"Professor!" she gasped.
Before she could blink, he had thrown himself into the room, seizing her by the arm and pulling her forcefully into the light of his bed chamber.
Hermione screamed. Snape flung her across the room so that she landed on her back on the bed.
Breath coming in sharp gasps, she quickly pushed herself up to look at him with wide, terrified eyes.
He was standing with his back to her, one hand resting against the front of the door which he had thrown shut. His shoulders shook once lightly. She trembled in spite of herself, wishing he would say something.
A full minute passed in tense silence, the only sound breaking the utter stillness being Hermione's shallow gasps.
"Pro…professor?" she whispered.
She watched as he curled his gloved fingers against the door, before turning slowly to look at her.
"Hermione," he said hoarsely.
She trembled again. He was standing stock still.
"I…I'm sorry," she said, her voice becoming ever more quiet. "I didn't mean to disturb anything…"
He laughed suddenly. A harsh, bruising sound. She winced.
"Didn't mean to disturb anything?" he murmured, advancing on her very slowly. "Of course not. No one ever means to. Disturb things, I mean."
She swallowed the tense knot that was forming in her throat. Whether or not she cared to admit it, she was terrified beyond her own comprehension.
"Do you know where you are, Hermione?" His voice was soft.
"No, Professor," she whispered.
"Don't call me that," he said sharply. "I am no longer a professor." He turned away from her slightly so that she was looking at the masked side of his face. "However," an odd emotion closed his eyes, "I suppose I may address you as such…Professor Granger."
Hearing her title on his lips made her shiver. She wasn't sure why.
"Which is why I've brought you here," he said, suddenly assuming a more business-like manner. "Your treatment of young Mr. Stefek was frankly embarrassing. You shouldn't have accepted his paper late."
Despite her complete shock at the entire situation, her gut feeling of terror, and her still ragged breathing, Hermione felt a ripple of anger course through her.
Sometimes that Gryffindor pride was a marvelous thing, and sometimes it was a bloody pain in the arse.
"Excuse me?" she spat. "You're not actually criticizing my teaching, are you? When I've been covering up for you for the past two months purely out of the goodness of my heart?"
Oh, what she wouldn't give to rewind time and take that entire statement back. Now she was in for it.
She stiffened immediately as he surveyed her, now staring at directly into her eyes.
Suddenly, he chuckled softly.
Hermione couldn't have been more surprised if Voldemort had pranced into the room, handing out candy and signing adoption papers for Harry.
"Yes," Snape murmured, "the goodness of your heart". An intense look of sadness clouded his eyes for a moment.
Hermione swallowed. She was pretty sure her stomach had now permanently become a series of twisted, painful knots. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."
"Yes you did," he admonished softly. "You don't say things you don't mean. Especially when you say them on impulse."
The tone of his voice made her squirm a little. A sudden thought struck her. And she didn't like it. Not one bit.
"Yes, I've been following you, Hermione," Snape said quietly. Hermione, who had dropped her gaze to the carpet, looked up at him again with wide eyes.
"I forgot you were a Legilimens," she said, feeling the color rise in her cheeks.
A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. "One doesn't have to be a Legilimens to read the terror on your face."
Having said this, he took a few more deliberate steps towards her. Oh God. If she only knew how badly his hands ached to smooth her flyaway chestnut hair from her face. To cup her cheek tenderly. To run the rough pad of his thumb along her soft lips. She was exquisite.
As he watched, her warm brown eyes narrowed considerably and she slid her feet to the floor, drawing herself up to her full height.
"I am not terrified," she said clearly, though her legs shook slightly.
"Yes, you are," he said. "Being terrified in no way coincides with being weak." On the contrary, I think you are one of the most breath-takingly powerful, beautiful, and intelligent witches it has ever been my pleasure to detain in my chambers. "No one could blame you for being terrified, given the circumstances. I assume you believed me dead."
"Not dead, no." She let out a breath she didn't she'd been holding. The conversation was beginning to turn back to a subject she could firmly wrap her mind around. "But Albus told me…he said…"
Snape raised a hand to silence her. "I can only imagine what horrors the Headmaster has been regaling you with. Because he himself does not know what state I am in. Due to the nature of my injuries, I was sent away to a very private ward in St. Mungo's. They released me several weeks ago…completely free to come back and resume my normal teaching duties. But I…" his voice broke suddenly and turned his back on the girl completely, "I could not return."
"What?" Hermione asked, her mind reeling with this surplus of new information. "Why not?"
"Because," he said in a voice so quiet Hermione found herself inching forward in order to hear him, "because…of my disfigurement."
"Your what?"
"Miss Granger…you saw me that night."
Hermione paused. She wasn't sure whether or not she should pretend that the image of his mangled face hadn't haunted her every night for the last two months. But the sharp intellect he had always possessed was just a step ahead of her.
"I trust the image has remained rather fresh in your memory."
Hermione swallowed. "Yes," she managed to whisper. "But I thought…surely the Healers must've…"
"You of all people should know that some wounds go too deep. Too deep for even…magic to heal."
"Are you referring to Harry?"
She watched as his shoulders moved while he drew in a deep breath. "As much as I hate to bring that boy into an already perfectly miserable conversation, yes. I am referring to Harry."
"So then…you must have scars…Scars that can't…"
"…be removed with magic," he said, completing her unfinished thought.
A moment of silence hung in the air between them as Hermione's brow furrowed and she studied the intricate weaving on the back of her former professor's robes.
"But…they're just scars. Don't you remember when Mad-Eye taught here? That man is a walking scar! And I certainly don't recall anyone ever giving him trouble for it."
"Alastor is an old man," Snape said in a heavy voice. "He was also, for that matter, a relatively unknown man. The students did not have a pre-set notion of what he must look or act like."
"And you are…"
"…the great bat of the dungeons."
"Don't say that," Hermione said quickly, feeling an odd emotion at seeing this nearly broken man before her. "I happen to think you're an extremely intelligent man." She paused, trying to gauge his reaction, but he remained facing away from her, completely motionless. "I can't believe you would let something like a few scars stop you from teaching the students of Hogwarts. They need you. And deep down, I believe that you need them."
Snape suddenly turned sharply and strode towards the previously locked door. He threw it open, ricocheting it off the wall with a resounding band, and continued on into the next room.
Naturally curiosity winning out over good judgment, Hermione walked quickly after him.
"Where are you go…" she trailed off into silence, standing stock-still in the doorway.
What in the hell was going on here.
A/N:lies groveling at reviewers feet: I apologize profusely for the lateness in this update. I've been unbelieveably busy lately, what with turning 18 and applying to colleges and building my physics project and whatnot. Anyway, I'm very very sorry and I promise on my non-existent child's life that I was update this quicker from now on.
Before I go though, I must say to No, Wood is not a stick…HOW THE HELL ARE YA? It's been, like, forever since I've talked to you! How's the writing going? How's life going? How's the hell-ishness of highschool treating you? I'm about ready to off myself. Luckily I'm graduation soon :x. Anyway, I'm glad to see you haven't died either! YAY! We win!
And to all my other reviewers: THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS! I LOVE AND APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU!
And now…off to the huge snowball war I have planned for this evening! Yay!