Bested

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Chapter 4 – Bested

“Hermione”

I want to move to another country – better yet, another planet. I want to pack all of my things, grab my two lovely children (and possibly Sherry), and migrate to the moon.

What was supposed to be a pleasant afternoon filled with delicious food and plenty of laughter turned out to be the most awkward evening of my life. I’d like to say this was all Snape’s fault, but truly it wasn’t; it was Sherry’s.

When Sherry heard that Snape and I knew each other, she automatically wanted to hear stories. I don’t know about Snape, but any stories that came to my mind were not exactly the types of stories one would tell if they wanted people to believe they were sane. I could just imagine beginning some of them: “Hey, do you remember the time when one of your incredibly unintelligent protégés hexed my teeth and you made fun of me afterwards?” or “Hey, do you remember that time where you killed the greatest Headmaster ever to reign over Hogwarts?” Something told me neither of these examples would bode well.

I had to think quickly. “Well – erm – there was this one time where I set him on fire.” I quickly looked over at Snape; he was glaring at me.

Sherry’s eyes lit up. “WHAT?! Seriously?”

Here, Snape decided to join the conversation. “Yes, Miss Granger was one of my most careless and incompetent students,” said Snape, that loathsome little smirk still on his face. “She added two chemicals that should never be mixed together and nearly set the whole lab on fire.” It was my turn to glare.

“Oh, too funny!” says Sherry, a smile on her face. “So, you were about our age when you taught Hermione then?” she asks. Snape nods. “Was he a cutie back in the day, Hermione?”

I don’t quite know who looked more murderous, me or Snape. “I didn’t think so back then,” I said through gritted teeth. Sherry didn’t pick up on the hint to stop talking and instead continued to press for answers.

“That was back then; do you think he’s attractive now?” I was going to kill her.

But then I looked at Snape and a thought suddenly came to mind. “I see no difference,” I said with a smirk on my face ten times bigger than the one Snape was wearing earlier. At the expression on Snape’s face, my smirk suddenly crumbled.

Right then was when I decided I wanted to move away. Move very, very, far away.

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“Severus”

Today one of the worst things that could ever happen to a person like me happened: I was bested by a former student. I couldn’t outright tell her that she bested me, however, so I opted for the next best alternative – I insulted her. Again.

“Bravo, Miss Granger!” I said, clapping my hands sarcastically as I rose from my seat. “You have insulted my appearance in the hopes of feeling better about yourself! Congratulations! Did it feel good to finally get that off your chest after twenty-some-odd years of holding a grudge?” I started putting on my jacket as I continued. “You think you’re clever, Granger, you always have, but I have a piece of advice for you that I hope you’ll keep stored for later use: you are no different than the rest of the dunderheads I had to teach, Granger. No different. Oh, sure, you had every line of the text memorized and you could follow directions, but so could a monkey if you trained it well enough. You were not special, Miss Granger, and you never will be. You will die just like the rest of us, and the world will go on without you, no matter how many books you've read or hundred percents you earned in school.”

Sheryl Schrienk looked at me with a mixture of shock and revulsion written on her face while Granger sat there with her mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“Close your mouth, Granger,” I said as I walked passed her toward the door. “You’ll catch flies.”

Now, as I sit at home staring at the telly, I realize it was actually a reasonably well-said impromptu speech; too bad I didn’t mean a word of it…

Damnations.