I'm back with a Severus angled chapter ( I told you it will be Wednesday even if the last few minutes of it- in my time zone, that is…!) :D
Not sure about the next one yet, so I won't make promises. I'll try to hurry with it because of the evil cliffy on the end of this one, though.
Thanks again for the reviewers!
I hope you'll have a nice time reading this; I put in a light little flashback for those who get bored by constant angst and drama ;)
Disclaimer: I still don't own it… Am I the only one who gets annoyed by disclaimers?! -.-
"It's so freaking frustrating that you won't listen to a single thing I say! I told you, not five minutes ago that it doesn't matter to them if your thesis is unshakable. They won't accept it unless I can transform it into my own style and find the references in all the research material that supports the theory. And then they'll maybe consider letting me show them the brewing process!" at the end of her little speech Hermione was breathing heavily, cheeks flushed and luckily displaying none of the unnatural discoloration that was the result of her broken jaw on Friday.
Severus was mildly irritated, but mostly amused and awed by her fiery outburst. His godson was right, it was sure to send her into a fit if you questioned something which – in her opinion – she knew better. Okay, he knew that the bureaucratic nonsense of the ministry was her field of expertise, too, but in the last three days of working with her he found that he really liked to rile her up. It was entertaining and stimulating to have a "friendly" argument with her, not to mention he was still in the process of getting to know her limits. He wouldn't want to send her over the edge when it really counted that he won the debate – in the future when they had a difference of opinions about something that HE was absolutely sure about. So these little fights were the perfect chances to gauge where that line was that he really shouldn't cross. She was, after all, the statue of forgiveness; she'll be over it by the next time they met. It was now Tuesday evening and she should have already gone home to rest before her check-up tomorrow so she could get back into the field as an auror. Instead, the petite brunette was sitting in the brightly lit library of Malfoy Manor and was poring over dusty tomes to crosscheck and cross-reference every little detail of his already in-depth research.
"If you really believe that they'll give a damn about research methods, then you can work on it next time we meet. Now, take your leave, please, because you're tired, over-stressed and haven't eaten in nearly ten hours, and you're becoming more annoying than I can tolerate. And that's saying something because in the last few days I tried my best to be amicable. If you're done being a petulant child you can come back. Maybe on the weekend, the next couple of days should be enough to sufficiently recover from your prolonged presence." he took care to say the last words with less sharpness than he would if he really meant them, topping it off with a small smirk. He seemed to reach the desired effect, because the witch stood, slammed the book in front of her shut – not too harshly, mind you, she was a real bookworm, after all, who wouldn't damage a precious text if she could help it – and picked up her bag. Stepping in front of him she looked into his dark eyes, her own chocolate browns narrowed at him. She appeared to be searching for something, studying the wizard intently for a minute, before she stood on the tips of her toes and touched his nose with her pointer finger. Then a grin made its way to her face and she whispered her last words for the day to him in a playful tone he didn't remember anyone using in his presence in a long time.
"You're just saying this to get rid of me. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you pick fights just for your entertainment. It would really damage your "evil bat of the dungeons" image if anybody learned that you're not angry when you're mean, only having fun." in a heartbeat she spun around, marched out of the room and vanished from his sight. Her tinkling laughter echoed in the vast hallways long after she took the stairs to the ground floor. Severus stood there, bewildered, with a comical expression and wide eyes, and filed away this side of Hermione Granger in his mind as another one which he didn't have a chance to observe yet in relations to himself during the years. The thought that maybe she'll show more of it and he'll get to know this aspect of her personality more as their work progressed left him with varied feelings. In the end, he settled on dread. He couldn't quite put a finger on the reason why that was. What he knew with absolute certainty was that this woman was trouble, big trouble.
After three long days of hard work and the stress of getting used to a co-worker he decided that a glass of Ogden's Finest certainly wouldn't go amiss right about then. Dimming the lights in the library he made his way to the entrance hall of the mansion and wasn't surprised to notice the crackling fire in the main drawing room, Lucius sitting in an armchair with a drink of his own. The blonde nodded to him as he made his way to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of whiskey.
"Hermione seemed awfully cheery despite her little tirade a quarter of an hour ago. How did you calm her down so fast?" the smirk in his voice was evident even with Severus' back turned to him. The Potions Master went to sit on a sofa, an eyebrow raised sardonically in answer to the inquiry.
"Actually, I didn't. I may have put too much effort into my argument. You know she never takes anything too harsh seriously. I swear to you, that woman is a bigger mystery than Dumbledore's complicated mind-games were. Draco mentioned some points which I should watch out for while I work with her but I start to feel like she should come with an at least two-hundred pages long manual." shaking his head he took a sip of his beverage and gazed into the heart, as if waiting for guidance from the blackening logs. Lucius chuckled, amusement shining in his grey eyes.
"You don't have to explain it to me, you now all too well how much time it took me to get used to her presence when she became friends with my son. And don't even mention her unannounced visits and surprising actions. Just remember Draco's twentieth birthday." the mention of that day brought a slight smile to Severus' face. He won't forget her antics anytime soon.
He was awakened by the horrible, high-pitched shouting of house-elves coming from the ground floor kitchen of the mansion. He couldn't imagine what could've caused such a frenzy that their voices carried up three floors, but his instincts told him to investigate, because something that earned such a response from them couldn't be good. He made his way down the stairs gripping his wand tightly, not even bothering to dress properly, just throwing on a robe over the black pants he slept in. He met Lucius in the entrance hall, the two nearly offing each other in their haste. Their only luck was that they both possessed lightning fast reflexes, ducking from the other's non-verbal curse with ease. After settling the little misunderstanding they strode towards the kitchen shoulder to shoulder, watching out for any possible threat.
As they came to the wide-open kitchen doors they were met by the sight of a woman's behind sticking out of a cupboard and cooking ingredients messily spread out on the counters. They were momentarily stunned into immobility. The ex-spy surveyed the big bowl of something - he wouldn't dare to call it any name because the thing looked like it would attack him, if angered - and the flour covering every surface in the room. As he glanced at his friend by his side he saw that the master of the Manor wasn't a step closer to understanding the bizarre scene.
The continually squeaking house-elves hiding fearfully behind the wizards and peeking at the human wreaking havoc in their territory pulled the aristocrat out of his thoughts. He cleared his throat and watched the woman try to straighten herself and presumably hit her head on a shelf in the cupboard because she cried out and hissed a nice chain of profanities which could've shamed seasoned sailors any day.
Recognising the voice and consequently the early visitor Lucius chuckled, shaking his head at the young woman's language. Severus loosened his fist curled around his wand and let out a sigh. This is going to be interesting.
Hermione finally extricated herself from the cupboard and stepped back – her hands full with various fruits – and shut the door with her left foot. The witch turned to the men standing in the kitchen's doorway and smiled a tired looking smile. She had flour on all her clothes, her face and even in her hair.
"Sorry about the elves. I tried to make them stop but they just kept on shouting no matter what I told them."
Amused, the Malfoy patriarch raised an eyebrow and looked behind his back to the outraged little creatures.
"You can all take a break, as I see Miss. Granger will require the kitchen in it's entirety for her little baking experiment."
Wide-eyed the house-elves took in the words of their master then thrown some angry glares in the brunette's direction but obeyed, taking their leave to find other occupations around the manor until the end of this insanity. As the last one of them popped out of sight Lucius turned back towards the disaster zone to face the petite auror. His sarcastic drawl was slightly raspy from the earliness of the hour, but it seemed that he decided to finally get some answers from her about this early morning exercise of hers. The dark haired wizard next to him patiently and silently waited for the explanation that was to come.
"Now... You know that you're welcome here and that I don't mind if you play explorer on the premises but what, pray tell, are you doing in the kitchen at 6 o'clock in the morning on a weekday when, if I'm not mistaken, you should be at work soon?"
While the blonde dealt with the house-elf issue and made his inquiry to her Hermione put her findings down on one of the countertops. At the moment she was standing on her tiptoes in front of a big shelf trying – and failing miserably – to reach a funny looking object, totally alien to both members of her audience – the Potions Master pinched his nose bridge observing her suffering. As it seemed, she didn't even think about using a summoning charm. At the question she gave up her objective and looked back over her shoulder at the men.
"I took a day off. Not because I needed it, but because I wanted to. Before you ask, no, I'm not ill I just thought it will take time to put a proper party together for the birthday boy. As for me being in your kitchen, I'm in the middle of moving with no functioning kitchen at my new place so if I want to bake a cake for Draco I have to do it here because he's at his apartment and will remain there all day, later in the company of Blaise, Theo and Adrian, I think."
She said all this in one breath and then resumed her impossible attempts to get that unidentified thing from the shelf. Taking pity on her Lucius strode forward, raising flour clouds with his steps, and plucked it down himself, handing it to the witch. The hyperactive woman – probably on a sugar-high, because Severus couldn't think of anything else that made a person this energized at 6:30 AM – looked up, flashed a brilliant smile and skipped away to her bowl of something.
Shaking their heads at her antics the wizards watched her for some minutes then both retreated to the safety of the drawing room to go over the daily newspapers. When the self-proclaimed chef of the day sauntered into the room and deposited two breakfast trays on the coffee table between the sofas they sat on and left without a word, Severus just resigned himself – as he could see, in agreement with his best friend – that it would be better not to disturb the girl during the day. If she wanted to command the kitchen, let her be happy. If the cake turned out to be inedible, or crawled out of its bowl even before it could be put in the oven, as he was sure it would, they'd deal with it. Until then it was better not to poke the baking lion(ess).
But the cake was delicious, beautifully decorated and stayed firmly on the dessert tray on which it was presented to Draco. And the boy had a fantastic birthday, the best Severus ever remembered him having and it filled him with respect for the ex-Gryffindor that she sacrificed a whole day just for the sake of her friend. Especially because everybody knew that this was the first day she took off for something other than an injury since she started her auror training. What was even more endearing that she was so knackered from the preparations, that she curled up in one of the comfortable armchairs and fallen asleep, not half an hour into the party. His godson told the group of Slytherins in attendance to let her rest and because she was so adorable in her sleep there was a ring of darkly attired men standing around her nearly constantly for the whole length of the festive occasion, watching her peaceful features. It was a miracle that she didn't wake up from their gazes. The Potions Master nearly burst out laughing – something he didn't do in years – when he heard Greg Goyle – resident air-headed brute – coo over her, stating that "She's just sooo damn cute!".
Looking back at the older Malfoy he saw that the blonde was lost in his own memories, smirk playing on his lips. The former professor threw back his remaining drink and stood, then nodding slightly to his distracted friend retired for the night, trying to guess in his head how many times will they be left speechless by something Hermione did. And when he realized that the answer to this question was as unpredictable as the ever changing moods of the brunette woman he shrugged and simply concluded that she was a wild card. He had a feeling that they didn't even know how wild exactly, yet. There was no doubt in his mind that they'd see, probably in the near future.
What he didn't have any inkling about was just how near that future will be. Draco tumbled through the fireplace late Thursday evening, covered in the mixture of blood, grime and dirt. His clothes were thorn and there were some superficial wounds visible on his torso and arms. But what shocked the residents of the manor the most was the wild look in his eyes, the fear, panic and anger on his face clear as day. Lucius was at his side in a heartbeat, trying to make sense of the words which left his mouth in an unintelligible string.
"Slow down son, I won't understand you if you keep bubbling!" the harsh words of his father seemed to bring a little piece of Draco's sanity back, and he struggled to tame his breathing, gulping several times and screwing his eyes shut for a moment. When he looked up and made eye contact with the two older wizards, his gaze flitted restlessly between them. He took a deep breath, seemingly gathering his chaotic thoughts and started his story from the beginning.
"We were not far from Stamford to the north, in the woods. Somebody tipped us off that Baines may be in that area. We found a cabin and it was abandoned but it was clear that someone inhabited it lately. We searched the area, found two more murdered girls. And then Hermione saw something, I don't even know what it was, she just picked up something from next to one of the bodies. And then she was gone. It was a fucking portkey! That despicable little maggot left a portkey and we walked right into his trap. It should have been suspicious to begin with, that anonymous message about his whereabouts. But we had to check it anyway; we couldn't take the chance of not going when there was even a minimal possibility to catch him. And now she's gone, and I searched everywhere, made a real mess of a bar in Knockturn Alley, too, that's why I look like this, by the way, but that's not important. And Collins suspended me. Told me to go home and think about my actions and that they'll "keep me posted". My partner is missing and he'll keep me posted?!" his steadily rising voice was filled with agony and barely controlled fury.
Severus had never seen him like this, not even after his mother's death. Then he was a grieving kid, seeking solace from the brunette girl with the pure heart of gold. Now that the woman who was his anchor for years went missing, possibly transported into the lair of a mass-murdering sociopath Draco was falling apart. And here was his father and godfather, unable to help him in any way because of their problems with the post-war wizarding society. And even if they could've gone out, they didn't have a single clue where to search for Hermione. Their old contacts were either in prison or dead, or would have attacked them on sight for their treachery. The ex-spy had a suspicion that that's what happened to the distraught young man in that bar, too.
"Did she have her wand when she vanished?" it seemed that Lucius saw the problem from a totally different angle, because this was not a question Severus would've asked, although, it was a totally valid one. Maybe Malfoy senior resigned to the fact that there was no consoling his son, just keeping him sane until they got an update from the Auror Department.
"Yes, she did. And she's one hell of a fighter, both with a wand and wandlessly. I never knew another person that good without a wand in a duel. And she is formidable in physical combat, I think that's a leftover from her muggle life but you said yourself what Baines is like and I saw his handiwork myself. She disappeared more than three hours ago… " the blonde auror looked near to a major breakdown and the former professor did the only thing that came to mind for an occasion like this: pushed a bottle of whiskey in his hands. Slytherins generally weren't big on giving comfort and in this moment it was painfully evident. Maybe they had more to learn from the ex-Gryffindor than they thought. That is, if they somehow managed to find her.
Oh, I'm a really evil piece of work... Some of you already guessed that Baines will be hard to deal with, now here's one of his small surprises. He'll have big ones, too ;)
And Hermione has a really unlucky streak going but this won't be a soap opera with only bad happenings, don't worry... If you think I'm harsh with her just think about Moody, he didn't give those scars to himself, did he? As I saw from the books being an auror sometimes sucks. Now maybe she'll finally consider a holiday...