Yuleride

Chapter 30 ~ The Scenario (Short Chappie)

Snape thought this would be a good time to turn the conversation around on Hermione. He had backed himself into a corner, and as has been said, the best defense is a good offence.

Snape gestured at the room around him.

”Well, what about this, Hermione? This room? This setting? It’s obvious you feel more for me than what you are letting on. Maybe it’s you who’s in love,” the wizard said. “You, not me. And you are completely unwilling to accept it!”

Hermione took the bait, feeling shaken at his words. She didn’t know how she felt about Severus Snape, not really. But he was dark, compelling and the best lover she’d ever experienced. But love? There was no proof of love, no gentle feelings. There was strong attraction, but that could be purely physical. And he tempted her with challenge, adventure. None of that added up to love.

”That’s total bullshit, and you know it. Stop trying to turn this around, Severus,” she said angrily. “I don’t know why the ROR looks like this. Maybe—maybe it’s this way because I feel nothing at all, or there’s no scenario I want with you!”

Snape stared at her, his eyes losing a bit of their glint. His face changed, became resigned. Hermione could feel the change in him and regretted what she’d said almost immediately.

”I see,” he said quietly, rising. “I believe we are finished dining, Hermione. I believe—I believe we are finished with everything. You no longer have to worry about me trying to woo you away from an unsuitable life. I’ve said all I can say to you, have committed myself—made a fool of myself again over a woman who wants nothing to do with me. It is the last time I will ever extend myself again. I will go it alone as I always have. But—I am not cruel enough to say you will live to regret your decision to settle, to be less than who you are. In fact, it is my hope that you never know regret—as I have. It is a hurtful emotion that never leaves you once it’s settled in, worse than any scourge created. The stripes of regret are more painful, because they are on the inside and never heal.”

Snape walked around the table and gently drew out Hermione’s chair for her.

“I’ll escort you back to your quarters,” he said as she rose. He gestured for her to precede him to the door.

Hermione bit her lip as she slowly walked before him. Suddenly, the need to fix this washed over her and she turned on the wizard.

”I didn’t say that was the way it is, only that was the way it could be,” she said to him.

Snape’s cold expression didn’t change.

”It doesn’t matter now,” he said in a low voice.

Hermione stared up at him.

”I could have been wrong—I could have just been trying to get a rise out of you,” she declared.

Snape quirked an eyebrow at her.

”You should be proud of your success in that case,” he said, walking around her toward the door, all coldness now. She’d rejected him. He thought he could be the kind of wizard who would keep pursuing, like other men who fancied women who wouldn’t give them the time of day. But, he was too proud, and pride was both a blessing and a curse. He wouldn’t grovel. He wouldn’t force himself on someone who didn’t want him. No matter how much he wished she did. There were certain realities He was ugly, he was scarred, he was emotionally damaged. To believe that any witch would want to be with him for the long term was a stretch of the imagination. He’d never been big on imagination.

“Oh, it’s so easy for you, isn’t it? To just say, ‘forget it,’ like nothing matters but how you perceive things. The truth of the matter is you made me enter this room first because you were too cowardly to take a chance and do it yourself. You didn’t want me to see what your scenario would have been. You just dropped it in my lap, when it was you who asked me to dinner.”

Snape stopped walking and stood there a moment, then slowly turned to face her, the look on his face terrible.

”Did you just call me ‘cowardly?’” he asked her in a very quiet voice.

It wasn’t a good quiet. It was the kind of quiet that happens before all hell breaks loose. He was noticeably quivering, as if fighting some inner force trying to get out as he stared at Hermione.

”Yes I did. I’d like to know what your scenario would have been, but I guess since you’ve made up your mind that this is finished, that will never happen. You won’t have to show me what you—require,” she hissed at him disdainfully. “That takes another kind of courage than facing Dark Lords and death. A courage you don’t have.”

Snape stood there for a moment, then lunged forward, catching Hermione’s wrist and pulling the witch against him, his face an inch from hers as he snarled down at her.

”I am not a coward,” he growled, then suddenly strode for the ROR door, pushed it open and pulled Hermione into the corridor, slamming the door closed behind her. Hermione expected him to drag her all the way to her quarters, but he stood there, glowering over her head, looking at the door. He had a firm grip on her wrist still, but he wasn’t hurting her. Again, he was quivering slightly.

”What are you doing?” Hermione ventured.

Snape didn’t answer. He just stood there with her for several minutes. The Bloody Baron floated by silently. Other than that, there was no activity on the floor at all. Suddenly, Snape approached the ROR again, pushing the door open and pulling Hermione through, tossing her in front of him rather roughly so she stumbled. She caught her balance and looked around the room, her eyes like saucers.

”There. My scenario,” the wizard said quietly, his dark eyes drinking in the setting that he knew was from his heart. It wasn’t perfect. There were things, objects out of place, that didn’t really belong in the positions and spaces they occupied. But it was a conglomerate of what he wanted—what he required.

They were standing on white desert sands, and the night sky was filled with both a full moon and stars. Stars were never that bright during a full moon, but the effect was dazzling. Spread before them in the distance were the Sphinx, the Great Pyramids, tombs of the Pharaohs, and lesser temples the Nile winding its way between them like a gleaming serpent in the sand.

It was beautiful. An amazing setting.

”Oh my gods,” Hermione breathed. It was so realistic, but the air was temperate, not dry, and she could smell the moisture of the Nile on the breeze. Suddenly lights appeared behind the monuments. Sparkling lights laid low in the distance.

The many cities of Egypt.

”Beautiful, isn’t it?” the wizard said softly, walking up to Hermione and standing next to her, the sight reflected in his dark eyes before they shifted downward to look at the shocked witch. “But quite an overwhelming setting for a simple ‘thank you’ meal. It is the kind of setting that tempts the spirit within. What wonders there are. What—mysteries beneath the sands. One is drawn to—explore. To discover what lies beneath it all. Yes, this is my scenario for you, Hermione Granger. The true setting I want to see around you.”

”This is amazing,” she said softly, her eyes resting on the life-like Sphinx.

”It is Egypt,” the dark wizard replied before gently turning Hermione towards him, his black eyes searching her face as she met his gaze. He slowly reached up and removed the comb from her hair, letting it drop to the sands, her hair tumbling down. He rearranged it so part of it fell over her shoulders, fluffing it a bit so it looked untamed, the way he liked it. Hermione let him do as he liked, staring up at him, noting the flash of pleasure in his eyes before he stopped and looked at her soberly.

There was a roaring in the silence between them. A crashing of waves and mountains quaking. Powerful forces of nature sung in that deceptive illusion of peace. Then Snape took action. He had no other choice, he was so compelled.

”This is the setting I want to rediscover you in,” he said softly, drawing Hermione into his lean body and covering her mouth with his own.

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A/N: Short, I know. But the next chapter will definitely be longer. Thanks for reading.