Twice Bitten ~ COMPLETED

Chapter 33 ~ Another Apology

The next day, Edgar and Hermione met in the library during lunch to study, Edgar sneaking in some pumpkin pasties. It was really quite a challenge to eat them with the eagle-eyed librarian watching them like a hawk. But Hermione wasn’t up to arguing with the Ravenclaw today and Edgar noticed immediately.

”Hermione, what’s wrong? You’re not picking my theories apart,” Edgar said to the witch, his blue eyes full of concern. “Are you sick?”

Hermione sighed.

”A little heart-sick I suppose. I’m having man trouble,” she said glumly.

Both of Edgar’s eyebrows rose.

”Man trouble?” he repeated, his heart sinking a bit.

Hermione looked at him.

”Yes. There’s someone I like very much who I believe likes me, but I was angry with him for something thoughtless he did. When he apologized, I didn’t accept his apology right away but waited because I wanted to make him squirm a bit. But he’s really not the kind of wizard who’ll squirm for long. Finally he told me he didn’t care whether I forgive him or not and told me to leave him alone,” she said to Edgar, who brightened.

”So you broke up with him, then?” Edgar said, trying not to smile.

”Well, we really weren’t together, but were kind of working on it until I messed up,” Hermione said to him. “I didn’t want it to end up this way.”

”Is this wizard someone at Hogwarts?” Edgar asked her, hoping he wasn’t.

Hermione hesitated a bit too long before she answered him.

”Yes,” she said shortly.

Edgar got the distinct impression she didn’t want to tell him who the wizard was.

”So you still want to be with him then?” Edgar asked, his heart once again sinking.

”Yes. I do, Edgar,” Hermione said with a sigh, not noticing how the Ravenclaw’s face fell.

Damn. He hadn’t known Hermione was involved with anyone. It seemed like she really liked whoever he was. Shit.

”Well, you need to talk to him then,” Edgar said, although everything in him wanted to say, “Forget about him. You could go out with me.” But that wasn’t the right response and he knew it.

“He won’t listen to me,” Hermione said, “He gets . . . rather ugly.”

”He doesn’t hit you, does he?” Edgar asked her, bristling. He hated wizards that hit witches. They were the worst kind of cowards.

”Oh no. He does it with his words. He can really hurt you with them if he wants to,” she said. “He won’t listen to me at all.”

Edgar looked at Hermione’s face. Her eyes were so sad. She really liked whoever this person was. Oh well. Maybe after she talked to him she’d find out they really don’t need to be together and he’d have an opening. It wouldn’t be right or smart to make a move on her now. He was just glad he found out before he made an ass of himself.

“Well, you need to find a way to make him listen. Corner him or something,” Edgar said to her.

”That would be like cornering a dragon, Edgar, believe me,” Hermione said.

”Anything worth having is worth fighting for, Hermione,” Edgar said softly. “So what if he breathes a little fire?”

Hermione looked at him for a moment, then brightened.

”Edgar, you’re right,” she said, rising.

”Where are you going?” he asked the witch as she piled her books back into her knapsack and removed the Silencing spell around them.

”I have to get someone to cover my rounds tonight,” Hermione said to him. “Thanks Edgar.”

She hurried off.

Edgar rested his chin in his hand, realizing he just may have lost whatever chance he had to go out with Hermione with his advice.

”Yeah. Thanks Edgar,” he said glumly.

His eyes shifted to the floor and he saw a roll of parchment that hadn’t been there before. He walked over and picked it up, unrolling it.

Hermione Granger.
Advanced Arithmancy
Report: Divining Lei Lines Through the Use of Solar Triangulation

Edgar’s eyes widened as he read Hermione’s completed report. It blew his out of the water.

”Damn. She’s going to get perfect marks on this,” he breathed.

Although they studied together, both Edgar and Hermione were careful not to share the details of their reports or even the titles of them. Edgar was still working on his, struggling with some of the finer points. He blinked down at the parchment, then looked around the library to see if anyone were watching. For once, Madam Pince was not behind the counter.

The Ravenclaw rolled up the parchment and stuck it in his pocket, then exited the library.

No matter how attractive he found her on a personal level, Hermione wasn’t going to beat him out this time.

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Snape was somewhat surprised when he saw a Prefect performing Hermione’s rounds. It was just as well. The entire time she was in DADA class, she kept looking at him with wounded eyes.

Well, looking like a hurt kitten wasn’t going to move him one bit. He opened up once. Once bitten, twice shy. He didn’t give Hermione another thought as he made his way up the stairs.

As he was patrolling the corridor, he thought he heard something behind him and stopped, peering through the darkness. He backtracked but found nothing. Thinking he must have heard the castle settling, he continued on, checking empty rooms and niches. He pushed open the door on the right at the furthest end of the corridor and entered.

He heard another noise and spun.

”Incarcerous!” a familiar voice hissed, and immediately the Potions master was trussed up tight. He shouted as he started to topple face first to the floor but someone caught him, barely. Someone small and very soft.

”Hermione!” Snape seethed as he was dragged to the closest wall and propped up against it.

Hermione removed Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, placed it on a nearby chair and looked at the wizard.

”Good evening, Professor,” she said to him.

”I’ll have you expelled for this you little vixen!” the wizard snarled.

Hermione quickly cast a Silencing spell around the room, then closed and warded the door. She looked at Snape, who looked absolutely murderous.

”How dare you bind me!” he hissed at her. “I demand you let me go this instant!”

Snape began to struggle and started leaning dangerously to the side.

”You’re going to fall on your face if you keep struggling, Professor,” Hermione said, pushing the snarling wizard back up.

“Why have you done this? You have to know there will be repercussions when I am freed,” Snape said to her. “This was an incredibly stupid thing to do, Hermione.”

“I was incredibly desperate, that’s why I did it,” she replied, “I want you to listen to me, Professor.”

”I was listening for you for over three weeks, Hermione. I gave you more than enough time to talk to me. Instead you focused on punishing me and setting yourself up with a new beau,” the Potions master said angrily.

”New beau? You mean Edgar? Edgar’s just a study buddy. I keep him close so I can stay ahead of him in marks. He’s right behind me and trying to move up,” she said to the wizard.

“He wants to be more than your ‘study buddy’ believe me. I’ve seen how he looks at you, witch,” Snape said. “Stud buddy is a better description for what he wants. Not that it matters to me.”

Hermione sighed.

”Listen Professor, I just want to tell you something about me. Something I never told you,“ she said to him.

”I’m not interested,” Snape snapped at her.

”I suggest you get interested or I’m going to disillusion you and leave you up here for a day or two,” she snapped back at him. “And I’ll illusion the door to look like a wall so no one will come in here.”

”I’ll be missed,” he said.

”Not by the students. Maybe I’ll leave a note saying you had to take an emergency leave in the Headmistress’ office,” she said to him.

Snape’s nostrils flared. If only he could get his hands on her, he’d throttle the cheeky little chit within an inch of her life.

”When your deception is found out, you’ll be expelled,” he said to her. “Add kidnapping to that, and there could be a few months in Azkaban as well.”

”Right now I don’t care, Professor. I’ll do what I have to. Anything worth having is worth fighting for,” she said to him, echoing Edgar’s words. “I think you’re worth fighting for, even if I have to fight you.”

Snape fell silent for several moments, staring at the witch. Fight for him? Did she mean that?

“Will you listen to me? Please?” Hermione asked him.

”Speak then, for all the good it will do,” the wizard said sullenly.

”Professor, I had feelings for you from the end of my fifth year until I found out you killed Dumbledore,“ she said softly. “I thought you were the most courageous, brilliant wizard I ever met. Harry and Ron didn’t care for you, but I did. I knew what you were facing and how you protected us.”

Snape didn’t say anything.

”You said that you were too old, too ugly, too cold and too harsh to attract a young witch. That isn’t true. You’re only in your thirties, that’s not old at all, especially for a wizard. And I don’t think you’re ugly at all. You aren’t handsome in the classic sense, but your face has character. You can be cold and harsh, but who wouldn’t be with all you’ve gone through. I think you wouldn’t always be that way with a witch who cared about you. I don’t think you were that way with Lily because you cared about her. You have beautiful eyes, a beautiful voice and beautiful hands.”

Hermione’s eyes washed over the wizard slowly as Snape looked at her in silence still. She took a deep breath, then continued.

“I felt all this long before you became a vampire, Professor. I even used to imagine what it would be like to kiss you. I didn’t dare think any further than that . . . but I knew that I probably could shag you too. Still, it was all from afar. I know your vampirism had a lot to do with what happened between us, but I think if you had shown an interest in me, I would have returned it even if you weren’t a vampire. So you see, Professor, I’m not like Lily. Not really. She could have had you, but didn’t want you. I wanted you but couldn’t have you. You had no interest in me. You were almost like a male version of Lily Evans for me.”

Snape blinked at this, but still remained silent.

“When I found out in the end that you were only doing what Dumbledore wished when you killed him, and how devoted you were to Harry’s mother and that was the reason you risked everything to protect him, I found a quiet place, sat there and cried for hours, mourning you. I had to do it in private because no one would have understood why I was reacting so strongly to your death when so many others had died. Oh, I cried for them. Remus, Tonks, Fred, Colin and the rest, but not like I cried for you. For the terrible, thankless way you died. For how I walked away from your body like you were nothing, when you were everything. Everything. Voldemort would have never been defeated except for you. Harry killed him, but you were the catalyst, Professor. And no one ever thanked you. You were reviled, hated and in the end, left alone, the most courageous of us all, abandoned on the floor of a filthy shack. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. You’ve been so misjudged and mistreated. I can understand now why you did what you did as a vampire. You believed you had no one. Yet you had me and didn’t know it.”

Tears began to roll helplessly from Hermione’s eyes as she looked at the wizard. Snape’s own eyes looked rather wet as well.

”I made a mistake, Professor, by trying to treat you like a wizard my own age, giving you the silent treatment, making you wait because I wanted to teach you a lesson. Who am I to teach anyone a lesson about taking other people’s feelings into consideration when I was guilty of not doing it myself? I was simply acting my age I guess. I should have realized you’re too old for games. I forgave you that very same night, Professor. You were only being who you were and you told me why. You come from a world of users, and I don’t. Not really, though sometimes I am used for my brain. But I’m used to that, just like you were used to being used. It’s just the way things are. When you asked me what it was about you that said ‘use me,’ at first I thought it was an absurd statement coming from a man that uses everyone he comes in contact with. But then I realized that you were hoping I wouldn’t use you, that I would be the one person who acted differently toward you, who wouldn’t try to manipulate you. And I failed there. I’m so sorry, Professor. I didn’t mean to do that. I did all this tonight just so I could tell you everything. Not that it will make any difference to you. I know you don’t forgive wrongs easily, and I wronged you. Again, I’m sorry.”

Hermione walked over to the chair and picked up the Invisibility Cloak.

”I’m going to go now. I’ll release the spell when I get far enough away. If you decide to get me expelled, I’ll deal with it. But at least I’ll be able to sleep tonight. Good-bye, Professor,” the witch said, pulling the cloak over her.

Snape heard Hermione’s voice as she removed the charms and wards she had cast, then the door opened. After about a minute, the ropes tying him loosened, then fell to the floor.

He stood there a moment in silence. He had no intentions on pursuing the witch tonight. He would deal with her mistreatment of his person later. Right now, he needed to finish his rounds.

And think.

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A/N: You know, I think I channeled some of my own feelings about the death of Snape in Deathly Hallows when writing Hermione's monologue. Lord knows I felt it was horribly unfair how he was treated in life and in death. Sigh. Thank goodness for fanfiction, I swear. Thanks for reading.