"So you think you found a unknown potion that could track Voldemort, where others cannot" Professor Snape sneered at her, his deep voice drug out some words, and added precise emphasis to others. "I would expect more from you Miss Granger. I know the Coluber pervestigo potion, and I know it would work, but first you would have to get one of Nagini's scales, that is the missing part of the potion."
Snape turned away as if that was the end of the conversation; back to the desk he spent so much time sitting behind. But then he stopped, and tilted his head slightly sideways, thinking. He had been doing a lot of reflecting lately, and it seemed that he could not stop himself from wanting to make someone else feel, see, understand a little of what he had been reliving lately.
He turned quickly around, making a fist with his left hand, while pushing the sleeve of his robe down to bare his forearm.
Hermione gasped involuntarily at the Dark Mark. On Snape's white skin it stood out, it could never be mistaken as a skull-like tattoo, as she had always pictured it in her mind. The snake coming out of the skulls mouth was a sleeping viper, dangerous, alive, breathing, and able to awaken at any second to strike.
"There is the best tracking device we have to find Voldemort," Snape said, his voice dripping with disdain "Do you want me to wake the power of my mark again to find him?" Blue-black stands of hair fell across his face, which showed more emotion and pain lurking there than she had ever thought to see on her ex-professors controlled features.
She could not help but feel awe of him when he was like this, just like when she was his pupil. While he had been her teacher for seven years at Hogwarts, she still knew nothing about him. She had heard things, that he had turned into a spy against Voldemort; she knew that he had Albus Dumbledore's full trust. But what was the truth behind this man, she could only speculate.
"No." she answered hastily, turning her head so she was not staring directly at the Mark. "If you used your Dark Mark to find Voldemort, wouldn't he be able to control you again? He is the one who created it. How is it being kept under control now, anyway?" The stream of words coming out of her mouth surprised even Hermione. The Dark Mark was a subject she would rather not discuss directly to Professor Snape's face. But she had always wondered…
Severus' s mouth thinned, and his scowl lines deepened. Hermione Granger was obviously not a person that would ever be able to relate, to begin to relate, to what he dealt with every day. She was a young overachieving witch, who simply wanted to know the who, what, where and why of things. But perhaps he could make her understand a little of what she foolishly wanted to track down, and confront, what lurked in his head every time he closed his eyes. He would answer her questions.
"Albus Dumbledore, in combination with a potion I spent a year brewing, put the Dark Mark to sleep, when I could no longer continue as a spy against Voldemort. If I were to re-awaken it, Voldemort would indeed have power over me once again. He would know my every movement, if he so chose." Snape's black eyes were dead once again, as he told her this. "Now, if you are done telling me about potions I learned as a fifth year I must get back to grading papers."
Hermione, defeated, turned and left Snape's office. Insufferable man! He was right. She should have known that a simple potion could not help them find Voldemort. It just wasn't that easy to go waltzing into Snape's office, presenting him with a potion and helping to brew it (so she would be in on the action for a change), and presto, finding the Dark Lord and defeating him. What had she been thinking, exactly?
But she has learned something from her visit. The Dark Mark haunted her thoughts. She sat herself down on a handy bench, and thought about the way it had looked. The snake was breathing, she was sure of it. The mark was a living part of Professor Snape. She pushed her own robes up past her elbow, and stared at her bare white arm, picturing the Mark on her own flesh. 'Did it move about?' She wondered, 'did it feel as alive underneath his skin as it looked?'
The look on Snape's face as he showed her the Mark came to her minds eye next. There was an emotion there she hadn't seen before, pain, pure and simple. The look on his face had been almost pleading with her when he showed her his brand. Her eyes closed, and she saw him before her again. What could he have wanted from her? He hadn't been trying to scare her that he could readily accomplish by yelling at her like a first year student again, or by doing his trademark sneer. He had never shown his mark voluntarily; she had always thought he would want people to forget it was there at all. There had been no reason for him to even show her his arm.
A strange emotion rolled through her, and she could not put a name to it. His face haunted her mind. All she knew was that she felt the strong urge to seek out Severus Snape again.
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Severus watched Hermione leave his classroom, stubborn chin up in the air as usual. What a silly girl, wanting to use a random snake-tracking potion to find Voldemort.
He was surprised she had come directly to him with her idea. Amazed in fact. He thought he had managed to drive everyone of his students away from him, even his Slytherins. They stayed away once they left Hogwarts, and learned of their house leaders' deception to the Dark Lord. Even if they chose not to side with Voldemort upon graduation, they stayed away from the fear of being connected to a traitor.
Dipping his long feathered quill into the inkpot, he tried to get back to grading papers. But a wave of self-hatred flowed through him, remembering his moment of weakness in reaching out to Hermione, and showing her his scar. He had known she would not understand it as weakness, she obviously had not shown anything but interest in the Mark itself! If allowed to stay a second longer, she probably would have asked him 20 more questions, including the exact ingredients of the potion he had made, how the mark was put on his arm, and what was the color of Voldemorts socks!
The sleeping snake on his arm twitched under his skin. He hated it when it did that, reminding him of all the attempts and failures he had made while trying to remove the mark. The sharpened quill in his hand shook, as he tried to forget the memories that were once again drifting up to be relived. Not again! He pulled his sleeve back, and viciously jabbed the sharp point into his skin, ripping it open, slashing and tearing at the skull and the serpent. Blood welled up from the deep scratches, and pain shot through his arm. But he hardly felt the physical pain. The pain that tore at him was the pain of realizing nothing would make the mark leave his arm. Even as his skin was slashed, torn and bleeding, the clear pattern of the skull with the snake coming out of its grinning mouth was still there. Now it was simply washed blood- red, and the snake was moving fretfully about. But at least the spell Albus had devised held, and the snake continued its uneasy slumber.
"Percuro" he said as he slipped his wand out of his sleeve, and pointed it at his bloody arm. The wounds quickly closed themselves, growing new skin in seconds, and leaving only a few white scars to show that they had been there at all. Severus brushed the dried blood off his arm.
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*Disclaimer- these characters are obviously not mine, and never will be *sigh *
Thank you to Eternal Queen for reviewing – I'm trying to stay away from cliché's, the story should pick up In the next chapter and be more original- I'm having a writers block to tie the first two chaps to the next one I've written! Arrrg J I will come up with a better summary once the story gets moving
Thanks to Rhianna for reviewing also (my very first review yay!)- I did not realize at first there was a place to proof what I uploaded before I put it on fanfic- one big paragraph was not what I meant to do lol