NEMESIS: Chapter 3
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.
Professor Snape actually lasted much longer than I would have given him credit for. It took him a full two minutes, at least, before he attempted to intimidate poor 'Mione Granger. Two minutes is a big deal, for him.
"Miss Granger," he began in that silky voice of his. "You will kindly inform me of the, I'm sure, highly logical reason you felt it would be a good idea to pull a prank of this magnitude at the beginning of the school year." His lips curled into a cruel smirk at his pronouncement of 'logical' and 'prank.'
For a moment, I felt pity for him as his suffering at the hands of the Marauders was swiftly brought to the forefront of my mind. I pondered this, wondering if I should ease up a bit on him. True, I was having a bit of fun, but more importantly, I was trying to warn him. Fortuitously for myself, the malicious, wholly Slytherin glint in his eye gave away his game.
Right then. No sympathy. Perhaps a bit of shock value instead. I smirked at him. Nemesis smirked at him. His eyes widened at the sight of such an expression appearing on little 'Mione Granger's face.
I turned away from him, just long enough to murmur a quiet concealment charm and silencing spell for our surrounding area. When I turned back to face him, his mouth was open in prelude to the coming diatribe. I did the only thing that would effectively shut him up long enough for me to begin the conversation.
I melted the glamourie.
Silence reigned for a whole five minutes while a waited for him to take it all in. To the end of my days, I will remember my most feared and respected professor, gaping at me like a fish. He must have opened and closed his mouth while trying to formulate a question at least a dozen times. Finally, he settled on:
"Who?"
"Who am I, Professor Snape?" I asked him, trying to buy him some time to gain his composure. While it was humorous and definitely memorable to catch him off guard like that, I was beginning to become a bit unnerved by his whole un-Snape-ness.
He nodded in confirmation, not trusting himself to speak more at that moment. His eyes began to clear and I heaved an internal sigh of relief. This Snape I could deal with. In keeping with the familiar footing, I allowed the pretenses of 'Mione Granger to melt away, the last of the glamourie gone. Now all that stood before him was Nemesis nee Hermione.
"Professor, you know who I am."
"Nemesis." It was not a question. And although he tried valiantly to hide it, I detected the waver of fear in his voice.
I nodded, and decided to help him out a bit. "Very good, Severus."
His fear evaporated, even for a time as he glared at me and growled out. "Miss Granger, you will not use your position to disrespect a professor of this institution. Fifty points from Gryffindor, and I believe that a trip to the Headmaster's office is in order. You'll be lucky to retain your Head Girl rank, let alone graduate once he discovers your 'secret.'"
To his surprise, I laughed. Not a pretty laugh, but a darkly cynical laugh. Strangely, it was the type of laugh I always assumed he would utter. Should he ever be compelled to laugh.
"Severus, Severus, Severus." I shook my head in mock despair. "Do you really think I would reveal myself to you and not plan for this sort of scenario? Of course not, I'm a Gryffindor. Gryffindors are to foolish to plan anything out." I sighed dramatically.
"Severus, the minute you opened those parchments, a very specific spell was placed on you. Can you think of what type of spell that might be?"
His glare was the only answer I received.
"Fine, then. Because I'm feeling generous, I'll tell you. The next one, you'll have to work for.
"Firstly, when you opened those parchments, a conditional obliviate was placed upon you. As you can well guess, I have taken quite the risk in revealing my identity to you. Should your mind be broached either by leglimens or Veritaserum, or should you willingly attempt to disclose my identity, that knowledge will be completely and utterly obliviated from your mind."
At his look of disbelief and, curiously enough, horror, I clarified my meaning. "Only the knowledge that Hermione Granger is Nemesis. The spell was created as a contingency plan, if you will. There is too much at stake for that information to get out to just anyone."
He nodded his understanding, and then turned his attention to the contract in his hand.
I studied him, as he studied his death warrant. For someone who had just learned how close he had come to being assassinated by the school's know-it-all, he was remarkably calm. Of course, he was Snape.
Finally, he turned his attention back to me. He studied me for a long moment, and then nodded decisively.
"Miss Granger," he began, but I felt the need to interrupt him.
"Severus, let's start with one thing perfectly clear. Any talk of business is not to mention 'Miss Granger' in the sentence. 'Mione Granger does not know anything about contracts. 'Mione Granger will give you the correct answer to any question in class, and be unfailingly polite to you.
"However, I am not 'Mione Granger. You will address me as either 'Hermione' or 'Nemesis' for the purposes of business. It is quite difficult enough keeping the two apart, without you complicating things further."
He glared at me again. I was really beginning to think that was the only expression his face was capable of. Okay, that and smirking.
"Fine. Hermione. I have a proposition for you. I can supply you with a continuous contract, payment in materials. What would I get in return?"
My breath hitched in my throat. 'A continuous contract. All the Death Eaters; he had to mean all of them. All of the Death Eaters!' The desire I felt for what he was offering caught me by surprise. Even after all these years, it still scared me a bit that I could feel that much hatred., not that wasn't it. That much nothingness. Because truly, I felt nothing for them. They were marks. Not even gender-specific. Even in my thoughts, they were either 'the mark' or an 'it.'
I looked at him, and he knew he had me. Despite the fact that he already knew, I tried my best to compose myself.
Without a second thought, I nodded my agreement to his terms, whatever they may be. I had this chance to completely rid the world of them. Yes, Harry would kill Voldemort. But his followers were mine.
"What do you want in return?"
"An exchange in two parts. One part to be exacted now; the other to be paid when the need arises. The first, you already know."
Although my mind staggered under the consequences of my actions, I readily agreed. I snapped my fingers and a contract immediately appeared in my hand. I passed my hand over it and the standard contract language appeared. I passed the parchment over to Severus for his approval.
At his nod, I summoned a quill and a tablet to write against. "Just write his name where indicated and sign your name for fulfilled payment."
He followed my instructions. I scanned the document once more and, seeing everything in order, passed my hand over the top of it. The contract glowed silver, and then disappeared. It would reappear on one my mentor's desks.
Business concluded, I closed my eyes and reapplied my glamourie. When I opened them after double-checking that everything was as it should be, Snape was watching me with a bemused expression on his face. I arched an eyebrow at him. I'm sure the action caught him off guard, 'Mione Granger would never presume to apply such a familiar tactic towards a professor.
"What was 'secondly'?" He asked.
I just looked at him in puzzlement. 'What is he talking about?' I asked myself.
He heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Before your explanation of your tailored obliviate, which I would be very interested to learn more about someday, you began the sentence with 'Firstly.'
"What was 'secondly'?"
"Oh!" I laughed. "'Secondly,' was the fact that, while I may be a student here as far as anyone, staff included, is concerned, my education does not rest solely on your, or any professor's, good will."
From the look on his face, he clearly was not getting it. Funny, I never thought of Professor Snape as particularly dense.
"I've already graduated, Severus."
His eyes bulged and he began to sputter. 'Really, who would have thought that would be worse than 'Mione Granger being Nemesis?'
"Ho.., Whe.., Ho.., Whe.."
I decided to take pity on the poor man before he fell into apoplectic shock. "'How' would be aging through extended use of the time-turner, which provided me with enough time to study and take my O.W.L.'s and my N.E.W.T.'s. 'When' would be last summer. Good day, Severus."
I simultaneously dropped the silencing charm and the concealment charm and made my way to Gryffindor tower. I was hard-pressed to control my smirk as I heard my esteemed 'Professor' Snape mutter "Bloody hell," in true Ron Weasley fashion.
I glanced down at the contract in my hand, and my battle with the smirk was lost. 'At last, I can go after it.' I had waited so very long for this particular mark. No one had had the guts to attempt a contract before on it.
All in all, this had been a satisfactory day. And it was only mid-morning.
A/N: Well, there you have it. I know, I know, it's been a full bloody month and all I have to show for it is this itty-bitty piddling chapter! Aaarrrggh! Yes, I know it doesn't make up for the time lapse. Unfortunately, it may take me another month to get another chapter out. Hubby, me and little 'uns are moving at the end of this month, so most of my free time will be spent packing. BUT, I will most devoutly attempt to put more effort into writing, both 'Nemesis' and 'The Potions Master.' Furthermore, I don't think I really need to mention this, but these stories are all AU, HBP does not exist in my universe. Of course, if it did, Nemesis would have set off immediately after dear Severus, if he would have even made it out of the castle.
Having wasted much time writing that, please read and review. Let me know what you think. Next time: Whom is Nemesis so excited to have a contract on? Let's ponder that a while, shall we. AAAAAAAANNNDDD. Cue exit music.
Taa.