Escape from the Darkness: Chapter 2
As he walked to his private quarters, Severus frowned. He had been hoping that Selene would hate Hermione Granger immediately, but the two of them had been talking like old friends. Why do I care so much about this? Surely my life would only be more difficult without the Granger girl to keep Selene out of my hair.
However, Severus immediately knew the answer to this. It was the same reason he always examined her potions more closely than the other students, trying to find a flaw in hers. It wasn't just that he enjoyed challenging one of Hogwarts' brightest minds. He wanted Hermione Granger to fail at something. And he still had yet to see it happen. She was absolutely perfect—which she knew—and it irritated him to no end.
It had all started in her first year, when she had entered the Chamber of the Sorcerer's Stone with Potter and Weasley. He had made his potions riddle difficult enough so that it was nearly impossible for even the most well-trained wizard or witch to pass. Never in his wildest nightmares would he have expected the puzzle to be solved by a first year Gryffindor. It had injured his pride, the feeling that he had been outsmarted by an eleven-year-old.
Since then, he had watched Granger closely, always searching for—but never finding—some sort of fault relating to her mind, or her studies. Her test scores were extraordinary, her research was thorough, and the only subject she didn't excel at was Divination (which was, in Severus' opinion, a complete waste of time anyway).
His musings were interrupted by knock. He was about to growl at the person who dared to disrupt him, when he remembered telling Selene to see him as soon as she finished eating. He sighed and went to answer the door. "Hello, Uncle Severus," she said with nervousness in her voice.
"Good evening, Selene. Please come in." He gestured to an armchair, and sat in another one next to her, then offered her a cup of tea, which she accepted.
Taking a deep breath, he began. "I realize that you have spent the past few months trying to forget what happened in January. Unfortunately, Headmaster Dumbledore has deemed it necessary for me to find out exactly what happened." She nodded, having known this was coming.
"I want you to look into my eyes and concentrate only on the events on the night of your parents' deaths." Selene obeyed, and Severus put his wand up to her temple, extracting a silver strand, which he placed in Dumbledore's Pensieve. After a quick glance at it, Severus nodded satisfactorily then spoke. "Thank you, that's all I need from you."
He paused for a moment. "Selene, I can perform a memory charm that can cause you to forget the specific events of that night. You will know what happened, but will no longer be able to visualize or feel the pain that you and your parents experienced that night. Would you like me to do that?"
"N…no, I don't want to lose any of my memories. It was the last time I ever saw my parents alive." Severus could see tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
He looked at her in surprise, for he had expected her to say yes. Then he nodded. "Very well. Thank you," he said. He felt a strange feeling come over him as he looked at the girl in front of him. Compassion. He quickly gave her an awkward hug, then nodded dismissively. "Good night."
After she left, he looked down at the Pensieve tentatively, watching the silvery substance inside of it swirling around. He knew that he should tap it with his wand to place himself in the memory. However, he wasn't looking forward to watching his brother die. Severus spent a few more minutes staring, then, deciding that he could put it off no longer, picked up the Pensieve and took his wand out of his pocket. But, before he could do anything, he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Damn! This had better be important.
He set the Pensieve down, and growled, "Come in," at the person behind the door. As Hermione Granger walked in, he regarded her with a look of annoyance.
"Professor Snape," she said. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."
She was but he chose to give her an irritated glare, rather than saying anything. Surprisingly, she didn't flinch under his gaze.
"I was wondering if you can give me some supplies." She gave him a short list of ingredients, all of which were part of the Potions curriculum for first year students.
Severus sneered at her, amazed that she had disrupted him for something so trivial. "Follow me, Miss Granger." He walked towards his supply closet, not bothering to see if she was behind him. He mumbled a few summoning charms to get the ingredients, then handed them to her.
"Thank you, Professor Snape," Granger told him.
He gave a slight nod, then spoke with displeasure in his voice. "Now if you'll leave me in peace, I have more important things to do than fulfilling the petty needs of students." She looked hurt for an instant, then immediately turned on her heel and left.
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Hermione quickly walked towards her room as anger filled up inside of her. Slimy git. Why was Snape so rude to her? Every teacher she had ever had was kind to her because she was always the top student. Snape was the only one who treated her like she was an insignificant child. She always received the top marks in his classes and had not made even one mistake in the last six years of Potions. She had always strived to please him, to get him to respect her, but nothing worked.
With a sigh, she arrived at her new room. It was right next to Selene's, which was across the hall from Snape's quarters. Hermione hated being stuck in the cold, dark dungeons. Especially since everything was decorated in silver and green, Slytherin colors. However, a smile formed on her face when she remembered a few charms she had learned. With a few flicks of her wand, the entire room was now red and gold. Much better, she thought to herself. There's one good thing about staying at Hogwarts for the summer holidays-I am allowed to use magic. It's also nice that I have access to the library.
Her spirits were once again uplifted when she thought of the library. She quickly changed into her nightgown, then grabbed a book she had checked out earlier that day. After several hours of reading, Hermione drifted off into a deep sleep.
The next day, Hermione and Selene began their lessons. Hermione was very relieved to find that Selene was relatively intelligent and willing to learn. By the end of the day, she had nearly mastered the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa, made an effective boil curing potion, and had began a History of Magic essay.
The two girls quickly became friends, despite the five year age difference. This was probably because there were only about ten other students besides the two of them staying at Hogwarts over the summer. Hermione was relieved to find out that Selene was nothing like her uncle, and definitely not like most of the Slytherins she knew. Maybe she'll be put in Gryffindor. A mischievous grin lit up her face when she thought about how Snape would react if his only relative became a Gryffindor. She hoped it would cause him to be nicer to the non-Slytherin students in general.
That night, Hermione was reading in bed long after most of the castle inhabitants were asleep. Her eyelids began to grow heavy around midnight and she began dozing off. Suddenly she was awoken by a loud cry. Selene! Hermione thought to herself alarmingly. She grabbed her wand, and ran down the hall, towards the younger girl's room. Selene was lying in bed with tears streaming down her face.
Selene spoke in a soft, scared voice. "S…sorry, Hermione. I...I had a nightmare. About my parents…" She broke off and began sobbing noisily. Hermione put her arms around Selene and stroked her hair, hoping to somehow comfort her. When she finally stopped crying, Selene looked at Hermione with fear in her eyes. "Please, don't leave me alone," she pleaded. Hermione nodded, and stayed in the room until she was certain that Selene was fast asleep.
As Hermione softly closed the door behind her, she wondered what it must have felt like for Selene to watch her parents die. She made a mental note to write a letter to her own parents in the morning. She missed them so much, and was terrified that something might happen to them because of Voldemort's rise.
"Miss Granger." A voice and a hand on her shoulder caused Hermione to jump and gasp, bringing her out of her reverie. In the dim lighting of the dungeons, she looked up into the black eyes of the man before her.
"P...Professor Snape, you startled me!" Suddenly she realized that she was out after the Hogwarts curfew, which would probably give him even more reason to be angry with her. "I'm sorry that I'm out of my room this late, but Selene—"
"Thank you, Miss Granger."
Hermione was confused. Had he just thanked her? She looked up at him, expecting to see a sarcastic sneer, but her gaze was met with one of sincerity, an expression she had never before seen on his face. He must have been standing outside the door the entire time, she thought to herself.
Hermione felt her pulse rate quicken as she realized that his hand was still on her shoulder. Apparently Snape noticed too, because he snatched his arm away swiftly, as if he had been burned. Hermione trembled at the sudden loss of warmth. She looked down at her thin nightgown, and felt her face beginning to turn red.
"Miss Granger, you're shivering. I suggest you go back to your room," he said to her in a silky voice.
Hermione complied wordlessly, her heart still pounding. She collapsed into bed, and sunk into a restless sleep.