The challenge – chapter two

Don't own it, never have and never will. Just having fun with the characters. This is an OC story. You have been warned. ;)

At eight o'clock sharp, Hermione knocked on Professor Snape's door, her ears still ringing with Harry and Ron's rants from a few minutes ago. Both were livid about the unfairness of the situation. Hadn't Hermione helped the professor with the Rubik's cube?

Hermione had answered sheepishly that the professor had not asked for her help and that was probably why he had assigned detention to her. But regardless of the outcome, she had been too bossy for her own good, or so she had said to the boys. Harry almost had a fit, trying to make her see what a terrible git Snape was. Hermione had doggedly kept her opinion; she had it coming for being so nosey in the first place. Specially since she had been a bit sassy and sarcastic with the professor.

'Enter!' a voice bellowed from behind the door, jostling Hermione out of her thoughts as she pushed the door and entered with some measure of anxiety. She closed the door and primly went to stand before Snape's desk.

'I'm here for my deten...' she started to say.

'I very well know why you're here, Miss Granger!' he said waspishly, cutting her off without further ado. 'I'm not so senile or over-worked that I can't remember such things.'

Opening a drawer from the left-hand side of his desk, he retrieved 'the cube' from its depths. He then slammed it in front of him; glaring at it for a moment, before suddenly raising his dark glance to the girl's face. Hermione swallowed nervously as she stood there, having to endure his harsh visual evaluation.

'This thing is the source of our problems, for both of us. A certain Transfiguration professor, that shall remain un-named...' he hissed with disgust, 'had the lovely idea of issuing me a challenge.' Snape stood up and started to pace behind the desk.

'So you had to put the Rubik's cube in the right order to win.' Hermione said without being asked, earning herself another glare from Snape.

'Quite right, Miss know-it-all...' Snape answered nastily. 'And since then, I have been trying to...' he stopped in mid sentence, not wanting to appear like an imbecile in front of a student, specially a Gryffindor.

Hermione lowered her eyes, catching on quickly upon the professor's discomfiture. He felt idiotic for not succeeding in solving the problem. She knew that a boy's pride, or man's pride in this instance, was a very fragile thing and had to be protected at all cost. What could she do to help, without seemingly trying to?

Hermione asked, 'well, I'm sorry I intervened, sir. I didn't mean to. I just thought I'd help out, since I had done the puzzle a number of times at home..." Snape interrupted again with an irritated swish of his hand.

'Silence! I don't want to know about your personal experiences with the device from Gryffindor hell.' He had stopped pacing and was now bent over his desk, glaring at her with annoyance. 'Last evening's little demonstration of your prowess was quite enough for me." he breathed angrily.

Hermione stepped a few paces away from the desk, trying to avoid the spittle that was jumping toward her as he spoke. With barely hidden disgust, she retorted 'I'm sorry, sir...truly, I am. I wasn't trying to show you up or anything.'

He groaned at her, 'of course you weren't. What Gryffindor could resist the chance of showing up the git of the dungeon's?' He answered back, an evil sneer marking his face. 'And one of Potter's friends too!'

A deep crimson flush rose up on Hermione's cheeks, her eyes dilating under her sudden feelings of anger. 'You know very well that Harry has nothing to do with this, and to infer that I did what I did because of that, is extremely unfair of you.' Her hands were clenched on either side of her; she was itching to get her wand and send a salvo of hexes. But this was Snape that was standing before her and he wouldn't be too keen to be the recipient of said hexes.

'Unfair?' he answered in a low, menacing tone. 'Fairness only exists in the minds of dunderheads and those of little mental capacity, Miss Granger!' He walked around his desk and came to stand behind her, like he had done the evening before.

Hermione stood ramrod straight, waiting for his next words. Because she knew he would add something to his last statement. She felt it in her bones.

He stood behind her, arms crossed over his chest, letting her stew in the uncertainty of the situation. He knew that she felt trapped and bewildered by his actions, like she had felt last night. Keeping the prey nervous was the best way of getting their guards down. Once that was achieved, he could swoop in and lay claim to the spoils.

Her breathing had become a bit shallower by now, her nerves alerted to potential danger. She couldn't see what this was amounting to. She cleared her voice, trying to break the silence that had befallen upon them.

Snape smirked at her attempts to bring something about. So, to end her torture, he silently came nearer and whispered to her ear, 'since you are not of weak mind, I will let you deduce in which category you belong to... hmm?' As he spoke, a few small wisps of hair flew forward, gently tickling Hermione's neck and cheek. She shivered like she had the day before.

'Professor...' she started to say; only to be silenced by the strangest sound she had ever heard. Snape was laughing softly behind her back. She twisted around to face him, sending him a look of utter disbelief.

'Are you laughing at me?' she demanded crossly, taking her wand out of her pocket without even realising it.

'I, Miss Granger, am not laughing at you...' he shot back as he eyed the sudden appearance of her wand. 'But you, on the other hand, better not be thinking of using that wand upon a teacher of this school.'

'You were laughing at me and what I do with my wand is entirely my business... sir!' she hissed back in an instant. 'If this is your idea of playing games with me, you better have a very good reason behind it. I won't calmly let you play around with me as if I were a mouse... give me the detention I came here for and let's be done with it!'

As she hotly spoke up, she had aimed her wand near his face, defying him in the process. This would not do at all in Snape's perspective. He had seen what she could do with a wand during battle, and it wasn't pretty.

'Miss Granger, lower your wand this instant!' Snape said dryly, 'you are still a student of Hogwarts at the moment, but that could change forthwith if you do any harm to my person. Is that understood?'

Hermione lowered her wand just a fraction of an inch, 'I may be a student, but you as a teacher are not allowed to demean or threaten the students of this school.' she retaliated with a firm knowledge of the schools rules and dictates.

'How dare you quote school rules to me, you little...' he never got say whatever insult he was about to utter. Suddenly speechless from a certain spell from the Granger girl, his mouth was still moving but nothing was coming out.

Hermione took a step back, a hint of a smile on her lips. 'I'm sorry, professor Snape. I stopped you from saying something that would have most assuredly demeaned me.' With a shrug of her shoulders, she turned away and stepped toward the door. 'I'll let myself out since you haven't issued your latest detention for me. Owl me when you wish to arrange another date for this.'

But as she put her hand on the doorknob, she felt a hot, stinging sensation run through her fingers, making her let go of the knob. Spinning around to face Snape, she was suddenly grabbed by the collar and his face came forward, mere inches from hers.

His wand came up and he pointed it to his mouth, making her understand that she had to annul the spell she had thrown at him.

'Oh, very well... but I will protest to professor McGonagall. You had it coming.' she muttered under her breath, 'Finite Incantatem' she uttered with a strained voice.

Snape, on the other hand, was huffing with rage. 'You...' he started to say but changed his mind. 'Fine, you want your detention. Here it is, my little Gryffindor. You are to go up the Astronomy tower and clean off every bird dropping that you will find there. Without magic!'

Letting go of her collar, he went to his desk and retrieved a small brush. 'This is what you will use with a pail of plain water. No magical cleaning solutions, just plain cold water. Let's see how long it will take you to finish the job.'

Hermione just stared at the brush. It was quite small for the task that was being asked of her. Thinking about the last time she had gone up there, it would take many evenings to finish. The tower was almost totally covered by bird poo.

'And by the way, you will be asked to come to the Headmistress's office after supper. We will be talking about your conduct this evening.' Snape said with a leer. 'This should be quite interesting to see. How will you come up with a valid reason for attacking a professor of this school?' He asked with a mock show of concern.

'You will be expelled for this! But not before you get to do that precious detention you so wanted.' he purred on with delight.

Hermione knew she was in trouble for hexing him, but he was being deliberately being a bastard with her and she wasn't about to let him have his way that easily. All this trouble caused by a simple Rubik's cube? Merlin knows what the bet had been between him and McGonigall.

With that thought stowed away for future reference, she took the brush and pail he had in his hand and sharply turned away. It was rather useless to add anything now; it would only stoke his furnace even more.

As she reached the door, he said with hardly contained happiness, 'Happy tower cleaning, Miss Granger... don't go to bed too late, you have classes with me first thing tomorrow morning. And don't be late.' he added sharply with an evil glint in his eyes.

She huffed a breath at him and left the gloomy room without another word. He would pay for this, some way or another. Her emotions might have gotten away from her tonight, but he would soon regret his actions.