Disclaimer- Don't own it
Monuments and Melodies
Chapter Eight- Harvest
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A week had passed since the meeting at Grimmauld Place between Albus, Ginny, and Severus, and the summer was finally nearing its end. Already a fortnight into September, and one could feel the drop in temperature. The air was still fairly warm, but the nipping breezes that sailed with it signaled the oncoming autumn.
Severus could not say he minded though. He had always been particularly fond to the more neutral weather of fall than the bright heat of summer or the frigid cold of winter. Surely, he enjoyed his time spent much more during the summer. He was on break after all, but fall had an almost soothing quality to it or it had, before he started teaching. To think of it- he had not had a free fall in what now? Twenty three years… yes, his first free fall. He liked to harvest the thought.
Of course, while he was free of the teaching, it did not mean he was free of the school itself. Trips had been made to the Grounds regularly all week. Work on the dungeons was at its height, and Severus wanted to make sure everything was done right, which meant he was supervising whenever he could.
This also meant he had not spoken to Ginny about her trip to the Cottage. In fact, he had not seen much of her the past few days except for the occasional meal or chance passing in the upstairs corridor. She was spending too much of her time holed up in her room, the crinkling of pages always to be heard. He admitted he had been avoiding her. He did not want to go to the Cottage, and he had no idea why on Earth she would want to. He had basically blown the whole ordeal off until Albus had questioned him on the subject earlier that morning, and now as the sun was rising high in the sky, Severus was standing outside Ginny's door, knocking patiently.
"Come in," he heard the muffled reply through the wood, and following it, he twisted the knob. As the door peaked open, he could see her, still wearing the plain nightdress, her red hair splashing across the cotton, sitting at the table. There was a book open in front of her.
"Good afternoon, Miss Weasley," he greeted cordially, steeping in and closing the door behind him.
She turned her pale face towards him, smiling softly, "Please, professor, have a seat." She gestured across the table.
Severus did just that, finding comfort in the open chair, "What are you reading?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just an old book I found in here- The Silmarillion," she said, "Have you read it?"
He nodded, "Yes, it is one of my favorites. May I ask which point you are at?"
"In the middle of Of Beren and Luthien, sir."
"Ah yes, Luthien, the beautiful elf maiden whose heart belonged to one of the race of men. It is probably the most beautiful of the tales told there."
Ginny looked down at the pages and smiled, "Beautiful indeed… So many trials, and there is still a happy ending… I wish it were always like that."
"Well, reality has to take place sometimes."
"Not in stories."
"No, not in stories…" he said, finding silence shortly after, "Miss Weasley, I've come to discuss your trip to the Cottage?"
"Have you already spoken to Remus?"
"No," he answered, "Remus will not be going with you. I will."
Ginny looked confused, "But Professor Dumbl-"
"And he changed his mind. He would like me to accompany you. I advise you not to try your luck."
"Of course," she nodded, "When would we be going?"
"Is tomorrow acceptable?"
"Yes."
"Good then… be ready at eight sharp, and dress fairly warm. The air has grown a chill of late," he stated, standing.
"How will we be getting there?"
"Portkey, and it's set to be back by eleven. You'll have three hours to look around and collect the things you need." She frowned at this, "What? Is that not enough time?"
"Oh no- that's fine," she said hurriedly, but he could tell by her worried expression this was not the case.
He walked to the door, his hand resting firmly the latch, "Good… Tomorrow then."
The red head nodded, "Yes, yes of course. Thank you, Professor."
"Good Afternoon, Miss Weasley," he pulled open the door.
"Good Afternoon, Professor," she called after him, as the stepped through the wooden flap, and continued down to the study, looking straight to the half full bottle of firewhisky on the shelf there.
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Severus was not necessarily a morning person, and at the sound of his bell ringing alarm waking him up the next morning, he profusely regretted agreeing to take Ginny so early in the day. Groggy, and head pained due to a full night of reading and alcohol, he hurried to the bathroom, stumbling through the medicine cabinet to find anything to ease the hang over. Even though he was already, a small bottle of sobering potion did the trick, and while there was still trace of headache, he felt much better.
He showered quickly and dressed in the simple black robes he and everyone else had grown so accustomed to. Plucking his coat of the moth worn wardrobe, he laid in on the bed as he ran a comb through his lank hair.
It was around seven forty five when a timid knock came on his door. He dropped the comb, and opened to find a mass of curling red hair below him, "Miss Weasley?"
She was looking down to her shoes, making it hard to see her expression, even harder with the hair tumbling into her features. She also wore simple black robes, but they were more of a grey now due to use and old age, "Professor," she said in a low voice, "I was wondering if there were any other cloaks in the house?"
Still holding the door with his left hand, he looked down at her skeptically, "Surely, you have your own?"
"Well, yes-"
"Just wear that one then," he said briskly. He didn't have time for this sort of thing. It was bad enough he had to go back there.
"But I can't, sir."
Severus crossed his arms, looking all too much like the intimidating Potions teacher he had once been, "And why is that?"
He could hear her swallow, "Because it's my grey one, sir,"
"And what is that supposed to mean to me?" He knew he was talking down to her, talking like he would to any third or fourth year, but he just didn't patience for something stupid. He never had.
"It's the cloak I wore during the final battle, sir." With that said, she finally looked up at him, the upset shown in her deep chocolate eyes.
That explained a lot. Just another reminder for Severus as why not to jump to conclusions. He stepped back, "Here, come in. I think I can find you something."
He shut the door behind her, and moved over to the wardrobe, shuffling through his things. From the very back he picked out an old dark green cloak he had worn years ago when he was a student, and the things that mattered were house pride, and revenge on a particular group of boys. It would probably be a bit big for the small girl, but it would work.
He turned around to hand it to her to find her staring directly at him, "Here," he said, handing her the coat. She extended a thin hand to take it, folding it lightly over her forearm.
"Thank you," she murmured, smoothing the rich fabric down, looking around the room. There wasn't much to see. Severus kept his room fairly empty. A simple bed, the wardrobe, his trunk, and a few books scattered on the end table were the only things to break the monotony.
He cleared his throat, "I believe we have time for a quick breakfast before we are off. There are still scones done there?"
Ginny turned back to him, "Yes. I don't know how good they'll be though."
"Alright, come on then, I'm hungry," he opened the door for her, and followed her out, tromping down the stairs and making it to the kitchen. Ginny had spoken the truth and there was a plate of scones resting on the counter. She immediately headed straight to one of the dressers, taking out two small plates, and dropping a scone on each of them. She handed one of the plates to Severus and put the other down on the table for herself, before heading to the refrigerator, "What would you like to drink?" she called over he shoulder, hunching to look at the selection.
"Is there any pumpkin juice?"
"Yes," she answered, taking out a pitcher and pouring two glasses of the orange liquid. She placed one in front of Severus, who was now sitting at the table, and took the seat across from him, "What condition do you think the house is in?"
Severus took a swig of his drink, "Fair I suppose. It's not like they are going to go in there and destroy the place. Their idea is to get you to come back, not leave."
"Is it safe, Professor, for you to be going along with me? You are just as great a target as I am."
"As safe as it would be for anyone in the Order. Surely, my head has a heftier price, but in the end, one person's death is the same as anyone else's."
Ginny looked down, nibbling her food, "Of course. That makes a good deal of sense."
It grew quiet as the two continued there meal. Severus looked down to his watch- 7:57, "Finish up. We've three minutes," The red head nodded at this, and quickly stuffed the rest of the scone in her mouth, causing Severus to frown, "Come on, into the study."
The two hurried to the office where the Potions Master pulled out an old skeleton key from a drawer. He held it out and Ginny daintily touched it with the tips of her fingers. Looking at the watch, he counted down, "Three, two, one-"
And the world spun, his navel pulled up and around landing safely and quickly. Ginny stepped back from him as her feet touched the ground. He found himself looking about fifty feet away to the small house that rested on the plush green grass- The Cottage.
Longbottom Cottage had been in their family for centuries. It was not at all big, and from the outside one could guess there were only three to four rooms. The exterior walls were made of mismatched stones, and the roof was thatched. There was an overhang coming of the front, and beneath in were two rocking chairs beside the front door.
He looked over to his former student, to find her gazing intently at the structure. Her pale face was already gaining color from the whipping wind, and her hair floating about her face like a child was playing with it. His cloak did her well, the green meeting well with her complexion. In the wind, her face set, she looked well- pretty even. Soundlessly, she moved forward, walking across the lawn and to the fading blue door.
Severus followed her, and stood by her shoulder as she brought her hand to the latch. She paused, her fingers just inches away from the metal, "I don't know if I can do this."
"Miss Weasley, do not tell me I came all this way for nothing," Snape growled.
She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath, nodding. Her hand touched the door, and slowly she pulled it open.
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A/N- I am so sorry about the delay! Please forgive me, but midterms have been killer! I swear the next chapter will be out sooner.
And I'm sorry about the length of this one also. I feel like this is just a little more character development, and a bit more of transition chapter than anything else. I just really wanted the Cottage to be in one chapter. So sorry!
Another thing I just wanted to bring up, a friend of mine and I have started up a message board Harry Potter RP, that takes place Post Hogwarts when the war is still raging. We need a lot of characters. However, Ron, Ginny, and Luna are already taken. Everything else is pretty much free domain. But really, this is a serious RP. We try to write or posts to the full potential. If you are interested, contact me by my aim screenname doctormoriarty16, send me an email at , or post a comment at my livejournal. This is a link to the site- ?boardharry&actiondisplay&num1106781881 - where the specific post is. You'll notice the sight is mainly for Buffy, but this thread is an exception. If you are familiar with Buffy RPing, this is the sight for Untouchable, which just reached one hundred pages. So, if you're interested, we need all the people we can get. Thanks!
I just want to state, because it has been brought up in a few reviews- GINNY WILL NOT BE DEPENDENT ON SNAPE. It wouldn't work with where I am going with the story at all. And just to put it out there- SNAPE WILL NOT BE DEPENDENT ON GINNY. That wouldn't work either. I just wanted to make sure that is understood.
Thank you to all my fabulous reviewers! This story is for you guys, and you do an awesome job of giving me feedback!
missparker85- You have no idea how honoured I am to have you read my stories! I've read and loved all of your Snape/Ginny stories. I was so excited when I saw your review. Thanks so much!
TommyBoy182- Yeah for rambling! The great outage- ugh- I was dying. I wanted to post in my livejournal so badly. As soon as it was back up, I posted immediately around six times. I'm so obsessive compulsive. I need to see Phantom! Ahh! I've seen the show six times and I was so excited about the movie, but it is still playing nowhere around me! Gah!
Thank you so much everyone!
Also, check out the six million (okay, three) one-shots I put up this week… when I should have been writing this…eh… um… watch as I smile sheepishly?
PLEASE REVIEW!