I Will Always Find You

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all that it entails does not belong to me. Seraphim Coma and Lillian Chovexani are mine.

Reviewers: Thanks you guys! You are what keeps me writing!

Ashley: *Blushes* Why thank you! LOL


JTBJAB: LOL Hope this was soon enough for ya!


slytheringriffindor21: Thank you! Hopepully you\'ll be seeing at least one session and a bit of Hermione grading for Snape in this one. (As long as I don\'t get off track. LOL)


Cristie: Thank you! I\'m really glad that you like it.Have no fear of me abandoning it. I love writing this story!


Tainted Angel: Well here you go! LOL Hope it was fast enough. Thank you for your helpful comments!


Sunflower: As you wish. LOL

Chapter 9. The Room of Requirement

Saturday came much to quickly for Hermione. Professor Snape had informed her that Miss Seraphim Coma was delighted at her suggestion of lunch together and would be coming precisely at noon.


\"Will you be there too, sir?\" Asked Hermione hesitantly. She wasn\'t sure if she wanted him there or not.


\"No, Miss Granger. My presence might detract from the sessions. I assure you that Seraphim is quite professional.\"

Hermione nodded. Suddenly she was glad it would be only her and the councilor. She might not speak as freely around Professor Snape out of embarassment. She felt like a dumb little girl, seeing as how it had been him who found her with her skirt around her waist, and no knickers on; but she guessed it was probably normal.

Now it was nearly noon on Saturday and she was waiting for Miss Coma at the front doors. She\'d already arranged lunch with Dobby. As always, the peculiar house elf was happy to help.


She stood rigidly at the doors watching the grounds for any sign of Miss Coma. She wanted to see her and watch her for a momet at least before she met the woman.


She\'d told Ron and Harry that she was ecpecting someone whom she was having lunch with elsewhere than the Great Hall, and not to wait for her.


They, of course had asked many questions; but she refused to tell them who was coming and they eventually relented.


She stiffened even further than she had been when she saw somwone coming up the lawn. It had to be her. It was Hermione had never seen her before. She was wearing a dark green winter cloak and her red curls were shining in what little sun there was outside.


Hermione watched the woman make her careful way up to the doors and opened them for her.
She was surprised when the woman lowered her hood and revealed her stunning face.


Hermione could tell why her name meant Angel. Her heart shaped face was glowing after her trek from the gates and her skin was perfect. A slight flush had risen in her cheeks and her breath puffed prettily from her lips, unstained by lipstick.


Hermione thought that makeup would have ruined Seraphim Comas\' face.


\"H -hi.\" She stammered. \"You must be Miss Coma.\"


\"Yes, and you must be Miss Granger. Please call me Sera.\" She took off her gloves and offered Hermione her hand to shake.


Hermione smiled and took the womans hand. \"Then you must call me Hermione. Miss Granger makes me feel like you\'re a teacher.\" She was surprised to feel comfortable with this woman already.


Sera laughed. \"Okay Hermione. I suppose we had better get up to the Room of Requirement for lunch.\"


Hermione led the way, while Sera trailed behind her and exclaimed over the castle.


\"Has it changed very much since you\'ve been here?\" Asked Hermione intersetedly.


\"Not much,\" Sera admitted; but it seems different now that I\'m not a student.\"


Hermione smiled. THIS woman had been a Slytherin? She seemed so different from all the little prats that were in Slytherin now. Of course, that would be like judging a book by it\'s cover and Hermione felt slightly ashamed for assuming she would be just like every other Slytherin.


When they reached the RoR, Hermione paced in front of the wall three times thinking of what she needed. The door popped up and she beamed at Sera.


\"Here we are.\"


Sera looked very interested. \"I\'ve never been in here before.\"


Hermione smiled. \"We\'ve been using it since fifth year.\"


They went in and Sera perused the room.


\"Is it like this all the time?\" She asked, her eyes roving over the comfortable looking furniture that Hermione had procured.


\"No. I pictured this, and whatever magic makes this room work turned it into reality,\" Hermione explained. \"In fifth year we used it to practice Defence Againt the Dark Arts.\"

Sera nodded. \"Yes, I heard something about that. Umbridge wouldn\'t allow you all to learn the spells, so you did it yourself. Very brave of you kids.\"


Hermione winced at the sound of Umbridges\' name. She hated that woman.


Sera caught it and grinned. \"I don\'t like that old hag either.\"


Hermione smothered a giggle with her hand.


At that moment Dobby popped up with two heavily laden lunch trays floating at his side.


\"Hello Dobby,\" Hermione greeted him.


\"Hello Missies,\" Dobby bowed to her and Sera. \"Dobby has your lunches. Where would you like them?\"


Hermione indicated the larger table and Dobby charmed the trays onto them.


\"Will Missies be needing anything else?\"


\"No. Thank you very much, Dobby,\" Hermione replied.

\"Yes thank you, Dobby,\" added Sera.


He beamed at them and left with a pop.

\"Strange little fellow,\" Said Sera. \"I thought house elves didn\'t wear clothing?\"


\"Most of them don\'t.\" Replied Hermione. \"But Dobby is a free elf. He gets paid to work here.\" Her voice betrayed her opinion on the matter; but she had aquiesced to the others and left S.P.E.W. for a lost cause.


\"Oh.\" Sera nodded, accepting this at once.


They sat down and made small talk over lunch. Hermione was glad. She was hoping she could get to know Sera a little before she began asking about the attack.

When they were finished, Hermione was feeling even more at ease with Sera than before. It occurred to her that she would have a much easier time talking to Sera than even Ginny.

\"Okay Hermione, why don\'t we sit by the fire and have some of this lovely tea,\" Sera said.


Hermione nodded, now fully ready to talk about what had happened.


When they were both sitting in comfy chairs by the fire sipping tea, Sera turned to Hermione.


\"Now, I\'m sure you\'ve never been through this process before....\" She paused and Hermione confirmed her guess. She\'d never been to see a councilor before.


\"Allright then, there are several approaches to doing this. I can ask you questions and you can choose wether or not to answer them. You can tell me the story and allow me to interrupt with questions; or you can tell me the entire story at once and I\'ll save my questions until you are done.\"


Hermione opened her mouth to reply, and then had to think for a moment. \"I..I think I prefer telling the story all ot once,\" she said. \"It will be easier for me to get through it.\"


Sera nodded. \"At your own pace, then. Don\'t worry about time. We have all we need.\"


Hermione took another sip of her tea, sighed and then began. \"I was in the owlry. I was sending a letter to my parents, and I found an injured owl. His wing was broken, and I took him down to Hagrid. We were caring for him when Hagrid noticed it was getting late and sent me back up to the castle.\" She paused for another sip of tea. Sera was sitting very still and listening intently.


\"I was walking by the lake path. It was very pretty and still and I wasn\'t paying much attetion to what was going on around me. I heard something rustle right before I got hit with a stunning spell. I\'d been practicing them with Harry and Ron. I was pretty good at throwing them off quickly and when I got up and turned around he was right behind me.\" Her eyes misted and she paused to regain her composure.


\"I remember seeing him pull back his fist, and I definitely remember him hitting me. He hit me so hard that I couldn\'t see. When I could, he was kneeling in front of me.\" She choked back a sob, and took a few deep breaths. She hadn\'t told Ginny the details, and she was very sure that Sera was going to want them.


\"Don\'t worry Hermione.\" Seras\' soft reassuring voice cut in. \"You only need to remember that you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing that happened was your fault.\"

Hermione nodded, took another breath and launched back into her memory. \"He was kneeling in front of me and I was so dizzy I couldn\'t move. I thought I was going to throw up. Especially when he ran his hands all over my legs. He was saying some things, and I don\'t remember what they were. He must have been telling me to do something, because he got mad and pushed me back. Then he stuffed some kind of cloth in my mouth and..and ripped my shirt open.\"


Her cheeks were burning with embarassment. She knew that Sera would not judge her for anything; but she couldn\'t help herself. \"Then he pushed up my skirt and ripped my panties off.\" Her eyes were beginning to gloss over and Sera stopped her.


\"Hermione you have to stay here with me. Remember that you are safe in the castle. Not out there with him.\"


Hermione nodded. \"Okay.\" She took a moment to calm herself and then continued. \"I wasn\'t a virgin or anything, so it probably wasn\'t as bad as it could have been. But when someone like that has a hold of you, nothing can stop them from hurting you as bad as they possibly can.\"


This time she couldn\'t stop the tears. The memory of the pain and humiliation was far too much for her at that point.


\"I thought he was going to tear me in two.\" she said. \"I could feel and smell his disgusting breath; but the only things I could see were his eyes. He watched my face the entire time, like he was enjoying my pain. He pinched me all over my hips and stomach and legs. I know he just did it so I would cry. It didn\'t take long for him to be done; I know it couldn\'t have been more than five or six minuets; but it was like forever to me. When he finished he got off of me and cleaned himself off.


He said, \"You\'ll be here in the morning like this for Dumbledore to find. He can\'t be so all powerful if he can\'t even protect a student on his own grounds.\" Then he took the cloth out of my mouth and cast Petrificus Totalus on me and left me there. I could hear him laughing as he went away.\"

\"And then you lay there until Professor Snape found you, correct?\" Asked Sera as she handed Hermione a tissue from a box that had popped up when she began looking for some.


Hermione nodded as she wiped her tears and blew her nose. Surprisingly she felt better. She smiled a watery smile at Sera. \"I\'m glad I told you. I feel like I\'ve been carrying around a big wieght and now it\'s gone.\"

Sera smiled. \"I hear that a lot. It\'s like, by telling what happened, you release some of the negative energy that has built up inside of you.\"

Hermione sighed. \"That\'s it entirely.\"

Sera smiled. \"What do you say we quit for today? I\'d like to see Severus while I\'m here.\"


\"Oh, okay,\" Hermione said. \"I\'ll take you down to his office if you want.\"


\"That\'d be wonderful, \'cause I don\'t remember exactly where it is.\" Sera laughed ruefully.


Hermione smiled back at her. \"Just let me do a quick spell so I don\'t look like I\'ve been blubbering.\"


Sera watched as the girl preformed a charm that instantly reduced the swelling around her eyes and made the redness in them disappear.


\"Do I look allright?\" She asked.


\"Lovely,\" Sera assured her. No one would have a single clue that the girl had been crying.


They walked down to Professor Snapes office chatting amicably. The few students they saw on the way gaped at Sera. Especially the male students.


\"Really!\" Hermione muttered under her breath. Sera seemed not to have noticed at all, and Hermione was wondering how she remained so oblivious when the drool was threatening to pool around thier ankles.


She was relieved when they got down into the dungeons where they were unlikely to meet many students.


\"Still dreary as ever, I see,\" Sera remarked.


\"Wouldn\'t be the dungeon if it wasn\'t,\" Hermione chuckled. She knocked lightly on Snapes door and was told to enter. He sounded in a bad mood.


\"Bad time, sir?\" She asked timidly peeking in the door.


\"No, Miss Granger.\" He sounded different now. She suspected he had thought it was someone else. \"Aren\'t you supposed to be talking to..Oh, hello Sera.\"


Sera had come up behind Hermione. \"Hello Severus. It\'s so good to see you!\"

He smiled, and for some reason Hermione felt an irrational surge of jealously. No one else needed to see that smile! But no, Sera was his friend,and had known him a lot longer than Hermione had.


\"I\'ll leave you two to catch up,\" she said.

\"Thank you for showing me down here Hermione.\" Sera said. \"I\'ll see you next Saturday.\"

\"Come back down here after dinner, Miss Granger. We still have to arrange the nights you will be assisting me.\"


\"Okay sir,\" she replied and then retreated.


\"What a lovely girl.\" Sera said after Hermione had gone.

Severus grunted noncomittaly, and she turned back to him. \"Don\'t you think so?\"


\"Oh yes, when she isn\'t flanked by her two moronic best friends,\" he said grumpily. He was suddenly feeling a bit jealous that Sera seemed to be getting so close to Miss Granger. Even calling her Hermione.


He sighed, who was he kidding. He had no right to be jealous, especially over Sera. Yes she was closer to the girl, even after knowing her for only a few hours; but it was for the best. Hermione needed someone like Sera, and it was expected that the girl would latch on to her.

Besides, he had the week to get closer to her during the time she was grading work for him.


Sera was suddenly looking like the cat that caught the canary.


\"What?\" He asked suspiciously, eyeing her.


\"Oh nothing,\" she smiled. \"That girl has quite a spirit, does she not?\"


Severus was still quite suspicious; but he allowed her to change the subject.


\"She\'s a Gryffindor,\" he replied with a shrug.


She gave him a patented look, and he sighed. \"Yes Sera, she has a ton of spirit and brains to match.\"


Sera was looking more and more smug the longer they talked. He\'d inquired about the session and she told him as much as she thought Hermione would be comfortable with him knowing.

\"Sera, what IS on your mind that had got you looking so satisfied with yourself?\"


\"Why, nothing Severus,\" she replied. Her voice held no sarcasm or laughter; but he wasn\'t fooled.


\"Do not think you fool me for an instant, Sera,\" he shook a finger at her menacingly. \"I know you\'re up to something. Rue the day that I fail to remember that you truly are a Slytherin.\"


She smiled benignly and her eyes sparkled with mischief.


\"You\'re getting as bad as Dumbledore!\" He exclaimed in exasperation.


\"Such flattery!\" Sera laughed, pretending embarassment. She did it so well, however, she could have fooled anyone else.


\"Really Sera, you had better tell me just what you\'re up to....\"


\"Oh goodness! Is that the time?!?! I have to be going Severus!\" She rushed over, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and dashed out of his office.


He sighed. Women.


AN: Hope you all liked the humor at the end of this chapter. The beginning was depressing so I thought I would make it a bit funny at the end.

Item of interest: I have recently been perusing some books of my mothers and I found an odd one with a reference to Doxies in it. Little did I know that in Victorian times Doxy was another word for prostitute! You all probably know this, and think I\'m a dummy. LOL