House Hufflepuff
Class: Head of House
Theme: Travel
Drabble/Standard: Standard
Prompt: (character) Severus Snape
Word Count: 2,062
Warning for Snamione (she is an adult in this story), mentions of an evil uprising, and a slight bit out of character. I would like to take this time to thank everyone who beta read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you would take the time to help me out like this. So, thank you all very much! I hope that everyone enjoys the first chapter of The Country Road to Paris.
"This wasn't what I was expecting when you said we'd be going on the vacation of a lifetime, Severus," Hermione said, motioning around the French countryside they'd broken down in. "I was expecting to go sightseeing in Paris."
"Look around, dear," Severus said, spreading his arms as though to encompass the whole countryside. "You are seeing sights."
"But I was hoping to see paintings at the Louvre," Hermione said, looking dreamily in the distance as they continued to walk down the country road. "Plus, didn't I tell you we should pull over and fuel up?"
The little arrow thing hadn't quite been pointing at E until recently, but by the time he had noticed, it was too late and they were sputtering to a stop on the side of the road. In a way, he was ashamed he hadn't taken Hermione's advice. She, after all, was the expert on the workings of Muggle things and knew better than he did.
"If I admit that I was wrong and you were right, will that make you smile?" He asked, watching her face for a reaction of any kind. He could see the slight tug on the corner of her mouth as though she was trying hard to hold back a smile but couldn't.
"I suppose that would work," Hermione said, finally grinning at him. "But if I knew that you weren't going to listen to me, I would have brought the sunscreen with me."
"Tell me again why we can't Apparate to the nearest town and request a tow truck?" Severus asked, having watched his mother do this very same thing herself on numerous occasions when his father wasn't there.
"There is this thing called the Statute of Secrecy to uphold," Hermione pointed out, sighing as she ran a hand along her forehead. "What would happen if we were discovered by a Muggle?"
"The nearest Muggle must be hundreds of miles away," Severus told her, looking around them as they made their way down the peaceful and serene country road.
"How do you know that Muggles don't live in that house over there?" Hermione pointed to a little thatched house that Severus hadn't noticed before. "They could very well be Muggles and we could be breaking the Decree if we were to Aparate."
"If they are Muggles, then why did the house just appear out of thin air?" Severus pointed out, knowing that he was indeed making a very valid point. But he stopped short before he could say anything else upon seeing the look on Hermione's face.
The brown eyes that were usually so happy and playful had a look of pure shock in them now. Her mouth was frozen in a way that said she was about to say something at the same time as he had.
"Did I say something wrong?" Severus asked, stopping and sitting down on the shoulder of the road.
"Did you just say that the house appeared out of nowhere for you?" Hermione asked, shaking her head in confusion. "It's been there since we started walking down this road. In fact, I was going to suggest we walk up to the door and see if the owner has a telephone we could use to call someone for a tow."
Severus was on alert now. If Hermione was right, and she'd seen the house since their arrival down this stretch of dirt road, then something was surely up as the Muggles would say. But what was up? Severus didn't have the slightest clue. He also wasn't sure if he wanted to meet the inhabitants of the house if they were the sort of people who hid in plain sight.
"Look, someone's coming down the front path," Hermione said, pointing to a figure that was barely discernible from a distance. "Maybe they've noticed us and are coming to help?"
"And maybe they've noticed us and are coming to keep us quiet about finding them!" Severus retorted, not being able to shake the feeling that nothing good could come from this. "Did you ever think of that?"
"This isn't like High Tension, Severus," she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. "There aren't any serial killers living in that house. It seems rather homey. Like the sort of house that I wish we could have."
"You'll forgive me if I'm not entirely ready to trust just about anyone, won't you?" he asked, remembering the mistake he'd made when he'd joined the Dark Lord during the war. He was still paying for that mistake even now, ten years after the war had ended.
"I doubt that these people have heard anything about the war," Hermione said soothingly as she motioned for Severus to get up. "Let's meet them halfway, then?"
Severus took a deep breath and let it out. He could see that Hermione wasn't to be dissuaded once she set her mind on something. That was one of the things he simultaneously loved most and disliked about her.
"Fine, then," he said, putting his rough hand into her soft one. "We shall go and see if these people are like you say they are."
"Stop fretting, Severus," she said, smiling at him. "Not everyone is out to get us, you know?"
Famous last words, he thought bitterly as they continued their journey up the road.
The person seemed to do a double-take as they drew closer. This wasn't the oddest thing about the person, though. Severus himself did a double-take while looking at the man before them. It was like he was looking at an older version of himself. His Muggle grandparents used to tell him he was a carbon copy of his father. But that was impossible. His father was long gone from this world.
"Severus…." Hermione whispered, looking up at him in shock. She must have noticed the same thing around the same time that he had.
"I know," he said, trying to stand in front of her. He would shield her as best he could from this unknown man, that could very well be his father reincarnated. "It shocked me too and not in a pleasant way."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"He could very well be my father," Severus said, shaking his head with a small shudder. He remembered all the horrible things his father had done to his mother and himself. He would Apparate away with Hermione if it was somehow indeed his father, no matter what she said.
"But your father has been dead for—"
"A long time at this point," interjected the older double of Severus. "That is correct, Hermione. You always were the smartest witch of your age, weren't you?" He was looking at Hermione fondly, as though he knew and loved her very much.
"Who are you and where did you come from?" Severus asked, looking at the man's dark eyes and noticing something familiar about them. Something he'd never seen in his father's eyes.
Hermione elbowed him in the stomach. "Severus!"
"Yes?" both Severus and his look-alike replied at the same time.
"Y-you're Severus?" Hermione asked, circling around the two Severuses. "Are you Severus from the future?"
"I am the same Severus, indeed," said the older-looking Severus. His long hair had gone white in the future. It made him more attractive to Hermione. It just made Severus feel old.
"Why did you come here, me?" Severus asked, causing Hermione to giggle. "Is something wrong in the future?" He chuckled a bit, remembering the ending of that Muggle movie that Hermione and he had watched while they were dating. Something about the future where some guy who was a doctor was in a Muggle car that could fly and told the main characters that their children were messing up the future or something like that.
"How did you know?" Older Severus asked, raising an eyebrow in question. "Are you gifted with the gift of Sight?"
"Are you?" Severus asked his older self.
"No," the older Severus replied.
"Then you have your answer. If I am you and you are me and you don't have the gift of Sight then it stands to reason that I don't either, am I right?"
"I just said that you were…."
"Gentlemen," said another familiar voice, causing Severus to turn towards the sound, "perhaps we can better discuss this in the house." The woman pointed towards the house that she and the older Severus had come from.
"Hermione?" Severus asked, voice trembling in awe at how attractive his wife had grown to be in her older age.
"Yes?" both Hermiones answered, causing them both to chuckle.
"We can explain everything in the house," the older Hermione said, smiling and making the laugh lines stand out upon her still youthful-looking face. "We don't have time to stand here talking on the road. Here," she turned to Severus and shook her head. "You should have listened to us when we said to pull over and get some gas from that last gas station we passed by the way." She then walked off, not waiting for a reply.
The younger Hermione quickly followed after the older one, asking questions a mile a minute, which were answered rapidly at the same speed. It was strange to see his wife interacting with herself. He looked over to his older self and both of them shrugged before walking after their wives.
Once they were all safely inside the house, the older Severus locked the door behind them while the older Hermione punched a bunch of numbers on a pin pad. This house had the smell of magic to it but he couldn't understand how something so Muggle-like as a pin pad could work in such a house as this.
"Hermione tweaked the house a bit to allow for some Muggle modifications," the older Severus explained, watching his wife and her younger self talking about the inner workings of the house. "She really is the brightest witch of her age."
Severus nodded, feeling a sense of pride for his wife rise within him. He could tell that the older Severus was feeling the same thing. But it wasn't time to dwell on the feeling of pride he was feeling. There were questions that had to be answered and explanations that needed to be given before anything else happened.
"You're probably wondering why we came for you, right?" Older Hermione asked, watching her younger self and the younger Severus closely.
Both of them nodded, waiting for the answer.
"We came from the future because your oldest daughter has become rather uncontrollable," the white-haired Severus said, shaking his head. "Some would say she's even worse than He Who Must Not Be Named. We came to see if you can put a stop to her evil and bring her back to her old self."
"Her old self?" Hermione asked as the house shuddered with the impact of something outside, even though nothing seemed to have moved inside it. "How do we get her to go back to her old self when don't know who her old self is?"
"We will guide you and help you along the way," the wizened wizard responded, watching both his younger self and the younger version of his wife.
"How bad could dealing with one witch who happens to be our future daughter be?" Hermione asked, feeling pretty sure that they could do the job that was being asked of them and still have some time for sightseeing in Paris.
The graying-haired Hermione motioned the younger one over to the window and pointed out. "That bad," she said, sounding terribly saddened.
Severus walked over to Hermione's side and looked out the window too. This was both the same countryside they'd been walking through and yet not at the same time. Someone seemed to have twisted the tranquility of the area around them. The once pleasant-looking fields of wheat were now weed-strewn messes. The sky was a perpetual grey with rain that never seemed to fall. A horrible smell filled their noses, even through the closed door and windows. The scent was a familiar one. One that Severus had hoped to never smell again after the Second Wizarding World War. It was that of death and decay. They'd been taken to a dead world to bring hope back to it. And so they would. But where to start?
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of The Country Road to Paris as much as I enjoyed writing it.