Chapter One – Arrival
Severus Snape tapped his foot lightly to the beat of the pulsing train. He looked out the window and sighed. Why had he agreed to come here again? And to travel as a muggle, no less.
An announcer, first speaking in Chinese, followed by English, told the train that they would be arriving in ten minutes. Slowly, Severus gathered his things scattered around the compartment. Again he congratulated himself on his cleverness. When he had seen how crowded the train had been, he bewitched the compartment door to seem broken. An engineer tried to fix it, but muttered that he would work on it after the train's arrival.
Severus had enjoyed having the compartment to himself. Seeing that a train was the easiest way to get to Beijing. For all of his flying experience on a broom, Severus was deathly afraid of airplanes. There was something not right about a huge metal contraction flying through the air without magic.
No, he didn't trust airplanes. And so he took a train.
When the train came to a screeching halt, he stood up, taking the time to stretch his stiffened-up limbs. Adjusting his coat, he picked up his traveling case and walked out onto the platform.
It was bright out. Much brighter than Severus would have liked it. Putting his hand over his eyes, Severus searched for the greeters he was promised.
There they were, four in all. One was holding a sign bearing his name. He walked over to the group briskly and bowed.
"Hello," he said shortly, holding out his hand.
"Hello," a woman said. She was obviously trying to blend in, wearing muggle clothes. She had matched a pair of linen pants with a flannel plaid shirt.
"I am Professor Mai Xu. This is Professor Lee, Professor Chung and Professor Zheng" she said, pointing to the woman and two men standing next to her. "We are so pleased that you agreed to visit us."
"Thank you for inviting me," Severus said. He hated pleasantries like this. Now all he wanted to do was get to his hotel room and open up a bottle of Ogden's Firewhiskey.
Two of the professors started speaking rapidly in Chinese. Severus just stared at them, an eyebrow raised.
"Of course," Professor Xu said to the two professors. "They would like to know if you were comfortable during your journey."
"It was fine, but I would like to rest," Severus admitted.
"Yes, yes, you must rest," Professor Xu said, as if she was cooing to a newborn. "Tomorrow, you will have a tour of the university and a dinner is planned. The next day, you will start the lectures with the students."
"That sounds wonderful," Severus deadpanned.
"Come, come. We get you to the hotel," Professor Xu said.
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Hermione Granger-Weasley lay in her hotel bed half dressed, staring at the Beijing skyline. She and Ron had planned to go out, but not it looked like their plans might change.
"Of course we'll join you," Ron said eagerly into the telephone, which he had finally mastered after all of these years. "We'll be down in fifteen minutes."
Hermione sighed. She had been hoping for a night alone with her husband. Since they had arrived, they had barely seen each other.
"Ron," Hermione started.
"Come on, love, it will be fun," Ron said, sitting down at the edge of the bed. He rested his hand on her bottom, where only a sheer pair of underwear separated his hand from skin.
She rolled over and looked at Ron. "I thought we said that tonight would be just us," Hermione complained.
"I know, love. But it will be great to have a drink with some of the guys. These are really good people, Mione," Ron said eagerly.
"I'm sure they are," Hermione muttered. Recluctently, she stood up and went to her suitcase.
"Muggle clothes, Mione," Ron said. "We may end up going out into the city."
Hermione chose a pair of jeans with a light green sweater. "I'm ready," she said dully.
Ron looked her up and down. "Couldn't you make a little effort?" he asked sadly.
"I'd make an effort for you, Ron. Just you," Hermione said.
"I see," Ron said, crossing his arms. "Then let's go."
They stood far apart in the elevator, waiting to go down in silence. When had they grown so far apart? Hermione asked herself for the thousandth time.
Ron took her hand stiffly when they exited the elevator. They headed straight to the hotel bar. A group of Aurors-in-training welcomed Ron euthuesastically. Hermione stood on the edge of the group and let her eyes wander.
A sight so familiar, yet unexpected in this forgein placed was in front of her.
"Ron," she said, trying to attract her husband's attention. "Ron!" she said yet again.
Finally he looked over at her. "Yeah, love?" he said.
"That's Professor Snape!" she told him, pointing him out.
Ron looked over at the professor, who was sitting at the bar alone. He was smoking a cigarette, and nursing a drink in front of him. "No way," Ron said.
"I'm going to buy him a drink," Hermione said determinedly.
Ron groaned. "Mione, don't!" he pleaded. "Then we'd have to talk to him."
"He saved your life, Ron," Hermione snapped, letting her mind wander back to the final battle with Voldemort. Remembering that battle was something she rarely let herself do.
"That doesn't mean I want to talk to him. You know how he treated Harry," Ron said menacingly. Both Ron and Hermione froze when the name was said.
Harry.
Harry, who had given his life to save the wizarding world. It had been almost five years since that awful battle. Five years in a world without him.
"I'm sorry, love," Ron said quickly. "Let's just go. Even seeing Professor Snape here is making me upset."
Hermione nodded, her mouth dry. "Fine. Let's go," she said, taking Ron's hand and giving it a squeeze.
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Severus Snape let out a deep sigh of relief when Granger and Weasley left the bar without saying anything to him. What in the world were they doing here?
He had heard they had gotten married. Didn't surprise him. They couldn't seem to get enough of each other back at Hogwarts. But now, now there seemed to be an obvious distance between them.
Severus took another long drag on his cigarette. "Awful habit," he said out loud, to no one in particular.
He looked around the hotel bar again. It wasn't his ideal, but then again, his ideal was the Hog's Head, so that wasn't saying much. This place was too clean. But then he reminded himself that the bar was meant for muggles.
A jazz pianist was playing in the corner. He didn't know muggle music, but the song had a calming tempo, slow, not upbeat at all. He closed his eyes and let himself listen to the music. Severus could finally feel himself relaxing from the hard day and a half of traveling.
Two hours later he let himself into his hotel room. He didn't understand half of the contraptions that were in the room. But there was a bed, and that was all that mattered. Slowly, he unbuttoned his frock, and rolled his shoulders. Undressing the rest of the way, he went into the tiny bathroom to finish getting ready for bed.
Five minutes later, he slipped underneath the covers, ready for a good nights sleep.
He closed his eyes, and tried to release all emotion from his head. Even though he didn't need Occlumency in his life anymore, it was a habit that he had not been able to break.
Severus rolled over to his side, trying to get in a more comfortable position. Five minutes later, he tried sleeping on his stomach. Ten minutes later, he stood up and got a glass of water, cursing himself for not bringing a dreamless sleep potion with him on the journey.
He sat himself down at the small writing desk and took a sip of water. There was a writing pad and a muggle writing contraption. A pen? He couldn't be sure if that was the correct term or not. Gingerly, he lifted the pen and put the tip on the pad of paper. Quickly, he lifted it up and was surprised to see a small black mark where the pen had been. Slowly, he wrote his name on the paper. He looked at the small object. Not as smooth as a quill, but then again, one didn't need to have a bottle of ink handy to write.
He took another sip of water and let his eyes wander out over the Beijing skyline. So far the city kept surprising him. Yawning, he went back into bed. He laid there for another ten minutes. Nothing. He threw off the black t-shirt he had been wearing, and closed his eyes again.
A half an hour later, he knew he was in for a long night.
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"Ron?" Hermione whispered. Ron was laying on his side, facing away from her. She could hear him lightly snoring.
"Ron?" she asked again. There was still no answer. Hermione sat herself up and brought her knees to her chest. She looked out of the window for the umpteenth time.
Slowly rocking herself, Hermione tried to let go of all of her thoughts. She should be happy. She and Ron just made love for the first time in almost five months. Hermione decided to look past the fact that Ron had been quite tipsy. At least they had been together. Hermione missed the closeness they shared when Ron was inside her.
The sex was nothing compared to when they first started having sex, sixth year. The excitement of finding a place and not getting caught. Knowing that they were doing something that would be looked down on...they couldn't get enough of each other back then.
Hermione stood up, and found a t-shirt to put over her naked form. She inhaled deeply, it was one of Ron's Chuddley Canon shirts. She checked again to make sure that Ron was asleep. His snoring loudly and rolling over confirmed that he was.
Quickly Hermione grabbed something from her purse and snuck out onto the balcony. Lighting a match, she took a deep drag of her secret vice. She had started smoking cigarettes shortly after the Final Battle. They were the only things that really relaxed her. As far as she knew, no one had any idea.
Taking the last drag of her cigarette, Hermione threw the butt over the balcony. Then came the routine of brushing her teeth and performing a breath-cleaning spell so Ron wouldn't know.
Hermione slipped back under the covers knowing that sleep was the furthest thing on her mind tonight.