Dark Coil

Dark Coil

Chapter Eight

What Hermione Saw

Hermione shuddered as the echo of the slamming door vibrated along the inky corridors lined with books. She had wanted to leave the moment she first spotted Professor Snape and the new teacher from America. Hermione knew that to remain violated not only their privacy, but also her own sense of honor. However, despite her principles the distressed seventh year had stood frozen in place, wrapped up in Harry's Invisibility Cloak and tableau before her.

She had come to the library searching for information on Wizard Law. Since learning that the course was to be offered in the new term, Hermione had been beside herself with worry.

"I am not well grounded in the legal aspects of magic," she had moaned to Ron and Harry more than once during the short break in terms. " I wonder if the material will be on our N.E.W.T.s? It is hardly fair, you know. This is the first time Wizard Law has been taught at Hogwarts, still…" Her voice had rambled on, receiving occasional grunts of bored affirmation from Harry or Ron. It had reached the point where both boys were ready to hold a pillow over Hermione's face, when she petitioned Harry to allow her to borrow the Invisibility Cloak. "It's not like I am sneaking out to do something illegal, you know." Her voice achieved a near-whine that threatened to slip over the edge into dentist-drill intensity. "I just need to slip into the library and grab this book on the Wizard Constitutional Convention of 1413. It is supposed to be the best!"

"What do need to sneak for?" Ron asked without raising his head from the game of wizard chess he and Harry were playing. "You're Head Girl, for Pete's sake! You can go anywhere you want to."

"Well, technically yes. But I want to go now, tonight, and I don’t want to explain to Filch or put up with Peeves. Please, Harry! I have never asked you for anything like this before. Please." Hermione leaned over slightly so that she could see Harry's face.

"Why can't it just wait until tomorrow?" the black haired boy groused. "Classes won't even start for two more days."

"That's exactly my point!" Hermione wailed. " I will only have two days to read it and build up some background before start of term. Please, Harry!"

"Yes, please Harry!" Ron mimicked, "Let her take it, or we'll never have a bit of peace. I want to finish this game and catch that special on the Cannons at ten o'clock." Ron's father, Arthur Weasley, played on his promotion to Chief of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts by finally persuading the Board of Governors to install Wizard television in each of the four Hogwarts houses. A fledgling industry, programs ran only in the mornings and evenings. One of the top rated programs was the sport program, "Quidditch Week in Review". Ron and Harry, along with most of the population of Hogwarts, never missed an episode.

Harry sighed and pushed himself up from his comfortable chair and headed off to the boy's dormitory. Hermione twisted her hands anxiously. Ron observed her and shook his head, exasperated. He would never understand Hermione.

Harry returned, the watery cloak tucked up under his robes. Walking close to the trembling Head Girl, he passed off the cloak as he returned to his chair by the fire. He barely registered Hermione's whispered, "Thank you," as she hurried to the portrait hole.

"Where are you off to now, my dear?" inquired the Fat Lady. It was hard to hear her over the laughing and hooting from the rest of the figures in the frame. The Fat Lady had been playing Exploding Snap with several nuns from the Pilgrimage painting on the third floor landing.

"Hmmm, nowhere really," Hermione replied. "Just a bit of a walk before bed, you know." She moved on down the corridor, away from the rowdy players.

The Fat Lady dashed down a card and called after Hermione, "See that you are not out too late, my dear. Take that Reverend Mother!"

Hermione flew down the dark empty hall until she came to the staircases. Glancing around carefully, making sure there was no one to observe her sudden vanishing, Hermione flung the cloak over her shoulders and pulled the hood up covering her head and face. The young lady in Gryffindor robes had disappeared.

Hermione cupped one hand over her mouth to stifle the sound of her breathing. Professor Snape had watched the departure of Miss McGonagall with a look of confused anger on his face and then leaned his trembling body against the table, his hands flat on the smooth surface. Hermione watched, hypnotized, as the dark robed man seemed to wrestle with himself, his lean form shaking under voluminous black robes. She could hear his sharp breathing, see the grimace of pain twist the features, that had a few moments ago, been filled with tender longing.

Hermione knew she should take this time to flee, and she began to cautiously back up towards the front desk. She would have to be very careful when opening the massive oak door or Snape would be alerted…

His head snapped up. "Who's there?" he hissed. "Show yourself!" Snape turned his head slowly, black eyes penetrating the darkness. With a flick of his wrist and a murmured spell, the single candle on the table went dark. Hermione could barely make out the minuscule ember of the wick through the veil of the invisibility cloak and Snape had disappeared in the gloom, but Hermione knew instinctively that the cunning professor would be on the move.

Casting caution aside in favor of a quick escape, Hermione whirled and beat a path for the library door. She could hear Snape's heavy feet on the marble floor as he gave chase.

A terrific crash was tangled with bellowed curses. Snape had tumbled over a chair! Hermione put on a burst of speed that propelled her out the library door and down the inky corridor. Her heart was pounding in her throat, making it even more difficult to breathe than ever under the cloak. She paused but a second to check the stairway before dashing off in the direction of Gryffindor tower. Behind her she could hear Snape's staggering steps. Had he damaged himself in the fall? The young woman's anxiety increased. Not only had she witnessed the passionate confessions of two Hogwarts teachers, but also she had caused damage to a tenured professor by her actions! Hermione knew she would be packing her trunks by morning.

Lights appeared in the gloom ahead of the panicking teen. There was the sound of raucous laughter and Hermione could see the huge shadows of students thrown against the corridor wall. A large pack of seventh years returning from an extended trip to Hogsmeade!! What a lovely blessing! Hermione hurled herself into the wave of laughing, jostling teenagers and allowed her body to be carried along with the momentum into the Gryffindor common room. Behind her and over the sounds of revelry, she could hear a harsh voice crying, "No! Stop this instant!"

Snape had followed her to the common room.

"Sir! Sir, I must protest!!" The voice of the Fat Lady was all but lost in the sea of noise that broke over the quiet calm of the common room. Several students turned half interested, to see what type of disturbance was at the portal, but most carried on into the center of the room, Hermione gratefully swept along with the tide.

She dashed to the corner where Harry and Ron were reclining on sofas watching "Quidditch Week in Review", along with most of the Gryffindor clan. She clawed at the cloak and stuffed it under a sofa as she crashed to her knees, laying her head nonchalantly upon Ron's knee. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest at the assumed casual posture, but she forced her mind to quiet and her hands to stillness.

The laughter and shouting in the common room suddenly stopped. Every head turned and every eye was focused on the presence at the portrait hole.

Professor Snape felt every eye in the Gryffindor common room locked to his presence. His hair was in disarray, his robes hung form his body in a most haphazard fashion.

"Professor Snape, what is the meaning of this intrusion?" came the voice of Professor McGonagall, who had been reclining in a comfortable chair before the television set.

"My mistake, Professor McGonagall. Please excuse me." Despite her protest, Snape gave a courtly bow and he exited the portal and was through the hole behind the portrait.

The Fat Lady's chest was huffing like a bellows, pulling at the dangerously strained fabric of her gown.

"Sir! I demand an explanation of you behavior. To barge into…"

But she was cut off rudely. "Oh shut up, you fat cow!" Snarled Professor Snape.

"Well, I never!" Screeched the Fat Lady.

"THAT is your problem, my lady!" yelled Snape as he flung himself back down the Gryffindor corridor and onto the massive staircase.

************************************************************************

"What was that all about?" asked Ron, as the raging Snape flung himself from the room.

"Oh, nothing, really," was Hermione's simple reply. She twisted the folds of her robe in her hands, wanting to tell the boys what she had witnessed, but knowing that she would never reveal what had passed before her eyes tonight.

"Why'd he chase you all the way here then?" Ron persisted.

"Oh, you know Professor Snape," the shaken girl reasoned. "He thought he saw a student out after hours. You know how he is." She let the subject drop, lifting her eyes to the glare of the television set. "Show any good?"

The innocent question had its desired results. The conversation drifted to Quidditch and the Cannons, all thought of Professor Snape banished.

Later that night, Hermione lay in her bed and prayed that one day she would have someone look at her with the longing she had seen tonight on Professor Snape's face.