Chapter 6
Snow White
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any of the characters with the exception of the obvious ones.
A.N. It feels really nice to have that last chapter out, it'd been floating around in my head since last September. I'm not sure if I like this chapter or not, it's slow at the beginning and it doesn't leave of quite the way I'd hoped,... but the muses decree.
Here goes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione arrived at lunch slightly disheveled and sat down between Harry and Ron.
'What are you so happy about?' Ron asked with his mouth full of food.
'Oh, I'm just glad that I found my bag,'Hermione said as she looked away across the table. She was remembering how his lips felt pressed against hers: soft and warm.
Ron nodded, stuffing his face once more. Hermione looked around the table; the food all looked wonderful, but in light of present events Hermione wasn't feeling especially hungry.
'I think I'll go back up to the common room and do some homework, since I'm not hungry.' Hermione rose from her seat and left the Great Hall, grabbing an apple off of the end of the Gryffindor table on her way out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
The day had gone by unbearably slowly, for Hermione, after she'd gone back to class when lunch hour was over.
Hermione was laying on her bed, staring at the yet uneaten apple that sat on her night stand when she noticed what time it was. It was nearly seven so she grabbed her cloak and the apple and headed down to band practice.
The Gryffindor house band had secured an empty classroom for practice, a considerably easy thing to do in a vast castle. Someone had secured a gold plate with the engraving, 'The Lionhearts,' to the door.
Hermione walked into the room to see that someone had also dressed the walls up in scarlet and gold, and set up a platform with their instruments on it. Hermione tucked the apple into the pocket of her cloak and set it down on a chair near the door.
'Sorry I'm late, I lost track of time,' Hermione apologized.
She looked around at the band assembled on their little stage.
Dean Thomas sat in anticipation behind his drum set.
Ginny Weasley, who had been admitted into the band despite her other Quiddich obligations due to the simple fact that no one else in Gryffindor had the slightest inkling as to how to play a bass guitar and what Ginny didn't know she picked up quickly, leaned against the wall. Ginny's bass guitar was red with yellow and orange flames along the body, she looked positively devilish when she played it on account of her hair.
Violet Lienbach, a second year, was chosen for keyboard. No one was really sure if Violet's name was actually Violet or if everyone just called her that on account of her purple hair, but everyone was too embarrassed to ask her what her name was after three weeks of practicing together.
The position of lead guitarist was the hardest one to fill after Hermione had been located and deemed perfect for lead vocalist. Nearly Headless Nick had been put in charge of putting the Gryffindor band together, but he just couldn't seem to find someone with enough raw talent that would fit in with the rest of the band. In the end Shawn Corso had been found by a bit of a fluke. Professor Mcgonnagal, who Dumbledore had taken to calling the Gryffindor talent scout, had just purchased the instruments for all of the house bands and had them all in her classroom. Corso had gone into the room seeking help on his transfiguration homework, but when he saw that Mcgonnagal wasn't there he helped himself to the guitar on the desk instead. Mcgonnagal walked in on a guitar solo that would rival Hendrix himself. Needless to say, the position was filled.
'It's okay 'Mione. We can't start yet anyway, Nick's not here. He doesn't even have an excuse, as a responsible adult he should be here on time, it's not like he has anything better to do.' Shawn said, his fingers twitching over the fingerboard of his guitar.
Nick cleared his throat, having wafted in through the wall behind Shawn in the middle of his spiel. 'Just because I am no longer living, Mr. Corso, that does not mean that I do not have other engagements. Now if we can start, I've come up with some new music for the Halloween Ball. Dumbledore has informed me that we're to preform five songs, so I've compiled a folder full of music for each of you; we'll rehearse the music, and at the end of the month each of you will choose your favorite song to be performed at the ball. Sir Nicholas handed each of them a scarlet leather folder embossed with their name and, 'The Lionhearts,' in gold letters.
'Do you think that we could finish up early tonight?' Ginny asked Sir Nicholas. 'The Quiddich party is tonight, and I am on the team.'
Nicholas sighed, 'Very well. Well listen to the new guitar solo Corso wrote, and then you may go. Unless. Are you finished with that piece that you're working on Hermione?'
Hermione pulled a thin sheet of yellow paper with odd dimensions out of her pocket, scrutinized it for a moment, and shook her head. 'Not quite, it's just a bunch of lyrical nonsense at the moment, maybe next week.'
Nick nodded, 'Corso.'
Without a moments hesitation Shawn began to play. His fingers were a blur over the finger board, his guitar pick a blue haze over the strings. The music that he produced was eerie and sweet and enthralling all at once. Violet had once described it bast by saying, 'He sounds like he sold his soul to the devil and is playing the music that created the heavens at a rock concert accompanied by a choir of Seraphim.'
Yet, as enthralled as they all were, they wasted no time leaving the room and heading up to the Quiddich pitch the very second he'd finished. With his last note still in the air, Shawn sighed, silently packed up his guitar, and went up to his room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Everyone from Gryffindor house seemed to be out on the pitch, as well as a good number of students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Someone had either filched food from the kitchen or actually bought it in Hogsmede, because there were cakes, snacks, and bottles of butterbeer and pumpkin juice everywhere, littering tables that had been ransacked from the equipment shed.
Harry and Ron rushed up to Hermione, smiling. Ron, who had a half eaten pumpkin cake in one hand and a bottle of butterbeer in the other, gave her a somewhat limited hug. 'Glad you made it,' he said through a mouthful of pumpkin cake.
Hermione looked around. 'I'm not, you're going to give half the school detention for a month with this little soiree of yours. I'm not so sure I want to be included.'
'Lighten up Hermione,' Harry said, handing her a butterbeer.
Hermione sighed, 'What the hell.' She popped the cap of the bottle and downed half of it in one drink, wishing idly that it was some of Firenze's brandy instead.
Just when Hermione was beginning to relax, the familiar voice of Severus Snape came booming across the pitch. 'What the bloody hell is going on here?' Snape strode into the midst of the party goers. 'All of you go back up to your houses at once! You couldn't possibly have had any kind of authorization for this!'
All of the students fled from Snape's unchecked rage, led by the fearless Harry Potter and his faithful squire Ron.
'Longbottom!' Severus grabbed the back of Neville's robes, and spun the petrified boy around to face him. 'While I doubt that you have the spoonful of brains that it undoubtedly would have taken to arrange this little fiasco, you obviously didn't have enough brains to stay in your bed either, so you can clean up this mess! Finnigan!' The mere sound of Severus' voice stopped Seamus in his tacks. 'You help him!'
Severus spun around, livid, but then he spotted Hermione and his expression softened. He smirked, a gleam in his eye. 'Granger!' he yelled with nothing short of glee. 'You are a school prefect! You should have sent all of these people back up to the castle the moment you arrived, not participate in their blatant disregard of school rules! In my office immediately! You'll be looking forward to a month's worth of detentions in my room!'
Hermione glared daggers at him and stomped off up towards the castle.
Severus yelled at Neville some more and instructed the stragglers to help with the cleaning. He started up to the castle with a smile on his face, feeling quite pleased with himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
When he arrived in his office Severus found it empty and exactly the way he had left it save for a gleaming red apple that sat perched on the corner of his desk, tented underneath a piece of his own green stationary.
Severus lifted the paper and turned it over to see it covered with Hermione's writing in his own silver ink.
Dearest Love,
I decided to go with the traditional, less explicit form of brown nosing my teacher. I daresay you think me the frigid evil queen trying to poison you with an enchanted apple, and while at times I'd be glad to be rid of you, if I'm the evil queen that makes you Snow White and I don't really go for the 'damsel in distress' types.
By the way, if you expect me to call you Severus I should think you could at least manage my first name as well, Granger just sounds so condescending.
As to your month worth of detentions, since I seem to be so good at blatantly disregarding school rules, I've decided to disregard them as well. I'll see you on Friday.
Eat the apple and think of me, won't you?
~Hermione
Severus sighed, and threw the note down on his desk. Her tilted his head at the apple, and then smirked and straightened up. He grabbed the apple off of his desk and went to his room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A.N. So there weren't any huge revelations, but that was such a fun chapter to write.
Thanks:
Belle Mortis: Mmmm Mocha Cake. If you're Crazy then I've gone beyond just being eccentric. I have decided to begin to call him Severus most of the time, ... or better yet, I'll treat him like a schizophrenic and call him Snape when he's being mean and Sevi if he's being sweet.
Amara Tsu: You're lucky we're on the internet I haven't blushed this hard since....well.... No one has ever said that have have good grammar before, tee hee. (incidentally, it's impeccable) I put in a lot more about Hermione's band, I have my sad excuse for a plot going on here somewhere, I hope you like. I would never get Hermione pregnant either, it's not my style. Sev on the other hand.....maybe, but not in this story it's much to serious for a stunt like that.
Sarahamanda: Do you realize that you've given me the same review four times. I'm not picky and I thank you, but I do like to get some feedback.
erisedfororrim: Thank you, I tend to float about genre's when I read fic's, write them too I guess.
Parody-of-an-Angel: More to come. I honestly haven't decided what was in the compartment yet, I've some idea, but you'll have to wait to find out until I know for sure.
aquaflower: Thanks, considering I almost didn't even post this story.
I'll have the next chapter up within the week, maybe even tomorrow if I can get on the computer.
~Ly
Snow White
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Disclaimer: Again, I do not own any of the characters with the exception of the obvious ones.
A.N. It feels really nice to have that last chapter out, it'd been floating around in my head since last September. I'm not sure if I like this chapter or not, it's slow at the beginning and it doesn't leave of quite the way I'd hoped,... but the muses decree.
Here goes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione arrived at lunch slightly disheveled and sat down between Harry and Ron.
'What are you so happy about?' Ron asked with his mouth full of food.
'Oh, I'm just glad that I found my bag,'Hermione said as she looked away across the table. She was remembering how his lips felt pressed against hers: soft and warm.
Ron nodded, stuffing his face once more. Hermione looked around the table; the food all looked wonderful, but in light of present events Hermione wasn't feeling especially hungry.
'I think I'll go back up to the common room and do some homework, since I'm not hungry.' Hermione rose from her seat and left the Great Hall, grabbing an apple off of the end of the Gryffindor table on her way out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
The day had gone by unbearably slowly, for Hermione, after she'd gone back to class when lunch hour was over.
Hermione was laying on her bed, staring at the yet uneaten apple that sat on her night stand when she noticed what time it was. It was nearly seven so she grabbed her cloak and the apple and headed down to band practice.
The Gryffindor house band had secured an empty classroom for practice, a considerably easy thing to do in a vast castle. Someone had secured a gold plate with the engraving, 'The Lionhearts,' to the door.
Hermione walked into the room to see that someone had also dressed the walls up in scarlet and gold, and set up a platform with their instruments on it. Hermione tucked the apple into the pocket of her cloak and set it down on a chair near the door.
'Sorry I'm late, I lost track of time,' Hermione apologized.
She looked around at the band assembled on their little stage.
Dean Thomas sat in anticipation behind his drum set.
Ginny Weasley, who had been admitted into the band despite her other Quiddich obligations due to the simple fact that no one else in Gryffindor had the slightest inkling as to how to play a bass guitar and what Ginny didn't know she picked up quickly, leaned against the wall. Ginny's bass guitar was red with yellow and orange flames along the body, she looked positively devilish when she played it on account of her hair.
Violet Lienbach, a second year, was chosen for keyboard. No one was really sure if Violet's name was actually Violet or if everyone just called her that on account of her purple hair, but everyone was too embarrassed to ask her what her name was after three weeks of practicing together.
The position of lead guitarist was the hardest one to fill after Hermione had been located and deemed perfect for lead vocalist. Nearly Headless Nick had been put in charge of putting the Gryffindor band together, but he just couldn't seem to find someone with enough raw talent that would fit in with the rest of the band. In the end Shawn Corso had been found by a bit of a fluke. Professor Mcgonnagal, who Dumbledore had taken to calling the Gryffindor talent scout, had just purchased the instruments for all of the house bands and had them all in her classroom. Corso had gone into the room seeking help on his transfiguration homework, but when he saw that Mcgonnagal wasn't there he helped himself to the guitar on the desk instead. Mcgonnagal walked in on a guitar solo that would rival Hendrix himself. Needless to say, the position was filled.
'It's okay 'Mione. We can't start yet anyway, Nick's not here. He doesn't even have an excuse, as a responsible adult he should be here on time, it's not like he has anything better to do.' Shawn said, his fingers twitching over the fingerboard of his guitar.
Nick cleared his throat, having wafted in through the wall behind Shawn in the middle of his spiel. 'Just because I am no longer living, Mr. Corso, that does not mean that I do not have other engagements. Now if we can start, I've come up with some new music for the Halloween Ball. Dumbledore has informed me that we're to preform five songs, so I've compiled a folder full of music for each of you; we'll rehearse the music, and at the end of the month each of you will choose your favorite song to be performed at the ball. Sir Nicholas handed each of them a scarlet leather folder embossed with their name and, 'The Lionhearts,' in gold letters.
'Do you think that we could finish up early tonight?' Ginny asked Sir Nicholas. 'The Quiddich party is tonight, and I am on the team.'
Nicholas sighed, 'Very well. Well listen to the new guitar solo Corso wrote, and then you may go. Unless. Are you finished with that piece that you're working on Hermione?'
Hermione pulled a thin sheet of yellow paper with odd dimensions out of her pocket, scrutinized it for a moment, and shook her head. 'Not quite, it's just a bunch of lyrical nonsense at the moment, maybe next week.'
Nick nodded, 'Corso.'
Without a moments hesitation Shawn began to play. His fingers were a blur over the finger board, his guitar pick a blue haze over the strings. The music that he produced was eerie and sweet and enthralling all at once. Violet had once described it bast by saying, 'He sounds like he sold his soul to the devil and is playing the music that created the heavens at a rock concert accompanied by a choir of Seraphim.'
Yet, as enthralled as they all were, they wasted no time leaving the room and heading up to the Quiddich pitch the very second he'd finished. With his last note still in the air, Shawn sighed, silently packed up his guitar, and went up to his room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Everyone from Gryffindor house seemed to be out on the pitch, as well as a good number of students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Someone had either filched food from the kitchen or actually bought it in Hogsmede, because there were cakes, snacks, and bottles of butterbeer and pumpkin juice everywhere, littering tables that had been ransacked from the equipment shed.
Harry and Ron rushed up to Hermione, smiling. Ron, who had a half eaten pumpkin cake in one hand and a bottle of butterbeer in the other, gave her a somewhat limited hug. 'Glad you made it,' he said through a mouthful of pumpkin cake.
Hermione looked around. 'I'm not, you're going to give half the school detention for a month with this little soiree of yours. I'm not so sure I want to be included.'
'Lighten up Hermione,' Harry said, handing her a butterbeer.
Hermione sighed, 'What the hell.' She popped the cap of the bottle and downed half of it in one drink, wishing idly that it was some of Firenze's brandy instead.
Just when Hermione was beginning to relax, the familiar voice of Severus Snape came booming across the pitch. 'What the bloody hell is going on here?' Snape strode into the midst of the party goers. 'All of you go back up to your houses at once! You couldn't possibly have had any kind of authorization for this!'
All of the students fled from Snape's unchecked rage, led by the fearless Harry Potter and his faithful squire Ron.
'Longbottom!' Severus grabbed the back of Neville's robes, and spun the petrified boy around to face him. 'While I doubt that you have the spoonful of brains that it undoubtedly would have taken to arrange this little fiasco, you obviously didn't have enough brains to stay in your bed either, so you can clean up this mess! Finnigan!' The mere sound of Severus' voice stopped Seamus in his tacks. 'You help him!'
Severus spun around, livid, but then he spotted Hermione and his expression softened. He smirked, a gleam in his eye. 'Granger!' he yelled with nothing short of glee. 'You are a school prefect! You should have sent all of these people back up to the castle the moment you arrived, not participate in their blatant disregard of school rules! In my office immediately! You'll be looking forward to a month's worth of detentions in my room!'
Hermione glared daggers at him and stomped off up towards the castle.
Severus yelled at Neville some more and instructed the stragglers to help with the cleaning. He started up to the castle with a smile on his face, feeling quite pleased with himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
When he arrived in his office Severus found it empty and exactly the way he had left it save for a gleaming red apple that sat perched on the corner of his desk, tented underneath a piece of his own green stationary.
Severus lifted the paper and turned it over to see it covered with Hermione's writing in his own silver ink.
Dearest Love,
I decided to go with the traditional, less explicit form of brown nosing my teacher. I daresay you think me the frigid evil queen trying to poison you with an enchanted apple, and while at times I'd be glad to be rid of you, if I'm the evil queen that makes you Snow White and I don't really go for the 'damsel in distress' types.
By the way, if you expect me to call you Severus I should think you could at least manage my first name as well, Granger just sounds so condescending.
As to your month worth of detentions, since I seem to be so good at blatantly disregarding school rules, I've decided to disregard them as well. I'll see you on Friday.
Eat the apple and think of me, won't you?
~Hermione
Severus sighed, and threw the note down on his desk. Her tilted his head at the apple, and then smirked and straightened up. He grabbed the apple off of his desk and went to his room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A.N. So there weren't any huge revelations, but that was such a fun chapter to write.
Thanks:
Belle Mortis: Mmmm Mocha Cake. If you're Crazy then I've gone beyond just being eccentric. I have decided to begin to call him Severus most of the time, ... or better yet, I'll treat him like a schizophrenic and call him Snape when he's being mean and Sevi if he's being sweet.
Amara Tsu: You're lucky we're on the internet I haven't blushed this hard since....well.... No one has ever said that have have good grammar before, tee hee. (incidentally, it's impeccable) I put in a lot more about Hermione's band, I have my sad excuse for a plot going on here somewhere, I hope you like. I would never get Hermione pregnant either, it's not my style. Sev on the other hand.....maybe, but not in this story it's much to serious for a stunt like that.
Sarahamanda: Do you realize that you've given me the same review four times. I'm not picky and I thank you, but I do like to get some feedback.
erisedfororrim: Thank you, I tend to float about genre's when I read fic's, write them too I guess.
Parody-of-an-Angel: More to come. I honestly haven't decided what was in the compartment yet, I've some idea, but you'll have to wait to find out until I know for sure.
aquaflower: Thanks, considering I almost didn't even post this story.
I'll have the next chapter up within the week, maybe even tomorrow if I can get on the computer.
~Ly