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Count down: 3
Chapter 18: Meetings, Anger and Comforting
Just as Dumbledore had said, Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep Hermione in for another night. According to her, time travel of that extent could mess with your body more then on the surface. Hermione didn't think so but she wasn't complaining; now she could wait and see if Severus or Lucius would come to see her.
However, the morning came and went and it was now nearing four and Hermione feared that they weren't coming. Saddened, she began to play with the locket that still hung on her neck; Madam Pomfrey had told her to take it off but she had refused to part with it. Only in that locket where Severus and Lucius there smiling at her, not knowing of what would happen later, just stuck in time.
As Hermione leaned back into her pillow with a sigh of defeat, the door opened. She didn't even spare it a glance, thinking that it was an unfortunate student who had become ill. It wasn't until she heard the footsteps come closer did she look up. Her heart skipped a beat; Severus and Lucius were walking up to her cot looking just as she remembered them in this time. She felt slightly saddened when she saw that neither were smiling, until she remembered Remus' words the previous night.
"I will see if they will see you tomorrow, but Hermione? Please don't expect them to be too happy; they went through quite a bit when you left."
When the two men stopped by her bed they said nothing, only staring at her as if to make sure she was real. Hermione gave them a small uncertain smile and almost sighed in relief as Lucius returned it. Severus' face still betrayed no emotion and, had she been in the past, she would have looked right past it. But this was a fully grown adult, and a spy at that; she would be worried if she could see through his mask.
The silence was becoming too much for Hermione to bear. She was just about to speak when someone got there first.
"Do you know how long we spent searching for you?"
She winced at the soft, cold tones that Severus used.
"We didn't stop, not even after Lucius stopped teaching. But Lily seemed to know what had happened, though she constantly denied it. Did you deicide to tell her where you were going? Did you deem us unworthy of knowing where you went?"
"No, I didn't, I–"
"Then how come she looked so sad when she said 'no'?" Severus cut across her coldly.
"I told her–"
"Ah, so you did inform her of something? Not the truth, a Gryffindor like you never goes against what she's told, but something similar, perhaps?"
Hermione was starting to get annoyed at the one-sided conversation and tried to get a word in.
"Look. She figured it out herself, that something was wrong. I told her that I had to leave, and that no one could contact me," Hermione said, almost desperate to get him to listen.
"Did she not tell you that we would search?"
She turned to face Lucius, who had finally spoken, with a sad look on her face.
"Yes, she did. But I told her that it would be worse if you thought that you could reach me, yet not being able to."
Lucius nodded in slight understanding.
"Lucius, you're just going to let her off? After what we went through trying to find her, trying to find a lead to where she went? I don't believe it."
Lucius faced Severus.
"That is the past, Severus. Think of what you would have done, had you been in her position. I have had time to think on it, from when I first saw her in her second year to now. I'm willing to put it in the past, though I still want to know why you never trusted us enough to tell us that you were leaving?" he added to Hermione.
"Yes, please do enlighten us, Miss Granger," Severus sneered at her at she winced at the use of her surname.
"It wasn't that I didn't trust you two; it was that I didn't trust myself. I thought that if you were to know that I was leaving, I would spill everything about the future to you. That would have been disastrous," Hermione answered, her voice getting softer at the end.
"Miss Granger, you thought that we would take advantage of the fact that you were from the future? Ask you everything that we would need to know? You're pathetic."
Hermione snapped at that comment.
"You're the one that's pathetic Severus, if you think that was the problem! I didn't trust myself not to tell you who you would become, and how to change it."
"So you don't like how we are now then? I guess that you were only nice to us to see if we were the same before? You didn't honestly think that I would still like you once I realised that you were a student, twenty years younger then me at that?" He laughed bitterly at the shocked look on her face.
"Didn't think about that did you? Miss Granger you are fifthteen and I am thirty five."
"Due to the time turner, both in third year and now, I am almost seventeen–"
"Which is barely more acceptable then before," he cut across her. "I am still old enough to be your father, at any rate."
"And if I don't care?"
"Then, Miss Granger, you are far more foolish then I thought you were," Severus finished bluntly.
He stood and turned to leave, though he froze slightly when he saw her crying at his words. Severus tore his eyes away from her and swiftly walked to the door, closing it surprisingly quietly.
Hermione stared out to the door, tears running down her face for the second time in forty eight hours. She gasped softly as a pair of arms awkwardly wrapped themselves around her from behind. She turned slightly and saw Lucius' concerned face looking back at her.
"Do not expect him to come around immediately; before you left 'again' he could still become upset if you were mentioned, even more so now that he knows for sure who you are."
"And you didn't?" Hermione sniffed quietly.
"I, too, was upset if anyone mentioned it, though not to the extent Severus took it to. I came to grips with the fact that you left, hopefully with good reason, but I don't think he ever did, not completely anyway," Lucius explained.
Hermione sat quietly for a while longer, until she could take the sad mood any longer. She turned once again to face Lucius, a small smile on her face.
"So Lucy, mind filling me in on what I've missed?"
"Still remember that bloody name I see. Pity, I had hoped that time travel would have knocked it out of your head," Lucius growled, though a smile was just visible at the name.
"No such luck, I'm afraid. And since twenty years have gone past with out it, I need to make up for lost time so please, Lucy, continue," Hermione replied, a small smirk on her face.
Frowning at the nickname, Lucius began to inform Hermione on what had happened in Hermione Storms absence. He kept it to a small version on what had really happened as it was late, and both of them were still to have dinner. Something they had forgotten about, that was until Hermione's stomach had reminded them of the need to eat.
As she watched Lucius leave, she wondered if Severus would ever talk to her again as she and Lucius had. Hermione hoped that he would think about what she had said, she didn't care what others thought, life in the past had taught her that much.
'Now if only I could get him to see that I don't care.'
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Down in the depths of the dungeons underneath the rest of the school, Severus Snape sat in his private quarters. He was in his small living room, a glass of Firewiskey next to him. Normally he didn't drink, but he thought that in this case he had a good reason to. He was thinking about the arguments that Herm – no Miss Granger – had put forth.
"Didn't think about that did you? Miss Granger you are fifthteen and I am thirty five."
"Due to the time turner, both in third year and now, I am almost seventeen–"
"Which is barely more acceptable then before," he cut across her. "I am still old enough to be your father, at any rate."
His age didn't really matter to him as much as he had forced himself to believe. His parents had a large age gap between them, and he had learnt not to care from that. No, the reason to bring their age up was to try and dissuade her, catch her in a lie.
"And if I don't care?"
"Then, Miss Granger, you are far more foolish then I thought you were," Severus finished bluntly.
Severus had not been expecting that. He had believed that she would stop her argument, not continue it. Especially not with saying what she said.
"And if I don't care?"
If she didn't care that meant that she was serious. That was not something that he could cope with at the moment; being alone for so long and then suddenly having someone who he thought he would never truly see again, willingly try to convince him? How did she expect him to react after something like that?
He drank what was left of his whiskey, from both his glass and bottle, and made his way to bed. After he laid down under the silk covers he closed his eyes, sighing.
'If you don't care, then why do I?'
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Sorry for the minor delay: I went onto e-bay and brought a life for $2.20. Of course, that means that it was a one night thing so it shouldn't happen again. I hope that this was worth the wait and that you enjoy it. Please tell me what you think be reviewing!
Lady of Elysion