The Fortress Within

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“I need a drink,” Severus commented offhandedly as he
made his way to the liquor cabinet.  He
threw the doors wide, and crouched down to peer into it’s depths. 
“Better make that two, Snape,” purred a soft voice in his ear. He
started at her sudden presence  behind him, knocking his head on the cherry wood in front. 
“Gods, woman, do you have to sneak up on me like that? 
He pulled out a bottle of brandy and a snifter and moved away quickly. 
“Help yourself” 
 


“Quite a little bar you have going on in here. 
I’m impressed.”  She reached far into the back of the cabinet and pulled out a
bottle.  “Ahhhhh, this’ll do
nicely.”  Hermione straightened up
and walked over to the fireplace.  With
a point of her finger, she had a fire going. 
“You don’t mind if we skip dinner, do you? 
I didn’t think so.”
 


She reached into a silver box above the fireplace and
removed a pinch of floo powder.  She
sprinkled it into the fire, and yelled “Lemons, sliced and some salt.” 
In the blink of an eye, a silver platter sat on top of the table in the
corner.  Another wave of her finger
and the table was next to the chair she had first occupied. 
“That’s more like it.”  She
resumed her relaxed pose in front of the fire. 
 


Severus watched her, transfixed as she prepared for her
drink.  Her tongue slipped out and
she licked the base of her thumb.  Picking
up the salt shaker, she sprinkled the salt on the wet area. 
She licked the salt on her hand and drank long straight from the bottle.
She then picked up a slice of lemon and bit, screwing her face up a bit at the
taste.
 


Severus shook his head at the sight. 
He never developed a taste for tequila himself, but held a sort of
respect for those that drank it. It was a harsh drink. 
“Are you sure you wouldn’t care for a glass??”
 


She pasted a seductive smile on her face, more out of habit
than anything else, “Nah, unless the idea of my lips on your bottle disgusts
you.”
 


“No, by all means, continue.”  He cupped the snifter in his hands, warming it. 
He watched her repeat the ritual two more times before she set the bottle
down next to the chair.
 


“Mind if I smoke?” 
She didn’t wait for his approval; a lit cigarette simply appeared in
her hand.
 


“Where did you acquire all of this wandless magic,
Granger?”
 


She smiled at him, seemingly pleased that he had noticed. 
She took a long drag before beginning. “Potter would take my wand when
he trained me.  One day he
hit me with like the fifth Cruciatus and I had really had it. 
Iughtught to myself that I’d love to Crucio him. 
The next think I know, the little bastard is flying across the floor and
rolling around, screaming.  After
that everything else was pretty easy.  It’s
not so hard once you get the hang of it.”
 


She reached down and took the bottle up again. 
This time she drank without benefit of lemon or salt. 
The bottle returned to the floor and she worked on the cigarette in her
hand.
 


Severus smiled.  The
thought of Harry Potter getting knocked on his ass warmed him and he said as
much.  Hermione joined him in his
indulgence, laughing low in her throat.  No
girlish giggling for this Hermione.
 


“Well, Granger, since you’ve been around the
Deatheaters more than I have lately, let’s hear your ideas on the best way to
approach our little problem.”
 


She took another drag and tossed the butt into the fire. 
He could see her mind working as she picked the bottle up and downed
another large portion.  “Well,
I’m sure you have observed that he isn’t the wizard he used to be. 
His last run in with the friggin’ Boy Who Lived weakened him
considerably.  His strengths lie in
the sheep following him.  We need to
separate him from the Deatheaters if we are going to take him down. 
Only problem is he knows his weaknesses and his strengths. 
He surrounds himself constantly with a veritable army.”
 


Severus contemplated her words. “So, we need some sort of
bait?”
 


She shook her head and made an annoyed face at him. 
“No, we need more than bait.  We
need to make ourselves indispensable to him. 
We need his complete trust in us.  Then,
when the time is right, we convince him to set forth the army against Dumbledore. 
We will stay behind as his, oh I don’t know… bodyguards?? 
From there it will be an easy task of gutting the prick.”
 


Severus leaned back and took a long swallow of brandy. 
“That’s reasonable.  But,
what about Dumbledore.  In fact,
what about the whole damn student body.  We
can’t just turn them over to battle against the Deatheaters.”
 


“No, I don’t suppose even Dumbledore can lead the staff
and a hundred snot-nosed brats against all of them.  The school clears out over the Christmaeak,eak, though. 
That will give us enough time to work on Voldemort. I’m sure it would
be an easy enough task of sneaking the whole lot of the Ministry’s Holy
Warriors in here for an ambush.”
 


Hermione Granger was never a slouch when it came to working
out a problem and it seemed that even as her Deatheater twin, her mind worked
brilliantly.  Severus smiled as the
plan was coming together in his mind.  “You
know, it just might work.  It’s
sure as hell complicated enough, but it just might work. Let me see if I got all
this straight.  We make ourselves
into the loyal little sheep that Voldemort loves. 
Albeit powerful sheep.  We
convince him to strike during the Christmas break.  We seemingly make sure the students and staff are gone and
Albus is vulnerable.  Meanwhile,
somehow, we sneak the whole damn lot of Ministry Auror’s in here to ambush the
Deatheaters?  Just how do we
convince him to send his whole army after one Albus Dumbledore?”
 


He could almost audibly hear the wheels turning in her
head.  Suddenly here eyes showed the
characteristic spark.  “The castle
isn’t quite altogether abandoned.  Skeleton
staff and all that.  Enough people
here, that it will be a bit of a struggle. And we play to his sense of
drama.  Think of the sight of
Voldemort, you and I apparating into Hogwarts together. 
Think of Albus’ poor heart breaking at the sight of his favorite
Potions Master and sweet Innocent DADA professor, standing with Voldemort. 
How’s that for an entrance.  Yeah,
Voldemort will send the whole crew in if for no other reason than to pave his
own dramatic entrance.  He’ll eat
this shit up.”
 


He emptied his glass and set it aside. 
“This is just crazy enough to work, Granger. 
I never knew you possessed such a Slytherin sense of cunning.”
 


“You forget, Professor, I spent 7 long years observing
the best.  Speaking of observations,
I did a little eavesdropping on you and my Gryffindor side earlier today. 
You can be quite the sentimental softy sometimes. 
Never thought you had it in you.  Just
want to get a few things straight with you myself.”
 


She watched his face, making sure she had his entire
attention, before continuing.  “Like
my counterpart, I am aware of everything that goes on with us. 
She told you earlier, that there would be nothing personal in anything
that transpired between the two of us.  I
echo that sentiment as well.  This
also means, that no matter what you see happening to me, you keep your male
Machismo in check.  I need no knight
in shining armor.  To speak bluntly
I have spent literally months now as a live sex doll for Lucius Malfoy.  I’m OK with that.  It’s
what I was trained to do and I do it well. 
You play your role and I will play mine and we will be just fine.”
 


“If it comes down to you havto gto go one on one with me
for a little sideshow, do not try to take it easy on me.  I’ve heard about your reputation and I expect you to live
up to it.  I know, you do what you
have to like I do.  We don’t have
to enjoy any of it, just act like we do.  Oh,
and do me a favor, would you??  If
it’s a physical battle they set up for us, take it easy on my right leg. 
Lucius shattered it a while back.  I
knit everything back together again, but it doesn’t seem quite right
sometimes.  I’d appreciate it if
you didn’t break it again.”
 


He feigned a serious expression, “Certainly, my dear. 
I’ll do my best.”
 


Her eyes narrowed at the affectionate moniker he used. 
Suddenly, she realized he was attempting to be funny, 
“Good one, Snape.”  She
raised the bottle to him in a salute and laughed. 
 


He returned the gesture in kind and took more of the am liq liquid.
 


Suddenly the woman leapt to her feet. She took two steps in
his general direction and threw herself down on the oversized couch. 
He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head in the direction of her booted
feet.
 


She grinned at him and mumbled, “Sorry,” before sitting
up to unzip the leather.  With two
kicks, the boots were on the floor behind the couch. 
She leaned back against the pillows which had appeared and sighed. 
“That’s much better.  Damn
I’m tired.  I remember you telling us that Dreamless Sleep wasn’t a
real sleep.  I never understood
that.  I mean sleep is sleep, right? 
Now I get it.”
 


This incarnation seemed to be taxing on Hermione’s body. 
He could tell she was exhausted, but he needed to get some more
information from her.  “How long will it be before we are recalled?”
 


She gazed at him through heavily lidded eyes for a long
moment, and then moved her eyes distantly to the fire. 
“Probably a week or two for us. I, on the other hand, can look
forward to an owl from Lucius every 3 or 4 days. 
I told you, I’m his personal slut, and he calls me whenever he sees
fit.  At least when it’s just the
two of us, he’s not quite as cruel.  Don’t
get me wrong, he’s as evil as they come. 
But we all need some sort of affection, sometimes. 
Even Lucius.  Actually, it
works to my advantage.  He’s
actually quite a good lover at times. I can just close my eyes and
pretend…..”  Her eyes went completely blank, then. 
 


Neither Hermione nor the Deatheater were there anymore. 
All that lay on the sofa was a shell. 
Severus imagined, that wherever they were right then, they were with a
werewolf.  At least she could find a
measure of comfort and love, even if in the recesses of her mind.
 


For a long while her eyes just stared blankly, not even
blinking.  If not for the rise and
fall of her chest, Severus might have thought she had passed on. 
Her eyes slipped shut.  Hermione
was asleep. 
 


He accio’d a blanket from his sleeping chamber and
covered her up.  He took great care
not to wake her.  For a long time,
he sat and watched her sleep.
 


Her fgavegave no indication as to her dreams, if any. 
She looked peaceful.  He
imagined she had slept this peacefully in Gryffindor tower, in her student days. 
Before the cruelties of the world had inflicted themselves on her; first
by the light, then by the dark.  Before
she had been thrust into the midst of a horrible war. 
 


ose ose quietly and with a wave of his wand the lights in
the room went out.  He gazed down at
the sleeping girl, her face lit by firelight. 
He reached out to touch her cheek.  Desperately,
even in sleep, she moved into the warmth of his hand and sighed. 
Her words echoed in his mind, “We all need some sort of
affection.” 
 


He moved away from her. 
He undressed in the darkness of his bedroom and slipped into bed.  
From his side, he could still see her lying there, through the open
doorway.  That was how he fell
asleep, drinking in the sight of her.