AN: I don´t own Harry Potter and don´t make any profit.
To Comic Critic, thanks for your two lovely reviews, especially the one on "Dungeon bat". You really made my day.
After a week of writing, Hermione came home from an afternoon visit at the Burrow on a Friday evening, to a lovely smelling home.
"Oh what´s that lovely smell," she asked from the living room, putting her bag down.
"I´m making dinner!" came Severus voice from the kitchen.
"So what are we having?" Hermione was leaning in the doorframe smiling at him.
"I´m making Filet Mignon, jacket potatoes and some vegetables and we´ll have Tiramisu for dessert." He winked at her.
"Yumm," Hermione quickly pecked him on the cheek.
"So how was your day, Sev?"
"Fine actually, they asked us to brew a healing potion and we were allowed to leave, as soon as we were able to make a perfect patch of the inquired potion," he chuckled.
"So when were you back home?" She laughed. "
An hour later, so it was 9 o´clock in the morning by then." He grinned.
"I´m nearly done, can you please set the table."
After the table was set, Severus looked at it squinting and mumbled, "Something is still missing." He opened the window, leaned over the sill outside and came back in holding a pink rose. He filled a small vase with water, popped the rose in and put it on the table.
"There. Done. Enjoy your dinner." He smiled.
Aww he is so sweet!
"What did you do with the rest of your day?" Hermione wondered.
"I actually had a lazy day. I went to Diagon Alley, bought some books at Flourish and Blotts had an ice-cream, did some grocery shopping, obviously, and then I went to the National Gallery. Oh and I brought you something, he reached into his shirt pocket and handed her a fridge magnet, with her favourite painting on it.
"Thanks, Sev," she smiled.
"I thought buying fridge magnets and collecting them is one of those nice little things life has to offer," Severus replied. She smiled warmly at him, reached over the table and caressed his cheek with her hand, making him sigh contently.
"Can we talk about the evening about the Malfoy´s. I was pondering over it, the whole last week," she asked with a serious expression on her face. He slowly nodded, although he wanted to shake his head and tell her to keep it a light conversation.
"These other people attending dinner, how dangerous are they? They are obviously very intelligent I could tell by their conversations, know their way around not only in the wizarding world, but also in the muggle society, the have money and they didn´t get their hands dirty. I wonder if Voldemort was their puppet? And I also ask myself what their intentions are?" Hermione was lost in her thoughts with furrowed brow.
"Wow Hermione you´re leaving me speechless. I hardly know anybody who´s thoughts about them are as spot on as yours are. I´m not sure what to answer you. I think these people can be very dangerous in a war, or if you don´t fit in their concept, but they would never ever get their hands dirty. They fork out some money to keep the lesser intelligent, for example the death eaters, happy. Keep them happy, so they don´t actually question what they are doing. Let them have enough access to alcohol and women, that will do the trick. I´m not sure how much Voldemort was their puppet. I think he rose by himself, but later on they had their hands in it. I´m just guessing here. Their intention is having power. It´s always been power, and it always will be power, even if there will be another puppet or other puppet masters. And this doesn´t only apply for the wizarding world, but to the whole muggle world as well." He sighed.
"Um … well I think I´ve some more pondering to do, over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for sharing your insights with me." Hermione gave him a small smile.
"Any time," he replied.
"Thanks again for the nice magnet," she brushed over the magnet with her fingers. He roared with laughter.
"Have you always as huge mental leaps as this one?"
"Sometimes," she chuckled and shrugged her shoulders.
"I really like the wine. I didn´t think I would enjoy red wine as much. But this one is delicious. And the food too. Thanks for cooking!" she smiled at him warmly.
When they had finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen they retreated to the living room with the rest of the wine and sat next to each other on the settee, reading. Severus glanced up from his book every so often his eyes resting on Hermione.
"What?" she looked up, when she felt his gaze on her.
"You look beautiful tonight, my little bookworm," Severus mumbled and scooted closer. He slowly moved his face closer to hers and his lips found hers. His gentle Exploring, made her sigh. But she wriggled in her seat and broke apart.
"Sorry, but the book is really gripping. Do you mind?" She asked and her eyes were already back on the book. Severus chuckled, "You are indeed a bookworm, I don´t know who would favour reading over kissing."
Her eyes still on the book, she reached out and gently patted his cheek, mumbling, "Sorry." Severus turned his head to place a kiss on her palm, smiled and started reading again.
After about two hours, Hermione closed her book, looked at Severus saying, "I real love living with you. It´s so relaxed and unexcitedly. Thanks!" She got up and kissed him good night.
A couple of minutes later he was pacing back and forth in the living room and pondering over what he was about to do, Severus took all the courage he could muster and went upstairs. He knocked on her door.
"Come in," she replied to his knock. Hermione was sitting at her desk going through some of her notes.
"Does your offer from last week still stand?" he asked. She looked at him blushing and nodded, so he stepped inside and silently closed the door behind him.
Hermione woke up rested the next morning, after a good night sleep. No nightmares, no tossing and turning. She felt save lying close to the man she loved. She looked at Severus, his chest rising and falling with each breath he took. With her finger she traced one of his many scars on his chest, placed a soft kiss there and got up.
Hermione went downstairs, prepared breakfast and started reading the Prophet, that just arrived by owl, while sipping her tea. That paper gets stupider by the day. Who is interested in Kingsley´s love life? Well I am, actually. But that´s not the point. I want to read about politics and what´s going on in the Wizarding world around the globe and not if Minerva had an affair with Dumbledore or if she´s is a lesbian. That´s just ridiculous!
Severus was standing in the doorframe to the kitchen, smiling at the witch in front of him, who obviously got agitated over something she read on that bloody paper. "Good morning, Hermione! I wondered where my T-shirt disappeared to!"
"She looked at Severus standing in the door bare-chested, wearing just pyjama bottoms and then looked down on herself.
"Oh! I don´t recall putting it on. I guess I must have been cold in the middle of the night. Do you want it back now?"
"As tempting as this is, please keep it for now," he said with a mischievous grin on his face. He snatched some toast with marmalade of her plate and sat down, with one foot on the chair, his chin resting on his knee, making him look really young.
"Hey make your own breakfast," she scolded teasingly.
"So I guess the puppet masters also run the Daily Prophet?" she said.
"Clever girl. So what are your plans for today?"
"I have to revise the last chapters I have written. I have about written half the book, but hate revising, it´s just such a hassle. Writing is just so much easier." She sighed.
" So your day is going to be just as exciting as mine, I´ve got to do some studying. I feel like a bloody student again," he huffed.
"You are a bloody student," she teased.
"Oh, shut it." He got up and tidied away the breakfast things, before he made his way up to his bed room, to start his day of studying, shortly followed by Hermione who muttered under her breath how she was not born to revise and how this was all stupid, making Severus walking in front of her grin.
It was about two hours later, when the doorbell pulled Hermione out of her concentration.
"Severus can you get that, please? I´m in the middle of…" She was lost in her work again, when she suddenly heard loud voices from downstairs and Severus hollering annoyed "It´s for you Hermione," followed by thundering footsteps up the stairs and the slamming of his bedroom door. What was that about?
Hermione sighed and made her way downstairs. She hated when she was interrupted doing work she didn´t like doing, because it was difficult getting herself back to work afterwards. When she opened the door to the living room she found a nervous looking Ron pacing.
"Hello Ronald," she said, making him jump, since he hadn´t noticed her entering the room.
"Hello Hermione," Ron replied, now looking even more nervous, sensing Hermione´s tone and her addressing him as ´Ronald´.
"What do you want here?" Hermione glared at him.
"I just came to say I´m sorry," Ron mumbled staring at his shoes.
"Sorry for what, Ronald?" Hermione challenged him.
Ron looked at her, " I´m sorry that I said such horrible things to you and your boyfriend and I´m also sorry that I wasn´t there for you, when you actually needed me." Ron´s voice sounded clear and he didn´t stutter once, coming out with his apology.
"Did you memorise that? Did somebody actually force you to apologise to me?" Hermione demanded.
"Please don´t make it so hard for me. It´s not easy anyway," Ron pleaded. Hermione´s eyes softened a bit, but she wasn´t ready to give in yet.
"Well you were horrible to me Ron. I thought we are friends?"
"I know Hermione and I´m really sorry for what I did. And yes I memorised my apology, but that doesn´t mean that I didn´t mean every word I just said and no, nobody forced me to apologise. I don´t know why I behaved like that, I guess it was a hard year for me…"
"That´s just a bad excuse. It was hard for all of us," Hermione commented.
"Okay I´m not going to make a fool of myself. If you can´t except my apology, I guess I´m going," Ron turned to the door, about to leave, when Hermione caught his wrist.
"Please stay Ron. I accept your apology," Hermione gave him a small smile. Ron sighed in relief and pulled her in a tight hug, mumbling "I´m really sorry I hurt you, Hermione," in her ear.
"I´ve got a peace offering for you," and he pulled a Honeyduke´s bag out under his cloak and handed it to her. Hermione laughed loudly, making Rom smile warmly.
"I remembered how I always gave you sweets for Christmas and you always seem to like them, because you weren´t allowed many sweets at home. I didn´t have much money back then, so sweets were the only thing I could afford," he looked at her, a smile playing around his lips.
"To be honest, your Christmas presents were always my favourite ones, and I normally had eaten everything by around Boxing Day. But looking at the size of this bag, it will take me a bit longer to finish it. Thanks Ron," she quickly kissed him on the cheek. Ron placed his fingertips to the spot on his cheek Hermione just kissed, a sad look crossed his face and he turned away, walked to the window and stared outside.
"I´m sorry Ron, I didn´t want to make you uncomfortable." Hermione said, walking over to him resting a hand on his shoulder.
Ron turned to her a sad smile on his face, "You didn´t make me uncomfortable. I´m just a bit sad, it didn´t work out with the two of us. I feel a bit left out. There only seem to be couples around me, Harry and Ginny, George and Angelina, Bill and Fleur, you and Snape, Neville and Hannah. There seems to be nobody for me." Ron sighed.
"Ron listen to me. You are still young. Go out and enjoy life. But don´t exaggerate. I´m sure you will find some lovely girl and you will be happy, some day. Just give it some time."
"I guess so. I think I will leave now. Oh before I forget I also have a peace offering for Snape, sorry, I mean Professor Snape," he said really quietly, so Hermione actually had problems understanding him and he pulled a bottle of Odgen´s out of his cloak and put it on the coffee-table.
"Ron before you leave I´ve got a favour to ask you and hope you will help me?"
"What is it?"
"Well I started writing a book about the war and our Horcrux hunt."
Ron´s face lit up, "That´s brilliant Hermione. I´m proud of you."
"Thanks Ron, you saying that actually means a lot to me. I need you to look through one of the chapters, I don´t want to do you any injustice."
"I guess it´s about me abandoning you …"
"… and coming back and destroying the Horcrux, which was partly the reason you left in the first place," she smiled warmly at him and handed him a few pages.
"I´ll send it to you as soon as I´ve looked through it. Might take a couple of days though."
"That´s fine. Ron, don´t you want to give your peace offering to Severus yourself?"
"I don´t know," he looked insecure.
"I think he would appreciate that and you are both an important part of my life, so you have to get along at some point."
"I´m only doing that for you," Ron growled. Hermione went upstairs and knocked at Severus door. When he came to open it, she pushed him back inside and closed the door behind her.
"Listen to me Severus, I know you don´t really like Ron. But he is my friend and he apologised for his behaviour. And he wants to apologise to you too. So please come downstairs and be nice."
"I`m always nice."
She snorted, "Yes right. Come on now."
When they came down, Ron was holding the bottle he brought so tightly, his knuckles were all white.
"Pr… Professor Snape Sir, I´m really s…sorry, what I said to you the other day. I´m sorry I hurt you and Hermione´s feelings. Please … um … take this as a peace offering," Ron said handing Severus the bottle. Severus took the bottle and Hermione realised that this apology Ron hadn´t memorised and was kind of relieved about it. "
Apology accepted Mister Weasley," Severus said somewhat stiff, "and please don´t call me Professor, I am not your professor anymore. Should we open the bottle and toast to our new found ceasefire?"
"Sorry I´m not to be trusted with alcohol at the moment. I had a rough year. I was on the edge of a great fall. I managed to not fall in the end, but swore to myself no alcohol for the next three years."
Severus who was mildly impressed by the red-head, asked "So should we toast with some tea than?"
Ron chuckled, "Tea would be lovely, thanks."
They were sitting together drinking tea a bit uncomfortably and trying to avoid difficult topics, when suddenly a Patronus in the form of a wolf came soaring into the room speaking with Andromeda´s voice, "Hermione and Severus I really need your help. Can I leave Teddy with you, for a couple of hours? A friend of mine fell ill and I have to tend to her."
Hermione and Severus exchanged a quick look.
"It´s actually a bit difficult, I have a fellow student coming over, so we can study together."
"I take him, that´s no problem." Hermione conjured her Lion Patronus and gave it a message for Andromeda.
"So I think it´s time to leave," Ron said getting up.
"I hope to see you again soon Hermione," Ron hugged Hermione tightly.
"Bye Ron, and thanks for the sweets again."
Ron turned to Severus and said a bit stiffly, " Good-bye, Sir!"
"Good-bye Mister Weasley," Severus replied just as stiffly.
Hermione spent the afternoon with Teddy going for a walk and playing with him in her room. She was about to make something to eat for the little guy, when Severus and his fellow student came downto the kitchen.
"So I´ll make us some tea and maybe I´ll find something to eat too," she heard Severus say. And he came into the kitchen followed by none other than Draco. Hermione gaped at him, but quickly said, "Hello Draco! How are you?"
"I´m fine … oh, and who are you?" he asked looking at Teddy, who instantly stretched his arms out and wriggled in Hermione´s arms to get closer to Draco.
"This is Teddy!"
"He is adorable!" and with that Draco took him out of Hermione´s arms. Teddy´s hair was now as blonde as Draco´s and he had also copied his haircut, making Severus and Hermione laugh.
"He likes you," Severus said, stating the obvious.
"I am back," they heard a sudden voice from the living room. Hermione and Severus exchanged a quick look and Severus gestured to Hermione to stay calm, all unnoticed by Draco, who was occupied with pulling silly faces to Teddy, who erupted in a fit of giggles. When Andromeda came into the kitchen, she had a moment to take in the whole scene before Draco looked up, his gaze falling on his aunt, he went pale, pushed a protesting Teddy back into Hermione´s arms and ran from the kitchen. Andromeda quickly went after him and Hermione with Teddy on her arm and Severus went into the living room. After a couple of moments Andromeda came back pushing Draco in front of him.
"Why did you run away, Draco?" Andromeda demanded.
"Why did I ran away? Well let me think, maybe because I thought you would hate me, with all of my history, holding your grandson. Maybe because I just realised I was holding an orphan, orphaned by an organisation I belonged to once, and I now feel really ashamed about. Maybe because I was facing an aunt I actually can´t recall ever meeting, who I only heard stories about, which I really don´t want to retell here, but she looks like my other aunt, who was a vile woman, that actually crucioed me once," Draco stopped talking, standing with hanging shoulders in the middle of the room, he was bringing one of his hands up to his eyes and covered them. Severus slowly approached Draco and gently took him in his arms, like a father would do with his son being in distress. Hermione and Andromeda witnessed the tension leaving Draco´s body and they could hear him starting to sob, which made them retreat to the kitchen to make something to eat for all of them and to give Draco some privacy. They made sandwiches and a salad in silence and after a couple of minutes, Hermione peeked inside the living room, to see Severus and Draco on the settee talking quietly to each other. Telling Andromeda it would be safe to go in again, they took the prepared dinner and brought it to the living room.
"Draco, can I say something?" Andromeda asked. Draco gave her a shy smile and nodded.
"I hope we can be friends," she offered him her hand. Draco ignored her hand got up and pulled her into a hug and started crying again.
"Poor boy, what has this vile man and his followers done to you … and your family. Shh, Draco!" Andromeda whispered rubbing small circles on his back, trying to sooth him.
After Draco calmed down, Severus conjured four glasses and poured them all some of the firewhisky Ron brought earlier.
They started eating their dinner and there was couple of minutes of silence, when Draco suddenly asked Severus, "Severus can I maybe stay here tonight? Father said if I won´t work for him at Malfoy Industries and stop my training as a healer I have to move out within a month and his going to disinherit me. Well there are still two weeks left, but I don´t see the reason for staying any longer."
Severus nodded, "You can stay and have my bed, I´m sure Hermione would love to have me in her bed tonight."
He winked at Hermione, prompting her to say, "You are awfully sure of yourself, dungeon bat."
"I think I´ll be sick if I´ve to listen to you two, flirting some more," Draco said with a disgusted look on his face.
Andromeda laughed, "If you are looking for a place to stay after tonight, we would be delighted if you would move in with us. The house is awfully big for just Teddy and me. And I´m a bit lonely sometimes and lacking adult conversations. And Teddy seems to like you."
She laughed, pointing at Teddy, who was now standing on wobbly legs in front of Draco, his arms outstretched towards Draco, his hair still blond.
"Aaaww! Come here. You are so cute!" Draco cooed and lifted Teddy on to his lap, who instantly wrapped his chubby arms around Draco´s neck and snuggled to his chest.
Draco quickly wiped away a tear, saying, "I would love to stay with you two."
AN: I hope you enjoyed! So the big finale is coming up. Might take a couple of days though, because I haven´t finished it yet. So please while you are waiting review this chapter!