Wars of our Fathers

A fan fiction by labrt2004

Chapter Nine

Written for debjunk in the Autumn 2011 SS/HG Exchange

Disclaimer: None of it is mine.

Author's Notes: Thank you to my betas, la_syren and snarkyroxy, for your tremendous help. And thank you,debjunk, for the great prompt. And thank you mods, for another wonderful exchange! This story is shamelessly AU. I've basically just taken whatever bits of canon are convenient and tossed out whatever bits aren't. :) Hope you enjoy it.

Dejunk's prompt: Severus Snape's heart has been sealed against women ever since the fiasco with Lily. He finds himself paired with Hermione Granger in some sort of working atmosphere and is not pleased. Things warm up to amiable at some point and during a discussion Severus comments icily that women are heartless users and are not to be trusted. Our resident know-it-all sets out to prove him wrong, and eventually succeeds.

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Hermione and Severus walked up the stairs to his office after lunch. In his study, he turned to her and dropped a kiss atop her head. "Wait here a moment. I'll go to my bedroom to get a warmer cloak, and then we can depart for your parents'."

She felt a hint of apprehension, but it was only a faint echo of the suffocating fear that was wont to grip her before she came to Hogwarts. Spying their trunks, which the house-elves had stacked neatly beside the door, she was suffused with comfort. The journey to Warwickshire was long overdue, she thought, gazing out the window. With Severus at her side, she had no doubt about facing whatever that awaited.

Severus was at the foot of the staircase leading to his chambers when a jovial voice sounded from above. "Miss Granger! What a pleasure it is to see you here with Severus," Albus said exuberantly. "I hope you are getting on well?"

Hermione smiled, feeling unaccountably shy. "I'm good," she said truthfully to the portrait.

"You must be out of practice with your omniscience, Albus," said Severus dryly. "Hermione has been here for months."

The infernal twinkle, the old headmaster's trademark, was evident even behind the painted spectacles. "Ah, Severus, one day when you are old and dead like me, you will understand. We tend to pay slightly less heed to what is happening around us. I myself, for example, have just spent the most engaging holiday in a frame on the third floor corridor."

"That is simply wonderful to hear," Severus said, rolling his eyes. "Now, if you'd be so kind, Albus, I have business to attend to."

Albus waved a purple-robed arm cheerfully. "Of course, of course, dear boy. I won't keep you any longer, other than to give you and Miss Granger my best wishes."

Severus' back stiffened, his hand frozen on the banister. "Your best wishes for what, exactly?"

Hermione looked questioningly at Professor Dumbledore, wondering the same thing.

"A long, happy life together. You are no doubt aware of the Fealty Spell."

He walked back down the stairs and went to stand fully before the portrait, eyes gleaming dangerously. "Yes. All Hogwarts employees undergo it. Your point?"

Albus smiled serenely. "Did you not observe the rather interesting results after you and Miss Granger completed it?"

Hermione listened, heart pounding in her chest, a premonition forming in her mind. "Oh..." she murmured, furrowing her brow.

Dumbledore looked at her kindly. "I see you have figured it out, my dear."

Severus remembered all too well the experience—the burst of magic that had exploded between them. Suspicion of what might have occurred dawned on him, making the blood in his veins turn to ice. "What did you do, Albus?" he snarled.

"I? I am an old man in a painted portrait. I did nothing. Fealty is old magic, Severus. It usually forms a bonding of wills between two people entering a contractual relationship. But it forms a bonding of hearts between two people who are soul mates."

"Soul mates?" he spluttered. Severus' grip on his studied calm slipped as panic set in like a storm blowing in from the sea.

"I see what you are thinking in your eyes. This is not Dark Magic, my boy. Rather, it is the purest form of Light Magic. It does not affect your ability to choose, it only reinforces any connection that already exists," Albus said softly.

Albus' words did not reassure Severus. On the contrary, they filled him with more fury. "You mean, love?" he spat mockingly.

"Quite so," said Albus. "But—"

With a curse, Severus whipped out his wand and flung a velvet curtain onto the portrait with such force that the other frames rattled against the wall.

Love. Pain sliced through him at the thought of the vile word. It had no place in his life. He had been young and untried enough twenty years ago to put faith in something that ended only in humiliation, subjecting him to nothing but years of bitter heartache.

Hermione watched as he stood unmoving before Dumbledore's covered portrait, shoulders heaving with repressed emotion. It seemed that he no longer even remembered her presence. She was glad for the moment of relative privacy for her to gather her shaken thoughts.

"Severus," she called gently after a few minutes rolled by. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

He shook it off with a vehemence that made Hermione's heart sink.

Shiftless anger churned in him as he turned to her, looking at the gleaming hair and expressive eyes that had entranced him with their spell for the last three months. The mere sight of her elicited a stirring of passion, which only deepened his rage. He'd already grown so attached to her, he thought with a flare of terror in his gut. He felt the fool all over again. "Do not. Expect anything to come of this silly revelation," he ground out.

She crossed her arms and looked at him with a challenging expression. "I don't. I'm judging only by what I've witnessed for myself."

He growled, then looked away.

She stepped up to him and met his gaze defiantly, even though his eyes were chilly and devoid of warmth. "Don't you dare ignore me. I—I love you, Severus."

He laughed mirthlessly. Hurt disappointment flashed across her face, and Severus felt a twinge of guilt, but he firmly suppressed it."Do not insult my intelligence. You love me? "

"Astoundingly, I do," she insisted. "Is that so very difficult to believe?"

Her calm persistence pushed him over the edge. "Don't presume to loveme," he sneered. "I know all about you and your kind. You occupy yourself with whatever man is closest and most convenient, before growing bored and moving on to the next." The words tumbled out of him before he could stop himself, a garbled, incoherent accusation that had festered in him for two decades.

"My kind? You mean Mudbloods?" she asked icily. Her features had arranged themselves into a deadly stillness.

"Women," he hissed.

There was a long silence. The word hung between them, foul and repugnant.

Severus blinked, his anger spent.

Suddenly, she squared her shoulders, drawing herself to her full height. "Severus Snape!" she shrieked, eyes ablaze. "You loathsome coward! How long are you determined to be unhappy?"

Her eyes burned, and her heart ached as if it were beating within a cage of sharded glass, but she stubbornly continued her tirade. "Have it your way then. Keep wallowing in your own past, if that's what pleases you."

She walked to the door with regal dignity, and with a flick of her wand, sent her trunks hovering. "I will return after the holidays. After I see my parents." She stood stiffly, back turned to him. "The Severus I know gave me the courage to do this," she said bleakly to the empty air. And with that, she was gone.

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