Chapter 10

I sat in Coffee Cartel at just past six on Saturday morning, sipping my cortado and trying to pretend that things were perfectly normal. I hadn't slept well, needless to say; I'd awakened around four and tossed and turned until finally opting for caffeine over sleep.

I wasn't surprised when I saw Severus walk in. He, however, was rather startled to see me there.

"Getting a late start? I would have thought you'd be in London by now," he said, walking over to my table. It gave him a much better view of my disheveled hair and the bags under my eyes. "Problems?"

"You might say so."

"May I get my drink before you relate the whole grisly tale?"

"Of course."

Snape went off to stand in line to order while I debated what to tell him. I knew he would not be interested in listening to me bemoan the details of my shattered relationship with Ron; I was sure that as head of house, he'd heard similar stories from too many hysterical Slytherins to have the patience for one more. Certainly he didn't want to hear it from a Gryffindor. By the time he returned to the table with his coffee, I'd already shrunk last night's events into a tidy little package.

"Here." Severus placed a chocolate almond croissant on the table and pushed it in my direction. "When did you eat last?"

"Yesterday morning," I admitted, and tugged the croissant a little closer. "Split it with me?"

He nodded and reached for a knife. "Was the shepherd's pie that bad?"

I snorted. "The pie was perfect, actually. I may have to stop claiming I can't cook."

"Then…?"

"In a nutshell, I got there early and found Ron screwing Lavender Brown in my bed."

Snape paused to digest that, knife partway through the croissant.

"And an altercation followed, I would imagine?"

"You imagine right. We had a rather tense discussion. " 'Tense' was an understatement. There had been a lot of yelling on my part and a lot of accusations on Ron's part.

"How do you think I feel, Hermione?" he'd demanded hotly. "You went off to Cokeworth for this job and now you don't have time for me anymore! Instead, you're playing footsies with Snape and feeding stories to Rita Skeeter about how you two are in love!"

"I am not playing 'footsies' with Snape!" I seethed. "I'm working with Professor Snape on his project. Working! And I told you all about the gossip stories!"

"Was Potter aware that Weasley was cheating on you?" Severus asked now, looking quite ready to begin hating Harry all over again.

"No." I shook my head. "Harry was horrified. He had no idea. Apparently Ron has been seeing Lavender for a couple of weeks weeks now, and keeping it pretty well hushed up."

"How have you left things hanging between you and Weasley?" Snape picked up his half of the croissant and took a small bite.

"We're done," I said simply. "This is the third time in four years we've broken up, and I think I've finally got the message that we're not meant to be together. I'm not even sure we can be friends anymore after this."

"How are you feeling this morning? You look rather done in."

"That's putting it politely. Physically, I feel like crap because I barely slept. That's what happens when you spend the night throwing things and thinking up inventive ways to curse your former lover. At least I can't claim anything as sappily melodramatic as crying myself to sleep. I was too bloody angry."

"What did you do to your hand?" Snape eyed my right hand, which I'd bandaged rather clumsily. "Don't tell me you beat Weasley to a pulp."

I broke into a sly smile. "Not quite. But I clocked him!"

Severus nearly dropped his croissant. "You didn't!"

"I did, and it felt wonderful. Until the pain hit, of course."

Bemused, Snape stared at me as though seeing me for the first time. "What did Potter have to say about that?"

"I think he was glad that I saved him the trouble, frankly." I paused, glancing at my puffy hand. I'd tried to bandage it, but multiple attempts using my wand left-handed hadn't worked out so well. The wrap looked like it had been applied by a three year old. "If it's not too much trouble, could I ask you to wrap it properly sometime this morning? The clinic's not open on weekends, and Dex is likely headed off to a Quidditch match somewhere. I imagine you had a lot of practice patching up your Slytherins throughout the years."

Severus smirked. "You think so, do you? I wouldn't touch them. I sent them all straight to Poppy."

…..

We left the Coffee Cartel and walked back to Snape's house. He went off to collect the necessary items from the bathroom while I sat on his Chesterfield sofa and unwrapped my bandage. The hand was bruising already; it would definitely take a while for all the lovely colors to fade. Severus returned several minutes later, an assortment of bottles and jars in his hands.

"This should take care of most everything," he muttered. He looked at my unbandaged hand and grimaced. "Lovely. I hope Weasley's face looks worse than your hand."

I couldn't help but smile. Severus continued.

"Tell me, were the rumors true, then? Did you really punch Draco Malfoy in the nose one time?"

"I did," I said proudly.

"Well done, Hermione. I suspect his ego was mangled for quite a while." Snape held my hand carefully, examining it from several angles. "You checked for broken bones, correct?"

"Yes." Waving my wand in a diagnostic pattern was the first thing I'd done when I returned from London. "I'd have gone to St. Mungo's if there were any."

Severus performed a few checks of his own. "It's not that I doubt your abilities, but sometimes the swelling can affect your findings."

I nodded, pleased that he'd given me credit for that. "Between Harry and Ron and myself, I had quite a few occasions to do some healing work that year we were on the run."

"It's fortunate that Potter had you as a friend. I shudder to think where we'd be if you weren't there to keep him pointed in the right direction."

Compliments from Severus Snape, the teacher who looked down his nose at me for six long years? It made me ridiculously happy, as if my existence had finally been validated.

"Not that it was an easy task," I pointed out with a wry smile.

Snape uncorked one bottle and dispensed a dollop of what I recognized as a wound-healing potion. He spread it carefully over the reddened areas on the joints of my hand.

"But I didn't break the skin," I began.

"I know, but it will still penetrate a bit and speed up the healing process."

As the potion created a cooling sensation throughout my hand, Severus recapped the bottle and reached for the jar. He scooped out a generous measure of bruise-healing paste, rubbed his hands together, and then took my hand in his. The cooling sensation began to fade as he rubbed the warmed paste into my skin with feather-light strokes. The pain began to ease immediately.

I had used the paste many times before, but it had never felt as deliciously wonderful as this. My first instinct had always been to throw the ointment on and rub it in as vigorously as possible. This was so much more subtle, like a very decadent massage. I closed my eyes and sighed audibly.

"Enjoying it, are we?" Snape asked in amusement.

"I've never spread it on like that before," I murmured, eyelids still drooping.

"Most people don't. Poppy taught me this technique, actually."

I thought of how Snape had often been targeted by the Marauders at school, and how he'd likely found it necessary to visit the Hogwarts Matron on a regular basis. It just wasn't fair, really, the way the bullying had been allowed to go on…

"Hermione."

My eyes snapped open. I realized with horror that I'd drifted off.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Please tell me I haven't been sitting here snoring for ten minutes!"

"Thirty seconds, more like," Severus said drily, conjuring a bandage with his wand. He wrapped it carefully around my hand in a figure eight and secured it. "How does that feel? Snug but not tight?"

"It's perfect. Thank you," I said, holding up my hand and flexing my fingers. When I looked up, I found Snape regarding me with something akin to respect. The dark eyes that I'd often thought cold and threatening, were warm and… inviting?

"Perhaps you should try to get some more sleep today."

"A nap certainly wouldn't go amiss." I climbed to my feet. "Look, Severus, I know it was wrong of me to involve myself in your life without being asked…"

"I think of you as a friend, Hermione," he said quietly. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

It was, but I wanted to ask questions. To learn more. I finally decided that I should stop before I put my foot into my mouth and bit down hard.

"It is. And thank you again." I made my exit.

…..

I decided to use my ruined Saturday for productive purposes. I scanned the To Let section of the Cokeworth Courier and found several flats that sounded promising; I called the landlords and made arrangements to visit them the next day. Part of me wanted to invite Snape to go along, thinking that he would probably have something constructive to say about the properties; the other part of me strongly advised that I leave well enough alone. Severus Snape and I were friends, and there was no way I intended to push the relationship too far.

Meanwhile, I received a message from Harry, wondering if he could stop by that evening. He knocked on my door at just past eight. I answered it with some trepidation; surely Harry wouldn't be foolish enough to bring Ron along for some sort of ill thought-out intervention. I discovered that I needn't have worried.

"Hi," Harry said simply, and tugged me into his arms.

I sank into him, relieved. "Thank goodness. For a moment, I was afraid—"

"—that Ron was lurking in the bushes?" Harry laughed. "I wouldn't do that to you, Hermione."

"I know. I don't know what I was thinking. Come on in." I led the way inside and Harry shut the door behind him.

"Isn't your rental agreement with that guy about up?" he inquired.

"End of the month. I just looked through the property ads today, and tomorrow I'll check them out in person." I took the director's chair while Harry plopped down on the lumpy green sofa.

"So," he said, and the elephant in the room appeared. "How are you doing?"

"Better than I would have imagined."

"You don't look too bad."

"I haven't spent night and day crying my eyes out, if that's what you were thinking."

Harry gestured toward my bandaged hand. "How's the hand?"

"It'll be fine. Severus tended to it this morning. I tried to do it myself, but I was working with my left hand and I just couldn't quite manage it. How's Ron's eye?"

"You gave him a real shiner," Harry said, unable to avoid a lopsided grin.

"Did I? Good," I said, pleased. "He deserved it, you know."

"I know. I still can't believe he did that. I told him this morning to find another place to live."

"Really?"

"It's my house, Hermione. It was always the three of us and Ginny; I don't want him bringing Lavender there."

I was touched. "Wow, Harry, that's… Thank you. What do you think he'll do?"

"I don't know. Probably move into the flat over George's shop now that he and Angelina have set up house."

"But… you and Ron… I don't want your friendship destroyed because of me. Are you still…?"

"Are we still friends, d'you mean?" Harry got up, shoved his hands into his pockets, and paced over to the window to look out into the night. "Yeah, I suppose. But what he did was wrong, and I'm furious that he hurt you that way."

"Does anyone else know? Ginny, or the rest of his family?"

"Not unless he's told them. I suppose he'd just say that the two of you decided that things weren't working out and you broke up. I don't intend to provide the gory details."

"I'm certainly not going to tell them either," I said. "I don't want to destroy Ron. I did love him. I do love him, but I don't want to be in that sort of relationship anymore."

Harry nodded. "I guess it would have been too perfect if it all had worked out, wouldn't it? We survive the war, I'm with Ginny and you're with Ron and we all live happily ever after?"

"Too perfect," I agreed sadly.

"Say… would you like to find a pub and grab a pint?"

"I'd love it, Harry."

…..

The following day, I discovered that Rita Skeeter must have been absolutely beside herself with glee. Not only was there a picture on the front page of the Prophet, showing Harry embracing me at my door, but a headline that read: 'SNAPE OUT, POTTER IN? GRANGER'S VERY BUSY SEX LIFE'.

In London, Harry hit the ceiling and decided it was time to cash in chips and use his very considerable influence in any way he could. By evening, the Wizengamot had issued a restraining order against Rita Skeeter, prohibiting her from photographing or printing anything about Harry, Severus, or myself for a period of six months.

Finally, life might approach something near normal.

A/N: Back in the lovely days when canon was incomplete and speculation abounded, there was always a lot of chatter about what characters ended up with what partners. The most prominent(and obvious) theory was OBHWF, or 'One Big Happy Weasley Family', where Ron and Hermione were paired and Harry and Ginny ended up together. Needless to say, that's the way things ended up. Many, however, were hoping for something different and not so predictable. Like Severus and Hermione…