The Confectionary Chronicles || HP/SPN

Lollies and Loki- CH29

A/N: For the people who wanted a total BAMF Hermione, this chapter is dedicated to all of you <3

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*warning for violence, including against animals, that may be considered disturbing*

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

Ninety-nine percent of snakes wouldn't attack when faced with a human, Hermione had once read— they'd simply leave without intervention. The snake she was facing, however, was definitely from the one percent that had absolutely zilch intention of just going away. No, 'going away' looked to be the furthest thing from the snake's agenda, and while normally Hermione would be terrified by that, she was currently far too enraged— not that she let her anger make her stupid and rush forwards to attack without a plan.

No, instead, after taking a breath, Hermione reached out a hand to summon the smaller part of the broken length of chain that had been used to bind her, just a scant few minutes ago. The length of chain leaped eagerly to her hand and she closed her fist tightly around the metal, swiftly adjusting the chain to just a few feet in length dangling freely— snakes could dart several feet forwards very quickly to attack, and a weapon that gave her distance was her best bet for staying away from those deadly fangs. She'd suffered enough from the agonising venom.

Hermione didn't get any longer to plan, because the snake chose then to lunge forwards in attack, its fangs bared ready to strike. Hermione spun to the side, thrusting her free hand towards it to send it flying back with her magic, and its heavy body crashed back against the wall of the cave with enough force to seemingly stun it. Hermione took the opportunity to dart forwards as close as she dared, swinging the heavy chain with as much force as she could muster at the snake's head. The heavy metal links crashed directly on target, and the snake didn't move to react at all. 

She wasn't stupid enough to approach it yet, however, and struck it several more times in the head with heavy blows of the chain, not daring to step any closer until she could see dark streaks of blood, and only then did she warily approach and use one of her shoes, with its steel-lined sole, to stomp several times on its head, crushing its skull under her heel.

On any other occasion, she'd feel guilty about the violence, but this snake had tortured her, it had killed Vashti (even though Vashti was technically immortal, she'd still died), and it had called Odin its Master— there were no regrets in her for her actions.

With the snake unquestionably dead, Hermione let out a shuddering breath, dropping the chain and lifting her hands to hover over her cheeks, not daring to touch the burned, blistered skin for fear of increasing the pain— her tears were agony enough. 

She gave herself exactly one minute to have a hasty break-down before forcing herself to focus on escaping. Now that her vision wasn't so restricted, she could see where the walls of the cave seemed to narrow in, forming a sort of tunnel—the cave's exit, Hermione guessed.

Remembering the wolf that had attacked her, Hermione crouched down to pick back up the chain. As she did, however, her eyes drifted to the terrifying fangs of the snake, both still intact despite her best efforts to shatter the snake's skull. A dead snake could still envenomate a victim— even a severed snake head had the ability to inject venom when touched, and the biting reflex could be activated for hours after death.

It would be, Hermione thought grimly, a gruesome but effective weapon—though lugging around over three meters of dead snake would definitely be inconvenient. She couldn't help her grimace as she realized she was going to have to actually decapitate the dead snake, and she didn't even have anything sharp to make it a clean decapitation either.