Evil Personified

Seven

Severus showed up at tea that evening, grumpy and glaring. Women were starting to be the bane of his existence. Well, a woman and a girl that thought she was a woman, he corrected himself. Why he was an object of curiosity at the moment was beyond him.

Miss Granger wasn't speaking to him for the most part. That was good; he didn't care to have any more nattering. Valencia DeBonaire was a different story. He knew of her from his years as a Death Eater and spy. She was dangerous, more than most wizards he knew. The idea of bedding her had interested him at first until he'd gotten to her flat, and mentally decided that he should have stayed at the Leaky Cauldron drinking. He didn't go there very often any more, and he hoped that he'd seen the last of her.

Hermione Granger was an ongoing problem. If he knew why she was upset with him, then he could gloat about it instead of wasting valuable time trying to dissect her silence.

"How are you feeling, Severus?" Poppy asked as she sat down next to him.

"I am suffering no ill effects from your smothering," he growled.

"You know perfectly well you needed to rest. You had us all worried to death."

She frowned at the glare he gave her.

"Honestly, Severus, you do have friends whether you will acknowledge them or not."

"I don't need friends."

"Everyone needs friends. Speaking of which, how are you and Hermione getting on?"

"Miss Granger is upset with me for no apparent reason. At the moment she is barely speaking to me."

"I assume that makes you happy."

"It does. However, I have not done anything to her, if that is what you are thinking."

"You do have a penchant for upsetting students and those who don't know you very well. Hermione should be used to you by now."

"As far as I am concerned, I am happy with the silence. If I am lucky, it will continue."

"She could be a good friend to you, Severus, if you would let her. She spent a good bit of time sitting with you when you were ill."

Severus' eyes narrowed and he lifted a brow.

"Why?"

"I assume that she was concerned about you. If you want to know why, you will have to ask her. She was there every day until you left."

Why? He asked himself. Why had the bothersome chit sat with him? He'd given her no reason to like him. He'd gone out of his way to discourage her at every turn mainly because she was too much of a know-it-all.

Poppy was amused at the confounded look on Severus' face. If she had been in his position, she would have been continually urging Hermione to expand her learning instead of fighting with her. Stupid man, as long as Poppy had known him, he'd been a solitary soul that disliked interaction with people. She had hoped that the end of the war would change his attitude but so far, it hadn't. Maybe it never would at the rate he was going.

~*~

The next morning, Hermione was already working on a wit-sharpening potion when Severus came into the lab. She was chopping gingerroots.

"Good morning, Miss Granger," he said gruffly.

"I have already ground the new store of scarab beetles that arrived this week," she told him, ignoring his good morning. "I needed some for the potion."

"Good." He began organizing his own work area, glancing over at the girl who had turned back to her work.

Covertly, he kept watching her. She moved with a gracefulness now that hadn't been present as she was growing up. She was still small in stature, but sturdy.
It was a shame that she'd wasted herself on Weasley and Potter.

"Why are you angry with me?" He heard himself asking.

Hermione stopped working and turned around.

"I have no intention of discussing anything with you, Professor," she replied coolly. "Judging from past experiences with you, it would do me no good anyway. Part of your problem is that you care nothing for the feelings of others. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a number of potions to finish today in order to stay on schedule."


She swept past him, into the supply closet, her face stony. He stared after her, unsure as to what to say.

Damn him anyway, Hermione thought, jerking packets of ingredients off the shelves and dumping them into the basket she'd brought in there with her. Lipstick on his jaw, and he couldn't understand why she was angry. He'd been out with a woman.

The look on her face was one of pure fury as she strode past Severus again, and plopped the basket on her worktable, muttering under her breath.

Okay, so he didn't belong to her. She really didn't have any right to be angry with him. It was not as if he had cheated on her.

But you want him.

Yes, she wanted him. Over and over and over in her bed and in her arms. She wanted him so much it hurt. She was out of her mind in love with him, yet he looked at her as if she were an insignificant bug and he could brush her away.

Hermione wondered if she had made a mistake accepting Albus' offer to be Severus' apprentice. It wouldn't be as bad if she was experienced but she wasn't. She'd been a fool to think that he hadn't been involved with someone, but in the years she'd been around him, he'd never indicated an interest in anything but his work.

"Miss Granger," he hissed irritably, "I did not ask you to discuss anything with me. I was simply attempting to alleviate whatever it was that is bothering you. Quite honestly, it does not matter to me if you are angry with me or not."

"Then why ask me?"

"Never mind. If you are angry, then by all means you are welcome to remain so as long as it does not affect the work that you are supposed to be doing for me."

His remark stung Hermione. She had never let feelings affect her work, which she took great pride in.

"My work has not and never will be affected by my feelings, Professor. If that had been the case, as nasty as you have been to me in the past I would have never accomplished anything in your class. You are an evil individual hell bent on making students lives miserable for some unknown reason. It's a shame, too, because you are both a knowledgeable and skillful teacher."

"I do not make lives miserable, Miss Granger. I simply expect more from my students than the other staff here does. I do not appreciate wasting my time on dunderheads and idiots who do not have the capacity to learn even a simple wart-removing potion. As for being evil, I have no reason to deny it as I have been cursed to hell since my birth," he replied.

"No one is cursed to hell," Hermione couldn't help staring him in the eye. He was glaring at her as she'd been expecting, but she refused to back down.

"Well, well, well. Good afternoon, Severus darling."

Both Severus and Hermione looked up at the witch who was standing in the doorway, hands on hips.

Hermione's eyes darted immediately to Severus, who didn't seem pleased to see the woman.

"Speechless, are we?" Valencia sauntered in, looking at the lab with disinterest and ignoring Hermione's presence.

She attempted to wrap her arms about Severus' neck.

"Stop this foolish nonsense," he hissed, grabbing her wrists and shoving her away from him. "I thought that I made myself clear to you the other night."

"Now, darling you know you didn't mean it. After all, I'm well matched to you," she cooed, managing to get close enough to plant a kiss on his lips.

Hermione felt her anger go from simmer to full boil. So this was who he'd seen the other night. Her hand went automatically to her pocket, grabbing her wand in a tight grip.

"Get out, Valencia." Severus forcibly pulled the witch to the door. "I have no time to deal with your foolishness, nor do I desire to be in your bed."

"You liked the idea well enough to begin with." Her eyes locked with Hermione's. "Fooling with children are we? Surely a wizard of your standing could do better than her."

Severus did not take his eyes off Valencia. He was still gripping her wrists tightly, fury starting to turn his face red.

"She is my apprentice," he ground out. "And my private life is none of your business."

"I didn't know that you preferred to bed children, Severus, or I would have transformed myself into a young girl." She jerked her wrists away from him, rubbing them in turn.

"I do not bed children, Madame. I will tell you once more that I have no interest in pursuing a relationship with you. Your presence here is not welcomed."

"Tut, tut, Severus. I wouldn't be so hasty in dismissing me if I were you." Valencia's eyes raked over his black clothed form as she slowly circled him. "I know it to be fact that you have had little, if any propositions over the years. Were you to be seen with me, you might gain a little respect amongst our sort."

"I have no care for what people think."

Valencia came face to face with Hermione, who was seething inside with confusing emotions. She looked down her aristocratic nose as the shorter woman, lips curled in a disapproving sneer.

"I wouldn't waste my time trying to get his attention, child," Valencia said. "You heard him say that he doesn't bed children. Even if he did, I don't think you could handle him. Besides, he's taken."

Hermione was starting to shake. She opened her mouth to vent her anger, but before she could utter a single word, Severus had his wand out, pointing it at Valencia and she disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"What did you do with her?" she asked as Severus calmly laid his wand down on his worktable.

"Banished her from returning to Hogwart's grounds. I have far better things to do with my time than waste it arguing with her, Miss Granger."

"So she's your girlfriend."

Severus glared.

"I should say not. Although my personal affairs do not concern you, I will enlighten you to the fact that this is not the first time she has propositioned me and been turned away."

So he wasn't seeing anyone. She'd been wrong. Hermione looked at him, and she wanted to touch him so badly that she walked over to him and gently touched his cheek.

"She's wrong to say that few would proposition you," she said softly, letting her fingers glide over his cheek then his jaw.

He stared at her in pure astonishment as she gave him a look that he didn't understand.

"She was correct in her assumption," Severus replied, liking the warm feel of her fingers.

Hermione's hand dropped to her side, and she retreated to her side of the room, pausing only to stir the simmering potion once.

"I still don't believe that."

"Miss Granger, why I am of such interest to either of you I do not know but I can assure you that I am not the sort of man that women desire. I am not romantic, nor forgiving, and I despise most people."

"Yet you are quite noble."

"Only because I had a debt to repay."

"That debt is paid and you are still young by wizarding standards. You have a long life ahead of you."

"Do I?" One brow lifted as he gave her an ironic and disbelieving look.

"Of course you do. Your actions and those of the order gave the rest of us a chance to have a peaceful life. If anything, you've deserved your peace."

"That does not mean that I have to share it with anyone."

"No," she replied. "But it is a known fact that it is better to share with someone who will love and support you."

"Muggle thinking?"

"So what if it is? You are not always right, Professor."

"And you are always bossy, Miss Granger."

Silly girl. Severus returned to his own work, still puzzled at the interest being shown him but pleased that he had gotten rid of Valencia for the time being. Getting rid of Hermione Granger was proving to be harder than he'd believed it would be.