Hello readers, first of all I would like to apologize for the delay in this story's updates, the last month has been truly hectic, one of my friends was getting married and there was much chaos. I plan on fully taking up this story again and to get the ball rolling I present you all with chapter 4! And don't forget feedback is a writer's best friend. ~_^
***PLEASE READ IMPORTANT TO FUTURE OF THIS FIC***
Also, I would like to take this brief space to pose a survey to the readers of this fic, as after this chapter (which will be a bit short due to my question) I have the option of taking this fic in one of 3 ways. And I would like reader responses on which way you would all like to see the fic go. Additional suggestions, of course, are welcome. 1) Hermione truly does become a loyal death eater with all it entails; 2) She does become a spy as she posed to Severus; or 3) Hermione becomes a spy for Voldemort and monitors activities in Hogwarts.
I cannot guarantee I will follow the course of popularity in the poll, as I write a few chapters ahead usually before I post and if I run into a dead end with a plot string I will have to take another. Give me your feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!
Hermione stayed against the door for some time after she heard it lock behind her. There were important decisions to be made, and she had to make them soon. No matter what she did she was in a corner with one group or another.
Sighing she stood and crossed the room to the bed where she carefully removed her robe, wincing as she struck the still fresh bruises from her visit home. She was more than grateful that she had worn only a hi-cut tank top and running shorts on under her robes that day, as it had been easier to change out of clothes to try on formal robes, not to mention the August heat was in full heat. With nothing else to do but worry herself Hermione followed the next most logical course of action, and passed out on the bed.
Severus Snape had never truly been a patient man and he had already stretched his patience thin waiting for Hermione Granger to wake up and exit the bedroom he had accommodated her with the previous night. He had quite the discussion with Dumbledore about why it was suddenly necessary that the refugee Hermione Granger was suddenly required to sleep in the dungeons for the next evening or three. It simply wasn't a comfortable conversation that danced over any and all possible reasons in only the most vague of references. He hoped that he had left Dumbledore at least 1/10th as confused as he had been by the end of the conversation. Sighing in frustration and more than a little angst he opened the bedroom door and walked into the room.
Hermione had just begun to awaken as Professor Snape entered the room. Gasping she turned to face the professor, and upon recognition of his face immediately covered the marks on her arm with the opposite hand and the slightly showing bruise on her side by turning the side of her body away. Hermione looked like a deer in the headlights, caught by Snape's discerning gaze.
"You're fifteen minutes late. I have been waiting for you for . . ." Severus broke into his tirade as he noted how Hermione was standing and the expression on her face, there was a look of defensive fear that he wished he would never have to see directed at him. "What are you hiding Hermione? Please come here." He ended in a decidedly more gentle voice than his common demeanor allowed for.
Hermione shook her head quickly and backed away. "Please leave the room Professor, I apologize for running late, I will be dressed and ready for breakfast as soon as possible." Came the quick nervous reply, fear reverberating in her voice.
Ignoring her response he slowly walked towards the girl, advancing one large step for every two quick shuffles she retreated.
"Please, Hermione, I won't hurt you I promise you, let me see the marks you are hiding." At the end of the sentence Hermione was literally in the corner of the room with Severus Snape between her and the only exit.
She started shaking as silent tears trekked slowly down her face as the Potions Professor's hands gently turned her to face him and grasped her hands in a gentle but firm grip.
"Let me see." Snape said softly, truly afraid now that she was so much more like him than he ever wished to give another human being credit for. He watched the pained fear momentarily flash in her eyes in a desperate last effort of defense. Then her muscles unlocked and her arms slowly moved away from their guard posts and an audible sob made it through her lips.
Severus, at a loss of what to do stared at the marks on her body. On her right arm there was a large angry bruise that left the skin slightly swollen. and on her left side there was an exceedingly similar marking. Looking at her hands he saw on the left wrist a set of slightly bloody crescents. Stifling a shocked gasp Severus looked up into Hermione's face.
"How long?" He whispered hoarsely.
Hermione shook her head in silent refusal.
"Please Ms. Granger, Hermione, how long has this been happening to you?" Severus asked gently, releasing her hands and watching her try to cover the marks with her arms again.
"Since I came to Hogwarts Professor Snape." She said softly, her voice getting harder towards the end of the sentence.
Severus watched the anger and humiliation flare in her eyes as she continued, leaning into him.
"Is that what you wanted to hear? That Mudblood Granger, the little know-it-all didn't have it all?" Her voice grew harsher and she leaned into Snape a bit more, almost touching his stone still body, "That my family despises what this school has taught me to become? That every holiday and break I go home my father beats me and my mother hates me because I can't even pretend to be 'normal'? If I knew that was all it would take to make you happy Professor," spitting the title like a curse, "then you should have told me some time ago, I would have been more than happy to let you in on my little secret." She finished her cold rant and glared angrily at the Professor.
This wasn't how things were supposed to work, Hermione thought in a distant part of her brain. This wasn't the plan. Snape was supposed to get her to the Revel; he was supposed to feel angry and betrayed. Now he pitied her for something he was never supposed to know.
"Hermione I am so sorry this has happened." Snape said softly, watching her expression break down to confused pain. He instinctively drew her into a hug. "Why didn't you tell anyone?" He asked, drawing her towards the bed for lack of anywhere else that would fit both of them.
Hermione raised her shattered eyes to inspect his face. Wiping tears out of her eyes she sighed and shook her head.
"It's not important, so I get a few bruises when I go home, and I don't get along with my family. What I go through over the course of a holiday or break is nothing compared to what some students in this school go through every day of their lives. At least I have a family; I can't blame them for wanting me to be normal. At least they let me continue my studies, regardless of their objections, and I at least have Hogwarts. The school gives me something to work to, and a way of not thinking. The bruises aren't important, not in comparison. So my side hurts, so what, I'm sure that sometime this last week someone lost their life because Voldemort had a whim to kill them. Even you have endured worse than a bruise and a cut in your quest for doing your part. And to do my part I had to deal with my family and our poor relations."
Snape listened in wonder at her justification. She was singing the litany of his life, his entire motivation for the last who knew how many years. And it was horrible to hear those words come out of the mouth of a 17-year-old girl who still had an entire life ahead of her. To know her life had degraded so much and no one, not even her best friends knew. It had taken Dumbledore 6 years to catch on.
Sighing Severus observed the now silent girl, and suddenly with improved site of her, he saw through her walls of study and painful order, and he saw himself. There was almost nothing he would do to stop any course of action she decided to take at this point in time; there was nothing he could do in all honesty. Hermione was further down his well-beaten path than he initially believed.
Standing he knew fate was a monster. It was turning him into Dumbledore, thrusting him into a role that had been played out for him nearly 20 years ago. Walking to the door of the bedroom, watching the girl on the bed turn to face him, he nodded.
"We can talk more after lunch Hermione, get dressed and we will go to breakfast. And please, call me Severus for now." Seeing the girl nod he exited the room much more silently than he had entered it, and in a much-changed disposition.