MARRYING SNAPE- mypseudonym
Disclaimer: Just as it always has been, none of these characters are mine except the Snape family.
AN: Here's the other half of the original Chapter 4. As you can imagine, this is where you all get to meet Alex.
Chapter 5
"Uncle Alex! Look! Look at this!" a little voice echoed through the halls
"Oh la la, Quinnie! Good job!" a man answered
"Hermione, I forgot to ask, do you speak French?" Julia asked, drawing Hermione's attention away from the voices she could hear in the hall.
"Fairly well, I'm not fluent, but I got by well enough during my summer in France, why?" Hermione replied, curious.
"Well, Annick, Severus and Alex's mother, is French. English is her second language, and I always go the feeling she as disappointed that I couldn't speak French." Julia explained. "Now it sounds as thought Alex has come home early, so we should go see him. He's probably come home early to see you more, so it's only proper."
They walked down the stairs into the main entry way. Hermione spent most of her walk down the main stairs watching the tall man in the foyer interacting with some of the children. She paused, still partially on the stairwell, watching.
"Children, have you let your uncle breathe since he got home?" Julia called, scolding. The three older children backed away and looked down.
"It's fine, Juls. Quinnie was just showing me where her tooth fell out today. I've got to get caught up on everything that has happened while I was at work." He said, pulling back the smallest of the three children. They all peered into the little girl's mouth with renewed interest, while the little girl regaled them all with the tale of losing her tooth. Julia sighed. She went to try to pull the heavy work robes off of him, but he crossed his arms, refusing to let her.
"Children, you all need to go wash up for dinner." Julia explained, waiting until the children had run up the stairs. Hermione could see that they were only hiding. "Okay Alex, what happened today? It must have been something if they sent you home two hours early." Julia mothered.
"Nothing happened. Just go find Severus for me please? I don't want Mother to hear of this, you know how she worries." He whispered
"Fine, I'll go get him. By the way, your guest arrived this afternoon. I suggest you find some time to greet her properly." Julia said, walking hurriedly down the hall and down a flight of stairs. The children ran back down the stairs as Alex stood smiling broadly at Hermione.
"Hermione! You're really here. I'm so glad you could come." He said, moving to hug her as she stepped off the stairs, but stopping suddenly. "Have you met the little ones yet?" He asked.
"Just Morgan, I've scarcely had time to meet anyone since I got here." Hermione said cheerfully.
"Well, come on down and I'll introduce you." He said. One of the girls went to pull on his hand to get his attention. "Ouch. Don't do that right now, please." He said to the girl. "Hermione, this is Daisy, Jordan, and Quinn. Guys, this is Hermione, she's going to be your aunt some day."
"Hello!" said the one called Quinn. "I've lost a tooth today, see?" she said, pulling open her mouth and showing Hermione where the front tooth had disappeared.
"I see. Very impressive. Pretty soon you'll have a brand new tooth in that hole." She said, smiling. Severus popped out of one of the doors.
"Kids, why don't you go see if Forchette needs any help setting the table for dinner." Severus said, more of an order than a question. Morgan popped out from under Alex's robe and toddled after them.
"Julia said you needed to see me?" he said quietly.
"I got burned today; I got distracted. I need you to help me heal it or hide it so Maman doesn't find out." Alex pleaded, whispering.
"Fine, go to your room; I'll be there in a moment. You can take Miss Granger with you." He said, heading back down the stairs. Alex offered his uninjured arm to Hermione, leading her back up the stairs. This time, thought, they turned and went into a different wing of the house. He stopped at one of the first doors and led Hermione inside. Hermione was slightly uncomfortable, thinking she was about to be led into her fiancé's bedroom. She released a breath she hadn't known she was holding when they stepped into a study filled with books, childish artwork, comfortable chairs, and a few souvenirs.
"This is my lounge, where I spend most of my time." He explained, sinking carefully into one of the chairs. "Make yourself at home." Hermione perched carefully on the chair next to him.
"Julia told me that you wanted me to have that room. It's beautiful; thank you." She said, carefully.
"I'm glad you like it. Have you looked out your balcony yet?" he asked.
"Yes, your garden is beautiful." She responded
"Thanks."
"You seem to take pride in it. Much like you do in your nieces and nephews." she said. Alex chuckled.
"They're something," he smiled.
"Tell me about them?" Hermione requested.
"Well, Daisy is the oldest. She's 10, and she's such a little mummy. She helps keep an eye on everyone. She's a bookworm, just like you and I. I take credit for that, since I read to her every single day and night for years. She used to get quite upset when Severus would leave to go back to school, and I'd bring her in here and read to her until she fell asleep. Jordan is 7. He's quiet, observant, and sneaky just like his father. He's a sweet kid though. Quinn, or Quinnie as we often call her, is 5. She's our little princess. She's funny and precocious. She's also the most openly friendly, which means she'll probably bond with you before the others. Jordan is shy, so he probably won't speak to you at all this weekend. He's not so good with new people, and I think he's mad that I might be getting married at some point in the near future. Morgan, the baby, is 2. He's very calm; we attribute that to being the fourth child." He explained.
Severus walked into the room carrying a couple of potions vials. Jordan came in behind him with some rags. "Thank you Jordan. You can go now."
"Thanks, Dad, but I'd rather stay and watch if that's alright?" the boy said quietly, looking from Severus to Alex and Hermione.
"Fine, you may stay if you don't get in the way. Alex, take off as many layers of clothing as you must."Severus ordered.
Alex quickly removed his outer robe, wincing at one sleeve. They could see the burned hole and charred flesh through his dress shirt. He took off one sleeve of the dress shirt, but paused warily at the sleeve of the charred arm. Hermione stood and came around to the other side of him. She took hold of shirt, holding it so that minimal amounts of fabric touched his arm.
"Hold your breath." She ordered quietly. Alex took a deep breath and held it. Hermione ripped the shirt off his arm.
"Ah sweet Merlin!" Alex groaned through clenched teeth.
"Oh quit being a baby. I've done that to people who have had much worse injuries." Hermione said calmly, turning his arm to examine the burn. Severus laughed silently in the background. Even Jordan couldn't resist smiling.
"Hermione, you should as though you're a pro at this." Severus said.
"Well, Harry and Ron get into a lot of shady accidents that they don't want to explain to Madam Pomfrey. Plus, I spent last summer learning first aid with Charlie Weasley." She explained.
"Then I take it you know what to do with these?" Severus said, holding up the two vials he brought.
"Indeed I do." She said. Severus handed them to her.
"Then I'll leave you to your work. Do you mind if Jordan stays and watches?" he asked.
"Not at all. He can be my helper." She said, winking at Jordan. The dark haired boy smiled back at her. Severus left quietly, and Hermione held the vials out to Jordan.
"Jordan, do you know which of these we use first?" she asked, in a teacherly fashion. Jordan shrugged silently.
"Well, you're about to learn. This green one is a soothing potion. Its job is to calm the skin so that we can heal it with the other potion. Would you hand me one of those rags, please?" she asked. Jordan quickly handed over one of the rags. Hermione folded it into a roll and stuck it in Alex's mouth. "Bite down on that, Alex. We don't want you making too much noise." She said, holding out her hand for another rag. She poured the potion all over the second rag and pressed the cloth firmly in to Alex's arm. The man hissed, but didn't move. "Count to 40 Jordan." She ordered.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15…..35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40." Jordan counted. When he reached 40, Hermione removed the cloth, now dry of potion. The redness had decreased on Alex's arm and all of the bleeding portions of the burn had healed shut.
"Now, wasn't that neat?" Hermione asked, taking a step back to admire the effects of the potion.
"Yeah, Hermione. That was awesome! What does the other one do?" Jordan asked, eyes wide with excitement.
"This blue potion is even more awesome than the other one. This one is the burn removing potion. I can't really explain exactly what it does, but it gets rid of the burn and any traces that the burn was ever there."
"Awesome." Jordan whispered.
"I know. Hand me another rag, and I'll show you how this works." She said. She showed him how she could pull the burned flesh from Alex's arm by applying the potion to the rag and wiping the rag down his arm. Hermione pulled off the dead cells, leaving the un-maimed muscle underneath. Three nasty rags later, the burn was gone. "Okay, we're finished." She announced. Alex looked surprised as he pulled the rag out of his mouth with his other arm.
"Already? Severus usually takes forever about healing me back up. Are you sure you got it all?" he asked.
"Yes, take a look for yourself." She said, gesturing toward the mirror. Alex examined his arm closely.
"Bloody hell, Hermione! That's incredible. Even I'm not sure there was ever a burn there." He exclaimed.
"That was the point. Why don't you go put on a clean shirt, just like the one you were wearing so that we can go downstairs?" she suggested, tossing the rags and the old shirt into the fire. Alex disappeared through a side door.
"Hermione? Why are you burning the rags and Uncle Alex's shirt?" Jordan asked.
"For two reasons really. One reason I have to burn them is because they have potions in them now. While cleansing potions could get rid of the skin cells, traces of the potions would still be on them. Some potions react with other potions, so it wouldn't be safe for someone else to use these with a different potion. Do you understand?"
"I think so, what's the other reason?" Jordan asked.
"You r uncle doesn't want anyone to know what happened, so we have to destroy all the proof that anything ever happened." She explained.
"Oh good. You're destroying the evidence." Alex said, emerging with a clean and crisp white shirt. "Jordan, why don't you go ahead and get washed up for dinner. Remember, this is our little secret." The little boy saluted and ran out the door.
"Finally I can do what I've wanted to do since the second you got here." Alex said, eyeing Hermione. She looked back at him with a mixture of fear, confusion, and anxiety. Alex ran up and grabbed her in a big hug, twirling her around through the air. "I'm so happy you came." He said. Hermione laughed as she flew through the air, her arms tight around Alex's upper body.
"I'm happy I came too." She said as her feet returned to the floor.
"How did the kid do?" Alex asked, still holding Hermione close to him.
"Wonderfully, he'll make a fine medi-wizard some day." She answered honestly.
"You should tell him that sometime. He'll be so thrilled to hear it. As much as I hate to admit it, I think you two may have bonded over my misery." Alex said, smiling "Now I'm starving, what do you say we go down to dinner?"
"That sounds great." Hermione said, smiling. Alex offered his freshly healed arm to his fiancée and led her downstairs into the living room where the rest of the family waited.
AN: That's it for Chapter 5. Chapter 6 may appear sometime tomorrow.