The Anti-Heroine || A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter XXV

Chapter XXV:

Severus's POV:

Severus was sitting in Albus's office only half listening to the headmaster and Minerva talk, too distracted by his thoughts to give them his full attention.

Harry had almost died.

Harry had almost plummeted about sixty feet to his death and Severus had been fucking terrified for the boy.

Severus knew from the Boggart lesson that Harry's worst fear was a Dementor and he knew from Lupin that the boy had passed out on the train when the Dementors had searched it– and now he also knew that he needed to teach Harry how to defend himself from a Dementor.

"What magic was that, Albus?" Minerva's subdued voice broke him from his thoughts. "I've never seen anything like that."

Ah. Granger's—Hermione's magic. It was impossible to stay continue staying impersonal about the girl and using her surname after she'd clung so desperately to him, trembling and crying those Merlin-damned silent tears– Severus hated whoever had taught his student that she wasn't allowed to make noise when she cried. He'd held her up, let her get mud all over his robes and had come to the shocking realisation that Hermione trusted him enough to let herself be vulnerable with him.

Like he said, staying impersonal was impossible after that.

And her magic... Severus honestly had no idea what she'd done, or how she'd done it, just that she had reached out with her hands towards the boy and his plummeting had slowed to a standstill. Minerva was right– he'd never seen anything like that before, that raw burst of magic formed only by her sheer strength and the force of her intent.

"I have no idea what kind of magic that was." Albus spoke slowly. "It seemed to be some combination of wandless and accidental magic. Yet it wasn't wandless magic for she did not use a spell and it wasn't accidental magic because it wasn't an uncontrolled burst– she was able to get it to do exactly as she intended. I truly do not know how she managed to accomplish such a feat and I confess that it concerns me greatly."

"It doesn't matter!" Severus spoke up with an angry snarl, unable to believe that they were worrying about what she'd done while skipping over the why. "It doesn't matter how she did it, because if she hadn't then Harry could have died!" Both Albus and Minerva visibly flinched, Minerva's face showing her horror at the idea while Albus looked very tired.

"She needs watching, Severus." He said quietly. "She's even more powerful then we realized, and that makes her even more dangerous then we've predicted."

"You've predicted." Severus corrected the headmaster in a low, furious voice. "Miss Granger is dangerous, I agree, but only towards those who aim to harm Harry."

"We cannot guarantee that, Severus," Albus said gravely.

"When has Miss Granger ever threatened or hurt someone who hasn't wronged or threatened or hurt Harry?" Severus demanded.

"What about when she stole the Philosopher's Stone?" Albus countered, his twinkling blue eyes serious over his half-moon spectacles.

"A mere theory," Severus dismissed with a sneer. "And a pathetic one at that– there's no evidence whatsoever that she had anything to do with it." Except I happen to know for a fact she did, he thought. Which once again had him wondering what in the seven hells the troublesome twosome had done with the Stone. From Hermione's words he suspected they'd destroyed it, as revenge for the Mirror of Erised 'incident', but he couldn't be sure– for all he knew, she could have been misleading him. While she'd trusted him enough back then to hint that they were the ones responsible, he doubted she'd trusted him enough to be honest about what they'd done with their stolen treasure– and he doubted someone who'd grown up homeless and starving would destroy a source of unlimited gold in a fit of spite.