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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – BACK IN TIME

Hermione stared at Severus while he slept, unable to sleep herself. His actions the previous day had been shocking. He had paid, or would pay, for everything they purchased except for the soaps and such Hermione had purchased from the potions shop. She had forgotten about her glamour until they returned to Malfoy Manor and Draco had given her an appreciative glance which quickly turned sour when Severus had removed the charm. It had been like a cold bucket of water in the face. Other than that moment Hermione had had… fun yesterday, dare she say it. Despite his generous, unspoken offer to pay for things, Severus had been as surly and snarky as usual, if he spoke at all, for the most part he had been silent. It had been a wonder to be able to explore Knockturn Alley at will without fear, although Severus had never seemed to let her out of his line of site. There were fascinating things in the shops there and Hermione regretted she'd probably never get to show Harry or Ginny. Ron would probably lose his mind if she suggested it.

She sighed and turned over to grab her wand out of the top drawer in the bedside table to start a fire in the grate across the room, as soon as the fire was lit she put her wand away and adjusted the covers. Once again, Severus had worked his way closer to the middle of the bed again, he was on his back but his face was turned towards her. Making her wonder if he preferred facing a certain way while he slept or if it was not a coincidence that his face was usually turned towards her. She watched him for a long time until she noticed the movement of his chest change and she closed her eyes. She felt the bed shift as he tensed and released his muscles then she opened her eyes to look at him again, surprised that his eyes were already on her.

"We will go pick up our orders tomorrow."

Hermione nodded, tempted to ask why he had paid for her things, but she was sure he wouldn't offer her an actual response. "And today?"

"Today we will eat in here and work on the spells we need for the notes. We only have three days before you received the first note."

Severus rose then and Hermione watched him dress, really paying attention for the first time in the summer. He dressed meticulously, each thing in order. It was transfixing to watch him. He removed the borrowed t-shirt he continued to sleep in and she traced the lines of scars littering his pale skin with her eyes, the lean curve of his lower back into his bum, she bit her lips and dropped her eyes to his bare feet, arched elegantly away from the carpet. She herself had flat feet. His pale legs reached upwards, somehow looking longer outside of their usual black confines, and darkened with a smattering of black hair. He bent to pull on his trousers, then his socks and she was captivated by the way he bent at the hips. He grabbed his white shirt and turned slightly towards her as he started on the buttons. She stared as he fastened all his buttons by hand, first on the button down then the waist coat, except the top two buttons against his throat. He left the cravat in the closet with the billowing robes. He turned away from her again to walk towards the small pile of boxes they had brought back with them yesterday and pulled out the parchment and quill. He sat in one of the chairs in the nook by the shelves and, upon noticing her still in bed, cocked an eyebrow at her.

Severus had been uncomfortably aware of Hermione staring at him as he dressed, realizing that she had not stared before regardless of the number of times he had shed and donned his clothes in the same space as her. He wondered why she stared now but mostly he wished she would stop. He knew what she would see, the scars and pale skin like death and his lanky, unattractive form. He didn't know why it bothered him so, perhaps because he was simply without his usual armor of cloth that hid him away behind a trail of mysterious buttons and imposing black, billowing robes. She was seeing him and it made him uncomfortable. By the time he had sat in one of the chairs, she was still looking at him and he raised an eyebrow. She immediately jumped up out of the bed; he passively noticed the way her unconfined breasts bounced in the little shirt she wore. He cursed silently and hoped she too had gotten real sleep wear from the robe shop. She grabbed an armful of clothes from the closet and slipped into the bathroom. Thank Merlin she was not bold enough to change in front of him.

Once she was settled in the chair across from him, her face still a touch pink, he silently summoned the elf who appeared with a teetering pile of plates, cups, and glasses floating behind him. The elf arranged the things on the table that was really too small for all the food, bowed low to Severus, and popped away. He noticed Hermione made a face where the elf had disappeared. They ate in silence and Severus felt some satisfaction in knowing that most of the silence was due to Hermione's embarrassment at being caught staring. When they finished, Severus waved his hand over the pile, leaving the table bare but for their tea cups and the pot. He pulled out the parchment, wrote something random on it and passed the paper to Hermione.

"Show me your spell in action now."

Hermione slipped her new wand out of her sleeve and swallowed before placing her wand over the parchment; the tip pointed at Severus and whispered mutare vox, drawing her wand down the page so that Hermione's hand went from the top of the page to the bottom. Severus watched with interest as his spidery scrawl turned into Hermione's loopy script. Glancing up she smiled at him then reversed the direction of her hand and simply muttered mutare. To his surprise, his hand writing reappeared.

"You made it reversible?"

"Yes, I thought at some point that might be useful."

Severus passed her the quill and she wrote something down, changed the handwriting to his and then back. She passed him the parchment and watched as he attempted the spell. Her handwriting had changed to his except the writing was still too rounded. She watched a muscle in his jaw flex. He reversed the change without issue and tried again, this time successfully.

"Have you done this with other people's handwriting?" For some bizarre reason he hoped she would say no.

"Not in a professional manner." She smiled sweetly at him. "When I first created the spell, I tested it with whoever's handwriting I had readily available."

"Have you tried to do someone's handwriting from memory?"

Hermione shrugged. "I didn't really get the chance."

Severus nodded, tore off a corner of the page and wrote down what was on the first note. It took him three tried before he seemed satisfied with the results and he held it out to Hermione. She took it and smiled.

"It was you."

"Now I just need to send it back."

"Can you send it back before the day?"

Severus shook his head, his brows pinched. "I've never used this spell before, so there isn't really anyway to know if it work."

"Unless if it changes the present."

He dipped his chin in agreement and took a deep breath. "Tempore remittam." He circled his wand over the paper several times and repeated the incantation until the paper vanished.

"Now we wait." Hermione muttered, echoing his thoughts.

SHSHSH

That evening when she finished her dinner, Hermione sat up waiting for Severus, determined not to fall asleep before he returned again. When he appeared in the doorway she stood up from her chair expectantly, suddenly not sure how to ask what she wanted to without appearing ridiculous. She wasn't sure why she cared; she knew he thought she was a pesky know-it-all.

Severus paused outside of the door to his room, running his hand over his face. Narcissa had informed him that the Dark Lord would be calling for a gathering soon and Severus didn't know what to say, he wasn't ready, and Hermione definitely wasn't, but neither of them had a choice. He opened the door to the dimly lit room and froze when he saw Hermione stand from the chair, the candle on the table giving her an unearthly glow. The tight muggle clothes she wore for sleeping hugged her form and offered up her shapely figure among the shadows. For a brief moment he had the insane thought she might proposition him.

"Could we go for a walk in the gardens?"

His disappointment and relief rolled into one, although he didn't quite understand the former. "Yes, but put on your robes."

She positively beamed at him and scurried over to the closet and pulled out a long muggle coat that circled about her knees and graciously covered the rest of her form. He vaguely remembered her using it with the blankets at the abandoned house. She slipped on her shoes and stood by him, still smiling. He backed out of the frame and gestured for her to exit; once she did he closed the door and they descended the chairs to the entrance in which they first came into the house. The gardens were not particularly stunning, although Hermione had the suspicion they once were, but they were pretty enough and she could see the expanse of the sky.

"Any particular reason for this outing?"

"We spent our summer in an abandoned house and now I'm confined to a room in Malfoy Manor, I want to see the sky and stretch my legs."

"And why must I come?" He wasn't as put out about it as he sounded.

To his surprise she turned a furious shade of red and ducked her chin so her hair fell between them. "I feel safer."

He wanted to tell her she wasn't really safe with him, not ever, but in comparison to being here on her own, unclaimed, she was indeed safer, would she have been safer if she was not here at all? Absolutely; instead he said nothing. They wandered the grounds in silence for a long time, and Severus paused with her when Hermione stopped on the pathway and looked out over the expanse of land they had just walked.

"Why would you send me those notes?" She asked suddenly.

"I can't imagine."

"But you did it again, today."

He sighed and thought for a long time. When it occurred to him, he realised it wasn't wholly his idea. "On my part, because Potter needs to know how to win."

"There's another part?"

Severus sneered but did not answer her. He didn't want to tell her that Dumbledore wanted someone who knew he was innocent and could help prove it. Severus didn't think he was innocent, nor did he think he would survive this war, yet here he was, still doing Dumbledore's bidding. Even in the death, the man controlled his life. Severus' nostrils flared. He turned towards the doors.

"Come along, it's getting dark out."

Hermione turned to follow him and he was glad he did not respond to the shock of her hooking her hand around his elbow. He didn't stop her or brush her away; it would do just fine if a Malfoy saw this and gossiped about it. But the whole way up to the room she kept her delicate hold, and the longer the pressure of her hand was on his arm, the more he focused on it. He wished he knew what she was thinking but legilimens was too risky and he couldn't bloody well ask her. Again, the vexing mixture of relief and disappointment roiled up inside him when she released him. She smiled distractedly at him and went to deposit her jacket in the closet.

"I'm going to take a bath, if the running water won't bother you."

He shook his head and approached the closet to hang up his robe and waist coat. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she meandered into the bathroom. She pushed at the door but it didn't swing shut all the way and from his place by the closet, he could see through the cracked door as she leaned over the preposterously large claw-foot tub to turn on the water. Her bum rounded out in the strange pants she wore. He exhaled sharply through his nose, looking away determinedly to take off his button down shirt. But as he reached forward to hang it in the closet, his eyes slid back. He didn't know if he groaned or not, but he watched frozen as a half-naked Hermione bent down to peel the black pants from her body and if he had thought those obscure things left little to the imagination he had been wrong. She raised a leg to step over the rim of the tub and test the water and his heart slammed into his throat. Fuck. He ripped his gaze away from the sight and hurriedly pulled on the borrowed t-shirt and stripped off his trousers, desperately trying to ignore the tenting in his briefs. He climbed into the bed as fast as he could and for a brief moment considered relieving himself but felt disgusting at the idea while the person he no doubt would be imagining was on the other side of a not shut door. He closed his eyes and silently mouthed the processes and ingredients to the most challenging potions he could think of until he was well and calm.

Hermione smiled at the sleeping Severus as she tiptoed to the bed, she had been in the bath a long time, renewing the hot temperature of the water with her wand when it started to cool. Instead of draining the water, she had vanished it, certain the obnoxious and loud sucking sound of the tub drain would wake the man. She climbed under the covers, drawn to the heat of the other body and wiggled close as she dare. He moaned and Hermione was afraid she had woken him, but his head tossed to face her and his eyes were still shut.

He groaned again, "Hermione."

It was quiet and strained but she knew it was her name. Hermione pulled the covers up to cover her mouth as it popped open with shock.