A Very Horrible Idea?

"And I am supposed to believe that?"

Hermione felt her heart sink. She was getting a strange feeling from the situation, as if she had told Professor McGonagall some huge secret. She frowned, "Yes. It's the truth. Professor McGonagall came to me! If you want to blame anyone, blame Malfoy. He was the person that told her that I wasn't doing my rounds properly! I wasn't going to lie to her, Professor."

The Potions Master raised an eyebrow, his eyes glittering with malice, "You won't lie to Professor McGonagall, but you will lie to me. Why is that, Miss Granger?"

Getting frustrated, Hermione took a deep breath, "I didn't lie to you, sir. I know I shouldn't have gone along with it... But I didn't tell it. Why didn't Harry and Ron get detentions as well?"

His eyes narrowed dangerously, "Are you criticizing my methods of punishment, Miss Granger?"

Hermione shook her head quickly, "No, sir. I'm sorry. I just don't understand..."

He sneered at her, "Its not your job to understand. Now get back to your common room before I give you a detention that you can't get out of!"

"But, Professor -"

"Now!" He barked.

Hermione jumped and turned, hurrying down the corridor.

""""""""""""""""""""

Severus watched her until she had rounded a corner, and then followed silently.

After Minerva spoken to him earlier that day, he had been absolutely furious. How dare she accuse him of giving unfair detentions! Okay, some of them had been slightly - very slightly - unreasonable, but she had been blinking too much and it had been distracting. Her eyelashes were so long that he could do nothing but be distracted. And that was dangerous when he was in control of a Potions class.

He had been even angrier to realize that she really had been occupying most of his thoughts for the past week. So after sitting in his living room for most of the day, while his Slytherin brain tried to work out how best to get revenge on Hermione Granger - one that would perhaps let him punish Potter and Weasley as well - he had decided to go and find her.

She had been in the library - was she ever anywhere else? He had watched her and soon found himself transfixed and engrossed. And then he had noticed something that annoyed him; her head had been resting on her hand, so that it tilted slightly to the left and all of her hair was hanging over her left shoulder. Except one curl. One curl that had fallen over her right shoulder.

Severus had clenched his fists; he had wanted to go over and move piece of hair so badly. It had been like a compulsion. In reality it was only minutes before she had moved and her hair had fallen over both shoulders, so that that particular curl had been lost in all the others, but it had seemed like hours to Severus.

And then she had left and Severus had followed her to the Gryffindor tower, careful to stay out of sight. Minutes later, she had emerge and started down the corridor. Neville Longbottom had hurried past her and scrambled into the common room before Severus had been able to take any points.

So he had followed her, and had remembered that she was supposed to be doing a detention with him at that moment. He had been about to say something, when Malfoy had appeared.

Severus had watched their argument from the shadows, frowning. Why did she bait Malfoy like she did? She managed to outwit him, that was clear, but it only angered the spoilt teen. Then Severus had noticed Malfoy carefully pulling out his wand - it was just like a Malfoy to attack while he distracted the opposing wizard (or witch in this case) with words.

And Granger had just stood there frowning, with her arms crossed! For that moment, Severus had forgotten about the don't-miss-one-of-my-detentions reprimanding her was meant to be giving and had realized, with startling clarity, that Malfoy was about to attack her.

So he had sent Malfoy on his way, his words a lot kinder than the rather dark thoughts in his mind. And then he had looked over the girl, scrutinizing carefully. He had seen her dueling before, but never when she had been taken by surprise; he had wondered whether she would be able to cope in such a situation, and had found himself strangely breathless at the thought that she might not.

But she had obviously been uncomfortable with the silence and had launched into a fast apology for not being at his detention. That had made him remember that he was supposed to be angry with her. And he found himself even angrier, for some reason, when she implied that she would lie to him, but not to Minerva! He had felt strangely sick and wondered if he was feeling hurt, but he couldn't really tell; no one had made him feel like that for years. And then she had to ask why Potter and Weasley hadn't got detentions as well, didn't she!

He had had to get away from her, so he had just sent her back to her common room. But then the strange breathlessness had returned, when he realized that Malfoy might not have gone back to the dungeons.

So now he was following her again. Severus watched from the shadows as she entered her common room. He waited there for a good five minutes, making sure that she stayed in there.

He hated to admit it, but he knew what was going on. He hadn't felt so... like this, since he had discovered what one could do with Dark Magic as a child. He could remember all the signs clearly. Oh yes, he knew exactly what he was feeling, what was going on and where it would lead.

And he was absolutely powerless to stop it. He wasn't sure he even wanted to, now that his life was so empty. He needed something to... take an interest in, didn't he? Well, it didn't matter now; a large part of his subconscious mind - and a reasonable portion of his conscious - was already set on one course.

His thoughts and dreams would soon be haunted, consumed, plagued and possessed.

He would soon be completely and utterly obsessed.

“!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”

A/N: Ooooh! Intense! Short, I know, but Christmas is a busy time of year! Especially for me with Christmas day, then my mum’s birthday on Boxing Day, then my birthday on the 27th and then my aunt’s anniversary on the 28th! Expensive, eh?

Thanks for all the reviews!

:)

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