Chpt4: A Gargoyle's Delight.
Hermione wanted to scream. She wanted to lash out at him and scream until her lungs exploded, but the strong grip around her hand would not allow it.
// This is all wrong! // She thought, indifferent to the acid words that he was hissing at her. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the sensations that he was forcing on her. "Snape." she whimpered into his hand, her voice strangely weak. Somehow, gaining six years physically hadn't in any way improved her poorly adept muscles. With a few specified words from Snape, the scene changed from a derelict corner street, into a vast, well-lit tunnel. Various statues adorned the walls, each one looking up, startled as the two entered the hallway.
Had Hermione not been so near to hysterics, she would, no doubt, have taken more than a glance at her surroundings. Two jaunty busts of a Welsh Duke and Duchess were chattering incessantly, while a statue of Queen Elizabeth discussed the finer points of the Feudal System with a painting of a group of peasant girls. Several wood nymphs stood huddled together (as they had for many hundreds of years), and were obviously sharing the latest gossip that they had overheard. As Snape directed Hermione along the tunnel, she was oblivious to the occasional burst of giggles that were to issue from their perfect stone- carved lips.
After what seemed an eternity, Snape jerked her to a stop in front of a heavy wooden door. Around its frame, thick granite columns rose upwards, upon which, one on each side, sat two bickering gargoyles. Their guttural mutterings echoed clearly, as they argued in some foul unknown language.
"Silence!" Snape shouted, and Hermione found her mind being dragged back from the haven of her sub-conscious.
Her jaw hurt from his steady grip and her head snapped upwards. The gargoyles eyed her suspiciously, with their wide, curious eyes.
"La vie est morte." Snape said drawing the two fiends' attention back to him.
// That's funny, // Hermione found herself thinking, feeling the necessity to laugh. // I never really thought of Snape as being a French kind of person. Trust him to turn one of the world's most beautiful languages into something cold and depressing just like him. //
The gargoyle on the right nodded, and the door flung open. They stepped through, and Hermione wondered of Snape had noticed the looks the two statues were giving each other, before bursting into fits of.. Could you call it laughter?.. She didn't finish that thought. She was abruptly pushed into a chair, and she could not have failed to hear the clearly audible "Petrificus totalus." Her eyes swivelled around, trying to catch a glimpse of her assailant, and she couldn't help but remember casting that very same spell on Neville in her very first year. Now that she was experiencing it for herself, she felt very sorry for what she had done all those. what. six years ago. She repeated it in her mind. // Six years. If anything, you'd think that six years would have taught me to stay away from Snape, but nooooo. Hermione Granger, you're still the same insufferable know-it-all you were in the first year, and you couldn't wait five months for graduation before thinking of some fantastic plan to "improve the educational experience". Honestly! Why did I have to mess with Snape?!! // "Miss Gates.. Miss Gates, for God's sake, I am not as patient as I may appear." Her eyes swivelled back in the direction of the voice, locating its source: a very peeved-looking Potions Master staring her directly in the face. "I hope that I haven't interrupted too greatly on your daydreams, but I rather loathe repeating myself.. Do you, or do you not, have any particular reason for being in Hogsmeade at the very same time as myself every week?" // Can you get any dumber?! I'm on a full body-bind! Would you like me to answer that using my psychic powers? // She simply rolled her eyes in reply, and cringed deeper into the seat (well, as far as a full body-bind will allow you to cringe, which was less than a millimetre). His mouth curled into a furious snarl, and she bit her lip, as was habitual when she was nervous. // Wait a sec, if my mouth is frozen shut, then how.. Oh. My. God. Snape only ever looks that mad when someone pisses him off.. Really pisses him off. //
"Did I just say that out loud?!" She asked meekly, realising that he must have released her mouth from the spell. .
Hermione wanted to scream. She wanted to lash out at him and scream until her lungs exploded, but the strong grip around her hand would not allow it.
// This is all wrong! // She thought, indifferent to the acid words that he was hissing at her. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the sensations that he was forcing on her. "Snape." she whimpered into his hand, her voice strangely weak. Somehow, gaining six years physically hadn't in any way improved her poorly adept muscles. With a few specified words from Snape, the scene changed from a derelict corner street, into a vast, well-lit tunnel. Various statues adorned the walls, each one looking up, startled as the two entered the hallway.
Had Hermione not been so near to hysterics, she would, no doubt, have taken more than a glance at her surroundings. Two jaunty busts of a Welsh Duke and Duchess were chattering incessantly, while a statue of Queen Elizabeth discussed the finer points of the Feudal System with a painting of a group of peasant girls. Several wood nymphs stood huddled together (as they had for many hundreds of years), and were obviously sharing the latest gossip that they had overheard. As Snape directed Hermione along the tunnel, she was oblivious to the occasional burst of giggles that were to issue from their perfect stone- carved lips.
After what seemed an eternity, Snape jerked her to a stop in front of a heavy wooden door. Around its frame, thick granite columns rose upwards, upon which, one on each side, sat two bickering gargoyles. Their guttural mutterings echoed clearly, as they argued in some foul unknown language.
"Silence!" Snape shouted, and Hermione found her mind being dragged back from the haven of her sub-conscious.
Her jaw hurt from his steady grip and her head snapped upwards. The gargoyles eyed her suspiciously, with their wide, curious eyes.
"La vie est morte." Snape said drawing the two fiends' attention back to him.
// That's funny, // Hermione found herself thinking, feeling the necessity to laugh. // I never really thought of Snape as being a French kind of person. Trust him to turn one of the world's most beautiful languages into something cold and depressing just like him. //
The gargoyle on the right nodded, and the door flung open. They stepped through, and Hermione wondered of Snape had noticed the looks the two statues were giving each other, before bursting into fits of.. Could you call it laughter?.. She didn't finish that thought. She was abruptly pushed into a chair, and she could not have failed to hear the clearly audible "Petrificus totalus." Her eyes swivelled around, trying to catch a glimpse of her assailant, and she couldn't help but remember casting that very same spell on Neville in her very first year. Now that she was experiencing it for herself, she felt very sorry for what she had done all those. what. six years ago. She repeated it in her mind. // Six years. If anything, you'd think that six years would have taught me to stay away from Snape, but nooooo. Hermione Granger, you're still the same insufferable know-it-all you were in the first year, and you couldn't wait five months for graduation before thinking of some fantastic plan to "improve the educational experience". Honestly! Why did I have to mess with Snape?!! // "Miss Gates.. Miss Gates, for God's sake, I am not as patient as I may appear." Her eyes swivelled back in the direction of the voice, locating its source: a very peeved-looking Potions Master staring her directly in the face. "I hope that I haven't interrupted too greatly on your daydreams, but I rather loathe repeating myself.. Do you, or do you not, have any particular reason for being in Hogsmeade at the very same time as myself every week?" // Can you get any dumber?! I'm on a full body-bind! Would you like me to answer that using my psychic powers? // She simply rolled her eyes in reply, and cringed deeper into the seat (well, as far as a full body-bind will allow you to cringe, which was less than a millimetre). His mouth curled into a furious snarl, and she bit her lip, as was habitual when she was nervous. // Wait a sec, if my mouth is frozen shut, then how.. Oh. My. God. Snape only ever looks that mad when someone pisses him off.. Really pisses him off. //
"Did I just say that out loud?!" She asked meekly, realising that he must have released her mouth from the spell. .