I surrender who I've been for who you are
For nothing makes me stronger than your fragile heart
If I had only felt how it feels to be yours
Well I would have known
What I've been living for all along
What I've been living for
Turning Page - Sleeping At Last
Lucius stared at Severus with an unreadable expression on his face and a half-finished drink in his hand, his stare blank save for the expected Malfoy judgmental airs. Severus, who had long since built up a tolerance to his comrade and friend, sat back with his own drink and settled in. His silence would be bait enough to make the eldest Malfoy break first.
"I'm surprised you came alone," Lucius said after several unnecessarily lengthy moments of silence. "Where's your child bride, old sport?"
Severus ignored Lucius' half-hearted attempt at baiting him and kept his voice bland. "At least get your facts straight, Lucius. She's eighteen."
"And not here with you," Lucius pressed.
A dark brow twitched up of its own accord. "She isn't? Odd, I hadn't noticed."
Lucius's heavy sigh made Severus smirk.
"I wouldn't have expected you to let her out of your sight quite so soon," he said. "Draco mentioned Harry being particularly stressed while she was unconscious, and he only just recently told me she'd awoken."
"Gossiping old codger," Severus muttered.
Lucius raised his glass before he downed it. "Just looking out for a friend."
"She's taking her N.E.W.T.s," said Severus. "Her class schedule would have continued to put constant strain on the bond no matter how we tried to combat it. Poppy is concerned that our…current progress could simply be our bond overcompensation for the stress it was previously under." He paused to take a sip from his drink. "I'd rather not test her theory by taking an unnecessary risk with Hermione's life. We cut it close enough."
Lucius seemed to mull over his words for a moment. "Is it truly gone?" he asked quietly. "Draco said that the mark was…blocking your bond?"
"She's muggleborn," Severus reminded him, his voice dropping as he briefly relived that gut-wrenching realization. It would have been morbidly fitting if he'd lost another muggleborn witch as a result of the same juvenile mistake. "She could sense my presence, or rather the lack of my presence, but I could scarcely do the same. Her magic interpreted the lack of interaction with mine as—"
"Rejection," Lucius whispered, his already pale face having lost what little color it possessed. "Mother of Circe, Severus. She was dying."
"We both were," he said darkly. "The moment I noticed her in my classroom, she was an irritation, an aggravation. A nagging itch in the back of my mind that I couldn't place, didn't understand, wanted to ignore, and couldn't because she wouldn't stop raising her damn hand." He rubbed the space between his eyes with his free hand. "How much different our lives would have been if I'd recognized her for who she was that day."
"There's no point in dwelling on the past," said Lucius. "It's out of reach."
"It is," Severus agreed, "But that doesn't it make it negatable."
Lucius raised a brow. "You have a plan of some sort. Care to share?"
A faraway, gentle tug in the back of his mind made Severus put down the rest of his firewhiskey and stand, to his host's surprise. He shot Lucius a smirk.
"I would," he said. "But my new apprentice seems to have finished her last exam in record time."
"That's quite the range you two have," Lucius remarked, surprise lacing his tone. "Cissa gets faint if we're on opposite ends of Diagon Alley. Where's your witch taking her exams? The ministry?"
"Where else?" Severus drawled, feeling no small amount of pride for the strength they shared.
"Merlin's nightcap," Lucius said. "That's nearly a hundred miles."
Severus smirked and showed himself towards Malfoy Manor's entrance hall to disparate.
"The boys are coming for Christmas!" Lucius called after him. "I'll make them drag you here if I have to!"
"I'd like to see them try," Severus muttered under his breath. Neither of them was brave enough to purposefully cross him or Hermione.
Making a mental note to take her shopping for proper apprentice's robes, Severus apparated back to London to collect his witch.
I feel we're close enough
I wanna lock in your love
I think we're close enough
Could I lock in your love, baby?
Now I've got you in my space
I won't let go of you (never)
Got you shackled in my embrace
I'm latching on to you (never)
Latch (Feat. Sam Smith) - Disclosure
A/N: I'm not dead, I wasn't lying about Part II, and this will not have the regular posting schedule Part 1 had. For one, there's only 5 chapters in Part II, and my life is way to hectic for a regular posting schedule. But Part II exists! And I figured I may as well start posting it as a secondary honoring of Disillusionist9's birthday, since this fic was for her originally anyway.
I missed you guys, for what it's worth. xoxo