Chapter 13: Hermione

Chapter 13:

Hermione:

Dust immediately assaulted her nostrils. The room they had Disapparated into was filthy, with inches of dust covering every piece of furniture… Not that anything in here can rightly be called “furniture”, she thought. The bed, which once might have been a magnificent canopy bed, had collapsed, its canopy covering it like a shroud. A decrepit piano, its lid hanging open, had strings so frayed that a rat could have broken them…

Why did this room look so familiar? A rat running across those piano strings…

“Are we in the Shrieking Shack, Severus?”

Nodding curtly, he released his hold on her and gently let Draco slide to the ground.

“We are indeed, Hermione. It is the safest place to be, if one cannot be in Hogwarts.”

He paused briefly to wrest Draco’s wand from his stiff fingers.

“I’d ask that you not interrupt once I free Draco, no matter what happens.”

“But—"

“Trust me, Hermione, it’d be best if you stayed out of this.” With that, he pointed his wand at Draco and said, “Finite Incantatem.”

Draco coughed, rubbed the dust out of his eyes, and then stood up in alarm.

“Where the hell are we? And where’s my wand?”

“We are in the Shrieking Shack, and I have your wand.” Severus replied calmly.

Draco glared at Severus angrily.

“What have you done? Why have you taken me here? And give me back my blasted wand!”

“I removed you from your father’s ill-treatment and brought you here for your own protection. And, no, Draco, I will not give you back your wand. Not until I’m convinced you can be trusted not to act impulsively… And your performance earlier tonight has quite convinced me that it’ll be a while before you can be so trusted.”

“And what do you expect me to do? Stay here with you and that filthy Mudblood in this…”

He paused, as if taking in the unkempt nature of his surroundings for the first time.

“You expect me—a Malfoy!—to stay here?”

Hermione couldn’t help but be amused at the shock plastered on Draco’s face. Though she didn’t wish him any particular kind of harm, it would be pleasant watching his arrogance suffer in this—Well, shack really is the best word, isn’t it? Though it’s more decrepit even than most—shack.

Severus did not seem to share her amusement, as his face took on the familiar gleam of firmness every Hogwarts student knew to fear.

“I give you one chance, Draco, and one only. Either you stay here by choice, or you stay here by force. But you will be staying here.”

Surely he’s bluffing. He wouldn’t keep Draco here against his will.

“What? You’d hold me here, sharing this disgusting hovel with you and—and HER? And you expect me to agree to this!”

“Is that your choice, then? You will not agree to stay here?”

“No, I will not! Now, give me back my wand, and I’ll leave you two to your… fitting honeymoon. I can’t think of a more appropriate location for a Mudblood and a traitor!”

She was tiring of being called Mudblood, and she was tiring of being ostensibly ignored.

“You’re hardly one to talk of betrayal, Malfoy,” she couldn’t resist interjecting.

Turning on her, Severus barked, “Stay out of this, Hermione!”

“I can’t believe I’m being chastised for betrayal by someone who’s just abandoned her best friends for a man more than twice her age! Maybe it’s just that Mudbloods have no sense of hypocrisy… Must be the dirt in the blood clouding their vision…”

“ENOUGH! Hermione, I told you to stay out of this, and I meant it! If you can’t hold your tongue, perhaps you should find a better use for it? Surely you’ve noticed how decrepit our surroundings are. If you cannot stay quiet, do that!”

Humiliated at being treated like this, she could think of nothing to do or say, so she just stood there, mute as the walls around them.

Severus turned then to Draco and added, “Now, Draco, allow me to explain our situation. Thanks to your temper tantrum earlier, my time alive is greatly reduced if I don’t stay in hiding. Hermione, through no coercion of mine, but out of sheer loyalty and affection for me, has agreed to stay with me. I did not plan on you joining us, nor did I particularly want you to join us. What I had hoped was to kill your father to protect you from him—"

“I don’t need your protection! I can manage fine on my own!”

“You are no match for your father, Draco, and you know it! Now, let me finish!”

Draco’s eyes narrowed, but Hermione was relieved when he said nothing in reply.

“But when you wouldn’t lead Lucius to me without first being put under the Cruciatus curse, I knew it would only be a matter of time before your own father branded you traitor and turned the Dark Lord against you. I will not have you be killed, Draco! Slytherin’s snake, I cannot have you die!”

Acid flames rose in Hermione’s throat at the passion with which Severus was speaking to Draco. She had never been a particularly jealous person, but there was no mistaking Severus’s passion for anything other than affection. She knew he cared for Draco, but she had thought it was only as a professor to a favorite student, nothing more. Now, suddenly, she knew she had competition for Severus’s affection, and this was one revelation she could have done without.

“And you don’t think I can fend for myself? You don’t think I have places to hide from him? You think running away has never entered my mind? You don’t trust me, that’s what all this boils down to! I just endured the Cruciatus curse trying to save you, and you don’t trust me!”

“And why should I? You haven’t exactly shown a great sense of judgment these last few hours! First, you betray me to the Dark Lord instead of asking me what was going on. Had you asked, you would have known that—” Severus stopped short here and looked over at Hermione. “—in any case… Second, having won favor with the Dark Lord for turning me in, you don’t take advantage of that to secure your standing! No, you feel you’ve made a mistake and refuse to tell your father where I’ve gone to. Then, you fail at redeeming yourself by letting the pain control you and telling your father my location anyways. So, no, Draco, I don’t trust you! Now, I’m asking you one last time: are you going to stay here by choice, or by force?”

“You think after all that I’d choose to stay anywhere with you? No, I’m leaving! Now, give me my wand!”

“You’ve just added to your stack of bad choices for the evening.”

With that, Severus pointed his wand at Draco, who once again became as stiff as right convictions.

“What are you doing, Severus? You can’t make him stay here by force!”

“I can, I must, and I will, Hermione. Now, please, be quiet!”

What have I done? I’ve left Harry and Ron to spend my time in the Shrieking Shack with a man who treats me like a child! Is this really the same man who kissed me just hours before?

The sound of dripping blood interrupted her thoughts. As she watched in horror, Severus collected Draco’s blood into a puddle on the floor, at which he pointed his wand. His forehead was furrowed in concentration as his wand moved rhythmically over the pool of blood. After a moment, he stopped.

“What have you done?”

“I’ve saved all of us, though I don’t expect Draco to be grateful for it.”

With that, he freed Draco.

“You fornicator of Merlin’s beard! How dare you!”

Draco ran out of the room and headed down the stairs. Only a moment later, Hermione heard a scream that would haunt her conscience for many nights to come.