Disclaimer: I obviously don't own anything Harry Potter related, and I'm not making any money off the writing of this. It's all for my own perverted amusement! :)
In case it was missed in the summary: this is gonna have BDSM themes. So if you're offended by that, then bugger off now. Because you've officially been warned, and I shall use flames to light candles for wax play.
Thank you to my two amazing betas, Lorcalon, and VIVAvivacious - You both are amazing!
"Miss Granger," Severus Snape drawled, swooping up behind the young witch's lab table and glowering down at her with his arms folded over his chest. "I can think of several more pleasurable ways to spend my Friday evening than overseeing you in detention, but since you insist on interrupting my class, I will be forced to suffer through it." His tone had grown harsher as he spoke, until his distaste was clearly evident in each word.
Hermione looked up at him with a mixture of anger and shock. Her cheeks were flushed from the former, and her voice rose a bit as she responded. "But sir -"
"Silence," he hissed sharply, causing her mouth to snap closed as she glared at him. "You will arrive at eight for your detention, Miss Granger. Do not tempt me to make it more unpleasant for you." With that, he stalked away to the head of the classroom in a swirl of black robes, leaving her glaring after him in resentment.
/-/SSHG/-/
The remainder of her day passed uneventfully, for which Hermione was grateful. But her detention stayed on her mind throughout dinner, getting her worked up every time she thought about it. Even with the war over with, Snape was a bastard to the 'Golden Trio', and still singled them out more than any other students. Ron and Harry had both avoided placing Potions on their schedules, and though they hadn't escaped Snape's snide remarks and maltreatment completely, they no longer had to deal with it in class. Hermione, on the other hand, had chosen academics over near-freedom from the greasy git, and had become his primary target during lessons.
When she entered the Potions classroom at eight exactly, she was annoyed to find that her professor was nowhere to be seen. "Doesn't even have the courtesy to be on time when he's the one who gave me the damn detention," she muttered angrily under her breath as she dropped her bag on the floor and sat on one of the lab tables. For nearly twenty minutes, she sat, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited, until the classroom door finally opened again.
Snape swept into the room with his usual scowl in place, and stopped a few feet away from Hermione, who was now glaring at him in annoyance. "Well, Miss Granger, it seems your detention can finally begin. You may go and sort my storeroom now. Enjoy," he sneered, moving behind his desk and sitting down. Hermione didn't move for a minute, expecting him to say something more. But when he dipped a quill in his inkpot and began scratching undoubtedly scathing remarks on an essay, she knew he had tuned her out.
With a sigh, she made her way to the storeroom and groaned when she saw the stack of boxes in one corner. No doubt, he had left them there purposely for her to put away. Opening the top one, she got to work stocking the shelves with the tiny glass bottles. She had only gotten through half of the second box when ten o'clock rolled around. She gladly closed the box and trudged back out into the classroom to retrieve her bag.
"And what are you doing, Miss Granger?" Snape asked without looking up from the Potions book he was reading.
Hermione paused with her hand on the strap of her bag, about ready to hoist it onto her shoulder. "It's ten o'clock, Sir..."
"Quite the observation, but as I'm sure you have gathered, I am capable of telling time as well. And by my telling, you still have twenty minutes in your detention." He had looked up from his text as he spoke and met her gaze with his usual controlled expression.
"Wh-No!" she exclaimed, forgetting herself in the fresh wave of annoyance at his behavior. "My detention began at eight, and it is now ten!"
"No, Miss Granger," Snape growled, rising and leaning over his desk, placing his hands on it for support and narrowing his eyes as he spoke. "Your detention began at twenty past, and it will end at twenty past. Now get back to work."
"I was here on time, Professor. It's not my fault that you are incapable of doing the same, and I should not be punished for it!" she spat.
"TWO HUNDRED POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR, MISS GRANGER!" Snape roared, rounding his desk in a few strides to stand only about a foot away to glower down at her. "Now get. Back. To. Work."
"You're nothing but a tyrannical, autocratic bastard, you great bl-" Before she could finish her sentence, Snape was leaning over her with a menacing expression.
"Great what, Miss Granger? 'Great bloody bat'?" Her eyes widened slightly, and his lips twisted into a cruel smirk. "I thought as much. You all believe that the 'greasy git' couldn't possibly hear the insults you mutter in response to your deserved punishments, but you are most certainly incorrect."
Hermione let out an involuntary whimper and looked down at the ground despite herself. As if burned by the action, Snape retreated a few paces and his voice seemed slightly less volatile when he spoke next. "Consider your detention finished for the evening...Now get out." Without hesitation, Hermione scrambled out of the room as quickly as possible, leaving her bag behind in her haste.
/-/SSHG/-/
By the time she had made it to the common room, her nerves had settled a bit from the encounter. Ron and Harry were absorbed in a game of wizards' chess, and hadn't seen her climb in through the portrait hole. For a moment, she contemplated gaining their attention, and then thought better of it and slipped up the stairs to her dormitory while she was still unnoticed. She had been given her own room now that she was Head Girl, and it was moments like these she was grateful for it. With a sigh, she tossed herself onto the maroon and gold sheets and looked up at the top of her four-poster bed.
She replayed their encounter in her mind, trying to figure out just what it was that had happened. Snape hadn't acted his usual snarky self when he ordered her from the classroom, and it confused her. "What did I do?" she wondered aloud, rolling over in frustration so that she was on her stomach and looking out the window beside her bed. The last thing she clearly remembered was insulting him, and then he was suddenly so close to her. He had been pretty well in her face, his sharp, hooked nose just a few inches from her own, and his uneven, slightly yellowed teeth had been bared for a moment before she had looked away.
At first, his voice was violent and angry, but when he'd spoken again after she broke eye contact, he had seemed to be suddenly distracted. And the way he had recoiled from her had been as if she had somehow offended him. As she thought about it, the only explanation she could think of was that she had done something wrong when she had become timid. She turned that idea over in her mind with a frown creasing her brow. It seemed strange, to think a man who was so authoritarian with his students and always demanded silent obedience in his classroom would flinch away from such a response.
The more she thought about it, the more it began to irk her that the only explanation she could think of only brought about more questions. For nearly an hour, she lay, draped over the sides of her bed, glaring out the window as she struggled to find a more logical reason for her professor's behavior. But when her small, bedside clock began flashing midnight, she was still stuck with the same, frustrating idea.
"I have to figure this out," she muttered, pushing herself up off her bed, her muscles crying out in protest to the change of position. As she trudged to the bathroom to prepare for bed, she promised herself that she would watch Professor Snape more closely for a while. And by the time she finally slipped into her warm and inviting bed, her nagging sense of curiosity had subsided for the night, temporarily appeased by the chance to observe the man and solve the puzzle he had created for her.