The Dark Gryffindor

Note: Something I wanted to tell everyone about this fic: it is very much in line with the Shakespeare saying, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” This is how it is for Valerie and Severus. Yet I admit, it was also like that with Snpae for Lily. I am the type of person who believes you can be in the romantic sense madly in love with more than one partner in a lifetime. That is, if you believe in such a powerful passionate love is possible with real couples. Please review.


Chapter Ten: Plans for a Respite


A couple of evenings later, Severus Snape had been visiting the dungeon corridors. He was returning to the sixth floor finished with the errand he had run for Professor Slughorn. He had given the corpulent Potions Master and new head of Slytherin some ingredients he had ran out of in the school store cupboard. It was nothing unusual of the sort. There were no polyjuice brewing suspects this time, it was just that Slughorn had needed more of the standard herbs used for the potions his students would make.

Down the dark corridor with the flagged stone floor, the headmaster treaded, his added protection of a cloak over his robes billowing behind him. This corridor, which is near one of the dungeons is lit by the torches covering the walls in a thick line. Snape’s complexion appeared even sallower.

He saw two misshapen figures embracing, several yards away. The two were standing in a corner at the end, near a door that led into one of the dungeons.

Snape strode forward, wand raised to blast the kissing couple apart with plans to take points from the two student’s houses. But he was shocked to see that it was a sixth year Slytherin Prefect kissing the neck, giving a hickey to none other than Valerie Powers. He could make her out behind the boy, as she leaned against the wall, looking up at the rather handsome youth.

Snape’s heart seemed to stop cold, dead in his chest. He felt a huge weight of feelings shift. It was like the world had stood still for him in this moment. He watched a greedy, resentful expression on Snape's face. He wanted to tell the boy she was his, but he had to remember his role as headmaster of Hogwarts. It would not do for everyone to know about the elevated headmaster-pupil relationship between them, even if this could never get him removed from the position, because as long as the Dark Lord wanted Snape as headmaster it would remain.

He could not bear it any longer. He must do something but he didn’t. He uprooted the heels of his boots from a groove in the flagged stone floor, as he nearly stumbled. He proceeded onward, but much more rapidly than before. He wished he could run, run and never look back towards that horror behind him. He would have ran if only to get away to escape, if only there was a certainty to be alone in a Hogwarts corridor.


*


The very next day, Valerie was due in according to her timetables for another Dark Arts lesson, which was of course replaced by Professor Severus Snape.

Snape actually waited, seated in front of the headmaster’s desk in that chair with a back like a stake, the portrait of Dumbledore right behind him. He sat rigidly, looking down at the polished marble floor feeling apprehension at the anticipation of her arrival.

Finally the girl entered without his utterance, after she tried knocking to no answer several times. He did not care she entered with permission. He had kind of hoped she would not come, hoping since he had not bidden her entrance, she would leave.

He watched out of the corner of his eye, looking up from the floor, as she came towards him so confidently, those ample tits, protruding and so obvious, even in her schoolrobes was all his eye’s rested on. He would not look at her face.

And Valerie was smiling a little, until she finally faltered before the desk not caring to be seated.

“Are you alright, professor?,” and as she said this, Valerie looked unnerved and even a bit frightened.

Finally he looked at Valerie, but not quite aiming for the hard-staring blue eyes shaped like stones. He slumped further in the high, stake-backed chair, and Valerie shifted on her heels nervously at his delay.

He regarded her with nothing short of misery and pain, as he said after a long moment, “What have you been doing lately?” It was said by him in that soft, seductive intonation. Yet there was something truly sad in it, a trace of terrible lonliness even.

Snape found the will to look the girl clearly in her eyes, doing Legilimency. His black eyes were like empty tunnels upon her, devoid of all light. He saw she was wearing her uniform differently. The collar was done high to cover up the hickey.

Valerie felt a chill dissipate in her veins at his coldest of looks and she gasped as though stifled for air.

She hesitated, confused, “What? The past few days?! Nothing - Er -,” and suddenly she brightened, “I’m doing fine. Its going great, sir!”

And out of nowhere, Valerie almost jumped, as Snape sprung from the chair, from which he was slumping in. His face went white, taut and irate and he slapped her face, hard with his hand, no need to use his wand.

She thought it was amazing how her headmaster’s energy could change, 'as unpredictable as the weather when in a foul mood', thought Valerie after she felt the sting of his slap.

“I saw you kissing a boy. That Slytherin Prefect. Him….” although a low, bitter growl, the words felt like they boomed into her eardrums. She was stricken with panic that he knew!

Snape looked hurt and deeply frustrated with her attempt at deception and her infidelity and disregard for their intimacy.

He sat down in a huff again, and then turned to look at the picture of Lily. There was a trace of longing in him now. Valerie watched his attention shift from her and to that photograph for what felt like the hundredth time to her.

“Yes, I did love the woman in the picture Valerie,” he spat. “More so than I- I could ever love you, girl! Much more and I- always - I will always. She is everything to me…But not you…Not you…,” and yet as he spoke so cruel in words, Snape’s voice weakened gradually. In actuality, his claim that he could never love Valerie Powers was a lie. A little burst at revenge to hopefully maim her feelings in return.

Valerie looked at him with an angry expression, and it looked like she had the gall to say something spiteful right back.

But all at once the fight in her seemed to go out. And she bawled, wailing like a little girl in a temper tantrum, “Aw…..Aw…Please, sir. Punish me. Punish me! I’ll p-probably never be like the girl in the photograph. Punish me, headmaster!”

Snape leaned back in his chair, rolling his dark eyes to the ceiling irritated at her outburst and that desire for another spanking, caning or whatever. He hardly cared to do it. He did not feel like it much. Actually, he didn’t want anything at all. She had made him feel terrible. All because of what she did, he had become positively depressed since yesterday evening.

Valerie had her wand out now, and she accioed nonverbally one of the smaller canes still stored in a cabinet in the ancient office of the Hogwarts Headmaster. She then ran towards him, limbs whirling.

He felt Valerie throw her frame across his legs, in a sweet surrender across his lap. She was prone on top of him, and she lifted her short skirt, more than ready for a severe chastisement.

Valerie suddenly heard Snape making a sound like a wounded animal. 'The man, such a powerful man, such a great wizard, a Death Eater was actually crying', she thought.

After a few shocking seconds suspended in the sepulchral air, Valerie whispered in a whimper, now urgent, “Please, sir. I can’t stand to see your pain. Punish me….I want you to Crucio me!”

And Snape decided to take up her offer. He grabbed the cane from her hand and grasped it firmly in one fist. Still sobbing and making all sorts of strange howls and noises, Snape beat Valerie, but blindly, with little control or passion or even reasoning to it. It struck her back sometimes, or the tops of her thighs, but it was not the whippy willow cane’s full force.

This went on for a minute as both of them moaned and cried, as Snape laid dozens of smacks with the miniature cane. Yet Snape was merely doing it to assuage his own inner turmoil. She had unearthed all his feelings for Lily, the unrequited love. He was feeling his hatred at everything, especially Voldemort and the real Death Eaters. And now he had nearly lost Valerie, the only hope of love for him left in the world of the living.

Valerie was still hiccuping and sobbing as Snape came out of the trance after a little over a minute.

Valerie was raised off his lap, and pulled up roughly at the scalp. It was obvious Snape was still angry. And then Valerie was standing right in front of Snape again, her eyes level with his neck.

“I didn’t think you were serious about it with me….I’m sorry, sir….I’m sorry,” and suddenly she had her head buried in his chest, sobbing into his black robes. It felt so cathartic for Valerie, in that she released her shame and guilt at her huge mistake.

Snape moved his arms, slowly, moving reluctantly down her back, until he held her against him for a moment, rubbing his hands through the rough wavy brown strands with natural streaks of reddish-blonde.

Yet he couldn’t comfort her for more than a moment. He had always been this way. He couldn’t bare to watch a woman cry. He had always hated to see a woman cry, probably because his mother had done it so much.

Finally he intoned quietly, “Enough. No carrying on, Valerie. You had your sentimental recluse...”

She snifled and then managed to tilt her chin up to see his eyes casted down at her.

Between gulping down a sob she said, “Thank-you, h-headmaster S-Snape. My punishment felt good because I hope,…I hope it m-made - made YOU feel better!”

Snape chose not to answer. Truth was, he was a little embarrassed about his outburst, of how he had cried as she had been across his knee before. He had not ever wanted anyone to see him break down and few had. He chose not to answer, but just looked at her blankly, empty of emotion.

Snape seemed to get his full swagger back finally, as he looked at her with a sternness again. “….And the boy…That Slytherin prefect…What did you do with him?,” he said with a dark inquisitive demand .

“Just some snogging,” Valerie breathed innocently.

Snape raised a thick, curved brow, doubt cast on his features.

“A couple of blow-jobs for him, sir.” And then Valerie added speaking like a child pleading an argument, "But, headmaster it was only because the prefect let me off easy during my detentions held ages ago. I knew in being let off easy, that I had to follow the deal I made with him...."

"Ah,...I see...," said Snape, and he sighed an icy whistle coming off his breath, thinking about this particular Slytherin. He didn't really like what he was hearing about the boy's conduct, let alone Valerie's. He regarded her with a distateful feeling in his mouth, and at the same time a look of knowing sadism gleaming in his pupils.

But then Snape’s face morphed into complete disgust, “And did you enjoy this, Valerie? Did you like being his – being his-“ But whatever it was Snape couldn’t get the words out to say it, not in reference to Valerie. Words he had in mind were things like being his ‘whore’.

“I won’t lie….I liked it! But not how I do with you, professor,” said Valerie clearly and she added smartly, “remember I mastered the technique with you first, er – headmaster.”

Snape nodded and said dully, “true,” and then his tone changed to determined as he ordered, “You shall break up with that silly schoolboy. That Slytherin prefect. First chance you get sometime tomorrow.”

Valerie paused and mulled it over in her head, the repurcussions it meant for herself. It wouldn’t be easy to turn the boy down, he was a dangerous fellow who would get offended if his ego was hurt. He might get violent, but Valerie wasn’t too scared. She strongly assented, “Yes, sir.”

She looked up at Snape again and then decided she daren’t ask. She had upset him and annoyed him enough to last for a long time, for it was certainly not something Snape was liable to want to forgive easily. She walked away. What she was going to ask was when she may call him ‘Severus’, but she had an almost certain feeling he would tell her no. 'So then, 'it wasn’t even worth a shot,' she concluded in her head.

As she put her hand to the brass doorknob, she heard Snape intone, “Another moment, please.”

Valerie paused and then turned around to face him, as he stood several feet away, just looking at her a bit detachedly.

“I would enjoy your company this weekend at my residence, Spinner’s End. I’m going there to get away. Celebrate my birthday….You’ll come along, I’m sure?”

“Mhhm…. Yes....Yeah. I’ll be there!”

“Then be ready at four o’clock on Friday and be sure to pack yourself a bag.”

Valerie blushed and said gushing, struggling not to giggle like a schoolgirl, "I'll be ready for you then..." She still felt he regarded her as a young schoolgirl.

And she turned back, and then abruptly turned around again.

“Yes?” said Snape a little dryly.

Valerie looked a little disoriented as if trying to figure some reasoning in her head that she wasn’t quite sure of. She asked shakily, “ah…How old will you be, sir?”

Snape looked at her coolly. “I’ll be thirty-eight….Why?,” and Snape added clearly paranoid, especially since he had seen her enjoying herself with a young man, “Does my age bother you?” Yet Snape also sounded just the tiniest bit concerned.

“No, um…I’ve always wanted an older man,” and Valerie shyly. She added as if being witty, “men age with time like fine wine…”

Snape nodded knowingly. Of course he had heard of this expression, as he nodded he said, “Go back to Gryffindor tower, Valerie. We’ll have time for Dark Arts and Occlumency lessons at my home on Spinner’s End.”

“Good night!,” said Valerie, boldly cheerful and with an unmistakable air of thrilled pent-up excitement, she shut the door.


Hope you enjoyed the update. Please review. I promise Snape won’t ever lose control like that again. I hope you understood that this was acceptable, given all the circumstances and feelings for losing Lily, which was reminded a bit by his fear at losing Valerie. Valerie will hear a lot more about Lily later.