NEMESIS: Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The characters and the universe of Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. No disrespect is intended. This story is written for sheer enjoyment. No profit is being made from it. The story itself is mine.

The Great Hall was awash in chatter on the first morning back to school. I sat in my usual seat across from Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table, listening to, what else, Quidditch talk. I swear, sometimes, these boys make me want to rip my hair out. But, we all deal with stress in different ways. I accept a contract or workout, (they think I read, of course); they talk about Quidditch.

My mind wandered for a while, finally focusing on the Head Table. I wondered at the two vacant spots. 'Hmmm. Who's missing? Who's missing? Potions, Transfig, DADA, CoMC, Herbology… Looks like we're missing two professors. Okay, which ones?'

I was drug from my introverted thoughts by Harry's voice vying for my attention.

"'Mione! Oy! 'Mione!"

I shook myself back to the present, pushed 'Mione forward, and smiled at Harry. "Yes, Harry?"

"We wanted to know if you were still subscribed to the Daily Prophet."

"Of course, Harry. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked as I reached for my glass of pumpkin juice.

"Well, we wanted to make sure you still got it so we could check to see if there has been anything more on that vigilante." Replied Ron.

'Ah, now we're getting somewhere.' "What vigilante, Ron?" I asked in a huff. "Honestly, you really can't believe everything they write in the paper. What if all the journalists are like Rita Skeeter?"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, attempting to roll their eyes without getting caught. I smothered a wholly un-'Mione-like smirk at their attempts at subterfuge.

"'Mione!" Harry and Ron both exclaimed, looked at each other and broke into gales of laughter.

I allowed my stifled laugh to erupt to join theirs just as a flurry of wings announced the morning's post.

An owl dropped the Daily Prophet on my empty plate. (I learned fairly early not to dish anything out before post arrived.) I dug into my satchel for two knuts to pay the owl when a raven dropped a rolled parchment in my lap.

I quickly stuffed the knuts into the owls money pouch and snatched the scroll before anyone could see it. I snuck a glance at my tablemates to see if they had noticed anything out of the ordinary. Thankfully, they were already engrossed in the paper.

Unfortunately, Professor Snape and surprisingly, Draco Malfoy had both caught sight of the unusual delivery. Both were covertly watching me, curiosity evident, despite their cool demeanors.

Although I was itching to see who the new mark was, as that was the only type of correspondence delivered to me via raven, I forced myself to load my plate and finish my breakfast. I was extremely glad that I had gotten an early start this morning. That left me with plenty of time to run back to my quarters, read and accept the contract, and still make it to my first class of the day, which was, uuggh! Double Potions with Slytherin.

I hurriedly finished my breakfast, interrupted Harry and Ron to inform them I had forgotten something in my room and would meet them in class, and then exited the Great Hall. All the while, I was aware of two sets of eyes following my progress.

Once in the hallway, I placed a quick concealment charm and silencing spell upon myself. Not a moment too soon, it turned out, as first Draco Malfoy, and then Professor Snape came walking nonchalantly out of the Great Hall. Both attempted to play off the fact that they had followed me out. Abruptly, Draco turned towards his quarters and Professor Snape started towards his classroom.

Concealed as I was, I smirked to myself and headed silently towards my quarters.

I was shocked, completely and totally shocked. Shocked and just a bit numb.

Dumbfounded, I read through the contract for the third time, hoping that I had misread it the first two times.

Nope. No such luck. Daggonit! Of all the stupid, moronic, imbecilic…

"Aaaarrrgh!" I screamed. This could not be happening.

But there it was, in black and vellum-color.

Contract paid in full for Severus Snape.

How could this have happened? I wanted to hit something. I wanted to kill something. 'Well, there is Snape. You're supposed to hit him, so I guess that's taken care of.'

"No." I said to myself as I paced the length of my bedroom. "No, there has to be a way out of this. I wonder who contracted for this hit."

I struggled to overcome the compulsion spell that bound me to the contract. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. A fail-safe, if you will. In case a mark got a lucky imperio off before I hit it first. Just a minor insidiously pervasive compulsion spell to guarantee justice was served. Unfortunately, both my mentor and myself put this spell into effect. The only way of neutralizing it was to either fulfill the contract, or nullify it by proving that a Death Eater had initiated the contract. That was what I was betting on now.

Sure, it sounds funny. It'd be hilarious, if it didn't happen so often. Death Eater politics, why, it's enough to make even me shudder. Normally, it wasn't that big a deal to me. If a Death Eater contracted out another Death Eater, well, they'd get their's in the end. And in the mean time, one less Death Eater. But, Snape. No, there had to be a way out. I scrutinized the contract again. Unfortunately, since the contract was paid in full, there was no bill-to name.

I fought the urge to scream again as I quickly secured parchment and a quill to whip out a message to my parents and mentors. I had to know who contracted this hit. Something was tickling at the back of my skull. Something about this situation wasn't right.

Finishing the letter, I walked towards the window. I pulled my necklace out from beneath my robes. Instead of a traditional pendant, there, threaded through the silver chain, was a raven-call. I brought the whistle to my mouth and blew.

Within minutes, the same raven landed on my windowsill. She hadn't gone far after dropping the contract with me; instead, she had waited in the Dark Forest for my reply. I gave her instructions to return with a reply to my inquiry, and then threw her to the air.

I watched as she took wing. Once I was satisfied that she was safely off, I turned around and headed to Potions. My heart felt indescribably heavy as I trudged down the stairs. I only hoped there was a way out of that contract. Nemesis had never failed before, and she would not this time either.

The dungeons were dank and dark as always, but my mind was not on the mildew growing in the corners, nor on attempting to identify just what that smell was.

All my attention was riveted on my mark. Professor Snape swept up and down the aisles of the classroom as he lectured. My eyes followed every movement, automatically searching out a weakness that could be exploited.

He finished his lecture, pointed his wand at the chalkboard at the front of the classroom and whispered the incantation to reveal the directions for the potion for today. That finished, he turned back around and caught my gaze before I could lower it. I cursed myself silently; I was not usually this careless.

Quickly, I cleared my mind of anything dealing with the contract, which is to say, most of my thoughts. A suspicious look crossed his face as he received the mental image of me sweeping everything into a back closet and locking it tight. I hurriedly flooded my mind with potions texts. The barrage of information was enough to force him out, but I would not be so lucky next time.

Chastised, I turned my attention toward the chalkboard. My eyes widened before I could help myself. 'What was going on today! It's almost as if I was losing complete control of my functions. Ah, yes. I remembered now. The compulsion spell. Stupid Hermione! Stupid, stupid, stupid!'

At that moment, what sounded suspiciously like a choked off laugh sounded from the front of the room. I narrowed my eyes at the source, which just happened to be my feared Potions Professor. He just arched an eyebrow at me in response. I sighed and once again focused on the chalkboard.

The aperio potion. A potion specifically made to reveal what has been hidden. I scanned through the list of ingredients. I was fairly sure I had all of them in my personal stores. Why hadn't I thought of that earlier? The aperio potion would be the perfect way to identify who contracted the hit on Professor Snape!

I quickly schooled my features back into their semblance of calm and continued with class. I walked to the storage cabinet and retrieved the necessary ingredients and began preparation on the potion.

By the end of 45 minutes, my potion was the perfect shade of periwinkle blue, almost transparent, and the perfect viscosity. I ladled some into a vial, carefully attached a label with my name on it, and with great control, walked to Professor Snape's desk. I placed it on his desk and turned to return to my seat.

"Miss Granger," his silky voice cut through the quiet dungeon air.

I slowly turned back around, struggling to keep my hands from his neck. The compulsion spell was getting much worse. I fought to keep my voice level, 'Mione-like. "Yes, Professor?" I inquired politely.

He smirked at me, raised his wand and cast a disillusionment spell upon me. "Miss Granger, I believe you need to test your potion, if you want to receive a passing grade."

My mind panicked at his words. If I drank that potion, my glamourie would be removed, along with the disillusionment spell he placed on me. If I didn't drink the potion, I would fail this project.

I quickly raced through my options. All two of them. 'Either reveal myself to not only my professor, but to all of the seventh year Gryffindor and Slytherin form, in effect revealing myself to the entire school, not to mention dozens of Death Eater spawn, or fail a class I've already passed, as I've already graduated. Hmmm. Yep, no contest.'

So I did what any brave Gryffindor, secret contractor would do. I turned tail and ran.

By lunch, all of seventh year knew I had run out of potions. By dinner, the entire student body knew. By breakfast the next morning, the ghosts were swearing that I had been transferred to St. Mungo's for a nervous breakdown.

Me? I was sitting in my room, waiting for my aperio potion to finish. The compulsion spell had gotten so bad, my glamourie was suffering. I'd take an absent day of classes over revealing my identity any day.

Finally, it was finished. I grabbed the contract and unrolled it. I transfigured a quill into a paintbrush and dipped it into the aperio potion. Just as I was about to set brush to parchment, my mentor's raven flew in through the window.

I sighed and placed the brush back in the potion, and unrolled the parchment scroll. I smiled as I read the contents. It was not a pleasant smile, and I knew it.

Contract for Severus Snape initiated by Lucius Malfoy

One piece of evidence down, one to go. With renewed purpose, I placed the sodden brush to the parchment of the contract and brushed across the words 'Severus Snape,' right where Mr. Malfoy would have written the mark's name. Sure enough, under Professor Snape's name, the words 'Lucius Malfoy' appeared in bold script.

Bingo!

I sat down on my bed to ponder what to do next. With the two pieces of evidence regarding the contract's initiator, the compulsion spell was broken. What to do now, though?

Once again, my naughty side began to take over. I smiled a truly devious smile, grabbed both letters and tied them to my mentor's raven. I gave her very specific instructions to wait five minutes, then to deliver them to the dark man sitting at the head table.

That done, I hurriedly finished dressing, glamouried myself and scampered out of my room, high-tailing it to the Great Hall. I definitely didn't want to miss this show.

It was so worth the hurry this morning. As expected, all eyes were on me as I entered the Great Hall. I saw Professor Snape scowl fiercely right before he stood up and began moving my way, no doubt with detention in mind.

I caught his gaze and let my mental lock slip just a bit. That bit was enough to make him falter. I'm not certain what images he saw, but it bought me the time I needed. I wordlessly, tilted my head toward the window where the owl post usually comes from. His look of confusion lasted only a moment, and was soon cleared when the same black raven from yesterday flew in, this time with a letter, or two, for Professor Snape.

He automatically caught them in the air, glanced at me again, and then unrolled the parchment. His face was a study in here-to-fore unseen emotion. His eyes widened in disbelief, his face turned white, red and then purple. His eyes snapped twin fires as he turned first to Draco, who tried his best not to wither under his Head of House's gimlet glare, and then to me.

He resumed his stalk towards me, and I awaited him. Through clenched teeth, he growled "Hallway. Now."

I nodded and turned around to lead the way. I could hear the deathly quiet in the Great Hall as we marched toward the doors and out them. I could feel the stares at my back. Curiosity, Pity, even Glee. I smirked, not even trying to hold it in. 'Just you wait,' I warned the gleeful ones. 'Just you wait.'

TBC

A/N: Okay you lucky readers you. Here's chapter number two for your viewing pleasure!

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