“He said he’s worried?”
“Actually, the word Harry used was `agitated´, but yes.”
“And Snuffles has no idea?”
“I don’t believe that, to be honest.”
“And I don’t believe hat you’re even doing homework on your bed.”, Ginny sighed, gazing out of the window by which she sat comfortably crouched, up on the sill.
“Haven’t you got any homework?”
“Well, not everyone does thrice as much as necessary,”
“Funny.”, huffed Hermione.
“Yeah. Really funny. He must truly be worried. Otherwise he wouldn’t meditate.”
“What?”, her head jerked up and she nearly dropped her inked quill.
“Karkaroff. I can see the ship from here,”
“What?”, Hermione yelped again and actually dropped her things now, even kicking the ink bottle which luckily only ruined the bedding, not her papers.
“Tz.”, Ginny chuckled when Hermione carelessly hurried over to Parvati’s trunk.
“I’ll clean that later.”
“What the – oh right, I still have your Omnis. Sor– ”
“I don’t think she’ll scan it for my fingerprints. Or at least I hope she doesn’t.”, Hermione had rushed over to the window and adjusted the wheels to see what Ginny had meant. “How – ”, she took a glance across the binoculars, “How by all means can you see him up there?”, and looked through again.
“Well, the ship’s all wood. Brown deck and all, and he’s practically a snowman up there. Yet possibly the skinniest snowman I’ve ever seen.”
“Drop your sarcasm.”
“I wasn’t sarcastic at all,”, Ginny meant, not changing her tone however. “What’s he look like? Can’t see all details – ”
“He – oh my god – ”, she had finally found him.
“Yes?”
“Er – skinny – ”, Hermione breathed, which made her friend laugh. “There’s nothing funny about that, he’s naked!”
“Are you shitting me?”, Ginny laughed again and tore the object from her hands.
“Hey!”
“Blimey! He is! He’s completely starkers! Wait – maybe we’ll – yeah – you can adjust them separately – come here.”
Somehow they managed to share the binoculars, each a side, their cheeks pressed together. Hermione could feel her chin drop along with Ginny’s. Karkaroff sat on the top deck, in tailor fashion and it really looked like he was meditating. But that he did it naked, totally confused her. Let alone that it was a windy, cloudy day and the ship swayed in the waves on the lake. They could even feel the cold crawling in again, through a window on he other side of the round dormitory they had opened for some fresh air.
“You mind?”
“What?”
“I think I saw something. With my other eye, I mean.”
“Okay.”, she let her head be dragged along as Ginny turned hers.
“No way – is that – ?”
“Snape – ”, Hermione aspirated.
“What’s he – ”
They followed the black figure that carried a strange heap of scarlet fabric over the deck, pacing gently as though he meant to startle the other any moment. And indeed, when he had reached him from behind, he unceremoniously dropped the heap on Karkaroff’s head. Amusingly, the wind was in the girls’ favour – or not. The high pitched shriek could be heard through the open window, even up where they were and it sounded far from a man’s panic reaction. Frowning with one eye, Hermione thought he had sounded almost like –
“Golly! I already thought Parvati’d come in!”, Ginny voiced Hermione’s thought. “He screams like a girl!”
“He’s – acting – like a girl too – ”
The way Karkaroff had winced, panicky collected the things from his head and then nearly fallen over when having attempted to turn for seeing who was towering him, looked much like a girl, embarrassed to have been caught doing something very private – or Ron, if woken harshly. Only that Ron wouldn’t shriek as pitched. Meanwhile Karkaroff had jumped to his bare feet, somehow trying to cover the front of his pale body with the fabric, but Snape’s lush posture and expression signalised that he didn’t bother much, or rather, was annoyed by the other’s attitude. Hermione could see his mouth move.
“What?”, Ginny chuckled again.
“Huh?”
“Why would he know – ”
“Ginny?”
“He said `Don’t act as though I might have forgotten what you look like´.”
“Wait – no way! You can read lips?”, Hermione moaned.
“It’s got some benefits if you get what Fred and George are up to before Mum does. Better have the chance to decide whether you’d rather flee while you can or stay for the sensation. He really knows him that well? To know what he looks like naked?”
“I – I’m actually not supposed to – ”, Hermione regretted it the moment she had forgotten to lie quickly. “Please don’t tell anyone. They’d lived together. I mean, when they met, Karkaroff stayed to live with him and his mother. Somewhere in the north of Germany. Long time ago.”
“And how come you know?”, Ginny snickered while Karkaroff put on the scarlet fabric, which turned out to be some sort of silken pyjamas.
“Long story. What’re they saying?”
“No idea.”
“Didn’t you just – ”
“Can’t understand that. Dunno what language that is, but it’s not English anymore. Could be Russian or so.”
“That’d fit.”, Hermione sighed, feeling Ginny meddling with a wheel.
“Bloody Ice Mice! Where did she get those binoculars from! I can count his freckles!”
“Zoom back out. Snape’s leaving.”
“Oh.”
“He’s – no – he’s barefoot too! Okay, wearing socks; but that’s why he didn’t hear him – ”
“Why does he stop –
“Karkaroff stopped him. He said `wait´. Goodness, he’s insanely shy!”
“Yes.”
Hermione agreed, but felt sort of dirty, spying on them like that – as if she was Parvati herself. They could see Snape’s eager, though also a little confused gaze, as he hadn’t fully turned back and, fumbling around with his own fingers before his stomach, Karkaroff slowly approached him, his head lowered, until he was very close. Only then he would look up. Blinking heavily from obvious embarrassment, he resembled much a sad puppy. Then, quicker than a fly, he printed the hint of a kiss on Snape’s right cheek.
To her relief, Ginny didn’t comment it in the slightest. For a while, Snape only eyed him, the same sadness on his face, only without a flicker of Karkaroff’s shyness. Yet hesitantly, he turned the remaining inches, his breath steady. Hermione could see his chest hovering as if she stood just some feet by their side, slightly above. Gently, Snape lifted his hands and detangled Karkaroff’s fingers, which brought back the blinking. Especially when Karkaroff found Snape’s left hand on his right shoulder. Her insides collapsed like a card house when he shortly retrieved his hand for leading Karkaroff’s onto his back.
The smile that appeared above the twirled silver goatee was still awkward, but clearly nostalgic. Only then Hermione noticed that they were exactly the same in height. She had never really cared about it, but now that she had discovered that, she knew Karkaroff preferred much higher heels than Snape. Why some part of her brain considered it important now, she didn’t know, and she decided to better dismiss it as well.
It had been right in that room. Only months ago. But now that she watched them, dancing slowly, almost to the ship’s swaying, it felt to her as though it had been just last night that she had tricked him into such a situation.
“You didn’t lie.”, Ginny whispered when their dance became steadier as well as faster. “He really is a marvellous dancer. Accepts those spins like he did it every day. According to what I’ve heard, not all men can cope with the female part,”
“Practically none, Mum wrote in a letter that laid along with the dress. She meant I shouldn’t dare to try leading when my partner can’t. That’d make them so ashamed of themselves that they might end up committing suicide.”
“’S your Mum got a liking for exaggerations?”
“A little.”
“So that’s where you got that from.”
“Hey!”, Hermione hissed. “I’m not – ”
“Sure. I think, they had enough.”
“I can see that.”
“I better get going now.”, Ginny meant, left the binoculars to Hermione and slid off the sill, which forced Hermione to do a step backwards and neglect the view.
“Where?”, her look followed the ginger to he door.
“Promised Luna to feed crows with her.”, she answered when she pressed down the handle.
“Feed crows?”, Hermione frowned.
“Yeah.”, Ginny smiled casually. “See you.”
“Bye.”
When the door was shut, it took her a while to gather back her senses. And though she felt bad about it, she took another glance through the binoculars, finding the men almost separated. Only Snape’s hand laid on Karkaroff’s visibly flushed left cheek, which was caringly patted twice. Then he stepped back, turned, and left at last. Curling her lips, Hermione moved the wheels back into heir original position and slouched over to Parvati’s trunk. That one’s order was restored and her shoulders dropped on the awareness of the horrible mess she had caused on her own bedding. Even angrier with herself now, she went for her wand.
~~#~~
And again. Not enough that Rita Skeeter’s article in Potions class had cost Gryffindor twenty points, that Harry had actually faked an accident to hear what Karkaroff had been waiting behind Snape’s desk for, was still too much for her. Even though she had received hate letters. And dangerous ones! Even though Harry and Ron were trying to tell her that these letters would stop coming if she continued ignoring them. Even though she had snuck out at nights for similar reasons. Even though – everything.
“Which arm did he show, by the way?”, Ron asked, finally seeming to have forgotten all the strange things that had occurred on the evening before the second task.
“His left.”, Harry grumbled.
“Well, that proves a lot, Hermione. I’ve sent a quick note to Dad too the other day and it returned last night. Pig woke up the whole dormitory!”, he chuckled, but Hermione only huffed and Harry looked away, visibly troubled whether he should risk a glance at a certain person at the staff table. “Oh well, anyway, Dad meant that the Dark Mark’s always on the left forearm. So – ”
“That proves only that Karkaroff wears the Dark Mark.”, Hermione said stern, noticing Harry’s unconsciously flicking eyes. “Snuffles visibly lied to us. He knows what it means. He knows as much as your Dad does. Yes, Karkaroff obviously has the Mark on. And it also proves that Snape knows about it. But it doesn’t prove anything else, apart from – ”, she swallowed and continued hushed, “You-Know-Who getting stronger.”
“But why would he tell Snape about it?”
“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe they’re married?”, the moment it had slipped her, she regretted it.
“Oh my – I thought you hadn’t caught that bit,”
“Surprise, surprise. I have ears.”
“Yeah, but now that you say it – ”, he lowered his voice even more, giving his left and right a quick check of his eyes only as he leant further forward, “They could be. The way they acted there – seems a bit – off – not?”
“Now listen to yourself.”, her eyes drilled back.
“Well, I do. I mean, what do we really know about Snape? And the way Karkaroff’s acting around him all the time – and in general – you have to admit, he does seem a bit gay,”
“And how do you come to that fascinating conclusion?”, Hermione countered with a bored stare.
“Always dolled up fancy to the nine, the clattering high heels, peacocky strutting, the snooty behaviour, the exaggerating pronunciation – to list a f– ”
“Exaggerating pronunciation? He’s a Russian!”, she hissed as low as she could. “They do that! And they do dress fancy at any given opportunity, if their budget allows!”
“How d’you know about Russians?”, Ron frowned.
“I’ve seen enough of them on TV.”
“Where?”
“Television?”, he still looked confused. “The goggle-box?”
“Oh you mean – that thing! That’s showing glowing pictures!”
“Yes, that thing.”, she huffed. “And as Headmaster of a renowned school, I believe he earns enough to show off his best wardrobe during an international event. And he may be arrogant, but that – ”
“Doesn’t explain why he’s constantly scurrying around Snape like a dog in season! And Snape may be trying to avoid him publicly, but they’re on more terms than just that first-name-one. In case you’re interested in my inquiries, I’ve – ”
“If you’d done any inquiries, those should have gained you the knowledge that they can’t be married. It’s not allowed.”
“Would really stop them, would it? The law.”, he grunted.
“Ron!”
“I bet you anything, if they’re really not because of just that, they’ll be as soon as it’s through.”
“Ron!”
“What! I’m – ”
“Getting far off the track! Look – Karkaroff’s said to have been cleared of all charges in a last hearing before he was set free. I have done research on that. Maybe he just wants to send out a warning?”, Hermione said, somewhat calm again. “Desperately? Snuffles meant that too. And you stated yourself, Harry,”, that tore him so rapidly back into the conversation that his neck cracked upon the jerk, “That Karkaroff looked extremely concerned. He’s really worried about it. He fears You-Know-Who’s return. What kind of true Death Eater would do that and tell it another Death Eater?”, she shook her head. “Harry, whatever you try to achieve, you will receive nothing but trouble. So stop trying to make Fay’s hair vanish by blinking at it. Their business is none of ours. What we are to find out is, how Rita Skeeter gets her information. Because, if there was some scandal behind Karkaroff and Snape, I bet she would know first. Given that she doesn’t write a thing about them, there isn’t a thing to write.”
“Or they’re just too good at keeping secrets,”, Ron added.
“That as well.”, she sighed, looking at Hedwig gliding down to them.
“And shove Skeeter aside, will you? It’s Easter. You tell me to ignore Snape and give him no reasons to torture me, but you refuse to shut up in front of that hag. Honestly, Hermione – that’s pretty much the same story, only that the beast is female.”
“It’s not the same, Harry.”
“And how!”
“No.”, her lips curled, holding up the much smaller egg she had received from Ron’s mother.
~~#~~
“You should not vorry about this.”
What an easy line to say. After all he hadn’t gotten a tiny Easter Egg from a woman that had liked her a lot before Rita Skeeter had decided to make Hermione a new source of income. He wasn’t receiving hate letters – or was he? At least, how ever that beast was getting her information, now she wouldn’t catch up any. Viktor had performed some charms around the area of the shore they were sitting at. No one could walk into the shields or would get to know what was going on inside. It were charms similar to those that laid on Hogwarts, only not as powerful and – within Hogwarts’ bans.
The sun shone on their heads as they sat on the trunk of a dead tree. It was warm enough already, so they had taken off their coats.
“It’s my problem, isn’t it?”, Hermione sighed, gazing over into the deep water shortly at the steep falling edge of the shore.
“It is mine as vell.”, her head turned to him. “It bothers me to see you vorried.”, a hand was laid on hers that rested on her thigh and she looked down on it. “Uh – I am sorry.”
He wanted to pull it back, but, not knowing why, she somehow instinctively clapped her second hand on it, blushing when she realised. His fingers closed around hers and she looked back up, to find his face only some inches away from hers. Suddenly, the distance was gone. Hermione blushed even more at the touch. It was warm, soft, and a little bit wet – and she knew immediately that he had experience. Fear that he would notice she hadn’t, made her unable to fully enjoy it. But the more stupid she felt about her clumsiness, the more he seemed to like that fact. Though the top of the whole situation was something neither would have guessed.
It was the sound of voices drawing near which made him pull apart, both of them slightly alarmed. Only, rather than footsteps, it was water that was being moved. The two were – swimming! About ten yards away from what Hermione knew Viktor’s barrier reached, a wet black and white head were gliding over the surface, supported on pale shoulders each and moved by similar pale arms. Even Hermione had some problems to catch up with the awful, heavy Scottish-kind-of accent of the younger one, which she had never heard on him before in only the slightest way. Well, apart from his little outburst in McGonagall’s office, if she thought closely. But her advantage over Viktor was probably that she was used to Hagrid’s way of speaking, which wasn’t anywhere near that incredibly fast verbal disaster, yet horrible enough sometimes.
“Ye’re such a castle.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sittin’ in tha corner o’ tha board, watchin’ tha game go by wit’ amusemen’.”
“Ah yes, but I must confess, it indeed amuses me how little control you appear to have regarding the one or other matter, and that it is merely a young girl, who manages to set your teeth on edge.”
“She’s very consisten’. I already ’ad ter alter ’er memory four times, bu’ nevertheless she lurks ’roun’ seemin’ly ev’ry corner I pass. ’T’s even worse than wit’ Skeeter – if we’re ter bracke’ ou’ tha fac’ tha’ tha girl doesn’ write fer tha Prophe’.”
“I see. Though you must understand that it would be better for her mind if you found other ways to keep her at bay.”, Dumbledore spoke as calm as if he was sitting leisurely in a chair, surprising the newly minted somewhat-couple at the shore with that stamina at his age.
“Believe me, I do me bes’. She’s a nasty leech! As if she knew tha’ I was fiddlin’ wit’ ’er brain! I slowly begin ter wonder whether I unlearned ter do it righ’.”
“I would say, you fail to eliminate the source of her incentive.”
“S’ppose so.”, Snape grunted and turned sharp left, swimming directly towards the border of the barrier; which was still on the grassy shore; to the completely straight falling recess and crossed his arms up on the grass that was shortly above the surface. “Bu’ tryin’ ter do tha’, I believe ye know, would implicate fatal damage. In ’is case it’d be better fer both o’ us if I killed ’er righ’ away, as ’orrible as ’is may sound ter ye.”
“What can I say, she is a teenager.”, sang Dumbledore and joined him at his left, leaning onto the shore in the same manner. “May I recall how nosy you used to be?”, he winked.
“Oh wha’ a wonderful comparison.”, Snape huffed and looked away. “If ye migh’ recall as well, I din’ stalk me teachers.”
“Ah of course not.”, Dumbledore smiled broadly, his eyes closed.
“Wha’s ’is s’pposed ter mean?”, Snape’s head turned back to him.
“Oh nothing. I see no sense in arguing on things we both know.”
“Fine,”, he snapped and pulled himself into a sitting position on the shore with ease, his lower legs dangling into the water, facing the lake.
The first Hermione spotted – after the fact that he was completely naked, what made her eyes widen already – were a fair number of long crisscrossed scars all over his back, looking like he had been scourged some time in the past. But who would – the memory of a certain night mingled with her thoughts. Don’t tell me what they would have done, Igor! Because, I, know! Could it actually be that they had done it to him? That he had been physically tortured in his hearing? Would the Ministry have gone as far with suspected Death Eaters? Would they – still make use of such methods? Or had it only been Crouch’s madness? Hermione’s stomach convulsed.
“Bu’ tell me, ’ow can ye remain so calm? I jus’ spoke ’bou’ killin’ a studen’?”
“Severus.”, Dumbledore said softly. “I know very well that you didn’t mean it.”
“Bu’ wha’ if? Jus’ imagine.”
“I will not imagine, because I know you. Yes, I am certain that you killed many people, but I know your reasons, Severus.”, Hermione could see Viktor’s shocked face in the corner of her eye and knew she didn’t look much different. “Alastor Moody has killed many as well, but he is one of the good. He fights for the right thing.”, now Dumbledore climbed out as well and laid himself flat on his back, his long wet hair and beard not really able to cover –
“Tha righ’ thing.”, Snape huffed. “Ye say.”
“Severus. That All Hallows’ Day morning, I have seen your true self. You are not a bad person. Not all too lovely sometimes, but not bad either. You are just as much human as I am.”
“Comparin’ tha two o’ us’s a lil bi’ impertinen’, dun’ ye think?”
“Maybe, yes.”, Dumbledore crossed his arms under his head and gazed into the sky. “Let us not speak about it anymore.”
“Yes. ’Specially, since we’re no’ alone.”
“Not – Severus?”, momentarily, Dumbledore sat straight and looked around.
“Be’in’ us.”, Hermione was tomato-red and Viktor as pale as Mozzarella, but Dumbledore apparently couldn’t see the human salad on the trunk. “There’s a magical barrier. Someone’s buil’ up a shield an’ intruder protection. It surprises me tha’ ye ’aven’ fel’ it earlier, Albus. Ye. Normally so sensory.”
“Indeed, yes!”, the Headmaster aspirated hollow, still searching the air with his eyes as blue as the sky above.
“Well, Mr Krum,”, his pronunciation was almost back at what they were used to, “Next time you should let Miss Granger put up those spells. Though being three years younger, she is a lot more able than you.”
“Severus – ”, Dumbledore chuckled as the shields fell down and the two came in sight, Viktor frowning and Hermione moaning horrifically, despite no sound coming from her mouth.
“Oh how wonderful the sky is today.”, Snape placed his hands in the grass and leaned onto them, tilting his head back to marvel at the blue above him. “Just – beautiful.”, Hermione’s heart sank at the sound of his dreamily high pitched voice and the choice of words – how?
“How did you know it is us, Sir?”, Viktor murmured. “Vot gave us avay?”
“Rather, what gave you away.”, Snape corrected him. “Your spells got weak the moment you started behaving like two slugs on a one-slug-broad crossing and I could see you in a blurred, flickering haze. So, I might just take back my words and admit; considering that it was her first; Miss Granger possibly would have shown the same lack.”, he granted them a short pause, “Oh – my bad, I am sorry! So terribly sorry! I didn’t mean at all to spoil it!”, he added with a snort, took a very deep breath, slid into the water and dived away, leaving no sign to spot.
“Miss Granger?”, Dumbledore addressed her, concerned about the rapid change in her expression.
“Hermy-own-ninny?”, though her gaze was empty and utterly drained and her face directed straight forward, not seeing anything in front of her eyes anymore.
“I think, I should be going now.”, she meant curtly and stood up, turning away to the trees once she had grabbed her things.
“Miss Granger – I apologise for his rudeness.”
“It wasn’t rude.”, Hermione sighed when walking off. “Not at all.”
~~#~~
As charming and sweet as she found it, slowly it was getting on her nerves. At least this way Harry and Ron finally did their homework on their own; or so she hoped; but the constant stare was a little annoying anyhow. His right elbow on the desk-board in front of the shelf, he more hung than leant, taking in half the space she would have needed. But she couldn’t just tell him to move a few feet into the room, could she? With a sigh, she glanced out of the window to her left. The sky was bright blue and it was hard to concentrate, thinking of the green grass and the flowers and the singing birds and –
“Vot is on your mind, honey?”
“What?”, she startled up.
“I asked, vot – ”
“Oh – just an ingredient I couldn’t recall. But it’s back.”, she lied and wrote down the name of the plant when someone passed their row, not meaning to hurry in the slightest.
“Vot was it?”, Viktor tried to get a glimpse on her paper.
“Oh hi!”, their heads rushed at the girl who had stopped and greeted them.
“Hey.”, Hermione smiled.
“What are you doing here?”, Parvati came closer and placed her hands quite brazen between the two, holding to the edge of the desktop. “Potions essay.”, she snorted.
“Potions essay.”, confirmed Hermione. “Have you done yours already?”
“Yeah, yesterday.”, Hermione knew it was a lie since she had seen what Parvati had done during almost all the free minutes of the previous day she hadn’t spent on the toilet or eating; namely, nothing too different from what she did now, though it hadn’t been as obvious.
“Then you, instead of me, could go and help Ron and Harry with their essays. They are sitting in the common room, playing chess rather than doing what they – ”
This time three heads turned. Hermione had already hoped for Madam Pince, but it was another usual gate-crasher. However, he could probably even help, she considered. Yet he preferred to ignore them and strode past the opposite row, apparently in thoughts. No, he was listening. Six eyebrows raised as he leaned his left ear closer to a book and huffed. He withdrew his wand from his sleeve, grabbed the book, pulled it out so quick that dust swirled after it and shot a silent Stunning Spell into the gap.
Utterly confused, the three stared at him as he examined the hole and then the book. Hermione saw that the lower edge looked like it had been eaten up. He placed it on the wooden board below with a sigh and stuck his left arm into where he had pulled it. Caught between his thumb and index finger, a motionless grey thing dangled down as he held it towards the window with an annoyed grimace. Parvati shrieked.
“Now Miss Patil, no need for such drama. It is only a mouse.”, another man snuck up from behind him with a childish grin that bared two rows of yellow teeth. “The real drama is that it has grown fond of books.”
“Helping ourselves to lunch?”
Snape gasped and dropped the unconscious mouse. Giving a grunt, he spun around and pressed his wand against the other’s throat.
“How often,”, he snarled through his own teeth, “Do I have to tell you that it is perilous to do that?”
“Nah – you wouldn’t kill me Severus, would you?”, cackled Karkaroff. “So? A mouse? In the library? Not too pleasant, huh?”, the teacher’s left hand pointed at the rodent on the floor and it lifted itself seemingly on its own, flying back up in his hand which caught it gently.
“Not at all. Irma has kept complaining for about two weeks now, but Argus seems to be incapable of dealing with something smaller than his cat, which by the way didn’t catch any of those bastards either. Now if you excuse me,”, he turned and firmly held the mouse down on the wooden board, “I need to interrogate our little friend here. Maybe I can find out where the others are.”
“What do you want to do?”, Karkaroff chuckled. “Butter it up so it starts talking? It is a mouse, Severus! A mouse! All you can do is to bait – ”
“Ask it politely.”
“Tz. Since when can you talk to animals.”, Karkaroff crossed his arms over his plain reddish brown robe with a curious frown.
“I only need to see where it would mean to flee to. If you would keep quiet so I can concentrate,”
Snape took a deep breath, pointed his wand at the mouse and it started struggling against his hand immediately. His eyes were so fixated on the animal that Hermione feared their stare would incinerate the poor thing. Another deep breath. Obviously he had achieved what he had wanted.
“Thank you for the information. I am terribly sorry, but this is only for your best.”
As if the mouse knew what was going to happen, it stared at the tip of his black wand, pointed at its head. Too shocked to even wince, the three teenagers gaped at it as well when a quick green flash lit its surrounding and the mouse moved no more.
“You – you killed – ”, Karkaroff aspirated, his arms fallen as slackly as the mouse laid now.
“It was only a mouse, Igor.”, murmured Snape and let go of it.
“In front of students!”
“I don’t think, you are the right person to teach me morals. Besides, Irma said `no mercy´.”
“I think, she surely meant you should feed it to that Filch’s cat, you underpayed hitman!”, moaned the Russian, his accent intensifying.
“Don’t worry, I will.”, Snape knelt onto the floor and examined the boarding below. “The cat is just too stupid to catch living mice. And as I said, even regarding payment you’d rather shut up, seeing as it was me who got you employed after your idio– ”
“But in front of – ”, Karkaroff too was cut off, but by a cloak covered shoe against his stomach that forced him to take some steps back.
“Excuse me,”, said Snape and crawled two feet backwards. “Ah, there you are.”
He raised, patted the dust off his clothes and gave the entire area of the shelf row a wave of his wand. The books gently flew out, around him and settled down on the writing board behind him, at the teenagers’ sides. Then he twirled the wand at the small hole at the floor he had discovered and a stream of smoke shot inside. Momentarily, about a dozen mice fled out of another hole in the lowest board and in all possible directions. Parvati squealed, not clear whether it was because of the mice or the well aimed green flashes that hit one after another. Angry footsteps and Madam Pince came hurtling along the corridor, to their rows.
“How MANY TIMES do I have to remind you that this – “, the librarian raged, “What is – oh Severus – you have – ”, she had just come in time for the last Killing Curse to strike and apparently hadn’t noticed it in her fury. “You found them? Thank god – no, thank you! Have you got them all?”
“I suppose so. At least – ”, he looked around; nothing moved at the shelf but the smoke rising from the hole the mice had come from, “It looks like I eradicated the adults in the main nest.”
Snape knelt down once more and carefully removed the board. Between the bars that supported the shelf, were many nests made of old paper and parchment. They had built themselves quite a comfortable home in there. He checked, but couldn’t find any nestlings.
Magic was just brilliant, thought Hermione, as he gave his wand a simple flick after having gotten up and cleaned his clothes again. The bitten off pieces zoomed into various directions, finding their way back to the books they belonged to, which repaired flawlessly – at least, to a certain extent. Another flick and she knew he had filled the parts the mice had claimed their food. Then those flew to the first victim and formed a bundle, strangely glued together at their tails.
“Mrs Norris will have the most splendour meal ever, I assume.”, Madam Pince smiled.
“Oh no. I think, I will at least keep half of them for some experiments.”, he picked up the bundle and returned the books to the shelves with a gentle wave.
“So you are having them for lunch.”, grinned Karkaroff and ducked too late, earning himself a smack on the head with the dead animals. “Just kidding, Severus. Just kidding. No need to be such a ruffian.”, another smack, in the other direction, this time actually hitting his cheek. “Mad dork!”, he laughed.
“Really!”, ranted Madam Pince. “This is a library and your students are around! Act like the adults you are supposed to be!”
A third smack on Karkaroff’s head, from above now, followed by a self-satisfied smirk the younger ones didn’t see, and he left the scene. Madam Pince shook her head, her eyes following him down the corridor. Something shot into Hermione’s mind and she jumped up. In a quick-thinking-second she gave her Potions stuff a wand-wave as well; careful to keep the book in her hand; stuffed it into her bag and stormed after him. He had been faster than she had expected and so she just reached him when he was already at the entrance of the library.
“Sir – ”, she panted, making him stop and turn.
“Yes, Miss Granger?”, trying to find breath, she stammered to him, very quiet so no one but him would hear it – heads were peeking out of the rows already anyway.
“What exactly – ”, she opened a random page, looking serious, “Does – that here – mean?”
“That is – ”, he replied equally low, frowning.
“I know it’s been months,”, Hermione whispered fast now, “And I feel terrible for never having made to say, but – thank you.”
“What for?”
“Your care for me – after the Yule Ball – and eventually, before the second task – ”
There was an awkward silence between them and they were just looking deep into one another’s eyes. Whereas her expression was almost determined, he looked rather absent. She could see his lips curl faintly when he swallowed barely catchable.
“Boo!”, said a male voice down where they had come from and Parvati shrieked like before.
“Professor Karkaroff!”, warned Madam Pince. “I don’t really care how childish you prefer to be in your spare time, but please leave this library, before you indulge in any questionable habits.”
“She begged for it – ”
“Igor.”, Snape moaned loud enough for the man to turn towards him and shook his head.
“What.”, chuckled Karkaroff and with a sigh, Snape looked back at Hermione.
“I have no idea what you mean.”, he said as though honest, but a peculiar spark in his eyes told her that he was simply saying this to keep it between them. “And you should not question this book, Miss Granger. It leads you nowhere.”
A hesitant smile drifted over Hermione’s mouth when he spun around and pushed the old glass door of the library, walking away, and she closed her book with a snap. For some moments she just stood there and looked at where he had disappeared. Something brown hurried past her, out as well. She understood that she was risking to be finally rated down to Parvati’s level, but for whatever Parvati did it, her; Hermione’s; reason, was far deeper, she knew. The looks of Parvati when she was sneaking around, were giving the girl’s nosiness away. Parvati was nosy, not concerned like her. Hermione waited some seconds after he was out of sight until she went after him, hoping that the other girl was too frightened now as to have the same idea.
Trying to keep the sound of her shoes down and the distance at fair measure, she followed Karkaroff through the castle, passing the one or other small group of students. It was hard to keep up with him, stopping every time he went around a corner and peeking past just in case he would look back. Once she caught him doing just that and she had to hold back a giggle as it made her understand that he followed his friend in exactly the same way as she followed him.
Eventually they found him in a sixth floor open arched corridor that overlooked the lake. Peeking left around the corner, Hermione examined it. There were only a few doors down at the left, inner side until it ended in a wall with the big statue of some kind of horse like, bony creature she had never seen before. In fact, it also surprised her that she had wandered this school for almost four years and had never come up to that corridor. A look at the alcove to her right, introduced her with another statue of a winged horse, though this resembled more those that had pulled the Beauxbatons carriage at their arrival.
The bright blue sky outside the arches gave the corridor some charm. Right in the middle of it, sat Snape on the sill, his long black cloak hanging down the wall inside the corridor and his lower legs dangling over the abyss. At his right, sat Mrs Norris, already chewing a mouse. The other mice were out of sight for her, but for some reason he was covering his mouth and nose with his right hand. Very slow, Karkaroff approached him from behind, eyeing the scrawny cat.
“She really looks like she is unlucky at catching mice.”, he chuckled, but Snape’s blank expression into the blue remained the same. “What did she want? The Granger girl, I mean.”
“Wonder whether the book was right.”, he mumbled into his hand, hardly audible from her position. “She starts questioning books. Very unlikely of her.”, next to hearing him at all, Hermione was surprised to hear him lie, strangely suspecting that he knew she was spying on them. “Normally she sucks in every information provided by books as though they were the ultimate law of the universe. But maybe she began growing up and came to understand that not all books are what they seem to be.”, now she really wasn’t sure anymore whether she had not been noticed by him.
“So does she follow orders – ”
“Not at all. She knows when to obey and when to only pretend as though.”
“Intelligent then?”
“Yes.”
“Skilled?”
“Very.”, hearing that from him, made her blush.
“Then Viktor has chosen the right one as his girlfriend?”
“You don’t chose a girlfriend, Igor.”, snarled Snape. “Or at least, you shouldn’t. But yes, I suppose, he did indeed chose her. Though he has taken something he doesn’t deserve.”, those words eliminated every hint of pink from Hermione’s face now. “That girl is far too complex as for him to be able to cope with. If he really is as clever as you claim, he will eventually give up on her when he notices she only sort of fancies him but has eyes for another. She doesn’t need someone who is in her way when she has; to her; important work to do. She needs a certain extent of freedom and he is so hormone-driven that he doesn’t see it. If it really interests you, the reason why she ran after me was because she fled. She needed an excuse to get away from her boyfriend.”
How did he know all that? Hermione was so stunned that she feared she would just fall over into the corridor like a wooden staff.
“An independent, intelligent, talented young woman you’d say then?”, he placed his hands on Snape’s shoulders.
“If you wish to describe her as simple, yes.”
“Probably having gotten this from her mother?”
“I never met her, but maybe.”
“High position in the Ministry?”
“Her parents are dentists.”
“Den- dentists?”, Hermione couldn’t see either man’s face, but Karkaroff recognisably looked down on the other’s head. “They are – Muggles? Viktor took himself a Mud– ”
“May I remind you that you were raised in a Muggle orphanage and that you once gathered the information on your parents’ last whereabouts from Muggles? It is quite likely neither of the two were capable of magic, so don’t judge people by their descent when your own is unclear. It does not matter where we come from, it matters only which of that we use in what way. But I accept your opinion. After all, it has saved your neck quite a couple of times.”
“I can’t understand how you can not dislike Muggles. You only had negative experience with them. Uh well, if we don’t count Ursula – and still, in ways,”
“I merely happened to be a magnet to some nasty sort. They are human, believe me. We are all the same. If we don’t judge by appearance or habit, we judge by origin and most likely fail to interpret it right. Because, there are laws of nature, and more important, every law has rebuttal. There are such things as exceptions and that is what makes the world so interesting.”, Karkaroff grunted on that, looking back out over the lake.
“You know I prefer it nice and simple.”
“But the world isn’t as nice and simple as you wish it to be, Igor. And it is not my fault that my father failed to implant his narrow-mindedness and plain way of thinking matters which didn’t coincide with his prejudiced philosophy, into immediate oblivion.”, he raised on the sill and Karkaroff let go. “Yes, you are right, to a certain extent. Sometimes we stick our wry noses too deeply into things that shouldn’t bother us.”, he paused and swung himself easily outside around the one of the thin, arching pillars to his left, walking over the next part of the wall then and finally without a hand on the mouth. “But in fact, they do bother us. I suppose, it is all right then – as long as we are not caught by the wrong people.”
Snape took the second pillar inwards and Karkaroff followed on the floor, away from Hermione. She feared she might at last not hear them properly anymore, should they walk further.
“If you’re not careful, you will fall far too deeply into your considerations. It does not do you good to nose around in the depths of the world.”, Hermione was more afraid that he might fall from the arches and into death, but then remembered that he would be able to fly back up.
“So you suggest, I sit down in my office, cross my fingers and let time pass, not bothering anything?”
“I merely said that you are obsessed about details that should not bother you at all.”
“Don’t treat me like a child, Igor. If I had ever been such, somewhen at the very beginning of my life, it was killed when I met with the kitchen floor.”
“Severus – I care for you! You are the only one who ever cared for me! Not even my parents – ”
“Might have loved you far more than you could imagine.”
“They dropped me – ”
“Has it ever crossed your mind that they did this out of love? That they themselves couldn’t feed you?”, two more arches down the corridor, he finally stopped and turned, vexed. “And I believe, we had that before.”, he added grumbling.
“But why then leaving me without a sign of them?”
“Well, that is the nature of placing one’s child in an orphanage, isn’t it? No orphanage would keep a child that still had family.”
“Then why not giving me to another family?”, the cat had choked some pellet and caught up with them.
“To find them calling others Mum and Dad? That is probably the worst you can hear from your own child, especially when you spun the threads so they eventually lead to it.”
“Oh what do you know about this.”
“What do you know about this, Igor.”, with a snort, he threw another mouse down to the begging Mrs Norris. “If you excuse me now, I need to conserve some mice, before that cat explodes. Or I.”
Snape hopped off the wall, did a brief glance past Karkaroff’s shoulder and went for the second corridor leading to the one they were in, down by the bony statue, where his cloak waved after him as he disappeared around the corner. Karkaroff just stood there, his face down where his friend had left. Mrs Norris came prowling around his legs, but he didn’t pay attention. Slowly, so she wouldn’t be heard, Hermione went back into the inner corridors of that wing and on, in direction of the main tower.
One of the staircases decided to move just when she was about to use it and so she had to take a detour to get upstairs. Though someone called after her.
“Hermy-own-ninny!”, she spun around and saw him speeding up from a lower staircase. “There – you – are.”, he came to halt, panting like hell.
“Yes. Sorry I left. I just had to check something.”
“And? Vot vos it?”
“What do you mean?”, frowned Hermione.
“That you vonted to check?”
“Oh – I – nothing important, really.”, she smirked.
“Then vhy in such a hurry?”
“Huh?”
“Are you here? Your mind seems off – ”
“Oh I am here, yes – ”, actually she wasn’t sure. “If – if you excuse me,”
She had spotted Harry below, turned without any more looks at Viktor and stormed downstairs to her best friend. Harry was quite shocked to see her.
“I – er – Hermione – ”, he stammered, but she didn’t care.
“Come with me. I got to see Hagrid and I need your assistance.”
“I just came from Hagrid’s,”, Harry confessed.
“Never mind.”, hissed Hermione. “I’m not going there anyway. I just want you to help me escape.”
Frowning, he let himself be pulled back down the tower by her.
~~#~~
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