Hermione dragged herself to breakfast the next morning, immediately barraged by the two musketeers Snape referred to the night before.
"Hermione! Are you ok? Did he hurt you!? Oh if he did I'll kill him! I swear I will!" Ron couldn't help but make Hermione smile. She knew he liked to talk tough even though he was terrified by Snape and had been since their first potions class.
Harry was a little more subdued. "I'm glad to see you're ok." He muffled through a piece of toast. "What was Snape doing talking to Remus? Why were you going out there? Who were they talking about?"
Hermione placed her hand on Harry's shoulder. "I don't know Harry; I just wanted some fresh air. Snape just told me that he was going to give us our detention this morning in Potions, and then told me to leave."
Harry very obviously wore an expression of disbelief on his face.
"It's true, I swear!" Hermione white lied, dropping her voice to a whisper she said "I have your cloak under my bed, you boys are damn lucky that Snape didn't notice that the top half of your bodies were missing!"
"Yeah, he seemed distracted" Harry scoffed, still skeptic over what Hermione said.
"Wait!" Ron said, seeming to have something important to contribute to the conversation. "I don't have potions this morning! Does that mean I don't get detention!?' He sounded very excited over this prospect.
"I don't think so Ron." Hermione smiled warmly and shook her head.
Ron sighed heavily and looked mournfully at his bacon and eggs.
"Hermione," Harry asked, "what's been wrong with you lately? Why haven't you spoken to us?"
Hermione had completely forgotten that she had spent the past week ignoring their existence and scrambled her brain for any excuse. "PMS!" she finally yelped after much speedy deliberation in her mind. This was followed by a few giggles from surrounding tables within earshot. Hermiones cheeks grew red. "Anyway, I have to go get my potions book, I left it upstairs." She picked up her books off the table, one very much like her potions textbook and strutted out of the great hall determined not to look behind her.
"Women!" she heard Ron scoff from behind through a very full mouth as she felt Harry's eyes burrow into her back.
"I worry about you" Harry confessed as he watched Hermione unpack her things next to him in potions. "You didn't answer any questions all week, you refused to talk to us; you huddled yourself up in your room and never came out except to classes and to eat. I don't understand, ever since Snape called you to his office you've been acting weird. I'm not stupid, and Ron isn't either. We know something's going on."
Hermione wasn't sure what to say, so she tried to act calm and very normal. "Boys," she rolled her eyes, "they never understand the ways of a woman." She flopped into her chairs with a very fake smile planted on her face and tried to act nonchalant about the entire ordeal. She figured the less serious she acted, the sooner she could convince Harry that everything was OK, even though it most certainly wasn't.
"I wish you would just talk to us," Harry sighed, looking very hurt, "We are your best friends; we've been through so much toge…" Harry was cut off by Snapes dramatic entrance into the classroom.
Snape spent much of the class lecturing about the many properties of scorpion tail and how it was used in many potions as a means to ward off a natural death. Hermione still chose not to raise her hand, but listened intently to the lecture, watching Snapes robes swish back and forth through the classroom, trying to keep her mind off the word 'insane.'
At the end of the lesson Snape approached Hermione and Harry, telling them they were to have separate detentions, Hermiones on Tuesdays, Harry's on Thursdays. "And you can tell that Weasley boy that his is to be every Wednesday night after dinner." Snape sneered before herding them out of the room.
Hermione was almost excited over her detention being that very night. Although overly tired, she felt she needed answers. She could not go to the library to find them, she was not provided with any clues apart from the fact that knowing the truth may send her insane. It was an eerie thought that screamed in her mind every time she thought about the previous night.
Harry seemed firm in the idea that he was not to leave her side for the rest of the day. She protested to his calls that she was not fine, but let him stay by her. Part of her was frustrated by his constant company, the other part was thankful for the comfort and distraction. She wished she could tell him, and beyond anything else, break down in tears on his shoulder just to alleviate this horrible congested feeling she had carried with her for a while now.
Dinner came with speed, and Harry informed Ron of his detention. Ron's face sunk. Wednesday nights were the nights he had allocated to his own quidditch practice, and this year was so important to win, being his last year at Hogwarts. Ron asked Hermione if she could put in a good word for him tonight but Hermione just gave him a warm smile and said she doubted Professor Snape would care about the practice of the Gryffindor keeper. Ron's face sunk lower as he picked and prodded at his dinner.
Hermione finished her dinner quickly, wanting to leave for the dungeons as soon as possible. As she got up to leave Harry put his hand on hers.
"Be careful." He told her, his large eyes sincere and sad.
Hermione felt a pang of guilt surge in her stomach and immediately wished she hadn't eaten so quickly. "Don't worry Harry, I will be fine." She reassured him.
Harry didn't look convinced but gave her a small smile and Ron waved bye with a worried look lining his face.
Hermione approached Snapes office with much caution. She ran over and over again in her mind what she was going to ask him. She wondered if he would let her speak at all, but then pushed aside her worries for she knew that she was going to ask regardless. She hesitated as she curled her fingers into a fist to wrap on the sizeable door. The knock echoed and the door creaked open. She entered guardedly, measuring up every corner she could make out in the shadowed room. She saw Snape scribbling something at his desk and tip-toed her way to her usual chair, tense and waiting for the moment Snape would snap at her. She found refuge in the chair. It had become somewhat of a home away from home, as she felt some uncharacteristic comfort in it.
Snape looked up, his dark eyes examining Hermione. They didn't look stern or callous as was the norm. They seemed concerned and slightly forlorn. He placed his quill carefully beside the parchment on which he had been writing, and clasped his hands together in front of him. He seemed as though he was about to speak but then sighed instead and looked down at the edge of his desk shaking his head. Hermione was growing most tense and couldn't stand keeping her mouth shut any longer.
"What are you keeping from me? Why does Remus Lupin believe if I know I will go insane? Why am I more than just a 'young girl' in your eyes? What do these tests mean!? And why the hell do you want me in the Order!?" Hermione caught her breath. She had inadvertently stood up and slammed her fists on Snapes desk. Her cheeks were red and her bushy hair was wild. She had lost her temper completely and renouncing all consequences she climbed over Snapes desk, knocking over his ink allowing it to spill over the parchment underneath and held her wand to Snapes neck.
Snape did not flinch. He wasn't frightened, a mere smug expression crossed his face as he felt the wand press ever harder into his adams apple.
Aggravated, Hermione pushed herself closer to him, a spark of hatred hitting her as she looked intensely into his eyes. She felt like killing him, she felt like blasting his head off and she could do it. Just a few small words and she could do it. She lost all care for any answers. She lost all care for anything except how much she wanted to see the man in front of her dead.
Suddenly she felt sick, as if she were about to vomit. She lost her grip on the wand and it fell to the floor. Leaning forward she dry heaved. Snape sneered at her reproachfully and tried to move out of the way quickly as she threw up in his lap.
"Oh bloody well fantastic" Snape groaned.
Hermione awoke in a large, cold, unfamiliar room. Her eyes were blurry and her head hurt quite a lot. She found herself in a great expanse of silk sheets and as her eyes adjusted she noticed they were green with a silver trimming. Slytherin colours she thought as she began to remember the happenings of what seemed only moments ago.
She could remember entering Professor Snapes office and sitting in the comfortable chair. She could remember staring at him waiting for him to speak, and she could remember trying to hold back the questions she so longed to ask. After that her mind drew a blank.
A door opened beside the bed followed by a cloud of warm steam. Hermione dropped back down into a sleeping position but kept her eyes open. Snape entered the room through the steam cloud with only a towel around his waste. Hermione stopped herself from making a squeal of surprise as she watched Snape de-towel before putting on a long, dark green robe with silver trimming. She noted his trim, toned stark white body and his large, err, endowments. As he approached the bed she shut her eyes tightly hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't notice that she had been awake.
Silently caught in prayer, she felt a finger trace along her forehead, pulling hair off her face and tucking it behind her ear. It sent a small shiver down her spine as she heard a dark, smooth voice saying "Poor, young girl. She has no idea, absolutely no idea."
She heard quiet footsteps walk away and a door slowly shutting behind them. As she lay there in silent contemplation, she couldn't get the image of her naked professor out of her mind. Trying to shake these thoughts she examined more pressing issues, like retrieving lost memories of how she ended up here, unconscious in Snapes bed, after entering his office.
Still worn, she drifted in and out of consciousness, her mind intermingling between reality and dreams. Images of Snape on top of her, pinning her down entered her dreaming state. She spat in his face as he straddled her, mumbling incantations under his breath. She screamed, and bit and flailed and then she woke again. Oh no she thought, as she pulled her arms out from under the covers, noticing markings on her wrist, smelling them to find the strong scent of de-bruising cream. He couldn't have she thought as she pushed the covers off her. Jumping out of the bed, she walked steadfast towards the large bathroom door, opening it to find a gilded mirror behind. She studied her state feeling tender all over. Her brown bushy hair in a worse state then she had ever seen before, her school robes were torn at her arms, torso and legs and her face was pale retaining markings of former bruises.
She pulled the bathroom door open and stormed towards the bedroom door, throwing it open to reveal a robed Snape reading a book on a dark lounge.
"You BASTARD!" She screamed, slamming into him with her fists, her body filled with rage. "YOU RAPED ME! HOW DARE YOU!" She felt violated, ashamed, and furious. She tore the book away from him and continued to pound on him.
Snape grabbed her arms, and in a very swift move, pinned her violent limbs to the lounge. "I DID NOT RAPE YOU!" He bellowed, straining to stop her from moving as she pulsated rhythmically underneath him, trying to bite his arms.
She spat in his face. "Oh yeah!? Then this position doesn't feel familiar to you then!?" She sneered as she thrashed about underneath his surprisingly strong, heavy body.
"I'll explain…if you…just…stop…moving!" Snape stammered as he struggled to hold on.
After a few more determined movements, Hermione gave up. She was never going to release herself from his grip. She slumped into the lounge as tears filled her eyes. She felt so very helpless.
Snape let go. He slid to the floor and sat upright, leaning against the lounge completely exhausted. "You may be clever Miss Granger, and feisty, I'll give you that one too, but you certainly know how to jump to the wrong conclusion."
Hermione let out defeated tears. Out of breath she stammered, "What…on earth…happened?"
"I need to tell you something, but first, I need a glass of water." Snape breathed heavily as he stood up and walked towards a small kitchen in the corner of the room. He came back with two glasses of water and Hermione snatched one from his hand and gulped it down greedily.
She placed the empty glass on the floor beside her in a huff, still angry and feeling as wary as ever.
Snape sipped his and sat next to her, clearing his throat which seemed for some reason a painful task for him to do, he looked into her wide brown eyes and calmly stated "You are not who you think you are."