A Song for Severus ~ (Not Update, but Edit)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 33 ~ Getting to Know You and Not “Know” You


As Hermione transfigured the sofa into a bed, Volaria enjoyed a nice hot bath. Hermione had a number of scented spigots around her tub, and after testing each of them, Volaria chose the rose-scented one. She soaked in the tub luxuriously.

Severus stood in Hermione’s study, scowling, his arms folded across his chest, watching as Hermione made up the bed by hand. She looked over at the Potions Master

“Really Severus…do you have to look so sour?” she asked him.

“Yes, I do,” Severus said, “I find this girl staying with you quite an intrusion. We know nothing about her. She may hex you in your sleep.”

Hermione put her hands on her hips.

“Severus, Fawkes gave Volaria the ‘all clear.’ She’s just a young witch who needs help,” Hermione said to him.

“A young witch who can do wandless, non-verbal magic and who has been raised by Bellatrix LeStrange. If she decides to turn on you, Hermione, you’ll never see it coming. I still say she should be locked away,” the Potions Master said, “And what about our ‘quality time?’ I barely get a chance to be alone with you as it is.”

”Severus, stop being a selfish prat,” Hermione said, returning to making up the bed, “Your cock won’t fall off if it doesn’t take a dip for a few nights.”

”A few nights?” Severus said incredulously, “You mean a few weeks. You’re so wrapped up in your project to save a wizard probably not worth saving, you give me no time. The only reason you deigned to give me a tumble yesterday is because you thought I was walking into the jaws of death.”

Hermione turned on him, her face black. Severus got a very bad feeling.

“A tumble? Was that what last night was to you, Severus?” she asked him, her voice getting higher.

Oh shit. Time for some quick damage control. Severus looked around to see what Hermione would grab first to throw at him. She was quite close to a heavy book on the coffee table.

“No…no. It was more than that Hermione…I was just…just…” Severus began.

“Just trying to make me feel guilty that I’m more dedicated to my work than kicking my heels up into the air for you,” Hermione finished for him, her eyes narrowed, “That’s really mature, Severus.”

Severus just looked at her.

“And plus, there’s the matter of you drugging me today so I’d sleep through your meeting with Bella,” Hermione said, frowning.

“That was for your own good. You would have worried yourself sick waiting to see if I made it back,” the wizard said.

“That’s no excuse, Severus. You know what? Right now, these thighs are on lockdown. No nookie for the Potions Master until he learns how to treat me like an adult and not a child,” Hermione said, crossing her arms.

“What?” Severus said, scowling blackly.

“You heard me. No sex until further notice,” Hermione said firmly, her jaw thrust out determinedly.

Severus stared at Hermione. This was…was blackmail. Extortion. And completely unreasonable.

Severus was about to start a very heated argument when Volaria walked out of Hermione’s bedroom, dressed in one of her flannel gowns and smelling of roses. Severus’ nose wrinkled immediately at the scent.

He hated anything to do with roses.

“That bath was wonderful,” Volaria said, “Thank you, Hermione.”

”You’re very welcome, Volaria,” Hermione replied, “I’ve made up a bed for you, and I will keep the fireplace lit so you aren’t in complete darkness.

“You don’t walk in your sleep do you? Or cast accidental spells while you dream?” Severus asked the young witch, who looked at him as if he were insane.

“Of course I don’t, Severus,” she replied.

The Potions Master stiffened at her use of his given name. Hermione covered her mouth with her hand and quickly stepped between them.

“Um, Volaria. Professor Snape is much older than you are and to use his given name in such a familiar way is…is bad etiquette and considered a lack of proper respect. Please address him as Professor Snape and only Professor Snape,” she said, looking over her shoulder at Severus, who looked ready to hex the girl.

“Or Sir,” Snape growled at her.

Volaria looked taken aback.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just that I didn’t hear anyone else address him by a title,” she said apologetically.

“All adults should be addressed this way,” Hermione said.

Volaria looked at her.

“Do you want me to call you Miss Granger?” she asked Hermione.

“Only when we are around others in public. In my rooms you can call me Hermione,” the witch said, smiling at her.

Severus still scowled. Now that Volaria was here, he couldn’t take Hermione to task about her decision to cut him off.

“We need to talk, Hermione. Privately,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Volaria. The little cockblocker.

“Not tonight, Severus,” Hermione replied, pulling back the covers invitingly for Volaria, who sat down on the edge of the bed and bounced experimentally, “Now it’s time to say good night.”

Severus’ dark eyes rested on her momentarily, and Hermione shuddered inside at the way he was looking at her. It was his “wait until I get you under me again” look.

“Fine,” the wizard snapped bad-naturedly, “Good night then.”

He whirled and walked toward the door.

“Goodnight, Professor Snape,” Volaria sang after him.

The wizard hesitated for a moment, then pulled open the door and stormed out with a billow of robes, slamming the door behind him.

Volaria looked at Hermione, who stared at the door Severus exited through.

“He doesn’t like me very much, does he?” Volaria said to Hermione.

“He doesn’t like anyone very much, Volaria. It’s just his nature. He’s actually a very good wizard,” Hermione said. “He’s just a bit anti-social. He’s been through a lot.”

“I know he has. My father used to torture him. I saw it in a pensieve Bella gave to Voltaire to study. She wants Voltaire to torture him too,” Volaria said. “When he becomes the new Dark Lord.”

Hermione stared at her a moment, then sat down on the bed.

“Volaria…can you tell me a little about your brother? What he was like before he began to drink the elixir?” Hermione asked her.

Volaria nodded.

“Voltaire was always mean. He liked to hurt things from when he was very little. We fought all the time. He was jealous of me because I could do wandless magic and he couldn’t, and he called me names all the time. He never once acted like a brother. He’s always seemed to hate me. Aunt Bella spoils him, and rewards him when he does terrible things, like kill house elves or hexes Jordan for fun,” Volaria said.

“Jordan? Who’s Jordan?” Hermione asked.

“Jordan lives with us. He’s a healer. He doesn’t want to be there, but Bella makes him stay. She’s mean to him. Beats him. But she needs him to take care of us. I think that’s the only reason he isn’t dead. She has him chained in his room for most of the day, but lets him out in the arena with the house elves watching him. He doesn’t have a wand handy…she gives it to him only when he has to do healing work and she keeps her wand on him the entire time. She doesn’t trust him,” the young witch said. “She doesn’t let me talk to him either. She said he’d do dirty things to me, but I don’t believe her.”

“Has Jordan always been there?” Hermione asked her.

“Yes, all my life. He took care of me when I was very little…then Aunt Bella took over,” she said with a little shudder. “She made me do things…horrible things to animals. One day I refused to do it and she was very disappointed and said I was weak. But I’m not weak. I just don’t like to kill things. I can’t give life back. It’s…it’s precious,” the witch said, her eyes filling with tears.

“Yes, it is very precious, Volaria,” Hermione agreed, her heart going out to the young witch. It must have been terrible for the girl to grow up with Bellatrix…to be forced to hurt and kill things, and be browbeaten for not liking it.

“How about your education? How did you learn?” she asked the girl.

“Well, Aunt Bella had pensieves of when she went to school and gave them to us. Plus we have a huge library. I learned that way. I read a lot and studied things on my own since there wasn’t much to do. That’s how I learned to become an animagus. I was kind of disappointed…being just a mosquito…but it came in handy,” she said with a little smile.

“Yes it did,” Hermione agreed, smiling back at the witch, “It was a brilliant way to escape. Did you plan it?”

”No,” Volaria replied, shaking her head, “At first I just wanted to see what they were doing to Voltaire. It was horrible…blood everywhere,” she said shuddering, “Then I was going to fly back to my rooms when I decided to stay on the Professor and leave with him. It was my only chance. Aunt Bella was going to let Voltaire kill me when he got better, I’m sure of it. She doesn’t need me anymore.”

She looked at Hermione, her lip trembling.

“I didn’t want to die,” she whispered, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

Hermione moved closer to the girl, embracing her as she sobbed.

“Don’t worry, Volaria. You’re safe now,” she said.

“Not if Voltaire becomes the next Voldemort. He’s going to want to kill me because I’m his sister and have the same blood. He and Bella believe my father was a king. But he was just a murderer…a horrible murderer,” she gasped.

Hermione sat there silently for several minutes, stroking Volaria’s hair until the witch stopped crying, then she sat back and looked at Volaria soberly.

“Volaria, do you think that if we managed to turn Voltaire normal again, that he could learn to be…well…normal?” Hermione asked her.

Volaria looked at her and slowly shook her head.

“Voltaire is evil through and through. He’d be that way even without taking the elixir. He likes killing and wants to control everything and everybody. He wants Aunt Bella to be his queen. Even if he didn’t have the extra powers, he would still be that way,” Volaria said.

“All right. Thank you Volaria. Now, get under the covers. You’ve had quite a day. I want you to get some rest,” Hermione said.

Volaria slipped under the covers and looked up at Hermione.

“Thank you for helping me, Hermione,” she said softly.

“You’re welcome, Volaria. Now, go to sleep,” Hermione said, smoothing her hair.

Volaria yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted.

”Good night,” she said sleepily, snuggling into the pillow.

”Good night,” Hermione said, pulling her wand and lowering the flame in the floo.

Quietly she exited the study and walked into the bedroom, sitting down on the bed deep in thought.

Volaria didn’t believe her brother could be rehabilitated. Still, reversing the effects of the elixir would at least make him manageable. She would still work on it. There might be some hope for the boy despite his sister’s assessment of him.

She could only hope.

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In a foul mood, Severus poured himself a firewhiskey and plopped down in his chair. Volaria had ruined everything. Albus and Hermione were just too easy to trust, always believing the best about others until they were proven wrong. Severus was not that gullible. Yes, Fawkes had given the okay, but that was for her intentions at the moment. She was Tom Riddle’s daughter…a wooly bloodline at best. The witch could be capable of anything in the future.

He took a sip of his firewhiskey, scowling into the flames of the fireplace. As good a man as Severus Snape was, he had one fault…once someone wronged him that wrong transferred to anything associated with that person. Case in point, Harry Potter. Severus hated him on sight because he was James Potter’s son. He still didn’t care for Harry.

He was going through the same thing with Volaria, placing the sins of the father on the daughter. It was unfair, but that was how it was. He didn’t believe she should be embraced, but put someplace and watched closely. Someplace other than his lover’s rooms. Plus, if she told anyone else about Voltaire and Bella, it could ruin everything. The girl should at least be put away until all this madness was over and the threat defused.

But no. Albus wanted to put her in classes and treat her like every other student. But she wasn’t a normal student. She was the flesh and blood of Lord Voldemort, the most evil magical despot that ever lived. How could the Headmaster be so thick? Hermione, he understood. That bleeding heart of hers knew no bounds. Intelligence didn’t necessarily mean smarts. She’d be treating the young witch like another project in no time. But Albus…considering all he’d been through over the years, he should know better.

Severus sighed as he finished his drink.

No. Albus was a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin. Another bleeding heart.

Well, he would be on guard if no one else was. He planned to watch that little witch like a hawk. He’d find out if she really was what she claimed to be…someone seeking sanctuary. If she wasn’t, he didn’t care how young she was…she’d be taken care of. Fawkes might be a good judge of character, but nothing was perfect. In this case, Severus wasn’t willing to take the word of a bird, even if it was an intelligent phoenix. With wandless magic and the ability to cast non-verbal spells, Volaria had the ability to be a true danger. No one knew how much of Bella’s twistedness had rubbed off on the girl. She was the picture of innocence. Severus wondered what was under the paint.

The Potions Master loosened the collar of his robes then stood up and walked over to his liquor cabinet to fix another drink. As he poured, he thought about Bella. She’d probably killed a few house elves by now in her rage. That poor soul Jordan might not be in that good a shape either. He would have to tell Albus about him and have a search performed to see if anyone named Jordan fitting his description had mysteriously disappeared in the last twenty years.

He sat back down again.

Hermione had cut him off. He frowned. He had been cut off for the past few weeks anyway. But now it was “official.” What was he going to do about that? He couldn’t go to her rooms and seduce/ravish her, thanks to the unwanted presence of Volaria, and that did nothing to endear the young witch to the Potions Master either.

It seemed he would have to beat Hermione at her own game. Make her miss him. It would be difficult with the witch preoccupied as she was by her project and now Volaria.

Hm.

Maybe it was time for him to become active again. The Death Eaters should be about ready to start the competition and
Draco could probably use some help gathering the details. Hermione had enough elixir to work with.

Yes. It sounded like a plan and certainly would get Hermione's attention.

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The next day Malina showed up at work to find that she’d been fired. The owner wasn’t there but Clarissa happily informed her she no longer had a job.

“You left the shop door open and the money in the register,” Clarissa said, “We’re lucky we weren’t cleaned out. Mr. Morrison said the only excuse for such a thing was if you were abducted, which obviously you weren’t. What happened? Why did you leave the store like that?”

Malina looked at Clarissa. She couldn’t tell her what happened because of the nature of Draco’s work. She would be forced to report the abduction to the Ministry Aurors, and then Draco would become involved. He might even be arrested because of his association because he wouldn’t be able to reveal he worked for the Order.

Only a few witches and wizards were actually being abducted by Death Eaters. Most of the revel victims were muggles and the muggle police were handling those disappearances. Muggle-borns were taken too…but since their parents were muggles, they were forced to turn to the muggle police as well when they came up missing if the Aurors couldn’t find them. To tell a detective their child was a wizard or witch that lived in a magical world was a sure way to be considered stark raving nutters.

“I had an important emergency,” Malina lied, “It came up suddenly and I just…rushed away.”

Clarissa looked at her suspiciously.

“What kind of emergency?” she asked the witch, not believing her.

“A personal emergency,” Malina said shortly.

Clarissa stared at her, then went into the register and counted out a few galleons and knuts. She took out a parchment and quill from the drawer, sliding them toward Malina.

“Sign this. It’s a statement saying you received your final pay,” the blonde witch said.

Malina signed the parchment and Clarissa gave her the money.

“Have a good life,” she said snidely as Malina left the shop.

Malina walked down the street, her brow furrowed. Shit. Now her income had been cut. She did all right at the studio when she had work, but right now, she didn’t have any. She’d have to find another job. She walked to the nearest public apparition point, picking up a Daily Prophet along the way.

She’d check the want ads.

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A/N: Man, what a miserable day. :( At least I managed to get out a chapter. Hope it was up to par. Thanks for reading.