Not so Merry Christmas
Title: Not so Merry Christmas
Team: The Order
Word Count: 3 x 100 (300)
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Dicken’s Christmas Carol
Characters: Snape, Hermione, Assorted Ghosts
A/N: Still don’t own characters. Thanks to those who enjoyed the third part… here is the fourth.
“She is my apprentice!” Snape snapped, but a hint of desperation was present.
The ghost sniffed. “Well, did you make her feel genuinely welcome when you made her your apprentice?”
Snape paused, remembering how he had informed Hermione in a clipped voice, coldly observing the light in her brown eyes that indicated eagerness... and something more?
“Not… entirely,” he said stiffly.
“Did you always show approval when she made progress?”
Snape felt something shrivel inside him. “No,” he said quietly.
The ghost remorselessly continued.
“Was this your way of punishing Hermione for daring to try and be close to you?”
~~~
“No!” Snape protested.
He realised though with a sickening certainty that the ghost was right. He had taken a woman who had shown such bright enthusiasm in her early days as his apprentice… and turned her into someone who had started to tense whenever he opened his mouth.
No wonder Hermione was furious now. No wonder she had left him.
“Release me!” he demanded. “I must go and find her.” He had to make amends, somehow…
The ghost shook her head regretfully. “Not yet. What’s done is done, and you must see the consequences of your actions, despite your regret.”
~~~
Snape tensed as the ghost vanished… flinching as a black hooded figure appeared, drifting from side to side by its own wind. It was a Dementor.
No, it wasn’t, he thought swiftly.
“Are you the Ghost of… Christmas Future?” he asked abruptly.
The figure nodded, and the scene vanished only to show himself failing to convince a cold faced Hermione that things would be different from now on.
Another scene… Hermione starting a Ministry career. Appreciated. Promoted.
More scenes… himself in his office, alone. No one close, or loving him. Dying as he had lived, alone.
“No…” Snape said, appalled.
TBC