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Chapter 25
Returning to Hogwarts had not gone the way that Hermione had expected; sitting in the living room with her mother she waited for Severus to either knock on the front door or blast through the fireplace. So it was more than a little disappointing when Professor McGonagall stepped through the door. But what was more disappointing that she was now sitting in the great hall and his usual seat was empty. Letting out an irritated sigh she glanced over at the Slytherin table, finding Draco looking straight back at her. He was frowning at her and with a small shake of his head, confirmed her question, well that doesn't look good. Even Malfoy doesn't know where he is…
"What's Malfoy staring at?" Harry mumbled at her side, "hasn't that sad fucker got anything better to do."
She turned quickly to him, "Just leave him, Harry…have you finished all your Christmas assignments?"
Her distraction seemed to have worked as she watched his shoulders slump and his bottom lip protrude, "the Transfiguration essay was difficult… I think I still have a good two hundred words left to write…"
"I wish I had only two hundred words to write." Ron sighed on the other side of her, "With all the shit that went on over Christmas I just didn't feel like doing homework."
"It's understandable, Ron…I think Professor McGonagall will probably give you both an extension if you asked." Hermione replied, rubbing his arm, suddenly feeling rather guilty for her distraction gone awry. "If you want I can spend some time tonight helping you both."
"That would be great, Herms." Harry grinned. "We were actually thinking of going down to see Dobby after dinner, I got him a little something for Christmas, but with all the drama going on before the holidays I totally forgot to see him. You coming?"
"Sure." She grinned back. "It would be lovely to see him."
"Just don't try and free any of the house elves, Herms." Ron piped in as he grabbed a second roll off the serving dish, "I don't think my head could take the horrified screams of the lot of em running away from you."
"My days of trying to free house elves are over with, trust me…they said they would stop giving me my revision brownies if I didn't stop. Shut me up real quick."
The sound of her two best friend's laughter was wonderful to hear and she couldn't help but join in. The temporary feeling of being carefree was difficult not to selfishly grasp for any of the three of them.
"Come on then. Let's go and see if we can get some of those magical brownies that Hermione was blackmailed with." Ron exclaimed as he pushed his plate away and stood up, "whatever creation that those buggers can make that would shut up our Hermione is well worth a tasting."
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"Stand, Severus."
He stood shakily, trying his best to ignore the aftershocks of the pain that was rippling through his body. He must admit, he didn't realise the torture was going to be so immediate. He would of liked a few seconds to prepare himself before an assault, just enough to let his head go to a happy place. It didn't help with the pain but it kept his wits and mind from going temporarily mushy. He thought the vain bastard would of at least wanted to see him bow before him before he hit him with a couple of rounds of Cruico. Yet it looked like the Dark Lord had no patience even for little mercies tonight.
"Do you know what I hate as much as disloyalty, Severus?"
"…My Lord?"
"Incompetence." As the curse hit him again he was ready for it, his knees hit the ground again yet this time he was able to keep himself from screaming. It seemed like an eternity that the imaginary knife sliced itself up his most sensitive nerves finally stopped. Getting his breathing under control he slowly lifted his head up, taking a moment to take in his surroundings. The smell of blood hitting him hard as he noticed two bodies collapsed over each other to the right of him, next to them knelt a shaken Lucius, also exhibiting the nasty aftershock shakes of the dark lord's favourite curse.
"I said stand, Severus." Once again Severus got his feet, keeping his mind calm as he watched the serpent like man glide towards him.
"I have had some terrible news today. The Ministry has kidnapped my little helper in Hogwarts. You are my eyes in that school, as Lucius is at the Ministry, yet you both let this slip through your incompetent grasps!" this time his curse hit Lucius, Severus did his best not to wince as his screams echoed through his head.
"Fools! I am surrounded by useless fools!"
"My Lord, we didn't know who your helper was! If I had known I would have protected her personally!" Lucius gasped; trying to stand as the curse was lifted yet found his knees not complying. "My sources were unable to inform me until it was too late. My sources thought she would be taken automatically to Azkaban but Kingsley had made sure she was taken to a specialist prison… no one knows where he's put her."
"Then you should have bought me Kingsley!"
"He is protected by too many! He is living in a safe house with only Dumbledore as keeper!" Lucian whimpered. "I am sorry, My Lord. I will do better."
"Yes you will, Lucius… Or you will end up like your useless sources here." Severus followed the dark wizards grotesque boney finger that was pointing to the bloody heap that was, what Severus assumed was Lucian's spies in the Ministry.
"Now leave, before I change my mind as to whether your life is worth allowing to continue." Lucius bowed his head, not even bothering to stand as he apparated out, leaving Severus alone with the monster in front of him.
"I killed Lucius's most important spies because of his incompetence. Tell me Severus, who is it I shall kill for yours, the mudblood maybe?"
"If that is what you feel is for the best, my Lord, I would bring her now if that fits the purpose of your punishment…however I still believe she is of use to us. Even now she is slowly manipulating the Potter boy away from his friends. Making him isolated and vulnerable…" He hoped that the lie was enough to keep him from going forward with his idea of killing Hermione.
"Did you know about my new eyes in the castle, Severus?"
"No, no one that I was aware of, apart from your loyal servants within my Slytherin house of course. Your spy was caught by Dumbledore; I hear…whisked away in the dead of night before I even had a chance to understand her position. Dumbledore questioned me, of course. I denied her involvement, which was easy since you wisely kept it from me. I hoped it would prove her innocence.
"Yes… she was a little spitfire. I was rather fond of her. I was hoping for her to become as important to me as my beloved Bellatrix…what a delightful sight it would have been to conquer the magical world with two beautiful women at my side." Severus suppressed a shiver at the thought of Ginny Weasley becoming the new concubine to the vile wizard in front of him. Although, by the looks of the last meeting he had had with the girl, personality wise and mentality wise she was already there.
"A wonderful thought indeed, my Lord."
"She told me some things about you and the mudblood, Severus…how she looked at you, and how you looked at her…. Should I believe that you have a weakness, my boy?"
He paused for a moment, had he made it so obvious? He thought that they had been careful, yet it made him nauseous to think that he had given any inclination in public of his new fondness for Hermione. You fool; you could be putting her in more danger than ever before!
"No, I can assure you that my only weakness is my love for you and our cause. However, I must thank Miss Weasley for her compliment to my acting skills… I admit it is a difficult task to pretend to care for a mudblood. So to hear I have been so convincing is wonderful to hear." He drawled, his cold smirk mirroring the one from the wizard in front of him, feeling him probe his mind viciously as he tried to keep his focus.
"I knew this of course and we appreciate you for your difficult duty… although from what I gather she is not unattractive."
"Neither are some of the whores that I've paid for…still, I wouldn't think twice about slitting their throats once I am done with them." Severus remarked, not liking the direction that the Dark Lord was taking their conversation straight in Hermione's direction.
"How true that is!" he chuckled. "No, you're right, Severus, let's not slit her throat just yet. Let her do her damage and let you get your…fill of her. But do not get to use to her comfort, my boy, once this war is over with you will kill her in front of me. She may be useful but she is still a mudblood."
"Of course, My Lord, once you have won this battle, I will happily make it happen." Severus bowed as he was dismissed with a wave of a hand, apparating out before the crazed man in front of him changed his mind. If he wins, I'll happily join her.
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"No, a Dumbledore would beat Jeremiah hands down, Ron!" Harry ranted as he slammed down the card in front of them before throwing his hands in the air. "You were the one that bloody told me that! You can't go back on it now!"
"I was eleven when I said that! I've grown up since then ya know!" Ron retorted, throwing his card on top of Harry's before folding his arms across his chest.
Hermione sighed; they had been at this game for hours. After getting their fill of deserts from the kitchens she had kept her promise of helping them with their assignments. Thankfully it hadn't taken too much time and in celebration they decided to have a game of cards from Ron's chocolate frog collection. That had been two hours ago and Hermione was more than ready to smash their heads together. Throwing her cards down to the pile she stood up.
"Yeah, I'm done here guys. I think it's time for bed, I'll see you both at breakfast."
Harry jumped up, "I walk you back."
"It's ok Harry. You can't be out at this time anyway. I think the Slytherin Prefects are on patrol tonight, don't give them a reason to rob us of anymore house points." She could see he was going to argue, but a stern look was all that she needed to make him sit back down in a huff.
She gave them a wave she left, trying not to look like she was in a rush as she made her way to her chambers. Thankfully they were not too far from the Gryffindor tower and within minutes she was hurrying into her chambers. Making sure she locked the door before running to the fireplace with a handful of floo powder and disappearing with a shout to Severus Snape's chambers.
"I thought you'd have been here about an hour ago. Congratulations, you are not as predictable as I first thought."
She paused, her shock more than evident on her face as she stared at Draco who was, at present, lounging on Severus's couch.
"Close your bloody mouth, Granger, you're starting to dribble. As you have just realised you're not the only one who has access to Severus's chambers, and you're definitely not the only one concerned to his whereabouts."
The last time she had seen him was before the Christmas holidays, he seemed more tired now, and the glow of his last victory had apparently worn off.
She sat on the couch opposite his, "good evening to you too, Malfoy. How long have you been waiting?"
"About an hour or so. Had to do my patrols, as you know, Miss Head Girl. But I was able to persuade Pansy to carry on without me." His sly grin indicating exactly how he had persuaded the pretty Slytherin to let him go early.
"So you don't have any idea about where he might be?"
"Not exactly. I know he had a pretty harsh meeting with the Dark Lord…I spoke to mother; poor papa had the same experience…" Hermione couldn't help but note the small smirk at the mention of his father, and raise an eyebrow in response as he continued; "I'm assuming it's because of the Weasley girl, but with that fucking nutter it could be something as stupid as turning up two minutes late…but it ended a good couple of hours ago."
"Do you think he has any idea who caught Ginny?" She whispered, the thought making Hermione's stomach turn.
"Don't be an idiot, Granger. If that was so I'd be dead and so would my whole fucking family." He snapped, "The fact that father came out alive means he's still unaware."
Any other day Hermione would have snapped back at him, but as she watched him she could see he was a worried as she was; his usually immaculate appearance and arrogant presence nowhere to be seen.
Jumping up she moved over to the shelf that she had seen Severus hover beside so many times. Can't do any harm.
"What do you think you are doing, Granger?"
She ignored him as she poured out two small drinks before turning back to him and handing him a glass.
"You're a bit brave aren't you? That's Severus's favourite stash."
She shrugged, "If I have to wait for Severus with you, I'm going to need a drink, I thought the feeling might be mutual. I'll sacrifice a snide talking down from Severus for that."
The blond wizard raised his glass to her, "That's the first sensible thing that spewed from your lips tonight, Granger. Here's to not fucking killing each other."
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"…And that was all the Dark Lord mentioned. Then I apparated back to Hogwarts and me and Albus came here…where one of you fuckers attacked me. Nothing like a personalised shield curse to add to pain from the rounds of Crucio I had the pleasure of experiencing earlier." Severus sneered as he tried his best not to swat the hand of Molly Weasley as she patted his head with a cold cloth.
"I'm afraid that was me, Severus, since Gi… new developments… we've had to put additional protection on the house." Remus stuttered on the other side of the table. "I didn't know that you and Albus were joining us tonight, otherwise I would have told you about the new shield curse."
"Didn't know, Remus? You didn't know? Are we not part of the same Order? I've been knocked out cold for four fucking hours. If Dumbledore had been in front of me he would have been hit instead and I can imagine you would of panicked a far bit more then." Severus growled; having enough of Molly's mothering he grabbed her hand on his head giving her a stern look to leave him alone before turning back to his ex colleague. "Give me reason why I should cut your furry bollocks off, werewolf."
"Severus, that's enough." Dumbledore sighed, sitting down next to him, "I will deal with issue of the house's protection later."
"Well, my job here is done, is there any other curses you have so helpfully scattered around that I need to know about before get up, Remus?"
"No, Severus you are quite safe to leave."
"I bet." He sneered as he pushed himself up from the table. Without waiting for Albus's response, Severus stormed out apparating away before anyone could stop him.
"Fucking cursed on both sides…"He muttered as he stormed up to the castle, not stopping his pace or his angry mutterings until he got to his chambers doors.
He paused by the living room, not quite believing the sight in front of him.
"At fucking last, Severus. Took your damn time." Draco muttered from the sofa to the left of him taking another swig of his drink, whilst Hermione slept peacefully on the sofa to the right, her head resting on her arms, with a whiskey glass still held in her hand.
"What the hell is going on here?" he asked, walking over to Hermione and gently taking the glass out of her hand, sniffing it slightly before looking at Draco in disgust.
"I came down to see if your meeting went ok, she came down to see you as well, I would suppose."
"You got her drunk?"
Draco smirked, "Actually, your little Gryffindor got herself drunk and was trying to get me in the same state. What a troublemaker you have here."
"She is not mine Draco."
"The drunken witch on your couch says otherwise…anyway I didn't come down here to argue with you, as much of a surprise that is, I came down to see if you were OK. Father is still pretty shaken and you stayed even when he ran apparently, what did the bastard want?"
"Nothing at the moment. He knows about Weasley's capture, but apart from that, nothing. Kingsley did well hiding the young witch-"
"Severush?" He turned around at the slur of his name, noticing Hermione was slowly pushing herself up into sitting position.
"Where hash ya been?" she had meant to sound annoyed but in her drunken haze it came out as merely a confused jumble of sounds. Severus tried to keep a straight face as he watched her try to straighten her robes.
He raised an eyebrow at her as she tried to look angry, ignoring the snickering from Draco behind him. "Don't try and act sober, Hermione. I can see my previously unopened bottle of whisky is practically empty on my desk over there. You're drunk, and will be in a lot of trouble once you are clearer headed."
"I must admit, Severus, she's an excellent drunk!" Draco chucked, "Once she loosened up and took that big Gryffindor stick out her arse, the more I liked her."
"Shut up, Draco and go back to your chambers. We'll talk about this more tomorrow." Severus growled, "Before I have to take house points off my own damn house."
"That's OK, it would balance out from the house points you would obviously take from Granger as well, right?" Draco smirked, walking to the fire place, "It's not like you would show favoritism, Godfather." With a puff of smoke he was gone, not brave enough, in Severus's opinion, to stay for a kick up the arse.
Sighing he turned back to the matter at hand, "Time for you to go back to your quarters, Hermione." Helping her up, she slumped against him, he held back a wince as his sensitive muscles protested slightly at the weight.
"No." she mumbled into his chest.
"I don't remember that being a question. You are going back to your rooms-"
Her weight got heavier on him as her legs gave way and the only thing left to do was for him to pick her up. "Merlin, how much did you drink you foolish girl?" he mumbled as the smell of alcohol hit his nose. He wanted to take her back to her rooms, but with her in this state he didn't think it was the wisest of moves. Sighing he walked over to his bedroom, placing her on the bed before using his wand to replace her uniform with some cotton pajamas, covering her up as soon as possible. His restraint had not been the best when it came to this woman and in her drunken state he wanted there to be as little temptation as possible.
Not that I should care. I'm going to hell anyway.
Throwing himself down in the chair by the bed he glared at the sleeping witch. His care for her was getting too much. He had tried to warn her the other night and she smashed his argument to pieces.
"This is damn irresponsible." He sneered into the darkness, with only Hermione's light drunken snores as response. He was meant to be doing all this to keep her safe, yet her duty was done. She didn't need to do anything more, yet fought him at every turn to finish it. The one thing more terrifying to him than his feelings for her was the idea of her feelings for him. Her care for her two idiot friends had got her in serious trouble, trouble that she wouldn't hesitate to repeat if it would help the two dimwits. What horrific trouble would she put herself in to help him?
The thought made his stomach turn. She had already faced the grotesque presence of the dark lard in a fucking classroom and become a target to his crazy Weasley spy. Now she was getting drunk waiting for him to return back from a typical Death Eater meeting.
Enough.
She couldn't cope with this, and it wasn't fair for him to expect her to. The Dark Lord was going to expect her head at the end of this War and he'd be damned if he was going to allow it, yet, he had a horrible feeling that the closer she was to him the easier it would be for people to realize what she really was. His weakness. If the delusional Weasley girl had seen it, as the Dark Lord had mentioned, then who else could see it? It was one thing to fuck her but another thing entirely to…
Love.
As the word whispered through his mind he felt himself groan as he put his head in his hands. How could he have been so stupid? To let it get this far, he had gone through so many emotions when it came to the stubborn witch, from distain and annoyance, to respect, to a lustful fondness and affection. To this. The worse one of them all.
This needed to stop, for her own damn safety. Yet as he looked at the beautifully stubborn woman sleeping in his bed he realized that if he wanted to break her free and keep her safe he was going to have to make her hate him. Remembering the argument they had had before, she would not let him go lightly.
Sighing he pushed himself off the chair, and walked back into the living room, picking up the whiskey bottle off the floor he downed the last of its contents before throwing on his cloak.
"I'm going to need a hell of a lot more booze."