The owl flew through the open window and landed on the table. Hermione was at the stove dishing up her breakfast and ignored it. It wasn't likely to be for her, it never was these days. Ron detached the letter it carried and gave the bird some of his bacon rind, waiting until it flew away before looking at the envelope.
'It's for you,' he said in surprise.
'Who's it from?' Hermione asked interestedly.
'No idea. Looks official, though,' Ron replied, turning the envelope over to undo the seal. He removed a piece of parchment and read through it.
'It's from Snape's solicitors: Messrs Passmore, Stiles and Stubbs,' he said. 'They want you to go to their offices. Something about his will.'
Hermione started at the unexpected mention of Severus.
'Oh. Have they given a date to go?'
'No, just mentioned as soon as is convenient for you. They're based near to Diagon Alley, so we could go there later today if you want.' Ron refolded the parchment and put it back into the envelope, placing it on the table next to the teapot.
Hermione closed her eyes for a second, trying to quell the tears that threatened at the mention of Severus' name.
'If you don't mind?' she asked meekly.
Ron shook his head, smiling. 'We needed to go shopping anyway. I need to get some dragon fertiliser for the garden, and didn't you say you wanted to get a new gown for Molly's twenty-first birthday party? We can go there, have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, then head off to the solicitor's office afterwards.'
Hermione put her plate on the table and smiled fondly at her husband before sitting down and picking up her knife and fork.
'I wonder why they want to see me?' she mused.
'Perhaps Snape left you all his money,' Ron replied. 'I mean, he must have got paid for working at Hogwarts, and for the Wolfsbane Potion, and the only thing he ever bought was black robes, so he must have been rolling in it. And after all, he didn't have anyone else to leave it to, did he? You were the only one who could ever stand being near him. I'm sure you deserve something for all those years of devotion to the snarky bastard.'
Hermione's face furrowed unhappily at her husband's words. Even after all these years, even after Severus' death, Ron still couldn't bring himself to admit that there was any worth in the Potions Master. But she wasn't about to start an argument. She needed to go to the solicitors and find out why they wanted to see her, and she had a feeling the trip was going to upset her. She didn't really need to be any more upset.
She took a mouthful of her bacon, then once she had swallowed said, 'I need to talk to Ginny before we go shopping. I need to check what colour she, Lily and Molly are wearing so I don't clash.'
Ron rolled his eyes but smiled. 'Does it matter?'
'Of course it does,' Hermione said. 'Just because you men have no sense of style doesn't mean we women don't.'
Ron shook his head, still smiling, and picked up the newspaper, turning to the back page to check out the Quidditch scores. Hermione ate the rest of her breakfast in silence.
'Mrs Weasley, we are the executors of Severus Snape's will. We have invited you here as Professor Snape has named you as sole beneficiary,' said the well-dressed young man sitting opposite Hermione.
Hermione looked stunned. Severus had left everything to her. Although Ron had joked about Severus' money, she had never really expected him to leave it to her, certainly not everything. She thought about her lover for a moment, trying to stop the tears pricking her eyes. She would have happily given it all up if only she could have him back, even just for a few minutes. The young solicitor looked at her kindly, waiting a moment for her to absorb the shock before he continued.
'Professor Snape has left you his home in Spinner's End along with all of its contents, and of course all his belongings and Potions equipment from Hogwarts.' He smiled at the surprised woman. 'In addition, there is a key to a vault in Gringotts, the contents of which now belong to you.' He patted a red folder embossed with the bank's crest that rested on his desk. 'The detail of the contents and the current market value of the items it contains are in here. Obviously you can take that with you when you go.'
He waited silently.
'Are you sure this was all for me?' Hermione asked slowly. She was still trying to get over the fact that Severus had left her Spinner's End, the home they had been so happy in for the last fifty-odd years.
The solicitor nodded. Then he seemed to remember something. He opened his desk drawer and removed a manila envelope. He smiled and passed it across the desk to Hermione.
'Professor Snape requested that I give you this in the event of his death.'
The envelope was heavy and there was a clinking sound. Was there jewellery or something in there?
'Thank you, Mr Stiles,' Hermione said quietly, trying not to cry, her shaking hands dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief.
Even though it had been several weeks since his death, any reminder of Severus set off her tears. This whole visit had been a little overwhelming for Hermione. She put the envelope into her handbag, then stood and shook hands with the solicitor.
'I am truly sorry for your loss, Mrs Weasley,' Mr Stiles said soothingly as he passed her the folder containing the details of her inheritance. 'Professor Snape was a great man. You and he did some truly fine work together.'
Hermione looked surprised. 'You know of our work?'
Stiles nodded. 'I have an uncle who is a werewolf,' he explained. 'Your potion completely changed his life. You and Professor Snape are much talked about in history lessons, Mrs Weasley.'
Hermione smiled delightedly. 'Good, I'm glad. And you're right, Severus was a great man — he was completely brilliant!'
Feeling warmer inside now and still smiling, Hermione walked towards the door to go and re-join Ron.
When they arrived home she excused herself to look at the contents of the envelope on her own. She had told Ron about Snape's bequest, and although he expressed some surprise it wasn't really a shock. He knew Snape had no one to leave his belongings to except Hermione. After all, she was about the only one apart from Professor Dumbledore who had ever really liked the taciturn man and certainly the only one who had willingly spent any length of time in his company outside of classes for about the last fifty years.
Ron headed into the kitchen to make Hermione a cup of tea and give her a chance to read in private the letter Snape had obviously left her. He looked at the clock and sighed. Rose and her husband Alfric would be round shortly to check on them, the same way they had done every week for the last eighteen months. They couched the visits as purely social, but both Ron and Hermione knew Rose was checking to see if they had gone ga-ga yet and needed putting into a nursing home. He was determined that if anything ever happened to Hermione he would look after her, and he was sure she would do the same for him. They'd had a tough marriage with more than its fair share of bumps, but they were still together and had just celebrated sixty-two years of marriage.
At least Hermione had never left him for Snape. That was something Ron had dreaded over the years. As he and his wife's relationship grew worse, his need for her to stay at home colouring his feelings towards her, he had occasionally wondered whether Hermione and Snape were having an affair, although how anyone could be attracted to the great greasy git he would never know. Ron had spent a great deal of time worrying that she would leave him, preferring to be with the intelligent Potions Master than with her family. But his fears were apparently unfounded. Although Snape and his wife remained close friends and work partners and had, it had to be admitted, achieved some brilliant things together over the years, their relationship had never developed into anything more romantic.
Ron, of course, had indulged in affairs — several in fact over the years — but strangely it had never really occurred to him to leave Hermione either even though he had children with two of his other lovers, finally getting the large family he had always wanted even if he couldn't get them all in one place. Hermione had never known about his playing away or the other children, but by then their sex life was long over. In the early days he had occasionally felt guilty about his infidelity as he was aware that it was he who had initially withheld the sex within his marriage in annoyance over Hermione's refusal to give up work. But as the years went on it and it became obvious that Hermione wasn't bothered that there was no intimacy between them any more he stopped feeling guilty about getting gratification elsewhere. He still loved his wife and always would, but for the last forty-odd years they'd been more like the friends they had been at school than lovers, which wasn't a bad thing.
As far as he knew, only his mother had any knowledge of his infidelity; Ron had never even discussed it with Harry as he was acutely aware that Harry was Hermione's best friend, too, and it would put him in an awful position if Ron had opened up to him. Ron had admitted his infidelity to Molly during an extremely drunken conversation late one night at the Burrow over Christmas several years before, when he had been feeling particularly unhappy about Hermione's relationship with Snape, annoyed at himself for not taking control of his relationship with her better, and guilty, too, about not being able to spend Christmas with his illegitimate children. His morose feeling was mainly caused by his then lover Katie's dissatisfaction with him at his refusal to end his marriage. He knew his mother didn't condone what he had done — actually, that was something of an understatement: she'd had plenty to say on the subject, and none of it good — and by the time she finished with him Ron regretted having allowed his secret to slip out. But she was his mother and of course she forgave him and kept his secret even when another mistress, his current, had followed Katie.
He poured the milk into the cups of tea he had made for himself and Hermione, gave them a final stir, then headed back towards the lounge. Suddenly he stopped. From behind the door came sounds of pain. Hermione was sobbing uncontrollably as if she was in agony. Rage flared inside Ron. Snape had done this to her. After all this time, the bastard had done something to hurt Hermione.
Sitting on the sofa, Hermione had looked at the envelope for a good couple of minutes before opening it, torn between a desire to know what Severus had left her and the fear that she would be upset by whatever it contained. Finally, with shaking hands she unsealed the envelope and tipped the contents into her palm. She looked at the gleaming gold chain with the attached pendant for what seemed like an eternity, then put it safely into the pocket of her cardigan and pulled out the accompanying letter. For a moment she couldn't focus through the tears that swam in her eyes at the sight of Severus' handwriting. Even that was enough to make her heart break all over again. But she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes, eventually clearing them enough to read Severus' final words to her.
My darling Hermione,
If you are reading this then I have finally succumbed to the cancer that has been eating away at me for the last few years. I am sorry, my love, that I didn't tell you earlier that I was ill; that I didn't reveal to you that I was dying from this foul disease, but I knew if I did you would do everything in your power to keep me alive — but I don't want to stay alive, sweet one. The pain is so intense now and the treatments aren't working. I can tell that much, whatever the Healers try to tell me. Even I am unable to make a potion strong enough to ease the pain any more. I love you, more than anything in the world, but I can't stay with you any longer. After fifty-four years I know you will never be completely mine; however much you love me, your husband and children will always come first. This is as it should be, as I urged you to hold to for so long. After all, your family is the most important thing you have, especially now. But with the pain I'm in I can't face more years of long stretches of being alone with only such a little time with you to ease my suffering.
Please know that I do love you, Hermione. I know I never told you, not once in all the time we've been together. I really don't know why I've never done so because I've known it ever since the first time we made love, since that first wonderful night in the Leaky Cauldron. In all the years since then I've never stopped loving you; in fact, to me you've become more beautiful every day. Every time I see you my heart soars with desire at how gorgeous you are, and each day we spend together makes it more difficult for me to say a final goodbye to you. Now the end has come and I wish I hadn't spent all those years convincing you to stay with Weasley. Instead I should have fought for you, should have made you my wife and had the children I never thought I wanted but now realise I sorely miss. But please don't think I regret a single minute of the time we've spent together, my love. I really have treasured every moment and you have made me so much happier than I ever had any right to be.
My biggest regret goes back to the award ceremony that night at the Ministry of Magic, so long ago. I was attracted to you even then, in fact I desired you with a passion I didn't dare admit to. I didn't act, convinced that you would be horrified at my attentions — that my ugliness would disgust you, and that our difference in age was just too great for us to ever be truly happy as a couple — which shows how little I knew the real you then. Would things have been different if I had approached you that night and told you of my feelings, knowing now that you already harboured feelings for me in return? Maybe you would have been my wife instead of Weasley's, our life lived together from that day forward.
But it's too late now for maybes and wishes. We made our choices and we've lived with them for the last half a century. Please don't grieve for me, my love. I'm not unhappy except that I leave you behind and won't see your beautiful face any more. Enjoy the rest of your life, my beloved. I sincerely hope it will be a long one filled with joy and laughter. Try to love your husband and enjoy your children and their offspring, as time goes all too quickly and before you know it you are taken away from those you love the most. If there is anything at all after this life, it is my sincerest hope that we will meet again at some time. To see you just once more would be the greatest pleasure I could ever receive.
Be safe, my sweet love,
Your Severus
Before she even reached the end of the letter Hermione was weeping loudly, great wracking sobs as her grief overwhelmed her, everything she had bottled up since Severus' death pouring out of her like a flood. Ron pushed the door open and rushed to her, dumping the mugs on the coffee table as he dropped to her side on the sofa and pulled her into his arms.
'What's the matter, love?' he asked worriedly. 'What did the bastard do?'
But Hermione was inconsolable, unable to speak through the floods of tears, and Ron could do nothing more than hold her while she wept.
She had just about managed to stop crying when a voice sounded loudly outside the door.
'Mum, Dad? Are you in there?' The door opened and Rose walked into the lounge, followed a moment later by her brother Hugo. 'What's the matter?' she asked, looking at her parents. She could see Hermione's distress.
'Your mother is a little upset at the moment,' Ron told them. 'We've just returned from sorting out Snape's will at the solicitors.'
Rose gave a distasteful look. 'I thought that was all over and done with. He died weeks ago.'
Ron scowled at his daughter for her insensitivity as Hermione started to cry softly again.
'Perhaps it would be better if the two of you came back another time,' he suggested quietly. 'I don't think your mother's really up for a chat at the moment.'
Hugo looked embarrassed and eyed the door as if ready to make a quick getaway, but Rose moved towards the coffee table instead, reaching down to pick up the letter Hermione had dropped there. With a screech of pain Hermione slapped her hand away, grabbing the letter and clutching it to her chest as she wailed loudly. She hadn't yet had time to fully digest its contents nor to discuss it with Ron, so she certainly wasn't willing to share it with her daughter.
Rose recoiled in shock. 'She's mad!' she announced, her voice high-pitched. 'She's gone completely mental.' She turned to Hugo. 'See, I told you. We need to do something about them. We need to get them taken care of.'
'Your mother isn't mad,' Ron said angrily. 'She's grieving for the loss of a close friend. There's nothing wrong with her.'
'I know you want to think that, Dad,' Rose said, her voice softer yet still patronising. 'But look at her. She's not normal. She keeps disappearing for no good reason and she's a mess. I'm not blaming you, because you're trying your best. But I don't think you can cope with her and it would do you good to have a rest as well.'
Ron glared at his daughter. 'Your mother has not been disappearing. She was at the hospital spending time with a close friend during the final hours of his terminal illness. Whilst that might have been a pain for you to have to deal with, Rose, it certainly hasn't been a hardship for me and I supported her wholeheartedly. We are both of us perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally, thank you very much, and we have no need of any help of any description. In fact, I'm extremely disappointed that you feel the need to so blatantly suggest that your mother and I aren't fit to look after ourselves when that's quite clearly not the case.'
Hugo looked embarrassed, his head hanging to look at his shoes. Rose glared angrily at her father and opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but Ron stopped her with a shake of his head.
'I think it would be a good idea if you left now, Rose — and you too, Hugo — before one of us says something we'll regret later,' he told them tersely.
Hermione looked at Ron gratefully. She definitely wasn't up to dealing with her daughter at the moment and it was good to know that he didn't think her mad for her actions since Severus was admitted to hospital. For a moment a feeling of love for her husband that she hadn't felt for years filled her heart.
Hugo moved across the room and bent down by his mother, giving her a tight hug.
'I'm sorry,' he whispered into her hair, then gave her a kiss.
Hermione gave a small smile through her tears and hugged him back. Standing again, he headed for the door, touching Rose's arm en route.
'Come on, Rosie, let's go. We can come back next week when Mum's calmed down.'
Rose looked angrily at her brother and shrugged off his hand but said quietly, 'You're right, let's go. I'll see you later, Mum . . . Dad.'
Ron gently patted Hermione's hand, then stood up and followed his children to the door. 'I want a quick word with you before you go,' he said, and he went out into the hall, pulling the door to behind him.
Hermione un-crumpled the letter that had been screwed up when she grabbed it, and smoothed it out as she looked at it again. She could hear Ron and Rose still arguing in the hall, although she couldn't hear what they were saying. She took one more look at the letter and then folded it carefully, putting it with the necklace in her pocket. Ron re-entered the lounge, looking worriedly at Hermione as he came to sit beside her on the sofa. Hermione gave him a small smile.
'They've gone,' he said. 'Rose isn't happy, but then she never is these days. Poor Hugo is just a bit embarrassed at the way his sister acted.'
'Thank you,' Hermione said sincerely, taking his hand and kissing it. 'I really appreciate what you said.'
Ron flushed with embarrassment. 'I just said what was true,' he said gruffly, dropping Hermione's hand and picking up his mug. He took a sip of his tea.
He knew he ought to talk to Hermione, should ask her if she wanted to talk about the visit to the solicitor and about the letter she hadn't wanted to share with her daughter, even just to check that she was all right. But after so many years of not talking about anything serious with her he found it hard to start now. There were too many things that had never been said, too many years of things being swept under the carpet, and he wasn't at all sure his wife would want to talk to him.
Hermione knew she should talk to Ron, should show him Severus' letter. But that would dredge up things they had ignored for over fifty years and she didn't feel strong enough to start raking through the debris of their marriage while she still felt so raw at the loss of Severus. What she needed to do was go away, to be on her own. She wanted to understand Severus' letter to her and reconcile herself to the reality of his death before she could work out what to do about and say to Ron. She picked up the mug of tea Ron had brought her and began to drink, even though it was now almost cold, trying to think of a way to tell him what she needed to do. She decided to go with the direct approach.
'I need to go away for a few days.'
Ron looked at Hermione in surprise. 'Go where?'
Hermione thought for a moment. 'Severus left me his house as well as all his belongings. I would like to go through them, pack away his things and take some time to reflect . . . to mourn for him.'
Ron's immediate reaction was to say no. He didn't want her to be alone in her time of grief and, strangely after all these years, he felt jealous even though he knew that with Snape dead he had absolutely no reason to be. But after looking into Hermione's eyes he knew he wouldn't stop her. She was right: she needed closure on Snape's death, time to make her peace with what had happened to him, and he knew she couldn't do that while she was here with him.
He nodded to show his agreement. 'If you need any help, you know where I am,' he said quietly.
Hermione hugged Ron tightly, grateful for his understanding, and he hugged her back, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. It was probably the first time they had been this way for at least a decade. He wondered whether he should tell her about the argument he'd had with Rose but decided he would leave that, too. Hermione had more than enough to think about already without adding an ungrateful daughter to the mix.
