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A Way Home

A month and a half passed before Hermione found herself out on some kind of 'first date' with Severus. Since that night when they had both taken the step across the border that separated friendship from love, the couple had only spent their time together in Severus' study during the evenings, each pursuing their own separate interests before spending the rest of the night together in front of the fireplace.

Severus' supply of potions ingredients was running low, and he had taken the opportunity to invite her along (in his own dry, matter-of-fact way) when he visited the Apothecary in Diagon Alley to replenish his stock. Hermione was slightly disappointed that the whole affair was as romantic as taking a Blast-Ended Skrewt out on a walk during a thunderstorm, but she accepted the fact that Severus had never been good at expressing his thoughts and feelings. That he had declared his passion for her in the first place was nothing short of a miracle.

Therefore, it was with great surprise and delight that Hermione found herself seated across Severus at a table for two in the Leaky Cauldron, which he had insisted that they visited after they left the Apothecary, thoroughly enjoying the food and the company. Hermione had managed to repress her giggling enough to take a sip from her goblet when she saw Severus looking warily at a point over her shoulder. Just as she was about to turn around to look at the cause of Severus' distraction, a disturbingly familiar voice drifted lazily over her.

"Severus," Lucius Malfoy drawled. "What a pleasure to see you here."

"Likewise, I'm sure, Lucius," Severus replied smoothly.

"I see you have a lady friend with you, my dear friend. Perhaps you would…?" He looked expectantly at the darker man.

Severus took the hint and gestured towards Hermione. " This is Mel."

Hermione shuddered and clenched her wand hidden in her robes as Malfoy looked at her intently. "Lucius Malfoy at your service, my dear," he said, raising her other hand to his lips. Hermione fought for control as his lips lingered longer than was necessary and almost sighed with relief as Lucius' cold lips finally left her hand. However, she stiffened again when she realised that the man had no intention of letting her hand go just yet, his thumb had started rubbing gentle circles around her knuckles.

"What a pretty little hand, my dear," he drawled as Hermione suddenly wrenched her hand away. "And such an exquisite ring to match those delicate fingers. Tell me," he said, and turned his head to glance slightly at Severus, "Which man had to lose his wife so that you can have your little toy?"

Hermione felt the anger bubbling inside her at those words. She looked back at Severus, wanting him to rid them both of Malfoy's presence, and found that he had flung a smirking glance at her way before he addressed Malfoy again, "What made you think it wasn't me who gave her the ring?"

Malfoy pretended to look offended. "I know you well, Severus, you wouldn't have chosen something with red and gold in it. And besides," he added airily, "You don't marry your Mudbloods, you only play around with them."

Hermione flinched at his words but Severus did not seem to notice. He was clapping his hands in mock applause.

"Bravo, Lucius," Severus laughed without humour. "You are right about me as usual, and everyone knows that Lucius Malfoy would always be able to tell his Purebloods from the Muggleborns, I could never quite match you in that aspect."

Lucius visible preened. "Mudbloods never had the regal confidence we Purebloods were born with, Severus, that is how one tells the difference." He looked down his nose at Hermione, "I must say, though, she is a delicious piece of flesh."

Hermione bit her lips to stop the hexes she knew would be coming forth. Malfoy leaned down and whispered next to her ear, "Severus' Mudbloods always screamed with delight, that's how good he is. But you'll find that there's always someone better than him." Hermione didn't need to ask him to know what he meant. Her eyes flew back to Severus, the anger she had felt before giving way to terror. He was looking at the two of them impassively.

Lucius straightened. "Share your toys with the rest of us once in a while, Severus, it'll be like old times," he said loudly. He winked at Severus and stalked out of the door.

Severus sighed into the tensed silence that followed. He avoided looking at Mel, knowing that he wouldn't like what he would see on her face.

"I'm going back to Hogwarts." He heard her finally say. Severus nodded grimly and followed her through the door. Once outside, Mel stood still with her back to him, waiting. Severus approached her cautiously, she wouldn't like it, but she would endure his touch because it was necessary for him to maintain body contact with her if he was to Apparate both of them to Hogsmeade. He put an arm around her rigid shoulders and they disappeared from the Leaky Cauldron.

Severus felt Mel pull away as soon as their feet touched solid ground. She started to walk as fast as she could without actually breaking into a run. Severus followed her silently, his black dragon-hide boots soundless on the stone path beneath him. He racked his brains for a plausible explanation that would satisfy Mel without giving away any of his darker secrets.

She spoke first, "Tell me anything right now, Severus. Anything that would explain what happened back there." Severus noticed that her voice was quivering slightly.

"My acquaintance with Lucius Malfoy stretches back a long way," he started carefully. "I do not consider him a friend, but there are reasons why I value my…connections with the man."

Severus glanced sidelong at the woman walking beside him. She nodded her head curtly and Severus sighed. She seemed to have accepted what he said, but there was clearly a lot more that she wanted to know before she would forgive him. "But I wouldn't have shared you with him or others, Mel."

Mel did not reply as she entered the grounds of Hogwarts, so Severus continued, "I'm sorry."

"What I want to know, Severus," Mel said suddenly, "is your thoughts on Mudbloods." Severus flinched involuntarily as she practically spitted the last word out. Still, he thought that it was a very strange question for her to ask him under the circumstances. He frowned. "You didn't really think I believed what Malfoy said about you, did you?"

"Do you believe him?" Hermione shot back. Severus could have sworn he heard her teeth grinding in an effort to stop lashing out at him.

"No, but what does that have to do with everything?" Severus was thoroughly confused now. He pushed open the door to the Great Hall to let Mel and himself in.

"I am a Muggleborn, Severus," she said bitterly. Mel was walking even faster than ever; Severus thought she was acting like a caged animal, desperate for an escape.

Severus stood dead in his tracks at her revelation. All the things that Lucius and him had said about Muggleborns came crashing down on him like an avalanche. How was he supposed to know that Mel wasn't a Pureblood? How could he have known that that would offend her? He ran to catch up with her. "Mel," he began. "I didn't mean those things I said to Malfoy, I only said what I know he wanted to hear. I'm so sorry." He ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation as she ignored him and continued stalking towards her own room. Severus was starting to worry now, she was angrier than he had first thought her to be.

They were fast approaching Mel's room, and Severus was desperately running out of ideas to pacify her with. He had a feeling that Mel had allowed him a chance to convince her when she asked him to explain his actions, and he was equally sure that once she slammed the door in his face, there would be no chance of reconciliation for them.

She flung her wand at the door and it had opened accordingly. In a final act of desperation, Severus stumbled, "You won't return to France, will you?"

Hermione froze, well aware of the irony of his words. She wouldn't be able to return to 'France' even if she had wanted to. She spun round to study the man standing behind her. She believed what Severus had said about the importance of his connections with Malfoy, of course, but she was greatly disturbed by the blond man's insinuations about Severus and Muggleborns. She was smart enough to know that Severus had given Malfoy nothing to suspect him of his loyalty; the level of his manipulation had vaguely impressed Hermione. However, she could not stop the hurt that his words have caused.

She answered Severus' question carefully, "I don't think I have a choice, Severus."

"So you'll still here?" Severus frowned. There was something about the way Mel had said it that sounded like she was trying to tell him something else. Hermione shrugged truthfully. Severus thought she did not seem as angry as she was before, so he decided to push his luck and see whether he could glean any more information about the woman. "There's always a choice, Mel," he muttered, as he rubbed his left arm absentmindedly.

Hermione stared as Severus' hand finally stopped moving to hang loosely at his side. She took a step forward and Severus found himself uncomfortably aware of her presence. Hermione grasped his left arm and stood on tiptoe to look into his eyes. Severus inhaled the intoxication that was the smell of her hair. "For some," she said sadly. "And I'm glad you made the right one, Severus." She put two fingers to her lips and placed them on Severus' as her right hand lingered for a moment longer on his forearm before she pulled away.

"I love you, Severus, no matter what happens. You know that?" Hermione whispered.

Severus nodded, and she smiled before turning to go into her room. He stood there for a few minutes longer, looking at the spot on his arm where she had lingered. Severus' heart stilled suddenly when he realised what she had implied and his blood turned cold. How did she know about the Dark Mark?

Harry and Ron knocked on the door of the small cabin and were admitted by a delighted Hagrid and a slobbering Fang. They sat down and pretended to help themselves to Hagrid's homemade Fudge Flies. Harry dropped his piece in horror when he saw something buzzing and twitching weakly. He had not expected Hagrid to use real flies.

"Yeh two holdin' up right?" Hagrid asked as he plonked down on one of the wooden chairs at the table. Harry shrugged, answering for the both of them. Ron was busy trying to feed his piece of fudge to Fang without losing his fingers as well.

"Hermione not back yet?" he said as he reached under the table and retrieved what looked like a mass of half-knitted dried seaweed to Harry. "No," Ron replied distractedly. He was trying to shake Fang's saliva off himself. Failing that, he wiped his hand on Harry's robes. "And it's all the greasy git's fault if she misses her NEWTS."

Hagrid started extracting bits of dead insects from his tangled mess. "Still blamin' Snape, aren' yeh? Told yeh it wasn' all his fault."

"Yes, we are!" replied Ron heatedly. "And you haven't told us why you don't think it was his fault."

"Ah, well, I did tell Dumbledore he wasn' good husband material. Not after what happened with Mel." Harry saw Hagrid's brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to pick out a leg from his bundle, and he exchanged a look with Ron. They both knew that extracting secrets from the half-giant when he was distracted was as easy as sending Moaning Myrtle crying into the smelly depths of her toilet.

"So," Harry said casually. "What happened with Mel again?"

"Left him. Nice girl, and Snape loved her an' she loved 'im. But she left one day and he was never the same again. I told Dumbledore it wouldn' be good fer Hermione, Snape wouldn' like it. But Dumbledore din listen." Hagrid shrugged. "Ah, well, I tried."

"Why didn't you tell us this before, Hagrid?" Ron asked quietly.

Hagrid looked up, realisation slowly giving way to horror as he finally registered what he had done with the secrets he promised Dumbledore he would not tell. "I shouldn'ta said that!"

Harry shook his head angrily. "You should have, Hagrid."

Professor Severus Snape slammed down the musty volume onto his desk and lay back on his chair. His triumph at finally finding the answer to his wife's problem was short-lived as he realised that the solution was not as easy as he first thought it to be. The words from the pages of the book and its implications ran through his mind. It had said that if a person had travelled through time in a 'most unusual and unconventional way', then he or she would most likely end up in a time and place where they were needed most. The book had also said that the person would end up staying in that time frame until a greater need in another time pulled him or her away again. From that information, Severus deduced that wherever Hermione was, she was not needed here and now, because if she were, she would have returned already. Poor girl, Severus thought dispassionately. Looks like her friends didn't miss her enough to want her to return. And here he was trying to get her back. Severus lamented the waste of his time, there really wasn't anything he could have done, and she would come back when it was time for her to do so.

Severus raised his arms to stretch out the stiffness in his back. He thought he should really make it an early night. Suddenly, he doubled over and hissed in pain, his right hand clutched over his left arm. His Dark Mark was burning; the Dark Lord had summoned him.