Chapter Nine
\\/
A few weeks before the Easter holidays began, Hermione passed Snape in the hallway, and pretended to stumble slightly, sending a first year Ravenclaw into a third year Slytherin. The Slytherin turned around furiously, and under the cover of the scuffle Hermione shoved a note into Snape's hand. She felt his fingers tighten around it, and moved away instantly.
"These first years really ought to be more careful," she said dryly to Arabel, who snorted in a most unladylike fashion.
The day passed slowly for Hermione, who was almost vibrating with excitement. When dinnertime finally arrived she made a great show of complaining about having a headache, before making her excuses and heading in the direction of the hospital wing. Once out of sight, she disillusioned herself and took the first staircase downstairs towards the dungeons.
It took Hermione more than two hours to ward an unused classroom in the Slytherin dungeons. Although the Room of Requirement would have been ideal, it had powers that she might one day need - and its existence was an secret advantage she wasn't ready to give up yet. Not even to Snape.
The classroom was one that Hermione had never seen used before, and it was small and dusty. A few cleaning charms took care of the grime and the cobwebs, and then she began work in earnest.
Hermione used her wand to carve runes around the doorway, and tapped them with her wand to active them. Just enough to make sure the door wouldn't be visible to anyone. Then she focused on the room as a whole. Taking a deep breath, and eyeing the stone walls, Hermione began to carve.
An hour later the room was undetectable, soundproof, blast proof and magic proof. It was several times larger than it had been, and resembled nothing so much as an enormous underground cavern, roughly hewn from stone and lit by several floating globes of light.
Hermione knew it was a little theatrical, but she even added the sound of dripping water.
Taking one last look around at the austere and barren cavern, Hermione exited the room and went to change her clothes, confident that nobody would be able to access her fighting chamber without nasty consequences. In the days when Snape was head of house, she would never have risked it – but Slughorn probably wouldn't even take points if he found out.
\\/
Hermione met the young Snape at the appointed time in the corridor outside Slytherin. He looked uncomfortable and awkward leaning against the wall, and when he saw Hermione coming he stood straight immediately.
"Black."
"Snape," Hermione said, with a small smile. "Shall we go?"
"Where are we going?" Snape asked, catching up quickly as she set off down the corridor. "I was thinking about behind the greenhouses?"
"I've got somewhere better," Hermione promised.
Snape kept up, nearly outpacing Hermione with his longer stride as she led them a winding route through the dark corridors.
"Was all this cloak and dagger really necessary?" He asked, sounding slightly pained. "The note, the secrecy?"
"No, but it was fun. Wait up a sec, we're here."
Snape stared as Hermione stopped in front of a blank stretch of wall, and pricked her finger with a quick hex. Smearing the blood against the wall, the wards momentarily deactivated and an iron handle appeared. Hermione seized the door handle, and gestured that Snape should enter the chamber first.
"That was blood magic," Snape said sharply as soon as the door closed behind him. "You can't do –"
Then his jaw dropped as he took in the enormous cavern.
"Where are we?"
"It's just a classroom I expanded," Hermione downplayed.
"Expanded with blood magic and mastery level warding," Snape said dryly, recovering himself. "I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore Black."
Hermione didn't answer, she just began to unbuttoned the outer layer of her robes, and hung them from a hook by the door. Snape watched her undress without seeming to comprehend and Hermione sighed.
"Are you going to fight in your full robes?"
"I might have to, one day."
Hermione nodded, acknowledging the point. "But today I'm just trying to get a feel for where things are at. It's easier without robes."
Snape shrugged, and stripped off his outer robes quickly, imitating Hermione and hanging his robes by the door.
When Snape was ready, the pair faced each other in the centre of the barren room. There was nothing to hide behind, no obstacles or hidden corners. Snape was going to have to rely on nothing but speed, and his arsenal of spells.
"Hit me with everything you've got," Hermione said without preamble. "No lethal or life-altering curses, but try and take me down. First incapacitated wins."
Snape said nothing, but adjusted his stance accordingly. Hermione appreciated his no nonsense approach.
"Fight!"
\\/
An hour later, Snape was covered in dust and grime from the floor, and had several bruises and a nasty cut visible on his face. His nose was broken, and one eye was swelling.
"Again?" Hermione asked, standing ten paces away with two wands in her hand.
"No," Snape croaked. "I submit. I'm done for today."
Without a word, Hermione crossed the room and handed Snape his wand, trying to hide how impressed she was. The other Slytherin lacked finesse and speed, but made up for it with a phenomenal endurance and capacity to take painful hits. She had never seen anyone take a bone breaking curse to the face, and keep fighting.
Even now Snape made no move to heal himself, he simply got to his feet and waited for her verdict.
"You," Hermione said clearly, "are going to be a force to be reckoned with one day."
Snape stood a little straighter as Hermione continued.
"You're too slow, and you're not thinking on your feet at all. But you've got guts and a good spell repertoire. I can give you what you need to be unstoppable."
Hermione was breathing hard, excited by the sheer furious power she had felt as she clashed with Snape over and over again. Nothing she threw would break him, and he never gave up no matter how many times she disarmed him and started over again. He never asked to be healed or for a break, he just kept fighting.
"So you'll teach me?" Snape said nasally, through his broken nose. "Because I didn't recognise half of those spells, and I had the feeling you were only playing with me most of the time."
"I was," Hermione admitted. "But by this time in six months I won't be able to."
"Then we have a deal," Snape said, breathing out with relief. His shoulders slumped, and Hermione finally saw the pain reach his eyes.
"We have a deal," she confirmed more gently. "Now sit down and let me take care of those bruises. We might fight like enemies, but whatever we inflict we have to heal afterwards – remember that when you start landing hits on me."
"I don't need you to do it," Snape protested, shaking his head and flinching.
"I'm going to anyway," Hermione said sharply. "I'm not having you going back to the common room with a badly fixed nose."
"I've had it broken before," Snape said, as Hermione conjured a stone bench and made him sit down.
"That explains a lot," she muttered, eyeing the beak.
Snape made no protest as Hermione fixed his bruises, and she was as gentle as possible.
"This one I can't do with a charm," she said, looking at his black eye, shaking her head and pulling a jar of bruise paste from her bag. "Stay still."
Snape froze unnaturally under her touch, as Hermione spread the paste across his temple, and rubbed it beneath his eye as softly as she could with her thumb. She used her index finger to spread the bruise further into the hollow between his eye and his nose, and realised he was barely breathing.
"Are you alright?" she asked, worried. Her finger paused on his face.
"Yes," Snape said, pulling away abruptly. "I'm sure you've done enough now."
"Just the nose," Hermione said quickly. Then before Snape had a chance to move, she raised her wand and wordlessly performed a complicated wand motion.
There was an audible crunching.
Snape hissed between his teeth a long drawn out whine of agony, and clapped his hand to his face.
"Fuck!" He shouted. "What was that? That wasn't just a bone fixer!"
Hermione said nothing, and waited as Snape probed his face delicately. She saw the moment the comprehension dawned in his eyes.
"You fixed the old break as well," he said, staring at Hermione with shock, lowering his hand from his face.
Snape's nose was noticeably different. The hook in his nose that had made it appear beak-like and ugly was gone, and it lay straight as it must have looked before it was broken the first time.
"How old were you when it got broken?" Hermione asked softly.
"Eight." Snape said bitterly. "My mother tried to fix it, but...you saw how it looked."
Wordlessly Hermione vanished the blood from Snape's face, and then conjured a mirror. He took it reluctantly, and held it up to see. For half a second Hermione saw pure wonder on his face, and a gleam of tears. Then he controlled himself, and nodded formally.
"Thank you," he said to Hermione. "For the lesson, and for the healing."
The tender moment broken, both stood and began to walk towards their robes.
"Oh that wasn't a lesson," Hermione said, a wicked lilt to her voice. "That was just the assessment. Just you wait until the lessons start."
Snape smiled, and it was the most genuine expression she had ever seen on his face.
"I look forward to it."
\\/
"What are your plans for the Easter holiday, Hermione?" Rabastan asked the next day as they were walking to Charms.
"I'm staying here," Hermione replied.
A look was exchanged between Rabastan and Regulus that Hermione almost missed as a crowd of first year Gryffindors pushed their way through the group, chattering loudly.
"What?" she asked, brushing past the younger students.
"They're so small," Rabastan grimaced, and then reached for his pocket.
"Father sent me a letter. He wants you to visit over Easter break."
Regulus held the door so that Hermione and the two girls could enter the charms classroom, but Hermione's heart had begun beating faster and she barely noticed.
"Why?"
The group slid behind desks; Rabastan taking the one beside Hermione that Alecto usually occupied. He produced a neatly folded sheet of parchment from his pocket, and unfolded it in a way that only showed the bottom few lines. Hermione would have found it suspicious if he hadn't been a Slytherin.
Finally, reports of a new daughter Black have reached certain ears, and we have been reliably informed by several sources that she may be of interest to certain significant persons. If it would be agreeable to the young Lady, these persons would be most pleased if she was to visit the Lestrange Manor during your Easter holiday to be presented. Please extend this offer with our strongest entreaties that we may have the pleasure of her company.
Your loving Father.
Deus Lestrange
Hermione raised an eyebrow, and gave Rabastan a challenging look.
"Who is inviting me?" she asked boldly. "Your father, or the Dark Lord?"
"Merlin, Black, you're worse than a Gryffindor sometimes!" Rabastan hissed, snatching back the parchment and looking around to see if anyone had heard. "Just tell the whole classroom."
"They can't hear anything," Hermione said, waving a hand dismissively. "Little charm."
Rabastan settled, and nodded. "Would it make a difference who it was?"
Hermione considered the point.
"Not really," she conceded. "Either way it's an offer that I just can't refuse."
\\/
That evening Hermione pored through her blue notebook in search of any notes that covered the Lestrange's, but came up blank with the father. Rabastan and Rodolphus had, of course, been notorious.
Who was Deus Lestrange? When had he died? It troubled Hermione that she didn't know the answer, indeed it troubled her far more than thoughts of her upcoming meeting with Voldemort. With him, at least, she knew exactly how dangerous he was.
Alecto stumbled through the doorway and Hermione snapped the book closed.
"Sorry," the dumpy girl mumbled. "Some of the seventh years were about to start a game of 'hunt the blood traitor.' Mind if I hide out here?"
"You're not a blood traitor," Hermione said, surprised.
"No but Amycus uses that sort of thing as an excuse to corner me."
Hermione sighed, as the girl looked close to tears.
"You've got to stand up to him. I know he's your brother, but he shouldn't target you."
"It's fine," Alecto said immediately, heading for the bathroom. Hermione wanted to follow, but knew she needed to let it go. Her lessons with Snape had been such a distraction that she hadn't even opened Alecto's little black diary yet, and she made a note to do so as soon as possible.
\\/
By the time the Easter holidays arrived Hermione was enjoying her evenings so much that she almost didn't want to leave. Fighting with Snape almost nightly had become one of the best parts of her new life, and one of the ones she had least expected to yield such fruit.
"I'll get you yet, Black," Snape shouted good naturedly as she disarmed him once again.
Hermione laughed, and tossed the wand back to the other Slytherin.
"You nearly had me there," she admitted. "That reducto to the ceiling was clever, but be careful because moves like that can take you out just as easily as your opponent."
Snape just grinned, and Hermione noticed that he did that a lot more these days - even in public. Fixing his nose properly seemed to have done more for his confidence than she could have ever imagined, as had his improved duelling skills.
"Once more before we finish up?"
Snape didn't reply, but immediately attacked with a ferocity Hermione hadn't needed to instill in him.
"Good!" she shouted, dodging a curse. "Don't give your opponent time to be on guard. Attack when they don't expect it. Might have even worked if it hadn't been me."
Snape just smiled fiercely, and poured more power into his spells.
By the time they finished there was a cloud of dust hanging in the cavern from misdirected spell fire. Hermione dissipated it with a wave of her wand, before patching up a couple of nasty cuts on Snape's arm.
"Not bad," she panted. "I'd give you a more than even chance if Potter and Black try anything again."
"They've not been around recently," Snape remarked with less acid than Hermione had expected. "Did you threaten them?"
Hermione debated whether or not to admit it, and decided against it. Snape was looking so cheerful that she didn't want to dent his male pride by telling the truth.
"No," she shrugged. "They must have found something better to do."
Snape hmmed, then changed the subject.
"I heard you're going to Rabastan's for Easter," he commented. "I might see you there."
"Oh? I wasn't aware you were particularly close to the Lestranges."
"We have mutual friends."
"I think I might have been invited just so I could meet these mutual friends."
"Be careful," Snape said suddenly, leaning forward and grabbing Hermione's hands. Taken by surprise, she didn't let go for a moment.
"I am careful."
Snape let his hands drop, and nodded slowly.
"Be more careful than usual then."
\\/
Thanks for reading!
Cas
