Accio Contests! My HP Fanfiction Entry

Today is the day that I reveal my secret guilty pleasure for the blogosphere to see. You see, I've signed up (not being able to stop myself) for Lisa Galek's Accio Contasts! Harry Potter fanfiction contest. Here are the rules:

1. Write a bit of fanfiction of no more than 750 words.
2. It must involve characters from the Harry Potter books.
3. It must have something to do with birthdays.

And because my husband thinks he's very clever and that fanfiction is a joke he's issued me an additional challenge. I have to include the words "heaving" and "turgid" in a nonsexual context. "A real writer could do it," says he. Well, FINE. I will.

I've read my fair share of Harry Potter fanfiction but never written any before. So this will be a challenge. And I'm opting to write it about my secret guilty pleasure character pairing: Snape and Hermione. Sigh. I know. Don't remind me about Snape's fate. That's what Alternate Universe fanfiction is for, don't you know. I can just ignore the bits of the books I didn't like and create a special HP universe where things turn out MY WAY.

Here's the thing. I don't buy the whole Hermione and Ron relationship. It's stupid. I'm a rather smart person and extremely bookish so I've always identified most with Hermione's character. And I just flat out DON'T BELIEVE that she could really fall in love with anyone as stupid as Ron Weasley. Yes, I know he has his good qualities but I don't think that you can legitimately claim that intelligence is one of them. I once had a short lived relationship with someone who was pretty dumb. I mean, his spelling and skill with words in general was abysmal. When I was a teenager I didn't care so much, though it did bother me a bit. In hindsight, I know that I could never have a lasting and satisfying relationship with someone who was so far beneath me in intelligence. It may sound petty, but can you imagine having conversations with that person for the rest of your life and having to constantly explain what you mean because he only has maybe half your vocabulary? *shudder* I ended up marrying someone smarter than myself who only helps me improve my own intelligence. It's a good thing. I think Hermione deserves the same.

So, here goes my first attempt at Snape/Hermione fanfic.

Born Again

"I regret it."
Pierce of fangs. Gushing of blood. Pain beyond comprehension. Swish of a departing black cloak. Mission... failed.
Green eyes. Her eyes? Am I dead now? No. His eyes, so like hers. One last chance. 
"Take...it.... Take... it...."
I feel the end coming.
Lily...

I open my eyes to the glaring white of a scrubbed-clean hospital room. I’ve been in enough of them in my time. The smell is unmistakable. My sight is blurred and coming into focus only gradually. I decide to explore my situation with my sense of touch instead. I flex my fingers. All there. My head and face, intact. My neck... turgid and painful. I remember that is where the snake’s fangs sank into my exposed flesh. The memory makes me shudder.

“Professor Snape? Sir?”

I freeze at the sound of that voice, the last voice I expected, or indeed hoped, to hear ever again. A thousand suspicions grip me. “Where am I?” It is still difficult to see.

“Oh, professor!” that voice again, this time I feel the form that goes with it grip me in an excited embrace. “You’re awake!”

“Kindly release me, Miss Granger!” I shout instead of crying out in pain from her touch. “And immediately tell me where I am and what my situation is.”

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking.”

“A not uncommon circumstance.”

“Um... you’re at St. Mungo’s.” I could almost hear the flush in her voice, could imagine her nervously pushing her bushy hair behind her ear. Why could I remember her so vividly. “You were brought here after... after Harry killed Voldemort. It’s been weeks now. This is the first time you’ve woken.”

“The Dark Lord is... dead?”

“Yes.”

Then I had not failed. Potter had done what was required. For the first time in years, in a whole lifetime, I could not maintain my practiced control. Heaving sobs wracked my battered body. Granger remained blessedly silent until they subsided. And suddenly I felt... lighter. Could it be real? Was my burden truly gone?

When I opened my eyes again my surroundings were clearer. And there was Granger, looking anxious, looking as if she hadn’t slept in days...

“How long have you been here?”

“A few days now. They thought they were losing you and they called me here. I’ve been keeping watch over you.”

“Why?”

“Well, I was the one who went back to the shack to retrieve your body and I brought you to St. Mungo’s. I guess since you don’t have any family they thought I was the closest thing to your next of kin.” I said nothing so she went on, trying to fill the silence. “I just knew that you couldn’t be dead, not completely. After everything became clear, after Harry told us your role in everything...”

She said this with an anxious look, as if expecting me to lash out at her. I nodded. How much did she know? How much had Potter told her after I had emptied my memories into him? Those memories that I had suffered for so many long years...

“I just knew you would have had a plan. You and Dumbledore had worked out so many details together. You must have assumed when you killed him,” another fearful look, but I remained impassive, “that you were the new master of the Elder Wand and that Voldemort would want to kill you. You must have tried to prepare yourself for it. The Healers found several strains of anti-venom in your blood. That’s what saved you. Still, you were dead for a few minutes. We were afraid you wouldn’t come back. ”

I looked into Miss Granger’s... Hermione’s eyes. Somehow knowing that she shared my past, that she had witnessed my loss of control, that she alone had cared about my fate, made her the closest thing to a confidant that I still possessed.

“Hermione,” I said. She gave me a shy yet eager smile. “It’s all over. It’s done.”

“Yes, sir,” she said. “It’s all over.”

I almost laughed. I felt a bit whimsical. “Today is my birthday,” I told her. She looked confused. “I’ve been reborn.”