Hello everyone,

I decided to upload chapter 10 already!

I am currently on a small holiday in the countryside and I spend quite a lot driving around and hiking up and down mountains, so I haven't been writing in the past two days! Luckily, I am a good few chapters ahead. You are so SO so good to me with your reviews, I can't stop myself from uploading the next chapter already.

(I hope I'll catch up again, so there won't be a break in my updating schedule!)

Chapter 10 is one of my favourite chapters so far. Things are definitely getting… tighter… in this one, and I had a lot of fun writing it! Let me know what you think!

XXX

P.S.: Yes, I used to be a BBC Proms hardcore regular when I lived in London. Read on and you'll understand what I mean :P

Song Recommendation

I'M GONNA BE - LUCY SPRAGGAN

Severus opened the door into the work room.

"You should have knocked", Clemency hissed.

He looked around the room and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You are not working."

"I was until just now. I finished the first stage of the wolfsbane. You could have ruined it."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It shouldn't have taken you any longer anyway", he said coolly.

In reality he was quite impressed. Clemency was a quick learner, naturally talented with potions and she had absorbed a remarkable amount of information over the last four years. He didn't doubt one moment that her wolfsbane potion would be less than acceptable. Maybe not excellent, but if she did it a few more times that could be achieved too.

He walked over to her work bench and put down a basket full of dittany.

"Make three batches of pepper-up potion, two batches of bitterroot balm and one batch of an antidote against common poisons."

"I told you, I am working on the wolfsbane", Clemency snapped. The two of them really did not get along very well.

"And you ought to be capable of brewing multiple potions simultaneously, if you want to get that mastery."

He pulled a box of bezoars off the shelf and slammed it onto the table in front of her.

"I believe you can find the rest of the ingredients yourself."

Severus wanted her to work independently. If she could go galivanting off to England, then she could also stock up the pharmacy.

He didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was jealous. Clemency had spent the last week in England and now she made sure that everyone who wanted to hear about it, and everyone who didn't, would get the full account of her little adventure. He felt like he had heard her story one hundred times.

Clemency had spent three days with the Granger's in London learning about muggle dentistry. She had stayed in Hermione's flat and she had visited Diagon Alley and muggle London. Then she had been invited to Hogwarts, she had dined in the Great Hall, she had sat in Hermione's classes and she had watched a potions class under Penny Haywood. She had met Hermione's friends in Hogsmead, and they had celebrated Hermione's twenty-ninth birthday. She had had butterbeer for the first time in the Three Broomsticks and she had played a game of Quidditch with Saint Potter, his wife Ginerva, who had apparently been a chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, and a whole bunch of other people who were all annoyingly familiar to Severus.

He hated it. Every single time Clemency started talking about it, he just wanted to strangle her thin little throat. She even had the audacity to suggest he take up correspondence with Professor Penny Haywood, as if he had not been teaching the very same for seven years.

Clemency's affiliation with people in England also made things much more complicated for Severus. How long would it take until they started talking about their potion teachers? Once that happened, they'd immediately work out that Severus was Septimus and Septimus was Severus and whatever.

He threw one last emotionless glance at Clemency and left the work room to go upstairs. He made himself some coffee but decided he'd have a drink instead. He liked cognac and he was in the mood for a strong drink.

Sitting on his balcony he was thinking about home. He had always known that he wasn't at home here in France, but it wasn't until Hermione came that he had become so aware of it. She portrayed home for him, and combined with her sober and steady nature, he experienced a feeling of belonging.

As much as he liked spending time with her here in France, he imagined what it would be like in England. They could have coffee at his favourite café in Covent Garden, they could go to Flourish and Blotts and Scribbulus and they could have a good home cooked meal in The Leaky Cauldron whilst they discussed the latest articles published in the Potent Potions or Things to know about Charms magazines. He could visit her at Hogwarts, they could get hot Butterbeer in the Three Brooksticks and walk around the lake in the white snow in December.

He could probably be giving guest lessons in potions or teach fulltime again, they could have dinner in the Great Hall, and he would not care a single bit about everyone's suspicious and hateful glances because he'd be with her.

For Merlin's sake, pull yourself together, old man. You are pathetic.

Severus snorted into his cognac. He was pathetic. He was training up Clemency to take over his position, so he could move back to England, a country where nobody knew that he was still alive, and if they found out, where they'd probably lock him up in Azkaban.

He better didn't let himself get carried away with these thoughts. It was ridiculous and unhealthy.

He got up and wanted to go inside when he saw George flying towards him from afar.

"Good evening, old chap. How are you?", he murmured and patted the bird on his head. "Let's hope you will keep on coming here with letters for me."

I have made progress on my Arithmancy equations. Are you free next weekend?

Hermione

He tried to be not too excited when he wrote her back.

I shall meet you at your parent's house.

S.

He liked the Granger's place, he knew she was comfortable there, and he thought it was a good way of showing her the wards he had put in place at the end of June. His mood had improved considerably, and he decided to go back downstairs and check on Clemency. He even brought her a cup of coffee with cream and sugar, the way she liked it.

On Saturday morning he received a letter from Hermione, telling him that she had arrived in Grasse. He collected all his research papers and the small present he had gotten her for her birthday. It was a belated present, but he had found it on his last trip to Paris and had thought of her. Just before he left, he found himself walking into the bathroom to check his appearance in the mirror. It was stupid, he knew it, but he decided to get changed. He took off the black frock and chose his green shirt and black cotton trousers. After quick consideration he brushed his hair and tied it up new.

You are such a wishful wimp.

He grunted and left to apparate into the Granger's garden.

Hermione was nowhere to be seen, so he made his way to the house. When he reached the patio, she opened the kitchen door, clearly lost in thought or rather, lost in her bottomless handbag. She also held a number of cotton bags and when she noticed him a broad smile appeared on her face.

"Severus!"

Before he could do anything, he found himself in a tight embrace. It was probably the shock that made him go as stiff as a statue immediately.

"I'm sorry", Hermione muttered and pulled back quickly, going bright red.

"I am glad to see you survived another intercontinental apparition without splinching", he said coolly.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I've never had a problem with far distance apparition. The furthest I've done once is London to Athens."

He raised his eyebrow in surprise. "I have to admit that is rather impressive."

"Well, as handy as apparition is, I hope you don't mind that we are going to walk down to Grasse now." She went past him and headed up the stairs next to the house.

"Are we?", he asked rhetorically.

"If you don't want to starve, yes. If you're not hungry you can wait here until I am back."

He snorted and followed her up the steps. They walked onto the street and Severus could literally feel the magical force behind him as Hermione pulled up wards with a quick move of her hand.

"One might think there is a third wizarding war going on, with the kind of security spells you are using."

"Constant vigilance", Hermione cited, and Severus threw her a warning glance. She didn't say any more.

"How was your first month of teaching?", he asked after a while.

"It is just wonderful!", Hermione exclaimed and then she started talking without pause.

She seemed like an eleven-year old that had just arrived at Hogwarts, being completely overwhelmed by magic and the wizarding world.

She told him about how wonderful her classroom was, that she was allowed to decorate it the way she wanted. He obviously knew this, having been a teacher at Hogwarts himself, but he still liked listening to her. She also told him about how the students struggled with nonverbal spells, but that their standards were overall very good.

"Technically, I have to invite an external expert at least twice a month for practical sessions. It's supposed to show the students how the things they learn in school are applied in the real world, if you might call it that. I just don't really know whom to invite", she explained to him. "I've asked Harry to come in November and December, but I can't always just ask him."

"Why don't to write to Bibblibus. Memory Charms can be considered dark magic in the broader sense", he recommended.

Hermione thought about it for a moment. "That is actually not a bad idea. Do you have his details?"

"I shall get them and send them to you."

She then told him about some of the new staff members. A young man named Roosh was the new flying instructor. He had come from America, where he had been Chaser at the Vermont Quidditch Team. There also was a squib teaching Muggle studies now, and she seemingly quite liked him, which made him rather jealous.

"I spend quite a lot of time at Hagrid's with Luna, Neville and Penny. Ron sometimes comes too, to pick up Penny. It is lovely."

There was also a lady teaching all the classics, which were the electives from third year; ancient runes, alchemy and, to his surprise, Latin. Severus thought it was a useful thing to teach, as all the spells were Latinised.

He didn't say much. He was happy to hear that she enjoyed it so much and for a moment he wondered, if she'd spend time with him if he were there.

Probably not, she's basically got all her childhood friends there. You'd be a burden.

Still, he could not help but wonder.

"Is something the matter?", she asked him, and he wanted to slap himself for losing focus.

"No."

She had a dangerously insightful look in her eyes, as they rested on him.

"I am sorry", she said quietly.

He just ignored her, and they walked in silence for a while.

"Clemency said you're heaping work on her like mad." Severus noticed a sly grin on Hermione's face. "Have mercy."

"Never", he replied coolly, but Hermione laughed anyway.

"About that…" Severus didn't know how he should bring up the topic. "Has Clemency been talking to your friends a lot?", he asked carefully.

Hermione gave him a soft look and he knew immediately that she understood what he was trying to say. Talking to her was so easy, she seemed to get him even when he himself had trouble understanding.

"I have made sure neither Septimus nor Severus were coming up in conversation. It only took me four and a half hours to work out a charm." She smiled proudly.

He raised an eyebrow in question.

"It is based on the muggle repellent charm, but it basically distracts the thoughts of people in the room as soon as they wander into your direction. It can be applied to any person, not just you. It has been a bit tricky because you basically count as two people and I personally don't know you as Septimus, but I think it worked. Even if it didn't, thoughts about Professor Severus Snape are diverted, so that should cover it."

He looked at her in astonishment but composed his facial expression very quickly. "Know-it-all."

"Grinch."

He gave her a condescending look, but she just laughed at him.

"That will not work for me anymore", she pointed at his face. "It only proves my point."

They arrived in Grasse and got enough food to feed an army at the market. Severus had never been to a muggle market like this and it was a rather nice experience. He knew his way around the muggle world obviously, but he had never thought of going to a market. It reminded him a bit of potion ingredient shopping. He watched Hermione as she checked the vegetables and fruits, and how she tasted some cheese. He took the bag with the baguette of her and as she wandered through the stalls, he managed to take the other bag of her too.

"I think we should get some wine", she said when they walked down the main street in Grasse. "There is a good shop my parents go to. Red or white?"

"White."

Hermione looked at him surprised. "Really?"

"With this kind of food, yes. Red is too heavy", he explained.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I am still going to have red."

Severus insisted on buying the wine, as Hermione had bought all the food. One stern look was enough to shut her up, and he was pleased that, even though her earlier comment suggest otherwise, his glance still had the desired effect.

As they walked back home, Hermione complained and wanted to apparate back, but Severus got her started on the idea of a Charms fieldtrip with her students and she forgot about how steep the hill was. He carried the bags and she the two wine bottles, and he couldn't remember when he had felt this happy the last time.

Yes, you can. When she was sat next to you on your balcony in June.

When they were back home, they put the shopping in the kitchen and spread their work across the table on the patio. Hermione showed him the charts she had been working on.

"Look, I managed to visualise these equations. One of them shows the probability line of a potions combined with the curse breaking elements of the Homorphus charm." She made a number of fairly complicated movements with her wand and the graph visualised in front of them.

"If a add this equation", she flicked her wand and the graph changed slightly and fizzled out at the end, "you can see the probability line changes. This equation represents the Homorphus charm as a transfiguration charm. We don't really want that."

She flicked her wand again and the graph returned to its previous state.

"Now, if I add this equation", more complicated wand movements followed and a second graph appeared, "You can see the constant graph for the transfiguration magic of the moon. I just haven't worked out yet how to combine the two graphs."

She looked through some of her papers.

"Can you separate the graph that represents the potion and the homorphus?", Severus asked. He didn't know much about Arithmancy, but he could think logically.

Hermione looked at him questioningly.

"You could have one graph for the potion and one for the charm and see if you can combine the moon graph with either of them", he proposed.

Hermione thought for a moment and slowly nodded. Her stared into space for a moment, then she started furiously writing down new calculations.

They worked like that for a few hours and managed to combine the potion and the charm with the moon separately, but not together.

"There has to be either a mistake in my calculations, or a logical mistake in my thinking process. Probably the latter", Hermione wailed. She put her head on the table. "My brain…", she grumbled frustratedly.

"Food?", Severus asked her.

"Alcohol."

He got up and walked into the house to hide a small smile that had crept onto his face. A while later he came back with empty hands.

"I don't know what you wanted to make from the vegetables", he confessed.

Hermione laughed and got up to join him.

"I just cut them all up, put them in the pan and cook them until they're soft. Then add some cream and herbs, et voila, you have a healthy thing to eat with all this white bread and fatty cheese."

She got knife and cutting board out and started preparing the vegetables.

"How muggle of you", Severus sneered. "I thought I'd be harassed with some more boastful wand waving. Quick, I might forget you've got a mastery in Charms."

She looked at him expressionlessly and he thought for a moment he had been to harsh.

"Pour me some wine, potion master", she said cockily.

It demanded his full willpower to stop himself from breaking out into laughter. He did as he was told.

"Hermione?"

He said her name reluctantly, but the question was burning on his mind.

"Hm?"

"Why have you not chosen a magical career earlier?"

There was a deadly silence between them, and he wondered for moment, if he shouldn't have asked her.

"I didn't want to do magic anymore", she said quietly after a while, chopping some vegetables.

He nodded slowly, understanding what she said.

"I have never given up magic", she explained. "But I couldn't imagine my life in a world, a place that… held certain memories."

"I understand."

She didn't look at him, but he could feel the thoughtfulness that radiated around her. He did understand what she meant, but he also didn't understand it at all. He couldn't imagine what talent the magical world has been lacking for a decade, just because of that bloody war. There was a lot about the past that he hated, but the fact that it stopped a brilliant young witch from living her life to her fullest potential… It made him angry beyond measure. Why care about himself any longer? He had been a wreck for the most part of his life, but she had been bright, brilliant and unspoilt, and the war had taken it away from her.

When they sat down outside to eat Severus pulled out a little packet of his pocket and put it on the table in front of her.

"Clemency mentioned it was your birthday a couple of weeks ago."

She looked at him with these lovely brown eyes. He could have looked at them for days on end and not grew tired.

"Thank you", she said, a loving and surprised tone in her voice.

He tapped the packet once with his wand and it turned into original size. It was a dark green notebook, embellished with tiny golden leaves all over it.

"You can write down your students names in those columns", he pointed onto the page, "and the grades you've given them here. It automatically calculates the overall grade for the student and shows you it over here."

"That is so useful!", she said and looked at the booklet amazed. "Why did I not think of something like that?"

"It will also calculate each class's average grade and display how well they did on each assignment. You can enter a percentage here…", he pointed at a little square on the top of a page, "… that is the lowest percentage you think the class should reach overall. If an assignment is under the given percentage, the notebook will create a notification that the topic has to be revised."

Hermione was absolutely in love with the present.

"That is honestly, the most thoughtful and useful present I have gotten in a long time."

She closed the booklet and looked at him with her fawn like eyes and he could feel a warmth growing in the centre of his chest.

"Thank you so much, Severus", she said sincerely.

He just focused on his plate again.

They ate and drank wine all evening, talking about all kinds of things and the night grew dark around them. Apparently, Hermione really liked going to museums and Severus told her about some of his likes.

"Have you ever been to the BBC Proms?", he asked her.

"I am not a hardcore regular", she laughed, "but I'd go to the odd one that piques my interest. Have you been?"

"I used to be a hardcore regular", he confessed. "Season ticket."

Hermione smiled at him, but he couldn't define the look on her face. He felt the alcohol in his body, and all he knew at the moment was, that he was quite content. Hermione's cheeks were flushed from the wine as well, and her eyes sparkled. She clearly wasn't a regular drinker. She had only had two glasses.

"I will go swimming now", she suddenly exclaimed.

"Wha-…?"

She got up and walked into the darkness of the garden. He could barely see her anymore, but he could tell that she was pulling her dress over her head and a second later he heard the noise of her gliding into the water of the small swimming pool.

To his utter embarrassment he felt his trousers getting slightly tighter in a place where they most certainly should not get tighter. He got up and walked into the kitchen, panicking when he noticed the bulge between his legs.

You creep. She'll be disgusted and it'll have been the last time you'll have seen her. She'll laugh at you.

He poured himself some lemonade and thought about Hermione looking nauseated at his sight, mocking him. It worked.

He heard her open the kitchen door a while later.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have left you alone", she slurred a bit.

He looked at her. She was in her dress again, but her hair was still wet. She looked lovely, and it sent hot blood into his groin.

Mental note: do not drink in her presence again.

"Let's go back outside", he said and tilted his head to indicate she'd go first.

Hermione went to lie down on a lounger and with a flick of her wand she transformed it into a u-shape.

"Sit down with me", she said, pointing at the seat opposite her, and he did. He kept his distance, knowing full well that he hadn't been thinking the most appropriate things tonight.

She was stretching out on one side of the lounger and turned towards him. He did his best to look as passive as possible.

"Can I ask you something?", she said.

"When has anything ever stopped you from asking a question?", he replied coolly.

"You don't need to reply."

Hermione watched him, but he couldn't make out her face in the dim light that came from the kitchen.

"How did you survive?"

It was a timid question, but he was surprised that she hadn't asked him earlier. She probably knew that he would have snapped at her at best and cursed her at worst. It took him a while to answer her.

"I don't know", he said distantly. He had done his best to forget that night, and luckily no one had ever cared, until now.

"Tell me about it", Hermione said, and he could hear her making herself comfortable.

He looked at her in the dark. She was lying on one side, an arm tucked under her head and her face directed towards him.

"I don't remember much", he replied quietly.

"Do you remember us?", she asked him quietly and he knew what she meant.

"Yes, I remember you, Harry and Ron." He leaned back on the lounger and looked into the sky.

"It is a rather hazy memory, most likely due to the blood loss I suffered."

He waited a bit before he continued. "I woke up in my house a couple of days later. These are all very foggy memories. I wasn't in a particularly healthy state. There was a house elf, it might have been the little one from the Hogwarts kitchens, Dobby."

"Dobby died a couple of months earlier", Hermione mentioned sadly.

"Poor creature, I liked him. Very loyal", Severus said genuinely.

"Yes, he rescued us from Malfoy Manor", Hermione said.

Severus nodded in understanding.

"So, Bellatrix did get him after all."

Hermione murmured silently and Severus continued.

"Whoever the house elf was, it gave me a huge amount of blood replenisher. I had taken snake venom in small bits for months in advance, to build up immunity, but the blood loss would have killed me either way."

"You took snake venom? That must have been excruciating."

"The only thing more effective than an antidote is immunity."

He was silent for a while and Hermione asked him: "How did you end up in Arraxy?"

"I was in my house for a few days I believe, I wasn't always awake. I am not entirely sure how many days passed, but at some point, I was aware enough to remember what had happened and that it had been rather unfortunate that I hadn't died."

"Don't say that", Hermione said, and she sounded hurt.

"It is true", he insisted. "At that point, I would have been locked up in Azkaban and probably given to the Dementors. Death is more merciful than a Dementor."

"You wouldn't have been locked up", Hermione said. "Your efforts have been recognised and you have been cleared of all charges post-mortem."

He looked surprised and it ignited a little spark somewhere in his chest. But he also quickly realised that it was wishful thinking on his part.

"That is because I had already been dead to them. Had I been alive, it might have not been that way", he said coolly. "Either way, there were still living followers of the Dark Lord. Once they would have learned I was still alive, they'd have come for me."

He paused and noticed how Hermione's mood sank a bit. He didn't see her face, but he could feel it.

"I hadn't been to Arraxy before and the house elf took me to St Nancy's. I've not seen the creature since. I told them I had been attacked by a snake and they looked after me. I noticed after a few weeks, that the blood replenisher the house elf had given me was in fact from St Nancy's. I've asked Guillaume, but they don't employ house elves at the hospital."

Hermione looked thoughtful.

"I wonder if it was a Hogwarts house elf", she said.

"Most likely."

"I can find out if you like."

He didn't say anything in return. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"It is probably not worth the effort. I couldn't even go back home and thank them for it."

He sounded more hurt than he wanted to, but he couldn't do much about it. He was sad, he missed his home and he felt so comfortable and relaxed around Hermione that he didn't have the usual control over his voice.

"Oh, Sev. I am so sorry", Hermione suddenly said and sat up a but straighter. She was sleepy and tried to keep herself awake. He liked the sound of his name on her tiredly moving lips.

"Don't be, it's not your fault", he said.

"Yes, it is. I keep on telling you about how wonderful everything at Hogwarts is, not thinking a single bit about how much you must miss it. It's been your home just as much or even more than it's been mine. I am so sorry."

He shook his head.

"Don't be silly. You're being very Gryffindor and it annoys me."

"No, Severus", she said with a bit more force. "I want you to be able to come home. You should be able to come home! You've done more during the war than most other people, you died for the cause. They recognised you post-mortem, and they will do the same if they know you are alive. I am certain of it."

"Hermione", he said and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's not that easy. It doesn't do good to dwell on dreams, a great wizard once said. Even if they did give me my freedom in England, what would I do? Nobody would want me around and nobody would give me work. I couldn't sustain myself over there."

"You wouldn't need to", she replied. "It's just a matter of principle. You should be able to decide where you want to go. If you want to buy a cauldron in Diagon Alley, you should be able to do so. If you want to have a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, you should be able to do that too!"

"Stop it", he said firmly, and she looked at him in surprise. "Just let it go."

He was getting angry now and he didn't want to be angry with her. She seemed to notice, as she slowly sank back into the lounger.

They were quiet for a long time and the tension in him slowly disappeared. He thought she was asleep and flicked his wand to put a warming spell on a blanket that spread itself out over her.

"Severus?", she said quietly and sounded half asleep. He was lucky, to sit on the other side of the lounger, as his name from her lips sounded angelic in his ears. He wondered what it would sound like if she said it in a different context. What would it sound like if they were lying next to one another, tired from loving each other for hours?

Stop it, you pervert.

"Hm?", he said quietly, not trusting his own voice. His throat felt rough.

"Would you come back if the opportunity were given to you?"

He didn't reply to her and after a while he could tell she had finally fallen asleep.

He wasn't sure if he would take the opportunity, if it were ever given to him. As much as he wanted to see the castle and walk down Diagon Alley, he feared their judgement even more. He didn't want to endure those hostile glances ever again or be reminded of those horrible years of service under the Dark Lord. Neither did he want to be reminded of his service under Albus Dumbledore. They were both mad men to him, no matter what anybody else said.

Could he dare to start over again? Could he dare to hope for a life at home? He had it all here in France, why could he not be happy and content with what he had? Hermione could stop seeing him in either country, and he should better be far away from her when it happened. He feared the day when she would decide to not see him anymore. Could he possibly risk everything and go to England, to ensure their fragile bond wouldn't break but maybe even grow stronger?

He settled into the corner of the lounger and his thoughts were circulating around various possibilities for a little bit longer, until he finally fell asleep in the mild air of a Mediterranean autumn night.

The next morning, he woke up when he heard Hermione stir on her side of the lounger. She groaned quietly and when he slowly opened his eyes he immediately understood why.

The morning was lovely, the rising sun setting the horizon on fire and tinting everything in a warm orange. But it was too bright, and the birds were tweeting too loudly for the headache that made itself known immediately.

He stretched his limbs and noticed that Hermione had pulled the blanket over her head. He could only see a few wild curls peeking out of the top.

He got up and walked towards the apparition point, when he heard her murmur his name.

"I'll be back in a minute", he reassured her and vanished a moment later.

He had apparated to Arraxy and entered the pharmacy via the backdoor. To his utter annoyance Clemency was in the work room preparing ingredients for a potion. He threw a terrifyingly hostile glance at her.

"Merlin's knickers, what has gotten your wand in a knot again", she said rolling her eyes.

He ignored her and went to get two hangover potions. Clemency threw him a disapproving glance, probably thinking he'd have them both himself. He walked out of the pharmacy and made sure the shut the bang the door as loudly as possible.

When he arrived back in Grasse, Hermione wasn't lying outside anymore, and he found her in the kitchen frying up something in a pan. He put the vial down on the counter next to her.

"You're my lifesaver."

She downed the potion in one go.

"That tastes better than some of the stuff I get in the Apothecary in Diagon Alley", she remarked.

"Don't disgrace me by comparing my potion to the dishwater they sell in Diagon Alley", he grumbled.

She turned around and put two plates with scrambled eggs on the table.

"Sit. Eat", was her simple instruction and he followed it, snorting moodily.

Once the hangover potion's effect kicked in however, his mood significantly improved.

"I might go and see my parents soon. They'll be aghast if they find out I've had a weekend off and didn't visit them."

"If you just stay with me, they won't find out", he said before he could think.

What's wrong with you? Is there still too much blood in lower regions of your body or why don't you use your fucking brain, you complete tard.

She smiled at him.

"As tempting as that is…" Did she really just say that? You lucky bastard. "… I need them to help me sort out some banking things. My mum needs to sign some papers, so she has full access to my bank account whilst I am busy doing magic tricks."

Her eyes twinkled in amusement. "I am also going there to make use of their washing machine."

He couldn't hide his bewilderment and she laughed. It sounded heavenly.

"Don't look so stunned. There is nothing better than clothes and linen freshly washed with muggle methods."

He scowled at her and finished his scrambled eggs.

"I am on duty next weekend", she said after a while. "I've taken a liking to deducting house points. But I am free in two weeks, if you are too? Maybe we could go somewhere."

He shrugged his shoulders and nodded, and they finished their breakfast in silence. Before they both left, they agreed to meet here again in two weeks at the same time and to decide spontaneously what to do. They left through the front door and Severus watched Hermione waving him goodbye and disappearing in mid-movement. He couldn't stop a blissful smile sneaking its way onto his face before he apparated to Arraxy.