Woes of a Potions Master

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 5 ~ An Attempted Apology

Severus apparated back to Hogwarts in much better spirits than when he left. He unwarded the gates, entered the grounds and re-warded them. The Potions Master walked toward the castle at a good clip, patting his pocket and feeling the miniaturized doll beneath his palm. What an item to have. He smirked.

As he walked, Severus thought over his situation with his wife as well as with the Snapelets. He sincerely thought it would be wiser to get the problem with the students out of the way before he and Hermione made up. As long as he had this problem he wouldn’t be able to focus on his marriage properly. Hopefully Fred and George would have the answer in a couple of weeks. He took the doll out of his pocket and looked at it. What an amazing creation it was. The twins were truly gifted, but beyond that, they had foresight. They could make a fortune off those dolls if they didn’t put in the safeguards that they did. There was a type of morality in what they were doing, even though it did place the wife at a disadvantage. At least the dolls couldn’t be used to cause injury, or to prey on unmarried witches. The wizards were wise not to put them on the open market. Some twisted wizard would find a way to distort the purpose they were meant for.

Severus decided he would test the doll tonight, just to see how it worked on Hermione. He wasn’t going to try to make her come back to the rooms yet. He just wanted to see how she responded to the stimulation. He was sure it would be interesting.

Severus entered the castle. There weren’t many students about and he turned down the dungeon corridor and headed for his rooms. As he approached his office, the door to the Spell Labs opened and Hermione emerged, her arms full of books she was about to return to the library. She saw her husband and paused. He had been out, that’s why he didn’t answer the door earlier. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Severus stared at his wife for a moment. Then he remembered her dismissal of him and scowled. He unwarded the door to his office and opened it, intending to walk in without saying anything. Hermione ran forward.

“Severus,” she said.

The Potions Master turned to her wordlessly, his dark eyes unfathomable as he looked at his wife, a slight frown on his face.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for the way I acted this morning,” she said.

Severus just looked at her.

“Actually, I’m sorry for everything. For not being there when you needed me,” she continued, her amber eyes glistening. “I was wrong for leaving.”

Severus looked down at his wife. She did look sorry, but he needed time to get the problem with the Snapelets out of the way. And honestly, he was still angry with her for leaving their rooms and being so thoughtless. It wouldn’t be this easy. She had to really feel the rift she put between them. Guilt wasn’t enough. He had no intention on easing her guilt. Let her feel it a while.

“I’m glad you realize that Hermione. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said softly, entering his office and closing the door behind him.

Hermione stared at the door.

“I’ve really hurt him,” she thought.

Hermione had hoped if she apologized, Severus would just accept it and ask her to return to his bed, but he didn’t. Apparently an “I’m sorry” wasn’t enough. It was rather ironic, since just that morning she wouldn’t accept his apology. She had felt it wasn’t enough, until he laid the truth on her. Now it was she who had to do some groveling. Turnabout was a bitch.

Sighing, Hermione started walking up the hallway, heading for the main hall. She needed to come up with something that would make Severus forgive her. She knew her husband. He loved her but he still had a darkness in him that made him rather vindictive. There had been times when she had angered him, and he waited until they were intimate to express his displeasure physically, telling her how angry she had made him while plowing into her body and continuing to do so until his rage was spent. Afterwards, he was tender towards her again. It didn’t matter if she apologized, he still had to take his pound of flesh from her. He didn’t feel the matter was settled until he did. Hermione didn’t complain though. She liked him to dominate her in bed. She believed that sometimes she purposely did things to anger him, subconsciously, to bring out his dark side. Well, everyone had quirks, didn’t they?

When she first became attracted to the Potions Master, one of the fantasies she had was that he would be a strong and dominating lover, and he didn’t disappoint her. The first night he took her, Severus had been a total animal. She hadn’t been a virgin, but he made her feel as if she was. The witch had never experienced such passion or total possession before. The wizard had surprised her. She thought he would be focused, but still restrained and controlled as he was in his classroom. He wasn’t. He was focused, but he had no restraint, and was extremely vocal in his pleasure, and his control only went as far as maintaining his erection and holding back his orgasm until he had reamed her body thoroughly in as many ways as possible. He also made her confess every carnal thought she had ever had about him. What a night that had been.

The couple had spats before, but this was the worst so far. Hermione needed to make this up to Severus, and it would have to be in a physical way because that was how her husband got closure. She had to do something that would clearly show Severus that she truly wanted to make up for her wronging him, but it would have to be something that would satisfy him and his dark need for vindication.

Hermione turned into the library. As she entered, a second year student who had his nose in a book bumped her. The boy looked up at her apologetically. He had red-hair, freckles and blue eyes.

“I’m sorry, Spells Mistress,” he said, his face turning red with embarrassment.

“That’s all right,” Hermione replied, remembering her own years as a bookworm. She had bumped quite a few people in her time. As the redheaded student walked past her, Hermione suddenly thought of Ginny Weasley. If anyone could come up with something special in the sex department, it was her.

Ginny was something else. Hermione personally believed that the witch suffered from a form of nymphomania, possibly having something to do with being overprotected by her parents and brothers when she was growing up. Ginny hadn’t been allowed to date at all until she graduated Hogwarts, and even then her brothers were constantly harassing and beating up wizards who dared to ask her out. When she hit twenty-one, Ginny broke loose, hexing her brother Percy so badly when he interfered on one of her dates, that he had to be taken to St. Mungo’s. Actually, she ended up hexing all her brothers over time, thus breaking their hold on her once and for all. Then she went buck wild, and discovered she loved having multiple partners. Ginny was very careful about protecting herself, and always exercised caution, if not restraint. She had never been pregnant or caught any wizarding STDs.

Ginny made her living as a masseuse, and was quite popular among the aristocracy. She was known as “the witch with the magic hands” and made obscene amounts of money for her services. Ginny was a professional however. There was no hanky-panky happening when she worked. She hankied her pankie during her off-hours. It was not out of the ordinary to visit the witch and find two or more well-built wizard boy toys lounging around her house at any given time. Ginny was a freak, and not ashamed of her sexuality. Hermione would send her an owl telling her about her situation, and what she wanted to do. If anyone could come up with a way to please Severus, Ginny could.

The Snapes were finding the Weasleys quite indispensable.

Ginny had been fascinated when Hermione told her about her attraction to the Potions Master, and admitted she herself had tried to gain his interest, but was turned down quite coldly.

“I guess I wasn’t smart enough for him,” Ginny said wistfully. “Sometimes being sexy just isn’t enough. But I’ve got a feeling he’s something special, Hermione.”

It wasn’t hard for Hermione to land Severus, because he had been attracted to her for a number of years, even before she reached the age of consent. His frustration about this was a major reason he gave her such a hard time in class. He hated the fact that he was attracted to such a young, irritating witch. She made him feel like a lecher, although he never gave her any indication of how he felt, nor did he try to take advantage of her in any way. She graduated untouched by him. But when she returned to Hogwarts as Spells Mistress, he made no secret of his desire for her, and pursued her relentlessly until one night she succumbed to his dark seduction. Ginny had been right. He really was something special. Hermione agreed to marry him six months later.

Hermione turned in her books. Suddenly, she stretched like a cat as a delicious feeling shot up her spine. Madame Pince looked at her sharply.

“Are you all right, Hermione?” she asked the witch.

Hermione blinked at her.

“I think I had some kind of spasm,” she replied. But spasms usually hurt. What had happened to her certainly wasn’t painful. Shaking her head, she walked into the library proper and over to the restricted section to find a book she needed. Suddenly, her head leaned to the side and her eyes went half-lidded, as another wonderful feeling washed across her throat. It was as if she was being kissed, and someone had run his lips across her neck.

“What the hell is going on?” Hermione said to herself as the feeling passed.

In his study, Severus was watching his wife with a smirk on his face. After she apologized to him, and he entered his office and closed the door, his heart had softened a little. But not that much. Instead, seeing her made him decide to try out the doll now, rather than wait until tonight.

Severus opened the wall to his study, went directly to his bedroom and into the bathroom. Hermione had left one of her brushes behind, and Severus collected the hair off of it. He returned to the study, sat down in the armchair, fished the doll out of his pocket and restored it to full size. He poked the hairs into the soft belly and watched what happened.

First the belly wax hardened, then the doll began to transform and become more defined, more like a real doll in its dimensions. It developed facial features very similar to Hermione’s, and the body conformed to her curvaceous shape. Long, curling chestnut hair sprouted from the head, and the eyes became amber and long lashed, just like his wife’s. What was most interesting was that the doll itself softened and became warm. He could move the limbs. Also the sexual organs became more defined. The doll actually had a clitoris. Severus grinned at this as he played with the doll. He hadn’t invoked it yet, so Hermione didn’t feel anything as he tested it out. If anyone had walked in on him, they would have been shocked to see the Potions Master walking a doll along the arm of his chair as if playing make believe.

“Now let’s see if you work,” Severus said to the doll, “Show me my vision of beauty.”

An image appeared of Hermione returning her books to the library, floating in front of the fireplace. She was standing in front of the check-in counter and had just set the books down. Severus turned the doll over, watching Hermione closely, and took one pale fingertip and ran it slowly up her spine. She loved him to do that to her before they would do it doggie-style. He watched as she responded just as she did when she was with him. She stretched like a kitten, then looked thoroughly put out. He actually chuckled at the confusion on her face. He wished he could have heard how she explained her sudden reaction to Madame Pince.

Severus watched as Hermione walked over to the restricted section, then pressed his lips slowly to the doll’s throat and slid his mouth over it, watching Hermione’s reaction. It was the same as it always was whenever he kissed her throat. She went hot-eyed and leaned her head to the side. Severus felt a throb in his pants. The doll was fun, but his wife’s responses definitely caused a reaction in him. He decided to put it away for now. He didn’t want to be pushed to the point he went and tracked her down. There was too much he had to take care of first. The Potions Master looked at the image of the bewildered Hermione and realized that he could use the doll to watch her as well. He didn’t have to do anything to the doll. That could come in handy.

“My vision is complete,” he said to the doll and the image of Hermione faded.

He reduced it again, then walked into his bedroom, pulled open his sock drawer, and put the doll inside, pushing it far to the back. He would have to come up with a better hiding place when Hermione came back. She’d find it there. As an afterthought, he put a disillusionment spell on it.

The Professor then exited his rooms and entered his Potions class. He had assignments to mark and spent the next couple of hours sighing and shaking his head over his students’ shoddy work. They were so dense. Finally it was time for supper, and Severus put away the parchments, rose and exited the Potions classroom, and bumped right into a Snapelet who had been hovering outside his door. It was one of the females, and she held a book in her hand.

“Hello Professor Snape,” she said, giving a small smirk.

The Potions Master glowered at her.

“What have I told you about lurking outside my offices, Miss Hedgewood?” he snarled at her. “Twenty-five points from Hufflepuff!”

“I have a reason for being here, Professor,” the girl said, blinking her black eyes up at her idol. Snape frowned down at her. Some of her pale makeup was starting to flake near her temple.

“What possible reason could you have for being here in the dungeon corridor except to aggravate me? Miss Hedgewood? I have made it very clear how I feel about your continued emulation of me. Your very presence annoys me to no end,” Severus seethed at the girl, really wanting to hex her.

The witch held up the book.

I found this in a second-hand bookshop, Professor. It’s a collection of Potions essays written by various Potions Masters. It has one of your essays in it, “ she said reverently, leafing through the book and finding the page. “You wrote it years ago. It’s about the uses and abuses of Mandrake Root. I was hoping you would sign it for me,” she said, looking up into his face hopefully.

The Professor looked at her coldly.

“Miss Hedgewood. I will most certainly NOT sign the essay, or anything else you have. You have no regard for my feelings or my authority. I put this to you, Miss Hedgewood…if you respect and admire someone, and would like that person to conduct himself toward you with good grace, does it make sense to make the object of your supposed admiration miserable by your actions? Does it make a lick of sense to conduct yourself in a way he disapproves of? Because that is what you are doing, Miss Hedgewood. Your ‘self-expression’ is curtailing mine. I do not want to be emulated. I hate seeing all of you trying to be like me. You have no idea what horrors I’ve lived through to become the man I am, the dark, snarky bastard of the dungeons. You all have no idea what it is to be a true outcast, the pain that is behind it, the hatred that is thrown your way like stones. You have no conception of what a struggle it was to come back from all of that. You children dye your hair, pat on some makeup, and twist up your faces not knowing that you make a mockery of my life every time you do so.”

The Professor locked the young witch with his darkest most piercing gaze, and said in a low voice, “If you knew the truth of what I had to do and be to become the Professor Snape you all so admire, you would go to your dorm, wash off every bit of that makeup, vomit, and curl up in a corner trembling with horror. I assure you, you would most certainly NOT want to be like me, Miss Hedgewood. You or any of your friends.”

The witch looked at the Professor wide-eyed and speechless, not knowing how to respond to this.

For a moment the Severus was tempted to share a memory of a particularly brutal Dark Revel with her, and his participation in it. That would be a cure for her all right. The muggles murdered weren’t much older than she was. He was the one who mercifully cast the killing curse on the shuddering masses of blood and bone that remained of them after their flesh had been flayed off, and their mutilated, conscious, pain-wracked and bleeding bodies raped repeatedly.

“Miss Hedgewood,” Severus said evenly, “Get out of my sight before I show you something that will haunt you and possibly scar you for the rest of your life!”

The frightened Snapelet backed away from the angry Potions Master and hurried up the hall, clutching her book to her chest. Severus leaned back against the corridor wall and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply. Those students had no idea what they worshipped. What he was other than a Professor of Hogwarts. What he had been forced to do in order to serve the greater good and help bring about the destruction of the Dark Lord. He had scars that would never, ever heal, ones much deeper than those that crossed his pale back. Severus contained a darkness so deep, no light would ever reach it. Hermione’s love had brought him up out of the worst of it, but still it remained, boiling beneath the surface, a curse that would never be lifted. Every time he looked at the Snapelets, he was reminded of what he lived with.

The Potions Master sighed, pushed himself off the wall and headed toward supper. He had to end this Snapelet problem so his life could return to relative normalcy.

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A/N: Rather fun, rather heavy chapter. Severus has decided to hold Hermione off until he can end the Snapelet situation. Hermione’s decided she needs Ginny’s help to fix things with her hubby. Severus tries out the doll on her, and blasts one of the Snapelets pretty good. Please review.

A/N/N: Sorry about the late update. I was working on my business website. Gotta find a way to pay the bills, you know? I made some new paypal arrangements that I hope will send some biz and $$$ my way. You can check it out at www.ruthsolomon.com and if you think you can throw some work my way…wind it up and let it go. Lol. Thanks all.