Discourse

"I'll murder him!" Angrily, she stomped down the stairs.

Gohan blinked stupidly. Then he jumped from the stands. "Hermione! Wait up!"

She stalked toward the castle, the earth slightly shaking from her treading. Gohan gasped at her sparking ki. He flash-sped to her side.

"Shouldn't we talk about this?"

Hermione answered with a glare that was all too Vegeta-ish. She took the staircase that led down to the dungeons, Gohan had to levitate and sail down just to keep up. She strode purposefully forward as a tall shadow was closing the door of the dungeon classroom. A smirk formed on the sallow skinned face of Professor Snape as he opened his mouth.

Pop. Gohan gasped as the sound of Hermione's hand colliding with the teacher's face echoed through the empty corridor. Snape struck the door he had just closed so forcefully that it cracked, holding his face with his left hand and staring at her in shock.

She bared her teeth, shrieking hysterically. "HOW DARE YOU? HOW DARE YOU STAND UP THERE EVERY DAY AND PRETEND YOU HAD NEVER MET ME BEFORE? HOW DARE YOU LOOK ME IN THE FACE EVERY SINGLE DAY AND ACT SO INNOCENT-"

"Miss. Granger-" he managed behind his clamped face.

"Oh, yes! That's right! What's it to be now? Fifty points from Gryffindor? One hundred? Keep pretending, you liar, you fake, you fraud! Just keep hiding behind that mask! I just want to ask you one thing, Sevie! Do you sleep well at night? Does it make you feel good to know that you silenced Voldemort's-"

"Langlock!" Snape cried, pointing at Hermione's face. Hermione's hand shot up to her cheek, because her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. Still holding his jaw, he stood. "In the classroom, both of you. NOW!"

Gohan obeyed immediately. Hermione cast one more venomous glance at him before entering, loudly dropping her book bag onto the floor. Snape shut the door and said quietly, "Muffliato," before pointing the wand at his own face and repairing the damage Hermione had done. Then, he rounded on her.

"Foolish girl! Did you stop to think what might have happened if someone had overheard what you almost said?"

Hermione said nothing, but glared angrily.

"I assume, of course, that you told Son?" He gestured toward Gohan. "When did you find out, Lady Subaru?" Sighing, he performed the counter curse.

"Don't call me that!" She spat as soon as her tongue was freed.

"Fine, but I believe your potions instructor asked you a question, Miss Granger."

"Fine, Mister Snape, I will answer! Last year, when I was attacked by the basilisk. I looked it directly in the eye."

"That's impossible. You would be-"

"Dead?" she scoffed, nodding. "The snake thought I should be, as well! I guess we have you to thank for that, Mister big-shot Pandora Man!"

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

"The Pandora shielded me. It saved my life, but the basilisk's beam cracked the box…or cage, as the proper term would be. I've been getting memories ever since. To date I have seventeen memories."

"You said the snake thought-"

She rolled her eyes. "Leave it to you to remind me of the less pleasant acquisitions of the cracked gilded cage! As soon as I heard the sound and saw the flash from the Pandora cracking, I heard the snake. It became rather disappointed that it didn't manage to kill Harry's Mudblood friend-"

"Don't say that word!" Snape spat.

Getting over her shock at Snape's reaction, she smirked. "Why not? As far as everyone else here is concerned, I am a Mudblood. And I am proud of it! I am proud of my Muggle parents, the only parents I have ever known, the ones that took me in and loved me like I was their own. I am proud of them, even if I am still angry at them, even if I hate them…and love them! Considering what I could have had for parents, I suppose I'm rather privileged to have them!"

"Selina was a good woman," Snape said quietly.

Hermione sneered bitterly. "Well, I wouldn't know, would I?"

Snape sighed. "Then I suppose it's time for you to be educated. Sit."

Forgetting to cast her usual enchantment, the chair exploded as soon as Hermione sat. The floor quaked as her bottom hit the floor, the chair crumpling under her weight. Gohan tapped his chair twice before he sat. Blushing furiously, Hermione repaired the chair, performed the charm, and sat.

Snape smirked. "I wasn't aware you had weight issues, Miss Granger."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Cute. I don't normally discuss my 'weight issues' with my peers…or my instructors. Most adolescent females don't weigh seven hundred and fifty kilograms like I currently do."

Snape spluttered. "WHAT?"

In a peculiar mood, she nodded loftily. "Yeah, I know. It's nowhere near good enough. I believe I might add another two fifty."

Snape gestured at Gohan. "She's joking, right?"

Gohan shrugged. "Actually, I've been telling her she's been taking it too easy. She's fully capable of handling five thousand."

Snape stared. "How much do you currently weigh, Mr. Son?"

Gohan frowned thoughtfully. "Well, not counting my own weight, I'd say fifteen thousand."

"You jest!"

Gohan shrugged. "I guess I shouldn't tell her she's taking it easy. I'm just as lazy, I guess."

Hermione cleared her throat. "Weight issues aside, I thought you were going to tell us about my, er, Selena."

Snape selected a nearby chair and sat with a heavy sigh. "If you tell Potter anything about Lily's part, I'll Pandora both of you! Got it?"

Gohan nodded slowly, and Hermione glared.

He sighed again. "I met Lily first. We lived in the same neighborhood, Spinner's End. I watched her and her Muggle sister play in the community park. I knew, as I watched her, she was going to be an excellent witch. I eventually plucked up the courage to approach her. We became friends." Snape's mouth twitched.

"We met Selena on the train. I had heard of the Subaru from my mother before, but never thought I'd have the privilege of meeting one, or befriending one, for that matter. Selena took to Lily very well. It was funny. Selena lived at the castle but had decided to ride on the train so she could participate in the Hogwarts tradition of coming across the lake."

"She lived in the castle?" Hermione asked.

Gohan answered. "The Subaru are hereditary heirs of Arandia estates. That includes Hogwarts."

Snape raised a brow. "You've been doing your homework, Son. Anyways, after I had my first encounter with Potter, we searched for another compartment. Selena was gracious enough to offer hers. She was incredible. The first time we met, she transfigured my clothes, completely wandless!"

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but Gohan gasped in awe. "She sounds like Piccolo."

Snape nodded. "I'm actually glad she did. My clothes were lamentable."

Hermione frowned. "Why? Didn't your parents-"

"My clothes were lamentable!" He repeated firmly. "Potter actually had the nerve to enter the compartment with his boot-licking toadies-"

Hermione glared and opened her mouth, but-

"-wanting to pick a fight with me. Selena was priceless, she and Lily both. It's a miracle Potter or Black survived." Snape's eyes glazed over, wearing an ecstatic expression Hermione never thought she'd see on the face of Severus Snape.

"Did you say Black, Professor?"

Snape waved him off. "That was the first day I saw it. The transformation. Selena was beautiful with her shimmery face, those square-point ears, the canines. Of course, she wasn't old enough for the facial masking marks yet. She was so…"

"Exotic," Hermione finished.

Snape looked up at her. "Yes. Very exotic. If my interest hadn't been…elsewhere, I'd have wanted Selena. But anyways, at that age Selena was quite unable to control it. The transformation occurred when she was angry, and Potter had managed to make her very angry, arrogant fool! After the sorting, he and Black spent two days in the hospital wing. It was the best day of my life…and the worst.

"Lily and Selena both were placed in Gryffindor. I, of course, ended up in Slytherin. Mother was so proud," he snorted bitterly. "Selena didn't like Lily's association with me because of the other friends I kept. I hung around the worst of Hogwarts, whenever I wasn't being bullied or teased for my lack of finery. Then one day, Lily and I broke away, never to speak more than cold polite words again."

"Why?"

Snape bit his lip. "I called her a Mudblood," he whispered. He swallowed hard and continued thickly. "Oddly, Selena continued to be friendly to me, even though I had insulted Lily. I knew I deserved no better than Lily's anger. I even tried to apologize. But it was the final deed in a string of deeds that destroyed my hopes forever. Lily didn't hate me. She just had had enough."

"Lily married Potter, of all people, and Selena left the wizarding world for some special training. I joined the Death Eaters, believing there was no higher honor," he said in a hollow, mocking voice. "And we all followed our paths. Until, one day, all of our paths crossed.

"The Dark Lord had originally had a different design, before he became obsessed with Harry Potter. He knew how strong the Subaru bloodline was. He knew how physically and magically powerful the Subaru were. There were rumors that the Subaru was tied to Merlin himself. The Dark Lord arranged it all.

"Selena had returned from her training. She strode up Diagon Alley, where she immediately became surrounded by twenty Death Eaters. Not that they were any match for her. She fought them using a combination of magic and brute force, even a bit of ki energy. But he was lurking in the shadows. She dropped her guard, and he Imperiused her."

Hermione stared in horror as he continued, his jaw working in emotion. "Before she could throw it off, and she undoubtedly would have, he had her drink Amortensia. It was the combination of the two that kept her subjugated to his will for so long. He simply knew that she never would have submitted to him any other way than to use the two in combination."

"What was the plan?" Hermione asked, her throat suddenly dry.

"The Dark Lord wanted a son. A male body that he could possess, once the child obtained a cognitive age. His new body would be strong in all ways: strong bloodline, strong physically, strong magically. As a Subaru, he'd also participate in all the major decisions within Hogwarts, as all previous Subaru were automatically given one spot within the governorship. He'd become proprietor of all Subaru estates and accounts, including the massive vaults at Gringotts."

"And you participated?"

Snape nodded in disgust. "The Dark Lord didn't tell any of us his plan until after the fact. He only commanded us to participate in her capture. Once she was secured and her stomach started to bulge, he told me of a few potions he wanted. He wanted me to make two potions: one to ensure the gender of a pregnancy and one to switch bodies with another.

"It was then that I guessed what he was planning. I knew that after he was finished Selena's life would be worthless. I gave her a fake potion and ensured my Lord that the child would be a boy if it survived. Then, as the Dark Lord went on business, I provided the antidote to the Amortensia. As expected, she broke free from the Imperius. But the Dark Lord had broken her. I had to practically lead her to the Potters. After giving her specific instructions, I left her in the graveyard in Godric's Hollow, hiding in nearby bushes to ensure she was found by the right people." He scoffed angrily.

"Black found her. I should have offed him when I had the chance, the back-stabbing traitor! Potter sure knew how to choose his friends. He took her in to the Potters. Until I saw her lying in the rubble a little over a year later, that's the last I saw of her."

Hermione sat, breathing hard, with tears pouring down her face. Gohan had scooted in close, his arms wrapped around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort.

"T-then what happened?"

"I went to London, persuaded some Muggle drunks to beat me. I fixed a prolonging charm to my injuries to ensure my story would be more believable. I went into Knockturn Alley and miffed some more drunks. I got cursed and cut up as much as I could before returning to the manor. Then I waited for the Dark Lord to return, performing a little "artwork" of my own. He was furious at my 'failure,' but he believed me when I told him Selena had broken free from the Imperius and beat me. The agony I suffered that night was unspeakable. I forget how long he tortured me. It seemed countless hours. I guess I couldn't go insane; I was never sane to begin with.

"The Death Eaters spent months searching for her. I suppose Selena did what I asked. Outside of Black and the Potters, no one knew where Selena was being kept. On April Twentieth, I received a scrap parchment from an owl that read: Lianna Kari Mori. That was it. It had been written in Lily's hand. Selena didn't even have enough spirit left to write her own letters."

"April Twentieth?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"That's weird!" Gohan said. "That's my birthday!" Snape frowned.

"But, September Nineteenth-" she stammered

"-was my mother's birthday," Snape finished.

"So I was born April Twentieth?"

"The same year Potter was born," Snape said. "I changed the date and year so that he would have a considerably more difficult time connecting you to Selena."

"So I'm not fourteen? I'm still thirteen?"

"We share a birthday, Hermione! We can celebrate together!" Gohan said enthusiastically.

Hermione scoffed with a tiny smile. She looked over at Snape and nodded. He continued.

"I became disgraced, and as a result, I was stupid. I would have done almost anything to get back in the Dark Lord's good graces, although admittedly, I obeyed him more from fear than devotion. Within six months of Selena's "escape" the Dark Lord began pursuing the Potters. To "ensure" Lily's and Selena's survival, I turned to Dumbledore and became a double-agent. I was Dumbledore's spy pretending to be the Dark Lord's spy.

"It continued for a while. I thought it was turning out until the day I saw the Dark Lord's face. I knew he knew. He had that wild happy look in his face. I waited until he Disapparated, waited a few moments, then I Apparated to Godric's Hollow, to the graveyard. I had to stop him somehow. As soon as I got there, I knew something was wrong. I had never been able to see Potter's house before that night. But there it was. I took two steps in that direction when the side of the house exploded. After several minutes of silence, I entered the house.

"I saw Potter's body first. I hated him, but I never wanted to see him like that. I had to step over him to get to the stairs. The first thing I saw when I got to the top of the stairs was a feminine hand lying past one of the door frames. My pain overcame whatever fear I had. Furthermore, I heard wailing coming from the room. The wailing of infants. I whipped around the corner, prepared to face him and my own demise, but all I saw was death. Selena had died first. She had no strength left to face him. She was easy prey for him. Then, I saw her," he choked. "L-lying near the crib. The look on her face," Snape stood, and entered his office, slamming the door. He emerged after ten minutes.

He cleared his throat. "I looked into the first crib. Little Potter looked fine, except for the permanent mark on his head. The other baby was shrieking. She sat near the hole in the bedroom. As I approached, I realized that the child was different. She was talking, for one thing. She seemed fully understanding of what had happened. She was hysterical. A faint light surrounded her. I assume she had exhausted most of her energy.

"I heard the Mutt's bike outside, not knowing that Hagrid was on it. I grabbed the child, transfigured Selena's body into a bone, and Disapparated. You were still shrieking when I took you to the basement of Spinner's End. Even after drinking an adult dose of Calming Drought, you were still inconsolable. You had been completely traumatized by the murder you had seen. So I performed Legilimens on you. I tried to project happy images into your mind. It managed to pacify you somewhat, for a time.

"But I knew it would be inevitable that you would remember again. It was so frightening. I didn't know what had happened. I didn't know where the Dark Lord was. It was the only thing I could think of. Should the Dark Lord reappear, if he knew of your existence, he might eliminate you…or try again. The Dark Lord isn't given to quitting when he wants something," Snape said in disgust.

"AGAIN?" Gohan spluttered loudly, outwardly projecting the horror that Hermione felt within. "YOU MEAN, HE'D-HE'D-HIS OWN-"

"What a freak!" She spat angrily. "What kind of animal-"

Gohan's ki sparked angrily. "Dumbledore was right! He is worse than Cell!"

Snape nodded. "So I performed the charm. It took hours to finish. I had to make you forget everything. I had to encase your ability to speak to snakes. I even encased over three fourths of your strength-"

Gohan spluttered. "WHAT? Y-Y-You mean, she's actually four times stronger than she is now?"

Snape frowned. "Depending on how much of her power has seeped through the crack."

"Wow, Hermione, you're even stronger than Piccolo thought!"

Snape continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "I made a vow to Selena that I would do everything in my abilities to keep the Dark Lord from getting to you. At the time I had thought it was a fair exchange. You got to have a normal birth, with a normal family, in a normal life, as normal as a witch's life can be. I was as rash and foolish as ever, but for a while, my plan seemed to work.

"Of course, I had to cover my tracks at the ministry. I bribed one of my old Death Eater friends to get into the birth records to eliminate any signs that a Subaru child had been born. I modified memories of everyone in the department…one at a time. Then, I had to go to the Muggle-born Investigation Committee to plant your name into the registry. If your name was already there and it was said that a sample of blood was taken, then your identity wouldn't be questioned, and your admission into Hogwarts would go without question. I even Confunded Professor Flitwick to believe he had nominated you out of the limited applicant stack. I needed you to come to this school so I could keep an eye on you, to make sure you didn't get a big head-"

"-Like my father?" she finished bitterly. "That's why you scorn me in class? To make sure I don't turn out like him? Don't worry. I'm not going to be anything like that beast!"

Snape's eye glinted. "You do realize, of course, that you are, in fact, Slytherin's heir?"

Hermione's face contorted. "Ugh! What's wrong with you? I just told you I don't want anything to do with him-"

Snape dismissed her comment with a wave. "You have an incredible opportunity here, Miss Subaru-"

"I TOLD YOU-"

"SHUT UP, GIRL, AND LISTEN!" He sighed. "Hogwarts has been divided for centuries. You could change that. You have the opportunity to reunite the entire school."

She shook her head. "That's crazy! Even if I manage to somehow convince everyone that I am an heir of Slytherin, I'm still a blood traitor…not to mention a half breed."

Snape gave a small, ironic smile. "Your blood status is considerably less in question than the Dark Lord's. Besides, you are not only Heir of Slytherin. You are also Heir of Arandia. That fact alone would pull little more than half of Slytherin's weight in your favor. Most of the Slytherins follow the Dark Lord from fear. If they had a real leader, one they could believe in-"

Hermione scoffed. "Are you suggesting that I walk up to your House and say, 'Hey, you guys! I'm not really a Mudblood. I'm the Heir of Slytherin! So let's go fight Voldemort!'"

"Of course not! You wouldn't win them like that, even if you proved to them that you were Heir of Slytherin. You need to win them before they even know of your origins."

Hermione pointed at herself with both hands, scoffing impatiently. "Hello? Mudblood? Exactly how do you suggest going about persuading Slytherins that a Mudblood can lead them?"

Snape smirked. "You are not unintelligent, Miss Granger. Although, there are benefits to having a Slytherin potions master. Perhaps one such situation may present itself in an upcoming class." He stood. "Well, it's getting late. I'll send you to the tower with a permission note to be in the halls this late. Oh, and you owe me a week's worth of detention for attacking a teacher. Have a pleasant evening, Miss Granger." He turned with a smirk, scrawled on a parchment, performed a small, mocking bow, and strode away.

...

As they made their way toward the Gryffindor Tower, Gohan nudged Hermione, grinning. "((So, are you still planning to murder him?))"

"((Oh, shut up!))"