, and then guide you towards the memory. Otherwise the result will be no different than when you attempted to extract your own memories."
Hermione bobbed her head, agreeing internally that it did make sense. Though she didn't entirely love the idea of Snape steering his way through her mind, especially with the recent discovery she'd made. "Okay ... so what's going to happen? You'll enter my mind, and then seek out the memory?"
Snape nodded. "Basically, yes."
"So, you won't see anything else?" Hermione wanted to clarify.
Snape quirked an eyebrow at her nervousness. I'm about to see her being raped and abused ... what else could she possibly be so embarrassed about? "Well, working my way through your mind won't be quite as simple as that. I have to find my way through different memories and moments until I find the right one."
Hermione's face fell at this, and Snape further elaborated, "If you are afraid I will uncover something embarrassing, I promise that I won't comment on it."
Hermione hoped he meant that, and waited a few minutes until she felt relaxed enough to proceed.
"Just try not to think about a particular moment, and try not to resist me," Snape coaxed, not understanding the double meaning of his words or the effect he was actually having on her.
Hermione nodded, letting him know she was ready for him to enter her mind. A moment passed, and then she could feel a fuzzy sensation, and then saw her memories and thoughts splayed out before her in her mind's eye.
The first and foremost topic in her mind was Samantha, which came as no surprise to either of them. What did surprise Hermione was that she was now reliving the day she'd given birth. Hermione watched with wincing eyes as she cried out in pain and frustration, and then finally relief as her baby girl was born. They both took in her exhausted appearance, Hermione wincing at the sight of her hair that she had shaved to allow it to grow back properly. She noticed Snape shifting uncomfortably but didn't break eye contact with him, simply waited for him to move on to the next memory. If he stayed on track with Samantha, maybe he wouldn't delve into the fact that she had realized her feelings for him.
Just like that, the scene changed and they were brought back to the memory of Snape hauling her into the empty closet to calm her down after her mother had shown up. She saw herself invading his personal space out of anger, and before the memory could reveal anything more personal, Hermione broke contact.
Snape felt himself push out of her mind, and blinked a few times to regain his bearings. "What happened?" he asked her.
"Sorry," Hermione spoke quietly. "I forgot to not look away. I had a ... kink in my neck." She really hoped she wasn't as bad of a liar as she thought she was, because not even she believed that.
Snape nodded, narrowing his eyes. "Are you okay to continue?"
Hermione nodded slowly, taking a deep breath.
He pressed himself back into her mind once more, staring into her honey-brown eyes as he worked through the memories. He'd gathered that there was something about the last memory that she hadn't wanted him to see, so he fought against himself to respect her privacy and moved on.
The next moment they shared was to do with Samantha again. She was standing on short, shaky legs, and Hermione was standing behind her with her arms stretched out, prepared to catch her if she fell. Samantha - who appeared to be a little under a year old by the fact that she was shorter, a bit pudgy, and had less hair than she did now - moved her right foot forwards with great effort and took an unsteady step forwards. Hermione beamed down at her daughter, working hard to contain her squeal of joy, but unable to keep the bright smile off of her face.
Snape noticed that Hermione's hair was a bit longer here than it had been in the memory of her giving birth, and for some reason he found that oddly comforting. As Samantha grew, the evidence of what had happened to her mother began to fade.
"Samantha's first steps," Hermione explained without breaking eye contact.
Severus forced himself to pay attention, pushing past the memory to try and get closer to what they'd come for. He seemed to be going on the right track, and Hermione was thankful for that, though she forced herself to focus on the memory they were viewing, instead of the moments she didn't want him to see.
Hermione was roughly 36 weeks pregnant and her stomach was sufficiently enlarged. She waddled around the Burrow with a pad of paper and a quill in her hands, writing words down only to scratch them out moments later.
"Still haven't decided on a name yet?" Arthur Weasley asked as he walked into the room and Hermione smiled sadly.
"Not yet," Hermione admitted. "Nothing seems right."
The man who thought of her as his own daughter sat down on the couch in the living room, pulling the bits of clothing that were scattered about off of it and patting the seat next to him for her to sit down. With some effort and creative bending Hermione sat so that she was comfortable, laying a protecting hand over her enlarged stomach. She could feel her child shifting about inside of her.
"You know, when Molly was pregnant with Bill, we had the hardest time deciding on a name for him," he told her. "Molly wanted to name him after me, and call him Artie, but I of course knew there was bound to be some confusion when she got mad at either of us, and decided to call out 'Arthur Weasley!' So, after a few months of argument, we finally decided on William. We wanted him to have a strong name, but a name that had some leeway for a nickname ... you know, in case he wanted to go by Will, or Liam, or Billy ..."
Hermione and Arthur shared a chuckle at the idea of calling Bill Weasley 'Billy'.
"The point I'm trying to make dear, is that while a name should be important to you, and should be a strong name ... it doesn't have to be so serious. Find a name that works well no matter if the child is a boy or a girl, and one that you will enjoy ... try not to let it stress you out too much."
Hermione nodded, rubbing her belly absentmindedly. At that moment, she almost wished she had decided to know the sex of the baby before he/she was born, so she could eliminate one half of the possible names. "Thank you, Mr Weasley. That helps."
He nodded, pulling a strand of hair out of her face before he stood up. "Remember, it's Arthur now," he told her. "You're a part of this family now."
Hermione nodded, smiling in gratitude as the older man left. She leaned back on the couch, placing the pad of paper on her stomach as she tried to think of a name that was suitable for a boy or a girl. "Just one name," Hermione spoke to the air around her, tapping her quill against the paper.
The baby inside of her kicked extra-hard and Hermione reacted without thinking. "Ow, Sam!" she whined in pain, rubbing her stomach. After a moment she realized what she had said and looked down at her stomach. "Sam ... Samuel?" It was a good, strong name for a boy, and she smiled when she realized it could work for a girl as well. "Samantha ... my little Sammy."
The memory grew cloudy as Snape moved on, feeling a little uncomfortable at witnessing so many of her personal memories, but they had both known that would happen. He had simply figured she would be the only uncomfortable one.
He forced himself past the memory of her parents throwing her out, getting closer and closer to the memory of the worst night of her life.
Hermione braced herself when she saw the familiar streets and realized he had finally reached the night he was looking for. She forced herself to remain as calm as possible as he reached for one of the vials on the table without breaking eye contact with her.
This was it.
End of chapter thirteen.
Again, sorry for the long wait, I'll try to get the next chapter up quicker.
I hope you guys are still liking this story, I known I am.
Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful.
Until next time ...!