Andrian, Artemys, Arysta, BLV, Beth Ann, Bitc-of-da-world, Campy Capybara, ChishionoTenshi, Elwen Rhiannon, Evanescence, Ezmeralda, Helena, hermia, Jasmine Black, Katharina, LonelySlytherin, MadAboutHarry, Malfoy, Marston Chicklet, Megamie, Michelleine, not sure yet, ROTCGirl, Sammy, SlytherinIncognito, Strega Brava, Tevkins, Zoe - Thanks!

Goddess-Isis-112 – I don't have the name of the girl that Remus danced with – I just felt that Remus would be the kind to take pity on wallflowers at dances.

Halo – Thanks – the story will 'end' at the end of Graduation Day, with a few peeks at the future of our couple….

Luna Writer – I don't think Hermione would, no!

Potions Mistress – You'll see….

Snapefan51 – Perhaps g. I believe that Minerva would disapprove of Hermione and Severus together, but that's just my opinion.

SB – I've never thought of a Lion of Gryffindor….interesting idea! However, since I don't feel there's the possibility of Hermione becoming Slytherin-like (despite the influence of a certain dark 'n dangerous Potions Master) there would be no need for a Lion to appear.

Part 35

The next morning found Hermione waiting at the train station (on the Muggle side) with the other students as they waited for parents to arrive for today's Graduation Day. They were awarded the occasional suspicious look from the train official though they were dressed in ordinary Muggle attire.

Hermione had stayed the whole night in Severus' bed, for after they had loved each other, tenderness following the fiercer passion of reunion, Severus had fallen asleep beside her and she hadn't the heart to draw herself away him and Apparate back to her lone bed. Clearly there was still weariness in him (though he would be loathe to admit this) and with his dark head resting against her bare shoulder she had ensured that they were both warmly covered before she had joined him in sleep.

Then there was the pleasure of waking up cradled in his arms, and to find him watching her with fathomless dark eyes that were pleased she had stayed. However, it was going to be a busy morning for them both and not one to stay secluded in his quarters. But, Severus had pointed out with a glint in his eyes, they could not be faulted for starting the day (and saving water as well) off by sharing a morning bath. It would be his duty to ensure that she was as clean as possible for a day such as today….

To which Hermione had retorted smartly that she was sure that were parts of him that needed a good scrub! Little time had been wasted in running the bath.

Later, after Apparating back to her quarters and preparing for breakfast, some people had offered Hermione awkward congratulations – it was amazing what the approval of Dumbledore to her engagement could do, she thought wryly.

While some like Ron gave her the cold shoulder, Lavender would not rest until she had the chance to ooh and ah over her engagement ring up close. Hermione sensed that while Lavender was not completely reconciled to Hermione being engaged to the 'greasy git' she was willing to accept the fact now that there was true affection on both sides.

Breakfast was conducted with both excitement and muted emotion – the reality that this was the last day, indeed, the last breakfast for the seventh-years was setting in with a vengeance. Various wide-eyed looks were cast Hermione's way from the younger years who had heard that the Gryffindor Head Girl and the Head of Slytherin were engaged. Since the students would be leaving before most of the day was over, the breakfast was a Leaving Feast in itself, with delicious food of the finest quality that stayed in your stomach to nourish you for hours.

Hermione felt somewhat light headed, as if a weight had been lifted off her now that the engagement was out in the open, but one hurdle remained – the reaction of her parents. At her age she did not need their permission, but she wished for their blessing all the same.

The time after breakfast was spent by the students in their various towers, gathering their belongings together to be packed for their journey home later on. There was a pang of sadness in Hermione's heart as she took pictures off the walls, clothes from her cupboard and picked up books that had nearly overflowed the shelves provided. She had lived in the Gryffindor Tower for seven years, sharing the good times and the bad with her friends and had spent countless hours studying in the common room. In the winter she had enjoyed sitting by the fire, warming herself while gales howled outside.

Once she was finished packing and her suitcase easily reduced to the size of a handbag, she took it down to the common room, a mildly curious Crookshanks padding down the stairs after her. A set of her best robes had been shrunk so as to fit in the pocket of her jeans, for it was not considered wise to appear on the Muggle side of the train station in Hogwarts robes.

"No, I don't want my bag taken away like the others," Hermione patiently explained to the eager and subservient house elf who had appeared to 'humbly serve the great Head Girl'. The house elf looked confused for a second then hastily abased itself before Hermione. It had forgotten that the most worthy Head Girl was staying on at Hogwarts, that she was going to marry the Potions Master Who Must Not Be Offended…..it would put its head down a toilet bowl immediately!

"No, don't!" Hermione said hastily, eventually convincing the elf that this was not a good course of action. She had tried her best to help the house elves abandon their masochistic tendencies, but her efforts had not achieved success. She left her suitcase at the side of a chair to be fetched later, while Crookshanks sat near the fireplace and started grooming. There was a nervous excitement in her at the thought of moving into his quarters, for them both to sit in the chairs by the fire and discuss the inner workings of magic, to happily wade through his vast collection of books whenever she felt like it. To wake up beside him in the morning….

There was not a single cloud in the clear blue sky over Hogwarts, thanks to discreet spells that persuaded clouds in the vicinity to travel somewhere else. The Graduation ceremony was to be held in the expansive green grounds just outside the school, with a sharp-eyed Minerva overseeing the arranging of chairs and other matters necessary for a no-mistakes ceremony. There would be more chairs this year than usual, with additional people curious to see the famous Harry Potter graduate.

Afterwards Hagrid took Hermione and the other students over the calm lake. The gentle half-giant was unashamedly misty-eyed today as he was every year at the prospect of students leaving Hogwarts forever, and often they would have to block their ears while he loudly blew his nose.

The students then boarded the Hogwarts train, which took them back to Platform 9 ¾; the portal between their world and the noisy chaos of the Muggle world. Once through, the students clustered casually on the platform, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Although they always careful to travel as discreetly as possible through the barrier, the train official always gave the students (as he was doing now) the occasional suspicious look. The official knew in his gut that there was something out of the ordinary with this station, which vexed him – and he was suspicious of feelings like that. People came and went from this station; there was nothing strange about that, but it always seemed that there were young 'uns who seemed to disappear as soon as they came here…

"Hermione!" On hearing her name called she turned and there was a welcoming smile on her face as she saw her parents hurrying towards her, dressed in their best attire, which though of a conservative style was made from good quality cloth. The hugs were slightly stiff though on their part towards their daughter, for they had never reconciled themselves to the fact that she had powers they couldn't comprehend.

"It's good to see you," Hermione said in a light voice that disguised the pang of hurt.

"It's good to see a daughter who has done so well in her exams, congratulations," her father Richard said briskly after an awkward moment. He had had the choice of several careers in his youth before choosing dentistry – certainly one thing he could say of his daughter was that she had surely inherited his brains.

"Yes, well done," her mother Olivia said quickly after Richard. Receiving news from Hogwarts by an owl still made her nervous after all these years (and what if the neighbours saw?) but news such as the high marks of her daughter had made up for it. Then her lips pursed in slight disapproval. "Hermione…..your hair, what have you done to it?"

Hermione put a hand up to her hair automatically in defence – she had decided to keep the streaks of gold and bronze that Lavender had added to her hair because she liked the way they made her ordinary brown hair look interesting for a change. Certainly Severus had found more reasons than usual to touch her hair last night…..

"I had some streaks added. It's good to change hairstyles occasionally," she said in defence.

There was an uncomfortable silence and then her father coughed to change the subject. "I think it's time we should be going through……that barrier of yours and getting on the train," he said carefully.

"Yes, it is," Hermione said firmly. "Come on." Glancing to see that they would not be observed, she quickly motioned her parents to follow her through the barrier when there was a window of opportunity for them. On the other side the Hogwarts train (which had been turned around so as to travel back to Hogwarts) belched steam from its smoke stack as people boarded. Hermione noticed that her mother looked a bit shaken after coming through the barrier, and a manicured hand plucked restlessly at her handbag as if she wished to take something out of it to calm her down. It was one thing to have seen their daughter travel through the barrier in the past, and probably another thing to travel through it yourself for the first time.

Her father noticed as well, pausing to whisper to her mother awkward words that sounded to Hermione's ears like 'you'll be all right', to which her mother nodded and then held up her chin bravely, though she glanced around the platform in case anything untoward was lurking in the corners.

Aware once again of the gulf that lay between her and her parents, Hermione nevertheless kept a pleasant expression on her face as she took her parents on to the train and to an empty compartment in a carriage.

A tea lady came past not long after the train had left the station, and Hermione pulled some galleons out of a purse in her pocket to buy some sandwiches and muffins for her parents to eat – she had had a big breakfast and was not hungry. She sat on the other side of the cabin, unconsciously covering her engagement ring with her right hand. Having appreciated the food, her mother smiled brightly at Hermione.

"Since this is your last day at Hogwarts you must be feeling sad, but think of it as moving on. I'm sure you and your boyfriend will stay in touch."

Hermione took a deep breath. As far as her parents knew, she was seeing someone 'she had met at Hogwarts' – her slightly vague description had left out the fact that he was a professor, wanting to break the news to them gently. The last thing she had wanted was her parents raising a hue and cry over that – it had been bad enough when Sirius had accused Severus of evil intent towards her. Perhaps she should have said more to them in the end, but now time had run out. "Mum, Dad……I've decided to stay on at Hogwarts as an apprentice to the Potions Master there. He's also the one I've been seeing….and we're engaged."

Her parents stared at her open-mouthed in shock and with a sudden ache in her heart Hermione also saw a flicker of relief in their eyes – as if she was a problem child they didn't have to worry about anymore.

"What do you mean, you're staying there!" her mother nevertheless said sharply, dealing with one thing at a time. "I think it's time you realised that life doesn't revolve around…your silly spells and wands and spent time in the real world like us."

Hermione felt angry at that. The real world? Hogwarts and the rest of the wizarding world wasn't a silly fairytale kingdom. It was a place where humans – yes, they were wizards but they were still human – lived and laughed and loved, and also suffered, sacrificed and died. They were part of the 'real world' and in a way were part of the deeper reality of the world that Muggles chose to ignore, or if they didn't see it sought to suppress those who did.

"Mum, I've always been in the 'real world'. I just don't belong in your part of it", she said quietly.

Her mother went on as if she hadn't heard. "And what do you mean by getting engaged at your age, to a…a…" she spluttered. "You never said it was this serious!"

Stung, Hermione said, "You got engaged to Dad at a young age yourself!"

"Yes, but he was like me, not a freak like-" Olivia began agitatedly then stopped, her face flushing when she realised what she had unheedingly said.

Hermione's face was pale with shock. That then, was her mother's real opinion of her, was it? A freak. Her parents just didn't feel uncomfortable towards her; they thought she was a…..a…..

"Is that what you think I am – a freak," she whispered.

"I didn't mean it like that," her mother said stiffly, but her eyes did not quite meet those of Hermione's.

Hermione needed to get out of there, right now. "I have to go and change for the ceremony," she said tightly, rising from the seat.

"Hermione!" her mother called after her but by that time she had left the compartment. She hurried down the narrow corridor to the toilet cubicles, fiercely willing herself not to cry. It had been hard in her first years at Hogwarts, scorned by the 'pure-blood' families as a Mudblood as well as not feeling a part of her family since her powers had developed. She had put on a brave face and had determined to do as well as she could at Hogwarts, to make herself part of the wizarding world so that no-one would be able to point at her and call her a 'stupid Muggle born'. The slow alienation from her parents had been harder to cope with, but she had put thick walls around herself to shield herself from the hurt. But now, that word 'freak' had hit her deep inside.

Once she had changed (with her Muggle clothes now shrunk to doll-clothes size and tucked away in a pocket in her robes) she went back to the compartment, looking resolute yet dignified in her black robes, her Head Girl badge pinned at her shoulder.

Her parents smiled anxiously at her when she returned, with her mother trying to regain ground. Olivia felt uneasy at the sight of her daughter in those witchy robes of hers, looking as though she could do anything she wished….

"Hermione, you're my only daughter and I only want what's best for you. You're a clever girl and we raised you to be sensible – surely you can see that there's more to life than magic. Why rush into something you might regret later," she said coaxingly.

"Mum, magic is what I was born to do – and I would never marry a Muggle," Hermione said in weary conviction, folding her arms across her chest. "Wizards do marry non-wizards, but some of us…..can't. I can't." Certainly the thought of marrying a Muggle sent a jarring note of discord through her – she would sooner marry Ron rather than marry a man with no magic in his veins at all, who had no concept of the wonder felt after the first successful spell ever cast, who wouldn't be able to sense the magic that lay in the land itself.

Her father, who had been silent until now, said awkwardly, "Please listen to your mother Hermione – why not do the right thing and go to a college where you can work towards a proper career."

Hermione shook her head, a resolute look upon her face as she glanced out of the window. They were close to Hogwarts now, and the castle could be seen in the distance. "I already have my career," she said quietly.

Severus was automatically watchful in regards to the presence of the Muggle parents at Hogwarts, despite knowing that once they returned home, they would be magically prevented from disclosing the whereabouts of the school. Some of them seemed to behave like first-years in his opinion, gaping at everything they saw as their children showed them around the grounds of Hogwarts once they had been brought over the lake (and looking alarmed at the occasional unearthly sound from the Forbidden Forest).

In the time before the ceremony started Severus was in the company of various parents who had come to hear from him how their children had really behaved in his class. His lip curled at the sight of reporters who had come to this ceremony to see Famous Harry Potter graduate. The boy hadn't gone to the station to meet his relatives but had stayed to help the other teachers set up the chairs and platform for the ceremony. There was an unsettled feeling inside Severus at this, for the implication was that his aunt and uncle would not bother coming to see him graduate. He vaguely knew from other teachers that Harry's home life had not been ideal, but in scorn he had thought this meant that his aunt and uncle didn't bother to wait on him hand and foot. But for the first time he wondered what had really gone on.

 His eyes narrowed though when he saw Hermione from afar in the company of two Muggles who were obviously her parents, a middle-aged couple dressed in conservative suits. Though she sought to hide it, he knew Hermione well enough to see that she was tense and upset. Even if Hermione hadn't told him about her parents aversion towards her abilities, he would have been able to tell this by their attitudes, the way they glanced around as if they thought that perhaps the medieval witch burnings hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

Hermione was uncomfortable at the thought of being the focus of countless eyes and the upset feelings she had inside as a result of her parents didn't help either. But once the ceremony started she held her chin up when it was her turn to go forward to receive her scarlet-and-gold graduation sash. It helped knowing that Severus was in the audience, his eyes gleaming in his otherwise impassive face and a gentle smile of approval from Remus sitting beside him. Hermione was glad to see that although they weren't best friends, things at least seemed to be cordial between them at the moment.

Once she had received her sash she went to sit back down in her place in the audience where the students had been situated. She was beside a slightly glum looking Harry, who had had several reporters cameras go off practically in his face when he received his sash. Of all the students, Harry was the only one who had not had a family member arrive to see him graduate and Hermione could not help but feel sorry for him. He muttered a few words and Hermione felt an invisible bubble spring up around them, the kind that would allow them to talk without being heard.

"Why did all those reporters have to come?" he said in a harried voice. "You would think they would have had enough of me by now. "I have the bad feeling there's going to be more photos afterwards too."

"You will just have to make sure you show your best side to the camera for your fan club," Hermione said lightly. Harry looked at her. "What's wrong, Hermione? Something's wrong; I can tell. Is it your parents?"

Hermione shrugged uncomfortably, not wanting to go into too many details. "I'm glad they came today, but at the same time….I wish they hadn't," she said finally. Harry gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze before he dissipated the SilentTalk shield. In some years there were Muggle-borns whose parents had distanced themselves from their wizard offspring, and sometimes there was outright disownment. He certainly was never going back to see the Dursley's again as far as he could help it, and when he had written them a letter saying he was staying on at Hogwarts, they had obviously been so relieved they had sent him an envelope with a grubby pound note in it. There hadn't been a letter.

After the ceremony the reporters not only rushed up to Harry, they wanted pictures of Hermione posing with Harry as well.

"You do?" Hermione said, confused.

"Show your best side to the camera," Harry murmured lightly to her as the reporters declared that since Voldemort was dead in the great battle as a result of her efforts as well, surely a few photos would be allowed….

She was aware of Ron looking sullenly in their direction while Mrs Weasley looked at Hermione with daggers in her eyes, clearly incensed that Hermione had dumped Her Boy for the Potions Master. The rest of Ron's family had turned up, looking like a red-headed hydra as they clustered around him. Hermione wanted a chance to say goodbye for old times sake but finding an opportunity looked to be difficult.

Once Hermione had managed to escape the reporters and find some breathing space her parents came up to her, wariness on their faces.

"Why were you having photos taken - and what was that talk of you being in some 'great battle' or other?" her father said, frowning. "What kind of education have you had?"

This was all she needed, Hermione thought. Her accounts to her parents of life at Hogwarts had been edited. Heavily edited. She managed a shrug. "There was a problem with ah, a dark wizard a while back but we managed to defeat him."

"A dark wizard? We?" her mother said in alarm.

"Good day," a voice said and they turned. Never before had Hermione had felt so much relief upon seeing Severus, who swiftly looked down at her before turning to stare at her parents. Surely they could have the decency to let her enjoy this day instead of producing the tension in Hermione that he could practically feel radiating off his fiancée.

He saw that Mrs Granger was a thin woman with frizzy brown hair held up with combs and somewhat shallow blue eyes. Highly-strung, he noted. Mr Granger was a stouter man with thinning black hair and keen brown eyes. The intelligent one, he observed. He noticed that her parents seemed to be older than most present – it seemed that Hermione was a child of their middle age.

"You must be Mr and Mrs Granger," he said smoothly, maintaining a polite distance though he was tempted to loom over them. For Hermione's sake he would be polite to her parents.

Mr Granger coughed. "And sir, you are….", he said carefully. He saw before him a tall, lean black-haired man in his late thirties with austere features and piercing black eyes, dressed in floor length black robes like a character from a televised Charles Dickens novel. He felt deep in his bones that this man was someone not to be crossed….surely Hermione was not engaged to a man this old!

Hermione took a deep breath. "Mum, Dad, I would like you to meet Professor Snape, the Potions Master at Hogwarts….and my fiancée."

"Pleased to meet you," Olivia said faintly to the professor, conscious of her manners although there was something about him that set her nerves on edge. But when he gravely inclined his dark head to her and said in a soft, even tone, "The pleasure is mine," she suddenly felt a sense of relaxation pouring through her as if everything was all right. Of course it was, she thought, giving the professor a quick smile.

"How do you do?" Richard said gruffly.  He found himself revising his earlier opinion of the professor. Yes, he was really far too old for his daughter, but he looked as if he had his feet firmly on the ground, which would be ideal for Hermione.

"You must be proud of your daughter," Severus observed, smiling slightly without malice.

"Yes," Richard said readily. "We're pleased that she's done so well." Olivia nodded quickly in affirmation.

It seemed to Hermione that her parents had accepted the concept of Severus as her fiancée far quicker than expected. Although she hadn't sensed anything, had Severus altered their minds slightly?

Would it matter if he had? a tiny voice whispered in her mind.

Her father coughed. "I don't believe my daughter should be rushed into anything she's not ready for," he said carefully, leaving Hermione to wonder if the idea of coercion was just a fancy on her part.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Nor do I. Rest assured that I only have your daughters best interests at heart. Unfortunately I see that I am required elsewhere at the moment….but I am pleased we have met."

"You should come for dinner at some time," Olivia said earnestly. Severus looked slightly taken aback at that but recovered swiftly. "Of course."

He inclined his head to Hermione and then to her parents, and then swept away.

There was a prickling on Hermione's neck, and cautiously turned around. Not too far away from her the headmaster was smiling affably, his eyes twinkling at her….

TBC