13.

Headmaster's Sitting Room - October 1997

Harry continued to stare at her. Just staring. At her. Then Severus. Then at the gleaming locket she'd pulled free of her shirt. "In there?" He waved his hand and added a sharp little flick of his fingers as he sank back into the heavy padding of the chair in the Headmaster's sitting room. "Salazar Slytherin is in there, with…with Tom?"

"As we said, he is no longer there." Satisfaction was thick in Severus' voice.

"And you—you!" Harry growled and dragged his fingers through his hair. "The whole time? Always. Always Dumbledore's man? You…did, did that, on his own orders? Could tell no one." He stared at the shining table top and his voice dropped low. "And he was happy —happy— to let the whole wizarding world condemn you for it."

Severus' mouth thinned and a slash of red cut across his cheeks. He drew in a breath. "We —all of us— have been offered a new path. Albus had his vision. His plan for how the end would fall. But in a matter of weeks, we have safely and quietly—

"Not that quietly. That was an explosion of screaming!"

"Harry…"

Her friend dragged his fingers down over his face. "Sorry, this is so much, almost too much to take in. Snape, good. Dumbledore…scheming, more than usual. And me —me— a horcrux. How did I not see it? It's so bloody obvious." He stilled. "And he knew. Dumbledore knew." His eyes narrowed on Severus. "For how long?"

Severus drew in a breath. "I don't know. And his portrait says that information was not passed on from Albus to itself."

Hermione frowned. "You doubt it's telling the truth."

A dark smile twitched Severus' lips upwards and there was that traitorous curl of heat in Hermione's belly again. With it came the reminder that she had very nearly kissed him. And that he…he looked as if he'd welcome it.

Her ancestor's voice cut into her spiralling thoughts. "It is a portrait of Albus Dumbledore…a wizard who would try to out Slytherin even me." Salazar's wry comment broke a snort broke from her.

"Salazar doubts it too."

"He's really…?" Harry was fixed on the locket again. "You're really…?"

"Miss Granger is Salazar Slytherin's Augury, the Lady the Head of Slytherin House has been bound to aid and protect for a thousand years."

There was reverence in Severus' voice and Hermione was sure her cheeks were quite pink now. A quick twist of panic in her belly made her blink. Was that where his interest came from? Her…her blood and connections, not to her?

Salazar's warmth swept around her, offering her the promise that it was truly mutual, but Harry burst out with—

"So how will you do it? Do I get dipped in a vat of venom? Or could you, you know, stun me -again- and splash—"

"No!"

The word burst from Hermione and she found a deeper echo of it from Severus. His fist banged against the table.

"You are not a pig for the slaughter, Mr Potter! That was Albus' plan. It is not ours."

The ache to wrap her fingers around Severus' bloodless fist burned through her…but doubt stopped her and her nails bit into her palm instead. "We will find a way to get him out of your head, Harry. And keep you alive. I promise."

Her friend's green eyes narrowed on her and he slumped back in his chair. "That's… that's what you've been researching. It's not about Nagini."

"I have a timed poison for that crime of magic," Severus muttered. Something bleak shifted in his gaze. "When we are ready, she will die."

Harry huffed a laugh and shook his head. "You're both more scary working together, you do know that, don't you?" His fingers found his hair again and he tugged at the roots. The already wild mess grew worse. "What now? Finding a way to get snake-face out of me…then, his familiar is a handbag and shoes…and then, I end him?"

"That's the start of it, yes."

Harry blinked. "There's more, Hermione?"

She circled her face. "Salazar's Augury, remember?"

"Oh, it's nice not to be the Chosen One for a change."

Severus barked a laugh and pushed himself out of this chair. Harry was staring at him. Her best friend's brain was quite likely to leak out of ears at some point in the night. A smile almost broke from her. Perhaps that would free them of Tom Riddle the easy way?

Severus ran a pale hand over his hair. "And rather than risk your continued travels through Hogsmeade, it would be best for you both to stay in the Chamber. Agreed?"

Hermione's brain surged with the logistics. The first was…amenities. What was down there but stone and basilisk bones? There was no way she was moving back into that bloody tent.

"My rooms. My other secret rooms." Salazar's tone was wry. "Before I carved out the Chamber for the sanctuary of my heir, I cut them from the bedrock. A place to escape from Godric murdering music on his dulcimer."

Hermione spluttered a laugh and both men stared at her. "There is a place we can stay."

Salazar's rooms were beautiful. A round room was at the centre of a warren of other round rooms, all magically carved from the dark bedrock and lined with thick tapestries. The air was fresh and clean, not a hint of dust thickening it. Magical windows looked out over various aspects of Hogwarts. The sitting room faced the Black Lake. There was a vast library and study glassed with a long view of the Forbidden Forest…and piled with ancient books that Hermione's fingers burned to grab from the shelves and rifle through.

But it was late and it'd been a bloody long day. Hermione was more than happy to curl up on the first bed she found. Though the itch was also there to find a moment with Severus. She'd almost kissed him. And he…he'd seemed to have planned the exact same thing. And then he hadn't. And then…

Yes, they needed to talk.

"Everything seems secure. The wards are pristine. It appears a dedicated line of house elves have been entrusted with knowledge of this place and to keep it ready for the Augury." Severus smirked. "They saw fit to install decent plumbing."

"Roland's children." There was affection in Salazar's voice. "I said my wards would preserve everything just so…but they insisted."

"They foresaw we'd need to wash…and not simply vanish anything else."

Salazar huffed. "It simply vanishes in the pipe—"

"I am not having this talk with you!"

His laughter echoed around her head and she dragged a hand down her face. She turned to Harry, grabbed his arm and hauled him after her. "Come on, time to pick a bedroom."

Hermione opened one of the doors, finding a round, cozy room with rugs, a huge fire and a neatly made four poster bed. Heavy tapestries of mythical animals covered the cut stone of the walls. "Will this do?"

"You're just getting me out of the way."

Hermione frowned at him as she pulled his spare kit out of her beaded bag and placed the bag of clothes and toiletries on the lid of a large cedar trunk.

"Merlin, is there nothing you're not prepared for?"

She smirked at him. "You have met me, haven't you?"

"So," Harry plopped onto the mattress and sank into it. He groaned with bliss, "you and," he jerked his head to the door, "him."

"What? No! He would never—"

"Oh yes, yes he would. The old pervert."

"Harry!"

"Well, you're half his age. He was your teacher, would be your Headmaster if you were back officially. As I said, old pervert." He smirked and folded his hands behind his head. "And honestly, it's not the craziest thing I've heard tonight."

Words spluttered but nothing coherent came out. Yes, it was a whispered want, but he had to see how impossible it was… Merlin's teeth! It was maddening to vacillate between surety and doubt.

Harry sat up. He squeezed her arm and a flicker of regret chased a shadow through his green eyes. All flippancy had drained from him. "Grab what you want, who you want, Hermione. When you can. Because you can. Before…it all goes to shit." He winced. "At least he…he suits you. You can be brilliant and scary together.

She frowned. He'd meant to say something else, the hint of it burned there.

Who had Harry lost? Cho? No, that'd faded. Ginny would have him back in a heartbeat when Voldemort was so much worm-food. Or…an old niggle, something she'd long ago dismissed, pushed to the surface. No, no, it couldn't be… "Harry…?"

His smile was sharp. Too sharp. There was an edge of pain behind it. "Go snog your professor, Miss Granger!"

She slapped his arm. "Harry!"

He smirked and shooed her from the room. Magic closed the door in her face and Hermione found herself staring at ancient wood.

"My Lady?"

Severus' smooth voice wrapped around her and she shivered. She didn't want that title from him. Not any more. "Hermione. It's Hermione," she murmured and turned to follow him back to the little round sitting room.

Firelight flickered gold over this pale skin and pooled in the endless dark of his eyes. He wasn't handsome. Not for a second, but he was…arresting. Magnetic. And the pull of him was becoming harder to resist with every passing second.

"He is worthy of you. Severus Snape and the Slytherin Bloodline. We've always…circled each other."

She almost groaned and her fingers fumbled with the locket. She did not want her distant ancestor in her head right now. A girl was entitled to indulge in her insane crush alone, thank you very much. She slipped the locket into her robes, glad for the silence and found Severus frowning at her. "He often has too much opinion."

"Salazar Slytherin, opinionated. Who would've thought it?"

His lips twitched into a smile and her fingers burned with the need to trace the perfect line of his mouth. To feel the prickle of his skin at the end of the day, its warmth, and to follow the path of her fingers with her own mouth.

"Hermione…" Severus wrapped her name in the softest velvet and her breath caught. A pale hand ran over his black hair and gripped the back of his neck. He drew in a breath. "It shouldn't be, but it is more."

He lifted his chin, stern pride in every line of him. Of course, of course, he was brave enough to speak first. He always did what needed to be done. "You. This… Who I am. Who you are. How it would be…seen."

Her heart was in her throat. Was he saying…? Was he saying what she wanted, ached for him to say? Or was this the rejection? She didn't know. Couldn't think. Her mind was a surge of doubt and she almost —almost— slipped on the locket again to have a hope of working out Slytherin House thinking.

She wet dried lips. "Severus…?"

And squeaked as the rough tip of his warm thumb teased over her bottom lip.

"Sweet witch, you are…temptation, itself."

The words were a hot growl, before Severus Snape dipped his mouth to hers.