Gone With the Wind: Harry Potter Style
I don't know if my story is going to be as interesting at the tittle makes it out to be. Gone With the Wind has been my all-time favourite novel and movie (Don't you just love Vivian Leigh?), and I wanted to use that as practice for another story I'm currently working on…the Christmas story…which I still haven't gotten to finish.
I'm so used to writing Lucius and Hermione, or Jareth and Hermione. I used this story as practice for Severus and Hermione…I hope I kind of succeeded…I hope (^.^')
He was my hero, my best friend, and I loved him.
It was in our Fourth year that I realised my feelings...when I began building him up on a pedestal that would soon be so high that no boy or man could ever hope to reach the top.
He became my everything, my every thought. My heart would consider no other.
I should have known better…I should really should have.
o.O.o
It was in their Fourth year that I really noticed her...that she was not just another face walking through the corridors. For me, it started with Malfoy, the youngest Malfoy. Her tears cut through my carefully built walls.
It could not be though.
I have loved another for what seemed forever in my heart.
But she did it. She was able to pierce through my carefully constructed walls…and I noticed her fierce spirit.
I noticed her.
o.O.o
"He did it. He killed Dumbledore," Harry told her in private. He gazed at his best friend sorrowfully. Hermione look up at him with tears pouring down her cheeks.
"He couldn't have, Harry," she choked out. "He just couldn't have," she sobbed out the last word.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione," he said half-heartedly. He truly was sorry though, for his best friend that is. Her tears were tearing at his walls though...his carefully built walls that he had erected through years of abuse from his relatives.
"Why did you want to tell me this alone?" Hermione asked. Harry looked at her seriously and hopefully.
"I know how much you hate others seeing you cry," Harry answered. "And I know how much the Headmaster's death would affect you since-"
"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said a little forcefully.
"I also wanted you to be the first person to know," he said a little bashfully. Hermione was all ears then. "I, um, I want you to be the first to know that Luna and I are engaged," he said a little happily, despite the seriousness that their conversation had started out on.
Hermione was stunned. She could feel her heart breaking into millions of little pieces all over the Library of Grimmauld Place.
"That-that is great news, Harry," she smiled a little teary eyed. She would never let him see the tears she knew she would shed for him. "Luna is a wonderful person, I know," she choked.
"Excuse me, still thinking of Headmaster Dumbledore," she said a little pointedly, hoping to pierce him where she knew it would hurt. She knew how important the former Headmaster was to him also.
"Yeah, He-I... I should let everyone know shouldn't I?" He asked more of himself then her.
"No Harry," Hermione said firmly. He looked at her surprised, about to argue. "I really do think that there is more to this than anyone knows about. You know how close the Headmaster kept his secrets to himself, "she said firmly. "We need to see how this plays out. This needs to stay between you and me."
"Fine," Harry growled a little harshly, then he softened. "Are you sure you're alright, Hermione?" He asked softly.
"Just peachy," she answered with a touch of sarcasm that went over his head. "Are you sure about this, Harry? The other day you were going on about Vol-"
"I want this," he said firmly. "If I were to die tomorrow I would like to know that I at least lived for a day with someone that actually loved me. Not like the D-...anyway. I'm sure this is what I want."
"I love you Harry," Hermione whispered after the door was firmly closed behind her best friend.
The disillusioned figure in the darkest corner of the Library narrowed his black eyes at her words.
o.O.o
She was careful to conceal most of her face on the taxi ride home. The hired driver gave her an odd look now and then but she felt her disguise was worth their safety and silently instructed the driver to drop her off the address on the card she handed him. Her school trunk had fitted nicely in her purple beaded hand bag. She had transfigured a pillow into a small carry-on and added a weight charm to make it a little heavier, along with the dress it contained that she had charmed not to wrinkle.
She was sure to tip the driver generously after he carefully placed her bag onto the Hotel's trolley. Her mother met her in the foyer with a grave look that twisted her stomach even more than it had twisted the night before during her talk with Harry.
"Did something happen, mama?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"Are you sure you want to do this, love?" Elena Granger asked her daughter.
"Merlin's nightgown!" Hermione hissed, rolling her eyes. Elena smiled at her daughter indulgently.
"I remember when you used 'God's nightgown'. I miss that, actually," she confided in her only daughter. "You have yet to answer my question though," she pointed out. Hermione threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin with pride and confidence.
"I said I would and I will," she said stubbornly.
"But so soon?" Elena pressed.
"There's me foyne Lass!" Came the voice of her father Gerry. Hermione gave her mother a look that said to digress, and she half-heartedly glared at her father.
"Really, papa. You're English," she admonished him.
"Ah, but mi soul is Irish," he smiled. Hermione cracked a half smile. Her paternal grandparents had taken a vacation late in her grandmother's pregnancy and thus her father had been born in Ireland, something he was proud of, but she knew he was proud of her even more.
"Really," Elena groused. "With both of our ancestors pride I'm afraid Hermione is as stubborn and prideful as both our familial lines!"
"Then we should hope she would know when to put those qualities aside and won't have to learn as harshly as my great grandmother," Gerry said lightly while smiling down at his daughter indulgently.
o.O.o
It was done.
She looked up into her husband's dark grey eyes, but knew she would never love him...not as he deserved. She did her best to look the part of a happy bride but she knew she could never hide her feelings as well as a Slytherin.
"À-Dieu-Vat." She heard the whisper. It was a marine expression, French, meaning "as God wills it" or "the die is cast" and the voice sounded familiar, too familiar. She turned her head toward the direction she had heard it, and her heart stopped.
She felt as if she had just betrayed him in the worst possible way.
"H-harry?" Hermione whispered too herself, doing her best to appear as if this had not phased her.
"Congratulations William, Hermione," Luna Lovegood, soon-to-be Potter smiled while her fiancé looked as if he was still struggling to understand.
"You made it," William smiled. Hermione looked between the two in astonishment. How had she never noticed?
"I wouldn't miss my brother's wedding for the world," Luna answered.
"Wait, what is going on here? Did you really just get married?" Harry asked Hermione.
"You're related?" Hermione couldn't help but ask at the same time as Harry.
"Of course," Luna smiled. "Fitzwilliam was not blessed with magic and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was killing squibs as well as muggleborns, so our parents decided that Will would have 'died' but was actually raised by our Uncle Henry, our maternal Uncle. Hence, Fitzwilliam Phillius Hampton," she explained with an even wider smile that threw Hermione and Harry off.
"I didn't know how to explain magic to you," Will said softly. "I didn't even know you knew my sister. Uncle Henry and I choose not to be in any kind of contact with the wizarding world for safety reasons. I took a chance and owled Luna last night after we both decided to be married today, my love," he explained. Hermione tried not to shiver with guilt when he referred to her as his love.
"I'm a witch," Hermione said softly. Will only smiled.
"At least I don't have to explain a child with magic to you," he answered brightly.
"We're sisters," Luna's eyes glowed with happiness at Hermione and hugged her tightly. "Really and truly sisters," she whispered, now teary eyed. "I've always wanted a sister."
Hermione felt the burden of her guilt settle steadily upon her shoulders.
o.O.o
When the news reached her she did her best to keep a stiff upper lip.
She felt guilty to be relieved.
She even cried in her bedroom because she felt guilty that she was relieved.
They had only been married two months when Voldemort decided that he needed to ruin her 'happiness'. Will had been in his London office when the Death Eaters attacked. They had him tailed. They ended his life too early for anyone's taste.
She did her best to appear the grieving widow for Luna's sake.
He was there at the funeral services sitting directly in the church's pews.
"No need to look so relieved, Mrs. Hampton," his deep baritone voiced ghosted over her right ear.
She turned and lifted her black veil to glare at him.
He was a legilimens...
She hoped he got the message.
Later she found a blank diary in her handbag.
o.O.o
'Brooding does not become you, Snape.' She wrote in the diary.
She didn't know why she wrote to him. Perhaps it was something to do as the war continued on. Maybe it was to tease him that despite his Master, her happiness wasn't ruined because she never had the kind of happiness she felt she would have with Harry, her true love.
'Tsk, tsk. Rudeness does not become you Mrs. Hampton,' he wrote back. 'I guess only pure Witches can be expected to correctly address their elders.' He knew that would get to her. He had overheard her conversations with her grandfather and knew that she desperately wanted to be known as a 'proper witch' so he used this to taunt her.
Hermione growled at the book after reading. 'How dare he!' She yelled to herself, and threw the book on the table. The loud thump brought Ron and Harry rushing into the tent. She looked up at them sheepishly and apologised.
"She's even more mental than usual lately," Ron loudly whispered to Harry on their way out.
"It's probably the hormones," he answered softly, looking back as she rubbed her stomach's slight bulge.
He had suggested the unthinkable to her when she found out. She had thrown a fit and hit him with a glass vase. He had never seen that side of her before, the prideful side. Everyone knew she was stubborn, but not vain. Not Hermione. Yet it seemed as though the hormones from her pregnancy made her that way.
She complained of her growing stomach. The marks her pregnancy made as her skin stretched.
It had to be the hormones.
'I hate you,' she wrote a little later.
'Ah. The words of the uneducated scoundrels. You are smarter than that Mrs. Hampton. I know you can write better than that,' he taunted. She had yet to figure out why she felt the need to write to him every few minutes.
'My skin itches. I don't feel like thinking right now,' she complained.
'Your skin itches?' He asked. 'Use an anti-itch potion.'
'I would if they worked for my condition,' she wrote back grouchily.
'And pray tell what is your condition? Did you perchance run into a patch of poison Ivy?' He teased.
'I itch because my skin is stretching,' she explained, only realising too late that she had already given him too much information for a man as smart as he.
'And who should the congratulations go out to?' His writing appeared five minutes after her last entry. 'Is it a soon-to-be Potter or Weasley?'
She screamed at his entry and growled at Harry and Ron when they ran inside. They both rolled their eyes and went back out after making sure everything was as it should be.
'It's Will's you murderer!' She wrote back. It seemed that all their conversations ended with her calling him murderer, Dumbledore's murderer, or Voldemort's snivelling slave. He had actually let it slip one time that Voldemort's name was tabooed so she took extra measures to jinx the three of them to not say the name.
Sometimes she wondered if it actually was a slip.
Three days later she found a sheepskin bag near their tent flap that contained specially brewed moisturising potions for pregnant women and prenatal potions along with nutrient potions. She ignored Harry and Ron's questioning when they asked why they had to move, but she was confident that the potions would be what they were meant for and not tainted.
'Thank you,' she wrote that night, scared to ask how he knew where to find them. She was confident in the knowledge that he was somehow tracking them and had been since the beginning of their hunt, but she also knew that for some reason he could be trusted despite his words and actions.
'My pleasure, Mrs. Hampton,' he answered.
'Hermione,' she wrote. 'If we are to be "confidants", and I use the word loosely, then we should address each other by our Christian names...or at least by my Christian name. Have you been baptised Mr. Snape?'
'Severus,' he wrote back, 'and yes I was. My father thought it would keep the demon that possessed my mother away from me, but alas...he spent my childhood trying to beat it out of me...It didn't work and he left us the day I received my Hogwarts Letter.'
'I'm...' she watched the ink fade into the page. 'I'm sorry Severus,' she wrote sincerely.
'I don't need anyone's pity.' His handwriting was sharp and harsh as it appeared.
'I agree,' she wrote back. 'Children who grow up in that type in environment do not need anyone's pity...but they do need to experience love. Have you experienced love Severus?'
He didn't write back for a few weeks.
Every week she found her supplies replenished though, and made sure to tell him how grateful she was for it.
o.O.o
She was sore and tired and her arm hurt fiercely.
And she refused to let him die on the dirty floor of that shack where he had almost lost his life twice before.
She knew now. She had slowly pieced together what had happened in the Astronomy Tower that night.
"My my, Mrs. Hampton," Severus wheezed.
"Don't talk!" She urged. "You might reopen your wounds and they've just closed."
"No pure Witch would even think of cursing her grandfather as you are," he gibed. She knew by now to not take his words seriously.
"He is my grandfather and I can curse him six ways from Sunday if I so choose to do so," she answered snarkily.
"Touché, my dear," he answered. She replied with a sharp pinch on his uninjured side and he groaned while glaring up at her.
o.O.o
Uncle Henry was right beside her and William at her parent's services.
He was a no nonsense man, but he adored his great nephew as much as he had adored his nephew in his own ways.
He didn't indulge her when she pitied herself.
"You're not as alone as you think," he chastised her. "You may now be lacking in parents, but you still have me and your son," he said pointedly. She was not so selfish as to not take his words to heart. Voldemort had not taken away her whole family. She still had Uncle Henry, baby William, Luna, and Harry.
o.O.o
They were threatening to take away her family Manor for unpaid taxes.
It had been in her family ever since her father's great-grandparents had moved there after the Civil War in America.
The Manor had become a haven for them to revive their marriage.
This was history repeating itself.
Should she step into her great-great-grandmother Scarlett's shoes and marry?
There was nothing left to sell. The Death Eater's had raided the Manor completely of all their valuables. They burned down her parent's workplace so only the shell of their Dentistry and the commercial value of the property could be sold.
That left her with $30,000 to come up with.
She couldn't bring herself to ask Luna and Harry for help. They were busy rebuilding Godric's Hollow and Grimmauld Place. Grimmauld had been compromised after they had apparated during the Ministry fiasco and the place had been burned down. Harry was devastated that he had lost that connection to Sirius. His rebuilding efforts were leaving him close to broke and Luna was expecting.
Hermione was sad for his loss, and trying to be happy for their pregnancy.
She was slowly getting over her best friend.
Her grandmother Scarlett's diary had been found among the trunks in the attics. Hermione was definitely smarter than her grandmother so she knew she couldn't hang onto Harry as Scarlett did to Ashley. Maybe some of her brains were inherited from her Grandfather Rhett.
She decided to search through his trunks to see if he had foreseen something such as this situation coming up in future generations and thankfully she had found some hidden compartments where he had stashed a few coins that would be worth more than a little something now.
She was reluctant to sell them though because they were a connection to her parents through her great-great-grandparents, and she would have to sell all the coins. They would be her very last resort.
"Hello dear." Hermione looked up and smiled at her grandmother. "I've come to see my new grandson," she said excitedly.
"Hello grandmama," she answered softly with a smile. "William is in the nursery, I just put him down for a nap though. Tea?" She asked.
"That's fine, it gives us more time to talk," the older woman looked at her seriously while taking the offered cup. "I know what's going on Hermione." Hermione looked down at the tea cups with an embarrassed blush. "I think I know some people who might be willing to help if you would be willing to look past a few flaws."
"I will not ask the Malfoys," Hermione said determinedly. She hadn't even considered asking them. The family had proven with memories and veritaserum that Voldemort had been keeping them under the Imperius curse via the Parkinson family.
But she had still been tortured in their home, thankfully after William's birth.
She looked down at Scarlett's diary and thanked the heavens that she knew how to love her son in the ways that her grandmother didn't know how to show her two eldest children till later in their lives.
"I really wish I could help, my dear, but the will your grandfather left behind forbids me from putting any money towards this Manor and the land," she said sadly.
"I hate grandpapa," Hermione said simply. "I'm sorry if it hurts to hear me say that."
"It does," she confirmed, "but I understand." Hermione looked up at her hopefully.
"I think I know where I can get the money."
o.O.o
The waters rocked the small boat every which way despite all the sturdy charms that had been cast on it before they pushed off. Her stomach seemed to rock with the boat but she was determined to keep her lunch down.
When they finally reached to small dock at the other end of the grey walled prison she was about ready to give up her struggle on keeping her lunch down.
"This way Mrs. Hampton," the guard motioned. "He's not as dangerous as he appears, model prisoner he is so 'sall right to enter the cell. I'll be righ' outside th' door, jist knock three times to let me know when yur done." Hermione nodded and prepared herself for the worst upon entering.
He was sitting up against the wall in his small bed. He looked slightly ragged, but it seemed as though he was being treated fairly. His black eyes followed her as she entered.
"Hello Severus," Hermione said softly. He kept looking up at her through his hair. It was a bit longer than when she had last seen him.
"Mrs. Hampton," he greeted lowly.
"I-I've come to ask a favour of you," she said, lifting her chin and setting back her shoulders. He smirked at her.
"You've come to ask your grandfather's murderer a favour?" He mocked. "Why not demand it and release me from my life-debt?"
"As God as our witness, you owe me nothing," Hermione answered so fiercely that the two of them felt the binding magic unravel and dissipate. Severus looked up at her in astonishment, no longer hiding behind his black waterfall of hair.
"What is it you want?" Severus asked after gathering himself.
"I-I need 30 grand...for taxes on the Manor I've inherited from my parents," she said lowly. There was a long pause. "I know you have it," she whispered. "I know that you've...stashed away what you could gather from Riddle during the war."
"The purebloods are keeping me locked in here because they want it," Severus said harshly. "How do I know that you're not one of their traps, that you are not polyjuiced?" Hermione looked at him.
"The potions you provided for me during our hunt," Hermione answered. "Prenatal, nutrient, even moisturising potions for pregnant women."
"Anyone who had seen me brewing could have deduced that," he answered glibly.
"À-Dieu-vat," Hermione whispered. "As God wills it."
"You do like the old meanings," he said softly. "I meant it more along the lines of, 'the die is cast'."
"You would defy your origins," she answered sharply. "But then you have reason to," she said more softly.
"Very well," Severus said after a few moments. "I will help you, but you have to do something for me." Hermione looked at him shrewdly.
"What is it you want?" She wisely asked.
"Be my mistress," he answered. Hermione looked at him and rolled her eyes.
"History really does seem to be repeating itself," she muttered. He heard and looked at her curiously. "I've brought you some reading material. Be very careful with it," she warned. "It's my great-great-grandmother's and I would like it for my children and grandchildren," she said, handing him a handsome leather bound diary.
"Something different then potion theories," Severus mumbled, and took the offering.
"Why not marriage?" Hermione asked. "You are sitting there asking me to be your mistress, why not ask for my hand in marriage instead?"
"We both know where your heart lies," he smirked.
"Do we?" Hermione asked before turning and knocking on the cell door. "And no, by the way. I will not lower myself to that level," she answered before the guard closed the door behind her.
"I didn't think you would," he said to the grey walls.
o.O.o
She wore white again.
She dreaded that colour by now but she had no choice.
She had no other way to save her home. Even the banks had refused her a loan.
She looked up at her groom and felt sick to her stomach. He was looking down at her adoringly. Ginny Weasley was glaring at her for some unknown reason.
Hermione really felt like she was walking a-ways in her Grandmother Scarlett's shoes. Her Grandmama was looking at her disappointedly, and William was toddling and hanging onto her skirts while he struggled to stay upright.
The only concession she had was that her husband didn't have any hidden relatives in the wizarding world. She had yet to tell him she was a witch though, and that William had inherited magic.
Brent was one of her childhood friends, and had lost his parents at an early age. They had met in the bank after she cursed the teller every which way after her application for a loan was refused. He knew she didn't love him, and he didn't love her either.
He needed an instant family to gain his grandfather's inheritance. They agreed on a date, and he paid her taxes, but the 30 grand didn't even make a dent in what he had inherited. He hoped they could come to love each other though.
His hope slowly died every time Harry Potter and his wife came to call on them though. He began to resent her. He blamed her magical ability, though he couldn't care less that she was different from him.
He tried to bond with her son, but the boy was just too shy for his taste.
Her former Professor finally came to call one night. She treated him differently. He saw a slight admiration in her eyes for him. The snarky Professor Snape didn't see it though.
Professor Snape did see the resentment that grew on him though when William started bonding with him almost effortlessly.
Severus began to brew prenatal and moisturising potions for Hermione again.
He was jealous of her husband.
Jealous that the child Hermione grew inside her wasn't his.
Every day he formulated a new plan to do away with her husband, and every day he told himself that he couldn't do that to William or the growing child's father. He had put up with Lily and James, he could very well put up with Hermione and Brent.
But his love for Hermione made his love for Lily seem like some silly little infatuation. Which it had been.
He was there for her the afternoon Alayna was born. He was the first to hold to tiny child in his arms and wish fiercely that the small baby that seemed to fit in the palm of his large hand was his. Brent was off at some fight event during the whole birth.
It wasn't till a nurse from the Emergency Room came up asking to see Mrs. Kensley that Hermione knew something was wrong.
Brent had been at some backyard fighting event. The Police had shown up to put a stop to the 'festivities' and there was some harsh resistance. They were forced to pull out their hand guns and fire some warning shots.
Brent had died on the operating table an hour before his daughter was born.
Hermione felt her recently mended heart break a little.
She was beginning to feel something for her second husband. That was why she had agreed to a baby when he asked.
Her heart just wasn't Harry's anymore. She wanted to be tied to Severus in marriage, but maybe he just wasn't a marrying man. Not Everyone could be like her great-great-grandfather and have a change of heart. Rhett and Scarlett were most likely the exception.
"Marry me."
"What?" Hermione asked.
"You heard me," Severus said. "Don't make me repeat myself."
"Why?" Hermione asked after a moment. Severus smirked.
"'I can't wait all my life to catch you between husbands'," he quoted her grandfather. Hermione smiled up at him sadly through her teary eyes.
"You forgot to kneel," she joked.
"Why?" Severus asked. "Just so you can tell me you don't want to hear one of my common jokes?" Hermione laughed softly.
"History really does seem to be repeating itself," she said softly.
"Did you mean what you wrote?" Severus asked. Hermione looked up at him and nodded. "Then we're one step closer to our happy ending then your father's great-grandparents were," he said seriously. "It took them years to get where we are now."
"We're not quite there yet Severus," Hermione said softly. "I really did want to make it with Brent. Maybe if we had had more time we would have."
"I see," Severus said stiffly. Alayna started fussing in his arms.
"No you don't," Hermione said. "You still have a firm place in my heart Severus. It scares me to think that it might even be more firm of a place than even Harry had." Alayna was carefully laid in her hospital issued cot faster than Hermione blinked.
"Say yes Hermione," Severus demanded, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and softly shaking her. "I need you to say yes, I need to hear it from you."
"Oh Severus," Hermione gasped at the black fire glowing in his eyes.
"Say It!" He demanded again.
"Yes," Hermione agreed softly. He easily lifted her smaller frame from the bed and moulded her to himself as he greedily kissed her. "Oh gosh!" Hermione gasped. "What have I gotten myself into?"
"Something that I will be sure you or I can't get out of come this time tomorrow," Severus answered.
"What? That fast!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Oh yes, my dear, most definitely," he said seriously, helping her into her coat, and picking up his soon-to-be daughter.
'There will be none of that step nonsense,' he thought to himself.
"What are you doing? Where are we going?" Hermione asked quickly. Severus smirked at his soon-to-be bride.
"Saint Mungo's, I want to you be ready for tomorrow night," he murmured into her neck. "I definitely want a few more of these," he said, looking down at Alayna.
"Anything for you, my love," Hermione said softly.
"Say that again," Severus ordered harshly. Hermione blushed.
"Anything for you, my love," she repeated. He groaned and held onto her waist more tightly.
"They better have you ready by morning," he growled. "I want you marked as mine by early afternoon at the latest!"
o.O.o
Her dress was a cool minty colour this time, and he was determined that this would be her last time 'walking down the aisle'. Her Uncle by marriage to her first husband was there to give her away, and Minerva was there to act as a witness for their magical marriage license, while Hermione's grandmother was the other witness, holding Alayna and keeping Will occupied.
"Are you sure about this?" Uncle Henry asked Hermione. She just smiled up at him and gave him a sure nod.
"I know you know that I wasn't as in love with Fitzwilliam as I should have been," Hermione started.
"You don't have to explain," Henry reassured her. "I know it was what was expected of the two of you by society at the time."
"And Brent-," Hermione started.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't help with the taxes," he said regretfully. "I knew the trouble you were going through, Hermione. I even applied for a loan here in the wizarding world, but it was rejected because-."
"I understand," Hermione patted his arm lightly. "I want you to know that I don't think any less of you because of your lack of magic."
"That is why you are my favourite niece," Henry smiled at her. "Now let's get you married for the last time," he said as the entered the marriage clerk's office.
Hermione looked up at her fiancé, and was breathless. He really was handsome, maybe not roguishly handsome, as her grandfather Rhett had been, but handsome in a Romanesque way. She saw his smirk as she was imagining him in a toga with a green sash tied around his hips, and knew he was looking into her mind.
"Who gives this woman away?" The clerk asked with slight awe. Hermione Granger Hampton Kensley was in his office. He shivered at Severus Snape's slight sneer.
"I, Henry Hampton, give my niece away," Henry answered, and placed Hermione's right hand into Severus's left, but not before giving the wizard a stern look. Severus, for once, was respectful and gave him a reassuring nod in return.
"Do you, Hermione Jane Granger Hampton Kensley, take Severus Tobias Snape, to be your life-bound mate?" The clerk asked.
"I do," Hermione answered.
"Do you, Severus Tobias Snape, take Hermine Jane Granger Hampton Kensley, to be your life-bound mate?"
"I do," Severus answered.
"I now declare Severus and Hermione Snape bound for life," he said with a slight sniffle.
"Get a hold of yourself young man," Minerva whispered as she signed the marriage license as a witness.
"Can't help it professor," he said, wiping a tear away. "It's why I took this job in the first place, I love seeing people get married."
Minerva patted his hand and guided the Headmistress and her grandchildren out of the office.
o.O.o
They honeymooned on a private island owned by the Malfoy family. Hermione was still a little wary of the family, since she had been tortured in their home, but Severus reassured her of their innocence and Severus accepted a request for them to have tea together when they returned. Hermione was a little upset, but was relieved when Severus said the request was to have tea at her family manor, or at a place of her choosing. She wanted to choose a little tea shop her parents used to frequent a few minutes from their home, but these were her husband's friends and she conceded to having the tea at her home.
"This really is a beautiful island," Hermione said quietly, admiring the view.
"The Malfoy's are happy to have reclaimed it from the Parkinson family," Severus said.
"They really did a number on the Malfoy's didn't they," Hermione said.
"Thankfully Atticus Parkinson is not the brightest match in the box," he snorted. "He had Lucius transfer monthly payments into their family vaults for the betrothal agreement to his daughter. A contract which neither of the Malfoy's agreed to. Mister Parkinson managed to relieve them of over half their wealth by the time Potter," he sneered, "defeated the Dark Lord. Lucius was able to prove this and reclaim his and the Parkinson vaults as retribution."
"Severus," Hermione said quietly, holding up a vial of clear liquid. "I want to prove to you in the only way I know how, that I am over Harry," she said firmly, uncorking the vial.
"I appreciate the gesture," Severus said, stopping her, "but I cannot allow you to take that."
"I feel that it would be better than you delving onto the surface of my memories for my feelings," Hermione said.
"No, Hermione," Severus said softly. Hermione looked at him questioningly. "It will cause you to miscarry."
"How do you know for sure?" She asked with surprise. "We've only been intimate a few times in the past few days, and I've been using a contraceptive potion-"
"Please don't tell me you bought it from that poufy new apothecary that just opened in Diagon Alley," Severus said derisively.
"Well," Hermione hesitated, "I didn't have time to brew, with Alayna and Will keeping me busy most of the time," she blushed.
"Hermione, most of their stock might as well be water," Severus said. "Nonetheless, I appreciate what you have offered me."
"I just want to make it clear to you now," Hermione started. "I don't think I have ever loved Harry as I once thought I did. I began realising that while married to Brent, and I really did try to make our relationship work, but you were also there, Severus."
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"I mean…I did try to love Brent as a wife should, but…my heart just didn't want to be in it, "she tried to explain. When he still looked confused she continued. "Severus…the only reason I agreed to marry you is because you already hold a part of my heart," she whispered.
He held her at arm's length and couldn't help skimming her mind for the truth of her words. When he was satisfied, he had her right there on the water's edge. He made her cry his name till she was hoarse, and he hid his tears in her sandy curls.
"Just know, love," he murmured into her hair after, "I am not going to settle for a life-bond now. I am going to bind us together for eternity."
By the time their twins were born, he had Will and Alayna take a paternity changing potion. He wanted her family for himself, and he made sure they were irreversibly his.
Yes, it was selfish of him but the children didn't mind calling him papa, and he loved hearing it from them and would tickle it out of them every chance he got.
He especially loved making Hermione scream her love for him every chance he could take. She finally brewed herself a proper contraceptive after giving Severus two more children.
I tried to fit in somewhere that Headmaster Dumbledore was Hermione's grandfather, but I didn't know how, but I think I strongly alluded to that…hopefully O.O , and I tried to imply that Hermione's grandmother 'inherited' her position as Headmistress after Dumbledore's death…not that that position can be inherited, but…yeah….anyway..
I tried to stay true to everyone's characters, while trying to make them seem Gone With the Wind-ish? I hope I did okay…kind of nervous about that though.
Just so everyone knows…I do plan on finishing that Christmas story…I'm just trying to figure out how I'll make Hermione and Severus work as a pair…