A Terrible Temptation

a/N - I did warn you all about the mush last chapter. LOL This one is back to a little light comendy and some gentle angst, so no need for insulin. thank you all for your very kind reviews, I can\'t believe I haven\'t gotten a single flame for this story, well, really for any of my stories. Woo-hoo! (That was not an invitation to flame me! :::blows frantically at the incoming flames:::) I had such a great time reading all Kate\'s marginallia that I almost wish I could post the story with her comments, but I suspect it would be distracting. Thanks Kate for keeping me together yesterday.

IrishRavenX - Yes, juggling the voices on the letters was a great writing challenge for me, having to make each letter individual and choose word-use for each character was a great exercise. I may have to do it again at some point. :)



Chapter 30 – Wandering in the Dark

Severus awoke to the soft buzzing that was his student alarm; whenever there was a commotion in the Slytherin Common Room or a fight or hexing in the dorms, his alarm went off. Right at the moment it waso tso tuned to Miss Mintage. He peered at the clock face which read, “Miss Mintage is having a nightmare.”

Severus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. His preferred way of sleeping was nude, but the many times he had been woken in the night to tend to his students had forced him to wear a nightshirt. He swung his bare legs from under the warm blankets and stuffed his feet into the black slippers beside his bed.

This was the third nightmare that Miss Mintage had had this week. They were increasing in frequency and he was growing concerned. She would never speak about the dreams, just trembled like af. af.

He stood feeling his muscles and joints creaking from the aftermath of last night’s summons. He had been unable to give Voldemort the correct answer to his questions about the wards that protected Hogwarts and he had paid for his ignorance with pain and humiliation. Severus swirled his robes on over his nightshirt and began the trip to the Slytherin girls’ dorm.

The world was gray and much brighter to Hermione’s enhanced cat vision. She was unused to seeing everything in black and white but she quickly grew accustomed to the new way of seeing. She found that movement, even the slightest shifting of Crookshanks’ paw, brought immediate reactions from her, and she felt like she was hardwired to respond to movement without reference to her forebrain.

Crooks led her down the hallway; she padded along beside him with a feeling of surrealistic disbelief. Who would have thought that she would be sneaking out after to curfew to learn to hunt mice with her familiar?

“Now remember, kitten, when you see the mouse, freeze and wait, I will drive him towards you and you pounce, shake and hold on, just like I showed you.” She had been practicing in her room with Crooks for the last week, using an old sock as her “mouse” and she had the movements down, though she was unsure how she would fare with a real mouse. The thought of killing one made her slightly queasy.

Still, Crooks assured her that until she had made a kill, she would get no respect form the other cats and therefore her multitude of questions would not be answered. There was so much for her to learn about cat society and even McGonagall didn’t have answers to them all.

“I’ll do my best, Huntmaster.” She replied obediently. She had made the mistake once – only once – of not treating Crooks with the proper deference while in cat form ae hae had cuffed her with one lighting fast paw and sent her tumbling. She had quickly deduced that whatever he might think of her in her human form, as long as she was a cat she had better behave properly cat-like and that meant using correct titles and showing throat to her elders like a good kitten.

They finally reached a spot near the kitchens where the mice were forced to scamper out from under cover on their way back to their nest. Crooks nodded at her and they hunched down on their bellies and waited. Long minutes passed and nothing came. Hermione grew bored, but Crooks remained perfectly alert and tense, the movement of his tail the only thing that gave away that he was a living breathing creature rather than a statue.

A tiny flicker of movement caught the corner of her eye and Crooks sprang up and landed on the far side of a small mouse, startling it into running towards Hermione. She had thought that there would be some consciouscesscess to the hunt but as the tiny legs scurried towards her, Hermione’s cat brain took over and her instincts sent her lunging at the mouse. Her jaws snapped around the creature, her fangs neatly sliced between vertebrae and with a quick shake she killed the mouse.

There was an iron tang of blood in her mouth and an entirely feline roar of triumph in her heart and then the human part of Hermione caught up with her. Suddenly she was a human being again and retching her guts up in the hallway. The mouse lay dead near her as she heaved up the contents of her stomach. Crookshanks sat patiently as her stomach revolted, but her understanding of cat expressions let her see his amusement quite clearly in the way his whiskers were twitching.

“Miss Granger!” Severus’ voice was more surprised than angry, though Hermione was instantly mortified to be caught throwing up in the hallways next to a dead mouse and a cat.

“Professor.” They had agreed to use only titles and last names in public; one never knew who was listening at Hogwarts. She raised her head with her cheeks burning. “You are probably wondering what I am doing out.” She groaned. Severus cast a quick cleansing charm on the spot where she had gotten ill and then a tooth cleaning charm on her. Instantly the sour taste was gone from her mouth and she could look at him with greater equanimity. My but he looked tall and intimidating when one was still sitting on the floor looking up at him.

“Twenty points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger.” His voice was severe, but there was a light of amusement glinting in the depths of his eyes. She nodded and allowed herself to be escorted back to Gryffindor Tower.
She trotted to keep up with his long strides and noticed that Crooks had abandoned her, probably to deal with the mouse.

They arrived at the Fat Lady’s portrait and Hermione gave the password under Severus’ watchful glare. He spun on his heel and left her to go into the Common Room alone.

It was hard sometimes; well, okay, most of the time, to play at disliking Severus. She really couldn’t wait until graduation. She very much wanted to stop pretending to be someone she wasn’t; she could only imagine how Severus had done it for fourteen some odd years.

Ron was waiting for her and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw her enter as a human.

“How’d it go?” He asked as she stepped into the room.

“I am so embarrassed.” Hermione groaned and flung herself into the chair opposite Ron in front of the fireplace.

“Didn’t catch anything?” He asked sympathetically.

“No, I caught one and killed it and then lost concentration on my animagus form, turned back into a girl and razzed all over the floor.” She buried her head in her hands as she told her story. “Which is of course when Professor Snape found me and took off twenty points.” Ron sucked in his breath in sympathetic pain and she looked up at him with her humiliation writ large across her face.

“Smoothly done, ‘Mione.” He shook his head but his face still held a wince so she forgave him.

“I am sure I looked lovely, in a heap on the floor with a smelly pile and a dead mouse.” Ron snorted suddenly and Hermione glared at him, but it too too late, he started to giggle and then finally dissolved into laughter.

“V-very romantic, ‘Mione.” He stuttered out between guffaws and she chucked a pillow at him and went upstairs to bed, leaving him howling behind her.

Severus crawled back into bed with a sigh. He should have gone straight back to bed after dealing with Miss Mintage. Prowling the hallways after curfew and coming across Hermione on the floor, with her skirts hiked up above her thighs and her face pale and then flushed with embarrassment had been rather too big a temptation to inflict upon himself.

It was a very good thing that she had been feeling ill or he would have been hard pressed not to do something highly unethical. Still, she had made her first kill; he would have to congratulate her at the next convocation.
Crookshanks had ruf wif with the mouse knowing his girl was safe with the Potions Master, and he had escorted her back to the tower more for the sake of a few moments in her company than because he was concerned that she would not return to her rooms safely.

She had looked absurdly young when he left her. Good gods, she had really looked seventeen. There were moments, like right now, when it seemed ridiculous that he was pining for a girl as young and inexperienced as Hermione Granger. She was not even graduated from school; perhaps she was too young to really know her mind.

He snorted at himself, his inner voice amused by the thought. Hermione most certainly knew her own mind; she proved that to him again and again. Just try arguing with her and you would quickly discover how very stubborn and determined she was. But she was still rather innocent. He had never been one for deflowering virgins; he had always preferred mature women with confidence and strength.

Confidence? She has nothing but confidence, his inner voice reminded him as he settled into the bed. As for strength, she has enough for ten people; she has you wrapped around her little finger and she has only to set her chin in that mulish way for you to know you have lost the argument. Severus sighed as his thoughts chased each other madly through his brain. She was just so inexperienced. His inner voice had no answer but that experience would come with time.

Not that he was the most experienced man on the planet; he would bet that Lucius could claim that one, but Severus had had his share of women and seen perhaps too much of what life had to offer.

He knew that there was something in Hermione that called to him, that made him feel complete. He knew that this could be serious but he knew it because he had gone through a few relationships, seen and done things that let him know how these things played out. Did she have enough experience with men to decide to settle on him forever?

What if she met someone else? What would happen to him if in five years she met some handsome fellow with a sunny disposition who suited her far better than the bitter, pessimistic old she she was saddled with?
Could he survive losing her? He sighed again and turned over restlessly. He had survived for years without Miss Hermione Granger; if he had to he would do so again. The thought hurt though and made him shiver with a thread of doubt and uncertainly.

She was after all only seventeen and he was thirty-eight; what if the age difference proved fatal to them? He tossed and turned for some time before finally dropping into a restless sleep. He knew that only time could answer his doubts but he feared the outcome; good things rarely ever happened to him and Hermione was one of the best things that had ever come his way.