Hermione waved goodnight to the guys and left the common room. She'd been studying with Ron and Harry the whole evening, but now she had to go. He would be waiting.
She gulped.
For some inexplicable reason, she felt a bit uneasy about a detention with Snape.
She knew he was her professor and that he wouldn't do anything, yet... somewhere in her mind she felt that.... She shook herself. She was being silly.
Nevertheless, the nameless dread grew as she drew closer to his now empty classroom. There would only be the two of them.
She swallowed hard as she lifted her hand and knocked on the door.
"Come," rang his sharp, dark voice, and she opened the door.
There was no one in the room, yet it was not completely silent.
She scanned the scenery one more time and saw him.
His head could just barley be seen above the desktop and she heard him mutter and slide out desk drawers.
When he saw her he straightened up to his full height and brushed off his robe.
"Fine, it's not here," he said to himself. "Ah, Miss Granger, I am sad to inform you that the detention will not be served in here but in my quarters. I am expecting someone."
She said nothing, but nodded slightly.
He swept past her, and she followed him down the corridor. It didn't take them long to reach his quarters, but Hermione was afraid she might never get back out from the labyrinth of the dungeons.
Snape muttered a password, and they walked in.
It was a mess. Hermione tried to see past that to get some understanding of the room's proportions. To her amazement, she saw that the only things cluttering the room were books and papers, and they were everywhere.
Other than that it was greener that she preferred these days, after being locked in red rooms for so long... it was nice and had a cosy fireplace. She saw to her satisfaction that silver was a scarcity, and the complementing colour to his room was a dark brown wood, featured in the floor and furniture.
Snape walked over to his buried desk and started to dig amongst the books. He scanned the covers and then put them aside. He seemed to grow more and more impatient.
Hermione stood nervous, wondering what her task was, as the nameless dread that had so gripped her while walking down here evaporated upon seeing the professor on his knees going through his desk and so utterly uninterested in her.
When she heard his irritated mutterings grow she coughed slightly to remind him of her presence.
He swivelled around and calmed at the sight of her.
"Yes... Granger. Your task is to sort the books in here. The ones that are mine and the ones from the library. You shall sort mine alphabetically onto the bookshelf." He pointed at a nearly full and also messy bookshelf, the books stood and lay every which way. Hermione wanted to sigh. This was going to take forever. "But you are not to touch my desk. The books on my desk are off-limits." Saying this, he gathered up some of the strewn-about books and placed them on his desk.
"Alright, sir." she seated herself on the floor in front of his bookshelf and reached for the nearest books when she heard Snape prying through the stacks on his desk again.
Several minutes later he startled her by swearing out loud.
She turned to stare at him.
"Don't give that innocent look," he softly said, again startling her. He wasn't paying attention to her and she was quite sure by the sound of his voice that he barely knew he had said it but... the sincerity. The plea... she didn't know what to make of it so she just did as he asked and averted her eyes.
"Miss Granger," he said a short time later. It was in his normal sharp tone and made her relax... a bit. "I am going out to look for a book I thought I had. If anyone comes, direct them in to my other room."
She nodded and he walked past her and out. He had a very determined walk. He made those robes billow behind him majestically.... She sighed and looked over the room. So many books!
She stood up and tried to gather those that were farthest away from her so that she wouldn't have to run around the room.
The covers were mostly blank but the titles were really interesting. She wished that she could have the right to borrow some of them.
As she sorted she noticed most of the books were his, and nearly fifty percent of the library's were from the restricted area.
He really read a lot.
A large green flame erupted from the fireplace, and someone stepped through.
Hermione turned to direct the person to the other room, but she didn't say anything.
It was a woman standing there, and she was beautiful.
She had long lovely thick blonde hair that Hermione would have killed for. The guest fixed her cold eyes on the girl and moved over to her with indecently long legs well suited to her long, thin stature. Hermione felt fat as this gorgeous woman seated herself with a gleeful smile in an armchair facing Hermione. She was Hermione's opposite, and everything Hermione wished she were. Hermione hated her instantly.
"My, my," said the thin blonde from the armchair. Hermione felt those chilly eyes look her up and down. "If it isn't the Granger girl who helped save the world." The voice wasn't pleasant, it was low and smooth but with an undertone of mockery.
"It is. Snape said that you should wait in the other room." Hermione tried not to sound sullen. At least her breasts were bigger than this scarecrow. What did Snape want with this skinny thing anyway? Sure the woman was pretty, but she was still no Fleur Delacour.
"He did, did he? Well, I don't feel like waiting in the bedroom for him."
Hermione tensed. Was she going to sit her sorting books while Snape had... she paled.
"Where is Severus, anyway?" the woman asked. She wasn't much older than Hermione; she could have been Snape's daughter. And she didn't look like a prostitute. No she surely wasn't... was she?
"Sev...Professor Snape went to look for a book." Hermione's voice was level and she didn't care in the slightest what this girl's profession was.
"I should have known." The girl seemed confident here, so this obviously wasn't her first visit... she seemed to know Snape, as she had called him by his first name..
Hermione continued to sort books in silence yet she felt those eyes upon her all the time. What was the girl doing here?
To Hermione's relief Snape walked through the door not long after. Now the blonde was his problem and not hers.
He stopped in the doorway as he saw the blonde. He had clearly found the book, as he had it tucked under his arm.
"Ari, you're here," he said flatly, and shot Hermione a dark look.
The blonde stood up and smiled brightly at Snape, something Hermione hadn't seen anyone do since he came out of his death some months ago.
"Don't blame your maid Severus. I said I didn't want to wait in the bedroom." The voice was now free of that undertone she had had whilst talking to Hermione. Ergo, the girl was actually happy to see the professor. Stranger things had happened. And maid?
"She's a student with detention," Snape said, his voice did not reveal any joy, not a shocker.
"She must be something, as she gets to touch your books, Severus," the girl teased.
"I thought I could trust the head-girl with them." He was trying to wave the subject away and walked over to the door leading in to his bedroom.
Hermione turned back to the bookshelf.
"Oh," the sarcasm was back in the woman's voice. "Some privileges head-girls do have."
Was she jealous?
"Yes they have, the heads share private lodgings, they get to walk the school later at night, they have more responsibilities so it's natural they earn more trust from their professors," Snape muttered, clearly annoyed that the blonde didn't seem to want to follow him. "Come now Ari, we can talk in here."
Hermione dared a glance as the woman was ushered in the other room, their eyes met and she didn't receive a friendly glance. She didn't know if hate could bloom that fast or if jealousy just didn't play well over that pretty face.
Hermione was nearly finished when the two walked out of his bedroom.
They hadn't, had they? No of course not. Snape had said talking right, and the blonde was nearly half his age....
Hermione didn't look at the blond called Ari as she grabbed a handful of floopowder and disappeared, but she felt the icy looks burn into her back.
"Miss Granger."
Hermione didn't turn from where she was standing.
"Miss Granger." His voice was even sharper this time.
"Yes Professor? I'm almost done, sir." She couldn't meet his eyes.
"You...," he hesitated but kept his voice firm "Miss Winter's visit here is not something you are to blab about to the school."
Was she his girlfriend? She couldn't have been she was definitely too pretty for the professor and way too young.
"Is that an order Professor?" She asked trying not to picture the rumours of the professor having a beautiful girlfriend spread across the school.
He held his voice even, but the threat was evident. "If I hear of her visit here whispered in the hallways, you will regret it, Miss Granger."
She put the last book in to the bookshelf and nodded.
"I won't tell anyone." So she was his girlfriend? What had they been doing in his bedroom? Why did she care? Well it was disgusting to have been outside when he...went at it.
He nodded. "You're dismissed, Granger"
As she walked up the stairs to her rooms she didn't understand why she felt inclined to return the hate from the offensively pretty Miss Winter... and why she kept repeating the same sentence in her head over and over again.
"But he sees me in the mirror. But he sees me in the mirror. But he sees me in the mirror..."