5: It's All In The Timing
Snape supposed that he should not have been surprised by Hermione's flat refusal of his marriage proposal. It wasn't horribly romantic or creative. He had sprung the news on her of their plight and expected her to agree to his terms. He should have known that someone of her intellect would never be stupid enough to trap themselves into something so petty. He would have to try actually putting forth a bit more effort in this courtship than he had originally planned.
He rose from the large bed in his master bedroom and began to ready himself for the day. He had cleared his schedule so that he could spend time with Hermione; possibly take her riding in the fields if she was agreeable. He thought it would be a great way to spend the day. He could have Susan, the cook, pack a picnic for them and they could eat beside the water pool with the waterfall on the western side of the estate. He could show her what Spinner's End really looked like. Maybe if she fell in love with his home then she fall in love with him.
What! I do not want her to fall in love with me. I just want her to marry me is all. This doesn't have to involve things like love. Emotions make things so sticky and complicated. He though grumpily to himself as he tied his neck clothe on. He frowned when the knot came out all wrong and quickly undid it to try again. He had chosen green today with silver accents, his old house colors. It probably wasn't a good idea to remind her that he had been a Slytherin but if he any hopes of making a relationship, no matter what the capacity, with her work then she had to see him as he was and he had been a Slytherin. He'd been many things in his life, some that he was not so proud of. But those things she would see in time.
He scowled at himself in the mirror but then let his features relax. He might have to show Hermione what he had been but he also needed to show her what he was now. Which meant a charming, handsome, available bachelor with money and privilege. Of course she had money and privilege now, or at least she would when she married him. He refused to think that she would chose anyone else.
He turned on his heels and left the room stalking down toward the breakfast room for a bite to eat. Just before he entered the room he could hear the sound of his mother's excited chatter and of Hermione's dutiful answers and inquiries. It made his smile spread a bit wider to know that she was getting along so well with his mother.
"...Severus was always such a difficult child. His father was never around much and I tried the best I could. I suppose that's why he turned into such a lonely soul. I blame myself for his getting involved with Voldemort. If I had tried a little harder and pushed him a little more to find friends when he was younger maybe it wouldn't have turned out that way. But never the less, all things considered I'm very proud of him. He's such a wonderful man. Very charming once you take the time to get to know him." Caroline was saying as he stepped through the door and looked at the two. His breath caught at the sight of Hermione sitting at the table.
She wore a soft white cotton sundress with tiny pink stripes running through it that showed off her shoulders, arms, and legs. Her hair was pulled back from her face in a braid that hung well past her waist and she had applied just the slightest touches of makeup giving her cheeks a sun kissed look and her lips a wet shine. She looked up as he entered the room and a brief smile passed across her lips. She blushed and dropped her gaze back down to her food when she realized he was staring at her. She was so beautiful. An angel on earth.
"Good morning," he chocked out as he entered the room fully and moved to sit at the head of the table between his mother and her.
"Oh, good morning to you too dear. Isn't it a lovely day. I thought the witches weather said it was going to rain but apparently they were wrong, again." Caroline rattled off, apparently oblivious to the undercurrent of tension that had suddenly filled the room. Severus watched as Hermione picked at the remainder of food left on her plate. He wondered briefly if she had been eating before he had entered the room but there was no way for him to know without outright asking.
"Did you sleep well Miss. Granger?'" He asked politely as Marcus placed a plate of food in front of him. He paid no attention to it and instead picked up the coffee that had been placed at his right. Hermione smiled and nodded her head placing a bite of food into her mouth.
"Yes, I slept quite well, thank you. And yourself Lord Snape?" She spoke politely back to him after swallowing the bite, watching him as he sipped his coffee.
"I slept very well myself." He commented giving her a polite smile which she returned. Some of the tension left the room and Severus found it a bit easier to breathe. He turned to look at his mother who had started chattering again about something but his eye was constantly on Hermione as she smiled and nodded her head agreeing with whatever his mother was talking about. He began to wonder what could possibly be going on in her head as she sat there. Surely she had concerns, worries that she would likely not share with him. He wished that weren't so. He would have loved to hear about her problems.
"So what do you have planned for our guest today Severus?" Caroline asked suddenly pulling him from his thoughts. He looked at her and hesitated for a moment.
"Well, I was thinking that if Miss. Granger would like that I could take her on a tour of the grounds on horseback." He turned to her and watched as her eyes went wide. "You do ride, don't you Miss. Granger?" He asked realizing that he had no idea if she was an experienced equestrian.
"Yes, I have ridden a horse before. Several times actually. My Muggle family enjoys it." She said simply watching him with those wide beautiful eyes. He was lost for a moment and his mother kicked him softly beneath the table.
"Would you like to take a tour of the grounds with me then?" He asked not spearing a glance at his mother. Hermione seemed to think it over for a moment before smiling and nodding her head.
"Yes, I think I'd enjoy that very much." She said simply before rising from the table. "If you will excuse me there is something I must take care of first." Severus watched as she walked from the room, half expecting her to start running when she hit the hallway but she didn't and he was pleasantly surprised by it. Maybe, putting forth more effort would be worth it in the end.
--
Hermione paced in front of the marble fireplace in the her guest room of Spinner's End. Her flip-flops making the softest tapping noise as she moved. She was still wearing the sundress she had donned this morning though she had had every intention of changing for the impending ride with Snape of the grounds.
What in the nine levels of hell was she doing? Why was she submitting herself to this brained of torture? Not that being with Snape was torture. No, far from it really. She had actually felt reasonably comfortable with him this morning at breakfast once he had started talking to her. But there was something about him that was pulling her in and she wasn't sure she liked that.
Though she had never been one of those girls at Hogwarts who got crushes on the most unattainable teachers, she had seen that Snape had potential to be more than just her teacher. She could just imagine what a life with him would entail and could guess that it wouldn't be horrible. But Snape was not the type of person she had imagined herself spending the rest of her life with. Of course she had never imagined that she would find out one day she was the bastard child of Lord Voldemort either.
This thought brought her up short and caused her to sit down on the low sofa that sat in front of the fireplace. She stretched out across it, kicking off the flip-flops and crossing her arms over her torso. Gods! What was she going to do? Maybe she should write Harry and Ron and tell them what was going on. It was very rude of her too keep them in the dark, not to mention that she wanted them there with her. But she highly doubted that Snape would open his home to them as he had with her.
A soft knock at the door had her sitting up straight and slipping her feet back into her disguarded shoes.
"Who is it?" She asked moving toward the door as it began to crack open.
"It's me," Snape said a fraction of a second before his head appeared inside the room. "I came to make sure that everything was okay." He asked with what sounded like genuine concern. Hermione found that she could not stop the smile that spread across her face.
"Everything is fine Lord Snape. Would you like to come in?" She offered motioning for him to enter the room. He hesitated for a second before opening the door a little wider and stepping inside. He pushed the door closed behind him and stood very still as he watched her. She moved back to the low sofa and patted the cushion beside her. "Come on," she said politely.
There was another moment of hesitation before he gave in and moved to sit beside her. She crossed her legs to allow him a little more room and scouted over until her side hit the cushioned arm. He watched her very carefully for several moments before he turned his eyes to the hearth. There was no fire there but he kept his eyes carefully diverted from her as they sat in an almost comfortable silence.
"Are you sure you'd like to go with me on a ride today? We could do it another time if you are uncomfortable with me." He said after several minutes. She looked at him for a long moment before shaking her head and turning her gaze down to her folded hands.
"I'm not exactly uncomfortable with you. It's just that, well, after proposed to me I was a little...shocked, I guess." She kept her response simple and her eyes diverted from him.
"I understand. I've very sorry that I acted in such a way. It was very inappropriate and uncalled for. You see Baroness..." Snape said but Hermione cut him off.
"Please, do not call me by such a name. I give you leave to call me Miss. Granger or Hermione if you wish but not Baroness." She closed her eyes and brought her hand up to lay lightly against her mouth. The mire thought of how she had came across her title was sickening. She wasn't even sure that when the time came that she would take the title of Baroness. She had tossed and turned last night thinking about all the things that had gone on the previous day and she had to admit that until Snape had told her the true story of her birth that she had not really believed her parents. Oh, she knew that had not lied to her about the adoption but she figured that it might have been somehow a mistaken name. She had not, still did not, want to believe that she was the illegitimate child of Lord Voldemort.
"Are you sure that you are alright? Is there something you'd like to speak about...Hermione?" She shook her head and forced herself to turn to him. He was closer now, having scouted across the small couch to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She stared at him transfixed as she tried to figure him out. No man in her life had ever confused her as much as Severus Snape did. He was charming and handsome, but also cold and remote. She supposed that it was her mind trying to fit the man she had known into what she knew now. But as she looked at him so close up she realized there was none of the man she had known really left in him. He was the charming, polite, devilishly handsome Lord she now saw before her.
"No, my Lord. I just...well, I don't know yet how I feel about being the bastard child of Lord Voldemort. To think of how he must have treated my biological mother and to think of what he must have done to get her to sleep with him. It's simply too much to bare. I don't know if I'll ever be able to deal with it. I'm not very good at letting go of things. At least not these types of things." She confessed as she watched him. He was looking at her with such sadness in his own eyes, as if he could feel what she felt. Maybe he could, maybe that was why it seemed so easy to tell him about it.
"Forgive me Hermione. I never realized how the truth of it may have hurt you. It's not a terribly good way to start off is it?" He watched as she shook her head and moved her hands to fidget in her lap. He knew his proximity was making her nervous but he could not make himself pull away from her. She was like the sun after the rain. He wanted to bask in her warmth for hours until it was time to move on to other things. But he knew that if he allowed himself so much as one taste of her that there would be no going back. He would claim her as his forever.
It was in that moment that Severus realized that as much as he wanted to deny it, as much as he would rather it not be so he did love Hermione. She was the most amazing woman he had ever met and he would be damned if he would give up a love that had been so long in coming to him over something as trivial as her birth status.
"Riding is out of the question for today anyway." She muttered looking past him toward the window that faced the front of Spinner's End. He turned his head quickly and looked at the rain splattered glass. Smirking he looked back at her.
"I suppose my mother was right. Shall we do something else then? Something inside?" He offered knowing that there was no way Hermione would deny him. She would see it as rude and he was not above taking advantage of that.
"What did you have in mind?" She asked innocently but he would see in her eyes there was nothing innocent about the question. But inspite of everything Severus was a noble man and he would not be baited so easily.
"I thought perhaps a game of Wizards Chess or maybe I could give you a full tour of the house. Apparently while my Uncle was in residence his wife had Muggles install something very similar to a movie cinema in one of the east wing's rooms. Perhaps we could see what kind of selection we could find there." But he made no move to rise and neither did she. Instead they seemed closer together and his breath fanned against her face lightly. She let her eyes drift close and pushed herself forward slightly to close the remaining distance between them. It was only a small kiss but the electricity that shot through the pair of them made it clear that there was something between them, some sort of magical spark that had gone unnoticed. Hermione thought of pulling back for all of two seconds after she realized what was happening but she quickly pushed the thought aside.
It had been so long since she had kissed someone and felt anything. Since the end of the war things had been so crazy that she had never gotten the chance to date or to have any kind of relationship with anyone. Sure she and Ron had tried to give it a go a few times in the past but it never seemed to work out for them. They were too different in ways that were important. But with Severus it was different. He was gentle with her and the press of his lips against hers was soft and comfortable. It was a new feeling that she was sure she had never felt in her life.
All to soon Severus pulled back and looked down at her. He was still close but not as close as when they had been kissing and Hermione felt the loss. It was so stupid of her. She had not lost him, he had just removed his lips from hers. It was oddly pleasant to see the look of pure lust he gave her and to know that if she so desired he would likely give her anything she wanted.
"I think maybe I would like to read for a while if it's all the same to you. You're more than welcome to join me in the library." Hermione stood and smiled down at him as he rose and followed her from the room.
"I believe that would be a very appropriate activity." He said with a grin as he held the door open for her. They made their way down the maze of hallways and entered the library that Caroline had shown Hermione last night before she had turned in. She selected a book from one of the shelves at random and moved to sit down one of the large overstuffed chairs in front of the fire. She slipped her feet from her shoes again and propped them on top of one of the ottoman's that accompanied the chairs.
"Might I inquire what you are reading Hermione?" Severus asked after a few moments of silence. She looked up and noticed that he was not reading a book but had taken a quill in hand and was writing at a small table just off to the side of the room. She smiled and held the book up for his inspection from the distance.
"It's called The Most Curious Effects of Time Travel. I saw it last night when Caroline gave me a brief tour of the manor. I've just been waiting on time to get back in here and get my hands on it." She smiled when he gave a chuckle.
"Oh, that reminds me. Tomorrow night at the Malfoy Manor there's a ball. Just a get together of many of the Wizarding nobles and I thought it might be a good idea for you to attend. No matter what you are a Baroness and will be expected to attend these events if you happen to accept your title." Hermione stared down at the book in her hand and mulled the thought over for a few moments before nodding.
"I think I would like that." She said quietly and continued reading. She could hear the scratch of a quill as Severus resumed his writing and then it stopped again and she felt his eyes level on her She smirked and didn't raise her gaze from the text though she did stop reading.
"And I was also wondering if you would like me to escort you. I know that you don't really need an escort but I thought that since you are staying here at Spinner's End it would be a good idea. Lord Davinich is escorting Mother." She looked up at him over the top of her book and had a hard time keeping the pleased smile from her lips.
"I would like that very much my Lord." She said and bowed her head gracefully before turning back to her book yet again. She heard something that sounded an awful lot like a mumbled yes from the direction of Severus and had to let the smile loss. Oh, this was bound to be a disaster but she supposed that if he was willing to have a go at it then she might as well give it her best.
Baroness Hermione Jane Granger-Riddle-Snape, Mistress of Spinner's End. It did have a certain ring to it.
TBC...