Coming Clean
The next night, Severus walked into the bar where he knew he'd find her. No matter what she looked like tonight, she'd come to him eventually. He ordered another gin and tonic from the bartended and perched himself on a barstool, waiting.
He wasn't disappointed when his eyes lit on a woman walking his way. She was curvier than usual, easily filling out the black crop top and pants she had on. There was a henna tattoo around her navel and she had immensely long, flaming red hair. She could've been a Weasley, "Hey, Babe." She smiled at him.
If her appearance did anything for Severus, it was to remind him why he was here and strengthen his resolve. He leaned in and let his lip flicker across her ear as his breath warmed it, "Come now, your roots are showing, love."
Hermione's hand flew to her hair to make sure it wasn't shortening. One of the side effects of the transformation no longer hurting was that it sometimes took her a while to know if she was changing back. Conscientious as always, she had (as she thought) nearly another hour before her next dose.
Severus smirked, "Good, now that I have your attention," He stood up and took the younger woman by the hand, leading her from the bar.
"Back home so soon, Babe?" Back in character, Hermione was quite pleased at his change of mind.
He grinned back at her, that dark smile suddenly reminded her she couldn't control this man like she could the other ones in her life, "In a manner of speaking. We're going to see your husband."
Hermione froze in place, wincing as her lack of movement caused Severus to grab tightly around her upper arm and drag her like a small child. Nobody in the bar seemed to pay any mind to the young woman who was being manhandled from the room. I really need to hang out in classier bars, "Severus, where are we going?" She tried to be a coquette, tried to assume that he was joking. She knew he wasn't and her voice trembled with the thought.
"We're going to your home." He didn't look back at her as they walked, "To see your darling husband, Hermione. The love of your short and passionate life." His voice was flat and cold now, no longer playing her games. He was in control.
Hermione's mind raced, searching for a reason, any reason at all why they couldn't see Harry, "But, Severus, he's practicing until 11. We could always try another night…" Her voice rose with the hope that he'd actually call off his little bout of coming clean.
Severus' eyes panned back to her, cold and dead, "Then we'll wait, won't we?"
He dragged her to her house, forced her to open the door and let him inside. That's when things became confused. Severus had no idea how she'd done it. One minute he was absolutely furious at her for forcing him to do this, putting him in this position, the next he had her shoved bodily against her bedroom wall. The tiny woman, finally wearing Hermione's own visage again, had seduced him. She hadn't really tried and he'd fallen for her again. Of course, it's not like he'd had a choice, right? Stop making excuses for yourself, you wanted it as much as she did.
Hermione's arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him ever closer to her. She gasped out into the dark night as he bit her neck, causing her to squirm ever closer, "Please, Severus." She gasped between kisses as he raised his head. Her leg hooked up over his hip, drawing him further into her body.
A weary and stony faced Seeker was standing in the doorway to his bedroom. What he saw made him only more tired as a single thought pierced through the shock of his mind, Déjà vu.
Harry sat in the kitchen, listening to them, a cup of coffee in his dirty hand. He could barely stand to listen, but was too tired to do anything else. He heard her scream Snape's name over and over in a way that she'd never screamed for him. It sickened him to hear her call out his name.
An hour later they walked out of the bedroom and found him, a still-full cup of now-cold coffee in his hand, a wooden expression was on his face. Severus looked between Hermione and her husband. He felt like a teenage kid getting caught by dad and braced himself for the Seeker's reaction.
Harry sighed, refusing to look at his wife. His eyes surveyed Snape wearily, "Fancy meeting you here, again."
Hermione could feel herself losing control of the situation. She bit her lip and looked at her husband, "Harry…" She placed a hand on his shoulder, which he twitched away irritably.
A sad look filled his eyes as he looked up at the woman he'd tried so hard to love and respect. The latter feeling now quite thoroughly shattered. He looked disappointed in her and, for once, she cared again that she had hurt him, "Why, Hermione? You promised me forever that day and I let you. I trusted you." He shook his head, "It's not like I haven't known what's been going on. You don't come home at night, there's the constant smell of Polyjuice in the house. Why didn't you just leave me when you had the chance?"
Severus looked confused at this and Harry smirked up at him, "Last year? You know, right before my wedding when you tried to seduce my fiancé in her bedroom? Remember? I do." Harry stood and reached for his bag, "You don't have to worry though, dear." He looked at his wife, "You don't have to leave this time." He slung the bag over his shoulder, "I am."
Twenty minutes later, Hermione sat in her kitchen, alone. They'd both left, one after the other. You don't have to leave this time. I am. She'd lost him, lost both of them.
Her stomach turned over as she slid to the floor. Severus had followed him out, shouting to wait up, to stop. They'd left her alone, there in the kitchen. A familiar voice cut through her silence like a knife, "Why'd you do it if it was just going to make you unhappy, Hermione?"
She didn't look up as he spoke to her. Red hair, however, invaded her peripheral and she turned away, "Go away, Ron." She felt tired all of a sudden, oh so tired.
She could hear the smirk on his young, freckled face, "Why did you marry him if you were just going to hurt him in the end?"
Hermione looked up at her once-friend, tears on her cheeks, feeling so full of herself that there was no room for anyone else, "It wasn't supposed to be like that, Ron. He was…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out exactly what he was. There were'nt really any words for what Harry had been to her a year ago.
Ron took a chair and sat down near her, "He was easy, wasn't he, Hermione? Harry was willing to love you and that was enough. He was an easy escape."
She ran the back of her hand under her eyes as she looked up at him, "Yes, but it was more than that, Ron. He was willing to let me be in control. He didn't care as long as someone seemed to love him back."
Ron nodded, remembering how out of control his friend had felt when her parents were killed, "Either way, Hermione, you're going to have to do something. It isn't fair to him to just be the 'easy guy'."
Hermione nodded again, brushing away the remnants of her tears. Who was he to lecture her on the easy way out? She'd had her contrition; she'd been reprimanded. When she looked back up at Ron, there was a hardness lodged behind her eyes, "What about you, Ron? How can you, in all your hypocrisy, stand there and tell me that I'm just using Harry and Severus?"
Ron's forehead wrinkled in a supposed confusion as he absently reached for the cup of cold coffee, "I don't know what you mean, Hermione." It wasn't like they'd been spending time together since Hogwarts. She didn't know anything.
Hermione laughed heartily, too heartily, sneering slightly at her once-best-friend, "How is she not just an easy way out for you?"
Ron's eyes flashed lightening in her direction, "Leave Luna out of this, Hermione. She doesn't deserve your wrath." He shook his head at the woman in front of him. How had he once placed her so high in his own estimation, "Anyway, you don't really know what you're talking about."
Hermione grinned. She'd struck a nerve, "Really? Does Luna know all the hours you spent standing outside my window with Sev?"
Ron sneered, "Yes."
An hour later, Ron stalked from the apartment. A hour's worth of conversation concerning Hermione's 'love life' had done nothing but increase the number of questions she'd shot back at him about Luna. She wasn't letting anyone get close to her now. It was like talking to a wounded wolf: she'd retreated emotionally to lick her wounds for a while.
Ron shook his head as he stalked back to his own place, Luna knows. I told her. I told her everything about Severus and seventh year and that stupid hillock. He sighed. Being a man of honour, it was one of the first things he'd told her when they became engaged.
Ron fondly fingered the ring he wore on a chain around his neck. He was in love with Luna, he really was, particularly after seeing Hermione again. She'd done more to knock herself off the pillar he'd set her on all those years ago than anyone else ever could.
Ron noticed lights flickering in his living room, lights he couldn't remember having left lit. He walked in and saw Severus and Harry sitting on his old bachelor couch, "How'd you two get in here?"
Harry, who had looked up when the door opened, smirked darkly, "We opened the unlocked door and walked in, Ron."
Ron turned then to his former professor with an almost pleading look, "Please, Snape, not now. We're all tired and this would be a bad time to try to do anything." He looked at them hopefully.
Severus raised an eyebrow at Ron (who hated him for his ability to do that), "Are you trying to say, Mr. Weasley, that you have nothing to do with this?"
Harry looked at Severus, "What is it you're trying to say, Snape?" He sunk back on the couch, not really sure he wanted to know what it was his past-teacher was trying to tell him.
"Do you want to know what happened with your wife?" Snape looked at Harry with interest.
Harry sunk deeper into the couch, his mind spinning with all the little things he wanted to know about Hermione. He wasn't altogether sure he wanted answers when he was quite honest with himself, "Do I?" He looked up at Snape, as if expecting him to answer the question.
Snape just laughed, a cold, dark, unamused sound, "That is for you to decide, Potter. It won't be pretty, but then illumination rarely is."
Ron, seeing that they were engaged in their own conversation, wandered out of the living room and into the adjoining kitchen, looking for something to do with his hand. He ended up spreading peanut butter on crackers and eating them until he heard his name again.
Severus' cold voice floated out of the nearby room, "Weasley, we're leaving."
Ron's head poked out of the kitchen, a bit of peanut butter still on his chin, "Where're you going?"
Severus raised an eyebrow, "To Hogwarts, Weasely. You're coming too."
