Lendoren

Disclaimer: everything you recognise belongs to Jo

Story by kelokelo, chapter translated by septentrion and beta’ed by Tanit (what would I do without her ;)


Chapter 15. You cannot stay hidden forever.


Severus felt like he had been stabbed in his heart. He had to turn around to avoid a very vocal explosion against her. His Hermione? Attracted to someone in the castle? He was in a nightmare. Surely Arlin didn’t forget to tell her Lendoren companions were faithful to each other? That it was out of order that another one would put their hands on her?

« Erwin? I thought that…”

“Who?” he asked harshly. “Who made you forget our conversations, our link, our clearing, Hermione? Who?”

“He didn’t make me forget anything. But I’m physically attracted to him in a way I’ve never known.”

« What about me? Don’t tell me you didn’t appreciate what we shared in the clearing?”

“Yes, I did appreciate it, and you know it,” Hermione said. She was on the verge of tears. “I’ve never been attracted to someone like that! Never!”

She was yelling in his head so of course he heard her. He could only grimaced under the decibels onslaught. Only when he felt the wind rise in his classroom did he know he had to do something to calm her.

“Hermione, cease at once to use your Lendoren magic! Let’s try and speak quietly.”

Hermione sat up and saw there was indeed an unusual draft in the dungeon, which put her of course on the receiving end of one of Snape’s hard looks.

‘Now I’m going to have Snape turn against me! That bloke must be jealous a muggleborn like me has such a magic he will never have!’

Severus grimaced inwardly under that criticism. That would have to stop. He was jealous, of course, and if the boy she was attracted to still attended his class, he would live some very difficult days in his dungeon!

Hermione took a hold of herself and forced herself to take deep calming breaths and the draft disappeared.

“How did you know?”

“I…I felt it… But that’s not the problem, Hermione. Who attracts you to the point you dare admit it to me?”

His tone was biting and ironical. Severus tried to urge himself to calm down so that Hermione wouldn’t provoke a storm in his dungeon, that wouldn’t do, but he was suffering as he had never suffered for a woman.

« I admit it because, anyway, even if I wanted it, nothing could never happen between us! »

« Why? Were you lucky enough to find one of those rare boys who don’t like girls?” he jeered at her.

« No, » Hermione yelled, and the same wind blew again. “I’m attracted to the nightmare of the dungeons and of Hogwarts’ students!”

The nightmare of the dungeons? Which student was afflicted with such a nickname? He ought to be a Slytherin but which one? And why could nothing happen between her and a Slytherin? Well, now, it was a given fact nothing would happen, he would make sure of that. But first, he needed to know the student’s name.

“Who’s that moron with such a ridiculous nickname? And stay calm, do you wish everything to fly off?”

« If only he was a student! » Hermione said, lowering her voice. The wind calmed down.

“He isn’t a student?” Severus asked, uncredulous. “But then, he’s…”

“So now you see,” she scoffed. “Your companion has become infatuated with a teacher! And not anyone, no, that would be too simple. If I’m to fantasize on a man, why not fantasize on that idiot who teaches potions, our beloved Professor Snape!”

Hermione’s voice broke on those last words. She was crossed with herself to have laid everything the way she did but she couldn’t help it, he had pushed her too far.

Severus, for his part, was shocked. She was attracted to him. Simply. Painfully from her point of view. He felt the biting of jealousy ebbed from his heart. He didn’t have the choice anymore, he had to tell her. Now. He began to forge a shield to protect the room and prevent Hermione to provoke a hurricane, or so he hoped. Hermione whispered in a strangled voice:

“as you have understood, there’s no risk…”

« Shut up now and listen to me attentively, Hermione, and for once obey me without protest. What I’m going to tell you will probably send you in a dark anger, but you’re going to keep it to yourself. You can yell at me inwardly but you’re going to take a hold of yourself and not use your Lendoren Magic. Is that clear?”

“Why? What does it have to do with…”

“Hermione, it has to do with the fact that it was my bicorn powder and boomslang skin you stole five years ago, while Harry was organizing a mayhem I still remember in my classroom!”

Hermione couldn’t check a hiccough that Harry noticed. He shot her a worried look but given Snape’s mood, he didn’t dare even to whisper to her. All the more when Snape’s eyes were fixed on Hermione. The latter sent a glance towards her teacher, he imperceptibly nodded and she lowered her gaze to her cauldron. She was overwhelmed.

Hermione held the table with one hand and turned without thinking the content of her cauldron. Both names were twirling in her head: Erwin, Snape, Snape, Erwin. It was a nightmare. A real nightmare. She was going to wake up in a few moments, or found herself in her clearing, and she was going to go out of this dungeon, yes, above all going out of this dungeon. Oh, it wasn’t difficult to obey him, she couldn’t speak.

If that was reality, then…it was HIM who had made her feel all those emotions in the clearing? No, not thinking of the clearing and his precise caresses. Along the way, she managed to call him an idiot, she told him of his nickname as the nightmare of the dungeons, she told him about her attraction to…him.

Severus saw her changing colours physically and psychologically. She would find it hard to accept it but she had given him such a trump card! Yet he didn’t want to take too much advantage of it, he would use it only if he couldn’t have her reasonable, though come to think of it…He could do it, he was experienced, she was not.

“Hermione,” he said softly.

“You knew from the beginning!” she yelled, but the wind didn’t appear.

“Of course I knew, Hermione, since you reached your seventeenth birthday and…”

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

« Look how you react now! You now know why I wasn’t in a hurry to meet you, well at least to show myself to you in person. If I had told you the truth before we could know each other this way, you’d never have accepted the facts. Watch what you’re doing! Add you bicorn powder now! You’re not going to oblige me to give you more homework, are you? And keep quiet, my shield won’t hold long against your powers if you let them loose.”

Hermione shoot him a dark look but she did it all the same. However, she refused to speak about the matter however hard Severus tried to coax her to. She needed time to process what she’d just found out. In front of her stubborn refusal, he told her in a sharp tone:

“We’ll speak about it tonight, Hermione. Face to face this time.”

Hermione was paralysed by his will. She couldn’t. It was impossible. Never would she be able to come back to this dungeon knowing her teacher was the one who had caressed her so intimately, if only in dream. Severus had hardly dismissed the class that she bolted out of it, surprising Harry and Ron by leaving her things behind her. Harry, not wanting Snape to punish him for forgetting things in his dungeon, took them. He had never done it, but what with what happened to Malfoy, he feared anything could happen.

I hope you're happy, dear readers: she now knows the truth. Thanks for sticking with me. I'm sorry to have you wait for a week but real life kicked in, and I'm alone to do all the translating.

Thanks to you who left a review:

firewall: well, now you've seen Erwin's reaction. I hope you liked it.

lisa: cliffie taken care of. You were right, she got him cornered. Thanks for your compliments.

Citten: Severus is definitely a Slytherin! He got the name out of her.

A a final thanks to those who anonymously read this story.