Escape from the Darkness: Chapter 7
For Severus, the first two weeks of school went by very quickly. Nearly all of the first-years were unintelligent and did sloppy work in class, the same with most of the continuing students. Unfortunately he was not allowed the freedom to deny access to his N.E.W.T. class to students who did well on the O.W.L. exams. How Potter and Weasley managed to achieve the scores they got, he would never know. Severus was sure that neither of them had the brains to get past all of the anti-cheating spells used on those tests. The student who surprised him the most was Longbottom, who had actually made some successful potions in the past few class sessions. He was one of the thickest students that Severus had ever had the displeasure of teaching… Or at least he had been up until this year.
Even stranger than the Longbottom phenomenon was the way he always felt his pulse quicken whenever Hermione Granger walked into the classroom. Severus no longer thought of her as an obnoxious know-it-all. He was now beginning to see her as one of the most brilliant students—in fact, one of the most intelligent people in general—that he had ever met.
Potter and Weasley in Advanced Potions, Longbottom not exploding cauldrons, strange and unsettling feelings for Granger. What had caused all of these peculiar occurrences? It seemed that the entire world was going insane. Or at least all making him insane. Especially those damn Gryffindors.
There was a knock at the door. Severus briefly hoped that it was Granger… but immediately scolded himself for thinking that. She had been to his library a few times in the past two weeks. Although they made little conversation, her presence comforted him somewhat. He almost liked having her in the room—it made him feel like he wasn't alone in his enjoyment of reading and researching.
Severus opened the door. Fleur Delacour was standing there. Damn, he thought. She had been talking to him every night at dinner, and visiting him constantly. He got the feeling that she was interested in more than a friendship, which Severus didn't know how to deal with. Never in his entire life had he been faced with unwanted female attention. Especially not from anybody who was physically attractive. Most males would love to have somebody like Delacour, who was attractive and flirty. Severus was not one of those men. To him, the important qualities in women were deeper than that. A quickness of mind and a love for acquiring new knowledge were important. Not that Delacour was stupid—she was in fact, very intelligent. But she didn't have the wittiness that he admired in others, and her personality definitely didn't match his.
So why was she interested in him? Severus had a strong suspicion that it had something to do with an article that had appeared in The Quibbler a few months earlier, discussing his recent inheritance. With the death of his brother, he was now the only living male Snape, which meant that he was entitled to a large fortune. Severus had written a furious letter to the editor of The Quibbler, Lovegood, who had seemingly ignored it. Now the only way to make up for it was to take it out on Lovegood's daughter in class, which was quite enjoyable.
"May I come in?" Delacour asked. Her French accent was almost completely gone since she had spent so much time working with others who spoke only English.
"Of course, Miss Delacour," he responded abruptly.
"Oh Severus, please call me Fleur! There's no need to be formal with me!" She laughed and batted her eyelashes. Severus almost felt physically ill. "Can you help me with my class lesson plans?" she asked him, handing him a few sheets of papers.
Severus nodded, sat down on the sofa, and began to look over them. Her ideas for classes were actually not too bad. It wasn't the same type of information he would teach if he were the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor (which would probably never happen at the rate things were going now), but it was better than what most of the previous teachers for that class had done.
Suddenly he felt her breath, warm on his neck. She whispered in his ear. "Severus… I know that I only met you a few weeks ago, but—"
Severus quickly stood up, not wanting her to go on. At that moment he heard what sounded like a door closing. He glanced towards the room's entrance, but didn't see anything. He shrugged off the momentary panic that he felt. It was probably just his imagination; of course, it wouldn't be good if anybody had seen Delacour all over him. "Miss Delacour," he began.
"Fleur," she corrected him.
He sighed, realizing that he had no idea how to refuse her. "I have papers to grade and a lot of things to do…" he told her sternly, hoping she would take the hint. She did, but looked somewhat hurt. Severus almost felt guilty, but then shrugged that feeling away. It would be better not to encourage her. He wasn't interested and she was, quite possibly, only after his money. He only hoped that she would not resume her attentions towards him.
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Hermione rushed away from the dungeons, feeling tears form in her eyes. She had suspected something had been going on between Professor Snape and Professor Delacour because the two of them always spoke to each other at mealtimes. However, when she had gone to Snape's library and seen the two of them together, it had hit her hard. Why do I care so much? she wondered. It was none of her business whether or not Professor Snape was interested in somebody. So why did she feel so hurt?
"Hermione!" she heard a voice call to her. It was Selene, most likely on the way to see Snape.
Hermione didn't want to explain anything—she didn't know how to explain it—so she just turned and ran.
She ignored the concerned looks of her fellow students, feeling a need to leave the castle as soon as possible. She didn't stop running until she reached one of her favorite places to think, a small secluded area next to the lake. She sat down, her back against a tree. At that moment, the tears she had been trying to hold in began flowing freely down her cheeks. Her breaths came out in sobs.
Hermione didn't understand her reaction. She told herself that it didn't bother her, that it didn't matter whether or not Professor Snape was in love with someone else. However, she was beginning to believe the opposite. In the past, although she had despised his personality, she had respected him. However, this had changed completely when she got to know more about him. Now she no longer disliked him; in fact it was quite the opposite. Her regard for him had grown into much more. It had gotten to a point where she constantly hoped to see him, and relished the moments that she spent with him. Even when they didn't speak, she enjoyed nothing more than being in his company. Oh god, she thought, feeling sick to her stomach, I'm jealous. Never in the first six years she had spent at Hogwarts did she ever think that she would actually want Snape's attentions. The thought hadn't even occurred to her. He had always been rude to her, constantly searching for fault in her work, pointing out flaws that didn't even exist. But now…well, she was beginning to like him. Not in the way she liked her favorite teachers, but, well…she didn't know how to describe it.
"Hermione?" a voice behind her spoke. Ron.
She quickly wiped away her tears, hoping that he wouldn't notice how red her eyes were. "Hullo, Ron," she said in a high pitched voice, a dismal effort to sound cheerful. "What brings you out here?"
"I've been worried sick about you! You missed dinner." Ron gave her a questioning look. Hermione just shook her head. "What's the matter, Hermione?" he asked in a low voice, putting his arms around her. Hermione didn't speak—she didn't want to even try to put her emotions into words. Instead, she put her head on Ron's chest, grateful for the comfort he was offering. Right now, she just needed a friend.
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Selene stood in the hallway, watching as Hermione ran away. She was completely baffled. Why had Hermione ignored her? Selene swallowed back tears, worried that she had done something to upset Hermione.
Or maybe…She looked in the direction that Hermione had come from. Her uncle's rooms were in that area. Determinedly, she walked to his quarters, her hand raised to knock on the door. Before she could do so, the door opened, and Professor Delacour rushed out. Selene's mouth opened wide in shock. What had she been doing here?
It wasn't that Selene hated Professor Delacour. She actually liked her class very much, although it wasn't her favorite. But Delacour always behaved differently towards her than the other students, acting as though her achievements were more amazing and that everything she did deserved praise. She had a feeling that since her uncle was the Potions professor, Professor Delacour decided to treat her like a baby. It was annoying. She was twelve years old, after all.
"Uncle Severus?" she asked, peering around the door.
"Are you planning on standing there all night, or are you going to come in?" he snapped at her.
Great, she thought, he's in a bad mood. Again. "Why was Professor Delacour here?" she asked.
Severus looked irritated at her question. "She wanted to discuss the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum."
Selene took a deep breath, then spoke quickly, with nervousness in her voice. "Uncle Severus, was Hermione here too? Because I saw her running away from here and she looked upset and I'm worried about her. Did you say something cruel to her?"
Selene tried to replace the uneasy expression on her face with a glare that she had actually learned from him. However, it was hard to do under his intimidating gaze.
"I assure you, I haven't seen Miss Granger since her Potions class this morning." But, she saw a glimmer of something in his eyes that came and went so quickly that she would have missed it if she had blinked. He was worried.
The sneer came back to his face. "Are you here for a reason, or did you just come by to pry into my personal business?"
A few months earlier, his tone would have upset her, but she was beginning to get used to it. She knew that her uncle loved her, despite his sarcastic comments and his occasional rudeness. "I need to borrow a book for my History of Magic essay. The library is out of the one I need," she told him. After he got the book, she left quickly.
As she walked down the corridor, Selene wondered what it was that Hermione was so upset about. Her intuition told her that it was something to do with her uncle. She had watched the two of them over the past few months, had seen the way they glanced at each other when they thought that nobody was looking. And part of her hoped that something would happen. She loved her uncle but had been sad that he didn't have anybody in his life. The few evenings Selene had spent with her uncle and Hermione, he had seemed almost happy, which was rare for him. As for Hermione, her face always lit up whenever she saw him. Selene sighed. The two of them seemed so oblivious to it. If only they would admit their feelings…