"Where are you off to?" She asked with a feigned interest cracking an eye open to find the room bathed in the early morning rising sun and him shrugging on his waistcoat with ease, stretching her arms out above her head listening to her spine popping back into place in an almost soft melodic way. Wayward auburn locks tangled and knotted wildly overnight during slumber.
A few days had passed since they had received their letters and both had decided to ignore them for the moment and to lock themselves away from the world and it had worked for the most part. Until Severus had been lying awake all night watching her sleeping peacefully while his mind raced a mile a minute and he wondered if what he had done was the right thing and a pang of guilt had stirred within him and then consumed every fiber of his being for the entirety of night as she took one breath after another and he realized that the relationship she had with her friends had just had a huge wedge driven between them in the form of himself. Well, a wedge bigger then what was already there anyway. Despite them treating her terribly the past few months he knew that deep down she still loved them and she still needed them.
Sure, she wouldn't come out and tell him that she craved their attention he just knew it. She couldn't go on for the rest of her life having only him to talk to and rely on, she wasn't that type of girl. He didn't want her to alienate herself from them and burn all the bridges.
He wanted the vivacious and fiery little witch back that he had seen previously in her prior years. He wanted the little lioness to raise her head high and roar fiercely for the world to hear. He wanted the sadness within her soul to be ebb and away and vanish into nothingness and he knew that she was too pig-headed and stubborn to do anything about it, he knew Harry was equally as stubborn and he wouldn't make an effort either so in essence, it was thrust wholly into his lap now. He knew Harry would be hard to sway but he had a plethora of ways and means to ensure Harry saw things his way…. Some physical and some not and he would use whatever force necessary to make Harry see how much of a prat he was being,
"Business," he muttered gruffly under his breath as he fished around the bedside table for his wand and pocketed it within his robes.
Hooded eyes blinked slowly at him as if trying to process what he had just said through the thick fog of sleep that still held her within its clutches and she only managed to mutter a disappointed, "Oh, ok." Before he had turned on his heel and strode from the room with purpose and the resounding crack of apparition filled her ears and she knew she was here alone for now.
-o-o-o-o-
Severus's fist hit the wet wooden door of Grimmauld place with anger and vigor Tugging his woolen traveling cloak tighter around his frame as the cold rain pelted down relentlessly on him he wished he had stayed at home in bed with Hermione where the sun was shining and he could live in denial about the worries in his life right now. Instead, he had traveled all the way to miserable fucking London where there were more people than he cared to even be near or think about, to talk to a stupid prat who wouldn't even listen to what he had to say for the woman he loved more than anything in his entire life. Love was stupid and yet, he couldn't pull himself from its deathly tight clutches.
The door creaked on its hinges; opening to reveal a bleary-eyed Harry Potter, white silk boxers looked as if they had been thrown on haphazardly in a bid to get to the door in time and the smell of whiskey enough to almost knock Severus off of his feet which said a lot considering not so long ago he had more alcohol than blood flowing through his veins. Raven hair wayward, wild and unkempt, green eyes weren't hidden by glasses, instead they squinted trying to make out who was at the door and once it clicked in his mind he made to slam the door in his face, only Severus wasn't having any of that thank you very much!
He jammed his leather-clad foot in the doorframe, preventing the door from closing. Harry tried in vain a few times to shut it, slamming the door over and over again into his foot but after a few tense moments realized that he wasn't going away so instead he pulled the door open allowing him in.
Severus stepped over the threshold and his brows knitted together in surprise at how airy and bright the house now was. Gone were the tapestries and threadbare carpets and the peeling wallpaper tangled with the scent of dampness and old people and instead the place looked as if it had been intensively renovated with no expense spared.
"What the fuck do you want?" Harry spat with venom as he led Severus to the kitchen and sat at the large table in the fresh looking kitchen. Severus followed suit and sat opposite Harry who picked up a packet of cigarettes off the table, shoved one in his mouth and lit it with the lime green lighter he had, before pushing the packet to Severus who eyed them apprehensively for a moment, took one and lit it.
The two sat in heavy silence for what seemed like an eternity, each other eyeing the other off, the only movement in the room was the drawing back on cigarettes and dropping the ashes into the ceramic ashtray in the middle of the table. The hatred for once another was palpable and they both had to hold themselves back from lunging over the table and strangling each other. The ticking of the clock on the wall above the kitchen sink was almost like a torture device to Severus, tick after tick only alerted him to the fact that he was wasting time sitting here not saying or doing anything.
The sound of footsteps from the room above roused him from his silence. "Have company, Potter?" He spat as he stubbed the smoke out in the ashtray.
"What business your is it?" Harry drew back on the last of the smoke before pressing the butt violently into the ashtray to extinguish it.
"Fuck you." The hatred for the boy was as blazingly obvious as the nose on his face.
"Fuck you too." Harry folded his arms tight across his chest in a clear portrayal that he wasn't interested in the least for the reason Severus was here but he knew it had to be something to do with Hermione because why else would he be here? He wouldn't be here to extend an olive branch of friendship.
The silence consumed them and gnawed at Harry's psyche before it got the better of him.
"Did you come here to spew profanities at me and tell me how much you hate me, or did you come here for a reason?"
"A bit of both, actually," he snorted with derision.
Footsteps padded softly down the stairs before a slender-framed dark-haired, tanned skin woman entered the kitchen scantily clad in little more than one of Harry's shirts that were just long enough to cover the bits that needed covering but left little to the imagination and Severus only raised a brow in question and got no answer. He couldn't help but rake his eyes from top to toe of the woman before managing to avert his gaze.
The girl opened the fridge silently, took a bottle of water as she glared at Severus apprehensively as if he were the oddest and scariest person she had ever come across in her life and scurried off back up the stairs leaving the two of them in a moment of silence again.
"Hermione," Severus began.
"Is dead to me," Harry offered.
"Hermione," Severus started again.
"Who?" Harry questioned with the utmost sincerity and Severus knew he was going to be a tough fucking nut to crack.
"She needs you, Potter. She needs all of her friends. She is lonely and she is lost."
"You don't fucking say," He slammed his fit hard down on the table with a resounding bang. "She is fucking you, the last person on earth she would have ever even shown some niceties to let alone lay down and spread her legs."
"And you have your self to blame for that, Potter," He tone matter of factly as he noticed the boy's nostrils starting to flare with anger.
Harry slid a shaky hand through his already messy hair and tousled it beyond recognition now. "Yeah, maybe, I dunno. I mean she went mental after she rejected Ron."
"And you, she rejected you," Severus added, rubbing salt into the obviously open and raw wound Hermione had left behind.
"And after she had decided to leave Ron because she wanted to finish her education it sort of drove a huge gap between us all. Ron's families were visibly disappointed in the fact that she had left him to go back to Hogwarts and they were angrier with her when he ended up with Lavender. They hate her, you know. But you didn't hear it from me. They cannot stand her clinginess and her petulance. "
"Interesting."
"And I just couldn't bring myself to hang around her when my feelings for her were not reciprocated, you know? And then I find out she is with you of all people and I guess I am just disappointed and hurt that she didn't want me, she didn't want Ron but she has accepted you with no qualms, someone she could hardly tolerate for half of her life and you are probably fucking her brains out every night and she agreed to marry you?"
He sighed haughtily as he lit another cigarette shakily drawing back on it and then holding it shaking in his hand. "You know how I felt when someone I loved so much, the one I thought maybe after Hogwarts would decide to come back to me once she had finished her education and I gave her space only to find it had driven her into your arms. I don't know how you did it or how many sweet nothings you whispered into her ear but I have to give credit where credit is due."
"I simply showed her friendship, I showed her that she mattered and I showed her understanding. While you and the weasel were out partying and gallivanting around the countryside she was tucked up in Gryffindor tower crying her fucking eyes out because she had no one. Crying her eyes out over the deaths of the war, her friends, of parents losing children and children losing parents. She is a sensitive soul even though she hides behind the tough persona, and she just wanted someone to talk to and you all shut her out. You all blew her off while she was desperately screaming out for help."
A large lump had formed in Severus's throat as he felt tears gently pricking at his eyes and he managed to blink them back quickly. "In a way, we both helped one another. Before Hermione, I was a raging alcoholic who cared little about myself and just wanted to keel over and die and now, now I have a purpose, a new lease on life, a new found love for everything. So I thank you, Potter, for your neglect and ignorance, because without it, I wouldn't have her and I would still be in a downward spiral towards impending death."
Harry blinked rapidly as if pushing his own tears back at what he had just heard. He had been so stupid to cut Hermione out of his life but he was equally surprised that Severus was opening up to him about his own demons and challenges in life.
"I…I had no idea that you were both…"
"Depressed. Hating life? No one did honestly. We needed each other more than we both knew and now we have one another she needs you, she needs her friends, Potter. The vivacious little Witch we all have come to know and love, the one that had to have the last say, the one that is way too opinionated for her own good and the one that would hold her head high and fight with the ferocity of a thousand suns has gone. We need to reawaken her and bring her out of her shell and we need the old Hermione Granger back," His voice was cold, despondent and almost distant. His shoulders slumped and his head lulled forward and Harry couldn't help but feel the hopelessness and desperation the man felt.
He looked at Severus with a range of emotions and feelings. Apprehension, admiration, loathing, pity, and awe all melded together and made him angry. He loathed the way that Hermione had chosen him, but he was in awe at the way he had marched into his home and laid down his feelings and worries on the table so raw and uncensored for him to see and that alone was enough to make him admire the man. He could see that despite the cold, hard and evil exterior there was a glimmer of someone who cared, a glimmer of a man who had feelings and could love and wasn't totally evil. A whole other person Harry had never met before and maybe, perhaps Severus Snape wasn't the one dimensional, wretched person he had come to know.
Harry could only sigh and rest his forehead hard against the wooden table in despair and uncertainty and gently he began to hit his own head over and over again on the hard surface and Severus could only look at him in disbelief.
"Are you okay, Potter?"
"I'm fine, frustrated and confused beyond measure but all in all I'm good," He growled as the banging got louder and harder.
"Normal people don't bash their skulls on tables when they are frustrated."
"I said I was fine, not normal."
"Touché. So can we put everything behind us and move forward for the sake of Hermione?"
Harry slowly looked up, perplexed. He really didn't know what to do right now in this situation. He pulled himself up to full height in his seat looking incredulously at Severus for a moment.
"While I don't think I can put everything behind us, I think we can move forward into fresh territory for the sake of Hermione. I will come by and visit her in the coming days, and for Christ sake, send her back to Hogwarts to finish off the year."
"Don't worry, I planned to." He got to his feet and showed himself to the front door. Well, that went better than expected.
A/N: Ok, ok so I think a few of you are right and I might not be able to wrap the story up in the two chapters I thought I would be able to… I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think.
-Aliasmel1