Whee, another chapter! :) And oops, I said everyone on the side of the Light survived...but I left Dumbledore dead. Sorry *shuffles feet*
More plotty, this one. I am getting my plot-ducks in a row...
Severus tossed floo powder into the cold grate of his room's fireplace and watched the green fire flare up. "Headmistress' Office. Hogwarts."
Minerva had escaped the festivities early the night before, unwilling to leave the castle and its children undefended. He glanced at the clock on the mantle. It was still early –barely seven— but the Scottish witch had never been one for much sleep.
"Minerva?"
"Severus? Come through."
Her voice was a hollow echo in his bedroom and he stepped into the fireplace, twisting through the network to the familiar tower office. He flicked away the soot and ash with a wave of his wand and focused on the witch sitting at Dumbledore's wide desk. His old desk. He didn't envy her her task now.
"Come to say you'll take a position? Potions and Defence are still open to you. I'll happily toss out who I have now."
He smirked. "Such loyalty to your staff, Headmistress…"
She met his smile, calling for an elf and ordering tea and breakfast for her sitting room. "You won't have eaten."
He shrugged and followed her into the round room beyond the Head's office. Books lined the walls, broken by long, thin windows still showing the darkness of a winter in Scotland. The air was warmed by a blazing fire, the scent of hickory slipping across his senses. He pushed aside a throw –one of the Headmistress' garish family tartans— and sat as she did. He accepted the cup of hot tea she offered.
She stilled. Yes, she'd spied the ring on his wand hand. "Severus?"
"It was an interesting night last night." He settled back into his chair and watched the older witch over his cup. "I had it confirmed that Miss Granger is a virgin."
For a moment, shock froze Minerva's lined face before her mouth thinned. "What are you about, Severus?"
"Me?" He lifted an eyebrow and a prick of anger pierced his voice. "She is nineteen. She had no idea how dangerous her position was. None. What were you about, Minerva? Why did you keep one of your favourite cubs in the dark?"
A flush touched the Headmistress' cheeks. "Hermione is muggle-born—"
"So? Riddle would've found her blood and bones just as fine as any pure-blood witch."
"That threat is gone."
Anger twisted in his gut. Guilt rippled off the woman. Minerva had done something. And she wasn't proud of it. "Gone now, yes. But the threat is always there. She's lived in ignorance for years. One word and I would've been forced to take her. Spill her blood."
Minerva picked up a slice of toast and dropped it on her plate. She reached for the butter. Her face was tight and she was avoiding his gaze. She knew she was in the wrong. He wanted to know why. "She was hardly interested in sex. Books are her passion. I saw no need to force her into a situation for which she was not ready."
"The truth, please, Minerva. We've known each other too long."
She looked up and gave a sharp nod to his ring that glowed in the firelight. "And you've taken it upon yourself then, have you? A Mentoris. You?"
She was trying to spike him, to drive the anger into him so he would react and leave her alone. But he was no longer living on the edge of his skin, strained and stretched as he fought the war on both sides. He took a sip of his tea and lifted an eyebrow. "What did you do?"
"She is a muggle-born," was her snipped reply.
"Yes, I am aware of that."
"They…" Her lips pinched again and she stabbed butter onto her toast. Jam followed. "She wouldn't have understood The Agreement."
"To my utter surprise, Miss Granger turns out to be quite a clever witch. She certainly seemed to understand it perfectly well last night."
"Severus!" Minerva huffed out a breath and put down her butter knife. Her shoulders straightened and she lifted her chin. Severus half-expected the old Gryffindor to growl. "You know that muggle society –her society— would find it bizarre if not completely dissolute."
"She is a witch and should've been protected. Why did you not protect her?" He frowned and a sick feeling filled his belly. He hoped he was wrong. "It wasn't some twisted plan of Albus' was it?"
"No!" Minerva glared at him. "He knew nothing about it."
"About what?"
"We –I— wanted her to find her first time without artifice."
Someone had put Minerva up to it. Had convinced her that a muggle-born wouldn't appreciate a Magister tutoring her. His chest tightened. It would've been Lupin and that unpleasant realisation made him wince. "Who suggested this?"
The older witch's shoulders sagged. She let out a long breath. "Hermione was around them so often, I was certain that she'd given up her virginity long ago." She held his gaze now, her blue eyes pain-filled. Guilty. Her voice was choked. "I truly thought she was safe, Severus."
Anger did rise in him now, burning at the edge of his thoughts. "The Weasleys." They'd protected their own daughter, and planned what for Hermione? Arthur wasn't insane enough for this. Molly. Molly had wanted her virginity… Oh, he could happily strangle the interfering witch. "Molly wanted a virgin for her precious Ron."
Minerva sighed. "She pointed out Hermione's interest in him and how it would be more fitting for a muggle-born to find her first lover in a more muggle way. It was the summer before Hermione would begin her Sixth Year. I had planned to speak to her about taking a Magister…"
Severus pushed down his fury, but still it edged his words. "She should've been given the choice."
Minerva closed her eyes. "She has it now."
"Did Molly hope to snare Miss Granger, bind her to her son through this? Had she realised how completely unsuited they are?"
Minerva sighed and picked up her cup. She stirred in sugar, her movements rote. "Perhaps. I'm ashamed to say, I never thought too hard on it. Albus had been a fool and put on that ring… My mind was elsewhere." Her spoon clinked against her saucer. "Will you tell her?"
"She's already wondered." He lifted his hand, his ring glittering. "And Molly was not receptive to the idea of this."
Not that they knew of The Agreement yet. They'd simply been horrified at the thought of his sleeping with the Granger girl. Discovering the fact that he would be her shadow for the next few months would no doubt drive them apoplectic.
"Mentoris." A nostalgic smile lifted Minerva's thin lips. "That is a tradition I have missed. I'll be glad to see it return. And it will mean so much now." She stared into her teacup. "I was a ribboned-witch." She looked up and her eyes were misty. "It's a great honour you do her, Severus."
A knot tightened in his chest. He didn't want to see Minerva's yearning for her past. The remembrance of long-lost pleasure. Thoughts of taking on Granger already had him uneasy. He had vowed never to have another virgin. Had reminded himself of that fact only the night before, the threat of old memories promising to swamp him. He'd lost his virginity at sixteen to Lily Evans. They'd lost their virginities to each other…and for a time it was pure bliss.
When James Potter took her from him, he'd sworn never to have another virgin in his bed. Never again. He wanted experience. A witch who knew exactly what she wanted. Told him as he told her. No breathless discovery. No tentative exploration...
But now he had just that with Hermione bloody Granger. A girl –woman—who hadn't even had an orgasm till he put a damned ribbon around her neck. Untouched didn't cover it. She couldn't be more virginal. And he'd bound himself to the witch for the next three months.
Idiot that he was, he'd been congratulating himself that he was finally free.
Fate certainly knew how to piss on him. Repeatedly.
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