Chapter 4
The following morning found Severus digging through her fridge, grumbling at the chilly wasteland that he had uncovered.
"What do you eat, woman?" Severus asked, shooting a glare over his shoulder. He was pleasantly sore and ravenously hungry; he did not relish the thought of returning to his solitary chambers in Hogwarts for a multitude of reasons.
"Takeaway, mostly." Hermione shrugged, the t-shirt she was wearing sliding up in a most distracting manner. "It's just me. And Crooks, of course."
"Hmmm… I think I can make a half-arsed omelette with what you have in here."
"That sounds lovely. There might still be some pancetta and cheese in the freezer," she offered absently, starting the tea.
That shocking revelation forced him to turn around and stare at her. "You put your cheese in the freezer? Don't you know that it doesn't have the molecular structure to withstand crystallisation? What sort of barbarian are you?"
Hermione laughed, apparently thinking his words were hyperbole. "The kind that would rather see cheese frozen than covered with mould in the bin. Necessity is a cruel master, Severus."
That patronising phrase—one that he had heard far too many times in the dark past—hit him like a wet fish, dispelling some of the magic of the morning. "Ahh," he said, watching her carefully, "so Albus used that line on you as well."
"Yes." Although her tone was light, her expression had likewise clouded over, and he saw that it was a sore point for both of them. It was strange to realise just how much they had in common, but Severus pushed the notion away before he fell further down that particular rabbit hole.
Finding the promised items in the icebox, Severus hit them with a quick defrosting spell and unwrapped them. "Come here," he ordered, and she padded over reluctantly, not sure what to expect from him. But Hermione relaxed readily enough as he tucked her under his arm, and he smiled smugly, pleased at his new-found comforting prowess.
Although holding her—hugging her, really—limited his ability to use both hands to chop, he wasn't one of Britain's most powerful wizards for nothing. She giggled as the parade of items conga-danced their way under his knife, and the kitchen quickly began to smell like more than dust and a whiff of old tuna.
"Can you stay with me for the rest of the day?" Hermione asked as they sat down to eat.
He shook his head regretfully. "No. The literacy committee meets at one, and I need to be there to chair the meeting."
"Hogwarts teaches literacy now?"
"Astounding, isn't?" he remarked dryly. "Believe it or not, it's only a sub-committee- we have an entire curriculum committee that oversees the implantation of everything from maths and science to art into the usual collection of classes."
Hermione took an appreciative bite of her omelette. "Worried about Ofsted descending on your door to perform a school ranking, Headmaster?
"Thank fuck, no," he said, immensely grateful that he wasn't a teacher on the Muggle side of things. "I have enough bloody paperwork to worry about as it is. Although I will admit to cribbing some of the more useful teaching frameworks from the better university education courses." Smirking, he added, "I even made Minerva and Longbottom audit several of them for me."
"You didn't!" cackled Hermione, laughing at his impudence. "Well, good on you. My education was rather uneven at the best of times."
"As was mine," he agreed, wishing they had time to discuss the changes that he made; they were a point of pride, and he thought that she'd be impressed. As he'd discovered the night before, an impressed Hermione was a demonstrative Hermione. I wonder… "You know, there is a spot opening up on the committee."
Her fork paused halfway to her mouth. "Is there?"
"Mmmhhhm," he responded, chewing extra slowly to drag the suspense out. "The Governors have a representative, of course, as does the Ministry, but I also designated a neutral seat for someone entirely unaffiliated with Hogwarts to provide some balance when we get shouty at each other. Having a token Muggleborn—not to mention a woman such as yourself with strong secretarial experience to boot—would be just the thing to silence my critics. And as you've mentioned being bored-"
He swiftly ducked as a wet tea bag came flying at him. "Secretarial experience? You bastard!"
"Haven't I always been, my dear?"
Reaching across the table, Hermione affectionately wiped the tea dotting his forehead with a laugh. "No, alas, you haven't been… Are you serious, Severus?"
"About the committee? Yes. Are you interested in the spot?"
"Of course, I am," she said briskly, "and as you pointed out, so politely, I do have some valuable secretarial experience that I could bring to the table."
"You would bring far more to the table, and you know it," he admitted gruffly, taking one last bite of his eggs. He nearly choked when his earlier, meeting-based fantasies concerning proper table height and debauched fraternisation returned to him. Christ, I am so lost...
Unaware of how his thoughts had taken a trip to the gutter, she smirked. "See, there you go, not being a bastard."
Glancing down at his empty plate with sudden unease, Severus leaned back. And now for the fun questions… "Will I see you again, Hermione?"
"You damn well better," she shot back immediately, glaring at him over her cup as if she was insulted that he'd even have to ask.
Recognising his cue to stretch out and take her hand placatingly, Severus did. "Good. I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page."
"Don't you dare do a runner," Hermione chided with far less heat as he stroked her knuckles. "I would hate to have to go to all of the work of hunting you down just to be forced to extract your gonads for cat toys when I can think of far better uses for them."
"I won't," he assured her, keeping a straight face despite her threat. "After all, I wouldn't want to contribute to you becoming one of those crazy cat women one always hears about."
She huffed, and he dangled the tea bag from his fingers tauntingly. "Would you like this back so that you may throw it again?"
"No. I do have some restraint." Hermione rose, picking up her plate as well as his. Walking over to the sink, she began to rinse them.
"So, allow me to rephrase the question. When can I see you again?" Severus called, enjoying the bountiful vista of her bare legs.
Turning off the water and drying the plates, she spoke over her shoulder. "Alas, the Undersecretary is headed to Belgium tomorrow to sort out some extradition treaties, and he requested that I go with him. I don't suppose you'd like to join me in Bruges one of the days?"
"I'd love to, but there is no way that I could fob off all of my duties at this late date. Minerva is already going to be curious enough about what I've been up to as it is." Severus sighed, feeling some of the weight of his responsibilities return to him. "When do you return?"
"Friday morning, I believe."
Thinking of all the end-of-term insanity that awaited him back at Hogwarts, Severus reflected that Hermione's week-long absence from England wasn't entirely a bad thing. Merlin knew that she was a pleasant distraction of epic proportions, but he needed to have his wits about him for at least part of the week or risk Minerva doing a bit of investigating herself.
"Are you planning on attending the Orphan's Ball?" he inquired instead, mentally ticking through his weekly calendar.
"No. I wasn't invited, nor did I wish to drop five-hundred galleons to buy a ticket."
Steepling his fingers, he sent her an arch, villainous glance. "You could come as my plus one. I warn you, however, my fee would not be charged in galleons."
Hermione looked startled and went silent for several seconds, all humour vanishing from her expression. "You would wish to be publicly linked with me?"
"Yes." He waited for her response, breakfast turning sour in his stomach as she said nothing.
"Severus…" she finally began, trailing off and looking away. "The press… you know how vicious they can be, and when it comes out that we are… we are-"
"Dating? Making the beast with two backs?" Severus offered acidly, post-shagging goodwill suddenly gone in the face of her hesitancy.
"Don't get cross with me," she responded, leaving the sink to come stand next to him. "I'm not objecting to any relationship labels as much as I am finding the notion of exposing my private life to the prurient gaze of the public to be utterly distasteful."
"Good to know." He took her point, but he didn't like it one bit.
Seeing that he still wasn't placated, she touched his shoulder. "I mean it, Severus. I'm not at all embarrassed to be in a relationship with you, but since I was fourteen, my supposed licentious sexual behaviour has provided far too much fodder for the gossip rags. If it got out that we were seeing each other, the reaction would be nuclear. Rita Skeeter, for example, would gleefully clutch her pearls and birth a bovine, post-haste. Frankly, I'm shocked that the rumour mill isn't already going at full tilt given our earlier conduct."
Her reasoning made perfect sense, especially when he recalled some of the smear campaigns of her youth. "I understand," he told her, trying to dismiss any lingering resentment. It had only been one night, after all; just because he had been obsessed with her for weeks didn't mean that she felt the same way.
"Surely you can understand my desire to be protective of this," she said with quiet sincerity, and he covered her hand with his.
"Yes," he repeated, and finally meant it. As long as they were on the same page that this was a relationship—and apparently, they were—the rest could go hang. It was utterly foolish to want to shout his business from the treetops given that he usually avoided that trap assiduously. All this shagging must have really melted my brains to lose it over something as minor as this…
"Why are you going to the Orphan's Ball, anyway? You aren't normally one for the charity circuit."
"You already know the answer to that question."
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "So that bit about playing the lead role in 'Inspector Snape and the pure-blood Jewellery Heist' wasn't a load of tosh after all?"
"No. Much to my displeasure."
"Tell me the particulars," she ordered, sitting down in her chair again with a far more intense stare.
"What is this, bossy o'clock? Are you going to turn on the interrogation lights if you don't get all the answers?"
Cocking her head, Hermione remarked sweetly, "Should I not be concerned when my brand-new partner-in-shagging might be involved in something dangerous, or worse yet, something that might limit the time for the aforementioned activity?"
He laughed, unable to help it. "Point to you."
"Spill, Severus."
Briefly, he told her about the missing items and how Narcissa had wrangled him into the investigation. She listened attentively but without comment.
"…so, as you can gather, it's all a bit of a cluster at the moment. My fault really—I should have been warier when Narcissa approached me, but you aren't the only one suffering from a case of terminal boredom."
"This sounds dangerous."
He shrugged. "It probably is, but I've been in worse pickles."
She rolled her eyes at his studied nonchalance. "How can I help?"
"Gryffindor," he said with affection, touched despite himself at how quickly Hermione had rallied to his side. It was an odd feeling to suddenly not be alone.
"Guilty as charged, and I repeat, what can I do?"
"I'm not sure that there is much you can do."
"Why on earth hasn't someone called the Aurors? Isn't something like this exactly their job?"
"Welcome to the wonderful world of pure-blood pride and politics," he explained. "This is how it is with the lot of them- always trying to poach each other's wives and property to make the other person look weak. It's a game and all about saving face. Moreover, it's a prime example of what happens when you have too much free time, too much money, as well as suffering from terminal inbreeding."
She snorted as his harsh assessment. "Ouch. What about setting up some sort of sting, or trap to hurry things along? Surely it can't be all that hard to suss it out."
"I've thought about setting a trap, but I'm not willing to risk the Hogwarts protections for something this petty, and I don't want to pull anyone else into this mess if I don't have to."
Hermione sat back, appearing lost in thought. "What about using me?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, not liking the sound of her question.
"Do you have any of the Prince jewellery?" she asked.
"And how do you know anything about that?" he returned, something cold sliding over his skin at her words.
"Because," she snapped back heatedly, not having missed his reaction, "I'm the jewellery thief you are looking for, and clearly, I have done my research concerning the pure-blood collections!"
Snape said nothing, letting the silence grow.
"I was at your trial, you suspicious bastard. Your family history and genealogy was on full display for all to see. Moreover, due to a certain spell-filled potions textbook being in Harry's possession during our sixth year, I was rather anxious to discover who the bloody 'Half-Blood Prince' was, and what all it entailed!"
Her explanation made perfect sense, and Severus felt ashamed at his sudden return to doubts.
It was Hermione's turn to play the silence card, and Snape struggled to come up with something to say that wasn't utter crap. He finally just answered her question and hoped for her renewed patience in light of his commitment to excellent cunnilingus.
"Yes, I inherited several of the remaining Prince family jewels."
"And do any of them match up with what is being stolen?"
"A necklace as well as some ear bobs," he admitted grudgingly.
"If I wore it to a society event," she said coolly, "do you think that we could engineer a situation in which the thief or thieves would be enticed to try and take one of them from me?"
It would be just the thing, but Severus wasn't even tempted to risk her safety. "Absolutely not. It's too dangerous."
"I've been in worse pickles," she drawled, using his own words against him.
"And surely you can understand my desire to be protective of you!" he exploded, returning the favour. "All jokes aside, this isn't a game, Hermione. People have died over these sorts of things."
"I know! That's why this is important enough to scuttle my privacy concerns. I don't want you to have to deal with it alone!"
It was possibly the only thing that she could have said that would deflate his anger, and it worked like a charm. But before he could say anything more, the hall clock chimed, and Severus was reminded that he was in genuine danger of being late to his meeting.
"Forgive me," he said, rising and feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything. "I'm not used to having someone being all that concerned with my welfare."
"Severus," she began, but he cut her off with the simple expediency of kissing her. He let his lips and body do the talking for him, not bothering to hide the morass of messy emotions swirling under his skin. Drawing him close, Hemione kissed him back, reflecting the same jumble.
Finally pulling away, Severus cupped her soft cheek. "I'm not entirely alone. I recruited Draco and Theo Nott to be my minions."
"I'm not sure that makes me feel any better," she groused, smoothing down his shirt with affectionate fingers. "Just be careful, alright?"
"I will. And I'll think about your offer," he added belatedly, reflecting that he really was a sucker for demanding women.
"Good." Hermione peered at the clock. "You are going to miss your meeting if you don't leave right now."
"I know." Buttoning his robes, he made for the garden door. "Call on me if you get back before lunch on Friday; I should be able to sneak away if it's later in the week."
She smiled faintly. "I will."
Pausing to stare at the twee duck-headed doorknob in his hand, Severus was suddenly hit by a wave of incredulity; reflected in the glazing of the door was Hermione, bare-legged and beautiful with her crazy curls. His lover, and more importantly, his… friend.
The last twenty-four hours had been unbelievable, to say nothing of unexpected.
"Thank you," he said softly, meeting her eyes one last time.
"You don't ever have to thank me, Severus," she replied, just as serious.
"Yes, I do."
"Until Friday?"
"Until then." Opening the door, Severus strode into the garden, mind resolutely turning to Hogwarts.
As he disappeared, Hermione sat rigidly in the closest chair—his chair, still warm with his body heat—and waited for Severus to clear the wards. She shivered as the magic told her of his Apparition, and remained motionless for another two minutes; she didn't want to risk him returning and seeing something he ought not.
When she was confident that he was gone for good, the shaking started, followed swiftly by a flood of violent nausea. Racing to the sink, she barely managed to make it in time as her stomach expelled every last bit of the delicious breakfast he had made.
Then the tears started.
It was like a dam bursting, and she sunk down to the floor, heedless of the cold tile on her bare legs.
"Oh, God," Hermione Granger whispered, rocking as it felt like guilt was tearing her in two. "What have I done? He will never forgive me…"
A.N.~ *Drops mic, scurries away*
Well, my lovelies, what do you think? I do so love reading your theories as to what is happening!
Ofsted is the UK department that inspects and rates educational institutions, and dealing with them can envoke a feeling of living in one of Dante's famed circles... My most sincere thanks to luv4edwardcullen, ZoeyOlivia, meg527, houstonclay, HMRoberts, SapphireDreamer26, MulberryPicking, TheLadyBookworm, pgoodrichboggs, MoonlitSnowFox as well as several guests for leaving comments on the last chapter.
Lastly, have you ever wanted to (temporarily) purchase a fanfic author or artist for your own nefarious ends? Well, now you can! From 18 February to 22 February, Fandom For Oz will open up the bidding from a variety of fandom creators (not limited to HP!) to help support Australian bushfire relief efforts. Basically, you bid on a creators items (for example, I've offered to either write a personalised fic or beta/Brit-pick a work) and if you win, you donate that amount to one of ten charities. Then you can sit back and enjoy, knowing that you not just will receive a one-of-kind creation, but also will be lending a helping hand where it is needed the most. If you are interested, the offers will be available for viewing starting on the 18th at fandomforoz dot livejournal dot com.
Happy Reading!