Hermione has been plotting revenge on Harry's behalf. She's already made the Dursley's pay and now, she's after another of Harry's torturers. The only problem is... he's sort of hard to reach. I'm not saying anything more.

Best Friend's Justice

Chapter Two

Severus Snape

Hermione looked around her laboratory one more time. Gillyweed, check. She went over her list slowly and methodically as she put each item away in her bag. When she was finished she crossed to her desk and looked at the list with the first three names crossed off.

She checked the time and nodded. It was time to go. It had been seventeen weeks since the Dursleys had been dealt with and it was well past time to deal with this person. She Apparated out, appearing on the edge of an ocean.

Hermione smiled slightly at a random thought as she chewed the Gillyweed. She might be the very first person to ever want to break into Azkaban. She dove into the cold water as the Gillyweed began working and cast a spell that made her swim faster than any dolphin. It had taken less than five trips to find Azkaban Island and Hermione couldn't believe that more people hadn't found it.

Sirius Black had managed to swim from the island to shore as a dog. That seriously limited the distance it could be from shore. A couple of trips by broomstick, to find a rough area that she always seemed to miss and then a couple of trips underwater had pinpointed the location of the island for her.

Since the next name on her list was spending the rest of his life here, she had to come out here. She couldn't tell anyone why she wanted to see Severus Snape, mostly because she didn't think many of them would approve of what she was going to do to him.

If the Dementors were still here, she'd have counted Snape's account paid, but the Dementors were gone, destroyed in the final months of Voldemort's war. Azkaban was still a top security prison, but it was no longer the stuff of nightmares.

Hermione was going to change that for one very special prisoner. Snape had done many things to Harry over the years, but Hermione was out here to repay one particular period of torture. She slowed as she neared the wards she had carefully mapped out on her last trip.

She came to the surface and swallowed the first of her potions. Seconds later, a two metre Great White shark was swimming toward the island. The first time Hermione had tried this, she'd chosen a much smaller fish, figuring stealth was better for her mission. That had only lasted until something tried to eat her. Hermione came in close to the island and found the small cave carved out of the stone cliffs by the actions of the ocean. She swam inside and waited for the potion to wear off.

As it did she stood up and moved to the back of the cave. There was a small area that couldn't be seen from outside and she changed out of her wet clothes. A simple spell had kept the contents of her bag dry and she dressed swiftly. She was on a time table here.

She strapped the bag to her side and took the second potion.

A few seconds later an observer might have seen a large spider scurry out of the cave and start up the cliff, if there had been any observers.

Thirty minutes later Hermione was peering in the ninth barred window. If spiders could have smiled, Hermione would have. Severus Snape was stretched out on the bed. Since he was sleeping, Hermione crawled into the room and waited for the potion to end.

As soon as she felt the change beginning, Hermione prepared to act. As soon as she had hands her wand was out and pointing at Snape. While she watched him she took two more potions. She draped an Invisibility Cloak over herself and checked the time. She nodded in satisfaction. The guards wouldn't be making their rounds for another hour. She had plenty of time to do what she had to do.

As soon as she was certain that no one could detect her, she immobilized Snape. She had no intention of letting him see her. He had to think what was happening to him was him going insane.

Hermione used a diluted 'Draught of Living Death' potion on Snape, insuring that he would sleep through what she was about to do. To be certain he wouldn't feel anything, she feel him a general anaesthetic as well.

She laid the first cloth out, covering Snape's head except for his right eye. She took out her scalpel and carefully cut the cornea of his eye, baring the lens. She used a spell to hold the cut open as she carefully pulled the iris to the side, exposing the lens of the eye. She held them in place with another spell as she pulled up the lens slightly to expose the anterior chamber underneath it.. With the eye ready she took a small vial out of her bag and used a spell to take out the minuscule object in the vial. She found the spot her research had told her would be the best place for it and laid it in place. She had to redo it twice before she was satisfied with the placement.

A few seconds work, one potion and two spells later, the eye was the same as it had been before she came in with the exception of a tiny gem chip inside it, sandwiched between the lens and the anterior chamber.

Five minutes later, the left eye was finished and she was turning Snape on his side to begin stage two of her plan. Hermione used a small speculum to spread the external auditory meatus until she could see the tympanic membrane.

She took a deep breath and made a tiny incision in the membrane to expose the malleus. Holding the cut open she inserted another of the tiny gem chips between the malleus and the membrane. She used a potion to permanently fix it in place and two drops of another potion to heal the cut she had made.

Ten minutes later the other ear was finished and she was ready for stage three of her plan. She turned Snape over and made a lateral incision between the first and second lumbar vertebrae. She exposed the meninges and cut it until she reached the dorsal column. Three small chips went in here and it only took a few minutes to seal the hole up.

When she was finished, she cast a spell on the unconscious man and watched as he glowed slightly, with nine bright spots where she had planted the gems. The glow faded and Hermione went back to work.

Hermione frowned as she began setting up for the last part of her plan. That last bit may have made this totally useless. Not even magic could heal most spinal injuries and if she had made even the slightest slip in that last procedure, this one would never have any effect on Snape. She thought about it for a minute while she set up for the last chip.

She shrugged. While she would prefer that her entire plan worked, she'd accept just the eyes and ears, if Snape was paralysed from the waist down forever.

The next gem was quickly set in the wall of the cell, high up in the corner. Hermione put her things away and drank the potion that would turn her back into a spider. Outside the cell she planted the last gem chip in a crevice by the window. She returned to the cave and dried her swimming clothes before putting them back on and making the return trip.

Safely back in her flat, she set up the bronze backed mirror she had made. Precisely set around the rim were nine gems. If anyone could compare them, each of these nine gems exactly matched one of the gems she had left at the prison.

Hermione pointed her wand at the mirror and watched with satisfaction as it showed a view of Snape's cell as seen from the gem in the corner.

OoOoOoO

Severus Snape woke up feeling more refreshed than he had since being sentenced to this place. He stood up and froze. There was a taste in his mouth. He closed his eyes and rolled his tongue around, trying to place it. Some sort of anaesthetic potion, although he wasn't sure which one it was.

He was trying to determine why he had been given such a potion when he caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. He jerked his head around and for just an instant he saw and heard Harry Potter laughing at him.

The image and sound faded even as he realized what he was looking at. Severus spent the next hour checking himself closely, looking for any evidence that something had been done to him. He heard the guards coming and looked at the door.

The guard opened the little flap they pushed his food though and Snape hurried to catch the bowl before it spilled, knowing from long experience that if he didn't the guards wouldn't replace any that spilled. As he took the bowl, the guard spoke. "Your sentence has been commuted. You'll be released tomorrow morning when the boat arrives." The guard spat noisily. "I hope to see you again, scum. Some place and time when I don't have to worry about the regulations." He slammed the flap shut as Snape stood there frozen.

Snape ate his food, wondering if the guard had been playing a cruel joke or if something had really changed.

The next morning Snape was jerked out of sleep by a sound he hadn't heard in almost two years. He blinked as his cell door opened. "Get out here, or I'll close it again."

Snape jumped out of bed, hope blazing in his breast. He was getting out of here. Not all the comments, insults, threats and minor cruelties could ruin his mood as they gave him back all his possessions. One of the guards tucked his wand in his belt. "You'll get this back on shore, scum. Not one minute sooner."

Snape just nodded and followed the guard outside, where his first view of the sun in two years brought tears to his eyes, both from emotion and its brightness. He followed the guard to the boat and not even the rocking of the small boat ruined his mood.

The boat turned toward a small quay and Severus felt his heart leap. He was just seconds from freedom. These was someone waiting on the quay and he looked up.

Harry Potter smiled at him. "Sorry, Snivellus, I changed my mind. Rot in hell."

Severus Snape looked around the small cell he'd come to know so intimately over the last two years and began to laugh, a high, maniacal sound that had nothing of humour in it but much of despair.

OoOoOoO

Hermione watched as her first scenario played out perfectly. She could create anything for Snape and the gems in his eyes, ears and spinal cord would insure that it was completely real for him, until she ended it.

She already had a dozen scenes in the mirror, that would play out randomly and at random intervals. She smiled and crossed over to her desk. She sat down and crossed another name off of her list.

She looked at the next name and sighed. This one was already dead. She scratched it off and checked the rest of the list. That one was dead, Bella was dead, Ron was dead, in fact, most of these people were dead.

She crossed out all the dead people and made a fresh list. With the top four gone, that only left three more names to punish for the things they had done to Harry.

Petunia Dursley

Vernon Dursley

Dudley Dursley

Severus Snape

Delores Umbridge

Draco Malfoy

Albus Dumbledore

OoOoOoO The Author, Here and Now. OoOoOoO

As much as I would enjoy thinking up creative and disturbing ways to torture every single person that betrayed, tormented or seriously hurt Harry, I simply don't have time. Those last three have to have a touch of Hermione's justice, but that will end this story. I wish now that I hadn't killed Ron off in the first chapter. Of all the people that betrayed Harry... his betrayed should have been counted among the worst. In fourth year, when he refused to believe Harry, he was his very best mate, supposedly. I don't know about you, but after rereading the books last month, I have to say that if any "Best Friend" of mine treated me like Ron did Harry, I'd have tossed him/her out of my life by the middle of book four at the latest.

I even know what I would have done to him. A simple inner ear problem, so that he could never fly, Apparate or even walk properly.

Anyway, I've got a chapter of SOG I'm working on so I'd better get back to it.

Raven