Disclaimer: I own nothing

Stealing from Thieves

My heart is ever at your service.

As I walked to back through the hallways of the darkened castle, my heart was so heavy and my mind was so full I feared that I would not be able to sleep again. I walked slowly pausing in certain places as I went. I stood for a moment on the astronomy tower and forced myself to look down where Dumbledore had once lay in a broken heap. I paused in front of the Gryffindor common room where I'd once laid a whole night waiting for Lily to come out so I could apologize to her for calling her a Mudblood. As I passed Hermione's rooms I ran my hand across the gilt edges of the portrait protecting her. The Unicorn sleeping in it lifted its head and glanced at me, and then content I was not a threat, went back to sleep. I took a short walk through the library breathing in deeply the old and musty pages that had been my constant companions those many years. The building breathed in and out as I passed through. The new places, rebuilt after the war, were already as familiar to me as the nooks and crannies I haunted as a child. In the potions lab I touched the cauldrons and sifted through the storeroom until wearied with heartbreak I sat upon the stone floor and cried until the tears would no longer come. I wanted to leave the castle, and had been prepared to at the end of the year, but being forcibly ejected from it before I was ready was more than I could withstand. My own terms had been stolen from me and it was as if I could feel the castle weeping with me, as if it too knew that a part of it would be leaving without a proper goodbye. I was a part of the castle as much as it was a part of me. We all were. It was our lives that gave the castle its sentience.

Time seemed to hang in eternity as I sat there growing stiff and cold on the hard stone floor. After my tears had run dry I forced myself to stand and make my way fully clothed to my bed, where as wide awake as my mind may have been, my fatigued body had other needs and sleep prevailed.

It felt as if I had barely closed my eyes when I was awakened by a relentless pounding on the door to my room. Clearly someone had gotten through my portrait and into my sitting room. It was either Hermione or McGonagall, but neither of them would resort to pounding on my door and shouting.

"Get up, Snape!"

Potter.

"Stop it, Harry, I said would wake him," I heard Hermione chastise.

I dragged my disheveled body out of bed and went to the door. I threw it open with such force that it swung all the way around and hit the wall hard. Hermione was pulled forward into me because she'd had her hand on the doorknob.

"Oomph," she cried as she fell into me. "Sorry."

"You look like hell," Potter supplied.

"Well, if that's all, don't let the door hit you on your way out," I said turning to go back into my room.

"Come off it, Professor," Harry said. "I'm here because I heard about what's going on with you, and Hermione just told me that you might get sacked. I want to help."

I turned back around and moved to my chair in my sitting room. I sat down heavily. "Can I at least have some coffee or some water first?"

Hermione jumped to the task of summoning the house elves to bring me a breakfast tray.

"I thought you were against house elves working," Harry told her as I took a long drink of black coffee. I know its effects were primarily in my head, but I savored it anyway.

Hermione shrugged. "They aren't being treated unfairly here; it is more like a job here than it would be in a house like the Malfoys. Besides I eat their food every day already, don't I?"

I ignored their quibble for a few minutes more while I drank my coffee. I got up and went to the bathroom and tried to restore my appearance somewhat. My eyes were red rimmed and a quick glance at the clock told me that I had probably been asleep for only about three hours. Breakfast would still be going on in the Great Hall.

I went back in the sitting room and sat again. Harry and Hermione were looking at me expectantly just as if I had summoned them there instead of the other way around.

"What, pray tell, do you think you could possibly do to help me?" I asked, and I waved away whatever reply Harry had and continued. "I am resigning anyway at the end of the year, you know that."

"Yeah, but now everyone is just going to think it's because the Governors are making you no matter what you say," he replied. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Perhaps, but I gave my resignation to the Headmistress in writing already. She has the proof it is not because of the Governors. The school's Governors also have been notified of my resignation which means they have their minds set to make an example of me. There is nothing you can do for me, Potter," I said.

Hermione reached out and took my hand. "What are you going to do?"

I squeezed her fingers and then let go reaching for more coffee. "I am going to Lucius's hearing."

Hermione swallowed thickly, "Of course."

"You can't let them sack you!" Harry practically shouted. While his words were said in quite a different tone than Minerva's, they were implied in the exact same way. "You can't let them dictate when you leave this place."

I sighed and closed my eyes. I spoke slowly as if Potter was too thickheaded to understand what I was saying. "If I resign publicly on Monday morning it will be in protest of treatment I received from the Governors. If I do nothing and go to Lucius's hearing I will be fired because of the Governors. Either way, I will not be able to finish the term. Why does it matter which it is?"

"Because you have rights, Severus!" Hermione cried.

Harry nodded vehemently in agreement. "That, and wouldn't you feel better if you could stick it to the Governor's by quitting first so they don't get the satisfaction of telling you to go?"

"No," I snapped back. "I would be resigning in protest to something they are demanding. Don't you see how that just gives them exactly what they want? If I have to leave either way, I am going to Lucius's hearing; the Governor's will decide what they will. Let my fan club stand in my defense," I finished sarcastically.

"That's it!" Harry jumped up. "I'll see you two later."

With that he ran from the room.

"Good riddance," I mumbled.

"He just wants to help," Hermione said from her chair across the room. "We both do, but I…,"

"But what?"

"I don't know," Hermione said fighting back tears. "This just stinks. You look like you've been crying half the night and I should have been there instead of passed out in bed."

I stood up and went to her. "No, Hermione, I needed to be alone."

I made her stand up and then sat where she was so I could pull her onto my lap. Just holding her took away some of the ache I felt inside. I pressed a kiss on her temple and she returned it with a sweeter one on my mouth.

"So, you are just going to say nothing and go to Malfoy's hearing?" she asked.

I rested my cheek on the top of her head before speaking. "Yes. I think the boldest statement I can make to the Governors is to do exactly what I feel is the honorable thing to do and take my lumps for it."

"But it's not right. What do you think they will expect you to do?" she asked.

I thought for a moment. "Be a good little puppet and set the example of the reformed Death Eater that the Ministry, and inadvertently the school, is trying to make of me."

Something else that Minerva had told me floated through my mind.

"Hermione, I realize that I have made a lot of decisions over the course of the last year that have affected you," I said. "Perhaps I could have involved you more in making those decisions."

"You consulted me in…" she paused and seemed to think for a moment. "You consulted me in the decorating of your house a little bit."

I could feel her smiling against my chest. It meant that she agreed with me, but had already forgiven me for it.

"And you didn't tell me I had to marry you just that you wanted to do it someday. I had some say in that, didn't I?" she continued.

"Very funny," I replied thinking of the ring that was sitting in my pocket and pressing uncomfortably into my hip bone. "Did I ask you if you were okay with me resigning at the end of the year and going into business for myself? Did I ask if you wanted to live in Hogsmeade?"

She shook her head no.

"Do you want to live in Hogsmeade?" I asked her.

Hermione didn't answer. She toyed with the buttons on my shirt, opening and closing the same one over and over again. I closed my hand over hers and forced her to look in my eyes.

"Do you want to live in Hogsmeade?" I repeated.

"I want to live with you," she said.

I touched my forehead to hers and took a deep breath. The scent of her filled me.

"It's a nice house. I really do like it," she supplied.

"But it's not what you would have chosen," I finished.

Hermione shook her head again. "I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you say anything?" I demanded.

"You didn't ask! It was months ago when you picked that place. We have come really far since then. No matter how much I hoped for it, I didn't really know if it was a home that I was going to share with you. You were still touch and go. I only want to see you happy, and having a house in Hogsmeade makes you happy! I can live anywhere if you're content and that is the absolute truth," Hermione stared into my eyes. I could see it was true, but not the whole truth.

"But?" I asked gently. "Come on, Hermione, be honest."

She pulled away and went to the other chair. She tucked her knees up into her chest and stared at my bookshelf. She wiped away a tear before finally answering me.

"I would never have told you not to build the house, Severus. It is quite lovely and homey, and the view is wonderful. You had two homes destroyed by Death Eaters. I was not going to stop you."

"If I had told you Hermione, that I was looking for a house for us to share for the rest of our lives, what would you have said to me?" I pressed.

"I would have suggested a large cottage by the sea. A home big enough for a family, and far away from the nearest neighbors so we could do magic, but close enough to the nearest Muggle village so that my parents could visit comfortably anytime," she said wiping away tears. "But that doesn't matter. It's too late. Hogsmeade is fine. Just fine."

"It's not too late," I said rising. "For any of it. What you described sounds perfect."

Hermione just shook her head.

"Hermione, how do you really feel about my going to Malfoy's hearing?" I asked her. "The outcome will affect you too when our relationship goes public."

"Severus, in that, you have to do what is in your heart. I think your decision is the right one and if there is anything I can do for you, I will," she said standing up too and meeting me halfway across the room.

"Just don't leave me," I said. "That is all you need to do."

"Consider it done."

Despite her words, Hermione abandoned me shortly thereafter. She said she had work things to do and needed to get ready for the ball. The halls were filled with cupids delivering messages all over the building and more than the usual amount of students were out of their common rooms hoping that one of the missives was for them. I let down some of my walls and allowed myself to be slightly amused as the fat little men nappies zipped around on their tiny wings. I stopped by Minerva's office to tell her that I was going to go through with Lucius's hearing.

"Good for you," was all she had to say about it.

I left the castle after that and Apparated to London. Valentine's Day was technically the next day so I still had an opportunity to get Hermione a gift besides the ring. I was going out on a limb with my gift, but it was something she wanted desperately, and I wanted to give it to her. Whatever the outcome, I would be there to pick up the pieces. I stopped off at Gringott's and exchanged some galleons into pounds and exited Diagon Alley. Once outside I turned left and kept walking until I found what I was looking for. I only had to walk a few blocks before I passed a travel agent, and only one more to find a real estate office.

By the time I returned to the castle, my pockets filled with brochures, tickets, and listings, the Great Hall had already been set up for the ball. Dinner was being served in buffet style along one wall and the tables were gone, replaced with round ones that filled the perimeter of the room. The Head table had been removed so that the Weird Sisters could set up their stage. A wooden dance floor had been placed in the center was polished to a high shine.

On my way to the dungeons I almost broke my neck tripping over a cat. Thinking it was Mrs. Norris I almost gave it a swift kick down the hall, but upon closer inspection I saw that it was Hermione's gigantic orange fur ball with the squashed face. I hadn't seen that cat in ages. I didn't even know she still had him. He was part kneazle and fairly wild after all. I bent down and gave him a pat. He twined himself around my legs purring. It was then I noticed that something was tied around his neck. I removed the scroll and unrolled it. It was a Valentine from Hermione asking if I would be her escort for the ball. It was sweet and even my stony heart appreciated it. But, if she had sent it with a cupid I might have had something different to say about it.

An hour later I was nervously knocking on Hermione's door. I wasn't nervous of course to get her, but because what her Valentine had asked me to do was reveal to the world that we were not just good friends, but perhaps something more. If we walked into that Great Hall arm in arm there would be no turning back. I had dressed more carefully than I originally planned to. I was wearing my nicest set of dress robes, and they were not all black. My vest was an emerald green and instead of wearing a coat and tie, I put on a silk black cape that didn't cover nearly as much of me as my usual ones, or billow so much. I was holding a wrist corsage for Hermione, not even really sure if it was something people did anymore. I made it myself and I had chosen an arrangement of green and white flowers so that actually resembled the ring I expected to put on her finger soon.

Hermione opened her door a few moments after I knocked. She took my breath away. I thought she was beautiful at every moment of every day inside and out, but even if I did not know and love her already she would have had me eating out of the palm of her hand. She was dressed not in a Muggle dress that the girls sometimes wore to these kinds of events, but in full wizarding dress. Her robes were a lovely sateen finish, traditional, and the dress underneath was cut to fit her slender body perfectly. They were a green that very nearly matched my vest and the color brought out the flecks of green in her otherwise brown eyes quite nicely. The sleeves went down to her wrists, but her neck was exposed and her hair was pulled up into a casually becoming pile on her head with a few wisps falling out. I have to admit, that as much as I think Muggle clothes look good, I infinitely preferred the formality and tradition of wizarding robes. I didn't need sexy.

"You look amazing," I said holding out the corsage and fastening it to her wrist. She brought out her wand and conjured me a matching boutonniere.

"I would have been prepared, but if I didn't know if people still did that," she said sheepishly.

"Neither did I," I laughed.

"I hope that Valentine wasn't too much," she said as we walked arm in arm down the hall. Students on their way to meet dates walked past us. Some slowed and pointed us out to their friends and whispered, but most seemed to ignore us and went off to meet their dates. "I wanted to give you something that I thought you had never gotten before and that was a Valentine delivered on a cat."

"You were right about that," I said. "People are paying less attention to us than I thought."

"I don't think many of them realize who we are yet," she ventured. "You look very young and dashing tonight."

"Not compared to you," I replied. "Why green? Because it is my favorite color, or yours?"

"You remember that it is my favorite?" she asked touched.

I reached across my body so I could hold the hand she was using to grip my arm. "There is very little I could forget about you."

There were not many students in the Great Hall when we arrived. There was stock music playing and most of the people that were there were getting food from the buffet and finding tables. Hermione and I joined the special staff table where most of the other teachers were already sitting.

"Welcome!" boasted Professor Sprout. "Isn't this just lovely, and don't you two look just wonderful! How clever to come together, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin showing inter house unity."

"Yes, quite," laughed Poppy who was sitting near Madam Hooch. I couldn't help but notice that many of the teachers at Hogwarts were single. Filius Flitwick had summoned his wife, a nice woman about his height that I remembered had a mean talent with Charms just like her husband, but none of the other professors seemed to have a significant other. Being a Hogwarts teacher could be so lonely. It is hard to meet people when you work in a boarding school.

The dance proceeded without incident. Hermione and I drifted apart to mingle and chaperone, but people still spent an awful lot of time pointing at me and whispering to their friends. Some looked at me wearily as if my vile mood from the previous day would manifest itself at the dance. A lot of the students pulled away to arms length when they saw me coming rather than wait for me to split them up. I didn't split up any close couples that night though. I let them enjoy themselves and a few even ventured to come forth and ask me how I my evening was or to say hello. I was pleased with the student interaction and engaged many in conversation. I was having a wonderful time, and not for the first time I wished all my years as a teacher could have been so pleasant.

About a third of the way through the dance Potter strolled in wearing jeans and a tee shirt and looking smug. He passed through a few groups of students talking eagerly and then made his way to me and Hermione where we were standing by the punch bowl.

"Good evening, Professor Snape, Professor Granger," he said formally with a hint of a smirk. The boy was up to something. "Hermione, may I have this dance?"

"I thought you weren't going to dance tonight," Hermione said plucking at his tee shirt.

"For someone as lovely as you, it is my duty to make an exception," he replied kissing her hand.

That little nitwit was charming my girlfriend. I hadn't even worked up the nerve to dance with her yet.

Hermione blushed and giggled. She handed me her drink and let Harry lead her to the dance floor where they immediately started moving to the music. The song was much too fast for me anyway, I thought. Soon they were deep in conversation and when the melody slowed to something paced for holding someone tight they naturally moved together and kept talking. I wasn't jealous for once, not of Harry. That didn't mean I was going to stand by and let him keep monopolizing her time on the dance floor. I put down both our drinks and made my way to them.

I tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but may cut in?"

Harry grinned at Hermione and passed her off. "Of course you can. Bye!"

I watched as Harry pushed through the students and disappeared out of the Great Hall. I took Hermione's hand in mine and slipped my other one around her waist.

"Go Professor Snape!" a student nearby yelled and some other students laughed along. In response I pulled Hermione a little bit closer and that garnered a few more cheers. Hermione's smile was infectious and I found myself grinning as well.

"You two seemed to have a lot to talk about," I commented about Harry.

Hermione nodded. "Ron is here with Padma Patil. It seems he is making up for the last ball."

Ron was indeed dancing with Padma and they seemed to be having a good time.

"Do you miss him?" I don't even know why I asked.

Hermione considered the question. "Sometimes. Ginny and I have surprisingly grown closer. She was never angry with me for breaking up with Ron. The rest of the family has been much more difficult, but I don't miss them as much as I thought I would. At least not the way Harry did. They were more of a surrogate family for him, while for me they were just my friend's family. Molly Weasley had a knack for getting angry with me in a way she never did with Harry,"

She didn't seem upset, just mature and accepting. I wanted to kiss her, but that would be too much. I wanted to press her more about Harry, but decided not to.

"Oh, and Neville has confessed his undying love for Luna," Hermione said happily pointing to the couple swaying close together not far from us.

"Good for him." I very much liked Luna and her odd but accurate depiction of the world around her. I still hadn't quite forgiven Neville for putting me into his grandmother's clothes, but at least he wasn't terrified of me anymore. He had grown in leaps and bounds and his parents would have been very proud. The least I could do was be proud for them.

Hermione and I didn't dance again in the ballroom because as the night wore on, the punch got spiked and things finally started getting wild. The crying girls on the stairwells appeared and a few people got caught pawing each other's clothes off in a few corners. It was very late after everyone was finally settled in their common rooms. I walked Hermione back to her rooms and went inside with her. I wanted to dance with her at least one more time, just us. I also wanted to give her at least one of her gifts, but she was going to have to choose which one.

When we were in her rooms I took off my cape and then hers. I tapped her radio with my wand and tuned until a slow song came on. I pulled her close and wrapped my arms around her so that the lengths of our bodies pressed together as we swayed to the song. "September Days," played on. It was a perfect song for us, an old Muggle song about an older man who falls in love with a woman twenty years his junior and convinces her that they must marry soon because his time is running short. I wasn't about to die any time soon, at least I was pretty sure that was not going to happen anymore, but I was still feeling a sense of urgency about moving on with our lives.

I bent my head and kissed her soft and exposed neck as we danced. She sighed and pressed closer against me.

"This is how I wanted to dance with you before," I whispered in her ear before taking the lobe and sucking on it gently.

"Hmm," she murmured. "Happy Valentine's Day to me."

After we finished the dance we lay on her couch and made a complete mess of our nice clothes, but it was definitely worth it.

"Do you want your gift now?" Hermione asked after we had broken apart for a drink and some air.

"Hold on," I told her and then hurried through the floo to my rooms. I had taken her gift and the ring and placed them each in matching boxes that were wrapped and tied with a ribbon. When I returned with them she had a package sitting in her lap.

"You first," she said handing me the box. I only agreed because whichever gift of mine she chose was going to be complicated.

I took the box and removed the lid. Inside were three things; a leather bound book, a very high quality chronograph watch, and a picture of some sort wrapped in tissue paper.

"I never know what to give you," she said wringing her hands nervously. "I like my gifts to have practical value."

I started with the book. It was a business ledger. There was a calendar and places for contacts and finances. It was quite nice.

"That is for when you start your own Potions business after we leave here," she said. Something about the "we" niggled in the back of my mind.

I pulled out the watch. It was set in a tortoiseshell band that was quite unique and the face was tungsten. I quite liked it, but the aesthetic value was nothing to the smoothness of the sweeping second hand and its three separate timers. With a simple spell I checked the accuracy of the time. Such a watch is invaluable to potions masters particularly when brews required such precision timing. She didn't need to explain that gift.

"This is perfect, Hermione," I said kissing her deeply for her thoughtfulness. She blushed but was pleased.

Lastly I pulled out the picture and removed the tissue paper. It was a simple wooden frame, made of cherry that matched the moldings in my house at Hogsmeade. The photograph inside was of me and Hermione. We were walking next to each other across the grounds of the castle just talking. There was a lovely blanket of snow all around us and the Hermione kept reaching up to push at some hair that was blowing into her face. After a moment our photograph selves turned their faces to each other and smiled. There was love in both of our eyes.

"Where did you get this?" I traced my finger across the picture. I had never seen a photograph of myself looking happy before, and I certainly didn't have one taken with someone I was in love with. "How did you get this?"

"Dennis Creevey. He took it with his brother's old camera and brought it to me after class one day," she replied fondly. "He said no one was with him when he took it and that he thought we should have it. I thought it would look good in your new office."

"It's very nice." It was more than nice. "I guess we have not been as discreet as I'd thought."

"We have," she assured me. "Dennis didn't suspect anything beyond friendship. He respects you and misses his brother and Dennis said that the happiness we display in the picture is exactly what Colin died for. If people continued to suffer even after the war, his sacrifice, and everyone else's would have been for naught."

"It is very touching." I gently placed the gifts back in the box and set the lid on. Hermione knew me so very well. "Your turn."

I had mixed the boxes up so that even I didn't know which was which. The one she chose was going to be a surprise for me as well.

"You get one now, and the other after the hearing on Monday," I said. "They are too big to do all at once and you will see why when you pick one."

Hermione clapped her hands gleefully. I already knew that even though she would never ask for one, she absolutely loved receiving gifts. "I don't know how to choose!"

I wasn't sure which I wanted her to choose. If she chose the ring I knew what I had to do. If she chose the tickets we were going to have a lot of talking to do, but I did not want her to be angry with me for being presumptuous. The choice was torturing me too. I was tempted to take back the tickets and wait until after the hearing and just bring it up to her. Maybe it was a horrible gift after all. I reached out to take the boxes back when she put her hand on the one on the left.

"I choose this one." She picked the box up and handed it to me. "You open it."

I took the box from her and with fumbling fingers undid the ribbon and peeled away the paper. I slowly pulled off the lid and took a deep breath before looking inside.

A/N: Which box did Hermione choose? Stay tuned for the next installment of Stealing with Thieves coming to an inbox near you! Please review! They really do make my day and I love hearing your thoughts on how the story is going. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed. I will be replying to you all!