Chapter 2

A plate of food appeared in front of Hermione and Snape a few hours later, obviously left-overs that had been scraped off of unfinished plates.

"Snape, how did Voldemort find out about you? " Hermione asked, chewing on some bread, the only piece of food on her plate that didn't look like it had been regurgitated.

"The Carrows," he answered, "they heard about me punishing a group of students with a trip to the Forbidden Forest. Alecto suggested sending them down to her dungeon, but I could not allow them to be tortured, so I declined. She told the Dark Lord of this, and he had her slip Veritaserum into my morning tea. They questioned me, but I told them nothing. I've spent the last fifteen years building up an immunity to Veritaserum.

"But they were still suspicious. They found it strange that I revealed nothing under the influence of a truth potion, even when they asked me rather insulting questions about my family."

He paused, and Hermione heard an almost undetectable note of resentment in his voice. It occurred to her then that the old Snape might not be completely gone after all. If she could get him to feel something- anything other than resignation- she might just convince him to help her.

"Your family?" Hermione probed.

"It's not important."

"Do you mean your parents? What were they like?"

"I said it doesn't matter!" Snape shouted.

"I just think if we're going to die in a dungeon together, we should get to know each other a bit. For instance, my parents are dentists-"

"My mother was a junkie, my father was a muggle who hated magic," Snape said, "he snapped my mother's wand in half and forced both of us to live as muggles until I was eleven."

Despite Hermione's sudden wave of affection for Snape, she pressed on. "What happened to them?"

"My mother overdosed on heroin when I was fifteen. My father still lives in the shithole I grew up in. Satisfied?"

"Wow. You're more like Harry than I thought," Hermione muttered.

"I am nothing like Harry Potter!"

"You both grew up with people who hated magic! You both loved Hogwarts"-

"Potter is an arrogant, conceited, attention whore."

"And you're not?" Hermione laughed, "you are the most arrogant son-of-a-bitch I know, and you're wrong about Harry. You think you're so smart, you think you're above all your students, I mean- can you say power trip?"

Snape looked as though he'd been slapped in the face. Hermione smirked, convinced that it had probably been the first time anyone had yelled at him since he was a school boy.

"Snape, help me get out of this place. You say you've made peace with Voldemort killing you, you may think there's no way out- but I know you care. I know you care about this war as much as the rest of us, and we need you."

There was a long silence. Hermione finished her food, closing her eyes with every bite so as not to see what she was eating. Snape had apparently lost his appetite. He was sitting very still with his long legs bent at the knees and his head resting against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

"Why do you need me?" He finally said, "my mission has failed. The Death Eaters no longer trust me. I can't help anymore." He shut his eyes.

Hermione set her plate down, sitting a little straighter. "Of course you can still help. This is just a small setback. You are extremely important to the Order. And you happen to be the only other person in here, so you're sort of crucial to my escape plans."

Their eyes met for a brief moment and Hermione smiled. She thought she saw a glimmer of hope shine through his shadowy eyes, but she may have been imagining it.

"You have a plan?" He asked.

"Yes, I think," Hermione said, "it requires a bit of..." She hesitated. "It requires us both to achieve extreme mental clarity and openness."

"Openness? Are we going to have to meditate?" Snape didn't look too enthisiastic.

"Not exactly."

"Then what is the plan?"

"Okay, it's a bit awkward, talking about it with you. I mean, there are certain techniques I've read about to open one's mind, invoking ancient magic through the third eye..."

"Third eye? What on Earth are you talking about? You know, I thought your presentation skills would be a bit better considering-"

"SEX!" Hermione shouted, wishing she could achieve enough mental clarity at that moment to Vanish herself into the wall.