Warning: This is a very long chapter. Almost 10,000 words on its own, but we couldn't bear to cut it down and wanted it to be posted in totality. Also posting early to make up for being very late last week. You're welcome, and PLEASE tell us what you think. Hopefully we have fulfilled some of your wishes 😉 Cover art by OpalChalice

Enjoy!

~ Kristina & Abby

The Ties That Bind

"No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread." - Robert Burton

CHAPTER III:The Rule of Three

"Can you feel the ties that bind us? Can you feel them tightening? Because I can, they're so tight that I can scarcely breathe." - Nenia Campbell

~•~

Wednesday, 26th November, 2003 - Evening; Moments Later…

Severus Snape blinked back whatever concerns that were at the forefront of his mind, and that had been chiding him this entire process, reaching out his right hand to cup her cheek adroitly before leaning down to press his lips against hers compliantly.

Merlin forbid it come off as anything but so. For as rattling as the entire scene was, he hardly wanted the woman's first, and perhaps only, wedding ceremony to be completely without some form of….romance? - as gauche and professional as it might be.

Indeed, she deserved, if nothing more, a robust kiss of gratitude.

Hermione had always assumed this would be the easy part really. It was only a kiss after all, and a fairly brief one surely given the circumstances. Clearly they were both anxious to get this over with. Granted, the man she would be kissing wasn't just any fool - that was sort of the point behind this entire arrangement. Despite having plenty of warning in advance, she couldn't help the out of place fluttering in her stomach, be it nerves or unease or even some anxious form of curiosity, as she shifted her gaze from Kingsley's final commands to look up at the black-clad wizard towering over her as he began to lean forward.

At least the instruction had bluntly specified for him to initiate, or she assumed they'd likely be in a bizarre standoff, with neither of them fully committed to taking the proverbial plunge. So she was as shocked as anyone when a moment after she returned the pressure of his surprisingly soft lips, her own felt like they had begun to buzz. At first she thought he might be humming, but no. The feeling grew into almost a spark and began to spread like electricity through her mouth and onward to the rest of her body, leaving her too startled to react outside of a sudden widening of her eyes.

Though her lips were smaller and more slight, Severus's own wide, curved ones seemed to fit snugly against them quite well. Soft, supple, and radiating, he found himself rather shocked at just how inviting they were, and just how much his own lips seemed to want to remain latched.

Almost as soon as his mind began to race with these various tumultuous thoughts, Severus' attention was promptly usurped by another, far more intense, sensation of sheer vibration that speedily evolved into what he could only describe as a jolt of electricity. That electricity suddenly ran throughout his entire core before it sent his head backwards, so vibrant was its voltage, almost as soon as he had experienced it.

Wise enough to keep it discreet, but concerned enough to eye her with benevolent concern, he searched her eyes fervently for some sign that she, too, had just been party to the ineffable frisson that had just occurred.

Hermione blinked up to lock onto Severus' equally baffled gaze, at least long enough to know that he had also experienced ...whatever the hell that was. They had been essentially struck by a non-figurative bolt of lightning, and she was caught somewhere between worried and maddeningly curious.

His pupils remained with hers for a moment or two longer than they rightly should have as he read her bewildered stare, before he finally shook his concentration free of her - metaphorically speaking, and cleared his throat.

"Right then. Can Minerva go home and tend to her bloody roast now?" Severus queried, sucking his lower lip into his mouth momentarily to bite down his concern as he waited for someone - anyone, at this point - to move this carnival along.

Hermione made an effort to clear her suddenly very dry throat, her own focus faltering, before daring to pipe up in swift agreement.

"Um...yes, shouldn't we be signing things?"

She looked up at Kingsley, eager for the distraction, her hands clasped together tightly to ease the sudden tingling she was experiencing in her extremities, though the minister was no longer paying direct attention to them, but gazing into the far corner of the room with a scowl.

"And so it begins", he grumbled, audible to them at least before raising his voice to carry through the door.

"Oy, who let someone in here?!"

Just moments prior, as the forced couple were about to join their lips together, the aforementioned mole had stealthily pulled out his camera to capture a few tantalising photos of just how 'passionately' Severus Snape gripped his ex-student's cheek as she became his wife, and how 'readily' Miss Granger received it.

Oh, yes, this would hit the front page for a good week or so. Granted, he had to balance what he had been hired to capture from 'the higher-ups' with what he could stealthily get away with within the underground tabloids. He figured a good pseudonym, a charm to make the photo from some other angle or what not, could help to cover his tracks fairly well. And, after all, they hadn't made him sign a bloody contract or NDA, or anything of that nature. It wasn't his fault if he had been able to hoodwink them into doing their dirty business by presenting as a loyal, conservative member of the press who would wager his own reputation for their gain.

Indeed, backstabbing was how the urchin had made it so far so quickly. The joke would very much be on his freelance employer(s). And so, having accomplished his sordid task, the unsavoury crook chuckled to himself as he hastily made an exit before anyone who had granted him access might regret doing so.

And that was that.

Severus frowned as his head turned towards his left and scanned the room, though he didn't see anything. There had been an unnamed presence, however, it didn't seem overly sinister, or so he assumed. Regardless, he currently had far more on his plate to steward than alarming himself with someone of high clearance who, hopefully, had simply stumbled into the wrong room. The figure before him was distressing enough.

"Can we sign the bloody documents and be done, finally, please?!"

Kingsley still frowned but nodded, turning to pace back over to his desk to occupy its chair.

"Have a seat."

He likely came off as uncharacteristically short, though in truth he was more perplexed than anything, his gaze flicking up at Minerva briefly while he laid the first sheet of parchment out in front of the seats, Hermione making short work of claiming one.

"Obviously, the marriage license is a quick sign on the dotted line, however I would suggest you go over their contract a bit more thoroughly. They can be...tricky with phrasing on occasion."

Severus swallowed whatever apprehension he had been trying to fight this entire time and sat down in the chair next to her to prepare to sign the documents. The large digit on his left hand flexed as it noted the alien object adorning it. He frowned for a moment before shaking his head internally.

"Please, go ahead, Miss Granger... " he muttered with rigid politeness, though a small acidic sigh hastily followed. Though, all directed at himself, to be sure.

The young woman let out a soft hum, her eyes scanning his person despite his own attention drifting to something else seemingly very distant. Nevertheless, she leant onto the edge of her seat to grab a quill, methodically dip it into the open ink well, and begin to sign the bottom of the certificate, pausing for the briefest of moments as she reached the end of her first name before pressing onward with what instinct told her was the best choice in this particular circumstance.

"Your turn," she offered simply, leaving the alteration for him to note or to disregard as he saw fit once she'd finished and sat back, placing the quill down for his use.

He took the quill without any fuss, his eyes darting to the left side of the page where she had signed it though they were abruptly halted by a very prominent looking hyphen. Yes, it seemed that the young witch had concluded on the spot to, for now at least, sport both of their surnames as her own. Well, that was certainly….unanticipated, though, despite his former castigation of 'Snape', he did find himself rather chuffed and flattered by the gesture, if one could call it that.

And so, upon shooting her a subtle glance of appreciative acknowledgment, Severus Snape hastily signed his own name on the line as well before he could think twice of it. Once done, he pushed the paper towards Kingsley and sat back in his chair. He caught Minerva's eye.

"Well done," she whispered to him as she turned the papers around to sign them herself as their witness before handing them off to the minister for final submission.

The minister looked over the signatures dutifully, and laid the document off to the side whilst the ink settled. He pulled out his wand once again, tapping the top most drawer of his desk, and pulled out a rather needlessly, in his opinion, elaborate scroll of parchment which he unfurled and positioned in the certificate's place.

"All right. Now for the bit that actually requires some thought. Here...is your contract. I have looked it over briefly, but I would advise you both to give it a glance before agreeing to it with any finality. The beginning is all technical, flowery nonsense. Most contracts like to do that so you get accustomed to skimming before anything of actual importance goes in…"

"Obviously," Hermione agreed flatly, though swiftly leant forward to begin to absorb the words carefully.

The dictation of the date took up two lines of text as it was, and there were many titles and formalities thrown around, but the sections and clauses were more where the points of importance would lay, clearly. Everything seemed, mostly to the state of their initial argument thus far, though some of the specifications regarding their so-called media presence (a rather polite way of saying 'propaganda') were annoyingly specific. She let out a slight scoff.

"So, essentially they get to parade us around at their whim with only a few hours required warning?"

"So it would seem," Severus answered between two icy layers of sarcasm and rancour as he stole a glance at her and rolled his eyes before reaching for the parchment to look over the next bit of clauses and postulations that were to be inflicted upon them.

His pupils drank in the words of the next paragraph and the thin line of his mouth quickly began to adhere to its own principle of disproving gravity as he ingested the stipulations and terms for their, eventual, consummation.

"Excuse me, Kingsley, but why are there over four provisos under the bloody consummation clause? I don't recall ever having been requested, asked, or informed of those before I agreed to all of this? And if I didn't, I doubt Miss Granger, did either… Did either of you know about these beforehand?" He anxiously asked both the Minister, and then Minerva with a look of utter despair.

Kingsley himself didn't look entirely keen on that front either, however for the sake of simplicity he exhaled a subtle sigh and gestured to the document patiently.

"I wondered that myself, but apparently if there's a likelihood that intercourse could only occur once within the year's time span, then it has to be done "properly" and meet all the standards that constitute that - magically, so as to avoid risk of the bond nullifying. The language may be… over-precise, but there's nothing terribly… outside the norm, if you will, within it."

Regardless of Kingsley's disclaimer, or frankly while he was still giving it, Hermione lurched over to the side to look at what Severus was focusing on, leaning slightly closer to him in the process.

"Over-precise… That is one way of putting it," she shot back, narrowing her eyes as she skimmed the over-inflated list of stipulations, which were certainly "vanilla" in tone sure, but were, as far as she was aware, hardly required in more cases than not.

"I mean a couple of them I'm not going to argue with, but why exactly does the where, when, and how matter in terms of it 'counting'?"

"Quite so, Kingsley," Severus added in combative aid, not that it seemed to be his bidding by any means but they both did need a, momentary, target to fire at for the time being.

"For instance, I can't quite comprehend why the bloody fuck I must guarantee to be 'nude' in order to accomplish/meet/achieve…." he rolled his eyes at that one, "the other requirements. Can't you see how many bloody buttons I have on my person? Not to mention layers. Magic be damned."

Kingsley barely caught himself from rolling his eyes entirely, holding up his hands.

"My specialty is not Marriage Law, I have absolutely no idea. Probably some old fashioned ritualism nonsense that no one typically cares much about. Try wearing something less complicated when you get to that point?"

Hermione snickered slightly, more to herself and at this bizarre set of legalities than at anyone or thing in particular. Honestly all of it was a shitshow.

"I would ask how they'd even know what we do, but I really don't think I want to know the answer. Ridiculous notion. So if I wear stockings, suddenly everything is void? Technically doesn't meet the criteria…"

"If you did do, they'd better be fishnets," Severus mumbled under his breath and into his hand, not necessarily opposed to her overhearing the comment, even if it was for his own amusement. Though, it would be somewhat intriguing to see her reaction had she done so.

Therefore, in the attempt to ensure her some sort of fragment to digest, in the effort to procure any type of response - for scientific purposes, might he add - he couldn't keep himself from adding a second, saucier remark, of, "the larger the 'weaving' the better…"

"Ah, an even more interesting technicality," Hermione couldn't resist articulating with an ironic glint of amusement in her eyes, shifting her attention from the paper, to Severus, and then to the room as a whole.

"If something covers absolutely no flesh whatsoever, would it still count as nudity? Seems to be a loophole, no pun intended."

Severus was biting back a carnivorous chuckle and was eager to tack another exchange to continue their, apparently very adept banter, when he was swiftly interrupted by a very piqued-looking Minister of Magic, and just as readily clenched his jaw shut entirely.

"You can do whatever you want when the time comes, but if you don't sign this now then you can't argue with them about it later. Now let's move on, please?" Kingsley found himself having to correct, sternly, before they over-analyzed the contract into nullification in one afternoon.

Hermione cleared her throat over the urge to argue, and gave a short nod, if still a stubborn one. She needed to take this seriously, yes, but when it was so maddeningly illogical to start with, it was something of a chore. She obediently looked back down at the parchment.

"Yes, yes. Moving on…"

Severus swallowed, suddenly overcome with a horrible sense of claustrophobia. He had taken far too many liberties just now. Far too many. Especially with regards to the obscene level of flirtation and forwardness he had just exhibited conversationally towards her. Honestly, what the bloody fuck had he been thinking?

He took her own tune to heart and rescued himself from the confines of his whirlwind internal descent into self-loathing over his recent actions, pulling himself back into reality by copying her eye's movement back to the parchment.

Shifting his weight in his chair to do so, his left shoulder pressing against her right as did its fellow sided knee to her other, he swallowed at the contact but not due to any outright stupefaction at it. No, his eyes were far more paralysed by the last clause that they were resting upon. He swallowed as his greatest fears were confirmed about the contract.

Granted, it was always in the works, and he knew it was very fanciful that it wouldn't be included…. Still, to see it in black and white on parchment in very permanent ink did make his face blanche considerably.

He cleared his throat just as he leant away from her person as far as he could.

"... So, about that last clause…. Do we -"

Seeing the man clearly begin to panic at the formal application of that particular, "suggested" requirement, Hermione took advantage of his slow-to-form inquiry and held up a stalling hand of extremely sardonic dismissal.

"No stress, that will be an argument for another day. For now, however… I believe everything looks adequate…"

She glanced at Severus briefly to see if he caught her insinuation, and if he were otherwise in agreement. There were only so many hours in a day, she supposed, and securing anything more would have to be a longer game.

Sensing the mounting tension in her dearest friend that was bordering on the rumblings of Mount Vesuvius before unleashing its fury onto Pompeii, Minerva took it upon herself to interrupt by glancing at Kingsley with expressively urgent eyes.

"Right, all that can be settled at another time. They just need to sign the bloody thing and then, they'll be finished, yes?"

"Yes, Minister. Are. We. Finished? I'd like to get my wand back and sort out my immediate future for the next forty-eight hours now that I'm liberated," Severus asked as calmly as he could, riding on the coattails of Minerva's well-executed ambush of the situation.

He grabbed the quill and hurriedly scribbled his signature before pushing the parchment and utensil to the witch to his left that was once his insufferable student, and now, his heroic wife.

Taking that as a definitive enough agreement, Hermione wordlessly took them from his hands and perched the document on her knee long enough to scrawl her signature neatly at the bottom, taking care to remember the hyphen she had just taken on a few minutes prior. She laid the contract resolutely back on Kingsley's desk.

"I think that sorts it."

Kingsley eyed them both with brief concern as he too, gave his sign off, and laid it off to the side with the marriage certificate.

"Yes, it appears that everything is finished. If you'll wait here I'll give these to my secretary to send down and we'll go to fetch your wand, Severus."

"Thank. You," Severus replied with a hiss as he eyed Minnie for a moment before jerking his head to the left. This was a clear instruction that he wanted some privacy with his new wife before they split off until...whenever, and thankfully, Minerva knew him well enough to read it as such.

Minerva eyed him cautiously, but did end up brushing past him, squeezing his shoulder, before turning round to lock eyes with Kingsley.

"Minister, with all due respect, after all of that, perhaps we should go fetch his wand ourselves and leave these two to sort out their arrangements?"

"Probably advisable, actually, I wouldn't mind going over a couple things with you on the way," Kingsley caught on swiftly and agreed with the headmistress as he stood, if not before catching Hermione's eye to make sure she was in agreement.

She gave him a quick nod of assent and watched them exit with a slight roll of her eyes at their rather terrible attempt at subtlety. Clearly, they were trying to encourage them to have some sort of discussion about this that didn't include them at all. Either out of sheer curiosity as to how it would turn out (more on Minerva's part, likely) or desperately trying to avoid getting stuck in the middle of it.

Either way, she figured, it would be best to go the innocuous route, for starters.

"Well you'll be awfully relieved to go home, I'm sure," she began, tentatively.

"More or less," he replied rather palatably.

Despite the terror that had just arrested his entire being, he was quite grateful she had chosen to refrain from continuing their prior tete-a-tete. Yes, that topic could assuredly come later. Far more pressing matters to adjourn, he concluded, picking off a transparent piece of lint from his trousers as he flexed his left hand once more.

"And, where shall you be? Hm?"

"Me? As of right now, I have a flat not far from here," she replied, raising her brows semi-knowingly at the question.

Even if it wasn't the most egregious aspect of the contract, the whole 'living situation' argument was mentioned more than once, despite giving them plenty of leave to not concern themselves with it presently. If that was the angle he was going for...

Severus' eyes glanced over to her and he couldn't help but take the bait she unwittingly had just offered.

"Oh? Is that an invitation then?"

He was being a cock, again, and he knew it - or worse, a flirt. But, he honestly did not know how else to behave in this particular moment. At least intimidating her into admitting she didn't want any of this, least of all him in every way, would help that difficulty.

Hermione leaned back in her chair to study him with an arch to her brow. Unlike his previous bordering-on-flirtatious comments, this one came out considerably more like a challenge. So the snark levels were back on the rise. At least that she could navigate with ease. Though she did hope to calm the waters if she could.

"Well it's certainly not one you would accept, so why would it be?" She returned casually, if for no other reason than to prove that he wasn't going to intimidate her with his attitude, regardless if it was intentionally abrasive or not.

"I suppose that is a fair assessment, Miss Granger," Severus murmured lowly, as he dashed his tongue along the length of his lower lip quickly.

"One should never assume. Especially when it comes to the ingredients of temperaments. Or did I teach you nothing in my class?"

He hated himself for pressing her against the wall so - metaphorically speaking, of course - but he couldn't help but be eager to call her bluff and all that she had just entangled herself into.

"The train back to Cokesworth is a good two hours. And my prison here is hardly fit for such a...significant evening to spend alone," he countered, hellbent on deterring her from any sort of desire to ever entertain that sentiment with him. Yes, better to spook her now.

She actually snickered slightly. He was putting an awful lot of effort into trying to trip her up, it was almost endearing. But triple agent skills aside, the logic just didn't suit, no matter how many off hand comments he had made. It wasn't even the first time she had heard such a backhanded inquiry from his lips. If she recalled correctly, leading off with a trail of false evidence was one of his most notoriously hated teaching methods.

"Because you are too spiteful to ever do something you just went through such pains to argue your way out of being forced to do," she called his own bluff back knowingly, and then rolled her eyes lightly, this time in a decidedly self-deprecating manner.

"I believe it's something we have in common."

He eyed her for a moment before peering down and pursing his lips in amusement for only a millisecond as he folded his hands into his lap.

"Touche, Wife, touche," he remarked with a soft chuckle of inward criticism. "Worth a bloody shot, though, no?"

He flicked his hair out of his face before inhaling sharply to look off to his side. He didn't expect her to answer. No, the question was obviously a farce, if nothing else. Still, he did hold vigil for a moment in case she chose to.

She chuckled lightly, shaking her head and regarding him in a haze of probably out of place nostalgia. The context couldn't be more decidedly different, and he might even hate that she remembered it, but she couldn't help but remark on it regardless with a teasing hint of amusement.

"You always did enjoy trying to trick me into drawing the wrong conclusions. Never usually worked out very well."

"Now, now, Miss Granger, don't mistake how I treated you in comparison to how I would treat any other student I thought worthy of my wrath. You could begin to feel special, and 'former me' would have loathed that, so…. My 'trying to trick you' was a commonwealth exercise… Understood?"

After leaving her either speechless or disgusted, or a union of the both, he couldn't be sure, though he did hastily continue on lest he completely land on his face.

"I do, however, need to go back North this week, if not tomorrow," he added for clarity's sake, still acting as the ever-destined bachelor.

She arched her brow and gave him a wry smirk, in acknowledgement and general agreement to his first point, before allowing what was clearly his preferred intention to skim past his deflection entirely back into the topic she had brought up to start with. Fair enough.

"Well you do essentially get to do whatever it is you want to do now... Aside from the occasional bout of contractually having to spend time with me, that is," she teased, perhaps a tad curious now in her own right exactly how opposed to that he was.

The waters were quite muddy in that arena, and for how well she had just read through him, she knew far too little about his motivations to get a truly accurate gauge. She found herself having to reevaluate almost every preconceived notion she had about this arrangement based on the events of the very first hour, as is. There was quite a bit to unpack and she hadn't exactly taken the time to process all of it yet, but thus far 'confused' and 'intrigued' were certainly up there on the list.

"Yes. Quite so," Severus replied with a raising of his left brow and a swallowing of his throat.

"You'll likely have to come up. Soon. To see the house and what not. But for now, unless you need me for any reason, shall we part ways once they've returned with my wand?" He asked as he licked his lips and glanced to his left hand, which felt almost as if it had both a lead weight and also a beacon of fire round it.

He glowered at the alien orb with an uneasy feeling of auguring. He was growing more and more unsteady as his proximity to her was lengthening, and had a furtive suspicion that it might just be the thing that was causing the torrid sensation on his ring finger. As such, he had thus decided that it was time for him to make a speedy departure.

"Likely so. Just waiting until Kingsley gets back to be sure everything went through all right," Hermione agreed, no more enlightened than before.

If anything, she was somewhat more confused. Her lips took a marginal downturn, and she swallowed as she flexed her thrumming fingers on the arm of the chair which she was essentially leaning over to speak to him, debating whether or not to address the very obvious elephant in the room.

"... Severus, I don't mean to sound like a total muggle here, but how many weddings have you been to?"

He loured at her discourse and shrugged, "None. Why do you ask?"

Merlin, the last thing he wanted to think about was anything that had to do with matrimony. Especially in comparison to what, apparently, had just been his. Correction: theirs.

Hades' balls, what the bloody fuck had he actually just agreed to…?

She worried her lower lip between her teeth. Lovely, he had even less of a basis of comparison than she'd feared. She was beginning to wonder if she should even say anything at all? Though surely, by his rather twitchy left hand, he had to be noticing the same sort of...effects. And he had surely felt the chaos earlier.

"It's just that, well... granted I've only seen a couple myself, but ours seemed a bit um... anomalous?"

"You mean notwithstanding the bits about ours being between a witch and wizard, performed by a Minister waving a bit of wood round casting spells that enchanted magical binds to wrap round our hands, and, effectively tie us together, for life, via magic?" He prattled acerbically ending with a pointed left brow and mocking intonation of a query.

He clearly was in a mood, so unable was he to constrain himself from indulging in a good slice of ridicule when her statement had practically been pleading for it.

Hermione's eyes rolled, though she seemed to grant him that bit of snark, since she had been somewhat vague.

"I meant in comparison to the other magical weddings I've witnessed, yes," she retorted rather flatly, her brow raising to mirror him.

"Obviously I knew what you meant, Granger," he sneered with a sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest and glanced down at her from his taller position in the chair.

"But please go on, inform the class of your theories…How was it so very….divergent?" He couldn't help but inquire despite his inner blunder.

"In every way but the actual structure?" Hermione suggested with a scoff that may have edged into a chuckle, if only out of nerves.

She wet her lips and angled her head as she attempted to find a way to specify what she meant without going into unnecessarily egregious details about other such unions she had witnessed. He absolutely would not care, and frankly she didn't either at the moment, save as a basis of comparison.

"I've never once seen the binding turn into such a light show. It was a...glow at best. nor has anyone I know ever described it as such a... tangible experience."

Severus contemplated her words with a significant quantity of perturbation along with the fact that he had just been pondering the same thing himself. Her additive of scrutiny certainly wasn't boosting his own hope that it was just a one-off type thing. Indeed, the last thing he wanted to do was give it any more consideration, let alone perusal.

"I. See. Well, perhaps... it behaves differently with marriage law contracts... as most of them are likely to be, as ours, a bit of a sham and devoid of any feelings of true romance or... love...?"

"I mean... perhaps, but those vows seemed practically written for arranged marriages. No love or romance even involved, really," she couldn't help but counter, her brows furrowing softly.

"And you'd think if it was disagreeable magic, it'd be weaker not stronger. Was almost like an electric shock when you kissed me..."

She shook her head, halting herself before she began to truly deconstruct the entire experience.

"Sorry, probably overthinking it."

Snape inhaled sharply as she made her specific point about the fervour of their kiss, his muscles flexing in discomfort at the cornucopia of connotations that it could easily elicit and then some.

"...There….was a certain amount of….. Voltage present, yes. I cannot deny that… But, perhaps it was merely an….aberration…. The magic, oh, trying to force us to feel something since it is an arrangement of sorts? Wouldn't put it past the ministry to charm something in through the bindings to make our lips' touch….significant…." he licked his own as if prompted by the consideration before clearing his throat and lifting and dropping his shoulders.

"If they had any direct involvement in the ceremony, I'd say the same, but did you see that book? The bloody thing was ancient, the vows probably literally were — barring some translation error… "

Hermione wasn't looking at her husband any longer, but somewhere off into the distance whilst she took the very bizarre series of events into consideration.

"And Kingsley may be a minister, but I don't think he'd do anything like that deliberately without warning us."

"No, no, of course not," Severus agreed with a waving of his left hand at the prospect of someone so 'holy' as Kingsley ever being so crooked.

"Well, I'm not sure then... I'm assuming as you've foolishly volunteered to be my wife, you were presented many parchments on the loopholes, etc of all of this, you must know more than I do? Let alone even having attended a wedding... I'm actually out of my depth here, Miss Granger..."

"All my focus was on the legal aspects, I'm afraid. I didn't really consider the possibility of magical complications..." Hermione found herself hesitant to admit that for once she apparently hadn't covered every area in her preparations.

She found herself running a hand through her hair antsily. She hadn't really considered much of anything past the legal rationale and its effectiveness at evading a plethora of issues, if she were honest. That seemed to be the main thing that mattered. The ritualistic part of the marriage ceremony had hardly seemed daunting.

"I mean, not that it's exactly a complication. Just …. bizarre, really which I'm just sort of used to leading to complications, I guess."

He observed her anxious tics with some thought before reaching to take hold of her right hand with his left. He gave it a small squeeze of … comradery? Perhaps.

"Let's not tear our hair out so easily. We have a lifetime for that," he stated simply before letting go of her hand all together.

"If you'd like to test it, Miss Granger, fine. Let's do so, and get it over with."

"Now?" She found herself asking a bit foolishly, distracted by the unexpected moment of contact before having the mindfulness to look grateful, and quickly corrected herself in a bluntly self-deprecating murmur.

"Obviously, yes. The most logical thing to do, probably."

"Right," he scowled at her in as 'professional' a manner as he could muster at the moment before tossing his hair back and out of his face as he glanced behind his person to observe just how much, well, that they were being observed.

Merlin, could they just come back already? Then, perhaps, he wouldn't have to endure this bloody experiment, and then, perhaps, his fucking heart rate could go down.

"I understand that the thought of being married to me, on a surface level alone, is likely abhorrent, Miss Granger…. However, you might have to initiate this… trial for just that reason...?"

Severus found himself suddenly very insecure. And very much wanting to be nowhere near her.

Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes a tad once more at that presumption, though also was somewhat relieved that believing it seemed to be the source of at least some of his distaste. Hopefully. Not that it should really concern her.

"If the word 'abhorrent' came to mind at the thought I wouldn't have agreed to this in the first place. But fair enough," she corrected casually in clear agreement to the request.

Would hardly be the first time, though he had initiated it then. Taking a discrete breath in preparation, Hermione leant forward into his space and pressed her lips to his for the second time, inquisitively.

Severus fortified himself, if only by obligatory duty to his person and reputation, as he felt her lips touch his. Indeed, her lips were even more enticing than the first time and far more ready and present.

Not a good combination, his lower half hastily noted.

He fought that primitive response, however, as hard as it was - which, in and of itself, was quite unusual - and instead, focused his attention on his fingers that so desired to reach out to her. Well, that was equally as disturbing a revelation.

Double fuck. But also, fuck it.

He, therefore, returned the force of her lips with the muscles of his own, before daring to dart the tip of his tongue against the edge of lips. He caught himself, though, with almost more vehement passion than he caught his other half moments before.

What. The. Devil. Are. You. Thinking. Man?

For a brief moment Hermione thought she may have been overthinking this after all, that the magical effects of the kiss had been merely a ceremonial bug. Though before that could make her too concerned as to what the hell else she was feeling then, the sensation returned full force. It wasn't exactly centered in her mouth this time, though it certainly reverberated there, and inspired her to lean further off her seat to increase the connection to his lips.

No, it felt like her very blood was humming in her veins, and as it rushed through her, it brought the tingling heat of the magic with it everywhere it went.

Severus Snape had to keep from gasping into the young witch's mouth as a cascade of galvanism seemed to surge from her lips into his own. The feeling that it arose in him was one that he had not felt in decades. Pure and utter want. Lust. Arousal. So sudden and alarming was it, that he found his right hand coming up to her cheek to deepen the union of their lips.

He still did not, however, sanction the use of his tongue. No, that would be far too potentially detrimental, not to mention revealing.

He only allowed the assistance of his hand to aid him in their little 'experiment,' and one that was hastily becoming rather compromising as he clearly felt a 'groinal twitch' as soon as his palm met the soft, dewy surface of her cheek.

Zeus' cockring, this really, really wasn't a good sign.

A soft hum of muted pleasure reverberated from Hermione's lips to be immediately muffled by his as the relatively innocent touch of his hand felt like a firebrand against her flesh, though it hardly distinguished itself from the heat spreading through the rest of her. One of her hands fell on the desk for balance as she found she was very literally on the edge of her seat. Whatever magic this was clearly had one objective in mind, though it felt more invigorating than frightening.

It wasn't until she felt that invigoration fully center itself in between her thighs with an abruptness did she cease the hold she had on his cupid's bow and part her lips in a somewhat startled gasp at the shudder that rode its way down her spine. Though, if the tensing in his fingers against her cheek was anything to go by, she wasn't the only one who felt it.

He pulled back his hand as if it had been touched by a fiery coal. His mouth as well. He crossed his legs in a feeble attempt to quell the bloodlust growing between them before finally uttering, "….And, your thoughts?"

Hermione cleared her throat as she shifted back, feeling the heat linger in her face and hoping it hadn't turned an illuminating shade of pink.

"...Well, definitely still...noticeable effects," she murmured, hesitantly catching his eye if only to verify he was in agreement in some small way.

Gods forbid that was just her, but no she very much doubted it. His eyes gave that away if not his stance, which she did her best not to focus on for long.

"Yes, there were…..some," he remarked as he shifted in his seat and pressed his breath out through the side of his mouth.

"Right… So, when do you want to come up North?"

"Oh, potentially on the weekend... if they don't drag us into some other chaos by then," she suggested, her fingers antsily fiddling with the hem of her dress as she attempted to follow his lead and return to somewhat normal conversation.

Thankfully, before any further faulty attempts could be made to revert the subject back, the door once again opened to Minerva and Kingsley's inevitable return and Hermione slid further back into her chair instinctively at the rather fortunate intrusion.

"Sorry for the delay, you'd think they'd spare me the paperwork," the minister lamented as he paced back in, a long box in his hand which no doubt held Severus' confiscated wand.

"Oh, thank fuck," Severus accidentally blurted out, standing far too hastily and reaching out a large hand for the box in question.

He caught Minnie's eye and scowled. Bloody woman always seemed to know when he felt a certain way about something, and this was one time where he really did not want, nor did he need her thoughts.

"Many. Thanks," he blustered at the minister as he opened the box to retrieve his precious familiar. Tossing the unneeded item on the man's desk, he pocketed his wand and gave the room a rather ubiquitous, quick smile.

"May. I. Leave. Now?"

Minerva quirked a brow straight into the rim of her hat, knowing even if he wouldn't meet her eye directly, the man was plenty observant enough to see it in his peripheral. He would, inevitably, share his concerns with her later, she was sure.

For now, she was content to agree with the sentiment.

"It is getting a bit late, indeed."

Kingsley gave a precursory glance towards the two women just in case they had any protests before giving a diplomatic nod of his head.

"I believe this concludes everything required of you at the moment, yes. You should find any other items that were taken from you back in your flat and you will be contacted by owl, I imagine sooner rather than later about … other matters. Your copies of the documents will be sent to you as well."

Meanwhile Hermione had also stood to her feet, lingering, almost loitering at this point, but with clear intention to depart not long after her newfound spouse. Her part in this had been done, officially speaking.

"I'm probably going to head out for the day as well soon, if you're through with me too..."

Kingsley gave another nod before redirecting his focus to Severus and whether or not he absorbed his words.

"Wonderful," Severus assented with a clear tone of sarcasm as he gave a final study of the room before his eyes landed on his 'wife'.

"Right. So. Goodbye?"

Hermione nodded, grabbing her jacket off the back of the chair and draping it over her arm in preparation.

"Yes, goodbye. I imagine I'll be seeing you," she replied with a bit of a sardonic half-smile, though she found herself clenching her left hand into a fist suddenly, if hopefully imperceptibly as her ring finger gave a curious twinge. In protest to his leaving, perhaps?

Severus glanced down at her with a mild look of appreciation before hastily averting his eyes from Hermione's to find the beady, steadfast set of Minnie's. He swallowed, but gave his friend the smallest of smiles in thanks before turning resolutely on his heel towards the nearest side exit into London, proper.

Thank Merlin it was the evening and he could go "home" and get a bit drunk. He fucking deserved it.

Upon watching Severus' hasty departure, Hermione frowned down at the offending finger for a moment, then zero-ing in on the ring which, she was suddenly realising, had a very unknown history and origin.

"Well, I am also off, but thank you both for everything," she announced at full tilt to both Kingsley and Minerva before she hurried toward the exit herself, having one last theory she felt the overwhelming need to disprove before she could sleep that night.

Throwing on her jacket as she walked, she luckily spotted the distinctive form of Severus Snape darkening the still rather grey London street, though she had to speed walk to catch up to his longer stride.

"Severus, wait a second. Give me your hand," she demanded as she finally arrived at his heels, her tone unmistakably full of academic curiosity despite being a bit out of breath.

Having thought he was resolutely on his own for the rest of the night, if not for a couple of days, The Half-Blood Prince was momentarily jarred as he heard the voice of his wife not so far away.

"Merlin, Miss Granger, do take a day off? Have some fun?"

He scowled at her for a moment, but was rather more inclined to do whatever the bloody hell he had to do to get back to his current, private quarters than not.

"At the very least start with Professor? I do need a learning curve here, Wife," he muttered, though extended his hand to her own regardless.

Hermione's eyes rolled lightly. Despite the haste of this whole situation, it seemed a bit silly at this point for formalities. Not that it would stop him from avoiding any use of her first name, of course.

"Oh, like that'd make it any less weird, Professor. Now let me test something," she murmured, demonstratively slipping her wedding band off and into her pocket.

Once he'd offered it, Hermione proceeded to slide his ring from his hand as well, and placed it into his other palm for him to pocket as he saw fit, watching as he did so.

She took one, final glimpse of their surroundings to ensure no one was immediately in their vicinity. Hades forbid they start their media debut too soon.

Then, without further ado the petite Gryffindor stood up onto her toes and kissed her former professor on the mouth once again with decided intent, figuring there was little point trying to be tentative about it this time when she needed a proper response.

The man barely had time to register what was happening, much less absorb the insinuated instruction, before it literally happened.

He felt her lips press to his for the third time, yet this was the first time, it should be recorded, that her frontside was pressed fully against his own. This was especially frustrating as certain body parts that hadn't been feasible before, were suddenly very much present. She was quite literally plastered against him given their height difference and her tongue was tantalisingly close on the opposing side of the wall that was her teeth.

Despite the fact that this was their third time kissing in such a brief amount of time, Severus found the experience to be alarmingly worse. Or rather, better. 'Better' in the conventional sense of enjoyment and pleasure, that two people who are invested in one another romantically, carnally, would experience, that is. Which, for Severus, meant it was egregiously far worse. Indeed, for it fought against every scientific notion and hint of logic he had hitherto assumed.

Surely, given his historic indifference to the witch in any area that involved sentiment or somatic response, the more they interlaced lips, the more his tolerance would grow, and therefore resist whatever brief, ineluctable side effects that occurred. Especially when one also aggrandised that by recalling his discomfiture with the entire bloody arrangement. It seemed impossible, or rather very improbable, that his person would not only want more contact, but would also be more affected by it as well. Yet, and much to his internal alarum, that is precisely what occurred.

Indeed, the sparks were more intense then they had been during the second trial run whilst sat, and it seemed as if, in omniscient approval of their persons being in almost full contact with one another, a beam of fire-like warmth swirled around them, protecting them from the frigid November air.

And to make things worse, his hands seemed to have an agenda all of their own as he suddenly found them reaching up to rest on her hips rather possessively. He hastily did his best to justify this by deciding, in the name of logic, that their migration to her sides would seem the natural inclination for his 'role', as part of an invested couple on the street seemingly sharing a tender moment, to do. Merlin, forbid any passerby thought a witch of her calibre to be throwing herself at him and it not be requited.

Hermione had actually intended for this experiment to be rather brief. After all, it was bloody freezing out and the man was surely in a rush to leave and occupy himself with something that wasn't ministry-sanctioned now that he was no longer a prisoner. But whatever her intentions had been, the universe seemed to have other plans. She had even steeled herself for the emblematic 'impact' if her theory was disproved, which it very quickly was. It seemed, however, that no amount of preparation could build resistance to this particular class of magic.

What had begun as little shock upon their lips' first greeting was now certainly an incendiary shower of sparks, startling her out of her more deductive mindset and leaving her solely with the series of sensations the embrace was swiftly plunging her into. The windchill vanished in the wake of it, as did the knowledge that they were standing in the middle of the bloody road. Suddenly all she really knew was that this was going to become a very dangerously addictive habit if she wasn't careful. Though he didn't presently seem to be complaining.

Her right hand apparently found itself bracing onto the back of his neck beneath the sweeping of his surprisingly silky hair as though it would help her to decrease the amount of space between their persons, though that seemed to be both unwise and logistically impossible.

Well, she was present enough to decide even whilst muffling a murmur of approval against his lips, definitely just disproved that theory.

Ring or no ring, she was almost sure the appropriate finger was still on fire, though it was increasingly difficult to feel a difference.

"…Eager, eager, aren't we Miss Granger? Hoping to win some favour in my class?" He drawled with a gravelly baritone that was deeper than even his usual one. Why he said it, much like the myriad of all crossing-the-line comments he had uttered that day, he had no bloody clue. But he also knew, he was unable - or perhaps, unwilling - to keep from doing so.

Hermione slowly pulled back a hair, her mouth - and the rest of her for that matter - no less tingly for the trouble. In fact she was fairly certain from the conscious effort she had had to put into her retreat, that it was only getting worse. And clearly had begun to linger, long overstaying its welcome.

"I...was testing if the rings were charmed, actually… but apparently that theory is in the toilet," she uttered in a dangerously husky tone while being still so dangerously close.

With the fortitude of a titan, she cleared her throat and took a half step back out of his loosening grasp, seeing if the distance, however minute, might break the spell. Literally or figuratively.

"...well, back to the drawing board, it seems."

He swallowed as she retreated, his hands just falling from her hips as she did so.

"Right, yes, I see," he commented somewhat clumsily as he furrowed his brows in fogged thought.

"Suppose at least one of us looking into this makes the most sense…. Might as well educate ourselves on the grapples and hooks they've dug into us…"

Hermione nodded, the icy edge of the wind hitting her again suddenly now that they had separated, and her body temperature began to return to normal. She could still feel the flush however, stubbornly lingering in her cheeks and trailing down her neck. She took a deep breath of cold air and willed it, hopefully, to dissipate.

"Yes, indeed. It certainly seems a great deal… more complex than I imagined it would be."

He pursed his lips for a moment before looking round, grateful for the characteristically cloudy London atmosphere and responded.

"It certainly does, yes. You know, Miss Granger, if I weren't so utterly convinced that you unequivocally had a rather disdainful view of me for all your years at Hogwarts, I might just, now, think, you had a bit of a crush on me. But, obviously, that was not the case."

She couldn't resist a chuckle even as she gave a mockingly thoughtful twist of her lips. She was frankly beginning to wonder about herself, at this point. Best to be a smartarse then, while dodging the latter point entirely.

"I mean, I did always have to be the one to convince everyone you weren't evil just because you liked to make them suffer ...but that more resulted in mild annoyance than outright disdain."

"Well, that is… news, indeed…." He clenched his jaw shut and ran a hand through his black locks. "So…?"

"Ah, I thought everyone knew I had all the common sense," she returned innocently enough, watching his features attentively in hopes that wasn't bizarrely informative.

"So... I need to go do quite a lot of research, I think."

"If you'd like….However,…. I'm assuming, perhaps, we might like to meet in private before we have to be paraded round the world? Especially with that last bloody clause regarding the 'Procreation is strongly encouraged and will be monitored 6 months after the recorded consummation date" bollocks…"

He inhaled sharply and rolled his eyes, swallowing as he allowed his right hand to detach from her proper and eyed the bustling London street before them.

"Oh yes, that clause," Hermione observed, wagging her brows with sarcastic "excitement".

"They have yet to actually try to 'enforce' that on anyone yet, but between my outspoken distaste for it and your potion-brewing skills, we might just be the lucky ones to get a strongly worded letter."

She was being obtuse about it, clearly, but she honestly couldn't imagine any other way to address it. What exactly were they going to do, keep her uterus under constant surveillance?

"Either way, I wouldn't start to have a come-apart quite yet, 'Daddy'. We've got time to protest your having to take on that particular title anytime soon," she couldn't help but tease, hoping to albeit snarkily ease his tension, some.

"But sure, a bit of ...unmonitored time to discuss ... everything might be for the best."

Severus almost choked at her wording, his eyes darting almost frantically betwixt her own as he could almost feel his pupils dilating even wider. He was thoroughly thrown, and was now extremely grateful for the sharp winter's edge against his lower half.

What. Was. That?

Still, however tongue-tied and flummoxed he was, he did have to say something, anything at this point given the length and the breadth of silence, to end the bloody exchange for good. The sooner he could get out of her presence the fucking better.

"Would you come up to Cocksworth…. I...I mean Cokesworth...er...sometime within the week? We have much to discuss," he licked his lips evenly and bore into her with a steely gaze as he echoed his teaching stance and willed himself to remove the man from within his robes and leave only the brain.

Hera's tits, that had been a very, very poor verbal fumble on his part.

Hermione's lips twisted in an effort not to grin outright at that slip up, childish as it was to laugh at. She cleared her throat, however, taking cue from his serious stance and moved onward.

"Can definitely try, though it would likely be Friday or so," she found herself agreeing without too much real consideration, glancing over his profile whilst he pretended to be preoccupied by something else in the distance.

"Shall need an address."

"Obviously," he muttered at her, finally having regained his composure enough to respond.

"I'll make sure it's delivered ASAP. I have a crow though. Not an owl. So. Don't. Expect. Otherwise."

He regarded her sharply as his eyes twitched between hers in a look of sheer terror and fascination.

Though always one to lean towards the dark, or rather, the more intriguing side of existence, Severus Snape once again found his right hand coming up towards her person, though this time taking hold of her chin, lifting it before he dared to allow his thumb to hike along her lower lip.

"Farewell, Wife."

Something about the rather innocuous gesture was curiously intimate and oddly magnetic despite it being distant by design, and it took her a half a second longer than it should have done to properly take in what he had just said.

Once she had, though, her lips twitched in endorsement of the idea. How fitting.

"Of course you do. Goodnight then, Husband."

He gave a short nod before abandoning her altogether and clouding himself into the dark streets. He had never felt more thankful to retreat from a person nor so regretful to leave their company. The juxtaposition was beyond exhausting.

And so, once he had finally turned a corner and knew that she was no longer able to see him, Severus Snape indulged in a habit that only he and Minnie ever did once or twice a year.

Yes, ever the Mycroft to his sometimes-Holmes, had Minerva been witness to his lighting up of a fag, and his steep inhale as he rested his back against the white bricks of the ministry walls, even she may very well have been worried.

Luckily, she wouldn't have a chance to know, and so he indulged himself further as he did his best to walk back to his old cell and forget about the new one that seemed to be steadily enclosing him.

"Right. Time to drink," he could only conclude as he finished his fag and continued to walk along the southbank to his, now, temporary abode.

Hermione stood a moment longer even as he continued on out of sight, something about his sudden absence, leaving her alone in the swirling barrage of chaotic confusion, made the very strange reality of everything that had just occurred begin to slowly settle on her mind like the thickening winter fog. That had just happened.

The contractual agreement she had expected, of course. There was no shock in that. But everything after that she hadn't foreseen. Not exactly anyway... She swallowed and shook her head, trying to eradicate any thoughts of snogging her former professor, much less the sensation that followed it, no matter how compelling it had been.

"Oh, help," she muttered aloud as she finally turned and began to find her way home, though who she was entreating upon, she couldn't say. Her last hope for some clarity was perhaps speaking to Ginny, and her saying that any part of this debacle had been par for the course in regards to matrimony.

She very much doubted it, but a girl could always hope for the best.