Hermione looked up at Severus, to see him already looking down at her, but her heart skipped a beat when his face suddenly broke into a sneer, then a smirk. Hermione felt confused and worried as he looked away, to speak to Lucius
"Very well Lucius, you can have her if you want, I'm done with her anyway. In fact I'll be glad to be rid of her, I've told her it's over many times, but she just won't let go! You'll be doing me a favour!" he admitted, an unusuallymalevolent tone now in his voice.
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing, he didn't really mean that did he? Surely not, he couldn't! But as he looked down at her again, his faceseemed resolute, with a cold glint in his eye. Oh my God! I think he does mean it! She thought fearfully, she felt in that moment that everything she thought she knew about him, had just been one big lie. Well he'd certainly been a good liar, as she had trusted him totally and thought him completely genuine. She couldn't move or speak; she just stared at him, her mouth open in shock.
Then he grabbed her arm, pulling her round to face him; "Surprised aren't you?" he said sarcastically, smiling at her shocked expression.
"I don't have to pretend to be Dumbledore's lackey in front of my colleagues over there! They know the real me, the one I've hidden from you so far, but now you get to see it. Well, you did say you wanted to get to know me better!" he sneered again, "You see, I didn't really turn from the dark side, all this time I've been a spy for Voldemort. Why do you think the deatheaters have always been a step ahead of the aurors? Being in the Order means I have access to all of their secret information and of course they trust me implicitly, that's why it is so easy!"
All Hermione could do was to shake her head in disbelief, she wanted to run, but her legs felt rooted to the spot. She still couldn't believe what she was hearing, she felt like all the blood had just drained out of her, goose bumps rose up on her skin and her whole body began trembling. This was worse than Draco's assault on her,to be betrayed by someone she trusted, hurt more than any physical attack ever could.
Then he pulled her closer to him, so that his face was right next to hers, still holding tightly on to her arm.
"Remember that night in the Library? When I used that spell on you? What was it now?" he rolled his eyes briefly as if thinking. "Ah yes! 'consominio ementior'" he said, strangely enunciating the spell words clearly, like you would when you're teaching someone a different language. "A very useful spell, renders the receiver unconscious and they wake up with their most recent memories seeming like a dream! Well I can tell you the truth now Hermione, that it wasn't just a dream, I did rape you that night!"
Hermione just looked confused, that wasn't what happened! Was it? What's he talking about?
Laughter erupted from Lucius then and the other deatheaters joined in. He pulled off his hood, obviously not worrying now about revealing himself in the semi darkness.
"Oh Severus really! It was just too selfish of you not to let me in on your little game! Why didn't you tell me before? I was beginning to think you actually cared for this little mud blood bitch! I have to say I was a little worried about you there for a moment! I thought you'd gone soft and become a muggle lover like that old fool Dumbledore!" Lucuis said to Severus, laughingly. "He does so love to play his little mind games!" he said, after turning round to his deatheater companions, who snickered softly in return.
At this distraction, Severus suddenly widened his eyes and flicked them to the side, so briefly that if she hadn't been staring at him she wouldn't have noticed. A faint hope suddenly flared within her at this subtle signal, she tried to hide a smile as she now began to realise what he was doing – he was onlybluffing! Thank God for that!And doing a very good job too, no wonder he'd got away withbeing a spyfor so long! He had certainly fooled her! But that was obviously the idea, so as to make her reaction as convincing to Lucius as possible.
"I'll take this! We wouldn't want any heroics would we?" Severus said, snatching the still lit wand from her unresisting hand and looking towards Lucius again. She really hoped that he was bluffing and that she could trust him, as she still felt a little uncertain. She kept repeating the words of the spell he had mentioned, over and over in her head; now knowing that he must have said it clearly so she could remember it more easily. If anyone could learn something off by heart quickly, it was her, she had always learnt spells faster and more accurately than anyone else in Gryffendor House.
After taking her wand, Severus then roughly pulled her right arm up her back and walked her towards the gateway. Lucius was still standing with the rest of his cohorts, just outside on the road where he'd apparated in, he had a soft light erupting from his wand and as she got closer, Hermione could see his horribly triumphant smile. When she suddenly felt her wand stealthily being pushed down the back of her strapless dress, she did everything she could not to react, even though she wanted to laugh with relief. Instead she joined in on the act, because like any other woman she couldturn on the tearseasily, if she needed to.
"I can't believe you lied to me like this!" She wailed, looking back towards him "I thought you loved me and all this time you were..still in league with him and all the other scumbags!" then looking towards Lucius
"Oh poor little Hermione! You just don't understand Slytherins do you? You should really know by now, the only person they love is themselves and they will sacrifice anyone, if it means they get to live! Severus is a deatheater, he became one by choice, no one forced him! You won't find many as true to the cause as him, apart from me of course!" Lucius mocked. "But I must admit, you did have me worried there for a moment old friend!" he added
By now, they were only standing just a few feet away from each other. Hermione wondered briefly why Lucius couldn't come through the gate, but knew she would have to work that one out later, right now she had to get ready and psyche herself up for what was to come. Severus had begun a tapped countdown on her bare back, which she knew he must have been doing to let her know exactly when to strike with the spell. This was very helpful, as it left her mind free to concentrate on just doing what she had to do and not when. He started at ten, then when he got down to three she got ready
Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap..... tap! Then he let go of her, pushing her forwards at the same time
Lucius was just about to say "thank you" to Severus, when in a flurry of green taffeta and reddish-brown hair, Hermione suddenly produced her wand from out of the back of her dress and pointed it at the wide eyed Malfoy
"Consominio ementior!" she shouted with all the force she could muster. She had been trying to build up her power all the time she had been walking slowly towards him, using anger. She remembered the time he had tried to rape her that night in Severus's room, when she had been weakened and did not have the strength to fight him and the fact that he had practically told his son to try and do the same. This righteous indignation had fired her up to such a degree that she now had no idea how much power would be behind the spell, or even if she would do it correctly. She had never done it before, but had read about it, she'd looked it up after Severus had performed it on her.
There was a sudden blinding flash as the spell came shooting out of Hermione's wand with such a force that Lucius was knocked flat onto his back, his body rigid and his face blank with shock. Then as the sleeping part of the spell took effect, he closed his eyes and visibly relaxed. The other deatheaters, who were still hooded, seemed taken aback by this turn of events and did not react straight away,by the time theygot out their wands, ready to fire at Hermione, Severus had already got his wand in position.
"Petrificus totalus" he cried loudly, somehow throwing the spell out in to a kind of arc. This had the effect of rendering all the deatheaters ridgid and helpless on the ground at once. Then he walked among them as they lay helpless, uttering the memory charm Hermione had just used, picking them off one by one.
Hermione just stood there shaking, she couldn't believe what she had just done and had no idea she had so much power.
"I..I..I didn't know I had it in me!" she said shakily staring at the now prostrate Lucius in front of her
"and I thought you knew everything!" said Severus sarcastically,as he walked towards her, his wand lit.
"Now will you listen to me and go back to the school! They won't be out for long and there is no guarantee how long the spell will work on Lucius either, even though it seemed powerful enough"
Hermione hesitated, not wanting to leave him, but at the same time wanting to go back to the comfort of the school after her experience. She felt proud though, she had stood up to Lucius and she felt she would now no longer be as afraid of him as much as before.
She rushed up to Severus and reaching up, kissed him on the lips, he responded by catching her around the waist and back of her head and briefly returning the kiss. When they seperated, she couldn't hide her excitement, which seemed to amuse him
"Get used to that feeling, you'll be doing a lot more of that sort of thing when you become an auror! Do you think you have the stamina for it?" he asked with a small smile
"Huh! I'm a Gryffendor! Of course I have! I'm ready for anything those deatheaters can throw at me now!" she replied, still not being able to wipe thelook of utter triumph off her face
"Do not get too full of yourself, we were just lucky that time. If you had not said the spell correctly or a moment to late, you'd probably be dead by now! But I felt it was a risk worth taking, I couldn't let him take you" Severus said more soberly, looking down briefly
Hermione felt touched at these words and looked at him smiling, "You really got me going to there for a moment, you know! You are the most convincing liar I've ever met! You really are a true Slytherin, Severus Snape! Sly, sneaky, cunning and...arrogant with it!" Hermione said cheekily, laughing softly. Severus merely snorted and pursed his lips, in a way that Hermione now found quite cute
"Go!" he said, pointing in the direction of the school exasperatedly
Hermione obeyed him giggling quietly, now she felt certain she knew where his loyalties lay - with the Order and she felt sure with her too. Or was he just protecting her as he would any student? No, not with the way he kissed her just then.
She reached the school and as she was heading towards the Gryffendor common room, she suddenly had an idea. She still had the pendant that Severus had given her but she hadn't used it since that one time. She could use it to get in to his room and wait for him in his bed! She needed to get changed first of course though! Feeling excited, she walked up to the Fat lady and uttered the password 'chocolate frog' and climbed in.
Once up in her room, she found Ginny already asleep. The poor girl hadn't quite managed to get undressed properly; she must have been really tired. She had onlygot her dress half way off and wasn't covered with any sheets. Hermione smiled and pulled the sheets up over her sleeping friend, which immediately disturbed her
"Where did you get to? We thought you'd gone off in a huff!" Ginny said groggily on seeing her, "We even looked for you on the map, but you didn't show up on that, until we looked on the grounds section, then we saw you at the gates with Snape. We guessed you must have been okay if you were with him, so we decided to wait 'till you came back. The boys were down in the common room, well at least Harry was. I just couldn't stay up any longer though, I was so.." she yawned, "tired!"
"Well I wasn't just with Severus!" Hermione said to Ginny, her red haired friend's eyes now closing again.
"But I'll tell you what happened in the morning!" she finished smiling.
She lay on her own bed looking up at the canopy, thinking about what she had just done. Then she remembered the pendant and had just decided to get it, when suddenly tiredness hit her. She promised her self she would just close her eyes for five minutes, but sleep soon took hold and she didn't wake up until morning.