I decided I needed to update my stories again (wow, it's been a long time, sorry guys!) before classes get too crazy (they started today, blech. Where did the summer go?). Maybe now that the alternative is homework, I'll write/update more often, haha. Anyway, if you're following my other story, I hope to update by tomorrow night at the latest, so you'll get lots of me this week (yay!).
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
When the scenery reformed around me, I was alone and standing in a very small bedroom. I heard a woman—probably Jack's mother—shout from the next room, and I knew that Hermione hadn't been cast in that role.
Good. It's bad enough I want my student. I don't need to picture her as my mother on top of that!
Jack's mother sent me to town with the disappointing milk cow, and, as expected, I met a rather odd character along the way. I traded him the cow for his five magic beans and took them home to "mother." She, of course, threw the anticipated tantrum, tossing the beans out the window and sending me to bed without supper.
In the morning, I climbed the beanstalk and approached the giantess sitting on her front porch. Hermione's not the ogre's wife, either. So that leaves the Magic Harp.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but would you be so kind as to give me something to eat? It has been a full day since I have eaten anything at all."
Sighing, she said, "I would, child, but my husband is an ogre, and his preferred meal is young boys. You'd better run along."
I adopted what I hoped was a pathetic face and said, "Please, ma'am, I am so hungry! Please give me something to eat."
She huffed and puffed, but eventually she brought me inside and gave me a breakfast of bread, cheese, and milk. When her ogre husband came thundering up the road yelling, "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!" she ushered me into the oven to hide me.
"Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!" I caught sight of the ogre as he came crashing through the front door, and he was a disgusting sight. With sickly-green skin covered in boils, some of which oozed (Revolting!), a nearly hairless head, and a stench to match it all, he was the most off-putting being in whose presence I had ever found myself…and I spent years in the company of the Dark Lord!
When the giantess had convinced the ogre that he was imagining things, he sat down to breakfast. Predictably, after he had finished, he sent his wife out to do chores while he sat counting the gold in his money sacks. As soon as I was certain that he slept, I crept out of the oven, snatched a sack, and fled out of the house, up the road, and down the beanstalk.
- o0O0o - Hermione's POV - o0O0o -
How boring. I can't do anything, I can't go anywhere, there's no one to talk to…no one that I want to talk to, anyway. I sighed deeply before thinking, Hurry, Severus. I…. I miss you.
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
Soon, I was ascending the beanstalk again. I told the giantess that I knew something of the theft of her husband's gold, but that I could say nothing until I had been fed, claiming to be "too weak" to talk just then. She hid me in the oven again during the ogre's breakfast, and then he brought out the goose that laid the golden eggs. At the first snore, I leapt out of the oven, took the goose, and bolted toward Jack's home once more.
During the week that followed my second excursion in the sky, I could not seem to shut my brain off. I'll get to see Hermione soon, I kept repeating to myself. Why I was growing so attached, I could barely fathom, but attached I was.
I even found myself worrying about her. I know she's safe, of course, but she has no one to talk to. The insufferable chit is such an incessant talker that she must be going mad, standing there all day every day, doing nothing but waiting for me to steal her from the ogre….
Finally, the day came. I snuck into the giants' home and hid in a copper pot that was hanging from the ceiling. When the pair came home, they immediately checked the oven, stupidly assuming that I would not know to hide elsewhere this time. After much monotony, the giantess brought out the magical, singing harp….
And it wasn't Hermione.
Briefly, I panicked. Where is she, then? Did she miss the story completely? Is she out there in the book somewhere on her own? Eventually, I calmed my nerves. Wherever she was, I would catch up eventually. The worry never completely left me, but I was able to restrain it long enough to grab the harp.
She called out for her master as I ran, causing the ogre to pursue me. Halfway down the beanstalk, I called out to Jack's mother to bring me the axe. As soon as I reached the bottom, I hacked away at the beanstalk, and it four solid hits, the stalk tumbled to the earth, killing the ogre in the process.
- o0O0o - Hermione's POV - o0O0o -
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous. He has to have killed the ogre by now! I'm not going to wait around for that insufferable man to find me—I'm going out into town and asking after him myself!"
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
After a few days of displaying the singing harp and the gold-egg-laying goose, my fame was spreading. I consistently looked around town for Hermione, hoping that she would hear news of my exploits and come looking for me. I still was concerned that she'd somehow disappeared, but I kept looking regardless.
Finally, I found her. The princess—of course! Jack is supposed to become rich and famous and then marry a princess! I should have known….
And then, I was frozen on the pavement, speechless.
I had never seen anything so stunningly beautiful in my life.
- o0O0o - Hermione's POV - o0O0o -
I knew that he was out that day, because the entire town was talking about the young man that had killed the ogre, the one who possessed such magical and profitable gifts. I just had to find—
Sweet Salazar, is that Severus?
He was staring at me like a man seeing the sun for the first time. I blushed at his scrutiny and at…how very striking…amazingly handsome…. I didn't have the words to describe how utterly delicious Severus had looked as a teenager. Granted, he was always handsome in my eyes, but something about how he carried this younger body was more confident, more daring than I was used to seeing him. I found myself wishing that he would hold his shoulders back and head high in this way when he was in his real body. He just doesn't know how appealing he is. Maybe I should tell him….
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
Hermione was looking at me strangely. I had always prided myself on my ability to read others' facial expressions, and if I was reading her correctly, she was pleasantly surprised, yet somehow also regretful. I didn't understand her motivations for feeling that way at all, but I was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery that she was presenting. Slowly, I made toward her through the throngs of people in the square.
- o0O0o - Hermione's POV - o0O0o -
Oh, he's heading this way. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, watching in fascination as Severus approached me. Even in his youthful body, the graceful, elegant way he walked was undiminished. I had always suspected that he had taught himself how to be so intimidating in his walk—now I knew that it was a quality he had been born with, something that could not be learned. It was unique to him.
And that made me admire and appreciate the quality all the more.
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
After what seemed like both hours and milliseconds, I stood before her. Smirking slightly, I said, as formally as possible, "What troubles you, my lady?" She seemed to shiver, though the afternoon was quite warm.
Hermione looked down at the cobblestones briefly before meeting my eyes. "I…." She blushed, took in a deep breath, and squared her shoulders before starting again. "I was admiring the way you held yourself in your youthful body, and then I was wishing that I could see that confidence in you always, sir." I noted how her eyes sparkled with the doubly-appropriate title she had tacked onto the end of her confession.
I found myself blushing at her praise, though I would never admit to anyone that I actually had done so.
- o0O0o - Hermione's POV - o0O0o -
Oh, he should blush more often. He's always handsome, but that…that is just entirely too appealing for his own good. Or for mine, for that matter. Focus, Hermione, and stop mentally drooling over your professor!
I cleared my throat and said, "What do you suppose we have to do in order to advance to the next story?"
Severus cocked his head to the side (Too cute!) as he thought. "Perhaps we need only convince the king that Jack is a suitable husband for the princess. They do not actually hold the wedding in the story."
I admit to being slightly disappointed that we wouldn't be kissing before the story ended, but I tried not to let it show. I beckoned for Severus to follow me back to the castle, where I would ask for an audience with my father.
- o0O0o - Severus's POV - o0O0o -
To be honest, I do not remember much of Hermione's conversation with the king. I simply remember him moving to a balcony to announce his daughter's engagement before the world around us started to fade. The last thing I heard was Hermione's whisper of "Achilles and the River Styx."
I know you're all wanting Severus and Hermione to get a move on (believe me, I know how you feel!) but I don't think they're quite ready yet. Give them a few more stories, and maybe they can finally kiss. :D
I'm not completely sure about this chapter. I hope that you all liked it, though, and that it was worth the wait. Let me know what you thought, especially if you have any suggestions for improvements, or for what you'd like to see in the future. I need some inspiration/motivation, so keep those reviews coming!
