The Dark Gryffindor

Note: This is the start of a very long chapter. Tears for Fears is a song from the 80s, that reminds me of what Snape is going through.

Sheherazade: Thanks. No there won't be balloons, but I wouldn't rule out lots of fun (romantically speaking).


Momo: thanks for the review, so much. Lucius defintely has a part as there will be at least one chapter at Malfoy Manor. And Lucius is there and he will also be there for the Battle of Hogwarts (Valerie is in it...but not quite for either side). And I am going to use your excellent criticism. I will change the way the masochism explanation is done. AND you will find there is a reason, Valerie is a mashochist. It was hinted at in the chapter, "Hard Lessons" when Snape taught her Occlumency.


Chapter Eleven: Tears for Fears


Friday afternoon Professor Snape and Professor Mcgonagall were standing near the door that led out of the circular room of the head’s office. Valerie, who had also recently arrived on her own, stood beside Snape at her side clutching a suitcase. Valerie’s eyes were heavily lidded from dark eyeshadow and eye liner, and mascara. Her hair was wrapped in a tight bun and she was wearing a long black coat with high-heels.

Snape consulted to the transfiguration teacher, “I think I can trust you won’t tell anybody I’ve vacated?”

The old witch’s face went into a sneer, her lips pressed tightly together. With umbrage she replied, “No I won't say anything…I see no reason to stain Hogwart’s history further. First you KILL him and NOW sleeping around with a student!”

“Yes, well...," and Snape's voice was vicious, "I like to have somebody around to give me a good fuck. She’s a little wanton thing, and she is of age…. Then he added with manipulation, "Don’t you want someone as well, Minerva?,” It wasn’t really in his heart to act this way, he just wanted Minerva to think he was on Voldemort’s side and to play it up right, he had to be as nasty as possible.

“I was married once. You – you are such filth. As a headmaster it’s a shame you sleep with a student from my house…”

Valerie just looked at Mcgonagall calmly. She did not care what the spinster-like old lady thought.

“I’ll be sure to put added protections on the school before I go…Stop sticking your nose in other people's business, Minerva. Forget about my mistress, here…” And at these words, Snape put a hand lightly on Valerie’s upper-back.

Mcgonagall shot one last furious glance at Valerie, hardly hearing Snape, she burst, “Will this interfere with your Quidditch practice?”

“No, professor. We don’t have a match for three weeks. Gryffindor didn’t get booked for the pitch this time. It was Ravenclaw I think. ”

“Right….Well enjoy your time with him - the headmaster. I hope he’s good to you, girl…”

“Oh, I will…,,” said Valerie, with a grin of defiance at Mcgonagall, and then Valerie glanced adoringly at Snape, head high, as if to say to Mcgonagall, ‘I don’t mind being his and I’m proud of it.’

Mcgonagall saw this and pursed her lips, “Have you any sense? Do you know what a Death Eater is capabale of? Of things they are commanded to do? He killed Dumbledore! For Merlin’s sake be careful…”

Valerie frowned and tried very hard not to roll her eyes at Mcgonagall.

And Mcgonagall looked back at Snape, “You’ve certainly influenced the girl with changing her style. There was once a time, I spotted her after classes. I had to take her into my office and straighten her fashion ideas out, for she was dressing like a hooker! But now, well... I can’t say you haven’t improved her.”

“Oh, I have. With harsh discipline, her behaviour has improved. She is obedient to my every whim…Am I right Valerie?” The way Snape talked he sounded like he was horirble to her, and it would only help continue Mcgonagall's belief that he was evil.

Valerie knew he was putting on an act and she decided to play her part as well. She nodded and said complacently, “Yes, sir.”

Mcgonagall shook her head incredulously, “Not the defiant girl, I once knew…By the way, I want use of the head’s office while you’re away.”

Snape shook his head deliberately, “That won’t do, Minerva. This is not your place as Transfiguration mistress. You aren’t deputy headmaster, that would be the Carrows, remember?”

“Don’t try to put me in my place, Snape! I know bloody well, where I stand. Unlike you I stand against – He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named…Now Death Eaters may rule the school, yet I will never be one.”

“Let me finish…,” sneered Snape. “There is private matters I attend to in here. Things you can’t know of. And the Dark Lord…I shall tell you, he comes in through the floo network.”

“I’m sure I could risk it,’ said Mcgonagall through her teeth, yet her chest heaved withholding a gasp when Snape told her Voldemort comes by. "I wish you would just tell me what it is you’re really up to, Snape. Yet…I see there’s no getting around you. As I’m sure you’ll change the password before you leave today?”

“Undoubtedly….,” said Snape, and then he added with a fake humor, “On my return Monday, it will be back to Dumbledore…,”

“How can you do this? Proud you murdered him? You make me sick, and now you’ve perverted yourself with a young girl…Good day, headmaster!’

And with a huff, Mcgonagall swept past Valerie, who watched with slight amusement curling in the corners of her mouth at her head of house’s anger.

They heard her feet stomping down the staircase, with surprising speed for such a elderly woman, and surprising as well for one who had been hit with three stunning spells at once less than two years ago.

Snape now turned to Valerie his attention on her, “What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing sir,” she said.

And Snape seemed to scrutinize her appearance. He said with obvious disapproval, “Muggle clothing is it?”

“Yes…,” said Valerie slowly.

He peered at her conservative attire again and said, “Your attire…is like how my mother’s was,” and it was obvious this wasn’t attractive.

“Oh. Sorry,” she said feeling stupid. And then she asked, “Was your mother a witch?”

“Yes…,” said Snape, sounding distant, suddenly like he wasn’t present.

“Before we embark, go upstairs and wash your face of the make-up.”

Valerie did not make a move, but just stared back at Snape in silent protest.

He put a hand onto her chin, raising her head and said with annoyance, “Do you want me to be reminded all weekend of someone I don’t get along with?"

Valerie said, slow on the uptake,"Who would that be, professor?"

“Bloody Minerva, of course! Put your hair down!"

And he took his hands from raising her to look in her eyes and waited. “Put your hair down. I know you don’t like it that way, and neither do I.”

Valerie reached her hands from behind, undoing the tightly coiled bun, until her hair came weaving out of it, and amassed outwards in it’s thickness, half-way down her back.

“Upstairs to get that hideous make-up off.”

Valerie did so without a word, turning and going up the stairs, stomping like Minerva had. Snape waited getting impatient. He yelled up the stairs, “Ten points from Gryffindor for your insolent attitude.”

“Sir, Please!,” Valerie whined. And Snape thought how he didn’t want to spend the weekend with someone who keeps reminding him of Professor Mcgongall…'Well, they are both Gryffindors. They have to be alike in ways,’ he thought.

A couple of minutes later, Valerie emerged from the bathroom after washing her face with soap and water. She came downstairs, looking seventeen again, fresh-faced in her porcelain skin. She knew Snape would be calm again.

Snape smiled a little and commented, “You make me feel young. Like I can relive my youth, this time for a happy one. Don’t try to look old for me. I don’t want that.”

“Yes…,” and she could tell she still had to talk to him as a teacher, as his eyes narrowed, waiting. So because he gave her a direct request she repeated, “Yes, sir.”

Snape opened the door and held it for her, as she was holding her heavy suitcase, with surprisingly good strength in her muscles.

They went down the moving spiral stairs to the outside world.

He asked out of simple curiosity, “What made you think looking old makes a positive impression on me, Valerie?”

“Well…I thought if you started perceiving me like an older woman, you would respect ME,” said Valerie being totally candid. She resisted adding, 'I always have to show you utmost respect.'

Snape looked relaxed, but he said as he opened the door, “Respect has to be earned. You have not earned it quite. Shall I remind you the reasons you’ve been punished?”

“No, sir. I know I deserved what I got. Can we forget this conversation? I know you deserve respect as you are the headmaster, and also er, for what you do…,” she finished mysteriously.

“Well, I’m glad to see you're learning a thing or two,” said Snape, and he took his wand out, standing in front of the two stone gargoyles.

Snape glanced around over his shoulder and then turned back and said, “The new password is 'Harry'.”

The gargoyle repeated like a robot with a raspy intonation. “Harry it is, headmaster.”

As the gargoyle spoke, Valerie screamed cynically, “Harry! What? We all know you hate him…”

“Silence…It’s 'Harry' because nobody will ever guess, not even Mcgonagall. I never called him by his first name, and she doesn’t either. Its just been Potter to us. Nor I do hate the boy. Not at all actually.

"Let’s go, we have a train to catch.”

And the two of them turned and started to walk down a wide, arched hallway and towards the main staircase, going down the six flights.

“Another thing I will teach you. Control, Valerie. Discipline, respect, and control.”

“I suppose, headmaster,” said Valerie apathetically.

Once they past the statue of the giant boar, they could hear the chatterings of hundreds of people just beyond in the nearby Great Hall. Nobody would see Snape leave, which was just as he needed it to be for it was dinner hour.

On the other side, at the other end of the foyer, Snape saw above the doors of the classrooms, written in giant red graffittit: “Dumbledore’s Army…Still Recruiting.”

“Filch doesn’t know how to remove it. Too bad…” He glanced at Valerie and suddenly he had a burst of inspiration. He would have to tell her later, but not now.

“Come on. There is a quarter of an hour left to get to Hogsmeade before the train leaves.”

"Why can’t we just apparate to Spinner's End,?” she said in a low voice.

“You can’t apparate OR disapparate inside school grounds. Have you read 'Hogwarts a History'?”

“No, professor. Nobody reads that. It’s not on the required reading list, is it?” She resisted saying how he sounded like Hermione Granger. For afterall, Valerie had dormed with Hermione, as they were Gryffindors in the same year. Yet she had never been friends with her or even knew her as more than a bossy know-it-all who hangs around with Potter.

Valerie couldn’t help but continue, “But why can’t we disapparate ourselves once we're past the gates?”

“For precautionary reasons. I don’t know who we’ll meet if we just apparate in the middle of a city. I’m a wanted man, and wizards cannot know of my location outside school.”

Valerie nodded as they strode down the front steps.

And a moment later, they were sitting cozily in a sleigh. The cry of the wind whipped past, as it sped over freshly fallen snow. Valerie felt like she could burst with happiness to be with Snape in the sleigh, and she felt giddy in anticipation of their romantic weekend excursion. Yet she decided to keep her joy to herself. Snape was busy whispering strange incantations under his breath, with great concentration, clearly placing extra protections on the grounds.