Chapter 4 -Dragons and unicorns-
Hidden beneath the bed, Hermione watched Snape entering the room along with her future self.
'She looks – I - look so pale,' Hermione thought 'and tired.' She noticed, Snape had placed an arm around 'her' and led her carefully towards the bed.
They left her visual angle, when they approached her hiding place, but she could still hear their conversation. For all it looked like, Snape carefully saw her other self to bed and tucked her in and when she leaned up towards him, he seemed to kiss her once again.
His voice was all soft and silky, Hermione noticed. "There, Dearest," he muttered, "just take a little nap, it'll help."
"Yes, I guess you're right. Severus-"
"Yes-"
"I love you-"
"Oh-Hermione-"he seemed to be kissing her other self again. "Her-mm-ion –"
"Sev-"
¥
While her future self was so obviously distracted by his kisses, Hermione slipped hurriedly out of the room.
She was followed only slightly later, by - him. He silently closed the door and looked at her, his dark eyes intense and unreadable.
There was a most awkward silence between them that made Hermione shift uneasily from one foot to the other.
"Professor Snape?"
She noticed that he flinched slightly at the formal address.
"Well, Miss Granger," he sneered, "be aware that I'm just as surprised by this little idyll as you are."
Hermione didn't know how to respond to this. Snape raised his eyebrows at her and his lips curled into his trademark sneer once more. "I certainly can't imagine, how all this might be going to happen, but -"
"Professor Snape?" a sudden voice called behind them, causing the addressee to stop in mid-sentence and whirl around.
"That's you, too," Snape hissed at her, "react appropriately -"
Hesitatingly, Hermione took a step into sight.
"Ah, Hermione, ye're better again?!" Hagrid's huge, massive shape approached them. Hermione noticed, he looked kind of worried.
"Did anything happen?" Snape asked tensely.
"Ahh, well," Hagrid rubbed his wild, black beard in an uneasy gesture, "I don' know. The lil' lass is missin'. Must'ave tricked me once again. I just left a sec'nd to check on the Nifflers an'when I came back, she was off, tricky little Missy that she is. Can't find her anywhere."
¥
Severus was the first to recover. This situation required some subtle intuition. He and Miss Granger had to act as their future, married selves now.
"It's all right Hagrid," he responded as calmly as possible. "She'll come to Potions class with me again. I've already sent her down there."
Hagrid frowned slightly at that. "Ye' shouldn' allow the lil' thing to sneak aroun' all by herself like that, Professor. She's such a lil' girl still."
Severus glared at him. "Is that supposed to mean, I don't care about my daughter?"
"Hardly," Hagrid muttered with a wide grin, "everyone knows, the lil' lassie is all Daddy's girl. But she twists ye' aroun' her lil' finger, ye' know?"
Snape frowned again. "She's a good girl," he remarked tensely.
"Yeah, she is. But she can be a lil' devil, sometimes. And she knows quite well, how to get from ye', whatever she wants," Hagrid grinned at Severus' utterly stunned expression. "Oh com' on, Professor, she knows quite well, she gets her every wish fulfilled, ye' can't deny that."
"She is no spoiled brat," Severus frowned, "she's a sweet little girl. She's smart and I'm glad, if I can make her smile."
¥
'Oops,' Hermione thought, 'he is playing that part incredibly well.'
"Oh yes," she sighed, mixing into the conversation, "this time, it was a dog."
Snape gave her a mock smile at that. "But a dog is a nice idea, Dear. It holds so many options. We could train him to search for students out of bed, don't you think so? He could work along with Mrs. Norris. This would leave me far more time to spend with - you – and Tina."
Hermione noticed the glimpse of humour that danced in his beetle-black eyes.
"I don't think that's what she had in mind D-Dearest," she smiled back at him, almost tripping over the unfamiliar term of endearment.
"Thank you for looking after her, Hagrid," she added kindly into her friend's direction and a broad smile appeared on his face.
"Ahh, ye' know, I like her a lot, Hermione. Even it she's a lil' trouble, sometimes." He grinned again. "Ye' know what? Today she knocked my cauldron over, stuffed in several weeds an' leaves an' a lot o' mud from the pumpkin patch an' played Potions Mistress in the middle of my hut. An' when I complained about it, she just told me she was brewing 'Get Well Potion' for her Mummy."
Hermione noticed the slight smile that twitched around Snape's lips at that idea.
"She's a clever girl," he threw in, almost sounding proud.
Hagrid nodded at that. "Aah, yea, she is. But ye' know what? I'm already dreadin' the day, when I'll have to look after two of them. Or probably even more, after this one, I guess?" he asked teasingly.
Hermione's face flushed with embarrassment. "I ..ew-m .." She couldn't think of anything to respond. It was such a damn embarrassing situation.
A gentle hand was placed at her waist and though she was really caught by surprise, it made her feel a lot of better and less insecure - somehow. "Well, we'll see, Hagrid." Snape remarked calmly.
Hagrid grinned once more. "Tell the lil' lassie, she can finish her 'potion' tomorrow."
¥
After Hagrid had left, they had to face each other again.
Snape immediately drew his hand back as if he feared to burn himself at the soft contact. The air was filled with a kind of tension that made it almost impossible to breathe.
"Emm, Professor," Hermione began timidly, but was silenced by one of his dark scowls.
"Not a word, Miss Granger," he frowned, "I'm in no mood to discuss things right now."
"Oh-of course not, neither am I … I.." she muttered, staring at her feet in embarrassment.
"As the potion is hidden in the bedroom, we'll have to wait for afternoon lessons to fetch it, I suppose," he told her a little calmer. "Or maybe even supper time."
"Oh and what – are we to do till then?" Hermione asked awkwardly.
"We might .. go for - a walk .." Snape suggested with a trace of insecurity. Hermione noticed that his dark eyes clearly avoided hers. For the first time she wondered how he might feel about this whole mess. He had to feel just as uncomfortable with the situation as she did; this couldn't be easy for him either.
Silently, she watched him walking over towards the large stone pillar, picking up the Invisibility Cloak.
As they wanted to avoid - by all means - to be stuck under the cloak together right now and Snape was supposed to teach Potions at that time, only he hid beneath it, whereas Hermione stayed - visible.
After all the times she had been sneaking around the school with Harry and Ron under a cloak like that, it was a strange feeling not to be part of the 'Invisibility' now. It was quite similar to the encounter, when she had walked through the streets of Hogsmeade next to an invisible Harry in their third year. She hadn't liked it back then either and now, an invisible Snape accompanied her, which might be even worse in her opinion.
In the Entrance Hall, they met Professor McGonagall, who was on the way to the staff room.
"Oh Hermione, dear," the elder witch smiled fondly at her, "are you well again?"
'Arrr- no! Not that again!' Hermione groaned inwardly.
"I've heard about your erw …problem … during the Arithmancy lesson from my sixth years." She shot an intense look at her. "Does this mean what I think it does?"
Hermione felt the blood creeping into her face again. "Oh, em, - yes," she muttered quite shyly.
"Oh," McGonagall's stern features lit up with a mirthful smile as she pulled her younger colleague into a brief hug. "Oh, Hermione, that's wonderful news! I'm so happy for you – and Severus," she declared.
Hermione blushed even more at that, awkwardly aware of the invisible Professor Snape, standing right beside them. "Well, we .. we ..we're .. happy, too," she stammered, "We …"
McGonagall smiled at her. "I still don't know what you see in him, dear. But it must be something really good as he makes you so very happy."
"Well, he is ..he's …I love him … very much …" Hermione stuttered, trying her best to sound convincing.
"There's no doubt about that, my dear," McGonagall smiled, "and he's so completely taken with you as well – I would have never considered it possible that he might care so deeply about anyone. I'm truly happy – for both of you."
All Hermione could manage to return, was a faint smile.
The silence that spread between her and her 'invisible' companion, as soon as McGonagall had left, was once again an awkward one. Finally Hermione send an anxious glance in the direction where she supposed Snape to be, "I em, … will head down towards the lake now," she muttered, still horribly embarrassed.
"Feel free to go wherever you please, Miss Granger," Snape hissed, from the other direction, "I can very well follow you. If I might remind you, you're not the one who's invisible here – that's me."
¥
In the evening, they made sure their future selves and little daughter went to the Great Hall for dinner, before they slipped into the bedroom to get the potion.
The late glow of day crept through the round light-wells and tipped the room into soft reddish and golden light.
"Where is it?" Hermione whispered tensely.
"Over there," Snape nodded in the direction of a large bookshelf next to the door. "There's a secret drawer behind some of the books," he explained in a hushed voice.
Hermione noticed a large, dark-green armchair, covered and surrounded by various toys, positioned in front of the shelf. There were several little dolls in the shapes of animals. She recognized a large, poisonous-green dragon, a silvery-white unicorn, some fluffy owls and a female centaur with long blond pigtails. "So those are wizards' Barbies," she muttered, grinning.
"What?" Snape asked in complete confusion.
"Oh, never mind." She turned her head away from him, having clear difficulties to hide the smile that crept over her face at the blank look in his eyes.
Exactly in front of the armchair towered a huge, elaborate construction of small wooden blocks, in the shape of a castle.
"I assume it's best if you try to get those bottles out of there, Miss Granger," Snape told her. "We can't move that armchair without destroying this beautiful model of Hogwarts," his lips switched slightly, "but we mustn't change anything, or they'll know someone has been here. I don't expect us to be able to rebuild it later on, in just the same way."
Once again Hermione had difficulties to hide a smile. The idea of kneeling at the floor with Snape, rearranging the wooden blocks into a castle was just too strange.
"Not to mention, how disappointed little Tina would be to find it in ruins at her return," she remarked dryly. Again she noticed his desperate efforts not to smile.
¥
This wasn't easy at all, Hermione decided as she crept slowly into the narrow gap between armchair and bookshelf, carefully aware not to knock anything over at her movements.
She put aside the books Snape pointed out to her. But she had barely stretched her forearm into the narrow opening to reach for the tall, slim bottles, when suddenly two arms encircled her waist in a rushed movement and pulled her backwards.
To her shock, Hermione found herself in Snape's tight embrace on the floor the very next second. She was completely taken aback by this. "Professor?" she gasped and tried to wrestle herself from his embrace, "What .."
But he just gripped her tighter at that. "Stop that wriggling, Miss Granger, you silly girl," he hissed and pulled her into a half sitting position next to the book shelf. She just started complaining, when she suddenly noticed what had caused him to react that way and her eyes grew wide with shock.
With terrifying clearness, she recognized her own laughing voice outside and the future Snape's equally laughing answer. When the dark wooden door opened the very next second, Hermione got all tense from shock, unable to move at all. Snape, on the contrary, reacted adequately. In a quick, fluid movement he wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around them.
A/N: Thanks to everyone, who reviewed so far. It's far more fun writing this way.
SilentG, thank you for the revisions.
*Joycelene* What I meant to say at the end of chapter two, was: Hermione and her own-time's-Snape, who was hidden under the cloak, (just him – not her) both held their breath. It was just a further information, to which Snape I was referring. About your other review: I've already something in mind and you might like it …