Firebolt: Harry Potter Fic
Author: Bitterfig
Title: Firebolt
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Severus Snape, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood
Summery: Set during Deathly Hallows. When Headmaster Snape shows leniency after the theft of Gryffindor’s sword, Ginny begins to pursue him in a relentless attempt to uncover his motivations.
Beta-reader: kethlenda
Word Count: 2286
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Deathly Hallows spoilers, angst, sexual connotations and some mildly grotesque imagery.
Author’s Note: Written for hallowedmoments for dizilla’s prompt #60-Ginny stalks Snape after being "punished" wanting to know why he's been lenient? Finds out maybe he's not all he appears to be. This is also being used for #023: Hair at 100_women. (click here to see my 100_women progress chart).
This story is continued in Celestial and Ginger.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any illegal acts taking place within that fiction are NOT condoned by the author. Depictions of any questionable, illegal, or potentially illegal activity in said fiction does not mean that I condone, promote, support, participate in, or approve of said activity. I grasp the distinction between fiction and reality and trust that readers will do the same. I do not profit from the fan fiction I write, and all rights to the characters remain firmly in the hands of their creator.
Firebolt
She was a Firebolt.
That was the image that came to Snape as Ginny Weasley bore down upon him.
It was the first day of the school year. The Sorting and the welcoming feast had gone off without incident but now in the empty corridor Ginny Weasley approached him like a Fury, her jaw set ferociously, her red hair blazing out behind her, and her burning eyes fixed on him.
She stopped short before her new Headmaster. She was so small, but she seemed to glower and glow bright as a torch before his shadowy self. She was rather impressive, even imposing. She might have inspired in him awe mixed with fear except that she was a ridiculous sixteen year old girl from a ridiculous family. He had infinitely more important things to deal with such as running a school, deceiving a powerful dark wizard and delivering her wretched boyfriend up for his heroic martyrdom.
“What do you want, Miss Weasley?” He sneered at the girl.
“My brother sends his regards,” she said. Her voice was steady and full of contempt.
Then she threw a severed ear in his face and stalked regally away.
The ear, it turned out, wasn’t the real thing but a novelty designed for eavesdropping and doubtless invented by one of her troublesome brothers. Still, real or not, it was a clear indication that Ginny Weasley was going to be a serious problem.
And indeed she was. In the first weeks of the semester Ginny, along with Neville Longbottom (who Snape had always regarded a hopeless milquetoast) and the Lovegood girl (who apparently did have some connection to reality after all) emerged as the most visible dissenters among the Hogwarts students.
They were innocent and ignorant enough to actually believe that they could make a difference, that their non-compliance would do anything beyond making life more difficult for them.
More difficult for them and for him.
Snape had no affection for young people. He hadn’t enjoyed being one and he’d never liked being surrounded by them. Even so he took no pleasure in their systematic oppression or in the unabashedly sadistic glee the Carrows took in enforcing discipline. He had no desire to see Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood or any of the students in his charge beaten senseless or chained to the wall. Still, he couldn’t afford to appear lenient, sympathetic, or weak in any way.
The first few times Ginny was caught breaking the rules, Snape passed her along for Minerva McGonagall to deal with. In thanks he received looks of withering contempt from both the woman and the girl. He expected no less. He was a murderer and if there was a reign of terror underway at Hogwarts, it was his reign.
Then there was the attempted the theft of Godric Gryffindor’s sword from Headmaster’s office by Ginny, Luna and Neville.
They could not have made a more damaging move if they had been deliberately setting out to upset Dumbledore’s carefully laid plans. The last thing Snape needed was attention being called to Gryffindor’s sword. The simple fact was that the weapon hanging in his office that the students had gone to so much effort to steal wasn’t the real thing. Luckily no one noticed. If they had he would have been as good as dead and all Dumbledore’s years of careful planning shot to hell.
As for Ginny, Luna and Neville, he was bitterly angry over what they had done and sorely tempted to deal with them so harshly they would not cause further trouble but he found he didn’t have the stomach for it. He more or less granted them amnesty, detention with Hagrid.
His unexpected leniency did not escape notice. The Carrows complained bitterly and even Voldemort himself mentioned it.
“You surprise me, Severus.” The Dark Lord sneered. “I’d expected a firmer hand. Then he’d laughed, drawing close as he did when he was playing. “Is it the little girl, Potter’s castoff? You fancy redheads, as I remember. Perhaps something could be arranged this time.”
“You are too generous, my Lord,” Snape whispered though it turned his stomach to think of it. Voldemort laughed, mistaking Snape’s trepidation for eagerness, but then his face grew dark.
“I must admit, Severus, I thought you were above such things.” Voldemort said. “When you came to me you were a hungry child who cared about nothing but personal gain and settling your petty grudges. I had thought you moved beyond that, that you’d come to appreciate my mission for its own sake and to serve me because it was right. It disappoints me to know that even part of you is still greedy little Snivellus who wants to play with the Potter boy’s pretty toys.”
“Forgive my failings, my Lord.”
It was humiliating and he very much hoped it was the end of the matter until just days later as he entered the Great Hall for breakfast Ginny Weasley once again came blazing at him.
“Why did you let us off?” she demanded in a loud, clear voice that carried through the entire room.
“You’re mistaken, Miss Weasley,” he said. He would have liked to have clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her from the hall but he remained calm and condescending. “You’ve been given detention with the Groundskeeper.”
“And that’s supposed to be a punishment?”
“I can hardly think of anything more dangerous and unpleasant than the company of that great, stupid oaf.”
“What are you playing at, Snape?”
He grabbed her by her wrist and dragged her into the hallway. She was stronger than he expected and struggled against him like a little animal.
“Listen here, Miss Weasley,” Snape hissed at her when they were alone. “From now on you will keep your mouth shut and do as you are told or I can not be held responsible for what happens to you. Do you understand?”
“No, I don’t understand. Why did you go so easy on us? Have you made my Dad pay you something?” She demanded. Snape laughed harshly.
“As if he could afford it.”
Hate blazed in her eyes.
“I never trusted you,” she snarled. “When you were in the Order, Mum said we ought to give you a chance but I always knew you were a rotten sneak.”
“Then you win a gold star. Stay out of my way.”
She didn’t. She stayed in his way. In the weeks that followed she dogged his steps. She watched and listened and followed him everywhere. Often, when he knew she ought to be in class he would catch a glimpse of her damned red head ducking out of sight. Whenever this happened he would find his hands clenched into fists and he would tremble with anger.
His anger was with himself as much as with her. She was, after all innocent and ignorant. How could she know he was acting with her best interests in mind? He on the other hand, by now he ought to be able to handle being misunderstood.
She wanted him to know she was watching him, but Ginny Weasley could also be as sneaky as Severus Snape had ever hoped to be. She was one more thing he had to be vigilant of. He suspected she had gotten into his chambers. One night he noticed the subtlest disturbance to his personal effects-books on the shelf in a slightly different order then he remembered, a drawer that had been ajar now completely closed. After that he warded his rooms with so many protective spells he might have been hiding the Sorcerer's Stone there but he knew it was too late. She had been there.
What had she found?
What was there to find? He had put nothing related to Dumbledore’s plans down on paper. Still, there were other things he wished to keep to himself.
Winter came early that year. Perhaps it was the chill of the Dementors. The first snows began in October; icy mists shrouded the grounds. For the most part students and faculty alike stayed inside. Hogwarts felt more a prison than a school and although Severus Snape was believed to be the warden he often felt like just another prisoner.
One night the sense of being trapped overwhelmed him and despite the snow and icy cold he left the castle and walked the grounds well into the night, circling the dark lake.
The crashing of waves against the stony shore drowned out their footsteps. When he turned they were before him. The glowering little Firebolt that was Ginny Weasley, cloaked in crimson and beside her, looking pale and worn with a bruise across her cheek was Luna Lovegood.
“You’ve followed me…” Snape said.
The Lovegood girl shook her head.
“We were here first,” she said softly. “We heard you coming.”
“What’s happened to you?” He demanded.
“Miss Carrow slapped her,” Ginny said brashly. “She was going to hit a first year girl but Luna got in her way.”
“I know you do your best,” Luna said. “But you can’t always protect us.”
Snape’s blood froze but Ginny Weasley rolled her eyes as if Luna was talking nonsense. His moment’s anxiety passed and he spoke to them sternly.
“If Miss Lovegood has been hurt, she ought to go to the hospital wing and be attended to by Madame Pomfrey, not running about the grounds in the dark. What are you up to?”
“You want to know what we're up to?” Ginny snapped, her eyes flashing fire. “I’ll tell you what we’re up to.” She reached in the pocket of her coat and pulled out something wrapped up in a handkerchief. “I was showing my friend something. Maybe you recognize it, Headmaster.”
He recognized it all right. It was one of his most cherished possessions.
Ginny Weasley held a lock of orange hair. It was Lily Evans’. She had cut her hair the summer between third and fourth years. He had shyly asked her for a bit of it and she had given it to him but only in exchange for a lock of his own hair.
“You vicious, underhanded bitch…” He forgot himself entirely, forgot that he was Headmaster and she was a student, and forgot that she was young, innocent and ignorant. He lunged at Ginny, he would have happily hurt her if Luna Lovegood hadn’t stepped between them. .
“Don’t,” Luna said. Her eyes were huge and frightened in her pale face but she leveled her wand steadily at him.
“Give me that, you thief,” Snape screamed at Ginny. “You have no right to it.”
“I’m a thief?” She yelled back. “I have no right? You have no right. It’s mine and you stole it from me, you pervert. I’ve heard all the Carrows' nasty talk about how you’ve got plans for me.”
“That’s what you think?” His anger drained away leaving him in sick horror. “You think I stole your hair because I have some kind of designs on you?”
It did look like her hair. She was so much like Lily.
“Miss Carrow told me straight out you let us off for stealing the sword because you fancy having Harry and You Know Who’s cast-off as your own.” Ginny went on. “Disgusting, filthy man. I hate you. I hate you so much but I’ll let you have me. I’ll be your toy. I’ll even pretend to like it, but don’t think you can have me for nothing. You have to get rid of the Carrows and you have to help Harry…”
By now he ought to have been used to being misunderstood. He ought to have been too far gone to care. After all, hadn’t Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him instead of allowing the Malfoy boy to do it because Severus Snape’s soul was already ripped and frayed by evil deeds? Yet to know Ginny Weasley thought of him this way tore him even more. And even worse, believing this of him, she was still offering herself to him. She was brave and stupid and blazing a fiery course towards disaster. Someone had to stop her before she managed to destroy herself and everything he’d been working towards.
Ginny unbuttoned her coat, then her blouse. She stood before him in the cold, laid open to her bra offering up her pale, freckled breasts.
“Is this what you’re hoping for?” Ginny snarled. “They’re yours for the taking…”
“Cover yourself up immediately, Miss Weasley.” Snape ordered. To have this girl, so much like Lily, offer herself as Lily never had but with hatred in her eyes, it was unbearable to him.
“What’s the matter,” Ginny taunted. “Are you afraid to cross your Lord and Master? Come on, Severus,” she spat. “Don’t you aspire to more than being You Know Who’s favorite lapdog? Power hungry Slytherin loves those with great ambition…”
“Ginny, stop.” Luna interrupted her voice soft but firm. “You’re hurting him.”
“What are you talking about?” Ginny asked. “Are you mental?”
“I don’t think so. Look, you’re hurting him.”
And Ginny looked. Looked at him, looked through him, saw in his face and the dark emptiness of his eyes that he was hurt, that he was alone, that he had been for a very long time. And because in her heart she was kind, Ginny’s anger fell away and she looked on him with compassion, with sympathy, with a desire to understand.
That was the one thing that could not be.
It was necessary that he be misunderstood or everything would be lost.
Snape’s wand was in his hand.
“Expelliarmus,” he said. Luna had long since dropped her guard and the wand flew from her hands.
“Stupefy.”
The girls fell to the ground like broken dolls.
To be continued…..
(Click here to read Celestial and Ginger, the continuation of this story.)