To my old readers:
It's been a hard decision to make, but here we are. I felt utterly terrible to abandon my other stories and practically delete all of them. But I've realized that I'm getting nowhere with all of them. I'm not saying it's a mistake or something. I mean, I find that I haven't thought through the outline of them, and to simply write would spoil the beginning.
I can tell you that I spend a few hours to prepare this, and I will, I promise, to finish this story as quickly as I can, before I move on to my other stories.
I'll never ever give up any of them.
If you are seeing this tale for the first time:
This had started originally inspired by the famous Phantom of the Opera. I love the idea of a little bit ghost-human relationship. In this story, I make the ghost Severus's horcrux. I should say that whether Severus have a horcrux of his own or not, it was all in his past, and he is a good man, at least for now.
I know it can be a bit cruel to let Severus murder, but, I think, the spell called Sectumsempra wasn't too kind, right? It could mean to kill. And if Severus hadn't done something like murder before, Dumbledore wouldn't ask him to spare Draco and kill, right?
So, if you are not ready for that, please prepare yourself to turn away from some scenes in this story, it could be disturbing.
Ah, for other warnings I should mention before we really take this ride:
RapeViolence: Yeah, it's harsh. This is a dark story, and what can I say? It's rated M for a reason.
Teacher/student relationship: Honestly, if you are reading Severus/Hermione fanfics, you are expecting this, aren't you? Still, if the idea made you gag, be free to go.
Betrayal: It could be a warning here. When I was thinking about the outline, I realized that it was so very unfair that there were no spy working for the Dark Lord in the order that did serious harm to the order. We could use a little betrayal, couldn't we? I can't say now who the particular person is, but mind you, it's someone close to Harry.
Homosexual relationship: What am I getting my self into…*Sigh* I prefer there to be some of gays, it is how the world is, isn't it?
Ghost/human relationship [Which is also named Horcrux/Human relationship: Are you guys clicking into here to look for a story like that? :P
Multi: Is that really multi? I'm not quite sure. Hermione would fall in love with two Sev, but she would get rid of it one day. And she would only…with one of them.
Major character death: OH MY GOD! You haven't heard that this story is a tragedy? Come on. Grab some tissue and smile the little hear-broken smile, with tears running down your cheeks.
I want to make some readers of this story cry for our couple, and I hope I have that ability.
Sev dead? That's perfectly fine with me. I love tragedy!
Out of character and ignoring the canon: It's a fanfic for crying out loud.
And there is one more thing, English is not my first language, I will make a lot of mistakes. I know. Please forgive me. If you are kind enough to point some of them out for me, I'll be extremely grateful.
I may or may not use some French in this story, because I love French. Sadly, French isn't my first language as well. So I'll keep it to words, or simple sentences, in case I'll make any mistake.
But, if you can bear with me and be a beta for this story, please contact me. I'll be so absolutely happy to get any help for this story. Currently, there is no beta, so all mistakes in prologue is mine.
Please readreviewfollowfavorite, it means a lot to me. It will keep me moving and help me get out the next chapter more quickly.
However, I should warn you that don't PM me. My account has some problems and the PM hasn't been working for a while. It has a big chance that if you PM me, I won't see that at all. Sorry.
So, for your reviews, if I'm lucky enough to get any that is, I'll be replying after each chapter. That's the plan for now. So don't hesitate and leave me some reviews.
Oh, and this is supposed to be a long story. If I calculated correctly, it should be over 100,000 words.
Disclaimer for the whole story: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does, and how I envy her. This story is a fanfiction that is only written to keep me entertained and realize my dream on writing something of our favorite couple Hermione/Severus. (Okay, maybe not favorite for some of you, but you must feel something towards this two, otherwise you won't be here at all.) I'm not making money of this, for god's sake, I even have to pay for the electricity so that my laptop can keep working.
I may or may not have some original characters in this story, but there will be, then they are mine, Things that are different from hers are mine.
I'm not interested in writing a disclaimer for every chapter of this, so this is one for all.
Hopefully, I'll update every Monday, and some Thursdays or the weekends. That's not a promise, I'm not sure when I'm back to school, I can keep it up. And, I'm planning to make other chapters longer than Prologue.
Finally, we can get a glimpse of this tale. Welcome to the latest and the best version of Amour.
Amour
Prologue
A starry night with a half-moon on the sky. Gentle breeze blew apart the curtains and moonlight pooled through them, casting shadows on the wooden floor.
It was quite a lovely bedroom in the eyes of a bookworm, for there were bookshelves up to the ceiling loaded with books. There was also a lamp in the corner of the room, under the dim light of which can see a sofa. Given enough light, it would be an ideal place to read.
On the other end of the room, there was a bed, with white covers over it. One could make out a lump in the middle of it.
It was a girl with bushy hair, and she was tossing and turning on the mattress, her chest heaving up and down rapidly.
She was having one of those dreams.
It was completely dark in her dream, nothing was visible. She turned around, trying to find some difference in the darkness. It couldn't all be the same. It must have a light somewhere, only she didn't know it.
She was afraid of dark. Everything could lurk in the dark and attack her at any second. Dark made her feel unsecured.
She hoped that this dark was one of those appeared before the man did. The raven-haired man with sharp onyx eyes.
It was still unraveled why she would have these disturbing dreams. Why she would have access to other people's life, or to their memory. She could be penetrating into someone else's mind or someone else could do that and play these scenes before her. What would their purpose be?
She didn't have a connect with Voldemort like Harry did, or did she? These dreams, and the mind magic behind them could mean that she was risking all the order members' life. Sure, she knew little of the order and its secret, there was so little she could offer, but the little bit could mean them harm.
She should have prepared herself for the danger, sent warnings to the order, and tried to stop having these dreams. But she wasn't a natural occlumens, and she hadn't got her hands on that particular branch of magic yet. After all, it would still be useless as she couldn't perform the magic with the trace on her that could alert the ministry any minute.
She remembered the trial Harry had last summer, and she didn't intend to go over that herself.
Of course, those were excuses, as her dreams had begun since she was a little girl when she didn't even believe in the existence of the magical world, she had plenty of time to fix this problem over the years of her study in Hogwarts. But she just let herself keep these stupid dreams.
Because of her stupid girlish wishes.
The ball in their fourth year let her know that Ron and Harry didn't see her as a girl. On the contrary, she was, and she had some sense that normal girls had. Like dreaming about a man that would make her willing to marry off.
Maybe it is designed in those prince and princess romantic stories, who knows?
How romantic would it be if the man she was having dreams of could turn up someday, and be together with her?
A dream comes true.
She startled when a set of footsteps could be heard, and it was getting closer and closer. In front of her eyes, she could make out a figure in black.
She sighed in relief. She had thought he wasn't coming, but he did, and she was grateful of that. He saved her from the dark, once again. Though there was a small voice in her mind saying that perhaps he was the man who created the darkness.
Black robes covered him from neck to feet, with a part of it billowing after him. Under the black robe, was his pale skin, ill-looking, which had made her worry. The man assured her that it was nothing, barely the cause of lack of sunshine.
He could be someone working indoors.
She greeted him with an eagerness in her voice that she herself hadn't detected: "Angel of music."
Angel of music, as if he was the very phantom in the opera. It was a nickname that she hadn't been sure whether he would agree to be called at, but he hadn't protested it yet.
Or he didn't know its origin.
He inclined his head, taking her hand in his, kissing it so softly and lightly like it was a treasure.
It made her giggle in the beginning, now that she had been accustomed to this, it became a slight blush on her cheeks. She doubted it was partly the reason why she felt it old-fashioned, and liked to call him angel of music and felt butterflies in her stomach.
She growled in her heart at the loss of touch of his lips on her hand after their greeting.
"Potions today?" She inquired, seeing a cauldron on the stand.
She hadn't noticed the surrounding around her, else she would know they were already about to start their lesson.
"Of course." The man didn't say a lot, and she knew there was nothing to question, really. The only thing the man taught her was potions, what else was she expecting?
She bit down into her lip, condemning herself of making a fool of herself.
"Replenishing Potion, that I already know." She quirked her right eyebrow, just like the man did sometimes. Since their lesson began in her first year, she was always ahead of the school curriculum, though the man had her promised to never tell anyone of these private tutoring and to hide her true ability in lessons.
And, the man should have known she could brew it.
"It can be useful in war." He replied simply, sitting down at the chair at the left end of her stand, putting a hand under his chin, looking at her.
She could feel her cheeks heating up.
"Begin." He tilted his head to indicate the tools on the stand and took out his scroll of parchment and a quill.
"Oh, right, I…" She caught herself before it was too late. There was really nothing to say.
She started with chopping and cutting the ingredients while stealing a glance at the man from time to time.
Broad daylight came in through the window, making the man look less pale and more alive. His fingers clutched the quill in his hand, his brows slightly furrowed, concentrating.
His features were not the most handsome she had laid her eyes on but he was attracting in her eyes. And he knew a lot things, enough to be a potions master, she admired him for that.
Till the end of her brewing, he had remained silent.
While she was pouring the potions into the bottle, he pushed his notes over to her: "Again, brew according to these steps."
She looked through the steps, making sure she had remembered them clearly enough to take down notes after the dream, and nodded her head. Brewed the potion for another time.
It was always like this. She was so amazed every time the man could innovate something, even though this time her first-time brewing had already been improved by him. He must have found somewhere to improve for a while and had to make sure for the last time by seeing her first brew.
Okay, she admitted she would more willing to have it the easy way the first time. But it was in her dream, he was a free tutor, who was she to complain?
She reminded herself that she should feel she owed him something and do nothing to irritate him or send him away. That was why she controlled her temper in their every confrontation.
The man could get on her nerves when he drawled out his comment, like Professor Snape did sometimes.
"Time to go. Have a nice day, my lady." The man kissed on her temple as a goodbye and disappeared in front of her eyes, along with the ambience.
Her lips curled.
Another dream.
The new term started in a month. Along with the new term, was another year of Quidditch for the boys. They were projecting for a House Cup this year, and that was an ambition.
Harry and Ron had been devoting hours to their Quidditch practice. Now that Harry was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, he became another Wood. He became ardent in practices and tried numerous times to catch a snitch in the pitch. Ron remained the keeper of the team, which together, made them more thrilled than ever with the Quidditch competition.
It was fortunate that Professor Umbridge wasn't here, and Professor Snape hadn't paid attention to this, or he simply didn't care about it anymore. She could fanthom the idea of Professor Snape banning them to Quidditch, the Slytherin wizard could borrow that from Professor Umbridge.
Apart from that, rumor had it that the bat in the dungeons had lost another chance to be their DADA professor. From the man's sour expression upon seeing Professor Lupin occupied the vacant chair that belonged to the DADA professor at the teacher's table, there maybe some truth in said rumor.
Now as there was a war outside the school, they felt that they should have a proper DADA professor. Students nominated Professor Lupin for the task. Though a number of Slytherins still have a grudge against him being a werewolf and all.
She gathered that Remus was the best professor they'd had so far and probably the safest and most appropriate professor the order could find. Moody was out of the question now that the old man had worn himself out being a tutor for order members. He wasn't that young anymore, and he was a bit jumpy when there was really nothing happened.
"Constant vigilance." As the former auror said, but the saying could unnerve people.
The news of Professor Lupin's coming back had Harry exhilarated and bouncing on the balls of his feet for a whole hour. Hermione herself welcomed the professor warmly, as the man had gained her trust since her third year and had protected the three of them on numerous occasions.
Also, she sensed Harry would be having a hard time this year due to the upcoming war, with Professor Lupin being here, he could get more comfort and love. Remus was a close friend to Harry's father, one of the marauders, and he would act like a father figure for him.
There first DADA class was on a Sunny Monday.
"As some of you may remember, I'm a werewolf. When I first came back to Hogwarts to teach, I was afraid to face that side of myself. I was afraid that you may find out and look at me like looking at some disgusting, nasty creature. However, in the end of that year, I learnt that there was no use of hiding at all. If I am terrified myself, who can lend me a hand. It was a hard lesson to learn to cooperate with my wolf self but, good news, I've managed it. Today, I'm standing in front of you, claiming that I'm a werewolf, no more hiding away from it. And I thank you all for nominating me as your DADA professor. I'll try my best to not let you down. For those of you who are still horrified of my condition, I suggest you learn well this lesson I'm going to teach you. Defense against werewolves."
His statements ended with applauses from awed students, among them Harry Potter and Ron Weasley cheered and shouting at the top of their lungs:" Brilliant!"
Hermione Granger was hauled off to the Quidditch pitch by Harry and Ron on a Saturday morning. Autumn in Scotland could be fairly cold, and she was wearing her gloves and one of her thicker robes and with a scarf around her neck.
She was holding a book in her hand, and she was already getting bored. What was point in sitting here? She could picture her usual position in the library, a vintage point. It would not be chilly there. She hated cold.
She sneezed a few times, fidgeting to get out some tissue from her pocket, musing and completely ignoring a Bludger coming her way.
Someone called out to her, she thought, but the voice was muffled by the wind. She would like to go back to her book and neglect it.
She hadn't anticipated being attacked on the Quidditch pitch.