Severus, Redux: Chapter 24
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 09 November 1996, 10:12 AM
"Yeek!" Hermione couldn't stop the yelp she made as an arm snaked out from a wall and grabbed her. The book she had been carrying dropped to the floor as she was wheeled about into a small alcove hidden behind a false wall. A moment later found her pressed up against a familiar chest, her wand wedged threateningly into her attacker's ribs. At least her reflexes were good, she decided, even if she had sounded like a dolt.
"You scared me!" She sheathed her wand.
"And you squeaked." He teased back.
Hermione made a face at him, and he chuckled then kissed her in apology. The kiss lingered, sending warm tingling waves down her spine, and she snuggled closer to him. He paused for a moment, then his other arm wrapped around her waist and he kissed her properly.
His mouth was confident and hot, his tongue stroking along hers and his teeth gently nipping at her lips. The long-fingered hands that he used to meticulously prepare potions and deftly accomplish his wand work were equally dextrous with her. Warm and firm, they slowly slid up the line of her back and down again, pausing briefly to dip under the hem of her jumper to caress her bare skin and tease the lower edge of her bra.
Heat skidded up her spine even as it kindled low in her stomach and tightened her nipples. Every time they had touched, kissed and stroked each other, the desire between them had sparked a little more quickly, a little more aggressively. After the slow, building tension of the last several weeks, it seemed both of them were primed; it took barely a few moments now for Hermione to find herself clinging and clenching her thighs reflexively, teetering between desperately needing more and nervously wondering if she were quite ready for it. The last time they'd played like this in their study room, they had become so carried away that he'd managed to leave her with her school blouse completely unbuttoned and the cups of her bra pushed down. The mind-blowingly lovely sensation of his hands and gaze on her bare breasts had been utterly consuming. It had been difficult to slow things down.
And now, once again, his hand was kneading a breast through her clothes, eliciting an echo of the lovely sensation from before. Hermione moaned into his mouth, unable to stop herself, and he growled in response, those marvellous hands of his cupping her rear and lifting her slightly into him. His erection rapidly thickened against her abdomen as he rocked slowly against her. A small, swift step and he had backed her against the wall of the alcove, his mouth and hands urgent.
Hermione's breath caught in her throat and her own hands crept under his shirt to caress his back; he shuddered as her nails scraped gently along his spine. To her delight, he groaned as well and his hips jerked against her firmly, leaving no room for doubt that he was very turned on. Even as he ground into her, mimicking sex, his mouth left hers to suck and nibble along the line of her throat. His other hand abandoned the curve of her bum to join the one at her breasts instead, fingertips lightly stroking over her nipples.
She arched and shimmied a bit against him, trying to rub her overly-sensitised nipples more firmly against his palm and her core more directly against his cock.
"Fuck, Hermione, you're killing me." His voice was ragged against her ear. "This was supposed to be just 'good morning.'" His erection bucked against her again, and this time caught her at just the right angle to draw a long, strangled sound out of her.
"Ohh." She sighed it out and then kissed him furiously, lifting one knee to run her leg up his, hooking around him as she rubbed herself against him. "Just a little more. I'm so…this feels so good." The seam of her denims was in a perfect position against her knickers and clit, and she had to bite her lip to contain her groans with each roll of their hips. Atreus choked in response, and kissed her again, his mouth demanding. His hands tugged at the hem of her shirt and his hips jerked against hers. Eagerly, she rocked back, lost in the feeling of his firm body and the hard bulge in his trousers rubbing against her core.
"Gods... I want you... so badly. Right now. I just want to…" his voice stuttered and his head dropped against her shoulder helplessly as they continued to rock with and against each other. He laughed, a slightly strangled sound, and said breathlessly, "like in that book. Where he just rips her robes right down the middle, then picks her up and fucks her right against the wall? I want to do that."
Hermione mindlessly keened in agreement, and then suddenly he was lifting her, his hands under her rear and hooking both legs around his waist. For a moment, it was amazing. Perfect, indescribably perfect pleasure jolted through her as his erection stroked against her exactly where she needed it the most.
Then Hermione felt her legs start to slide down his. His lean and very male frame had no hips for her to keep purchase on, and desperately, she tried to hitch her legs back up again. He nearly crushed her against the wall as his hands went to her thighs to help support her. However, once the support left the curve of her rear, she found that the weight of her upper body was a bit too much, and her bum started sliding down the wall instead.
Atreus grunted, and Hermione couldn't stifle a small giggle. "This position doesn't actually work very well, does it?"
"No, hold on, I’ve got it…" he muttered. He tried to heft her up again against the wall, shifting his hands again. He let out another small grunt, and suddenly lost his footing. Hermione let out a shriek as they toppled, crashing down to the ground outside the hidden alcove. They landed hard, their breath leaving them in twin grunts of pain as they found themselves sprawled on the floor of the--thankfully empty--hallway.
"Uhn….ow. I think I landed on your book," gasped Atreus.
"I'm going to bruise for certain...my elbow smarts."
"Sorry," he said. "You're heavier than I... I mean, not heavy, just... I'm not used to that, and--"
"Atreus?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Yeah."
They began to painfully untangle themselves and sit up. Hermione suddenly giggled. "So you did read that book."
He gave her a long-suffering look. "I was bored. Please don't tell anyone."
She grinned at him cheekily. "I won't." She glanced back at where the alcove lay hidden behind what appeared to be a solid wall. "It's probably for the best things didn't go any further, though, really. I mean... I don't think I'm ready to...to you know."
Atreus scrubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, though maybe next time we try something like that, we pick a spot a little more comfortable and less... near a hall."
Almost as if summoned, the Bloody Baron chose that moment to glide around the corner. He stopped, his lips pursed and eyebrows drawn down in a clear show of disapproval.
"It may be the weekend, but the two of you are still students of this school, and one of you a Prefect, besides. It would behoove you to not to rut in the halls like a pair of animals, lest you be removed from this august place for your poor comportment."
Hermione felt her cheeks flame, even as Atreus held up the book she had dropped. "She reads when she walks, I'm afraid I was going a bit too fast. We crashed into each other, is all."
The ghost waved a hand towards Atreus' subsiding erection. "Don't lie to me, young man. I've walked these halls a thousand or so years. I know what a lad with rogering on the brain sprawled out next to a lass with her clothes in disarray means. At least have the intelligence and decency to take it where you are less likely to get caught next time. Honestly, you do your house shame. Put yourselves to rights and move along. If I catch you in such a state again I'll be having words with your heads of house." With another flinty glare, the ghost drifted on, still muttering about hormonal teenagers.
Hermione ducked her head in embarrassment. "Oh, my god!" She quickly tugged her shirt back down from around her ribcage and re-zipped her jumper, staring at Atreus in astonishment. "I didn't even notice that you'd got my jumper undone!"
He smirked, though the look was ruined by his own flush. "Got a bit distracted, did you?"
"No more than you!" she retorted. Hermione glanced back at the wall where she now knew the little alcove was hidden. "When did you find that little hidey-hole?"
Atreus scoffed, "That? That's one of the worst kept secret of Hogwarts. There's another on the fifth floor behind the tapestry of Adad Stormrider. I'm pretty sure they're the first place teachers look for students after curfew."
Hermione stared at him. "I never even knew!"
Atreus snorted. "Best keep pretending you don't. People probably think you're turning the blind eye, like the other prefects. It'll only make your life miserable to sell out your fellow students. Like I said, the teachers always check anyway."
"Ugh. I'm not going to be able to walk past this spot now without wondering who might be groping each other and watching me pass by."
Atreus grinned in response, and Hermione couldn't help but compare it to the sinister smirk that Professor Snape used. His even teeth, unlined face and apparent good humour made the two men vastly different. It was difficult to believe that the professor could have ever been the teenager in front of her.
Hermione sighed, and then gestured toward the book he still held. He handed it over. "You're still coming with me to Hogsmeade?" she asked, suddenly unsure again.
Her query was answered with an absent smile as he stood, then extended a hand to help her to her feet as well. "Yes, of course. Actually, I... I have something I want to ask you."
"Oh?"
He shrugged a little, his eyes troubled. "I... rather found out about something I wasn't really supposed to, and I'm not sure what to think about it." He looked out into the nearly deserted hall again. "We should go if we want to catch the carriages on time instead of walking. You'll want to put your book back and grab your spending money first?"
She nodded and tucked the book under her arm, catching his hand with her free one and leading him toward Gryffindor Tower. He fell in beside her. "I'm a bit surprised they didn't cancel this weekend," he said abruptly.
"Hogsmeade?"
"Yes. After what happened last time…" his voice trailed off and he frowned.
Hermione agreed quietly. "Katie's still at St. Mungo's, I've heard. They haven't been able to figure out what that... that necklace did to her, or how she got hold of it."
To her surprise, Atreus gave her an uneasy look, then said, "Is she a Muggleborn, do you know?"
Hermione frowned. "I don't think so... It's never come up, at least. I haven't really asked. Harry knows her better than I. You think she was targeted because of her blood status?"
He shrugged. "It's possible. Why else would someone curse her with a dark artifact like that? I think Malfoy's up to something. Or..." Atreus' voice dropped to barely audible, "maybe even the professor."
Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes as they stopped outside the Fat Lady's portrait. "Not you, too! Harry's been harping on and following Malfoy almost obsessively since school started, and the professor? You especially should know better, Atreus. I'll be right back. Oh--baubles." The portrait swung open and Hermione climbed through, nodding at a few of the students on her way to her room. A few minutes later, winter cloak and coin pouch in hand, she was back out the door where Atreus waited, shifting his weight back and forth.
"Alright, I'm ready. Now what on earth has you thinking that the professor would want to hurt Katie, of all people?"
"Hold on, not here. I'll tell you in the carriage."
Impatiently, Hermione waited until they had left the castle and were seated in one of the carriages before gesturing at him. "Well?"
"Here's the thing... like I said, I happened to find out some things I'm not supposed to. I think... I think Dumbledore might be mistaken about him."
Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Atreus cut her off. "Look, just... hear me out. I think Malfoy is a Death Eater, or if not, he's close to it. I know he's running errands and being given assignments and punishments of some kind from You-Know-Who. And... the professor... Over the summer he made an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy.. Like, he'll actually die if he doesn't do what he promised. He was really sick, too. Like... I don't know, maybe he was cursed, or maybe almost breaking a different oath. I don't know, but he looked awful, like on death's door."
His head shook quickly and his fingers worried at the edge of his cloak. "I can't help but think... that's when I got sick, too. Nothing helped, and Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out why, and what if... what if it was because of him? What if we're... connected, so that his oaths and curses affect me, too? I just... I don't know. What I saw... Hermione, it didn't seem like he was just pretending to be on their side.
"Then, barely a couple months after school starts, that girl gets cursed with a dark artifact and no one knows how she could have got it... " He gulped. "What if that's Malfoy's task? What if... What if he was told to try to curse Muggleborns or blood-traitors or something?"
Hermione stared at the boy next to her, unable to close her mouth or come up with a reply. They sat like that for the last couple of minutes to Hogsmeade. Atreus continued to fiddle with his clothes and belt pouch whilst she stared at him in shock. When they eventually stopped, and he jumped out and turned to help her down, she finally found her voice.
"Alright, I guess... Let's start from the beginning. How long ago did you find all this out?"
He looked away, then back at her, his cheeks flushing a little. "About a month? I've been helping the professor a bit in his private lab, and I... Well, I sort of stumbled across some memories he'd put aside. I think perhaps to hide them from Professor Dumbledore. I didn't want to say anything, though, until I'd thought about it a bit."
Hermione closed her eyes and groaned. "Oh, Atreus." If only her boyfriend knew just how similar he and Harry actually were.
He had the grace to look embarrassed, his eyes shifting down as they started off down the main road of the village, then jerked a hand through the air. "Look, I know I shouldn't have, but just... focus for a minute. In one of the memories I saw, he was living at my parents’ old hovel in Manchester with Pettigrew. Pettigrew of all people, that boot-licking little louse, and he was really sick. Then the Black sisters, Narcissa and Bellatrix showed up. Bellatrix accused him of being a traitor and they started arguing about whether or not he was loyal to the Dark Lord. He was really persuasive, Hermione."
She glanced over at him and caught his anxious expression. She gripped his hand harder, trying to soothe him. "Well, of course he must. I mean, that's part of his job, right? He's got to be
convincing if he's going to make even You-Know-Who think he's on their side."
Atreus shook his head. "I know. Except then, Narcissa started crying and said that the Dark Lord was giving Malfoy impossible tasks to punish his dad, and started begging the professor to help. At one point, I thought it was over. He told her she shouldn't talk about it since the Dark Lord told her not to, and Bellatrix agreed. He could've just sent them on their way. Instead... instead he said he would help Malfoy. Then took an Unbreakable Vow to do it. Why would he do that if he didn't have to? Why, if he wasn't really on their side? He had a way out!"
Hermione chewed her lip. "I... I don't know. I mean... we don't know what Malfoy's assignment is, and the professor presumably does. Maybe it's just brewing a really, really dangerous potion that could kill Malfoy or something. Something he can't do on his own but Professor Snape can help with, and he's not really promising anything that will hurt anyone."
For a minute, Atreus looked hopeful. "You think?'
"Maybe. Have you asked him?"
The look he shot her was scathing.
"No, of course not, sorry, that was a silly question." Hermione thought for a moment. "How about Madam Pomfrey? You two are close, and she's known him--you--this whole time, lived in the same castle as him for years. She still obviously cares. Maybe she'd have some insight?"
Atreus sighed. "Maybe. I don't know, I'm not even supposed to know about it. Do you think she'd tell him?"
Hermione shrugged helplessly. "You know her better than I."
"Mmmm." He held open the door of Scrivenshaft's for her. "Perhaps I'll have a swallow of the Felix Felicius just before," he reflected. "Not the whole thing, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to give myself just a bit of an edge. She's fond of me, but not enough that she'd run her mouth about his secrets to a teenager."
Hermione could only stare in surprised amusement, stifling the urge to giggle. It took him nearly a minute before he looked up from the shop's quill selection and realised she was watching him instead of perusing the wares herself. His eyes darted about, then looked down at his clothes, trying to ascertain what she thought was funny.
"Something wrong?" He finally asked.
Hermione shook her head. "I just...sometimes you say or do things that remind me so much of Harry that I think it's actually a bit of a wonder that the two of you don't get along. Then you go and say something like that."
Atreus drew himself up to his full height, clearly offended. "What, Potter?"
Hermione laughed, unable to help herself, and turned to face the selection of quills, admiring a long pheasant one that had been charmed to improve one's flourishes. "Yes, Harry. He's cleverer than you give him credit for, you know. Sometimes I honestly think he might have made a good Slytherin."
Atreus snorted disbelievingly, and selected a standard package of five uncharmed goose quills, carefully eyeing the tips for deficiencies. "He's good at potions, I'll give him that, but I doubt he'd last a day in Slytherin."
Hermione tried not to visibly wince. Keeping Harry's potions perfidy a secret from Atreus had been getting increasingly harder and more troubling as the year went on. "You might be surprised," she said instead, copying Atreus' selection, and adding the pheasant quill as well.
"His Muggle family aren't exactly the open and warm sort. He spent a good portion of his childhood sneaking about and snooping in through their things; playing with his cousin's toys when the family was out. Then he got here, and from what I've seen, Professor Dumbledore has only encouraged his bad habits. I don't think Harry even realises that it's wrong to invade people's privacy the way he does, he only feels bad when he gets caught. Then, too, he also is convinced he's going to save the wizarding world from an evil dictator. You have to admit that's an ambitious goal. The place where it all derails for him is that he doesn't always remember to take clever planning as seriously as he should."
Atreus threw up his free hand as they made their way back to the cashier and paid for their quills. "Alright, alright, he's not quite as awful as I first thought. I've been trying, haven't I?" He groused. "I went to Zonkos with you lot last Hogsmeade weekend and didn't hex either one of them. Can we not talk about Potter?"
Hermione laughed and then abruptly shivered when the cold, November air hit them outside the shop again. "Honeydukes?"
"Yes, you need another sugar quill."
"I do?" Hermione asked, genuinely confused, "Why?"
The look Atreus gave her in return was positively lecherous. "Let's just say I'm masochistic and love watching the way you eat them."
Hermione blinked, recalling the way she typically devoured sugar quills, nibbling at the delicate sugary feathers edges until only the shaft was left to suck like a lolly, and then blushed as she realised that was precisely the part he was most likely referring to.
"I swear," she told him haughtily, "you can make the most innocent thing about sex."
"I guarantee you, there isn't a bloke at Hogwarts who doesn't buy his girlfriend sugar quills on purpose," Severus defended firmly. "It's one of my favourite things to think about when I... well, you know."
Hermione grimaced, then laughed helplessly. "No, really?"
"Hmmm." He gave her a sideways glance, as if unsure he should say it, then answered, "Well, obviously it's lately been mostly about your tits now that you've let me see them."
"Atreus!"
"No one's listening! Besides, you have to admit you'd probably be a bit offended if I didn't think about your tits." He gave her jumper a fond look, obviously picturing them through the cloth. "They're absolutely perfect, you know, all soft and round and just… perfect." He sighed, "I've been imagining getting your shirt off again ever since. This time all the way off, so I can really see and play with them properly. I don't think I've wanked so much in my life as this last week."
"Atreus, stop talking about it, you're embarrassing me!" she hissed.
He grinned. "Only if you let me buy you a box of sugar quills and watch you eat every single one."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, then thought about how much fun it would be to torture Atreus Prince with a sugar quill right in the middle of History of Magic. "Done."
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"Yeek!" Hermione couldn't stop the yelp she made as an arm snaked out from a wall and grabbed her. The book she had been carrying dropped to the floor as she was wheeled about into a small alcove hidden behind a false wall. A moment later found her pressed up against a familiar chest, her wand wedged threateningly into her attacker's ribs. At least her reflexes were good, she decided, even if she had sounded like a dolt.
"You scared me!" She sheathed her wand.
"And you squeaked." He teased back.
Hermione made a face at him, and he chuckled then kissed her in apology. The kiss lingered, sending warm tingling waves down her spine, and she snuggled closer to him. He paused for a moment, then his other arm wrapped around her waist and he kissed her properly.
His mouth was confident and hot, his tongue stroking along hers and his teeth gently nipping at her lips. The long-fingered hands that he used to meticulously prepare potions and deftly accomplish his wand work were equally dextrous with her. Warm and firm, they slowly slid up the line of her back and down again, pausing briefly to dip under the hem of her jumper to caress her bare skin and tease the lower edge of her bra.
Heat skidded up her spine even as it kindled low in her stomach and tightened her nipples. Every time they had touched, kissed and stroked each other, the desire between them had sparked a little more quickly, a little more aggressively. After the slow, building tension of the last several weeks, it seemed both of them were primed; it took barely a few moments now for Hermione to find herself clinging and clenching her thighs reflexively, teetering between desperately needing more and nervously wondering if she were quite ready for it. The last time they'd played like this in their study room, they had become so carried away that he'd managed to leave her with her school blouse completely unbuttoned and the cups of her bra pushed down. The mind-blowingly lovely sensation of his hands and gaze on her bare breasts had been utterly consuming. It had been difficult to slow things down.
And now, once again, his hand was kneading a breast through her clothes, eliciting an echo of the lovely sensation from before. Hermione moaned into his mouth, unable to stop herself, and he growled in response, those marvellous hands of his cupping her rear and lifting her slightly into him. His erection rapidly thickened against her abdomen as he rocked slowly against her. A small, swift step and he had backed her against the wall of the alcove, his mouth and hands urgent.
Hermione's breath caught in her throat and her own hands crept under his shirt to caress his back; he shuddered as her nails scraped gently along his spine. To her delight, he groaned as well and his hips jerked against her firmly, leaving no room for doubt that he was very turned on. Even as he ground into her, mimicking sex, his mouth left hers to suck and nibble along the line of her throat. His other hand abandoned the curve of her bum to join the one at her breasts instead, fingertips lightly stroking over her nipples.
She arched and shimmied a bit against him, trying to rub her overly-sensitised nipples more firmly against his palm and her core more directly against his cock.
"Fuck, Hermione, you're killing me." His voice was ragged against her ear. "This was supposed to be just 'good morning.'" His erection bucked against her again, and this time caught her at just the right angle to draw a long, strangled sound out of her.
"Ohh." She sighed it out and then kissed him furiously, lifting one knee to run her leg up his, hooking around him as she rubbed herself against him. "Just a little more. I'm so…this feels so good." The seam of her denims was in a perfect position against her knickers and clit, and she had to bite her lip to contain her groans with each roll of their hips. Atreus choked in response, and kissed her again, his mouth demanding. His hands tugged at the hem of her shirt and his hips jerked against hers. Eagerly, she rocked back, lost in the feeling of his firm body and the hard bulge in his trousers rubbing against her core.
"Gods... I want you... so badly. Right now. I just want to…" his voice stuttered and his head dropped against her shoulder helplessly as they continued to rock with and against each other. He laughed, a slightly strangled sound, and said breathlessly, "like in that book. Where he just rips her robes right down the middle, then picks her up and fucks her right against the wall? I want to do that."
Hermione mindlessly keened in agreement, and then suddenly he was lifting her, his hands under her rear and hooking both legs around his waist. For a moment, it was amazing. Perfect, indescribably perfect pleasure jolted through her as his erection stroked against her exactly where she needed it the most.
Then Hermione felt her legs start to slide down his. His lean and very male frame had no hips for her to keep purchase on, and desperately, she tried to hitch her legs back up again. He nearly crushed her against the wall as his hands went to her thighs to help support her. However, once the support left the curve of her rear, she found that the weight of her upper body was a bit too much, and her bum started sliding down the wall instead.
Atreus grunted, and Hermione couldn't stifle a small giggle. "This position doesn't actually work very well, does it?"
"No, hold on, I’ve got it…" he muttered. He tried to heft her up again against the wall, shifting his hands again. He let out another small grunt, and suddenly lost his footing. Hermione let out a shriek as they toppled, crashing down to the ground outside the hidden alcove. They landed hard, their breath leaving them in twin grunts of pain as they found themselves sprawled on the floor of the--thankfully empty--hallway.
"Uhn….ow. I think I landed on your book," gasped Atreus.
"I'm going to bruise for certain...my elbow smarts."
"Sorry," he said. "You're heavier than I... I mean, not heavy, just... I'm not used to that, and--"
"Atreus?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Yeah."
They began to painfully untangle themselves and sit up. Hermione suddenly giggled. "So you did read that book."
He gave her a long-suffering look. "I was bored. Please don't tell anyone."
She grinned at him cheekily. "I won't." She glanced back at where the alcove lay hidden behind what appeared to be a solid wall. "It's probably for the best things didn't go any further, though, really. I mean... I don't think I'm ready to...to you know."
Atreus scrubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, though maybe next time we try something like that, we pick a spot a little more comfortable and less... near a hall."
Almost as if summoned, the Bloody Baron chose that moment to glide around the corner. He stopped, his lips pursed and eyebrows drawn down in a clear show of disapproval.
"It may be the weekend, but the two of you are still students of this school, and one of you a Prefect, besides. It would behoove you to not to rut in the halls like a pair of animals, lest you be removed from this august place for your poor comportment."
Hermione felt her cheeks flame, even as Atreus held up the book she had dropped. "She reads when she walks, I'm afraid I was going a bit too fast. We crashed into each other, is all."
The ghost waved a hand towards Atreus' subsiding erection. "Don't lie to me, young man. I've walked these halls a thousand or so years. I know what a lad with rogering on the brain sprawled out next to a lass with her clothes in disarray means. At least have the intelligence and decency to take it where you are less likely to get caught next time. Honestly, you do your house shame. Put yourselves to rights and move along. If I catch you in such a state again I'll be having words with your heads of house." With another flinty glare, the ghost drifted on, still muttering about hormonal teenagers.
Hermione ducked her head in embarrassment. "Oh, my god!" She quickly tugged her shirt back down from around her ribcage and re-zipped her jumper, staring at Atreus in astonishment. "I didn't even notice that you'd got my jumper undone!"
He smirked, though the look was ruined by his own flush. "Got a bit distracted, did you?"
"No more than you!" she retorted. Hermione glanced back at the wall where she now knew the little alcove was hidden. "When did you find that little hidey-hole?"
Atreus scoffed, "That? That's one of the worst kept secret of Hogwarts. There's another on the fifth floor behind the tapestry of Adad Stormrider. I'm pretty sure they're the first place teachers look for students after curfew."
Hermione stared at him. "I never even knew!"
Atreus snorted. "Best keep pretending you don't. People probably think you're turning the blind eye, like the other prefects. It'll only make your life miserable to sell out your fellow students. Like I said, the teachers always check anyway."
"Ugh. I'm not going to be able to walk past this spot now without wondering who might be groping each other and watching me pass by."
Atreus grinned in response, and Hermione couldn't help but compare it to the sinister smirk that Professor Snape used. His even teeth, unlined face and apparent good humour made the two men vastly different. It was difficult to believe that the professor could have ever been the teenager in front of her.
Hermione sighed, and then gestured toward the book he still held. He handed it over. "You're still coming with me to Hogsmeade?" she asked, suddenly unsure again.
Her query was answered with an absent smile as he stood, then extended a hand to help her to her feet as well. "Yes, of course. Actually, I... I have something I want to ask you."
"Oh?"
He shrugged a little, his eyes troubled. "I... rather found out about something I wasn't really supposed to, and I'm not sure what to think about it." He looked out into the nearly deserted hall again. "We should go if we want to catch the carriages on time instead of walking. You'll want to put your book back and grab your spending money first?"
She nodded and tucked the book under her arm, catching his hand with her free one and leading him toward Gryffindor Tower. He fell in beside her. "I'm a bit surprised they didn't cancel this weekend," he said abruptly.
"Hogsmeade?"
"Yes. After what happened last time…" his voice trailed off and he frowned.
Hermione agreed quietly. "Katie's still at St. Mungo's, I've heard. They haven't been able to figure out what that... that necklace did to her, or how she got hold of it."
To her surprise, Atreus gave her an uneasy look, then said, "Is she a Muggleborn, do you know?"
Hermione frowned. "I don't think so... It's never come up, at least. I haven't really asked. Harry knows her better than I. You think she was targeted because of her blood status?"
He shrugged. "It's possible. Why else would someone curse her with a dark artifact like that? I think Malfoy's up to something. Or..." Atreus' voice dropped to barely audible, "maybe even the professor."
Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes as they stopped outside the Fat Lady's portrait. "Not you, too! Harry's been harping on and following Malfoy almost obsessively since school started, and the professor? You especially should know better, Atreus. I'll be right back. Oh--baubles." The portrait swung open and Hermione climbed through, nodding at a few of the students on her way to her room. A few minutes later, winter cloak and coin pouch in hand, she was back out the door where Atreus waited, shifting his weight back and forth.
"Alright, I'm ready. Now what on earth has you thinking that the professor would want to hurt Katie, of all people?"
"Hold on, not here. I'll tell you in the carriage."
Impatiently, Hermione waited until they had left the castle and were seated in one of the carriages before gesturing at him. "Well?"
"Here's the thing... like I said, I happened to find out some things I'm not supposed to. I think... I think Dumbledore might be mistaken about him."
Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Atreus cut her off. "Look, just... hear me out. I think Malfoy is a Death Eater, or if not, he's close to it. I know he's running errands and being given assignments and punishments of some kind from You-Know-Who. And... the professor... Over the summer he made an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy.. Like, he'll actually die if he doesn't do what he promised. He was really sick, too. Like... I don't know, maybe he was cursed, or maybe almost breaking a different oath. I don't know, but he looked awful, like on death's door."
His head shook quickly and his fingers worried at the edge of his cloak. "I can't help but think... that's when I got sick, too. Nothing helped, and Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out why, and what if... what if it was because of him? What if we're... connected, so that his oaths and curses affect me, too? I just... I don't know. What I saw... Hermione, it didn't seem like he was just pretending to be on their side.
"Then, barely a couple months after school starts, that girl gets cursed with a dark artifact and no one knows how she could have got it... " He gulped. "What if that's Malfoy's task? What if... What if he was told to try to curse Muggleborns or blood-traitors or something?"
Hermione stared at the boy next to her, unable to close her mouth or come up with a reply. They sat like that for the last couple of minutes to Hogsmeade. Atreus continued to fiddle with his clothes and belt pouch whilst she stared at him in shock. When they eventually stopped, and he jumped out and turned to help her down, she finally found her voice.
"Alright, I guess... Let's start from the beginning. How long ago did you find all this out?"
He looked away, then back at her, his cheeks flushing a little. "About a month? I've been helping the professor a bit in his private lab, and I... Well, I sort of stumbled across some memories he'd put aside. I think perhaps to hide them from Professor Dumbledore. I didn't want to say anything, though, until I'd thought about it a bit."
Hermione closed her eyes and groaned. "Oh, Atreus." If only her boyfriend knew just how similar he and Harry actually were.
He had the grace to look embarrassed, his eyes shifting down as they started off down the main road of the village, then jerked a hand through the air. "Look, I know I shouldn't have, but just... focus for a minute. In one of the memories I saw, he was living at my parents’ old hovel in Manchester with Pettigrew. Pettigrew of all people, that boot-licking little louse, and he was really sick. Then the Black sisters, Narcissa and Bellatrix showed up. Bellatrix accused him of being a traitor and they started arguing about whether or not he was loyal to the Dark Lord. He was really persuasive, Hermione."
She glanced over at him and caught his anxious expression. She gripped his hand harder, trying to soothe him. "Well, of course he must. I mean, that's part of his job, right? He's got to be
convincing if he's going to make even You-Know-Who think he's on their side."
Atreus shook his head. "I know. Except then, Narcissa started crying and said that the Dark Lord was giving Malfoy impossible tasks to punish his dad, and started begging the professor to help. At one point, I thought it was over. He told her she shouldn't talk about it since the Dark Lord told her not to, and Bellatrix agreed. He could've just sent them on their way. Instead... instead he said he would help Malfoy. Then took an Unbreakable Vow to do it. Why would he do that if he didn't have to? Why, if he wasn't really on their side? He had a way out!"
Hermione chewed her lip. "I... I don't know. I mean... we don't know what Malfoy's assignment is, and the professor presumably does. Maybe it's just brewing a really, really dangerous potion that could kill Malfoy or something. Something he can't do on his own but Professor Snape can help with, and he's not really promising anything that will hurt anyone."
For a minute, Atreus looked hopeful. "You think?'
"Maybe. Have you asked him?"
The look he shot her was scathing.
"No, of course not, sorry, that was a silly question." Hermione thought for a moment. "How about Madam Pomfrey? You two are close, and she's known him--you--this whole time, lived in the same castle as him for years. She still obviously cares. Maybe she'd have some insight?"
Atreus sighed. "Maybe. I don't know, I'm not even supposed to know about it. Do you think she'd tell him?"
Hermione shrugged helplessly. "You know her better than I."
"Mmmm." He held open the door of Scrivenshaft's for her. "Perhaps I'll have a swallow of the Felix Felicius just before," he reflected. "Not the whole thing, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to give myself just a bit of an edge. She's fond of me, but not enough that she'd run her mouth about his secrets to a teenager."
Hermione could only stare in surprised amusement, stifling the urge to giggle. It took him nearly a minute before he looked up from the shop's quill selection and realised she was watching him instead of perusing the wares herself. His eyes darted about, then looked down at his clothes, trying to ascertain what she thought was funny.
"Something wrong?" He finally asked.
Hermione shook her head. "I just...sometimes you say or do things that remind me so much of Harry that I think it's actually a bit of a wonder that the two of you don't get along. Then you go and say something like that."
Atreus drew himself up to his full height, clearly offended. "What, Potter?"
Hermione laughed, unable to help herself, and turned to face the selection of quills, admiring a long pheasant one that had been charmed to improve one's flourishes. "Yes, Harry. He's cleverer than you give him credit for, you know. Sometimes I honestly think he might have made a good Slytherin."
Atreus snorted disbelievingly, and selected a standard package of five uncharmed goose quills, carefully eyeing the tips for deficiencies. "He's good at potions, I'll give him that, but I doubt he'd last a day in Slytherin."
Hermione tried not to visibly wince. Keeping Harry's potions perfidy a secret from Atreus had been getting increasingly harder and more troubling as the year went on. "You might be surprised," she said instead, copying Atreus' selection, and adding the pheasant quill as well.
"His Muggle family aren't exactly the open and warm sort. He spent a good portion of his childhood sneaking about and snooping in through their things; playing with his cousin's toys when the family was out. Then he got here, and from what I've seen, Professor Dumbledore has only encouraged his bad habits. I don't think Harry even realises that it's wrong to invade people's privacy the way he does, he only feels bad when he gets caught. Then, too, he also is convinced he's going to save the wizarding world from an evil dictator. You have to admit that's an ambitious goal. The place where it all derails for him is that he doesn't always remember to take clever planning as seriously as he should."
Atreus threw up his free hand as they made their way back to the cashier and paid for their quills. "Alright, alright, he's not quite as awful as I first thought. I've been trying, haven't I?" He groused. "I went to Zonkos with you lot last Hogsmeade weekend and didn't hex either one of them. Can we not talk about Potter?"
Hermione laughed and then abruptly shivered when the cold, November air hit them outside the shop again. "Honeydukes?"
"Yes, you need another sugar quill."
"I do?" Hermione asked, genuinely confused, "Why?"
The look Atreus gave her in return was positively lecherous. "Let's just say I'm masochistic and love watching the way you eat them."
Hermione blinked, recalling the way she typically devoured sugar quills, nibbling at the delicate sugary feathers edges until only the shaft was left to suck like a lolly, and then blushed as she realised that was precisely the part he was most likely referring to.
"I swear," she told him haughtily, "you can make the most innocent thing about sex."
"I guarantee you, there isn't a bloke at Hogwarts who doesn't buy his girlfriend sugar quills on purpose," Severus defended firmly. "It's one of my favourite things to think about when I... well, you know."
Hermione grimaced, then laughed helplessly. "No, really?"
"Hmmm." He gave her a sideways glance, as if unsure he should say it, then answered, "Well, obviously it's lately been mostly about your tits now that you've let me see them."
"Atreus!"
"No one's listening! Besides, you have to admit you'd probably be a bit offended if I didn't think about your tits." He gave her jumper a fond look, obviously picturing them through the cloth. "They're absolutely perfect, you know, all soft and round and just… perfect." He sighed, "I've been imagining getting your shirt off again ever since. This time all the way off, so I can really see and play with them properly. I don't think I've wanked so much in my life as this last week."
"Atreus, stop talking about it, you're embarrassing me!" she hissed.
He grinned. "Only if you let me buy you a box of sugar quills and watch you eat every single one."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, then thought about how much fun it would be to torture Atreus Prince with a sugar quill right in the middle of History of Magic. "Done."
Did you miss me? ;-)
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