Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Spark	By : DivineAngel Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 20930 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Chapter
9: Front Page News

Hermione lifted her head,
looking up into Severus's deep, dark eyes. She smiled and gave him a
tight squeeze before pulling away. His arms reluctantly loosened and
they stood looking at one another, but not letting go.

"Hi." She
smiled up at him, he smiled back and stroked her face with such
tenderness it sent shivers through her. "Where did that come
from?" She asked with a wicked glint in her eye. Severus tilted
his head to one side.

"Hmm. I'm not sure."
As the frenzy inside died down, the reality of what they had done
began to creep up on him. He remembered Lupin and the letter sat on
his desk. "Hermione?"

"Yes?" She was
looking at him with those big brown eyes and he knew it was time to
get things out in the open.

"I have a confession
to make. I have something of yours." He pulled out of her grasp
and went to his desk, he quickly found the letter and went back to
her, holding it out for her.

She looked down at the
folded bit of parchment and looked puzzled. Slowly, she took it and
opened it. Her eyes went wide.

"Oh. I didn't even
notice it was missing."

"You dropped it in
my classroom before Christmas." He explained, not wanting her to
think he had actively stolen it.

"Hmm." She was
reading it, Severus started to feel something resembling panic rising
in his throat.

Hermione's eyes flew
across the parchment. She was filled with worry about what Severus
might have construed from it and wanted to refresh her memory of
exactly what Remus had written. She looked up into his face, trying
to read it, he looked worried. "Are you ok?" She asked
carefully. He exhaled slowly.

"I think so.
Hermione..." He didn't know what to say, he had kissed her,
somewhat passionately. So part of him felt like he had achieved his
goal, to steal her away from Lupin, but she was showing no sign of
confessing her relationship and he didn't know how to bring it up. He
felt foolish and awkward, like he was a teenager again.

Hermione's mind was
working hard to understand what was going on. She felt overwhelmed by
their kiss, dazed like she had awoken from a dream and she felt all
the confusion that came from those fleeting moments between sleep and
awake. He had read the letter, she felt sure of that, but why was
there this horrible silence between them and the feeling that
something was very wrong?

"Severus? What is
bothering you? Is it the letter?" He took her hand and kissed
it, before choosing his words carefully.

"Yes, I suppose it
is. Hermione, what happens now? I would like to see where this might
go between us, but Lupin..." His lips curled into a snarl at the
name and his words failed him. Hermione's wits caught up with her as
she remembered being caught kissing Remus, the letter certainly could
look a certain way. Did Severus really think that she was having an
affair with him? She laughed and he dropped her hand, looking hurt.

"What do you think
is going on between me and Remus?" She asked, still smiling.

"Well, last
summer... and the letter... and at new year you were holding
hands..." Not normally one to lose his cool so splendidly, the
words tumbled out of him incoherently and he felt incredibly foolish
as her grin widened and he realised he had been adding up two and two
and getting five.

"There is nothing
between us." She said softly, putting one hand on Severus's
cheek. "We shared one silly kiss and have barely spoken since.
He's like a big brother to me. That's it." She moved close to
him and planted her lips on his, giving him a chaste kiss. "Severus,
I am crazy about you."

He raised his eyes from
the floor where they had been firmly fixed in embarrassment. 'Crazy
about me?' He raised an eyebrow, before taking hold of her face and
kissing her again, a warm and tender kiss unlike anything he had ever
experienced in his life. It seemed to warm up his insides too,
melting the heart he had fought so hard to protect all these years
and he knew that his pursuit of Hermione was never about competing
with Lupin, that was just something he had told himself. No, if he
wasn't very careful, he might actually fall in love with this girl.

~#~#~#~

Ron sighed. He watched
her beautiful long hair as she tossed it over her shoulder, it
bounced across her back in slow motion, like in a shampoo advert he
had seen in one of Ginny's magazines once. She was so beautiful and
perfect, skin like milk and a smile that broke his heart every time
he saw it. Her body was glorious too, like a goddess, all voluptuous
curves and long, long legs. He was salivating and he didn't care. He
followed her through the entrance hall, keeping a discrete distance,
and watched her head for the dungeons. She was reading something and
Ron concluded that she wasn't looking where she was going. He
followed her down the first flight of steps, but there were less
students milling down here and he began to feel he was much less able
to be inconspicuous. He stopped and watched her until she turned a
corner and was out of sight. With a frustrated sigh, he turned and
went back up to the entrance hall, vaguely thinking he had some
homework to do before the end of lunch.

~#~#~#~

Audrey came to a halt
outside Snape's office and knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in." He
called, his voice a little less sharp than usual. Happy that she'd
caught him in a good mood she entered and beamed at him. He was sat
at his desk, marking some work.

"Severus, do you
have a minute?" She asked as she took a seat opposite him. He
raised an eyebrow at her taking a seat without him offering.

"I suppose." He
continued marking the essay in front of him and she hesitated. He
looked up and gave her a hard stare. "How can I help?"

"Well, it's a
slightly delicate matter." He put his quill down, she had his
attention. "I was wondering if you had any advice for handling a
student with a crush?" He nearly choked. What on earth was she
talking about? Did she know about Hermione? Why was she coming to him
like this?

"Ms Sullivan..."

"Audrey."

"Audrey, I... Who,
may I ask, are we talking about." He regained his composure.

"One of my sixth
years. He's been following me around and I can't help noticing in
class, he, well, watches me." Snape breathed a small sigh of
relief.

"I suggest you
ignore it." He resumed his marking and suppressed a smile.

"I've tried, I
thought he would get over it, but he hasn't. If anything it's got
worse since Christmas."

"You mean, it was
going on before the holidays?" A fleeting remark by Hermione
came to mind, it was Wesley.

"Pretty much since
the start of the year. The poor kid. I thought you have some
insight." She smiled at him with what he thought might have been
a coy smile.

"Me? Why on earth
would you think that?" He wasn't sure where this was going, but
it made him uncomfortable.

"Well, you handled
me very well." She was definitely being coy. He felt ruffled.

"I don't know what
you're talking about." He snapped, but she leaned across the
desk, giving him a full view down her low cut top. He averted his
eyes and cleared his throat.

"Severus, I had such
a big crush on you in my final year. Don't tell me you didn't
notice."

"I can't say that I
did." She sat back in her chair with a huff, pouting at him. "I
do remember you developing an awful habit of talking back to me
though."

"Yes, and you never
gave me detention for it. No matter how hard I tried." She was
rolling her tongue around he mouth in an appealing way. Severus
couldn't quite believe this was happening. He had never believed it
possible that any woman would be attracted to him, never mind two
students, one whom he had fantasised about, the other he had actually
come very close to taking back to his bedroom the previous night.
This was not who he thought he was.

"Are you saying you
wanted detention?" He asked suspiciously.

"I would have killed
to be alone in a room with you back then. But I was a silly school
girl. I remember what it's like, that's all. Being on the receiving
end is a lot different." Her face became serious. "How do I
help him to move on?"

There was something
slightly sad in her eyes that gave Severus pause for thought. How
could he possibly advise her on this? He had been oblivious of her
crush on him and had consequently done nothing deliberate to put an
end to it. And Hermione, well, that was different, she wasn't just a
schoolgirl with a crush.

"I'm not sure."
He said at last. "Continue to ignore it and if it gets worse,
well I suppose you will have to speak to him about it." She
grimaced.

"I don't like that
idea. You really never knew how I felt about you?" She said as
she stood up.

"No. The idea that a
student would ever be attracted to me never occurred to me before."
He said, half truthfully.

"Well, speaking from
experience, you might want to think about how to handle it, one day
you will notice just how many girls go through this school
fantasising about you." With a wink she left, Severus took a
moment, then got back to his marking.

~#~#~#~

Severus stood back from
the bubbling cauldron, Hermione was watching with anticipation as he
held the kneazle hair out over the brew and let it drop in. There was
a sharp hiss and the potion turned vibrant orange, billowing out
clouds of steam and spitting violently.

"Hmm." He
carefully leaned in and looked at the contents of the cauldron. "I
wasn't expecting that." Hermione giggled. She stood up and
leaned across the work bench, taking a look herself. Her ulterior
motive was obvious as her forehead almost touched his and with a
smile she moved her lips to meet his. She parted his lips with her
tongue and explored his mouth. He tasted of peppermint.

Severus welcomed the
kiss, he would like to spend a good deal of time kissing her, he
thought. She was so soft and fresh, full of energy and clearly
enjoyed kissing him. He could smell her hair, it smelled of citrus
fruits and her lips tasted of strawberries from her lip balm.
Reluctantly, he broke the kiss, licking his lips to get a final taste
of her.

"Ok." She said,
getting back to business. "What next?" He looked down at
the ingredients before him and considered the options, they had
covered almost all of the possibilities he had thought of. He was
beginning to wonder if there really was any way to get around
Voldemort's defences, but didn't want to admit his doubts out loud,
not yet.

"Next, next we try
it without the silkworm." She frowned.

"I don't see how
that will help."

"It won't." He
admitted with a sigh and sat down. "Hermione, I don't know what
to try. It's a new sensation for me." She smiled
sympathetically.

"Maybe there's
another solution entirely. Maybe we really can't strip Voldemort's
powers, not with a potion." He looked at her carefully, waiting
for her train of thought to play out. "Maybe there's some sort
of charm?" She saw his face drop.

"Hermione..."
She reached out and put a finger over his lips.

"I know it's not
your area of expertise, if we don't keep working on this potion, then
we won't have an excuse to spend all this time together." His
frown increased.

"That's not what I
was thinking. The truth is, it might not even make that much
difference even if we succeed. Potter is, I hesitate to say, a good
person and I don't think he'd be able to follow through and kill
Voldemort with his powers gone anyway, it'd be like attacking someone
unarmed." Hermione's face crinkled.

"Well no, but
without his powers, he could be locked up in Azkaban forever. No one
would have to kill him." Severus realised what he had said. What
was it about her that caused him to lose all control of his thought
filters? He could tell her about the prophecy, it was the perfect
opportunity, but it wasn't his place.

"True."

"Isn't that why
we've been doing this?" She was beginning to worry now. There
was something he hadn't told her, she could feel it. He was avoiding
her eyes and the frown was so severe she felt eleven again, a little
afraid of him. "Dumbledore didn't really want you to strip
Voldemort's powers to make it easier to kill him, did he?
That's not very compassionate."

Severus stood up suddenly
and turned away from her. His shoulders were visibly shaking as he
fought back the surge of anger inside himself. "Severus..."
Her voice sounded a thousand miles away. He felt her hand on his
shoulder and he spun to face her, his face red and his fists were
clenched.

"Compassion?! You
have no idea, Hermione, no idea at all. No one who has lost family,
friends, themselves to that creature can possibly feel compassion
towards him! No one!" He was shouting and she had flinched away
from him. "He doesn't deserve it. He is evil." Severus felt
twenty years of guilt, fear, pain and anger consuming him. Feelings
and thoughts he had kept so tightly in check all this time just
overwhelmed him. How was it that this woman could leave him so
unguarded? He stormed away from her into the store cupboard,
detirmined to regain control of himself.

Hermione stood in shock.
She felt awful, she had no idea how close to the surface those
feelings were for him, how easily they had exploded and she kicked
herself for being so naive. She went to him, her eyes filling up with
sympathetic tears. He was sat slumped on the floor, his head in his
hands and she sat down next to him. He didn't look at her. She took
hold of his left arm and pulled up the sleeve. He yanked his arm away
and looked at her with a cold intensity in his eyes.

"Let me see."
She gently took his arm again and turned it over, sliding his sleeve
out of the way. There it was, the dark mark, seared into his flesh
forever. She ran a finger over it, it was like a tattoo, a subtly
different texture to the rest of his skin, slightly smooth. He winced
slightly and she stopped. "Does that hurt?" She looked into
his eyes and he looked back.

"Not physically."
He said quietly. "I'm sorry I shouted at you." She shook
her head.

"Don't worry about
it. I'm sorry I said such a stupid thing. I don't blame you at all
for not feeling compassion towards him. He stole your whole life.
Harry's too, so many people's." Her tears spilled at last, one
dripped onto his outstretched arm, right onto the mark. She watched
it and a small part of her hoped it would wash the mark away. Severus
wrapped his arm around her, he didn't want her to keep staring at his
scar and just wanted to hold her forever. He pressed her head to his
chest and they sat like that for the longest time.

Eventually, Hermione had
got up and gone to bed, leaving Severus with a soft and lingering
kiss. She woke up the following morning with an unsettled feeling,
knowing she hadn't slept very well. She dressed sluggishly, her eyes
refusing to wake up properly and made her way to breakfast with Harry
and Ron, who were chattering away. There were decidedly few teachers
at the staff table, Sprout and Flitwick were there and Sinistra and
Vector sat talking quietly, they hardly ever spoke to each other.
Most students seemed to have noticed this, it was the main topic of
conversation. Hermione was just pouring her pumpkin juice when her
Daily Prophet arrived, she quickly untied it from the delivery owl,
who promptly flew off without waiting for a treat. Hermione unrolled
her paper and slapped it down on the table. As her eyes darted over
the headline, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Harry and
Ron looked at her and down at the paper.

"Oh no."
Hermione looked up and over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy, Crabbe
and Goyle were making a lot of noise, the whole house seemed to have
a million times more energy than they had all year. "It's true."

"Hermione? What is
it?" Ron asked, pulling the paper over to him.

Azkaban collapses
after freak earthquake: Death Eaters free!

AN: I wasn't totally happy with this chapter but I wasn't sure why, so thanks to Ailo for pointing me in the right direction!!! Should be back on track now, update coming soon. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.

11/06: It has been brought to my attention that there is another fic bearing similarities to mine. I noticed it when I began posting my new story, Everything Counts and I have read it and would like to reassure readers that I am keeping an eye on its progression. I'm not too worried about plagiarism at this point though, we just had the same idea. My thanks to sugarplumfairy and Sarah123 for your support and for looking out for me, I appreciate it.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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

Spark