Moon River
Chapter Three
-
Hermione stood quickly, trying to recover, but still feeling very dizzy. Grabbing her wand, she cast a wellness charm on herself to raise her blood sugar from it's sinking levels. Feeling much better physically, she then ran up the stairs to grab her meager posessions she had with her.
"Hermione! Miss Granger!" Snape yelled. "Please wait!"
Hermione ran into the bedroom, grabbing her things, and slipped into the hall, where she met him face-to-face. "What, Snape? I just had sex with a professor who loathed, HATED me in my school days! You made my life a living HELL!"
"And I apologize! I am a changed man, Hermione Granger!" He grabbed her shoulders. "Please, please, hear me out!"
She adjusted her things in her arms. "Severus Snape, I have nothing to say to you. Thank you for last night, but I want to leave now. Please. Let me go."
He dropped his arms, releasing her from his grip. "I can't make you stay," he said softly.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Then she ran.
Severus groaned. Once again, he was letting one of the greatest things to happen to him get away. And he had no way of even contacting her.
-----
Hermione kept running. The house was set at the end of a long country road. She ran and ran until she came to the main road, knowing full well she could call the Knight Bus, but wanted to expend some energy.
"Why?" she moaned, gasping for breath. "Why why why...?"
Why had she been so stupid? She was not the kind of girl who did things like this normally! She didn't even drink much, for God's sake! So in one night, she managed to get rip-roaringly drunk AND sleep with a former professor.
Good God.
This sounded like a cheap romance novel.
Shaking her head and fumbling for her wand, Hermione called the Knight Bus to take her back to what she knew - her humble flat that she lived in by herself, other than her cat Speedy (Crookshanks had passed two years ago). She would go back to her cooking-for-one, her non-alcoholic beverages, and her Friday nights reading research texts on Muggle geneology testing.
No more Moon River, she told herself. No more. She was done with that. She didn't need a man. All she needed was herself.
-----
Month and a half later---
-----
Severus Snape was back to teaching boring Potions classes to dull-headed Hogwarts students. After his bout with Hermione, he had gone back to being his usual, testy self. Clyde Smithers had borne the brunt of his anger this morning when he had melted his eleventh cauldron, Neville-style, with potion creeping along the floor that dissolved people's shoes.
The plus side of that potion is that it had scoured the floors of Clyde's ultra-sticky potion he had spilled last week.
Now the class was sitting quietly, their shoes repaired, writing essays over the results of their brews. He sat with a book in front of him, but his eyes were unseeing. Even though the ten most deadly potions were described in front of him, all he could think of was how soft her hair was, how sensual she had been in her lovemaking, and how her eyes had filled with tears as she ran out of his country home.
He slammed his book shut. "Everyone out. Just leave."
"Sir..."
"But it's not time..."
Severus fixed them with a steely gaze. "What did I just tell you? I...said...to...get...OUT!!!!! SO GET OUT NOW!"
They hurriedly grabbed their belongings, racing out of the classroom. Even Smithers, who usually dawdled, was out the door in record time. Snape let his head fall into his hands. God he missed her. He had to try and see her again. He had to. She had infected his senses...She had wormed her way into his very soul. He chided himself for not being more distant - for letting himself get close enough to hurt.
Snape stood, feeling an ache in his joints that used to not be quite so pronounced. Well, he supposed, this must be what it feels like to be in your forties.
"I'm getting old, aren't I, Noir?" He stroked his magically-colored black owl. "And yet, I still have never really found love. Silly thing that it is anyway. No, there is no love...Just a complex balance of chemicals in our brains..."
The owl hooted.
"You agree?" Snape walked away, back to his desk to draw out some parchment, some ink, and a quill. "Yet...maybe we should have this complex balance at some point in our lives, hmm?"
He began to write.
-----
Hermione looked striking in a cream-colored pantsuit, except for the fact her face looked ashen. She'd been sick for the past week or so. Now she felt light-headed and nauscious. It couldn't be her blood sugar, she'd had toast and orange juice this morning...Then she realized that "this morning" had been eleven hours ago.
She paged her secretary. "Cat? Sorry to bother you, but could you maybe order me some lunch?"
"Let me guess. Blood sugar? When did you last eat?"
"This morning?" she said sheepishly.
"It's three o' clock, Hermione."
"Which means Foo Yung's will be done with the lunch rush! C'mon, I think some beef with broccoli and some chicken lo mein. We'll split it. I know all you've had is a bagel with cream cheese for lunch."
"Oh, fine. But we're getting some crab rangoons as well." Cat hung up.
Hermione smiled. She loved Cat. She was definitely her best friend. Cat had graduated two years behind Hermione in school, out of Ravenclaw house. She had been very intelligent, becoming a Prefect in her fifth year, Head Girl her seventh. She could've done anything, but she came to work for Hermione. Cat had been a Muggle-born child that had been adopted into the wizarding world, and wanted to help others like herself.
Hermione stood, feeling dizzy again. What was up with this? Why was she so ill? After lunch, she'd make an appointment with her physician. This was just too much to write off as nothing. It was probably stress-related, but maybe he could just prescribe some Pepper-Up and be done.
"Hermione?" Cat knocked on her office door. "Hermione, post for you."
"All right, bring it in."
Cat opened the door, holding in her hands a scroll of parchment bound by a Slytherin-green ribbon. There was bold, black scrawl on it, depicting her name.
"Thank you, Cat," Hermione said faintly, accepting the parchment. Perceiving that her boss needed some alone time, Cat left the room. Trying to control the shaking of her hands, Hermione opened the letter.
Miss Granger,
I write this letter with humble countenance, as I wish for you to respond. I want to see you again. Please, I beg of you, reply to this correspondance. We will start anew, and try to forget out last encounter.
Most Sincerely Yours,
S. Snape
Hermione grabbed pen and paper, as she had never quite gotten used to quills and parchment.
Professor Snape,
It is hard for me to "start anew", as you so called it, when what I picture of you now is not us making sweet love, but you sneering at me when I was a young girl, saying "I see no difference." It will take a lot to get over all of your cruelties you pushed on us when my classmates and I were younger.
Sincerely,
Hermione E. Granger
Hermione rolled up the letter, tied it to her owl Gweneth's leg, and sent her on her merry way. The telltale smells of Chinese food told her she'd been pondering over her letter for a while, and she exited her office for a late lunch with Cat.
-----
Hours Later-
Snape was pounding his head on his desk, wondering why he had to have been such a prick. He'd heard that girls liked sensitive guys...why'd he have to be so insensitive?
He picked up his quill and began to write once more.
-----
"Miss Granger? I see you're here with us again. Is your back bothering you again?"
"No, Doctor White...I'm really not sure what's wrong with me. I've been feeling so nausceous and dizzy all the time though, for about a week. I thought it was my blood sugar, but I don't think that's it."
"Hmm." The physician furrowed his brows, looking at her chart. "Well, I'm going to send you off for some testing in our lab, all right? I'll meet you back here in an hour."
Hermione grabbed her purse, smiling at him. "Thank you."
Y'know, he's kind of cute...and single...hmm hmm hmm... Hermione thought this as she was being cast with all sorts of diagnostic spells later on in the lab. I should've done some research before I came here. Some of these spells might be dangerous in high levels...but back to Dr. White. Cute, single, he's a DOCTOR, he'd probably be really fun on dates... Hermione smiled, she couldn't help herself.
"What's so funny, miss?" asked one of the nurses.
Hermione snapped out of her daydream. "Oh, funny joke I heard this morning. About an elf, a wizard, and a banshee who all go into a bar..."
"Okay miss," said the nurse hurriedly. "Well, for a minute I thought you might be thinking about our Doctor White. Just thought I should tell you...before you went flinging yourself his way..."
Ignoring the "flinging yourself" comment, Hermione leaned toward the nurse. "What?"
"Well," the nurse began, "He...er...swings a different way."
Hermione gasped. "He's gay?!"
"Mmm-hmm. Mum's the word though."
"Don't worry," Hermione told her.
Damn my Gaydar. Damn my Gaydar...to the seventh level of Hell...
It seemed as if her luck with men was rapidly - very rapidly - deterriorating.
-----
Fifteen minutes later, Hermione was back in the exam room with Dr. White, feeling slightly less giddy and giggly now that she knew he was most definitely unavailable. He was looking at her chart, assessing all of her diagnostic tests.
"Well?" she finally voiced. "What's wrong with me?"
"For one, you're very dehydrated. How much water do you drink a day?"
Sheepishly, Hermione shrugged her shoulders.
"You'll need to spend a couple of days in the hospital, getting re-hydrated. If you continue on this path, you could become very seriously ill."
"Yes, sir," said Hermione. "Is there anything else?"
"Yes, there is," said Dr. White, looking slightly uncomfortable.
Hermione sat, watching him try to grasp the words. "Come, Dr. White, out with it. Am I dead and/or dying from cancer? Hmm?"
"No, no, nothing like that...It's just..." He paused, looking up at her, biting his lip.
"You're pregnant, Miss Granger."
----
A/N - Bwahaha...cliffy! Thanks to all of you who reviewed!!! Esp. Lightning BUG! I 3 you!!!!!!
REVIEW!
Alicia/Jaimes
Chapter Three
-
Hermione stood quickly, trying to recover, but still feeling very dizzy. Grabbing her wand, she cast a wellness charm on herself to raise her blood sugar from it's sinking levels. Feeling much better physically, she then ran up the stairs to grab her meager posessions she had with her.
"Hermione! Miss Granger!" Snape yelled. "Please wait!"
Hermione ran into the bedroom, grabbing her things, and slipped into the hall, where she met him face-to-face. "What, Snape? I just had sex with a professor who loathed, HATED me in my school days! You made my life a living HELL!"
"And I apologize! I am a changed man, Hermione Granger!" He grabbed her shoulders. "Please, please, hear me out!"
She adjusted her things in her arms. "Severus Snape, I have nothing to say to you. Thank you for last night, but I want to leave now. Please. Let me go."
He dropped his arms, releasing her from his grip. "I can't make you stay," he said softly.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Then she ran.
Severus groaned. Once again, he was letting one of the greatest things to happen to him get away. And he had no way of even contacting her.
-----
Hermione kept running. The house was set at the end of a long country road. She ran and ran until she came to the main road, knowing full well she could call the Knight Bus, but wanted to expend some energy.
"Why?" she moaned, gasping for breath. "Why why why...?"
Why had she been so stupid? She was not the kind of girl who did things like this normally! She didn't even drink much, for God's sake! So in one night, she managed to get rip-roaringly drunk AND sleep with a former professor.
Good God.
This sounded like a cheap romance novel.
Shaking her head and fumbling for her wand, Hermione called the Knight Bus to take her back to what she knew - her humble flat that she lived in by herself, other than her cat Speedy (Crookshanks had passed two years ago). She would go back to her cooking-for-one, her non-alcoholic beverages, and her Friday nights reading research texts on Muggle geneology testing.
No more Moon River, she told herself. No more. She was done with that. She didn't need a man. All she needed was herself.
-----
Month and a half later---
-----
Severus Snape was back to teaching boring Potions classes to dull-headed Hogwarts students. After his bout with Hermione, he had gone back to being his usual, testy self. Clyde Smithers had borne the brunt of his anger this morning when he had melted his eleventh cauldron, Neville-style, with potion creeping along the floor that dissolved people's shoes.
The plus side of that potion is that it had scoured the floors of Clyde's ultra-sticky potion he had spilled last week.
Now the class was sitting quietly, their shoes repaired, writing essays over the results of their brews. He sat with a book in front of him, but his eyes were unseeing. Even though the ten most deadly potions were described in front of him, all he could think of was how soft her hair was, how sensual she had been in her lovemaking, and how her eyes had filled with tears as she ran out of his country home.
He slammed his book shut. "Everyone out. Just leave."
"Sir..."
"But it's not time..."
Severus fixed them with a steely gaze. "What did I just tell you? I...said...to...get...OUT!!!!! SO GET OUT NOW!"
They hurriedly grabbed their belongings, racing out of the classroom. Even Smithers, who usually dawdled, was out the door in record time. Snape let his head fall into his hands. God he missed her. He had to try and see her again. He had to. She had infected his senses...She had wormed her way into his very soul. He chided himself for not being more distant - for letting himself get close enough to hurt.
Snape stood, feeling an ache in his joints that used to not be quite so pronounced. Well, he supposed, this must be what it feels like to be in your forties.
"I'm getting old, aren't I, Noir?" He stroked his magically-colored black owl. "And yet, I still have never really found love. Silly thing that it is anyway. No, there is no love...Just a complex balance of chemicals in our brains..."
The owl hooted.
"You agree?" Snape walked away, back to his desk to draw out some parchment, some ink, and a quill. "Yet...maybe we should have this complex balance at some point in our lives, hmm?"
He began to write.
-----
Hermione looked striking in a cream-colored pantsuit, except for the fact her face looked ashen. She'd been sick for the past week or so. Now she felt light-headed and nauscious. It couldn't be her blood sugar, she'd had toast and orange juice this morning...Then she realized that "this morning" had been eleven hours ago.
She paged her secretary. "Cat? Sorry to bother you, but could you maybe order me some lunch?"
"Let me guess. Blood sugar? When did you last eat?"
"This morning?" she said sheepishly.
"It's three o' clock, Hermione."
"Which means Foo Yung's will be done with the lunch rush! C'mon, I think some beef with broccoli and some chicken lo mein. We'll split it. I know all you've had is a bagel with cream cheese for lunch."
"Oh, fine. But we're getting some crab rangoons as well." Cat hung up.
Hermione smiled. She loved Cat. She was definitely her best friend. Cat had graduated two years behind Hermione in school, out of Ravenclaw house. She had been very intelligent, becoming a Prefect in her fifth year, Head Girl her seventh. She could've done anything, but she came to work for Hermione. Cat had been a Muggle-born child that had been adopted into the wizarding world, and wanted to help others like herself.
Hermione stood, feeling dizzy again. What was up with this? Why was she so ill? After lunch, she'd make an appointment with her physician. This was just too much to write off as nothing. It was probably stress-related, but maybe he could just prescribe some Pepper-Up and be done.
"Hermione?" Cat knocked on her office door. "Hermione, post for you."
"All right, bring it in."
Cat opened the door, holding in her hands a scroll of parchment bound by a Slytherin-green ribbon. There was bold, black scrawl on it, depicting her name.
"Thank you, Cat," Hermione said faintly, accepting the parchment. Perceiving that her boss needed some alone time, Cat left the room. Trying to control the shaking of her hands, Hermione opened the letter.
Miss Granger,
I write this letter with humble countenance, as I wish for you to respond. I want to see you again. Please, I beg of you, reply to this correspondance. We will start anew, and try to forget out last encounter.
Most Sincerely Yours,
S. Snape
Hermione grabbed pen and paper, as she had never quite gotten used to quills and parchment.
Professor Snape,
It is hard for me to "start anew", as you so called it, when what I picture of you now is not us making sweet love, but you sneering at me when I was a young girl, saying "I see no difference." It will take a lot to get over all of your cruelties you pushed on us when my classmates and I were younger.
Sincerely,
Hermione E. Granger
Hermione rolled up the letter, tied it to her owl Gweneth's leg, and sent her on her merry way. The telltale smells of Chinese food told her she'd been pondering over her letter for a while, and she exited her office for a late lunch with Cat.
-----
Hours Later-
Snape was pounding his head on his desk, wondering why he had to have been such a prick. He'd heard that girls liked sensitive guys...why'd he have to be so insensitive?
He picked up his quill and began to write once more.
-----
"Miss Granger? I see you're here with us again. Is your back bothering you again?"
"No, Doctor White...I'm really not sure what's wrong with me. I've been feeling so nausceous and dizzy all the time though, for about a week. I thought it was my blood sugar, but I don't think that's it."
"Hmm." The physician furrowed his brows, looking at her chart. "Well, I'm going to send you off for some testing in our lab, all right? I'll meet you back here in an hour."
Hermione grabbed her purse, smiling at him. "Thank you."
Y'know, he's kind of cute...and single...hmm hmm hmm... Hermione thought this as she was being cast with all sorts of diagnostic spells later on in the lab. I should've done some research before I came here. Some of these spells might be dangerous in high levels...but back to Dr. White. Cute, single, he's a DOCTOR, he'd probably be really fun on dates... Hermione smiled, she couldn't help herself.
"What's so funny, miss?" asked one of the nurses.
Hermione snapped out of her daydream. "Oh, funny joke I heard this morning. About an elf, a wizard, and a banshee who all go into a bar..."
"Okay miss," said the nurse hurriedly. "Well, for a minute I thought you might be thinking about our Doctor White. Just thought I should tell you...before you went flinging yourself his way..."
Ignoring the "flinging yourself" comment, Hermione leaned toward the nurse. "What?"
"Well," the nurse began, "He...er...swings a different way."
Hermione gasped. "He's gay?!"
"Mmm-hmm. Mum's the word though."
"Don't worry," Hermione told her.
Damn my Gaydar. Damn my Gaydar...to the seventh level of Hell...
It seemed as if her luck with men was rapidly - very rapidly - deterriorating.
-----
Fifteen minutes later, Hermione was back in the exam room with Dr. White, feeling slightly less giddy and giggly now that she knew he was most definitely unavailable. He was looking at her chart, assessing all of her diagnostic tests.
"Well?" she finally voiced. "What's wrong with me?"
"For one, you're very dehydrated. How much water do you drink a day?"
Sheepishly, Hermione shrugged her shoulders.
"You'll need to spend a couple of days in the hospital, getting re-hydrated. If you continue on this path, you could become very seriously ill."
"Yes, sir," said Hermione. "Is there anything else?"
"Yes, there is," said Dr. White, looking slightly uncomfortable.
Hermione sat, watching him try to grasp the words. "Come, Dr. White, out with it. Am I dead and/or dying from cancer? Hmm?"
"No, no, nothing like that...It's just..." He paused, looking up at her, biting his lip.
"You're pregnant, Miss Granger."
----
A/N - Bwahaha...cliffy! Thanks to all of you who reviewed!!! Esp. Lightning BUG! I 3 you!!!!!!
REVIEW!
Alicia/Jaimes