by Hermione Granger-Snape
Severus Snape stood still and stared blankly at the portrait after Hermione had entered until the Fat Lady said, "Severus!"
His eyes focused on the source of the noise and he wished at once that they hadn't. The Fat Lady was glaring at him hands on her hips and floating beside her, looking like an over protective father, was Nearly Headless Nick.
"What, exactly," she asked firmly, "were you doing with Miss Granger at THIS time of night?"
"Since when are you on a first name basis with one of your students?" Nick demanded looking as if he would like to strangle Snape.
Severus Snape glared back at them belligerently and reminded himself that there wasn't anything he could do to hurt a ghost, unlike a poltergeist. Not that he would have tried if he could. Snape couldn't do anything to Nick, and he couldn't do anything to Snape. Given his present mood this was very fortunate since he had been a champion dueler and one of the most powerful wizards in the world before his untimely death. Ironically he had died not while he was fighting dark wizards, or while experimenting with new and dangerous forms of magic, no he'd slipped in a puddle one day and had the misfortune to fall with his head in precisely the right spot to be nearly beheaded by his cousin who was practicing swinging his sword.
The Fat Lady was another matter, but he knew that Dumbeldore and Filch would be extremely upset with him if they had to restore the Fat Lady's portrait, again, just because he'd lost his temper. While he would love to release the stress of the evening by rending her picture to bits he restrained himself, after all he did have more self control than Black.
"That is none of your concern!" Snape spat back at them, he turned to go, black robes billowing out behind him. Sensing Nick gliding forward to follow and harass him further, he paused a moment, looked back, and said, "Go ahead. Tell McGonagall. It won't change what's already happened." With that he whirled around and stalked off, a slight smirk on his face at what they would assume from that statement.
Nick scowled at him, but stoped persuing, knowing that McGonagall would beat the bastard within an inch of his life if Snape had done anything inappropriate to Hermione.
"Hummph," was the Fat Lady's only response watching Snape as he marched purposefully down the hall, and noted that the way his cloak blend into the surrounding darkness made him look like a malevolent specter stalking its prey.
Severus angrily made his way towards Dumbeldore's office. He understood their concerns but, with his nerves still on edge from the Death Eaters meeting, and the shock of Hermione Granger, a Gryffindor muggle born of all people, now being his "official" fiancee, he had no patience for the prying questions from a nosy busybody painting and an irate ghost.
Severus stopped for a moment mere meters from the entrance to Dumbeldore's office.
What HAD Hermione been doing out in the forbidden forest without Potter and tag-along Weasley?
Shaking his head briefly Severus approached the gargoyle and spat, "Butter-beer," at the statue pausing till it had opened just enough to allow him past and then rushed up the stairs to Dumbeldore's office. He was beginning to realize all the work he would have to do if Hermione continued to play his future consort and, even worse, he began to contemplate his own fate should she choose not to play along with the deception. The worst part wasn't that he might be killed, Severus had long ago ceased to value his own life, but that she and other innocent people might, no, would suffer if his position as a spy were revealed.
The Aurors desperately needed the information he was providing. In many ways Severus Snape was the sole reason Voldemort was still fighting for control. Somehow up to this point he had managed to shift the blame for failures unobtrusively to loyal Death Eaters, but now that he supposedly had a muggle as his intended everything he did would be closely scrutinized.
The game for had just gotten a lot more dangerous.