Broken Lives

Ch.4… Transformation Complete


Snape had been in the Forbidden Forest gathering fresh potions ingredients. He saw her leaving the quidditch pitch, and even with her new look, he knew who it was straight away. ‘Silly little girl,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t she realise she will attract more undesirable attention than desirable, flaunting herself like that.’ His first thought had been to catch up with her and berate her for her inappropriate state of dress, but something stopped him. A picture flashed through his brain, the broken battered body of a young woman. Probably a memory from a dark revel, he assumed, but for some reason, the bloody bruised face was that of Miss Granger. ‘Great!’ he thought to himself, ‘now I’m having premonitions, I really need a holiday.’ He made his way back to the dungeons, placed his freshly gathered ingredients in the storeroom and went into his office.

He withdrew his student pensive from his desk, tapped it with his wand and spoke her name, ‘Hermione Granger.’ She had made it back to her room in one piece, no mean feat considering the way she was dressed, and was in the process of emptying the contents of her wardrobe onto her bed. He watched her as she moved around the room. He admired the body that, until today, she had kept hidden under her school uniforms and demure muggle clothes. Her full breasts whose rosy nipples were visible through the tightly stretched fabric of her top, her narrow waist, her gently flared hips, she turned away from him then bent over. He heard himself groan, the deliciously rounded arse cheeks and her long, long slender legs. He felt his trousers tighten ad he imagined those legs wrapped around his naked body. ‘Get a grip,’ he thought, ‘she is your student, damn it.’ He tried in vain to ignore his body’s response as she stood up straight, and he had a chance to study her face. He had noticed the changes in her face over the last couple of years, watching it change from the face of a child to the face of a beautiful young woman.

Physically, in his eyes, she was perfection, but it was not the physical that had first attracted him, it was her intelligence and her thirst for knowledge. He had seen it the first time she entered his potions classroom, and he had goaded her mercilessly about it for her first four years. He mused on her reaction to him, at first she had been scared of him, as were all his students, but it had taken her barely a year to change. Towards the end of her first year he noticed the fear was replaced by respect that had not wavered since. Well, except for a brief period during her second year after the ‘teeth incident’ when she had looked at him with pure hate. It had been the only time he had been cruel towards her, and the hurt he saw in her eyes had made him feel guilty. The guilt had proved to much for him after a couple of weeks until her gave her an unwarranted detention, during which time he had her reorganise his storeroom, a task he would not have trusted to any other student. When she had finished she stood in front of his desk, biting her bottom lip, as she had a habit of doing, waiting to be dismissed. He sat back and looked at her for some time before finally commenting;

‘Your teeth are different than before.’ Anger had flared in her eyes.

‘I’m surprised you noticed,’ she’d snapped back. He had had to bite back his laugh,

‘They weren’t unattractive before,’ he’d said offhandedly.

Her expression had softened. ‘At least it was quicker and less painful to let Madame Pomfrey fix them than to do so the muggle way.’

‘I’m sure,’ he replied with a smile, ‘You may go now Miss Granger.’ She had returned his smile and turned to leave.

Halfway to the door she had turned back to him and said shyly, ‘If you like, sir, I could come back once a month to tidy your storeroom for you.’

He had been surprised by her offer; no one had ever volunteered to help him before. ‘If you wish,’ he had agreed. ‘The first Saturday of the month will be agreeable with me, directly after breakfast.’ She looked at him and nodded, ‘I will be back then Professor,’ she turned and quickly left.
She had been true to her word and since that day, once a month; she would arrive after breakfast to tidy his storeroom. Not only had she tidied, but she made lists of ingredients that needed to be replenished. He would sit at his desk grading papers as she worked, in silence to begin with, but as the months progressed they had begun to talk. They started discussing potions but their conversation had broadened to cover many areas including literature and music, both wizarding and muggle. From what had begun as an hour or so a month in his storeroom; had gradually developed into pleasant Saturday mornings that more often than not extended to lunchtime. The boundary between teacher and student had never been breached, but they had developed a deep level of respect for each other and to some degree, even a friendship. Her next scheduled Saturday was two weeks away; he wondered whether the ‘new’ Hermione would continue with this task.

His musings were interrupted by a knock at his door. With a tap of his wand, the vision of the Head Girl disappeared and he returned the pensive to his desk drawer. ‘Enter,’ he called as he closed the drawer. The door opened and Dumbledore entered. ‘Headmaster, what can I do for you,’ Snape asked.

‘I’ve come to discuss Miss Granger, Severus.’

‘I take it you have noticed her new style,’ Snape answered sarcastically.

‘Exactly, my boy, are you sure she was alright when you found her last night?’

Severus shook his head and sighed, it was time to come clean. ‘To be honest, Albus, I cannot remember much of last evening at all. I remember leaving the castle to look for her, but that is all.’

The Headmaster looked at him with concern, ‘have you had such blackouts before, Severus?’

‘Not that I’m aware of, Albus.’

‘Perhaps it is the result of the number of times you have been hit with the Crucio curse. I think it would be a good idea, to have Poppy give you a complete check-up.’

‘As you wish, when I have time I will see Poppy.’

‘Don’t leave it too long, Severus, your health is important to me you know.’ With that Dumbledore dropped the subject and returned to his original topic. ‘I hope Miss Granger is only going through some sort of adolescent phase, you will keep an eye on her for me though, won’t you, Severus?’

‘Of course Albus, but wouldn’t Minerva be a better choice as her watchdog?’

‘I will speak to her as well, and all Miss Grangers teachers, I just thought you may have been able to shed some light on the subject.’

‘I’m sorry I could not be of more help, but should there be any change in Miss Granger’s academic achievements, I will be sure to let you know.’

‘There is nothing more I could expect from you, Severus,’ the Headmaster said with a smile. ‘I will leave you to get back to what you were doing before I interrupted you. Good day Severus.’ and he left

‘Meddling old man,’ Snape thought, ‘He probably knows I was spying on Miss Granger before he entered.’ It took all of his willpower not to retrieve the pensive to continue where he had left off.

Back in the Head Girls room, Hermione’s wand was busy indeed. She was systematically altering all her clothes. She had already adjusted her uniform skirts, they now ended several inches above her knees, sat well below her waist and snuggly hugged her hips and bottom. She was now working on her shirts so they barely reached the top of her skirts, form fitting instead of loose and baggy and now translucent instead of opaque. Her casual clothes were the next to undergo the treatment. Except for a couple of comfy tracksuits, for lounging around in her room, the rest were transformed into short, tight and revealing. Next her underwear, sensible white cotton bras became satin and lace push-up bras in a myriad of colours and most of her boring cotton knickers became satin and lace thongs in colours to match her bras. Not even her shoes escaped the transformation, except for sneakers and hiking boots, heels were added to all her shoes; even her school shoes were given a modest heel. Hermione looked at her clock, almost time for dinner; she changed into a pair of jeans and one of her more modest transformed shirts. She left her room and headed down to the Gryffindor common room.

The response was immediate, every male jaw dropped and nearly every set of female eyes turned green with envy. Only Ginny seemed not to react, she went over to her friend, linked arms with her and all but dragged her from the room. ‘Ginny!’ Hermione protested, ‘I wanted to see the reaction to my transformation.’

Ginny took no notice and continued to drag her into a nearby, unused classroom. ‘Ok Hermione, spill it. Why the sudden change prom prim and proper bookworm to femme fatale? She asked, hands on hips.

Hermione tried to keep her composure, she couldn’t tell her the truth, at least not all of it, but she owed her friend as much of the truth as she could give. Ginny had always been there for her in the past. Hermione sat down at one of the desks and proceeded to give Ginny a highly edited version of the previous day’s events.
‘Well Ginny, it started yesterday in Hogsmead. I was there with Harry &Lavender and Ron & Luna; they were so wrapped up in each other that I decided to leave them to it. I did a bit of window shopping then headed back to Hogwarts. Near the lake I ran into Malfoy, luckily he didn’t have his goons with him, but he did manage to rough me up a bit before I got away from him.’ Ginny looked surprised and concerned as Hermione continued, ‘I managed to hide among some bushes and he soon got bored with looking for me and left.

‘Oh, Hermione, he didn’t hurt you did he,’ Ginny gasped. ‘Not badly,’ Hermione replied, ‘I managed to heal myself and then I found a deserted spot to sit and sulk. I fell asleep for a while and Snape found me later and sent me back to my room.’

‘But what about the change in appearance, how did Malfoy’s attack lead to that?’

‘Easy, if I had not been alone, if I’d had a boyfriend like the rest of the girls my age, Malfoy wouldn’t have dared try anything. And let’s face it, the only reason I don’t have a boyfriend is because no boy is interested in a prim and proper bookworm.’

Ginny was not completely convinced, but there was no denying it, the ‘new’ Hermione was more likely to get a boyfriend than the ‘old’. ‘Just promise me you’ll be careful, Hermione,’ Ginny cautioned, ‘your new look will probably get you more attention than you bargained on.’

‘Don’t worry Ginny, I can handle this, besides,’ she joked, ‘if I need any advice I can always come to you.’
Ginny laughed at her friend’s statement and Hermione joined her. She really did feel better for talking to Ginny, even if she hadn’t told her the whole truth.

‘OK the, anytime,’ Ginny said, ‘Now let’s get to dinner and see how well the new look works.’ They linked arms again and left the classroom to make their way to dinner. ‘And I really do love your hair, Hermione; it makes you look so much more mature.’ Many surprised faces greeted their entrance to the Great Hall. Most of the male student population only had eyes for the ‘new’ Hermione. As did one dark figure at the teachers table.

**********************************************************************************************************

Thanks to all who have reviewed
I have taken the advise of many, and thank JTBJAB for BETAing this chapter
And a quick note to TaintedAngel, be a proud Aussie like me!!