A Looping of the Scales ~ COMPLETED

Chapter 9 ~ Something Very Unexpected

”Merlin’s knobblies! What’s wrong with her?” Snape exclaimed to himself as he read Hermione’s biography in “Hogwarts, a History.”

He’d heard of over-achieving before, but Hermione Granger must either be barking mad, or desperately trying cover up some shortcoming. She had earned eleven OWLS in her fifth year, receiving “Outstanding” marks in Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and one other class, and an "Exceeds Expectations" in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now, according to the textbook, she was taking Advanced classes in every single one of those classes.

No one got eleven OWLS then attempted to take NEWTS on all of them! Where did she find the time? And didn’t she have a boyfriend?

He must not get much attention, that’s for sure.

Snape blinked down at her marks, several of them over the one hundred percentile. One mark was 312%! How the HELL had she managed that?

Snape was no slouch academically. He had done quite well in his OWLS during his fifth year, gaining “Outstandings” in Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Herbology. He also received an “Exceeding Expectations” in Transfiguration. He dropped Transfiguration for Advanced Herbology. He was aspiring to become a Potions master at the time and the ability to grow ingredients was very important to the art. Four study-intensive classes were enough as far as he was concerned.

The wizard scowled.

Shit, he was beaten before he even got started Although he could give Hermione some competition in his four subjects, she was bound to beat him out just by the sheer volume of her studies.

Snape had thought he was dealing with a normal brainy student, not someone who insanely took several difficult, advanced courses at once. The term “Overachiever” didn’t begin to describe Hermione Granger.

What drove someone to work so hard? Obsession?

Snape knew what obsession was. How persistent, how uncontrollable it was, how it took over every thought, every emotion—how it couldn't be stopped, no matter how miserable it made you feel. At least, that had been his experience.

Snape had been obsessed by Lily, but separation had dulled it and eventually he stopped lurking about trying to waylay her. There had been several confrontations with James before he went underground. It became less painful seeing her, but he still had loved her and wanted to steal her away from James. Still, if he didn’t actually think about her lying in the cold earth, he could feel as if she were just avoiding him like she usually did. He decided not to consciously think about her too much. His situation was so different now, it could be possible to keep her out of his head. As he leafed through the textbook, he saw many, many people had died under Voldemort.

He knew Tom by that name, but the wizard had given him special permission to call him “Tom” because he wanted Snape to feel important to him since he hadn’t yet taken the mark. All that really was important to the wizard was that the boy produced the elixir he needed. Because of this familiarity, Snape was envied by the other Death Eaters, who all had to call Voldemort “Lord.” Snape had never been envied by anyone, so it had been quite heady for him to be able to address the Dark Lord in that manner. Of course, it didn’t last after Voldemort got what he wanted and Snape became a true Death Eater. Snape had no memory of it, however.

Tom killed Lily. Voldemort killed Lily.

The unbidden thought filled his head again, dark, painful, the sense of betrayal wrapping around him like a thick blanket, so tight he felt it hard to breathe.

”Stop it!” he hissed to himself as Lily’s ghost tried to rise in his mind. “I won’t think of it! I won’t!”

Snape declared this out loud several times. It was difficult to think while speaking and eventually he pushed the thought of Lily down in his mind. He returned to the textbook, now reading about Harry Potter.

He was orphaned as a baby and raised by Petunia and her husband, who hid the fact he was a wizard from him for years. They used to keep him in a cupboard under the stairs.

Snape frowned at this. He always knew Petunia had a cruel streak because of the way she treated Lily sometimes, but to lock her sister’s only child under the stairs?

He read on. Harry was famous because he survived Voldemort’s curse and had a scar on his forehead from it. His mother’s love formed a protection for him, but no one knew that for years. Snape didn’t remember that Dumbledore knew. Good thing too, or he might have taken another go at him.

He read about all the adventures and close calls Harry had. He certainly didn’t lead the same charmed life as his father, that was for certain. Ronald Weasley and Hermione had stuck with him through it all, although it appeared Weasley had second thoughts for a moment.

Hermione had been tortured by Bellatrix LeStrange? He remembered Bellatrix. She was beautiful, but a zealot for Voldemort. She’d do anything he asked, anything, no matter how deviant. Tom would talk about what he did to her sexually, and Snape would listen in wonder, excited but disturbed at the same time.

”If you dominate a witch sexually, she’ll practically be your slave, Severus. Whenever you get your hands on Lily, treat her like a whore and she’ll love you for it,” Voldemort advised him. “Be merciless when you fuck her, and you’ll wipe James Potter right out of her head.”

“But—Lily’s strong—“ the boy had said to him. “She wouldn’t take well to me trying to dominate her.”

Voldemort smiled.

”Those are the kind of women who like it best, believe me,” he assured Snape.

But, Snape never got the chance to find out.

He turned the book back to the chapter about him. There was a short list of spells attributed to him that were used throughout the wizarding world today.

”All stolen,” he hissed as he read through them. Yes, those were his spells all right. Levicorpus, Sectumsempra, Muffliato, and Langlock.

Some of his potions innovations were listed as well. Other than credit, he’d received nothing for their use, and that hardly seemed fair. Techniques were marketable. Potions masters only gave away their secrets for a price and an oath of secrecy. Maybe it had something to do with his being a student at the time. One thing was for certain, someone had gotten hold of his Advanced Potions book, again.

He took a moment to order supper, then returned to Hermione’s chapter. She was quite accomplished. To think with her obviously busy schedule, she’d taken out the time to try and help him.

She must be mad. Still, she could be very useful and had promised to stop by after supper. He had told her it wasn’t necessary, but he knew the type. Gryffindors were a law unto themselves, and only followed rules when it suited them. She’d be at his door with bells on, despite his wishes. Annoying as that was, he’d take advantage of it.

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”I don’t like the idea of you going to Snape’s quarters alone, Hermione,” Ron complained as he walked her down the dungeon corridor towards Snape’s office. Hermione had bolted through her food, and Ron insisted on walking her to the dungeons, which pissed him off because he hadn’t eaten as much as he wanted.

”What do you think is going to happen, Ron? He’s mourning Lily and I’m sure I’m not his type. I’m just helping him adjust,” she told him irritably. “I find him fascinating. What must it be like to suddenly be young again?”

”Fascinating? Hermione, he’s like anybody else our age. There’s nothing fascinating about him. What happened is a little interesting, but he’s not.”

”I can’t believe you’re so jealous,” she said to him.

Ron pouted.

”Well, you hardly have enough time for me as it is with the upcoming NEWTS and all the studying you have to do. So naturally I’m mad that what free time you have, you’re spending with Snape. I’m not trying to be a git on purpose, Hermione. I just can’t help how I feel,” he said quietly, shoving his hands in his pocket.

Hermione stopped walking. They were a little distance from the Potions office. Neither of them saw the door crack just a little, or the black eyes watching them.

”Oh, Ron,” Hermione said softly. “Once we graduate, we’ll have plenty of time together. I promise. I just think it’s important to help the professor. He helped all of us so much. Don’t be mad.”

Hermione reached up and pulled Ron down into a soft, rare, public kiss. There was no one else in the corridor, so she felt comfortable enough to do it. Ron wrapped his arms around her and drank in the softness of her mouth. Gods, they didn’t do this enough to suit him, but the effect on him was practically magical as she pulled away from his mouth.

”Oi, Hermione,” he breathed down at her, his blue eyes heated. She smiled back at him.

”I don’t know how the rules work at Hogwarts now, but kissing in the corridors was considered bad form and usually resulted in point loss when I attended,” a cold voice said. “Obviously, the standards at this school have gone the way of the Dodo.”

Witch and wizard quickly oriented on the voice, Hermione blushing furiously as Ron scowled at Snape. The youthened wizard was leaning against the damp wall outside of his office door with a sneer on his face.

“There’s nothing wrong with the standards,” Ron growled at him as he released a very embarrassed Hermione.

”Maybe not the school’s standards—“

”What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Ron, let it go,” Hermione said softly. “We shouldn’t have been kissing in public anyway. I broke my own rule.”

Ron and Snape looked at each other with narrowed eyes. It didn’t help that Snape now wore a slight smirk.

”Ron? Ron.”

Ron looked down at Hermione, but the scowl didn’t leave his face.

“How long do you intend to stay with that git?” he asked her in a low voice.

Snape still heard him, and almost grinned.

”I’ll be back before curfew, Ron. Just think of it like my tutoring of other students. You don’t seem to mind that,” she said to him.

”Yes, but those are students. This is Snape,” he replied.

”It’s no different, Ron. Really. Now, just go and I’ll see you in the common room in an hour or two,” she said soothingly.

Ron watched as Hermione walked toward Snape, whose dark eyes rested on her. She walked past him and into his office. He straightened, then waggled his eyebrows at Ron, and walked in behind her, closing the door hard.

Ron stood there with his fists clenched, struggling not to run to the office door and pound it down. Hermione wouldn’t appreciate that a bit. She always assumed he didn’t trust her.

It wasn’t her. It was wizards in general. He thought Hermione was beautiful even if no one else saw her the way he did. But he assumed they did see it, and so was protective. He didn’t want her stolen away.

He knew Hermione was a proper witch, with good ethics and of good character. He didn’t have to worry about her doing anything untoward, particularly with Snape.

But those waggling eyebrows didn’t help his attitude a bit.

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”Legilimens!” Snape hissed, entering Hermione’s mind. She’d agreed to let him see how he was as a professor.

”It isn’t pretty,” she warned him.

And it wasn’t. Potter didn’t stand a chance in his class from the first day, and it was clear he hated him just as much as he hated James. He was dismissive of Hermione, too, calling her a know-it-all and telling her to constantly be quiet. He seemed to take an unholy joy in tormenting a Gryffindor named Neville—

He watched as he bullied, mistreated and embarrassed students constantly. There always seemed to be some kind of chip on his shoulder. He treated the Slytherins better than anyone else, but even they caught it sometimes.

What? Sirius Black? In the Shrieking Shack? Him and Remus Lupin, he had his wand on them, then he was blasted away! Then, he was blocking Hermione, Ron and Harry from a werewolf bearing down on them. What?

There were other startling images, most of them with him being a total git, rapping Ron and Harry in their heads with books, taking away points from them for no apparent reason, but some of the images had him seeming almost protective, in a snarky way.

Then, he saw himself covered in a magical orb and bitten by Nagini on the order of Voldemort who left him gushing blood on the floor of the Shrieking Shack. Then silver fluid poured from his face and Harry collected it in a bottle. Then he appeared to die, his body being walked away from.

Then he saw himself with a bandage around his throat, caked blood on his robes, pale and drawn as several people helped him through the castle to the infirmary. There were injured everywhere. Then, there was him in the Potions classroom, alone with Hermione, who walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him downward—

Suddenly, Hermione slammed down her Occlumency walls, forcing him out of her head.

Snape blinked at her in shock.

”What the hell was that last part?” he demanded.

”What last part?” she asked him, her face red.

”That last part! Were you kissing me?”

”No!”

“You were!”

”No! I wasn’t!”

”Yes, you were! What are you? Some kind of—of Lolita? I can’t believe this! I had to be twice your age! What’s wrong with you!”

Hermione grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

”I’m leaving,” she said, walking toward the entrance.

Snape ran past her, blocking the way out, his eyes narrowed.

”You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what that was I witnessed,” he said in a low, hard voice.

Hermione blinked at him before she sighed, turned around and walked over to the sofa. She sat down, looking at the floor.

Snape walked over to her and stood with his arms tightly folded.

”Now, you tell me what’s going on, right now,” he demanded.

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A/N: I've been busy trying to fix my website, theburningpen . com. I am putting up cgi review boards. The problem was, I knew nothing about cgi. Now, I know a little and have a couple of working boards up. I'm going to have to work on it bit by bit, I have so many stories, so please bear with me. The newest stories have working boards now, thank goodness, so I'm getting someplace. I had relied on an automated process to generate the boards, but the Frontpage extensions are being phased out, so . . . I'm on my own. I think it will be all right. Anyway, that's what I've been up to and why there weren't updates. But, thanks for reading.