Disclaimer: J.K.ROWLING aight?? Not me...

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed! Am really happy about it and it makes me all smug..sorry about the late entry guys.. been busy BUT I will never forget this story.. hehe.. thanks again!!!

Chapter 7: The Aftermath

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It was after dinner at Grimmauld Place and everybody were trying to relax. In the library, Remus was sitting on a cushy couch with his leg hanging by the side as he leaned on the arm, reading a book. Sirius was a few feet beside him, playing Wizards Chess with Ron. The two of them were unbeatable. True, Ron was great at strategies but nobody realized that Sirius was on his element also. Harry and Ginny were on the couch in front of the fireplace, holding hands and talking in whispers. Hermione was sitting by the windowsill, watching the stars in the sky. She missed the rainy nights. She missed those nights which she had shared with Severus. Those raindrops on the windowsill...

There was a loud stumble and crash coming from the front door, waking Mrs. Black portrait up and her 'nice vocabulary of words' went through the room before it ended with an abrupt choked. Hermione smiled to herself. She had charmed a Strangling Spell on the portrait that will activate itself five seconds after Mrs. Black started shouting. Sirius had never been so happy in his life. He even cried, thanking Hermione for her intellect knowledge that saved his life.

"Ah, Remus... she is still wearing those boots eh?" Sirius said, still concentrating on his chess. Remus chuckled.

"I really love those boots. So don't you dare comment anything about it."

"Ah, how romantic. A Werewolf in love with a clumsy woman wearing a pair of leather boots."

"If you put it as ' A Werewolf in love with a clumsy woman wearing ONLY a pair of leather boots' that is." Remus said, smirking.

"Remus! That is the only mental image I would never want to know!" Sirius paused, looked up towards Remus and smirked, "Actually, that mental image is not that bad... Indeed, not at all that bad... If only she wasn't my cousin, I would have grabbed on to her and never let go..." Sirius gave a low growl. Remus, still reading his book, took off his left shoe and threw it at Sirius. It landed on his back and he gave a yelp.

"What was that about?" Sirius said, rubbing the back of his head and picked up the shoe.

"Nothing... Now, be a good boy and fetch me my shoe back." Remus said, handing out his left hand towards Sirius.

"What do you think I am? A dog?"

With that, Remus raised an eyebrow at Sirius, a questioning look on his face. Sirius gave a blank expression and then smugged.

"Literally, I am, aren't I?"

"Obviously..."

"Now you sound like Snape..."

Sirius threw the shoe on Remus's lap before getting back to his chess, still waiting for Rons' next move. Exactly a few seconds later, the library door opened up and a thud was heard.

"Ow..."

Everybody looked up when they heard the groan but didn't see anybody. It was when they all looked down did they see Tonks sprawled on her front, rubbing her nose. She quickly shook her head and got up to straighten herself and closed the door behind her. She then smile wide at the audience and giggled.

"Wotcher, Guys!"

A wave of greetings went through the library and Tonks smiled again. She was wearing her tight fitting, bright purple tank top of the Weird Sisters, dark blue, baggy jeans that was tucked into her brown leather boots and her robes were open. She had a couple of colorful necklaces and chokers on her neck and a few colorful bands on her wrist. What was different about her was that her hair wasn't in her natural bright bubblegum pink color. Instead, it was a little lanky and curls at the bottom and black. All black.

Remus smiled from where he was and motioned for her to him. She winked and walked over to Remus and sat on his lap.

"Oooh, my favorite place and position. On your lap, Warm and Squishy..." Tonks said, wriggling on Remus's lap, causing Remus to stifle back a moan. Sirius winced, so did Ron and glared at the both of them.

"If you don't stop that, I'll hex you...!" Sirius said, pointing to his wand. Ron nodded in agreement. "The last thing we need to know is how ' warm and squishy ' Remus is..." Sirius turned to the couch where Harry and Ginny was at, snogging, and scowled "And you two, better stop being stuck on each others faces or I'll transfigure you both into tiny little squids and throw you into Hogwarts Lake... There you can get stuck to anything and anyone without anybody complaining except the Merpeople."

At that point, Harry and Ginny quickly separated and sat by the either end of the couch. Ron, Remus and Tonks started to laugh out loud while Hermione merely smiled.

"Somebody informed Dumbledore to replace Snape with Sirius. I have the feeling he will fit well." Remus said, chuckling a little.

"The only thing he is lacking is the ducking of points." Ron said. He imitated Snapes' drawl, "Sirius, try saying, "Twenty points from Gryffindor for batting eyelashes at the door." He said, causing the rest of them to laugh. Remus finally noticed Tonks hair and frowned.

"What's with the hair??" Tonks looked startled and put her hands on her hair.

"What's' with it?"

"It's Black..." Tonks smirked.

"Well yeah, I tried to have a change of hairstyle. You like it??" she asked, smirking.

"I really do. You look like a doll, with black hair and heart shaped face." Remus said, nuzzling her cheeks.

"No, you don't. You look like Sirius though. Are you trying to imitate him?" Ron asked.

"Am not..." Tonks said, pouting.

"Thank Merlin." Sirius said.

"Am imitating Severus instead. I'm starting to fall in love with him." Tonks said, smiling. With that, Sirius and Remus sputtered out, choking, at her, wide eyed in surprised. Ron, Harry and Ginny were confused while Hermione just conked her head sideways, wide mouthed. Tonks saw their reaction and laughed out.

"I'm just kidding!! Gosh, you guys really need some fresh air. I had this hairstyle because there was a funeral for a fellow Auror who died being hit and run by a broomstick and I thought it wouldn't be appropriate to attend it in Neon Pink hair." She said.

"And to attend a funeral wearing a bright purple shirt with the Weird Sisters in front of it is appropriate?" Sirius asked, shaking his head. "And why Neon Pink? What did you do before going to the funeral?"

Both Remus and Tonks blushed and started squirming in their seat.

"Well, erm... you wouldn't want to know." Tonks said, and her hair turned pink again.

"Yeah, Sirius..." Remus said.

Sirius frowned at them but when he saw their faces, he gave a groan and shook his head.

"Oh man, why did I agree on accepting your relationship??"

"Because you are a darling, Sirius..." Tonks said and Remus chuckled in response. The whole room went quiet for a while when they suddenly heard footsteps approaching the library. Everybody turned to see who it was, on alert. It was when the door creaked open slowly and a mass of black hair on a pale faced was revealed did they went back to what they were doing before... but this time they acknowledged their guest first. Hermione felt a smile tugged on her face as she saw Severus's face behind the door, looking weary.

"Severus! How nice to see you up and around..." Remus said, a nod of the head indicating his welcome to the arrival. Severus frowned a little, then his face softened a bit and he let a faint smile appear on his face, nodded back to Remus.

"Well, are you going to stand there all day? Come on in!" Sirius said, waving his hand at Severus. Severus hesitated for a while, seeing that everybody had their eyes on him as if he was going to perform the cha-cha for them, before he stepped into the room. It was when he heard everyone gasped did he felt he did the wrong thing.

The reason everybody gasped was that Severus was not donned in his usual black attire. In fact he had color on him! He had a chocolate brown woolen sweater on him, with dark gray pants and he was barefooted and the fire from the fireplace illuminated his lean body well. It was the first time everybody, except for Hermione of course, had seen color on Severus Snape.

"Is it me, or am I seeing a Severus Snape, also known as Snivellus to me, the ex-potion Master and Death Eater who once worked for Lord Voldermort, wearing a brown sweater and gray pants?" Sirius asked, wide eyed.

"Its You... Because I see a hunk..." Tonks said. Remus glared at her, before she added "...I'm sitting on and Severus is at the door wearing brown woolen sweater, dark gray pants and he is barefooted."

"That is what I just said!"

"You missed out the barefooted part." Tonks said, smiling. Sirius shook his head before turning to Severus again.

"I remember that sweater. It was a Christmas gift from Joanna Buquet during my fifth year. I didn't realize I still had it." Sirius said, rubbing his chin.

"I'm sorry, do you want it back? I could change into something else..." Snape said, smugly. Sirius chuckled.

"No, No it's good. You wear it. Its looks better on you though... I was never interested in sweaters or..." Sirius stopped halfway and turned to look at Severus, wide eyed. "..What did you say to me???"

"Do you want it back?"

"No, no... Before that..."

"I'm sorry??" Sirius went wide eyed.

"Did you just apologize to me??"

The rest nodded silently but Sirius wanted Snape to confirm it for him.

"Ye - Yes... I did... Why?" Severus asked, confused. Sirius grabbed his chest and started heaving and panting hard. Remus pulled Tonks away from his lap and knelt down beside Sirius and rubbed on his back, comforting him with soothing words, while Ron and Harry merely ran in front of him and decided to calm him down from afar.

"What's wrong??" Snape asked, bewildered.

"Nothing, it's just that hearing you apologize its like waiting for the Blue Moon. You had never apologized to anyone before..." Remus said, still patting on Sirius back, smiling at Snape.

"Blimey, was I really that bad?" Snape asked, wide eyed.

"Yes..." everybody said. Snape nodded slowly and turned to look at Hermione. She smiled and shook her head. When Sirius finally calmed down, Remus stood up to talk to Snape.

"So, Severus. Why are you down here anyways? You are supposed to be resting..."

"Well... I was... - erm... hungry..." Snape said, looking down and taking sudden interest in his big toe. Remus smile and shook his head.

"Hungry? But we just had Dinner!" Ron said.

"Not all of us had the change to eat dinner... You grabbed everything that was on the table before we even get to finish a single pea." Harry said, shaking his head. "And besides, Snape needs to recover from his injury, so of course he needs to eat more than you."

"That is right. Well, let me see if Molly did leave a few tidbits we could munch on." Remus said, and led on towards the kitchen.

"I'm following! Wotcher, guys!" Tonks said, and sashayed her way, following Remus. Ron grabbed Sirius up and walked out of the room, Harry and Ginny soon followed. Snape shook his head before turning to Hermione. She was still hugging on her knees, looking out of the window. Snape walked towards her.

"Aren't you joining us?" Hermione looked up at Snape and smiled. She took Snapes' right hand into hers and rubbed it.

"No, why don't you go on. You definitely need some food... " Hermione said and patted his hand. Snape felt the warmth in his hands when she touched him and he relaxed a little.

"Well, see... that's the thing. I won't be able to get any without being with you..." Snape muttered, "I kind of get the jitters..." Hermione felt her heart tighten a little when she saw Snapes' disturbed expression. She smiled a little wider.

"Okay then... come on!"

Hermione stood up and grabbed both Snapes' hands into hers, leading him towards the kitchen while facing him. Snape felt awkward at first. He didn't remember that girl too much but he felt that it was the right thing to do. He saw her gave him a warm smile and he returned it. He felt safe and happy... more relax when he is with her. When they arrived in the kitchen, the table was laden with plates and snacks (Thank Merlin for Molly! Yay!) And everybody was sitting at the table, passing bits all around. Hermione took a seat and Severus sat next to her, still holding hands. Remus passed two bottles of Butterbeer to both Hermione and Severus while Sirius passed a few scones and cakes to them. They chatted and clinked their butterbeers together, laughing and reveling along, going through the times they had, trying to help a little with Snapes' memory.

Suddenly, he felt his head throbbed dangerously painful. Snape bent over double, clutching his head and started hissing loudly. The rest of them noticed this and got up to find out what was happening. Hermione knelt down beside him, wide eyed with terror as Snape started to rock back and forth, groaning, still clutching his head.

"Severus!! What's wrong!! Talk to me please!!" Hermione cried out, tears starting to form on her eyes.

Snape groaned louder this time and slide down his chair. He knelt down and bent over again. "It's too painful! Somebody do something!! Help me!! My head... It's...- Its Burning!!" He thought, and fell back on the floor, hands clutching on his hair as his face contorted in pain. He arched his back as he felt the pain seared through his spine and he roared out in pain. As soon as it came, it left just the same. Snape fell limply backwards, motionless. Hermione screamed and shook him, trying to wake him up. Remus quickly took out his wand and chanted "Ennervate" but Snape still did not move.

"He fainted. Whatever it is that caused him to be in pain just now, must have drained out his energy. We must make him stay in bed at the moment. He is too weak right now..." Remus said. "Hermione, can you brew some Healing potions for him when he wakes up?"

Hermione was breathing in deep breaths and nodded, still staring at the motionless Snape.

"Good then, we should move him up to the room now." Remus said and cast a spell on Snape. His body levitated for a few feet, Hermione still staring at him, and flew out of the kitchen and up the stairs. After a few seconds, Hermione fell backwards. She fainted, too.

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