Underneath The Robes

None of the characters are mine, they belong to J K Rowling, and I\'m not making any money from this!


It was the end of another school day, and Hermione did what she did every night before going to sleep. She got herself ready for bed, then lay under her covers, contemplating on what had happened that day, slowly shutting down her busy brain before sleeping.

Occasionally, something that had happened during the day would trigger a memory from a day in the past, and Hermione would be awake even longer than usual, which was the case this evening.

That morning, the Gryffindors and Sytherins had had a Care of Magical Creatures lesson. The weather had been fine, and the lesson was outside, in a small clearing close to the forest. Hagrid had managed to persuade Ron’s brother, Charlie, to bring in the baby dragon he was looking after, so the class could see the magnificent creature as a child, and hear about all the precautions that had to be undertaken when caring for it. All was going well, and everyone was cooing and admiring the sweet baby dragon, who was happy to stand in the circle of students, walking about slowly. Malfoy of course, had to ruin everything, and while Hagrid was talking to Charlie about a particular method of dragon care, spoke out of turn.

“Honestly, I don’t understand the oaf’s hard on for dragons. They’re such ugly, pathetic creatures,” Malfoy’s disdainful voice rang out clearly across the students, but he took care not to speak loud enough for Hagrid or Charlie to hear.

It seemed that the dragon took offence to this remark, or offence to Malfoy at least, Hermione mused, smiling slightly as she remembered the dragon, who was quite close to Malfoy to start with, walk over to him, getting very close. Malfoy was too busy sneering at the Gryffindors to notice the dragon getting closer, and only realised when he felt a something on his lower leg.

Hermione’s smile grew as she remembered everyone in the class watching Malfoy’s face turn purple as he looked down to see a large red cut, already bleeding through his robes and saw the dragon looking up at him innocently. The dragon had wandered off again, towards the centre of the circle, safely out of reach of the raging Malfoy, though even he would not be stupid enough to attack a baby dragon.

Malfoy looked back at his leg, and lifted his robe and trouser leg to inspect the damage. As his robe lifted, everyone in the circle couldn’t help but laugh out loud as they saw the patterns on his socks. Of all the socks he could have, no one expected Malfoy to wear pink socks with fluffy red hearts on them. Malfoy realised why everyone was laughing, and turned bright red. Grabbing Crabbe and Goyle he stalked off in a huff, eager to get away form the giggling students.

Hermione laughed aloud in her bed. No one would hear her; she had a silencing charm on her bed at all times, mainly for the benefit of the others in the dorm. She didn’t think it was fair to wake them up with her moans and occasional screams of anguish as she watched Harry die at Voldemort’s hands in her dreams, which happened at least once a week.

Her mind travelled back to the memory of Malfoy walking off in a huff, gathering his robes around him. It reminded her of something else that had happened, in the past a few years ago… She racked her brains for a few seconds, trying to remember.

That was it. That time in the first year, after they had met Hagrid’s 3 headed dog. Or rather, after Snape had met with it. The cut on Malfoy’s leg that day triggered her memory of the gash on Snape’s leg.

Her mind wandered as she thought back to it. His robe had been raised somehow, though she couldn’t recall exactly why that was. He’d been wearing boots and black socks, not pink ones like Malfoy, but the two occasions were quite similar, even down to the evil looks each of them gave as they realised what had been seen.

Hermione was still considering the Snape event however, when she thought back to Malfoy lifting his trouser leg to inspect his leg. How come Snape’s gash was visible when just the robe was lifted? Maybe he was wearing shorts under his robes, or possibly a skirt. The image of Snape in a skirt made Hermione laugh aloud, but not as much as the next thought did.

Maybe Snape agreed with the Scottish, and wore nothing under his robe.

After Hermione had laughed about this incredulous suggestion that had entered her mind, she stopped abruptly. Maybe it wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded. She knew that people wore all sorts under their robes. She usually wore muggle jeans and a T-shirt or light jumper, as did Harry, although Ron preferred to just wear jeans under his robes, and only wear a top when he wasn’t in his robe. Hermione couldn’t help but smile as she recollected the times Ron had removed his robe to put on a jumper in front of her… He did have a rather nice body, very muscled after all the Quidditch playing, and the occasional tussle with his brothers.

She knew that Ginny preferred to wear a skirt and just a bra under her robes-“it’s just easier, Hermione!” Ginny had told her with a wink, when a surprised and confused Hermione had found out. By the time Hermione had realised what Ginny was implying, she’d long gone. There was also a rumour that Neville preferred pyjamas under his robes, and that Seamus occasionally wore a skirt, though Hermione had no evidence of either.

Maybe Snape didn’t wear anything under his clothes. It wasn’t like anybody would dare come up behind him and lift his robes to find out. An image of Harry stalking Snape to lift his robes entered Hermione’s mind, and she laughed until she cried.

Trying her best to rid her mind of this image, Hermione concentrated on everything else that had happened that day. Or tried to anyway, but she couldn’t get the image of Harry trailing after Snape out of her mind completely, and kept bursting into fits of giggles every so often.

It was much much later before Hermione was finally ready to sleep. She tossed and turned for another 30 minutes or so before she eventually drifted off. Her dreams were plagued with dreams and images of Snape, and the various garments he might wear under his robes.

~o0o~
(Dreaming)

“Miss Granger! Report to me at 8 o’clock this evening for your detention. How many times must I remind you NOT to help Mr Longbottom?” Snape’s voice boomed across the laboratory.

Hermione lowered her head, ashamed. She just couldn’t help it. Surely it was better for her to help Neville, and prevent a huge accident that could potentially destroy the entire lab than to just let Neville struggle along on his own?

Suddenly, Hermione found herself in the potion lab for detention. Snape was sat behind his desk, and gave her the instructions for her detention. She was to extract bezoars. As the juices inside the goat’s stomach were quite dangerous, she was wearing protective dragon-hide gloves. The table in front of Snape’s desk was set up for her, complete with all the equipment she would need.

Hermione wearily began her dissection of goat’s stomachs, her mind totally focussed on the intricate task.

A little while later, she had extracted several bezoars, and was about to start on a new stomach. As she cut open the stomach, her hand slipped, and juice squirted everywhere. The knife slipped from Hermione’s hand, flying out towards Snape’s face. With lightening quick reactions, Snape caught the knife, but he also managed to catch a lot of the liquid from the stomach on his hands as well.

“Stupid girl!” Snape thundered, looking down at his hands. “Quickly, undo my robe, so I can grab a shower and wash this rubbish off me,” he ordered.

Hermione just sat there dumbstruck.

“I said, undo my robe, Miss Granger. I do not wish to get this foul liquid on my robe, and my hands are covered in it, so you must unbutton it all.” Snape said.

Never willing to disobey a teacher, Hermione jumped up, and went to Snape. She took her gloves off carefully, as they were also covered in the foul smelling liquid. Tentatively, she reached up and started to unbutton Snape’s robe.

“Quickly, Miss Granger, this stuff must be washed off before it does too much harm,” Snape said sharply.

Hermione made quick work of the rest of the buttons, which was a feat in itself, as there were so many of them! What possible purpose could all those buttons serve she wondered in her head as she reached up again to grab hold of Snape’s collar, pulling his robes down over his arms. As she pulled he robe off Snape, she could see what he was wearing underneath.

A black fishnet vest? What? With a light blue netball skirt and dark blue tights? That couldn’t be right! It didn’t even match! Hermione stood and stared in shock, while Snape shrugged out of his robe.

“You are excused from your detention, Miss Granger. I will arrange for a house elf to leave some cake in you room. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go and have a shower in Hagrid’s garden. Good night.”

He stalked off, his boots clicking on the stone floor of the lab, and skirt swishing lightly.

~o0o~

Hermione woke with a start. What the hell was that dream about? All she remembered was the bizarre outfit Snape had been wearing. Hermione looked at the time, and realised she would have to get a move on if she didn’t want to be late.


Potions lesson had been difficult that day, Hermione mused later on that evening, during her bedtime ritual. The lesson itself hadn’t been difficult, but keeping a straight face when she looked at Snape had been very tricky, especially when she remembered undoing all of his buttons in her dream last night… and what he’d been wearing underneath that robe!!

However, the stern looks Snape gave to the class had helped curve her giggles…unlike Crabbe’s accident. He looked really surprised when his cauldron blew up into his face, but he really should have known better. They had been using some nasty ingredients today and not all of them got along nicely with the other ingredients. Still, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle did kind of suit pink cat ears…she remembered Ron’s murmured comment, “now his ears match his socks.” It had been very hard not to laugh aloud-at least until the murderous look on Snape’s face as he stormed out with his Slytherin charges stopped all chuckles abruptly. After he’d left however, all of the Gryffindors began rolling about on the floor laughing. Then Snape had come back, deduction house points left, right and centre, mainly from Gryffindor, but also from a couple of his own Slytherins.

Hermione’s mind couldn’t help but wander back to her thoughts from the night before. It was such a random thing, but her curious mind couldn’t rest. It was unusual for Hermione to have a question that she couldn’t find an answer to. How could she find out what lay underneath Snape’s robes? Her inquisitive mind needed an answer, and wouldn’t leave her alone until her curiosity was satisfied. But to get an answer to this question, she needed a plan.