Another Wizarding World

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing a few characters from J.K.R. I'll return them shortly.

I'd like to thank my dear beta, Charmed_Nay, for always finding time for me.

Severus frowned. Just what could be taking her so long? Surely she'd been in there long enough to do anything she might have needed to do by now. Perhaps I should go knock on the door. As he moved forward, the door clicked open. She looked a little pale.

"Are you all right? I was about to check on you," he said, keeping his voice cool and eyeing her speculatively.

"Oh, I was just thinking about... trying to see if there was any way out of there besides the door that opens into this room," she said quickly.

He could tell that she wasn't being completely honest by the shifty look in her eyes and the sudden flush on her cheeks. However, he wasn't about to demand that she recount all that she'd done while in the privacy of the room.

"There is some tea. I was just thinking about fixing a cup to counter the wine that I've had," he said by way of asking if she'd like a cup. She understood, nodding and moving towards the table.

As she poured herself a cup, he watched her shaky hands and the way she closed her eyes to try to calm herself. Perhaps she was more upset about the story than he'd thought. While it angered him, he wasn't going to get too worked up about it. Well, he hadn't appreciated the portion about the Malfoys. That was just completely wrong. Lucius would never stray from Narcissa to comfort a... Hermione Granger. That alone was preposterous. While he'd coveted Narcissa in his youth, he'd never acted inappropriately with her. He respected her too much, and for this author to dare allude to anything other than that was disrespectful towards her. There had only ever been one other woman that he'd respected as much. Unfortunately, she met her demise many years before.

"I asked if you wanted me to pour yours for you? You're just standing there," Granger said.

"Yes, you can," he said distractedly.

Feeling suddenly uncomfortable, he motioned for her to follow him to the couch where he took his cup from her. Once they were back in their respective seats, he sipped his tea and tried to think about the story they were reading. The entire thing felt as if it had been orchestrated. Hooch and Sinistra just happened upon the parchments and left them in Granger's view? Not very likely. The headmaster had claimed to have something important to show him from the Ministry pertaining to a patent he'd applied for. The papers had mysteriously vanished. The room they were currently in was quite convenient as well.

His thoughts darkened considerably. I'd better not find out that this is some matchmaking scheme, he thought angrily.

"I think it's a bit sour, too," she said, breaking through his thoughts.

"What was that?"

"Your face. Looks like you don't like the tea, what with that scowl. I thought it was because you don't like the tea either," she said sheepishly.

"Shall we start the story again?" he asked, choosing not comment on her question.

"All right," she said, putting her cup aside and flicking her wand towards the parchments again.

Severus moved a tad closer to get a better look.

Dejectedly and gloomily, Mya made her way through block after block on the sidewalks of Muggle London. She knew that there would be more for her in life...even though she was a bushy-haired girl with big teeth.

"Well, I have no idea what they mean by putting this person into the story," Granger said in confusion. "Why is this Mya so sad? We've not even heard anything about her before now! They could at least give us a bit of back story. I mean to say, who is she anyway?"

Severus chuckled suddenly. "It's obvious to me who this Mya is," he said silkily, enjoying that he'd figured it out before she. "What I don't understand are these sidewalks. I suppose those are like small alleys on the sides of buildings that the Muggles walk along?"

"Oh, don't be silly. That's an Americanism again. They're talking about pavements." She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to appear intimidating. "And I'd like to know just who you think this Mya girl is."

He snorted. "Big teeth? Bushy hair?" At her lost look, he said incredulously, "Mya is a play on your given name: Her-MY-oh-knee. My-oh has simply become My-ah, or as they say, Mya." Smugly he sat back to watch the realization dawn on her face.

"I do NOT have big teeth," she said testily.

Doesn't she? Seems like I remember her having big teeth. I suppose I just haven't really taken notice lately. He thought for a moment before quickly glancing at her mouth, which was closed. "Do you not?" he asked casually.

"No! Thanks to your ruddy little Draco I was hit with a curse that made them grow very long," she said bitterly. "You were quite an arse that day... er... cruel, I mean. I let Madam Pomfrey use magic to fix them. They've been normal since." She shook her head in annoyance. "Honestly! Do you still 'see no difference,' Professor, after all this time?"

He couldn't say that he had, and he had no idea what she was working herself up so much about. "I have no idea, Professor Granger, what you are on about, and I certainly do not appreciate the tone you are taking with me. I've nothing to do with any childhood hexes you might have received." Good Lord. One would think that he'd hexed her himself according to her glare. And just why had she called him an arse? Before he could ask, she returned to her reading.

Sitting on a lone bench, she looked around at the sleepy, silent city, enjoying the flutter of the birds as they perched on the sparse trees and basked in the loving sun like children receiving adoring strokes on their heads from their mothers. It always was nice to walk through a place she'd frequented often in her years before getting her Hogwarts letter. Somehow it made her feel at peace with herself and comforted her. What could she do now that Ron and she had ended things?

"I just have to say that I would never sit about the streets of London on a bench to think," Hermione put in. "I'd find some other place for that. There's just too much going on. This writer is implying that it's a quiet little place. Ha! There is always something going on: double deckers whirling by, black cabs nearly running you down if you stray into the street, people milling around in every direction." She harrumphed. "Why did they not have me go to a nice spot in Hyde Park or..." Her voice trailed away. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You are over examining this," he said cautiously. "I've been to London before, thanks, so I don't see where any of this is relevant. Can we not skim forward?"

"Fine," she said in annoyance. "But look," she pointed to the paper, "this Mya...and I refuse to call myself that...is trading in her Galleons for Euros so that she can buy some sexy Muggle knickers."

He simply stared at her. Really, he couldn't care less what this author had her doing. He wanted to get on with the reading so that he could see what happened to him in the story.

"Why would I be getting Euros? Pence and pounds, thanks," she said heatedly.

As he sifted through the next few pages, she continued to grumble about never finding a completely silent place in London's streets to sit peacefully and take in the beauty of nature.

"Oh, here we are," he said blandly, "an owl has suddenly appeared with tidings from our 'ubiquitous' headmaster. Someone has been using their thesaurus."

"You've skipped too many pages!" she said indignantly, looking back over what he'd passed by. "Oh," she said suddenly, cheeks splotching a becoming pink color. "I suppose you're right. You don't need to witness me buying my knickers and er... other things. What the bloody hell...?"

"What is it?" he asked in alarm.

"It says I've just bought lacy, green knickers with silver snakes that magically flit around making hissing noises." She started laughing loudly.

He couldn't help but to join her as the image proved quite humorous. Who would create such an atrocious thing? Surely they were intended as gag gifts, nothing sexy.

"Silver and Green? Snakes? I'd say that dear Mya is going to be showing off her underclothes to a Slytherin!" she said through laughter. Her mirth faded, as did his.

He had the sudden urge to skip forward even more to see just which Slytherin would witness those knickers. The author wouldn't dare pair them together. Anyone who even thought that he would so much as touch her were... Suddenly, unbidden, an image of Granger sprawled out on his bed came to mind. He slowly stalked towards his fantasy woman and reached down to pull away the scant fabric of her knickers when a resounding set of hisses permeated the silence of his dungeons. The snakes on the knickers were hissing their displeasure and daring him to touch any part of the fabric.

"Maybe, ah, maybe Draco is at Hogwarts," he offered, shaking away the scene in his head.

"But that would mean that I would have had relations with Draco and his father?" she asked incredulously. "I don't... I don't know who wrote this, but it is apparent that they don't think too highly of me or of what my morals might be, like I'm some trollop."

"I agree," he said absently, the half-naked Granger had returned to his mind, hissing snakes and all.

"Oh, gee, thanks, Professor. Always know how to make me feel better, eh?" she asked in annoyance. "Forget it." She held up her hand to stave off his question.

Had he said something wrong?

Mya smiled happily. "Oh, the headmaster always knows when to help someone and has perfect timing. I'll be he can see me even now, knowing that I'm smiling." She grinned and waved at the air, feeling silly, but knowing that her old headmaster's eyes were twinkling with merriment. She was going to Hogwarts. It had always been like a second home to her...well, since the night she was saved from the horrid, frightening, big, scary, dumb, big, horrid troll on Halloween night in the girls' toilet her first year. Before that, nobody liked her, not even Harold and Ronald.

Severus couldn't help but to laugh. Harold Potter? He realized that Hermione was also snickering.

"What an idiot," she commented. "How could they not tell that they used the same descriptions more than once?"

"About that troll that night," he ventured. "You didn't really go off to find it yourself, did you?"

She shook her head, knowing there was no use lying about it after all those years. "Ron and the others had been talking about me...rather rudely. I overheard them and spent the evening crying in private." She shook her head. "The thing just happened to venture in, and they came to save me."

"Ever the idiotic heroes," he said snidely.

"I could have died," she said in their defense.

Not saying anything, he looked back to the parchment.

After Hermione packed all of her things into five large trunks...hey, a girl has to bring all of her books and stuff, right?...she sat down to think about how it would be at Hogwarts. There would be no Ron there and no Harry there. How could she face being there all alone? Then she began to think of the one man who'd always been so horridly mean, cruel, and unkind to her, taking points away from her House for nothing. Why, Professor Snape had even taken points from her for breathing too loudly once, the prick!

"I only took points that were merited," he said defensively.

Mouth agape, Hermione shook her head in disbelief, ignoring him and making him want to point out that she and her rule-breaking, pesky friends had deserved every point he'd taken from them. They'd gotten away with far too many things that had resulted in no points lost. He had to catch up to be fair in some other way.

"I wonder if he still looks the same," Hermione said, sighing sadly. She pulled a photo that she'd clipped from a paper when he'd received one of his awards for a potion he'd invented. His long, ebony hair fell about his face in silky, greasy curtains, hiding one eye and framing his paleness, making his striking black eyes all the more prominent. He sneered impatiently instead of thanking the man giving him the award, nearly growling at the poor bloke, showing him pointy, sharp, crooked, yellowish teeth. That aquiline nose had never looked better and stood out proudly, suiting his marble-like skin perfectly.

Well, he didn't know that he'd done that to her, but he'd done it all the same. See, what happened was, she was walking into town to buy a gift for his birthday when she saw him leaving the Three Broomsticks with Madam Rosmerta! They were quite cozy, and from the position of his hand...it was on her arse...she could tell that they were more than friends. It was then that she'd decided to give up on him and date Ron. However, she'd always kept his picture tucked away inside her bra beneath her left breast so that it was near her heart. She'd never gone a day without it...even back in Middle Earth when she'd been Legolas' secret lover.

As he finished reading the paragraph, he sat back in shocked silence. How the fuck did this person find out about Rosmerta? It was only the one time! Well, no, it happened twice, but that was in the same night. How dare he or she write about it so blatantly! he thought. He was afraid of what they would read next. It was obvious now where the story was headed. They were definitely trying to give some background information to the next pairing: he and Granger!

When he noticed that she too had sat back in a hesitant silence, he cleared his voice, saying, "The, ah, headmaster would never condone relations with a student. This author is clearly digging deep into the pitch to come up with something they find entertaining."

She nodded. "Right... and I would never carry your...anyone's...picture in my bra for years on end. This is utter rubbish."

"That description of me," he ventured, trying to think of how he could question its validity. Is that how people truly saw him? Horrid teeth? He'd already read a part where they'd made fun of his hair. Did people think that he didn't practice good hygiene?

"Your hair does fall over your face and hide your eye at times...not that I've been looking, mind," she said quickly.

"And it is quite oily at times," he offered. "It's always been that way."

"Right, and although my parents are dentists, they wouldn't make your teeth sound so... er... bad."

"Well, are they?"

"Oh," she said, loss for words apparent. "I... No, sir."

Exactly. And what pointy teeth anyway? They weren't pointed... not really! So what if his bottom front teeth overlapped a little? This person made him out to be some sort of cigarette-smoking, coffee-drinking vampire. They aren't white, I know, but I'd like to think of them as off white...not bloody yellow.

"This is really awkward," she said, smiling apologetically. "If you want to stop reading, I can go through it myself privately and give you all the pages that mention you."

Aha! Possible trickery. "I don't think so, Miss Granger." He doubted that she would do anything other than that, but he would not take the chance that one of her friends would visit, and they'd spend some time laughing at the tale before she'd get around to giving him the pages pertinent to him to destroy.

"All right then," she said disappointedly. "I just thought it would be easier for us that way. I don't know that I could read something too... er..."

"We'll just skim by those parts if there are any," he said reassuringly. "Besides, it seems that my character is involved with Rosmerta." He hoped she hadn't heard that guilty waver in his voice. Blasted wine! He reached for his tea...now cold...and took a big gulp. The room felt suddenly stuffy. He rose from the couch. "I believe I shall make use of the loo."

"Okay," she said, slouching down a little, snuggling into the pillow on her left.

After he relieved himself and washed his hands, Severus splashed some water over his face and looked into the mirror, barring his teeth to get a closer look at them. Shrugging, he made his way back to the couch to find that Granger had fallen asleep. He thought of taking the book and reading on without her, but he found that he was extremely tired also. He went to the door and tried to get it to open, but it wouldn't budge or respond to any spell he tried to cast at it.

He went back to the couch and sat down as far away from her as he could, propping his pillow behind him comfortably. She'd pulled the blanket up over her, causing him to take notice of the chill that was in the air. He pulled his corner up and covered his arms, leaving his legs uncovered and stretching out before them.

Wondering who had created the room and why it insisted on keeping them there, he watched the young professor sleep for a few minutes before drifting off into sleep himself.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the couch shifted and transfigured into a bed, leaving them to lie on their sides next to each other. Their pillows magically modified in size and positions to cradle their heads, and the blanket expanded and moved of its own accord to wrap itself about them.

Southern's Notes: A good bit of the things I have left on my list deals with bedroom stuff. Teehee. I suppose I'll have to have some sort of sex scene soon. That's going to be great fun. Each chapter has been enjoyable so far (especially coming up with the funky story bits). I'm making fun of things lightly and as per the request of others. Hell, I've used some of these plot devices before, but it's fun to see it giggled at. If you have any requests, let me know.