Story: Harry Potter
Pairings: Severus/ Hermione
Rating: M
Genre: Romance/ Drama/ Self Discovery
The Marriage Bed
Chapter 10: Set Fire to the Rain
Hermione's Flat
Her bags were packed. She didn't know what Severus had thought of her display earlier in the week, but she knew how she felt about him and that was enough. Sitting in her flat, she uncorked a very good bottle of Pinot Noir and drank it alone; placing her engagement ring beside the cork on the table top.
Hermione realized from her encounter in the 'marriage bed' two truths. One: She wanted more from life than Ron could ever give her. Two: She had been forever changed by her encounter with Severus Snape. She couldn't ask anything of Severus until she'd dealt with her first realization; it was time to breakup with Ron. Secondly and only if she had enough drunk enough wine she would find Severus and confess her feelings. At least then she would know if they could more forward together or if she would be moving on with her life alone.
Unlike her would-be-lover, she never drank alone. Starting on her first glass, she had felt remorseful as she took off her ring and placed it on the coffee table. The second glass of wine found her thoughts turning amorous and now on her third glass alone, she felt passionate and determined.
The door to her flat jingled, then opened. "Oiy, 'Mione." Ron came in disheveled, barely glancing in her direction. "Drinkin' alone? Must of hav' been a rough day."
"It's about to be." Hermione said smirking to herself.
Ron walked in the kitchen. The fridge clanked opened and the hiss of a can of beer opened. "Boys are watching the game at the pub. Gonna go down there for a bit... Hey did you eat all that take-away we ordered Wednesday? I'm starving!"
Hermione pursed her lips in anger. Why had his treatment of her never angered her until now?
"Ron, I'm leaving." She began, not moving off the sofa.
"Alright, I'll be in late as well. Don't wait up." He said, returning to the sitting room and shuffling into his favorite quidditch jumper.
At that point, Hermione stood up; face red. "Ronald Weasley! I'm leaving this relationship." She said forcefully.
Ron paused and twisted his face, like he'd just eaten a sour slug. "What?"
Hermione picked up the ring and showed it to him. "I am leaving you. But it's my flat, so I'm giving you until Monday to move out." Then she firmly sat the ring on the table and took a final swig from her now fourth glass of wine. "I'm at my parents until then. Don't you dare come there for me. We're done. "
With those words, she began to walk to the fireplace.
"Wait." Ron held his can of beer to his forehead. "You're breaking up with me?"
Hermione breathed deeply through her nose. "Yes. I am." Then nearly shaking, "It's been six years off and on. We're going no where, Ron."
There was a long silence and before he finally asked, confused, "Is there someone else?"
"Would it really matter if there was?" Hermione asked exasperated. "I'm just another piece of furniture in this flat to you." Rubbing her tired eyes, "Look, Ron. I love you, I'm just not in-love with you and that's all that matters."
Without further words, Hermione tossed a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and was gone. Ron stood gapping at the empty fireplace alone.
As soon as she exited the fireplace at her parents house, Hermione paused, grabbing blindly for the mantel to balance her. Tears flowed down her cheeks and a growing rip tore at her heart; utter anguish. Not for Ron, she wasn't sad for the loss of Ron, but for the loss of a hope of a future that she'd spent the last eight years trying to pursue with Ron. A hope that had suddenly come to an end.
Drinking the bottle of Pinot had made her emotional and unusually irrational. As she wiped the tears from her face with her palms, her only thought was, Severus, I must see Severus. Then in an extremely un-Hermione decision, she pictured Spinner's End - his home - strongly in her mind and turning on her heel, apparated.
Wobbling and falling into the street and landing in a giant puddle, she cursed herself for stupidity at apparating drunk. The night was black and it was raining harshly. Pulling herself up like the desperate intoxicated idiot she now knew herself to be, she managed to make her way across the street to his home. The house, which she'd only seen once before, appeared bleak and empty through the fog and rain shower. Instead of facing an empty home, Hermione had the idea that she would go in through the garden gate and have a peek around before deciding to knock.
Opening the rusted gate at the side of the house, she stumbled down the muddy overgrown path; thorny branches snagging at her jeans. Guessing the large addition to the back of the house to be his laboratory, she pushed her way past the untended hedgerows and saw a golden glow from one of the room's window. She smiled for the first time that night. "Severus!" He was home.
Her head still clouded by wine, she pushed past some wild roses and pulled herself up to look in at the windowsill.
For several days after 'the incident' with Hermione, Severus had felt himself again. Rested, he slept dreamlessly but contented. Last night however, the desire reawakened and his ability to sleep as well as to focus on his work suffered. It was late and he was tired when he ruined a batch of commissioned Baneberry Drought.
Irritated, he cleared away the ruined caldron away with a flick of his wand. Then sitting at his desk with exhaustion, he let his weary head fall into hand. Finally remembering his emergency stash, he opened the bottom desk draw and took out a bottle of Ogden's Old. Without grace, Severus tore at the lid and took a swig from the bottle. He was alone and frankly, who gave a damn if he drank from the bottle! It wasn't as if he had anyone to share it with.
After finding a good deal solace in drinking nearly a third of whiskey, a knock came at the door to the laboratory.
Without standing, he wordless opened the door with a languid wave of his hand. "Come in!" He barked. It could be a deatheater seeking revenge and he couldn't have cared less at that moment. He was laid low and drunk; he was past redemption this evening.
"That's a different greeting from you." Helen said, lowering the hood of her cape, water droplets rolling to the floor. "I hope you don't make it a habit. I could have been an old enemy!"
Severus grunted. "What do you want?" It was late and he wanted to wallow in his suffering alone. Pleasantries and platitudes were far beyond him at this moment.
Leaving her cloak on chair, she walked around his desk. Her skirts brushing his forearm, "I want you."
He stared straight ahead, not flinching at her bold statement.
"Have you considered my request?"
Then with fury and desperation, Severus stood, violently pushing back his chair in with quick action. Allowing the firewhiskey to fuel his body and his mind, he braced Helen by the arms; pushing her up against the wall.
Voice low and rasping. "Be careful what you ask for, Helen." He said before he kissed her hard and ruthlessly.
She struggled to breathe under his pressure. Suddenly, he was biting at her throat, growling and ripping her blouse from her shoulders.
"Oh Merlin! A girl!" She squeaked.
Severus had expected her to yell beneath him, but he hadn't expected to hear that.
"What?" He asked, pulling back, brows knotted, holding her at arms length.
Helen clutched at her blouse, "There was a girl at the window!"
His heart dropped. Could it be possible that Hermione had come after all?
Tearing from her, he ran out into the garden oblivious to the rain. The wet foliage pulled and clung at his trousers as ran after the slight, dark figure before him.
"Lumos!" He yelled. The light caught Hermione's tear-stained face a moment before she apparated.
"Hermione!" Severus bellowed with every last bit of his damaged voice, but it was too late. In a frenzy of emotion, he ran forward chasing her shadow. Then frantically pacing the spot where she had last stood in the muddy garden, he decided he would go to her. Holding firmly the address of her flat in his mind, the address where he'd sent his owl those many weeks ago, he apparated.
Soaking and muddy, but not splinched, he pulled himself together and banged on her apartment door. "Hermione!"
No answer. He pushed his rasping, broken voice louder. "Hermione!"
The door to the flat opened, but it wasn't Hermione that stood before him. It was Ronald Weasley. "Bloody hell! Professor Snape!" He spat.
"Where's Hermione?" Severus snarled, knuckles white on the doorframe.
"What business is it of yours?" Ron asked, disgust ready in his voice.
With drunken rage, Severus shoved past Ron into the flat. "Hermione?!" He called.
"Stop right there." Ron said, wand at the ready. "You have no right to be here. Now get out before I put you out."
Severus looked at the young man and sneered. "What did you do to her, you pathetic little flop?"
Widening blue his eyes in surprise. "What did I do to her?!" Ron retorted, shaking his head. "She's the one that left me. I didn't do anything!" Then remembering himself and taking a step forward with his wand raised, "And why the hell the hell is it any of your business, Snape?" He spat.
Severus didn't respond for a full ten seconds. He understood, Hermione had broken up with Ron and rushed to him. Raising a hand to his lips in awareness as he realized what she'd seen through the window. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, "I've been a bloody fool."
Then, merely side stepping Ron's wand, he headed for the door. Ron dropped his wand arm and looked at his professor's disappearing back with disbelief. "Are you..." It was so crazy he almost couldn't form the words. "Are you having an affair with her?"
Severus stopped. Turning on his heel and looking straight at Ron with black fathomless eyes, he didn't answer. Because in truth, he didn't know.
When he returned to his house, he found Helen in his sitting room.
She stood, expression frantic. "Is everything okay?"
Barely glancing at her. "Get out."
"What?"
"I said, GET OUT!" He roared running a hand through his wet hair..
A sob broke from her throat. "Severus?"
"We're done. I can't do this anymore." Severus scrubbed at his face with his knuckles and then looked at Helen with dangerous eyes. "I'm in love with someone else." There, I've said it. He thought as he collapsed in his desk chair utterly undone.
The woman's face contorted. "That girl? You're in love her?" Voice contemptuous. "Merlin, Severus. What is she nineteen, twenty?"
Bracing his hand to his forehead, he turned from her. "Twenty-six." He could have chosen not to answer, but he couldn't help himself from adding salt to her wound and his.
"Well, twenty-six. A former student, no doubt?" She added flippantly, picking up her cloak.
"I understand perfectly. Why have an old woman when you can have it off with a young slapper!" She walked to door, hand of the knob and shook her head in disbelief, adding, "At your age! You know, May-December smacks of desperation."
He sighed. "I'm quite aware."
Helen grimaced. "You won't see me again."
"Good." Severus replied taking the top off the bottle of Ogden's. At least now, he'd have one less worry. Had he said that aloud?
The woman huffed. "No wonder everyone hates you Severus. You're such a bastard!"
"Better a bastard than a whore." He replied spitefully as he found a dirty glass and tipped the bottle.
He barely flinched as she resoundly slapped his cheek before taking her leave and slamming the door.
Rubbing his sore jaw, at least one thing was clear to Severus, Hermione wanted him. She had broken up with Ron and fled to his home. Now how to convince her that he was done with Helen and that he desperately wanted her too without coming across as pathetic and foolhardy as he felt.
Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews! HG&SS will get together, but just needed to build a little more tension. However, now their paths are cleared of 'others', hopefully, they can find their way to one another without too much drama! :) (maybe!)