Chapter 16 - The Marauders, Part I
"The…marauders…" Hermione's face showed every inch of the shock Severus was expecting at his declaration that he wanted to save the group of boys turned men that had tormented him mercilessly during his school years.
"Severus, you know there's nothing we can do about Lily and James. It's too far back, and it was the protection from her sacrifice that allowed Harry to survive Voldemort's attack in the first place…" she trailed off, trying to keep her mind focused on the logic of her argument and hoping it would hide the slight twinge of jealous worry in her stomach at the idea of Severus wanting to save his childhood love.
Severus' voice started out hard, almost pained, "I agree that those two are beyond our help. Her sacrifice in his blood was something that couldn't be faked. We would change the timeline irreparably." He then glanced up at Hermione's attempt at a neutral expression and softened his tone to a heartfelt whisper, "In addition, my dear," he punctuated his sentence by pressing her knuckles to his lips, "I only have eyes for one witch. Lily is my past; you are my future. I thought you knew that." Hermione's embarrassed blush was answer enough to him that he had correctly read her expression.
She quickly picked up their previous conversation, ashamed that he had seen the jealousy on her face, yet relieved at the absolute nature of his answer. "So who then? We cannot do anything for James and Lily, that leaves us with-"
"Remus Lupin." Severus sounded determined again. "He was not at fault for what happened to him. I should have been more compassionate for his…affliction."
"And Tonks too?" Hermione asked. "I know if I was saved from death only to lose you I might not think it such a kindness after all." She had expected resistance to her statement. She could have imagined him resisting on the grounds that they were making enough changes already. What she did not expect was the sheer force with which his lips crushed into hers.
She didn't know what had sparked his sudden passion, but she matched his mood in an instant. His right hand was intertwined in the thick curls of her hair, pulling her into his already forceful kiss. His left hand snaked around her waist to her lower back, anchoring her body against his. Her hands found his hair, the muscles on his arm she could feel through his long sleeved shirt. She was just in the process of losing herself completely in his passionate embrace, she whimpered slightly as she felt his lips leave hers. She opened her eyes to figure out where they had gone. When she saw his dark eyes they were sparking with a fire she hadn't seen during any of their previous kisses. When he spoke his voice was husky, low, and smooth as silk.
"You really feel that way about me?" His eyes surveyed hers with a fire that she felt would surely ignite her if she couldn't get her lips back to his with great haste.
"Severus, I may not have the benefit of years, but ask anyone who has ever met me and they will tell you I know what I want when I see it. You are it for me. I have found my person and, as a very smart man once said, I do not wish to go anywhere other than where you are. I am yours." He answered her words not with a response, but with another kiss, even more passionate than the first.
As his lips worked their way from her mouth down to cover her neck, she whispered softly in his ear. "Take me upstairs, Severus. We can't sleep on the couch forever." Before the words were out of her mouth, he had swept her up in his arms and risen from the table. He navigated the journey from the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs to her bedroom without issue, eyes never leaving her face for a second. As he set her down on the bed where he had laid for the first few days of his recovery, she took hold of his shirt and pulled him on top of her. Pivoting gracefully over her, his hips landed on the far side of her body, allowing him to press as tightly as possible to her, while not putting all of his bodyweight on her delicate body. As his hand found its spot on her lower back and pulled her to him, she felt what she thought was evidence of his enjoyment of their kiss. (How should I know? Before Severus I had kissed a total of two boys, once each.)
She lost herself in the feeling of his body pressed against her own, finally able to embrace him properly having moved from the couch to her bed. He relished the feeling of her hands on his body as she explored his arms and shoulders. He felt them move to his chest and he pressed into her until he felt the cool night air hit his skin. Pulling away from the confused witch in his arms, he moved as if to attempt to close his shirt.
"What's wrong?" Her words were a question, a complaint, and a plea, all at once. Her eyes caressed the exposed region of his chest with fierce longing.
"We need to slow down, love." He spoke with utmost caring, reaching out to put her cheek in his palm as he spoke.
He watched as her face changed, her brain obviously having reached a conclusion as to why she thought he pulled away. "Did I do something wrong?" His response was not what she had hoped for as he smiled, stifling a small giggle.
"Severus!" She cried, chastisingly. "I've never done anything like this before! How am I supposed to know—" his words cut her off.
"Hermione, I assure you. You did absolutely nothing wrong. As you no doubt could feel…" He took a deep breath and adjusted his position slightly in a way that illustrated his point. The look of panic on her face receded slightly, only to be replaced with confusion.
"My Hermione," she had never heard her name said with such reverence and care, "I am, how should I…I am an incredibly old fashioned man." He regarded her expression as the light started to dawn on her eyes. "I want nothing other than to allow you to finish unbuttoning my shirt, vanish every piece of your clothing, and ravish you for the duration of the evening."
A small mischievous smile touched her eyes as she interrupted, "ravishing sounds lovely."
He stressed the first word, "However, if you truly feel about me the way I feel about you, we have our entire lives for…ravishing." He smiled devilishly as he said the last word, making something deep in her belly pulse in anticipation. He looked deep into her eyes as he continued, "I have done enough wrong in this life. You are my second chance to have something good, pure, right. I am utterly unwilling to tarnish you, and so I will happily wait until you are officially mine in every way before the aforementioned ravishing." He waited for her to respond as she clearly weighed what he had just said.
"Severus, I appreciate how you see me, but I am already yours in every way. Plus, you must be used to a certain amount of…fulfillment. I don't want to deprive you of…I don't want to make you suffer for my inexperience." She bit her lip as she finished, clearly not used to discussing such matters.
He surprised her by clearing his throat in a manner that made it clear he was no more comfortable than she was. "As I said, I am a very old fashioned man. This is, in my opinion, not an area to be entered into lightly. Though I may be in the minority, my opinions on this matter have never waivered."
"So you haven't…?"
"I have waited a very long time for you, my dear. A bit more waiting will do me no lasting harm." With this, Hermione curled close to his body, laying her chin on his chest to look him in the eye.
"I can still snog you with reckless abandon, right?" With this question the tension of this overly serious conversation seemed to break and both of them dissolved into laughter.
"I would have it no other way." He said with a devious smile, causing her to begin laughing again. She closed her eyes as she giggled and was surprised when his lips gently caught hers. She pulled herself up towards his mouth and curved her body to fit his once more. Neither of them was sure when they transitioned from kissing to peaceful sleep, but both slept more soundly intertwined in each others' arms than they ever had alone.
"Again, it will work for Remus, but not for Nymphadora. Her status as a Metamorphmagus changes the way the spell will interact with her body on a cellular level." After the most wonderful night in her memory, Hermione and Severus had returned to their usual places on the sofa and were knee deep in their usual pile of books, debating the next item on Severus' list.
"But if it works for Lupin, lycanthropy and all, shouldn't it be a similar level of interference from her condition?" Severus had never been this at home talking to someone. Due to Hermione's predilection towards books, she was the conversational match he had sought and not found in so many of his peers.
"Yes, but his condition only activates on the full moon, so it was in a dormant phase during the battle of Hogwarts. He will react as any other wizard would, yet with her transformative nature, we will have to take extra precautions in casting the spell." Severus had a point.
"You know who we need." She said it not as a question, but a statement, knowing full well that he was thinking the same thing as she was.
"No…" he tried to protest, but had the sinking feeling that his bright, young witch would win on this one.
"Severus!" Minerva McGonagall's voice rang out across the still ravaged great hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Scottish woman's robes flew out behind her as she almost sprinted across the rubble to pull Severus into an embrace. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the uncomfortable, startled expression on his face as he awkwardly patted his colleague's back. When the elderly witch pulled away, Severus drew Hermione to his side, part out of habit and partially in defense from further embraces. As he did, Minerva's face lit up with an almost maternal glee.
"Look at you two!" she exclaimed, her joy occasioning a meek grin from Hermione and the beginnings of a proud smile from Severus. "I was quite surprised when Albus told me, but the more I think about it. It just…it fits. You two truly deserve each other." She paused and sighed in an over exaggerated way that embarrassed Hermione and caused Severus to stifle several sarcastic comments inside his head.
Drawing the focus away from them as a couple, Severus got down to business. "I assume Albus filled you in on what we have been working on?" Hermione could not help but feeling a small surge of pride as he spoke. She had returned to Hogwarts not as a student, but as a survivor of the war, Severus' equal, and his partner in an important undertaking. She felt as though the past few weeks had signaled her full entry into the adult world, and she was so proud to have taken her place next to this brilliant man.
Minerva was now showing them to her office, where Hermione hid her displeasure as a house elf brought them tea. Severus was filling her in on the stumbling block they had hit in trying to enact the sleeping spell they had been using on a Metamorphmagus. While he spoke, Hermione couldn't help but notice the woman kept glancing over at her.
After a long discussion in which Severus and Minerva went back and forth about immensely complicated properties of various properties of transfiguration as manifested in the Metamorphmagus genome, during which Severus was proud to see Hermione knew enough to make her a useful and vital part of the conversation, they had finally worked out a spell that would perform roughly the same function on Tonks as the sleeping spell they had prepared for Lupin. Minerva also recommended that, given the highly sensitive nature of the remaining items on the list, they bring the rescued pair back to the castle until a plan could be formulated as to how to explain their mysterious reappearance to the wizarding world at large.
At the end of the conversation, Severus took his leave to retrieve the time turner and the cloak, while Minerva pulled Hermione aside for a word. With a quick glance at Severus, who nodded his reassurance as he took his momentary leave, Hermione took her seat next to her former transfiguration professor, who currently wore a look of what Hermione thought looked like maternal worry.
"I just wanted to make sure you are doing okay. I have always considered you as more than just a student, though I would never admit it to the others in the house. So much has changed for you in the last few weeks, I wanted to make sure you know you can come to me for anything." It appeared Hermione had guessed right on the maternal worry front.
"Professor, I—" Hermione began when she was cut off.
"It's Minerva now. You are no longer a student and you are the chosen partner of one of my long time colleagues and trusted friends. If that doesn't make you a peer, I don't know what does." Hermione blushed.
"Okay, Minerva. I really expected to handle this a lot worse than I am. I mean the battle, and all those months in that blasted tent with two teenaged boys…" Minerva shot her a look of understanding sympathy before she continued. "I felt like I would break down when the war was finally over, once I could breathe again, so to speak. But then Severus happened and I feel…complete." She was encouraged by the warm smile growing on Minerva's face. "I finally know what I felt was lacking all those years. The reason I was so stressed and upset and lonely all the time. It was him. It was always him. I just didn't know it yet."
"In that case, my dear, you should know that I have never once seen Severus look at anyone the way he looks at you. He is a hard man to get along with, his trust is exceedingly hard to gain, and I've never actually seen anyone gain his affections. He will be fiercely loyal to you. I would have thought that if Severus ever got serious about someone I would have to warn them to treat him right or face me, but that is the same talk I would have given one of your potential suitors, so it kind of cancels out. I'm so proud of you two, honey. Enjoy each other." Hermione couldn't help but throw her arms around Minerva in a grateful hug. It had been a long time since she felt like she had a mother she could talk to, and Minerva had just given her exactly the reassurance she had unknowingly been craving. When Severus returned to the room both witches were grinning from ear to ear.
"I leave you two alone for two minutes…" he muttered in fake distain as he entered the room. Hermione and Minerva laughed as Hermione rose to Severus' side. "Shall we?" he asked, placing the time turner cord around both their necks as she drew the invisibility cloak around them. After it was obvious that the hidden couple was no longer present, Minerva whispered "good luck" into the spot from which they had disappeared.