A/N: The muse strikes at weird times when you're busy. Sorry for the wait for these last couple chapters, I shall try to be better about writing/updating in the future!
Chapter 21: Darkness Settles
Three days. He had been gone for three whole days, and Hermione was beginning to worry about his wellbeing. I'm still here, so he couldn't have been killed, she thought to herself, taking solace in the fact that a major rupture in the fabric in time would likely have a dramatic impact on her as well.
She had been rather productive in his absence and optimistically thought that she was close to discovering an antidote for Nagini's venom. And much ahead of schedule, she thought with satisfaction – always pleased when her mental prowess was validated.
Monday, July 21st, 1997, she ran her fingers over the date on the Muggle wall calendar hanging in Snape's kitchen, her mind spinning with each reminder of the date. The time traveling is still taking getting used to, she thought ruefully. She quickly shook off her abrupt melancholy and set to work making herself some breakfast on this rainy Monday morning. The rain hammered down on the roof as Hermione prayed the rundown house would not spring any leaks. Not for any other reason other than she had misplaced her wand the day prior and she wanted to enjoy her eggs and toast without having to frantically search for it. Perhaps a wandless spell would do the trick, she mused as the rain continued to pound down on the roof. She finished preparing her eggs and toasting her bread, sitting down at the rickety wooden table in the kitchen to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Suddenly, she heard a faint pop outside the front door and the sound of wet squeaking as boots approached. A knock resounded on the door as Hermione quickly swallowed the bit of toast she was chewing and practically fled to answer it, relief coursing through her veins. She stopped short of the door, wondering how she would open the charmed and protected door sans wand, when the person outside the door called in.
"Severus?" the female voice sounded.
Hermione's blood instantly ran cold as she realized the person outside the door was not Snape.
"Severus, open the door," came the voice again, as Hermione finally placed it. Alecto Carrow, she realized anxiously. Well, this is disastrous, she thought as she frantically looked around the ground floor for somewhere to hide. Alecto Carrow did not seem like the type to simply walk away from a locked door.
"Severus, I wish to explain myself," the voice tried again, seeming rather done being patient.
Hermione ran to the kitchen to hide, feeling rather like a child playing a high stakes game of hide-and-seek without the availability of her wand. As she desperately looked around the kitchen, she heard a tapping and murmuring at the door as the rain had let up to quieter drizzle. With only seconds before Alecto entered the residence, she spied a blank section of kitchen wall with a strange pattern of bricks. She quickly felt up and down the bricks, nearly falling through the door that suddenly opened up to a flight of descending wooden steps. She sat down on the rotting steps to calm her racing heart as the hidden brick door returned to its original closed state.
She heard footsteps enter the residence as she sat in the darkness in what she assumed were the quarters Snape had allowed Wormtail to sleep. Thank god he had mentioned a hidden cellar, she thought gratefully. Her gratefulness was quickly dashed as she heard the steps enter the kitchen and Alecto no doubt notice the half eaten breakfast sitting on the wooden table. Oh my, all of my belongings are upstairs, Hermione remembered with a start.
She heard heavy footsteps on the main staircase and wondered if Alecto had suddenly left the kitchen, when a smooth voice said, "Alecto, what a pleasure to see you here."
"Severus," Alecto responded, pausing for second in greeting. "I rung at the door."
"I presume you knocked in this torrential rainstorm?" Snape responded.
"It was rather loud," Alecto granted, giggling nervously in her typical manner.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Snape quickly asked.
Alecto giggled nervously again. "I wished… I simply wished to explain… my proposal to you," she managed to get out, seeming uncharacteristically apologetic.
"I believe I explained to you that I have no interest in it," Snape said, his voice hardening with each syllable.
"I had forgotten… I had forgotten your origins. I did not mean to insinuate that I wished to torture half-bloods as well. Your magical abilities are, of course, beyond measure. I was simply hoping to have a bit of fun with some Mudbloods," she continued, "I did notice you were reading Moronic Mudbloods, and I was hoping you may have had a change of heart."
"I was reading what?" Snape asked, confused.
"The book is bookmarked on the table in the library," Alecto responded in a confused tone as well.
Well, at least that piece of propaganda nonsense I was reading for research is a good cover for Snape, Hermione thought, hoping he would recover from his confusion quickly.
Naturally, he recovered speedily and nonchalantly replied, "Oh yes, I was reading that a bit ago – I must say it has its merits."
Hermione could practically see the gleam in Alecto's eyes through the wall, as she responded with barely repressed joy, "I knew you would see the fun in my plan for the Mudbloods. After we storm the Ministry, they will be all ours to deal with as we see fit."
Hermione's blood boiled at the hatred and excitement in the loathsome woman's voice. She was unable to hear Snape's response as two pairs of footsteps receded into the living room. She heard the faint murmur of voices for several minutes, until she finally drifted off to sleep in the dark, exhausted at the mere effort of hiding from Alecto and relieved to be somewhere safe.
~o-o-o-o-o~
She awoke to bricks moving and light streaming through the entrance to the cellar. She felt her neck complain at the awkward position in which she had been sleeping and her arm felt strangely numb. The inscrutable face of Severus Snape hovered over her, arm outstretched with her wand in hand.
"I assume this would have been useful," he said, with his eyes narrowed.
"I… yes, I… I misplaced it last night," she said, scrambling to her feet and grabbing her wand gratefully. She searched his face, which held a stern and unmoving expression. "Thank you," she continued, hoping his face would soften, "I assume the charms on the house warned you someone had entered?"
"Yes," he responded curtly, motioning her out of the cellar and allowing the hidden brick door to shut once more. As Hermione's eyes adjusted to the light, she faintly realized that he did not seem to mirror her enthusiasm at seeing him.
"Is everything alright?" she inquired, confused by his cold demeanor.
He looked at her as if she was a child again, piercing her with eyes reserved for the worst of first-years.
"Do you usually 'misplace' your wand during wartime?" Snape finally said disdainfully, his tone dripping with contempt.
Hermione flushed, feeling like a scolded schoolgirl. She stared down at the floor, unwilling to look him in the eye. He continued, "I didn't leave you here to sit around reading useless propaganda and play house, Granger. Or is it that you have completely forgotten its wartime?"
Hermione looked up at that, her eyes flashing: "That's not fair, and you know it."
His eyes met hers angrily, refusing to soften. He held her gaze for a while as the air in between them thickened and swirled with anger. Abruptly, he dropped his gaze down to her lips and surged forward, crashing his mouth against hers. She was startled momentarily, before responding equally hungrily as he pushed her against the kitchen counter and continued to devour her.
He pinned her against the counter and harshly ground his hips against hers, pulling back when she gasped in pleasure.
"I'm not sure you deserve this," he growled in her ear, moving his lips down to her neck and sucking at her sweet spot. She felt her knees begin to grow weak as his lips returned to her ear, "But I deserve this, and so I'm going to take you hard and fast, and then I am going to return to what I was doing before Alecto decided she would drop by." He looked at her for a moment, his eyes questioning her consent, and when she nodded almost imperceptibly, he quickly divested them both of their clothing with a muttered incantation.
He reached a hand down to her wetness, smirking when he felt the copious amount that had pooled at her center. True to what he promised, he positioned himself at her entrance with no preamble, and thrust hard, sheathing himself inside her with a single thrust. He was quick and he was rough, and he came inside her far sooner than she had hoped he would last. When he withdrew from her, she was left aching and frustrated, and rather close to the edge.
"You are to wait for me to return," he commanded into her ear as he dressed them both again with a wave of her wand. "That desperate need you have right now for me – that is only a fraction of how much I need you. Remember that and this had better be with you when I return," he said roughly, handing her wand to her and grabbing his from the nearby table. He recast a series of charms around the house and disapparated.