The rest of her Defense against the Dark Arts class passed agonizingly slowly. Hermione, although rather good at spells in general, well, rather good at any magic in general, had a difficulty concentrating on her non-verbal spells. Since she arrived late, she had no one to pair up with, and had to practice with the git himself. When they had worked on them at the starting of the year, Professor Snape couldn't pass any negative comment on her casting. But now, he took every single opportunity to snap, smirk and outline her failings. She could tell that Harry and Ron wanted to talk to her, to reassure her, but Snape never let her out of sight, never gave her the opportunity to speak to them.
Close to the end of the lesson, Hermione felt exhausted. She was emotionally and physically exhausted and wanted nothing more than to get out of that classroom and away from her teacher and Ron and Harry's pitying glances.
Severus on the other hand was having the best lesson yet. Miss Granger's non-verbal spells were far from their standard and he was taking advantage of it. Some hidden part of him wondered quietly why her casting was so poor, but he quickly push that question aside and continued to torment her. For all he knew, it was probably just some petty drama, that should hardly interfere with her magical abilities. He knew that she could take his harsh comments and that they would be fuel to her fire, thus insuring that she perform better. That was one of his main reasons to his criticism of his students. Slytherins strived with praise but Gryffindors rose to the occasion when injustice was present.
Severus sometimes regretted treating his students the way he did. Sometimes, it wasn't even the student who performed badly, simply that he was having a tough time with his role as spy, who could, in one mistake, change drastically the course of the war. His patience was thinning and had been doing so ever since the return of the Dark Lord.
Miss Granger failed to block his disharming spell for the umpteenth time, and so with a mocking smirk he called imperiously the end of the lesson, a split second before the bell rang.
Hermione was just tying her hair back up, it had fallen bit by bit during the lesson, and starting to walk towards the exit, when Professor Snape's baritone drawl stopped her in her pace.
'Miss Granger, a word'.
Automatically her shoulders slumped and she turn painstakingly towards the direction from which the sentence had been pronounced.
Harry had turned too, but with a different stance. His was defensive and accusing, instead of defeated and fairly put out.
'What for, sir ?' he asked, though not waiting for an answer. 'She's already had enough of your beatings. Just leave her alone.' With this he stepped closer to her and put an arm around her slumped shoulders, reassuringly.
To this Professor Snape raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to respond when Hermione intervened.
'Really Harry, it's fine, I'll meet you in Transfiguration. Just go, or you'll be late', she said, a bit annoyed by Harry's act of defiance.
'But-' Harry started again, startled by Hermione's wishes, when she cut him off, shrugging his arm off her.
'Just go, Harry'.
He looked at her, hurt in his eyes and turned to walk stiffly out of the classroom. The bang of the closing door behind him was Hermione's cue to look back up to her Professor, who had surprisingly said nothing during their exchange. He stood in front of her with his arms crossed and his stand tall.
'Yes?'she asked softly.
'For your detention tonight, bring a quill and a lot of ink Miss Granger. You'll be writing lines,' Severus explained curtly.
He was waiting for a reaction from her, some spark of indignation in her eyes, but got only a small nod.
'Is that all, Professor?'
'Yes.'
She nodded and made her way halfheartedly out of the room.
Severus was then struck by an image of a defeated Miss Granger, image that he had never imagined seeing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione entered the Transfiguration classroom in a hurry and sat down in her usual chair, to the left of Ron, with Harry just on Ron's other side.
She had barely taken her books out when Ron leaned over to her.
Keeping his eyes to the front of the class so that Professor McGonagall wouldn't notice, he spoke quietly: 'Are you okay Hermione?'
His voice so full of concern was like a kick start to Hermione's anger that she had kept subdued since she first saw him kiss Lavender the night before. Her head snapped towards his and she whispered angrily: 'Yes, I am perfectly fine Ronald! I mean, who doesn't LOVE getting ten detentions with Snape?'
Ron backed up, eyebrows scrunched in confusion and murmured something about women and their time of month to which Hermione gave him an icy glare.
The rest of the lesson passed normally, with Hermione trying as hard as she could to concentrate, to block out the doe-eyed glances between Ron and Lavender.
When the lesson was done, Hermione went to the Great Hall for lunch, not even waiting for the boys. She sat down at their regular spot and had started eating when they came in, though with Lavender in toll. She choked on her soup.
By the time Hermione had finished coughing and had washed down her throat with some water, Harry had plonked himself down next to her and Ron, with Lavender holding his hand, had both seated themselves in front of her. Hermione didn't even feel like eating anymore.
Harry started talking by complaining loudly how unfair it was to give someone ten detentions for being late. Ron seconded the opinion while helping himself generously to the food in front of him. Lavender, who hadn't even glanced in Hermione's direction started to speak.
'Well, I don't think that it's unfair to give a detention to someone who came late,' she started haughtily, 'I mean, it's just so impolite!'
At that, Hermione looked up to Lavender's taunting face then to Ron, who gazed at his food as if he wanted to disappear and finally to Harry, who was blissfully unaware, too engrossed in a conversation with Ginny.
'Isn't that interesting,' Hermione spat out, rage boiling in her veins, ' I thought you were too daft to have an opinion on any else, except for clothes, shoes and boys, Lavender!'And with that, she stood up and swept out of the Great Hall.
Hermione didn't go to any of her afternoon lessons.
She exited the Great Hall and made a beeline to the Astronomy Tower, trying to not break down in tears before arriving there. Once she was in the relative comfort of the Tower, she spent the next hours alternating between cursing Ron and crying over him. She cried so much that it gave her a headache. Then she curled up in a ball and tried to sleep.
She rose when it was time for her detention, ten minutes before eight, and started towards the defense classroom. She felt a weird sense of detachment, her mind was rather blank, as if all the crying had rid her of any other emotion. She knocked resolutely on the room's door. From within came a curt : 'Enter', so she did as told, pushing the door open.
Inside, Severus was sitting at his desk, correcting essays, or at least trying, for he had been waiting with anticipation for this detention ever since he had given it. There was something about finally catching the famed Miss Granger out of bounds that made one feel powerful. He had just spent the dinner time meal gloating about it to Minerva, and it had felt good, a bit of satisfaction to have triumphed over her and her prized student. Evidently, Minerva had been outraged at his punishment, but couldn't do anything about it, ending the discussion in a rather tensed air.
Now, as Miss Granger pushed open the door, Severus didn't lift up his head from his correcting to welcome her, simply said in a mocking tone : 'Quill and ink out Miss Granger, sit here', he gestured to an empty desk close to his own, 'and you will write for me two hundred lines stating "I must not come to my lessons late".'
Hermione walked over to her desk and sat down with a bit too much force than necessary. Professor Snape noticed such and looked up, eyebrow raised questioningly but also giving a warning. Then, his expression changed to one of almost shock as he took in her appearance.
Shit, thought Hermione, the glamour!
In her absence of feeling after an afternoon of crying, she had forgotten to put up her facade and her Professor had noticed. She cringed because she knew that she probably looked real bad, and the last person she wanted to notice was the man staring in shock at her.
Severus thought that after years as a spy, he would be to conceal his surprise better. But he just wasn't expecting a disheveled and tear streaked Miss Granger to appear. She looked real bad, hair sticking out weirdly, eyes red and puffy. He quickly masked his reaction but not quickly enough, for he saw a flicker of realization in her eyes. She blinked then took out her wand and murmured a glamour spell. Instantly her face cleared all signs of the previous distress and her hair calmed down slightly. Severus then realized that it was the same rather fake look she was wearing in the morning.
An awkward silence settled between them. Hermione wished nothing more than to look away but she couldn't tear her eyes from Professor Snape's now emotionless face. His dark eyes stared into her golden brown ones and she felt some sort of a tickle in her thoughts. Realizing was he was attempting to do, she pushed him out mentally and scrunched her brows.
'If you wanted to know what's wrong, Professor', the spite that filled her voice was almost tangible, 'then you should learn to ask.'
He blinked then a scowl appeared and he growled: 'What makes you think I have any interest in your meaningless problems, Miss Granger?'
'Nothing much', she responded shrewdly, 'aside for your failed attempt at Legilimens seconds ago.'
His scowl became even more pronounced at that accusation and he bit back the insult that rose to mind. She was right of course, and he felt stupid about it.
'Don't try to outsmart me, Miss Granger, for we both know how it will end.' He was about to finish with that menace hanging in the air when he surprised himself for the third time that evening by saying : 'And don't waste your time on boys who aren't worth you either.'
He ducked down to his essays, leaving a curtain of limp black hair to shadow his, although brief, confused face. He hadn't meant to tell her what he had seen inside her head, how he had felt her hurt while watching Mr Weasley and Miss Brown kiss.
Unbeknownst to him, Hermione was still watching her Professor, trying to figure out why he was acting strangely. She took out her quill and ink pot and started her lines. It took her awhile to finish, but when she did, she stood up, put her sheet on his desk and walked out of the room.
Unbeknownst to her, Severus was still pondering what had happened. It had been the third time his defenses had weakened, allowing Miss Granger to glimpse the human beneath his carefully crafted walls. But it would be the last time, Severus vowed to himself silently.
Author's note: Sorry that it took so long to update! I'll try to post a chapter once a week!
Thanks to those who review, to the Guest reader and nonymouse OK! And thanks to those that stick with this story so far!
But also, to megzela! Your fic Once Upon a Dream, was the first Snamione fic I read, and really introduce me to the ship! So thanks for your review too; I normally read my chapters over a few times, but I'll try to be even more careful in the future!