Chapter 45: Halloween

-Hogwarts 31 October.

In one of the many halls of Hogwarts, two students were practising spells.

"Severus... can we...please rest...for...a...few...moments," Hermione asked exhausted, she was already pale, her breathing was heavy, her whole body was sweating, her hair was sticking to her face, her hands and legs were shaking, she couldn't go on any longer.

"Sure, let's rest, I suppose that's enough for today," Severus nodded, calmly, he was also sweating, but his breathing and body seemed in perfect condition.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and was grateful to Merlin that he decided that was enough for today, she didn't think she could take another round.

She sat down hurriedly on the floor... or rather collapsed on the floor from exhaustion and then took a breath, yes, a lot of breath, she needed to get her brain working again after so much hard work.

"You know, you should start training more, Hermione, you look very pale," Severus added with a smirk that Hermione found no less than irritating.

'Whose fault is that!' Hermione rolled her eyes and grumbled internally at him, to her he was simply a bloody demon.

But today she wasn't blaming Severus...

No...

She blamed Draco, the bastard didn't come to practice and as usual, she had to replace him...

The problem was that doing both her part and Draco's part in training with Severus was too much.

And to make matters worse..., Severus wouldn't commiserate with her for being alone at practice, no, he would force her to the extreme and then make fun of her poor performance.

'As if his resistance was normal!' Hermione snorted internally again at the thought of that, she was above average in terms of resistance, and that he was exaggeratedly above it was not her fault.

But she didn't say anything to Severus, now all her efforts were on regaining the air and energy she had lost.

"Merlin, I'm so tired, I don't think I can even make it to the dormitories in this condition," sighed Hermione tiredly and breathing heavily as she looked at Severus who stood in front of her in perfect condition.

"Well..., I may have overdone it a bit with the training this time," replied Severus as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

'You bastard, acting like you didn't want to continue,' Hermione looked at Severus with a blank expression.

Usually, Draco, Hermione, and Severus would do training like this every week.

But they usually take turns between Draco and Hermione so they don't get too tired.

Because Severus really was a monster when it came to resistance.

At first, it was just spell practice and study, but after the duel on the first day of class, Severus suggested they start doing dueling practice between the three of them.

And Hermione was delighted and excited with the idea as she saw Severus' skills and thought it would be a perfect training to prepare for the current conflict and all that she and Draco had planned.

Plus she saw how Draco improved just by dueling against him, so training every week could bring them many benefits.

Draco was more reluctant to accept since it wasn't part of the deal, but with Hermione's insistence that it would be very beneficial for them, he agreed, of course, since it wasn't obligatory, he sometimes didn't go and Hermione was the one who replaced him.

And that only ended up with her sitting on the floor, breathing heavily, sweating, and with all her muscles trembling due to overexertion.

"In a few minutes we should leave or we'll be late for the Halloween feast," Severus commented as he looked at Hermione who was still on the floor trying to recover.

"Merlin, I had already forgotten that today was Halloween, I guess my head still isn't working properly," said Hermione as she tried to get up to go to the dormitories, then shower and then go to eat.

" I guessed that when I saw you relaxing so peacefully on the floor" Severus joked.

"You...!" Hermione wanted to raise her wand and charm him but not only did she not have the energy to do this but she also knew it wasn't that simple.

'Why did he have to be so bloody good at using magic?' Hermione complained again as she glared irritably at Severus.

"Well, see you at the party Hermione, I hope you're not late."

"Wait, Severus..."

"Yes?" asked Severus looking curiously at Hermione who seemed to be having difficulty to say what she wanted to say.

"This..., I..."

"Come on, tell me at once, it's going to be late" sighed Severus.

"I can't get up," Hermione finally said embarrassed as she turned her gaze away from Severus.

Severus looked at her in amusement as he knew she was tired and that he might have overdone it with her in training today...

But he hadn't expected her to be so bad that she couldn't even stand up on her own.

" Slight inconvenience, right?"

Hermione just rolled her eyes at his shameless comment.

"Could you help me please get up and go to Gryffindor?" asked Hermione finally resigned, as embarrassed as she was she didn't have much of a choice.

"Sure, it shouldn't be a problem, it's not far from here" replied Severus still amused by the whole situation.

"Thank you..." thanked Hermione, she thought he would just tease her, but it was a good thing he didn't.

After a few minutes, the two of them reached one of the corridors that led to the entry of the Gryffindor house.

"Right, here we are, sure you want to go for your own gutter from here?" asked Severus lightly as he looked at Hermione who was holding onto his right shoulder as they walked.

He was just holding her by the waist as she held onto his shoulders to make less effort to walk.

" Yes..., I should be fine to walk this far out by myself" Hermione nodded even though she wasn't really that confident.

Now she knew that if she wanted to go to the feast she would have to take a shower with some magical salts that would allow her to recover her muscles a little faster.

And a strength potion wasn't suitable for recovery, as much as she wanted magic couldn't do everything.

"Well, in that case, I'll wait for you," Severus said with a smile.

"Huh, that's...no need you can come back, I'll be fine on my own."

"Oh sure, I just want to see that it really is"

Hermione cursed him silently, she knew he just wanted to laugh at her attempts to make it all the way to the Gryffindor entrance.

She finally released Severus to walk on her own and he instantly let go of her waist.

At that precise moment she regretted it, the physical and magical effort she had made was too much, and her whole body screamed and cried for a good rest.

Despite her body's complaints, she tried to walk to Gryffindor with her willpower.

'So stubborn, I guess that's why she's a Gryffindor' Severus thought in amusement as he watched Hermione's pointless efforts to walk when she luckily could stand while her body trembled.

"You know, if you ask me it wouldn't be a problem to carry you to the entrance" Severus finally said, as amused as it was to see Hermione's unnecessary suffering, he didn't have much time and he was already planning to return to Slytherin.

"No, I can..., just a little more..."

"Hermione, you only made two steps"

"..."

She fell silent not knowing what to say, it wasn't that Hermione didn't want him to carry her to the door, but it could be for trouble if some Gryffindor annoyed Severus.

And she didn't even want to imagine the situation if the marauders were there, that could only end badly, very badly.

Or even if they crossed paths with Lily it would be an awkward situation.

Severus wasn't an idiot and he knew what Hermione was worried about, but it didn't really bother him, it wasn't his problem what happened, he wouldn't do anything, but it would be another thing if others did something that made him act.

"Fine, please help me walk to the entrance," Hermione sighed and ended up resigning herself to the fact that he was going to take her there.

Severus just nodded and helped her.

Finally, the two of them reached the door and Severus quickly dismissed her to go to his dormitory.

When Hermione saw Severus's back to Severus she sighed in relief that nothing happened, only a few Gryffindors looked at them strangely, but apart from whispers, nothing else happened.

Besides, most of them already knew that Severus used to hang out with his two cousins in private, so it wasn't that strange.

As Hermione was about to finally enter Gryffindor, a person suddenly came out and faced her.

"Lily!," Hermione said surprised by her sudden arrival.

"Oh, Hermione, there you are, I was beginning to worry you weren't going to make it to the Halloween feast" smiled Lily.

"Yes, I had some difficulties..." nodded Hermione a little embarrassed.

"I see..." Lily saw the state she was in and understood, then her bright green eyes shifted her gaze to the corridor and there she saw the figure of a young man with black hair and Slytherin robes.

'Severus..., ...he has really changed a lot,' Lily thought as she saw him but then shook her head and cleared those unnecessary thoughts from her mind.

"Would you like a hand?" asked Lily to Hermione as she saw that she was having difficulty even standing up already.

"Help would be appreciated" smiled Hermione exhaustedly.

Lily just smiled warmly and helped her to reach the dormitories.

But she didn't know that Hermione had noticed how her eyes were straying to look at Severus' back.

Later, in the Great Hall, Severus entered along with Olivia Greengrass and their usual group of Slytherins.

The group that started out as just Olivia with her closest friends, grew to a quarter of Slytherin students from different years who decided to remain neutral and be part of the Prince and Greengrass group, two houses that could not be easily touched by the other snakes who supported the Dark Lord.

Plus with Severus being so cold and intimidating to everyone who annoyed him it was even better for this group as no snake wanted to suffer the same fate as Mulciber, Avery, the two seventh years in Slytherin, Potter, or Black.

Yes, Severus Prince was an excellent repeller of "poisonous snakes" as Olivia Greengrass liked to tell aspiring death eaters.

When Severus entered the Great Hall the first thing he felt was the sweet smell of roasting pumpkin that perfumed the whole atmosphere.

Then he saw thousands of magical bats fluttering vigorously on the walls and ceiling.

Of course, Hogwarts had put a lot of effort into the decorations, there were a lot of low clouds floating around the tables in the Hall and a lot of candles floating around illuminating everything.

Finally, when they reached the Slytherin table, everyone smiled and drooled at the sight of the delicious food that suddenly appeared on different golden and silver plates.

"Looks like the Old Man really wants to use this to show off," muttered Severus as he looked at the detailed design of the Great Hall.

"It's his way of telling everyone that Hogwarts is safe, that everything is fine, that they can be calm and happy, just a bad joke," said Olivia in disgust as she listened to him as she stood next to him at the Slytherin table.

She already knew that Severus liked to call Dumbledore Old Man, she thought it was strange but didn't comment on it.

"Yes, but there's no denying that it has its effect," Severus said pointing at the little wizards who were happily eating or looking at the decorations in delight.

Olivia who saw this only sighed and had to accept that it was true, Dumbledore knew how to do things for his convenience.

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Hello,

Well, today was quite a busy day...

But I got to do a chapter,

I hope you like it,

Greetings to all my dear readers.