A/N: I apologize for the unintended hiatus. Life got into a habit of sucking me dry of all creativity, and so I was forced to abstain from working on this story for a while. I'd like to say that I'm back now, but I can't promise that. I can only promise to do my best and chuck out chapters when they come to me. That is why this chapter is the first to not be published on a Monday. I thought you would want this as soon as I had it, so here you go. :)
Thank you for your patience and your loyalty. I appreciate it more than I can say. Stay safe and stay healthy, everyone!
Marcella xxx
Monday, February 23rd, 1996
When Severus opened the door to the store room, he fully expected to find the girl ready to engage in some sexual activity or other. He did not expect to find her about to be engaged in any sexual activity by his godson, of all people.
"Am I interrupting?" Severus asked, his tone pleasantly deadly.
Draco, in the business of opening his robes, turned around as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be caught in a store room, half undressed, with a crying girl kneeling at one's feet.
"As a matter of fact, you are, uncle," he replied, rather a bit too forcefully for polite conversation. "What are you doing here?"
"This is the store room to my classroom, Mr Malfoy," Severus snarked, ignoring the casual address. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, what does it look like?" the impertinent boy shot back.
"It looks to me," Severus drawled, "as if you're about to assault the headmaster's golden girl in his own school. But I'm sure that this is not the case, because even a spoiled little rich boy like you wouldn't be so stupid to continue on a path that will land him in Azkaban quicker than he could say 'My father will hear about this'. After all, this would cast unnecessary attention on said father who has done his best to rebuild the reputation of the Malfoy name, but all his efforts would be for nothing, all due to his son's innate inability to restrain his baser urges and keep it in his pants. Even better, the DMLE might be interested in investigating the circumstances that led to such an attitude of entitlement, taking a look at said boy's home environment, and I wonder just what they might find at Malfoy manor right now?"
If his godson's pallor had allowed him to pale at Severus's speech, he would have done so. The threat of aurors turning up at his father's doorstep, only to find a Dark Lord residing in their manor that the Ministry did such a fine job of ignoring, not to mention ten escaped Azkaban convicts lounging about, was more than clear.
"I was going to Obliviate the bitch afterwards," he pouted.
"Language, Mr Malfoy," Severus scolded. "And don't overestimate your abilities; you're not nearly skilled enough to successfully pull of Obliviation."
Draco sneered.
"It's simple enough to delete someone's memory," he insisted.
"The memory itself, yes," Severus conceded, "but you lack the subtlety to carefully cut away the complex emotions connected to the memory, much less avoid the subject showing the outward signs of having been Obliviated. The headmaster would know in a heartbeat that something was up, just glancing at the girl over dinner, and it would be easy enough to track the magical signature surrounding Miss Granger from such intrusive magic back to you."
"I'm not afraid of Albus Dumbledore," Draco spat.
Severus levelled a glare at his godson.
"Then you're even more stupid than I had previously assumed," he hissed.
Behind Draco, the girl was watching the verbal sparring with an attention she usually lacked during Quidditch matches. Even though no tears were falling, her face was a mess, and she was shaking like a leaf.
"Don't fly off the broom handle," Draco defended himself. "I was just having some fun. I know that my father certainly had more than his fair bit of fun in his formative years."
"Yes," Severus drawled, "but then your father knew the time and place for such 'fun' and had the presence of mind to evaluate possible consequences before engaging in any… activities. Lucius very rarely had to resort to Obliviation."
"But he taught me the Obliviate well enough anyway," Draco tried once more.
"You wouldn't recognize a proper Obliviate if it hit you in the face, Mr Malfoy," Severus spat.
"You don't know that," the boy pouted.
Severus smiled. The girl, he noticed, recoiled. She knew very well how dangerous a rare smile from the Potions Master could be.
"Allow me to prove it to you, then," Severus purred.
His wand was in the boy's face before he could blink. A few moments of rummaging around in his godson's mind and it was as if Draco's conversation with the girl had never happened.
While the boy was still coming to terms with the mental rearrangement, Severus snarled, "There's only fifty-two minutes left to this lesson, Mr Malfoy, so I suggest you grab the newt eyes and get back to working."
Draco blinked confusedly, then grabbed the container Severus was pointing out and made to press past his godfather.
"Next time, do everyone the kindness to grab the correct ingredients before starting on your brew, Mr Malfoy."
"Yes, sir," Draco spouted obediently and was gone from the room.
The door clicking into its lock was lost on Severus as he was already warding and silencing the room, making certain that nobody would come looking, and casting containment fields around the individual cauldrons in the classroom behind the door since he wouldn't be watching them for an undetermined amount of time.
Turning around, he found the girl kneeling on the floor where he had left her, only now fresh tears were running tracks down her reddened cheeks as she silently cried.
"Miss Granger," he addressed her.
No reaction.
"Miss Granger," he called again. "Miss Granger, pull yourself together."
The only reaction the girl showed was lifting her hands to hide her face behind, sobbing harder than before, albeit silently still. Her sobs wracked her whole body.
Severus cast a Finite on the girl for good measure, thinking she might have been silenced, but she remained silent.
Casting about the room for an answer to how to deal with a crying teenage Gryffindor girl, something his Head of Slytherin duties had not prepared him for, he found no advice in the pickled ingredients surrounding them. He took a deep breath, then approached the girl and crouched down in front of her.
"Miss Granger?" he called again, softly this time. "Miss Granger, it's alright now. Mr Malfoy is gone; nobody can hurt you now."
Taking both of her hands in one of his, he drew them down and away from her face, cupping her jaw with the other. His large hand easily spanned from her chin to her ear, and Severus used his thumb to wipe away an errant tear.
"Mr Malfoy is gone now," he gently repeated.
The girl's eyes shifted from their lost gaze to focus on his face, so close to hers.
"He's gone?" she whispered.
"Yes," he confirmed.
In the ensuing silence, Severus thought hard. He usually avoided human touch as much as possible. This instance, however, was far from the usual.
Hesitantly, he reached for the girl, pulling her into him, trying his best to draw her into a hug. He was told hugs were supposed to lend some measure of reassurance and comfort to people subjected to such embrace.
The girl, seemingly still in shock, remained on her knees. At Severus's pulling, she tilted forward, her upper body falling into the Potions Master. Her miniscule form fell with enough force to push Severus backwards, disturbing his balance on his toes in the crouch he had been, and forcing him into a sitting position. The girl's head landed in his lap. If Severus was stunned from the manoeuvre he had unwillingly performed on the both of them, it was enough to pull the girl from her funk.
She started crying loudly.
It was time for Severus to fall into shock. Just a moment later, he wrestled down his mind that was telling him all kinds of touch held danger, and gave into what unusual compassion demanded he do.
Stroking the girl's voluminous hair, he whispered, "It's fine, Miss Granger, no one can hurt you now, you're fine…"
Under his continued reassurances, her sobs grew calmer, slowly subsiding until they eventually came to a full stop.
They remained like this for a few moments, Severus in an awkwardly cross-legged sitting position with the kneeling girl drawn forward into his lap, him stroking her hair and her staring into Merlin-knew-what nothingness gave her calmness.
After a while, the girl pulled back, withdrawing from the graceless embrace and rising to her knees again. She looked at Severus. He met her gaze expectantly, not knowing what might come next.
She punched him in the chest. Hard.
Severus was too surprised to react, his fight-or-flight instincts failing him for once. How easily the girl cut through his defenses.
Finding no hindrance from him, the girl began pummeling into Severus. Laying her body increasingly into each punch, he could watch the rage rising in her as she hit and smacked and thwacked and pounded away at his chest with abandon.
"I'm – not – fine," she pressed out between her teeth, a punch accompanying each word. "I was almost assaulted, but you promised you would prepare me, prepare me for the eventuality of – of – of rape, but that didn't happen, I was not prepared, and wandless magic didn't help me one bit, shocked as I was, unprepared for a physical assault, and what's the use, what's the use of all this, of the bleeding and the whipping and the drowning and the fucking, if it all comes down to me freezing when faced by an aggressor, but you promised, you promised –"
With each passing word, the girl's strength faded, her anger giving room to fear, allowing the fright of her encounter with Severus's thrice-damned godson to take full hold of her body. Her fists grew slacker and slacker, the punches coming at greater intervals, until she was just lazily pushing her hands into his chest, doing no damage but too caught up in her emotions to stop now.
Severus caught her hands, holding them to him.
"Stop," he commanded.
She struggled feebly.
"Stop," he repeated.
She cried out in frustration when he wouldn't let her go.
"Stop," he whispered once more.
She stopped.
Silence embraced them, but only for a few heartbeats.
"Make it stop," the girl pleaded. "Take the fear away, sir."
The look she shot him reminded Severus of the night Lucius first took her. She had sat in his tub afterwards, asking of him the same thing she was asking now.
Severus sighed. Then he made a decision.
Rising to his feet, he pulled the girl up, determinedly pushing her into the door of the store room. Blood heatedly rose in both of them, imbuing the situation with a sudden urgency. The girl was panting before they had even gotten anywhere, pulling him closer to her. Severus assumed the closeness lent her some measure of security.
Hauling her upwards, her legs came around his waist as if they had performed this move a thousand times, as if there was nothing unusual in him taking her against a door.
"Please, sir," she breathed. "Please."
After he had fumbled open his robes and trousers, her knickers were easily shoved to the side and he was inside her.
There was no time to properly undress. After all, there were only twenty-eight minutes left to the lesson.
When they were done, he drew the girl's knickers back to cover her crotch again before lowering her to the floor. Only when Severus was certain that she would remain standing, did he step back to stow himself away.
"I wasn't safe today," the girl stated.
Severus closed his eyes, willing the oncoming discussion away. He failed.
"I was in school, during a lesson, for Morgana's sake, and when faced with a malicious teenage boy, I couldn't defend myself," she elaborated, as if the earlier circumstances needed any elaboration. "I need to be able to defend myself. Sir, I need you to teach me how to defend myself."
"I thought that's what I had been doing these past few months," Severus drawled.
"I had thought so, too, sir," the girl agreed, "but it seems as though we were both wrong."
"And how do you suppose I teach you, then, Miss Granger?" Severus asked, his tone dangerous.
"I don't know," the girl snapped. For once, Severus allowed her this cheek. "I wouldn't presume to tell you how to do anything. You are the teacher, aren't you? Do your job. Teach me."
"Watch your tone, Miss Granger," Severus threatened.
"What for?" she countered, if anything even more heatedly. "You've had free reign over my body, as we had agreed, and even more. I've been paying my price, sir. I think it's time you began to uphold your end of the bargain."
They stood, facing each other, both panting as if they had run a marathon.
After what seemed like an eternity, the girl deflated.
"I wasn't safe today," she reiterated. "Make me safe."
She reached for the door handle. It rattled, but remained shut.
"If you would get the door, please, sir," the girl asked.
Severus obliged, lifting the wards.
"And don't forget to sort the remaining ingredients, professor," she added, leaving the room.
Severus stopped short at that last bit, wondering what she could have meant. Then he remembered. He had originally sent the girl to the store room under the disguise of sorting out the leftover ingredients from the previous class. A wave of his wand had them dealt with.
Magic made some things so easy, Severus pondered. What a pity magic wouldn't be able to help him figure out how to teach the girl as she desired.