"To what do I owe the pleasure of your premature visit on the otherwise miserable and uninteresting day? The day is young and my rations aren't due to be served for another eight hours or so," He drawled smoothly from the bad, ankles crossed over lazily, staring at the mouldy ceiling, a pastime of his now that he had to endure day in and day out being held captive in this cesspool masqueraded as the noble house of black. It was about a noble as his ass.
"If you don't want the company…" Hermione made a grab for the door handle to leave.
"Bored, are we?" He asked with an upward inflection in a hope to change her mind without actually suggesting it. He may be bored but he wasn't going to beg for the displeasure of her company.
"Just a little. Sitting down there staring at the same four walls all alone with nothing but a ticking clock and muttering house elf is enough to push anyone off the edge of sanity." She walked across the room towards the bed and sat down on the edge. The ancient bed groaned loudly under the added weight.
"You should try sitting up here without as much as a ticking clock or the mutter of house elf," he countered. "After the first week, the days tend to blur into one another and before you know it, you have almost forgotten what month you are in."
"You win," She deduced lazily, perching precariously on the edge of the bed, a mixture of not wanting to intrude into his personal space and a feeling of uneasiness stopping her from getting comfortable. Harry had sternly warned her not to talk to him under any circumstances, leave his food and leave the room without even as much as a backward glance. But what Harry didn't know, wouldn't hurt, right?
"It's ok, I won't tell Harry." He smirked evilly; his eyes boring into her flash as if he were trying to murder her with just a look.
"Get out of my head!" She protested with a small stomp as her foot, punctuating her displeasure.
"I can't." He sniffed indignantly. "You are like an open book, there are thoughts just flying out for anyone to pick up on."
"Or maybe you are just trying extra hard to read my thoughts." Arms folded tight across her chest, she tried with all her might to block him out.
"You realise that is literally doing nothing, yeah? You are an absolute rubbish Occlumens, you know that, right?"
Her eyes narrowed, and face contorted into pure disgust and disbelief. "I am not!"
"You are." He waved a hand casually, dismissing her. "So, so bad. I think Potter achieved better results in this field than you have."
"Are you think you are so good?" She huffed, a pout creeping onto her lips.
"Well as a matter of fact, yeah, I am quite good at it, thanks. And Legilimency, oh and not to toot my own horn but I am probably the best potions master in Britain and surrounds."
She turned her body to look at him in the eyes. Dark, calculating eyes meeting soft, chocolate ones. "You are so conceited, Severus Snape and may I remind you about a certain Horace Slughorn."
He let out a bark of laughter. "He is good, yes, but great? Not so much. I could out potion him any day."
"Out potion? Is that even a thing? I could best him at potions, I could rival him at potions, but I don't think out potioning someone is a thing."
"It is now."
"Really? And why is that?"
"Because I said so. And again, shut your mind. I can see the very vivid visions of your pale, slender hands wrapping around my throat and strangling me to death. Something we could only both dream of."
"It's nice to have fantasies."
"Indeed." He smirked, quirking a brow at the young witch which now left he thinking even further, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of what his cryptic message meant.
He couldn't help but smirk, she looked terribly uncomfortable in this situation and she wasn't anything like the wretches that were keeping him here against his will. She was different, she had a certain sweet innocent's about her that he liked. An innocent's that opened her up to all kinds of deprivation and depravity. He wouldn't mind betting that under that sweet, innocent exterior Hermione Granger had a darker witch beneath that was just fighting to come out. A dark witch that he could easily sway.
He also noticed in the close proximity that she smelled of rosewater and lavender with a delicate undertone of peppermint and he thought it suited her. He shook his head; he was that bored he was sampling the delicate scent of a young woman he disliked profusely.
A silence consumed them. It wasn't an awkward silence it was just a silence where two people sat with the company of another person so as to not feel totally isolated and desolate.
The bed creaked and groaned as he shifted around her and sat beside her on the bed, a decent space between them he noted her wand sitting lazily in her back pocket before turning his head to the window, to look out and see the same sky he had been staring at for weeks in a hope someone, anyone would come for him.
"Would you like me to teach you how to close your mind, Hermione?" He eventually spoke, rousing her from her thoughts.
"Why would you want to help me?"
"I am bored. I have nothing better to do. It irks me that your thoughts are just like the floodgates to your mind have been opened. You never know when you might need to close your mind off."
"Give me one situation, because I literally cannot think of one. There aren't many legilimens out there so I needn't worry about it."
"Ok. Picture this." He got to his feet and began pacing along the threadbare carpet. "Voldemort has just captured you, he wants Potter. He's going to dive right into your thoughts and pull up the location."
"Nobody can block Voldemort out." She waved a hand.
He chose not to say anything, instead, the large pregnant pause between them gave her enough of a push to conclude it herself.
"You can, can't you?" Her voice a ghostly whisper, wide-eyed she looked at him in disbelief.
"There are a lot of things that you, and many others don't know about me. I have many hidden talents, master of many of them, only slight good at others." He sat back down beside her, the bed creaking unsteadily under the added weight.
"And murdering is obviously one of those you are a master of." She eyed him off sideways, watching as he shifted uncomfortably on the spot.
His mind ticked over slowly as he tried to form the right words in his head. "Sometimes, Hermione, you will be faced with roadblocks in your life and-"
"So Dumbledore was little more than an inconvenient roadblock in your quest to appease Voldemort?"
"There is more than meets the eye in most situations and there are three sides to every story Hermione and the sooner you realise this, the better. Not everything is a clear cut and has one solution or answer. One plus four equals five but so does three plus two."
"So you did kill Dumbledore?" She asked raising a brow. Now more confused than she had been before.
"I did, I will own that. I will admit that. I did kill him there is no denying that. But it was done for a reason, for the greater good. To protect other parties. I am not a murderous heathen with an insatiable blood lust that I can't quench. When I kill, I kill for a reason. I don't kill for the thrill of it."
"So you killed Dumbledore, but it was for the good of others?" She asked, confused still. She tried in vain to wrap her head around the situation, but she couldn't work it out.
He sighed, bored. "Yes. I killed him to save another from the atrocities of murder. I took an unbreakable vow and I had to hold up my end of the bargain." He rubbed flat pals over his eyes wearily. Hermione Granger was hard work.
"And Harry doesn't believe you."
"Precisely. Which is why I am here under lock and key and you decided to stay behind because deep down under the surface, hidden away, you care. The martyr always trying to see the good in other people and making the world a better place. But not everyone is worthy of redemption nor will the world ever be the happy cornucopia of love and happiness that you wish it to be, Hermione."
His words pressed heavy upon her. Surely everyone was worthy of redemption? Well… Most people anyway. Was he? Yes. She thought so.
"Everyone deserves redemption, Severus. Everyone deserves a little happiness in their lives, no matter how small."
"Not everyone. Not everyone is worthy of even the tiniest ray of happiness. Take Voldemort for example. Is he worthy of happiness? Is he worthy of redemption? I know you can't answer yes to that."
"Are you worthy of redemption?" She countered him. Standing she began to pace the length of the room backwards and forwards as she waited for a reply.
"I don't know. Am I?"
"I think you are. Yes."
"Well, you are either very, very brave or very, very stupid. I am one of the last people on this earth that deserve it.
She smiled weakly at him. "I think you are wrong, Severus Snape. I think you are worthy of redemption. Now, you said something about Occlumency lessons?" How could she turn down free lessons in a useful art?! She would be stupid not to take him up on the offer.
If only he knew of his plans, he thought slyly to himself. She wouldn't think he was more than a wretch worthy of the killing curse, but until such a time arrived, he would milk this situation for all it was worth.
A/N: Let me know what you all think? I hope you are liking it thus far. Sorry for the lack of updates, I am trying to share the love equally between all the stories I currently have in progress.
-Aliasmel1