Silk Stalkings

DISCLAIMER: Of course I don\'t own this ... except for the plot. I highly doubt JK would be this twisted ....

A/N - I know that this chapter isn\'t as long as I had hoped and it\'s mainly just exposition, but I wanted everyone to know I hadn\'t abandoned this fic. Just taking time to work on my other, longer fics. But who can resist a goth, crossdressing Snape for long? I hope you like this ...

Enjoy.
~~ ** Lady Tuesday ** ~~

Chapter Three – Just Leather Do What Needs to be Done

After a full afternoon of unpacking a good portion of her belongings, Hermione flopped down on her bed and heaved a sigh. Her hair was still a bit damp at the ends and was leaving little wet trails on her bedspread and shirt. She had buried herself in work to counteract the little flip her stomach had done when she had seen Snape earlier in the day. Seeing him looking so different, so … human had made something in her slither in a strange way. She wasn’t sure what it was that she felt, but it was altogether new to her.

Hermione took a deep breath and hauled herself off what was to be her bed for the next three months or so. She was going to make the first move towards polite company if it killed the both of them. She fell back on her idea of inviting him out to dinner.

Her stomach quivered with nervousness as she stood outside his door. This is ridiculous, she told herself. You are a grown woman now; he’s not your professor anymore. No reason to be this intimidated. He’s only a person.

“Yes,” she said out loud as she knocked on his door for the third time, “but he’s also a right bastard.”

To her very great surprise, the instant the words left her mouth, the door swung open and she found herself face to face with the ‘right bastard’ himself. Or, more rightly, given his nearly four inches over six feet in height, she found herself face to chest with him. He was leaning forward just a bit, no doubt to give a towering effect to his foot more of height, and he had a sulky glower on his face.

“I’m surly, disagreeable and completely antagonistic, but, as my mother and father will certainly assure you, I’m definitely not a bastard.”

She gulped and muttered for a moment, completely dumbfounded at the idea that he had heard her. After several seconds she still had not gathered her thoughts completely, so he spoke again.

“Was there something specific you wanted, Miss Granger, or did you come to my door merely to insult me and waste my time?”

“We should go out,” she blurted before she had completely thought things through.

“That has to be the rudest social invitation I’ve ever received.”

“If it’s not the only one,” she muttered, not realizing she had spoken aloud. When it did hit her, she clapped a hand over her mouth and dropped her head, embarrassed as well as slightly afraid of his reaction. However, when she looked up at him, the same tugging, tiny smile she had seen the other day was playing around his lips.

“Oh, dear, erm,” she muttered for a moment and then continued stronger. “I didn’t get that right at all. Let me start over. If you don’t have any other plans, I wanted to know if you would like to go out for the evening.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. “Why?”

Hermione fought a heavy sigh. “Well, first of all, the coming months of working together would be much easier on both of us if we got to know each other at least a little bit. Secondly, if you aren’t squeamish,” she paused minutely for emphasis while he frowned heavily, “I think we should go to a club for at least an hour or so, to give you an idea of what you’re going to be up against once you start working with Harry.”

“Club?” Snape asked, obviously trying desperately not to look clueless.

“A sort of bar where people dance and socialize.” Snape frowned even deeper, but she continued regardless. “That’s the sort of place you’ll be working in when you are looking for Harry. I have the name of the place you’ll be starting at soon, but I thought it might be best to go to a different club first, to get a feel for things, then you can work your way up to Rainbow.”

“Why in on Earth would I wear one color, let alone many at once?” he said disdainfully, glancing down at his attire, still clad entirely in unrelieved black despite the lack of high, stiff robes.

Hermione did sigh this time at his obvious misunderstanding at the name of the club. “Boy, have we got a lot of work to do.”

*****

After nearly an hour of explaining the entire “club scene” idea to him, she made a firm decision that they would indeed go out for the evening so he could see for himself what she was referring to in her descriptions.

“Well, as long as we’re going out to a club, I’m going to go get dressed.” Hermione turned on her heel and was nearly at his door when her called back to her.

“Dressed?” he growled angrily. “You are dressed. Why do you need to change? Can’t we just get this ridiculousness over with?”

Hermione looked down at her faded shorts and Weird Sisters T-shirt. “I can’t go out like this.” She then looked over at his jeans, which were faded practically gray at the knees, and his plain black T-shirt. He must have had them since he was a teenager. “And neither can you.”

He began to open his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “I know you will be heartily disagreeable about this, but you need to understand. When people go out to clubs they dress up in order to make themselves more appealing to the other people they’ll see there. Most people go to clubs and bars for the sheer purpose of meeting someone they might want to date. You can’t go outa cla club looking like you’ve just wandered out of a bad beat poetry reading from the 1960’s.”

Severus growled heavily but Hermione merely brushed it off and continued. “I’m going to go make myself presentable. You stay here; I’ll be back in fifteen minutes to …” she looked down ruefully at his outfit, “do what I can with you.”

Severus was muttering darkly as Hermione strode back to her bedroom.


*****

Severus had to resist the urge to stare when Hermione returned to his room 22 minutes later. In the back of his mind, he felt like a letch for being so floored by someone who had, not so long ago, been his student. Her petite frame was now clad in material much different from that which he had spent seven years despising her in. He was thoroughly ashamed that his mind was registering the fact that he was staring obscenely, bis bis body seemed to be interested in doing absolutely nothing to correct this fact.

She was standing in his doorway, hands on hips, scowling slightly and looking decidedly put out. Hermione was wearing knee-high black boots that clung to her claves so tightly he was sure that they had either been poured on or put on by some magical means. A trim black mini-skirt rode high on her thighs and low on her hips, baring about an inch of her midriff below a Gryffindor-red tank top that tied like a corset under each arm – allowing a wide view of her creamy white skin without actually showing aing ing distasteful – and, at its square neckline, showed a rounded amount of her cleavage (that was just clinging te tae tastefide ide of etiquette) which she had dusted lightly with gold glitter. The same glitter had been dusted in her hair, which was piled in an entrancing riot of honeyed curls at the back of her head. Her eyes shone with gold, with just a touch of red shadow on her lids, and her lips were a searing version of the same red as her shirt. A small black purse dangled from one shoulder.

“What?” she snapped, making him realize – for the second time in as many minutes – the wae was gaping like a codfish. She furrowed her brow, puckering her face unattractively. She muttered a Summoning Charm and a black leather peacoat leapt to her arms, which she deposited unceremoniously on his bed.

He recovered as quickly as possible. “Making an effort to look like one of the bangtails at Knockturn Alley are we?”

She scowled at the euphemism for hooker and dropped her purse next to her coat. “I’m certain you’re infinitely more knowledgeable on cheap floozies,” she bit back as he allowed himself to be steered into the center of the room.

“Jealous,” he smirked, leering down at her as she scanned his attire from all sides.

“Hardly, judging from this mess,” she responded. She fingered the hem of his t-shirt as if it were the most disgusting thing she’d ever touched and sighed heavily. “All right, truce. I don’t feel like fighting for the entirety of the months we’ll be working together. Let me see if I can’t do something with this outfit.”

He sniffed at the indignity of the situation. “I have no desire to be dressed up like a common gigolo.”

“Yes, well, no one would touch you with a ten-foot pole the way you are. And seeing as how I’d like you to get a better idea of the scene you’ll be working in, you’ll just have to make do. I’m certainly not going to start you out tonight in drag … cross-dressing,” she explained at his puzzled expression, “but we will at least make you look like you might fit in.”

Hermione concentrated earnestly as she made a very complex series of flicks, wiggles and jabs with her wand. Slowly but surely, Snape’s outfit and appearance began to change. She appraised the outfit when she was done and nodded swiftly. Shen fen flicked her wand in the direction of his head and he registered dully the movement of his hair and a cold, slick feeling on his face. The more she worked to touch things up, the deeper he grumbled with each passing minute.

Finally, she sighed and muttered, “I suppose that’s the best I can do… Go on, have a look.”

Severus moved in front of the mirror she had set up and, had it not been for his training to reveal nothing as a spy, he may have visibly shown his shock. She stared around him at the reflection as he studied his appearance. She had pulled his hair back in a sleek ponytail that knotted quite interestingly at the back of his head. Two long slim pieces of hair fell down in front, not in a ragged way, but more artistically than he had thought possible. He raised a hand to the knot at the back of his head and the sleek tail descending from it. He hadn’t known he had that much hair.

He scanned his face with some distaste however. His already pale skin had been whitened with some kind of make-up; he now appeared an inch from death. There was a thick ring of black eyeliner surrounding his lids, peaking to a point in the middle of his eyes and spreading out in a thin line at the corners. His lips were a deep crimson, almost purple.

“All this unnatural enhancement and you couldn’t have done something with this?” he growled, jabbing a finger towards his large, aquiline nose.

She sneered back, a good likeness of his own, and merely shrugged. “You’re working to become a drag queen, Severus. If, once you get used to being in drag, you are too convincing, people will think you’re simply a woman wearing too much makeup. I can’t magically enhance you to the point that you defeat our purpose. I’m sorry, but the nose stays.” She said this with no little amount of satisfaction. He scowled.

When he returned his gaze to the mirror, however, he smirked in satisfaction when he realized that she had humored him in his insistence at monochromatics. His was clad in another basic black shirt, but this clung like a second skin. A strip of shiny, leather-like material crossed his thin, broad chest just wide enough to cover his nipples. The rest of the shirt was a tightly woven mesh that clung to his thin frame and was neatly tucked in to his pants where they hung low on his hipbones. He grimaced with great effort as he shifted in the pants.

“Was leather really necessary?” he groaned, shifting from foot to foot.

“Well, we happen to be going to a more alternative club tonight and you need to fit in. To be honest, in a Goth club – nevermind,” she answered quickly at his puzzlement, “you’d probably fit in with those robes you have.” Seeing the delighted relief spark in his eyes, Hermione waited just a beat of silence before she relished the quashing of it. “But, you need to get used to wearing these kind of fabrics as well as makeup. So you stay like this.”

Severus scowled mainly out of duty, but looked back at his reflection. He’d never considered himself a vain man, but as he gazed at his image in the entirely too tight pants (in his opinion), he couldn’t help but be pleased. He had never been very solidly or impressively built, and yet, the trim, tight leather showed off his lean figure and lightly muscled legs quite well. And the slim fit also emphasized his … well, he just figured (with a smirk), that many men would likely be jealous of him that evening.

As he turned to walk over to her, Severus tripped and nearly went sprawling. When he righted himself, he looked down at the instrument of his clumsiness. “Miss Granger, you have given me women’s shoes.”

Hermione snickered. “Actually, I haven’t those are men’s.”

“They have heals—”

“That are only an inch high. Plus, they’re boots so no one will notice. Besides, you have to—”

“Get used to wearing them,” he finished angrily.

She chuckled, clearing enjoying the extent of his frustration at the situation.

“Accio cloak,” she called easily. She caught Severusavelaveling cloak as it leapt from the closet into her waiting hands. A quick flick of her wand transfigured it into a long black trench coat, with wide, zebra patterned lapels.

“Let’s not go overboard, shall we?” he groused, knowing somehow that she fully intended to make him as conspicuous as possible.

Hermione merely smiled and slipped on her leather jacket. She deposited her wand in a deep, inner pocket that she had obviously crafted just for the purpose, and threw the long, thin chain strap of her purse over her shoulder.

“Ready?” she asked.

“For a long and humiliating evening?” Severus bit back. “Not in the slightest.”

“Excellent,” she chortled, hustling him out the door and down the stairs into the bustling, London street.


****************************


A/N - Oh, by the I d I did have del del in mind when I made Snape\'s outfit, so if you want to really visualize it, I modeled it after my friend\'s costume for my school\'s production of Twelfth Night from last spring. Check it out ... he\'s hot ^_^

http://www.brockport.edu'theatre/Twelfth.html
Look for the darling goth boy about halfway down the page, character\'s name is Feste. ^_^!

Stay tuned next chapter for some interesting things arising when our dear Herms and Snape start bumping and grinding at the club *wink wink* REVIEW!!!