Fanfic!!

[dream_labyrinth]

I woke up this morning with this little ficlet spooking around my mind, so I though I'd write it down and post it here.
A little HG/SS story, yet untitled.
Put behind cut to spare your friends pages.


He sat down on a chair and frowned at the heaps of unread letters on the small table.
This was not at all like her. She had always answered any letter that had been sent to her.
He looked around. The room was small, but comfortable. There was a bed in the corner next to the door, a desk by the window, bookshelves along the walls, framing a second door.
There was the sound of footsteps from the main door and he turned back. Her reaction was going to be interesting.

At first, he was dissapointed. She walked in reading a book and didn't even see him.
But then she looked up.

Crying in surprise, she dropped the book, staring at him.
Slightly amused, he looked her up and down. It had been a while since he had last seen her. For some reason she was wearing Muggle clothing, jeans and a T-shirt. He had to admit that there was some good to those. Hiding her legs underneath the robes would have been a waste.

His eyes turned back to her face and he frowned, the smile leaving his face.
She looked tired, exhausted. As if she hadn't slept in quite some time.
When she spoke, even her voice sounded tired. "What are you doing here?"
He waved towards the heaps of sealed envelopes on the table. "You didn't answer my letter. And I couldn't contact you by floo."
She shrugged her shoulders. "I've stopped reading the letters. And disconnected from the floo network. People who really want to talk to me need to contact my parents."

A loud noise from outside made her turn around. While she was gone, he picked up one of the letters and opened it. It was a single sheet of parchment. What do you think you are, Mudblood? If you don't stop writing that crap, we'll make you! There was more in the same tone, but he didn't feel like reading it.

"Do you always read letters that aren't addressed to you?" she asked from the door.
He looked up. "Are they all like this?"
"I don't read them anymore. I got tired of it when it started to be more than a hundred a day." Her voice was calm, betraying no anger, not any emotion.
"But why? You are one of the best researchers of potions, and..."
She laughed dryly. "These people aren't upset about my potions research, Professor! It's the novels they don't approve of."

He sank back in his chair. He had of course read all of her novels. She wrote historical novels, but put in enough reference to today to make it a very interesting read. In her last novel about the wars against the giants, he had found some hits against the Ministry and against the treatment of giants today that had amused him. Apparently, not all people had found it amusing.

Smoke coming from her hand turned his attention to a small parcel she was carrying. She dropped it and performed a quick spell to stop the burning on her hand and on the parcel, then walked over to her desk and applied some potion to the burns. It healed quickly.
All the time she didn't curse or did anything to express feelings. He couldn't believe that this was the same person who could cry over an only average result in an exam, laugh heartily at a silly joke from a friend, get angry at him for a single remark.

She turned back to face him. "Get one of these almost daily." she said with a gesture towards the blackened package on the floor. "Fortunately, none of the people has tried apparating in my room yet. Which brings us back to you."
He stared. This was so unlikely the Hermione he remembered.
He cleared his throat. "Why don't you ward your room? It was easy enough to get in."
She went over to her desk, sat down on the chair and started playing with a quill. "It is warded. But I'm not very good in that. I think it keeps some of my dear readers out, but apparently not all of them.
When did she start being sarcastic? She never had been sarcastic in his classroom.

She stifled a yawn behind her hand.
"When did you last sleep?" he asked.
She waved the question off like some nasty insect. "What are you doing here?"
He rummaged through the heap of letters, but couldn't find the one he sent. "I wanted your help with some potion I'm trying to make."
"I'm not a potions master," she said cooly, but he saw a hint of the old sparkle in her eyes.
"Maybe not, but besides me, you are one of the people who know most about potions. And you know how I work." This time he was sure to see a smile in her eyes.
"Well, I suppose I could do that."

Again she yawned.
"Not if you don't sleep. I can't have an assistant who falls asleep and falls into the cauldron." He grinned a little.
She stared. "Was that a joke?"
"No. I mean it. If you don't get some sleep first, you can't help me."
"But..." she twirled the quill in her hand, twisted it, until it broke. She dropped the pieces and blushed. "But I can't sleep."
"So? Why not?"
She waved towards the letters and the parcel on the floor. "You have gotten in here. You don't know whether any of these people will, too. And I don't want to be sleeping when they come." He could hear the fear in her voice.
"But you said you warded the apartment."
She shook her head. "Not strong enough."
"Why don't you hide it? Or put a Fidelius charm on it?"
She laughed. "And who would be my secret keeper? The Hogwarts staff has enough to worry about, and my parents are the only people I trust besides them, and they are Muggles."

"How about I stay here?" he asked.
She opened her mouth as is she wanted to say something, closed it, opened it again, closed it. She swallowed.
"Professor, that would be too much..."
He interrupted her stuttering. "No it wouldn't. I need an assistant and you are the best I could get. And I wish you wouldn't call me 'Professor'."
She bit her lip. But Mr...Snape..." She stopped. That sounded strange.
He sighed. "I have a first name, you know."
She stared down on the carpet. "Severus. Why would you do that?"
"Stay here, you mean?"
She nodded.
"Apparently, I cannot convince you to go to sleep otherwise. And I need you to get some sleep. My motives are purely egoistic, I assure you."
Taking a deep breath, she got up. "OK. I'll do it."
"Fine." He leaned back on his chair and watched her get her pyjamas, then vanish through the door that seemed to lead to the bathroom.

He heard the sound of running water and looked around a little. On a shelf behind the desk were some pictures in heavy silver frames. Her parents, Ron and Harry. Another was mostly hidden behind these. He walked over and pulled it out.

He gaped. It was a picture of himself! A simple photograph, the one that was used in most potions journals whenever he published an article. He saw himself glare up at him. Clearly he didn't like his picture taken. But she had cut it out and put it in a frame and set it up next to her family and friends!

Noises from the bathroom told him she would come back soon, and quickly he went back to his chair, sitting down comfortably and occupying his fingers by opening some of the letters. They were full of insults, written on cheap parchment in bad grammar, but he wasn't actually reading them. His thoughts circled around that picture, and about the young woman in the other room.
He dropped the letter he had in his hands and looked over to the bed. She would lie there, and he would sit next to her and make sure nobody disturbed her sleep.

She came back in and woke him from his reverie.
Without looking at him, she walked by him and slipped under the cover of her bed, pulling the sheets up to her nose. "OK. I'll sleep now. You stay there."

She closed her eyes.
Opened them again.
Turned around, turned back, moved a little to one side, then to the other, closed her eyes again, opened them.

"I can't sleep!" she announced frustrated.
He watched her intently. "But you are tired."
"But you are making me nervous."
"But I didn't even look at you.
"But you are here."

He rummaged through his pockets and found a tiny vial.
"Would you accept a sleeping draught from me?" he asked.
She hesitated, then nodded.

He went over and kneeled down beside the bed. She tried to take the vial from him,but he didn't let her. Slowly he put it up to her lips and poured the contents into her mouth. She swallowed, and smiled as the potion started working.

She closed her eyes and pulled the blanket closer around her. "Tastes sweet." she muttered, drifting off to sleep.

Carefully he bent over her, bringing his lips down to hers, kissing away a drop of the draught.
"So do you."

Comments

[rev-tobias.livejournal.com]

So please explain to me, what is it with girls and Snape? I mean, yeah, black is cool, but apart from that, he comes across as an arrogant prick and a total assninja throughout the books. What do you all see in him?

Not having seen the movies, I suppose it could be because he's played by a really hot actor (though when I think about who I would cast in a HP movie, my first choice for Snape would be the guy who played Grima Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings movies).

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

*gg*
For me, the actor is only part of the story. I haven't seen the movies.
It's just that Snape is the most interesting character. He's difficult and arrogant and can be really cold and mean to people he doesn't like, but there is at least the potential in him to be just the opposite. And all of this makes him interesting. And maybe it's true that girls always fall for the bad guys. (I do.)
And black is cool. ;-)

[scatteredlogic.livejournal.com]

If you'll allow me to attempt to answer this question... Hmm, why Snape?

It does seem odd that women have become so attracted to a character that's presented as having somewhat ambiguous loyalties and such a cruel, sharp tongue. But it's those very qualities that, I believe, first attract an adult's attention to Severus Snape.

Snape has been presented from Book One as a rather mysterious figure. He obviously dislikes Harry (the erstwhile hero of the books) and yet has worked to save him. Such a contradiction immediate attracted attention and began the speculation of why, exactly, someone who was so obviously presented as a "villain" would work to protect someone that he detests.

As the rest of the books unfolded, we began to get glimpses of Snape's background and it only deepened the intriguing nature of his character.

Here is a man who was once (still?) a member of an organization apparently dedicated to bringing the Wizarding World to heel through violence. And yet this same man now apparently risks his life to spy on that very organization. Snape's loyalties are presented as rather ambiguous - is he spying for Dumbledore? For Voldemort? For himself? The final question has yet to be answered and that bit of mystery has led to a great deal of speculation.

The memories that have been presented for Snape are of a young boy who probably came from an abusive home and who was bullied through school by a group of boys for no other reason than (as James Potter put it) "the fact that he exists." The bullying even went so far as to brush the edges of attempted murder when Sirius deliberately directed Snape to the Shrieking Shack knowing that Lupin was there and that it was a full moon.

Did Snape retaliate against the Marauders? Of course. But the repeated 'four against one' odds became something that the reader could not ignore and the sympathy of the reader was subtly shifted to Snape. Suddenly, his hatred for James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin begins to make a great deal of sense. That Snape transfered that hatred to Harry is not admirable, but it has become understandable.

The fact that we see Snape only through Harry's eyes has also worked out in Snape's favor. Adults realize that children miss a great deal when they look at someone; they tend to be oblivious to nuances of character. The glimpses we've been given are leading the reader to believe that Harry isn't seeing everything; that Harry's only seeing what he expects to see.

Severus Snape is presented as a plain, unattractive man, but one who has a definite presence. He "sweeps" or "glides" into a room. His robes "billow," his voice is "silky," his eyes "glitter" or "gleam." He continually views the world from behind a "curtain of greasy black hair" and he's more often than not described as appearing "out of the shadows."

Take that presence and mix it with a little sympathy from the reader and then add the probability that Severus Snape is, at heart, an honorable man... Well, I think that very few women could ignore all that. lol

[rev-tobias.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading your comment halfway through as I haven't even finished Prisoner of Azkaban yet... but I'll take your word for it that Snape will become both more understandable and more interesting with things to come.

[scatteredlogic.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry for the spoilers. ~cringes~ But yes, he does become more interesting. ;)

[rev-tobias.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was my fault entirely. I should have made it clear I haven't read all five books yet. After all, I am probably the last person on the internet not to have done so yet ;)

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

A perfect explanation. Thank you.

[scatteredlogic.livejournal.com]

I liked this very much! I've not read a fic where Hermione wrote novels - and her choice of plotline seems perfectly in character.

Her failure to immediately fall asleep worked very well. I can see it being a combination of too tired, too tense and too surprised over Snape's presence.

Very nice!

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Thank you.
Interesting that nobody had this idea before. (*big grin* I had an original idea!)

[verseblack.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this very much :) From the humorously awkward "Mr...Snape" to the sweetness of him watching over her as she sleeps, the piece is just delightful!

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :-)
Glad you liked it.