MARRYING SNAPE- by mypseudonym
Disclaimer: Still not mine, though I'm not sure I'd like the responsibility of taking care of them. I'm just test driving. Snape's family is all mine, but that is all.
AN: I was so excited to get noticed so quickly that I decided to go ahead and work on getting the second chapter of here. So, here you go!
Chapter 2
Hermione awoke the next morning on a strange couch in a strange room. One wall was decorated with her weapons from the training room. She knew they were hers by the arrangement, if not the small HJG plaque near the ceiling. There was a crackling magical fireplace on the opposite wall and a large oriental rug in the center of the room. Hermione sat up and noticed she was resting on a large black leather couch. Her Manchester United afghan was wrapped around her. A soft, low snore alerted Hermione to the fact that she was not alone. Professor Snape was stretched out in a rocking chair. He was dressed strangely, at least for him, in running clothes just as she was.
Hermione felt like she hit a brick wall as the events of the previous day hit her like a crushing boulder. She didn't cry, for she had no tears left to cry, no fits left to pitch, and no energy left to run. The long distance emotional running was a dumb idea, she knew. Now she would be drained for days because she refused to see Madam Pomfrey and be subjected to a full exam and lots of nosy questions, as well as more poking and prodding than she could handle today.
'Snape's the Potions Master, perhaps he can hook me up with something.' Hermione thought slyly. She stared at her sleeping professor willing him to wake up. After a moment, he choked slightly and awoke.
"Miss Granger, you're awake." He gasped, surprised to turn and find her staring at him.
"An astute observation, professor. How ever did you ascertain that?" the retorted, flicking her barbed tongue and rolling her eyes. She was in no mood to be polite, consequences be damned.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, getting up slowly. She wondered if he even noticed her sarcasm.
"Tired, fogged over, but otherwise fine." She answered honestly, stretching her aching legs.
"Well, allow me to send for Professor McGonagall. I believe she wanted the honor of talking to you." he dodged, moving toward the fireplace.
"Frankly, Professor Snape, I'd rather talk to you if I have to talk to someone." she responded, effectively stopping the man in his tracks.
"May I ask why, Miss Granger?" he asked, confused. No one but the Slytherins had ever actually wanted to talk to him over any other faculty member.
"Well, sir, you are more involved in this than any of the others. You will be honest with me, brutally honest. I'm not in the mood to sugarcoat things for me and tell me everything is going to be okay. I also know that you understand that sometimes people need to use…less than stellar vocabulary to get their point across. I doubt you have some crazy mental picture of me that will be utterly destroyed if I should happen to curse lightly." She responded. He moved nearer to her and slowly sat on the other end of the couch.
"Fine with me. Why did you run yesterday?" he asked. Hermione curled up at the other end of the couch, taking a very defensive posture.
"Well, it depends on which run you're talking about. I ran in the morning for exercise and in the afternoon because of this letter." She said, holding out the letter. Severus began to reach for it, but he remembered what she nearly did to Minerva. "Take it, read it. You will understand." She said, waving the letter at him. Snape reached toward it slowly, but snatched it out of her hand with lightening speed. The letter was crinkled from force and dried sweat, but he could still read it. He scanned the beginning of the letter.
"So you've fallen victim to this Marriage Law. While unfortunate for you, I fail to see how this pertains to me." he said.
"Just keep reading." the girl said quietly, looking down at her hands. Severus read more and gasped. She was to be sent to his family. "Yeah, that's why."
"Miss Granger, I don't quite know what to say." Hogwarts' most intimidating professor admitted.
"You could start by calling me Hermione. If we must be married, I'd like to be addressed by my first name." she said stubbornly. That's when Professor Snape did one thing that she never ever suspected he would do. The man laughed.
"You thought you'd be marrying me? Hermione, I'm already quite happily married. You'll be marrying my brother." he said.
"You have a brother?" Hermione asked, trying to picture her professor with an older and a younger version of himself. Was his brother older or younger? She desperately hoped it was a younger brother; Professor Snape seemed old enough to be her father, if not older, given the way wizard's age.
"Yes, would you care to relocate to my study? I can show you more of the family there." He asked. He had never taken anyone into his private apartment before, but these were special circumstances.
"Okay." she said, moving to get off the couch. "You wouldn't happen to have some pepper-up potion lying around would you?" she asked, shakily getting off the couch. Her worn legs felt like jello and collapsed underneath her.
"Hermione, look what you've done to yourself." he said with a mixture of compassion and willed gruffness.
"I'll be fine, sir. I just need some pepper-up potion." she said, too tired to fight him as he picked her up.
"I have something you can take in my rooms, but I keep all my potions stored safely and properly, Miss Granger. They do not lie around, as you would be so inclined to believe." he said.
"It's an expression, professor. D you make a habit of carrying students about?" she asked.
"Never, but you weigh no more than my daughter and she has a bad habit of falling asleep in the library at home." he explained, crossing over to the fireplace. "Snape quarters" he directed, stepping in. They stepped out gracefully in a room that looked a lot like the one they'd just left. Hermione was deposited on an identical black leather couch. Severus disappeared for a moment, coming back with two vials and a large photo album. He sat beside her on the couch a moment later and passed her two vials, both of which she drank without hesitation.
"Professor, what were those?" she asked curiously, noticing that neither of them were the pepper-up potion she requested.
"First of all, call me Severus when we're alone. You're going to be family after all. I gave you a strengthening draught and a potion of my own creation which will clear the lactic acid from your muscles. It will help with the soreness.
"Thanks."
"No problem. I'll give you a pepper-up potion before you leave if you still want it." he said, clutching a book.
"So what's in the book?" she asked. He looked confused for a second before remembering the album and hading it to her.
"This is the photo album my wife made me. She updates it every summer while I'm home." He said gesturing for her to open it. On the first page, an obviously younger Severus smiled with a smaller boy on his back who waved at them. "That's Alex and me the summer after my fourth year. He was four."
"Alex is to be my husband?" Hermione asked.
"Yes." Severus answered. Hermione nodded and smiled at the two brothers. There were a few more pictures from Severus' childhood, as well as some taken at Hogwarts. Finally, she turned a page and found his wedding. "Julia and I had an arranged marriage, much like you and Alex will. This was our wedding. I was 19. She was 18. At the time, we were nervous. We'd only known each other for a week. Now, I can't imagine my life without her and our kids." he said. Hermione spent the next hour looking through the album, page by page. Severus stayed with her for a while, but he excused himself to get cleaned up. He came back just as she finished the album, carrying a letter.
"Severus, I have a question for you about Alex." Hermione stated. Severus raised an eyebrow at her, signaling to her that she may continue. "Does he know about your other activities? Does he know about the Order? Will I be able to continue working for the Order and against Voldemort?" she asked nervously.
"Alex knows, he didn't approve until I told him I was becoming a spy for the light. He has been begging me to take him to an Order meeting for years now. You will be able to keep doing whatever it is you would like to do in the war effort, as long as it does not compromise my position. This came for you, courtesy of me. I don't know whether it's from Alex or Mother. Do you still want the pepper-up potion?" he asked, handing her the letter. Hermione stood to receive it and was surprised to feel her legs strong and sturdy underneath her.
"No thanks, Severus. I think those potions you gave me earlier did the trick. Thank you for showing me your album. It was calmed my nervous immensely." she said.
"I thought it would help. If you feel the need to chat again, you know where to find me." he said. She gave him a quick hug and left the suite bound for her dormitory.
'She and Alex will get along fine.' Severus thought, watching the door after she left.
'I can't believe I'm going to be related to Professor Snape. At least he seemed more human today.' Hermione thought. She stashed the unopened letter under her pillow and headed to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
AN: So that's Chapter 2, I think it's a tad bit shorter than Chapter 1. I've got another chapter before they start getting ridiculously long and in need of editing. Bad things happen grammatically when I write in the middle of the night. So, in this chapter, you've met the fluffy white tail of the plot bunny. Things should get interesting soon.