A/N: All mistakes are my own sleep brain. My normal beta has a busy, busy life atm, and I don't hold it against her! :D
Chapter 4: Kink in the Hose
"The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone."
- Milan Kundera
"Class dismissed," Hermione said, and her students shuffled out of the classroom. She was getting use to the extra stares and being able to hear a student whisper from across a noisy room, and part of her wondered if Severus was an even greater terror to his students now that he could pick up on everything they were whispering about him behind his back.
"I know you are looking at me, Miss Weasley," Hermione said with amusement, her tail flicking side to side. She cleaned the lab tables with a flick of her wand. Each of the tables had been moved and the room expanded to make room for Hermione's change in size and body. She could not comfortable walk up and down the aisles without knocking over the cauldrons or stepping on her students.
Trampling your students was still frowned upon in 90% of the civilised world. To be fair, Centaurs did have a higher percentage for accidental trampling than a human. More legs made that easier.
Rose Weasley poked her head around the door frame and stared at Hermione with wide eyes. Two other sets of eyes joined her.
Hermione shook her mane and closed up the classroom, walking out the enlarged door and ducking to get through the frame. She closed the classroom and warded it. Rose stared up at her with wonder, staring at her like she was a giant.
Two of the goblin students were looking up at her, and Hermione bared her teeth in polite Goblin greeting.
"Lady of Silver," the two Goblin greeted in Gobbledygook.
"Miss Notchknife," Hermione greeted. "Mr Steelhook. What brings you here outside of class?"
Notchknife blushed, goblin-style, which is to say she turned a strange shade of greenish-red.
Hermione chuckled. "Who says goblins do not have curiosity?" she said to them quietly. "Walk with me to the Great Hall?"
The three children nodded up and down eagerly.
Hermione walked with them to the Great Hall, trying not to smile as they raked their gazes over her as she walked. Goblin or human, it made no difference. Given half a chance, each would take the opportunity to oogle over Hermione's centaur body. The only ones that didn't seem to want to get a closer look were the centaur younglings, which had the covetous honour of being the only students who could touch their centaur professors due to the herd status.
Rose and the goblin students shuffled off to the Great Hall, looking back at Hermione with unmasked longing to stay with her rather than go eat. Rose been very vocal on how "cool" it was that her "Auntie had gone centaur," and was equally adamant that had her father married Hermione instead of Lavender that she would have had the "coolest mum ever."
When Lavender had gotten wind of her daughter's switch from "horse fancy" to "centaur fancy," she had misconstrued her daughter's obsession with centaurs as being an attention gathering ploy by Hermione. She had stormed to Hogwarts with Ron in tow to give Hermione what for, accusing Hermione of trying to turn her daughter against her.
Her arguments had fallen flat when Lavender and Ron realised that Hermione's condition hadn't been made up by the Prophet, and she was truly a centaur. Not only that, Ron was horrified to realise that Severus had been transformed as well, and his wife was now making oogly eyes at his hated Potions professor's shapely equine hybrid body much like she had at Firenze's back in the day.
Firenze had ribbed the frustrated Severus afterwards, telling him he now had centaur sexual appeal as a passive weapon. Severus had give him such a look of disbelief and frustration that both Hermione and Firenze had bust into laughter together.
It had taken a prybar and the will of Merlin to get Lavender to leave Hogwarts and stop staring at Severus and Firenze with wide doe eyes. Hermione had actually felt a little sorry for Ronald. He couldn't exactly compete with centaur for raw animal appeal. She was thankful, at least, that her magnetism seemed to attract younglings but not google-eyed male students like Severus and Firenze seemed to attract female attention. Having a mini-herd of centaurs glued to her was far less embarrasing.
As if summoned by Hermione's thoughts, three of the first centaur students of Hogwarts came rushing up, whickering happily. A colt and two fillies rubbed up against her. The youngest was so much smaller that she seemed only as tall as a human child might be, and she dove between Hermione's legs for reassurance as she would her dam.
Hermione found herself automatically whickering a soft reassuring sound, and the smaller filly rubbed under her equine belly and legs. The others, while not diving between her legs like a foal, saddled up to her and pressed their bodies to her, stroking her back and their hands and arms and rubbing their human face into her thick mane to smear her scent on themselves. They nickered at her for reassurance, and she touched their backs and withers with gentle strokes.
With three centaur in Hogwarts, the centaur younglings were much more confident. The presence of the herd was an all powerful need, and now, Firenze was no longer the only one they could retreat to when the need was great. Until her transformation, she knew, cognitively, that the centaur valued the herd, but she had a greater sense of understanding how much of a sacrifice Firenze had made during the war. A lone centaur was emotionally compromised in a way that made loneliness in humans seem trivial, and it made Dumbledore's request of Firenze so much more significant.
Whether Albus Dumbledore had known it or not, he had asked Firenze to commit social suicide with his herd. Whether is was for the greater good or not, the cost for Firenze had been great. The only saving grace had been that the centaur had realised that the threat of Voldemort was far more reaching than just to humans. After the battle, centaur had stood with humans as the dead of enemy and ally were tended.
By some miracle, the only loss among the centaur had been a battle-hardened elder named Rockhoof. Had taken countless Death Eaters down before he succumbed, the shafts of his distinctive arrows marked so many bodies. He left behind a number of kin, but when the commit his body to the stars, his children he would rejoin his mate at last, having outlived her for many centuries.
Perhaps, Hermione thought, it was the true turning point. Rockhoof's mate had been killed by humans hundreds of years before. It was through him that much of the hate for humans had been anchored. With his death fighting side by side with human wizards and witches for a common goal, one of the oldest grudges had died with him. After his death, Firenze was accepted back into the herd once more, and the centaur acknowledged Firenze's judgement that to remain stagnant was to deny their people the same evolution they had once experienced due to Chiron's sacrifice.
It had been through Rockhoof's death that Hermione had been allowed to advocate for centaur rights to stand as a sentient people equal to humans. That had opened doors for her helping the Goblin Nation. Now, Hermione was known as the go-to advocate for magical species. Equally ironic, now she was was one. It was almost as if the universe was determined to turn her into a representative and educator regardless of what official job she held.
As the younglings latched onto her with their whickering and relief, Hermione felt a warmth for them, and all thoughts of whether her situation was temporary fled her mind. Their seeking touches were comforting and soothing and it was hard to imagine her life without them. Even in such a short time, she found herself emotionally invested.
Centaur, unlike goblins, did not have the same financial resources to come to Hogwarts, so accommodating for the first centaur students had been a challenge. Thankfully, the Goblin Nation seemed to realise they were making history, and they wanted to be on the winning side of the spotlight. In a groundbreaking show of solidarity, they provided the first trade treaty between the two species. In exchange for guard work in Gringotts and other goblin-run establishments, in which the centaur were very suited, the Goblins provided the funds for school supplies, uniforms, and other such things the young magically talented centaur needed for Hogwarts. It was now common to see centaur in the goblin establishments, and as an added bonus, Aurors reported that crime was down. People were thinking twice about being caught doing crimes around areas the centaur were guarding, even if they weren't patronising the goblin businesses.
Peace and prosperity were finally in the grasp of everyone, and being turned into a centaur seemed terrible minor in comparison.
When had something like being transformed into another species become minor?
Hermione facepalmed, shaking her head as she pinched her nose, a habit she had picked up from Severus. Amusement crept into her mind as the younglings imitated her. It was adorable.
When it came to teaching centaur wand movements, they were perfect imitators by nature. Filius Flitwick said that each of the centaur had show wonderful talent in charms far beyond their year. It also made them very attentive potion students, whose biggest hurdle in class was not accidently stepping on their lab partner or knocking over things with their tail.
"Professor Granger," Severus' voice greeted as he walked down the hallway, and suddenly the little miniature herd of centaur moved to surround him and greet him as they had her only moments before.
Severus froze in place, looking awkward as they loved on him regardless of how he felt about it, but Hermione knew that he privately found comfort from it just as she did. He moved to to stand beside Hermione, pressing his flank against hers as the young filly dove underneath them both, clinging to their combined legs with a soft whicker of happiness.
"Professor Snape," Hermione answered with a pull of her lips.
Severus sniffed, uplifting his chin. "I am going for a walk. Do you wish to… accompany me?"
Hermione smiled warmly. "Of course. You younglings should go into the Great Hall and eat with your friends."
Three sets of eyes stared at her pleadingly to remain. Their hands pet Hermione and Severus automatically as their ears perked forward.
Being a centaur was like signing away your privacy, Hermione thought to herself. She could only imagine what it would be like for a regular human to attempt courtship while being clung to by the neighbour's kids.
"Oh, these aren't my children," Hermione heard herself say to some random suitor. "These are just my neighbour's kids. What were you saying?"
Hermione shook her head. That wasn't going to work. Good thing the person she was interested in was also a centaur. Hermione waved to Minerva up at the front of the Great Hall, and the elder Headmistress nodded knowingly, waving her hand outward to shoo them away.
"Last chance to avoid being stuck with your boring elders," Severus said with a sniff. "Shouldn't you be having...fun with your friends?"
Centaur fillies and colts were insufferably hard to get rid of when they desired the reassurance of the herd. They shook their head adamantly in negative. They might have been convinced had Hermione been alone, but with Severus together with Hermione, it was a proper herd to the younglings and they didn't want to leave.
Severus rolled his eyes and Hermione laughed. They both trotted out of the main doors and towards the greens with the young centaur frolicking around them, laughing and kicking up their heels.
As Severus and Hermione watched over the frolicking youngings who were indulging in the waves, a house-elf popped up when Hermione and Severus managed to fold their legs up in a semblance of "sitting."
"Headmistress sent Polkadots to bring supper, Headmistress did," the house-elf said excitedly. She dragged the oversized hamper of food over to them and thunked it down with a thud. "Picked the best foods, Polkadots did."
Hermione grinned. "Thank you Polkadots," she said, noticing that the house-elf was wearing miniature robes made out of old hogwart's bed curtains. They had been Ravenclaw, apparently, judging by the colour. The Hogwarts house-elves had finally made their peace with Hermione after her "bad start" with them on her S.P.E.W. None of them had wanted to be "free," and Hermione had finally accepted that sometimes freedom was in the mind. Help was in place for those like Dobby who desperately wanted to be free, but there had been a total of one out of all the house-elves that had taken advantage of the new legislature.
Hermione peeked into basket and smiled. She pulled out a pile of apples that she knew would be a hit with the younglings.
Polkadots bowed and disappeared with a pop.
Hermione handed Severus an apple with a grin, chuckling as he arched one satin eyebrow at her.
He bit into it, his eyes never leaving her face.
Hermione flushed, staring down at the ground as she ate her apple demurely.
"You're beautiful," he confessed, his voice terribly soft over the sound of the rolling waves against the shore.
Hermione blushed brightly, unaccustomed to his attention or his even rarer admissions.
His hand lightly touched the back of her hand, his fingers ever so tenderly brushed her skin. She looked at him, caught in the depth of his gaze that somehow seemed to go on forever. It was unguarded... vulnerable. His ears were flicked half to the side and back as his tail twitched, indicating his turmoil in a way so much more telling than he could have been by reading his face alone.
Slowly, she captured his fingers in hers, her slightly curved and clawed fingertips oddly sensitive as they touched his skin. His breathe caught in his lungs and he looked at her with nervous, unpracticed sensitivity. She shimmied her body against his, pressing her equine shoulder to as she pressed her head against his human chest.
Severus shuddered, his arms pulling her to him as his nose sank into her hair, snuffling her slightly. "How was your classes today?" he said. The question was terribly mundane, but Hermione knew what he was really asking.
"It's hard," Hermione admitted. "The staring, sometimes… I can feel their eyes on me. It's like they are so busy looking at my body that they can't pay attention to their classwork. I hear them… whispering, wondering if it's going to be forever or if I'll change back."
Severus rubbed her back, scritching her mane. "It's harder when you can hear them no matter how quiet they whisper, isn't it?"
Hermione sighed. "Yeah." Hermione stiffened.
"What's wrong?" Severus had frozen, worried that he had done something wrong.
Hermione flushed. "I just remembered some of the things Lavender and Pavarti would say about Firenze when they though he wasn't able to hear."
Severus rubbed her back again, a little more insistently.
Hermione knickered softly, relaxing into his touch.
"Did you take part of such conversations?" Severus asked.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, flushing. "No! I was…" She stopped talking, slumping. "I fancied Ron back then."
Severus grunted.
Hermione wilted. "We all make mistakes, Severus." She gave a whuft and a sigh.
"Hermione," Severus crooned. "I am hardly one to stand on a soapbox about making horrible decisions, though I have tried it from time to time with horrible results."
Hermione looked up at him with a sad smile. "Perhaps it wasn't a mistake."
Severus looked at her, brow arching.
"If I hadn't made that mistake, I wouldn't know that this—" she trailed of, her fingers tracing his chin. "This is right. I've been waiting for this all my life."
Severus placed his hand over her fingers, his face conflicted. "I doubt that when you were imagining who you would be attracted to that it would be decades after a war to your crooked nosed, greasy git of an old Potions professor who tormented your childhood."
Hermione stared at him with a sympathetic look. "Severus, we cannot help who we have come to love. We can only treasure the time we are given with them—" she said, her voice hesitating, "and pray that they feel the same." She averted her gaze painfully.
"Hermione," Severus said quietly, caressing her cheek with a soft whicker. "What I feel for you is powerful. More powerful than anything I have ever felt. Believe me when I tell you that I am worried that you will come to your senses and justifiably remember every reason why you should find someone far more deserving than I."
"You stubborn, stubborn, man," Hermione admonished. "Don't you see? I, too, have done horrible things. Desperate things. Unforgivable things to people who may or may not have truly deserved it. My actions were still unforgivable, and when I look in the mirror, I know I am not blameless. It is not a contest of who did the worst things. It is simply an admission that neither of us are clean of guilt."
Hermione traced the bridge of his nose with her fingertip. "I've known you as a colleague and then a friend for longer than ever I was your student. Don't you think I'd know by now that whatever feelings I have are not some temporary thing?"
The pair of them looked up as the centaur younglings splashed around in the waves of the Black Lake, giggling and splashing water on themselves. They splashed themselves out of the water and cantered up to them, nickering in excitement. With a flop, the trio of younglings settled in beside Severus and Hermione, leaning their bodies against them to join the pileup.
Hermione stroked the youngest filly's hair and mane, smiling as she whickered and snuggled against Hermione's equine body. She wrapped her arms around Hermione's large equine body as the other filly and the foal snuggled in close to her. Hermione's face softened, her gaze seemingly floating far away. "Do you ever think of children, Severus?
Severus looked skyward. "Sometimes, I wonder if my line should have stopped with me. My father was a horrible man. I spent most of my first three decades attempting to separate myself from his overbearing alcoholic and abusive shadow."
"Look at all you have accomplished in spite of him, Severus," Hermione said, her thumb rubbing against the flower where his Dark Mark once marred his skin. "You're intelligent, brilliant, cunning enough to survive two wars, strong enough to serve two masters. There is much you can give the next generation—so much more than the mistakes you long since paid for."
"The truth is, I would never want to have children with you," Hermione said, watching Severus wince as she said it. She gathered his face between her palms and pulled it down, pressing her mouth to his with a gentle press. She pulled away after a moment, her eyes staring into confused ones. "Because you are a centaur, and everyone knows that centaur have foals."
Severus brushed her hair behind Hermione's ear and lowered his mouth to hers. "Insufferable know-it-all," he muttered into her mouth.
The three foals snuggled between them had started snoring fitfully, having exhausted themselves into a deep stupor.
"Only a centaur date could be like this," Hermione chuckled as she watched the younglings snuggle into their bodies.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Hermione stirred against Severus' body with a groggy yawn. The fireplace had burned down to embers in his chambers, but she wasn't cold. They lay together on the centaur-friendly bedding, draped in a blanket that was more for their human halves than the equine lower body.
Severus' arms were wrapped around her human torso, tucking her against his chest and under his head. His pale and almost alabaster skin was warm against her cheek, and she snuggled into it. After insuring the colt and fillies were safely escorted back to their dorms, they had retired together for the first time. Tea and discussion on the properties of the moon flower's pollen and sap had taken up a few hours, but eventually sleepiness had claimed them. For the first time, Severus has invited her to stay longer than just for tea and conversation, and she had agreed.
Severus stirred slightly in his sleep, pulling her against himself with an unconscious movement. She felt comfortable and safe. There had been a time when she had felt safe with Viktor. He had been kind and supportive, but the war had put a strain on their relationship, and by the time the war had ended, she had thought she and Ron had finally come together in a viable relationship. In the end, she had ended up with neither wizard, and her career and crusade for the oppressed magical races had taken what little time she had and obliterated any hope for a long-term commitment.
Severus was far from perfect. His list of inner baggage had been carried back from a time before she was born, but he was far more sensitive than most gave him credit for. He harbored a strong desire to protect what he cared about, even though his methods were often concealed just as much as his emotions.
Hermione caressed his hair with her fingertips, her fingers gently brushing the moonflower in his hair.
Snape's eyes fluttered open, and he focused on her face.
Hermione stared shamelessly. "Hi."
"I'm obviously hallucinating," he replied.
"Why do you say that?" Hermione asked, dragging her finger down the bridge of his nose.
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror, lately?" Severus asked. "You gorgeous, and I'm most definitely not. You're in my bed, which I can only guess was under duress, and you have the lower body of a horse, which find overwhelmingly attractive. I expect you to kick me in the face, call me something unspeakable, throw the tea service at me, and leave me very soon. Unless, of course, I have somehow blackmailed you to be here, where I supposed you would offer me tea spiked with something deadly and leave me to be found by Minerva when I don't show up to teach classes."
Hermione laughed, and it was a clear bell-like, genuine laugh. "I have a much more appropriate punishment for you for luring me here, Severus," she replied with a warm smile.
"Whatever could that be?" he asked.
"Perhaps, I will inflict myself upon you for a bit longer," Hermione answered. She leaned in close to his face, her nose almost touching his.
Snape's pupils seemed to swallow up his eyes. He swallowed hard. "How long is 'a bit'?"
Hermione breathed against his lips agonisingly close. "As long as you will have me?"
His eyes flickered, and his lips quivered almost imperceptibly. "Always?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper above the hiss of the fire. "I have nothing to give you—no legacy, no inheritance…"
"We can build a life together," Hermione replied. "We can build our own legacy… together."
Snape gave the smallest of smiles. "I like the sound of that."
Hermione pressed her lips to his at last, inducing a low moan from Severus. He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her as he hungrily captured her mouth with his.
"Hermione," he breathed, stroking her ears with his fingers.
Hermione's eyes glassed over as he rubbed. The tips of her ears twitched. "Hmmmph?"
"Do you believe in fate, Hermione?" he asked, looking into her eyes.
She soothed his hair with her hand. "I think fate believes in us."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Hermione peered at the line of beakers she had laid out. Each of them had burbling contents. Severus stared at a line of test tubes as he scrutinised them as well.
Despite rigorous testing, the moon flower pollen and sap seemed completely inert. Both of them tried testing the sap and pollen for healing properties, but either the samples lost their potency very fast or it was completely useless for healing humans.
Save whatever inherent magic had triggered the plants reaction to Hermione and Severus, the two Potion Masters seemed resigned to the fact that it was not meant for humans. The plant snubbed Neville with almost human turn of it's flower head, tilting the end of its flower bud up to the sky in a distinctive snub.
"It's the one plant that really doesn't like me," Neville moaned, cradling his head in his hands. "I wish I could make it understand that it's not even for me. It's for my parents."
Hermione stomped her feet, shifting her weight as she tended the experiments. The three moonflowers whickered at her as she passed, bobbing their heads and dumping a light cloud of pollen on the table and into the air.
"I wouldn't feel bad about it, Neville," Hermione said. "They seem to have bias towards centaur." She collected the pollen and trickles of sap from the cooperating flowers.
Severus, who was tending the far table, walked over to where Hermione was standing. He lightly touched the base of her mane, rubbing the small of her back and her withers with a gentle motion. He nickered softly, and Hermione leaned into him automatically. The three nearby flowers bobbed their flowers, making a light tinkling sound.
Severus checked the samples and exchanged glances with Hermione. They made soft sounds at each other, ears flicking and tails swishing as they whispered to each other. The plants were bobbing their heads as if to music only they could hear.
Neville wilted. "What was I doing wrong?"
Severus, who noticed that Neville was spending more time staring at the floor than at either Hermione or himself, narrowed his eyes. "Professor Longbottom. I may not be an expert in Herbology, but perhaps there must be a link between you and the moonflower for a cure to possible… as a human."
Neville's eyes widened. "But, I don't want to end up—" He clamped his hand over his mouth as he realised what he'd almost said.
Hermione's body had frozen in place. "Go ahead and finish that sentence, Neville," she said coldly, her ears pinned back. "Tell me, what don't you want to end up like?" Her her frozen hand dropped the stirring rod she had on the counter and she flung her hand out to put all the experiments in stasis.
She turned her head with a jerk, her body tense from her head to her tail.
"Hermione," Neville stammered. "I didn't mean—"
Hermione's eyes were filled with fire. Her teeth gritted together.
"I need air," Hermione seethed, wheeling around on her hind legs and trotting out of the laboratory. Her waved her wand, locking down the laboratory area of the classroom with wards, and disappeared out the door with the clatter of her hooves against the stone floor.
Neville wrung his hands and ran his hands through his hair with a moan.
Severus scowled down at Neville with undisguised disdain. "You truly are an imbecile."
Neville slammed his head against his hands and rocked his body. "I know," he moaned. "Merlin's bloody knickers, I know."
"Get. Out," Snape ordered with a scowl. "I'm going to lock up the classroom. Merlin knows if I leave you here alone, you will find some way to blow it up and turn yourself into a pond snail at the same time."
Neville, feeling like a child of twelve again, scurried out the door with his proverbial tail between his legs.
As Severus laid his hands flat down on the laboratory table, the two remaining moonflowers curved their flower heads around his hands and nickered supportively. Snape sighed heavily, closing his eyes. Count on Neville to inadvertently remind Hermione that her condition was not viewed as a natural progression.
She was always the strong one, the accepting one, and the one who accepted change in stride. She had accepted her place amongst the centaur herd without the drama, finding stability in the touch of the herd, and, perhaps the most miraculous of all, accepted him as her most significant person.
Severus squared his jaw. He would not allow Hermione to lose that peace within.
He picked up the two remaining moon flower pots and swept the room, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the doorframe. Hermione was out there somewhere feeling miserable, and it was his turn to be there for her.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A/N: So, how do you think Mr and Mrs Granger will respond to their daughter's situation? Muggles, no matter how accepting, might have a problem being able to take a physical transformation of their daughter into a mythical creature in stride.
To be fair, I don't see Neville as being a complete idiot, but I think his luck when it comes to social situations can still be awkward. Ex-Auror or no, I think when it comes to anything regarding his parents and what might be a possible cure will make him more addled in his responses. I don't think he'd intentionally insult Hermione, ever. He just had a knee-jerk reaction to the possibility that he could end up like Hermione or Severus and his tongue got him into trouble.
Severus, however, will still consider him an imbecile. That's why we love the guy. lol.