Disclaimer: If I owned Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Oliver Wood, Any of the Weasley sons or their portrayers do you think I'd be pissed off right now? No, of all the things I could be doing, that is not one of them.
Chapter 9: Uh…Watchya Doin'?"Poor
fool, he doesn't know!
Hoho,
Hoho!
If he knew the truth,
he'd never, ever go!"
-Poor
Fool, from The Phantom of the Opera
If you asked Hermione, there was never a point at which she switched her motives for learning more about the Dark Arts. She and Lucius had been studying intensively for weeks, and according to her, it was still a ploy to get Lucius to trust her. But slowly, she continued to learn for the sake of knowing, not caring whether or not the information would really be useful in the coming days.
The change in her drive came so slowly, so subtly, that even Snape her avid watcher couldn't exactly decide when it'd happened. But it had. And what could he do about it now? Snape feared he'd let things go too far.
"Hermione?" Snape had arrived at the door. Receiving no answer, Snape let himself in; aware that he was taking a risk after what had happened last time but not caring.
"Hermione?" She was in the sitting room. On her lap lay a book and Snape smiled inwardly. Perhaps she'd not changed as much as he'd thought. Maybe in side she was still the same Hermione he knew.
Or perhaps not.
He grabbed the book she was looking at. Dark Magical Theory. Staring at her, he began to tear into her.
"What the hell is this?" He brandished the book as if it were a weapon. "A book of Dark Magic? What are you thinking?" It was as if all the all the anger he'd been holding in was erupting.
Hermione's eyes flashed as she snatched the book back. "It's none of your business!" she hissed meanly. "Just because you renounced the dark ways doesn't mea that I can't explore them!"
"Can you hear what you're saying?" he asked, gaping at her. "Can you? You spent six months in prison because of those who support Dark Magic! And now you're throwing you're lot in with them?"
For a moment her pupils thinned, looking eerily like those of the Dark Lord's. But they returned to normal so quickly, Severus was left to wonder if it had been his imagination.
"Severus," Hermione spoke his name freely now, and though he hated to admit it, it pleased him. But it didn't distract him from the Slytherin principles she was touting. "You now as well as I do that knowledge is power. And I'm just doing what I have to do to survive. If I learn as much as I can about the Dark Arts before the final battle. Think about how I could contribute to the war!"
Snape stood and dusted off his cloak. He searched Hermione's eyes for something, anything that would suggest that she hadn't been completely lost to the Dark Side.
But he couldn't.
Without another word, he backed away.
Hermione tried to come closer but almost comically, Snape backed away faster, holding out a hand as if to keep her back.
"Don't come any closer!"
LHSLHSLHS
Review. You know no one wants me to get fat.