Strong Enough
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,852
Reviews:
324
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
34
Views:
8,852
Reviews:
324
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Ch 30 Spies
CH 30 SPIES
Zephyr, thanks as always
Thanks at the bottom
Not mine, no way
I awake to find no peace of mind,
I said, how do you live as a fugitive?
Down here where I cannot see so clear.
I said, what do I know?
Show me the right way to go,
And the spies came out of the water,
But you\'re feeling so bad cos you know,
But the spies hide out in every corner,
But you can\'t touch them though,
Cos they’re all spies
-Spies, Coldplay
The room was completely silent. Minerva, Hermione and Severus were all staring at the couple sitting on the bed in shock. Hermione was the first one to speak.
\"No.\" She said, voice shaking with anger. \"They can’t be… he can’t be.\" She pointed an accusing finger at Draco. \"He’s a Slytherin, not to mention a Malfoy. You don’t really expect me to believe that he’s turned to good side.\" She looked at Dumbledore and he nodded, gravely. She looked at the young girl. \"And Ginny? Tell me it’s not true Ginny.\" She almost pleaded. \" Tell me you are not spying for the Order.\"
Ginny looked at her and Hermione could see the sorrow in her eyes as she slowly took off her robes and rolled her sleeve up to reveal the dark mark burning black on her pale skin.
\"Severus.\" Said Hermione without looking around, all her strength gone, her hand groping wildly behind her, her anger forgotten, at the thought of what her friend must have gone through.
\"I’m here.\" He said softly, taking her hand, himself, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight in fron him him.
\"Draco?\" said Severus in an unsteady voice. He had seen the boy take the mark as his father looked on, and had feared the worst.
Draco nodded.
\"Draco came to me some time ago.\" Dumbledore began. \"At the end of his fifth year in fact. He was to take the dark mark that summer, under the guidance of his father. He told me that he was going to take the mark, as was expected of him, but that he would never follow Voldemort. He had seen first hand from the dark revels at Malfoy manor, what exactly life would be like if Voldemort won the war.\"
Hermione’s hand gripped Severus’s tightly and he looked at her, noticing a muscle in her jaw twitching.
Draco looked away from the group, choosing to stare out of the window into the dark night. Hermione felt Severus shiver next to her and knew that he was remembering what happened at those so called ‘parties’.
\"I gave him the same choice that I gave you Severus,\" said hea headmaster quietly. \"And he accepted.\"
\"So you knew about me being a spy all this time?\" Severus asked Draco resignedly.
Draco nodded. \"Yes, I did but Professor Dumbledore thought it better if we had no contact as it could endanger us both.\" He said rolling his eyes as if to say ‘we could have handled it’.
Severus almost smiled at that. He had always had a soft spot for the boy, not having any children of his own, and secretly hoped that Draco would see that his father and Voldemort’s ways were not necessarily the right ways. His godson had changed sides knowing the risks of doing so, yet had still retained the aloof cockiness that would get him out of most scrapes. Severus didn’t think he could be prouder of him if he had been his own son.
Hermione huffed, still not convinced that her childhood nemesis was now fighting on the side of the light. \"That still doesn’t explain why Ginny Weasley is carrying the dark mark around on her arm.\" She said, confused.
\"No, it doesn’t,\" said Dumbledore, he looked over to the young girl sitting quietly on the bed. \"But that story is not mine to tell. Ginny, would you like to continue?\" He asked.
The redhead nodded and as Severus looked over at the two spies, he noticed that their hands were entwined in much the same way as his and Hermione’s. He was surprised at this but said nothing, choosing instead to pull a chair round to face the bed. He transfigured it into a couch, sat down and pulled Hermione down to sit next to him. Draco raised an eyebrow at this but kept quiet.
\"I did go to Australia after Percy... Well, after what happened, and I did train to be a mediwitch, but it wasn’t enough, I needed to do more.\" She said sadly, looking at Hermione. \"You can understand that, can’t you Hermione? The need to do more?\"
Hermione just nodded.
\"I owled professor Dumbledore and my parents and told them that I wanted to join the Order. As you can probably imagine, they all forbade me, telling me to stay where I was and that it wasn’t safe for me to come back, but I had to do something.\" She paused for a moment. \"So I paid Tom Riddle a visit.\"
\"You went to Voldemort?\" Severus said, clearly shocked. \"Alone?\"
\"Yes.\" She replied, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly at his surprise. \"There has always been a link between us, ever since he took me into the Chamber of Secrets and I told him so. I can sometimes feel what he feels, similar to Harry I suppose. Well, he welcomed me with open arms. I told him that since my second year I have been trying to join him and he believed me.\" She looked over at Draco and he smiled at her. \"Everyone did apart from Draco.\" He held her hand a bit tighter and this time Hermione noticed it and frowned.
\"He went to Professor Dumbledore, who in turn called me in and that’s about it really.\" She shrugged. \"We are both double agents, like you were professor Snape.\" She said smiling at him.
He did not smile back. He felt sick to his stomach that this young girl, that all three of them were putting their lives in such extreme danger and all he could do was sit and watch.
\"Is there anyone who doesn’t know that I was a spy?\" he said angrily.
\"Yes,\" said Draco, sitting up on the bed. \"Voldemort doesn’t know.\"
Both Severus and Hermione’s heads snapped up at that. \"What do you mean he doesn’t know?\" Said Severus in confusion \"Surely, he has noticed my absence since I failed to deliver Hermione to him? And he more or less called me a spy outright that night.\"
\"I was there Severus,” said Draco. \"We both were. After he crucio’d you and you’d taken your beating, we overheard him talking to my father, you know that the attack on the school is set for graduation?\" He asked.
They all nodded.
\"Well, he wants you to let the wards down from the inside.\" said Ginny.
Severus just stared at them, but Hermione had recovered from the stories she had heard and jumped to her feet.
\"That’s bullshit\" she said staring daggers at the couple \"Why does he need Severus? He could use anyone to get the wards down, you both managed to get in? I don’t buy it for a minute. Severus hasn’t been to meeting in months, surely he must have figured it out by now.\" She was rambling and she knew it, but there was no way she was letting him go back to that monster, not after what they gone through to get to where they were now.
\"Ginny told Voldemort that she had found out that Severus was severely injured and had been in a coma for the last few months and is being closely watched by Dumbledore. No one has left the school since to counter this story.\" Draco said smirking at Ginny’s cunning ways. \"I think that Voldemort wants Severus to lower the wards in a final act of defiance towards Professor Dumbledore, you know, he wants Dumbledore to know that he had someone on the inside the whole time.\"
Dumbledore smiled at that.
\"Yes and Draco told him that the reason that you didn’t bring Hermione to him was that you wanted to teach her a lesson yourself, you know ‘what happens if you cross the dark lord or any of his followers’ and he was satisfied with that.\" Said Ginny as Hermione snorted at the thought. \"I think he’s losing the plot a little bit, he seems to be so distracted with his plan to raid the school that everything else is just going over his head.\" She smiled at the group.
\"If I may,\" said Minerva, who up until now had kept silent. \"I have a few questions to ask?\"
They all looked at her in surprise, having forgotten that she was there. \"I am assuming that he knows about Severus’s involvement with Hermione?\" She asked.
Ginny answered, \"Yes, but like I said, he thinks that Severus is controlling her.\" A deep red blush crawled up her neck to her face. \"Apparently he used to be quite good at controlling female aurors.\" She mumbled and Severus gave a small smirk, receiving a sharp elbow in the ribs from Hermione for his trouble.
\"Fine,\" said Minerva. \"But what about the two of you? You are obviously more than partners in crime, and if I remember Tom Riddle correctly, he’s not the type to share, and you and he have this... connection.\" She left the rest of the question unasked.
Ginny began to blush again. \"He’s not human enough to want me in that way, and he and Lucius are very pleased with the ‘pairing’ as they call it, they think we are going to breed the next generation of death eaters for them.\" She shuddered and Draco grabbed her hand again, reassuringly.
\"It just happened.\" Said Ginny, seeing Hermione’s look of shock. \"We didn’t mean to fall in love, although it has its advantages.\" She said with a smile.
Everyone looked away or coughed as she said it.
\"No not that.\" Ginny quickly added. \"Well, yes that, but as a couple we do not have to participate in any of the dark revels unless we want to, and all the other death eaters are not allowed to go anywhere near me, which I am very glad about, there are only so many things I will do for the good guys and sex with your father isn’t one of them.\" She said looking at Draco as they both pulled a face.
Ginny’s last comment tore straight through Hermione and she started to advance on the couple, her rage building, but Severus pulled her back. She was overwhelmed by what she beenbeen told, but was still very wary of Draco. She knew how the Malfoys played the game, and intended to keep her guard up around him.
\"I suppose this means I’m back in the game then.\" Severus said, at once feeling better and worse. He knew better than to expect to be let off the hook for missing so many meetings and mentally started to prepare himself for the curses and beatings but at the same time he was glad to be able to do something again, to have a purpose. The only problem he had now was Hermione, who was standing next to him with a face like thunder.
\"The hell it does,\" she said venomously. \"There is no way I am letting you go back to that monster, Severus, ever.\"
Severus knew she was afraid for him and he didn’t want to hurt her but she wouldn’t stop him from doing this. \"You are not letting me do anything, Hermione, I am going back and that is all there is to it.\"
\"That is not all there is to it at all.\" She spat. \"How do you know that this is not a trick, to get you go back?\"
\"It could be, but I have to know for sure.\" He said gently.
rmiormione spun round to face Draco and Ginny. \"You still haven’t explained what you were both doing in the forest and how Draco got injured.\" She said in an accusing tone, trying to catch them out, desperately trying to find a reason to keep Severus inside the castle.
\"We were on our way here to report to Dumbledore after tonight\'s meeting.\" Said Ginny
\"And I got a punishment for not getting Ginny pregnant yet.\" Draco said quietly.
Hermione turned back to Severus. \"These are the kind of people you want to go back to?\" She fumed.
\"I don’t want to Hermione, I have to.\" He said, his eyes begging for her to understand. Before she came back into his life, he didn’t care if he lived or died. But now he had her, he was terrified of dying, of never seeing her again.
\"They’ll kill you.\" She said sadly.
\"Maybe,\" sighed Severus. \"But I refuse to sit back and watch the three of you put your lives in danger, while I do nothing.\"
She looked up at him, feeling her heart breaking. \"I won’t stand by and watch you commit suicide Severus,\" she whispered, \"I don’t want any part of this.\" Like so many times since she came back to Hogwarts, she walked out on Severus.
Thank you:
Slytheringriffindor; Thanks, here you are!! xx
Deb; You are such a star, big kisses to you. I really am glad that you’re sticking with me, It’s getting there!! xx
Flick; Thanks!! I loved your review, rereading it?? you mad thing you. There will be a sequel eventually!! xx
WizardingAngel; I’m glad you liked the twist, thanks for reading!! xx
RedWritingHood: What can I say? She’s a badass!! I love her!! xx
PotionsMistressM: M, you doughnut of justice, you!! I know how much you like a good ass kicking, next chappie’s for you!! Yes he is my Draco and I didn’t want him mean, Herm and Sev are mean enough for everyone!! Ooh, almost had you teared up!! Love ya babes xx
Alrighty then!!
I’m sure you will all be overjoyed to hear that I am nearly done with this epic story!! Another five chapters max and then we’ll be done!!
One more thing,
Can I ask a favour?? Could you all be so good as to read and review my response to the ‘Lord and Lady Snape One million hits Mary Sue challenge’ reviews mean points!!
http://www.lordandladysnape.net/viewstory.php?sid=1925
Kisses
GrrArrg
Zephyr, thanks as always
Thanks at the bottom
Not mine, no way
I awake to find no peace of mind,
I said, how do you live as a fugitive?
Down here where I cannot see so clear.
I said, what do I know?
Show me the right way to go,
And the spies came out of the water,
But you\'re feeling so bad cos you know,
But the spies hide out in every corner,
But you can\'t touch them though,
Cos they’re all spies
-Spies, Coldplay
The room was completely silent. Minerva, Hermione and Severus were all staring at the couple sitting on the bed in shock. Hermione was the first one to speak.
\"No.\" She said, voice shaking with anger. \"They can’t be… he can’t be.\" She pointed an accusing finger at Draco. \"He’s a Slytherin, not to mention a Malfoy. You don’t really expect me to believe that he’s turned to good side.\" She looked at Dumbledore and he nodded, gravely. She looked at the young girl. \"And Ginny? Tell me it’s not true Ginny.\" She almost pleaded. \" Tell me you are not spying for the Order.\"
Ginny looked at her and Hermione could see the sorrow in her eyes as she slowly took off her robes and rolled her sleeve up to reveal the dark mark burning black on her pale skin.
\"Severus.\" Said Hermione without looking around, all her strength gone, her hand groping wildly behind her, her anger forgotten, at the thought of what her friend must have gone through.
\"I’m here.\" He said softly, taking her hand, himself, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight in fron him him.
\"Draco?\" said Severus in an unsteady voice. He had seen the boy take the mark as his father looked on, and had feared the worst.
Draco nodded.
\"Draco came to me some time ago.\" Dumbledore began. \"At the end of his fifth year in fact. He was to take the dark mark that summer, under the guidance of his father. He told me that he was going to take the mark, as was expected of him, but that he would never follow Voldemort. He had seen first hand from the dark revels at Malfoy manor, what exactly life would be like if Voldemort won the war.\"
Hermione’s hand gripped Severus’s tightly and he looked at her, noticing a muscle in her jaw twitching.
Draco looked away from the group, choosing to stare out of the window into the dark night. Hermione felt Severus shiver next to her and knew that he was remembering what happened at those so called ‘parties’.
\"I gave him the same choice that I gave you Severus,\" said hea headmaster quietly. \"And he accepted.\"
\"So you knew about me being a spy all this time?\" Severus asked Draco resignedly.
Draco nodded. \"Yes, I did but Professor Dumbledore thought it better if we had no contact as it could endanger us both.\" He said rolling his eyes as if to say ‘we could have handled it’.
Severus almost smiled at that. He had always had a soft spot for the boy, not having any children of his own, and secretly hoped that Draco would see that his father and Voldemort’s ways were not necessarily the right ways. His godson had changed sides knowing the risks of doing so, yet had still retained the aloof cockiness that would get him out of most scrapes. Severus didn’t think he could be prouder of him if he had been his own son.
Hermione huffed, still not convinced that her childhood nemesis was now fighting on the side of the light. \"That still doesn’t explain why Ginny Weasley is carrying the dark mark around on her arm.\" She said, confused.
\"No, it doesn’t,\" said Dumbledore, he looked over to the young girl sitting quietly on the bed. \"But that story is not mine to tell. Ginny, would you like to continue?\" He asked.
The redhead nodded and as Severus looked over at the two spies, he noticed that their hands were entwined in much the same way as his and Hermione’s. He was surprised at this but said nothing, choosing instead to pull a chair round to face the bed. He transfigured it into a couch, sat down and pulled Hermione down to sit next to him. Draco raised an eyebrow at this but kept quiet.
\"I did go to Australia after Percy... Well, after what happened, and I did train to be a mediwitch, but it wasn’t enough, I needed to do more.\" She said sadly, looking at Hermione. \"You can understand that, can’t you Hermione? The need to do more?\"
Hermione just nodded.
\"I owled professor Dumbledore and my parents and told them that I wanted to join the Order. As you can probably imagine, they all forbade me, telling me to stay where I was and that it wasn’t safe for me to come back, but I had to do something.\" She paused for a moment. \"So I paid Tom Riddle a visit.\"
\"You went to Voldemort?\" Severus said, clearly shocked. \"Alone?\"
\"Yes.\" She replied, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly at his surprise. \"There has always been a link between us, ever since he took me into the Chamber of Secrets and I told him so. I can sometimes feel what he feels, similar to Harry I suppose. Well, he welcomed me with open arms. I told him that since my second year I have been trying to join him and he believed me.\" She looked over at Draco and he smiled at her. \"Everyone did apart from Draco.\" He held her hand a bit tighter and this time Hermione noticed it and frowned.
\"He went to Professor Dumbledore, who in turn called me in and that’s about it really.\" She shrugged. \"We are both double agents, like you were professor Snape.\" She said smiling at him.
He did not smile back. He felt sick to his stomach that this young girl, that all three of them were putting their lives in such extreme danger and all he could do was sit and watch.
\"Is there anyone who doesn’t know that I was a spy?\" he said angrily.
\"Yes,\" said Draco, sitting up on the bed. \"Voldemort doesn’t know.\"
Both Severus and Hermione’s heads snapped up at that. \"What do you mean he doesn’t know?\" Said Severus in confusion \"Surely, he has noticed my absence since I failed to deliver Hermione to him? And he more or less called me a spy outright that night.\"
\"I was there Severus,” said Draco. \"We both were. After he crucio’d you and you’d taken your beating, we overheard him talking to my father, you know that the attack on the school is set for graduation?\" He asked.
They all nodded.
\"Well, he wants you to let the wards down from the inside.\" said Ginny.
Severus just stared at them, but Hermione had recovered from the stories she had heard and jumped to her feet.
\"That’s bullshit\" she said staring daggers at the couple \"Why does he need Severus? He could use anyone to get the wards down, you both managed to get in? I don’t buy it for a minute. Severus hasn’t been to meeting in months, surely he must have figured it out by now.\" She was rambling and she knew it, but there was no way she was letting him go back to that monster, not after what they gone through to get to where they were now.
\"Ginny told Voldemort that she had found out that Severus was severely injured and had been in a coma for the last few months and is being closely watched by Dumbledore. No one has left the school since to counter this story.\" Draco said smirking at Ginny’s cunning ways. \"I think that Voldemort wants Severus to lower the wards in a final act of defiance towards Professor Dumbledore, you know, he wants Dumbledore to know that he had someone on the inside the whole time.\"
Dumbledore smiled at that.
\"Yes and Draco told him that the reason that you didn’t bring Hermione to him was that you wanted to teach her a lesson yourself, you know ‘what happens if you cross the dark lord or any of his followers’ and he was satisfied with that.\" Said Ginny as Hermione snorted at the thought. \"I think he’s losing the plot a little bit, he seems to be so distracted with his plan to raid the school that everything else is just going over his head.\" She smiled at the group.
\"If I may,\" said Minerva, who up until now had kept silent. \"I have a few questions to ask?\"
They all looked at her in surprise, having forgotten that she was there. \"I am assuming that he knows about Severus’s involvement with Hermione?\" She asked.
Ginny answered, \"Yes, but like I said, he thinks that Severus is controlling her.\" A deep red blush crawled up her neck to her face. \"Apparently he used to be quite good at controlling female aurors.\" She mumbled and Severus gave a small smirk, receiving a sharp elbow in the ribs from Hermione for his trouble.
\"Fine,\" said Minerva. \"But what about the two of you? You are obviously more than partners in crime, and if I remember Tom Riddle correctly, he’s not the type to share, and you and he have this... connection.\" She left the rest of the question unasked.
Ginny began to blush again. \"He’s not human enough to want me in that way, and he and Lucius are very pleased with the ‘pairing’ as they call it, they think we are going to breed the next generation of death eaters for them.\" She shuddered and Draco grabbed her hand again, reassuringly.
\"It just happened.\" Said Ginny, seeing Hermione’s look of shock. \"We didn’t mean to fall in love, although it has its advantages.\" She said with a smile.
Everyone looked away or coughed as she said it.
\"No not that.\" Ginny quickly added. \"Well, yes that, but as a couple we do not have to participate in any of the dark revels unless we want to, and all the other death eaters are not allowed to go anywhere near me, which I am very glad about, there are only so many things I will do for the good guys and sex with your father isn’t one of them.\" She said looking at Draco as they both pulled a face.
Ginny’s last comment tore straight through Hermione and she started to advance on the couple, her rage building, but Severus pulled her back. She was overwhelmed by what she beenbeen told, but was still very wary of Draco. She knew how the Malfoys played the game, and intended to keep her guard up around him.
\"I suppose this means I’m back in the game then.\" Severus said, at once feeling better and worse. He knew better than to expect to be let off the hook for missing so many meetings and mentally started to prepare himself for the curses and beatings but at the same time he was glad to be able to do something again, to have a purpose. The only problem he had now was Hermione, who was standing next to him with a face like thunder.
\"The hell it does,\" she said venomously. \"There is no way I am letting you go back to that monster, Severus, ever.\"
Severus knew she was afraid for him and he didn’t want to hurt her but she wouldn’t stop him from doing this. \"You are not letting me do anything, Hermione, I am going back and that is all there is to it.\"
\"That is not all there is to it at all.\" She spat. \"How do you know that this is not a trick, to get you go back?\"
\"It could be, but I have to know for sure.\" He said gently.
rmiormione spun round to face Draco and Ginny. \"You still haven’t explained what you were both doing in the forest and how Draco got injured.\" She said in an accusing tone, trying to catch them out, desperately trying to find a reason to keep Severus inside the castle.
\"We were on our way here to report to Dumbledore after tonight\'s meeting.\" Said Ginny
\"And I got a punishment for not getting Ginny pregnant yet.\" Draco said quietly.
Hermione turned back to Severus. \"These are the kind of people you want to go back to?\" She fumed.
\"I don’t want to Hermione, I have to.\" He said, his eyes begging for her to understand. Before she came back into his life, he didn’t care if he lived or died. But now he had her, he was terrified of dying, of never seeing her again.
\"They’ll kill you.\" She said sadly.
\"Maybe,\" sighed Severus. \"But I refuse to sit back and watch the three of you put your lives in danger, while I do nothing.\"
She looked up at him, feeling her heart breaking. \"I won’t stand by and watch you commit suicide Severus,\" she whispered, \"I don’t want any part of this.\" Like so many times since she came back to Hogwarts, she walked out on Severus.
Thank you:
Slytheringriffindor; Thanks, here you are!! xx
Deb; You are such a star, big kisses to you. I really am glad that you’re sticking with me, It’s getting there!! xx
Flick; Thanks!! I loved your review, rereading it?? you mad thing you. There will be a sequel eventually!! xx
WizardingAngel; I’m glad you liked the twist, thanks for reading!! xx
RedWritingHood: What can I say? She’s a badass!! I love her!! xx
PotionsMistressM: M, you doughnut of justice, you!! I know how much you like a good ass kicking, next chappie’s for you!! Yes he is my Draco and I didn’t want him mean, Herm and Sev are mean enough for everyone!! Ooh, almost had you teared up!! Love ya babes xx
Alrighty then!!
I’m sure you will all be overjoyed to hear that I am nearly done with this epic story!! Another five chapters max and then we’ll be done!!
One more thing,
Can I ask a favour?? Could you all be so good as to read and review my response to the ‘Lord and Lady Snape One million hits Mary Sue challenge’ reviews mean points!!
http://www.lordandladysnape.net/viewstory.php?sid=1925
Kisses
GrrArrg