* ~ The Burn ~ * Chapter 2
A/N - I know these chapters are short, and they will continue to be short (I think, although this one is probably longer). I am on vacation from school right now, so I can write more often than when I go back on Thursday (Jan. 2). And, I forgot the disclaimer...but you guys know I wouldn't *steal* anything! Don't you? DON'T YOU?!?! If not:
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, only the plot.
And without further ado...The Burn! Chapter 2!
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
When Hermione woke up, she was in an unfamiliar room. The picture was a little fuzzy, so she blinked a few times, and everything became much clearer. She took a look around the room she was in. The room was almost all black, it was decorated in black and silver. There was hardly any furniture, just the bed she was sleeping in, a grandfather clock (showing 9:00 AM), a chess set with two hard chairs, and an armchair facing a fireplace. Wait...she looked again at the black armchair. There was someone in it!!! He looked asleep and it finally registered with Hermione, that this was Professor Severus Snape, her hermit colleague. What was she doing in Severus' chambers? In a flash it all came back to her...
~*~*~*~*~
It was Friday, and she was particularly tired after a day of classes. This was not because most had been Gryffindor-Slytherin classes, as you might have expected though. After all, her students were very eager to learn, and of course that was good, but there were some things you just couldn't explain, do you know what I mean? Two plus two is four, it always works. Why? How did we get this system? It's a convention, she tried to explain to her students. But they just wouldn't listen to her! Thank goodness there were only a few students who did this to her...still...it only took one... Hermione rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. Then she composed herself and went down to dinner.
"How are your classes going Hermione?" Minerva McGonagall asked.
"Do you HAVE to ask Minerva?"
"Yes, I suppose those bags under your eyes tell the story themselves, eh?"
Hermione nodded and helped herself to some lamb chops. She turned to her other side and started talking with little Fillius (A/N - is that his first name? If you find a different one, email me!) Flitwick about the effect of the newly discovered Knowledge charm on children and whether it made them more unwilling to do work, or more willing to. Suddenly, without warning, a great black owl swooped down and dropped a letter in front of Hermione. She was puzzled, as the rest of the people around her were. Post usually came in the mornings, didn't it? Slowly she opened the envelope. She hoped this wasn't bad news...
As Hermione scanned the contents of the letter, a tear dropped from her eye, and then another, and another! Soon she was openly crying and fled to her rooms.
**But, let us pause time for a moment, and read the letter ourselves, shall we?
"Dear Hermione, It is such a pity about your parents... but... they had to die... nothing I could do about it... it's just part of the cycle of nature... but, if it eases your pain any, they went fast... it's a pity, it wasn't even any fun... hardly any screams... -- Oh I think *you know who* this is by now..."
Perhaps this would not have been so bad if it weren't for the other contents of the envelope - pictures of Hermione's parents, after they died, taken from every angle. It is no wonder Hermione fled the Great Hall.**
In her bedroom, she was thinking deeply. What was the use of living any more? Voldemort had killed her parents, why even stay for her job? He was proven he can kill and disrupt anyone or anything... why even try anymore? "Maybe I should just..." she murmured and looked out her tower window. That one glance, almost longing, said more than her words ever could. But quickly, her thoughts turned to anger! Why did MY parents die and no one else's?!?! They deserved to lose something too!!! This made her think of a different path of eventual suicide... why not kill while I can...? Horrible thoughts filled her mind, and each ended with screams and people begging for mercy. "After all," she thought, "What do I have to lose anymore?"
And so, for the next week, Hermione shifted her attention from her classes to finding a way to get initiated into Voldemort's death eaters. She felt very lucky indeed when she saw the same black owl that had delivered her the fateful letter fly into a house near Dervish (A/N - did I spell it right?) and Bangs in Hogsmeade. She followed the owl down passageway after passageway and finally reached its destination. There was an armchair by the fire and Hermione didn't have to see the bony white fingers gripping the sides to know who was in it. She cleared her throat and began, in a trembling voice, "I-I w-would like to j-join the d-d-death eaters, s- sir..." A cold voice answered her, "Well, for the first thing, you will no longer call me SIR!!!! You must call me Master, as all the other scum do!" Hermione nodded.
"You're the Granger girl, correct?"
"Yes si-Master..."
"I have been wanting you for a long time..."
"Why is that Master?"
"Curious are you? I HATE curiosity."
"I'm sorry Master."
"Come to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where it meets the edge of the grounds tomorrow, Friday, at 1:00 AM for your initiation...NOW LEAVE!"
Hermione quickly scrambled up the stairs and ran out of Hogsmeade. She was scared, but at the same time pleased with what she had done.
----
The next day she went to the ascertained place at the given time and the ceremony was performed, as we have already discussed. It was only walking up to the castle, had she the slightest knawing feeling of regret for what she had done... but... it was done with... and could never be taken back, not even through a time-turner. All of a sudden, as she was passing a stairway to the dungeons, Hermione was hit by a huge wave of nausea and dizziness. She stumbled down the stairway to the nearest room she could find, which was, incidentally, Severus' chambers. She knocked, knowing that he would help her. After all, he was a death eater too (A/N - in my story he is *_*). She knocked, and the scene progressed as we have already heard.
*** *** ***
Hermione, her mind coming back to the present, found she was extremely tired, and since today was Saturday, she fell back into an uneasy sleep.
A/N - I know these chapters are short, and they will continue to be short (I think, although this one is probably longer). I am on vacation from school right now, so I can write more often than when I go back on Thursday (Jan. 2). And, I forgot the disclaimer...but you guys know I wouldn't *steal* anything! Don't you? DON'T YOU?!?! If not:
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, only the plot.
And without further ado...The Burn! Chapter 2!
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
When Hermione woke up, she was in an unfamiliar room. The picture was a little fuzzy, so she blinked a few times, and everything became much clearer. She took a look around the room she was in. The room was almost all black, it was decorated in black and silver. There was hardly any furniture, just the bed she was sleeping in, a grandfather clock (showing 9:00 AM), a chess set with two hard chairs, and an armchair facing a fireplace. Wait...she looked again at the black armchair. There was someone in it!!! He looked asleep and it finally registered with Hermione, that this was Professor Severus Snape, her hermit colleague. What was she doing in Severus' chambers? In a flash it all came back to her...
~*~*~*~*~
It was Friday, and she was particularly tired after a day of classes. This was not because most had been Gryffindor-Slytherin classes, as you might have expected though. After all, her students were very eager to learn, and of course that was good, but there were some things you just couldn't explain, do you know what I mean? Two plus two is four, it always works. Why? How did we get this system? It's a convention, she tried to explain to her students. But they just wouldn't listen to her! Thank goodness there were only a few students who did this to her...still...it only took one... Hermione rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. Then she composed herself and went down to dinner.
"How are your classes going Hermione?" Minerva McGonagall asked.
"Do you HAVE to ask Minerva?"
"Yes, I suppose those bags under your eyes tell the story themselves, eh?"
Hermione nodded and helped herself to some lamb chops. She turned to her other side and started talking with little Fillius (A/N - is that his first name? If you find a different one, email me!) Flitwick about the effect of the newly discovered Knowledge charm on children and whether it made them more unwilling to do work, or more willing to. Suddenly, without warning, a great black owl swooped down and dropped a letter in front of Hermione. She was puzzled, as the rest of the people around her were. Post usually came in the mornings, didn't it? Slowly she opened the envelope. She hoped this wasn't bad news...
As Hermione scanned the contents of the letter, a tear dropped from her eye, and then another, and another! Soon she was openly crying and fled to her rooms.
**But, let us pause time for a moment, and read the letter ourselves, shall we?
"Dear Hermione, It is such a pity about your parents... but... they had to die... nothing I could do about it... it's just part of the cycle of nature... but, if it eases your pain any, they went fast... it's a pity, it wasn't even any fun... hardly any screams... -- Oh I think *you know who* this is by now..."
Perhaps this would not have been so bad if it weren't for the other contents of the envelope - pictures of Hermione's parents, after they died, taken from every angle. It is no wonder Hermione fled the Great Hall.**
In her bedroom, she was thinking deeply. What was the use of living any more? Voldemort had killed her parents, why even stay for her job? He was proven he can kill and disrupt anyone or anything... why even try anymore? "Maybe I should just..." she murmured and looked out her tower window. That one glance, almost longing, said more than her words ever could. But quickly, her thoughts turned to anger! Why did MY parents die and no one else's?!?! They deserved to lose something too!!! This made her think of a different path of eventual suicide... why not kill while I can...? Horrible thoughts filled her mind, and each ended with screams and people begging for mercy. "After all," she thought, "What do I have to lose anymore?"
And so, for the next week, Hermione shifted her attention from her classes to finding a way to get initiated into Voldemort's death eaters. She felt very lucky indeed when she saw the same black owl that had delivered her the fateful letter fly into a house near Dervish (A/N - did I spell it right?) and Bangs in Hogsmeade. She followed the owl down passageway after passageway and finally reached its destination. There was an armchair by the fire and Hermione didn't have to see the bony white fingers gripping the sides to know who was in it. She cleared her throat and began, in a trembling voice, "I-I w-would like to j-join the d-d-death eaters, s- sir..." A cold voice answered her, "Well, for the first thing, you will no longer call me SIR!!!! You must call me Master, as all the other scum do!" Hermione nodded.
"You're the Granger girl, correct?"
"Yes si-Master..."
"I have been wanting you for a long time..."
"Why is that Master?"
"Curious are you? I HATE curiosity."
"I'm sorry Master."
"Come to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where it meets the edge of the grounds tomorrow, Friday, at 1:00 AM for your initiation...NOW LEAVE!"
Hermione quickly scrambled up the stairs and ran out of Hogsmeade. She was scared, but at the same time pleased with what she had done.
----
The next day she went to the ascertained place at the given time and the ceremony was performed, as we have already discussed. It was only walking up to the castle, had she the slightest knawing feeling of regret for what she had done... but... it was done with... and could never be taken back, not even through a time-turner. All of a sudden, as she was passing a stairway to the dungeons, Hermione was hit by a huge wave of nausea and dizziness. She stumbled down the stairway to the nearest room she could find, which was, incidentally, Severus' chambers. She knocked, knowing that he would help her. After all, he was a death eater too (A/N - in my story he is *_*). She knocked, and the scene progressed as we have already heard.
*** *** ***
Hermione, her mind coming back to the present, found she was extremely tired, and since today was Saturday, she fell back into an uneasy sleep.