Chapter Three

"This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you."

Genesis 9:12

Hermione woke late, the sleeping potion having been a strong one.  It was past 9am by the time her eyes opened.  She noticed a House Elf sitting by her bed, staring at the floor next to a tray of food.

"Dobby?" she said with a smile.

He looked up and smiled broadly across his ugly, little face.  "Hello, Miss Hermione.  Yes, I is Dobby.  I is come with your breakfast, Miss.  Must make sure you eat it, Miss.  Miss Hermione did not eat her supper.  Mr Dumbledore wants for you to eat up the whole breakfast now, Miss."  During this rapid fire speech Dobby brought the tray over and placed it on Hermione's lap.  "Mr Dumbledore wants for me to tell him the minute you've finished breakfast, Miss Hermione.  Mr Dumbledore wants to see you as soon as you're ready, Miss.  Has much to discuss and organize, Miss.  First you must eat breakfast so Dobby won't get into trouble, Miss." 

Hermione nodded, a bit dazed by Dobby's incessant speech.  Under the silver cover was toast, an omelet and hot coffee.  "I think I can manage this," Hermione said with a smile and began to eat while Dobby looked on with satisfaction.

"I is so sorry, Miss.  To hear about… to hear about… Well - you know, Miss."  Dobby looked at her sympathetically, wringing his tiny hands in distress.

She smiled gently at him.  "Thank you, Dobby."  She noticed he was wearing one sock with a koala on it and another pink sock with orange polka dots.  He was also wearing a bottle green, wool coat with shiny brass buttons and a truly hideous purple beret.

The small, ugly elf watched her anxiously until she'd eaten everything on her plate and then said, "I go now to tell Mr Dumbledore you will be with him soon."  He nodded enthusiastically at her and scampered out of the room before she could protest.

"Well, I suppose I'd better get dressed then," Hermione observed feeling rather grumpy about having to get out of bed.

Half an hour later she was outside Dumbledore's office.  "Come in, my dear" she heard him say as the doorway magically opened.  She stepped through and said good morning, and was about to thank him again for his care the previous evening when she noticed Snape was in the office too.

"Good morning, Professor Snape" she said, confused to see him there.  "Shall I wait outside Professor Dumbledore?" She asked, assuming that Snape's presence had nothing to do with her.

"No, no, my dear.  Professor Snape is here for your benefit.  Do sit down."  After making this remarkable statement, Hermione stared at Dumbledore's back as he walked over to his seat behind his desk.  Snape?  Here for her benefit?  That must be a joke.  Snape had never made any secret of the fact that he loathed her entirely.

Shooting a sideways glance at Snape's sneering face, Hermione sat down in an old-fashioned, up-right, Victorian style chair and waited for Dumbledore to explain.

He didn't seem in any hurry.  He looked from Snape's surly face to Hermione's carefully calm expression, pressing his fingertips together contemplatively.

"Well, Hermione.  How are you feeling this morning?"  He asked compassionately, after a long pause.

"I'm okay, I think.  Still a bit in shock probably," she said with a shrug.  After all, what more could she say?

Dumbledore nodded.  "Quite.  We have a lot to sort out.  Do you think you're up to it today?" He queried soothingly.

Hermione nodded.  "I'd like to get the details and arrangements out of the way as soon as possible, to be honest.  Then I don't have to worry about it on top of everything else," she replied honestly.

Against his will, Snape was impressed at how calm she sounded and the fact that she was making sense.  He had expected a slightly hysterical school girl but was seeing a mature young adult.  It annoyed him that she kept surprising him.  He liked to understand everyone around him better than they understood themselves.  It gave him tactical advantage in controlling any situation he was in.  Hermione tended to keep thwarting his efforts to second guess her – she always had and it was getting worse as she got older.  The worst of it was that she wasn't even aware she was doing it.

Dumbledore had been nodding while Snape was wallowing in these bitter thoughts.  "As you like, my child.  First of all, I have contacted your parents' Muggle lawyer and he is currently taking care of the Muggle legal details for you regarding their will.  They have left everything to you with a small amount in trust for your sister's children," he informed her calmly.

Hermione nodded.  "Mum told me years ago that I would get almost everything," she said matter-of-factly and without apology.

Snape frowned.  Didn't Hermione consider it odd that her parents wouldn't have left their property to both daughters in a 50/50 split?  Why didn't it make her uncomfortable?  Again, it was another Hermione mystery.

"Yes," Dumbledore was saying.  "That leaves you quite well off in both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, Miss Granger.  Of course, you are not of age yet which means you will need to apply to your parents' lawyer for funds but that won't be a problem for just the next three and a half months.  He has said he's quite happy to advance as much as you need once a guardian has been appointed."

"A guardian?"  Hermione repeated blankly.  Of course, she thought.  I won't be eighteen for another three and a half months.  "Who were you thinking….?" She began.

"I've thought about this long and hard, Miss Granger.  None of your family are in a position to undertake this role and although any of our teachers here would be willing, there is only one of us who is realistically able to do so."  Dumbledore said. 

It was then the horrible realization broke over her.  She stared at Dumbledore, unable to make herself look at Snape.  Snape stared at his own hands, clasped loosely in front of him.  His long, raven black hair fell forward over part of his face.  He didn't want to look at her either.

Dumbledore looked at them both and would have smiled if it wouldn't have defeated his own purpose.  "I spoke to Professor Snape last night and he has kindly agreed to act as your guardian for the next three and a half months or so until you turn 18.  He will return to your parents' home with you and help you put their affairs in order while you prepare for university," he continued, pretending there wasn't really an atmosphere so thick with tension you could have cut it with a knife.

"He's…. coming to my home?  My Muggle home?"  Hermione clarified, sounding a bit stunned.

"Yes, Miss Granger" Dumbledore confirmed blithely.  "I told him a stint in the Muggle world wouldn't do him any harm.  He needs a change of scenery," he added, looking cheerfully at Snape who scowled back at him.  "Does that mean you agree to having Professor Snape as your guardian for now?" he added benignly to Hermione.

Hermione turned to Snape and looked at him carefully.  He equally carefully did not look back.  She narrowed her eyes at him and then turned back to Dumbledore.  "Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape does not want to do this.  He's agreed to do it out of obligation to you."  She stated baldly.

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling.  "Very perceptive of you, Hermione.  Let's call it 'a special assignment' for Professor Snape, shall we?"

"Let's not.  Let's call it a big imposition on Professor Snape which is exactly what it is," Hermione said crisply, her voice unyielding.

Snape looked at her with sharply, his surprise at her tone of voice evident.  He was about to say something sarcastic and nasty but Dumbledore got in before him with, "I appreciate your concern about imposing on Professor Snape, Hermione but he really is our only option now and as he has been so kind as to consent I'm afraid we will have to make this imposition on him for now."  Dumbledore looked at Hermione with a calm sympathy that strangely did make her feel slightly better.  At least they weren't trying to pretend it was something that Snape had agreed to willingly.

Snape compressed his mouth and decided to stay silent as Hermione relaxed slightly in her chair but the tension in his slim frame was evident.  It was annoying that she knew him so well that she had accurately guessed his feelings on the matter.  Not that he'd made any secret of his antipathy to her over the years.  Even worse than guessing his feelings, she'd voiced them unreservedly in front of Dumbledore.  His dark eyes glowered at the rich carpet on the floor.

A small smile tugged at one corner of Dumbledore's mouth as he glanced over at the bad-tempered teacher.  "Now, my dear.  If you and Snape will both give me one of your hands I will seal the contract," he said placidly.

Hermione looked at Dumbledore in surprise.  "Contract?" She repeated questioningly.

"Yes, Miss Granger.  For Snape to act as your guardian, there has to be a magical contract," he explained benignly.

That was news to Snape too - unpleasant news at that.  He was still hoping for a last minute reprieve or that someone else could be found part-way through the nearly four month period before she turned 18 to take his place.  Once there was a magical contract in place, he was stuck until her next birthday.  If Hermione hadn't been there, he would have sworn roundly.  As it was, he frowned menacingly and then reluctantly got up and gave his hand to Dumbledore with a distinct air of resignation.

Hermione watched all this by-play with something rather deeper than irritation.  She thought about it for a minute and then realized that she was hurt.  His obvious lack of enthusiasm and distaste stung more than she wanted to admit.  She couldn't believe after seven years of his sarcasm and downright cruelty at times that he was still capable of hurting her feelings but obviously he was.

Hermione looked at Dumbledore from under a heavy lock of hair that sometimes fell over one eye.  He looked back at her with a gentle expression.  He understood what she was feeling, it was perfectly obvious from the empathy in his blue eyes.  "My dear, you have no choice," he said soothingly.

Without looking at Snape, she too got up and gave Dumbledore her left hand across his desk.  He took both their hands in his and closed his eyes.  He muttered something very long in latin and a faint blue light shone around their hands clasped in his.  Hermione watched carefully as the same blue light then traveled up their arms and formed a bridge between her solar plexus and that of Snape.  Hermione was horrified.  She had been magically linked to Snape!  She suddenly felt very sick.

That was nothing to the way Snape was feeling.  Not only did he feel sick, he felt an inherent sense of wrongness.  This young woman had been his pupil for seven years.  Now there was an unbreakable bond between them for the next few months.  It was too intimate and too sudden a shift for him to accept.  Snape had never been close to anyone in his life and now there was an odd, false intimacy that the contract had created between him and someone he very much preferred to keep at a distance.

Hermione's face was white by the time Dumbledore let go of their hands.  "Why doesn't that thing go away?"  Hermione said, gesturing to the bridge of blue light that still connected the two adversaries even once back in their chairs. Dumbledore thought she sounded remarkably like she was on the verge of a tantrum which wasn't like the Hermione that he knew at all, he reflected.

"It will go in a minute," he said reassuringly and sure enough it did.  "Now, would you like to go and see your friends my dear?  There is nothing more you can do for the remainder of this week until you go home."

Hermione nodded and took a deep breath. "Yes, thank you Professor Dumbledore."  She still sounded shaky, even to her own ears but she got up and left the office with a final, small smile at the Head Master that she respected and liked so much.

Once she had left, Dumbledore turned to Snape and regarded the closed-faced man carefully.  "Well, Serverus.  That was a display," he commented mildly.

"I'm sorry, Professor but Hermione is not one of my favourite people."  He responded dryly.

"You couldn't have made that more obvious if you tried," Dumbledore replied just as dryly.  "Just do you duty by her, Severus and try and be gentle with her.  She's just suffered a huge loss.  No one is asking any more than that.  You don't have to like her."

"Just as well," he sneered, then remembered the scent from her hair as they stood next to each other at Dumbledore's desk - lemon peel and fresh grass and a clean, musky scent uniquely her own.  Angrily he pushed the thought away.  "Is that all for now, Professor?"

"Yes, thank you.  Just be ready to leave Hogwarts for three months or so by the end of the week," he replied implacably.  Snape nodded and glided gracefully out of his office, his tension evident in his gait.

"Well, it's an experiment Fawkes." Dumbledore commented to his phoenix after he watched Snape leave.  "I don't know if it will work.   I still think Severus has more to gain than Hermione although he thinks he's the one being imposed on."  Fawkes looked at him out of one firey eye.  "Hermione can still find other friends and confidants in her life but she may be Severus' last and only chance for a normal life."  Was it his imagination or did Fawkes look dubious?