Chapter 40

Severus spreads raspberry jam on a slice of toast. "If it all happens on a single day, there's less time for things to go wrong."

Hermione ignores her breakfast and counts on her fingers. "Kill the Lestranges. Get the cup from their vault. Destroy it. Tell Harry that he has to die. Convince him not to go to the Headmaster, but instead to trust us and go along with our plan. Take Harry to the Dark Lord, him Polyjuiced as Rodolphus Lestrange, me as Bellatrix." She shudders. "I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate that part of the plan." She resumes counting. "Lucius Imperiuses Goyle. Goyle kills Nagini right before Harry's Polyjuice wears off, while mine is still in effect. The Dark Lord kills Harry. You kill the Dark Lord." She's now holding up all ten fingers. "Not quite as bad as Dumbledore's plan, but still a lot of moving parts."

Severus swallows a bite of eggs and picks up his coffee cup. "Agreed." He takes a sip. "I do wish you would eat something."

Hermione picks up a slice of toast but doesn't eat it. "And it all has to happen before Draco lets crazy Aunt Bella and the other Death Eaters in through that cabinet and you have to kill the Headmaster to save precious little Draco's soul."

"That about sums it up." He watches, gratified, as she finally takes a bite.

Hermione sets the toast down and frowns. "I suppose you have to kill the Lestranges?"

"No. Lucius will do that."

"Good. I hate the idea of you killing people." She cuts the end of a piece of sausage and puts it in her mouth.

"What about the Dark Lord?"

"He's not exactly people, is he?"

"Not anymore, no."

Her brows furrow. "And yet he was, once. He was a little boy in a Muggle orphanage, with no one to help him understand the strange things he made happen, confused and probably afraid."

Severus pours himself more coffee. "Leave it to you to try to psychoanalyze the Dark Lord."

"I know. It's pointless. Hitler and Stalin and Mao were someone's babies once. Every serial killer was. People grow up the way they do, and then we have to deal with them as they are." She eats her breakfast in silence for a few minutes, but Severus can practically see the wheels turning in her mind as she chews and swallows. "Will we take the potion and do a trial run of the whole thing, do you think?"

It's astonishing how often their minds work in exactly the same way. "I've been thinking about that. We probably should, but can you imagine how frustrating it would be if it all went off without a hitch, the Dark Lord dead, the war over, but we had to wake up the next morning with him alive again?"

"What if we brought the potion with us, and one of us takes it if things fall apart? If you, Lucius and I all have it with us, surely all three of us wouldn't be killed or incapacitated before we could take it?"

"I was thinking we could provide Cissy or Draco with a dose as well, just in case."

"Not Draco."

"I've been inside his mind, Hermione. He wants the Dark Lord dead as much as we do."

"So you say. But I can't help it. I don't like him and I don't trust him."

"He likes you."

Her only response is a derisive snort.

"He petitioned for you under the marriage law."

"Wanting to shag me isn't the same as liking me. After all, does Dolohov like me?"

"Draco didn't petition for the same reason Dolohov did."

"Draco Malfoy has hated me since we were first years."

"You do know why little boys pull little girls' plaits and call them names in the schoolyard, don't you?"

"Oh, for God's sake, Severus. You're not trying to tell me that the Ferret has had a crush on me all these years that he's been sneering at me and calling me Mudblood?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you. Moreover, if we succeed in killing the Dark Lord and the marriage law is abolished, I believe it's his intention to court you."

Her mouth opens and she draws in a breath as she stares at him. Then her expression shifts, and she sneers, "Wouldn't Lucius and Narcissa just love that?"

"You have utterly charmed Lucius, and well you know it."

"Finding me unobjectionable as your wife and co-conspirator is different from finding me acceptable as his son's wife, able to give him only second-rate Halfblood heirs."

"Lucius and Cissy have recently discovered that the Malfoys are not quite as pure as the rest of wizarding society believes them to be. In light of that, I believe both of them would be very much in favor of a marriage that would go a long way toward helping rehabilitate Draco's reputation."

"Why would I lift a finger to rehabilitate Malfoy's reputation? He deserves what he gets."

Severus sighs. "I would very much like to tell you that once the Dark Lord is dead, everything will be sunshine and roses, that the lions will lie down with the snakes and prejudice against Muggleborns will disappear. Believe me when I tell you that it will not. You will always have to work twice as hard, be twice as good as any Pureblood, and still you will face bigotry."

"You really believe that? You don't think people will have learned their lesson from this horror? That things won't change?"

"Did they learn their lesson after Grindlewald?"

She is silent for a time. "So, you think nothing will change? That our children and grandchildren will have to go through this shite all over again?"

Severus sets aside the our children and grandchildren comment, understanding that she means by it our generation's children and grandchildren, not our as in Severus and Hermione's. "I am by nature a pessimistic man. I think it is possible that things may change, someday, but that will not happen without a combination of strategy, hard work, and luck." He hesitates, not wanting to say what he is about to say, but feels as though he owes it to her to say it anyway. "And you would be in a far better position to bring about the kind of change you seek from inside the establishment than from without."

For a moment, she looks confused, and then realization dawns. But instead of seeing the wheels in her mind start to turn as she begins to contemplate what she might accomplish with the Malfoy money and influence at her disposal, he sees her lip begin to quiver before she throws her napkin onto her plate, stands, and stalks to her room—hers, not theirs—without another word and slams the door.

What did he say that upset her so much? He walks to her bedroom door and finds it warded, rather nastily. He knocks. "Hermione?" When she doesn't answer, he says, "Come out so we can talk."

"About what?"

"Not through the door, if you don't mind."

"I do mind, actually."

"I could easily dismantle your wards if I chose to."

"But you won't."

He sighs. "No, I won't." He hesitates for a moment, then shakes his head and returns to his breakfast. He is not going to reward her drama and petulance with any more of his attention. She can marry whom she chooses once she's free of this law, or not marry at all. It's none of his concern. He wasn't trying to tell her she should marry Draco, merely pointing out the possible advantages if she really is serious about trying to change the hidebound society in which they live. Obviously, he overestimated her commitment to social revolution. She is, after all, still a very young woman. She's still governed by her feelings to an extent an older witch would not be, and is probably still mooning over that idiot Weasley. She'd rather marry into that impoverished family than one that could help her achieve her goals because she's a silly, hormonal girl. He would do well to remember that.