Hermione sat in the antechamber sipping distractedly at the flavorless tea. She couldn't hear a thing going on in the main gathering room, and it bothered her. She hadn't expected to be allowed to listen, but still.

Severus was furious. He was just as likely to verbally eviscerate the Board and make things worse as he was to talk the lot of them into a corner and get them both out of the mess on a technicality.

The last time she'd been sent to the antechamber to sit in such stressful silence was when they were reviewing her application to the Guild. It was two days after she'd completed her apprenticeship; she'd had Severus's ring on her necklace and his child in her womb. She'd sat in the very same chair wondering what they were talking about, what was taking so long—it had turned out that they'd been discussing a conference in Guam one of the members had been to over the previous weekend, but she hadn't known that at the time.

Hermione very much doubted the Board was talking about academic conferences in Guam this time.