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Strength in What Remains Behind	By : Sandiera Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 13525 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Hermione

I walked to Gryffindor tower as if in a dream, the hallways blurred by my tears. No one accosted me along the way. it was as if Professor Snape's explosive outburst had made me untouchable. None of it mattered to me.

I made my way to my room and flung myself on the bed, hugging the pillow to my face, in part to catch my tears and muffle my sobs, but also because I just really needed a hug at that moment and that only thing I had to turn to was the soft but inanimate object.

I couldn't even begin to explain why I allowed what the Professor said to - or more accurately, spat at - me to hurt me so baldly. He had briefly allowed me to feel that someone was on my side, even though I was suspicious of it. Ginny didn't know the whole of it, so I couldn't really count her. Besides, she was wrapped up in her feelings for Draco. I didn't want to intrude on that. Although really, that rationalization made no sense, because Professor Snape knew even less than she did. Why should he, a teacher who had made it abundantly clear in my nearly seven years here that he detested me, count more than a close friend? Even so, I cried myself to sleep that night.

The next morning, whatever had protected me on my way back to the tower last night seemed to have worn off. I was so depressed that I could barely defend myself. I missed part of both Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts visiting Madame Pomfrey. It was hard to bring myself to care about it, though. The second time I visited her, she tried to talk to me but I brushed her off. I didn't really want to even talk to Ginny about this, let alone a teacher. She watched me leave with a worried expression on her face.

I decided to take longer, less visited routes around that school the rest of the day. I could hardly care less if I was hexed again, but I had a feeling that if I showed up in the Hospital section again today, I wouldn't be leaving without giving Madame Pomfrey a satisfying explanation as to why I had visited her so often today. This worked to my detriment, because the Slytherins eventually figured out what I was doing, and several of them cornered me on my way back from dinner.

There was no one around us. I looked at the four Slytherins surrounding me with resignation and told them to get on with it. I saw surprise in Pansy Parkinson's face. I suppose she expected me to fight back. Millicent Bulstrode just shrugged and got her wand ready, but Crabbe and Goyle looked frighteningly pleased as they raised theirs. As I was wondering where Draco was, he strode down the hallway and told them to stop.

All five of us looked at him with surprise. A Slytherin, actually intervening in the torture of a Gryffindor? Considering it was Draco and myself in that scenario, it was especially hard to believe. I knew about his relationship with Ginny, but I still viewed him with suspicion. He had hardly given me any cause not to since we'd first been enrolled in Hogwarts.

I waited calmly as my four assailants, wands still trained on me, listened to Draco explain that by continuously attacking me, they were making Professor Snape, and by extension, the entire house of Slytherin, look bad. He said that Snape's little speech in the hallway had convinced people that the rumors that Snape and I were seeing each other secretly were not true. However, the continued attack on me by the Slytherins was starting the rest of the school to talking again. He said it was in Slytherin's best interest that I be ignored for a while, until people forgot all about the foolish rumors. He said he knew that I was being targeted because I was one of the Gryffindor trio and no longer had the protection of Ron and Harry, but that the rest of the school didn't see it that way.

The others seemed to accept his explanation, because they put their wands away and walked off, though Crabbe deliberately bumped into me on his way past. Draco looked at me silently as they left, and once they were out of sight, he nodded at me once and left without a word. I was truly stunned by this turn of events. I had always thought that Draco was stupid, but he had just proven me wrong. Not only that, but he stepped up for me in the only way a Slytherin could; through deceitful manipulation of the pride of his own house. Newfound respect for him blossomed in me. Ginny had found the better person within him and cultivated it. I knew then that I would fight tooth and nail for them and their relationship. With that one simple nod, he had completely won me over on the idea of their romance.

When I continued on my way to the tower, I chose the main halls and walked with pride. I had found an unlikely friend in an unexpected place, and it buoyed my mood. Slytherins who had not heard the word didn't even try to harass me. I supposed they could sense the change in me. All the better for them, because I would no longer take it lying down, and it was certain I knew far more hexes than any of them did.

I slept peacefully that night for the first time since I came back from Winter break.
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Strength in What Remains Behind