6th Year Part Six: Chapter 34

"There is no secret left in the fact that I am madly in love with you. My happiness glows on my face and my smile gives it away..."

~Sheila Johns

~.O.~

Harry looked into his best friend's eyes, asking, "How did you get that ring, Hermione?"

As she opened her mouth several times with absolutely no words escaping, for the first time ever she seemed at a loss for words as she glanced down to the hand holding on tightly to the side of the table that proudly held the ring, and then back up to his face. Anything she found within her mind to tell him, if she planned to tell him anything before quickly shifting into her animagus form and scampering out of the room, was interrupted by Severus. Ever the saving grace, Harry had apparently still held onto even a modicum of his anxiety of the man as he took a step back from the pensive upon the table beside Hermione, but yet his eyes still came to rest on her once more. The girl turned to Severus though, Harry following her gaze once more to the man who had emerged from his private quarters in his shirtsleeves and paused in his doorway with a brow raised at his love.

Haltingly turning back to Harry with only half her body facing him, Hermione avoided his eyes as she told him, "Hold on just a second, Harry. We'll explain in a minute, just let me speak to Severus."

We…?

Green eyes followed a small hand casually placed on the older man's hip as his hands occupied themselves buttoning up the shirt that had splayed open to reveal his pale but red scarred chest. The first time Harry had seen the scars upon the professor's body, as Hermione seemingly covered for her friend during their late night tryst into the prefect's bathroom with a golden egg, the young boy had been shocked. Never before having seen such mutilation as it before, it took him back to the days before he learned of his wizarding heritage, back to the days where he thought he himself might scar from his Uncle's belt upon his back so bad was the pain. These thoughts now lead to an all together different type of thinking, thoughts so much different from what he had briefly believed when watching the professor check Hermione's bag their first day back to Hogwarts.

How many times Hermione must have spoken for the other man to protect him against those who thought ill of him, had spoken for… Harry included… how she must have been so lost taking things at word value with no actions to back up that the man was more than a just a simple Death Eater with black ink staining his arm… how much faith she must have had in him himself… The- Boy- Who- Lived… that the Dark Lord was resurrected with nothing more than flimsy words before she herself was scarred because of his actions in proceeding to the Department of Mysteries… how could she have so much faith in people he would never know…

Suddenly he was so very confused about everything regarding his friend, and seeing as how he had been able to think about his limited facts throughout the summer with only a very short conversation that really only confirmed the existence of her relationship, it was not an out of the ordinary thing to be feeling at a time such as this. Watching as Hermione desperately looked up to the taller man who placed his hands on her shoulders while speaking quietly, Hermione glanced back to Harry with a frown between her brows that he no doubt mimicked before turning back to the dark man. How much did he really know of his lovingly loyal best friend who always had her heart on her sleeve, yet still held so many secrets?

Hermione stared up to Severus' quietly calm yet questioning face as she looped a finger through his trouser loops while his fingers were occupied on his shirt buttons, "Dumbledore gave Harry a memory tonight, Severus." The Headmaster having told the boy to reveal nothing of his lessons outside of his two friends, he was considerably out of the loop when it came to such matters of chain of information. Such as it was, to reveal information concerning the war or of any such importance to the small girl was to reveal it to the spy. She began twisting her ring around her finger that seemed smaller than usual in the cold of the dungeons, "Of a man named Ogden who went to the Gaunt house before Morfin and Marvolo were taken to Azkaban, after Morfin cursed Tom's father, and before Merope left home. The ring Tom gave me was on Marvolo's hand in the memory, Severus." She lifted her hand towards him as if he had not seen the piece of jewelry gracing her hand for the better part of a year now, her voice wavering slightly as she continued, "They have both seen it in the memory, and Harry is now asking where it came from. What am I supposed to tell him?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders gently, her hands going up to cover them as he kissed her forehead with a tenderness Harry had not seen even a smidgen of since Hermione had once faced a boggart in the halls of Grimmauld Place. "Calm yourself, girl." He spoke into her ear, his hands squeezing her bones slightly to allow a small amount of his magic to help her along, "I will take care of it."

Severus turned towards the boy who had been observing them with his head slightly cocked to the side, adjusting and righting his white sleeve that had become crumpled while brewing, yet not thinking once to cover his Dark Mark as he leaned against his desk to cross said muscular arms. Hermione hovered between the two of them, smiling wobbly at the boy who shot her a questioning look before turning back to the relaxed professor.

"I assume you are wondering how that ring came about to be on Hermione's finger when it clearly came from the Dark Lord's family line, Potter?" Severus drawled to the boy who almost unnoticeably twitched in surprise at the use of Hermione's first name coming from the man's mouth. Such a surreal thing when surrounded by professors who never once called their students by their first names save family members, or former students.

"Yes, Sir." He said politely, crossing his own arms across his chest, fingers digging into either side of his forearms.

The man's black head nodded, strands of steam greased hair falling from his ponytail as he began to speak, "Once the Dark Lord was felled during the First War, several high ranking Death Eaters took possession of his more valuable objects and artifacts he had spent the better part of his years collecting. Me being one of those few, I allowed myself to take possession of several, yet this ring," Severus unfurled his large hands and guided Hermione to him by her hand, his thumb stroking the heirloom, "The Dark Lord gifted to me himself for my unwavering loyalty to his person in allowing him to put myself into Dumbledore's sight, and act as a spy for them both. While he does pride himself on being the last Heir of Slytherin, he does not particularly place much value in family objects seeing as he had no family left to instill within that value while he resided within the muggle orphanage he was placed in after Merope died giving birth to him."

Hermione squeezed her love's hand, hating how she must lie in such a way to the boy who has never had a bad thought or word escape to her. Harry still looked confused, "But, Sir, I still don't understand why you gave it to Hermione."

The man still held Hermione's hand, and Harry was slowly becoming accustomed to the weirdness of it all, "The stone has many protections placed upon it to protect the wearer in time of need. Seeing as how she insists on maintaining her friendship with you despite the danger to her person, no matter the origins or how I came into possession of the ring, I thought it prudent to afford her as much protection as I could to her while I can not be by her side. As we all know the events of the Department of Mysteries, it seems as if I were correct in gifting it to her months ago."

Harry's head bowed in acquestance as a silence surrounded them, Hermione looking at Severus gratefully before kissing his cheek as Harry's eyes came to a rest on her once again. His heart tightening at the sight of small lips meeting a pale cheek before dark eyes met his once again.

"I would also think it prudent that you should keep the events that have happened within this room in the past few minutes, within this room. The Headmaster might not be as quick to allow Hermione to keep hold of such a precious object should he figure whose hand it resides on, knowing the origins of said object." Those eyes could cause the gods to weep in fear or reverence, "It is all for Hermione's protection of course, Albus has a habit of thinking more of the greater good than of the people seeking to enforce it with the help of something he would consider a dark artifact."

Severus' eyebrow raised, prompting Harry to say, "I love Hermione like a sister, Professor Snape. I promised to keep any secrets she has, especially ones that might cause her to come to harm simply because she was not wearing a perfectly good protection ring. I have no qualms about where it came from as long as it does protect her as much as it is able."

As Hermione then kissed Harry's cheek before wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, Severus met those damnable green eyes as he engulfs her in his own arms.

At least he is not all James Potter's child, some of Lily's childhood traits that had vanished within their teenage years seems to have passed onto him. Thank the Gods for that trusting nature.

~.O.~

Hermione simply could not abide by other men, teenage boys, speaking of her in such a way as Cormac McLaggen had been while talking to Ron as they looked up to her in the metal stands. The red head, who despite looking especially green in the face due to this first Quidditch tryout where he knew Harry would not be swayed by bias as to who made up his new players, he held an undertone of fury at the blonde's words to him. But alas, there was nothing to be done as tryouts had officially begun and they were told to line up by desired position. Nothing to be done by her friend anyway, but Hermione herself was outside the realm of being banished from practice and so she took the matter in her own hands. As she knew exactly how hard Ron had worked to make the team, and that she absolutely did not want to show up to Harry's games and practices with an over friendly boy trying to talk her up, it was for mostly selfish reasons that she confounded the dirty blonde haired boy into shifting in a way that would force him to miss a perfectly easy Bludger that then proceeded to fly through the other side of the hoop.

Another good thing that came out of the evening's events was that Harry, who had been quiet around her since she had been forced to leave her ring with Severus least Dumbledore happen to see it, finally broke his watchful silence around her to tease her about breaking Hogwarts rules. The boy having leant down to her height from where he sat beside her on the bench as she gathered her food, he whispered in her ear, "I'm surprised to see the Gryffindor Princess blatantly flouting the rules by confounding fellow students trying out for sports teams. What would your boyfriend think? Would he be proud of you?"

She looked up to him slightly shocked, never having thought this would be the first full sentence that would come from his mouth after simply following her with his silent eyes for days. A giggle bubbled up in her throat suddenly, her eyes crinkling while those around her look to the two friends who had obviously been going through a rough patch. Shoving him on the bench right into Ginny on his other side, she looked around his shoulder as he hugged her lowly around her waist while reaching over to take a bite from the last treacle tart she had deliberately placed upon her plate to entice him into talking to her.

"Sorry, Ginny." Hermione told the other girl who smiled slightly wobbly while looking between her and the boy in the middle of them, prompting the curly haired girl to cock her head to the side in question while still feeling her cheeks warmed. Ron's sister shook her head before turning to continue a conversation with another girl from her year before Hermione shrugged and looked back to her plate only to see that Harry had sneakily stolen her tart and transferred it to his plate.

"Hey!" Hermione told the bashful boy before poking his fork with her own to take the only bite she would get of the filling before Ron spoke up.

The other boy still riding his high as he stuffed his mouth full, looked suspiciously at the two of them, "What are you two always laughing at?"

They both exchanged a glance before chiming together, "Nothing!" Then Hermione looked away from everyone around her as she leaned against Harry's arm once again that was still bracketing her back, her eyes straying to Severus. Watching as her love cut his meal into neat little edible squares just as she had a tendency to do before ever proceeding to eat, she smiled slightly before glancing towards the Headmaster's empty gold gilded chair. Lingering on it for a moment before putting his absence out of her mind, her and Harry's shared dessert was interrupted by Slughorn inviting them to his Christmas party to which he ignored Ron. The red head who then proceeded to give them both the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.

…

It was only after Dumbledore's return and Harry's next meeting with him that Hermione began paying special attention to the Headmaster, going over the few memories she had been shown by Harry thus far over and over again within her mind. She had to admit, she had no idea as to what exactly the man was attempting to achieve by giving Harry these moments of Tom's life, other than to show how alike yet dissimilar the two black haired orphans were. Her brother's stolen childhood toys meant nothing to her or Harry for that matter, granted, that simple memory of him telling his future transfiguration professor he could hurt those who wished ill will upon his small person did show a slight sociopathic tendency towards hurting others. Or a child's way of dealing with bigger bullies than him and dealt with it in the only way he found was effective, yet it was those few words along with the knowledge that the boy spoke parseltongue that gave Dumbledore the seedlings of distrust for the young Dark Lord. Hermione may yet be biased after all, Harry had not told her his thoughts on the matter, nor did she share her's least someone see through her reasonings which she thought were perfectly logical.

When it came time for the professor to reveal to Harry his goal of obtaining a precious untampered with memory from Horace Slughorn that did not cut out the words of a teenage Tom's request for information, Hermione knew it was time to speak to Tom of the events even more urgently. Although, it would have to come from her and not through Severus as they had been passing information for the majority of their school year days.

…

The first Quidditch match of the year was a success for Gryffindor House, although it was also a success for Ron's steadily boiling temper to come to a head and land him in an immovable position it seemed. Seemingly beginning with his exclusion from the Slug Club, he began falling into bouts of glaring and glum melancholy grumpiness when Harry and Hermione would return from their alone time together that they seemed to have every few days. The red head would make it his mission from their return to the start of the next day to stay within his bubble of either sullen silence or snarky comments. Their friends and sister would each exchange glances before excluding him steadily from their conversations until he came back down from his high horse and got his head out of whatever funk he had stuck it in. But as Ginny and Dean were caught kissing by her brother and Harry after the boys shared Quidditch practice, his first show of monumental anger was turned to Harry who had the surprising gall to stick up for Ginny saying she could do whatever she pleased. She was a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders.

Harry had come into the common room, green tinged while Ron stomped up the stairs, and sat on the couch behind Hermione who had been sitting on the floor with papers surrounding her. Ron had taken a left turn in his anger Harry told her, to her utter confusion, "He asked me if I was the one you have been snogging, apparently he seemed to have fallen back into a denial about what Fred and George's purity marble actually meant, and the fact that we have told him multiple times we are just friends. His asking if Malfoy was the one you have been sleeping with and Luna's answer must have set him back."

Hermione had laughed so hard that she scattered her papers all around her, glad that there were not many people around in the Common Room at this time of day while she poked Harry in the ribs from where her forehead rested beside his knees.

Once the match had been won, simply by Harry tricking Ron into thinking he had allowed some of his and Hermione's shared luck potion into his morning pumpkin juice, the red head had decided to prove his sister's taunting of his kissing skills wrong. Taking up Lavender Brown, the girl who had been imitating Harry's own previous actions with Cho Chang before their disaster of a first date, he proceeded to snog the girl right smack dab in the middle of the Common Room to the rest of the Gryffindor's jeering. Hermione had shook her head as she began to get a headache from all the noise, so she scooped up Crookshanks who had been following hopefully behind Ginny while looking up at her fluffy pink pygmy puff. Stealing quietly out of the portrait for some peace and quiet within the dungeons despite the fact Severus had left to meet her brother and wouldn't be back until late, she lead along Crookshanks with little yellow birds he jumped and pounced on to leave a trail of the fluffy little down feathers behind them, fading into nothingness as the spell ended.

~.O.~

Slughorn's party was the most normal thing Harry and Hermione had done in a long time where they both agreed they would have fun, with no speaking of what was going on outside of the castle or the worries that were intent on plaguing them all hours of the day and night.

"Hermione," Harry choked out as she held him down to her height by his black tie, "I can't breathe very well with you doing that."

Hermione smiled sweetly up at him, not at all making a move to release him just yet, "Be nice to Draco, my love. If you can not bring yourself to do that, at least do your best to be cordial. No one is asking you to speak all night with him, or even at all, but you will not ruin our night by glaring at him when you think I can not see."

Harry looked as guilty as could be, becoming flushed in the cheeks once the obstruction to his breathing was removed while he nodded his consent. Here he had thought he was being stealthy in keeping tabs on the blonde whenever he could, but as usual, no one could get much past the girl who was smoothing out the wrinkles she had caused on his dress robes. As he heard voices coming from down the hall, his miniscule guilt became nervousness as his as well as Hermione's dates rounded the corner together. Luna's silvery dress picking up any and all light around them, she shined just as much as Hermione who wore a vastly different dress of pale red bordering on a burnt orange that contrasted nicely with her loose and wild caramel curls she had let out to flow past her shoulders. Both girls were just as beautiful as each other though, Harry could not deny that as he took in Luna's bright smiling eyes.

"I much better like Luna more than Cho or Ginny, just so you know." Hermione whispered as she took his arm briefly while they watched the couple smile towards them, taking the last few steps to close the distance between them.

Harry smiled back to the other two slightly lopsided, exchanging a brisk nod to the boy who kissed Hermione's hand in greeting which would be the extent of their interaction for the night, all the while thinking back on how exactly they had come to their date choices. Hermione had once told him just after Slughorn mentioned the party that she had entertained asking Ron to be her plus one for the occasion, but those plans had obviously been thrown to the wind as he began acting like an absolute prat. Dating Lavender had done nothing to negate his ego or his temper towards his two other friends, nor either of the curly haired girls towards each other as Hermione's roommate constantly froze her out in typical jealous girl fashion who thought another had eyes on her man. So, Hermione had consented much more happily to the Malfoy Heir now standing in front of them.

The other boy had been iffy about not being invited into the Slug Club in the first place, even as Harry in truth thought the Potions Professor had the right idea even if he dared not voice these thoughts to Hermione. According to her, he had every right to be at the very least invited to the events seeing as how he was second in their class, only below Hermione, but apparently the professor only collected those who had an impeccable background. Those who either had absolute no association to the Dark Lord, nor suspected yet not confirmed associations to those of the dark magics were to be added to his repertoire of contacts.

"He simply does not want any hint of scandal to his name again," he remembered her telling him with a snarled lip as she harsly dug her quill into her Ancient Runes translations, "If the memory Dumbledore wants you to find from him says of anything, Slughorn seems to have had his fill of fledgling Dark Wizards after Tom. He wouldn't want to be labeled as one himself now would he? After all it might rub off on him from a sixteen year old boy. As if he has had no association with any others at all in all the other years he had taught here at Hogwarts." She murmured, the tip of her writing utensil braking off to her surprise.

Harry hid his smile in his hand, knowing that she was truly angry about the situation and would not find it as amusing to witness as he did. He never once thought to note the girl's familiar use of the Dark Lord's birth name as he corrected her, "Professor Slughorn, Hermione."

She had glared at his inability to keep complete control of himself, digging furiously in her bag while spitting, "To hell with Professor Slughorn, the absolute purest supporter of the light who has simply done no wrong in his entire lifetime, his only goal to teach the young minds of witches and wizards of Hogwarts and use them for his own personal gain." She had continued mumbling under her breath even as Harry's chuckles escaped, not even deigning to give him a responding look.

As to his own date in the form of Luna who his cheeks insisted on blushing slightly at as they entered the golden themed chambers of their host, Hermione had a hand in that as with everything else in his life. He couldn't say he wasn't grateful, because as he told the girl, the red head was still in her relationship with Dean and even if they were attracted to each other he couldn't wait around forever to decide they were the only ones for each other. Nevertheless, Luna was just as physically pretty as the other girl with a side of quirkiness added to her personality in place of a love for Quidditch.

The night passed by relatively tame with both couples meeting up with Neville and his own pretty blonde Hufflepuff date in the form of Hannah Abbott, although the one bump in the evening surrounded the damned mistletoe the professor had hung around in various places in the room. Hermione had separated herself from her small group who had been rangled into speaking to various people Slughorn dragged Harry to in order to find Severus who she knew was lurking around somewhere. The crowded room being made of so many people imbibing freely flowing alcohol even to the underaged students, the various and at times overwhelming smell began giving Hermione a headache in not being able to find her dark man as she was bumped into the same mistletoe she had been skirting. Her efforts all for naught, Cormac McLaggen just smiled roguishly at her from just outside the circle of enchantment the plant put upon the witches and wizards of the room before deliberately taking a step towards her frozen body, just as Severus appeared out of the nowhere himself inches from her. Right inside the very circle Cormac himself was on the brink of stepping into.

"Miss. Granger," he drawled to her as if he had not smelled the faint whiff of mistletoe hovering above her himself despite his own nostrils not being able to pick up much in the sweaty room just as she.

She sighed in relief, "Professor Snape," came through her wide smile up to his dark eyes, noting that Cormac abruptly turned from them to push through a dancing couple with a slightly disgusted yet rumpled expression. Mindful of those who might have their eyes on the couple under the enchanted flowers seeming to multiply the longer the couple stood beneath it, Hermione was careful to kiss Severus' offered cheek as he bent down towards her height even if she could not help but make the chaste kiss slightly closer to the professor's lips than anyone would think appropriate. His own kiss to her cheek was the same while his hand squeezed the side of her waist hidden from the room, even though anyone looking towards them would see his arm just in that position and Hermione's own braced on his bicep.

Their small interaction was interrupted by their host coming up to them, drunkenly clapping a hand on Hermione's bare back to which she sneered slightly at and arched towards Severus's steadying hand unconsciously. The Potion Professor winked at the taller man who simply stared blankly at him, "Loosen up, Severus! It's a party, have some fun." The man pushed a full glass of red wine into his pale hand before walking back off to drag Harry, who had been watching her and Severus actions all the while, along with a wide eyed Neville beside him, off into the crowd once more.

Hermione waved to Neville once, knowing she would now have to talk to yet another person who has seen her and Severus' increasingly public affections, as if they simply could not keep them contained any longer. Severus placed his glass down on the table behind them after staring longingly at it, to which Hermione giggled and gave him her own she had only take a few sips of so far. Watching as he gulped it down readily, she chuckled one more time before telling him, "I should get back to the others, it seems now Neville is aware of our relationship. Or will be in just a few minutes."

The boy in question had taken the new information just as Hermione thought he would, with well wishing acceptance, a hug, and a promise to keep her secrets such was his personality and how loyal a friend he was. He had definitely told her enough of his secrets she had kept to herself. It was then very easy to see how he had been attracted to his Hufflepuff date given how sweet he was to his friends, those traits only furthering his ability to gain the Gryffindor courage worthy of their house.

The sense of calmness of that night continued through the rest of the break, although Ron once again became absolutely insufferable once he learnt she had taken Draco as her date as apparently his shared dislike of the Slytherin was to not be as contained as Harry's was. His temper simply rolled off Hermione and Harry's back as they were so used to it occuring at this point even as Lavender's looks of back off Won- Won is mine and mine alone, not yours did rankle the girl's curls a bit.