Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Web of Redemption COMPLETE	By : FemmeBono Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 3455 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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: Recasting the web
    "Professor Snape is wanting you to have these
miss," said the elf who had just appeared at her side, jolting her into
sloshing coffee all over the papers she was grading. Cassie looked down into the
wrinkled hand and saw a book of matches. "He says you is needing them for
your lantern at night."

    "Oh. How thoughtful," she thought aloud.
"Thank you...um..."

    "They are calling me Tufty, miss," answered the
she-elf, clothed simply in an old ratty blue throw that drug the ground. Had she
been green, she would have looked for all the world like Yoda's mother.

    "Thank you, Tufty." Cassie held a hand out for
the matches and placed them on the desk next to her. "Do you happen to know
if Professor Snape will be going to Hogsmeade tomorrow morning?"

    "No I doesn't miss. Is you wanting me to ask
him?"

    "No, that's fine. If you do see him, tell him I
appreciated the gesture." With that, the elf disapparated with another loud
CRACK! and left Cassie to her thoughts, which she found turned all too often to
Severus. She did wonder if he ever took a free weekend to go out to the village
nearby and wander the shops. Try as she might, she could not picture him
perusing the aisles at Honeydukes or Zonko's, but surely he tipped up a pint at
Madame Rosmerta's. Then again, she thought, picturing the curvy blonde, maybe
he's better off where he is. Should she ask him to come with her? They had
barely spoken since the night he sat with her.

    By the next morning, she had decided against asking
Severus to go along. Surely that was more socializing that he was capable of.
Her own father avoided shopping trips if at all possible, and she did want to
look at some new teaching robes since she had just gotten paid. In the end, she
found Aurora at breakfast and the two decided to stroll down the hill together
with the students.

    "I'll show you the grand tour, such as it is,"
Aurora promised. "I need to get a new book on the Lacerta--constellation,
you know--that's just come out...should be at Dervish and Banges, and we can
have a spot of tea at Madame Puddifoot's if you like."

    "Sounds fantastic. I need to stop at Gladrags too, if
I can."

    With that, the ladies followed the mass of third to
seventh years as they were unleashed on the town. Cassie was wholeheartedly glad
that Malfoy had not been turned into a Death Eater as she watched the students
blissfully ignorant of how this trip may have otherwise turned out. She spotted
Katie Bell poring over the fudge at Honeydukes along with several other
Gryffindors, including her friend Leanne, and smiled a bit knowing that at least
another person so far had avoided the damage from Voldemort's far-reaching wake.
Reaching Madame Puddifoot's at last, Cassie was relieved to see it was
relatively pupil free except for a few couples here and there. The place was
distinctly female in decor, almost fussily so with its crocheted doilies and
tatted lace. As opposed to Harry's fairly sexist reaction in his fifth year,
Cassie felt almost as though she were at a real Victoria tea. There were scones
with clotted cream and lemon curd, dainty savories and finger sandwiches, and a
perfectly steeped pot of classic Earl Grey. She did, however, have to show her
Yank side and have it with cream.

    Perfectly satiated and tired from all the walking,
especially back up to the castle (and not to mention sore from Filch and his
Probity Probe), Cassie was glad to get back to her room later that afternoon.
She had had no small sense of revenge as she spotted Lump tearing up the stairs
in a spirited chase after Mrs. Norris. "Serves them both right," she
said, letting the dog have his fun. Muttering the new password, "The
Smithereens," she stepped in and started to hang her new robes, admiring the
choice she'd made. Dark green and cut in a long flowing a-line, the robes were
off the shoulder and lined down the front with green embroidered buttons.
"Let's see what he thinks of this," she said, holding it up to her instead and
swishing back and forth in front of the vanity.

    "He'll do his nut if he has any eyes in his
head," answered the mirror.

    "Good," said Cassie, smirking back.

     She secretly congratulated herself that next Monday
morning when he did indeed do a double-take over his black pudding and sausages.
She had twisted her curls up in a messy chignon, leaving individual strands
looping down to touch her bare shoulders. Seeing his face was the perfect way to
start off an otherwise wretched day. Glancing up, she was not surprised to see
that the pouring rain from the day before had turned to icy sleet and snow.

***

     By that Wednesday, however, the
week was looking decidedly worse. Not only did the weather continue on in the
same vein, but Severus now would not so much as look at her, let alone talk. In
fact, he had passed her by on the grand staircase trotting down to the dungeons,
without so much as a backward glance. "Sev, darling," she had thought,
"you may be a little too repressed."

    Yet the worst was to come. In capping off
what had started out as a perfectly dreadful day, Malfoy and Barny Doge started
sniping at each other right at the end of class over whether or not Muggles
should be allowed to vote. Cassie tried not to pay the difference of opinion too
much mind as the other students packed up to leave, despite Draco voicing right
in front of her the fact that he thought they were not competent enough and
should at least be directed how, though they could retain other rights of
citizenship. At least he was softening some, she thought miserably. But when he
muttered almost to himself, "don't know what my father was thinking,"
her head snapped up and her eyes saw red. Without thinking she snapped,
"of course you wouldn't, Junior."

    No sooner were the words out of her mouth
then she saw Draco's face go to ash. He leapt up, his books crashing to the
floor, and yelled, "You!?" Instantly contrite, for this was not the
time nor the place, she held up a hand, "Draco--"

    "Get away from me!" he snapped and
bolted for the door.

   "Here, don't mind him, Professor," piped
up Doge. "He's all mouth and no trousers." Ignoring him, Cassie
skirted her desk and ran after him. Down the hall she raced, following his blond
head bobbing back and forth past students on their way to lunch. He launched
himself up the stairs two at a time with Cassie still trailing along behind him.
Too late to not draw attention to the plight, she simply took advantage of the
wake he left as children jumped out of his way. Her path cleared, she finally
caught up to him in the girls' bathroom that Myrtle frequented.

    "Draco," she entreated.
"Listen, you don't know what went on."

    "Bloody hell if I don't," he turned
on her. His face was blotchy with rage and streaked with tears. His chest
heaving, he raised his wand at her, "you're a murderer! You filthy
mud-blooded wench!"

    "Enough! You don't know what he did to
me and those girls, and now is not the time--"

    "It's shite! Everything you say,"
he spat. "What did you do to him?"

    "You don't want to know what
happened."

    "He was my father!" he screamed,
livid. "What did you DO?" And without warning or waiting for reply, he
flicked his wand, "Legilimens!"

    All at once images assaulted her: Lucius
lashing his whip, having him panting and grunting on top of her, fondling one of
the other girls while he watched as yet another gave him a blow job. Faster they
came and she heard someone screaming, "stop! stop! I can't take it
again!" There was the Surrey girl's body, bloody and broken. The snake, fat
and full, lying on the hearth rug. Next, faces of family and friends she hadn't
seen in nearly a year. Harnessing Lump to go for a walk on a frosty Christmas
day. Dancing with her friends at the club and saying good-bye as they walked to
their cars. Turning towards hers and finding herself face-to-face with a tall,
blonde stranger. Then, as abruptly as the images started they stopped and she
found herself kneeling on the bathroom floor retching, tears streaming down her
face. She looked up and saw him staring disbelieving, looking every bit as
nauseated as she felt. Through her own tremors, she stared back, realizing he
was shaking as well. Dropping his wand, he bolted again straight past her and
out the door of the lavatory.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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Web of Redemption *COMPLETE*

Web of Redemption COMPLETE