In an Alternate Universe

Chapter 30 ~ Cleansing

Hermione sat down in the armchair beside Severus, taking him in. The young wizard was still shuddering. No doubt he was horrified with himself for what he’d done in hindsight. He was a Gryffindor after all, and doing that to another human being went against Gryffindor principles. Even if that human being was little more than slime.

“Have you ever used a Pensieve before?” Hermione asked him.

“No,” Severus responded, staring down at the bowl in his lap.

”Well, Pensieves are used to hold memories. Many believe that it removes them, but it doesn’t. What it does is remove the details of memories for viewing by yourself or others. You are still aware of them, but they lose their distinctness, their details and hence the emotions attached to them as well. If you destroy the memories, then you will no longer feel the emotions attached to them. An unpleasant memory will not affect you greatly. You will remember it only in passing,” Hermione said to him.

Severus looked at her with haunted eyes.

”I’ll never forget what I’ve done,” he said to her.

”No, but you won’t be horrified by it. That’s what’s important. This is how I’ve managed to survive all my own trials,” Hermione said to him.

Severus looked down at the bowl again.

”How do I do it? Remove the memory?” he asked her.

“Take out your wand and place it against your temple,” Hermione instructed, “then think about everything leading up to the memory, then the memory itself, willing it to run out of your head. Draw your wand away until the memory blurs in your mind, becomes indistinct.”

Severus concentrated then slowly pulled his wand away from his temple. A long silvery strand was attached to the end of it, dangling and undulating. He stared at it.

”Put it into the Pensieve. It will release when it come into contact with the bowl,” Hermione said in a low voice, “then repeat it until everything connected with the memory is blurred and dull.”

The witch watched as Severus removed strand after strand of memory, his face becoming more relaxed with every extrusion. Finally, he finished with a sigh. He was no longer shaking. He looked at Hermione.

”Thank you,” he said softly.

Hermione blinked at him.

”Give me the Pensieve. I want to see what you did to Lucius. How you managed to get the drop on him,” Hermione said, “he’s a very experienced wizard as well as a Death Eater. You shouldn’t have been able to overcome him. You’re young, inexperienced.”

Severus handed her the bowl and watched as she stared down into it, falling still.

Hermione watched, shocked to see herself knocking on the door of the manor and a house elf letting her in. Then Lucius arrived and was stunned, grabbed and taken away . . . to . . . to . . .

Was that the Shrieking Shack? Severus hadn’t assaulted him in his home then.

Hermione watched as her double threw the wizard hard to the floor. There was something oddly satisfying in seeing herself do that. Then a Silencing spell was cast as well as a window darkening spell. A torch was lit and Severus changed back into himself, bound Lucius and then Ennervated him.

The look of hate on the young wizard’s face was terrible. Hermione thought he wanted to kill him. She heard their initial conversation then jumped as Severus Crucio’d Lucius, screaming at him.

It was quite a powerful blast. One that required terrible intent. Then Severus cast the Legilimens spell on Lucius. Hermione watched as the boy stood frozen for several minutes then came out of it, screaming at Lucius and Crucioing him again.

Then he stripped him and cast the Imperio spell on him.

Hermione watched as Severus used the walls of the shack to batter Lucius, running him into wall after wall, terrible thuds and crunching noise sounding from the impact of Lucius’ face and body. Then he Crucio’d him again, then Imperio’d, then Crucio’d over and over, not letting up in his punishment of her attacker.

“Dear gods,” Hermione thought as she watched Severus, the hatred in his eyes as he nearly killed her rapist. He threw him to the ground and straddled him.

A thin white light issued from the tip of his wand and Lucius groaned hoarsely in agony as Severus carefully directed the beam, Lucius’ flesh burning and bubbling grossly as the Gryffindor carefully carved the letters R – A - P – I – S – T in his forehead.

”There. Now everyone will know what you are,” Severus hissed at him, stepping back from the wizard and pointing his wands at him again.

“Obliviate!” the Gryffindor cried, focusing on Lucius for several seconds, then lowering his wand. The wizard was unconscious again. The young Gryffindor grabbed the Pureblood’s discarded robes and tossed them on top of Lucius' broken body, then Disillusioned himself.

Hermione watched as the shimmer grabbed Lucius by one arm and Disapparated.

Now he was back on the grounds of the manor. Lucius was dragged up the stairs unceremoniously then thrown inside when the door opened, followed by his robes which had fallen aside.

The shimmer walked back down the stairs, fired an Auror summons and disappeared, Apparating soundlessly.

Hermione exited the Pensieve, and handed it back to Severus.

”You aren’t finished yet,” she said softly, “you have to add another set of memories.”

Severus’ brow furrowed.

”What memories?” he asked her, hoping it wasn’t the one of them having sex together. He’d refuse if that was the case. He was going to treasure his first time for the rest of his life.

”The one of finding me after Lucius raped me. You need to get that out of your head or it will always haunt you, Severus. You need to be rid of that as well,” she said to him, nodding at the Pensieve. “Remove everything, even the remembrance of going to my lavish home. The entire night.”

Hermione also wanted him to remove the cruel words she had said to him. After what he’d done to Lucius, she knew that Severus’ attraction for her was more than lust and in his heart he didn’t want to wrong her or see her wronged. Besides, she had enjoyed her time with him, coerced or not. She agreed to it, and didn’t regret it.

Hermione watched as he removed those memories and added them to the Pensieve. Then she held out her hands and Severus passed the bowl to her. Using her wand, Hermione scourgified it, destroying the details of Severus’ revenge forever, freeing him of the horror of his own act. She stood up and put the Pensieve back in the niche closing it, then turned around and looked at Severus, who was looking back at her.

They just stared at each other for several minutes before Severus asked, “So, are you going to kill me now?”

Hermione scowled at him while noting there was that familiar heat in his eyes again. All the guilt he felt for wanting her and succeeding at getting her was gone now. Hopeful randiness once again reigned, although it was tempered. Hermione felt a little welcoming pulse at the light in his dark eyes, but she pushed it down.

”As appealing as the idea is, Severus, no, I’m not. But what were you thinking going after Lucius like that? He could have killed you,” she snapped at him.

”I was thinking he couldn’t get away with what he did to you. Since you weren’t going to do anything about it, I did,” the young wizard said stoically.

“I didn’t need you to go rushing in like a damn fool. I could handle it. I was handling it,” she said to him. “I’ve been handling everything for a long, long time without you sticking your big nose in my affairs.”

Severus snorted.

”Handling it? You just took it. Somebody had to help you, professor. Someone had to stand up for you. After all you’ve done for the sake of the Wizarding World, it’s like you’ve been abandoned. Like no one cares what happens to you now that Voldemort’s gone. Well, I care and as long as I’m around, no one is going to cause you any harm,” he declared.

Suddenly, magic swirled around them.

”Oh no,” Hermione groaned, “Not another blasted Oath! What the hell is the matter with you? Can’t you control your emotions?”

”I guess not when it comes to you, Professor,” Severus said, softly, affection in his eyes.

”Oh, Circe’s Sunken Sailors. I can’t fucking believe this,” she hissed walking back over to the chair and dropping down in it. She looked at Severus and shook her head in defeat.

”Just what I need. A Gryffindor bodyguard,” she sighed, pinching her nose as Severus smiled at her.

This was one Oath he didn’t plan on ever renouncing.

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Hermione spent the next hour schooling Severus on how to act, now that he had committed his first atrocity. She had a lot of experience hiding her own little “indiscretions.” Not every Death Eater who had his way with her kept breathing, although she was quite careful disposing of the body. Hermione Granger could have made a number of Horcruxes if she wanted to. But, one life was enough.

”You have to do the things you normally do, which includes continued association with your idiot friends. They are already suspicious of you. If you go to them now, willing to ‘hang out’ with them, they’ll think it was just . . . a mood swing,” she said.

”Or that your hex wore off,” Severus offered, grinning.

”If I were to hex anyone, it would be those two dunderheads,” she griped, “but it is important to act yourself. What happened with Lucius, happened. It’s over. Life goes on.”

Severus nodded, his eyes questioning as he looked at her.

”What?” Hermione snapped.

”I was just . . . just wondering if . . . if a reward is in order,” he ventured a bit timidly, but not all that timidly. “I mean . . . I did avenge you. That’s worth at least one little shag, isn’t it?”

Hermione’s face contorted. The nerve of the boy! He’d barely gotten rid of his bad memories and guilt and he was already working on her again.

”What? A reward? Why you conniving little . . .” Hermione cried, whipping out her wand.

Severus sprang out of the chair and ran for his bedroom as Hermione fired a Stunner at him, the wizard stopping a split second so the hex passed by him then flying into his room, slamming and warding the door. He had a big smile on his face.

”I’m going to go set up the lab for the next brewing in a few minutes!” he called through the door.

“You do that! And I don’t want to hear anything else about ‘rewards,’ or I’ll make sure you have nothing left down there to claim a ‘reward’ with!” Hermione hissed, stalking into her bedroom

But she wore just a hint of a smile.

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A/N: Thanks for reading.