Eternally Yours
Chapter 16
As The World Falls Down
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters.
Author's Note:
Well, hello again. I'd like to thank you all for sticking with me so far, I do plan to finish this eventually. Also, now that my computer is fixed (way to go Ray!) you can all look forward to both longer chapters and more frequent updates. I'm sorry for the cliff hanger last chapter, judging from the reviews that I received last week the majority of my readers seem to not like them. I'll try to cut back on the cliffies in the future. In this case however, I really feel that it was a good thing that I put in the cliffie. I've changed my mind a bit about where I want to go with this chapter, and needed some time to mull things over in my head. So, after a great deal of pacing at the end of the dock while I was camping over the 4th, this is what my over stressed brain has to offer.
Other Recent Developments:
I got my first flame review over the weekend as well, apparently I'm wasting my talents and Hermione and Severus pairings are just not right. But, since I have well over a hundred reviews saying otherwise I have decided to disregard this person's personal opinions on the matter. The only thing I really find wrong with the whole matter is that this review was posted for my fourth chapter, and I someone doesn't like Hermione Severus pairings why did they read it that far in the first place.
Also, now that my computer is fixed, fans of My Sun, My Moon, My Shining Star (my Remus and Sirius fic) and Rough Diamonds and Flighty Sparrows (my Pirates of the Caribbean fic) can look forward to some updates in the next week or so as well.
If you want to earn some major brownie points you can follow my friend Sam's example and send me some cool fan art for my fic. Any drawings I receive will eventually be put on a web site and linked to my profile. So you can see all the pretty artwork. I have to make sure that it's ok with Sam before I put hers up there.
Okay, that's all. I won't hold you up any longer so enjoy!
Severus looked up, startled, and then gasped. Narcissa Malfoy was standing rather nonchalantly in his bedchamber. She wasn't looking up at him; she was busy straightening her dress. A stunning emerald muggle evening gown trimmed in silver that clung elegantly to her slender form. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back, pulled away from her face with silver barrettes inlaid with pearls. She clutched an emerald handbag that was trimmed in silver to match her dress and inlaid with more pearls.
'Ek!' Severus exclaimed and threw a blanket over Hermione. 'Narcissa, what the hell are you doing here?'
She looked up at him with a hurt look on her face. 'Whatever do you mean? It's the first Saturday of the month. You haven't forgotten about our plans? Why aren't you dressed?' She paused and studied the lump under the sheet that was Hermione. ' Severus. Who is that in your bed?'
Severus gazed at her, speechless for a moment before he regained his composure. ' Narcissa, I am so sorry. I completely lost track of what day it was. Could you please go wait in the library and I'll be there in a moment.'
'Severus Snape! You cancelled on me last month, and that's okay since you gave me plenty of warning. But, if you cancel on me now at the last minute, I'll castrate you! You don't realize what I have to go through to get out of that house to meet with you. I have to plan it weeks in advance you prat, and you are not skiving out on me again! I don't care who is in your bed, if you're not ready in ten minutes she (or is it a he, I always did take you as a wee bit lavender) will never have the opportunity again. Because you'll be a eunuch Severus, so help me God!' Narcissa glared daggers at him before storming out of the room.
'Shit, Hermione! This is not good!' Severus huffed, throwing the blanket off of her.
Hermione looked up at him in confusion. 'What was that all about? Was that Narcissa… Malfoy?'
'Oh dear,' Severus moaned. 'This is going to take a great deal of explaining.'
Hermione gaped at him. 'You're not sleeping with her are you?'
A look of disgust came over Severus' face. 'Oh God no, Hermione! That would be like sleeping with my own sister.' He paused for a moment, thinking. Reader's Digest Condensed Version. 'Actually I think that she's my second cousin through marriage on my mother's side. The lineage of the old wizard families tends to get a bit muddled after a few hundred generations, especially when most of the lot only marry into other wizarding families. That's not important though. Narcissa and I have been very good friends ever since we were children.'
At this point Severus got out of the bed and began changing into a black suit with silver pinstripes that he pulled from the closet. He slipped a severely cut white dress shirt on before continuing. 'You see, our fathers were very good friends and we both loathed our fathers, so it just followed that we became good friends. So when the point came and we felt the need to rebel against our families we decided to do the thing they would hate most of all, we decided to engross ourselves in muggle culture.'
He finished buttoning his shirt and pulled his pant's up over his hips, not bothering with any underwear. 'We listened to the Beatles, read muggle magazines, ate muggle food, and went out to the cinema or the theatre on a regular basis. Narcissa took a particular liking to the sport of bowling, but I couldn't quite get the hang of it.' Hermione tried not to laugh as she imagined Severus in his wizard robes rolling a bright pink bowling ball down the lane with the splayed leg approach.
Severus strapped his pants to his suspenders with a little bit of difficulty before continuing. 'Of course we hid all this from our parents, but it was the principle of the thing. I think that my parents were hoping for a marriage, but it wasn't like that between us, and her family eventually forced her into a marriage to Lucius Malfoy.'
He slipped his jacket on and did one of the buttons. 'I thought she had gone back on everything we had believed in and consented to the marriage, so I wouldn't even read her letters for the longest time I just threw them into the fire. Well, eventually I did read the letters and I found out the real story behind what had happened.'
Severus looked skeptically into the mirror, pulling his hair back. He put a black fedora with an emerald band on, and looked into the mirror once more, tucking his hair behind his ears. 'So anyway we eventually became friends again. So once a month Narcissa sneaks out of the house under Lucius' nose and we go out and indulge a bit. Tonight we're going to the theatre. We were supposed to go to dinner as well, but I'm pretty sure I can sneak out of that with my manhood still intact.'
He grabbed a black cane that was topped with a large glass emerald and came to the side of the bed where Hermione sat looking at him with a stunned expression on her face. He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. 'Please forgive me, my love. Narcissa Malfoy is a force to be reckoned with when she's angry, and her wrath is about the last thing I need at the moment. I have a surprise for you when I get back; I'll explain more then. You can do whatever you want in the meantime, liberate my house elves, whatever makes you happy. I will try to hurry. Can you understand Hermione? Please?'
'Of course,' Hermione smiled at him. He was talking rather fast but she was pretty sure she'd taken it all in.
Severus was just about to leave when Hermione stopped him. 'Wait, Severus!'
He spun around to look at her, slightly confused. 'Yes?'
'Does that mean you're related to Sirius?'
Severus grimaced, left the room, and closed the door behind him. He walked towards the library cursing under his breath, and swinging his cane at the paintings on the wall.
Back in the bedroom Hermione had burred her face in the pillows in order to stifle her laughter at the look on Severus' face.
Severus stormed into the library a moment later looking rather perturbed and still muttering under his breath.
Narcissa looked up at him from a book she was looking at and then stood up, 'Ready now?' She smiled at him as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
'Yes, I suppose. But only to the theatre, I am going to have to cancel dinner.'
'Fast food?' Narcissa asked hopefully.
'Fine,' Severus sighed.
'Great,' Narcissa said, smiling happily. 'I rented us a limo, but we're gong to have to apparate to it. I left it waiting in the parking lot at the mall. Like the new shoes?' She lifted up her dress a little to reveal silver high heal shoes with clear plastic straps.
'Lovely,' Severus said absentmindedly, glancing out into the hall.
Narcissa hit him with her handbag. 'You didn't even look.' She followed his glance out into the empty hallway. 'Incidentally, who was the girl in your bed? It was a girl wasn't it?'
Severus sighed, 'Yes Narcissa, it was a girl. I'm not gay.' Nope not gay, he though wryly, just a pedophile.
'Well who was it, someone I know?'
'No.'
'Another teacher?'
'No.'
'A muggle?'
'No.'
'A greasy haired potion master groupie?'
'I wish'
'Well, who then?' Narcissa searched his face. 'Not a student.'
Severus looked guiltily down at his feet.
'A student! Severus, that's repulsive!' Narcissa was looking at him in shock. 'What year is she in?'
'Sixth,' Severus answered reluctantly.
Narcissa shook her head at him. 'She is in Slytherin though, right?'
Severus looked down at his feet again.
'Ravenclaw?'
Severus shook his head.
'Hufflepuff?'
Severus shook his head again.
'Gryffindor! Severus, that's disgusting.'
He looked up at her reluctantly. 'Oh, it's worse. She's one of Harry Potter's best friends.'
Narcissa was dumbstruck. 'And she slept with you? Severus, you know it's against the law to drug innocent young girls and rape them don't you?'
Severus frowned. "I didn't rape her Narcissa. I'm in love with her.'
Narcissa raised her hands in the air. 'Enough of this! I need a drink!' She pulled out her wand. 'Come on, I have brandy waiting in the car.'
They were in the back of the limo that Narcissa had rented, and she had poured each of them a glass of brandy.
Severus leaned heavily back into his seat, his thoughts dwelling on Hermione.
Narcissa raised her glass in a toast and Severus matched it with a little clink of crystal. 'Here's to Sev's lady then.' Narcissa lowered her glass a little, faltering for a moment. 'What was her name?'
'Hermione Granger.' Severus answered, taking a sip of his brandy and practicing not making his little grimace.
'Granger.' Narcissa bit her lip, mulling the name over in her mind. 'Hermione Granger. She's the one that Draco's always going on about. He's always talking about how much he loathes her because she's a mudblood and a girl and she's always besting him at everything despite it. It's gotten to the point where I just ignore him, but I'm pretty sure that he fancies her.'
Severus felt a tinge of jealousy setting in and he took a gulp of his brandy, not even bothering to try hiding his grimace. 'Good to know.'
'Yes.' Narcissa smiled at his apparent jealousy.
'What's this play we're going to see again?' Severus asked, wanting to skip around the subject of Draco's feelings toward Hermione.
'It's called a circus of tales.'
'What is it about?'
Narcissa looked at the playbill skeptically, turning it over in her hands. 'Um, too tell you the truth I haven't the foggiest. There are some muggles attached to strings flying in the picture, and someone dressed as Neil Diamond.'
'Oh.'
The play was quite good, and Severus found himself enjoying it in spite of the fact that his thoughts were constantly dwelling on Hermione. During the intermission Severus and Narcissa went outside to get some fresh air. Narcissa was giggling wildly spinning around in circles under a darkening sky, her dress flaring out around her and her shoes making little taps on the pavement.
Severus was looking off into space, not really paying her much mind.
Narcissa stopped twirling. 'What is it Severus?'
'Nothing,' he muttered.
'Bugger nothing. What is it?'
Severus sighed. 'I was thinking about Hermione.'
Narcissa's eyes filled with hurt. 'You want to go home.'
'Yes,' he said, looking up at her. 'Well, no. Not exactly.'
'Which is it then? Yes or no?'
'No. I'm just worried that Hermione is furious with me, cursing under her breath and trying to figure out how best to… curse me, actually. Or worse, and she's crying to herself in a corner.' Severus sighed. 'Maybe I should just apparate over there and check on her.'
Narcissa brightened. 'I think I can help.' She opened her handbag and began digging around inside of it. After a moment she pulled out a faintly glowing pink crystal shard.
Severus' eyes widened as she pulled it out. 'You know that's illegal, right?'
'You have met my husband, right?'
'Just checking.'
She gave him a lofty smirk and handed him the crystal shard. 'Just think about the person that you want to watch.'
Severus grasped the crystal in his hand and thought about Hermione. He closed his eyes, picturing her in his mind: her long soft brown hair, her good-natured laugh, twinkling honey brown eyes, and a smile playing off her face.
Severus opened his eyes and gazed upon Hermione's upturned face filling the crystal. He gazed fondly into her eyes for a moment before willing the crystal to pull out from her a little. He saw that she was sitting on the floor in the library surrounded by little towers of books that she'd pulled off the shelves. She was wearing his black silk robe, her sweat soaked hair was tucked back behind her ear away from her face. She had an old leather bound tome in her lap but she wasn't reading it, she was looking upward. It took Severus a moment to figure out where she was looking, but once he did he nearly smacked himself in the forehead. It was the stained glass window that his mother had designed. It was a huge window, forty feet long and another ten feet wide, spanning the entire length of the wall and picturing the nine muses at council with their father, and sometimes lover, Zeus. She was smiling.
Severus smiled too and handed the crystal, which had begun to produce large amounts of heat, back to Narcissa who returned it to her purse. Severus smiled at her, thanking her without words, and headed back into the theatre.
Hermione had become bored with the library, would someone please inform the press. Yes, that's right, Hermione was bored of books.
In truth, Hermione herself didn't find this all that surprising. Severus' library didn't really have a whole lot of selection. She'd read the poetry for a while, but since she owned a copy of most of the books herself they didn't really hold her interest. She'd then moved on to the old tomes and ledgers, which she found very interesting, but she found her thoughts drifting back to Severus again and again.
Finally Hermione resolved to give up on the library and go take a bath. She was feeling quite sweaty and sticky after the morning's activities, and she might as well look her best when Severus got home if she had Narcissa Malfoy to contend with.
She sunk comfortably into the warm water in the tub, her head resting on a pillow of bubbles, and thought that maybe when she was finished she'd plan a little carpet picnic in the foyer in front of the fireplace.
Severus and Narcissa giggled their way out of the theatre leaning on Sev's cane for support, and drawing a large amount of attention to themselves, all but crawling back into their black limousine. Once they'd shut the door the both managed to flop into their seats without laughing themselves to death.
Narcissa managed to stop laughing once she looked at her watch. 'Oh dear, ten thirty already. I guess I'm going to have to let you cancel on dinner after all.'
Severus raised an eyebrow at her.
'Lucius is out having drinks with the minister, I think he's trying to bribe him into loosening the restrictions on class five non-tradable substances for wizards who have long standing relationship to the ministry or some such nonsense. Anyway, he thinks I'm at my sister Andromeda's for tea, but I can't justify being over there this late. Lucius can't stand Andromeda, but she's still my family so he let's me go anyway, she married a muggle and they have an auror for a daughter so…'
'Sure,' Severus said. 'Nymphadora. She's a nice girl, though.'
Narcissa looked at him skeptically. 'How do you know Nymphadora?'
'Oh, um,' Severus faltered. He was just too sleepy to think up a good alibi at the moment. 'I don't quite remember where I met her, probably at the school.'
Narcissa frowned at him, 'Oh.'
'Yeah, well, I'd better get going, Severus said, digging his wand out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
'Yes yes, by all means. Go shag your student.'
With a pop he arrived back in his bedroom, his expression somewhere between a frown and a smile. Hermione wasn't in the room though; so he went out into the hallway and nearly stumbled over a pink candle right in the middle of the floor.
Severus frowned at the candle malevolently until he saw a piece of his stationary folded under its base. He lifted the piece of paper, read it, and smiled. He dashed back into his room and found the package he'd hidden in his closet before following a trail of tastelessly pink candles down to the foyer.
Hermione had conjured up quite an ambiance. More pink candles floated all around the room and she'd set up a little nest in the middle of the floor with a very soft pink blanket and piles of pink red and white pillows. Hermione herself sat in the midst of this wearing a clinging white silk nightgown and picking strawberry's off of a silver platter, which also held champagne, glasses, chocolate, and a bunch of grapes.
Hermione looked up at him, smiling confidently, and he fell down beside her on the pillows.
Hermione leaned over him, feeding him a strawberry, and gazing lovingly into his eyes. 'How was the show?'
Severus swallowed his bite of strawberry, licking his lips contentedly. 'Very funny.'
'Really? What was it about?'
Severus smirked. 'There was a circus employee who was transfigured into a dog by a cursed book that tried to eat him and two old fat ladies. Then the dog was trying to have offspring but the biohazard faeries kept getting it wrong, so he had a chair and a grocery cart and an apple. Then Neil Diamond came and sang the princess asleep and father time came and killed him.' Severus was smiling, on the verge of breaking into giggles again.
Hermione shook her head disbelievingly at him. 'Well it's about time isn't it? I take it you enjoyed yourself.'
Severus' smile fell. 'It was pure agony, cause I wanted to be with you.'
Hermione smiled at the sincereness in his voice, and kissed him gently on the bridge of his nose. 'I missed you too,' she sighed. 'I was trying to read, but I couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking about you.'
'Well that's too bad,' Severus said, pulling the package out of his pocket. 'Because I have a surprise,' he finished, handing her the package.
Hermione took it, looking up into his eyes questioningly.
'Open it!'
She looked at the box skeptically. It was long and thin, wrapped in green paper with silver ribbon. 'How very Slytherin of you,' she said and unwrapped it. Hermione lifted the lid off the box and pulled out a very familiar looking key. Trying to look at it as though she was examining it for the first time she read the inscription. 'Amor Vincit Omnia.'
'It's Latin, it means love conquers all.' Severus took her hands into his and studied the key himself, but in a way he wasn't really looking at it at all.
'I want you to understand what this key means before I tell you what it's for.' Severus said, pulling her against his chest. 'And in order for that to happen I'll have to tell you more about myself than I think I've ever told anyone else in my whole life.'
There was great sadness in his voice, and Hermione held him close as he spoke, telling her the story of his child hood and what made him the way that he is.
'I already told you that I hated my father, but I never told you why.' He paused for a moment, stringing his words together. 'My mother was the most beautiful, the most brave, and the most compassionate woman that I've ever encountered; save perhaps you, my love. I loved my mother more than anything, and he killed her.
'My father was well into the dark arts, but more than that, he didn't desire power or greatness or knowledge that wasn't why he studied the dark arts, he was just plain evil. He would beat my mother or humiliate her to the most extreme degree imaginable.
'My mother was the victim of an arranged marriage, but even then my grandfather knew that my father was insane. He thought that a woman could help curb that insanity and manipulate it so that it could be used to his advantage, but my grandfather was wrong. My mother's presence only seemed to make his condition worse. He never loved her, he only used her, and once I was born and old enough to care for myself he no longer had any use for her.'
Severus seemed near to tears, and he clutched desperately to Hermione.
'My father locked my mother in her rooms when I was seven and let her slowly die. I snick food to her, and water, and I would talk to her through the door when my father was away or asleep. But my mother died of a broken heart. She was a broken woman by then. She tried so hard to change him, to leave him, to love him, but it didn't change a thing. He killed her slowly and painfully without even feeling the tiniest hint of remorse.'
Severus was now crying into Hermione's arms, and she felt so helpless to help him. She felt so sad for him just a scared child, and for his mother whom he so deeply loved, and such deep penetrating hatred for any man who could do such a thing.
Severus looked up at her with tears running down his face and not the slightest tinge of embarrassment. 'I will never do anything like that to you ever, nor will I let anyone else harm a hair on your head. I will never stop loving you.' He held her to him wanting to repeat it over and over again. 'That's what the key means. The key to my mother's rooms, and the key to my heart. I love you Hermione, and love can conquer anything because it's greater than everything, even you and me. My love for you could crumble whole mountains and shift entire seas, defy heaven and hell, and burn the most powerful of demons to cinders. My love for you Hermione, could cross time itself.'
He kissed her softly, and held her to him, never wanting to let go. He fell asleep with tears drying on his cheeks and his entire world wrapped in his arms.
A.N: Geez, after an ending to a chapter like that I hate putting a note down here at all, but I have a few things to mention. I'll be brief though, it's 4:19 AM and I'm feeling a little sleep deprived.
I want to thank everyone who reviewed last chapter and remind them that if the want a response via e-mail I'd be more than happy to write them a two page note but they need to tell me that they want one and leave their e-mail address (that goes double for you Kouga and Amanda) I'm not a mind reader folks. I don't really want to put long review responses at the end of my chapters anymore, it's just gotten to be too much. If you're uncomfortable with leaving your e-mail and really want I response I can make some exceptions, otherwise I'm just going to kindly thank everyone by pen name.
Also, I'd like to remind you about the major brownie points for pretty pics, especially for that stained glass window, which I'm tempted to draw myself despite the early hour.
Amara Tsu: No review again? That makes me sad, you're practically my I.R.
Oh, and the title is the name of a song from Labyrinth. The one at the masquerade ball after Sarah eats the peach. And, A Circus of Tales is a play that I saw at the wonderful Theatre De Le June Lune, and it is actually about a cursed dog ex-circus employee who seeks help producing offspring from the biohazard faeries, at least in part.
Anyway, boy am I long winded today, I guess that's all.
Ly
Thanks: Sarahamanda, Anarane Anwamane, Irina Derevko, Gaisha, Drunken Landlord, norry, Tigerchild, TheRealiz, Kouga'seagleforever, Aindel S. Druida, KeithUrbanFan, obsessed-w-snape, Anna Nanna, and momsangel.
Also to hi: I do try to post weekly, but when I don't I usually post more than once the next week and I like to think that it evens out.
Chapter 16
As The World Falls Down
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters.
Author's Note:
Well, hello again. I'd like to thank you all for sticking with me so far, I do plan to finish this eventually. Also, now that my computer is fixed (way to go Ray!) you can all look forward to both longer chapters and more frequent updates. I'm sorry for the cliff hanger last chapter, judging from the reviews that I received last week the majority of my readers seem to not like them. I'll try to cut back on the cliffies in the future. In this case however, I really feel that it was a good thing that I put in the cliffie. I've changed my mind a bit about where I want to go with this chapter, and needed some time to mull things over in my head. So, after a great deal of pacing at the end of the dock while I was camping over the 4th, this is what my over stressed brain has to offer.
Other Recent Developments:
I got my first flame review over the weekend as well, apparently I'm wasting my talents and Hermione and Severus pairings are just not right. But, since I have well over a hundred reviews saying otherwise I have decided to disregard this person's personal opinions on the matter. The only thing I really find wrong with the whole matter is that this review was posted for my fourth chapter, and I someone doesn't like Hermione Severus pairings why did they read it that far in the first place.
Also, now that my computer is fixed, fans of My Sun, My Moon, My Shining Star (my Remus and Sirius fic) and Rough Diamonds and Flighty Sparrows (my Pirates of the Caribbean fic) can look forward to some updates in the next week or so as well.
If you want to earn some major brownie points you can follow my friend Sam's example and send me some cool fan art for my fic. Any drawings I receive will eventually be put on a web site and linked to my profile. So you can see all the pretty artwork. I have to make sure that it's ok with Sam before I put hers up there.
Okay, that's all. I won't hold you up any longer so enjoy!
Severus looked up, startled, and then gasped. Narcissa Malfoy was standing rather nonchalantly in his bedchamber. She wasn't looking up at him; she was busy straightening her dress. A stunning emerald muggle evening gown trimmed in silver that clung elegantly to her slender form. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back, pulled away from her face with silver barrettes inlaid with pearls. She clutched an emerald handbag that was trimmed in silver to match her dress and inlaid with more pearls.
'Ek!' Severus exclaimed and threw a blanket over Hermione. 'Narcissa, what the hell are you doing here?'
She looked up at him with a hurt look on her face. 'Whatever do you mean? It's the first Saturday of the month. You haven't forgotten about our plans? Why aren't you dressed?' She paused and studied the lump under the sheet that was Hermione. ' Severus. Who is that in your bed?'
Severus gazed at her, speechless for a moment before he regained his composure. ' Narcissa, I am so sorry. I completely lost track of what day it was. Could you please go wait in the library and I'll be there in a moment.'
'Severus Snape! You cancelled on me last month, and that's okay since you gave me plenty of warning. But, if you cancel on me now at the last minute, I'll castrate you! You don't realize what I have to go through to get out of that house to meet with you. I have to plan it weeks in advance you prat, and you are not skiving out on me again! I don't care who is in your bed, if you're not ready in ten minutes she (or is it a he, I always did take you as a wee bit lavender) will never have the opportunity again. Because you'll be a eunuch Severus, so help me God!' Narcissa glared daggers at him before storming out of the room.
'Shit, Hermione! This is not good!' Severus huffed, throwing the blanket off of her.
Hermione looked up at him in confusion. 'What was that all about? Was that Narcissa… Malfoy?'
'Oh dear,' Severus moaned. 'This is going to take a great deal of explaining.'
Hermione gaped at him. 'You're not sleeping with her are you?'
A look of disgust came over Severus' face. 'Oh God no, Hermione! That would be like sleeping with my own sister.' He paused for a moment, thinking. Reader's Digest Condensed Version. 'Actually I think that she's my second cousin through marriage on my mother's side. The lineage of the old wizard families tends to get a bit muddled after a few hundred generations, especially when most of the lot only marry into other wizarding families. That's not important though. Narcissa and I have been very good friends ever since we were children.'
At this point Severus got out of the bed and began changing into a black suit with silver pinstripes that he pulled from the closet. He slipped a severely cut white dress shirt on before continuing. 'You see, our fathers were very good friends and we both loathed our fathers, so it just followed that we became good friends. So when the point came and we felt the need to rebel against our families we decided to do the thing they would hate most of all, we decided to engross ourselves in muggle culture.'
He finished buttoning his shirt and pulled his pant's up over his hips, not bothering with any underwear. 'We listened to the Beatles, read muggle magazines, ate muggle food, and went out to the cinema or the theatre on a regular basis. Narcissa took a particular liking to the sport of bowling, but I couldn't quite get the hang of it.' Hermione tried not to laugh as she imagined Severus in his wizard robes rolling a bright pink bowling ball down the lane with the splayed leg approach.
Severus strapped his pants to his suspenders with a little bit of difficulty before continuing. 'Of course we hid all this from our parents, but it was the principle of the thing. I think that my parents were hoping for a marriage, but it wasn't like that between us, and her family eventually forced her into a marriage to Lucius Malfoy.'
He slipped his jacket on and did one of the buttons. 'I thought she had gone back on everything we had believed in and consented to the marriage, so I wouldn't even read her letters for the longest time I just threw them into the fire. Well, eventually I did read the letters and I found out the real story behind what had happened.'
Severus looked skeptically into the mirror, pulling his hair back. He put a black fedora with an emerald band on, and looked into the mirror once more, tucking his hair behind his ears. 'So anyway we eventually became friends again. So once a month Narcissa sneaks out of the house under Lucius' nose and we go out and indulge a bit. Tonight we're going to the theatre. We were supposed to go to dinner as well, but I'm pretty sure I can sneak out of that with my manhood still intact.'
He grabbed a black cane that was topped with a large glass emerald and came to the side of the bed where Hermione sat looking at him with a stunned expression on her face. He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. 'Please forgive me, my love. Narcissa Malfoy is a force to be reckoned with when she's angry, and her wrath is about the last thing I need at the moment. I have a surprise for you when I get back; I'll explain more then. You can do whatever you want in the meantime, liberate my house elves, whatever makes you happy. I will try to hurry. Can you understand Hermione? Please?'
'Of course,' Hermione smiled at him. He was talking rather fast but she was pretty sure she'd taken it all in.
Severus was just about to leave when Hermione stopped him. 'Wait, Severus!'
He spun around to look at her, slightly confused. 'Yes?'
'Does that mean you're related to Sirius?'
Severus grimaced, left the room, and closed the door behind him. He walked towards the library cursing under his breath, and swinging his cane at the paintings on the wall.
Back in the bedroom Hermione had burred her face in the pillows in order to stifle her laughter at the look on Severus' face.
Severus stormed into the library a moment later looking rather perturbed and still muttering under his breath.
Narcissa looked up at him from a book she was looking at and then stood up, 'Ready now?' She smiled at him as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
'Yes, I suppose. But only to the theatre, I am going to have to cancel dinner.'
'Fast food?' Narcissa asked hopefully.
'Fine,' Severus sighed.
'Great,' Narcissa said, smiling happily. 'I rented us a limo, but we're gong to have to apparate to it. I left it waiting in the parking lot at the mall. Like the new shoes?' She lifted up her dress a little to reveal silver high heal shoes with clear plastic straps.
'Lovely,' Severus said absentmindedly, glancing out into the hall.
Narcissa hit him with her handbag. 'You didn't even look.' She followed his glance out into the empty hallway. 'Incidentally, who was the girl in your bed? It was a girl wasn't it?'
Severus sighed, 'Yes Narcissa, it was a girl. I'm not gay.' Nope not gay, he though wryly, just a pedophile.
'Well who was it, someone I know?'
'No.'
'Another teacher?'
'No.'
'A muggle?'
'No.'
'A greasy haired potion master groupie?'
'I wish'
'Well, who then?' Narcissa searched his face. 'Not a student.'
Severus looked guiltily down at his feet.
'A student! Severus, that's repulsive!' Narcissa was looking at him in shock. 'What year is she in?'
'Sixth,' Severus answered reluctantly.
Narcissa shook her head at him. 'She is in Slytherin though, right?'
Severus looked down at his feet again.
'Ravenclaw?'
Severus shook his head.
'Hufflepuff?'
Severus shook his head again.
'Gryffindor! Severus, that's disgusting.'
He looked up at her reluctantly. 'Oh, it's worse. She's one of Harry Potter's best friends.'
Narcissa was dumbstruck. 'And she slept with you? Severus, you know it's against the law to drug innocent young girls and rape them don't you?'
Severus frowned. "I didn't rape her Narcissa. I'm in love with her.'
Narcissa raised her hands in the air. 'Enough of this! I need a drink!' She pulled out her wand. 'Come on, I have brandy waiting in the car.'
They were in the back of the limo that Narcissa had rented, and she had poured each of them a glass of brandy.
Severus leaned heavily back into his seat, his thoughts dwelling on Hermione.
Narcissa raised her glass in a toast and Severus matched it with a little clink of crystal. 'Here's to Sev's lady then.' Narcissa lowered her glass a little, faltering for a moment. 'What was her name?'
'Hermione Granger.' Severus answered, taking a sip of his brandy and practicing not making his little grimace.
'Granger.' Narcissa bit her lip, mulling the name over in her mind. 'Hermione Granger. She's the one that Draco's always going on about. He's always talking about how much he loathes her because she's a mudblood and a girl and she's always besting him at everything despite it. It's gotten to the point where I just ignore him, but I'm pretty sure that he fancies her.'
Severus felt a tinge of jealousy setting in and he took a gulp of his brandy, not even bothering to try hiding his grimace. 'Good to know.'
'Yes.' Narcissa smiled at his apparent jealousy.
'What's this play we're going to see again?' Severus asked, wanting to skip around the subject of Draco's feelings toward Hermione.
'It's called a circus of tales.'
'What is it about?'
Narcissa looked at the playbill skeptically, turning it over in her hands. 'Um, too tell you the truth I haven't the foggiest. There are some muggles attached to strings flying in the picture, and someone dressed as Neil Diamond.'
'Oh.'
The play was quite good, and Severus found himself enjoying it in spite of the fact that his thoughts were constantly dwelling on Hermione. During the intermission Severus and Narcissa went outside to get some fresh air. Narcissa was giggling wildly spinning around in circles under a darkening sky, her dress flaring out around her and her shoes making little taps on the pavement.
Severus was looking off into space, not really paying her much mind.
Narcissa stopped twirling. 'What is it Severus?'
'Nothing,' he muttered.
'Bugger nothing. What is it?'
Severus sighed. 'I was thinking about Hermione.'
Narcissa's eyes filled with hurt. 'You want to go home.'
'Yes,' he said, looking up at her. 'Well, no. Not exactly.'
'Which is it then? Yes or no?'
'No. I'm just worried that Hermione is furious with me, cursing under her breath and trying to figure out how best to… curse me, actually. Or worse, and she's crying to herself in a corner.' Severus sighed. 'Maybe I should just apparate over there and check on her.'
Narcissa brightened. 'I think I can help.' She opened her handbag and began digging around inside of it. After a moment she pulled out a faintly glowing pink crystal shard.
Severus' eyes widened as she pulled it out. 'You know that's illegal, right?'
'You have met my husband, right?'
'Just checking.'
She gave him a lofty smirk and handed him the crystal shard. 'Just think about the person that you want to watch.'
Severus grasped the crystal in his hand and thought about Hermione. He closed his eyes, picturing her in his mind: her long soft brown hair, her good-natured laugh, twinkling honey brown eyes, and a smile playing off her face.
Severus opened his eyes and gazed upon Hermione's upturned face filling the crystal. He gazed fondly into her eyes for a moment before willing the crystal to pull out from her a little. He saw that she was sitting on the floor in the library surrounded by little towers of books that she'd pulled off the shelves. She was wearing his black silk robe, her sweat soaked hair was tucked back behind her ear away from her face. She had an old leather bound tome in her lap but she wasn't reading it, she was looking upward. It took Severus a moment to figure out where she was looking, but once he did he nearly smacked himself in the forehead. It was the stained glass window that his mother had designed. It was a huge window, forty feet long and another ten feet wide, spanning the entire length of the wall and picturing the nine muses at council with their father, and sometimes lover, Zeus. She was smiling.
Severus smiled too and handed the crystal, which had begun to produce large amounts of heat, back to Narcissa who returned it to her purse. Severus smiled at her, thanking her without words, and headed back into the theatre.
Hermione had become bored with the library, would someone please inform the press. Yes, that's right, Hermione was bored of books.
In truth, Hermione herself didn't find this all that surprising. Severus' library didn't really have a whole lot of selection. She'd read the poetry for a while, but since she owned a copy of most of the books herself they didn't really hold her interest. She'd then moved on to the old tomes and ledgers, which she found very interesting, but she found her thoughts drifting back to Severus again and again.
Finally Hermione resolved to give up on the library and go take a bath. She was feeling quite sweaty and sticky after the morning's activities, and she might as well look her best when Severus got home if she had Narcissa Malfoy to contend with.
She sunk comfortably into the warm water in the tub, her head resting on a pillow of bubbles, and thought that maybe when she was finished she'd plan a little carpet picnic in the foyer in front of the fireplace.
Severus and Narcissa giggled their way out of the theatre leaning on Sev's cane for support, and drawing a large amount of attention to themselves, all but crawling back into their black limousine. Once they'd shut the door the both managed to flop into their seats without laughing themselves to death.
Narcissa managed to stop laughing once she looked at her watch. 'Oh dear, ten thirty already. I guess I'm going to have to let you cancel on dinner after all.'
Severus raised an eyebrow at her.
'Lucius is out having drinks with the minister, I think he's trying to bribe him into loosening the restrictions on class five non-tradable substances for wizards who have long standing relationship to the ministry or some such nonsense. Anyway, he thinks I'm at my sister Andromeda's for tea, but I can't justify being over there this late. Lucius can't stand Andromeda, but she's still my family so he let's me go anyway, she married a muggle and they have an auror for a daughter so…'
'Sure,' Severus said. 'Nymphadora. She's a nice girl, though.'
Narcissa looked at him skeptically. 'How do you know Nymphadora?'
'Oh, um,' Severus faltered. He was just too sleepy to think up a good alibi at the moment. 'I don't quite remember where I met her, probably at the school.'
Narcissa frowned at him, 'Oh.'
'Yeah, well, I'd better get going, Severus said, digging his wand out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
'Yes yes, by all means. Go shag your student.'
With a pop he arrived back in his bedroom, his expression somewhere between a frown and a smile. Hermione wasn't in the room though; so he went out into the hallway and nearly stumbled over a pink candle right in the middle of the floor.
Severus frowned at the candle malevolently until he saw a piece of his stationary folded under its base. He lifted the piece of paper, read it, and smiled. He dashed back into his room and found the package he'd hidden in his closet before following a trail of tastelessly pink candles down to the foyer.
Hermione had conjured up quite an ambiance. More pink candles floated all around the room and she'd set up a little nest in the middle of the floor with a very soft pink blanket and piles of pink red and white pillows. Hermione herself sat in the midst of this wearing a clinging white silk nightgown and picking strawberry's off of a silver platter, which also held champagne, glasses, chocolate, and a bunch of grapes.
Hermione looked up at him, smiling confidently, and he fell down beside her on the pillows.
Hermione leaned over him, feeding him a strawberry, and gazing lovingly into his eyes. 'How was the show?'
Severus swallowed his bite of strawberry, licking his lips contentedly. 'Very funny.'
'Really? What was it about?'
Severus smirked. 'There was a circus employee who was transfigured into a dog by a cursed book that tried to eat him and two old fat ladies. Then the dog was trying to have offspring but the biohazard faeries kept getting it wrong, so he had a chair and a grocery cart and an apple. Then Neil Diamond came and sang the princess asleep and father time came and killed him.' Severus was smiling, on the verge of breaking into giggles again.
Hermione shook her head disbelievingly at him. 'Well it's about time isn't it? I take it you enjoyed yourself.'
Severus' smile fell. 'It was pure agony, cause I wanted to be with you.'
Hermione smiled at the sincereness in his voice, and kissed him gently on the bridge of his nose. 'I missed you too,' she sighed. 'I was trying to read, but I couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking about you.'
'Well that's too bad,' Severus said, pulling the package out of his pocket. 'Because I have a surprise,' he finished, handing her the package.
Hermione took it, looking up into his eyes questioningly.
'Open it!'
She looked at the box skeptically. It was long and thin, wrapped in green paper with silver ribbon. 'How very Slytherin of you,' she said and unwrapped it. Hermione lifted the lid off the box and pulled out a very familiar looking key. Trying to look at it as though she was examining it for the first time she read the inscription. 'Amor Vincit Omnia.'
'It's Latin, it means love conquers all.' Severus took her hands into his and studied the key himself, but in a way he wasn't really looking at it at all.
'I want you to understand what this key means before I tell you what it's for.' Severus said, pulling her against his chest. 'And in order for that to happen I'll have to tell you more about myself than I think I've ever told anyone else in my whole life.'
There was great sadness in his voice, and Hermione held him close as he spoke, telling her the story of his child hood and what made him the way that he is.
'I already told you that I hated my father, but I never told you why.' He paused for a moment, stringing his words together. 'My mother was the most beautiful, the most brave, and the most compassionate woman that I've ever encountered; save perhaps you, my love. I loved my mother more than anything, and he killed her.
'My father was well into the dark arts, but more than that, he didn't desire power or greatness or knowledge that wasn't why he studied the dark arts, he was just plain evil. He would beat my mother or humiliate her to the most extreme degree imaginable.
'My mother was the victim of an arranged marriage, but even then my grandfather knew that my father was insane. He thought that a woman could help curb that insanity and manipulate it so that it could be used to his advantage, but my grandfather was wrong. My mother's presence only seemed to make his condition worse. He never loved her, he only used her, and once I was born and old enough to care for myself he no longer had any use for her.'
Severus seemed near to tears, and he clutched desperately to Hermione.
'My father locked my mother in her rooms when I was seven and let her slowly die. I snick food to her, and water, and I would talk to her through the door when my father was away or asleep. But my mother died of a broken heart. She was a broken woman by then. She tried so hard to change him, to leave him, to love him, but it didn't change a thing. He killed her slowly and painfully without even feeling the tiniest hint of remorse.'
Severus was now crying into Hermione's arms, and she felt so helpless to help him. She felt so sad for him just a scared child, and for his mother whom he so deeply loved, and such deep penetrating hatred for any man who could do such a thing.
Severus looked up at her with tears running down his face and not the slightest tinge of embarrassment. 'I will never do anything like that to you ever, nor will I let anyone else harm a hair on your head. I will never stop loving you.' He held her to him wanting to repeat it over and over again. 'That's what the key means. The key to my mother's rooms, and the key to my heart. I love you Hermione, and love can conquer anything because it's greater than everything, even you and me. My love for you could crumble whole mountains and shift entire seas, defy heaven and hell, and burn the most powerful of demons to cinders. My love for you Hermione, could cross time itself.'
He kissed her softly, and held her to him, never wanting to let go. He fell asleep with tears drying on his cheeks and his entire world wrapped in his arms.
A.N: Geez, after an ending to a chapter like that I hate putting a note down here at all, but I have a few things to mention. I'll be brief though, it's 4:19 AM and I'm feeling a little sleep deprived.
I want to thank everyone who reviewed last chapter and remind them that if the want a response via e-mail I'd be more than happy to write them a two page note but they need to tell me that they want one and leave their e-mail address (that goes double for you Kouga and Amanda) I'm not a mind reader folks. I don't really want to put long review responses at the end of my chapters anymore, it's just gotten to be too much. If you're uncomfortable with leaving your e-mail and really want I response I can make some exceptions, otherwise I'm just going to kindly thank everyone by pen name.
Also, I'd like to remind you about the major brownie points for pretty pics, especially for that stained glass window, which I'm tempted to draw myself despite the early hour.
Amara Tsu: No review again? That makes me sad, you're practically my I.R.
Oh, and the title is the name of a song from Labyrinth. The one at the masquerade ball after Sarah eats the peach. And, A Circus of Tales is a play that I saw at the wonderful Theatre De Le June Lune, and it is actually about a cursed dog ex-circus employee who seeks help producing offspring from the biohazard faeries, at least in part.
Anyway, boy am I long winded today, I guess that's all.
Ly
Thanks: Sarahamanda, Anarane Anwamane, Irina Derevko, Gaisha, Drunken Landlord, norry, Tigerchild, TheRealiz, Kouga'seagleforever, Aindel S. Druida, KeithUrbanFan, obsessed-w-snape, Anna Nanna, and momsangel.
Also to hi: I do try to post weekly, but when I don't I usually post more than once the next week and I like to think that it evens out.