A/n - Keat's poem La Belle Dame, sans Merci is what this little poem I penned is based on. In that poem, and this poem, the first three stanzas are from the point of view of the 'observer'. In mine the observer is an an omniscent narrator. Everything that follows these three stanzas is Severus speaking.

Beta by Innogen

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La Belle Hermione, sans Merci

“Pray what troubles you, Potions sir,
So lonely here on Hogwarts' grounds?
The Octopus long swam away
And no owls sound.

My! What can bother you so, sir,
So pale, and oh! so sickly-wrought,
The Whomping Willow is unleaved*,
The pumpkins have been plot.

The pale petal does paint your face,
The wetness perspires from your brow,
And your cheeks so sallow faded,
As your head does bow.”

“I met a student on these grounds
Full of brains - this Muggle child
Her hair bushy, her eyes so brown,
And her robes plainly styled.

I walked to her very quickly,
Having watched her oft’ so long
She was sitting down with her book,
Humming a sad song.

I cast a spell to crown her hair
With buds of small fragrant flowers.
She viewed me as if reading through
All my false glowers.

We conspired on the hills and picked
Components for my Potions stew.
She looked at me as if to say
I love you too!

One night, late returned from the woods,
She brought me to her Head Girl’s room
And there I kissed her wild, tired eyes -
Inviting doom.

We tumbled in her small, school bed
And I stayed to dream beside her
It was the last dream that I dreamed
And the last time that I saw her.

I glimpsed the Headmaster ov’r me
And the Professors when I woke.
“La belle Hermione, sans Merci
Hath fooled thee,” they bespoke.

I saw their anger flash and stare
Whils’t their revulsion grew so much
When I dared to slip from her bed
Having presumed to take a touch.

This is where I have loitered since,
Alone and wandering this ground.
The Octopus long swam away
As I slip deep and drown.”

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*unleaved - from Hopkin's Spring and Fall