Hard Times for Severus Snape - (Editing)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 14 ~ Incarceration

Hermione did go to Hagrid's to get a female snake. The half-giant was pleased as pumpkin juice to help her out, walking out in his garden and turning over boulders until he found a garden snake. He picked it up in his huge fingers gently and examined it.

"'Ere ya go "Mione," Hagrid said, "A sweet little lady she is. Wot' kinda snake yer say yer got?"

Hermione took the snake. It was a pretty shade of green with black eyes. It was very docile, its tongue flickering out tasting the witch's scent.

"I'm not exactly sure what kind it is, Hagrid," Hermione said smirking, "But I know it's male. Very male."

"Well, when you put 'er in, yer'll find out soon enough if 'e likes 'er," Hagrid said.

Hermione thanked Hagrid and returned to the castle.

Severus was still in the terrarium, testing the mesh cover for weaknesses. No good. He was sealed in tight. He heard Hermione come in and curled back around the branch. Snakes were normally deaf, but since he was a transformed wizard, he could hear.

The witch opened the door and walked in, her hand behind her back. She walked up to the night table and looked in at him, grinning.

"Guess what I've got for you, Severus," she said wickedly.

The snake looked up at her, flicking out his tongue as Hermione brought her hand around, showing him the female.

Severus hissed loudly. She wouldn't dare put that creature in with him.

She smiled.

"Don't worry. I'm going to keep her separate from you…for now," the witch said, "but if you start glowing…in she goes. I'm not going to have a randy forty-foot snake roaming around the rooms."

Hermione carried the female over to her dresser and transformed another book into a terrarium similar to the one that house the Potions Master and put the snake inside. She made another mesh top and set it on top of the enclosure, using another book to hold it in place.

Then she turned back to the Potions Master.

"Now I'm going to go work on that 'male enhancement' potion. I think it needs to be diluted to about a tenth of the strength it is now in order to be effective, without the side effects of transformation. Care to come?" she asked the snake. Then she looked over at the female slithering about in her enclosure on the dresser.

"Unless you'd like to stay here and get better acquainted," she grinned.

Severus hissed at her.

"I'll take that as you'd rather come with me," Hermione said, picking up the terrarium and carrying it out of the room.

She brought the Professor into the lab and set his glass cage on the counter.

"I wouldn't try to get out, Professor," she said. "I'm going to bring some nifflers in here, and I understand their taste for snakes rivals their taste for gold."

Hermione snapped her teeth at him and laughed, walking back into the room that held the animals. Whew! It stunk. The Professor hadn't replaced the self-cleaning spell on the cages. Hermione rectified that immediately, then grabbed a cage that held four nifflers and carried it into the lab. She set it close to the Professor's enclosure.

All four nifflers went stiff immediately, and slunk to the side of the cage, eyeing the Professor hungrily. It was true. They really did have a taste for snakes.

Hermione then walked over to the niffler that had imbibed the potion. It looked fine. Its food was very low however, and she filled the bowl with niffler kibble, and changed the water bottle. She slid the cage over, then walked back into the animal room and picked up an empty cage, along with a pair of dragonhide gloves and carried them back into the lab. She set the cage up, then pulled on the gloves.

Carefully, she opened the cage of fresh nifflers and grabbed one. It struggled a little, but didn't bite. For the most part they were gentle animals. Hermione took it out and was about to transfer it, when it wriggled out of her hand and leaped on the Professor's cage, knocking the book off and scrabbling at the mesh top with its sharp claws.

The Professor coiled up in a corner, hissing frantically as the niffler tried to get at him.

Horrified, Hermione grabbed the animal, who pulled the mesh top off the enclosure. She struggled to disengage it from the animal's claws, and finally managed to release it. She shoved the excited niffler into the cage then turned just in time to see Severus making a break for it. He had almost cleared the glass cage, his sinuous body slithering down the side toward freedom.

"Oh no you don't!" Hermione said, grabbing the transformed Potions Master and replacing him in the enclosure, and replacing both the top and the book.

"Where do you suppose you'd go?" she asked him, peering into the cage with a frown. "If you got out into the open, one of the school owls would probably get you. They eat snakes too, you know."

The Potions Master returned to the branch, stretching out across it, and flicking his tongue at her.

Hermione realized he hadn't eaten or drank anything since she transformed him.

She got a small bowl and filled it with water, then went in the back and got three live crickets in a cup.

She opened the top of the cage, set the water in, then dumped in the crickets. The Professor looked at the hopping insects, but didn't move.

"You're a snake. I can't give you a sandwich. Try one. Snakes find them delicious," she coaxed.

Severus lay there as still as a statue. One of the crickets hopped on his head. Still, he made no effort to eat it.

"Fine, you'll get hungry soon enough," she said, hoping the wizard wouldn't try to starve himself until she transformed him back out of worry.

He had to be hungry, especially after their bout of sex this morning. Hermione tried not to think about it. Even though he had tricked her, Severus had been wonderful…strong but not as brutal as the night before. Then she had wanted brutal though. Today was perfect…there were contact, caresses, kisses…hot, hungry kisses. She would have never believed the wizard would be so good at intimacy, because of the cold demeanor he showed the world.

Last night, yes, the way he took her was more in line with how he seemed to be. The Professor was good, thorough, but entirely physical, no other contact than his cock plowing into her. Still, it was very intimate, and fulfilling even without the niceties. She had been very satisfied. But today, although he took her with strength, he was gentler, more involved, giving her what she needed beyond his powerful possession. Gods, what he said to her as he was fucking her. Hermione shuddered as she felt a pulse of warmth roll down between her thighs. Circe, she couldn't let him get to her like this. He was a bastard. A sneaky, no-good, glowing bastard.

She looked at the snake. It was watching her, its eyes seeming all knowing.

"You stay out of my mind, Professor!" she hissed at him, turning away and busying herself setting everything up for her experiment.

If snakes had expressions, the Professor would be smiling from ear to ear. He had been in her mind, and knew he had struck gold this morning. The witch was smitten with him, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself. Was it worth being turned into a snake? He'd had worse things happen to him over the years, for much less pleasurable reasons.

He didn't plan on revenge. Well, not normal revenge. Severus was a wizard who believed in cause, effect, and swift justice. He took a calculated risk and got caught. He was punished for it. As a Slytherin, that was the way his world worked. Hermione had been well within her rights to get satisfaction. But at least he got what he wanted before she did so, and that made it a half-victory.

As he watched Hermione work, he was certain she'd soon fold and return him to wizard form.

How wrong he was.

Two days later found him still in snake form. Hermione had made great strides in diluting the potion, the nifflers all getting wood, and not transforming. Luckily for Severus, he didn't glow once, so the female snake remained lonely.

There were no crickets left in his cage. He was so hungry, and they were so annoying hopping all over him, he ate them down one after the other. In his snake form, he found them crunchy and delicious. The wizard was beginning to get worried though. Hermione was totally absorbed in the work, and didn't seem concerned about him at all. What was worse, in the evenings she would bring him in the study with her, and he would sit in the cage while she picked over book after book from his library, reading to him from the ones she found most fascinating. She wasn't supposed to touch his books.

"Albus asked about you during lunch yesterday and today, Severus," she told him absently as she leafed through a book. "I told him you were so deeply involved in your project, you were taking all your meals in the dungeons. He said you worked too hard."

Severus looked up at the witch. He hadn't known she would be this vindictive. He hissed at her.

"I suppose that is a plea to be transformed back," she replied to the snake, "No, not yet."

Hermione was keeping the Potions Master as a snake because he was so much easier to handle this way. Now that she had fucked him twice with such toe-curling results, she didn't trust herself to be able to resist him. He hadn't glowed in the past two days, and the original niffler had ceased transforming. It was quite possible the reptilian form kept the potion from reacting. Good thing for the Professor. She would have teased him horribly about fucking a snake…not openly of course, but she would have slipped in a little jibe here and there.

Hermione was of the opinion the Potions Master was a better snake than a wizard, personality-wise, and seemed resigned to his fate. But he was a Slytherin after all…and as sneaky and self-serving as Slytherins were, they were also taught that there were consequences to every act. They tried their best to avoid consequences of course, but accepted them as part of the Slytherin way of life. So he suffered stoically.

As Hermione prepared the next fresh niffler for testing, there was a knock on the Potions door. She pulled off her gloves, wiped her hands on her jeans and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" she called through the door.

"Albus," the Headmaster replied cheerfully.

Shit.

Hermione reluctantly opened the door.

"Hello, Headmaster," she said as Albus walked in smiling.

"Good afternoon, Hermione," he said smiling at her, his blue eyes twinkling. "I just thought I'd drop by and visit a bit."

Severus heard the Headmaster's voice, slid off his branch, and snaked up on the glass weaving excitedly as the pair entered the lab.

"Ah, working hard on Severus' special project, Hermione?" he asked, eyeing the aroused little nifflers as they mated with the provided females happily. "They certainly seem to be enjoying themselves."

"A regular niffler free-for-all," Hermione replied, her stomach dropping as she watched the snake winding against the glass, trying to be noticed. He was.

"What do we have here?" Albus said, peering down at the black, green and white reptile. "Very interesting markings on this snake."

He looked a little closer. His blue eyes widened as the snake stuck his tongue out and hissed at him. He seemed to listen a moment, then turned toward the witch, his eyes still twinkling.

"Is there something you need to tell me, Hermione?" he asked her, watching her response intently, "About the Professor?"

Hermione looked at the Headmaster. Damn. She bet he was a parselmouth. It was rare in those not sorted to Slytherin, but not impossible. Either way, she was sure he knew the snake was the Professor.

Hermione sighed and pointed at the cage.

"That's the Professor," she confessed.

Albus peered into the cage again.

"So it is. He makes quite an attractive snake, doesn't he? Such colors," he commented before looking at Hermione again.

"How long has he been like this?" he asked the witch.

"About two and a half days," she responded, coloring.

"Do I want to know why you transformed him into a snake?" the Headmaster inquired.

Hermione frowned.

"He…er…that is to say…" she began.

The Headmaster held up his hand.

"I take it then, it was a personal matter between you two," he said, his blue eyes sweeping over her.

"Yes sir," Hermione replied.

Dumbledore looked at the snake.

"I understand how these things can happen. I once spent several days as a flubberworms after a tiff with Minerva," he said, "Though I don't remember much about it. But you have to transform him back, Hermione. I can't have my Potions Master slithering about on his belly for the entire summer."

"Yes sir," Hermione said. She walked over to the glass enclosure, removed the book, then the mesh top. Severus slid into the witch's hand, slid over her wrist and wound himself around her arm rather sensuously, flicking his tongue out at her rather lasciviously for a snake. He didn't seem repentant at all. Hermione scowled at the snake.

She untwisted the Potions Master, let him drop to the floor with a plop and whipped out her wand.

"Animus Humanus," she said, pointing the wand at the transformed wizard.

"That's not proper Latin," Dumbledore commented.

"I know," Hermione said a bit irritatedly as the snake disappeared in a flash of green light, and the Potions Master appeared, looking no worse for wear, though he was holding his back after being dropped on the floor.

He checked himself carefully, running his hands over his body as Hermione tried not to react to seeing him still dressed like he was when he took her. He looked up at the witch, his black eyes glittering.

"You are quite vindictive for a Gryffindor," he said, then turned his head toward Albus, who was studying his dress with some interest. "Thank you, Headmaster. I was probably going to be in that form for at least a week."

"You would have deserved it," Hermione hissed.

"It was worth it," Severus purred back at her, his dark eyes going hot, making Hermione flush. No, he really wasn't repentant at all.

The Headmaster didn't miss the look the Potions Master gave his apprentice, and knew immediately that he must have been intimate with the witch, with rather devastating results. Had he been that bad? Or that good? Ah, the ways of the young and randy. He cleared his throat then addressed Hermione.

"Hermione, I realize the Professor can be quite a challenge at times, but I must have your word you will not hex him for the duration of your apprenticeship. It really isn't professional," he said as Severus folded his arms and smirked at the witch. "You simply have to find a more suitable way of resolving your problems."

"Yes, Headmaster. I won't hex him anymore," she said, thinking she had very good aim and could throw something at him instead.

"Good, good," the Headmaster said, "Now, Severus…let me escort you to your rooms. I have a little matter to discuss with you, and I am sure you want to freshen up after wallowing in the dirt on your belly for the past few days."

The wizard nodded, and with a narrow-eyed look at Hermione, turned to exit the lab, Albus following him. He paused and looked back at Hermione.

"I will be back to look at your notes, Miss Granger," he said to the witch.

"They'll be here," she said tightly, "But I won't."

The Potions Master studied her for a moment.

"I don't intend to seek retribution, Miss Granger," he said evenly, "Under the circumstances, your reaction was understandable."

Hermione stared at him, waiting.

Severus arched an eyebrow at her.

"If you are waiting for an apology, Miss Granger, you will be waiting for a long, long time. I am in no way sorry for what I did…what we did," he said silkily. "And would gladly do it again if the opportunity presented itself."

Severus' eyes raked over the witch meaningfully, pausing at her thighs before he turned and left the room, Albus nodded farewell as he followed him.

Hermione wanted to scream at the wizard's audacity. She felt she might.

As soon as she stopped creaming herself, that is.

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A/N: Well, Hermione held a grudge all right. Good thing for Severus, Albus showed up. Now, they have a potion that seems to be functioning properly…but will Hermione be willing to test it with him? lol. We all know the answer to that. Might take a little coaxing on the Professor's part, but…heh, this is Severus we're talking about. Please review.