Chapter seven – Just Like You?
Hermione began to drift into a light sleep. Her mind had stopped racing and settled – she was now focused on what she was going to do. Her legs were entwined with Severus' black robe; she had not slid under the blanket as she was too warm, despite the bitter cold winter's snow that was situated outside. Hermione was tossing and turning throughout the night, she may have been asleep but in her subconscious mind she was dreaming – dreaming a nightmare.
Water flowed over her head, something was dragging her deeper and deeper under the water. Screaming for help but no one could hear the gasps with her being underwater; she was struggling for her breath, then his face appeared...
Hermione screamed in her sleep, her words load. "No, NO... Not again!" Severus could hear through the walls a faint scream; it was high pitched one so it was obviously female. 'Shit, Hermione?' He thought. Severus scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, flinging on his shirt and trousers; he did not want to scare Hermione further. Rushing he ran out of his room and knocking on Hermione's door, he knocked loudly. Hermione did not hear she was still screaming while being asleep, Severus twisted the door knob – he was in luck it opened. Without thinking Severus shut the door and came over shaking Hermione to wake her up; he had not noticed she was lying in her underwear. Hermione's eyes flickered open; her pupils were dilated with shock. She looked at Severus' face, he looked as shocked as her he realised he had his arms around her shoulders he opened his mouth to speak.
"I... I heard you screaming, sounded like someone was killing you Granger," He said sarcastically with a small smirk plastered upon his face. Hermione smiled a little as she found his sarcastic nature funny. "It was just a... nightmare," She sighed rethinking about it, Severus sighed.
"Will you tell me who is doing this or not Granger?" Severus' tone was cold and harsh, he was desperate to know what had happened to her; he was beginning to not understand why he cared so much about some silly little know-it-all girl. Hermione looked saddened, she met his eyes and shrugged his glare soften realising he was being to harsh on her; Hermione refused to move, for some reason she felt comfortable with Severus' hands on her shoulders. Hermione shifted closer to him only by an inch, she felt calm with Severus here she ha totally relaxed with his presence.
Saying nothing more Severus began to get the message that Hermione just did not want to tell him, he had realised Hermione had inched herself closer to him but did not make a big issue of it; he figured she probably wanted a little bit of comfort. After all, he knew how it felt to have awful nightmares, ones that would really shake you; he also knew what it felt like to be alone. Severus placed one of his hands on her back – close to her shoulder blade he could feel the warmth of Hermione's skin under his cold hand. His eyes roamed over her body he first saw his robe pulled over her legs, he then saw how under dressed she actually was – he was not paying attention before he had panicked to see if she was okay. Now he was faced with one of his students in their underwear, sat in front of him. 'Jesus fucking Christ...' he thought to himself, his mouth nearly dropped open. Of course she was beautiful; Severus had not really noticed Hermione Granger properly. Without him noticing, in four years at Hogwarts Hermione had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, she had a wonderful curvy figure and her chest... wait a minute. 'She is a bloody student Severus' he told himself. He flinched his hand away from her shoulders and moved back.
"Erm... Hermione, look I need to go get some rest. So do you, now go to sleep," Severus snapped at her. He was focused and now back into Severus Snape teacher mode, he got to his feet then scrambled out of the door as quick as he could. He really did not know what to make of his current thoughts right now. He placed a hand through his hair, had he really just seen that... Hermione Granger like that? He slumped onto the small double bed with a sigh. Why did Hermione Granger have to be so damn beautiful: those angelic curves that were formed the sides of her abdominal, she was a lot slimmer than her expected her to be, he had only caught a quick glimpse of her chest area but, it was just as perfect as everything else. The image of her body was burned into his mind it would not depart from his thoughts. His current thoughts really, well, he knew he should not be thinking about, Hermione was a student he taught Potions to, not somebody he would want to sleep with. Any way, Severus knew someone like Hermione Granger would not give him a second look – he was the bastard teacher, many students had different names for him; he was a cynical Death Eater by some. He really did not care what anyone thought of him, he did not really care much for himself; hence why he did not take much are in his own appearance. Drawing his hands over his face he gave a sigh out-loud.
"She is a fucking student Severus," He whispered to himself out-loud, he was angry with himself. Standing to his feet he decided to undress and climb back into bed; for a few hours.
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Severus Snape really was a grump in the mornings with last night on his mind he was in no mood to see Hermione Granger in any way; but he had to take her back to Hogwarts. Severus was dressed and sat downstairs his legs crossed as he was sat reading the daily Prophet, a hot cup of black coffee steam evaporating from it. Hermione had not made an appearance yet, and it was nearly seven. 'Women for you, always late' Severus thought to himself sarcastically. Hermione was upstairs thinking about last night, how Severus Snape had ran into her room to see if she was okay; that was not like Severus Snape. She blushed at the thought of his hands placed on her shoulders; the skin to skin contacted was strange for Hermione. Hermione slid on pencil skirt and looked at herself in the mirror, she looked pasty and tired – she pinched her cheeks to allow some colour to seep on her skin. Hermione grabbed Severus' robe, she did not really want to give it back to him, and she had came fond of the comfort it gave her. Clambering down the stairs quickly she realised she was late – it had gone seven. Snape was going to mad with her.
Stepping into the breakfast area of the Inn, she saw Severus sat at a corner table, she walked over to him.
"Morning," She whispered waiting for his response to be snappy, or angry. Instead he put the paper down and gave her a small, brief smile with a nod of acknowledgment. "Well Miss. Granger it is nearly afternoon – with your late timing," He joked then added: "We had better get back, if you are coming back to Hogwarts?" Severus eyebrows shot up, waiting for his response.
"I think you gave me that answer..." She laughed and held is black robe out to him. "Thank-you for-"She was cut off from saying anything more by Snape saying: "No need to thank me Granger, now bloody come on," He ordered standing to his feet and exiting the Inn.
Within no time at all they had trudged through the pure white winter's snow back to the castle. Now Severus could ignore Hermione and try and hope his thoughts of her would go away. He had offered to give her a defence lesson tonight... Oh Jesus, well at least he did not have to cope with her through a lesson today.
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"Hey 'Mione, there you are. We were all worried about you, Ginny said you were not in the dorm last night," Harry spoke, he was concerned for his friend, worry was spread across his face. Hermione gave him a reassuring smile. "Harry, you know I stay up with Madam Pomfrey on the ward..." She whispered, Harry really did not need to know anything of last night. Hermione eagerly tucked into the great breakfast in the Great Hall.
It came to fourth lesson, this was a dreaded lesson for anyone within Hogwarts – a lesson with Professor Umbridge was torture, she was the most unpopular teacher within Hogwarts; the students really learnt nothing useful with her. Everyone filed into the classroom with resentment, Harry and Ron had really missed seeing Hermione in these lessons at least she made it a little more bearable. Harry was bored out of his wits, he really was sick of her droning on about OWLs and how the Ministry wanted them to learn certain things – he finally snapped.
"What the Hell has this got to do with defending ourselves against Dark Magic, if we cannot practice the defence spells then what is the point in these lessons?!" Harry yelled as Umbridge-toad face was babbling, she turned on her heel and gave Harry such an evil look that it would turn milk sour, all the students looked on in shock.
"Well Mr. Potter the aim of a school is to teach you how to pass you exams, you have your Owls coming up soon – do you wish to do well in them? And, furthermore the Ministry have decided that you should learn this. What the heavens for would you need to know defence spells; you are perfectly safe in Hogwarts," Umbridge smiled a sweet sickly, fake smile. Harry glared at her.
"Well maybe because Voldemort is returning," Harry stated bluntly. Professor Umbridge simply laughed.
"You must not tell lies Harry Potter, Detention!" Umbridge said with an evil tone in her voice. Harry was about to argue with her again, but decided against it he could make things worse. He was raging inside though, he just wanted to punch the old hag. Luckily the lesson was over before he had the chance; Ron had to drag Harry out of the room.
"The evil bitch, she is so deluded by Fudge's ignorance." Harry spoke in anger before punching the stone wall full force with his fist. Ron nodded looking at his friend. "Yeah she is mate, just calm down yeah? She is not worth it," Ron spoke. It took a good while for Harry to calm down, luckily it was lunch time for everyone; so he had sometime to calm before the next lesson.
"You know what we should do?" Harry spoke to Ron.
"What is that mate?" He asked.
"I think we should start a defence group up, were I could teach you and some other students' to defend themselves," Harry pointed out, then added: "It could be called Dumbledore's Army,"
"That is not a bad idea mate," Ron agreed smiling.
All lessons had ended for the day, it was about half five and Harry had his detention with Professor Umbridge. He had to remain calm with the old witch, walking to knock on her door Harry. The door was flung open quickly; he was met with Umbridge's pig face glaring at him. "Ah, Mr. Potter good to see you. Take a seat – you are going to write a few lines for me today, okay?" She smirked lightly. Harry responded by sitting down in the chair. The whole room was vile: pink covered the whole room, cats were a main feature in the room, and it was all over the top and disgusting. "What shall I write? I have no quill either Professor Umbridge," Harry spoke.
"Write: I shall not tell lies. Write as many lines as it takes to sink in. I have a quill for you," She stood on her feet and passed Harry the black quill; this was not an ordinary quill – it was a blood quill. Harry began to write the words on the paper, he felt his hand burning he winced and spoke: "Ouch,". This earned a smirk on Umbridge's face; this made her look more pig like then usual. Harry watched as the words he had written on the paper appeared over his skin, he had to bite his lip to stop screaming.
"I take it that has finally sunk in Harry? You can now leave. I hope you learnt your lesson Mr. Potter." She laughed as she watched Harry practically run out of her office. He was in pain with his hand; he went back to the common room hiding his hand.