Graduation seemed to pass in a blur. There was a crowd of parents and students and Hermione had to charm her cone hat to stay on her head as her hair was really too large to allow her to be a hat person. After the diplomas were handed out, everyone was ushered into the great hall where there was a buffet and then people began to leave in shifts. There were three trips of the Hogwarts express – the first leaving right after the ceremony, one a few hours later, and a late night trip to accommodate everyone. Harry and Ron decided to leave on the last train as Hermione wasn't leaving at all. They spent the day on the grounds, walking around the lake and sitting in the deserted Gryffindor stands at the Quidditch pitch. He and Ron were both applying for Auror school for the fall but Harry had told her secretly that he'd gotten a few offers to join league Quidditch teams.
They made plans to see each other – Hermione promised to come to London and to the Burrow for weekend visits and they promised to come to Hogwarts to make sure she was settling in. It seemed strange to have to re-settle into a place that had been her home for nearly a decade. Finally, it was time for them to go and all three hugged and cried and feeling like a child – feeling everything irrevocably change at just that moment – she ran along side the train until the platform ran out and then she sat at the station weeping until Severus came and walked her back to the empty castle.
He didn't tell her she was being immature or silly. He just let her sit next to him on his bed and cry.
"I cried on my last day of Hogwarts, too." he whispered, an intimate confession. "Change is hard." He'd had the weight of the death eaters behind him when he'd graduated and he still shuddered at the recollection of making the worst choice he'd ever made.
"I know." she sniffed. "I'm really happy. It's just…" she didn't quite know how to articulate it and so she shrugged and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and let her bottom lip stick out and tremble a bit. He leaned in and kissed it softly.
"Why don't you get ready for bed?" he asked, pointing to the boxer shorts and tank top that was on the trunk at the foot of his bed. She's started to leave things in his room – night clothes and a tooth brush and a few hair accessories here and there. At first he'd bristled at the sight of a bright pink hair elastic on his night stand but now he cherished the sight of their poessesions mingling. She nodded and started to take off her dress robes and he went into the bathroom. She climbed in bed and pulled the warm comforter miserably up to her quivering chin. When he came back out he'd changed into a pair of cotton sleeping pants – black – and nothing else. His hair was down and he had a cool, damp cloth in his hand. He sat next to her on the bed and wiped her cheeks with the cloth and then laid it over her eyes. It felt good on her swollen eyelids and he whispered soothing sounds to her until she fell asleep.
In the morning she felt hung over from crying. Her face felt enormous and puffy and she was still congested. Severus was next to her snoring softly. She didn't want to wake him because it was early yet so she slid out of the warm bed and tiptoed into the bathroom. In the mirror, she looked about as bad as she felt and her reflection gazed back sympathetically. She brushed her teeth, something she'd neglected to the night before (her parents would have been appalled) and then ran a bath in his deep and long claw foot bathtub. She decided against any of the bath salts that sat along the edge (it was a very luxurious bathroom for such a practical man) and stripped and sunk into the clear, hot water. She sat with her knees pressed to her chest. She was sad at the loss of her childhood and that she would no longer be in shouting distance of Ron and Harry but she realized that she was content. She wasn't worried which was new as well. She'd graduated and Dumbledore knew her deep secret. She was naked mere feet away from Snape but no one was going to burst in and take it all away from her. Things had really worked out for the best. She let the hot water turn her pale skin bright red and she let the steam clear her sinuses. She'd put a warming charm on the water so she could stay in there all day if she wanted and she would never get cold. Her skin might shrivel off but a small price to pay for constant warmth, she thought. After about ten minutes, she heard light knocking and the bathroom door opened and Snape came in to see what she was doing.
"Everything okay?" he asked, giving her the once over. She nodded and gave him a smile. He let his lips twitch into a small smile before he pushed the pants off his hips. "Mind if I join you?" She scooted forward to make room for him and he gingerly stepped into the water. "Merlin, Hermione, how do you stand it this hot?" he said through clenched teeth.
"I hate to be cold." she said and when he got settled, she laid her head against her chest and he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. "Thank you for taking care of me last night." she said. He didn't reply but squeezed her briefly. At first, the dungeons had depressed her slightly always being so dark when she knew that outside the sun was brilliantly shining. It made it harder to wake up but now she was glad for the darkness because sitting in a steaming bath with Severus in soft candle light was a kind of bliss she'd never known before.
"What are your plans for today?" he asked, after a long silence except for the splashing their slight movements caused and the sounds of breathing.
"Move into McGonagall's room." she said. "Though I suppose I'll have to start calling it my room, now."
"I'll miss her." Snape said, uncharacteristically. "It was hard to see her leave. Did Dumbledore choose a new head of house?" He was wondering who the new deputy headmaster or mistress would be as well but he kept that to himself for now.
"Not yet." she said. He hummed a bit. Dumbledore had asked Severus to be his new deputy headmaster but he'd not decided if he was going to accept yet and so he refrained from telling Hermione just yet.
"Most of the staff leaves the castle until at least mid-July." he said. "I tend to stay because it's the only time I have to do any real research but I was thinking of maybe spending a few weeks in Italy." he said. "If I went do you think I could convince you to come along?" She turned to face him, upsetting a good portion of water over the side of the tub onto the floor. He had an estate there, on a winery that he'd been neglecting for far too long. He knew Hermione would be shocked when she saw the first signs of the wealth he had. He did not flaunt his money but it was there and it would take him an entire life time to spend even a fraction of it. He had the sudden urge to spoil Hermione silly.
"You want to go away with me?" she asked.
"I believe we spoke about this once before in Diagon Alley after your NEWTs." he reminded her. "Don't seem so surprised."
"I thought that once I graduated, that once I was no longer so… against the rules you might lose interest in me. Instead you become even better and invite me to Italy." she said. "Of course I would go. Wild horses, Severus."
"You thought that? Hermione, I love you for you regardless of your social position or age." he said.
"You love me?" she asked. He kept dropping these huge bombs on her like it was nothing!
"I can't be certain as I've never been in love before but I think that this feeling, this fluttering inside me whenever I see you, is something akin to love." he said. "I understand if you don't reciprocate." he added hastily. She leaned in and kissed him.
"I love you." she said. "When do we leave?"
When they finally made it out of the tub, Hermione left him to his own devices to start unpacking her things in her new room. Or rooms, as it were. The house elves had cleaned and moved her luggage to the rooms and Dumbledore had left a note on the table inside telling her that she could have her choice of any portrait in the castle that wasn't currently in use and that was large enough to replace the tabby cat. She was pleased about that – she loved crookshanks who'd taken up a permanent residence at Grimmauld place – but she didn't love cats. There was a beautiful picture of a dancing couple on the third floor that she'd always admired.
The elves had left all her things in the bedroom though it was not much. Clothes and books and a few odds and ends but she'd never had enough space for much else. Marginally more once she'd made Head Girl, yes, but even then she'd never bothered wasting money on things she didn't absolutely need. She started hanging her clothes in the closet and realized immediately she would have to go buy more. She had muggle clothes of course – a few pairs of jeans and shirts and a couple skirts and blouses. She had two formal dress robes from the occasional Yule ball or ministry function but those were both rather short in the sleeve now and tight around her hips. Then she had row upon row of Hogwarts uniforms and robes. She had nothing suitable for daily teaching or for a tryst in Italy. She set out her shoes in a row at the bottom of the antique cupboard and went about putting the books into the empty shelves. She needed at least three more bookcases. There were only two and those only had five shelves each. She would add it to her list of things to give to the elves. Of course she didn't like asking them to do things but she'd calmed in her maturing and she figured she would be as kind and fair to them as she could be if nothing else.
Eventually she'd gotten all her things situated and the rooms still looked empty and impersonal. There were a few items at her parent's house she'd bring back but she just didn't have very much to her name. A steady paycheck would change that sure enough. Dumbledore had given her a summer bonus – unusual for a Hogwarts professor but he called it compensation for her work the previous year and she was certain Severus had said something.
The room was not her style either. The bed linens were all a dusty rose color and there were floral patterns everywhere. It would take time changing the colors of everything magically. Part of her wanted to just go to Muggle London and buy fabric and bed clothes and do it the old fashioned way but she wasn't making that much money. She stripped the bed and put what was there in the laundry. She would have it cleaned before she changed it all. She charmed most things to be just white until she decided what to do with them. It made the room seem like a hotel room but it also made the room brighter (windows were something Severus lacked) and she enjoyed the sunlight for a while. A house elf appeared around noon to tell her that Master Snape had requested her presence for her in his chambers. She gave him her list of things to do and thanked him. She was in jeans and a tight t-shirt with Minnie Mouse on it. If they were going to be together he would have to get used to her casual love for the female mouse.
"What is that wretched thing on your shirt?" he asked immediately when she entered.
"Her name is Minnie and I love her and true love never dies." she protested. "I was informed that my presence was requested."
"It was and here you are." he said, pointing to the food on the table. She sat down and they started to eat quietly. "Did you get your things in order?" he asked.
"For the most part. I haven't redecorated yet. Well, I've undecorated, really, if that makes sense." She didn't wait for him to tell her that it didn't. "I've not yet decided what color scheme I want."
"I find silver and green to work quite well." he said if only to get a reaction from her. She scowled.
"If you're going to speak at least be useful." she said.
"My, I'm rubbing off on you." he said. "That was almost hurtful. To a lesser being, perhaps."
"I do need a trip to Diagon alley." she said ignoring him and barreling on in the conversation. "I was thinking of going in the morning if you'd like to come." He considered this for a moment.
"You do realize that it would be our coming out so to speak. As contemporaries and companions." he told her.
"If you don't feel comfortable with it, I understand." she said but she didn't understand, really. She wanted to owl the world, to tell everyone that she'd snagged the unsnagable man, that she'd not only fallen in love with Severus Snape but that he loved her back.
"I didn't say that." he said. "People will talk and you ought to be prepared for it."
"I'm a Gryffindor." she said.
"Don't remind me."
She didn't even bother to sleep in her room that night, even after all the work she'd put into it. She slept – a word she used loosely – with Severus as what was quickly becoming the norm. They slept only after hours of making love. Something was a little different about how he touched her, she noticed. He wasn't as gentle. It wasn't that he was rough, exactly, but he was possessive. His hands no longer lingered on her skin but roamed freely. It felt like his mouth and fingers were everywhere at once. He picked her up as if she were a rag doll and placed her on top of him. For someone who was as power hungry as he had once been, he rather liked being on bottom she mused silently. But it wasn't that he was submissive. There was something entirely erotic about seeing Hermione above him, her face twisted with concentration and pleasure – rising and falling and rising again – a phoenix in her own right.
They slept late the next morning, showered together, and readied themselves for their outing in Diagon Alley.
"Perhaps it won't be crowded." she said. "Monday morning isn't a high shopping time."
"It's hardly morning anymore. And besides, the type of people who will gossip are not the type of people who have to go to work on a Monday morning." he chided her. "It is the first day of summer as well. You'll run into your little friends, I imagine."
"Don't be so condescending towards me." she snapped and he looked a little taken aback. "I'm not your student anymore." she reminded him.
"You're right." he said but did not apologize as it was not his style. "Now, you're not wearing that out, are you?" he asked eyeing her muggle clothing. She rolled her eyes.
They went to Madam Malkin's first so Hermione could get proper robes. The woman quickly took her measurements with a tape measure that shot right out of the tip of her wand while Severus took a seat prepared for an hour of sheer boredom. She got a few basics – black and purple and green – for teaching with a modest neckline that was floor length and had beautiful embroidery on the sleeves that were like bells. Then, splurging, she got a new set of formal robes in red that were knee length and backless. Severus who'd been quiet grunted approvingly when she stepped from the dressing booth. A few more casual robes and they were done.
"That was painless." she said, allowing him to carry her bags. He merely grunted again, heading for the bookstore. She could love a man who led her to a bookstore without complaining or without her having to drag him herself. Inside the bookstore Snape immediately recognized the blonde hair of Lucius Malfoy. He looked up at them as soon as the bell on the door tinkled and smiled most unattractively.
"Hello, Severus. Doing a little shopping?" he drawled, setting the book in his hands down carelessly. Severus wanted to shove Hermione away behind the nearest bookshelf – to hide her not because he was ashamed but because Lucius Malfoy was dangerous. He had always been dangerous even without the backing of the Dark Lord. He'd raped countless girls while they were in school together, had beaten boys and had cheated without any showing of conscience. He was – simply – evil. If he decided that he didn't approve of Hermione with Severus, he would not rest until she was disposed of. But Hermione didn't slink away or cower in the slightest. She lifted her chin, her mouth set, and stared at him, daring him to say something.
"Yes," Severus said adopting the bored tone he always used with Lucius. "I'm surprised you're still in Britain." Lucius generally whisked Draco and Narcissa off to France for the summer which suited most everyone just fine – being rid of the Malfoys for a few months was pleasant.
"We'll leave in due time." he said and then finally moved his gaze down to Hermione. "Miss your train? Did mommy and daddy forget to come fetch you?" he spat.
"Apparently Draco doesn't tell you everything." she said coolly. "I've been hired as Transfiguration professor full time."
"Dumbledore always did pity you mudbloods." he said.
"That's enough, Lucius." Severus seethed. He'd had enough of this man to last him a few lifetimes.
"Sticking up for her now?" Lucius asked. "Is she your little whore for the summer?" Hermione's face burned. It was an awful thing to say and she itched to put her wand to this throat just as she did to his son.
"Not everyone marries whores, Lucius. How is Narcissa, by the way?" Severus asked, bored again. The blond man seemed to grow paler with his fury.
"Everyone shall know." he said. "You're hardly even a Slytherin anymore." Having enough, Lucius swept out of the bookstore but his majesty was gone. Hermione slumped next to him, exhausted from the encounter.
"I'm sorry." Severus murmured.
"You were right. It was to be expected." she said.
"Come on. I've had enough of this country. Let's go finish packing and leave early, hmm?" he asked, leading them back into the ally to where they could apparate to the gates of Hogwarts.
"Yes." Hermione agreed, but her mind was elsewhere. She didn't want Severus to lose his respect in the wizarding community. Lucius Malfoy was not a man to have as an enemy. She was beginning to wonder if their being together was hurting him more than helping him. Should she bow out gracefully to save the man she loved even more scorn then he'd already acquired over the years? She had a lot of thinking to do. She let him lead her back to Hogwarts in silence.