Bludgeoned
Chapter 26 of 67
mia madwynVoted Best New Author (Lumos), Best SS/HG Romance (Amortentia) and Best SS/HG Angst
(Diffindo) in The New Library Awards.
Seventh-year student Hermione Granger decides to marry the one eligible wizard who did not ask for her--the horrid but powerful Severus Snape. All is not sweetness and light. Be careful what you ask for. Or, as has been said by many a wise witch, "Marry in haste; repent in leisure." MLC
ReviewedThanks to JKR for the world.
Thanks to Leigh-Anne for being my beta!
26. BLUDGEONED
The Quidditch pitch was sunny and cold and the last place Hermione had ever expected to spend even an hour of her Hogwarts education.
Yet here she stood, muffled and bundled against the wind, deflecting Bludgers of all things!
Madam Hooch stood some distance away, arms folded and expression smug as she wandlessly tossed Bludgers at Hermione with increasing speed and velocity.
What had begun as a silly exercise...a Bludger lazily sailing toward her and a whisk of her wand to send it back...had now turned into deadly business.
Hermione's anger grew as she slashed her wand to send back two Bludgers at once and, with narrowed eyes, made sure to send one close enough to Hooch's head to part her spiked hair.
"Why, Madam Snape," Hooch crowed, "I had no idea you enjoyed a bit of sport!" And she promptly sent three Bludgers at once
Followed by a shout of, "Expelliarmus!"
Hermione felt her wand yank from her fingers at the same time she saw three Bludgers headed straight for her head...
And flung out a protective hand...
And felt the zing of sparks leave her fingertips and meet the Bludgers in mid-flight...
Dropping them to the ground with heavy thuds, not three feet from her body.
"May I please have my wand back?" she snapped, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.
"I think not," Hooch said, sauntering toward her thoughtfully. When she reached the Bludgers in the grass, she sent them back to the equipment box and then circled Hermione slowly, her sparkling eyes dragging from head to toe and back again.
"Well. It's clear he never would have chosen you on his own."
Hermione felt her skin burn with embarrassment and anger.
"How long had you been crushing on him, child?"
Hermione clenched her hands into fists. "I hadn't," she said in clipped tones.
"Mm-hmm." Noncommittal and disbelieving at the same time. "You never noticed that voice, eh? Never watched those long fingers working their magic and... imagined them working their magic?"
Hermione whirled to face the older witch who was now behind her. "Absolutely not!"
Hooch's eyes met hers, assessing. "Ah, interesting." Then she continued her slow circling, her hands clasped behind her back. "Of course, it's perfectly clear," she said, "that Severus has had his eye on you for a very long time."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Oh, dear, surely you don't buy into that 'too professional to notice students' malarkey that he tries to foist off on the gullible, do you?"
Hermione felt her rage bubbling within.
"You think Severus Snape would have given even a moment's thought to marrying you, if he hadn't already been planning to get into your knickers and realized that having you in his bed as his bride was a boon beyond that even his Dark Lord would offer..."
STUPEFY!
A flash of red
And then, blackness.
Her head rang, and she felt sick rising in her throat at the distant voice saying, "Ennervate!"
"Here, girl." She jerked her face away from Hooch's hands and immediately regretted it as the world spun around her in a dizzying view of blue sky and green grass.
"Don't be foolish. Drink this."
This time, when Hooch pressed the mug to her lips, she swallowed.
"You didn't really think I'd let you hex me, did you?" Hooch asked casually. "I wouldn't be much of a witch if I didn't have my shields up, now, would I?"
Hermione glowered at the older witch and muttered, "Bitch."
Hooch let out a howl of laughter. "Good girl." She pressed the mug into Hermione's hands. "Finish up, then we'll talk in my office."
Hermione followed her across the pitch and into the small office beneath the stands.
Hooch conjured a cushion for the hard-backed chair that sat opposite her desk. "Take your time. Catch your breath."
Hooch took her place and stared at Hermione until Hermione felt herself forced to stare at everything in the room except Madam Hooch. A dizzying array of magical photographs decorated the walls...Quidditch players darting hither and yon, not even staying within their own frames. Many were Hogwarts teams...the most recent ones with flashes of red hair as various Weasleys swooped across the skies.
Then there were older photographs, including one in which the Quidditch robes were in patriotic red, white and blue with the Cross of St George on their backs. Without thinking, Hermione stood up and walked over for a closer look. "I forgot...Ron said you played for England?"
Before she reached the wall, Hooch flipped a finger and the picture frame flipped and faced the wall.
Hermione turned back to Hooch, surprised.
"Yes, for half a season." Hooch shifted in her chair and straightened some game charts on her desk. "But we're not talking about me, are we?"
Hermione returned to the chair, frustrated. Even polite discussion was evidently not allowed. And Severus thought Madam Hooch meant them no ill will? He clearly was misinformed.
"Why did you say those horrid things to me?" she demanded. Then she pinned Madam Hooch with a glare and dug deep for the courage her mother would have shown. "Are you in love with him?"
Hooch stared and then sputtered, then laughed. Laughed until tears ran down her cheeks. Laughed until Hermione was one finger-twitch short of sending another hex her way.
"Hermione Granger, you are a tonic!" Hooch finally gasped. "Don't you ever listen to gossip?"
Hermione blinked. Gossip. The gossip, of course, was that Madam Hooch was a..."Of course not!" she said self-righteously.
"Dear girl, you're more my type than Severus is, and you are not my type."
Hermione blushed to her roots.
"Now sit still and let's talk about our business together." Hooch leaned back in her chair and folded her hands. "One, you are powerful, more powerful than I ever dreamed. Two, you are more controlled than I expected. Three, if anyone dares insult poor Severus, all is lost."
Hermione stared at her own clenched hands, trying to stop them from trembling.
"You're shimmering with magic. Did you know that? Shimmering with it, because you're repressing it. It's quite uncanny, a girl your age with that kind of power, and it's no wonder you're having trouble with it. But you simply must find a way to release it before you do real harm when somebody makes some perfectly justified observance about your husband, who at best is a miserable excuse for a human being and at worst..."
Her raised hand deflected the spurt of red that flew in her direction, and she laughed as she watched it hit the wall and take a chunk of plaster out. "You are so predictable. Gryffindors. What a waste of power."
Hermione clutched her hand miserably. She hadn't meant to do it. She'd intended to prove that she could control herself. But...but...miserable excuse for a human being?
Hooch leaned across her desk and used the tip of her wand to raise Hermione's chin. "We're going to have to work on this. Believe me, if attacking you personally got the same result, I'd be glad to let your man alone and go for your own jugular, but you handle that, don't you?"
Hermione still refused to meet her eyes, even with her face raised. She stared at miniature Harry and Ron zipping from picture to picture on the wall behind the older witch's head.
Hooch let out an exasperated sigh.
"All right. Lesson one. If you feel yourself losing control, break something. Try to make it something insignificant, by the way." She pointed her wand at the empty mug Hermione had placed on the desk. "Let's try this again."
Hermione was determined that this time Hooch was not going to get the best of her. She braced herself for the horrible things that the old bitch might say, and clenched her fists. She would not react. She would not.
"You realize, I assume, that you're not the first student who found her way into his bed?"
A split-second before the hex left her fingertips, she blinked...
The mug exploded in a shower of glass splinters.
Her chest heaved with the aftermath, but--
Her hands didn't tingle.
The hex had died unthought, unsent.
Hooch clapped slowly, her smile broad.
With a flick of her fingers, she sent Hermione's wand back to her.
Hermione snagged it with a sense of relief and homecoming.
Hooch glanced at the clock on the wall. "Lunch time, and I believe your husband is waiting for you." She nodded to the door, which opened slowly, to reveal Professor Snape leaning languidly against the underpinnings of the Quidditch stands, bored and examining his fingernails.
Hermione jumped to her feet and was halfway to the door before she forced herself to stop and turn and say, coldly, "Thank you for the lesson."
"I look forward to the next one," Madam Hooch said, grinning. "And girl..."
Hermione froze.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist. And don't let lies about your husband hit you so obviously. That's a weakness, you know."
Hermione stared at Hooch and Hooch shook her head. "You know him better than that, don't you?"
"I knew they were lies, yes," Hermione said. "That didn't make them easier to hear."
"People will believe those lies and you can't change that," Hooch said gently. "Not when your own actions seem to support the lies."
The witch's gentle words hit her with twice the power as her lies.
Mind reeling, she left the office and crossed to her husband, carefully falling into step beside him, trembling.
She felt him watching her. And finally, she burst out, "Why did you send me to her? She didn't help me...she made me worse. I can't go to the Malfoys' like this! I...I'm out of control!"
"Indeed," was his only reply.
"You didn't hear her!"
"She did what I told her to."
"What? You told her to tell me lies about you? To rip me open and make me bleed?" Hermione knew she was on the verge of hysteria, but her body thrummed with emotions she couldn't contain...
"If you know they're lies, then forget about them," he said sharply. "It's the truth you'll have to deal with soon, and Miss Granger, I can assure you that it is worse."
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Latest 25 Reviews for Care of Magical Creatures
2762 Reviews | 6.75/10 Average
I've always loved this story.
Response from mia madwyn (Author of Care of Magical Creatures)
OMG, thank you so much! I've always loved your stories--The Price of Madness is one of my favorites ever.
I'M LAUGHING SO HARD RIGHT NOW THIS IS GREAT.
Beautiful ending! I loved that the baby self attached at the breast and that Hermione and her husband had an unassited homebith. I love Severus' frantic attempt at naming what he thought was going to be a boy. Since it was a girl Hermione was spared further worry. I love Winky's rebellion. Severus knows he is going to be a different dad. He deeply loves the mother of his child. They are family or pack from Albus' point of view. I know that dads are different than my dad and the other dads that waited in the waiting room for their wives to bring forth their childern. I've been a doula and IBCLC for over 2 decades and dads are different because they are present at the birth of their babes. They are different because they watch thier warrior wives birth babies so that they have a new respect for the mother of their child because they know in their hearts they aren't strong enough to do what we do. They are different because they get to share the awe of watching a new live come into the world and know that it is part of them. How much more different must those who help their wives to birth their own babes together and who get to be the one to see that new life emerge and be the first to hold that toasty warm soft body. I love how warm they are when they first come out. I know you poured your heart out with this story but I wish we got to find out what Hogwarts was waiting for. I wish I knew how Poppy got the gender incorrect and I hope that George isn't disappointed that his brother came out a girl. Thank you for a wonderful and enjoyable respite from reality. You are gifted with your story telling. I know that I will read this story again. Love,
Response from mia madwyn (Author of Care of Magical Creatures)
Response from mia madwyn (Author of Care of Magical Creatures)
I loved following your comments through this read. I just warmed the cockloes of my heart! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm on Chapter 61. I really love and appretiate the Christian and Spiritual side of this plot. I loved the chapter with Severus seeking out Muggle Magic to heal Hermione. The story was too intense for me to stop and write any reviews until now. You mix Christianity with muggle magic and wizard magic and manage not to make it less or be disrespectful in any way. I'm a blood born Quaker and we don't normally celebrate any of the litergy or rites but I still love them. They help one focus. I really really enjoy this side of the story that makes this story different from all the other Marriage Law stories. I love the Hermione is a pureblood Muggle and her parent's aren't dentists. This whole thing is so creative and original. Thank you for giving us such an ejoyable, emotional, erotic, exciting, frightening, heart pounding read!
Response from mia madwyn (Author of Care of Magical Creatures)
Again and again during the writing of this story, I worried that I'd finally crossed a line and that readers wouldn't forgive me. The spiritual and religious aspect fascinated me and so I explored it. I've found that religious people often assume that Hermione is also religious. Those who aren't. don't assume she is. That was deliberate on my part, because I didn't want to alieante anyone.
Severus is willing to betray both the light and the dark to protect his soul mate. He thinks he is making choices that bind him to the dark forever. But the war hasn't yet been fought.
Amazing! It is totally amazing how you give us a perfectly acceptable reason to sympathize with Severus enough to see why he would betray the light and choose Tom and the dark. We chose with him. He didn't pass Abraham's test, however. But the Dark Lord in pragmatic wisdom is forgiving him because he has a use for Hermione. Albus never saw this coming. He never looked deep enough. He never fully examined the circumstances surrounding Severus falling in love with Hermione Granger and she loving him. He is an old fool. But I guess no one is right all the time. I don't forgive him though. He would kill Hermione and would feel it was what had to be done just as he is willing to allow Severus to die. He needs to reassess his priorities. He loves Seveus like a pet, not a son. Pets can be put down when they have served their purpose.
Amazing! It is totally amazing how you give us a perfectly acceptable reason to sympathize with Severus enough to see why he would betray the light and choose Tom and the dark. We chose with him. He didn't pass Abraham's test, however. But the Dark Lord in pragmatic wisdom is forgiving him because he has a use for Hermione. Albus never saw this coming. He never looked deep enough. He never fully examined the circumstances surrounding Severus falling in love with Hermione Granger and she loving him. He is an old fool. But I guess no one is right all the time. I don't forgive him though. He would kill Hermione and would feel it was what had to be done just as he is willing to allow Severus to die. He needs to reassess his priorities. He loves Seveus like a pet, not a son. Pets can be put down when they have served their purpose.
"My darling boy!" 
She's in so much trouble though. 
Ginny needed to hear the welcome to grown up world speech. It hasn't been lost on me that she sounds more and more like Severus.
He feels safe in her arms. He knows she would die defending him and she is powerful and she loves him and he knows it. Fuck Malfoy! I'm sure he has his own adgenda, he clearly admitted it, but I don't remember what it is. I just know something very bad is going to happen but then it works out in the end and they are happy together.
What a beautiful chapter! All of their mutual revalations about the other on her birthday was so sweetly romantic and I loved it! What a wonderful birthday! He was exquisite. She's the luckiest woman in the world today. I know the sweetness can't last forever but it is so lovely to indulge as often as one can. It makes real life a little less bitter. Thank you, dearest mia. xoxoxox
OMG! They make everything so hard! But, I love it!!!! They are one big mess of embarrassment and resentment, self doubt, guilt, repressed desire and all manner of emotions for such suppossedly pragmatic and intellectual people. But, again, that is what we love about this particular Hermione Grander and Severus Snape. You are an excellent story birther. After a glass of wine and exhaustion from crying women and babies all day I can't think of the real word I want. Maybe excellent story crafter. You reach my emotions. Now! I musn't stay up half the night like I did last night and I must go to bed and hopefully, sleep. Good night dear mia. Thank you. xoxoxo
I had no business staying up past midnight reading this on a work night but the spell wouldn't let go of me. I'm on the chapter Lost and Found. It made me cry. I have to go to bed now and I know things are about to get worse. But I also know they end up all right. Thanks for a great read!
You did good, Girl!!!!! That Hermione is one smart cookie! She's so proud of him. She can give him so much more than that wanker Voldemort can. So he has that dark mark thing he does, but how often? And it isn't because he loves you it is to control you. What she can give him lasts a lifetime. She sees it all. I hope he is satisfied. Throw her a bone you arse. Give her some credit. Admit the love you two feel is real. She deserves it, Professor.
At least Hermione knew what vows she was taking and took them willingly. So she couldn't be under a compulsion. And you can't really take a vow against your will can you? If it is only words with no intent is it really a vow or just a lie? Well. I know some bad stuff is coming up, I just doen't know how soon. Yikes.
It seems to me his rage exceeds the crime. I know he hates to be controled. But he knows she bore him no malice. She was stupid and selfish and she admits it. What does he gain from making her suffer? What does he hope to accomplish? Does he want to break her? He is right about everything. She admits it. What does he want from her? She is stronger than I. I would be broken by his anger. To what will he drive her? Suicide? At this point I would be thinking that it would be better for everyone if I were dead. Oh but her Christian beliefs...my beliefs...is suicide always a sin?
That was beautiful! Poor man. I remember he's really upset about these vows. On to the Headmaster's office if I remember correctly. Dude! Calm down! 
Have some tea.
My goodness! He has his work cut out for him. Preparing the caldron indeed! We shall see his success in the next chapter I hope. I think I remember yes, but I'm not certain. So here I go!
I am sorry for poor Ron. But he isn't Severus. He isn't as deep as Severus is. His pain will heal and he will be able to move on. That is why Hemione needs Severus. He is a deep deep well of...I don't know what...he is more than any other wizard. Hermione is no normal witch. They need each other. What I don't understand is, what the hell is Albus Dumbledore's problem with it? Does he just prefer Severus miserable? Doesn't he believe Severus is worthy of such love and devotion or of Hermione? Does he really truely not trust his most important spy even though he endures near death to spy for him? I don't get or feel sympathy for this Albus Dumbledore. I hope Severus puts the pricipals of tea making, "preparing, bursting and releasing" to good use soon for Hermione's sake.
Bless their poor, poor hearts! They love each other and can't admit it yet because it's too raw and the ministry is watching. One moment he is proud of her and the next he is breaking her heart with accusations that remind her that she was being selfish when she asked him to marry her. They never get a break. Her friends certainly have something to think about now that they know that A. Hermione can do wandless magic, B. she loves Severus Snape, C. The headmaster assaulted her. I do so hope that Harry made that connection. Will he go ask Albus Dumbledore what the hell he did to Hermione? I do hope so very much!
For all of my complaints, I've felt that sigh and feeling of knowing you belong in the arms of my husband. It is wonderful. It's maked me put up with messy and lazy for 37 years.
What a fuck head Albus was to wonder why she was willing to die to protect Severus!!! 
As if Severus wasn't worth protecting. And she's his wife! How could Albus and Poppy underestimate Hermione so badly? She's Griffindor loyal! She would fight to the death to protect anyone she loves, those Ass Holes! Plus! What makes Albus so sure she doesn't have enough of her own power to resist him without needing a dark spell? Hermione rocks!!!!! I love this Hermione. She's the strongest I think I have ever read. I hope Albus is afraid of her now. He should be. He's lucky the two of them don't kick his self righteous ass!
I'm very surprised that when I've checked I haven't left you reviews on my first two readings of this incredible story. If reviews are payment for the enjoyment you bring to the lives of others, you dear mia, deserve reviews upon more reviews! I read many chapters last night without reviewing because I needed you and you were here to provide solace. I couldn't stop reading because you were keeping me from despair. I've loved this story. I love the way you keep us on our toes when we never know what mood Severus is going to be in. You have my complete sympathy for both Severus and Hermione. I'm perplexed and disgruntled regarding Albus and Hermione's friends treatment of her. The only person who made sense was Minerva. I love this version of her parents more than any other I've ever read, and I have read everything TPP has with this pairing. I pretty much exclusively read SS/HG. I'm grateful that her parents were really forgiving after a brief snit that had to be had for the sake of principle. I don't know if I could have been as gracious as her parents have been about her getting married with out inviting them under the circumstances. My own grown daughters have caused me a great deal of grief and I worked so hard to be the best mom that anyone could be. They have disappointed me, humiliated me and thrown away any opportunities I provided for them. They have made poor choices and I am the one paying for them. One must protect the little grandchildren. Thank you so much for all the work you have put into writing a wonderful romance adventure that a reader can immerse one's self in. Poor Hermione. She is about to face a terrible ordeal with Albus, that bastard! My lack of shorterm memory allowes me to read the same stories over and over only remembering the general direction of the story but not the details.
Yikes!!!! She's left the Headmaster's office thinking that all of Severus' feelings for her are fake because they are nothing more than the result of magical compulsions. I don't remember how they work this out at all. I only remember that some time in the future Hermione will make a crazy, mental, painful and destructive decision and act upon it to her harm and despair. I can't remember if this is what drives her to it. I need to go to bed but I can't stop reading!
Poor Severus! I hope he has better luck explaining this to Voldi than he had with his friends Albus and Minerva.
She has a lot to learn! I do hope he teaches her a lesson. Well, many lessons actually. She has a lot to learn especially about Severus Snape and about matrimony. I have terrible short term memory so I can't remember if this comes up but in her haste to save her education, I wonder if she has looked into any rules regarding students marrying teachers. Did it occur to her that if she marries a professor she may not be able to remain a student? Surely she has checked that out. Hasn't she? I'm loving it! You are witty and have great rhythm and flow.