Hollow

ALL CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARK OF JK ROWLING, AND AS FOR ME, I JUST MAKE THEM DO STRANGE AND AWKWARD THINGS…

Once more this is rated NC17, for a reason, got it? If you don’t like, then don’t read it. And we’re getting there now that I finally woke Hermione up, hehe.

Okay, I’m going to be switching between Hermione and Snape’s point of view, just be warned.

Anyways I’m gonna shutup now…

EVERYONE IS EIGHTEEN

Ciao

CHAPTER FIVE: Crawling in the Dark

Hermione couldn’t believe her eyes. “ Professor Snape?” she said in a dark mystified voice. Professor Snape the head of Slytherin, whose lifelong ambition seemed to make her and her friend’s lives miserable.
“ You’re awake,” he said, he shifted around uncomfortably. He seemed as bewildered by the situation as she was. He let go of her and stared down at the ground. “ I must get Madame Pomfrey and the headmaster immediately.” And with that he got up and left the room in a hurry.
Hermione looked around, she had no idea what had happened. Why was she in the infirmary? But more so, why was Snape watching over her, holding her? She couldn’t remember anything except being trapped in a dark void… She remembered being fully conscious of everything going on around her, but being unable to partake in anything. Aside from that she remembered walking with Harry and Ron. The three of them were under Harry’s cloak, and they had seen Sirius and Sirius had warned them that the dark lord was getting stronger. The she remembered a flash of light, and feeling like her emotions were being sucked away into a big black empty shell. How long had she been here? How much schoolwork had she missed? She had NEWTS at the end of the year, she hoped it hadn’t been to long.
Her train of thoughts were interrupted by Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey, and Snape entering the room. “ How are you feeling?” asked Madame Pomfrey, her expression grim and her voice sullen and low.
“ Cold,” Hermione answered.
“ That would be expected,” Madame Pomfrey said. She handed Hermione a bar of Honeydukes chocolate. “ Eat some,” she ordered.
“ Was I attacked by a dementor?” Hermione asked, as the chocolate slab was handed to her. She remembered her third year when Harry had fainted on the train after seeing a dementor and Professor Lupin had handed him a piece of chocolate.
Madame Pomfrey said nothing; instead she looked at the headmaster. “ Do you remember what happened, Hermione?” Dumbledore asked kindly.
“ No… Nothing,” Hermione said. “ The last thing I remember is walking around with Harry and Ron…” she stopped short after seeing the cross expression on Snape’s sullen face.
“ Please continue,” Dumbledore said, ignoring the displeasure Snape’s expression seemed to be radiating…
“ That’s really all I remember,” she said, not wanting to say a word about Sirius. She knew Dumbledore kept in close contact with Sirius, but it didn’t seem wise to mention the so-called escaped murdered in front of Madam Pomfrey, or Snape since Snape still held it against all of them that he lost his order of Merlin. “ Except for the light… and then everything went black…” She looked down. “ Then I remembered feeling like I was trapped, and feeling empty and soulless…” She heard Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey sigh. Snape said nothing, but Hermione almost thought she saw a twinge of guilt in his black eyes, and then she thought she was seeing things. “ What happened to me, Professor? Are Ron and Harry okay?”
“ Ron and Harry are fine,” Dumbledore answered. “ As for what happened? Well, I don’t think I should be the one to tell you. Severus, I’d like you to talk to her.” Hermione shivered, what did Snape have to do with anything?
“ I’d like to keep her in for another night, so I can observe her and make sure she doesn’t fall back into a trance,” Madame Pomfrey said.
“ I’ll go tell Harry and Ron that you’re awake, I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear it,” Dumbledore said, his blue eyes twinkled. “ Now come Madame Pomfrey, I’d like to leave them to talk…”


Snape watched as the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey left the room. He looked at the girl sitting on the bed. She looked so helpless, her skin was pale, and her hair hung askew around her face, but there was something radiating about her. Snap out of it Severus, he told himself. “ How are you feeling, Ms. Granger?” he asked.
“ How long was I out?” she responded, more or less directly avoiding his question.
“ About two weeks,” he answered.
“ All the work I missed,” she began.
“ Well Ms. Granger, with your status as head girl and your annoying habit of memorizing every single course book, I’m sure you’ll survive,” he snapped. She said nothing. He looked down at the ground and stared. He didn’t mean to say that, it just happened, a reflex or something of that nature.
“ What happened to me?” she asked.
Snape took a few deep breaths; he wasn’t sure how to tell her. He wasn’t sure how she’d take the truth. How she would feel when she found out she had saved him from Voldemort. It might have seemed the right thing to do at the time, but the aftermath might kill her.
“ Please Professor Snape, I need to know,” she said softly. She sounded so innocent, so young, so naïve… “ I can’t live by crawling ar in in the dark forever.”
“ Well,” he began, clearing his throat, and shifting around his weight. He held his hands together and then he hid them in the silky folds of his black cape. “uppouppose you, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Potter were coming back from one of your usual nightly strolls.” He couldn’t clothe the disgust for the two of them in his voice no matter how hard he tried. “ And well…” It was so hard to tell, such a burden on him, yet the headmaster was right, it seemed like he was the right one to tell it. “ You came across Voldemort administering one of the curses on me and you ran in front of the curse…” He shifted around. “ I’ll leave you now,” he said. “ I’m sure you need some along time to digest this all.” He took one last look at her, feeling sure that the guilt he felt was betraying him through his eyes.


Hermione looked down at her blanket. The memories were slowly coming back to her, infesting her mind like a viruse ree remembered the three of them had come across the dark lord and watched him cast the first curse on Snape. She remembered the dark lord’s cold voice stinging the air telling Snape how he must be punished for sinning against him and their cause. Then the image of Snape writhing around on the ground like a snake stood out ir mir mind. How he had collapsed and started coughing up blood, and how the expression on his normally hatred filled face had changed to a pained one. Then as she saw the Dark Lord raise his wand, she remembered her blood boiling and her face burning, no one should have to take this, she had thought. That’s when she had run out from under the invisible curtain, Ron had tried to grab her robe from behind but she was too quick, and she jumped in front of the light, and that’s when everything had gone black.


Snape walked in a daze back to his quarters, he nonchalantly let himself in with a spell, and sat in his c in in front of the fire that never warmed anything. He was ashamed of himself. After everything the girl had been through for him, he’d been nothing but the hate filled Potions Professor that she despised. He couldn’t even bring himself to thank her for the torture she had put herself through for him. His feelings for her were still strong, and he still felt a longing to be with her, to be near her. But there was nothing he could do about it, nothing at all. She probably hated him, maybe even regretted what she did for him. He hated himself more then ever.


“ Hermione, you’re finally awake,” a voice butt into her thinking. Ron and Harry had come running in the room. Ron looked his usual way with his unruly red hair, and his too short robes, and Harry also with his messy hair and bright green eyes. “ How are you feeling?”
“ How much work did I miss in class?” she asked.
“ That’s our Hermione all right, she’s back to normal, obsessing over work,” Harry said.
“ Come on Harry, our NEWTS are at the end of the year. You’ve got to start studying for them now.” She cut herself off; she knew how much Ron and Harry hated it when she lectured them on their study habits. “ How’s Quidditch?”
“ We killed Hufflepuff in the game last week,” Harry said.
“ I think he caught the snitch in record time,” Ron added.
“ I’m happy then,” she said. She looked at her friends. “ I’m probably so behind in everything. Did Professor Flitwick start trances yet?”
“ Yeah a few days ago,” Harry remarked.
“ I know those are going to be on the NEWTS, I’m so behind.”
“ Hermione,” Ron started. “ You’ll do fine, come on now, I think you’ve memorized every single text book and library book at Hogwarts.”
“ You don’t understand, Ron, reading about it isn’t exactly the same as practicing it.”
“ We got high marks on our divination homework,” Harry said.
“ That’s great… How much of it did you make up?” Harry and Ron said nothing; they just smirked at each other.
“ The more depressing we get, the more she likes it,” said Harry.
“ You’d think by now she’d realize your tricks,” she said, but she was smiling.
“ So how are you, Hermione?” Ron asked. “ We thought Snape was trying to finish you off or something…”
“ Huh?”
“ He was always coming in here and kicking us out,” Ron explained. Hermione looked down again. There was something about Snape that she couldn’t quite fit into place yet. She could have sworn that he almost looked guilty when he walked away… But no… Professor Snape, feeling guilty? It just didn’t seem logical to her. Why would he care about anything happening to anyone, especially her. He seemed to hate her just as much if not more then Draco Malfoy.
“ Are you okay, Hermione?” asked Harry.
“ I’m just… tired,” she answered.
“ We’ll leave you to sleep then,” Harry said. “ Will you be in classes tomorrow?”
“ Yeah,” she answered.
“ Okay Bye, feel better,” they both chorused and then they left her, alone, once more. Hermione buried her face in the pillow and once more she was crawling in the dark, lost in thought, and confused.

LOST ANGEL’S NOTES: There Chapter Five, another chapter that I’m not sure if it came out how I wanted it too. Eh, whatever, right? This is what happens after I do hours and hours of work. Hope it came out making sense and hope people liked it. onCe more if the grammar sucks, sorry, I’M A GRAMMER WHORE; it isn’t my forte especially at two in the morning. So goodnight, Chapter 6 will be up soon.