Chapter 3: The Tower

She followed as he pushed the door open and as he did so it revealed... an endless corridor. The whole thing was made of glass. As Hermione stared at the ceiling she realised that she could see the corridor above them and as she turned her head to either side she was astounded to see small rooms passing her by. One looked like the Slytherin common room, as she passed it an eerie green glow penetrated the glass wall to her left. She gasped as another room was revealed, strange statues of wizards and witches were placed randomly in the room. The next room she passed was full of musty looking books, lined with dust in ornate bookcases. Each room along the corridor revealed more mysteries which she had never even considered could be there. Then quite suddenly, she stopped. A beautiful tropical room full of orchids, banana trees and exotic plants lay before her. The ceiling was enchanted just like the Great Hall, and a blazing sun shone on the plant's leaves casting strange shadows around the room. She turned to find Snape standing right behind her, with a look of amusement on his face. He strode silently towards her and pointed at the centre of the forest within.

"A bench lies just behind those palms, it's covered by a small waterfall which flows around you and the bench. I'm surprised you, Mr Potter and Mr Weasley haven't discovered the secrets of this passageway. Mind you, it took me quite some time to find, no matter, we must continue and quickly if we want the second phase of our plan to work!" he said in a voice that seemed to penetrate the gathering silence.

"Sir, I didn't know we had a phase two," Hermione replied, confused.

"Miss Granger I will remind you not to question me," Snape said with the usual edge to his voice. He turned with one swift movement and was off again. Hermione once again was struggling to keep up, so she broke into a small jog. The next thing she knew she was once again sprawled all over the floor and a pale long fingered hand was reaching towards her. "Please do watch where you're going, Miss Granger, I would hate to have to explain to Albus why you had ended up in the hospital wing," he said with a sigh.

"Yes sir," Hermione mumbled to her shoes. Sighing again, Snape tapped on the glass and a small handle appeared, he stepped through and a gush off wind hit both of their faces.

"The Astronomy Tower!" he shouted above the noise of the wind, striding towards the stone wall that was the only thing stopping them from falling from a great height. "Ah! There they are!" he shouted again. As Hermione came to join him she realised he was right, she could see four small figures huddled behind a snow wall. "Take these, and throw them on the roof below us," Snape said whilst handing ten small bundles to her. Without questioning she aimed and dropped them, they all seemed to hit the roof. She waited but nothing happened. Snape was smirking evilly again, but why? BANG! BANG! She jumped at the noises and looked down to see a giant avalanche of snow heading towards the four small figures.

"Come on!" Snape shouted from the doorway.

"What did you do? That could have hurt them, you idiot!" Hermione shouted angrily.

"Five points from Gryffindor for insulting a teacher! Miss Granger I assure you that everyone down there will be fine, extremely cold and wet, but fine!" he bellowed at her. Hermione ran towards the door and followed Snape back down the corridor.

It was cold outside as the snow battered their faces, and their hair was already coated in the stuff by the time they had reached the pile of snow that was the phase two of Snape's plan. There they were, Lupin, Harry, Ron and Dumbledore coated in the stuff and looking incredibly annoyed.

"How the hell did you get from there to here?" Lupin asked a cheerful smile erupting suddenly on his face, his hand's pointing to them.

"Do you surrender then?" Snape asked rather smugly.

"NEVER!" Lupin shouted whilst his hand grabbed a ball of snow and threw it. SPLAT! Snow dripped of Snape's nose and fell to the floor. Hermione burst into laughter receiving a piercing glare from her potions professor.

"That's it you're going to get it now!" he roared back at them. He grabbed a snowball and threw it straight at Lupin's face, spluttering, Lupin grabbed another and an onslaught of snowballs came showering down on Snape. Hermione, still laughing got hit in the back of the head by Harry and Ron.

"Who ever the hell did that is going to wish they had never been born!" she screamed.

Harry and Ron dived for cover as twenty large snowballs came soaring towards them. The main battle had begun and nobody was safe, snowballs were flying everywhere. Hermione felt that same firm grip on her arm and turned to find Snape, dripping with snow and looking cold.

"Don't loose me, stay with me and fire as many as you can!" he shouted above the cries and exclamations of the others.