The Confectionary Chronicles || HP/SPN

Sweets and Studies- CH8

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Hermione fidgeted slightly in the chair. She was facing Professor Snape in his office, where he'd escorted her from the Great Hall, and his face was very grim. Hermione had a fair inkling as to what this was all about.

"Miss Granger," her Head of House said, "I received a complaint from three students this morning. I understand that you're new to the Magical World, so you may not be aware, but destroying another witch or wizard's wand is a very grave offense."

"I may have overreacted slightly," Hermione admitted, twisting her hands anxiously on her lap as she remembered the rage (and the fear) of earlier that morning. "It's just... I panicked."

"You panicked?" Professor Snape prompted, and when she failed to elaborate further, he sighed. "Miss Granger, if I am to defend you from three sets of very angry and moderately influential parents, I am going to need the full details of what happened this morning, and why you decided to throw three of your Housemates' wands into a fireplace."

"Well," Hermione said, a bit sheepish, "that part was mostly for the irony, considering they tried to set me on fire."

There was a pause.

"They what?" Professor Snape asked, his voice low and dangerous, his dark eyes blazing.

"I ducked so they just got my hair," Hermione hastened to reassure him, "and I've read about the aguamenti charm, so I could put it out before it could burn too much, but... well, they did still set me on fire. And they're, um, they're not the first ones to do that. After almost being burned alive, I sort of have... issues. With fire."

Odin had tried to burn her alive in a mockery of the god she worshipped, of course she had issues. Loki was the god of fire, she was his priestess, and people kept trying to burn her– it was infuriating!

(And traumatising, but much like how been underground at Gringotts had unnerved her, she tried not to think about that)

Professor Snape blinked, clearly knocked off-kilter. "Are you saying somebody tried to... to burn you alive?" he asked, almost incredulous-sounding, and Hermione wasn't the type to let an opportunity just pass her by (the fact she'd managed to get her god to tutor her in magic was just one example of this)– she had absolutely no issues with using her past trauma to avoid punishment.

"Most of the damage was from smoke inhalation," she admitted (...plus all the broken bones, bites, damage from the acid-like venom, stab wound, and the burns from where the flames had gotten a bit too close for comfort, but the only scars she had from Odin's kidnapping were the marks resembling Lichtenburg scars on her stomach, and only magic could erase scars – she was supposed to be new to magic).

"I was rescued before the fire reached me. But being tied up," and stabbed, "and left in a room," or a cave, "that was set on fire was, well, really traumatising. So when the three of them all ganged up on me and set me on fire, I panicked. And then I got really, really angry."

Professor Snape seemed a bit stuck on the being set on fire part. "How in Salazar's name did you end up in such a horrific situation?" he demanded, and Hermione shrugged awkwardly.

"It wasn't actually about me. Not really. Someone wanted revenge on my friend– a grown-up friend," she explained, "and they tried to use me to get it." Professor Snape's tight, pinched expression practically screamed a need for more details, so Hermione sighed and gave an edited version of the events. A very highly edited version. "My friend made some... bad decisions in his youth," she said– because she loved Loki, adored him with every iota of her being, but he had been friends with Odin, and if that wasn't a Bad Decision she didn't know what was.