Severus knocked twice on her bedroom door after classes had ended for the day. He was curious why she hadn't only been in his class but none of her other classes as per the information relayed to him via other staff. The door opened, and she sat perched on the edge of her bed, watching him intently.
"Why weren't you in class today?" Severus asked, agitated.
"What's the point?" She asked sadly, sighing deep and slow.
"What is that supposed to mean?" He countered, with a touch of annoyance in his voice.
"Well," she began, primly dropping her hands in her lap, "if I am to be used as little more than a broodmare and my ability to produce offspring, then I figured why would I waste my time in class? There is no point in gaining an education if I can not use it to better myself down the line. I know more than enough to get me through life now."
"Really? You're going to throw the rest of your life away because you need to bear a child? Do you have any idea how many women throughout history accomplished great things with a babe on their hip? A child grows up and leaves and starts their own life and it will leave you wondering what you will do with the rest of your life. Look, Hermione, you are young, you know yourself once they get to the age to attend Hogwarts they will rarely be around leaving you will have plenty of time to pursue your dreams. By the time they finish their education at Hogwarts, they will be well and truly old enough to look after themselves. You're eighteen now. Once they attend Hogwarts, you will be twenty-nine and still young enough to do as you please."
"Thank you for your concern, Severus, but I don't need you to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing with my life. I appreciate you care enough to come and try to reason with me, but now, even if I wanted to attend classes, I don't particularly feel like I am up to it. I've just gone through an incredibly life-changing experience and I don't very much feel like facing the world."
He nodded curtly. "Well, if you are feeling up to it, after dinner I have a mountainous load of parchments to mark and I could use some help."
"Thank you, Severus," she murmured as he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
He didn't think it was possible that Hermione Granger would ever show such sadness or hopelessness, but here he was wondering if she was teetering on the edge of normality and depression and he could but help feel slightly responsible for it. Deep down, he knew he could be nicer to her. That was granted, but at the same time, he wanted to always keep her at arm's length. He needed to ensure that she never fell for him because that would complicate matters more. If he pushed her away, eventually and hopefully, if they renounced the marriage law, then it would make the divorce a painless and easy process.
o-o-o-o-o
The gentle creaking of the door roused him from his marking, quill halting over parchment as he turned his head just so, catching the silhouette of his wife in the corner of his eye.
"Nice to see you join me. I didn't see you at dinner." He watched as she dragged herself across the room and sat at his desk opposite him, where he had set up a chair and a pile of parchments should she decide to join him.
"I wasn't very hungry," she whispered, grabbing the first parchment off the top of her pile and plucking the quill from the inkwell.
"You weren't at breakfast, either," he said absentmindedly as quill piloted over the parchment, placing a large tick at the bottom of the page.
"I wasn't very hungry," she repeated herself, eyes darting side-to-side as she read the answers on the page, trying to avoid conversation and eye contact with her husband who felt more like a stranger.
"Understandable," he said sharply, lifting his eyes quickly to glimpse her.
It was odd having a wife. A woman that he was supposed to love, hold and bed, but here they were straining to have a civilised conversation. He could only imagine the awkwardness when they finally consummated their marriage and if he were being honest, it was something he didn't want to subject her to. Not only was it immoral to sleep with the girl against her wishes, but he also didn't want to feel as if he were a cradle snatcher either.
After a solid hour of nothing but the sound of quills scratching on parchment, Severus dropped his quill on the desk with a soft clatter.
"I'm getting a drink," he announced. "would you like something? We've got water, milk, pumpkin juice or whiskey."
Stoically, she looked at him, trying to process what he had just asked. It was so foreign to hear Severus Snape ask anyone if they needed anything, especially her. "Water. Thanks," she muttered, watching him disappear and return moments later.
Placing her glass of water on the desk, he placed his first whiskey for the night down as well.
"How much do you drink at night?" She asked him, dropping her own quill and picking the glass of water up and sipped it needily. Her mouth had been so dry.
His face fell, and a brow rose. "well, that depends on how hard a day I have had. Although now you are in my life permanently, those numbers may jump substantially."
Placing her half-empty glass back on the desk eyes narrowed, her lips tugged up into a small smile. "I'm not as bad as you think I am. I am quite a simple person to get along with and if I am treated fairly, I am happy. I regret the situation we are both in, but we can't change a thing, so we just must embrace it. I understand you don't particularly like me and that is fine. I know I am abrasive at times but we both must learn to co-exist peacefully or we will be miserable for the rest of our lives."
"As long as you abide by the rules I reiterated to you yesterday, I think we will be alright, Hermione." Picking up his glass, he sipped the whiskey liberally, watching her over the rim as he did so. She wasn't exactly the worst specimen of a human he had ever seen and there was a lot worse he could've ended up with. He just wished he hadn't ended up with the young girl who had her whole life ahead of her.
"I don't plan on cramping your style if that is what you are worried about, Severus. You can have your space and it will be like I'm not even here." Picking the quill up again, she tried to focus on the parchment, but she was finding it hard. Head swirling with a million thoughts and feelings, she could not get her eyes to adjust to the writing on the page.
"We will go through some teething issues like all new relationships do, but I feel eventually we will work it all out. I just don't want you to stop doing things you enjoy because you are married to me now. I know you love going to classes and I don't want you to stop on my accord. Take a week or two off if that is what you feel you need to do, but don't throw your whole life away on account of what the ministry has forced us into."
"I'll think about it," was all she said before she began marking the work again. The two sat in silence for the rest of the night and Severus thought to himself it was nice to have a little company instead of sitting in the four walls by himself going stir-crazy.
o-o-o-o-o
"How is Hermione coping?" Minerva questioned a few days later in the staffroom, concern etched into every line of her face, "she hasn't been to class for days."
"I know, Minerva," He said through gritted teeth. "She is, from what I understand, going through a depressive episode and rightly so. Her entire world has turned upside down, and they have saddled the poor child with me as her husband. If the roles were reversed, I'd be pretty pissed off, too. She's talking about throwing her schooling in. She doesn't see the reason to continue if she is only going to bear children."
"Severus, I swear to Merlin if you don't get that girl back into her classes, I will hex you into next month," thick Scottish brogue tangled with anger as she talked.
"Well, I will try, but she is her own person. I don't own her just because she is my wife, Minerva," he said, irritated.
"Well, if you can't do it I will march straight down there and do it myself."
"No. You won't," he snapped, "She needs time to heal mentally from what has happened to her and then and maybe then she will be ready to sit down and talk about how she feels but right now she is still trying to process in her head what has happened to her life."
"If she doesn't come back, it will be an exceptional talent wasted. The ministry has a lot to answer for," she spoke bitterly with the utmost anger in her tone. She wanted to march right on down to Kingsley and drag him out of his office by his ear and give him a stern talking to.
"It's fine. Leave it with me. My wife, my problem," he said matter-of-factly.
His wife. He would have to get used to saying that out loud, let alone thinking it in his head. Him. A wife. He exhaled sharply through his nose. Who would have ever guessed this would have happened to him?
A/N: Just a quick chapter to build development.