Survivor

Chapter 4 - The Sharp Tongued Snake.

After some heavy editing, I feel like I'm actually happy with how this chapter turned out! As always, trigger warnings for the references of rape, and poor language through out. H. x

"Miss Granger!" Snape snarled, his yellowish teeth were bared in a predatory glare that would cause anyone to fear him. He was going to rain bloody hell fire upon that girl. He had been living with her for little over a week, and the stupid little chit had already caused a minor disaster in Snape's eyes.

The unknowing witch entered the front-room-come-library from upstairs, still blinking away the sleep from her eyes. She wore a t shirt and soft cotton shorts, her sleeping attire, which she usually changed out of before joining Severus for breakfast. The word engraved into her arm was pink against her pale skin, the surrounding area was reddened and sore and apparently still healing. The way she looked at Severus in her sleepy state almost made him feel bad for being angry at her. Almost.

"Tell me, what have you done with my papers?" He crossed his arms and tucked his hands snugly into the armpits of his black cloak, his favorite intimating teacher stance.

"You'll have to be more specific." She countered, matching his tone easily, her Gryffindor fire burning bright.

"The papers that detailed my research on removing the risk of lycanthropy from werewolf bites. Perhaps you might have seen them? You've been pilfering through my things all week."

"I have been organizing your bomb-site of a library! I have not simply been pilfering through your things for my own enjoyment!" She defended. "As it happens, no, I have not seen any such papers. Do you recall where you had them last?" Hermione raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. She was mirroring Severus. Showing him that she could equal anything he threw at her.

"If I could recall where I had them last I would be able to find them, wouldn't I?" The sarcasm was heavy in Severus's voice. "I thought you were supposed to be clever."

Hermione huffed, and looked Severus up and down while trying to decide which route she would take this argument down. "Perhaps if you put things away, you might find them more easily." She returned

"I was able to find things very easily until you came along and messed everything up." Severus massaged his temples and turned his back to the girl. His morning coffee lay cooling on the kitchen table, and a pan lay dormant on an unlit stove from which he had planned to make Hermione sausage sandwiches for breakfast.

"I messed everything up?" Hermione scoffed, sounding braver than she felt.

"Yes. Finally something has penetrated your self absorbed mind." Snape's hand flew in the air.

Momentarily, he forgot to whom he was speaking. She was just another unfortunate student who would suffer his wrath for doing him wrong. He didn't consider how his words might impact her. Hermione Granger. The girl who was tortured and gang raped by an organisation that he was a part of. None of that came to mind when he laid his next insult into her.

"You have no use here Granger, and yet I remain stuck with you. Merlin is trying to test me."

She was Pompeii and today was volcano day.

"Funny. That isn't what your Death Eater friends said when they used me over and over again is it? You just stood there. Clearly I had some use to them!"

Hermione's chest heaved like she had been running a marathon. She was the type of girl who cried when she got angry. She usually kept it all pent up until the last second when the seams burst. She always struggled to articulate her feelings into words and that always ended in frustration. Hermione looked at the man who had taken her in and tended to her wounds, whom she thought had changed. Or at least she thought she had seen a softer side of him, that she had previously missed. How wrong she was.