A Sacrifice for Love

Hermione woke feeling worse than she had ever felt before. Her head felt as if there was a hammer inside trying to get out. Her mouth was dry and the light from the window pierced her eyes relentlessly. She also felt extremely queasy and lay very still, hoping she wouldn’t vomit. Hermione Granger had her first hangover.

She lay in bed, praying it would all go away or she would just die and finally have some peace. She tried to make sense of last night but the last thing she remembered was taking a big swig of the firewhiskey and... talking to Professor Snape? This was when she realized she was naked.

Despite the pounding in her head and the waves in her stomach she sat up and looked around the room. She was blessedly alone. There was no sign anyone, other than she, had even been there. So maybe it had been a drunken dream. She raised her hand to rub her face and was transfixed by what she saw.

Around her fingers was a long black hair. One she was sure belonged to Professor Snape. She stared at it in horror. If she had one of his hairs, she had been close enough to touch him. If she had touched him, what else had she done? She suddenly felt breathless. Has she... shagged Snape?

She had lost her virginity to Viktor Krum at the tender age of fourteen. It wasn’t something she was particularly proud of. He had been so sweet and attentive and things had just progressed further than she should have allowed. She hadn’t known how to tell him no which was unlike her. But it wasn’t every day that you had a famous and popular boy half in love with you. No one else had made her feel that way. No one else had even shown any interest in her.

Sex with Viktor hadn’t been that good either. For someone so graceful on a broom, he was clumsy in bed. It had hurt when he penetrated her and soon after it was over. She had been feeling like she was missing something. He had left the next day, so there hadn’t even been a chance to try again.

But now... had she shagged her professor? She couldn’t remember. She seemed to remember hands on her skin, making her feel so good, but it seemed more like a dream. She groaned loudly and then grabbed her head when a pain shot through it. She had to get up. It was past breakfast, if the light in the window was correct and she was probably missing a class.

That thought gave her the energy to get up and pull on her clothes. She had Potions first thing this morning. That thought made her want to climb back in bed and hide, but Hermione Granger was a Gryffindor and they faced their problems head on. She pulled on her skirt and knickers and reached for her shirt. Unfortunately it was ruined which confirmed the fact she had not been alone last night. All the buttons had been ripped from it. She didn’t think she would have done it.

Leaving the shirt on the chair, she pulled on her robes. She took one last look around the room, feeling strangely sad to leave it. It had been her sanctuary growing up and it had been last night, for what she could remember.

As she went to the door, something caught her eye. It was a sheet of parchment. She picked it up and was surprised to find the Marauder’s Map. It had disappeared months before and Harry had mourned its loss, less because of its properties and more because of who it belonged to, she thought. She folded it up, stuck it in a pocket in her robes, opened the door and slipped out into the hall. It was empty and she was lucky enough not to meet anyone on her way to her common room.

Her luck ran out after she had gone through the portrait hole. Harry, Draco, Ron and Pansy were sitting in the common room, talking animatedly. They stopped and stared at her in surprise when she came in. Ron grinned at her.

“So how did it go?” Draco asked, eagerly. She realized they must have thought she was with Professor Snape the whole time. She winced.

“I didn’t see him, I chickened out, went to the Room of Requirement and got drunk. Does anyone have a Hangover Potion?”

They stared at her for a moment before Harry went up to his room. He came down with a small green bottle and handed it to her. She gave him a curious look but drank it down and in a few moments she was feeling better.

“I brewed some up when the twins were still here. You know how they like to spike everything.” He explained with a shrug. Hermione nodded.

She hesitated and something occurred to her. “Why aren’t you in class? We all have Double Potions this morning?” she demanded, a little like the Hermione they knew so well.

Draco laughed. “Well, Granger, it seems as if Snape had to leave on an emergency. We thought you had just wore him out and he was calling in sick.” Draco sobered suddenly. “I wonder where he went then?” he thought aloud.

Hermione cringed inwardly. What had happened last night? What had she done? Without saying a word she walked up the stairs to her room. Sitting on her bed, she considered her options. She could continue on as if she was unaware of anything but, she thought that would be hiding. She would have to confront him but why did she have this feeling that things were incredibly wrong.

Finally making a decision, she knelt before her bed and pulled out a small chest. With a wave of her wand and a whispered “Alohomora” the chest opened. Inside was a small Pensieve. Viktor had sent it to her in the beginning of her fifth year, to remind her of what they had shared, the noted had said. She had long ago cleared out the memories he had added and now used it for herself. Putting her wand to her temple, she drew out the memory of the night before.

She had found that the Pensieve made everything clearer when you visited a second time, and things you hadn’t remembered became glaringly obvious. With that in mind she reached out and touched the surface of the Pensieve.

She was pulled into it and found herself in the Room of Requirement. Everything was foggy and blurry but she could see herself and Professor Snape. She saw herself seducing him and then what occurred afterward. She was beginning to wonder what had gone wrong when the memory faded. She could still hear voices though.

“Hermione! Wake up! What do you mean about the Snow White Potion?”

“Made me fall in love...”

She was suddenly in her own room and found she was crying. He knew, in the worst possible way what had happened. She knew she had hurt him and she didn’t know how she would live with herself. She put the Pensieve away, curled up on her bed and cried. She didn’t know how long she cried before she fell asleep, but when she woke it was late afternoon. There was a note on her pillow.

Hermione,

We are in the Library if you want to join us
when you wake. The Headmistress said to
leave you alone so we did. She said not to
worry about classes. If you want to talk about
it come find us. We love you and accept
everything.

Harry, Draco, Ron and Pansy


She laughed a little about the note, sure that Harry had written it painstakingly as so not to offend her in any way. She shook her head at the idea of going to the library. She needed to find the antidote to the potion and then to find her Professor and speak with him. She had to fix this.

She pulled Amy’s potion book from her bookshelf and began to read. If the potion had another name, she would have to go through the whole book and find the ingredients. It had been a simple potion. She became engrossed in the book. Some of the ideas Amy had were so marvelously simple, yet no one had thought of them.

Some of the pages just contained theories about magic and ways to make charms easier. Hermione grinned at some of the ideas. Amy, it seemed, had been hopeless when it came to wand magic. She would have made a wonderful Potions Mistress though, if she had not died. Hermione thought some of these ideas could improve even the worst potions maker and considered passing them on to Neville Longbottom. Maybe he would be able to finally get a passing grade in Potions.

She was about halfway through the book when she found it. At first she didn’t believe what she had read so she read it aloud.

“Unicorn tears, dragon’s blood, essence of happiness. Stir it clockwise 3 times and counter clockwise four times, then clockwise twice. Make patient drink.”

She read the summary of what the potion did and felt breathless. “Oh no, this can’t be happening. No, no, no” she told herself. She had to speak with Professor Snape immediately. She grabbed the Marauder’s Map from where she had placed it on her desk and waved her wand over it.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” She murmured, feeling a little silly. She examined the map and found a dot labeled Snape in the dungeons. She gave a little sigh of relief that he had returned already and raced downstairs, Amy’s book in her arms.