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CHAPTER 3
HERMIONE AND HER PET
And in which humour gives way to adventure, suspense and some comical angst… (finally, the authoress has understood how angst and humour can go together)
Hermione sat down in front of the fire-place, observing her arm. She had gone to her late grandparents' house in Galway, Ireland which had been lying useless for quite some time now.
How had this thing gotten here? The last time she had seen her arm was before putting on the sweater. And then it had been fine. So she had acquired this – most probably – during her stay in Leaky Cauldron. But the million-dollar-question right now, was of course, how?
She sighed and finally pulled down the sleeve. She wasn't going to get any answers by staring at her hand. Books would have been her immediate solution, but she doubted that there were any books here and she had not had the time to pack up her library.
They were probably going to put up wards and Aurors around her house.
How very annoying!
She thought that she would contact Dumbledore. But she wasn't sure. What if he turned her in? Would he believe her? What would he do when he saw that Mark on her arm?
Most probably, nothing good, she thought bitterly.
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Professor Snape was another person who was on her mind. She wondered what had become of him. Lucius Malfoy would not have been there if he had already killed or captured Snape.
Or maybe he had just got to know that she was there and come for her.
Very possible, she thought with a frown.
As she turned in her seat, she realized that Professor Snape's squirrel was asleep beside her purse.
Smiling sadly, she gently gathered it in her arms and took it with her down to the bedroom.
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He had not eaten anything for a few days now and therefore, he was getting exhausted and drowsy very soon. Hence, as soon as they reached wherever she had decided that they would go, he had fallen asleep.
All he hoped was that she would light that fire soon. It was getting cold in here.
When he woke up, it was pleasantly warm. He realized that he had never been so warm and comfortable in months. The Order work had made him forget every other thing including his comfort.
What surprised him more was that a warm hand was caressing his back.
Merlin! Granger!
He turned slightly to see that she was absent-mindedly running her fingers up and down his back. He was cosily nestled in the warm blankets. She wasn't looking at him, though, but out of the window.
He followed her gaze. It was a pleasant view of the sea that met his eyes. He supposed that they were in some port town. The sea was calm, presently with no boats in sight.
Granger suddenly brought him closer to her bosom, much to his disconcertment. Now, in his human form, he won't have minded it at all – he would have resented it, but not disliked it. But being so small, it was literally suffocating.
But it was her words which surprised him.
"Professor Snape, where are you?"
Was she thinking about him? Why was she crying? What in Merlin's name was she imagining had happened to him?
"It's a pity you don't talk, squirrel," she said to him. "But since you have followed me here, I think you know that your master… Professor Snape… is no more. Oh God!"
She thinks I am dead because my "familiar" has left me. Only if she knew!
"I liked him, you know," she said softly, more to herself than to him, "He was a good man."
Liked me? Good man?
Well, grief does strange things to people's sanity.
"Okay, so maybe calling him good is over-doing it, but he was. Or I like to think so. He was a mean, sarcastic bastard, yeah, but he… cared… for things, you know. He cared that we win and Voldemort be defeated. He cared for Dumbledore and Minerva. And know what, in his own twisted way, I think he cared for me, too."
Severus wasn't thinking anymore. He was just listening. Probably, he was too stunned to think.
"I missed him and I miss him and will always miss him. I loved it when I was his apprentice. I loved the late-night chats. I loved it when I annoyed him. Hell, I even loved it when he annoyed me, I think."
She was smiling slightly now.
"He was so alive for those two years. He was no more a Grim to be feared. He was an annoying man whom I liked nonetheless. He was so intelligent. Just like someone right from Middle Ages. I cannot imagine the world without him. Oh God! I wish I had never left him."
All Severus thought – when he eventually got around to the thinking part – was that she was holding him too tight. If she didn't release her hold on him, he was going to die – literally.
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He struggled out of her grip and lay panting on her stomach. Merlin! He had never known that women were so strong. Never again would he regard them as fragile creatures. Not particularly this brown-haired idiot.
To say that he was unaffected by her declarations would be a lie. He wasn't over-affected, however. He still considered her to be very annoying. Especially because of her curly rat's nest of hair which didn't allow him to snuggle in the pillows.
Oh, well, I guess I have slept enough anyway.
The squirrel got down from the bed and decided that it was meal-time. That is, if there was anything to eat in this old dusty house.
He remembered there were chocolates in her bag. He'd eat those for now.
Did she mean what I thought she meant?
Don't be stupid. You know very well that all this has affected her brain.
She sounded almost sincere.
She had sounded sincere when she had called you an insensitive bastard and thrown a book at your head.
No, that was just a nightmare.
She sounded sincere enough in your nightmare.
Nightmares are not truth.
You've got it wrong there. Dreams don't come true – nightmares do. Look at Potter.
He doesn't have nightmares. All he has is hallucinations, the attention-seeking brat.
She'll wake up tomorrow and forget that she ever knew a man called Severus Snape. You are just a passing phase.
A passing phase.
Yes, that's right. You're as ugly as Krum and as foolish as Lockhart – you would have to be to fall for Granger and have her brain affected by yourself.
She isn't that bad.
She'd not even recognize you if you appeared in front of her in a few days.
And how exactly am I going to do that?
Ah… the little predicament we are in… wonder how we forgot all about it. Ever doomed to nibble nuts…
Granger, I hate you.
Fickle.
That was his chief problem anyway. While most curses wore off in a few days, obviously this Granger-fabrication was permanent. Intelligence was obviously overrated.
He imagined a situation when he would be so desperate that he would have to devise a way to tell Granger who he was. What would happen then? He would probably kill her – or kill himself. Because if Granger came to realize that it was him she was finding 'comfort' in and petting him… well, they'd both die of embarrassment. He was not really ashamed of being a squirrel though. A cute one at that, even if he said so himself.
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I have to do something about all this, thought Hermione, frowning at the Dark Mark on her arm.
But what?
She considered her options.
She didn't want to go to Dumbledore. He was very unpredictable. The last thing she wanted was being suspected even by her friends.
If Professor Snape would have been alive, she would have gone to him.
She shook her head. This was not the time to think about him. She knew that he'd only contempt her if she wallowed in pity and didn't do anything to get out of this predicament.
Maybe she could see some other Order member. Ron? No, if Harry didn't trust him, even Ron won't.
Ginny? While she was her best girl-friend, she wasn't sure about her. After all, she was seeing Harry.
Remus?
Well, that was an option. She knew that Remus won't turn her in without listening her out. Maybe he had come to know about her and the Dark Mark, but she was sure that he would listen to her. She remembered that night in Shrieking Shack all those years ago – how he had forgiven Sirius even though he had suspected him of murdering Mr. and Mrs. Potter thirteen years ago.
Hmmm… he was an option.
She racked her brains thinking if she could find anyone else.
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"Are you eating chocolates, squirrel? That's so… odd."
Hermione knew that squirrels didn't eat chocolates – or did they? She settled on that they did not.
The white creature looked up at her but continued its sweet feast.
"Okay, so maybe you do," she said uncertainly. "I'll get you some milk if you are so hungry. And some nuts and berries. But chocolates… You are a weird creature, squirrel."
The white squirrel ignored her and continued eating.
"I suddenly remembered someone, you know," she said, talking to the small creature because she wanted to talk and obviously, she was her only option. "I wonder if Mrs. Snape would care to know about her son."
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Severus choked on his chocolate.
Brilliant! For once in your lifetime, you are not being a complete idiot, Miss Granger. I am truly impressed.
Your mother is really not an option.
I would bear her wrath than nibble on chocolates.
She might kill you.
She might not.
"I met her once."
Severus just managed to avoid choking again.
"I never told Professor Snape because he would be so angry. I was in the Three Broomsticks. She had called me there to tell me that he might turn back to Voldemort."
Severus was listening very attentively. Granger didn't seem to notice that he had stopped eating.
"He hated her because she had never stood up for him. She said that he had mentioned me in passing when he had gone home. She might make pretence of hating him, but she really didn't. She was wary about him and cared for him in a way only Snapes can care. It was a pretty short meeting."
Severus was baffled by this discovery. His mother had belittled him so much for taking on a Muggleborn as his apprentice.
"I think it would be right to tell her about him. To apologize, maybe… Then we'll go and see Remus. I am sure he will listen."
Severus had more than sneaking suspicion that if they went to Snape Manor first, they would not be seeing Lupin for a long time afterwards.
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Though she had never seen the Snape Manor, she knew its exact location. She had found it in one of the books she had borrowed from Professor Snape once. It gave a detailed account of the important persons of this century.
His father was in that book, she recalled. He had achieved some major breakthroughs in the field and Snape had followed his footsteps because everyone else in the family had been a scholar in Potions. Not that he regretted it, he had said.
Looking at the weather-beaten, yet mighty building before her, she felt gloomy. She looked at the squirrel who would not sit anywhere but on her handbag.
"I want to keep you, you know," she said, caressing him, "because I want something that belonged to him around me. But I guess that you'd rather be with the family?"
He merely looked at her for some seconds and then turned away.
"You're as good as Crookshanks was. You seem to really listen to everything I say."
She knocked with the old-fashioned knocker that was on the great doors. They opened of their own accord. It was spooky.
Inside, Mrs. Snape was standing near a painting, her back to Hermione.
Everything was quiet until she turned and said,
"I knew something was up between you two. But I never thought that you'd come here to take my blessings – not at least in that form, Severus."
Hermione turned around, eerily expecting Professor Snape to pop up behind her.
Meanwhile, the squirrel jumped down and went to Mrs. Snape.
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