Hermione led Ginny down to the terrace next to her garden, refusing to answer any of Ginny's questions with anything but a piercing glare. When they finally sat down on the comfortable outdoor sofa, Hermione cast a silencing charm around the entire area, and a few containment wards to alert her if Severus or a house elf approached.
"There, NOW you can ask questions."
"My, my we've warded ourselves silly, now haven't we!" giggled Ginny. "And you, upstairs, with your hands all over him!"
"It's not what it looks like!" cried Hermione, "I was trying to get up and fell!"
"Right, dear, of course you were. Now tell me exactly what he's got hiding under those robes!"
The deep blush returned, creeping up Hermione's next and covering her cheeks.
"YOU'VE SEEN!" squeed Ginny.
Hermione let out a happy little sigh and said "Open Music." The strains of Ginny's favorite muggle band surrounded the pair, as Hermione relayed the past week's events to her best friend.
Almost two hours later the first of Hermione's wards signaled to her that Severus was approaching. She quickly dropped the fields, giving Ginny her trademark "and that stays between us" look, and turned to smile at her husband's approaching figure.
Ginny, ever the brilliant evasionist, launched into a conversation about the tiny velvet music bags.
"So you see, Mione, Malfoy Enterprises will handle production and all the dealing with the muggle record companies – I believe Blaise already set up a meeting for Draco with the head of Virgin Records – then Fred and George will handle the distribution through their store and Owl-order Catalogues. You, of course, would retain sole developing rights. And, I think I've negotiated you a 10 cut."
"30," came Severus' smooth voice. "She invented the product – and therefore should profit from it."
"20 and not a penny more," was Ginny's response. Her bright eyes flashing in a manner much befitting a Malfoy.
"Fine, 20, her name is listed first in all press releases, and she has first rights to anyone else's share should they ever leave the venture." said Severus, as he sat down in a chair opposite the pair of witches.
"Deal," replied Ginny. She stretched over her huge belly to reach out her hand to shake.
"Do you have the authority?" Severus questioned.
Her smug grin, as a flash of blue smoky ribbon coiled around their wrists magically binding them, was his answer.
"Glad to see I don't have a say," said a slightly miffed Hermione from beside her friend.
"You would have settled for the 10." said her husband, reaching for a cup of tea that had just appeared with the rest of their lunch on the table.
"He's right, you know," agreed Ginny. She gathered a cup of pumpkin juice off the table with one hand and used the other to pile sandwich quarters onto a plate.
Grumbling, Hermione fixed her own plate of food, and they dined in a silence that was, oddly, not uncomfortable. Hermione had always known that while all of her friends would come to accept her choice, only Ginny would truly understand it. It was nice to see her and Severus getting along. Well, as getting along as Severus was ever going to do, she suspected.
Severus couldn't say he liked Lady Malfoy, but she was the wife of his godson, and she was the best friend of his wife, and really if he was going to have to be saddled with a Weasley in his life, she would have been his first choice. Molly had always treated him better than anyone else in the Order, besides Minerva and Albus. Maybe her tolerance of him had rubbed off on her only daughter.
"Mum says Charlie, Ron, and Pansy all promised to come home for the baby's naming ceremony. It'll be the first time they come here since Ron and Pansy got married. Mum and Dad have been traveling out there."
"That's wonderful," Hermione replied, squeezing her friend's arm.
"You're so lucky, Hermione. When you get pregnant you won't have the entire Weasley clan, plus a bunch of employees, plus an over-protective husband following you around making sure you're okay. All the time. It really does get annoying!"
Hermione blinked. She did not just say what I think she just said.
"If Lady Snape ever chooses to have a child," Severus replied, "she would, most likely, have the entire Weasley clan clambering around, she would have the entire Hogwarts staff asking her questions, and Lady Malfoy, I can promise you that she would have an over-protective husband."
Hermione blinked. He did not just say what I think he just said. If I choose? Does that mean he wants a child? With me?
"That's good to know," Ginny said, a grin of Weasley proportions appearing on her face.
Artfully changing the subject, Severus asked, "Lady Malfoy, perhaps you could clear up one of the questions that has been bothering me. Exactly how did you and my godson come to the conclusion that you could be married without killing each other? For the entire five years I taught you, the two of you couldn't stand to be in the same room together. And I seem to recall a bat-bogey hex at some point."
"Just one?" Hermione started to giggle, "she hit him with a bat-bogey just three weeks ago. He thinks it's charming."
"After the fact maybe, when he's not screaming like a little girl," Ginny said, dryly. "Actually, it's kind of embarrassing. We had called an uneasy truce, because of Ron and Pansy. I wouldn't say we were friends, but I sort of had a crush on him. Then, Minerva decided that to help us rehabilitate our magic we would continue to take lessons. Almost all of us decided to attempt to become animagi. Knowing how difficult it was, she thought it would take our mind off our other troubles. I think she just wanted to see who could actually do it in the end. Minerva was very patient, more so than I ever saw her in the classroom, and she was patient when we were actual students."
Severus raised an eyebrow at Hermione's continued giggling.
"And, well, Hermione was of course the first one to succeed."
"You're an animagus?" questioned Severus. Hermione couldn't reply for the tears that were starting to form in her eyes, her laughter growing a bit louder.
"Draco wasn't far behind, and, he's sort of a ferret."
"Sort of a ferret?" Severus' mouth quirked at one corner. He could clearly remember how distraught his godson had been after being turned into a ferret by the fake Mad-Eye. He could only imagine his reaction when he found out that he was stuck being one forever, if he wanted to change.
"Yes, a white ferret!" defended Ginny, "actually, he's quite adorable."
Hermione had both hands over her mouth, trying to keep quiet enough for Severus to hear Ginny.
A blush began creeping up Ginny's neck to her cheeks, flaming red, matching her hair.
"Ron was next, of all people. Turns out he just needed to be able to focus his magic. And, um, then I was able to change – "
"She's a red ferret!" gasped Hermione, her laughter reaching Severus, who allowed the other side of his mouth to turn a little upward. "It's hilarious, Severus, when they get really angry at one another they turn into ferrets and chase each other all over the manor."
"Mione!" shrilled Ginny, "we are not funny!"
"Oh, you are and you were. You two were the best entertainment we had at Hogwarts." Hermione turned her attention towards Severus. "They would come down to breakfast from their separate rooms and start harping at one another, and sometime before lunch they would have dropped their wands and changed and you'd see them streaking around the castle chasing each other. Gave Molly and Minerva fits. The two of them could slither under doors, hide behind furniture, and bite! Harry had each of them by the tail once, after a particularly nasty row, and got bit so hard – " she collapsed backward laughing.
Ginny humphed and looked at Severus just in time to see a grin disappearing from his face. "Was that a smile?"
"No," Hermione answered, "at best it was a sneer."
Nodding his head in assent, he rose from his chair. "Good day, Lady Malfoy. Please give Draco my greetings."
"Of course," she replied, rising herself. "I should be heading home. He'll begin to worry soon."
Standing along side her best friend, Hermione led Ginny into the manor and out the front door towards the apparition point. They watched through the door as Severus' back as he climbed the staircase. When Hermione turned back to her friend she saw a ghost of a smile.
"Be careful, Ginny, and be strong," she said, giving the redhead a hug.
"Same to you, Hermione," Ginny responded, squeezing her hands before letting go and appariting away.
Entering their drawing room, Hermione sat down on the floor, her head resting on her armchair where Sebastian was just beginning to awaken. Sensing his mistress, he leaned over to nuzzle her head and began to bathe one of her eyebrows.
"That is unhygienic," came Severus' voice from next to the bar.
Not firewhiskey, please, don't let Ginny's silly comment about children have set us back.
Turning to look at her husband, she was grateful to see he was pouring himself a glass of water from the decanter Eakey kept full.
"I didn't see you there," she replied, running a hand along Sebastian's back. His purrs rumbled the chair. She watched Severus cross in front of the settee and sit down.
"So, you're an animagus?"
"So are you."
Severus frowned, "What on earth gave you that idea?"
Hermione rose up and walked to the bar to get herself a glass of water, before coming to sit beside him, talking as she went.
"Severus, you had top marks in not just Potions, but also Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, everything but Divination and Charms. If you could have gotten over your "silly wand waving", you might have done better in Charms, actually."
"Did you have a point, Lady Snape?"
"I did," she said, eyes alight with a smile. "You excelled at Transfiguration, you were a spy for both sides, and you liked to hide from people. I cannot imagine you not trying to be an animagus. And I can't imagine you not achieving something you set your mind to. So, you tell me what you are, and I'll tell you what I am."
Severus gave her a pointed look. Then, setting his water glass down on the end table he stood in front of her, glaring down.
"Are you sure you want to see this?"
She nodded her head in anticipation, and watched in amazement as her husband transformed into the most elegant ocelot she had ever seen. His undercoat was a dark yellow/brown, chains of splotches ran from his head to his tail, deep black rings surrounding lighter brown centers. He sat back on his haunches and lifted up a paw, flicking out his claws he began grooming it.
Sebastian chose that moment to open his eyes and stare at the intruder. Showing not a hint of fear, he gracefully leapt down from the chair and began circling the much larger feline. When Sebastian reached the tail of the larger cat, he did what all male felines do; he stuck his nose where it didn't belong. The Kneazle was rewarded with a hairy paw on the side of his little kitten head.
Before Hermione could react, Severus had curled his head around and captured Sebastian by the scruff of his neck. With very little patience, but not cruelly, Hermione noticed, he dropped the bundle of fur in Hermione's lap. Changing back into himself, he crossed his arms over his chest and glared.
"You need to teach him manners."
"You were beautiful," Hermione replied, a little breathless. "That's why you ran to South America, to blend in. Severus, your markings, you color, you were absolutely beautiful."
Her response startled him a bit, and he gained his composure by responding gruffly.
"Your turn," he practically ordered, seating himself on the sofa.
She pushed Sebastian off her lap and moved to directly in front of the fireplace.
"Promise you won't laugh?"
"Have you ever heard me laugh? I hardly think I'll begin now."
She shifted her feet nervously. "At least pick up my wand, just in case you need to stun Sebastian."
Intrigued by this request, Severus reached over Sebastian's head and grasped Hermione's wand, laying it safely in his lap.
"There, now show me."
Squinting her eyes shut, she twitched and began to transform. When she finished, Severus had one hand on the back of Sebastian, pinning him down so he couldn't go "sniff" the furry creature that had taken up residence on the rug. Severus tried not to grin, he really tried, but the image in front of him was just perfect.
The bushy haired know-it-all turned into an English Angora Rabbit. From the tufts of fur sticking out on her ears, to the simple overabundance of crazy fur covering the rest of her body, it was a funny sight. He couldn't even see her eyes for all that fuzz.
No wonder she loves those unbearable fuzzy slippers.
She transformed back, a glower on her face.
"You promised you wouldn't laugh."
"I sneered."
"You're grinning."
"It was funny."
Hermione flopped down on the settee beside him, accidentally squishing Sebastian's tail. He responded with a growl and left the room, his tail swishing.
"Believe me, it took forever for me to hear the end of it. Ron gets to be a loyal golden retriever, Ginny and Draco are a perfect matched set of ferrets, hell – I would have even loved to be an owl like Harry. But no, I'm a bloody freaking rabbit. A bloody – freaking – angora – rabbit!" She stopped talking when she heard the noise Severus was making.
"You're laughing. I don't think I've ever heard you laugh."
"Fur, fur everywhere." Severus gasped out. He was rewarded with a hard thwack on his chest. Instead of retaliating, he grabbed her wrist and held it. He looked down into her face.
Bloody hell, she's looking at me. Those sharp eyes, you can see all the way into her. Her nose, perfectly shaped, one can only hope any children would be blessed with her nose and not his. And her lips, so close to mine.
No, he's leaning down, no, I'm not ready for this, not ready for him to reject me. He's got to love me, got to, Minerva promised, and he hasn't had time yet.
She's pulling back, what am I thinking? I'm a greasy bat, an old man, charity does not extend to physical intimacy.
No, he's pulling back, he's looking at me like I'm his student, his disgusting Gryffindor student. We can't go back to square one, I need to move forward with him. How, how, how? MAKE HIM LAUGH!
And with that thought, Severus found himself gripping the paw of a very hairy rabbit. He chuckled, until he saw the flash of black take two leaps from the door to the settee. Grasping Hermione in both hands he jumped to his feet and held her close to his chest, trying to keep her out of Sebastian's reach.
"EAKEY!" he called, praying the house elf could control the Kneazle.
The position Hermione found herself in when transfigured herself back was even more awkward then the one she was initially trying to avoid. She was cradled in Severus' arms, and could see Eakey sitting on Sebastian, who was growling at the tiny elf.
Scrambling out of her husband's arms, she scooped up her familiar, thanking Eakey.
"Eakey is sorry Eakey had to sit on Mistress' kitty."
"Eakey, it's okay, thank you," she replied, trying to calm both the house elf and the Kneazle in her arms.
"Next time you wish to transfigure, I recommend we lock Sebastian in your room," Severus suggested.
A genuine smile was her answer. "Shall we spend some time in the lab before dinner?"
Severus held the door as she led the way.
A/N: For those reviewers (and emailers) who can't understand how Snape is a Lord or keep refering me to Spinner's End, I beg you to go back and read the first chapter. While I'm more than happy to answer questions I haven't previously explained - I am going to assume that MOST of my readers can remember from one chapter to the next what happened, so I don't need to explain it all again. Also, should you want to see a picture of what Hermione looks like I suggest doing a Google search for: English Angora Rabbit, you'll laugh at the visual. Thank you for the reviews! The final chapter is written, just got to get us there now!