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A/N: New chapter! Hope you like it, even though I had some difficulties to write it. Enjoy!

-§-- 8. Futile --§-

The DADA-lessons were usually fun, at least for the most part of the class.

Professor Smith went into the room with a big Lockhart-grin on his face.

/How can he be so unaffected?/

"Good morning, Students. We will take a close look at manticores today. Although I couldn't bring one up to class, I hope you understand, the house elves said they wouldn't want the mess, and blood is not very easy to remove."

The class laughed. Hermione, however, did not.

/Should that be funny?/

"Anyway, I've got a life-size figure in my office, and I wanted to show it to you. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring it up here by myself. Would anyone be so kind as to bring it up here? Ronald? Harry?"

Ron and Harry stood up and went out of the room, leaving Hermione rather alone.

"The remaining students, however, will begin to write down everything you already know about manticores."

Professor Smith began to walk through the room, looking over everyone's shoulders, correcting a sentence here, paying a compliment there.

Then he came over to Hermione's desk. His closeness alone was enough to make Hermione feel sick.

He drew even nearer and finally, he looked over her shoulder down to her work, his robes slightly swinging and touching her back.

Hermione's hands began to tremble, but she tried to ignore him and wrote on her essay.

"Ah, Miss Granger, I see…," his breath impacted with her ear. "Very good," he whispered, while he laid a hand over her shaken one. His body was pressed against hers for a short moment, then he left her.

Hermione was sweating, and yet she was cold. Protectively she crossed her arms over her chest when her two best friends came with the big manticore figure into the classroom.

The rest of the lesson went quite uneventfully, but Hermione knew it only was the silence before the storm.

"Miss Granger, a word about the project you wanted to start," her teacher said at the end of the lesson, when nearly everyone else, except for Ron, Hermione and Harry, was gone.

"But Professor, we have Potions right now!" Ron objected.

"So? By the way tell Severus I said 'Hello'. He surely won't mind if I borrow his cleverest student for some minutes over time. You are dismissed."

Harry and Ron shrugged and found it was senseless to argue about that.

As soon as Smith had closed the door, he stepped daringly near her.

"So, what have you told Snape?" he said calmly, though his look was rather panicked. He placed his hand on her back, forcing her body closer to his.

"Answer me. What does he know?"

"He doesn't know anything. It's not my fault," she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

Her teacher grabbed her hair, forcing her lowered head to look up in his eyes.

"Sure it is. I hope you could convince him with your… abilities," her teacher smirked, "that he will not tell anyone what he has seen."

"He won't tell anyone."

"Good," her professor's rough voice said, "I would hate to reveal our little secret." He then lowered his head to cover his lips with that of his student. His tongue forced her mouth to open and he massaged her tongue hard with his.

He took the hand from her back and let it slip into her robes. His cold hand ran over her stomach, giving her the feeling of mucilaginous leeches crawling over her skin. She shivered disgustedly, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead he slowly slipped lower, touching her at her most intimate places.

Hermione's mind was racing, yelling at her to do something against it, that this was wrong. But there was no way out of it. He hadn't only the control over her body, but her life.

So she did, what she had always done; let her mind go numb, her body limp in his arms, trying to ignore the throbbing beneath her temple.

Smith pressed his sweaty body against hers, aroused by the fact that that she had given in to him once more.

-§-

"Potter, where is Granger?" Snape asked stiffly when he noticed her seat was empty.

Hermione was never late.

"She had to talk about a project," Harry replied, wondering why Snape even asked, usually he would just take house points off as soon as person who's late appeared.

"Project? What project?" he asked, suddenly a bit harsher, and a little bit more … concerned?

'Snape concerned? Merlin, Harry, what a thought,' Harry barely smiled and answered his professor: "She's doing an extra work in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Smith also wanted me to tell you that he says, 'Hello.'"

The potion master's lips became thin. His eyes darkened and he looked angrier than he had ever been with any of his students. He was thinking rather impulsively, and he was just about to storm off when he remembered the remaining students in his class.

"What are you gaping at?" he said in a forced calm voice, "You all have something to do, the ingredients are on the blackboard. And you, Longbottom, be bloody careful, because there's no Hermione Granger here to save your ass!"

Snape was gone.

He hurried down the large corridors of Hogwarts, trying to find the DADA classroom. When he finally found it, he didn't have enough courage to open the door.

'She said I should just leave her. So why the hell am I here, trying to save her ass, if she doesn't even want it?' he wondered, though he knew it was crap. Nobody would want that. No matter if it was Hermione or any other person in that school, the bastard should be kicked out at this very moment, and not in there, maybe doing it again.

He slammed the door open, walking into the classroom as if he would be able to brush aside any monster that dared to be in his path.

When he searched around in the room, trying to find what he was afraid to see, his gaze met with a pair of wide-open brown eyes. Hermione stared at him, afraid of what he might do, and what consequences it would have for her. Smith, who was still with his back to the potions master, didn't see or hear anyone entering the room, and didn't stop touching Hermione.

One moment, she thought she could hold him back, just by staring at him, warning him, pleading him to go out again and pretend he never saw them. He didn't move, one moment it seemed as if he really considered to follow her plea. Then he stepped forward, doing the only thing that felt right.

Smith was grabbed at his collar by someone who stood behind him, and he felt his face impact with the cold stone wall. His body was pressed against the wall, and he wasn't able to see his attacker, but he sure as hell felt the pain.

Hermione let out a yell when Snape pulled Smith away from her.

/What is he about to do? He cannot help me! Why is he about to ruin my life with trying to help me?/

Severus ignored her. He was busy keeping Smith at the wall, though he struggled rather hard.

The potion master released his grip on the body in his hands, only to turn his victim around and look him in his eyes. When Smith recognized his attacker, a sneer appeared on his face.

"Snape, huh? Aren't you supposed to have classes right now? Or have you decided to play hero for once, and save the innocent virgin from the bad tormentor, do you?" He still had that smug grin on his ugly face, and Snape decided to make him shut up.

He slammed his fist into the face, a thing he wanted to do since the teacher arrived here. He soon had to learn that this wasn't about to make him keep his mouth shut.

"I've news for you, Severus," Smith said, wiping of the blood which run from his face with his sleeve. "The innocent victim isn't an angel at all, and the thing with the virginity is also past." The sneer on Smith's face had appeared again.

Again, Snape's fist connected with Smith's nose, this time a satisfying crack was heard.

"Aaargh, Snape, you bastard, you broke my nose!" he yelled in a strange tone because he couldn't breath right.

"Serves you right," Snape spit on the floor. "Keep your dirty hands away from my students, or you can collect other parts of your body on the floor as well."

"Oh, is the big bat threatening me? Because, I must have you known, that our dear Hermione here is able to go whenever she wants."

Snape shoot his student a confused look. Hermione was huddled up in a corner and had put her arms protectively over her head. Now she looked into Snape's eyes and said quietly and calmly, "I told you he has me in his hands."

The potions professor shot his colleague a menacing look. "Out!"

"Severus, this is MY classroom, meaning that I can be here whenever I want. If you want to go, then please, there's the door."

Snape glared at him but didn't say anything more in his direction. "Miss Granger, I do believe you are supposed to have classes right now, so if you please come with me?" he asked, his voice strangely polite, forcing himself to say nothing stupid.

He went to the corner where Hermione had cowered and looked at her expectantly. She stood up, still trembling, but recollected herself quickly and walked out of the room at Snape's side. Smith only glared at them, but there was nothing he could do. This time.

They walked down the corridors of Hogwarts in silence, Snape was still tense, and Hermione was shaken, trying to keep up with her teacher.

Suddenly, Snape lost the presence of Hermione next to him. Puzzled, he turned around to see a trembling Hermione on the floor. Her weak legs had finally given in. She didn't cry, and only quiet sobs left her mouth.

The dark man knelt next to his student, and for one moment wondering what he was doing on the floor, trying to comfort the distressed girl he usually called 'Know-it-all.' He even decided to lay an arm around her trembling shoulders, but she winced under his touch, looking scared and shocked.

"What does the man know that you are willing to endure that?" the professor asked, pulling his arm back from her shoulders.

"If I could tell you, then I wouldn't let him do this," she said dryly.

"What could be worse than that?" he answered, his voice seriously questioning.

"You may not believe me, but there are worse things."

"I DO not believe you, Miss Granger. I mean… No! You have to do something against it!"

"Then he would run straight to Dumbledore."

"Do you think Dumbledore would believe a rapist?"

"He has proof. Dumbledore might start questioning me, and I'm a bad liar."

"Still you could hide this thing with Smith very well. I don't suppose Potter or Weasley to know anything about it?"

"No, they don't know…," Hermione whispered.

"Great friends, aren't they?" In this moment, the old, sneering Snape appeared in front of her.

She shot him a glare, and answered: "Yes, they are! They are my best friends, and I just don't want to bother them with it. They would do things even more stupid than you did, and that means something! You nearly messed everything up!"

"You don't know the words 'thank you', do you?"

"Do you think that that little show in there would CHANGE anything? As long as you don't tell the headmaster, he won't stop it."

Snape already wanted to say something, but she ousted him. "And you are not going to run to Dumbledore," Hermione decided. Her voice sounded like McGonagall's. She stood up and Snape did the same, eying his student warningly.

"Miss Granger," he said, "I'm still your teacher, and I decide what is good or bad for my students."

"You've promised not to tell! Since when do you consider Gryffindors as 'YOUR' students?"

"You're more my student than the one of this disgusting piece of filth."

Hermione was a little taken aback by the reaction of Snape. She wouldn't have thought of him as a protective person.

"Still you can not go to Dumbledore."

"Then tell. Me. WHY!"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you would tell!"

"I wouldn't."

"That doesn't matter anymore. Leave it."

"No. Tell me what it is. Or I will go to Albus and tell him everything."

"So you're forcing me to? You're not better than him."

Snape bit his lip. What was she going on about?

"I'm not forcing you. I want to help you," he said, and his voice softened a bit.

"I don't need your help. I can manage this."

The potions master let out a snort. "You can manage this? Is it that? Is it only your bloody pride?"

"No, damn it! You just don't understand it!"

"Says who? What do I need to understand? He is a teacher, therefore he is not supposed to sleep with one of the people he is teaching. More than that, the person he sleeps with doesn't want to do that, so he is raping you. Plus, the person is underage, another point why it's illegal. There is nothing more to understand, they'll take away his magic if you let them catch him."

"It's not that easy at all."

"Stupid girl, of course it is. Whatever you are hiding can't be that bad. I'm sure you're only paranoid."

"I know I'm NOT!" she said, finally raising her voice.

"You know, I don't have to wait for your permission to tell the headmaster," he said, glaring at her.

"But why? What would it do to you if you tell him? He doesn't rape YOU!" Hermione yelled outraged.

"No, he doesn't, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to ignore that! Besides, he teaches Defence…"

"So that's what it's about? You want his job?? That's why you're playing the hero lately???" Hermione said, loosing it.

'Is it that?' Snape wondered a moment. "No! I mean…," he decided that wouldn't be a bad reason, and a good argument for a commonly known greasy git like him - Better than admitting that he actually knew what was right and wrong. "Well, I guess it's because of this. The guy's a prick anyway, so do you MIND?"

Hermione wanted to scream of frustration, but she couldn't. Instead, she just looked at him annoyed and turned to walk away.

"I guess I can't stop you from telling Dumbledore then. Must be a lucky day for you, you can fire a colleague and ruin a students life, at the same time. Better than Christmas, isn't it?" she said bitterly.

Snape watched her walk away a moment, trying to figure out what to say about that. "Where are you going, Granger, you're supposed to have lessons, don't you?"

Hermione didn't even look back at him, just waved her hand in dismissal and said calmly: "Doesn't matter anymore."

-§-

§gasp§ long chapter, wasn't it? I hope you enjoyed the little ... §coughs§ encounter with Smith and Snape.
There isn't any chance that you would like to read more of it? Because if there is, you probably should consider the opportunity of reviewing. winks