A/NOkay you know what, I absofreakinlutely love all two of you that have reviewed!!  I completely forgot how much fun it is to turn on your computer and have reviews about your own thoughts, feelings, and visions on the screen for all to read. It makes one a bit drunk on power!! MUWAHAHAHAHA!!! Okay (cough) now that I've gotten my quota of evil laughs out of my system(seven a day is the recommended dosage of course), I think I may just be able to peruse my conscience for another chapter just for you guys! So to my reviewers: Dragonfly & GeekGirl; this one will be dedicated to you.

I Can't Believe It

Chapter 2

By

Tigress Burning

June 16th, 2012

The plane touched down at JFK International Airport just outside of New York City, New York just shy of five o'clock that afternoon and already Severus was exhausted. He wished that Muggles would invent some sort of instantaneous travel so he and his wife /Merlin, she's my wife/, would not have been so uncomfortable.

Ever the dutiful husband to all present, Severus had put up with Hermione practically sleeping in his lap for the past four hours. /And if the take-off and first hour of this atrocity was any measure, I'm doubly glad she was asleep for the landing/ he thought to himself. He had practically had to fight the stewardess to keep her from waking Hermione up from deep sleep, a fight which he would have undertaken without any qualms if only he wasn't being used as a pillow.

As it was, he felt naked and helpless without his wand, buried ten feet below him in the cargo hold; carefully protected along with Hermione's in a battered instrument case. Normally he would have kept it on him at all times, but once again, Hermione had explained Muggle ways to him, pointing out that a forty-five year old man, traveling in the company of a twenty-five year old woman, both of them brandishing sticks, would seem rather odd. She had made it seem a game to the man at Security however, letting him hold first hers', then Severus' wands, proving to him that they were harmless. Laughing, she had explained that they were both really into computers and were on their way to a convention in Indianapolis (Severus still had trouble with that particularly odd word) for their favorite game, the Legend of Zelda (as apparently, it was the only game she could think up on short notice which had witches and wizards in it). She had even showed him their robes, explaining shyly how she had sewed them herself for the con.

Half of what she had said flew right over the formidable DADA teacher's head, and he allowed his wife to speak for him, simply looking threatening when a flock of teenagers had leered at her; and placing his left hand on her shoulder, his wedding band glinting in the morning sun when a middle-aged business man walked by and did a double-take at the sight of the woman he now held securely in his arms. 

She had dressed for comfort wearing a pair of pinstriped tailored pants and a fitted black sweater.  It was enough to keep her comfortable, and yet would still be practical underneath her robes when they arrived at their destination. Since her years at Hogwarts, she had truly grown into a beautiful young woman, filling out into her curves as he had known she would; /although I would have never admitted to it then/ he thought, and letting her hair grow into a thick shimmering mass which lay in thick waves across her slim shoulders to her lower back. But what intrigued Severus wasn't what lay on top, although her beauty it was true, did touch a place inside him he would not have easily been able to acknowledge.  It was her thirst for knowledge which truly made him crave her company. She was easily as well read as he, and the two liked nothing better than sitting in the teacher's lounge at Hogwarts and discussing the new book Hermione had gotten him to read two weeks ago, or debating about whether the potion that they had created last week should be researched further or scrapped altogether.

In short, they were best friends, with a much deeper connection than she had ever made with Ron or Harry.  Severus had asked one night why she liked to spend so much time with him, and had been pleasantly surprised when she explained rather shyly that she just couldn't talk to Harry or Ron about the things she could with him.

'You just understand what I'm talking about Severus. Can you really hear me explaining to them about the intricacies it took us to brew the Dragons bane potion, or even better the way I can distill anything I want into an essence for use in experiments? The way I thought that the thirteenth chapter of Raert Mandracas's Book of Superstitions was an idiotic idea as every respectable witch or wizard knows that thirteen is unlucky? They would simply look at me and say 'But Hermione, thirteen comes after twelve, he couldn't have just skipped it.' You understand these things without me having to explain them. They are my best friends, my best childhood friends, and I'll never forget what we had, I'll cherish it always…but things change. People change; and we just aren't as close anymore.'

He knew she didn't like the fact that while Harry and Ron had gone on in their third year after graduating from Hogwarts to extremely lucrative Auror careers (they had both just been promoted to Unspeakables) after destroying Voldemort once and for all, that Hermione felt she hadn't changed at all, hadn't grown in any way since she had almost laid down her life for the cause. They were still close, but they had gone their separate ways, and had been forced to forge lives without each other as a constant support.

Severus carefully stood up as the plane began to empty out into a world populated by Muggles.  Unsure of what, exactly, he should do, he simply exited the plane with Hermione in his arms, and her bag slung over his shoulder and laid her down in a terminal chair, an old couple commenting on the fact that apparently, chivalry wasn't dead. Severus smiled and gently shook Hermione awake.

'Sev..have we landed already?' she asked as she slowly sat up. 

'We have, about five minutes ago actually.' he said.  'Oh.'  This seemed to stump her for a moment until she brightened as she shook off the stupor of sleep.

'We have to go and collect our luggage, and find our next plane then.' Severus immediately groaned. "Surely the old man has tortured us enough Hermione. Why not just Apparate the rest of the way?'

'Because we don't know where the school is.' she replied with just enough cheek for him to not get angry. 'Our guide is supposed to meet us at the next terminal and tell us where to Apparate to.  Seems the Americans are just as obsessive with security as we are.'

Severus groaned once more, before lifting his hand and waving Hermione on, as he was simply following her through her part-time world until she could guide him back to his element.

'Lead on then wife.  We have planes to catch, and students to teach.' He grinned as he looked at her. 'And hopefully we can keep up this marriage ruse until we have what we need to rid us of Voldemort forever.'