Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Madrigal	By : Rotisserie_Cassowary Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 7982 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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A little over two weeks later, Hermione and I were hard at work in my lab. We had fallen way behind on my production schedule due to our constant laboring over the Triad Potion, so we were playing some serious catch-up. It was early evening when we heard a strange, distant thumping noise. We both looked up curiously, brows wrinkled, from our respective cauldrons. Hermione got a look of dawning comprehension on her face, jumping up from her seat and running to the entrance wall. It dissolved at her touch, revealing Potter standing on the other side, pounding both of his fists against the thick stone.
I stormed over, shouting, “What in the bloody hell?! You told him where my private laboratory is hidden?!”
“It’s not like he can get in on his own!” she scoffed as she grabbed his hand and yanked him inside. “And I told him so that he could find me in emergencies!”
Harry gawked around the room in wonder, seeming to have forgotten why he’d come in the first place. I cleared my throat irritably. “Potter, do you care to regale me with what motivated you to come here and interrupt my work?” I hissed venomously.
He nodded his head apologetically, a look of anxiety overtaking over his pale face. “Trelawney heard a male voice celebrating in the Room of Requirement when she was hiding her empty sherry bottles. I’m sure it’s Malfoy, and anything he’s happy about cannot be good for the rest of us. I told Dumbledore about it, but he completely disregarded me! And now he wants the two of us to leave the castle to hunt down a Horcrux! This is so incredibly stupid! Malfoy has finally done whatever it is he’s been trying to do, and now the castle is going to be left undefended!”
“It’s not undefended. I am here, as well as the other professors. Dumbledore isn’t the only one who can cast a couple jinxes, you know,” I scoffed.
“I’m sure he’s found some way to bring Death Eaters into the castle!” Hermione mused hurriedly. “There must be something in the Room of Requirement that he’s going to use…”
Potter and I nodded in agreement with her. He pulled a tiny vial out of his pocket that appeared to hold a dose of Felix Felicis. I let out a low whistle of admiration at the sight. “That’s a small fortune you’ve got in your hand there, boy.”
“I won it from following the instructions in your book,” he told me, holding it out on his flat palm. “Split it between you and Hermione. I’m taking the rest back to Gryffindor tower for Ron and Ginny. I really have to go now. Dumbledore is expecting me to just run to my dorm, grab my cloak, and go straight back to his office. He’s already gonna be pissed I took this long.” He shocked me by holding out his hand, and I shook it, dumbfounded at how mature he was acting. “Please look after her, Professor,” he requested, then wrapped up Hermione in a huge hug. She was slightly tearful, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. I waved my hand, opening the wall for him, and he set off down the corridor at a jog.
Hermione looked at me, eyes wide and tear-filled, bottom lip quivering slightly. “I guess it’s finally really happening…” she whispered, voice shaky. I nodded, pulling her into my arms. “We have a plan. It’s all going to work out. We just have to be smart and careful,” I told her bracingly. I took a small sip from the vial, leaving more than half for her. She tossed it back, making a little grimace as the sickly-sweet warmth trickled down her throat.
I immediately felt incredible, like the entire world was at my fingertips. I could try anything, and I would succeed. I had but to ask for something, and it would be given. Hermione had an enormous grin on her face, looking up at me with eyes twinkling. I waved my wand, and the cauldrons across the room emptied of the potions we had been working on. “Come on, then,” I said, an elated tone to my voice despite the gravity of the situation.
We fled down the corridors, pounding up staircases two steps at a time, until we reached Minerva’s office. I pounded on the door impatiently until it swung open. Professor McGonagall was hunched over a stack of essays, glasses slipping down her thin nose. She waved her hand in the air, shutting the door behind us as we proceeded into the small room. Hermione sat on the hard wooden chair, and I stood directly behind her. I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for her to acknowledge us. She finally finished reading the paragraph she was on, scrawling a long critique next to it. She looked up, and I noticed the weary lines under her eyes and around her mouth seemed to be getting more distinct every day.
“What can I help you children with?” she asked tiredly.
Rolling my eyes at her refusal to ever see me as anything but an overgrown student, I hurriedly explained the situation. All the exhaustion seemed to melt from her in an instant. She got to her feet, pulling her wand out of her sleeve with a determined flourish. “I’ll set the castle defensive wards. Hermione, you go alert the other Heads of House that an attack may be imminent. Severus, you need to get into the Room of Requirement and figure out what Draco’s got in there.”
Hermione shook her head emphatically, astounding me with her willingness to disobey a direct command from a professor. “We need to stay together, Professor McGonagall. We have a plan, and we need both of us for it to work,” she asserted, her body language communicating utter bull-headed certainty. Minerva’s eyes widened, looking up at me with curiosity and a not-insignificant bit of suspicion. “My word, you’ve certainly been an interesting influence…” she murmured to me.
“Very well, I will send patronus messages to the other professors and the rest of the Order. You two do whatever it is you’re going to do. I trust you will exercise good judgment, Severus?” she said crisply, narrowing her eyes at me pointedly.
I nodded with impatience, placing my hand on Hermione’s slim shoulder, “Come on, girl. We have work to do.” She jumped to her feet, and we headed off down the corridor at a rapid clip. I didn’t know it, but Minerva watched us the entire way until we vanished around a distant corner, wrinkle of scrutiny between her brows.
We finally reached the seventh floor, and Hermione was desperately out of breath from running up all those stairs. She stood off to the side, gasping for air, as I paced in front of the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy. “I need to see what Draco’s doing…” I thought, walking back and forth three times. Nothing. “I need to stop the Death Eaters from getting into the castle.” Nothing. “I need to get out of the castle.” Nothing. I tried a dozen other statements, but still the door refused to appear. Hermione got a look of inspiration, taking my hand and pulling me back a few steps.
She paced slowly, deliberately, eyes closed, crease of concentration between her thick brows. Then, a glowing outline appeared, rapidly tracing a door into existence. I let out a whoop of triumph, and Hermione’s eyes flew open at the sound. She squealed, throwing her arms around my neck. I lifted her and spun her in the air as she giggled with delirious joy. “You brilliant bloody witch!” I exclaimed. “What did you ask it?”
“I just said I needed to find where things are hidden!” she laughed, pumping a fist into the air.
“Of course! I should have known I was trying to be way too specific…” I berated myself.
“It just came to me in a flash! It must have been Felix giving me a little nudge!” she said humbly.
I Disillusioned the two of us, and I was amazed at how powerful the charm was with an extra bump of luck. We were both virtually invisible. I couldn’t even make out my own feet as I strolled to the entrance. I held my breath as I cautiously opened the door. As it swung inwards, Hermione let out a small gasp of astonishment. We crept through, and I closed the door silently behind us.
Enormous piles of refuse towered ominously three stories above our heads. Broken chairs, tables, lamps, cabinets, couches, wands, picture frames, and so much more formed tangled heaps in every direction. A gigantic pile of books was directly ahead of us, some burned, some soaked, some ripped from their bindings, some quivering as if fearing for their lives, some snapping their covers at each other in territorial conflict. We proceeded down a corridor we chose at random, not even sure how to start picking through the gargantuan mess.
After a few minutes of strolling, I cast a Hominem Revelio charm. We weren’t close enough to pick up Draco’s presence. We spent the next thirty minutes methodically examining every aisle of the impossibly enormous room, leaving distinctive items in the middle of the pathways to mark where we’d already been. Finally, I heard a distant cough. Hermione took my invisible hand in her own with some difficulty, and I cast Hominem Revelio once again. A male shape glowed faintly on the other side of a truly enormous pile of rubbish. It took nearly ten minutes for us to circumvent the mound, but finally he came into view.
He was pacing back and forth in front of an enormous, ancient, intricately carved wooden cabinet. I recognized it from the many trips I’d taken to Borgin and Burke’s over the years. So obvious, I scoffed in my head, how did I not think of that? We hid behind half of a small flowery loveseat, as I wondered idly what had happened to the other part. Unable to communicate with Hermione, the wheels turned rapidly in my head as I pondered what to do.
After a few minutes, she reached into one of the many interior pockets of the robes I had gifted her. She pulled a vial of Indelible Sticking Solution out and waved it in front of my eyes. I could just barely make out her huge smile. An evil grin overtook my face, and I kissed her clumsily on her invisible forehead. I took out my wand and cast an Impedimenta Jinx at the particularly large armchair that teetered ominously at the very top of the garbage mountain behind us. It crashed down the far side of the mound, making an almighty roar as it triggered an avalanche. Hermione and I both cringed at the deafening racket, even though we knew it was coming.
Draco let out a high-pitched scream, yanking his wand out of his robes and pointing it frantically in every direction. He ran off around the curve of the now-slightly-smaller pile, searching frantically for the cause of the avalanche. As soon as he vanished from view, we scampered forward. I kept watch as Hermione opened the door of the cabinet. She used the applicator to smear a healthy amount of the magical glue into both parts of the locking mechanism. She also applied a thick bead all the way along the edge of the door. She shoved the door shut with some difficulty, vanishing the small amounts of glue that oozed out. I applied the charm to permanently affix the glue, and Hermione gave the door an experimental yank. It didn’t even move a millimeter. Not stopping to celebrate, we held hands and quietly jogged down the nearest aisle, desperate to put distance between us and Draco before he returned.
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Madrigal