Chapter Three
The Taming of the Shrew Act III Scene 2 Lines 93-943
Miss Granger, when I'm done with you, you'll be crawling and begging to come to my bed, Hermione silently mocked, as she stomped off down one of the corridors of his manor. Ugh! Just who the hell does he think he is? As if I would ever entertain the idea of sleeping with that... that... "Overgrown, traitorous, homicidal, bat!" She spat aloud, quelling the urge to knock the seemingly priceless statue off its marble pedestal. "If you ever see me in your bed it's because I'm smothering you with your fucking pillow, you arrogant arsehole."
She'd only been released from her spot at Voldemort's feet and brought to Snape's manor that was tucked away in the clearing of a forest Merlin only knew where, a few moments ago. She would need to rein in her anger and control her impulses so as to not draw any more attention to herself than she already had by having an apparent soulmate in Severus fucking Snape. He had left her unrestrained in the foyer, his only instructions being to avoid the forest, lake, and his chambers. It was an arrangement that suited her just fine, even with the accompanying strings of having to join him for dinner that evening. She didn't want to lose whatever freedoms he was allowing her, knowing that if she acted out in a fit of righteous indignation and tried to destroy his home or run now, it would be that much harder to get another chance at an escape. Without her wand, nor her bag, she was at his complete mercy till she could formulate a better plan than running with no direction and account for the possible variables she would face being without the aid of magic. Better to bend while he rested upon his laurels of having won the war, underestimating her, and thinking she was helpless without her wand, than lose those small freedoms he was bestowing upon her and in turn, close any possible windows that could open if given enough time.
Cursing his name, his existence, and the ludicrous concept of soulmates, Hermione continued down the corridor, every so often dragging the heels of her beat up trainers to leave scuff marks on the marble or land with a heavy stomp to shake loose the dirt trapped in her treads. It was a childish response to her situation but she didn't care. The petulant acts would serve as her silent rebellion and a reminder to not only him, but also herself, that bending was not the same as giving up. He would need to do a lot more than trap her in his gilded cage if he wanted to break her.
As she went along, she peeked her head into the rooms she came across and tested the handles upon the doors that were closed, finding that so far she was un-barred from any of the ground level spaces. She dutifully noted the layout of the manor, annotating the types of rooms she found as she went, careful to note their location in regards to where on the property each room looked out at. The longer she walked and worked to focus her mind around the still throbbing headache though, the more her adrenaline faded from her system, slowing her down and making her steps unsure. The nausea from earlier began to roll in her stomach and coupled with her clouding vision, she ran hip first into another pedestal, rocking the vase it showcased. Blindly placing her hand out to keep it steady, she maneuvered her way around the protruding table and took refuge upon an open door frame, colliding with it more so than leaning herself into its support.
Closing her eyes she tried to take in a series of deep, even breaths to banish the sensations, only for her skin to turn clammy. She could feel the color leaching from her skin as her stomach revolted against her, her eyes already watering in preparation for what was to come. Stumbling down the corridor, she kept her left hand out, feeling for any more door handles, hoping one would lead to a restroom or a bedroom with an en-suite before her stomach won its revolt against her mental fortitude. As her mouth began to water and drool spilled over the corners of her mouth, she shoved a curved handle down and fell through the door, her knees making a harsh impact with the wooden floors. The pain that radiated out from her knees and the force with which her teeth had clattered together was secondary to the immense relief she felt upon seeing an entrance to a bathroom just to the right of a large, white bed.
Making her way on her hands and knees, she crossed from the smooth, hardwood floors, onto cool patterned tile, the design making her already impaired vision swim further. With no additional warning she retched onto the floor, her stomach viciously clenching as it forced the acidic contents out of where they belonged. With unfocused, crying eyes, she began to dry heave, begging for the nausea to pass. When nothing else came up and her stomach settled into a less tumultuous state, Hermione collapsed the rest of her body onto the floor, rolling to her side as she curled up and wept. Lulled into the false sense of calm she began to drift off, only for the process to start again. Heaving herself up against the spinning room, she crawled the rest of the way to the toilet, hugging the bowl as she pathetically waited to puke again, too fatigued to even try and fight the side effects of her head wound. It was with a yawn that betrayed her by turning into another round of violent vomiting that the bathroom door slammed against the wall with a deafening crack, further addling another one of her already severely compromised senses.
"So, it's true then?" Snape sneered from behind her.
Resting her check on the seat of the toilet, she pressed her palm into her forehead, rubbing small circles over the ache.
"Let's pretend," she started, getting interrupted by a dry heave. Groaning, she tried again, "Let's pretend, I don't know what you're talking about."
She could hear the faint sound of his boots as he moved within line of her peripheral vision, wondering not for the first time how someone so tall and imposing could move so silently. She glared up at him with murderous intent, the look losing its harsh effect given her vulnerable position. He returned her bold gaze, with his arms crossed and fury written across his features, disdain dripping from his hard eyes. Hermione tried to stay locked in the battle of wills with him, not wanting to be the first to look away, only to give up as she began to dry heave into the toilet again.
"Explain to me how 'the brightest witch of her age,' ended up in this position? I would have assumed you of all people would have taken the proper precautions to prevent such a state from occurring," he said, the barely contained rage she didn't understand, bubbling up as he spoke.
"Well fuck, I'm disappointing you already," she snapped. "I'm really off to a horrible start with this whole soulmate thing, aren't I? Don't worry though, I plan to make it up to you and murder nearly a dozen of your friends as well. Then we'll be even. How does that sound, Professor?"
Feeling her vision begin to clear and her stomach finally settle, Hermione sat back on her heels and gripped the toilet seat to help her stand up. Squaring off against her former professor, the one whose loyalty she had defended countless times to Harry and Ron only for him to prove them all right by murdering Dumbledore a year ago, she stepped into his space, ready to jab a finger into his chest. Her plan of bending to him while she bided her time was long gone and back was an anger to match his own as she remembered just how his betrayal had shaken her and broke her ability to trust her own gut and intuition. She had trusted him, entrusted her life to him for six years, only to find out he was the wolf hidden amongst the sheep and now she was little more than his prisoner.
Just as she was about to make contact with him, his hand snaked out, latching onto her wrist and throwing her arm back. His reflexes were fast as he repeated the action with her other hand before she could try again, a dark look of warning crossing his face that made her halt her third attempt.
"Do not touch me Miss Granger, unless you are prepared to face the consequences of such an action," he purred, his anger momentarily gone as his voice worked to seduce her.
"What the hell do you want? I thought I was free of you till dinner."
"You're free of me when I say you are," he growled, grabbing ahold of her wrist again and pulling her closer. "And you should know, I don't plan on letting you go," he added in an equally seductive whisper against her ear, making goose flesh erupt across her skin where his warm breath caressed her, before releasing her with a less than gentle shove.
Hermione scowled at him while she scrubbed at the tingling warmth she felt at her neck in disgust.
"What do you even want with me? You can't possibly like the idea of being stuck with me, 'Harry Potter's Mudblood Whore.' So what do you get out of this forced arrangement? Because you cannot honestly expect me to believe that you saved me out of the kindness of your black heart!" She yelled, putting a hand out to hold on to the towel rack as she felt the room sway.
"That's where you are mistaken, Miss Granger," he replied, with bite. "Given the alarmingly high number of daft cows, incapable of holding a conversation of any depth beyond Witch Weekly's latest robe trends, you are not an unsatisfactory mate. However your condition leaves more than a little to be desired."
"Well forgive me, Professor. How dare I be an inconvenience to you. The door is right there," she snapped. "If my current condition is so egregious you are more than welcome to see yourself out since unlike me, no one is keeping you here against your will!"
Hermione silently begged that Snape would in fact leave, their yelling making the knife in her brain cleave deeper. She had a number of untreated injuries, more still that had been poorly healed, and was past the point of fatigue and was near ready to collapse with exhaustion. Scrunching up her eyes against the whirling room, she was able to dislodge the sense of being disoriented and slowly began to release her white knuckled grip on the towel rack. Bringing the heels of her hands to her temples, she applied a heavy amount of pressure to try and abate the throbbing sensation that he was exacerbating.
Prying her lids back open, she was met with the scrutinizing glare of his onyx eyes.
"I said you can go," she replied flatly, breaking eye contact the moment she remembered his skills as a legilimens. "I am sure to start another round of vomiting any minute now. I would hate to subject you to witnessing my pathetic condition."
Snape scoffed at her as he said, "Pull your shite together Miss Granger and stop acting as though you are the first witch to ever be up the duff."
"Excuse me?" She exclaimed in shock.
How the hell did he come to that conclusion?
Looking around the bathroom then down at herself, Hermione couldn't help but let out a humorless laugh as she realized what exactly it was that had made him barge in on her. Stepping closer to Snape, she looked back up into his eyes, careful to keep her thoughts blank of anything but her coming words, a devious and cunning smile, curling at her lips.
"Tell me Professor," she quietly prompted, emulating the silken purr he had used on her. "Which idea displeases you more? That I'm pregnant with his child or that someone beat you to my hymen?" Snape seemed to rise to her challenge as he too came closer, now towering over her so that her head had to tilt back to maintain their battle for dominance.
"Frankly, I care more about a sack of thestral shite than I do about you being pregnant with your bastard child or who has sunk their cock into your cunt up till now," he drawled before his words turned sharp and angry again. "Who you used to spread your legs for or your new cohabitant is inconsequential now that you're mine. What I fucking care about is the additional responsibilities you've now strapped me with because of your own disregard for contraceptives.
"So you tell me, Miss Granger: just what the fuck am I supposed to do with you and the child you now carry? Because unless I'm mistaken, it appears as though the one who put you in your delicate state, also couldn't give a sack a thestral shite about your child. Which means the responsibilities and concerns of fatherhood, now fall to me."
Shoving against him, Hermione lost what remained of her control, beating against his chest, getting angrier by the second at his lack of response and how he didn't even flinch under her assault.
"How dare you?" She yelled. "I, nor any child of mine, will ever be any concern of yours."
Snape allowed her to rain several more meaningless blows on his chest before gripping her by her shoulders and pushing her back from him. Keeping her at arm's length, he took a step back to help bend himself down to her height, removing a hand from her to hold her chin in place so that she couldn't look away.
"Do you ever listen or are you too busy thinking you know everything to even fathom the idea that there are things about our world you know nothing about?" he asked, cutting her down as he had often done through her years as his student. "Soulmates, especially those who have completed their soul bond, are sacred in our world. As a mere muggleborn you would have no knowledge of this though because it is a deeply guarded secret of pureblood society. Not even your precious, blood traitoring Weasleys would have disclosed the existence of such a thing to you, no matter their political stance in the war. Now, whether you like it or not, you and I are soulmates and there is no undoing it or going back from the events of today that led to that little revelation. So yes, you and your child are my concern and you should be thankful for that because no one else in my position would be willing to handle this for you."
Shrugging his hand off her shoulder, Hermione jerked her face free of his grasp, her raging fury at his insinuation suppressing the feeling of being thrown off balance again from the sharp movement.
"Was it worth it?" He sneered, as she turned around to prevent herself from spitting in his face.
Rolling her eyes and instantly regretting it for the way it seemed to tug on her brain, she replied, "Was what worth it?"
"Whatever pleasure my dear, useless godson brought to your body. Was it worth the situation you now find yourself in?" He elaborated, making his feelings known about how little regard he now held for the boy he had at one point helped raise. "Where is Draco anyways? To my understanding he left you behind at Hogwarts to get corralled while he escaped. And I didn't see him at the Ministry either, despite knowing how things were to play out should the Dark Lord succeed and that death was all but certain for you. Does he really care so little for you to leave you pregnant with no protection for his heir?"
In astate of red fury, Hermione grabbed the marble soap dish from the sink and turned around to hurl it at Snape. He easily dodged the projectile not even bothering to raise his wand to do so, her aim pitiful as her vision danced with clouded spots.
"That was your last warning, Miss Granger. Next time I will not hesitate to pull you over my knee and spank your arse red till you learn to mind your emotions," he warned, the frightening and erotic smile from the foyer coming back and making her shiver with something other than fear despite herself.
Enraged with him and how he kept throwing her off with his polarizing moods, she screamed, "You're a fucking monster! We trusted you! I defended you! How dare you stand there and question Draco when it was you who was working against us this whole time, betraying us! I don't even know why I'm surprised after seeing all the people you killed today without so much as a second thought. After all, what's a forced termination in the grand scheme of things when you're already destined for the deepest circle of hell?"
Professor Snape barked out a laugh, looking at her as though he thought her so thick it was a wonder she was alive.
Shaking his head, he said, "You stupid, insolent, witch. You know nothing of our world and what it means to carry an heir to the Sacred Twenty-Eight do you? Let me enlighten you then, since your education is so lacking it is criminal. You are an unwed mother, which in our world is tantamount to being branded with a scarlet A and trust me as a fellow bastard born child I would know. To make matters worse for you, you are carrying the sole heir to the Malfoy family as well as the Black family. Without Draco here, you have no claim to your child outside of being a host for their gestation. Lucius and Narcissa can, and will, take that child from you upon its birth and there isn't a fucking thing in this world that can stop them. At least there wouldn't be if not for me.
"I already told you, soulmates are sacred. The Dark Lord even told you, they are near above the law with how rare it has become to have a mark as well as find your mate. If you wish to see your pregnancy through and keep that child, you will have to accept me as its father whether you want to or not and unless my estimation of you is wrong, you would wish to keep the baby am I correct?"
"What?" Hermione whispered, her anger rapidly deflating as she realized what he was saying.
"Did you hit your head or something? I do not remember you being this daft in my classroom," he said in exasperation. "Shall I dumb it down for you? Your virginity? I don't give a fuck about the state of your hymen. If I did, it would make me a hypocrite since it's been over twenty years since I lost my own virginity. Your pregnancy with another wizard's baby? I don't care about that either. Our shared markings mean you are mine and by extension any children you have, regardless of their sperm donor, I will see as mine as well. The only thing I'm irritated about is I now have to add fighting the Malfoys for your right to keep your child, on to my already full plate of duties for the Dark Lord, getting you ready for when he decides to call upon you, and the endgame of my own plans and ambitions now that we have won the war."
She was too stunned by his words to do any more than drop the charade and say, "I'm not pregnant."
"Excuse me?" Snape asked, his eyes widening a fraction as he turned his head some as though making his ear face her would allow him to better comprehend her words.
She gaped at him a moment trying to formulate her words, the nausea swimming back into her stomach as a clammy, cold sweat broke out across her skin.
"I'm not pregnant. I was ripped back from Draco in the chaos and whoever had a hold of me, threw me into the stone pavers and knocked me unconscious. I only came to a few moments before the first Death Eater came into the holding room at the Ministry," she explained, her vision going in and out as she felt her body giving up on the fight to stay conscious now.
She looked up at Snape with wide, unfocused eyes, rapidly blinking to banish the dizziness that was threatening to make her pass out. She opened her mouth to speak only to cough up more stomach acid as he began to blur out from her eyesight entirely.
"Fuck!" He swore, his voice far too distant for how close they had been a moment ago.
As everything went black, Hermione felt her feet leave the floor, her body getting cradled against a soft, warm Oxford, as corded steel banded around her in protection, her last thought being that this was the safest she had felt since the night the Death Eaters invaded Hogwarts, and that she wouldn't mind staying there just a moment longer.
AN:
Barring any life hinderances, the net chapter should be up on June 5th, XOXO