Chapter 54: So It Begins...
{A/N: Good things come to those who wait}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.
Hermione Granger-Snape's Flat, London, England, Muggle World...
Silence had taken some getting use to as Hermione moved about her now empty two bedroom home. She had been keeping herself busy with substitute teaching at a muggle school and studying to become a Charms Mistress. Her days had been filled to the brim with her work and studies. Her afternoons had been crowded by her writing and worrying over her only son attending Hogwarts. Nights had been the worst, they always were of course, the time when everything grew quiet and she was left with the full brunt of her thoughts. She knew where they would drift back to, the image of him so clear it was as if the years meant nothing in her fevered mind's eye.
Eleven years.
Eleven long and painful years she had to care for their only child and struggle to keep her heart from betraying her feelings around the boy who had looked and behaved so much like the father he never knew. Hermione let her hair down as she lied in bed alone in the middle of the night. Tear streamed down her pale cheeks as she recalled the last time she had been with him.
Her husband.
Her Severus.
The heartbroken witch never forgot the way his rich baritone voice would hum in her ears as he spoke. Nor how his obsidian eyes glinted when he thought of her. She missed the rough feel of his calloused pale fingers grazing across her smooth and supple skin. She missed the animalistic groans she could make come from his harsh pale lips with a simply touch of her hand.
He had not been the best man to her in the latter part of their short-lived marriage, but she knew he loved her. After all, he had done everything in his power to ensure she survived the war and that she knew of his affections should he not. With a sigh, Hermione turned her attention to the gray pensive that rested on her end table.
She had not been able to sleep without it since returning to the muggle world. It contained all of her most intimate memories of her late husband from their first meeting in the corridors of Hogwarts to their final night together at Hog's Head Inn back at Hogsmeade Village.
{ The scent of Herbs and fresh earth had been heavy in the air. Her amber eyes searched the short distance from the rather large oak tree on the familiar hill top to the low hillside where she stood. Before she got the chance to pout about him not being here she immediately felt his strong ivory clad arms around her slender waist.
"You didn't think I had anywhere better to be did you?" asked the familiar deep baritone voice from behind her.
"Severus!" she exclaimed elated to hear him.
"What took you so long?" he asked with his eyebrow arched in the usual way.
Hermione simply smiled.
"I had business to take care of." she replied.
Snape began to massage her shoulders with his rough calloused hands.
"I'll bet you did." he replied in a seductive tone as he purred in her ear.
She felt his kiss upon her neck and melted against him.
"I've missed this so much." she said in a breathless moan.
Snape pressed his ivory clad form harder against her.
"Have you now?" he asked almost as if he were challenging her.
"Git." she replied feeling his hand beneath her blouse.
"Hmmm." said Snape taking in the scent of jasmine from her hair. "How is my son this evening?"
Hermione leaned back against him wrapped in the bliss of his touch.
"He's doing well." she replied. "He's attending Hogwarts."
"Hmmm." said Snape placing light kisses across her goose-pimpled shoulder. "Slytherin house I'll bet."
"Mmmm...hmmm." replied Hermione losing herself in her husband's kisses. "Perhaps you'll see him...you do have a portrait there..."
Snape groaned feeling the inevitable tightness in his trousers.
"Perhaps..." he purred in her ear.
Unable to take anymore, Hermione turned around and kissed him passionately.
Snape closed his eyes enjoying the feel of her.
"I've missed you so much." said Hermione as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Snape wiped them away.
"I'm not going anywhere." he said kissing her sweetly.
"But you did Severus." she said sadly as the tears continued.
"No." he replied his obsidian eyes locked onto her amber ones. "Not gone."
Before Hermione could inquire more a loud buzzing broke through and shattered the dream. }
Hermione had been none to pleased when she opened her eyes to the sound of someone at her front door. Bitter about having her dream shattered, especially when it was getting insightful, she made her way toward the door and the nuisance that caused the contemptible buzzing. She had been surprised to find a Lucius Malfoy standing on her front porch.
"Lucius?" she asked confused as to why he would be in the muggle world.
It had been true that he harbored no ill will when it came to those of non-magical lineage nor ability but he never would have stepped foot in the Muggle world without cause.
"Lucius, what are you doing here?" asked Hermione.
The senior Malfoy had not changed much in over ten years. Except he was much more wealthy and his style of dress reflected it.
"I came here as a courtesy." he said clearly showing some form of annoyance.
"So to what do I owe this courtesy?" asked Hermione annoyed herself.
"I thought you might like to know..." started Lucius, his gray eyes meeting her amber ones. "Bellatrix has escaped the hospital...she is still highly deranged and running free...no one has seen hide nor hair of her since her admittance."
Hermione had not expected this.
"She just escaped?" she asked frantic. "Does the know about Phaeron?"
Lucius tried his best to calm Hermione.
"Lucius does she know about my son!?" asked the irate witch.
"I don't know." replied the senior Malfoy. "But he's at Hogwarts and he's protected."
"Like Dumbledore was any sort of protector." scoffed the bitter witch.
"I am governor of the school..." said Lucius applying reason. "Draco is his head of house...believe me when I say Phaeron is protected...I would die before I let her or anyone harm my godson."
Hermione took a breath.
She noted the flash of rage behind the senior Malfoy's gray eyes. She had no doubt that Lucius would protect Phaeron to his last breath. The man had been so distraught over the loss of Severus that he had become an alcoholic, it was knowing of Phaeron's existence and subsequent birth that pulled the older wizard from the depths of the bottle.
"I'm sorry I doubted you Lucius." said Hermione softly. "I know how much Phaeron means to you...it's just..."
"He's all you have left of Severus." replied Lucius understanding. "No harm done Little Sister...I know you miss the sod...there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him or thing of how much Phaeron reminds me of him."
Hermione treated him to a small smile. She had nearly forgotten that Lucius knew Severus since he was eleven years old. She couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for him. Seeing Phaeron off to Hogwarts and knowing he had once been at the school to welcome an eleven year old Severus into Slytherin house.
"I will venture to Hogwarts and look in on the little Prince if you'd like." Lucius offered.
Hermione let out a sigh of relief.
"Would you?" she asked. "It would do me a world of good if you checked in on him once in a while."
"Consider it done." replied the senior Malfoy.
"Thank you." she said grateful.
Lucius held up a hand.
"No need to thank me Little Sister." he said. "I was on my way to see how he was adjusting anyway."
Hermione shook her head.
"Well, if that's all I would really like to get some sleep for my class in the morning." she said.
"Or you're maybe hoping to have another of your dreams of Severus that I most certainly interrupted." said Lucius giving her a knowing smile.
Hermione smacked him across the chest.
"No entering my mind without permission." she said annoyed. "You're worse than your brother."
Lucius smirked.
"Who do you think taught him?" he asked.
Hermione suddenly arched her eyebrow at the senior Malfoy.
"Have you been teaching Phaeron to do that?" she asked.
Lucius looked at her with a blank expression upon his smug face.
"My look at the moon...it seems it's time for me to take my leave." he said rather hastily. "Ta ta for now little sister."
With that he took off at the sound of thunder crackling.
"I KNOW YOU'VE BEEN TEACHING HIM THAT!" shouted Hermione at no one now that Lucius had been gone.
Annoyed the witch slammed her door shut, locked it and ventured back to bed hoping to have another dream of her husband. Unfortunately, the thought of Bellatrix LeStrange escaping the mental hospital made her hair stand on end. She began to worry what this meant for her son and if she could keep the deranged old hag away from him.
She had already lost Severus. She wasn't about to lose Phaeron to that deranged bimbo. If Bellatrix made any sort of move to threaten her or her son, she was going to ensure the witch regretted it. Having satisfied her need to ensure Bellatrix would be dealt with when the time came, Hermione went to sleep at last. Though she did not dream about her husband. Instead she dreamed about her young son and his possible experiences at Hogwarts. He was after all attending school with a Potter and that alone was cause for worry.