Her new bedroom was filled with a lot more life once Hermione had unpacked most of her things. She had decorated it with Griffindor colours, red and gold splashed across the room, lighting the place with candles and fireflies Harry, Ron and her had caught weeks ago in the Hogwarts grounds. She meandered through her things, mulling over photos and little treasures that reminded her of Hogwarts. An ache in her stomach had replaced her sadness as she tried to toss things into newly conjured drawers as if they didn't matter. The sounds of her memories were interrupted by the sound of swift footsteps entering the room.
"Thanks for letting me have my wand back" Hermione didn't turn to face him, instead concentrating on a transfiguration text book in her lap.
"It was Dumbledores decision, not mine." Snape gave the room a quick sickened look, obviously directed at the Griffindor paraphernalia spread across the room. "I see you have made yourself at home."
"As much as one can in this place." Hermione refused to spare him a glance.
"Well…best get used to it." Snape cleared his throat uncomfortably. He walked towards her slowly, removing a vial from his pocket and placing it on her dresser next to her. "This will help you sleep. I will be down the hall." Snape turned, walking swiftly to the door.
"Why…" Hermione started, but he was gone.
For two weeks Snape slept down the hall from Hermione as she trailed her way around Grimmauld pl. Hermione took her potions, did her study, slept when Snape said sleep, ate when Snape said eat and moved in a zombie like state, unable to feel the natural state of anything.
Snape observed her during the day, and scribbled notes at night. He gave her lessons yet distanced himself in everything else.
Hermione felt entirely uncomfortable in this position, his dark eyes constantly staring at her as she ate, as she worked, as she attempted to gaze off into the distance imagining herself in another place far, far away from there. She had given up trying to speak to him after the second day, when he had taken her wand away from her again after she attempted a conversation spell on him while his back was turned.
The potions made her weak, her mind grew fuzzier and her will to study, eat, drink and move died a little more each day. During a Transfiguration lesson, after her mind had wandered into nothingness more then once, Hermione finally asked the question that had been plaguing her mind for the past two weeks. She raised her hand.
"Yes Miss Granger." Snape stood tall, his eyes sharp.
"I'm not," Hermione breathed heavily, "I'm not sure how watching me grow weaker and weaker off potions everyday is helping you understand this unique situation I'm in. I'm not sure how me losing my will to live, to breath, could possibly help me."
"Miss Granger," Snape said authoritatively, "you understand that you have been here for two weeks, yes?"
"Yes…" Hermione sighed, her heavy head collapsing on her desk in sheer frustration.
"I would like you to think for a moment, a task which surely can't be too hard, unless under all that bushy brown hair you have somehow lost your brain. Think about what I've been so determined to do here."
Hermione looked up, he insulted her sure, but it seemed almost as if he was actually going to answer her, a revelation which both astounded and frightened her.
Snape gave her a short, confounded look and turned away. "I have been observing you, to see you in your natural state."
Hermione wanted to argue, wanted to tell him that this is very obviously not her natural state, and the potions are to blame, but she just couldn't be bothered.
"Yet obviously, your natural state has changed dramatically. The potions do not alter your emotional range or your personality. They simply suppress the state of rage you have become so accustomed to lately."
Hermione didn't believe him.
"After watching you deteriorate over time, I have come to an alarming conclusion. It seems, with his inability to release himself through you in bouts of an unstable emotional state, Gripes is weakening you from the inside."
Hermione looked up at Snape, his voice had softened as he spoke those last words and although he was turned away from her, she felt his concern in his voice.
"I spoke to Professor Dumbledore this morning and he agrees that we must allow for a controlled environment in which Gripes may have his time, so to speak. This means, I'm afraid, that you will be taken off my potion starting tomorrow, and you will need to be kept in more restricted confines until we can understand how to make you stable."
Hermione felt a sudden surge of blind panic. "No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" She crouched to the floor, tears flooding, rocking back and forth.
Snape moved towards her slowly, bending at the knees looking upon her with sincere eyes. "It's the only way."
As she lay on her bed, door locked, candles out and eyes wide, Hermione missed her friends. She wondered if they were ok, if they knew about her, if they knew where she was, if they missed her. She thought about the big quidditch match she missed, the classes they had together, the fun they had together. Hagrid suddenly sprung to mind as someone very much missing from the group two weeks ago in the kitchen, and she suddenly felt guilty for not noticing sooner. She wanted to know if they were ok, she wanted to be with all of them, she wanted to be safe at Hogwarts and not with her cold potions professor in this dreary shell of a house.
She thought about Snape, and how he was only meant to be training her, how she was meant to be looked after by other Order members. She wondered why he had stayed on, why he was still there.
Most of all, however, she thought about Gripes. The upside to being weakened, it seemed, was that it took away her fear. It took away the burden of her anxiety and left her with pure calculated thought. She analysed Gripes actions to date, the things she knew about him. Snape had described him as cold and troubled, Hermione added psychotic, angry, intelligent, cunning and ambiguous to that list. She had quickly determined that if he had some control over her, then she had some control over him and should somehow be able to tap into his own mind processes. She lay there, quietly determined to get the upper hand on Gripes. The potion had been waring off and she felt her old self coming back.
It was another three hours before she heard the door swing open and a voice whisper Lumos as it entered the room. She sprang to her feet, her eyes adjusting to the light to see a Snape shaped silhouette through the light of the wand.
"I have come to check on you, the potion should have worn off by now. How do you feel?" Snape whispered, his voice husky with exhaustion.
"I feel, well I feel really good actually." Hermione said slightly baffled by herself, she neither felt tired nor sad. She simply felt glad to be near Snape, glad he had cared.
Snape illuminated the room and began to circle Hermione, wand at the ready, suspicion lacing his face.
"What on earth are you doing?" Hermione giggled. "I said I feel fine, great really. I'm sure the potion wearing off has just given me a little high is all."
Snape halted in front of her, staring into her eyes. He took his wand and pointed it directly at her chest. "Potions don't give you highs when they wear off Miss Granger." The last words were spoken pointedly.
Hermione was perplexed. She had no idea why she felt great but she didn't care, she was in a room, safe with a man, nay, a wizard who protected her, helped her and cared for her. "Oh dear, must be something else then. Oh well." She giggled again. "Looks like you'll have to protect me from the big bad some more."
Snape looked stumped. He frowned severely at her, yet her smiling eyes did not flinch. There were potions that could have this affect but there was no way in which she could have gotten hold of them. Her eyes didn't have the vacant expression those kind of potions gave people anyhow, her eyes were sincere, unfaltering.
"I really appreciate you Professor. I appreciate what you've done for me. What you're doing for me." Hermione took a step towards him, her eyes wide and her hands behind her back.
Snape found himself closer to her then he felt comfortable with. A waft of apple scent came his way as he took a deep breath. He found himself slightly dazed, looking into her eyes, and his wand still at her chest.
"You're important to me, Severus." Her chest heaved as she stepped ever closer to him. Her eyes burrowed into his as he grew weak at the knees, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long while.
"I…I…" Snape stuttered.
"Shhh…no need to say anything, I know how you feel." Hermione gave a slight smile and timidly placed her hand around his wand hand, leaning towards him. Her lips grew soft as they came ever closer to his, her breath tickling them.
BANG!!
Hermione was thrown to the other side of the room. Suddenly she felt a pointed wand end at her throat.
"You think your little love spell games will work on me!?" Snape was furious.
"It was worth a shot, old friend." Hermione struggled to talk under the pressure of the wand.
"I was never your friend." Snape said coolly, eyes bearing down on her.
"Well, that was obvious when you killed me!" Hermione chuckled trying to attain eye contact with him.
"You'll do best to look away, or I will make you regret it."
"Oh, I'm so terribly frightened. If you hurt me, you hurt the girl, and believe me she will feel the brunt of the pain." Hermiones mouth grew wide as she gave a sick smile.
"She doesn't remember…"
"Oh but she will, we are becoming more alike everyday, soon she'll feel everything I feel…know everything I know."
"You filthy liar, you are two separate entities." Snape remained cool, his words careful.
Hermione giggled. "This snivelling brat will become my slave, my servant. She will do everything I tell her too and when the time comes, you won't have the guts to do what you need to do to stop me."
A shot of hot white light flew out the end of Snapes wand and Hermione folded to the floor. Snape caught her head, picked her up in a swoop and set her in bed. "Yes, I will." Snape whispered as he pulled the door shut behind him.