I don't own.
Thanks go out to my beta, Harmswife. With out her I'd have a permenantly OOC Snape...
Chapter One: Life After Her Choices
"Mona, you've got a table. D4, outside." Hermione Granger looked up from the bill that she had been ringing up in time to see Jami Whitehair hurry by with two large plates, brown eyes twinkling. "Four of them - Never seen a stranger looking group and the tall, goth guy with them is just plain creepy..."
"I'll be right out." She smiled, finishing up the ticket just as the couple it belonged to entered the small room that housed the register, remarking on how quaint the decor was.
"That'll be $68.49." Hermione waited patiently for the the undoubtedly southern gentleman to count out seventy dollars.
"Keep the change, sweetie." He drawled as his wife ushered him out of the restaurant.
"Thank you!" She called before pocketing the change they had left for her.
"A dollar and fifty-one cents? How very generous of you, sir..." She muttered under her breath, hurrying through the break room to the kitchens, where she grabbed four glasses of ice water for the group at D4.
The hot Arizona air hit her in a whoosh as she stepped from the kitchen and into the small courtyard, making the ice water she was carrying twice as seem twice as tempting. She walked quickly, the table in question blocked by the large cottonwood tree that the small restaurant took its name from.
She moved around it, ducking under one of the lower branches. She put on a smile as she raised her head, only to have it slide right off again as her eyes landed on the corner table.
Or rather, the people sitting around it, people that she had never expected to see again, let alone sitting in courtyard of Arizona's own Cottonwood Steakhouse. Bright Orange waist-length hair marked the youngest of the group, Ginny Weasley - 'Make that Potter,' Hermione corrected herself with a bitter twist of her lips - who was smiling at something that Remus Lupin had said, his own hair streaked with grey. Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin sat across from him, eyes twinkling mischievously, her nose growing to a size that made the nose belonging to the black-clad man she sat next to look rather petite. Severus Snape was clearly not amused.
Hermione stepped forward, her eyes not believing what she saw.
"Miss Granger." Snape's greeting was filled with disdain. Lupin stood and took the glasses of water from her hands before they slipped from them completely.
"Hermione!" Ginny shrieked, moving in for a hug, which the other girl sidestepped easily. If Ginny was disappointed, she didn't show it. "Hermione, we've got some wonderful news!"
"Welcome to the Cottonwood Steakhouse. I'm Mona and I'll be your waitress this evening."
"Hermione?" Lupin's brows furrowed together in question.
"You must have me confused with someone else." Hermione pulled the ticket book from her apron, her voice so cold that even Snape looked mildly impressed. "Now, what can I get you to drink?"
"Hermione, don't be that way!" Tonks frowned, her nose popping back to a much more reasonable size. "We've come to rescue you!"
Ginny giggled at that. "He's not exactly the stereotypical Knight in Shining Armor, is he?
"What? Wait, I don't have time for this. Go away." Hermione turned on her heel and hurried back into the kitchens. Hoping that her other tables would keep her busy enough to put off her return to the table outside. She walked into the main dining room to check on the tables that she had inside, only to find the customers at the register, a slightly frazzled Jami ringing them up. The tables were already being cleared by the acne-ridden busboy, Albert Yazzie.
Hermione groaned inwardly. There would be no avoiding D4 now, and the on-shift manager, Jean Ferras, wasn't the type of woman that appreciated table-switching. Not to mention the ear-full that she'd get if she completely ignored a group of customers, for that matter.
She sighed, resigning herself to the task at hand and began getting drinks for the small group of Order members that were waiting. Four boot-shaped novelty mugs came down from the stack and were filled with ice. Hermione lifted the first to the soda dispenser.
"The Order of the fucking Phoenix…" Her eyes closed for a moment and she lifted her hand to her forehead. She hadn't heard one peep from them in eight years. Not since she had made the choice to give up her place in the Wizarding World, rather than live in a forced sham of a wedding. Her friends had promised her that they would find some way to keep in contact with her, but this, eight long years later, this was the first contact she'd had with her previous life.
Hermione opened her eyes as the soda began to overflow onto her hands. She grabbed the red bandana that she kept in the back pocket of her jeans for just such occasions and wiped her hands and the sides of the plastic mug. She stuck the end of the cloth back into her pocket before absentmindedly readying the other drinks and heading back out into the heat.
The table fell silent as she approached, the lot of them looking rather shamefaced, with Snape, once again, the exception.
"Here are your drinks. A coke for you, this one's a root beer, seven-up and an orange soda for Snape, it looks like." She put a drink down in front of each of them before pulling out her ticket book again. "What'll it be?"
"Hermione, the Order has found-" Lupin began, only to be cut off by a very angry young waitress.
"Do not call me that. It's Mona, and the only order that I want to hear about is how you'd like your steak. "Hermione snapped. "What do you want to eat?"
"If that's what it takes…" Ginny mumbled, flipping the menu open and reading off the first thing she saw. "Then I'll have the 'Cowgirl', well done."
"Um, the 'Deputy' medium-rare." Tonks chimed in with her order, following Ginny's lead. "Remus'll have the T-Bone, very rare. Just let it look at the oven in fear and then bring it out to him."
"Please, spare me the werewolf jokes." Lupin said in mock-exasperation.
Hermione jotted down their orders with angry slashes, before turning her attention to Snape. "For you, sir?"
He shook his head, clearly wanting to stick with the steaming coffee mug he had transfigured his water glass into.
Hermione nodded before hurrying off to place their orders with the cook.
"What you got?" Hermione somehow managed a small smile for her coworker.
"One Twelve-ounce rib-eye, well, a New York, medium-rare, and a T-Bone, rare." Hermione handed him the ticket, which he looked over before handing it back to her. "And does that go out to Jami's table? I'll take it now."
Hermione grabbed the plate of aromatic, steaming ribs and went inside to deliver it, trying her best to ignore the fact that she would have to face them again.
"Here are your ribs, sir. I hope you enjoy them." She smiled, placing the food down in front of the only other customer in the restaurant before hurrying back to the kitchens to get bread and salads for her table.
"Hermione, please " Ginny's voice held the tiniest note of pleading as the waitress drew near the dreaded table once more, salads and crackers balanced precariously. "Listen to us."
"You have nothing to say that I want to hear." Hermione dropped the salads onto the table, not caring that at least one of them had tipped over. She turned to leave.
"Miss Granger, if you take one more step I'll hex you well into next Tuesday." Snape kept his voice low and dangerous.
Hermione stopped, hesitating. Snape wasn't the kind to make idle threats, she knew. She was also very aware that she would have no way to defend herself if he were to try something. Maybe that was why he was here. He was the only one that would actually dare hex her.
"Fine." She hissed, while grabbing a chair from another table and swinging it around so she could straddle it. "Talk."
"Well," Ginny began quietly. "Harry sends his -"
"Get to the point." Hermione cut her off. "Since I highly doubt that you've come all this way to exchange pleasantries with a mudblood."
"Hermione, you're not a mudblood." Lupin said softly.
"Aren't I?" Hermione made to stand, only to find that she couldn't. Snape's smirk grew as she realized that she had been glued to her chair. "What the - I don't believe this!"
"Hermione, please listen." Lupin leaned forward. "The Order has found a way to bring you back to the Wizarding world."
"It's Mona," she snapped back at him. "And I -"
Snape muttered something under his breath, effectively silencing the angry witch.
"Thank you, Severus." Lupin's voice lacked any hint of gratitude. "Now, Hermione - Mona - the Order has found a way to bring you back, as I said before. Harry needs your help to defeat Voldemort. We need your intelligence, Hermione. "
"Now, Minister Scrimgeour and the Wizengamot has given us permission to bring you back, but only if you -" Tonks stopped suddenly, leaving the sentence hanging unfinished.
"Marry a member of the Order." Ginny finished for her, suddenly very interested in her salad.
Hermione glared at them as if to say 'over my dead body', and if that message hadn't been clear enough, her rather eloquent use of her middle finger told them her exact thoughts on the matter.
"Normally we would give you the opportunity to choose - the Ministry would give you the opportunity to choose your husband." Lupin paused, eyes flicking to Snape for the tiniest of seconds. "However, the pickings have become much slimmer in the eight years that you have been absent and the Ministry is rather insistent that, in this particular instance, the choice belong to them."
"They wish for you to marry -"
"Mona, table A1 is all yours!" Jamie poked her head around the corner for a moment before ducking back into the kitchen.
Hermione felt the invisible bonds lift, and she stood, never more relieved to have a table ready to be waited upon.
"Snape," Tonks finished quickly. "They want you to marry Snape."
"I -" Hermione felt the bile rise in her throat as she looked at her prospective groom. The look he returned was a challenge. "I - I have to go."
"Hermione, please!" Lupin's voice followed her across the courtyard and into the kitchens.
Please R&R!