Erased

Erased

Chapter Six: Jealous of the Man in the Mirror

Hermione woke up in a particularly foul mood. She didn’t particularly feel like getting out of bed but she made herself do it anyway. She took an extra long bath and decided to pamper herself a little on this unforgivably chilly morning. She toweled off, threw on a bathrobe and headed straight for the pot of coffee that was waiting for her on the little table by her sofa. She read the morning Prophet and put some lotion on her legs, letting the caffeine pacify her diminishing bad mood.

After a quick breakfast of eggs and toast, she lazily poured herself another cup of the steaming brew. She heard a soft mew from her bed in the other room and saw Intrigue stretching in her sleep. As if on cue, she opened one eye to stare at her and she smiled. The two of them both turned to door when a sharp knock killed the quiet morning atmosphere she was starting to enjoy.

She looked at Intrigue and shrugged before padding over and opening the door to see Severus “I’m Such a Wanker” Snape standing there. He almost forgot to breath as he noticed her state of dress for the first time and tried to gaze over her shoulder.

“Good morning, Professor. How can I help you?” she mustered in her best bored tone.

“Miss Granger,” he nodded in greeting, trying to look at anything but her. “I had a few things to pick up this afternoon in Diagon Alley and I was ah…wondering if you could assist me?” After a moment he commented that he could come back at a later time if needed.

He’s nervous, she smiled to herself. However, she promised herself that she would be civil despite the fact she wanted so much just to slam the door in his face.

“I suppose I could. Give me a sec so I can throw on some normal attire and we can go now if you want.” She started towards her bedroom without giving him a chance to reply. Watching her retreat into the room he noticed some movement stirring on her bed and suddenly felt embarrassed, wondering if he had interrupted anything.

His embarrassment turned into venom when he saw the long, sleek black feline come into view and hop off the bed, slowly trotting its way over towards him as if to say hello. Lover indeed!

“So that’s where you’ve been.” he hissed, watching the cat trying to get back into his good graces by rubbing against his legs. “Nice try. The next time you come in whining late at night you’ll have to catch a few mice if you want something to eat.”

He glanced up when he heard Hermione call out that there was fresh coffee on the table if he wanted any. Looking a little off guard that she would offer to serve him anything in her personal quarters at all, he slowly sat down and poured a cup, wondering if they had ever shared coffee in here before. She didn’t seem bothered that he had seen her in her bathrobe, and that only conjured up more questions in his mind. He couldn’t deny the fact that she was lovely, even more so this morning, but for once it irritated him that he couldn’t remember if they’ve even so much as shared a pot of coffee in the past or not.

Maybe sometime in the past, on a morning just like this, she sat opposite of him in her lilac bathrobe and long wet hair discussing their research and laughing over whatever new Ministry guideline they had to find a loophole for. Maybe it was a normal thing for them…or maybe just Tuesdays…maybe they shared coffee every morning…

He slowly shook the thought from his mind and chided himself for acting like an ignorant fool. No, he told himself, there has never been a moment of any of that in the past and there’s not going to be now, either. But for some reason the what-ifs in his mind wouldn’t go away. His thoughts were again interrupted from the bedroom doorway.

“I’m just about ready, let me finish my coffee and we’ll head out.” She walked over towards where he was sitting and picked up her mug, stopping to scritch his wayward feline behind the ears.

He nodded in reply, noticing just how different she looked with dry hair neatly pulled back and fresh dress robes, but lovely nonetheless. And it started to bother him again, and he didn’t know why.

She said down and tossed the paper across to him, as if she knew he would want to see it. She didn’t say anything other than “Page eleven,” as if knowing his preferred articles of interest. He didn’t say anything in return, opting to flip over to the page and suddenly tuning her and everything else out as he became engrossed in a new article about the latest medicinal prototypes being tested on volunteers.

She looked towards the clock as she drained the last bit of her cup and picked up her plate and set it down, letting Intrigue have the last few scraps of her breakfast.

“Do you need to get your coat?” she asked, breaking his concentration once again.

“I hadn’t thought to bring it, but I suppose I ought to retrieve it. Meet me by the gates in…”

“I’ll walk with you. I have to check on something in the lab anyway.”

He inwardly cursed that not only had she interrupted him as if it were no big deal, but that she would be taking up his last few minutes of alone time as well. He forced himself to bite his tongue against any acidic reply that may spill forth, trying to follow Albus’ advice from the night before. It was also at this moment that he realized that she hadn’t said anything about their argument from the previous afternoon, choosing instead to act as if nothing had happened.

Did she always act like this after they had an argument? Did she offer him coffee in the past and pretend that nothing hostile took place, preferring to move on with the matters at hand? For the first time, he was jealous of the man he used to be. Because he knew all of the answers and the confused man standing before her knew only spite.

The walk to the dungeons was done so in silence, and the two of them had nothing to keep them company but inner turmoil. Intrigue followed closely behind stopping here and there to see if anything small and edible was lurking about before picking up the pace to catch up with her master and missus, and wondering why the two of them were acting so odd with each other lately.

After a few checks in the lab and one retrieved coat later, the two of them headed towards the usual spot by the edge of the forest where it was safe to disapparate.

The next few hours were spent picking up supplies along with a few odds and ends. Hermione was able to pick up a few more titles she had been looking for, which is where Severus found her after a good twenty minutes of wondering where she went.

“Miss Granger, I didn’t intend on spending my free time today chasing after you.”

She didn’t even turn around to acknowledge him, reaching up and grabbing a particular tome instead and turning back to him. Setting the large book in his hands she wore a handsome smirk on her face.

“They finally published the Potion Paradox volume eight…I believe you were waiting on this one?” she rose her brows in question.

He said nothing, opting to pay for the book and walk out instead. He didn’t remember ever mentioning the fact that he was waiting on this particular edition to her, but then again, nothing made sense to him since he woke up in the infirmary several weeks before. He must have told her about it at some point in the past.

Hermione was quick to catch up with him and they walked in silence until she realized there was one more item on their list they had forgotten to pick up.

“Severus, could we stop back by the apothecary once more?”

He kept his gaze even and looked ahead, trying not to let it bother him that she was using his name again.

“I suppose so, Miss Granger,” he said, a bit annoyed. “Just make it quick.”

“I will,” she nodded. Walking to the back of the store, she didn’t notice the two ice blue eyes following her. She was quick and methodical in procuring her last ingredient as promised but almost dropped everything when she turned to look up into the steely eyes of one Draco Malfoy.

“I never thought I would see the day when I had to share a roomful of oxygen with the likes of you again, Mudblood!”

If he weren’t so serious, she would have burst out laughing. In fact, she let a small smile slip and had to stifle any giggle threatening to surface.

“Oh come on now, Draco. Grow up. I sincerely doubt my presence is going to taint your health any.” She tried to brush past him but he caught her arm, lowering his voice even more. His grip was starting to hurt and she glared at him.

“Do not think for five seconds that I don’t plan to get revenge on the three of you, even if it that means doing away with you entirely,” he hissed.

Narrowing her eyes, she kept her gaze steady. “I’m not afraid of you. I wasn’t then and I’m not now. So, you would rather seek revenge on us for what? Causing your father to be the heartless person that he was, only to have him die in Azkaban? Or the fact that he raised an equally heartless son who will wind up going down a similar road of self-destruction if he’s not careful? Is that what you’re mad about, Draco? The fact that you missed out on your big chance to play ball with the devil himself?”

He looked taken aback for a moment before continuing, “They all died noble a noble death, Granger!”

“NO! They all died a senseless death! They gave up their soul to a lying monster who only wanted to use them, and don’t get me wrong, they had it coming to them for being so stupid and naïve---but it was senseless nonetheless. No one makes your choices for you, Draco…only you.” She softened her tone, hoping he would see her meaning but it only made him angrier for some reason.

She winced as his grip tightened even more, ignoring the shop owner’s threat to leave her alone. She bit down on her tongue as she felt the back of her head being slammed up against the shelf. She quickly reached for her wand but had it knocked from her grip, and another lightning fast blow caught her hard on the cheek. She cursed out and fought back as well as she could manage, but when she looked back up, Draco’s eyes were bulging out and he was trying very hard to breathe.

It didn’t take her long to see why. Severus had the young man in a death grip by his neck while his other arm held Draco’s wand hand in his other. Draco tried clawing at the professor’s arm around his neck but was unsuccessful. Hermione watched as several muscles began to twitch on Severus’ jaw and he quickly drug the boy into a back room.

The shop owner then ran over and asked her if she was all right and she quickly nodded her head and refused all offers of treatment.

“I’m fine, please…really. Um…I…need to pay for these, still…I’m sorry about all that.” She swallowed the bitter, copper taste in her mouth and tried to focus on trying to calm herself.

The man shook his head. “No need to be sorry, Miss Granger. I know all about the Malfoys. A bloody waste to mankind if there ever was one.”

Hermione said nothing but nodded and quickly handed the fifteen galleons needed to pay for her purchase, refusing to take it at no charge when the shopkeeper offered. She was too excited and nervous at that point, her adrenaline racing as she wondered what Severus was doing to the boy in the backroom. As if on cue, he came out only seconds later, alone, trying to catch his breath. The shopkeeper looked at him and nodded and quickly ran to the back room as if to check what damage had occurred.

Severus quickly strode over to her and began giving her the once-over, making sure she was all right. The minor swelling underneath her eye could be dealt with by a simple charm, but it wasn’t until she spoke that he realized she had another injury.

“Severus, I’m sorry about…”

“Don’t you dare apologize for that,” he spat. “You know better.”

“I know…but I didn’t handle that very well…and I…” she stopped when he kept staring her, and she looked down to see blood trickling onto her robes.

“Your bleeding all over the place, more so each time you open your mouth.” he said, holding her chin with one hand and trying to survey the damage with the other.”

She noticed the throbbing ache in her mouth since she calmed down a bit and he informed her that she bit down on her tongue hard enough to sever it a good half inch.

“I’m afraid the only thing I can do is to stop the blood flow, as you know…Poppy will have to take care of the rest when we get you back to the school.” he said, whispering a few spells to stop the bleeding and a quick cleansing charm as she looked as if she were a vampire on a feeding frenzy.

She nodded but he still looked skeptical. “Do you hurt anywhere else?” he asked softly. She shook her head again and they left the shop. She looked down at his hand, which was also rather cut and bruised, and then back to his face, which was a myriad of different emotions, mostly all unpleasant.

“Your hand…” she started.

“It would probably be best if you didn’t speak for a while. I’m sure you’ve heard that from me on several occasions, no doubt. However, in this case it would be wise for you to follow orders for once.” She rolled her eyes and he merely gave her a look that said, “Just do it.”

“My hand will be fine, I can assure you, Miss Granger, which is more than I can say for Mister Malfoy’s nose and jaw at this point.”

Her eyes widened and he shot her a look. “Well, surely you weren’t expecting me to offer him tea?!”

She said nothing and they resumed their usual pace in silence. When they finally reached the school he walked her to the hospital wing, muttering about her being more trouble than she was worth and him having to bail her out and how she shouldn’t let it become a habit.

“Just …shut up, Severus,” she said, lacking the energy to snap at him. He stopped and watched her go into Poppy’s den with a twinge of regret over what he said. The girl damn near got knocked senseless by Lucius’ snotty prick of a son and all he could do was throw insults at her. And she in return sounding too tired to even spar with him, as if she didn’t care anymore. His hand was starting to throb and he cursed inwardly, telling himself he deserved it.

He made a promise to himself that he would try harder to be nicer towards her, if even somewhat civil at least. Maybe he could even beat her to punch by offering her coffee one chilly morning.