Shattered

Chapter Seven

"Malfoy," She bit as he sat next to her, invading her personal space. She was perched in a chair in the library, leaning over her homework, nose almost skimming the paper as her gaze focused intently on what she was writing.

"Granger," He chirped a little too happily.

"To what do I owe the displeasure of your company?" Looking up at him she frowned and shifted uncomfortably away from him a touch to put a few centimeters between them.

"Well," he began, flopping down into a chair beside her uninvited, looking over the parchment she was working on intently.

"That's wrong." He pointed to a line in her potions homework, "Draught of the living dead you stir anti-clockwise seven times, not clockwise seven times."

She rubbed her eyes tiredly, trying to get them to focus better. She had indeed written the wrong thing and he had indeed been right, and she didn't like that. But to say her brain was wandering elsewhere would be an understatement. She still didn't like not knowing why Snape had taken such an interest to her, and she knew it was in his nature to manipulate people for things that he needed or wanted. A leopard never changes its spots; well that is what her mother always said to her and thus far, the adage had been proven right time and time again.

"What do you want, Malfoy," She bit, irritation tangled in her tone. "Or are you just here to point out that my homework was wrong?" She huffed, putting the quill gently on the table and crossing her arms tight across her chest.

"Care to uh tell me why I saw you heading into Snape's office at nine last night and leaving again at three this afternoon, still dressed in the same clothes you arrived in and your hair looked even more disheveled than it usually is, indicating that you didn't even make an attempt or have ways or means to brush it.."

He folded his arms across his chest, eyes glittering with question like he knew something he ought not to. As if by some divine intervention she was meant to confess something to him, the thing was, she had no idea exactly what it was.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Malfoy," She snapped at him, rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. Her eyes were tired, she had been in here for the past five hours, time getting away from her as she tried to catch up on her homework, and she wasn't in the mood for an interrogation.

"Bit touchy on the subject are we? Am I to assume there is something going on between the dungeon bat and the war heroine? Something that shouldn't be happening?" He cocked a brow expectantly at her, tapping his bottom lip mockingly as if he were in deep thought.

"There is NOTHING going on there, Draco, so get whatever it is out of your head because it is so far from the truth. I had detention, nothing more, nothing less. You ought to do something creative with that wild imagination of yours, instead of interrogating me over something that isn't or never will happen."

"I know what I saw," His voice low and threatening.

"Best to get your eyes checked then, and why were you stalking me? What, did you take up a post outside of his classroom to keep tabs on me?"

H growled deep in his throat. He knew there had to be something going on otherwise why would she have spent so much time in his classroom? It didn't add up.

"Don't flatter yourself, Granger. I just happened to be strolling past innocently both times I saw you. And anyway, that's not what I wanted anyway," He cleared his throat as if he had a huge announcement to make.

"What, Malfoy?" She bit out, growing tired of him annoying her.

"Well, you are a girl… And I am a guy-"

"Wow, took you eight years to work that one out? I can see an education at Hogwarts wasn't wasted on you,,. Clap, clap Einstein." Her tone sarcastic, rolling her eyes, she didn't she could roll her eyes so far back into her head until right now.

"No, just hear me out. We have been through so much together already what with the war and all… Maybe we should-" He looked nervously at the table and back up to her, "Maybe you know, we could get to know each other a bit more, it may lead to romantic entanglement..." He trailed off.

She snorted so loudly and so hard, she was sure she had just dislodged and swallowed her uvula down her throat. Never in her life had she heard such a ridiculous proposition, and she was best friends with Ron and Harry and one stage in her life. You couldn't get much stupider than their ideas.

"What do you mean we have been through so much together?" She screeched, her patience finally wearing out with him. "We have been through nothing together, the entire time I was fighting against what you were fighting for. We have nothing in common, you have wished me dead on more than one occasion and to top it off your father and his 'blood supremacy' bullshit, you really think he would lay down and let me waltz in and welcome me with open arms?"

She ran a hand wearily through her hair, she could honestly not believe what she was hearing right now. "Go see pug-faced Pansy, I am sure she would be more than accommodating towards you, isn't it every pureblood girls dream? To bag themselves a rich one with notoriety? Or does the great Malfoy name not hold as much esteem within Pureblood society nowadays? You can take your romantic entanglement and shove it up your ass sideways."

"My father is in Azkaban so it matters not to him what I do," His voice low and even.

"And he will be in Azkaban for the rest of his life, Mister Malfoy," Drawled Severus as he stepped out from behind a shelf and inviting himself into their conversation. She wondered how long he has been there and how much of her conversation he had heard. "Miss Granger, you have detention soon." Folding his arms across his chest he looked pointedly at her.

"But… Sir, it's a Saturday." She looked confused.

"And when has that ever stopped a detention, Miss Granger? My stores aren't going to clean, replenish and organize themselves you know."

She blushed, "You are right," She replied sheepishly.

"What about an answer for me," Draco pushed.

"I can assure you, Mister Malfoy, Miss Granger's answer would be no, but perhaps not that tame."

"He's right," she confirmed. "Didn't you understand the part where I said shove it up your ass sideways? Or do you need me to spell it out for you?" Throwing her belongings into her book bag and hoisting it over her shoulder as she stood.

"I'll just take this back to my room, sir."

"No rush, Miss Granger." His voice low as he watched her stalk away.

"What's going on between you and her?" Draco asked intently.

"Nothing, Draco," all formalities had been all but thrown out the window now they were alone, " She has detention for being a back chatting little cow and that is the extent of it."

"Detention that lasted until three o'clock this afternoon? He jutted his chin out defiantly.

"You best not meddle with situations you know nothing of, Draco," his words a low, cold whisper, eyes daring him to comment further on the subject, but Draco knew better. He knew his godfather wasn't one to cross and probe for more information. Even if he did tell you, could you really trust him? After all, he was and probably still was a master of deceit."

-o-o-o-o-

"Miss Granger." He nodded curtly at the girl as she entered his office, standing before his desk; she looked down at him expectantly like she wanted something.
The truth was she wanted to talk to him more. It was a type of therapy, even if she didn't want to admit it. She liked talking to him, she found him fascinating and interesting, but also very complicated.

"What would you like me to do?" She asked him, watching him intently as he stooped further over the papers he was marking, quill scratching parchment softly.

"Clean my stores, Miss Granger. What you were meant to do last night before you deiced to have an impromptu nap on my watch."

She flushed red, deciding not to ask him anything else in the interim; she began doing as she was told. Fifteen minutes in and neither had uttered a word to the other and she wondered how one night he could be so forthcoming and open, and the next night, he was tight-lipped and closed. She crinkled her nose up as she found a jar of twenty-year-old boomslang skin that has begun to turn rancid and slimy.

"Sir?" She quipped, turning to look at him, he stiffened, quill hovering over the parchment, and she wondered if he was going to answer her, or pretend he hadn't heard her.

Finally, he looked at her, placing the quill lightly on the desk and folding his arms across his chest.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" His voice soft and even, laced with hints of interest.

"I was wondering, and I am sorry if I am talking out of turn here but it has been at the forefront of my mind for many, many months…." She trailed off, looking at him for any sign that should tell her to back off and mind her own business, but his body language remained impassive so she pressed on.

"During the war… What side were you on exactly? There has been much speculation as to who you sided with but I thought I would come straight to you are ask, Sir."

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't like to divulge too much information about himself and thought perhaps he had overstepped the boundaries and now she felt as if she could ask him anything. Was he too accommodating towards her?

"Miss Granger, I don't know what you are playing at, but I suggest you stop."

She held her hands up in defense, "I am not playing at anything, Sir. I am merely asking the question that many before me have asked and wondered, I was just ambitious enough to come to the source and ask directly."

"It matters not what side I was or wasn't on. What matters is that the war is over and I ask for redemption to live a quiet life."

"I personally think your true allegiance didn't lay with anyone, I think you were playing both sides to benefit yourself so you could come up trumps no matter that situation and you would have been guaranteed freedom no matter what side was successful."

"So you believe it was in it for myself and myself only, Miss Granger?"

"That's exactly what I am saying," She challenged.

"You were playing both sides to ensure your own safety and freedom no matter what side fell. You couldn't commit to a side."

"Are you saying I have commitment issues, Miss Granger?"

She shrugged. "I think you have a lot of issues."

"Duly noted." He was certain this was the last stint of detention she would serve with him, he couldn't take it anymore, he had had enough Hermione Granger in the past week to last him and lifetime.

"So?" She questioned.

"So?" He retaliated.

"What side were you on?"

"What side would you want me on?"

"Well." She brushed her long curls over her shoulder and sauntered up to his desk, "you are smart, powerful and a master of deceit, I think your talents would have been great on the good side, but your character lands you on Voldemort's side."

"Does it matter? The war is over…." He trailed off.

"It doesn't matter but it is interesting to know." She shrugged.

"I guess we will never know," came his forced, bland reply.

"I guess not," she huffed. She really wanted to know but she was getting nowhere fast and she knew there was no point pushing the issue.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" He asked because she was still standing there looking at him like a lost puppy.

"That's all." She made her way back to the shelves of ingredients and continued to sort through them in silence. Half rotten lacewings, fairy wings that had rotten into a disgusting rancid liquid followed by congealed iguana blood. Tossing each one into the bin after the other. She was glad they were in bottles and jars because she would have thrown up six ways from Sunday if she had to actually smell these.

"Sir?"

She could hear him softly sigh and drop the quill again even with her back to him and she just knew he would be rubbing his temples and trying to push down the urge to strangle her.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Just letting you know I have had to throw out your boomslang skin, your iguana blood, lacewings and your fairy wings, just so you know. I am pretty sure they had been here since the first ever potions lesson to be taught within these walls."

"Thank you, Miss Granger. Seeing as they were my last fairy wings, it would seem a trip into the forest is in order." He stood up and stretched, his back softly popping into place vertebrae, after vertebrae.

"I'll just be finishing up here then while you go out then…" She trailed off, hoping that was at least the plan. She was uneasy when the corner of his lips twitched and a smirk graced his features. "Oh no, Miss Granger. You will be accompanying me to the forest." Folding arms over chest it gave him great delight to see her face drop and he knew right now her stomach would be doing backflips as it fell to the floor.

"I insist sir, you go by yourself." She smiled sweetly, hoping it would be enough to get her out of going.

"Oh no, Miss Granger, you are coming whether you like it or not. Let's go."

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, Why her?

They walked in relative silence, she closely followed behind him, the sound of their breathing and footsteps were the only thing that could be heard with the odd sound off in the distance that unsettled Hermione.

"Do you have your wand?" He stopped and turned to her, causing her to run straight into him and bounce back a few steps.

"Sorry," She muttered as he cast a displeased glance her way.

"Yes, I have my wand," She confirmed nodding her head.

"Good, keep it at the ready… Since Dumbledore's death, the centaurs haven't been very accommodating with people entering the forest, they are becoming even more hostile towards the people who enter the forest and I wouldn't trust them as fast as I could pick them up and throw them." He lit the tip of his own wand and she followed suit, lighting the tip of her own wand.

She nodded, fishing her wand from her pocket and holding it so tight she was white knuckling.

"Do we actually have to kill the fairy's, sir?" She asked in a low, hushed whisper so as to not draw attention to them.

"No," he whispered back, holding his wand high in the air, his feet leading him the path he had traveled many a time. "We just have to catch them and pull their wings off. It doesn't hurt them physically, but it hurts their vanity."

They continued to walk in silence side by side and she found herself gravitating closer and closer to him as every noise, twig snapping or footstep she heard until her arm was brushing his.

Casting a glance at her sideways her realized her close proximity and wanted to gently push her away but he couldn't deny how soft and warm she felt pressing herself into him. He tried to push the thought from his head, she was a student, she was Hermione Granger, it was immoral and wrong to relish in the touch of such a young girl. Especially the little know-it-all bitch that had made his life somewhat of a living hell over the past eight years.

Hermione felt that they had been walking for an eternity but she wasn't going to open the gap between them. She didn't want to be out here, and she was relying on him for most of the protection she should need should this trip go awry.

He stopped abruptly and knelt down, like lightning he reached out and grabbed a glowing fairy's wings between his thumb and forefinger, watching it trying to pull out of his grip. With little force, he shook the fairy and the wings fell off. The disgruntled fairy hit the ground and scampered off irate at what had just happened to her. He pulled a small jar from his robes and gently put the wings in. Fairy wings were extremely hard to come by and you usually on got a few sets of wings before the other fairy's caught on to what was happening and fled.

Hermione saw a fairy in the distance and wanted to get a closer look. She had never actually seen a fairy in real life, only in books and wanted to help collect some wings as well so she at least appeared half useful.

Tentatively she watched as it flittered and flew around fast as she approached it. Its wings glowing and glittering in the darkened night, not even the sky could be seen through the thick canopy of the tree's and Hermione assumed they were right in the belly of the forest. The tree's dwarfing the two of them as if they were insignificant entities in a forest of giants.

The fairy stopped and stared intently at Hermione, and Hermione at it. She held her palm out and the fairy gently landed in her hand. Her attention solely on the fairy in her hand, so mystical, she thought to herself before quickly closing her hand around the fairy who she could feel struggling against her palm to get away, they were usually hard to catch and weary of people. Slowly her palm opened, pinching the fairy between her fingers she gently pulled her wings off, feeling incredibly terrible for doing so, a wave of guilt washed over her as she set the fairy gently on a log and pocketed the wings.

Hermione looked up, right into the eyes of a centaur standing three meters away. She gripped her wand tight, heart began beating hard in her chest, feeling as if it wanted to break her rib cage, she was too scared to breathe, frozen to the spot she willed herself to walk backward slowly, wand at the ready.

"What are you doing in here, young one?" The centaur stepped closer to her in her wand light. She took another step back, unable to process anything in her head, she was no longer a functioning person, and her intuition and sensibility had gone by the wayside.

She stepped back again, the centaur took another step towards her. "You shouldn't be in there," The centaur spoke again, but she couldn't process in her mind what was being said. Her entire thought process had shut off.

She took another tentative step backward, her wand trained on the centaur, not that it was of any help because right now, she forgot how to talk, much less cast a spell.

She collided with something, an arm snaked around her waist holding her close and she visibly relaxed a touch, she knew it was him.

"Bane," He greeted the centaur evenly, his wand held up defensively. The Centaurs sleek black coat gleaming under the light of Severus' wand. His muscles rippling under his hide. His quiver strap camouflaged against his black coat, a large bow in hand, held by his strong, muscular arms down by his side. His hooves ever so nimbly moving him closer to the two.

"What are you doing in here, Snape? You aren't welcome here," his voice dark and intimidating the centaur walked closer, half a meter separated them from him.

He could feel her heart beating hard against him in a song of fear, he was sure she was hardly breathing too. He could smell her shampoo and her perfume assaulted his nostrils, tantalizing them. And if they weren't in such a predicament he might have just bent her over and fucked her then and there. Merlin knew she was old enough and attractive enough to indulge in.

"I have as much right to be here as anyone Bane and you know it. Now be gone. You know what I am capable of and I dare say you needn't be told twice."

She could feel his hot breath pass her cheek and she relaxed back into him a little more, getting her bearings and some sense coming back to her now.

"You killed Dumbledore Bane stated, his voice laced with anger, walking even closer and running a hand over Hermione soft face. She closed her eyes and held back a sob.

"And you know I was acquitted, Bane."

"Who is this?" Blane questioned, tilting his head ever so slightly to look at Snape.

"Hermione Granger," Severus answered, his voice strained. His wand twitched in his hand, ready to send whatever spell he had to at the Centaur.

"Harry Potters friend?" Bane asked, intrigued.

"The one and only," Snape bit back, his grip tightening on Hermione should the centaur decide to rip her from his grip and gallop away with her.

He snorted softly, "Very well, any friend of Harry Potter is a friend of mine. Don't let me catch you back in here Snape. You are lucky you had the girl with you." Bane bowed his head before turning and trotting off, his hooves tapping out a rhythmic two-beat tone as he trotted off in the otherwise silent forest.

Severus could feel Hermione relax in his grip and she began to breathe once more. "Are you ok, Miss Granger?"

"I… I think, yes." She managed to splutter out, her mouth dry.

He was well aware he still had his arm around her middle, palm lying flat on her smooth stomach, over her robes, enjoying the rise and fall of her chest and she breathed against him.

"Very well," He begrudgingly released his grip on her and she took a few seconds to pull herself away from his warm body, "Let's get back."

She nodded in agreeance, walking closely by him again, her arm brushing his as they walked.

Thanks, everyone for your reviews. I have exactly where I am going with this story in my head now; so much so, I have a later chapter written out that has cemented everything from here on in, into place, which is a huge load off of my mind. I don't think this will be a long, extravagant story by any stretch of the imagination. Possibly 15 chapters. We will see where it leads me in the interim.

-Aliasmel1