A Crown of Thorns

**DISCLAIMER** All characters etc. belong to J.K. Rowling and I am making no money from this. Don’t sue because I’m sure that I don’t have anything that you’d want anyway. The basic plot for the story was a challenge presented by ArienAstera.

A/N – Yes, yes, I know, these little notes can become quite irritating after a while, I promise to lay off for a while. But I feel as though I must correct something that recently caught my attention. I realize that in the Prologue, I state that the reason for the road from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts being deserted is because it’s a school night and only the seventh years are allowed out. This insinuates that Hermione and friends are in their seventh year, meaning that they are seventeen or at least sixteen years old. This cannot be possibs shs she is missing for two years and is just now getting ready to celebrate her seventeenth birthday. Therefore, I have gone back and edited the Prologue. Just a minor detail but it was bugging the crap out of me and I want the timeline to be as accurate as possible. Okay, enough rambling. Enjoy!

Chapter Ten – Happy Birthday?

Hermione woke on the morning of her seventeenth birthday with a terrible aching in the pit of her stomach. She lay in bed, wishing that she could just crawl back under the covers and disappear, but knowing that she had to face the day she reluctantly dragged herself into the bathtub and had a nice, long soak. Since the night that Professor Snape had come to see her it felt as though time was passing by unbearably slowly.

Hermione had worried at first that something might have gone wrong because the morning after Snape’s visit, Voldemort had questioned her about Lucius’ behavior the previous night, inquiring as to whether she thought that he had been acting strangely. She had covered quickly, saying that after he had left the two of them alone, Lucius had proposed a sort of “truce”, telling her that he wanted their “working” relationship to be a courteous one as it would make things easier for everyone. Hermione said that she had agreed, only wanting what was best. Since that time, she had only briefly seen Lucius ndfundful of times and he had barely said more than “Hello” to her.

Pulling herself out of the tub, Hermione dried off, dressed and made her way downstairs to her library. Lord Voldemort had given this particular room to Hermione for her birthday last year and despite herself, every time she walked through the doorway it brought a smile to her face. Even she had to admit that Voldemort had outdone himself. With a wave of her hand the fireplace roared to life, quickly chasing away the chill in the air. She walked alongside the bookshelves trailing one finger gently along the leather bound spines while letting her eyes roam over the numerous titles. There were hundreds of books; mostly Dark Arts texts, but there were quite a few on various other topics as well. Selecting a book on Arithmancy she curled up on the large leather couch, tucking her legs underneath of her.

Hermione tried to concentrate on the words in front of her but she found that she kept reading the same line over and over. Slamming the book shut, she looked over to the empty cushions beside her. For close to two years she had lived with a horrible, nagging doubt in the back of her mind, wondering whether or not she had been forgotten about. And then suddenly Professor Snape had been there, the person she would have least expected. He had held her in his arms, comforted her when she needed it the most, and assured her that everything was going to be alright.

But that wasn’t what was bothering her. What had been bothering her, almost every night since his visit, were her dreams. Vivid dreams of Snape doing much, much more than just comforting her. She would wake still feeling his hands touching her in places that had never been touched, or his lips hot on her skin. Her body would be slick with a film of sweat and still flushed from the intensity of her fantasies. Her skin was growing hot just thinking about her dreams and she tried in vain to push the thoughts out of her mind. They were, after all, just silly dreams that would never come true.

~~~~

“Get up, you worthless traitor.”

Severus was jerked up awkwardly from his position on the floor.

“The Dark Lord requires your presence.”

Severus stood on shaky legs and felt as though he was going to fall over before he felt hands gripping both of his arms tightly. Barely able to see through the slits in his eyes as they were practically swollen shut, he allowed himself to be dragged down the long corridor. They reached a doorway and he felt something being pulled roughly over his head and realized that someone was slipping a heavy cloak on him. His face was then covered by a mask that had no eyeholes, only a small opening to allow him to breathe. He heard the door open and was again dragged along before being shoved to the floor.

Severus heard the familiar icy voice and his body tensed, waiting for the first strike.

“Your gift, my love. It is time now to show your followers, show them how you punish those who dare betray our loyalty.”

Severus heard footsteps coming close and he could feel a presence above him. Then he heard another voice, and knew it was her.

But her voice was different this time, cold and flat, “Watch carefully and pay attention. Crucio.”

Severus cried out as his already weakened body umbeumbed to the excruciating pain. It went on for several minutes and just before he lost consciousness, it std and and he lay there, panting.

She continued, her voice laced with venom, “For those of you who will fail to rise to my expectations,” she kicked Severus hard, in the back, “this is what you should expect. Crucio.”

Again, Severus felt his body go rigid as the pain ripped through every nerve and muscle. He had never felt such power behind a curse before and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer. Within moments, his body slumped to the floor, still twitching.

~~~~

Hermione had dressed carefully for this evening, putting on a set of long, fitted black velvet robes that were trimmed in silver. She had carefully tamed her bushy tangle of hair so that it cascaded down her back in a silky tumble of curls. Voldemort had come to her earlier in the day and presented her with a stunning platinum and emerald necklace, and as she clasped it around her neck she gazed at her reflection.

Today was her seventeenth birthday. It was supposed to be a happy day, wasn’t it? So why did the girl staring back at her look so sad? She closed her eyes and let her imagination wander to what her celebration would be like if she were home again. No doubt Harry and Ron would have probably gotten her a book that she had pointed out to them at Flourish and Blotts and chocolate from Honeydukes. Ginny would have probably gotten her a pair of earrings or a bracelet and Mrs. Weasley would have sent her one of her sweaters. She and her friends would probably be at The Three Broomsticks right now, enjoying butterbeer, laughing and enjoying one another’s company. The backs of her eyelids stung from the tears that were threatening to fall. A knock on the door startled her back to reality and her eyes flew open. She took one last look in the mirror and hurried to the door.

Voldemort escorted her down to a seldom used area of the dungeons and they stopped briefly outside of a pair of large double doors.

He turned to her and took both of her hands in his, “They are very much like wild animals, they can sense any fear and they will feed off of it. You must cod thd them Hermione, show them your power and give them no doubts.”

Hermione nodded and as they turned, the doors swung open and the room fell silent. There was a sea of faces before them and all eyes were on her. She felt her knees begin to shake a bit as they walked to the front of the room, taking their places.

Voldemort began speaking, “My loyal antsants, I have brought you here tonight for a great celebration…”

His voice faded out as Hermione quickly scanned the room, recognizing several of the faces before her. Right in front was Lucius and Draco, of course, and they were flanked by Crabbe and Goyle and two men who were no doubt their fathers. She recognized several Slytherins who had graduated from Hogwarts when she was still a student and in the far back of the room she spotted McNair, Avery, Dolohov and Rookwood. But she failed to locate the one person she actually wanted to see, Professor Snape. She turned her attentions back to Voldemort and watched as a slumped figure was dragged out of a door on their right and flung to the ground in front of them.

This was it. This was what Snape had warned her about, Voldemort was testing her loyalty. The hooded figure before her had been called a traitor, and although she didn’t know whether is was one of the Order, or one of Voldemort’s own, Hermione knew that she had to make the torture seem heartfelt for her audience.

After subjecting her victim to two rounds of Crucio and a swift kick to the back, Hermione stooped down, grabbing the black hood. She needed to know. She wanted her victim’s face to be burned into her memory so that she would never, ever lose sight of her ultimate goal to destroy Lord Voldemort and everything that he stood for.

She looked at her “followers” and felt nothing but disgust and hatred rage through her body as she spoke, “Let this useless waste serve as a constant reminder to all of you.”

With a tug, the hood came off and she looked down in veiled horror as Professor Snape’s battered body lay at her feet.


A/N - Alright, one more quick note. My updates will be a little slow in coming because my horrid little computer has decided to commit suicide. It will still let me write and save my work to a disk (we do remember what disks are, don\'t we?) but then I have to scurry over to my parents house to get online and post the new chapters. ARRRGH! Just as well though, I have been secretly wanting a new computer and now I have a perfectly respectable excuse to go out a blow a nice chunk of change. *evil grin* Please bear with me, as I promised before, this fic will not become an orphan. Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews, especially to my faithful few who give me wonderful feedback on each chapter (You know who you are - Deb, FireBlade and ArienAstera).