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Eavesdropper by Titania [Reviews - 35]


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A/N: This is inspired by Miri Tiazan, who wondered about the conversation the led up to ‘Crackers’. I hope that this is to you’re liking, Miri.




Eavesdropper
The Prequel to Crackers, A One Shot


“For fuck sake, Hermione!” Harry Potter growled. “Why are you always taking up for him?”

Angry green eyes met indignant brown eyes, each pair boring into the other, neither pair blinking. Hermione Granger, age twenty-one, stood straight and tall. Her arms were folded against her chest, and beneath her voluminous robes, her left foot was tapping an impatient cadence against the carpeted floor.

Ronald Bilius Weasley, stood off to one side, shaking his head. He had been on the receiving end of Hermione’s temper enough times to know that Harry had taken things entirely too far. He also knew that warning Harry off of Hermione was pointless. He was much better off staying out of the matter, instead choosing to observe. If anything, he would be able to keep wands from being drawn. He flinched, as Hermione drew breath and in what he thought was a reasonably calm tone, said;

“Harold James Potter, I am ashamed of you! How can you, after all of these years, still live under the illusion that Severus is still the evil, greasy git of the dungeons, who is out to get you at every turn? Have not his actions in the war and final battle changed you’re opinion of him in the slightest?”

“No, I do not!” Harry replied loudly. “Sure, he may have been useful as a spy, and as a Potions master, but that does not excuse the fact that he killed Albus Dumbledore! I won’t even bring up the deeds he is sure to have done as a Death Eater. Yet you continue to work with this monster, to defend him, even though the war is over! How can you stand it? How can you choose him over Ron and me?”

Ron, who had been listening to Harry’s words, and observing Hermione, thought that he had perhaps better speak in his own defense. Especially now that Hermione had turned her eyes on him, eyes that shone in anger and indignation.

“Don’t bring me into this, mate,” he said softly, raising his hands in defense. “Hermione has to do what makes her happy. Besides, Snape is a Potions master, so what better choice has she for someone to apprentice under.”


“Traitors!” Harry spat. “You’re both traitors!”

“Oi!” Ron shouted indignantly.

“Harry!” shouted Hermione, in unison.

Silence fell over the room.

With hands balled into fists, Harry barged his way past Hermione, and yanked open the door.

Turning to his friends, he quietly said, “I’m done with this, with both of you.”

The door slammed closed behind him, and Hermione promptly burst into tears.

~*~

Severus Snape was not having a good day.

This was apparent to all who knew him, by the way he was gliding through the hallway of Twelve, Grimmauld Place, in the direction of the study. His strides were even wider than usual, and the expression on his face was even grimmer. Those whom he had just left in the kitchen, where he had Floo’ed in just a few minutes earlier, laid the blame solely at the feet of Hermione Granger. It was, after all, her name that he had been muttering as he glanced about the room with an icy look, before turning on his heels and leaving. The fact that the door did not slam behind him, sent shivers of fear up the spines of his most recent batch of students. Fred and George, who promptly excused themselves after pointing him in the way of the study, Apparated away. Neither of them wished to remain behind to witness the conflagration that inevitably occurred whenever Hermione Granger and Severus Snape were in the same room.

In the hall outside of the study, the wizard, known in totally un-affectionate terms as “The Git”, had raised his hand to knock. But, his hand was stilled by the sound of weeping, and the soothing sound of a male voice, emanating from within.

‘Curious,’ he thought as he assumed his long habitual spy persona, and pressed his ear to the closed door.

“There, there. Don’t cry, Hermione,” sounded the soothing voice of what was surely Ronald Weasley. “He didn’t mean it.”

Severus choked back a snort at the boy’s attempt to placate the young woman, who was currently wailing away-undoubtedly in the arms of the red headed menace. Severus envisioned him patting her back in an awkward fashion, his face flushed red as he held her close. Severus tamped down the desire to burst into the room and hex the Weasley boy for daring to touch Hermione Granger, the temptation of hearing her reply was too great for him to make his presence known. Besides, the pair had just had a fight with Potter, and Severus was eager to hear about it.

“Oh Ron!” he heard her say softly. “How can he be so stupid about this? Doesn’t he realize that this is something that I’ve always wanted? How can he continue to be so, so! Blast it all!”

Beyond the door, began the sound of pacing feet. Severus closed his eyes and pictured her thus, her body tense, her arms folded, her eyes snapping, pacing the floor in her anger. Weasley, he thought, was surely following her with his eyes, for he had done it enough himself in their time together as lab partners.

“Look, Hermione,” said the tired sounding voice of the boy. “ And don’t take offence by what I am about to say, but we, that is Harry and I , have been wondering about you and Snape. I mean, you two have been working together a lot, and yes I know that Snape really is one of the good guys, but lately, every time one of us says something bad about him, you fly off the handle.”

Beyond the door, the pacing stopped. Severus could practically see her whirling around to face Ronald, her mouth open and eyebrow arched.

“See?” said his voice. “You even cock your brow like he does, Hermione.”

“So what!” she nearly yelled.

Severus winced. When Hermione Granger was too the point just before yelling he knew, that if one were smart, it was best to drop the subject until a later time. Then again, Ronald Weasley was either not smart or too Gryffindor for his own good. As evidenced by his next sentence.

“Well, Harry and I suspect that you may have feelings for The Git that go beyond, well the normal student-teacher feelings.”

Suddenly, Severus felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. What had the boy just said?

“What did you just say?” Hermione asked in a near squeak.

Severus, had he been thinking about it, would have imagined Ron gulping. As it was, all of his attention was focused on the boy’s rather shaky reply.

“Do you have, oh Gods, romantic feelings? For Snape?”

Silence fell, followed by the sound of knees hitting the floor.

Severus winced again.

He wanted to run. To back away from his spot at the door, and run until he could run no further, but his legs and brain were now working at cross purposes. His legs were twitching for action, but his brain was ordering him to stay still.

“Oh, Ron!” she cried. “How can I answer that and retain your friendship?”

Severus’ legs stopped their twitching and he pressed his ear closer to the door.

“Just tell me, Hermione,” said Ron with a sigh. “Just be honest with me and trust me to be your friend.”

Severus heard her responding sigh, followed by the rustle of fabric as she rose and walked to the sofa. She sat down beside her friend and took his hands into hers.

“He’s, I mean we- that is, Severus has no idea, you see,” she said so softly that Severus had to strain to hear her. “I’ve loved him for, oh, I don’t know how long. Certainly not before we knew that he had killed Albus, per his promise, but not long after we began to work together. It just happened.”

“Go on,” Ron said.

“Well, I always respected him as a teacher, you know. Well maybe not at first, but these last few months together have changed my opinion of him, you see. He’s not really what you and Harry think him to be, you know. He can be kind in his own way, and he has shown me kindnesses. Maybe they aren’t the showy sort of things that boys would do, like compliment me on my looks or send flowers, but he’s kind. You just have to recognize it for what it is.”

“I think I understand,” replied Ron. “He argues with you, but he doesn’t cut you down, that sort of thing. Right?”

“Well, yes. I’ve made mistakes, done stupid things. Yes, he has berated me about it, but never cruelly for cruelty’s sake. He is constructive in his criticism. Although, he never concedes when he is wrong, he sulks.”

Severus arched an eyebrow. ‘I do not sulk,’ he thought.

“Sulks?” Ron asked in an incredulous tone. “Severus Snape sulks? What, does he arch both eyebrows?”

“Ha ha,” was her reply. “And for your information, I have always arched my eyebrow. It’s not anything that I’ve picked up from Severus. No, I can’t describe how I know he is sulking when he sulks. It’s too subtle to describe, I just know his, well his-erm- expressions.”

Her answer was greeted by silence.

“He is just a man you know!” Hermione said hotly. Severus’ eyes widened at her words. “He has emotions, he has feelings! He puts his pants on in the morning the same way you and I do, one leg at a time! He eats, and has a preference for yellow cake with chocolate icing. He likes his tea strong and black. He is an absolute bastard in the morning if he hasn’t had enough coffee. He’s even worse of a bastard if I fuck something up in a careless, stupid manner. He challenges me! He respects my intelligence! He talks of other things besides Quidditch, although he likes the game well enough! He’s even read some of my favorite Muggle authors!”

Severus closed his eyes again, this time to resist his hands itching to push open the door as she continued.

“No, he isn’t classically handsome. No he isn’t the average woman’s ideal, but I think he’s handsome! I think he’s my ideal!”

“Erm, Hermione?” Ron asked hesitantly and with faint disbelief. “Do you really think he’s handsome?”

Severus now felt as if the air had been sucked off of the Earth’s atmosphere as he awaited her answer.

“Ron,” she finally said. “There is an old Muggle expression that my mother used to use, and it goes like this. Severus Snape could eat crackers in my bed and I wouldn’t kick him out.”

Severus, had his legs been working properly, would have beat a hasty retreat when he heard the sound of her footsteps making their way toward the door. As it was, he was so dumbfounded by what he had heard, and the implications of her words, that his brain had merely shut down.

This was why Hermione found him in the awkward position she found him in, when she flung the door to the study open. It was the reason that Severus Snape, a wizard known for his gracefulness of stride and the coolness of his comportment, was left floundering and stumbling at the feet of the young witch.

She stared at him as he rose to his feet. Their eyes never left each others, their faces equally flushed in embarrassment.

Ronald shook his head at the sight, realizing suddenly that is was possible to embarrass the wizard he had heretofore chalked up as an unemotional being. Suddenly, the much feared teacher had become all too human. In that moment, Ronald Weasley finished growing up.

He cleared his throat.

“Erm,” he stammered, as he strode rapidly to the door, and then edged his way around the pair. “I’ll just leave you two alone then.”





















Eavesdropper by Titania [Reviews - 35]


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