A/N OMG, I haven't written anything new on this for over a year now. That's ridiculous! Sorry guys, I will try to keep up from now on! (although I've been having financial troubles and likely will not have Internet for a bit, so posting will be sporadic for a month or so, sorry!)
Disclaimer I (of course) don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters within this fic. This is simply my interpretation of these characters and what I wish them to do. Enjoy the story, and review if you like. Constructive criticism is invited and, as always, Flames will be ignored.
I Can't Believe It
Chapter 4
By Tigress Burning
The morning after they arrived at Foltenburg Severus awoke with a start. Staring drowsily overhead at the unfamiliar ceiling, a strange feeling suddenly clenched his chest tight.
"What is that?" he wondered. The answer was given almost immediately as he was pulled towards the waking world by the feel of a slim, lithe body snuggled up beside him. "Oh." he realized. Needing to keep up pretenses, Hermione and he were now living in the same bedroom in Sixth House, their year posting.
Foltenburg was nice, if a bit strange. There were no houses like at Hogwarts, instead the students here were all divided into year groups. Every year, their particular year group moved into a new House along a pretty lane, which the dormitories were arranged on. The layout of the school was in itself very aesthetic. All the houses lay on a cobbled lane with the younger students closest to the several Halls. Dogwoods, oaks, and maples scattered all around the front lawns and down the lane with several other varieties thrown in artistically. All the school buildings were farther down the lane with the first through sixth years being taught in the Charms and Muggle Studies Hall, the seventh through tenth years in the Main Hall, and the eleventh and twelfth years were taught in the Advanced Wing where Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions were taught. The Astronomy Tower, Greenhouses, and the forest where Care of Magical Creatures was taught were separate also, and the general feel was that of a American college campus.
House was really an understatement as each home had to house two adults and eight or more students comfortably as well as feed and entertain each household. All of the teachers were married which was the complete opposite of Hogwarts. The spouses were also employed by the school, mostly for chaperone purposes. They also acted as house mothers or fathers for the children, from cooking and chore setting, to keeping control of the living areas while their spouses graded papers, created tests, and did other duties.
Two weeks later
/It really was nice/ thought Severus. He had spent the day teaching D.A.D.A. to the seventh, eighth, and ninth year students. It was nothing like Hogwarts, there were no hexings that he had to worry about, no snide comments between Houses, nothing going on behind his back but nice, quiet studying and learning. Now he was in their bedroom laying on their bed while Aland and Rudyard perched on their trays and Amaris and Roldan lounged on the bed, purring contently. Hermione was in the bathroom, having taken a shower and dried her hair. Surprisingly, Severus found himself enjoying this quiet, homey life. "If only Hogwarts was this nice." he murmured to himself.
"What did you say, darling?" Hermione called out from the bathroom. "Only that I wish every day at Hogwarts could end like this, with no tension headache. We have been here at Foltenburg over two weeks now, and I've not had to take one of my headache infusions in that time. It's so quiet, the students are good during class, I've not had to reprimand a one of them severely. I believe this is the least amount of discipline I've handed out in fifteen years combined."
"It is rather nice." Hermione agreed as she danced out into their bedroom.
For some reason he couldn't fathom, Severus's heart leapt at the sight of her. While in the classroom she dressed professionally, as did he. It was rather useful to have a Mistress of Potions with a secondary degree in Transfiguration for a wife he mused. No need to purchase new clothing, his beautiful young wife just transfigured him clothing, all wonderfully soft, and all keeping to his high taste and expectations. No need for sweeping black robes here, no need to strike fear in the hearts of these young, well-behaved Americans. And even if she did prefer pretty wool skirts, soft blouses, and softer blazers in the classroom, as soon as classes were over for the day it was to the House to change. At home...(and wasn't it funny how he called this American school home after just two weeks, while he still felt like a visitor as Hogwarts, where he had spent his last twenty years) at home Hermione preferred to wear loose gypsy skirts in a rainbow of jewel tones with matching shirts, or simply a prettily embroidered vest. With her hair loose to her hips and her skin tanned by last summer's vacation to the Caribbean, she danced around their House barefoot except on the coldest days, helping with homework, playing board games with the children of their House, making special treats for whomever was on kitchen duty after the evening's dinner dishes had been washed and put away. Each day she completed her marking early to ensure Severus had quiet time in the evening to do his own school work while she was with the children. Yes, they had definitely settled in here nicely, he thought.
Severus was amazed at this transformation in Hermione. At Hogwarts she was always quiet unless speaking with him in either his or her rooms, she dressed only in voluminous black robes, much as he did. Although she was the head of Gryffindor House, the antics of her house seemed to drag her down spiritually every day till by the end of each term she was invariably as snappish and foul-tempered as Severus himself, deducting house points for even the slightest transgression. Many of the students bemoaned the retirement of McGonagall and the appointment of Professor Granger as Head of House. Luckily receiving her Doctorate of Potions had taken sufficient time that when she returned to Hogwarts, only the first and second years from her own seventh year remembered her as the Head Girl. Now in their sixth and seventh years, respectively, they had passed their O.W.L.s, and only a few had continued on in their advanced potions studies.
Looking to Hermione, Severus saw she had sat down on their bed, and was currently engrossed in painting her toenails, her fingers already done. The fabric of her skirt (peacock blue today) draped down over her knee, occasionally getting in her way. Watching her, Severus felt the sudden need to do something for her.
"Hermione?" he said
"Mmm?"
"Well I was thinking. It's not fair for me to have all evenings to myself. Tomorrow don't worry about getting your marking done early, or do. I will get all mine done early and spend the evening with the children, and you can have the evening to yourself." Hermione glanced upwards, startled.
"Really?", she asked, "I assumed you would prefer it this way since you and children in general don't seem to get on." Severus thought for a moment, then smiled at her.
"You know? I think it's just the children at Hogwarts I don't get on with. They always have had these expectations, handed down by their older siblings; Big Bad Snape, and his Nasty Humour. Snape, the greasy git, he'll get you and take away points for breathing, don't ever get caught by him, ever. All of the inter-house rivalry, the animosity is what is killing me." He blinked, realizing something.
"Killing me...do you know that is the first time I've realized. That is what it is doing to me, isn't it? Making me nasty, bad-tempered, entirely pessimistic. Uncaring of my colleagues, even. I've often wondered how I became that man. I used to have fun. I'll grant you not while at Hogwarts. But in the summer, when it was just me, with Dad and Mum at our little cottage up on the coast. I was happy then. I had friends who didn't understand why I had to go to private school. Muggle friends, they were. That would kill Potter, knowing I have Muggle friends whom I still correspond with." He stopped and glanced at Hermione who had put down the bottle of polish and was looking at him.
"Severus" she began and then stopped.
"Yes, Hermione?"
"Umm, nothing, never mind darling, just..thank you. I'll finish my work anyway tomorrow and we'll do something with the children, all of us together what do you think?" He murmured a reply as she turned back to her toes. A large hand entered her vision and she looked at Severus as he took the small bottle in his fine-boned hand and pulled her foot in his lap.
"I'll do it for you...if you would like." he said, realizing how intimate a gesture this was. If she said no...
"Yes, thank you." she replied. How could she continue? Knowing as she did, that with his admission, a wall had broken between them and they were at last in full confidence together. How could she tell him that what she really wanted was to forget Voldemort, forget their lives at Hogwarts and continue on here, at Foltenburg. They could teach, work on their marriage, and live with one another as a husband and wife should, taking care of their charges, doing things like this, forever. It was then that Hermione realized, in that instant; that in their bedroom at an American school, their familiars and pets all around, she had fallen in love with the dreaded Potions/D.A.D.A. Master of Hogwarts, while he painted her toes.
