A Forbidden Connection by whittyleah
Chapter Notes: Thanks to my beta Ginny_W!
The characters and some of the past story lines belong to Jo, I just have my way with them.
Hermione Granger tossed and turned as the nightmare that had been haunting her for the past three weeks interrupted her sleep again. She awoke with a start, and then she began to take deep breaths trying desperately to calm herself down.
'Damn! Go away!' she silently pleaded with the images that haunted her, as she ran her hands through her thick, curly brown hair.
She told herself to forget, that she could not change what had happened. But it didn’t lessen the pain that surrounded her, it didn’t help her forget. Hermione got out of bed as quietly as she could, so as not to wake her friend Ginny Weasley who was sleeping in the bed across from hers.
'I wonder if she would still be my friend if she knew,’ Hermione asked herself as she got dressed.
Shaking her head to try to make sense of the many thoughts cluttering her mind, she silently left the bedroom to creep down the stairs and exit through the backdoor. She inhaled the cold and quiet early morning air as she walked through the Weasley’s garden looking at the world around her. Hermione was unable to resist smiling when she looked at the Burrow; it had to be the oddest house she had ever seen.
'Would I still be welcome here if I told them how I feel?'
She couldn’t help it; tears started streaming down her face. “Stop crying! You’ve done enough of that,” she told herself aloud, hoping it would actually make the tears stop.
'Why did I let this happen? Could I have stopped it? I thought I knew him, why didn’t I see? Why did I let myself fall in love with him?'
All of the questions that she had been trying to ignore came rushing at her. Hermione’s tears turned into sobs and she had to stop walking and sit down on a small bench in the middle of the garden. She thought back to the past year and everything that had happened. For the first time she allowed herself to think of him, her first love. The man she could never see again, the man that was now her enemy.
She thought of her forbidden connection with Severus Snape.
Closing her eyes, Hermione drifted back to time where life wasn’t difficult. Well life was always complicated; you couldn’t be one of Harry Potter’s best friends and have your life not be complicated. But she remembered returning to Hogwarts for her sixth year, excited to learn and to be safe under Dumbledore’s watchful eyes.
’Ha ha, I was mainly worried about test scores, class, Prefect duties, and getting Ron’s attention. I wish that was all I had to worry about now. I wish I had never bumped into him that night!’
But even as she thought it, she knew in her heart that she would never give up the time she spent with him for anything.
She remembered that night so vividly.
She was running down the hall away from the Gryffindor common room, after witnessing Ron and Lavender snogging, feeling distraught.
‘I thought Ron was finally going to grow-up and ask me out! I thought Ron and I were going to finally start a relationship. That prat!’
Hermione had been so preoccupied with her thoughts she had not been looking where she was going and she hadn’t really cared, until she collided with something in her path ” or someone.
The sharp voice of Professor Snape rang in Hermione’s ears. ”Miss Granger, what are you doing out at this time of night? Ten points from Gryffindor for breaking curfew and for clumsiness.”
Hermione, who had her face down the whole time, looked up revealing her teary brown eyes and tear stained face. “FINE, I DON’T CARE! JUST MAKE THIS NIGHT EVEN WORSE THEN IT ALREADY IS!” she screamed at him before pushing past him and continuing to run down the hall.
“Miss Granger! Come back here! You can’t go into that part of the school. Miss Grang… Oh bloody hell,” Snape cursed as started running after her.
By the time he had caught up with Hermione she wasn’t running anymore, she was frozen in fear. Her deep brown eyes were wide open, her mouth was parted slightly, and she was taking in quick breaths trying not panic. Hermione was face-to-face with a creature that had a lion-like face with a dragon-like tail swishing at a slow and steady rhythm it was clearly a Chimaera.
It looked as if it were about to pounce when...
”Petrificus Totalus!” Professor Snape stood just a few feet away from Hermione with his wand pointed directly at the Chimaera, causing it to fall over frozen to the ground.
”Are you all right Miss Granger?”
“I… um… I’m fine,” Hermione stammered as she looked up at him.
”Come with me,” he ordered, as he turned and started walking back down the way they had come.
”Now, what did you think you were doing running down halls and through doors you know nothing about?” Snape sternly asked, as soon as they were safely outside of the
Chimaera’s domain.
”I was just… I’m sorry.” Hermione suddenly burst into tears and walked up to Snape, wrapping her arms around his waist, she continued crying against his chest.
Then Snape did the unthinkable, he wrapped his arms around her, and tried to comfort her.
“Why is that creature in the school anyway?” Hermione asked, looking up at him, as she wiped a tear from her cheek.
“It had been killing unicorns in the forest. Professor Dumbledore was able to trick it into touching a portkey and sending it into that corridor. Where it was going to be kept until the Ministry could send someone from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to deal with it. That corridor is never used anymore, and students, normally, don’t go in there,” he explained, lifting his thin black eyebrow at the last part.
“I am sorry Professor; I didn’t mean to cause trouble,” she said sheepishly, looking at the floor in-between them.
“Why were you crying?”
Hermione looked up, slightly shocked that he would care about her emotional outburst. “It’s a long story.”
“Well then it’s a good thing that I have all night, Miss Granger. Follow me to my office. I will get you something to wash your face with.”
Hermione watched him as he began to walk away and slowly started to follow him.
‘Who is this man? This isn’t the Professor Snape that I know. I like this new Snape.’ A small smile played on her lips as she followed him down the hall into the dungeons and down to his office.
Authors note:
The Chimaera: “This creature has the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon. It is extremely dangerous and renowned for its vicious nature. The Chimaera originated in Greece.” As found on Mugglenet.com in the HP encyclopedia under creatures.