Chapter Twenty Eight: Adaptations
Harry's eyes suddenly flooded with even more anger and confusion as he let them alternate between his Professor and his best friend. Ginny, in an attempt to keep the inevitable confrontations to a minimum, placed a soft hand on Harry's arm and an arm of her own around his waist.
"Come on Harry," she said diplomatically, "let's go and make a nice cup of tea and sit down and discuss this like adults. There's no need for this aggressive behaviour."
Uncompromisingly, and in a manner which Hermione had never seen him direct towards his girlfriend before, Harry pushed her away from him belligerently and she stumbled backwards into Snape who caught her and set her back on her feet.
"What is it with people and cups of bloody tea!" he snapped. "The bottom of a mug will not show us a logical reason for why Hermione sleeping with him." The last word of his sentence was practically spat out.
"Harry," Hermione responded firmly, "calm down."
"Indeed Potter," Severus concurred astutely, "listen to your friend and girlfriend and calm yourself."
"Nobody asked you to get involved Snivilus," Harry spat dangerously, "infact, what are you still doing here anyway?"
Severus approached Harry wildly, his body tense and his face furrowed in his anger. Hermione and Ginny could only stand back and watch as he neared the younger man.
Swiftly, Snape placed both of his hands on the younger man's shoulders and rammed him up against the wall of the bedroom, his nose almost touching Harry's face in his close proximity. Harry for the first time that morning, looked positively petrified as he tried, without success, to push his Professor off him.
"What are you going to do Snape?" Harry mocked, his tones however boding none of their previous confidence. "Hex me?"
"No Potter," Snape drawled menacingly, bringing his mouth very close to the younger man's ear and eliciting tones that portrayed his dark anger, "I will not give you the satisfaction of having me fired. Instead," he enunciated smoothly, "I will tell you something that you will do well not to forget."
From behind them, Hermione and Ginny shot nervous glances at one another as they couldn't hear a word that their Professor was saying.
Severus tightened his grip on the younger man's shoulders before he continued the verbal assault that was rousing such a great fear into the green eyes of Harry Potter. "If you care for your friend as much as you believe that you do," he began calmly, "then you will surely be able to see her happiness."
"You can't make her happy Snape," Harry warned. "You aren't right for her."
"But Potter, we both agree that Miss Granger is far more of an intellectual than yourself and if she believes that I am the right wizard for her then your petty reservations are not plausible."
"You're far too old for her Snape, you could be her Father!" Harry was clutching at straws and deep down he knew it.
"No," Severus reprimanded with a humourless smile, "I am the Father of her child."
"And you'll be fired for that very reason!" Harry returned, his mind wandering to the thought of Dumbledore's reaction.
Once again Severus smiled at the young man's ignorance.
"The Headmaster has already given us his blessing on the matter Potter. So I suggest that you come to terms with the facts that you are faced with or run the risk of losing your best friend."
Harry's eyes widened in anger once more at his lack of power and again he attempted to wriggle out of Snape's grasp with as much failure as before.
"Come July Potter, and once she has graduated, Hermione will be my wife and the Mother of my child thus you will have no choice but to accept our relationship."
"Will you just get the hell off me!" Harry snapped.
Snape released Harry from his grasp and took a step back from the younger man who promptly pushed past him towards his friend.
"Get dressed Hermione!" Harry ordered aggressively. "You have got some serious explaining to do!"
… … …
They had been walking for just over an hour, two lessons had been skipped and still Harry was not fully accustomed to the thought of his best friend and Professor/Godfather together. She had explained everything from her journey to the past and their confrontation when she returned, even the conception of their unborn baby had been brusquely touched upon, but her friend's lack of acceptance had not faltered as yet.
"I love him Harry," Hermione stated clearly for what felt like the umpteenth time that morning.
"It's just lust Hermione," he reprimanded, pulling his cloak tighter around him as the February wind cut at his face and neck. "This whole relationship thing is new to you and you are in love with the way you feel not him."
"Oh I'm sick and tired of you telling me how I feel!" Hermione said sharply, stopping dead in her tracks and turning to face him. "Why have you always got to have a say about whom I date and who I spend my time with? First it was Victor when you said he was far too old and using me, then it was Ron when you said that it wouldn't work because of our friendship and now it's Severus."
"Stop calling him that!"
"I was a complete and utter dudderhead to listen to you in the past but I won't make the same mistake again. Severus and I are together and I'm carrying his child, whether you allow your petulant little self to get over that fact is up to you, but I will not give up the best thing that's ever happened to me for your sake!"
Harry suddenly fell silent and all of the previous anger and resentment fell from his face. "I don't mean to interfere, Hermione," he sighed, "I just want to look out for you."
She smiled at his faltering resilience. "I know you mean well, but I'm a big girl Harry and you've got to let me learn from any mistakes that I may or may not make."
"Snape could be a huge mistake though Hermione and that is why I am so reluctant to give you both my blessing."
"Believe me," she admitted as they carried on walking up towards the castle as lunch time approached, "I know the risks involved with this."
"It's not just that he's too old for you," Harry explained sincerely, "and it's not because that he's Snape, because you know that I admire him and all he does for the Order," he added, "but I'm just scared of what Voldemort will do to you both when he finds out."
"We aren't going to tell anybody until after the war."
"And who says that this war will be over before you've had the b…" he drowned out and gestured to her stomach.
"The baby," she corrected with a smile for his awkwardness.
"Yes that."
"Severus has told me that it'll be over by then," Hermione answered finally. "I don't know why or how he knows that but I trust him. So should you."
"I'd trust him with my life Hermione," Harry replied, "so it's not a case of ill faith and more my uncertainty of his influence over Voldemort."
"I suggest that you speak to Severus about that Harry," Hermione responded as they rounded the corner of the main entrance. "I don't fully understand it myself."
"I don't think that I'll be speaking to 'Severus' any time soon after my performance earlier," he admitted with remembrance of his prior outrage and insubordination towards his Professor. "And seeing him in his full naked glory has sort of put me off looking at him straight in the face."
Hermione giggled and slapped her friend playfully on the arm for his comment.
"Friends?" he asked with an outstretched hand which she promptly shook.
"Always. Now come on Potty," she joked, "I think we'd better retrieve Ron from his lunch and explain the situation. It seems that all of his closest friends and family know about Severus and I, but he doesn't."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "I mean he might just fly off the handle."
"Only if you show him a pensive of what you saw," Hermione joked.
Harry suddenly turned green as the memory flooded back to him. "If you want to make him suicidal then yeah, great idea, we'll show him the memory that I wish never to surface again!"
