Disclaimer: Aw, do I have to? Oh fine! Hate to admit it but (sob) all J.K.'s.

Warnings: Still same, minus the not pretty rape.

A/N: sorry didn't mean to add another A/N just needed to say that the worst is over but still slightly dark fic. Once again this is a H/Hr fic.

Chapter Two: His Room

To say that Professor Severus Snape had a bad night would be subtle. First, he could not sleep throughout the night due to some strange sense of foreboding pestering him. Try as he might, he was unable to get past it. Then, in his private lab, just as he decided to at least get some work done since unable to sleep, he could not find any dried thistle. Frustrated at himself for not having such a basic plant in stock, Snape then found himself unable to remember what he had done that would have exhausted his supply. Fantastic, another thought to unwillingly dwell upon. There were limitless potions that would require the flower, limitless. Deep in thought, he neglected his cauldron, causing the potion to boil clean through the bottom. Well, not clean through, exactly the opposite. Groaning, he muttering a quick cleaning spell and tossed his cauldron aside. As he glared at the burn scar on the table, Snape was briefly reminded of Longbottom's desk. Even more bloody fantastic, I have reminded myself of the worst potion student to ever set foot in Hogwarts.

Finally, with nothing accomplished, three things that he could not escape thinking about and a new putrid smell that will linger in his lab for at least two days, the professor had no choice but to admit defeat and lie in bed until dawn, desperately grasping at whatever sleep Mercy would be willing to allow him.

When he awoke, thirty minutes later than he would have liked, his head rang with the dull feeling of a headache that only lack of sleep could create. Normally, he would have gone to his classroom by walking through the halls. Goodness knows he could issue a few detentions to lighten (or close enough) his mood. Instead he decided to taken his personal corridor within the walls of the castle that led from his private quarters to a hidden door in his classroom supply closet.

Groaning from exhaustion, he settled himself at his desk and pulled out a handful of the most recent assignments collected from his first years. The professor conjured himself a cup of coffee (black, no sugar) and began to grade the horrid work of sheer ignorance. Halfway through his third stack, Snape realized that he had not needed to light any torches upon entering the classroom. Coffee still in hand, he lifted his head and looked around the classroom.

He noticed her immediately. Cup shattering on the floor, robe billowing out behind him, he rushed to Hermione, who lay upon her desk nude with her hands bound above her head. He stopped a few steps shy of the victim in anger and disgust. Left naked, it was obvious what had been done to her but it was the blood dried between her legs that truly revolted him. There was little surprise that she was one of a few seventh years who could still easily approach a unicorn, her virtue was unquestionable. Until now, the professor thought, her virginity has been stolen from her.

Trying not to alarm her, Snape silently slipped out of his outer robe. Yes, she was an insufferable know-it-all, a nosy do-gooder, and innately right about everything but...she is just a child. She does not deserve this; she would never have deserved this. As gingerly as a man such as himself could, he covered her body. Aiming a locking spell at the door (students would be arriving shortly, seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins no less) he was about to lift her when he noticed a vial laying on the desk beside her hip. Always a Potions Master, Snape lifted the container to his nose and inhaled sharply. Immediately, he recognized the smell of the liquid that had once been in the vial. Out of sheer rage he hurled the vial towards the wall. The eruption of glass breaking near her woke Hermione with a start. She screamed in fear, especially when she found herself still tied up, confirming that the night was not just a bad dream.

Snape whirled around towards her. "Miss Granger... It's alright, you're safe." He quickly untied her hands.

Hermione yelled in pain as she moved her arms for the first time in hours. Snape carefully lowered her arms to her sides. "I am taking you to Madam Pomfrey." Numb, she could only nod as silent tears slid down her cheeks. "Can you sit up?" She slowly shrugged. "May I help?" Once more, she nodded.

Sobs erupted from her as her body awoke to even more pain than she had known just hours ago. It seemed like an eternity passed until she was upright. Snape's robe slipped from her shoulders in the process, causing the professor to turn away. "Just let me know when you have secured my robe around you"

Hermione looked at her arms hanging uselessly at her sides. "Professor Snape...I can't do anything right now." she weakly stated.

Yelling inwardly to himself at his ignorance, Snape still looked at the wall opposite Hermione. "May I help?" He asked for the second time.

"Please." Obviously trying to be as proper as possible, he quickly wrapped his robe around her. Several sizes too big, it easily covered her indecent state.

"I am going to take you to the infirmary now. If you could walk I can lead you through the private corridors. They are not large enough to permit me to carry you."

She began to shake with her tears. "I..I can't."

"Understandable. Then I will have to carry you but it will have to be through Hogwarts' halls."

Meekly she nodded. "I know."

Professor Snape struggled to ignore the newest batch of screams that Hermione could not hold back as he lifted her into his arms. Every new movement burned like fire through her blood and muscles. After he waited for her to reduce her screams to just an occasional light sob, he headed for the door.

Opening the heavy wood door with his wand, he strode out of the classroom and the dungeons towards his destination, glaring at anyone who dared to look twice at the petite bundle in his arms.