Chapter 3
Severus walked up to the entrance to St. Mungo's, dressed in Muggle clothes. He could of course have Apparated straight to the entrance hall, if not to Albus' room, but somehow he preferred the walk.
He did feel rather silly, talking to the mannequin in the window, but there weren't many Muggles around at this early hour.
"Professor Snape?" he heard someone ask. Great, just another ex-student. Fortunately, this was not that particular student. A Hufflepuff, if he remembered correctly. Easily scared and terribly afraid of making mistakes. Apparently, he had chosen the right job, as a Mediwizard.
"I am here to see Albus Dumbledore," he announced. The words 'Headmaster' or 'Professor' just didn't seem to fit any longer.
"I am sure he will be glad to see you, sir. I suppose you know the way?" Severus nodded and turned around.
Albus Dumbledore sat straight up in bed, looking frail in a near-white nightshirt instead of his voluminous and ostentatiously coloured robes. His hair and beard had been cut rather short, no doubt for the benefit of the staff rather than the owner of them. Other than that, in appearance Albus had not changed. His eyes twinkled merrily and next to his bed stood a tray with tea and a nauseating amount of sweets.
"Good morning, Albus," Severus said, while summoning himself a chair and sitting down.
"Why, good morning. Do you want a cup of tea?"
"If it doesn't inconvenience you, I'd prefer coffee," Severus answered, as it was only ten o'clock.
"That's quite all right with me. Here you are, dear boy," said the old man, handing Severus a cup of tea. Not wanting to offend, Severus discreetly pointed his wand at the cup and changed the contents to coffee. Strong, black coffee.
"How are you, Albus?" Severus asked, mentally noting that his condition had worsened since he had last been here, about a month ago. As far as he knew, only the older staff of Hogwarts still visited regularly. Albus had no living relatives, and most of his friends had died years ago. Even Potter, who owed his sanity, if not his life, to this man, didn't visit. Moving on, all right.
"I'm fine, boy, just fine. The service is great here, I only have to ask and they get it."
"That is easy, Albus. They just wave their wands and conjure up everything they want," Severus said, carefully monitoring Albus' reaction. The old man looked confused and shook his head. Severus sighed; Albus didn't even remember magic.
"Albus, I've got to tell you something. I think I am in love." The old wizard didn't react exactly; it did not matter to him what you talked about, but he liked to hear voices. Severus repressed the urge to recite potions recipes; though Albus probably would not even notice, it didn't seem right to him.
"Do you remember Hermione Granger?" he asked. To his surprise, Albus' eyes lost their twinkle and seemed serious.
"She helped me make potions for the Order and poisons for the Dark Lord. She waited for me to come back after the summons. I fell in love with her, and she fell in love with me."
"Did you marry her, Severus?" Severus looked up in surprise; he hadn't heard that voice say his name in... ten years.
"No," he whispered. "I sent her away."
-^-^-
"Who did you meet?" Parvati said incredulously. It was a few days after she had been to Diagon Alley. Hermione had walked to The Burrow with her boys and, as the children got spoiled by Molly, now enjoyed coffee and girl talk with Ron's wife.
"Now let me get this straight. You had just bought dress robes at Madam Malkin's, and you ran into Snape at the Apothecary?"
"Yes," Hermione answered. "And he was practically stunned with surprise, he called me Miss Granger, and he asked me whether he hadn't taught me enough to brew my own Analgesic Potions. And he practically invited me to visit him."
"He did what?" asked Parvati, even more surprised than before.
"Seems you have a hearing problem tonight," Hermione said teasingly. "He said, literally: 'I do have a dungeon available. If it isn't too much out of your way, you could come there and brew your potion."
"And you are sure this is the same Snape as ever?" Parvati answered.
"Positive. I never expected him to do that, really. I mean; he basically sent me away."
"How do you mean? You just said he invited you to visit him." Parvati gave her a blank look.
"Did nobody ever tell you? Oh my god..." Hermione said, now half and half ashamed. Parvati didn't like Severus Snape any better than Ron had in their first year.
"You remember that I used to assist him brewing healing draughts?" Hermione asked her friend, not knowing where to start the story. Parvati nodded. In their seventh year, some of the older students had been asked to assist their professors with their duties. Hermione had taken the job that nobody wanted or dared to accept: assisting professor Snape. Parvati had worked as a Mediwitch then, and now worked part-time at St.Mungo's.
"We did not only make healing potions. As I already knew of his double agent role, I got to assist in making several poisons for Voldemort." Parvati gasped. She had been told of Snape's role in the Order after Voldemort had been defeated, but she hadn't given it much thought.
"I never knew that!"
"Of course you didn't. In order to keep up his cover, he had to keep supplying Voldemort with poisons and strengthening potions. Of course, we weakened most of them. Occasionally, Severus was called away when we were making some potion or other, and one time I fell asleep in the laboratory."
"Severus? The two of you are on a first-name basis?"
"Yes, we are... or were, at least. Never mind that now. I had fallen asleep, and I woke up by some stumbling. It turned out that Voldemort had cursed rather liberally that day, and Severus had gotten more than his share. He could barely walk, so I assisted..."
"He allowed you to help him?"
"He wasn't really in a shape to protest, otherwise he certainly wouldn't have. He refused to go to the Hospital Wing, so I healed him as best I could. After that I waited for him to come back after the summons. Most times I had to heal him. He had a pretty rough time."
"I never thought about those things... I had of course heard he was a Death Eater, but as Dumbledore seemed to trust him..." said Parvati thoughtfully.
"There was more to it. But to make a long story short, one thing led to another and I fell in love." She tentatively looked up to read her friend's reaction and saw Parvati was now stunned. "One day, I had healed him again, and I kissed him. He kissed back at first, but as soon as he had overcome the surprise he sent me away."
Hermione closed her eyes. She remembered that scene like yesterday... or better, since her days looked pretty much the same now.
"You had better go now."
"But, Severus, I love you."
"Hermione, look at me. What am I?"
"A man who had sacrificed a great deal and deserves to be loved?"
"I am a Death Eater! You know, one of those people wearing long black robes and silvery masks, and an ugly Mark. One of those people who want to rid the world of every wizard or witch who isn't of the purest parentage possible. One of those people who kiss the robes of a being, more reptile than human, whose only desire is to gain immortality."
"You are no longer a Death Eater, you know that," Hermione disagreed.
"To Voldemort I am. To the world I am. Besides, I told you I have enemies. People who are willing to torture, willing to kill. They could kill you, just to hurt me."
"I don't care about people wanting to kill me."
"I do care about people wanting to kill you. Loving somebody makes one vulnerable. I can't afford being vulnerable. You had better go now."
"Hermione, are you alright?" Parvati asked.
"Yes, I'm fine," Hemione answered, but she didn't sound convincing to Parvati.
"Regrets?" Parvati inquired softly as she saw a faint glimmer in the other woman's eyes. Hermione shook her head, but the tears flowed freely now.
"You mentioned you bought new dress robes," said Parvati, while putting an arm around Hermione's shoulder. "There isn't a wedding I haven't been told about, is there?" Hermione smiled faintly at her friend's attempt to distract her.
"No, there isn't. It's some undoubtedly boring formal dinner at the Minister's Residence, tomorrow evening."
"Did you just say you will be dining at the Minister's Residence? That's an honour!" Parvati exclaimed excitedly.
"What do I hear?" Molly asked, while she walked in. "Did my son conveniently forget to tell me he is invited by the Minister?"
"Yes, I suppose so," answered Hermione unenthusiastically. "He would have forgotten to tell me, if it weren't for the fact that I needed new dress robes. But, honour or not, I am not exactly looking forward to it."
"Why, it's normal to be a little nervous at such an event. You have to tell us everything afterwards!"
"I am not nervous!" Hermione rejected. "Well, maybe I am. But that's not the point. It's more that I don't like the minister, and I think that feeling is mutual. I hardly know his wife, and I don't even know the name of the current French minister for magic, who, by the way, will also be present. There will be some members of the Order present, but I don't know who, and as the two of you haven't heard anything I doubt it will be someone I know well."
"Come on, dear, it won't be that bad," Molly said soothingly. "There are hardly any members of the Order that you aren't acquainted with. I believe you do even speak French, don't you?"
"Yes, I speak French," Hermione admitted grudgingly. "But I doubt I will be more comfortable talking about nothing in French than I would in English."
*"Hermione, are you ill?" Parvati asked suddenly, sounding a little testy.
"How do you mean?"
"Do you suffer from an incurable illness, to which you will succumb before tomorrow evening, eleven o'clock?"
"No, why?" Hermione asked, not quite comprehending what her friend tried to convey.
"Then I suppose you'd better just go there and make the best of it."*
-^-^-
Author's Note: The part between ** is a variation on a quote from ER, where Benton had to dine at Anspaugh's.