Inside the Blackest Heart (Edit, Not Update)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 30 ~ Making Plans

Hermione emerged from the main hall floo to see Severus hovering like a big black bat by the stairwell, anxiously looking up from time to time and pacing, his black robes billowing. Curious as to what he was doing, she walked up behind him.

“Professor?” she said.

Snape whirled around.

“Where did you come from, Miss Granger?” he asked her.

“From the floo. I just left the Headmaster’s office,” she said.

Snape caught her by the arm.

“Come back to my office with me,” he said, pulling on her. Hermione resisted.

“After the way you treated me this morning? Dragging me out of your bed? I don’t thin…” she said angrily.

“I don’t want to fuck you. I want to talk to you. The halls are not the best place to do that, Miss Granger,” he half snarled, dragging her along. Finally Hermione began to walk quickly alongside of him as they turned down the corridor that led to his office. The Potions Master was silent as they walked, his face set in a scowl.

They came to his office. He unwarded the door with a wave of his hand, opened it and pushed her through. He followed behind, closing the door, warding it and putting a silencing charm around it.

Hermione took the uncomfortable chair in front of his desk as the Professor swooped around it and took his seat in the comfortable swivel chair. His black eyes locked on hers.

“What did the Headmaster want with you?” he asked her.

“He wanted to talk to me about a rumor. I was accused of putting an Imperious curse on two students last night,” she said.

“An Imperious curse. That’s ridiculous. Albus knows the Aurors would have been here immediately if you had done such a thing. What happened for that claim to have been made?” the Potions Master asked, his head cocked.

Hermione told him how the two students returned to her after she had yelled at them, ordering them to come back.

“Then a rush of power ran through my body, and they obeyed me. It was my first conscious use of the Primordial powers. But I couldn’t use it to lift my wand from the floor. It worked because I had a need of it. It still wasn’t quite by command,” she said.

Snape looked at her. What ability. To make people obey with just a word. Albus had to have suspected that Hermione’s power manifested.

“What else did you talk about?” he asked her. Just as she was about to reply, the Potions Master stood up, walked around the desk and stood in front of her.

“Let me look for myself, Miss Granger. With legilimency, “ he said silkily.

Hermione nodded, relieved not to have to go over the whole conversation again. Snape gently placed his fingers against her temple. He didn’t have to do this, but contact made for clearer images.

“Legilimens!” he said, then fell silent, his black eyes shifting back and forth as if reading a book. After a few minutes, he withdrew his hand, walked back behind his desk and sat down in his chair. He leaned back and stared at her thoughtfully.

“If you were male, Miss Granger, I’d tell you that you have the biggest balls I’ve ever seen. In all my years at Hogwarts, I’ve never seen anyone blatantly tell Albus they were not going to listen to him. And that is what you did today, Miss Granger. Good for you,” he said. She had told him she didn’t intend to follow anyone’s directives but her own, but he didn’t believe her fully. He grudgingly admitted to himself he might have had the wrong gist of the Gryffindor witch. His eyes flickered over her with a touch of respect, before resuming their normal, piercing mien.

“Of course you know you’ve made an enemy of the Headmaster,” he commented.

“No…I don’t. He seemed to understand what I told him and accept it,” she said hesitatingly.

Snape scowled at her.

“Miss Granger, when I was in your mind, I not only saw your conversation with Albus, but your thoughts as well. You know there is something very wrong with him. And through his conversation, you determined that he wants to control you and continue to control you, no matter if you want to admit it to yourself or not,” he said. Then he sighed.

“Now you will see how Voldemort will help you. Albus has no choice but to try to kill your parents,” Snape said.

“What! Kill my parents? Not Dumbledore. I admit he might try something to get me back under his influence, but my parents?” she said, wanting desperately not to believe the Headmaster would do such a thing.

“If your parents are dead, you will have no one to run to for solace, comfort, guidance and protection but Albus,” the Potions Master said brusquely, “ and he will manipulate you using your grief. Most likely he will try to make the murder look as if Voldemort had killed them, cinching your hatred of the Dark Lord, and enlisting your desire for revenge to make you destroy the wizard. But don’t worry. He will fail. But when he fails he will know your duplicity and mine. We are going to need to go hide out for a bit.”

“Where will we go that he can’t find us? The Order is everywhere,” she said, trying not to let the despair inside her out. But Snape heard it in her voice.

“Not everywhere, Miss Granger,” he said meaningfully.

Hermione looked at him in horror.

“You don’t mean…” she gasped.

“Yes. Voldemort. He is your ally now after all. And after protecting your parents, he will expect you to be grateful…”

“And serve him, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” Snape said shortly.

“But that’s no better than the situation with Dumbledore>” she said frowning.

“Hopefully you will come into full power soon. Then you can deal with both of them as you see fit, Miss Granger,” Snape said. “But this will be your only option. Even if you move your parents, Dumbledore will realize you are on to him and maybe try to kill you, since he can’t control you. And since you aren’t a full-fledged Primordial, he has an excellent chance at succeeding,” the Potions Master said.

Hermione dropped her head. How had life become so complicated so soon? And how did she find herself having to count on the kindness of the Dark Lord to protect her until she came into power?

Snape winced internally at the next thing he was going to tell her. He really hoped she saw his motives as being as self-serving as they really were. He had to keep her safe until he brought her before the Dark Lord. If anything happened to her, it would mean his own death for certain.

“Miss Granger, you will stay in my rooms until the attempt is made on your parents,” he said, feeling like his mouth was full of cotton.

“What? Your rooms? I can’t do that,” she said, “What about McGonagal? What about my duties and classes?”

“Miss Granger, you are Head Girl, and you are the age of consent. While McGonagal might protest, she really can’t stop you from staying here. My own position is secure as long as I am working for the Order. Once I take you to Voldemort however, the Order will be after me as well as Voldemort, thinking I have switched sides, when actually I have no side.”

Hermione still looked doubtful. The Potions Master sighed and forced himself to speak gently.

“Miss Granger, when Albus is stopped from murdering your parents, he will return to Hogwarts looking either for me or for you, most likely to kill us both. If you are in your rooms, he can take you by surprise and you will be dead. If you are in my rooms, I can apparate us to the Dark Lord and safety before he gets to you. I have never revealed the Dark Lord’s residence to Albus. He moves it quite frequently so it would do no good, and plus the Dark Lord would know I betrayed him. My mark guides me to his latest location. We will be safe with him.:

“As long as I cooperate,” Hermione said.

“Yes. But the Dark Lord knows you are still not a full Primordial. So he will not rush you. He will merely attempt to seduce you to his service as your power grows. All you have to do is pretend to fall for it. He might try to use legilimency on you, but I saw Albus attempt it while in your mind, and he wasn’t able to penetrate your thoughts. Were you practicing occulmency?” Snape asked the witch.

“I’ve studied it, but I didn’t use it on the Headmaster,” Hermione replied.

“Your powers must have protected you from the intrusion. I would think that magic would come to your aid when you are in danger, even if you aren’t consciously calling it. We wizards use motive to work magic, so it is sensitive to the motives we have. It is quite possible that Albus’ evil motives prompted magic to block his intrusion into your mind and keep him from gathering any information that might trigger him to destroy you,” he said. “It very well might protect you from him when he comes after you, but I don’t think you should take that chance.

“But in the case of Voldemort, it is important to make him believe you will help him destroy Albus, or he too will try to kill you before your full powers manifest. Do you understand me?” he asked the witch. Her head was hanging.

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Good. So it is agreed that every night you will rush through your patrols and come to these rooms to sleep. It is highly unlikely Albus will try to attack your parents by day or if he does, he will not attack you by day in front of the whole school. He will come for you at night. I will have the rooms powerfully warded and alarmed. It will take time for him to bring them down and we will be notified in time to escape,” the Potions Master said.

“I have a spell…” Hermione began, “A warding spell I created. As soon as one ward is taken down, another appears in its place. A different ward that has to be broken. It can be set anywhere from two wards to a thousand.

Snape kept a straight face. He didn’t want to portray his amazement at her brilliance.

“Very well. It could be useful,” he replied. Yes, damn useful.

Hermione stared at the Potions Master, her amber eyes locked to his steadily.

“Professor,” she said soberly, “without your knowledge and guidance, I wouldn’t survive this. Nor would my family.”

Snape watched her as she stood up and walked around the desk. He swiveled his chair to face her.

Hermione continued.

“You are evil. You are hateful, sarcastic and cold. You are a rapist, a murderer, and a deatheater by association, but right now you’re the only knight in tarnished armor I have.”

Then she kissed him.

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A/N: whoo hoo. Lots in this chapter. Hermione KISSED Snape. Wonder how he’ll react to that? I bet you all have an idea. Lol. Please review.