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Different Endings	By : sshgdifferentfan Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 8217 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. The characters and canon situations in the following story belong solely to JK Rowling, Scholastic and WB. I am not making any money from the publishing or writing of

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
HERMIONE GRANGER, THE KNOW-IT-ALL THIRD OF WHAT USED TO BE THE GOLDEN TRIO,

…stood in the farthest corner from where all were gathered, leaning against the wall, looking around the room, taking in all the faces that surrounded her. She seemed lost, Severus noticed, and defeated, and nothing compared to the girl she once been.

She wasn't the girl who constantly waved her hand during classes, who scored highest on her OWLs, who lectured in that bossy way of her anyone that she found lacking, who fought Death Eaters when she had been only sixteen, who had survived Bellatrix's Crucio's or had jumped onto a dragon's back on only an inkling.

She wasn't the woman he last saw only a fortnight ago either.

She was different somehow from the one who comforted him between the sheets, who kissed him with so much burning passion he sometimes wondered how was it that they hadn't both turned to ash a long time ago, who felt like the softest of silks to his touch or the one who fucked like the best of whores and looked like a Goddess while doing it.

She was less than that: less than her past school girl persona, less than the brainy third of the once Golden Trio – saviours of the wizarding world, less than the woman whose body he worshiped… she was just less… less than anything.

As Severus half circled the room, and finally took his place, leaning on the wall opposite from Hermione Granger, in a spot shadowed enough to not be disturbed by idiots, still open enough to keep his eyes trailed on her, his mind wandered off to the first time he saw the girls after the war.

It was a couple of months after Potter had died and the Dark Lord got his brand new world – complete with an Azkaban filed with Muggle-Borns, an all Pureblood society – with minor exceptions – and a perfect cover-up story for all that had happened during the war – Dumbledore and Potter were evil, Voldemort and his Death Eaters were simply misunderstood – when Severus first saw Hermione Granger.

He noted how strange it was, seeing her like that, a prisoner in a house she probably hated – and with more than enough reasons to – forced next to a man she once felt friendship and love for, that had now turned into her jailer, living in a world she fought so hard to prevent from ever becoming a reality.

She didn't belonged in that place or that world or next to the piece of shite, and yet there she was, perched on a ruby red sofa, dressed in a Gryffindor, red and gold, dress robe, forcing a blood red lipstick to smile in her stead with him right there to her right.

To Severus she seemed much too alone; alone in a room full of people, surrounded by eyes that moved as she moved, under scrutiny every second of every hour; and somehow, for some unknown reason, he cared enough for a moment to think it as wrong.

She didn't deserve this. Not the life she was living and definitely not the world she was living it in. And he, that backstabbing bastard definitely didn't deserved her.

That night he had dreamed of the girl for the first time in what soon after their second meeting had become almost a nightly routine.

The second time he had seen her had been on Halloween, when Voldemort held one of his formal gatherings to celebrate the Potters deaths - clearly not Severus's favourite night. In fact there had been times he had to bite the inside of his cheeks in order to keep his temper in check, when some idiotic Death Eater or Voldemort supporter would toast to 'yet another dead Mudblood whore' referring to Lilly or 'hope that one's gonna be next' glass raised towards Granger.

It was then, at that gathering, after hearing one too many toasts like that, that he approached her for the first time – Weasley had somehow drifted away leaving her alone in one corner of the small ballroom. Severus didn't know why he went to her – not at the time and not later, not even now – but he had.

As he had approached her he remembered noticing just how different she was.

From afar she had still looked like herself, but as he got closer, only a few feet away from her, it had been like looking at her, truly looking, for the first time.

She was all that a plastic doll was supposed to be: beautiful in a cold, unfeeling way, eyes deader than those on a corpse, skin sallower that parchment scrolls and a face so sad it made his non-existent heart shatter glue back and shutter again.

And then her eyes snapped up, her gaze piercing his for an instant before shyly moving away. She scanned the room once, twice, three times, before letting her lifeless caramel eyes fell on his once again.

He, too, stared long and hard, hoping to find at least a glimmer of life in her eyes.

He thought it to be useless until the most incredible and completely unexpected thing happened. She smiled and it wasn't the smile she had plastered on her face sporadically throughout the night, but a true smile, the kind that enveloped the entire face - even her eyes,suddenly alive, were smiling at him.

"Miss Granger," he greeted her with a small nod. "I trust you are well?"

Her smile only grew bigger as she took in his words as if they were all she had needed to come back to the living, because she did… She looked alive again; still much too thin and too pale, still not the 'her' he remembered but alive.

For a while neither of them spoke.

"I saw them," the girl replied suddenly startling Severus from his contemplation of the differences between the girl that had once been his student and the one that stood now before him. "Right before they caught me… in Dumble – sorry, your office. I saw them… I took them… I have them right here…" She lifted her hand to her head, her index finger barely touching her forehead.

"I always thought there was something we didn't know," she continued after a deep breath. "I could feel it, almost. I simply knew, that you haven't… I never told… Who could I tell? I don't have who to talk to, anymore… I don't have Harry – you know, I think I now understand a little of what you felt when she died."

When she finally stopped talking, Sever just started at the girl for the longest of times, thinking of all the implications of what she had said, imagining scenarios that didn't implied the girl talking about what he thought that she did, but it was useless. He couldn't convince himself that he was reading too much into it, not when her eyes, her even more alive eyes, now that she seemed to have taken a burden off her chest with her babbled speech, were spelling it all out for him.

She knew all… had seen all… and said nothing.

She could have saved herself – maybe, somehow, but he doubted it. He remembered the night Weasley had pleaded for her life. She couldn't have saved herself, not when the Dark Lord decided she was the way to keep Weasley in check. Nevertheless, she could have done something, negotiated something, anything – but she didn't.

Hermione Granger knew all that there was to know about him and she told no one.

"I'm sorry, professor!" she said again after a rather long time spent in complete silence. "I would give them back… but… I don't know how."

"Just like any other memory, Miss Granger," he responded, unwillingly turning to his lecturing mode. "put your wand's tip to your temple and…"

"Oh… I can't then… I'm sorry, but I don't have a wand."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm not allowed a wand," she said slightly louder than a whisper a note of utter defeat in her voice. And then suddenly she scolded her features back to that impassive look she wore earlier.

"There you are, love!" Ronald Weasley's voice come out of nowhere as an explanation for the change, bursting the bubble the two had somehow erected around them. Severus kept his eyes on the girl for a little while longer, completely ignoring the voice and his owner, before nodding to her, turning and leaving.

"Snape!" Weasley's voice yanked him out of his memories, forcing him to return to the present place and time. It was still May the 2nd, still a year after Potter's death and he was still in the Traitor's Manor celebrating the day the bastard betrayed his best friend with a behind his back "Avada Kedavra".

"Weasley," Severus drawled a nasty sneer on his lips.

He had no stomach for the Traitor on regular bases, nor did he have much love for the idiot when he had been his student either, but right now, when these memories and glimpses of his soon to be former lover, where the only things keeping him form rushing out of the Manor and into the past, he barely had the restrain needed not to hex the bastard.

"It's Bilius…"

"What do you want… Weasley?"

"A potion," Weasley sighed dejectedly and Severus couldn't help but smirk. "I need a potion…"

"Oh, what joy!" Severus sneered. "So, Weasley, what will it be this time? Draught of Peace again or maybe some more Felix Felicis or –I know – how about some Baruffio's Brain Elixir?"

"Shut it, Snape… what I need is a…"

"What you need is to learn to brew your damn potions yourself. I'm not your Potions Master..."

"But you are his," Weasley sneered.

"Yes, Weasley, and his alone!"

"Bilius!" a cold drawling voice came suddenly from Severus's right cutting off the reply Weasley was opening his mouth to give. "Severus!"

They both turned just in time to see Rabastan Lestrange striding towards them, a bone chilling smile on his thin, barely there, lips and a group of Hogwarts former students on his toe: two Slytherins Jeremy Reekes and Livia O'Grady, a Hufflepuff Connor Hipworth, a Gryffindor Liam Worme and a Ravenclaw Angela Beardsley.

Severus immediately catalogued the information for later use – this was the first time he saw them after they graduated and though he knew of their families affiliation with the Dark Lord he had hoped, against hope apparently, that they would stay clear of it – before nodding to his fellow Death Eater.

"Rabastan!" he greeted over Weasley's sneered "Lestrange".

"These," Lestrange said, his yet too thin arm, after years spent in Azkaban, pointing to the five Purebloods that stopped a couple of steps to his right. "will be taking our Lord's Mark tonight… the same as you…"

Weasley moved his eyes to each of the future Death Eaters ogling them with something akin to contempt. "You," he said as his eyes felt on Liam Worme. "were in Percy's year, right?" Worme nodded, but didn't dignify the brat with an answer.

"…as such," Lestrange went on as if the boy had never spoken out of turn, though he did narrow his eyes in threat at Weasley. "you've been assigned to me." The disgusted look Lestrange shoot Severus, said more than words could ever had, just what he thought of that particular assignment.

"What's that mean?"

"It means," Lestrange drawled, "that until you get the Mark, you'll do what I say, when I say, how I say… no questions and no refusals."

"Oi, I'm not…" started Weasley to say, but Lestrange ignored him, turning his back on him and giving Severus a roll of the eyes. "Was I ever that much of a dolt?"

"Only until a second ago, when you asked that question," smirked Severus. "Now you're worst."

"Hilarious! What can I say…" drawled Lestrange.

"Nothing that imbecilic, I hope."

"Screw you!"

"I don't swing that way, Rabastan, you know that!" smirked Severus.

Lestrange shook his head a couple of times a mirthful smirk on his lips, before turning to Weasley again. "Now, be a good little pup," he smirked as Weasley's cheeks started growing red with either embarrassment or anger, while Severus had to cover his laugh with a slightly off cough. "and follow the pack, back to the parlour."

Just as Weasley made to talk, probably itching to say something about the tone, Lestrange tuned again towards Severus, a serious look on his face. "Our Master has a message for you. He said you're to take care of his," Lestrange pointed over his shoulder to where Weasley stood. "Mudblood… Lucius is needed elsewhere."

Severus nodded and made to respond, when suddenly Weasley's cry of "Hermione!" made him stop. "What's this about Hermione? She's coming with me, you know the rules. She's always with me."

Lestrange rolled his eyes again, before turning and sneered at Weasley over his shoulder. Severus didn't need to actually see the sneer; it was loud and clear in his tone; though he did and from the snickers coming from his former students, minus Weasley, they saw it too. "Your whore is going nowhere with you."

"But…"

"But nothing, boy, she's staying right here where Severus can keep an eye on the filth."

"Don't call her that," snapped Weasley, his cheeks turning an even darker shade of red than before.

"Call her what," boomed Lestrange interrupting whatever the boy was going to say. He had his wand already drawn, yet well hidden in the folds of his robes and pointed towards Weasley. "filth… or slut… or whore? Why wouldn't I? That's what she is… a fucking whore… nothing but a filthy, disgusting Mudblood! Though I wouldn't mind a go or two…"

"She's…" tried Weasley again, his own wand making an appearance. The idiot had no regard for discretion, Severus noted. Even before the boy's wand was high enough to point at Lestrange's chest their side of the room had already turned its attention towards them.

"What? Your… girlfriend?" laughed Lestrange, the group of soon to be Death Eaters behind him joining in. "Is that what you think? Open your eyes, boy! That fuck's nothing, but a whim the Dark Lord gave you permission to indulge in… Well, not anymore…"

"What…"

"Oh, speak in complete sentences, Weasley," barked Severus, by now on the verge of raging out and hexing one or both of them. Weasley was simply too much of an idiot, no matter what he had become during the last year, and Lestrange was getting on his nerve with all the name calling. "or shut the fuck up. Merlin you're an imbecile! Do you want it spelled out for you? You go with Lestrange, she stays with me."

"She's mine!" yelled Weasley suddenly, his wand jerking towards Severus for only a second before pointing it back on Lestrange. "Mine, and she's staying with me, and you'll respect her."

"Just go, Ron!" Came Hermione Granger's utterly defeated voice. All three men spun around at the sound, only to see a broken ex-Princess of Gryffindor walking towards them, her bright red robs long enough to brush over the floor. She looked more like a child at that moment, than Severus ever remembered her looking.

Severus tried – he could swear on Merlin, Dumbledore, Potter and the Dark Lord all at once, that he tried – but couldn't scold the shocked and completely dumfounded expression when their eyes meet. Her eyes screamed pain and despair and giving up.

Hadn't he looked at her only a moment ago?

Of course he did, and she was sad and lost and without hope, but not like this. No, something had happened and he was sure it wasn't Lestrange's words – she heard them daily – and it sure wasn't Weasley tantrum either. So what the fuck happened?

"Hermi…" started Weasley, but was again cut off by Lestrange's: "You should listen to your, filthy slut, boy!"

With that Lestrange pointed his wand at the boy, whispered "Imperio!" and Weasley was finally walking towards the door, Lestrange and the group of Hogwarts former students following right behind him.

Severus's eyes were drawn at the girl – no, woman – that stood before him. She was still beautiful – She always is, he mussed – a beautiful plastic doll that had seen too much, face too much and finally had enough. She was barely keeping herself from crumbling as she stood.

"What's wrong?" he whispered after taking a barely noticeable glance around and confirming that nobody was paying them any attention. "What hap…"

"Malfoy told me about tonight!" she sighed and at that moment's Severus resolve almost broke. He wanted to make her feel better – he had done it before – but right now, right here it was impossible.

No, he couldn't take her in his arms and kiss her until she gasped for air or pin her to the nearest wall and thrust into her heat again and again, until she forgot where and who she was, until she forgot all of her problems. He couldn't even touch her without arousing suspicions.

He couldn't do any of that and for the first time since Legilimencing Carlisle's mind and finding out about the Time Transporter, reality finally crushed down on him.

He would never do any of that again.

Never again touch her, kiss her and feel her respond, never feel her soft skin under his rough hands, hear her whimpers as he touched spots that left her as if hit by the Ossio Dispersimus spell, never slide into her, hear her groan at the contact, feel her velvety walls contract around him as she yelled to the heavens his name…

He would never again be the one to possess her, to mark her, to make her beg and scream, to hold her and kiss her and wake up next to her after those Earth shattering orgasms that made him go blank.

He would never have her again, because he would change everything and no matter how much he told himself it was just sex, just a way of screwing with Weasley while getting a little pleasure in exchange, only a way of finding release, that she was only a vessel for his seed; the truth was 'just sex' with Hermione Granger had been the only thing still keeping him sane since that second time he saw her after the war, when he first had her.

And he would never have that again!

Author's Note: God, I've never expected any answers to my (I don't even know how to call it) poll, I guess, about what event from Severus's life you would like him to change, and I want to thank you for every one of your answers.

bayand, ChaosLady, LadyOfTheNight - thank you guys so, so, so much...

Author's PS1: I haven't yet decided what he'll change (I have more than one idea) with his time travelling, but I did decided when he'll go - there will be more than one time-stop for Severus during the following next chapters, where we'll get the chance to meet some people from his past, make some interesting deductions about time travelling and have a bit of a revelation on the whole Voldemort not killing the Boy-Who-Lived thing.

Author's PS2: Regarding Hermione in Severus's life you'll just have to wait and see (I'm waiting and seeing right there next to you) because I have several ideas of how things should go after Severus's return - I don't know yet how will it be. What I do know, though, is that they're gonna be together sooner or later.

Author's PS3: Keep on letting me know of your choice on when/to what should Severus jump back in time to...
1. The day Eileen Snape was killed by Tobias Snape
2. The day Sybill Trelawney makes the prophecy about Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort
3. The day Lord Voldemort kills Lilly and James Potter and tries to kill baby Harry Potter
4. The day Severus made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy (added after reading JeniDRalph's review from FFnet)
5. The day Severus killed Albus Dumbledore
6. The day Harry Potter was murdered by Ronald Weasley
7. A completely different time (please tell me which)
Author's Request: Let me know what your answer is using the 'Review' button below.
- 5
- 6
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Different Endings