It's All Fun and Games Until... Part 3
May. 28th, 2005 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darnedchildSummary: Answer to WIKTT Fun and Games Challenge. Severus is forced to spend the day with several students, including the ever annoying Miss Granger.
Rating: R
A/N - Anything you recognize, I don't own. The Harry Potter-verse belongs to J.K. Rowlings. Chapter One was first published on 3/25/04.
Prof. Plum in the Library with the Rope
Albus Dumbledore was going to die.
Severus didn’t have to be a seer to foretell Albus’ slow and hopefully hideously painful death because Severus had every intention of poisoning the ancient Headmaster at the earliest opportunity.
But first he had to escape from this bloody room!
His fist closed around the remnants of Albus’ missive. Severus had taken great pleasure in methodically ripping the letter into tiny pieces. Doing so had accomplished nothing toward getting him out of his present situation, but it made him feel marginally better.
If only he could forget the contents of the letter as easily as he’d destroyed the parchment it was written on.
Severus,
I am disappointed. I had believed we had reached an understanding about your participation in Fun Day. You were to make an attempt to enjoy yourself, or, barring that, not to do anything to dampen the enjoyment of the others.
Yet, if you are reading this, someone tried to leave within the first hour. (I have my suspicions as to whom.)
I’m afraid that this is not acceptable.
I have placed several wards on the room. The door will not open until either my condition has been met or I grow bored with your sullen pouting and I decide to assign you another activity you will like far less.
I advise you to choose the first option.
My condition is simple. I want every person in the room, including yourself, to embrace the spirit of Interhouse Leadership Fund day and to have fun.
I can practically hear you grumbling about that “crazy old man.” The crazy old man has his reason, Severus, I assure you.
The other instructors have assured me that they found Fun Day to be an entertaining diversion, and before you ask – no, I do not think they all lied.
Please, Severus, give it a chance.
Or else.
A.D.
The other occupants of the room had taken the (extremely edited and heavily paraphrased) news fairly well. There was only fifteen minutes or so of mad scrambling and frantic casting from almost everyone.
He couldn’t help but notice that during the mini-riot Granger remained calm. While everyone else gathered at the door, she turned the chair Draco had been in to face the mob and sat.
Her behavior drew him across the room to her side, a small part of him listening to the chaos at the door, prepared to intervene if someone managed to get hit by a wayward spell.
“You are handling imprisonment in a deceptively calm manner.” Severus eyed her with contempt. "Holding in the hysterics until everyone else has worn themselves out so you can, once again, be the center of attention?”
He could see her left eye twitch as his words hit home. His vague feeling of self satisfaction began to fade as Granger lifted her chin to look him square in the face. A soft, knowing smile broke free from the compressed line of her lips and Severus felt a shiver of apprehension run down his spine.
“You, better than anyone, should know how futile it is to fight one of the Headmaster’s decisions. If he says he’s warded the room so that the door will not open, then nothing I say or do will make the door unlock.” Her smile had spread into a smirk.
Severus had a momentary flash of panic that the chit knew something he didn’t. Something important.
“Honestly, how do you think he manages to get all of us here every month? Sure, the first time was different and fun, but each of us has friends and responsibilities. We don’t have the time to waste an entire day playing board games.”
Severus froze at the revelation. He’d always assumed...
Granter nodded to her classmates, who had given up on escape and were listening to her impassioned speech. “Almost no one showed up the second month, but Professor Dumbledore refused to consider canceling Fun Day. He started putting pressure on our heads of house.”
“Who turned right around and put pressure on us.” MacMillian leaned against the back of the sofa and grimaced. “We all finally broke down and agreed to show up. Of course, when we came back we changed a few things.”
Granger nodded again. “That reminds me, we need to do the oath.”
Severus was having difficulty digesting the new information. The students were just as reluctant to be here as he was, it seemed.
Draco took a seat on the couch and made himself comfortable. The Weasley girl settled on to the cushion near him; judging from the shy smile on her face, Draco had another admirer.
She took a deep breath, apparently gathering her courage, and turned toward the blond Slytherin. He looked almost as surprised as she when the teasing, almost flirty words slipped past her lips.
“You should consider yourself lucky, Draco. Up until today your head of house was the only one able to stand up to the Headmaster. I believe this is the first time anyone from Slytherin has shown up.”
Severus barely contained a snort of surprise. They think I’ve been defying Albus this whole time? What utter nonsense. Albus never mentioned... Although... He does bring Fun Day up at least once a month and I do tune him out when he starts yammering about interhouse harmony.
The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea that the students saw him as a dark rebel, which had a much nicer ring than the truth – he’d been more concerned with the Daily Prophet’s crossword than Albus’ ranting.
Severus surreptitiously looked around to see if anyone noticed his momentary confusion. All eyes were on the odd pair on the sofa. All except Granger. She was looking up at him, her lower lip tucked between her straight, white teeth. He seemed to recall that they were once ... larger? He frowned as he rifled through his memory, looking for proof that he was correct.
Her cheeks flushed and the tip of her tongue darted out to sooth her lip. Severus felt the sudden change of awareness like a bolt of lightening through his body. Draco’s response and the resulting murmurs faded to a dull buzz as Severus’ world focused into the perplexing woman sitting before him.
Her lips parted and he could see the sheen of moisture left behind by the pass of her tongue. What would it feel like, to have her tongue run across my lips in the same way? My chest? Or, Merlin forbid, lower? The muscles in his gut tightened and his frown threatened to turn into a scowl.
Hermione’s lips moved, her words barely breaking through the feverish haze in his brain.
“... all right, Professor? We’re ready for the oath, but we can wait...”
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms, enfolding his robes around himself like dark wings. “What is this oath?”
Boot looked up from the refreshment table he was once again raiding. “It’s one of the changes Ernie was talking about, sir. Hermione set us up with it. Impeccable work, really.”
“Yes. Well, oath time.” Hermione’s voice was low and husky. Severus hardly recognized it as hers. The flush was back in her cheeks. Was she embarrassed by Boot’s praise? That doesn’t fit with the hand-waving show-off you remember, does it, Severus? Maybe she’s attracted to Boot?
For some reason that he refused to examine, the thought made him angry.
Drawing her wand, Hermione stood in front of the fireplace. “Most of you have done this before. Wands out please.” She waited for everyone to draw their wands and aim them at a common point directly in front of her own. Weasley leaned over to whisper into Draco’s ear and his wand joined the rest.
A moment passed in silence. Hermione cleared her throat.
Hermione? Granger, Severus – remember that talk you gave yourself last month? It is Granger.
Granger (That’s better.) cleared her throat again, this time the noise was accompanied by a slight wiggle of her wand.
Severus arched an eyebrow at her. “Is there something caught in your throat?”
She made a face that vaguely reminded him of Minerva after a bout with too much fiber. The mental comparison amused him.
“Your wand, sir.”
That’s when he noticed all the expectant faces watching; even Draco was making an impatient gesture with his wand.
“I am not swearing anything on my wand.” Severus found the entire idea preposterous. “I don’t even know what this oath is.” Distaste was very evident in his voice.
Herm ... Granger lowered her arm with a deep sigh that not only expressed her irritation at the delay but also drew his eyes to the momentary straining of the buttons on her shirt. To cover for his lapse in sanity, Severus sneered at the others until they too lowered their wands.
“It’s a simple pledge.” Her pedantic tone reminded him of someone, he just couldn’t place his finger on who. “What is said in the room, done in the room, stays in the room.”
Granger made eye contact with each person to emphasis what she was saying. “Breaking your word of honor will have painful consequences. Embarrassingly painful consequences.”
In spite of himself, Severus was intrigued. He had encountered idle threats before but Granger’s tone seemed to indicate she was stating fact rather than making threats.
“What kind of consequences?” Draco asked, sounding almost as curious as Severus was.
It was Patil (The Ravenclaw, Severus thought, although unless they were standing next to each other it was nearly impossible for him to be sure.) who answered. “Boils. Re-occurring, nearly incurable boils.”
Granger, who moments ago seemed determined to stare him down, suddenly found the stonework of the mantel to be highly fascinating.
Draco nearly laughed. “That’s it? Boils? That’s the horrible consequences?”
Patil grinned evilly at Draco. “As a Muggle friend of my aunt likes to say, location is everything. I can only imagine how difficult amore would be with a painful outbreak ... down there.”
Draco was horrified, and though he didn’t show it, Severus was disturbed as well. “No,” the blond shook his head vehemently. “I’m not doing it.”
Weasley placed her hand on Draco’s arm and issued a friendly smile obviously meant to disarm. “It’s fine, just don’t talk about the details and you’ll be fine. Everyone else has done it and we’ve never had a problem. Even the professors.”
“The professors went along with this?”
Granger spoke up. “It was Professor McGonagall’s idea to make the boils re-occurring and non-responsive to medication.”
“Minerva?” Severus was shocked; he hadn’t thought the spinster had it in her.
One of the students snickered at his outburst, but before he could pinpoint which one Granger responded. “I think she wanted to ensure that some things were never discussed outside of this room. And she helped with the wording for the provision about informing someone in authority when someone is in danger. We don’t just run wild with no regard for safety and rules; we are capable of policing ourselves.”
Severus refused to feel guilty because that was exactly what he had been envisioning.
“And the Headmaster allows this?”
The Hufflepuff girl, Abbott, shifted on the floor pillow she’d claimed as a seat. “Professor McGonagall said it’s more of an issue of what he doesn’t know won’t hurt us. It’s a compromise – we get to be silly and have fun without the weight of anyone’s disapproval and he gets to claim that Interhouse Leadership Fun Day is a success.”
“Without the oath we’ll all just spend the rest of the day reading and growing bored – no one will have fun and the door will never open. Sir.” Granger’s voice was pitched low and soft, for Severus’ ears only. He was sure there was a flaw to her logic somewhere, but he was too involved with ignoring the shiver of awareness to pinpoint it at the moment. “Professor McGonagall did this?”
Weasley began ticking off the fingers of one hand. “Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Madam Hooch did it twice, Professor Sinistra, Prof...”
“Fine,” Severus interrupted her. He lifted his wand and aimed it in Granger’s general direction. “Do it.”
He thought he caught a ghost of a smile on her face, it was only there for a millisecond before she lifted her own wand and indicated that everyone else should follow suit.
The words of the spell were almost impossible to hear as Granger was very nearly whispering the incantation. Severus caught a third of it only because his attention was riveted to the movement of her lips. For the spell, I’m watching her lips because of the spell, not because ... Now I’m lying to myself, what else is she going to drive me to?
There was a complicated flourish and then she held her wand out toward Boot. “Fide Mea,” she touched the tip of her wand to the Ravenclaw’s.
“Fide Mea,” he repeated. The tips of both wands glowed blue, and Severus noticed that the light issuing from Granger’s wand was brighter than Boot’s.
They stood that way for a few seconds until the light faded. Boot gave her an indulgent smile and Granger answered with a small nod before moving on to Abbott.
This time Abbott’s wand started out the brighter of the two. There was a small surge of power from Granger and Abbott’s glow immediately dimmed. Seconds later the light faded.
Abbott smiled self consciously, “Sorry.”
“It’s all right, it’s instinctive to fight it, we know that.” Granger reassured the other girl.
“Are you ready?” She stood in front of Draco. “The spell needs to override your natural aversion to the threat of punishment, and, at the same time, you have to willingly accept the oath. Once you say the words, you may feel some anxiety as the spell transfers from my wand to yours ... just like Hannah did. You may feel some of my energy attempting to override that anxiety. You’ll need to let the unease go and accept the spell.”
Draco looked toward Severus. At Severus’ small nod, Draco touched the tip of his wand to Hermione’s.
“Fide Mea.”
“Fide Mea.”
The blueish glows were nearly equal in intensity. The glow of one wand would increase before being overcome by the other. Severus could feel the vibration of power coming from the two as the small struggle of wills went on.
“Give in. Let her finish the spell.” Weasley leaned closer to Draco, careful not to touch him.
With a shuttered breath, Draco closed his eyes and the glow of his wand diminished. Granger lowered her wand once the spell was completed. “Okay?”
A curt nod was her only answer. Her back was to him and Severus noticed that she held her free hand slightly behind her. Her fingers were trembling.
Granger moved on to Weasley and lifted her wand. Before she could open her mouth to utter the spell, Severus stepped forward and placed a restraining hand on her forearm.
“Mister Boot, please pour a small glass of juice for Miss Granger.” Severus dropped his hand. “And Mister Malfoy. The natural sugars have often overlooked replenishing properties.”
He waited until she finished the juice before stepping back and allowing her to continue. She echoed Draco’s thanks, but refused to make eye contact. Odd girl. I just didn’t want to see her over-extend herself. Albus would surely be upset if I let Potter’s Brain hurt herself.
Soon enough Granger stepped into the space directly in front of him. There was the barest hesitation before she squared her shoulders and lifted her wand to him. He arched an eyebrow and defiantly offered his wand.
The last word barely slipped past his lips and he felt her. Her smell – sweet almond and french vanilla – was in his nostrils. The faint tickle of her curls were touching his cheeks. Her voice – the low, husky tone she had used earlier, the one that would haunt his dreams – caressed his ears in a seductive whisper, “Let me in. Accept it. Accept me. Let me in.”
Her lips weren’t moving, her face bathed in the eerie blue glow from their wands. His was definitely the more powerful of the two.
She bit her lower lip, and Severus felt an answering surge in his lower body. His light dimmed slightly as hers grew. Unable, and unwilling, to stop himself he put more will into fighting the spell.
Her eyes met his, chocolate to obsidian. Even though he could see her standing nearly a foot in front of him, he could feel her body brushing against his. The maddening whisper continued, “Let me in. Accept me. Want me. Let me in.”
He could hear someone asking what was wrong only to be hushed by Draco.
The glow burned brighter as the battle for dominance continued. Hermione’s eyelids shuttered until she was watching him through her lashes. Her lips parted, and Severus felt more than heard her gasping breath.
The light wavered and Severus realized that both their hands were trembling. The spell was affecting her just as powerfully as him. His concentration broke and Hermione cried out as the spell completed itself.
He had to steady himself as the connection ended. Hermione looked ready to drop at the slightest provocation, and he offered his arm to her for support. It was a testament to how draining the spell had been that she took it and shakily leaned against him as he lead her to the chair.
He turned to find Draco and Weasley waiting with glasses of juice. With a grudging nod of acknowledgment Severus accepted the glasses and handed one to the trembling woman in the chair. He quickly drained his own glass.
“More.”
Part 1 / Part 4
Rating: R
A/N - Anything you recognize, I don't own. The Harry Potter-verse belongs to J.K. Rowlings. Chapter One was first published on 3/25/04.
Prof. Plum in the Library with the Rope
Albus Dumbledore was going to die.
Severus didn’t have to be a seer to foretell Albus’ slow and hopefully hideously painful death because Severus had every intention of poisoning the ancient Headmaster at the earliest opportunity.
But first he had to escape from this bloody room!
His fist closed around the remnants of Albus’ missive. Severus had taken great pleasure in methodically ripping the letter into tiny pieces. Doing so had accomplished nothing toward getting him out of his present situation, but it made him feel marginally better.
If only he could forget the contents of the letter as easily as he’d destroyed the parchment it was written on.
Severus,
I am disappointed. I had believed we had reached an understanding about your participation in Fun Day. You were to make an attempt to enjoy yourself, or, barring that, not to do anything to dampen the enjoyment of the others.
Yet, if you are reading this, someone tried to leave within the first hour. (I have my suspicions as to whom.)
I’m afraid that this is not acceptable.
I have placed several wards on the room. The door will not open until either my condition has been met or I grow bored with your sullen pouting and I decide to assign you another activity you will like far less.
I advise you to choose the first option.
My condition is simple. I want every person in the room, including yourself, to embrace the spirit of Interhouse Leadership Fund day and to have fun.
I can practically hear you grumbling about that “crazy old man.” The crazy old man has his reason, Severus, I assure you.
The other instructors have assured me that they found Fun Day to be an entertaining diversion, and before you ask – no, I do not think they all lied.
Please, Severus, give it a chance.
Or else.
A.D.
The other occupants of the room had taken the (extremely edited and heavily paraphrased) news fairly well. There was only fifteen minutes or so of mad scrambling and frantic casting from almost everyone.
He couldn’t help but notice that during the mini-riot Granger remained calm. While everyone else gathered at the door, she turned the chair Draco had been in to face the mob and sat.
Her behavior drew him across the room to her side, a small part of him listening to the chaos at the door, prepared to intervene if someone managed to get hit by a wayward spell.
“You are handling imprisonment in a deceptively calm manner.” Severus eyed her with contempt. "Holding in the hysterics until everyone else has worn themselves out so you can, once again, be the center of attention?”
He could see her left eye twitch as his words hit home. His vague feeling of self satisfaction began to fade as Granger lifted her chin to look him square in the face. A soft, knowing smile broke free from the compressed line of her lips and Severus felt a shiver of apprehension run down his spine.
“You, better than anyone, should know how futile it is to fight one of the Headmaster’s decisions. If he says he’s warded the room so that the door will not open, then nothing I say or do will make the door unlock.” Her smile had spread into a smirk.
Severus had a momentary flash of panic that the chit knew something he didn’t. Something important.
“Honestly, how do you think he manages to get all of us here every month? Sure, the first time was different and fun, but each of us has friends and responsibilities. We don’t have the time to waste an entire day playing board games.”
Severus froze at the revelation. He’d always assumed...
Granter nodded to her classmates, who had given up on escape and were listening to her impassioned speech. “Almost no one showed up the second month, but Professor Dumbledore refused to consider canceling Fun Day. He started putting pressure on our heads of house.”
“Who turned right around and put pressure on us.” MacMillian leaned against the back of the sofa and grimaced. “We all finally broke down and agreed to show up. Of course, when we came back we changed a few things.”
Granger nodded again. “That reminds me, we need to do the oath.”
Severus was having difficulty digesting the new information. The students were just as reluctant to be here as he was, it seemed.
Draco took a seat on the couch and made himself comfortable. The Weasley girl settled on to the cushion near him; judging from the shy smile on her face, Draco had another admirer.
She took a deep breath, apparently gathering her courage, and turned toward the blond Slytherin. He looked almost as surprised as she when the teasing, almost flirty words slipped past her lips.
“You should consider yourself lucky, Draco. Up until today your head of house was the only one able to stand up to the Headmaster. I believe this is the first time anyone from Slytherin has shown up.”
Severus barely contained a snort of surprise. They think I’ve been defying Albus this whole time? What utter nonsense. Albus never mentioned... Although... He does bring Fun Day up at least once a month and I do tune him out when he starts yammering about interhouse harmony.
The more he thought about it the more he liked the idea that the students saw him as a dark rebel, which had a much nicer ring than the truth – he’d been more concerned with the Daily Prophet’s crossword than Albus’ ranting.
Severus surreptitiously looked around to see if anyone noticed his momentary confusion. All eyes were on the odd pair on the sofa. All except Granger. She was looking up at him, her lower lip tucked between her straight, white teeth. He seemed to recall that they were once ... larger? He frowned as he rifled through his memory, looking for proof that he was correct.
Her cheeks flushed and the tip of her tongue darted out to sooth her lip. Severus felt the sudden change of awareness like a bolt of lightening through his body. Draco’s response and the resulting murmurs faded to a dull buzz as Severus’ world focused into the perplexing woman sitting before him.
Her lips parted and he could see the sheen of moisture left behind by the pass of her tongue. What would it feel like, to have her tongue run across my lips in the same way? My chest? Or, Merlin forbid, lower? The muscles in his gut tightened and his frown threatened to turn into a scowl.
Hermione’s lips moved, her words barely breaking through the feverish haze in his brain.
“... all right, Professor? We’re ready for the oath, but we can wait...”
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms, enfolding his robes around himself like dark wings. “What is this oath?”
Boot looked up from the refreshment table he was once again raiding. “It’s one of the changes Ernie was talking about, sir. Hermione set us up with it. Impeccable work, really.”
“Yes. Well, oath time.” Hermione’s voice was low and husky. Severus hardly recognized it as hers. The flush was back in her cheeks. Was she embarrassed by Boot’s praise? That doesn’t fit with the hand-waving show-off you remember, does it, Severus? Maybe she’s attracted to Boot?
For some reason that he refused to examine, the thought made him angry.
Drawing her wand, Hermione stood in front of the fireplace. “Most of you have done this before. Wands out please.” She waited for everyone to draw their wands and aim them at a common point directly in front of her own. Weasley leaned over to whisper into Draco’s ear and his wand joined the rest.
A moment passed in silence. Hermione cleared her throat.
Hermione? Granger, Severus – remember that talk you gave yourself last month? It is Granger.
Granger (That’s better.) cleared her throat again, this time the noise was accompanied by a slight wiggle of her wand.
Severus arched an eyebrow at her. “Is there something caught in your throat?”
She made a face that vaguely reminded him of Minerva after a bout with too much fiber. The mental comparison amused him.
“Your wand, sir.”
That’s when he noticed all the expectant faces watching; even Draco was making an impatient gesture with his wand.
“I am not swearing anything on my wand.” Severus found the entire idea preposterous. “I don’t even know what this oath is.” Distaste was very evident in his voice.
Herm ... Granger lowered her arm with a deep sigh that not only expressed her irritation at the delay but also drew his eyes to the momentary straining of the buttons on her shirt. To cover for his lapse in sanity, Severus sneered at the others until they too lowered their wands.
“It’s a simple pledge.” Her pedantic tone reminded him of someone, he just couldn’t place his finger on who. “What is said in the room, done in the room, stays in the room.”
Granger made eye contact with each person to emphasis what she was saying. “Breaking your word of honor will have painful consequences. Embarrassingly painful consequences.”
In spite of himself, Severus was intrigued. He had encountered idle threats before but Granger’s tone seemed to indicate she was stating fact rather than making threats.
“What kind of consequences?” Draco asked, sounding almost as curious as Severus was.
It was Patil (The Ravenclaw, Severus thought, although unless they were standing next to each other it was nearly impossible for him to be sure.) who answered. “Boils. Re-occurring, nearly incurable boils.”
Granger, who moments ago seemed determined to stare him down, suddenly found the stonework of the mantel to be highly fascinating.
Draco nearly laughed. “That’s it? Boils? That’s the horrible consequences?”
Patil grinned evilly at Draco. “As a Muggle friend of my aunt likes to say, location is everything. I can only imagine how difficult amore would be with a painful outbreak ... down there.”
Draco was horrified, and though he didn’t show it, Severus was disturbed as well. “No,” the blond shook his head vehemently. “I’m not doing it.”
Weasley placed her hand on Draco’s arm and issued a friendly smile obviously meant to disarm. “It’s fine, just don’t talk about the details and you’ll be fine. Everyone else has done it and we’ve never had a problem. Even the professors.”
“The professors went along with this?”
Granger spoke up. “It was Professor McGonagall’s idea to make the boils re-occurring and non-responsive to medication.”
“Minerva?” Severus was shocked; he hadn’t thought the spinster had it in her.
One of the students snickered at his outburst, but before he could pinpoint which one Granger responded. “I think she wanted to ensure that some things were never discussed outside of this room. And she helped with the wording for the provision about informing someone in authority when someone is in danger. We don’t just run wild with no regard for safety and rules; we are capable of policing ourselves.”
Severus refused to feel guilty because that was exactly what he had been envisioning.
“And the Headmaster allows this?”
The Hufflepuff girl, Abbott, shifted on the floor pillow she’d claimed as a seat. “Professor McGonagall said it’s more of an issue of what he doesn’t know won’t hurt us. It’s a compromise – we get to be silly and have fun without the weight of anyone’s disapproval and he gets to claim that Interhouse Leadership Fun Day is a success.”
“Without the oath we’ll all just spend the rest of the day reading and growing bored – no one will have fun and the door will never open. Sir.” Granger’s voice was pitched low and soft, for Severus’ ears only. He was sure there was a flaw to her logic somewhere, but he was too involved with ignoring the shiver of awareness to pinpoint it at the moment. “Professor McGonagall did this?”
Weasley began ticking off the fingers of one hand. “Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Madam Hooch did it twice, Professor Sinistra, Prof...”
“Fine,” Severus interrupted her. He lifted his wand and aimed it in Granger’s general direction. “Do it.”
He thought he caught a ghost of a smile on her face, it was only there for a millisecond before she lifted her own wand and indicated that everyone else should follow suit.
The words of the spell were almost impossible to hear as Granger was very nearly whispering the incantation. Severus caught a third of it only because his attention was riveted to the movement of her lips. For the spell, I’m watching her lips because of the spell, not because ... Now I’m lying to myself, what else is she going to drive me to?
There was a complicated flourish and then she held her wand out toward Boot. “Fide Mea,” she touched the tip of her wand to the Ravenclaw’s.
“Fide Mea,” he repeated. The tips of both wands glowed blue, and Severus noticed that the light issuing from Granger’s wand was brighter than Boot’s.
They stood that way for a few seconds until the light faded. Boot gave her an indulgent smile and Granger answered with a small nod before moving on to Abbott.
This time Abbott’s wand started out the brighter of the two. There was a small surge of power from Granger and Abbott’s glow immediately dimmed. Seconds later the light faded.
Abbott smiled self consciously, “Sorry.”
“It’s all right, it’s instinctive to fight it, we know that.” Granger reassured the other girl.
“Are you ready?” She stood in front of Draco. “The spell needs to override your natural aversion to the threat of punishment, and, at the same time, you have to willingly accept the oath. Once you say the words, you may feel some anxiety as the spell transfers from my wand to yours ... just like Hannah did. You may feel some of my energy attempting to override that anxiety. You’ll need to let the unease go and accept the spell.”
Draco looked toward Severus. At Severus’ small nod, Draco touched the tip of his wand to Hermione’s.
“Fide Mea.”
“Fide Mea.”
The blueish glows were nearly equal in intensity. The glow of one wand would increase before being overcome by the other. Severus could feel the vibration of power coming from the two as the small struggle of wills went on.
“Give in. Let her finish the spell.” Weasley leaned closer to Draco, careful not to touch him.
With a shuttered breath, Draco closed his eyes and the glow of his wand diminished. Granger lowered her wand once the spell was completed. “Okay?”
A curt nod was her only answer. Her back was to him and Severus noticed that she held her free hand slightly behind her. Her fingers were trembling.
Granger moved on to Weasley and lifted her wand. Before she could open her mouth to utter the spell, Severus stepped forward and placed a restraining hand on her forearm.
“Mister Boot, please pour a small glass of juice for Miss Granger.” Severus dropped his hand. “And Mister Malfoy. The natural sugars have often overlooked replenishing properties.”
He waited until she finished the juice before stepping back and allowing her to continue. She echoed Draco’s thanks, but refused to make eye contact. Odd girl. I just didn’t want to see her over-extend herself. Albus would surely be upset if I let Potter’s Brain hurt herself.
Soon enough Granger stepped into the space directly in front of him. There was the barest hesitation before she squared her shoulders and lifted her wand to him. He arched an eyebrow and defiantly offered his wand.
The last word barely slipped past his lips and he felt her. Her smell – sweet almond and french vanilla – was in his nostrils. The faint tickle of her curls were touching his cheeks. Her voice – the low, husky tone she had used earlier, the one that would haunt his dreams – caressed his ears in a seductive whisper, “Let me in. Accept it. Accept me. Let me in.”
Her lips weren’t moving, her face bathed in the eerie blue glow from their wands. His was definitely the more powerful of the two.
She bit her lower lip, and Severus felt an answering surge in his lower body. His light dimmed slightly as hers grew. Unable, and unwilling, to stop himself he put more will into fighting the spell.
Her eyes met his, chocolate to obsidian. Even though he could see her standing nearly a foot in front of him, he could feel her body brushing against his. The maddening whisper continued, “Let me in. Accept me. Want me. Let me in.”
He could hear someone asking what was wrong only to be hushed by Draco.
The glow burned brighter as the battle for dominance continued. Hermione’s eyelids shuttered until she was watching him through her lashes. Her lips parted, and Severus felt more than heard her gasping breath.
The light wavered and Severus realized that both their hands were trembling. The spell was affecting her just as powerfully as him. His concentration broke and Hermione cried out as the spell completed itself.
He had to steady himself as the connection ended. Hermione looked ready to drop at the slightest provocation, and he offered his arm to her for support. It was a testament to how draining the spell had been that she took it and shakily leaned against him as he lead her to the chair.
He turned to find Draco and Weasley waiting with glasses of juice. With a grudging nod of acknowledgment Severus accepted the glasses and handed one to the trembling woman in the chair. He quickly drained his own glass.
“More.”
Part 1 / Part 4