Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 35 Professor Severus Snape

Another couple of weeks passed by. Harry had been back to the Ministry and again didn't get the chance to switch cups. The shock of Ron's betrayal and death had passed and school life was getting back to normal. Hermione's newest mission was to date Harry and get him to fall in love with her so when the final battle came and her allegiance was shown, he would be broked-hearted and willingly die with not much of a fight. They were still inseparable, and now were much closer in a physical sense (though they hadn't had sex of any sort), but she couldn't get him to ask her out. The problem was that she couldn't be too obvious about it. He had to be the one to ask her because it would really be like the final insult.

She and Blaise had been no less than friendly in private, though there had been no repeat of the night after Ron's death. Blaise had been called to their master once more, and this time when he got back he had been allowed to tell her of his mission. He was to recruit as many sixth and seventh years to the Dark as possible. They had only been at school for a month and a half and he had four people converted. The first to turn was a Gryffindor, so what Hermione had said to Ginny had actually been the truth. She had writted to the Dark Lord, using Professor Davis' spell to send the letter asking what to do about Nagini once they had finished with the cup. She had yet to recieve a reply.

Malfoy had been to visit her twice more. He didn't want to share her with Potter, but she told him that not only did he have no say in the matter, but she was only his mistress to begin with so what was the big deal. When he brought up the detail of her Mark, she said that she would just have to perform the spell that Bella had previously done on her to disappear the visibility of it. He ended up leaving in a sullen mood.

The Transfiguration sessions were coming along well, and numbers amongst the elder female population at Hogwarts had swelled. After one such session, Hermione and Professor Davis were in his office going over notes on how people had improved and what they should do the next session, as well in his classes. She had become quite comfortable with him, as she was sitting on his desk with him on his chair with her stocking feet resting on his thighs, her paperwork in her lap.

There was a sudden rap on the door of the office, and she quickly scrambled to a desk in the front row as he went to go open the door. Snape strode into the room. Before he spoke to Davis, he swept the room over with his eyes to see if they were alone. Seeing Hermione in one of the chairs, he glared at her.

"I suppose we were done, Professor. I must get started on my rounds anyway, so I will see you in class tomorrow." She got up and started to leave the room when Snape cleared his throat.

"Miss Granger, I do believe you have forgotten your shoes."

It was then that she remembered her shoes were located underneath Professor Davis' desk. "What? Oh, no, sir. I wasn't wearing any shoes. I was thinking that one can always try to be prepared, so I've decided to go without shoes for a while when I'm not in class to try and roughen my feet up some."

The former Potions Master raised a disbelieving eyebrow to her. "Interesting logic, Miss Granger," he said with a smirk. She quickly left the room, glancing towards her Head of House after she had passed Snape's direct eyesight.

When she walked into her common room it was to find the group of Slytherins that had decided to make the place their hangout. "You're not wearing any shoes," observed Goyle.

"No shit, Sherlock," she replied to a room of confused faces. Choosing to ignore the looks she went over to her desk and started in on her homework. They then continued on with their conversation, having gotten used to her being there, as well as the idea that she wasn't going to repeat anything she happened to overhear.

Meanwhile in Professor Davis' office, he was back at his desk with Snape standing opposite him. "Davis, you are aware that it is against the rules to... fraternize with any student, even if the student is of age? And especially if you are a Death Eater and the student in question is the best friend of Harry Potter?"

"Of course I am aware of that, Snape," Davis spat as he kicked Hermione's shoes further under the desk. "And for the record, I am not fraternizing with any student. Now what did you come here for?"

"I have come to ask what your part in the Dark Lord's plans for Halloween are."

"Then you have wasted your time. I am Inner Circle. You are not. You are Order of the Phoenix. I am not. No matter how many times you try to get information from me, it will never work. And you can stop with the Legilimancy bullshit, because you know that's not going to work on me, either. Now if you can please leave."

The next day Hermione arrived to Tranfiguration before the rest of the class to retrieve her shoes. She told Harry that she didn't have a chance to finish going over her notes with Davis the night before due to Snape's arrival, which Harry found a bit interesting, but not enough to say anything.

When he joined her in the classroom she decided to change the subject so he would be thinking of something else. "So, what are your plans on getting the cup?"

"I really just have to be able to slip away from whatever conversation I've been led into about how great the Ministry is long enough to do the spell. It's just been rather complicated."

She made a disgusted noise as she leaned against his shoulder. "That just sucks, Harry. Either you need to try harder or I need to come with you to do it for you while you distract people."

"You know, that probably is the only way to get it done. I'll owl the Minister about taking you with me." The rest of the students had arrived and the class started, effectively ending the conversation.

The next class of the day was DADA. The reason they hadn't been assigned a book was that it was all practicality. The only written assignments they had been given were of proper technique, or were heavy reasearch papers that they would need more than a textbook for anyway.

Throughout the class Snape kept as close an eye on Hermione as possibe, as though he expected her to somehow give away that she was having a torrid affair with Davis, despite the fact that she wasn't. It really was rather disturbing, because he wasn't using his usual spy skills to watch her-- more than half the students noticed and asked her about it after class. She pretended to be as confused as they were over it.

She noted to herself that she was going to have to pay closer attention to him than she had in the past. She was just going to have to be more covert about it than he was being.