Disclaimer: the characters belong to JK Rowling.
Note: thank you, Somigliana, for betaing these without making me feel like an idiot.
Rating: PG
Challenge: Back from the dead on grangersnape100
Characters: Hermione/Severus
Dealing with the DEAD
"Darling! You home? I'm back from the dead."
Severus choked on his drink. He hadn't been expecting her so early. Standing, he engulfed Hermione in a tight embrace.
"Was it really terrible this time?"
"Been awful. Took us ages to move from one step to the other. I really thought I wouldn't make it."
"Hush, hush, forget about it. Let me bring you a nice, strong cup of tea."
Sighing, Hermione let her husband drag her to the couch. She really didn't know where she would find the energy to go back there again next week.
&&&
Hermione had accepted to sit on a Committee to reform the Wizarding Law, thinking she could help the Magical World to enter the 21st century - hell, she would settle for the 20th. Her enthusiasm had been short-lived; the other members were dusty old wizards content to let things be as they were.
They kept rejecting her suggestions, because "they had always managed perfectly fine with the old system, dear."
She looked so miserable when she went home that Severus had taken the habit of offering her a cup of tea and a good backrub on the days of the dead.
&&&
Shaking her head, Hermione tried to forget about Severus's hands trailing on her bare skin. She still had to endure a few hours of pointless debate, dripping with sugary sweet politeness, because these people had known each other since kindergarten. She could have summed up their opinions in a quarter of an hour, but no, she was the youngest, and a woman to boot. She had no claim to saying anything yet.
Head bent, she let her quill pour the anger she felt onto her parchment.
They were daft, exasperating, apathetic, and deaf. Don't forget deaf!
They were…
&&&
Hermione was looking for the word that would best describe the contempt she felt for her colleagues, when her eyes fell on what she had just written. Daft. Exasperating. Apathetic. Deaf. DEAD. Exactly! They were as good as dead.
That evening, she went home with a secret smile.
"What?" Severus inquired. "They actually listened to one of your suggestions today?"
"Oh, no, I don't think they'll ever come close to that. But I've just found the perfect word for them."
From that day on, the official name of the Committee never came out of her mouth again.
