Chapter Twenty-One
"Will you stay on your own side, Hermione," Severus scolded. He glared at me and my invasion of his privacy, I wasn't even touching him. Okay so maybe my cloak brushed against his just moments before but it was hardly much of a distraction.
"Maybe you're on my side," I retorted back at him. He glared at me even harder but I only grinned back. It was a good day today. After Christmas things were a bit tense. Making the both of us run around the house either awkwardly with each other, awkwardly trying to avoid each other. Either way it was awkward. It still was but today was a good day. Every day he wasn't called to back to Voldemort's side was a good day in my book.
"The line we made was here," he pointed to a scorch mark left when the both of us had previously hit something from both our sides causing a very small fire but a fire nonetheless in the lab. He, as controlling as he was in his lab, demanded I leave since I was disrupting his work and ruining his precious potions. And me? I yelled at him with my own fiery temper until we both had decided to split the grand table into two halves for our separate work.
"Fine, fine. You're right, I overstepped the boundaries." I told him as I noticed my silver knife past the little mark. I inched back slightly to my side of the very large counter top of the potion's table. He gave a triumphant smirk before returning to his work. I continued to chop my ingredients finely as instructed by the book I was using as my guideline before adding it into the mix in the cauldron. Picking up my sopophorous bean I set it down before lifting the knife just above it to cut.
"Crushing would be better," Severus voice cut in. I looked at him for an explanation. "It releases the juice better. Take the flat side of the knife and crush it instead of cutting it." He looked at me, waiting for me to heed his instructions. Taking the knife I gave it a slight turn before letting the flat side crush the bean. The juices immediately came out and I took it quickly letting the liquid drip into the cauldron.
"Any other tricks you can tell me or was that the only one you know?" I teased him. Despite our awkwardness in most of our conversations it was nonexistent once we hit an argument, a topic where we knew one of us was right and the other was wrong but neither of us wanted to admit it or whenever one of us knew something that the other didn't.
"I assure you, Hermione, I know plenty of tricks." The subtle little innuendo hit me hard and I couldn't help but give him a grin.
"Would you show me those tricks sometime?" my airy voice said back to him. He looked at me, his lips turning upward ever so slightly.
"As you wish." He resumed back into his potion while I continued with mine.
Ever so often he would tell me a different instruction from what he said in the book I had before me and I followed them with no further questions. After I did so he would explain to me the reason without ever stopping his own work.
Finishing up my little cauldron of Draught of Living Death I bottled the contents and set the several flasks aside with their little labels. Grabbing the notebook Luna had given me I turned to an empty page copying the altered instructions for the potion in my neat though cramp writing.
"I was thinking that maybe we should go out tonight. Apparate us to Paris maybe," I said suddenly. I saw Severus stop in his stirring before quickly resuming it to not ruin the potion he was working on. He didn't reply back for a few minutes and I watched him lift his wand and wordlessly put the potion on stasis like he normally would whenever he needed to talk for an unspecified amount of time.
"Why would we leave for Paris? Are you not content in the safety of this house?" He questioned me rather seriously. The slight edge in his tone told me that he had been offended by my words and I couldn't thing why? "Do you think me incapable of protecting you should Death Eaters come for the both of us?" he continued on. So that was it. He thought that I thought that he was weak.
"I think nothing of that sort, Severus," I scolded him at his assumption. "You should know better than to think that I thought of you as weak. You are not weak."
"Then why?" He asked.
"It's New Years and I doubt that this little village will have fireworks to celebrate the occasion." He nodded in agreement to what I had just said but otherwise made no indication of anything else. "I want us to go somewhere else and leave this war behind us for just a night. Let's go out and celebrate what hopefully would be a better year." I said optimistically. He gazed at me seriously before lifting his wand to take of the stasis charm on the cauldron. He picked up his several cubed ingredients and tossed it into the cauldron quietly.
"We leave in an hour. Eleven o'clock sharp Hermione." He whispered. My grin spread from ear to ear.
"Thank you."
"Severus?" I let my words drift off as we stared into the dark sky from the roof of a random building. My legs dangled off the edge alongside Severus'. The chilly wind of the winter night hit us despite the warming charm that Severus had placed on us before we disapparated from the house.
"Yes?" He turned to me before taking a sip of the red wine he had grown to like from Christmas Eve. It glistened very lightly in the moonlight, letting the crimson red liquid shine so much like blood.
"When the new year comes, do you think everything will get better?" I asked him. He put down his drink on the ledge before staring out into the sky.
"Things will get worse before it can get better." The honesty in his word was unmistakable. I already knew it was true enough. Luna already foresaw bloodshed in the future. Just how much was up to me really. Depending on the path I take there will be either more or less bloodshed than the original course of history. If only the Fates could really decide what will really happen in the long run.
"Things will get far worse won't it? The war won't end soon." My voice came out to be too soft, too fragile for my liking.
"The Dark Lord has made some sort of plan. He has not fully discovered the connection between Potter and himself-"
"But it is only a matter of time before he does," I finished for him. He nodded solemnly.
"At that time he will use it to his advantage I presume." Severus said quietly. Taking liberty with his presence I let my head lean against his shoulder. He stiffened in his posture but didn't move away, letting me rest by his side.
"He will be lured somehow. To whatever the weapon is that the Dark Lord wants. " My blatant observations seemed true enough as Severus flinched ever so slightly.
"You will prevent him from going," he stated.
"You know I can't. Short of tying Harry up and locking him in a cage. With the right bait he won't be able to help himself. He'll be lured and the only thing I would be able to do is follow him and try to get him through it alive." I was annoyed at the truth, and it was nothing but the truth. Harry had a hero complex, he always had and always will. It was one of the reasons I loved him. He was the type of friend who was every bit like an older brother to everyone who would be there always trying to fight of the bad guys. Even when it could get him killed.
"You will try."
"I will, but we already know I won't be able to."
"Then you will ensure that he and the others live." He said.
"And if I can't? What should I do if everything goes wrong and I might die?" I lifted my head from his shoulders to look him in the eyes. He had a sad expression across his face and he took my hand.
"If all goes wrong then you break your morals. You kill what stands in your way. You fight and live on. Take Miss Lovegood and flee." He whispered back to me. I laid my head back down and he squeezed my hand tightly in his.
"What's the weapon?" I asked suddenly. He squeezed my hand tightly again but didn't speak a single word. "Severus? What's the weapon?" I pushed. He took his time to think his thoughts through before giving in with a long held out sigh.
"It is a prophecy." He said bluntly.
"A prophecy? Between the Dark Lord and Harry?" I questioned. Prophecies were abundant since the Fates loved to play with us mortals by letting us have a small hint to our future. Of course many of them never grow true. Real prophecies that had proven true were very rare, and this one was exceedingly rare. To have a prophecy truly come true was extraordinary.
"Yes."
"Do you know the content of it?"
"Yes." His answer was quick and short.
"Severus, were you-" I didn't have to finish my thought as he quickly answered me.
"I was the one who made it real." The sorrow in his voice said it all and I knew there was a bigger picture to this. To him, there was a much bigger picture than just Voldemort and this prophecy.
"Will you tell me more? When it's the right time, will you tell me?" I pushed him.
"I had come across Albus with Sybill on her job interview. I was spying for the Dark Lord." The words seemed to be caught in his throat as he spoke. He was pushing to tell me although I knew he would rather repress the very event that he was speaking of. "I was still considerably new in the circle. Close enough in the inner circle to be included in many aspects but with my blood and previous affiliations I was excluded from others. I told the Dark Lord the half of the prophecy that I had heard. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies."
"You didn't know that it was the Potters that the prophecy was talking about," I whispered in horror. He nodded solemnly. He was the reason that Voldemort had died that night. He was the reason that Harry became who he was today. The power of his actions was terrifying. It was horrible but great. If not for him, Voldemort would have reigned. And who knows if he would have been defeated otherwise.
"I didn't. I regret my actions every day."
"That's how you came to Dumbledore's side?"
"I had asked the Dark Lord to spare Lily's life once he began to think it was the Potters. He refused. I turned to Albus and he failed me." His voice came out hoarsely. It was raw of emotions.
"She was Harry's mother. You love her." I whispered out in realization. "You loved her enough to switch sides."
"I loved her, yes. I switched sides for her sake, for her memory. I fought for her." He admitted brokenly.
"And now?"
"She's my past and I must make a new future. Things change for the better."
"Do you still fight for her?" Or do you fight for me? My unspoken words were just that, unspoken. They didn't have to be said out loud to be known, he knew just what I was exactly asking.
"I fight for you."
The first firework exploded in the sky signaling the new year. The sparkling gold design flittered in the air before disappearing, making way for the following explosions.
"Happy New Year, Severus."
"Happy New Year, Hermione." He replied back to me. We watched the fireworks in silence, letting the deafening booms fill our ears.
The fireworks ceased leaving a cloudy haze of smoke in the sky. The smell of it reached our senses but neither of us made a move to leave.
"Will you stay by my side, Severus?" I said softly breaking the silence. He didn't turn to look at me but only stared out to the sky.
"Always," he whispered. "Will you fight with me?"
"Until the very end," I sighed contently.