Confrontations

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks again to ancientgirl for reading this over and for your helpful suggestions. And a huge thanks to my wonderful beta June for everything. I couldn't do this without you!

Chapter 11 - Confrontations

Severus glared at the Headmaster in front of him. A thousand different curses ran through his mind, but the spell that came form his lips was neither a jinx nor a hex.

"Accio wand," he growled.

Deep at the bottom of Hogwarts' lake, a trident-wand rose by itself.

Several merpeople looked up to see it rise in the water, including Anwar and Molossus.

"I see that our friend has truly returned to Hogwarts," said Anwar somewhat sadly, but with resignation.

The trident-wand rose higher still, gaining speed. It broke the surface with a tremendous splash and began soaring across the grounds of Hogwarts. It continued to accelerate as it heeded its master's urgent call.

Meanwhile, Harry and Ron were having a heated conversation on the front lawn.

"And I'm telling you for the last time. Nobody has put a curse on me! I'm in love with Draco, and you're just going to have to get used to it," Harry yelled angrily, jabbing his finger in Ron's chest for emphasis.

"Oy, yeah, right. I have to accept this, do I!" he shouted. Ron was furious and looked at Harry with a mixture of rage and disbelief. "Great, just great! The next thing you're going to tell me is that Hermione is shagging Snape and I ought to accept that too."

"Ron... That's... Just... Stop and listen to what I'm trying to tell you," Harry said, growing exasperated.

But Ron was beyond angry and didn't seem to want to hear anything.

"You want to know what I think," shouted Ron. "I think..."

But whatever Ron was going to say remained unsaid. Severus's trident, speeding past, had whacked him in the side of the head, and Harry found himself once again staring at Ron's unconscious form.

Back in his office, Dumbledore continued to stare at Severus. Blue eyes met beetle-black ones as a certain sense of expectancy seemed to hang over the room.

Hermione was just about to say something, but her words caught in her throat and turned into a scream as Severus's trident crashed into the office.

Severus caught the trident with one hand.

Dumbledore shouted a spell to protect them from the shattering glass and then repaired the recently repaired windows once more.

Oblivious to this, Severus examined his trident curiously. Sensing that it was back in its normal environment, the trident twitched in Severus's hand, then turned itself back into a wand. Severus swished and flicked it twice, and out came a single red rose. He turned to Hermione, gave a little bow, and handed it to her.

Hermione, who had been watching all of this with concern, at first stepped back, then flashed a bright smile in his direction, tucking the rose inside of her robes.

Severus smiled back at her, then quickly turned on Dumbledore and glared.

The Headmaster seemed to be ready for this, and though he didn't pick up his wand in front of him, he kept it nearby.

"I ought to kill you for this," Severus spat angrily at him. "You've no idea what danger you put Hermione and the baby in. Of all your foolish plans..."

"Now, now, Severus," Dumbledore interrupted complacently. "We both knew of the dangers before you left. That is why I sent you along with her, and you know I wouldn't have let you go this alone. It was for that very reason that I had Phillipe watching over you. As it turned out, everything is fine," he said with a smile.

Severus continued to frown, seemingly struggling over whether to jinx him or to listen to what he had to say.

As if he had read his mind, Dumbledore continued on. "You could strike me down, Severus, as I know you are angry enough to do, or we could discuss what occurred in the lake."

Snape's glare intensified.

"Of course," Dumbledore quickly added, "anything of a personal nature that occurred between yourself and Miss Granger can remain confidential. I merely wish to discuss what knowledge you have of who could have taken this merbaby and what possible reasons there were for her abduction."

"Severus," Hermione said hesitantly. "I think perhaps what Professor Dumbledore is saying is reasonable. We owe it to Sarafina to find out who tried to take her."

Severus eyes flicked back and forth between her and Dumbledore. Seeming to have made a decision, he lowered his wand and turned his head in a more receptive fashion towards the Headmaster.

"Very well, then," Dumbledore said with a sigh of relief. "Let's all sit down to have some tea and discuss all that you have learned."

Hermione made as if to move towards the chairs he had indicated, but Severus got there before her, pulling a chair out for her.

"Thank you, Severus," she said, blushing.

The Potions master's chivalrous action was not lost on Dumbledore. He had to check himself, lest they see the huge smile upon his face.

Several hours later, Dumbledore sat in deep thought, troubled deeply by the things that Severus and Hermione had shared with him. Somewhere out there was an evil entity that would think nothing of harming an innocent merbaby. He wasn't sure what to think of what had occurred.

Severus stirred restlessly before him, rousing him from his thoughts. Dumbledore was unsure of how long he had lapsed into silence, digesting all this new information. It was wrong for him to keep the two of them in his office while he thought things over. And the two of them obviously had more pressing matters to discuss.

"Thank you, Severus, and Miss Granger," he said. He stood up suddenly, startling Hermione, who had been nervously chewing on her lip.

Severus quickly stood up too.

"If you will no longer be needing us, sir..." he started to say.

"Oh, goodness, no," said Dumbledore. "I'm sorry to have kept you both so long." Go now, both of you. I've much thinking to do, and I suspect you've had enough tea for the evening."

"Thank you, sir," said Hermione, stepping away from her chair.

"You are welcome. And have a wonderful evening," he said, his eyes suddenly sparkling at them.

Hermione had the sense to blush. Severus gave him a glare that suggested he wanted no more comments on the evening and whether or not it would indeed be "wonderful."

The pair headed to the Headmaster's door with Severus's hand on Hermione's back, guiding her along the way. They entered the stairwell silently and remained so on the ride down. Once at the bottom of the stairs, both stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say after having lived through such an odd experience.

Severus moved as if to say something, and at the same time Hermione choked on words that didn't seem willing to come. Both of them hesitated, and a look of disappointment crossed over Severus's eyes.

"Well, then, Miss Granger," he said stiffly. "I bid you goodnight." He gave a courteous nod in her direction, then spun on the spot and swooped down the hall.

Hermione stared in shock after him as his retreating robes nearly smacked her in the face. Her mouth opened and closed several times. She seemed unsure about what to do and how to react.

'I had expected there to be some awkwardness, but not for him to just walk away from me,' she thought. 'What about all that had happened under the lake? We almost mated! Has he just forgotten it or disregarded it?'

She had to do something. She'd waited so long to be with Severus, and now he was just walking away.

"Severus," she called out, running towards his retreating figure. "Severus, wait!"

He stopped so suddenly that she very nearly ran into him, and he stuck his hands out just in time to catch her.

She suddenly felt herself turning very warm at the thought of being in his arms again. It was something she suspected was reciprocated by Severus when she glanced nervously into his eyes.

"Yes," he said in that deep, sexy voice of his. "You had something you wished to say to me, Hermione?"

At the sound of her name on his lips, she felt some hope swooping back into her anxious heart.

"I..." She struggled to speak. "I... had just hoped we could talk about... about what happened in the lake."

"In the lake," he echoed, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I was under the impression that we had just spent the past few hours discussing what happened in the lake."

"No, not that, not the report," she said. She moved a little closer to him and happily realized that he hadn't let go of her since catching her a few moments before. "I mean," she said, her voice getting a little huskier, "what else happened under the lake."

Severus cleared his throat as he looked into her heavily-lidded brown eyes. Was it his imagination, or was she looking at him seductively?

"Well," he said, clearing his throat again. "I suppose that it is only natural that given the amount of time we spent underwater in our transformed condition..." His voice trailed off for a minute as she moved even closer towards him, the heat from her body arousing instincts in him that were not merely those of a merman, but those of any type of male creature in existence.

"Our... Our transformed condition and the instincts thereof would have of course added in our confusion and perhaps misguided attraction," he finished lamely, wishing he could push her to the wall behind him and kiss her with all his might.

"So," she asked curiously, moving yet closer towards him. "You believe it was only our transformed condition that attracted us to each other." Her body came into full contact with his.

Severus swallowed hard, struggling for some sort of reply. His attraction was now visibly obvious and was pressed hard against her.

"Miss Grang... Hermione, I am well aware of what others think of me. I am neither attractive nor desirable to the opposite sex. I have very clearly heard the things whispered behind my back about my looks. My nose is too big, my hair too greasy... I am the big, black bat of the dungeons. Is that not what the students say?" he asked rhetorically. "I could never expect that your attraction to me would be anything other than a complication of our transformation."

"Severus, your hair is dark and silky, your nose is sexy, and I am clearly not a student anymore. My attraction to you began a long time before we were transformed." Hermione moved even closer to him, backing him into the wall.

"Indeed," squeaked Severus, his voice surprisingly high.

"Indeed," said Hermione.

And then they were kissing as neither of them had ever kissed before. A deep burning seemed to smolder through both of them as their lips and tongues expressed that which neither of them seemed able to do with voices alone. Their bodies pressed even closer together, both moving towards a common goal.

Severus broke their kiss long enough to pick up Hermione and place her against the wall.

She wrapped her legs tightly around him as they moaned and groaned their desires.

Severus was thrusting himself against her clothed body as she urgently bucked back against him. His thrusts were pushing her against the wooden wall behind them, making a dull thudding noise that only registered to him as slightly odd in his lust-filled mind. The only thought currently making any sense right now was how to get himself inside of Hermione as quickly as possible.

Thud! They banged against the wall. Thud! They banged again.

Severus pulled out his wand to remove their clothes when they banged one more time against the wall.

Thud! Then they were falling straight through the place where the wall once was.

Severus landed squarely on top of Hermione, and the two of them looked confusedly up at the room that seemed to have transformed around them.

Harry Potter's surprised face was peering down at them.

"What in the world..." Harry exclaimed out loud.

From a canopied bed in the corner, a bemused Draco Malfoy was beaming at the newcomers. Draco snickered and said, "Well, looks like Ron's going to be on the floor again when he sees this. Is he specializing in Divination?"

Severus pushed himself up onto his elbows. He wanted to get off of Hermione. He was afraid that he might be crushing her, but at the moment he was still at half-staff, so he stalled to give himself more time.

"Just where exactly are we?" Severus asked Malfoy, avoiding Potter's eyes completely.

"Well, you're in our room," said Draco with a mischievous grin on his face. "And I would say it was the Room of Requirement, but you two seem to be in here by accident, as Harry and I certainly didn't tell the room we needed you. We thought Hagrid was trying to knock the door down. Never thought it would be you two."

The sheet on the bed moved a bit more off of Draco as he laughed, revealing his naked chest and falling down to his waist. The rest of his body seemed to be just as naked.

The Potions master glanced at Potter, whose robes appeared to have been pulled on quickly. Bile rose in his throat as he realized what he had just walked or fallen in on. Any thought of Potter and sex was enough to make him want to vomit. One look at Draco's sly expression told him that he had guessed correctly.

"I knew it," Severus said out loud.

Draco just grinned and Harry blushed.

"Well," Severus said in a much more quiet voice to Hermione, "this should make Christmas dinner at Malfoy Manor much more interesting."

"Hermione, are you okay?" asked Harry, only now realizing she was trapped underneath Snape.

"I'm fine, I think," she said as Severus moved off of her, quickly pulling his robes around him and offering a hand to pull her up.

Hermione stood up and looked around her. Her eyes moved from Draco on the bed to Harry, who was now blushing profusely.

"Well," she said, while looking from one to the other. "I guess there have been a lot of things going on while we were gone."

"I guess so," said Harry.

"Yes, they have," she said, taking Severus's hand in hers. It was her turn to blush as she shifted from one foot to the other. "I hope that's not a problem."

"It's alright with me, if it's alright with you," Harry said as he glanced over to Draco's naked form lying on the bed.

Hermione giggled. "Well, Harry, I always sort of knew." Her eyes moved from Draco back to him.

"You're taking it much better than Weasley," said Draco.

"Why? What has he done?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, Hermione. It's just... Well, you know Ron," he mumbled

"Yes, I do," she said quietly. "But, you know, Harry, I'm always here for you."

"I know," he said, smiling at her.

Draco stared meaningfully up at Severus's tall figure.

Severus took a few steps backwards. He looked about uncomfortably before finally mumbling, "Likewise, Draco."

Draco beamed back at him from his bed.

"Well, sorry about your door," said Hermione, awkwardly backing towards it.

"Yes. Well, we shall be leaving you two to do whatever it was you were doing...." Severus looked around uncomfortably.

Harry nodded towards them both and mumbled, "Goodnight," while Draco smirked.

Severus took Hermione's hand and led her out through the broken door.

Behind them, they heard Harry cast a Repairing Charm, and the door set itself back upon its hinges. They heard it lock shortly after that.

"Well, that was... erm... interesting," said Hermione.

"Indeed," said Severus, now leading her down the hall.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere where we won't be disturbed."

"And where might that be?"

"My rooms," he said. "And come hell or high water, there shall be nobody disturbing us then."

Hermione let out a squeal as he swooped her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way.