Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Torment Completed	By : Kvarta Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 31713 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling. This story is purely for entertainment purposes, no money is being made from it.

Chapter List
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- 53
A/N: Part two!
@Black Rose "So much for loyalty!" - things are not so much black and white, as she sees them. And he doesn't have much to go on, he can only know what he sees and what she tells him. "Severus still hasn’t realized that even though he can’t stand Hermione, he still find her attractive." - for that realisation, he needs time, alone time, which he doesn't have - at all :).
To avoid further confusion:
Italic - Past, memories
‘Single quotation mark’ - inner monologue, thoughts
“double quotation mark” - actual speech
She unwrapped two rather large tomes, one covered in black and the other in red leather. He smirked. She opened the first book. The black leather had only golden tribal on it. The first page revealed nothing to her. She recognised the letters as Hindi and glanced at him with amazement and curiosity.
‘Can he read this?’
“Well?” he drawled
“I… it is in Hindi. Can you read it?”
“I can.” His short reply stirred more questions, but his half-challenging half-amused look aggravated her. She flipped few pages but they only contained text. While turning pages her eye caught movement.
“What is this book?”
“I am not sharing that information.” He replied, his voice tight
“It looks like this one has pictures. Maybe I can figure out on my own. It is nice of Malfoy to give you the book with schemes and pictures” she mused flipping through the pages. The book looked old and she was careful not to damage it.
“Yes, because I find the letters boring, the picture might do the trick.” His voice laced with sarcasm she decided to ignore.
She opened the book and issue a small yelp, feeling the heat wrapping around her and settling on her face. This was not what she expected. She was sure it is one of the books on Dark Arts, not this…
“Does it have pictures?” he taunts her
“Ummm… yes.” She replied slowly
“I hope you satisfied your curiosity now” even if his tone clipped, she could recognise the hint of mockery in it
“Ummm…. Right… well…” she stuttered, gaining a new layer of red with each syllable “it appears to be…ummm…a sort of…a wizarding version of… Gods!... Kama Sutra.”
He let her shudder through the answers, his face impassive. He didn’t seem surprised at all and she hated him for not warning her. She looked at him and blinked… he did warn her. She was the one not listening.
“If you are quite done playing with the presents…”
“There is one more book!” she burped before she could pause and think what she was saying. But the burgundy coloured leather made her fingers itch and her curiosity flair. The other book had no markings on its covers.
She placed the first book on his lap, letting it go like it burned her. His eyes narrowed and darkened, he looked annoyed but didn’t say a word. She opened the book and closed it almost instantly. Her face couldn’t be redder at this point. The room felt like it was a hundred degrees in it.
“Ummmm….this is…ahem… Maverick’s guide to tantric and sex magic.” She whispered, placing that book on top of the other
He laughed. That pretty much scrambled her brain as thoroughly as the titles… and pictures…did. It was not that this was the first time she heard him laugh, it was that he never did that with her. The privilege of his laughter was reserved for Malfoy’s. And then it hit her… his words… he knew what the books were, he probably recognized the covers.
“You are vile, evil….” She stated but the new roll of laughter shut her off
The change in him was…disturbing…mesmerising…confusing. He looked... looked…different. The relaxed brows and laughing crinkles around his eyes seemed to shave off the years off his face. He looked so much younger. The mischievous glint in his eyes clashed harshly with everything she knew about him so far. Abruptly as it started, his face morphed once again into the hard mask of scorn.
“In retrospect… What did we learn about opening the presents given by one Lucius Malfoy?” his voice still raspy from laughing but sharp
“Not to open them?”
“Indeed.” He nodded, ignoring the questioning note in her answer
She took the books like they could spring the teeth and bite her. If given the option she would rather wrestle with the Monster book of monsters than holding… this. She placed the books on the nightstand, not knowing what to do with them. And swiftly placed Narcissa’s gift over them.
“I hope you learned your lesson, Hermione. Unless…” the glimmer of mischief flickered in his eyes and his voice “Unless... the titles are to your preference. In that case… you are welcome to borrow them.”
Apparently, she could blush more, impossible as it seemed. Shaking her head, eager to express her denial. Her throat constricted. It took her three or four attempts to subdue her voice to her will.
“Errrrr… thank you… I mean… NO! Thank you… Well, yes… I… I’ll just go… to take a shower…” she turned on her heal towards the bathroom. Then returned to pick up all necessities and moonwalk back to the bathroom. Her hand was on the door handle when she heard a soft chuckle.
Her brain raced. The realisation of what she said equalled the feeling of smashing at the hard wall at the speed of light. She twirled on her heel to face him, she probably did look a bit frantic. She certainly felt frantic, if she could go by the shrill note in her voice
“NO!!!! I didn’t mean like that! Errrr… I… just… The guests and the… I didn’t mean like that.” The last part was nearly a cry
“Take you shower Granger.” He dismissed her, but she could tell that he bit down another burst of laughter. Shutting the door behind her, she warded them, not ready to hear him laughing at her expense.
Shaking her head to dispel all the pictures that swirled around her brain she sighed. This wasn’t his fault. She pushed the matter. She did what she always does, and it retaliated.
“Lesson well learned, indeed.” Mumbled to her chin.
~ S ~ S ~ S ~
The moment he felt the ripple of magic in the air he started laughing again. He couldn’t remember when was the last time he laughed from the heart. Oh, right – Poppy came on him like a ton of bricks for that – and he had to thank Hermione for that as well. It was when he saw her polyjuiced into a cat.
He glances at the books. He knew both of the books well, they were part of Lucius’s library. It must have pained Lucius to wrap them as a mock gift. It will pain him, even more, when he refused to return them once the amusement of the whim expires. After all, he did receive them as a gift. And now, he owned one of the three remaining copies, the first edition - handwritten Wizarding Kama Sutra. In pristine condition. Not to mention, banned in England, Maverick's guide.
That would be ample punishment for all Lucius’s antic. And he won’t share the memory either. Even if the memory was one to keep. Her face was… indescribable. Emotions clashed on it with such speed and clarity it was almost fascinating. There was no painter in the world, Muggle or Wizarding, which could capture and portray the shade of red on her face. He chuckled. His throat burns from laughing, but it was worth the pain.
This birthday turned out to be quite… pleasing, surprisingly so. His hand brushed against the forgotten box. He tried to pick it up, it was light and radiating slight magic. With painstaking slowness, he forced his limbs to function and moved the box to his lap. It took time to open the box, returning him to reality. He was still weak as an infant. With an annoyed groan, he finally managed to open the box and gasped.
His wand rested on the purple velvet. Raising one shaky hand, while his muscles screamed in pain, he guided trembling fingers over the polished wood. He won’t be able to use his wand for a while, but just by having it, gave him comfort. The comfort he thought never would feel in his life.
Today feared much better than he hoped for or ever believed possible. This wasn’t life after the war, this was life with no impending doom in the future. Too bad it was already late for him, he might enjoy this new and liberating lifestyle.
~ S ~ S ~ S ~
When she returned to the room he was, once again, gloomy. She sighed, disappointed. She could get used to that persona, buried deep inside him. It was far more pleasant that sharp-fanged, poisonous snake he usually was. Even when he laughed at her expense.
The rest of the day passed in more or less familiar fashion. Minerva came after the late lunch hour and send her out of the room. She spent the time with Narcissa. The woman seemed determined to mould her into one of the high society ladies. She couldn’t figure out why. But, maybe, Narcissa just couldn’t tolerate her informality and took upon herself to educate her.
Minerva certainly didn’t do anything to lift Severus’s spirits up. He was even gloomier after she left. Whatever they talked about wasn’t for her ears. He remained lip-locked and grouchier that in a long time.
When Harry came she was half afraid he would snap at Harry and toss him out. To her surprise, he didn’t. Through, the conversation didn’t go smoothly. She suspected it had something to do with the present, the one she wished Harry didn’t bother to compile. Harry made him a scrapbook as well, filled with pictures of Snape and his mum. He added the letters his mother wrote and in which she mentioned Snape.
As much as she understood how hard it must have been for Harry to part for those things - she disagreed with Harry's choice. If you are giving a gift to someone who set his heart on suicide, you do not give him a rope as a gift. This will make what she tries to do all that much difficult.
~ S ~ S ~ S ~
Harry frowned. He didn’t like what Snape just told him, not one bit.
“I don’t see…”
“If you want to make a difference, Potter, you bloody well have to learn those things.” Grumbled Snape.
“I’m afraid Severus has a point, Harry.” Hermione nodded “It is not that I disagree with you, but... Look, I learned a lot since I got here… And… well, the fact is – nothing really changed. If we don’t speak in the way they want to hear, they won’t listen. Even your fame won’t influence them enough to listen. Besides, you need at least learn the laws to be able to make a difference.”
“But to accept the title, Hermione that goes against all we fought for.”
“It does not. We fought against bigotry and madman, but not customs and traditions. And the wizarding world has some lovely traditions. Imagine if you let everything from the Muggle world to comes through. No more same-sex marriages, for starters. The wizarding world is open-minded, even if it is stuck in time. To let the progress for the sake of progress alone… is not the best option.”
“Now you sound like that pink toad.” He huffed
“I do not! And you know it. The wizarding world is in a desperate need of progress. But cleverly filtered one. The kind of progress that comes slowly and preserves the good while enhances and changes the bad. The title would only help you! Take Severus for example.” She waved her hand toward the Snape who frowned and hissed, but she ignored it “He is the descendant of one of the oldest wizarding families in England. And yet his status was significantly diminished by the fact that his mother married the Muggle. That fact alone placed him on a very low bar in the hierarchy. If his father was a wizard, his status would have been much better. That is the prejudice you should fight against. Not the fact that one is proud of his family tree, I am proud of mine! But that fact that family line falls down solely to a male heir. And it is infuriating because in everything else women are equal with men. And the worst of it, that law came to wizarding world from Muggle world.”
Halfway through her lecture, Hermione stood up. Now she was pacing back and forth, waving her hands and pointing at him. He had a flashback to their school days when she did that often. Lecturing him and Ron on this and that. Worst of all, she was right, as usual. He glanced at Snape who looked almost amused by her lecture.
“Well… yes. I see your point, Hermione.”
“Do you?” she huffed turning to him “It is school all over again, I have to do all the thinking. I can’t think for you forever, Harry. And you have to stop rushing into things.”
“I will. I promise.” He sighed, this was school all over again “I am sorry, but I have to go…”
‘Did Snape just chuckled?’
“And you have to read the books from the list I gave you.” Hermione continued. He was glad that she seemed much better, almost her old self. Unfortunately, he forgot how taxing her old self could be
“I will.” He promised, his hand on the door handle
“I might have gone easier on you, Potter, if I knew with what you are dealing.” Snape did sound amused, but his remark spur Hermione to turn to him
“And you…”
Harry used the opportunity to slip out of the room. At this moment he didn’t envy Snape at all. He even feels for him. When she got like this the smartest thing was to bend your head and not talk. Snape will have to learn that the hard way.
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Torment *Completed*

Torment Completed