CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX—Spying
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"Can I take it off?" Hermione asked, bouncing in excitement though her voice remained even.
The two stood in the lab. It had been several weeks since her injury in Hogsmeade—several weeks of essays of the bare minimum length since she had to use a DictoQuill, and several weeks of slow brewing with only one arm in use. Severus cast one of Poppy's diagnostic spells near Hermione's shoulder. It revealed no broken bones, no fever, nor any strained muscles—in short, nothing was wrong with her. He nodded.
She ripped it over her head and tossed it to the worktable. "That was terrible. Every minute of it." She stretched her arm up above her head and behind her back.
"Don't strain yourself," he scolded. He walked to his desk to keep his eyes off the sharp hip bone of hers that became visible when she stretched her healed arm.
She was all smiles. "What a chore!" she said. Then she pulled her wand from her trouser pocket and waved it with more flourish than necessary to Summon the two leather-bound planners she had put together some weeks ago. They floated towards her, one from their sitting room, one from the shelf. She set them both on her worktable to compare the two.
When he had asked her to create these schedules, he did not know she would come back with two leather-bound planners, colour-coded by difficulty and priority. He considered himself organized, but this was anal-retentive.
The Potions Master was not in the habit of making schedules—lest his timetable fall into the wrong hands and make him an easy target.
The planner with the…extracurricular items was usually locked and warded in a drawer in the desk in his sitting room. As his apprentice had demonstrated years ago, it was not impossible to break into this lab, the potion stores or the classroom after hours. But no one had yet tried to break into his personal rooms.
She had both palms flat on the counter to pore over the two schedules. Her shoulder had righted itself in half the time. Perhaps Poppy had found a potion to accelerate the process. He was a tad miffed that she wouldn't have mentioned that to him, or let him in on whatever brewing process she used in her own, smaller lab.
Severus realized that, in his musings, he may have accidentally been watching Hermione's bum.
He forced his eyes back onto his book. Neither he nor Hermione had to be in here at the moment. The matrix of potions she had laid out had them scheduled to brew or prepare ingredients every weekday this month—except today.
Hermione closed both books.
"I've triple-checked, but we definitely don't have anything to do today," she said.
Obviously he knew that already or he'd be wrist-deep in a cauldron.
She handed him the planner with sensitive information.
With her hands on her hips, she surveyed the room, put-out she had no work to do. "I guess I'll clean something."
Severus had had only one, quiet month of marriage before Hermione started trying to talk at him. More accurately, she tried to talk with him, but he wanted to discourage that behaviour, so he rarely replied.
Most of the time, she kept talking anyway.
He put his chin in his hand as he flipped the page.
Hermione rolled up her sleeves. Severus may have looked at her bum again, as she set one of the medium-sized cauldrons on the floor near the sink.
Severus put his eyes back on his book and intended to keep them there.
Then she started talking again.
"You know what would make this easier?" She paused to be polite. "A dishwasher."
The new Mrs Snape would no doubt be disappointed to learn Severus had never owned nor used a dishwasher.
"I suppose you can't put a cauldron in a dishwasher, but definitely the rest of this stuff."
Hermione waved her wand over the cauldron she just filled with water. Steam rose from it.
Hermione leaned over the rim of the deep sink to put in the stopper.
Severus was resigned that he was just staring at her backside now. He could make excuses—she kept talking or making noises—but if he didn't want to, he wouldn't. He never had before.
Hermione dumped some stirring rods and knives and other implements into the sink as it filled.
At the end of every lesson and apprentice-session, Severus made the students disinfect everything they used except the cauldrons. Anything that could not be cleaned within a few minutes would be left for the inevitable detentions Severus doled out. So he was baffled as to what Hermione thought needed boiled.
Hermione pressed her hands into her lower back to pop her spine.
Severus was not entirely comfortable with how much he gandered at his wife today. He had never once let his eyes linger on any part of a student.
Hermione scrubbed the inside of the cauldron with a sponge. "Stupid stain," she muttered.
Part of her hair fell out of her ponytail. She swung it back over her neck.
Severus found her hair in random places between the bedroom and his office. He had to carefully check his person for hairs before leaving his quarters. Not to mention the blight of orange hairs on the ends of his trousers.
He was thankful she was not messy, hairs aside—his father had been messy and it annoyed him to no end.
Hermione picked the tools out of the sink and laid them on a towel nearby.
She paused to pull a galleon out of her breast pocket.
She turned it around to examine the ridges.
Has she never seen a galleon before? shot through his head before he could stop himself. That was a dumb question. He had clearly spent too much time amongst teenagers.
Hermione tucked the coin back into her shirt and resumed drying the tools. She puttered about the lab to put each item where it belonged.
With her wand, she lifted the cauldron to dump the spent water into the sink.
She returned it to the large cabinet.
"Professor, would it be alright if I left early?"
Severus let his book lie flat against the desk.
He saw her lips twitch—she stopped herself from biting her bottom lip.
"Fine."
He picked up the book once more.
"Thank you, sir." She snagged her sling from the table before she scuttled from the room.
Severus leaned out of his seat. He peered out the door she had left open.
Once she had turned the curve of the corridor, Severus followed.
He followed at length and let her clear the Grand Staircase. She took a left, which gave her five possible directions or staircases to take.
The ends of her hair disappeared around a corner.
Severus peered around statues and columns and took alternate routes around the moving staircases. He had a good idea of where she was headed so he was a step behind her when she entered the fifth-floor corridor.
Severus paused when he heard other footsteps in the hallway.
"Oy, Mione, what are you doing here?"
Severus grimaced. A date? With Seamus Finnigan? Surely not. Granger—Hermione can do much better than that. He peered around the corner.
"Well, Seamus, I was invited, same as you." Severus saw her pull out the coin.
"Yeah, but you're stuck in the dungeons these days, I thought."
"I didn't have anything to do today." The two walked side by side.
"I thought he'd suck your blood or something."
Severus jerked back into the shadow behind a column. What the devil—how had he—
"And I thought we all would have retired that joke by now."
"Don't fix what ain't broke, Mione," Finnagan laughed.
Severus really hated children.
He tread carefully behind them, annoyed that the vampire joke was still making the rounds, and that he had been foolish enough to think Seamus Finnagan of all people had figured out their marriage. Hermione paused a few times with a subtle glance over her shoulder but she never saw him. She had the sling tucked into her back pocket.
"Uh-oh, Hermione's here, shape up," Miss Weasley said in a voice loud enough to carry down the hallway.
"Oh, good!" one of the younger students said. Severus could not tell which. "I need help with my Accio."
"Let's get to it, then," his wife said cheerfully.
"Hey, where's your sling?" Ron Weasley's voice asked.
"I am all healed!" she said cheerfully. "I thought I'd leave it in the Room in case anyone else needs it later."
"Good idea," he agreed.
Severus stood with his back to the wall and peered around the corner.
Before the group of schoolchildren a door materialized in a blank stretch of wall. Draco had used this room all last year to do whatever it was he did to sneak Bellatrix and Greyback in. Severus thought it best he refrain from learning how to enter. The Dark Lord would fall upon the school at some point, and needn't know all its secrets.
The children, of all ages and houses, filed into the room. Hermione's eyes surveyed the corridor one last time before she disappeared inside.
Severus settled against the wall, arms and ankles crossed.
This is their little Dumbledore's Army meeting, Severus concluded. How organized are they?
Colour-coded planners flashed through his head.
"Probably very," he muttered.
This was a rare night off for him. He did not mind the wait.
Severus retreated into his shadows whenever somebody, be they dead or alive, passed. Nearly Headless Nick made a circuit around the area every fifteen minutes.
A few of the new Knights of Walpurgis scouted the hall and even tried to get in the secret room. They remembered where the Room was, but they had never learned how to get in, save blowing it up.
As soon as he recalled that little incident, a quiet explosion rattled the empty wall.
Just what are they doing in there?
Hermione let her Shield Charm drop. "Oh, Seamus," she sighed.
"Sorry, Mione," the Irish boy groaned.
"The goal is to tie up your opponent, not have their pants explode," Harry gently reminded him.
"Though that might be useful," Luna pointed out.
"It's a good thing we're practicing on dummies," Ron muttered to Neville.
Neville nodded. He nudged a smoldering piece of mannequin with his toe and gulped.
"I pity the Death Eater that faces Seamus's Pants-Hex," Anthony joked, clapping Seamus on the back.
Hermione gathered the crowd's attention once more. "If you've got the spell, start trying it on a human, moving target."
Ron grabbed Seamus's arm. "Not you."
Seamus and a few younger students continued practicing on the dummies. Thankfully there were no more under-garment incinerations.
Amycus and Alecto stood at the opposite end of the hall. They had not noticed Severus.
Nearly Headless Nick had not seen him either.
It was half an hour until curfew. The ghost nodded to the two teachers and continued his spectral stroll. He had his back to Severus as he turned the corner.
The Gryffindor ghost disappeared through the wall. A few minutes later, a door appeared in the other corridor and the children snuck out. The Carrows on the other side of the hall were none the wiser.
Severus smirked at that.
Longbottom, the Patil twins, Weasley and Miss Brown (linked arm in arm) were the last to leave, preceded by Hermione, Miss Lovegood, Potter, and Miss Weasley.
The door dissolved into stone. Nearly Headless Nick floated through the once again solid wall. The ghost bowed to the rebellious students, then sank through the flagstone floor.
"No patrol tonight, right?" Weasley asked.
"Right," Miss Lovegood confirmed.
Everyone dispersed but for Potter and Hermione. She had her back to Severus. Severus did not look at her arse.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Luna and I talked to the Grey Lady last night," Hermione told Potter.
"She know what you were talking about?"
Hermione laughed. "Yes, she knows about her mother's own diadem—and knows where it is."
"Don't tell me—locked away in some Knockturn Alley curiosity shop."
Hermione shook her head then looked back at the blank wall from whence they came.
"In there?" Potter asked.
She nodded.
"Why would Voldemort hide any of them here?"
Hermione shrugged and turned to walk towards Severus, ostensibly to return to her rooms. "Hagrid always says the safest place in the world is Hogwarts."
Potter rubbed the back of his neck, eyes still riveted to the wall. "Should we go find it?"
"And do what with it?" Hermione turned back around to face him, full-on swot. "You want to carry around a crown?"
"I want to know where it is."
"I think we should keep it hidden until we know how to take care of it."
Potter put up his hands. "You're right, you're right. I'll start thinkin' about that, too."
"I can't find any information on how to make them let alone how to break them," she bemoaned.
"Not even in the Restricted Section?"
She shook her head again. "From what I can tell, Professor Dumbledore had all the useful books removed."
Albus had spent hours convincing Irma to part with exactly nine books that even briefly touched on Horcruxes. He instructed Severus to destroy them.
"Can you blame him?" Potter asked as the two parted ways.
Severus stayed very still.
Hermione peered around the corner, saw the Carrows, and decided to take the long way.
"Harry, wait up!"
Severus remained in his hiding spot until the Carrows departed. It was past curfew now. The halls were empty as he returned to his quarters.
Hermione was already there. When he walked into the bedroom, she had her uniform balled up. She winged it into her room, still excited about regaining use of her arm.
"If I was a vampire," he said, "why would I teach at a bloody school?"
Hermione spun her body around. "So it was you following me!" She was more amused than frightened.
He put his hands on his hips. "Prove it."
She plopped down onto the mattress. "Someone was bored, today, without anything to brew," she teased.
He did not like it. He poked one of his incisors with his tongue. Well—if she was in a convivial mood, he should capitalize on it. And her loquacious nature.
"What is that room called?"
She crossed her legs like a pretzel atop the covers. "The Room of Requirement."
"What does it look like in there?" He remained in the doorway. This conversation broke their unspoken rule.
"Tonight it looked a lot like how Remus had the DADA room set up when he was here." She put her hands on her crossed ankles. Her toenails were painted red. "Sometimes it's filled with a bunch of stuff no one wants. When Cho is in there—"
She tugged on one of the curls in her ponytail, reluctant to tell him. "Well, Cho likes to work on massive puzzles, but if she leaves it in her common room, people try to finish it for her. So when she's in there, I don't know what it looks like, but I assume she has puzzles in there."
Even after all these years, the school continued to amaze him.
"That is how Draco lead several Death Eaters into the school last year."
She crossed her arms over her red t-shirt. "Huh. I thought maybe—"
She paused. With a bright smile, she said, "Never mind. No one cares what I think."
Severus unbuttoned his right sleeve. "I can wait to find out."
"I don't plan on sneaking into Honeydukes anytime soon," she assured him, smile turned a bit more devious. She stood up to walk to her side of the bed. "Especially if I'm liable to be followed," she said as she turned down the covers. "Good night."
Cheeky.
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Hermione settled into bed and grinned into her pillow. I know something he doesn't know, she crowed in her head. There was no way she was going to tell him about the Hump-backed Witch statue.