"I will not do it, Minerva," Severus growled. His voice had become even more threatening when he was angry since the war ended. The gravelly sound in his darkest moods served as the only evidence the snake had damaged his vocal chords at all.

"Severus..." Minerva sighed. "I don't have control over this."

"You said that if I taught here again, you would be able protect me," Severus said. His coal black eyes glittered as he stared at her.

Minerva studied him for a moment. Underneath his anger, his distaste for the mere idea of a marriage law, there was something else. He was grinding his molars together slowly. A slight tremble in the hand that was gripping a piece of paper. He swallowed hard. Severus Snape was... Scared.

"I have protected you, Severus. Don't try that. I've protected you from Azkaban by providing you with easily monitored employment. I've shielded you from the press, from disgruntled parents, from 'concerned citizens'... This is an entirely separate situation. I am not in charge of this," Minerva said. "I cannot control this. I have no power here."

She looked at him. His dark eyes were focused on the crumpled letter in his pale hand. His lip twitched. He looked up at her again. "No. I will not do it."

"You have no options. If you refuse, you go to Azkaban. You cannot flee with those Admonitors on." She steepled her hands together. "If you comply, however, your probation would be lifted immediately."

Severus narrowed his eyes and scowled. "I'd replace the Admonitors with a wedding band. My probation is over in three years. My marriage would not be." Severus lifted his hands, causing the sleeves of his frock coat to slide down his forearms just enough to reveal the thin silver cuffs on his wrists. "These were practically a gift from Shacklebolt. They kept me out of Azkaban, and they assure the public and the Ministry that I am not doing anything nefarious," He sneered. "A wedding band would not be such a gift."

"If you comply with this marriage law, you wouldn't have to wear those anymore," She said and she held up hand when he prepared to shout. "Yes, that would be because you'd have a wedding band and, yes, that would be another means of tracking you and keeping you bound by the law. But, it wouldn't monitor your magical activities as those do," She said and gestured to his hands.

"Just my sexual activities?" Severus said darkly.

"Don't be crude. This would give you quite a bit more in the way of freedom."

"You know that's what they'll do. They'll monitor that," Severus said. "How else could they ensure the growth of the magical population?"

"Yes, I imagine there will be some sort of monitoring..." She said. "There is a timeframe in which you are expected to produce a child."

"Five years."

"Yes," Minerva said. "That is exactly my point. If your marriage does not produce a child within the time frame, it's likely it would be annulled, and you would be rematched. Five years for you would put you conveniently at age fifty. You would be ineligible to be rematched."

Severus cocked his head to one side. "You're suggesting this," He said and held up the crumpled letter, "Could be faked for five years. Faking it would also would require us to somehow circumvent pregnancy without magical or medical means. There is no option they could not detect."

"You've faked worse things for longer," She noted.

"You don't know who they've matched me with yet," He said and his upper lip twitched. He dropped the letter on her desk, and then began to pace back and forth in the office. He was deeply unsettled.

Minerva took it and smoothed the paper on her desk. Her eyes moved immediately to the name, and she sighed as she read it. "That does complicate things."

"Your plan, Minerva, would heavily depend upon her ability to lie, which we be both know she does not possess. She's a bleeding heart. I'd be another damned cause."

"They gave you no other option?" Minerva asked. "I thought there were supposed to be several potential matches."

"Apparently, I only have one potential match."

"Well, you are difficult," She said. He glowered at her. "Speak with her. See what her thoughts are on the matter."

"I haven't spoken with her in years," He seethed. "The conversations we had seven years ago were not exactly... friendly."

Minerva closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the sheer fury of Snape's devastation at having survived the War, which was due in large part to the witch in question, who had given him crucial first aid that night in the Shrieking Shack. In many ways, Minerva understood why he felt dying would have been simpler for him, but to have seen how much he truly had wanted to die, how he had absolutely intended to die was... Nauseating.

"I remember," She said.

"I did not know she had returned to the United Kingdom," Severus said. There it was again. That faint betrayal of the angry facade he was presenting, so faint someone who didn't know him well would miss it entirely - the slightest tremor in his wounded voice. It wasn't just anger that aggravated his old injury. Fear, apparently, did too.

"She spent much of her time at at the muggle University of Paris. She got a degree from there, I believe, and has since finished her Charms Mastery, and with Filius' retirement in a few weeks, she has applied for the position."

"How convenient," He sneered. His black eyes moved back and forth over the floor.

"It appears so," Minerva said. "Still, you need to speak with her. Perhaps she has even less desire to marry you. Like you said, your... History makes things complicated for both of you. You're both exceedingly bright. I'm sure between the pair of you something can be arranged that works for you both while working within the law."

A muscle under his eye twitched and then he blinked a couple times in rapid succession. In a flurry of billowing black robes, he was gone. Her eyes moved back to the letter.

"Who has been matched with Severus?" Albus asked from the way.

"Hermione Granger," Minerva answered him.

"Ah," He said. "That explains why he is afraid."

"You noticed that, too?" Minerva asked.

"Our spy is not as good at hiding as he once was," Albus mused. "You know why he is afraid?"

"He is afraid because, if anyone could fall in love with him, it would be her," Minerva said plainly.

"Yes," Albus said. "And if he could learn to love anyone again, it would be with her."