When Hermione Fights

Who is Afraid of the Man in Black?

Chapter beta: Dani

Chapter translator: Aivy

~WHF~WHF~WHF~WHF~WHF~WHF~WHF~

"Does everyone overlook you this way, Severus?" I asked, amused, which made him step forward and settle himself smoothly opposite to me in the other armchair.

"If I want it, yes. It is often so much more pleasant to merge with the shadows, is it not?" He tilted his head thoughtfully and his quiet baritone filled the room. His gaze seemed to pierce me while he measured me carefully. It was clear to me that he knew it and that the other two also suspected it, but these cat-and-mouse tactics were simply part of our game. We also needed to have some fun.

Now he casually crossed his legs, which were clad in black trousers, and put his hand to his chin.

"Hypothetically... do you think Narcissa has a chance to survive?" he asked very seriously and I, playing my role perfectly, placed one hand on my chest and replied loudly:

"Well, how should I know? You are the one who was with her. I am so curious. What happened?" I showed my astonishment, my curiosity and my interest and something happened that I had never experienced before with Severus: he laughed openly. Very dryly, but he laughed. He seemed to like my acting, I realised wide-eyed.

"What...? You can't be serious, Severus, that it amuses you that Narcissa is in hospital," I blamed him now and he still shook his head grinning. I had never seen him so amused.

"So you want to know what happened... mhmh?" he asked with a soft smile and I nodded in confirmation. "Well, we walked down Diagon Alley - I already described that to Lucius and Draco - when Narcissa was attacked by an ugly elderly witch. Since I was a bit further along, it was not until Narcissa's exclamation that I was made aware that something was happening. When I reached her, she had just gone down. The attacker fled into Knockturn Alley. Some Aurors, who were supervising the district, had, like me, become aware of the events and followed the witch into Knockturn Alley...

"I got help because Narcissa seemed to be getting worse. She had a nasty, badly swollen scratch on her face," he dragged his finger from his cheek to the base of his neck to make a visual impression and I watched him with curiosity. I really was curious, because I wanted to know how it had continued. "She got a rash and she got sick. One can definitely conclude that she was poisoned. There was almost a riot when we were recognized. I noticed it only marginally, but it seemed to me as if Miss Skeeter had also paid her respects! The Aurors blocked us off..."

Here I interrupted his explanation, as I rose and fetched water for both of us and passed a glass to him which he gratefully took. Then, I sat down again and asked:

"Did you help her?"

"What do you mean, helped? I gave her one or two potions, which I had ready to hand, because she was screeching loudly and writhing on the floor in pain. When one of the Aurors finally arrived with a Portkey that took us to St. Mungos, she had at least received a pain potion from me.

"Such dilettantes, Hermione. Never place yourself voluntarily in the hands of these berserkers; no sensitivity, no brain," he complained. It didn't seem as if he was taken with the healers, I thought with amusement. "... they took her off my hands just as she threw up, but until I left they did not know what she had been poisoned with. I do not know either yet, because the bezoar they gave her did not work... And now my sordid question, as your esteemed professor... what would you use to poison someone," he asked predatorily, but also with a hint of black humour. His black obsidians sparkled at me.

Thoughtfully, I pulled my lower lip through my teeth. Now the second reason why I had chosen this toxin would come up.

"A good question, Professor Snape, to think about," I joined the game and sat with my legs folded under me, "... what would I take? Hypothetically, of course. Mhmh." I tilted my head and knocked with my index finger on the back of my chair. I saw how the otherwise so smooth mask of Severus got slight cracks when I thought so hard and it showed a smile. "Yes, now I know... I would rule out from the outset that something as obvious as a bezoar would work, because that would be counterproductive, wouldn't it? Which toxin has such an effect? Exactly... The bezoar only works against all herbal poisons as a remedy, because it absorbs these harmful substances.