Seriously, how much are you people liking fluff? *huge grin*
I think, there're another 4 chapters to go. Maybe 5. Don't quote me!
And without further ado, I'm getting them married today...
The atrium of the Ministry on a Monday morning. A hot and overcrowded level of hell.
Hermione winced at the jostle and push of so many people, no doubt exacerbated by that morning's news. Everyone was caught in the scramble to find the best partner in a quickly diminishing number. She tightened her grip on Severus' coat sleeve. She'd made the greatest catch in a place no one had thought to look. She smirked to herself. Brightest witch of her age...
"When does your apprenticeship begin?"
Hermione glanced up at Severus. He was still the forbidding Potions Master...but there was something else now. Something in his dark gaze. A quirk of humour. She liked it. "1 September. I'll have to advise Master Ashian of my change of status."
They stopped before the bank of lifts, lanes of people streaming in and out and past. The air filled with raucous laughter and mutterings, the scents that wafted around her from sweeping robes as varied —and as disturbing— as a potions cupboard. Her stomach twisted, but not over the rush of unwanted sounds and odours.
She'd missed this question before, distracted by a proposing Severus and an over-eager elf. "My name, Severus," she murmured, casting a discreet muffliato around them. He raised an eyebrow at the spell and she winced. It still wasn't a widely used charm. "I'd always planned to keep my own last name."
His lips parted and she knew –she knew— he planned to say something snide, something cutting…but it never came. Instead, he leaned in, and with her hair swept up by Sumi's clever magic, her ear was dangerously exposed. His breath heated her skin and she shivered, fighting the fall of her eyelids. The simplest of touches fired through her blood. He was right. Magic knew everything.
"Do you mean I will not have the undoubted pleasure of calling you Madam Snape?"
A throb pulsed hard between her thighs. She wet dried lips. "Only you." The compromise came out on a half-panted breath. "Just you."
"I find that…satisfactory."
Severus drew back and Hermione fought to find her composure again. She had come to him in the hope of finding companionship. Something dry, but safe. Possibly happy. Never something this incendiary. Never.
She glanced up to his smirk. And he had had a sliver of the bastard in him, because he was thoroughly enjoying throwing her off balance.
A lift opened and Severus held the door, allowing Hermione to step into the empty car. Wizards and witches muttered behind him, but froze, their mouths snapping shut as they met the lifted eyebrow of the dreaded Potions Master. He pressed the floor number and the lift doors softly closed, leaving only Severus and herself in the car.
His lips twitched as the lift shot up, and he glanced down at her. "I loathe a crowded lift."
She pushed her brain to find something like normal conversation. "Do you always manage to secure an empty one for yourself?"
"Every time."
Hermione pressed her hand to her mouth to deny laughter and she let her head fall to the hard muscle of his arm. She released a long breath. She could get used to this…banter with him.
"What do you see in me, Hermione?" He held up his free hand. "I am not seeking praise. It's an honest question. I am...me, after all."
"You are...brilliant and powerful." She pressed her lips together, not to search for more, but to find order in the list that assaulted her brain. "Courageous. Loyal. Your voice is sin itself. You are tall and dark and yes, handsome." And she wanted to fling herself at him with every breath she took. But she was not ready for that level of honesty. She wondered if he was ready for it either.
"Poor girl, it's St Mungo's for you."
Hermione glared at him, even as she broke into soft laughter. "That is who I began to see this summer." She smirked at him. "Poor deluded me."
The lift pinged and the doors opened onto a bustling, green-tiled corridor. "Don't worry," Severus murmured against the shell of her ear, sending a quick shiver through her flesh. "I'll marry you before I send you off to the Janus Thickey ward."
He was a true Slytherin. He was exploiting her weakness. She'd had no idea hot breath on her ear had her insides melting, but she suspected his beautiful voice was a contributing factor.
"After you, soon-to-be Madam Snape." Severus waved her forward.
Hermione gave him a mock glare, pulled in her scattered thoughts and wildly hormonal body together and stepped out into the bustling corridor.
The crowd parted before them, whispers following as they cut a path to the new office of Magical Marriages. Beyond an ordinary door, a great hall stretched filled with people. The space was brightly lit from myriad ceiling candles and windows looked out to various scenes across London. Between each window was a bank of solid wooden desks, already tired looking Ministry workers ploughing through that morning's intake.
She and Severus stood in a short queue, before a stooped wizard waved them to Marriage Desk Seventeen.
"We can do this another way," Severus murmured as they crossed the hall to a gaunt wizard with a red pointed hat and matching robes. "This is hardly fitting."
"That we are married is all that matters." She took his hand and squeezed it. "By the way, as a wedding breakfast, Sumi has promised you enough cake to choke a horse."
His soft laughter warmed through her. She liked this. An ease she'd not thought possible was wending its way between them. It was all because he was allowing it. Being this new, honest version of himself. Hermione heartily approved.
Severus pulled out her seat and waited for her to take it, before seating himself.
The Marriage Wizard narrowed his eyes and looked between them. He pulled out a sheaf of magical parchment and dipped his quill into a pot of golden binding ink. "My name is Archibald Clayton, and you are?" He looked to Hermione. "Full name please." When she gave it, it flowed from his quill in ornate curves. "And you?" Clayton's mouth had thinned and Hermione threaded her fingers through Severus' as her soon-to-be husband drawled his answer.
"Are you here by coercion?"
Clayton looked hard at her and she returned his glare. She wanted to rip into him about the Marriage Law being very much an act of coercion, but she didn't. Instead, she bit out, "No," and continued to glare.
"I am not being coerced either," Severus said, a dark smile touching his mouth. "Before you ask."
Clayton coughed and golden writing flowed across the parchment, declaring their free will. He frowned as he read the magically generated words, his lips moving to confirm them in his mind. He looked up. "An informal binding is already in place?" His long, thick-knuckled finger drew a circle around a section on the parchment. Hermione strained to read it.
"The Pura Concursum? Yes. We both performed it." She lifted an eyebrow and wondered how much she looked like Severus in that moment, as Clayton's gaze moved from her to Severus and back again. "What do you wish to know?"
"It's a golden binding."
Severus huffed a breath and the wizard jumped. His hat fell to his shoulder and stuck there. He didn't seem to notice. "Your point?"
"But the wealth of magic. The purity of the souls..." He waved his fingers towards Severus. "I mean. You're...you?"
Hermione was on her feet. Every inch of her bristled. Sumi's careful upsweeping of her wild hair threatened to fall as magic sparked along straightened strands. "I want to see your supervisor. Right now." The last two words came out on a growl.
Clayton blanched and Severus sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, his expression calm. But his eyes were bright and just that little bit wicked. He wasn't trying to cow her, or obviously found himself embarrassed by her demand. He was accepting her defence of him. Merlin, it felt good.
"Well?"
Her voice rose further and more than one of the new couples turned to look at their desk. Clayton blanched. He crouched in his chair, hunching over the desk and glistening marriage parchment, his gaze casting about. "Please sit, Miss Granger."
She remained standing and cupped her hand around her ear. "And I have yet to hear an apology to the war hero you just insulted."
"I was merely—"
"You're trying to defend your insult?" Her mouth thinned. "I will not have you marry us. Bring out your supervisor." She sat primly in her hard chair, fixed the full, cream skirt of her transfigured sundress and glared at the flustered wizard.
In one fluid movement, Clayton stood and shot away into the depths of the hall.
Hermione let out a slow breath and closed her eyes. Fuck. Too much? They were supposed to slip in, get married and be out with no fuss...but she'd caused a scene. Severus hadn't seemed embarrassed, but he'd attacked the woman he loved after she'd defended him. True, he'd been sixteen...but still...
Severus' breath stirred her ear and she squeaked. Would this be the stiletto sharp point of his anger?
"You were magnificent." The shock of his words stunned her. "Thank you."
Her face warmed and an embarrassed smile curved her lips. She risked a glance at him. "Really?"
Severus winced and his hand smoothed over his hair. He appeared stuck in a moment of decision before he flicked a muffliato around their chairs. Still, he leaned in and his voice was low. "Both of our histories have been put on show for the whole of the wizarding world. The price of victory." He shook his head. "You are aware, no doubt, of my most infamous over reaction to a girl defending me?"
Hermione nodded, not wanting to ask questions concerning Lily Evans. It was his right to tell, not hers to pry.
"I was a boy. Your best friends are boys. Teenage boys, infatuated teenage boys, are the worst kind of idiots."
"She still should've forgiven you."
Hermione pressed her lips together. That had always bothered her. The perfect and lovely and perfect Lily Evans couldn't forgive a friend -possibly a best friend- for a moment's angered slip in a nightmare situation? No, the perfect Lily Evans was not so perfect.
"That's not for me to say." He glanced over to the half-shadows of the hall and his eyes narrowed on Clayton as he stood before one of the windows. His arms waved wildly. His hat hung on by sheer force of will. "But I've come to...appreciate those who would defend me. It's rare. And again, thank you."
Her chest bloomed and she wanted to hug him. Hard. In that moment, she was very happy Lily Evans had been a complete cow concerning her friend. "As you promised to protect me, I will always defend you."
He stroked her cheek, playing a light line to her lips. "I think it would be frowned upon for me to ravish you on this desk."
She blushed, but Severus was allowing her to be herself. So she was. "I don't think it would look good to have my marriage lines written across my backside, no."
Severus' bark of laughter sparked her own and with a flick of his wand, he finite'd the spell shrouding them.
"I'm glad to see you're in more relaxed spirits, Miss Granger." Clayton simpered at her and was met with another glare. His attempt at a smile fell away. "This is my supervisor, Annabel Brears."
Hermione glanced to Severus –surely it was his turn to wither an official— and he fixed his attention on the small, bird-bright woman. His voice was smooth and dark and simply oozed authority. "You may precede with the ceremony, Madam Brears."
Hermione held down a fierce, satisfied smile. Being in league with this Severus Snape was fun.
"I'm not here to—"
Severus waved her into her seat and she was sitting before her brain quite realised what her body had done. He looked to Clayton. "Bring Madam Brears tea."
Clayton stared.
"Now." That sure, low growl had the skinny wizard whipping away. Severus focused on Brears and Hermione was too aware of how that razor-like attention cut hard and close. "I believe we had already discussed the golden binding Miss Granger and I share. What follows?"
The quill was in Brears' hand. "I..." She blinked, and looked to the parchment. "Golden, yes." Her dark eyes darted over them, but she wisely made no comment. "Do...Do you both declare that you are free to marry? And that you are aware this Ministry binding invokes a wizarding contract? This cannot be broken. You are to marry for life."
Hermione knew this. Was prepared for it, she thought. Though her belly twisted into a knot at the possible duration of their binding. They were both powerful with their magic. That promised a good age. She could see in her hundred and fiftieth birthday with this wizard...
Severus lifted an eyebrow and his mouth quirked upwards, something wry in his eyes. Waiting for her to come to her sense... But Severus Snape...was brilliant. Sarcastic. Darkly sexual. Heat suffused her. Great Merlin, her life with him would never be dull. She laced her fingers through his and held his gaze. "Fine by me."
He huffed a soft laugh and nodded to the official.
Getting their assent, and with Brears' wide-eyed gaze jerking to Hermione a little too often, the witch signed the parchment. She turned it on the table and offered the white quill to Hermione. She signed without hesitation. Severus followed.
Magic flared, sealing the contract. The sheaf rolled tight, a sliver of golden ribbon wrapping around its centre, before it vanished in a faint puff of hickory smoke. Warmth wrapped around Hermione's ring finger and a thin band of white-gold shone beneath her betrothal ring. The same band had appeared on Severus' left hand.
"Thank you for your time." Severus stood up and drew out Hermione's chair. He looked to the returning Clayton, balancing a tea tray. His smile was dark. "Enjoy your tea."
Hermione slipped her arm thought his, her left arm, so she could stare at her rings. "I got to be bossy and shout. You got to be authoritative and scare them half to death..." She grinned up at him. "Best wedding ceremony ever."
His mouth twitched and his dark eyes held her, wicked and bright. "I'm inclined to agree."
I don't know if you can see it, but my avatar right now - Severus Snape in a robe - is the image I'm using to inspire this Severus. *happy sigh*
As ever, let me know what you think! :)