A/N It's a long chapter! That coupled with the fact that I've updated the day after I posted the first chapter ought to have you all wondering whether I'm me or whether somebody's stolen my account… but really, who would want to? I'm on holidays at the moment, so don't expect the frequent updates to happen for much longer, but I thought I might as well post it seeing that I'd written it. I hope you like this chapter… please feel free to point out any mistakes, inconsistencies, rampant OOCness (I can't catch everything because, frankly, this would never happen in canon) and make any other comments you want to.
This part is for questions answered… skip on to the story if you're not interested. Firstly, thanks to everyone who reviewed… I hadn't expected nearly so many of you do to so and I'm really happy you did! The solventus, for Confused-Gal, as the name suggests, was designed to dissolve things… in my own little HP world, this means glue, basically… designed to get rid of any kind of adhesive. Which is why it's ironic that they're stuck together. I'll go back and make that far more clear when I do my final edit… it really was very confusing. I think PotionsMistress' question is answered in this chapter, and to BaYerrulz I'm afraid I'll stick with Hermione's PoV… I think I write better from her perspective (scary thought, no?). Oh, and I haven't written much in the first person before, so please tell me if I accidentally lapse into "Hermione said" and "she thought." To lala, I don't really want to reveal more of the plot than I have to before writing it, so I'll save the challenge stuff for after the story's finished… if you want to see it anyway, though, you can find it on wiktt… it's the superglue challenge. If you can't find it tell me and I'll email you the challenge rules. I'm not actually engaged (I'm only 17… not that that's stopped some people I know…), but I'm glad you kicked your ex out and that he wasn't abusive towards you… I'd like to say maybe he's changed, but I know far too well that it doesn't happen often, sadly. Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed, and here's the chapter!
Chapter Two
We made it back to Professor Snape's rooms eliciting only a few shocked glances from frightened-looking students. Thankfully enough I didn't know any of them personally, which meant (I optimistically thought) that there wouldn't be any more crazy rumours flying around than there already were. Anyway, we finally reached a hallway in the dungeons. Snape stopped next to a patch of stone wall that looked exactly like the rest of the hallway without telling me that he was going to do so, so of course I ended up tripping over my own feet. Again there was a wrench and Snape and I ended up flat on our backs in the middle of the hallway, our joint arm aching anew.
"Miss Granger," Snape growled. I bit back the rude reply that was on the tip of my tongue; we could argue once we were inside his room, not lying in the middle of the hallway. I tried to get to my feet (quite difficult with one arm attached to a potions professor), but of course I was immediately pulled back by the arm I now shared with Snape.
"Perhaps, Miss Granger," Snape said icily, "Co-operation would help?"
Very reluctantly I said, "Of course, Professor Snape," instead of "So why the bloody hell aren't you moving?"
"Very well then. We'll stand on three. One, two, three!" Slowly and shakily we got to our feet. Snape turned back to the blank wall with a force that meant I had no choice but to turn with him. He took his wand from a pocket somewhere and using his right hand (the one that meant my hand was sticking out uselessly in the air again) tapped a complicated sequence on the bricks. Then he leant close to the wall and whispered what I assumed was a password, glaring at me after he had done so for good measure. I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes… this condition wasn't exactly going to be resolved in a hurry and I couldn't go anywhere without him so what was the point in keeping the password to his rooms a secret?
A door materialised in the wall and Snape muttered something else. Then he twisted the doorknob with his left hand and we awkwardly walked together into the room. He slammed the door behind him, again causing me to stumble forward a few steps as he turned. I was getting thoroughly sick of this. He turned again and wordless walked over to the sofa in the middle of the room. It faced a fireplace in which there was a merrily burning fire. The rest of the room, I noticed, was surprisingly more cheerful than I would have thought. There were two large bookshelves overflowing with books, a well-used armchair next to the sofa, and a desk covered rather messily with parchments.
My observation of Snape's living room was cut short as I found myself falling and suddenly sprawled across the sofa, my head banging against Snape's shoulder before settling on the couch behind me.
"Why the hell can't you tell me when you're about to do something?" I snapped at him, finally having had enough. "You didn't tell me when you stopped walking, you didn't tell me when you closed the door, and you didn't tell me when you sat down! All it does is make both of us uncomfortable."
He sneered at me before saying, "It should have been fairly obvious, Miss Granger, that I intended to sit seeing that we have just walked to the couch. If your much-vaunted intellect was anywhere near as praiseworthy as you appear to think you would already have realised that I was about to sit."
I felt a headache coming on. "Look, professor, do we really have to argue right now? It's late, I'm tired, and instead of celebrating my eighteenth birthday I'm stuck here on your couch unable to separate myself from you." He opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it, "I know you don't want to be here either… probably about as much as I don't, but there's nothing we can do right now. Can we just… I don't know… do something. Eat, maybe? I'm starving."
"Have you quite finished your little speech, Miss Granger?" Snape asked me with a raised eyebrow. I really wanted to hit him just then. Thankfully, the food that Dumbledore had offered to have sent to Snape's room appeared on the table at that moment, distracting me from smacking Snape across the face.
I leant forward to take a plate of what appeared to be lamb chops and mashed potatoes, not caring that I was pulling Snape forward with me as he had done so objectionably not much earlier. I reached to pick up a fork with my left hand at the same time Snape reached for his plate. There was an awkward moment and then that excruciating pain shot up my… our arm again.
"Oww!" I said involuntarily, at the exact same time Snape did. I looked at him in surprise, the pain have disappeared as soon as it had come. He was frowning at the arm.
"We should probably test the limits of this," he said, still frowning. Then, with a glance at me, he added, "but perhaps after we eat. I suggest you allow me to cut this up now, and then you may have use of the arm to eat. Assuming you eat with better manners than your friends, that is."
For some reason his slur on Harry and Ron didn't annoy me as much as it should have done, but then again I was always restraining the urge to nag the two of them for their atrocious table manners. I agreed to Snape's remarkably polite suggestion, despite his snipe at my friends, and sat uncomfortably upright as he commenced cutting up his meat into small slices. It was strange having my arm (from the elbow down, at least) moving completely involuntarily, but I let Snape take control. As we sat in silence, I found myself for the first time actually thinking about the situation we were in. It was unreal. I was permanently attached to Professor Snape.
Snape moved the arm to the table and, with a raised eyebrow at me, told me that he had finished. I merely nodded my head and began eating my own food, watching from the corner of my eye as Snape. To be honest, I was quite interested in how he would manage the mashed potato with only a fork and no knife to… I shook myself a little, trying to pull myself together.
"Could you please not fidget, Miss Granger?" Snape asked tiredly.
"Sorry, professor," I replied. I was stuck to Professor Snape. Oh, God.
We finished the meal in silence for the most part, Snape finished his food first. He sat upright next to me until I placed my knife and fork together, and then he sat back into the couch. I bit back an angry comment that he again hadn't told me he was going to suddenly move, realising that he had waited for me to finish my food, at least, before sitting back.
"What do we do, Professor?" I asked plaintively. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"I don't know," he said grudgingly. "We need, I think, to… examine the problem. With your permission, I should like to remove as much of our sleeves as possible so we can look at our arms. Arm. Accio knife." A knife came flying towards us from the desk, which he deftly caught in his left hand.
"If you would?" he asked, offering me the knife. I took it, surprised at first, but then realised that he was probably right-handed and so obviously couldn't do the task himself.
"Just cut the sleeves off?" I asked uncertainly. He nodded. So I did, cutting first from my wrist up to my shoulder, then around to remove the entire sleeve. Reaching down the back was difficult, and I had to move our arm to cut all the way around, but Snape didn't say anything. Then I did the same to his sleeve. He sat unnaturally still, and I realised how much self-restraint it must have taken for him to allow me to bring such a sharp object up and along the skin of his arm. The sleeves finally fell off, and the proximity of our now bare arms struck me, making me uncomfortable all over again. Trying to ignore the feeling, I sat forward and examined the product of Neville's accident.
It was definitely my arm up to the elbow; lightly freckled and slightly chubby. At our elbows, though, our arms joined, fused together. It wasn't just as if the skin had melted, our two arms had actually combined to make one. I hesitantly reached with my right arm and touched it with a finger. It felt like my arm.
"Did you feel that?" I asked hesitantly. Snape nodded.
"It feels exactly as my arm usually does," he admitted. "Try… gently, let's try separating it." I nodded, and we slowly tried to move away from each other. My shoulder was straining a little, and then suddenly there was excruciating pain in the arm and Snape and I were wrenched together, shoulder to shoulder once more. We separated to the distance we'd become accustomed to and looked at each other.
"Well, that established that we're stuck like this," I said morosely.
"Mmm. How far can we move in other directions?"
"What, front and back?"
"Unless you plan on suddenly levitating, Miss Granger, yes, front and back."
I ignored that comment and said, "I don't know. I suppose we'll have to try it. Um, maybe we should stand up."
"Okay then. Now," he said, and stood. This time, thanks to his warning, I was ready, which meant we didn't have to go sprawling backwards onto the couch again.
"We will try backwards first," Snape said decisively. "Perhaps away from the coffee table." We walked, slowly, away from the table and the couch to the clear space in the middle of the room.
"Right then. Turn to your right. Slowly." I turned, as did he, and we actually managed to get almost back-to-back.
"That was mostly shoulder muscles, I think," I said aloud, and then quickly, to forestall any sarcastic comments on his part, asked, "shall we try the other way now, sir?" He nodded agreement and we, slowly once more, turned towards each other. He was uncomfortably close to me, and by the time we had moved as far as we could, my nose was pressing into his lips in a strange parody of a kiss. We both moved back quickly.
"Well, we've discovered how far we can go, at any rate," I said quickly, my cheeks burning in embarrassment.
"Undoubtedly." Snape looked at his watch. "It is near midnight, and we both have… oh, damn."
"We both have?" I asked him. I was surprised to hear him swear; I had never before heard Professor Snape do so and it surprised me.
"Classes," he supplied.
"Ah. Um… oh."
"Not quite the way I would have put it," Snape said with actual humour in his voice, "But I agree. Tell me, honestly, how much do you actually need to go to your classes?"
"I suppose I could get the notes from someone," I said dubiously.
"Does anybody else actually take notes?" he asked frankly.
"Lavender does. And Parvati. They're not really all that great, but they'll do… I probably know most of the stuff anyway." I realised how that sounded the second it left my mouth, but I couldn't exactly take it back. Surprisingly enough, Snape didn't make any sarcastic comments or sneer at me or anything.
"As I thought," he said heavily. "I suggest we go to my classes tomorrow, as I am paid to work here and it is my obligation. Then we will have the weekend to find ways out of this predicament." Snape didn't look too hopeful. I wasn't either, though; if Dumbledore and Pomfrey hadn't found a way to get us out of the mess I doubted we would be able to without months of research and work.
"Of course, sir. Um, we'll need to practise walking, and stuff, to be able to… well, for this to work."
"I agree. But not, I think, tonight. We will sleep, now, and wake early tomorrow morning to deal with that."
Surprisingly, I found that I completely agreed with him. My toothbrush, pyjamas, and everything else was all in my room in Gryffindor tower, but I didn't even want to think about changing or tooth-brushing or anything else right now.
"The bedroom is this way." I would have to share a bed with Snape. I shuddered. "Is there anything you desire from your room for tonight?" he asked awkwardly.
"I'll get it tomorrow," I replied, too tired to care about anything. "I'm too exhausted right now."
"As am I. You do not… ah, wish to change, or use the lavatory?" he asked.
I blushed again, quickly saying, "No, no, that's okay. Um… yeah."
"Good," he quickly said. Still, having brought it up I was suddenly terrified. I would have to use the toilet at some point soon, probably tomorrow morning. And I'd have to shower and change or I would smell… but I didn't want to think about it now and Snape obviously had no intentions of doing anything either.
"Let's go to bed, then, sir," I said, knowing exactly how it sounded but not quite sure how I ought to have phrased it.
"Of course. It is that door," he said, pointing to one of the two leading off from the room. We walked into the bedroom. I was dreading sleeping next to him, but dreading the next day even more. I sighed. Somewhere, there was a god that really hated me. Next to me, Snape sighed too.