Professor Snape's intense stare was burning in Hermione's retina. She was alone with him in his private office. She could hear the pounding of her blood in her ears. An edge of the chair she was sitting on was digging into her thighs. Candles on the walls made the room smell like burned indistinguishable herbs and made the shadows on the Professor's face dance. She did not know what to answer and did not dare to look away from his eyes despite the knowledge of the chance of him using legilimency. Her own private occlumency exercises had not prepared her for real confrontation, so she had no idea whether or not her walls worked. At least she did not feel anything through them at the moment.
"Yes..?" she finally said with furrowed eyebrows. She did not see any reason for him to think she was not Hermione.
"Is that so?" Professor Snape said and stood up. He walked a few paces away from the desk, turned back and crossed his arms in front of him. "Miss Granger... I fought in a war. I know how fighters react when faced with threatening situations, even outside combat. You reacted exactly like that in my class a few moments ago, and I know for a fact that Hermione Granger has not fought in any wars, or otherwise been in combat situations enough for it to seem like it. Moreover, you don't act like you did before summer. You look around as if everything is not as it is supposed to be and... You don't react to me the way you used to."
Hermione knew she had let her fighter's instincts run loose and that she could not deny having fought in a war. She had not thought she had been acting any differently, but it was true that many of the intact pieces of the castle these days were those that she helped to fix or at least had seen having been fixed, and most of them looked a bit different than they had been. Now they were as they had been before all the destruction. But how could the Professor have noticed..? And what did he mean by reacting and acting differently? He might mean something else entirely.
"Well?" the Professor urged and had he been any other person, Hermione would have expected him to tap his foot to the floor.
"I don't know what you're expecting me to say, sir." Maybe she could try playing it safe. There was no way for him to know that he actually was on to something.
"You don't deny my observations? So you aren't Hermione Granger after all. What-"
"I am!" Hermione interrupted. She stood and lifted her hands on the desk to lean towards her interrogator. "I most definitely am Hermione Jean Granger. If you need some kind of proof of that, name it. Sir."
"Start from explaining why you attacked Mr. Malfoy." Professor Snape stepped forwards towards his chair and Hermione sat back at hers. "I might just go to Dumbledore and suggest your expulsion for doing that."
"It's as you said, I must have fought in a war." She glared at him. "But I am still me."
"Oh, really?" Snape sat back.
"You wouldn't believe it even if I told you..." Hermione hesitated.
Professor Snape stared at her and lifted an eyebrow. "I guess I'll just have to conclude that you've lost your senses and are too much of a danger to other students."
"Professor, please. You know my relationship with Malfoy is not exactly nice, it doesn't mean I'm particularly dangerous!" Hermione pleaded. If she lost the access to Hogwarts library and she lost her chances of getting her manga back, it would be a huge set back and she did not want to cross this timeline's Dumbledore's path. He was a very powerful wizard, but in her timeline he had made some major mistakes, and had not fixed all the things she would. He had been willing to sacrifice Harry and pretended to care about him from year one. She respected the old wizard, but unlike Harry, she did not trust him.
"I beg to differ. You're a killer, Miss Granger, anyone who has seen what I've seen would agree," Snape countered and got up again. "You can come with me peacefully..."
"I know about Lily," Hermione blurted, desperately, and felt a cold wave pass through her mind as she continued. "I know how you became loyal to the Order and betrayed Voldemort."
She felt sweat prickle on her forehead and the dark robed figure in front of her had stilled. He was frowning and he closed his eyes, as if he was trying to keep himself of attacking her on the spot. He could have just attacked her, he had just said that he considered her dangerous, but apparently not that dangerous. Hermione hoped what she had said was enough for him to reconsider outing her to Dumbledore or other teachers. Dumbledore should know those things already, unless this timeline was different in that regard, but maybe he would not want the other teachers to know and she could tell them. Professor Snape sat down.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said and looked into her eyes again.
"Professor, just that reaction just now was quite telling," Hermione jibed. The face Professor Snape made at that was quite sour. "Can I just serve my detention and go, sir?"
"After what you just said? Miss Granger, don't be ridiculous." Professor Snape sighed before continuing. "You imply you know too much. Is there a reason why I shouldn't obliviate you now?"
"I mean no harm," Hermione began and Snape's eyebrows rose. "Well, I wouldn't just let you do that, and you did say I'm a killer. Maybe you wouldn't like to put that to a test?"
At that Snape moved his hand faster than even Hermione's battle hardened reflexes had enough time to react to and Hermione found herself stuck in the chair unable to move. She felt her mouth had been gagged with something thick and her torso, hands, and legs were snuggly tied with lianas. Hermione glared at the man, but forced herself to not retaliate by nonverbally setting the Professor's robes on fire a bit like she had done in her first year.
"I don't think you could stop me," he said and slowly walked from behind the desk to behind Hermione. Her eyes followed him until she would have had to turn her head to see him. She refused to go that far. She knew she was very much in trouble now, but she would be in even more trouble if she started fighting the man. He had much more experience and even if she managed to win, she would no doubt suffer great damage.
Hermione felt warm hands on her shoulders and the gag disappeared. She breathed deep to calm herself under the touch. He would not want to kill her. He would not want to obliviate her... at least not yet, but why? Hermione would have smacked her forehead at that moment had she not been tied up. Of course!
"You need to know who else knows your secret," Hermione articulated sure of herself. The hands left her shoulders.
"Indeed," he whispered leaving the room quiet. She could hear her own breathing as she went through what she would be willing to tell Snape and what not. "Start talking."
"I am the only one who knows," Hermione finally said. She counted on Snape not quite believing her.
"Elaborate." He appeared in her field of vision again.
"Harry testified for you so that you would at least be buried respectfully, unlike other fallen Death Eaters. I helped him prepare his testimony, he told me about the memories you had given him just before you died."
"Yet, here I stand. Are you claiming you're a prophet or a time traveler?"
"I... Well... It's year 1997 now, isn't it?" Hermione sighed after getting a nod from the pale man staring at her intently. "I have lived through this and most of the next year once already, but things were different. There was a war."
"Against the Dark Lord?" Snape prodded. In this timeline it seemed like the war had been avoided, but it was possible that it still was lurking around the corner if Voldemort still lived.
"Yes. But as I said, things were different. They were already different yesterday morning when I found myself here, and it seems that they have been different for a while before that. You know the laws of time travel, I am not supposed to tell what happened in my timeline."
"Miss Granger..." Snape sighed. "Do you really think those laws apply in this case? You already expressed how things have been going differently well before you... were added to this timeline. Besides, if this is proper time travel, where is the right Miss Granger of this timeline?"
"Oh. Yes..." Hermione felt the blood draw away from her face, but she quickly continued. "I... I don't think there's another Hermione here. This body is younger than it was before waking up here and it doesn't have all the scars... But there could have been the mind of this timeline's Hermione and it could have been destroyed or it, oh Merlin, it could have switched places with me and..."
"There's no need to panic, Miss Granger." Snape's voice was deliberately even and Hermione shut up. He gave her a worried look over. "Will you attack me if I let you loose?"
"No, Professor," Hermione answered despite her nervously thumping heart and her constraints disappeared. What if the Hermione of this timeline was in trouble and in her timeline? What if she had destroyed this Hermione and there was no way back?
"Winky!" the Professor called as Hermione rubbed her arms and wrists and moved her legs.
The house elf appeared next to the desk and bowed low. Her eyes were clear; she looked clean and sober. Hermione had no idea what had happened to Winky during the war, but in her timeline she most likely would not be as presentable as she was now. Professor Snape politely asked Winky to bring them tea and in a few seconds there was a teapot on a tray with two teacups and a few biscuits on the desk and Winky had been dismissed. Hermione's mind calmed down a bit. Maybe it was best if she focused on her current situation right now.
"Professor, may I ask you something?" Hermione asked.
"You just did, didn't you Miss Granger?" he drawled with a stony face. "But go ahead."
"How are you getting along with Winky?" Come to think about it, she had never before dared to consider asking such personal questions from Professor Snape. Even though she was gryffindor and all.
"Quite well," the professor evaded and poured both of them a cup of tea. "Take some tea."
"I mean, do you have some sort of special relationship with her, sir?" Hermione asked after doing as she had been told. The liquid looked like just regular tea and smelled like such as well.
"Miss Granger, she's a house elf and I am practically one of her masters here at Hogwarts. There's nothing more, nothing less." Snape sipped tea and the black eyes disappeared behind the teacup for a moment. "Why do you ask?"
"In my timeline she was quite the drunkard, but she looked fine just now." The tea was quite good despite tasting a bit like camomile. It was evening and the herb had a calming effect.
"I did give her anti-drunkard potions and Professor Dumbledore assigned her as my personal elf this year."
"I didn't know there was such a potion." She had not known that the professors got personal house elves either. For some reason it was not mentioned in Hogwarts: A History and nobody talked about it.
"It's new. Now, would you explain how did this war happen and how did you end up here?"
Hermione spent rest of the evening under Professor Snape's stare gathering up a rough summary of what had happened during the war. She even told him how they had destroyed the horcruxes without telling about them being horcruxes and she left out Harry having to die. She did not know whether the Professor had known about them or not, and as she told him about him helping them get the sword of Gryffindor, she answered to his incredulous look just that she did not know why he had done it.
When Hermione got to the part about how they had been rebuilding Hogwarts and how the Professor had been posthumously pardoned and what had happened to all the other Death Eaters, the man summoned Winky to get them dinner. She was as quick as she had been before, and Professor was as polite towards the elf. Hermione and Professor Snape ate in silence and drank more tea. Hermione started becoming worried about the pressure she felt in her nether regions, but she could not refuse the tea under his gaze. Despite this one being their third pot already. Maybe this was the actual suffering in detention part?
"Please, continue, Miss Granger. What happened next?" Professor Snape asked after finishing his sandwiches. He patted around his mouth with a napkin and sipped tea before continuing his previous inquisitive stare. Hermione took a deep breath and also sipped some more tea.
"Sir, do you know about my interest in the rights of magical beings in wizarding community?" she asked.
"I think I have heard about you trying to give clothes to Hogwarts' house elves," he said with a surprisingly humorous tone. That meant that this timeline's Hermione had been similar to her at least in that regard.
"Yes. I went on a search of information about how different magical communities around the world treated other magical beings. I started from Australia and continued to Japan, but from there I ended up here."
"How?"
"I sure would tell you exactly how if I could. There was a little Japanese girl that showed me a manga and when I touched it, the next thing I knew was me waking up in the Great Hall. I also discovered that the manga had appeared with me here, or it could have been here all along. However, Professor Redlid took it from me before I could investigate it very thoroughly."
"You speak Japanese, Miss Granger?"
"No, sir."
"Was the manga in English?"
"No, sir. It was in Japanese. I meant to learn the language or a translation spell, but I haven't yet had the time for that."
"I see." Professor Snape took out his wand and waved it. A book appeared on the table with a pop. "This should be of use to you. Return it when you've read it."
Hermione hurried to shove the book in her bag without even looking at it. The pressure was getting unbearable.
"Can I go now, sir?" she pleaded and fidgeted on her chair.
"What's the hurry? We still have things to discuss, Miss Granger..." Snape drawled and lifted an eyebrow. Hermione was at her wit's end.
"I really need to go to the loo, sir!" she blurted and couldn't help blushing as she did so.
"Oh, go ahead. I'll wait here," he muttered. Hermione could swear she saw a pink tinge on his cheeks.
Hermione bolted from the room and through the Potions classroom to the corridor. In her hurry she did not have much time looking at her surroundings, but she knew her way to the nearest toilet.
When she turned around a corner behind which the dungeon toilets were located she collided with something solid. She started falling, but were stopped just before she hit the floor by strong arms. The strong arms were attached to the torso of a Draco Malfoy, whose face was just inches away from hers. Her bag fell.
"Watch it... Granger?" the boy said and frowned before his eyes went wide. His eyes looked darker than usually in the dim lighting of the corridor.
Hermione tried to get her balance back, but Malfoy did not move to allow her any space without her getting even closer to him. Her heart beat wildly and when she noticed it was futile to try to properly get up, she tried to at least get her face farther away from the boy's. The boy did not seem to notice and his minty fresh breath tickled her cheek.
"Get your hands off me!" Hermione shouted indignantly and finally Malfoy seemed to get a hold of himself and helped her up before letting her go.
The pressure in her bladder was terrible, so she did not hesitate grabbing her bag and running straight to the loo and shutting the door loudly behind her as she went.
Finally sitting on the toilet seat, Hermione contemplated what had just happened. Professor Snape had actually been rather civil with her. He had not deducted any more points from her and he had not actually made her do any detention-like things, except not letting her go and tying her up... if that counts as detentionlike. He had actually seemed curious, and she had not sensed any malicious intent from him. And then... She had collided with Malfoy, who had actually grabbed her gallantly? What was up with that? Maybe that was how he usually reacted when colliding with people. She did not remember seeing him collide with anyone before. But it was curious that he had been alone. Oh, she probably should thank him the next time she saw him... when he did not have anyone else around him.
After washing hands and returning to the corridor to her relief, or disappointment, Malfoy had already left. She continued straight back through the classroom to Snape's office. The man was pacing back and forth when she saw him. The table was clean, which probably meant no more tea or anything. Hermione braced herself for punishment as the man stopped and looked at her.
"It's getting late. I think we'd better adjourn this discussion for another day," Snape told her.
"Oh, okay," Hermione answered belatedly. "Good night, sir."
She turned back and started towards the Gryffindor Tower before Professor Snape changed his mind but stopped at the doorway.
"Um, sir. Could you keep the things we discussed just between the two of us? I don't want to make this blow out of proportion," she asked without turning back.
"As long as you keep your own mouth shut as well. Good night, Miss Granger," he answered quietly.
Hermione shut the door behind her and started walking back to the Gryffindor tower. It had been a long evening and it was actually quite late already. It had been a long day in fact, and she felt it as a heaviness on her eyelids and limbs. She hoped she would not run into anyone anymore tonight. Her brain much needed sleep.
Will Hermione run into anyone tonight? Next chapter will be up in about a week.
