Well. This was incredibly awkward and completely unorthodox. The young girl, barely an adult had just made herself at home on the shit-heap of a bed he was so generously bestowed with and currently claimed it as her own.
The little swot was so drained from their lesson, she couldn't even make it out of the room before falling asleep and snoring, might he add. If only Potter could see her now, the wise beyond years Hermione Granger, the little know it all cow asleep peacefully on the bed of such a dangerous murderer, strong enough to kill Albus Dumbledore and here she was wand placed loosely in her pocket for the taking. Tsk tsk. Tragic.
He paced the room, well, the three steps he could stride with his long, lanky legs before having to turn and stride the opposite direction and repeat over and over again. Probably for eternity, he thought.
Who did she think she was snoring right there in front of him. The hide of some people honestly. He rolled his eyes almost to the back of his skull. He could run, hell he could take her wand and slit her throat if he really had it in him. He did, but he didn't want to. She was not like them, she was…different. A kind and a caring glimmer of hope shone through her and he liked that about her. However, if he could get his hands on Potter, that was a whole different kettle of Nifflers.
He stopped dead in his tracks, almost skidding on the slippery, worn carpet as he tilted his head a little. He was certain he had heard a door slam shut on the floor below them. Stuck to the spot he held his breath, straining to hear. He was certain there were a few sets of feet slapping loudly against worn wooden floors from the floor below accompanied by muffled, male voices. It had to be Potter and Weasley, he deduced, turning on his heel he loomed over Granger.
"Granger," he snarled in a mild panic. If they came up here and saw her asleep, they would assume the worse and all the groundwork he had laid would all be gone by the wayside.
"Granger!" He hissed again. She didn't respond.
For fuck sake. Not only did she snore but it was apparent she was a heavy sleeper too.
"Hermione!" He raised his voice a few more octaves, placing a hand on her shoulder he shook her with vigour.
Her eyes fluttered open to stare at him blankly as if in a moment of panic, she didn't know where she was or what he was doing here. Slowly she sat up blinking once, twice, thrice at him as her memory began to work again.
He could hear the voices growing a little louder, footfalls heavier and he knew they were on their way up. He knew the way they walked; he knew how heavy their steps were on the hardwood floors. He knew it was Potter and Weasley walking together. He had heard their footsteps more times than he had cared when they came to collect him for their little torture sessions. It was funny, they always thought they were close to breaking him but they were so far from succeeding it was laughable. It would take more than those two and a few members of the order to beat him into submission. Hell, even the Veritaserum was of literally no use when the forced it down his throat. He was immune to that as well.
"What?" She asked. Lazily rubbing her chocolate eyes. She didn't even feel refreshed. Her mouth dry and mind still hazy she got to her feet.
"Potter and Weasley are back and they will be coming to look for you. I assumed you might want to leave before they come looking." Lips curling back into a sneer.
"Right. Yes. Thank you." Hands smoothed over her clothes meticulously before running an open palm over her tangle of frizzed curls as if thinking something so minute would tame such a wild beast. It did literally nothing other than sending them even more awry.
She strode across the room with purpose, hand outstretched she grabbed the cold brass knob and stopped for a moment turning to look at him.
"Thank you," she said simply before exiting quickly.
"You're welcome," he muttered to a now-closed door.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Where have you been?" Ron admonished as she met the two boys heading up the stairs.
"Checking on Se-" she stopped herself. The last thing she needed was not only telling them she was up there with him but to go calling him by his first name in front of the two of them and have their suspicions grow.
"Checking on several issues around the place. You know, broken floorboards, things Kreacher has been neglecting." Wow. Great and believable save, Hermione. She mentally scolded herself.
Harry looked at her with a hint of disbelief buried in the depths of his eyes and a raised brow. Since when did home maintenance issues pique Hermione's interest. Just as he was about to say something, she spoke again.
"I was bored, Harry. I was finding things to do. When I am bored, I make lists in my mind to stop me from going mental." Arms folded tightly across her chest, nostrils lightly flaring as if daring him to question her further. He didn't. But he didn't believe her, either.
"How's the double-crossing piece of shit murderer going. Probably enjoying his downtime," Harry said matter of factly completely changing the subject.
She shrugged with false innocence. "I've no idea. Haven't breathed a word to him I've fed him and left him be."
"Good," Ron snarled a little too harshly for the answer she gave. "He would murder you twice before you even realised," he added.
"Literally he could not murder anyone twice, Ronald. You can only die once. I know that might be hard for some people to comprehend," She huffed with a roll of her chocolate eyes.
"You know what I mean," he said pointedly. "Figure of speech. He's dangerous."
About as dangerous as a Niffler, she thought to herself, amused. If only they had known the time she had spent with him, they would have kittens or Nifflers…Maybe even baby dragons.
"Actually. We should get him out now. For a bit of fun. He hasn't spilled a word to us that we want to know, and I reckon we are close to cracking him." Harry pushed passed Hermione on the stairs on his way to get Severus.
She wanted to laugh. They were no closer now to getting him to crack than they were in the beginning. He was a lot stronger mentally and emotionally than they even realised, and he was so far from breaking. They may as well be trying to knock down a brick wall with a feather… They would have about the same outcome.
"Harry!" Hermione warned sternly, anger glittering in the depths of her eyes, lips pursed.
"Yes?" He turned back to look at her, almost skidding down the step catching the banister just at the right moment to ensure he didn't end up falling.
"This is barbaric, you know, yeah? I want nothing to do with this. It's inhuman not to mention illegal." She punctuated her disdain with a stomp of her foot.
"Yeah well I don't care, Hermione," his voice rose as he spoke. "Killing people is illegal as well."
"True. But you can't play the martyr, Harry. You cannot go around playing the vigilante and bring justice to those that you feel need it. There are avenues for that. People to deal with those things." She was mad now. Seething mad.
"I'm doing this for justice for Dumbledore. I am not seeking justice for myself, Hermione," he was almost screaming at her now, shaking with anger.
"Honestly what is it with you and Dumbledore? Dumbledore this, Dumbledore that. Dumbledore said this or made me do that." She threw her hands high in the air in utter frustration.
"He was a great man Hermione." Harry's eyes darkened dangerously as he shot daggers at her.
"I agree with you, Mate." Ron slapped Harry jovially on the shoulder.
She rolled her eyes in anger and frustration. She hated them both with the ferocity of a million burning suns right now. How dare they.
"Well. When you both get thrown into Azkaban for a plethora of broken laws, I will not be there trying to bail you out!" She turned on her heel, stomping all the way down the stairs as loudly as she could to express her current anger.
o-o-o-o-o-o
"I must say, Potter. I have missed you." He sneered viciously as he sat in the kitchen bound to an old wooden chair. Harry and Ron both holding their wands to his temple, Hermione standing with her back against the wall, head held in her hands. She hated this.
"Crucio!" Harry almost yelled with glee. Watching as Snape's body writhed lightly in the chair and stopped. He emerged laughing.
"Are you torturing me, or giving me a full body massage? Because that is what it feels like. Your heart needs to be in it, Potter. You don't have it in you." He smiled evilly.
"Stop it now, Harry!" Hermione admonished. Chest heaving and sticky tears stained her cheeks. "This isn't what normal people do. You aren't evil or a cruel person, and this isn't you!"
"He killed Dumbledore and he will pay."
"Why don't you just marry Dumbledore, Harry? You are obsessed with the man."
Harry ignored her smart remark. "You're good at spells, Hermione. You come Crucio him."
"I will do no such thing!" She shrieked loudly, almost bursting their eardrums. Severus Snape had been nothing but nice to her since they had taken his hostage and she refused to partake in the torture of the man. Now or ever.
"Whatever," Harry muttered coldly, narrowing his eyes at the girl.
"Just give up, Potter. You are as useless as your pathetic father. Quit while you are ahead because sooner or later it will all backfire on you and you will be begging me for mercy."
Harry's nostrils flared as he looked at the man with deep, eerie regard. Hands shaking and knuckles white from holding his wand so hard he acted before he fully thought of the consequences, as usual.
"Sectemsempra! Harry screamed, making a slashing motion with his wand.
A blood-curdling scream came from Snape as he writhed in the chair for a few moments before falling silent. Blood trickling from two deeps cuts, one on his abdomen and the deepest one on his right thigh. The crimson liquid flowed like a waterfall coming to fall like soft raindrops onto the wooden floor below.
Harry was white. Ron paled considerably, his bright hair even brighter against his now stark skin. Snape was whiter than a sheet and Hermione could only stand there, mouth agape as she processed what had happened.
"Fix this. Please, Hermione. Fix this," He pleaded with the girl desperately, walking around in circles as if wishing the floor would swallow him up and whisk him away from the mess he had created.
"I can't just fix it, Harry. I can patch it up but I don't think I can fully heal it. Just go before you both faint and I have three or you to look after," She ordered.
Severus looked at her with regard in his eyes. A hope that she could take the pain away and patch him up. He hated Harry and he hated him even more for using a spell he knew was not only dangerous but had the possibility to kill. They had stepped over the threshold of mild torture to get what they wanted to almost attempted murder.
She pulled her small, beaded bag from her pocket and expanded it to the normal size and reached her hand in pulling out bandages, gauze and salves. Unfortunately, no spell she knew was going to stop the blood flow or take the pain away.
She grabbed a kitchen knife and cut the binds that were holding him to the chair and laid it on the ground beside her. Pressing gauze to the wound on his stomach the white material was soaked in seconds and it was evident that it wasn't going to be cut out for anything. Not something of this magnitude anyway.
She darted back to the kitchen bench and found a stack of tea towels. Racing back to him she pressed them to his abdomen hard, and she noticed him wince considerably.
"I'm sorry," She mumbled. Grabbing his own hand, she pressed it against his stomach to hold the tea towels that were quickly becoming soaked with his own blood. She pressed a few to the cut on his thigh and held it firmly.
"You don't have to be sorry. You are just cleaning up the mess of an inept moron," He managed to bite out between tightly clenched teeth.
"Yeah, well. He wasn't totally blessed with the ability to think before he does."
Severus snorted loudly and then winced from the pain. "You are only observing this trait of his now?"
"Oh no, I've always known since the first day I met him. He isn't totally stupid he can be pretty smart but yeah, his downfall is not thinking before he acts and then he gets shitty when things don't go his way and he takes it out on everyone around him." She pressed harder on his leg causing him to wince and yelp in pain.
The tea towels were now soaked through and her hands were now marred with the crimson blood of her professor as she tried in vain to help him, to stop the bleeding and it hadn't even slowed let alone stopped. She was worried now.
"It probably won't stop, Hermione. It needs the counter-curse that only I know but I cannot perform without a wand."
She sighed deeply looking to the blood-soaked towels and then back to his cold and clammy skin, any remnant of colour that once graced his cheeks had all but vanished and he began to shake as if he were freezing cold. If something didn't give soon, he would be dead.
Chocolate eyes closing and a long, deep exhale told him she had made up her mind. Swiping at her pocket vigoursly she grabbed her wand in her now crimson hands and shakily handed it to him. She figured he was going to kill her by now, he would have done so.
"Harry has yours under lock and key and I won't have time to retrieve it, you will have to try to use mine."
Shaky long fingers gently took the wand from her as he adjusted himself on the chair, trying to pull himself up. Her wand felt completely foreign to him and he could feel it already trying to fight the dark magic that he had coursing through his veins but he was certain the wand would cooperate long enough to get what he needed doing.
Tracing the end of her wand again the cut on his thigh he screamed as it began to seal up, the bright, white light almost seemed to cauterize the wound, leaving a bloodied scratch behind. He repeated the process for his abdomen, and she watched on in astonishment, mouth agape at the way he not only handled a foreign wand but managed to heal himself wordlessly and whilst nearing passing out from pain and blood loss.
He paused for a minute, black eyes watching her intently as her wand hung loosely in his fingers. She was different from the other Troglodytes that held him here. She was sweet and smart with an innocence that shrouded her. She reminded him of… He pushed that thought to the very back of his mind to be forgotten again, hopefully.
Hermione Granger had just selflessly handed him her wand and left herself completely defenceless and at his behest. Interesting. His hand twitched softly before he thrust her wand back at her and she took it gratefully.
She ran a single-digit across the shallow cut on his leg and he winced gently. The pain was almost gone, but the cut sensitive to touch, or maybe he was just extra sensitive to her touch.
She had always regarded Snape as a figure of authority, and she supposed that had not changed even now but she hated seeing him so vulnerable and held against his behest. She still trusted him, of course, she did. Yes, he killed Dumbledore but there had to be a reason for that, one that he had not yet told her and one that perhaps she would never know. She didn't like the way Harry was treating the man no matter if he murdered or not. Basic human rights were violated, and he could have died due to Harry's ineptitude that knew no bounds.
Hermione was utterly pissed with Harry right now. Annoyed with Ron for constantly siding with him, sick of herself for being a doormat and allowing this and upset for Severus who had no choice in any of this.
A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you like this chapter. There is just the slightest shift between the two of them at the end of this chapter. I am slowly but surely going to steer them in the right direction towards friendship and beyond. I hope you liked reading as much as I liked writing it.
-Aliasmel1