Lying to Myself
Chapter Five – The Missing
Seamus woke up that morning groggy as ever. He couldn't remember what time he stayed up until the night before, but he knew it was way too late. Last night's fight with Hermione had ruined most of the night for him, but by the end of it he was able to enjoy dancing with his friends. He wasn't much of a dancer, but all his friends kept trying to convince him and finally he was able to get into it. By the end of the dance all the Gryffindors went back into their common room and played games until the wee hours of the night. Seamus expected Hermione to just be sulking in her room all night, waiting for him to come and apologize, but he wasn't going to be the one coming back to apologize this time.
Little did he know.
0o0o0o0
Hermione woke up to see drool on the paper she had worked so hard on all night. Did she really drool? Wiping off the excess moisture from the paper she looked over to see Snape sitting upright and smirking at her. Embarrassment struck her and she smiled sheepishly as she handed over her potions assignment. The professor looked down at the parchment with disdain and took it from her trying to touch as little of it as possible.
"You know," he said, "I'm going to have to take marks off for the orange ink and the stain of bodily function."
0o0o0o0
Walking into the common room, Seamus saw Harry and Ron both sitting on the couch talking. Not many people were in the common room yet and those who were didn't look happy to be. Seamus sat on the couch beside Harry and looked over at the two, expecting to be instantly in sync with the conversation.
"Have you talked to Hermione yet?" Ron asked, looking at Seamus expectantly.
"Why would I have?" Seamus replied, cocking his head.
"Well you know, the fight you two had last night."
Harry sat back, letting the two talk to each other without having to lean forward.
"Each time we fight, I'm always the one crawling back," Seamus stated, not in the happiest of moods. "Let her apologize to me this time."
Harry shook his head and stood up, adjusting his school robes. Turning around he looked at his to friends and said, "Well, I'm going to go see her then. She probably feels like she doesn't have a true friend to back her up, with Ron and me ganging up on her yesterday, then you and her fighting. Besides, I have to give her this back." Harry held up Hermione's wand before putting it back in his pocket. Seamus muttered a good luck and Ron got up in hopes of getting ready before classes.
0o0o0o0o
Once he got to Hermione's door Harry knocked lightly, knowing that she was already awake but a little tentative to see her reaction at seeing him. He wished Seamus would just go and apologized to her. Harry of all people knew what a stubborn streak Hermione had and the last thing he wanted was trouble in paradise. After waiting for a few minutes Harry knocked again. No answer. Harry knocked one more time and when there was no answer again, he figured she was still too angry to see him. She probably thought he was Seamus and was still too angry with him to talk.
Looking at his watch, Harry realized that if he didn't leave soon he would be late for class. They had dark arts class together first thing this morning and Hermione would never skip a class because she was angry with him, or anyone for that matter. He would see her in class and give her wand back then. In fact, she was probably just there early and when he got there, Hermione would be the first one he saw.
0o0o0oo0
Hermione looked at her watch, depressed.
"Right now I should be sitting in my dark arts class. I should be reading what's on the board, listening to the professor do his thing and jotting down notes. I should be in class, with my friends, learning. And what am I doing?" Hermione looked over at her professor who was still staring at her paper, making orange marks of corrections. He obviously wasn't listening to her, but what did she care? She had spent a day already with hardly any conversation and now she didn't care who was listening. "I'm stuck in a hole, sitting here helpless with a man who in a couple days will no doubt kill me and eat me for his next meal."
At that Hermione heard a low chuckle come from the her professor and she turned to watch him shake his head and go back to the essay in front of him.
"I'll take that as an affirmative," Hermione said, throwing a pebble against the opposite wall.
0o0o0o0
Dumbledore sat at the head of the table looking around at all his staff seated around the table patiently. One chair remained empty, that of Severus Snape.
"Why don't we just start without him, Albus?" Minerva suggested, motioning towards Severus' empty chair.
"None of us will miss him," Trelawney added. "He's always just sulking in his chair making rude and unnecessary comments anyway."
Albus looked at Professor Trelawney and slowly nodded his head. It wasn't that he didn't want Professor Snape there, but they didn't have the time to wait for him. All the teachers had classes to teach and students to get to. Snape obviously was doing some sort of silent protest against staff meetings again. Sending Binns to go quickly get Severus, Albus decided to wait just a bit longer.
"I don't have time for this," said Madam Hooch, looking at her watch. "I have a class to get to, some of my students are probably already getting there and where am I?"
"We'll have time," Albus assured her, sitting back in his chair. All of them waited for another five minutes. Some of the staff grumbled about the inconvenience and others just sat silently. Minerva leaned over to Dumbledor and said, "Sometimes I wish Severus would just grow up."
"Now, now, Minerva," Dumbledore chided watching Binns enter the room unaccompanied.
"I can't find him anywhere, Headmaster," Binns informed. "I checked his classroom, his rooms, I checked everywhere he could be."
Except a hole in the ground in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.
"Odd," replied Dumbledore, playing with his beard. "Consider our meeting postponed." The Headmaster got up from his chair and walked out the room purposefully, no doubt looking for where Snape could have run off to. All of the professors rose from their seats as well and started making their way to their classes.
0o0o0o0
Snape sat back against the stone wall of his holey prison. He was reading "Magical Drafts and Potions" by Arsenius Jigger, or at least pretending to. He had taken the book out of Hermione's bag that morning while she was still asleep. He had finished marking her paper but found no need in giving it back to her right away, he would decide when because he was in charge. Hermione sat on the complete opposite side of the area drawing scribbles in the mud with her index finger. He couldn't believe how homely she looked.
Her hair was a matted mess full of twigs and leaves, not to mention the mud that clung to the ends of her hair. Her cheeks had smudges on them from the dirt and a spot of dirt was smeared across her nose. Her clothes were covered by her robes during the fall, but they still weren't free of dirt. Brown splotches covered the material and the hems of her pants were soaked with muddy water. Absently, Snape wondered if he looked as bad as that and thought better of it. What did it matter what he looked like? The dark brown mud stains didn't stand out on the black of his robes anyway.
Sitting back, he wondered how he got in this mess. He could not imagine being trapped in a pit in such confines with Miss Granger. Sure there were worse people to be trapped in a hole with, Potter, Weasley and Finnegan to name a few, but she was not a desired alternative. He had spent almost two days already with the girl and didn't know how either of them was still alive. If someone didn't come soon he didn't know what would happen.
"I should be heading to transfiguration right about now," Hermione announced, looking at her watch. She had been announcing her day to him since she woke up and it was really starting to annoy him. Did she think she was the only one with a schedule?
"Yes, and I should be watching third years screw up yet another assignment!" he snapped at her. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you are the only one who wants out of here, Miss Granger."
Hermione looked up at her professor startled. It didn't surprise her that he had something rude to say; it was the fact that he seemed bothered by her pessimistic behaviour.
"For such an avid pessimist," Hermione commented, "I would have though you'd like a little pessimism from others."
Snape looked at Hermione and scowled. "I am not a pessimist," he informed, and went back to pretending to read his book.
Hermione laughed.
"Then what are you?" she asked incredulously.
"I am your professor," He responded and took out her paper from his robes, "and this is your grade."
Hermione stood up, tried to brush the excess dirt from her clothes and walked towards Severus. "Thank you," she said and took the paper from his hand. Sitting down, she looked at her mark that rested on the top of her page in bright orange ink.
"Excuse me, Professor," Hermione looked at the potions professor and back down at her page. "What kind of mark is this?"
"I took off ten percent for writing the paper in orange ink, and another ten percent for the drool stain," Snape looked at the girl as if it all made perfect sense, and she was a fool for asking.
"All I have is orange ink!" Hermione exclaimed, infuriated.
"Well you should have come more prepared then."
Hermione threw the paper at the man and walked back to the opposite side of the enclosure. She knew no matter what she said she couldn't reason with the man. He wasn't looking for reason; he was looking to drive her insane. She had had enough of him.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, for such a display." Snape said as he pulled out his parchment and wrote it down with the rest of the lost house points.
"I don't care," Hermione breathed, sounding entirely sincere.
Her lack of reaction disappointed Snape. Taking his quill out once more, he scribbled the last entry out and put it away again. Sitting back again he started to read once more. He was tired, wet, hungry and thirsty all in one. They had no clean source of water and it was starting to become imperative that someone come find them. Lying back, Severus eyed a worm that was crawling out of the ground. If only he could master his gag reflex. Deciding to wait till he was hungrier Snape closed his eyes, only to be startled when he felt Hermione walk past him. Opening his eyes he saw her going through the bag in front of her. Finally she drew out a spoon that he knew to belong to Hogwarts. The swirling pattern on the handle that turned into a cursive H testified of that.
"You know, technically that is theft of school property," Snape commented, eyeing the spoon. "I could take away points for that."
Hermione glanced in his direction, shook her head and walked over to the other side of the pit again. There she started digging. Snape sat up and walked curiously for a few minutes and then got up, walking over to the girl.
"What are you doing now?" he asked, standing over the crouched girl and looking down at the beginning of a hole in the ground.
"What does it look like?"
"Why are you digging another hole, Miss Granger?" Snape only had so much patience. "We can only have so many holes within a hole."
"I'm digging a well, Professor," she said, making little progress with such a small utensil. "If I dig deep enough, I should reach clean, drinking water."
Snape nodded, wondering why he didn't think of that first. Angry at himself for having his student out think him on such an obvious thing, Snape got down on his knees.
"You're taking to long," he mumbled, pushing her aside, "I'll do it."
Hermione glared at he professor and started to use her hands to dig the hole, going faster than the spoon could ever allow. Severus dropped the spoon and began using his hands as well. Both knelt in front of the hole trying to dig as fast as they could.
"Miss Granger, I am perfectly capable of doing this alone."
"No," Hermione responded, "I can do this fine."
Slowly the hole became too deep for Hermione's reach and she had to watch as the professor's long arms reached down into the hole to scoop out the dirt. A small pool of water started to fill the hole, and Severus dug out a lit more dirt, letting more water come in. slowly the water filled the small hole half way and even though dirt swirled around in the water – it was welcome.
Running back to her pants bag Hermione pulled out a couple pieces of paper and started to fold them. Pretty soon she was coming back with two origami cups, handing one to Snape.
"My Grandmother and I used to make things out of origami a lot when I was little," Hermione recalled, a small smile on her face. "I guess some times it comes in handy."
Snape dipped his cup in the pool of water and Hermione did the same. The idea of water was a welcome relief to their dry mouths and empty stomachs. Snape looked at his glass and looked up to see Hermione raise her paper cup, water slowly leaking out the bottom.
"Cheers," Hermione said before downing her cup of water, and Snape his.
0o0o0o0o0
Harry ran up to the Headmaster, followed by Ron and Seamus.
"Hermione…" Harry began, finally stopping to catch his breath in front of the Headmaster. "We can't find her anywhere, Headmaster. She hasn't been to any of her classes and we looked everywhere else!"
Dumbledore didn't give the reaction Harry was looking for. Instead he stood there, a blank expression on his face before nodding curtly. "I can't speak with you now boys," he addressed them, "we all have an assembly to go to. After the assembly, if you could please see me in my office."
Harry nodded, and the three boys followed Dumbledore to the Great Hall. Just before opening the doors to the Great Hall, Dumbledore turned his head to look at Harry with a quizzical brow on his face.
"When did you decide to go blonde, Mr. Potter?" he asked.
All Harry could do was grumble, and walk into the Great Hall, accompanied by his two friends. Ron and Seamus were snickering behind him.The three sat down at the Gryffindor table, across from Patil and Lavander.
Patil leaned over, addressing the three boys. "Is it true that Hermione is missing?" she asked, looking back and forth between the three. None of them answered her. Harry was still recovering from an earlier conversation with the girl entailing her going on and on about how blonde suited him.
Dumbledore stood up in front of everyone and the room fell quiet. Rumors had been flooding the school but no one really knew for sure why the assembly had been called. They were all about to find out.
"Two people are missing from Hogwarts," Dumbledore began. Whispers filled the room, as people confirmed to each other exactly who was missing. They died down quickly however when Dumbledore continued speaking. "Students are to travel in groups, and at the very least in pairs. Do not go walking through the castle or the castle grounds alone at any time. We are currently trying to locate the missing persons and until we find out where they are or what happened to them, this rule will stay in effect."
"In the mean time," Dumbledore added, "Professor Basbora will be substituting and teaching potions class."
Professor Basbora stood and waved at all the students, a large smile on his face.
A loud roar of voices filled the great hall as everyone discussed what they had just been told. Dumbledore never told them who was missing, but everyone knew. It was Professor Snape and Hermione Granger.
O0o0o0o0
"Bean?" Hermione offered, handing the bag of beans over to Snape. Severus took the bag from her hand and rifled through it, careful not to pick out any suspicious coloured beans . Hermione sat by the fire putting two or three beans in her mouth at a time. Snape raised an eyebrow.
"This way," Hermione explained, "if I get a nasty tasting bean, and a good tasting bean, the flavors cancel each other out.
Snape shook his head and picked out a bean. Grass flavored wasn't his favorite but he could do a lot worse. "And if they all taste nasty?" he asked.
"Pessimist," was all Hermione could say.
Snape ignored the comment and continued to eat, one bean at a time.
"Is there any one you don't hate?" Hermione asked, conversationally. Snape just looked up at her before going through the bag of beans once more.
"Well every time I do or say something you just curl your lip at me like I disgust you. I'm wondering if there is anyone you actually like."
"like is such a loose term," Snape replied sarcastically, putting another bean in his mouth.
"Well it looks like we're going to be in this hole for a while, so you might as well stop acting as though I'm a worm flavored bean."
Snape ignored her.
"I'm just saying. I don't like you either. You've terrorized me since year one, but you making snide comments and taking house points does not make this whole experience any better."
The professor looked up at the girl and curled his lip. "Maybe if you ceased talking, Miss Granger, this whole experience would be a lot more pleasant."
Hermione walked away, mouthing his words, mocking him.
"Ten points from Gryffindor."
0o0o0o0
The three boys sat in front of the Headmaster's desk.
"Was Miss Granger at the dance last night?" Dumbledore asked the boys, particularly Seamus Finnegan.
"No, sir, she wasn't," Seamus replied, looking at the floor guiltily. "We got in a fight last night and she ended up not going…"
"When did you have this fight, Mr. Finnegan?"
"Right before dinner, sir."
"Is that the last time you saw her?" Dumbledore asked
"Yes, Headmaster," came the meek reply.
Albus shook his head. Two people missing from that night, and he had no way of explaining it. He hadn't seen Severus in the Great Hall for dinner that night but he had expected that the festivities of the dance had convinced him to take dinner in his rooms. It wasn't unusual for Severus to skip on a meal in the Great Hall, and if Miss Granger was in a foul mood it wasn't preposterous to think she would stay in her rooms either. He couldn't even pin point a time when they had gone missing. All he could do right now was send people out to look for the two.
"I will dispatch a search party to check the grounds, Hogsmead and the Forbidden Forest. I don't know what more I can do than that without anymore information." Dumbledore explained and the boys nodded in response.
"Do you think it was Death Eaters, sir?" Ron asked the question that was on all of their minds.
"I don't know, Mr. Weasley."
0o0o0o0
Hermione laid by the fire, trying to get warm. It was particularly cold that night and she felt chilled to the bone. She had her school robes wrapped around her like a blanket and she used her pants bag as a pillow. It wasn't soft, but it was something. It wouldn't be long until they ran out of things to light on fire. She didn't know how they were going to keep warm once that happened. The nights were only going to get colder.
Snape sat beside the small fire, using a thin stick to prod the fire's fuel to keep the fire burning. He didn't mind the cold so much; he was used to these temperatures. Miss Granger however was shivering even with the flame's heat and he wasn't sure why she remained so cold. That wasn't his problem though. He was doing what he could, and she should be grateful for that. Leaning against the rock wall, Snape fell asleep. It would be a long day of putting up with Miss Granger again tomorrow and he needed his rest.
Hermione tried to sleep but couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes she started to think about Seamus. She wanted to cry. This had turned out to be the longest and worse detention of her life. All she wanted was to see her friends again, to see Seamus again. It had been two days now, hopefully some one would find them in the morning.
0o0o0o0
Severus woke up to Hermione screaming.
Before he knew it he was at his feet ready to duel whoever had intruded his hole. It was dark, and it took a while for his eyes to adjust to what little moonlight entered into the pit. He could see Hermione tossing around on the ground, restless and mumbling to herself.
'Stupid girl,' he thought to himself as he walked over to her. She had woken him up from a wonderful, dreamless sleep and she wasn't in any danger at all. Using his foot he nudged her awake. He wasn't gentle by any means, but he wasn't trying to hurt the girl either. Hermione woke with a start and he could tell it took her a bit to adjust to her surroundings.
"What in Merlin's name is wrong with you, girl?" he hissed.
Hermione looked around and then down at the floor, avoiding the Professor's eyes which she knew were focused on her.
"I had a bad dream," she mumbled.
Snape huffed and went back to where he slept. He knew he should rekindle the fire at his feet to make the night feel less bitter. He still couldn't see much however and didn't have the energy to do the Gryffindor such a favor after she needlessly awoke him at such a late hour. Lying down, Severus wrapped the cloak around him and went back to sleep.
Sleep didn't come as easily to a Miss Hermione Granger however. She had had a terrible dream and feared falling asleep would only continue the nightmare. Sighing, she stared out at the night and shivered. It was terribly cold and even if she did want to sleep, she didn't think it would be possible for her. She could hear the soft breathing of Professor Snape and for the first time in her life, she envied him. She wished she could just fall asleep like he did. Absently, Hermione thought what he might be dreaming about.