WOOHOO! I love getting reviews! Thanks all of you guys! This is more
than I ever expected to get!
To seb1: Thanks for telling me about the story and movie. I thought my plot sounded familiar, but I don't think I've read or seen that movie. Well, I hope you'll forgive my oversight and continue reading anyway!
Disclaimer: (thinking) maybe if I wish really hard, I'll own Harry Potter. *Scrunches face and wishes* Nope, didn't work. All still belongs to J.K. Rowlings. All but plot, which I'm sure probably belongs to someone else too.
~`~`~`~`~ Chapter 3: Proposals, Proposals ~`~`~`~`~
Hermione reluctantly pulled her face from her former professor's shoulder. She looked up into his red rimmed eyes sadly and shakily got to her feet.
"I have to go now, Professor," she whispered. "I need to go home. I--have to--" She couldn't will herself to say that she wanted to get away from him. After all, he had offered to marry her to keep her in the Wizarding world. It just wasn't polite to tell your fiancé--your betrothed--your husband to be--oh, heck, your professor that you wanted to be left alone and away from him. But then again, these were odd circumstances. Maybe the normal "Mistress Manners" routine didn't apply to these sorts of situations. Well, in that case--"I just want to get away from here and-- think." She looked at the ground. "Alone."
He gazed at her for a moment in understanding before standing up and taking her by the hand. "Right," he said soothingly. "Of course you do. I'll walk you home."
She pulled her hand from his. "No, no," she said to him. "I know the way home. You don't have to." She really just wanted to be alone. She didn't want his sympathy or his pity.
"I don't have to," he responded carefully. "But I want to."
She glared at him half-heartedly for a moment before apathetically heading toward her flat a few blocks over. Lupin matched his steps to hers, making sure that she didn't fall or head in another direction. Each step she made further became more hesitant and shaky. After not even a score, she was starting to turn back to the grave. "I don't want to leave him," she cried softly to no one in particular.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Hermione," he said to her beseechingly. She defiantly turned her head away from him. "Hermione," he tried again. "Look at me." Never one to outright disobey a teacher in front of them, she turned her head back and locked her wet eyes with his. "Hermione, you can't waste your life blaming yourself or Ron for what happened. None of it was either of your faults. You need to go on, and, as cheesy as it might sound, Ron would've wanted it that way."
She looked up at him unbelievingly, but was really too tired to even think of arguing. She leaned on his arm and let him lead her back home.
The walk out of the cemetery was short and as soon as they had passed the gates, Remus had held her tightly by the hands and apparated straight to the door of the flat. He pushed the door open carefully and gently brought her into her front sitting room and settled her down in the closest chair. He looked up and cried out in surprise at what he saw.
"Harry!"
The thin, lithe body of Harry Potter was sprawled out on another mismatched chair in the homey room. Beside him on a cushioned footstool was his wife who looked understandably upset and nervous. The black-haired boy looked up to his professor with blank and heavily circled eyes.
"Wh--what are you doing here?" Lupin sputtered. The surprise at seeing another grieving party had completely addled what was left of his reason. "I thought that you'd gone home?"
Harry grinned humorlessly. "Didn't feel like going home," he responded. "Thought I'd wait for Hermione to get back and maybe talk to her a bit. Reminisce and stuff. You know." His face paled considerably as he thought of Ron and all of the things that they had done together.
The professor ran a hand through his graying hair listlessly. "I don't know, Harry...Hermione's had it pretty rough. I don't think she really wants to talk all that much. Especially about--er--" He looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. "About stuff," he finished lamely.
Hermione's head tilted up swiftly. She glared venomously at Lupin. "Of course I want to talk!" she spat. "It's only natural for me to want someone to talk to, I mean, it's not everyday that a person loses their husband and then plan to get married the next day." She laughed harshly and without feeling and a sad light appeared in her eye. "Ron called me a 'scarlet woman' once and I suppose that I've finally lived up to the title." She laughed once more, but the sound quickly turned into a dry sob.
Harry and Hannah stared at them in bewilderment. "Marry?" Hannah squeaked. "Why--Why do you need to marry?"
The new widow fixed her with a stony gaze. "I thought that you, of all people, would understand, Hannah. Though I don't rightly care where the hell I end up, the Professor here has different ideas. He wants to marry me to keep me here in the wizarding world, and I suppose I want to stay." The shaky smile she had on her face quickly disappeared. "Though, I must say, I had hoped to stay under better circumstances."
She leaned against the nearest wall in exhaustion as she replayed the story of a few minutes before. Both Harry and Hannah listened in what could only be called 'silent anticipation' and Lupin had the decency to shift uncomfortably when Hermione managed to recount his little speeches down to the letter. Ash she finished a trembling Hannah (Hermione recalled her as being overly emotional at school, but now she was grateful for the empathy that the plump little woman provided) rushed over to her and took the still Mrs. Granger-Weasley into her arms.
Perhaps it was the pressure of the moment, or the pain in her chest, or the presence of two of the most respected men in her life, or the overwhelming feeling of humiliation towards herself that caused her to break down, but more likely it was a combination of the three. She felt the warm arms come tight around her and she couldn't hold in any of her dignity. Tears were not in her nature despite the fact that she'd cried a few recently, but full blown hysterics was not something Hermione Granger-Weasley was prone to. She could hear her own cries echoing off the undecorated walls of her home and could feel the salty streams running down her face. The pain in her throat was nearly unbearable and her eyes stung from all the crying.
It seemed like hours she cried, long ago giving up on the battle to keep the tears in. The sobs soon quieted, if only so that she could rest for a bit and start them up again. But as soon as she released Hannah and fell backwards into the chair nearest her, the door of her home swung open.
"Miss Granger!" cried a snide and sneering voice from her entryway. "Miss Granger, where in the devil's name are you?"
Not even caring who it was, she answered back. "I'm right here, you imbecile. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'm not really in the mood for company, so could you please go back the way you came and kindly bugger off!"
A tall forbidding man came beside her and Hermione could feel the waves of anger and embarrassment at her words emanating from him at high speeds. In reality, she knew she ought to have been meek and obedient and kind and that she ought to take back her words, but at the moment, she didn't give a damn.
"Miss Granger," the voice continued, though a bit more forced than it was before. "Would you please stop acting like a spoiled child and look up at me." She complied, of course, but once she had looked at the speaker, one Professor Severus Snape by name, she completely flew off the handle.
"Who are you to tell me how to act, Professor? I've seen you get angry and yell far worse things a million times in my life and I've never once said a word, until now. And I don't think you have the right to tell me anything that pertains to my behavior. I've lost my husband, Professor, in case you haven't noticed and I'm not about to forget it anytime soon, though it seems that you have." She jabbed her finger in her chest angrily. "So don't you bloody well tell me how I should act, because I'll act the way that I jolly well please."
The thin and greasy Potions master took a step back from the volatile female before him. He turned to Lupin and Harry for help, but both were too busy glaring at him for upsetting Hermione again. He shook his head to clear it for a moment before he tried to speak to her once more.
"Miss Granger," he began, "I know as well as anyone that your husband's dead. I was there, in case you've forgotten. I was the one who managed to save us all from almost certain death in those little cages, but I can't guarantee lives once outside of them." He waved his hand dismissively. "Besides, that's not even the reason I've come here. I know about that stupid law that the...Minister...proposed and I'm as...displeased with it as the rest of you. But this morning before the funeral, the Headmaster approached me with a solution." Hermione leaned forward with anticipation despite her best efforts. "He told me that I might offer myself to you in the form of a husband." She slumped down into the chair once again.
Snape looked at her from narrowed eyes. "I take it that means no, eh, Miss Granger?" She looked up at him and was surprised to see a shadow of wounded dignity and pride in his eyes.
"No," she responded. "I mean, yes. Oh, I don't know. That's the second proposal I've received in the last hour, sir. I've got myself two choices, and, at the moment, your position isn't looking to good since I've already agreed to the first one. And besides, I--"
She was cut off by the sound of her door opening again. In stormed a puffing and red-faced Neville. He stood against the wall behind Hermione and panted out his story. "Heard--Professor Dumbledore and--Professor Snape--talking at--Headquarters. He's going to come--and try--to marry you. Didn't think that--you'd want to--marry--Snape, so I--came to--ask you--to marry--me--instead. What--do you--say?"
Hermione laughed dryly and humorlessly. If the situation weren't so real, it would have been preposterous. She shook her head tiredly and laid her hands over her eyes. All she could think of was how much she wished it were yesterday morning.
"I can't marry you, Neville," she whispered to him, her breaths short and raspy. "You see, Professor Snape here's already proposed and--"
The still slightly pudgy boy stared at her, crestfallen and disbelieving. "You accepted him, Hermione? I--wow, I didn't think you'd actually consider marrying the sli--I mean, the professor. Well, to--to each his own, I suppose."
She laughed once more, harsher and more vulgar to the ears. Releasing her eyes from her hands, she looked at her former bumbling schoolmate with weary but grimly amused eyes. "No, Neville, I didn't accept him, I--"
Once again, he cut her off. "If you didn't accept him, why don't you accept me? I mean, I know I'm not the greatest wizard, but nobody wants to see you leave. Especially all of us in this room." He glanced at an indifferent Snape quickly. "Well, all right, most of us don't want you to leave. So why don't you just say yes? We can get Dumbledore to do the ceremony immediately and--"
Now it was Hermione who stopped him. "No, Neville, like I said before, I can't marry you. You see, I've already accepted someone else's proposal. Professor Lupin's, in fact. So, you see, I can't--"
"Lupin!" Both Snape and Neville seemed dumbfounded by the news she'd just shared with them.
"Yes, Lupin, he asked me first." Again, she laughed darkly. "As they say, 'first come, first serve.'" She groaned and leaned forward onto her knees, cradling her face in her hands.
Harry, Lupin, Hannah, and Neville knelt beside her immediately, each taking a different appendage; Harry rested a hand on her knee reassuringly, Neville gripped an elbow, Hannah rubbed a shoulder, and Lupin took a hand from her face and cupped her cheek soothingly. Hermione didn't appreciate the attention and stood quickly, knocking the quartet away from her.
"I don't need your pity!" she all but yelled at them. "Just leave me alone! Just leave me alone." She stormed to the door of her flat and whipped it open to see the face of the person she least expected to see there.
~`~`~`~`~ Well, another chapter. I know it's shorter than the other two, but the next installment is nearly done and won't take long to complete. Please review, I enjoy receiving your opinions.
To seb1: Thanks for telling me about the story and movie. I thought my plot sounded familiar, but I don't think I've read or seen that movie. Well, I hope you'll forgive my oversight and continue reading anyway!
Disclaimer: (thinking) maybe if I wish really hard, I'll own Harry Potter. *Scrunches face and wishes* Nope, didn't work. All still belongs to J.K. Rowlings. All but plot, which I'm sure probably belongs to someone else too.
~`~`~`~`~ Chapter 3: Proposals, Proposals ~`~`~`~`~
Hermione reluctantly pulled her face from her former professor's shoulder. She looked up into his red rimmed eyes sadly and shakily got to her feet.
"I have to go now, Professor," she whispered. "I need to go home. I--have to--" She couldn't will herself to say that she wanted to get away from him. After all, he had offered to marry her to keep her in the Wizarding world. It just wasn't polite to tell your fiancé--your betrothed--your husband to be--oh, heck, your professor that you wanted to be left alone and away from him. But then again, these were odd circumstances. Maybe the normal "Mistress Manners" routine didn't apply to these sorts of situations. Well, in that case--"I just want to get away from here and-- think." She looked at the ground. "Alone."
He gazed at her for a moment in understanding before standing up and taking her by the hand. "Right," he said soothingly. "Of course you do. I'll walk you home."
She pulled her hand from his. "No, no," she said to him. "I know the way home. You don't have to." She really just wanted to be alone. She didn't want his sympathy or his pity.
"I don't have to," he responded carefully. "But I want to."
She glared at him half-heartedly for a moment before apathetically heading toward her flat a few blocks over. Lupin matched his steps to hers, making sure that she didn't fall or head in another direction. Each step she made further became more hesitant and shaky. After not even a score, she was starting to turn back to the grave. "I don't want to leave him," she cried softly to no one in particular.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Hermione," he said to her beseechingly. She defiantly turned her head away from him. "Hermione," he tried again. "Look at me." Never one to outright disobey a teacher in front of them, she turned her head back and locked her wet eyes with his. "Hermione, you can't waste your life blaming yourself or Ron for what happened. None of it was either of your faults. You need to go on, and, as cheesy as it might sound, Ron would've wanted it that way."
She looked up at him unbelievingly, but was really too tired to even think of arguing. She leaned on his arm and let him lead her back home.
The walk out of the cemetery was short and as soon as they had passed the gates, Remus had held her tightly by the hands and apparated straight to the door of the flat. He pushed the door open carefully and gently brought her into her front sitting room and settled her down in the closest chair. He looked up and cried out in surprise at what he saw.
"Harry!"
The thin, lithe body of Harry Potter was sprawled out on another mismatched chair in the homey room. Beside him on a cushioned footstool was his wife who looked understandably upset and nervous. The black-haired boy looked up to his professor with blank and heavily circled eyes.
"Wh--what are you doing here?" Lupin sputtered. The surprise at seeing another grieving party had completely addled what was left of his reason. "I thought that you'd gone home?"
Harry grinned humorlessly. "Didn't feel like going home," he responded. "Thought I'd wait for Hermione to get back and maybe talk to her a bit. Reminisce and stuff. You know." His face paled considerably as he thought of Ron and all of the things that they had done together.
The professor ran a hand through his graying hair listlessly. "I don't know, Harry...Hermione's had it pretty rough. I don't think she really wants to talk all that much. Especially about--er--" He looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. "About stuff," he finished lamely.
Hermione's head tilted up swiftly. She glared venomously at Lupin. "Of course I want to talk!" she spat. "It's only natural for me to want someone to talk to, I mean, it's not everyday that a person loses their husband and then plan to get married the next day." She laughed harshly and without feeling and a sad light appeared in her eye. "Ron called me a 'scarlet woman' once and I suppose that I've finally lived up to the title." She laughed once more, but the sound quickly turned into a dry sob.
Harry and Hannah stared at them in bewilderment. "Marry?" Hannah squeaked. "Why--Why do you need to marry?"
The new widow fixed her with a stony gaze. "I thought that you, of all people, would understand, Hannah. Though I don't rightly care where the hell I end up, the Professor here has different ideas. He wants to marry me to keep me here in the wizarding world, and I suppose I want to stay." The shaky smile she had on her face quickly disappeared. "Though, I must say, I had hoped to stay under better circumstances."
She leaned against the nearest wall in exhaustion as she replayed the story of a few minutes before. Both Harry and Hannah listened in what could only be called 'silent anticipation' and Lupin had the decency to shift uncomfortably when Hermione managed to recount his little speeches down to the letter. Ash she finished a trembling Hannah (Hermione recalled her as being overly emotional at school, but now she was grateful for the empathy that the plump little woman provided) rushed over to her and took the still Mrs. Granger-Weasley into her arms.
Perhaps it was the pressure of the moment, or the pain in her chest, or the presence of two of the most respected men in her life, or the overwhelming feeling of humiliation towards herself that caused her to break down, but more likely it was a combination of the three. She felt the warm arms come tight around her and she couldn't hold in any of her dignity. Tears were not in her nature despite the fact that she'd cried a few recently, but full blown hysterics was not something Hermione Granger-Weasley was prone to. She could hear her own cries echoing off the undecorated walls of her home and could feel the salty streams running down her face. The pain in her throat was nearly unbearable and her eyes stung from all the crying.
It seemed like hours she cried, long ago giving up on the battle to keep the tears in. The sobs soon quieted, if only so that she could rest for a bit and start them up again. But as soon as she released Hannah and fell backwards into the chair nearest her, the door of her home swung open.
"Miss Granger!" cried a snide and sneering voice from her entryway. "Miss Granger, where in the devil's name are you?"
Not even caring who it was, she answered back. "I'm right here, you imbecile. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'm not really in the mood for company, so could you please go back the way you came and kindly bugger off!"
A tall forbidding man came beside her and Hermione could feel the waves of anger and embarrassment at her words emanating from him at high speeds. In reality, she knew she ought to have been meek and obedient and kind and that she ought to take back her words, but at the moment, she didn't give a damn.
"Miss Granger," the voice continued, though a bit more forced than it was before. "Would you please stop acting like a spoiled child and look up at me." She complied, of course, but once she had looked at the speaker, one Professor Severus Snape by name, she completely flew off the handle.
"Who are you to tell me how to act, Professor? I've seen you get angry and yell far worse things a million times in my life and I've never once said a word, until now. And I don't think you have the right to tell me anything that pertains to my behavior. I've lost my husband, Professor, in case you haven't noticed and I'm not about to forget it anytime soon, though it seems that you have." She jabbed her finger in her chest angrily. "So don't you bloody well tell me how I should act, because I'll act the way that I jolly well please."
The thin and greasy Potions master took a step back from the volatile female before him. He turned to Lupin and Harry for help, but both were too busy glaring at him for upsetting Hermione again. He shook his head to clear it for a moment before he tried to speak to her once more.
"Miss Granger," he began, "I know as well as anyone that your husband's dead. I was there, in case you've forgotten. I was the one who managed to save us all from almost certain death in those little cages, but I can't guarantee lives once outside of them." He waved his hand dismissively. "Besides, that's not even the reason I've come here. I know about that stupid law that the...Minister...proposed and I'm as...displeased with it as the rest of you. But this morning before the funeral, the Headmaster approached me with a solution." Hermione leaned forward with anticipation despite her best efforts. "He told me that I might offer myself to you in the form of a husband." She slumped down into the chair once again.
Snape looked at her from narrowed eyes. "I take it that means no, eh, Miss Granger?" She looked up at him and was surprised to see a shadow of wounded dignity and pride in his eyes.
"No," she responded. "I mean, yes. Oh, I don't know. That's the second proposal I've received in the last hour, sir. I've got myself two choices, and, at the moment, your position isn't looking to good since I've already agreed to the first one. And besides, I--"
She was cut off by the sound of her door opening again. In stormed a puffing and red-faced Neville. He stood against the wall behind Hermione and panted out his story. "Heard--Professor Dumbledore and--Professor Snape--talking at--Headquarters. He's going to come--and try--to marry you. Didn't think that--you'd want to--marry--Snape, so I--came to--ask you--to marry--me--instead. What--do you--say?"
Hermione laughed dryly and humorlessly. If the situation weren't so real, it would have been preposterous. She shook her head tiredly and laid her hands over her eyes. All she could think of was how much she wished it were yesterday morning.
"I can't marry you, Neville," she whispered to him, her breaths short and raspy. "You see, Professor Snape here's already proposed and--"
The still slightly pudgy boy stared at her, crestfallen and disbelieving. "You accepted him, Hermione? I--wow, I didn't think you'd actually consider marrying the sli--I mean, the professor. Well, to--to each his own, I suppose."
She laughed once more, harsher and more vulgar to the ears. Releasing her eyes from her hands, she looked at her former bumbling schoolmate with weary but grimly amused eyes. "No, Neville, I didn't accept him, I--"
Once again, he cut her off. "If you didn't accept him, why don't you accept me? I mean, I know I'm not the greatest wizard, but nobody wants to see you leave. Especially all of us in this room." He glanced at an indifferent Snape quickly. "Well, all right, most of us don't want you to leave. So why don't you just say yes? We can get Dumbledore to do the ceremony immediately and--"
Now it was Hermione who stopped him. "No, Neville, like I said before, I can't marry you. You see, I've already accepted someone else's proposal. Professor Lupin's, in fact. So, you see, I can't--"
"Lupin!" Both Snape and Neville seemed dumbfounded by the news she'd just shared with them.
"Yes, Lupin, he asked me first." Again, she laughed darkly. "As they say, 'first come, first serve.'" She groaned and leaned forward onto her knees, cradling her face in her hands.
Harry, Lupin, Hannah, and Neville knelt beside her immediately, each taking a different appendage; Harry rested a hand on her knee reassuringly, Neville gripped an elbow, Hannah rubbed a shoulder, and Lupin took a hand from her face and cupped her cheek soothingly. Hermione didn't appreciate the attention and stood quickly, knocking the quartet away from her.
"I don't need your pity!" she all but yelled at them. "Just leave me alone! Just leave me alone." She stormed to the door of her flat and whipped it open to see the face of the person she least expected to see there.
~`~`~`~`~ Well, another chapter. I know it's shorter than the other two, but the next installment is nearly done and won't take long to complete. Please review, I enjoy receiving your opinions.