Chapter 01
Written by: Zoë: zfareti@hotmail.com
A/N: From 2 til' 6 Challenge Response. Rules found at Wiktt Challenge folder if response seems too confusing. I posted it a while back but removed it for certain reasons. Enjoy.
'Midnight Guest'
A scream rent the silent night air, startling the young lady in the Head Girl's room awake. Eyes rapidly scanning the room, she searched for the source of the banshee howl. Seeing nothing moving within the room, she gently nudged her companion. Screams in the night were not unusual at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—what with the large population of ghosts and other fantastical beings, but something about this one made her tremble with fear. The one sharing her bed was still sound asleep. He made a sound very much like a sigh and shifted position, but other than that showed no signs of stirring.
"Wake up!" Hermione Granger said, poking more firmly.
His eyes finally opened, and he opened his mouth as if to speak…but nothing came out, just a puff of hot air. She poked him again, but more firmly around his ribs. The languorous figure beside her droned a torpid shrug, as she stared and wondered just how scruffy he looked at two o'clock in the morning. She nudged him once more before he whipped around in irritation.
"What is the meaning of this", the ill-tempered elf snapped with his heavy lidded eyes shot open in the vast gloom of the partly moonlit room.
Hermione stared at an irritable Dobby lying naked by her side, his crooked nose and yellow fangs protruding his hairy face. Dobby smacked his sleek black mane out of his eyes and gripped a nude Hermione on the shoulders shaking her unsteadily. "Get up"
Hermione stared at the grizzled figure while he shook the life out of her. "What are you doing, Stop!!" she screamed. "Please, don't! L-leave me alone".
"Hermione"
"Stop it", she begged, but her screams for help seemed to be muffled by an invisible hand gripped tightly over her mouth.
The bristling elf, his hands on her shoulders shaking her awake, was whispering nervously to the dreaming Head Girl. "Oh Miss, please, you wake up the whole castle. Quiet, quiet! You must wake up! Wake up Hermione".
Hermione shot up from her bed breathless, her heart beating violently within her. She gripped her chest to feel it's undulated thumping, only to grasp the firmness of her bare breast, and a tiny hirsute figure sitting on her lap. She was stark naked, and Dobby was sitting before her, wide eyed and shaken. Severus lying dead asleep just seconds ago had just woken up from her violent stirrings.
"Aaaah…" she sighed with relief leaning her head back on the headboard and closing her eyes in relief. "It was just a dream", she whispered.
The room was quiet for a moment, completely still, and Hermione, leaning still and her eyes still closed shot back up when she realized that she had just seen Dobby sitting on her lap. Hermione saw that Dobby, and a savage looking Snape were both staring at her and her unusual reaction to waking up to the house elf who had just caught her sleeping snuggly with her Potions master in bed. Hermione's jaw dropped as she looked from Severus to Dobby and back to her glowering lover.
"Dobby, what are you doing here!" Her hands frantically searching all around her for the bed sheet to cover herself only, to remember that Severus had savagely ripped it up a few hours ago to tie her hands against the bedpost. She immediately flushed at the thought and felt Snape whip his long arm over her breasts to cover them from the elf's prying eyes before he berated the intrusive nut.
"What the hell are you doing here", he snapped before flinging the elf off Hermione's naked thighs. Dobby toppled off the bed and stood back up to look at a sympathetic Hermione who shot Snape a vile look.
"Oh Miss, please don't strike Dobby", he said nervously looking at Severus the whole time. "I is only coming to wake you to tell…."
Before he could finish, a spine-chilling scream tore through the room again, and Hermione unconsciously took hold of Severus' arm.
Severus jumped out of bed immediately and threw his clothes on before Dobby had the chance to explain. "What the hell was that", Hermione flustered.
"Stay here"
"What is it?"
"I don't want you leaving this room. Ward the door and wait till I come back", he demanded irascibly while hastily tucking his shirt into his trousers.
The scream rent the air once again, and Hermione jumped out of bed this time. "Severus, what is that?"
"It's nothing", he groused while he robed himself.
"Oh Hermione, it's not good, it's no good at all. The bad Harpy lady is loose again", Dobby interrupted. Snape spun around quickly and shot the nit-witted elf a dirty look. The timid elf smiled nervously at the lewd Professor before grabbing the silk boxers by the bedpost and shoving it into his mouth. Snape wondered what the hell he was doing and Hermione her hands clasped over her mouth knew exactly what was coming. Dobby started gagging on the silk boxers and Snape raised his wand and pointed it towards the choking elf. Hermione fearing the worse, saw Severus smack his wand against the back of the elf's head and saw the boxers fly out.
"We have a harpy" she continued, "Since when, and what do you mean by 'again', and I still don't understand why you're here?"
"Well, Dobby is here to tell you Professor McGonagall is looking for Professor Snape".
Snape and Hermione exchanged quick glances before turning back to Dobby. Hermione, looking nervously towards Severus saw him gripping his wand a lot tighter than usual. "Does she know where I am?"
"No, Sir! Only Dobby is knowing, and no worries sir, Dobby is good friend to Miss Hermione", the elf said gaily turning to Hermione whose bare breasts had caught his large protruding eyes, "I isn't telling no one", he said in a trance-like tone.
"Good", he snapped, "I'd hate to turn your hide into a new clothing line for the kitchen elves. Now get out of here", he said disgustedly before stepping in front of Hermione to cover her once again. "And for Gods' sake woman, get dressed!"
"I can't find my underwear", she muttered through clenched teeth, and pursed lips.
"Is this what Miss is looking for"? Hermione and Severus turned around to see Dobby perched on the mirror stand, her underwear dangling off his furry outstretched finger.
Snape snatched the underwear (he remembered flinging onto the mirror stand earlier) from Dobby and threw it towards Hermione. "What the hell kind of elf are you", he snapped to the flushed elf.
Hermione shot Severus a vicious look, while searching frantically for her wand. "Was that absolutely necessary", she chided crossly. Snape didn't bother to answer; he headed straight for the door and turned to her before leaving.
"Stay here, I'll be back".
"No, I'm coming with you". Hermione found her wand and headed straight for the door, before Severus stopped her.
"Hermione, we can't show up together". Hermione saw a perturbed look pass quickly across his face and couldn't help but feel there was a different reason he didn't want her to leave. He turned to Dobby who was still hovering above the mirror stand and sneered uncouthly for his inquisitiveness. "Stay here you", he ordered the elf, "and find me if she leaves this room".
"Fine! She snapped, "Go on then, I'll just stay here and play hide and seek with Dobby". Severus stared indignantly at her for a moment before turning to a suddenly excited elf.
"You! Get out!! Dobby snapped his fingers in disappointment and left the room with his head drooped low. Severus followed after him.
___________
On his way down to the Great hall, Severus was nearly knocked over by someone who collided in to him after a sharp turn from the corner up ahead. His robes flew over his head, and Severus struggled to untangle himself from the idiotic klutz who bumped into him so suddenly. When he looked up and saw Sirius staring lividly into his eyes, he pushed him off and snapped savagely at the clumsy clit.
"Get the hell off me!!"
"Yes, it's nice to see you too, Asshole. But we don't have time to chat now pussyface", he panted, looking nervously over his shoulders. "She's loose Severus", he continued turning back to an impatient Snape, "and six guesses who she's after", he said in a cold menacing grin.
Severus had gone a pale gray, and his face seemed to stiffen unusually. He thought at first this was some sort of sick joke the whey-face cur before him was playing yet again, till he remembered her familiar shrieking from earlier and shuddered inwardly. He masked a vacant expression before turning to the vagrant mongrel leering smugly at his side. "You're lying", he enunciated quite madly, "No one knows how, it's impossible".
"Of course it is, well was. Let's just say it was an accident".
"And what idiot, wandering around at this time of the morning did us all the favor of releasing her from her painting". And just then a blurred figure flew past them, a screaming Neville hanging from her clawed fingers as she knocked down the entrance door to the classroom down the hall and disappeared inside it. She didn't seem to have noticed the two crouching figures below her that dashed behind the armored knights when she flew by.
"Well", muttered Sirius. "Did that answer your question"?
"Oh get off me", Severus spat while pushing the undernourished man away from him who resembled him so much since he left Azkaban four years ago.
Sirius' once handsome face had gone sallow and sunken from the lack of sleep, light, and food he endured while imprisoned in Azkaban. His long hair was like Severus' and their features were very much the same now, except that Severus' salient nose was longer and crooked.
"She mistook me for you", Sirius continued, "but she was a bit far off".
"And what exactly were you doing out at this time of the morning", he said conspicuously.
"That's none of your business", he spat, "and what the hell were you doing on this side of the castle Severus. That was pretty quick how you turned up here so fast".
Severus and Sirius stared rancorously back at each other and silently decided to mind their own businesses and worry about their current situation.
"Well what are you waiting for? Sirius sulked, "aren't you going to get in there and get the boy back, it's you she wants?"
"These fucking students are going to be the death of me", Snape muttered while he whipped the hair out of his eyes and staggered towards the room where he was to come face to face with the last thing he wanted to at that moment. He only hoped Hermione was safe in her room and far from the creature.
Sirius followed after him.
____________
When he entered the dark excavated room, he nearly fainted from its foul disturbed atmosphere. The buxom air reeked of a pungent stench of musk and decay. Images of the dark lord's necromantic meeting place flashed in his mind as the ungodly stench of rotten flesh and death weakened his senses. He hated that smell, and worst of all, he hated where it came from. He felt the pit of his stomach churn as he closed the door behind him, the stench nearly stifling him to death. His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Well hello love", came a seductive mellifluous voice. A sinful murmur: languid and innocent. A soothing subdued whisper of air. Her voice was as hypnotic as her silver liquid eyes: sharp and salacious. The harpy lady floated imperiously above the dark room, a wisp of silver mist expelling from her cobalt blue hair wafting about her head. An animated expression swept across her mottled face as she stared longingly towards a sulky Snape. She wafted her hands down her svelte body, an ocean of emerald green that curved into that like an hourglass, and her long legs were tucked beneath her as she perched herself in midair.
"How did you get out"?
"Thirteen years, and that's all you have to say to me?"
"I had hoped it'd be longer than that".
"Oh, Sevvie", she chuckled lightly, "I really missed you. I only wished you didn't put me in that awful painting".
"You walked into it yourself".
"You told me it was a portal to Marseilles", she said with a bit of edge in her voice.
"Oh did I", he replied sarcastically?
"I'm not going back in there. At least not unless you come with me", she said looking like a lovesick child, gazing idly astern to an unconscious Neville floating in midair. Sirius lurking in the corner of the dark room cleared his throat and mumbled something that sounded like, 'take him'.
Lasare turned her eyes towards Sirius and was surprised to see how much he resembled Severus, but before she said anything, the door creaked open and a dark figure walked in. It was Hermione holding something flat and large. Severus nearly choked when she came into view, and his heart pounding in a eurhythmic motion had stopped when Lasare cast her eyes on her. He was going to kill that blasted elf.
The ravenous Harpy looked savagely at a mystified Hermione seeing a Harpy for the first time, and noticed that she had brought the enchanted painting along with her. Hermione, Severus, and Sirius had jumped when they were startled by a sudden loud pop. The Harpy's hair had flared out turning from sapphire blue to fiery red, her long black tongue lashed out of her mouth, and her claws had emerged from her fingers making her look like a savage bird of prey.
"I don't like this, I don't like this at all", her soft voice waned. It had turn from smooth and seductive to a resonant shrill. What worried Severus though, was how she was staring at Hermione.
The voracious Harpy looked icily towards a mystified Hermione and narrowed her dirty glare to a jealous glower. "I don't like her".
"Don't worry, no one does", Severus replied, though nervous he was.
"No", she nodded sulkily, "but you do".
Sirius, who was getting quite fed up with Lasare and her horny tantrums for Severus had suddenly perked up his ears. He wondered inquisitively what she had meant by that.
"Please", Snape spat, "if I liked her more than I despise you and everything about you, then I'd…"
"Oh shove it", she howled, "don't lie to me Severus, I can smell her all over you. You reek of her, and I can feel you trembling from here since she walked in".
Sirius' jaw had dropped when he heard this and in an instant he whipped Severus around to face him. "YOU"RE SLEEPING WITH HER!! A student? Hermione?"
"Oh shut up, you", the Harpy infuriated as she wrenched Neville's hair in a tight grip, "if you didn't reek of this idiot boy, I would've wondered what the hell you were doing here in the first place. SO SILENCE!!"
Sirius' eyes had widened in shock. He had nearly forgotten about Neville and their…'ministrations' of late. Severus pushed him away and pulled Hermione closer to him when he saw the ravenous look sweep across the Harpy's stippled face.
In a flash Hermione whipped out her wand pointing it towards the Harpy and incanted a bluebell flame charm before Severus let out a sharp 'NO' and smacked her wand away before the blue flames hit the Harpy.
"Don't cast any flame spells", Severus retorted, "She's a fire demon, Hermione, it'll only infuriate her and increase her powers".
"Well how do we kill her"?
"We don't. We need to get her in the painting. Just worry about Longbottom and I'll take care of her. Watch your back". Severus had said this quickly, pushing Hermione away from the fireball that whizzed right by her scorching the side of her cloak. Hermione took cover under one of the desks while Sirius and Severus took out their wands and dodged the flaming balls thrown towards them. The dark room, once an untenanted classroom had been enchanted to look like a large excavated chamber, so there weren't much places to duck for cover. Hermione heard a loud 'Dissendium' and saw the black chalkboard fly off the wall and land in front of Sirius and Severus to block the incoming hexes and flames. But this only infuriated the Harpy more and sent a scorching fireball that scalded the blackboard on contact. The two men had cast a number of Extinguishing Spells and Flame Freezing Charms before Hermione jumped in and incanted 'Pruina Superundare'. It seemed the temperature had dropped to subzero for the whole room had frosted up instantly and the Harpy let out a high electrifying shrill while she writhed in pain. "Stop, you insolent fool". Severus took this as the opportunity to cast the necessary spell for her entrapment and stunned her first before he incanted the spell to reopen the magic portrait where she was to be confined.
"Mysticus portraire ego somondre eower portale".
The portrait (Dumbledore explained and gave to Hermione) shook violently on the ground before it soared up to the ceiling spinning vigorously with a vibrant light emanating from its center that swirled in a coiling wisp, whirling the objects in the room around. The loud shrills of the Harpy lady was drowned by the earsplitting reverberation the iridescent portrait let out, and she fought hard against its magical force pulling her into the portrait without much effort, and failed. She intertwined with the wisp of light and was pulled into the portrait before it rose up slightly and hit the ground again with a loud clunk. The Harpy was back in the painting and Hermione cast a quick Hovering Charm to keep Neville in the air after his spell was broken, from hitting the ground.
The room was a total wreck, and the four figures staring awkwardly at each other were completely speechless. Neville feeling quite flushed that he had woken up to his lover, Potions master, and Head Girl standing over him, headed for the door and reeled out of class.
When they got outside, they stood around silently for a few minutes before
Severus decided to break the silence.
"Oh for Merlin's sake. You're screwing him and I'm screwing her, get over it. I haven't got all night to stand around and watch you flush like a pair of asses", he said turning from Sirius to Neville.
"Hey leave him out of this", Sirius jumped in to his defense.
"Fine! Just get out of my face. All of you, before I get angry and send Lasare a playmate".
"Aren't you…uh…coming", Hermione asked a bit disconcerted.
"No", he said much softly. "The spell could be reversed from her side, if she's found a way how. I doubt that she has, but I'm not taking any chances. I'll have to set the portrait back in its room and wait there till sunrise in case something happens. Go back to your room and –"
Severus slewed his head around and shot Neville and Sirius a dirty look for their eavesdropping, and pulled Hermione closer to him before he continued.
"_ I'll talk to you tomorrow", he whispered softly before he caressed her face and kissed her gently on the lips. "Go".
Hermione looked at Neville and motioned for him to join her. Neville glanced quickly towards Sirius who nodded for him to go on.
"I'll stay behind too. I'll talk to you tomorrow". Neville nodded and turned to leave, but not before Sirius grabbed his arm and whipped him around so his lips met his in a wet passionate kiss. Sirius' lanky body silhouetted against Neville's bulging figure, as they held each other in a long fervent kiss before Neville broke away. He flushed and ran towards Hermione who was beaming at such a romantic embrace. Before long the two men had walked back to the empty room on the fourth floor where the portrait had been and hung it back up on the wall over the large four poster bed. It was a regular room like that of the dorms and Neville and Sirius had discovered it when they were looking for a place to make love.
It was 5 o'clock in the morning and the two men waited silently without so much as a word exchanged between them. Sirius plopped himself on the bed and closed his eyes reveling in the previous hours he had spent on there with Neville. Severus remained standing and wished silently he were back in bed with Hermione.
An hour went by and Severus, who somehow ended up on the bed next to Sirius was lying silently with his eyes closed, dreaming of a certain Head Girl just as the first light of dawn slowly crept up over the forest top outside the castle and into the room before sleep overtook the two in bed.
The End
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A/N: Sorry I exceeded the 2000 word limit. (I couldn't help myself) This was such an interesting Challenge. Thank You.
Mysticus portraire ego somondre eower portale: don't ask!!
Pruina: Freeze
Superundare: Surround
Mysticus: Mystical
Portraire: Portrait
Somondre: summon
Portale: Portal
