CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE—Date

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Alecto and Severus stood near the steps to the castle to monitor the grounds as children moved from class to class. The wind made the day bitter. Severus hated when the ground was white with snow and the sky was pale with clouds. It made everything too bright.

"You seem more suited to the Defence class than your brother," Severus remarked.

A group of first-years shivered after exiting the humidity of the greenhouses.

"Amycus loathes Muggles," she explained. "So he wouldn't be able to teach anything about them without flying off the broom. Whether it's true or not," she added with a pointed look.

"And you are sympathetic?" he asked.

She watched an owl swoop into a tree. "I don't know. They're beneath us. But if they were not around, how would we measure ourselves?

"And I admit—they think of things we can't, by virtue of having no magic with which to do it. But those are just tools. Magic is, to us, like an arm."

Severus was surprised to all she had divulged.

"Don't tell Amycus," she added, leaning in for the secret.

"I give you my word."

They watched the last of the students return from Hagrid's area before Alecto spoke again.

"I always thought you were kind, for giving that Mudblood a chance."

Severus did not like it when his…colleagues brought up Lily. He knew it marked him as different.

"You didn't have to be friends with her. And the rest of us didn't make it easy for you, but you kept at it," Alecto said. "You used what you had to try to—help her toddle through our world. You did what you could as long as you could." She frowned at him. "I figured your generosity couldn't last long."

She didn't say anything else. He nodded, eyes still on the forest.

"Should we talk about better things?" she asked with a bit of a laugh.

"Shall we also adjourn inside?"

As they walked in, Alecto leaned in closer again. "Do you want to piss off Amycus as much as I do?"

"Probably more," he replied.

She giggled and put her hand on his arm for a moment. "Escort me to the Christmas party."

He flicked his hair out of his face to look at her. "Purely to piss off, Amycus, of course."

She gave him a pleased, sly smile. "Shall we leave from the castle?"

"Are you staying here?" He didn't have to act confused on that one.

She nodded. Then she looked him up before pulling the scarf from her throat.

"As am I," he mentioned.

"The party will give us something to talk about, then."

He had a feeling he she didn't have talking on the mind.

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"Hermione, why was your husband flirting with Alecto Carrow? Ginny whispered on the way to the meeting.

Hermione felt a jolt go up her spine. "I don't know and I don't care to," she sniffed.

"…Really?" Ginny asked.

"We're only married so we don't have to marry other people. We never agreed that we would—be—uninterested in other people." That was the only way she could phrase it.

Ginny didn't buy it. "Yeah, but he's still your husband. And she was all like-" She put her wrist to her forehead and pressed her chest to Hermione's arm like a fainting damsel. "Take me to the Christmas party, I'm desperate for you!"

Hermione's cheeks tinged red.

"Want me to hex her?" Ginny cracked her knuckles.

"No, thank you."

"'Cause I will."

"I know, and I appreciate it," Hermione laughed.

After Hermione returned from her extracurricular Army meeting, the Snapes sat on either side of the professor's desk to mark papers.

Hermione jabbed her quill into each exam.

Severus narrowed his eyes at the point of her quill. He could only reason that she knew he was going to a party with another woman, but he could not figure out how. Alecto didn't seem the type to tell schoolchildren about her private life, let alone Gryffindors.

"We should talk about the hols," she said.

There it is, he thought.

"I still think you should stay here."

"Agreed."

"I will go to Grimmauld Place."

She didn't flinch at his unimpressed face. "I disagree."

"I can't stay here. Based on what I've seen of the list, the only men staying will be you, Dumbledore, Carrow, Hagrid and maybe three Ravenclaws studying for N.E.W.T.s."

She circled a mistake. "We will just have to suffer until you are able to come to Grimmauld Place for a time."

He didn't much like that idea. The last time they had been apart, they were both left vulnerable.

She studied his face. "I know it's not ideal. If you wait until after Christmas Day, I think most people will have left, if that helps."

"Too long," he said. He didn't like the way that tasted. He sounded like some besotted fool who couldn't bear any time away from his wife.

Hermione leaned onto her elbows. "I suppose you don't have to stay here. With Carrow thinking I'm married to Harry, no one would think you were with me."

Severus pointedly kept his eyes on the essay. "Alecto expects me to be here."

When he glanced up, Hermione was shaking her head at her paper, eyebrows tilted like Minerva's did when she found a student with a Dung Bomb.

"What?" he demanded.

"I just think you could do better."

He tossed his quill on the desk and crossed his arms.

"I do—she's awful, Severus."

"Perhaps you didn't notice, but that's the company I keep."

"Alright, fair enough," she acquiesced. "But after all this, you really should not settle for Alecto Carrow types."

If he was going to live through this—and wanted to get married to someone—he'd be a fool to let go of the witch already stuck with him.

He picked up the quill, disgusted that he'd let himself even think that. "I'm escorting her to the Malfoy's Christmas party."

"Have fun," she said with a bit of a snort.

He was disappointed that she wasn't puffed up with indignation.

"I will be at Grimmuald Place, reading, with no one bothering me."

That does sound better.

"The Weasley—" He stopped.

"What?"

Now that he'd already opened his mouth, he had to finish. "The Weasley twins will be there."

She gave him a mischievous smile. "They know not to bother me when I'm reading."