My computer is broken. The modem stopped working and my tears did the rest… : -(
Thank you very much to Jane Padfoot, (glad you liked it), nenah(and have you had a try? I'd like to read it! Thanks…), Captain Crash (hey! I've just seen you finished. I have ten minutes more paid, so I'll go straight to it now), Lana Manckir (THANKS!!!) Nadezhda(yeah, it's odd, but thanks anyway! I'm glad you like details because I am going crazy about them) and KnightsBallad(you already think poor Herm? You don't how much more I'll make her suffer…I found your fic very good, and would recommend it!). And again, thanks to Endilwen for being my Beta.
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"Reparo" The bottle pieces put themselves together. "Scourgify" she said, and the spilt potion disappeared.
She overcame the sensation of failure invading her and brushed her hair. She decided well combed curly hair was not so terrible, after all, and she put it up in a beatiful chignon, with some ringlets falling casually into her face.
She fixed it with some spells, put on some make up, and then got dressed. It took her a while to get her sandals transfigured, but in the end she got a nice pair of green high-heeled sandals that were fixed to her small feet only by some thin strips. She still had ten minutes more before the dance began, so she started reading.
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"Come on, Ron. Not even the girls are taking so much time"
Harry opened the door of the bathroom and found his friend trying to wash away some greasy substance from his hair.
"What is that?"
"I thought I would look better with this gel on my hair... but I think it makes me look like Snape."
With a spell Harry made it disappear, and Ron thanked him heartily.
"By the way, I think he has done something to his hair. It looks..." he was going to say great, but then he gave it a second thought " quite normal"
"I don't know, I'll have a look later."
They ran through the corridors and they got to the Hall, where the tables had been put apart for them to dance.
"Where's Hermione?" Ron complained, when he saw Harry and Ginny were already together.
"I don't know, she wasn't in the common room" Ginny told her brother.
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She was in Denmark, her mind full of ghosts and swords and blood. Suddenly she looked at her wristwatch, that she had left over her bed, and her heart stopped. She rushed, tempted to carry the book with her.
She reached the Hall. Everyone was inside now. She opened the door and then everybody stared at her.
Harry rolled his eyes. Ron gulped. The girls nearly died with envy. Parvati began shaking.
Hermione was a goddess.
At the sudden silence, Snape turned his head.
He was breathless. His first very stupid thought was that the incredibly beautiful young woman standing awkwardly on the entrance had to be a Slytherin, for the colour of her dress. Then he realized it was Hermione Granger and he choked.
He felt hot, something strange going up his spine. The rest of the people seemed to have vanished, and he only wanted to run to her, hold her arm and take her to the dance floor and gently press her hand.
As if she would ever let him touch her at all. She would back away from him in horror. Severus Snape!!! She is a student. She is Miss Granger, mudblood, Gryffindor, always pesting in your classes! – She is bright, she is by far the most interesting person in Hogwarts... the most intelligent person... the most intelligent student, Snape...
His face didn't show any change at all, used to deceiving as his features were, but when their eyes met, he couldn't resist her glance. He had never felt so weak, not even in front of the Dark Lord. His dark onyx eyes refused. He hated it, he had never been one allowing any momentary weaknesses, so he decided to leave as soon as possible. And to stop drinking punch.
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Shyly, she walked towards her friends, not noticing the lustful looks some boys were giving her.
"Hermione, you look absolutly wonderful" Ginny said, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you look different" Ginny nudged Ron at what he wanted to be a compliment.
"Thanks, but it is just the dress, it's wonderful. My parents sent it. Ron, would you mind if we dance now? I feel stupid standing here."
"Yeah, of course"
But before they could move, Dumbledore spoke.
"I think teachers should begin with the dance. Why don't you prefects come here so that we can all mix together?"
Hermione, mortified, walked towards the front of the room. Suddenly, she knew that she wanted to dance with Snape. A forgotten moment, when he had helped her up from the floor in their private classes, smelling his nice masculine scent so close, came back to her memory. The other prefects started dancing with some teachers, and Snape and she were very near.
"Professor..." she hesitated looking at him
"What?" he croaked, looking horrified.
"Nothing..." her voice faded away. She was so stupid... how was Snape going to dance with a Gryffindor know-it-all, mudblood student? Hagrid saved her from tears.
She danced and danced, and spent the ball surrounded by boys.
But Snape couldn't avoid noticing she tried to escape to sip some punch every time she could. What had she wanted to tell him? He wasn't the dancing type, and gone the previous weakness, she was still the little know-it-all and he was again Severus Snape the Death Eater. ExDeath Eater. And surely she didn't want to dance with him, either. She refused any contact, as he well remembered from the couple of times their classes had demanded proximity. And who would want to touch him at all?
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Snape was no longer in the room, and Ron was going sickly-sweet with her, so she decided to leave as soon as she had an opportunity.
She excused herself to Seamus Finnigan. "I have to go to the toilet, maybe later, ok?" and rushed out the room.
She was near to Gryffindor Tower when a hand stopped her and pushed her back to the wall. It were Draco Malfoy's eyes which were burning in the light of the torch.
"Draco" she muttered
"Hi, Hermione" he said. His breath smelled of alcohol. Hermione's pulse raced. "Where're you goin' so quickly?"
"I'm tired" She tried to be polite.
"Well, you didn't dance with me"
Hermione tried to go, but then he encircled –actually caged - her with his arms. Damn.
"Herm, beauty, why are you trying to run from me?"
"What? I am not trying to run, Draco"
"Umm, it has taken you six years to call me Draco" said him, picking with his finger one of her curls and playing with it, and then letting his hand fall carelessly over Hermione's naked shoulders. She dared to look at him directly and saw his malicious eyes full of lust. She was deadly scared.
He bent down a little bit, as he was just a couple of inches taller, and kissed her, or at least tried to, because she bit his tongue when he tried to put it inside her mouth.
"You slut!" he shouted, and grasped her arms strongly pushing her whole body towards the wall even more with his own.
Then someone appeared round the corner, and Hermione sighed, relieved, although the steps could still belong to Crabble and Goyle. But it was Snape.
"What's going on here?"
Draco quickly let her go.
"Nothing, Professor." He said. "Hermione just stepped into me and I was telling her to watch where she walks"
He looked at her, quizzically.
"It is as he says, Professor. Can I go to bed?"
"So soon, Miss Granger?"
"I'm tired" She wanted to leave before he disappeared and Draco could stop her again.
Snape didn't move until he saw her reach the tower. He hadn't believed a word, he knew exactly what had been happening, and wouldn't give Malfoy another chance to catch her alone. But why had she lied? Probably out of honour or something like that. She was a stupid if she thought Draco would recognize honour. He wouldn't, even if it was a girl walking naked in front of his nose.
That Draco was a very bad weed, which was redundant but clear. He knew what the guy had gone through since his first year, bullying everyone, and hating mudbloods, and then being crazy about Hermione... about Granger, he corrected himself. The boy was rotten to the bones, and wouldn't know love even if it was another naked girl, restregating herself with honour, he thought, with humour.
So anything he felt, he thought it lust. He had seen the boy's attempts to take her out of her head- which surely was very difficult, especially after that ball in which she appeared with Krum. Draco had been bewildered by the sight, he remembered – probably scared to be attracted to a mudblood. So it was just obvious that sooner or later he would attack her.
That's why Snape had kept an eye on him all the time. People like them usually ended hurting their love objects. They couldn't accept they liked them, so they just took what they want with absolute despair. And they never took enough, because they never accepted what they really wanted.
He shook his head with shame. That girl was having a dreadful year, Merlin's bones. No doubt she had nightmares. He hoped the potion was working so well for her as it was doing for him.
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It was.
Hermione wasn't asleep, though. That day she hadn't taken the potion. She was lying on bed, curled up, holding her knees with her arms, still scared. And that it had to be Snape who discovered them...
She didn't know why she felt so embarrased. Stupid was a thing she was not, so she had not lied expecting Draco to be grateful. She had done it because she didn't like telling except if necessary, and also because she didn't want Snape to know. She didn't want to be a charge to him once again. He surely was growing tired of her.
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She was wearing muggle clothes, but also make-up and her hair up when she said goodbye to her friends. She approached the teachers and spoke to McGonagall, and was able to catch a glimpse of Snape speaking to some Slytherins.
Harry and Ron took her to the station, Ron still looking resentful because of her leaving the party without any warning.
"Bye, boys. See you in a couple of weeks" she kissed Harry's cheek, and he was to kiss Ron's but he brushed her lips with his. She blushed, but she just turned round and got into the train. She would have two weeks to think how she could turn Ron down.
She spent the entire trip sleeping.
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"Severus, you cannot do it. It is suicide"
"Headmaster, this has been the third attack. Voldemort is killing muggles. I have to do something."
"No, Snape, you won't do anything." This time Dumbledore hadn't offered him any Lemon Drops. He seemed not in the least bit old, and the twinkle was gone from his eyes. He stood there gravely. "Listen to me, you won't do anything until you are summoned." And it was an order.
Years as a spy had given him the strengh and the courage, but he was still dealing with the patience. Of course he could be very patient. He could stand for hours watching a potion boil, a student's punishment... but now, his own students were in danger. Well, no Slytherins, of course, but muggle borns. He didn't want to recognize it, but from time to time a spell came to his mind and he regretted not having taught it to Hermione. She would be helpless in front of Voldemort.
He went back to his rooms. He tried to find his book, but it was nowhere in sight. He went to potions classroom, but it wasn't there, either. He decided he should get drunk. It had been a very long time since he had done so. Because he needed a good amount of alcohol and because he could be summoned anytime. But he had just some potion to clear up on hand, so he could well afford to celebrate Christmas.
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Hermione woke up when they were arriving in London. Only fifteen minutes, and she would be with her parents.
She took Hamlet out or her trunk. In fact, she was growing tired of it. She hated when a book took her so long to read. Not that she didn't like it, but she had no time.
She froze. It was... someone had... it was painted! Who had painted her book? And they had wrote something on the margins! She couldn't understand what it said but she inmediatly recognized the handwriting. It was Snape's.
She found strange Snape had painted any book, but then, more than he had taken her book. Until she realized she was carrying an identical book on her suitcase. Snape, reading Shakespeare? Funny thought. He was more of a mystery she thought. Just forget you have stolen his book, somehow...
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Lying on his bed broadly awake, Snape was feeling the effects of his hangover. Not that a little headache mattered after years of Cruciatus. He stretched a little, and lazily got out of his bed. Then he understood. It was Christmas day. He was tempted to go back to bed and cover himself with the blankets, but he had essays to correct.
The day went on slowly. Dumbledore planned a special dinner for everyone who was staying. Great. Sitting along with Potter, Weasley and some first years was his real dream for Christmas.
An owl came inside the room. He looked at it. It looked like Potter's.
He was carrying a little package, and he wondered what could it be. Maybe he was about to get his first Christmas present ever? Not likely.
He tore the papers away and suddenly found himself looking at his copy of Hamlet . Staring idiotically at it, he saw a note, in a very clear handwriting. He knew by heart all his student's handwriting.
It was Miss Granger's.
What the fuck...?
Professor Snape,
I am awfully sorry but by mistake I took your book home. (He could nearly she her trembling when she noticed, and laughed.)
I am very sorry, I was reading it myself, and we are using the same edition, or so it seems. I must have put it into my bag the day I cleaned the potions room. I am very sorry, Professor.
I also didn't know if owling it to you would be very proper, but I thought you might need it.
Sorry I took it.
Merry Christmas to you, sir
Hermione Granger.
Well, she sounded really sorry. Sorry, sorry Professor, sorry... he wasn't also very sure that an student owling a teacher was quite right, but he let it pass. He nearly felt the embarrasment she had suffered. He thought of something very funny. Cruel... but funny. Afer all, she had just wished him Merry Christmas!
He took out a piece of paper, scribbled something and gave it to the owl.
The paper read:
Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger