Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Visit to a String of Pearls	By : Ms_Figg Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 4911 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Sweeney Todd and am making no $$$ from the posting of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 3 ~ Meeting Mr. Todd (Sort of)

Hermione reacted just the way Snape had hoped.

"Going to meet him? Are you insane?" Hermione hissed at him as he tightened his hold on her arm. They were heading into the less savory part of town now, turning down an alleyway. Ahead of them were a number of lower class individuals, murmuring and hurrying along.

"No, I am not insane. I need to make sure my timing is correct. The only way I can do that is to see where Mr. Todd is at this point in time," Snape told her. "We will not be in any danger. I wouldn't like him to—ah—see me."

"Why not?" Hermione asked him.

"Because, it might distract him from his predetermined course," Snape replied obliquely.

Hermione looked at him suspiciously.

"Well, you let Judge Turpin see you. More than see you. You're staying at his house! I don't understand why you can interact with one character and not another. There's something you're not telling me," Hermione declared, stalling. People walked around them as Snape frowned at her.

"If you didn't waste your time watching romances, you'd be familiar with this telling of the tale," he hissed. "The problem is the judge wrongly arrested Todd, whose real name was Barker, then shipped him off to a penal colony for life."

"Why?"

"Because he wanted to have at his wife," Snape said, coaxing Hermione back into step.

"That's terrible!" Hermione said.

"It gets worse. He raped Todd's wife and afterwards, took in Todd's daughter. He has 'designs' on her. Todd escaped the colony only to find out that his wife went mad and drank poison and that his daughter is with Judge Turpin. He destroyed Todd's life. Since I look like Turpin, it's a relatively safe bet that Todd would like to carve a smile into my throat. So, I'll make it a point to make sure he doesn't see me."

"I don't blame him," Hermione said, "although he's still a monster."

"I rather think him a misunderstood character," Snape replied as they entered a throng of people gathered in a rather dirty market square. It was surrounded by the backs of buildings and didn't smell very good. In front of the gathered crowd was a large, enclosed cart with a makeshift stage in front of it. On the stage was a barber's chair and small table. A curtained doorway was centered in the cart's middle and steps attached to the side of the stage led down to the ground. The paint on the cart was faded, but very large signs on either side of the doorway held elaborate lettering which clearly spelled out "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir."

"What is this?" Hermione asked, standing on tiptoe so she could see.

"A show," Snape replied, his dark eyes shifting about. He started and got Hermione's attention.

"Look there," he said quietly, pointing to the other side of the square. Two people entered from that side.

Hermione followed his finger with her eyes. They rounded as she saw a very pale man with sunken eyes and a huge shock of mane-like black/brown hair with one thick white stripe on the right side. He looked somewhat familiar. But that wasn't what made her eyes round. It was the woman with him, also pale with somewhat sunken eyes. Hermione recognized her instantly.

"That's Bellatrix!" she hissed, instinctively reaching for her wand inside her bodice. Snape grabbed her hand.

"No, that's Nellie Lovett, the owner of the pie shop," Snape told her with an unpleasant smirk.

Hermione stared at the woman with hatred in her eyes before both she and Todd entered the crowd, turned, and looked at the cart expectantly. Hermione stared daggers at the back of "Mrs. Lovett's" head, and the woman wiped at her neck as if something had touched her there.

"First you, then Wormtail, and now Bellatrix LeStrange," Hermione said under her breath. "No wonder you like this story. You're perverse enough to enjoy seeing their doubles, and yours. This is awful. I so want to hex that woman. She might not be Bellatrix, but she has the same lack of scruples and blood-thirsty nature."

"In a manner of speaking," Snape agreed as a young boy walked out of the cart and on to the stage. He wore a hat pulled down over his ears. "But unlike Bellatrix, Mrs. Lovett takes no joy in torture or killing," Snape continued. "She is simply trying to make a living. As she says, 'Times is hard.'"

"So, she serves up Lone Pig to her neighbors," Hermione muttered.

"I think she prefers a little priest," Snape replied. "Now, stop complaining and listen."

The boy began banging on a drum and singing the delights of using Pirelli's Miracle Elixir:

Ladies and gentlemen

May I have your attention, please?

Do you wake every morning

in shame and despair

To discover your pillow

is covered with hair

What ought not to be there?

Well, ladies and gentlemen

From now on you can waken at ease

You need never again

have a worry or care

I will show you a miracle

marvelous rare

Gentlemen, you are about

to see something

What rose from the dead!

On the top of my head!

The boy whipped off his hat and gloriously blond hair fell down to his shoulders as the crowd gasped.

Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"That's a wig," she said as the boy passed around a couple of bottles of Pirelli's elixir, touting his master's wares. Suddenly she heard a male voice sing out clearly:

Pardon me, ma'am

what's that awful stench?

Are we standing in an open trench?

The boy hesitated for a moment, but continued hawking, trying to drown out Todd's voice, but he couldn't manage it. Todd continued heckling, joined by Mrs. Lovett.

- What is this?

- What is this?

- Smells like piss

- Smells like...

- Looks like piss!

- Wouldn't touch it if I was you, dear!

- This is piss, piss with ink

A bottle came around to Snape and Hermione. Snape turned his face away, he could already smell it with that huge nose of his, but Hermione held the bottle up to her nose and took a big whiff—then promptly gagged, thrusting the bottle away from her and into the next outstretched hand.

"That IS piss!" she choked, her eyes watering. A bald man two persons down rubbed a liberal amount of "elixir" on his hairless head with gusto.

Snape's nose wrinkled.

"People in England during the 18th century weren't too bright," he observed.

Hermione was about to agree when suddenly the curtains on the door of the cart parted with a flourish, and the fabled Pirelli himself appeared in all his primped, heavily-accented Italian glory. Caped, with curling black hair and pencil mustache he addressed the crowd:

I am Adolfo Pirelli

The king of the barbers

The barber of kings

E buon giorno, good day!

I blow you a kiss!

"Oh, good Grindylows," Hermione muttered as the peacock actually blew a kiss at the crowd. Then, his face curled into a menacing scowl as he continued:

And I

the so famous Pirelli

I wish-a to know-a

Who has-a the nerve-a to say

My elixir is piss

Who says this?

"I do."

Hermione watched as Sweeney Todd stalked up to the cart boldly not the least perturbed by Pirelli's demeanor. Despite his paleness, Todd was really quite handsome—in a scary, disturbed, madman kind of way. Hermione couldn't help but think she'd seen him someplace before, but not in the wizarding world.

Todd addressed Pirelli as the crowd fell silent.

"I am Mr. Sweeney Todd of Fleet Street. I have opened a bottle of Pirelli's Elixir and I say to you that it is nothing but an arrant fraud, concocted from piss and ink. Furthermore, Signor, I have serviced no kings, yet I wager that I can shave a cheek with 10 times more dexterity, than any street mountebank."

Murmuring arose and murmuring began in the crowd as Todd opened a case of razors and held one beautiful gleaming blade aloft. Pirelli's blue eyes glistened lustfully as he stared at the fine blade.

"What a beautiful razor," Hermione breathed as it glinted in the drab light of day.

"Yes. He has quite a lovely set," Snape agreed, his dark eyes reflecting the flashing blade. "There is no other like it in this or any other world."

"Do you see these razors?" Todd asked Pirelli. "I lay them against £5 you are no match, sir. Either accept my challenge, or reveal yourself as a sham."

Hermione looked at Snape, barely hearing the challenge.

"You want his razors," she said softly as Snape didn't take his eyes off of Todd.

"Yesssss," he hissed.

"But why?"

"Because, those blades are made of finest, purest silver and consecrated in the blood of both the innocent and the guilty," Snape said softly. "There are amazing potions that can be made with such tools, potions that require the blade to be, shall we say 'tempered' in such a manner. Finding blades of this nature is next to impossible in our world, so I came to his to acquire them. No other Potions master can boast of such utensils in his stores."

Hermione fell silent as Todd mounted the stage, the boy bringing out another chair. Yes, she knew about things like this, potions that required ingredient to be prepared with the use of special tools consecrated by blood or other mediums, such as the fires of hell, or Holy water. It was sticky business to be sure. Severus Snape certainly didn't pull any punches when going after something he wanted.

Peter Pettigrew's double mounted the stage to serve as judge.

"Glad, as always to oblige my friends and neighbors," he simpered as Todd gave him a bleak, hungry stare. Definitely one for the blade.

The crowd watched as Pirelli made a spectacle of sharpening his razor, nearly taking off his boy's fingers in the process. He boasted about shaving the Pope and other royalty as he made short initial cuts to his volunteer.

Todd simply sized up his volunteer's face, then in eight simple strokes, left him with a face as smooth as a baby's bum.

"The winner is Todd!" Beadle cried. Pirelli looked shocked. The last time he looked over at the barber, he hadn't made a single cut. But he paid Todd.

"Until we meet again," he said meaningfully.

Todd took the money and joined Mrs. Lovett, Pirelli spinning and kicking his boy into the cart. He disappeared inside after him, the thick sounds of blows falling on flesh following.

"What a terrible man," Hermione said as she heard the boy's howls.

"Not for long," Snape replied, taking her arm and leading her away. "Mrs. Lovett's shop is about to become very popular."

As they walked away, Hermione heard Mrs. Lovett say to Todd, "Suppose it's just me gentle heart, but I do hate to see a boy treated like that."

Hermione snorted just a little at the statement, considering what Mrs. Lovett was about to do to Mr. Pirelli in a few hours. She might not actually be Bellatrix LeStrange, but by Hermione's standards, she was close enough.

A/N: At last, another chapter. I took the Sweeney Todd dialogue directly from the script. Thanks for reading. ***
- 2
- 3
- 4
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Visit to a String of Pearls