Chapter 3: An Unknown Friendship
Minerva had decidedly made an unbreakable vow with everyone in the house that stated she was not going to stray further than a few meters from Hermione's side while she slowly recovered. There was no point in trying to convince the elderly witch that Hermione had not yet woken and would not wake until she was administered an antidote to a powerful sleeping draft that Severus had concocted. There was even less of a point telling her that she was of no use to Hermione. Poppy was administering Hermione food through magic, and Severus was personally responsible for her general care. He had decided with the Hogwarts medi-witch that Hermione was weaker than everyone had originally imagined. The best course of action was to let her sleep it off. Her body desperately needed to rest.
The strain of Hermione being in the past away from her friends and family for so long coupled with the treatment she received from him must have had more of an effect on her than he had thought. He couldn't blame her for this. She never once showed stress in anything she did. She couldn't. It would raise suspicions that were already high.
She was a strong witch, that one.
So, instead, he blamed himself and Dumbledore. It was obvious that Dumbledore had given her some sort of mission in the past (though he did not know what it was), and she had no choice in completing it. She either did it or the time line changed. She either did it or risked everyone's existence. Severus frowned at this. The witch was still young. The mission should have been reassigned to someone who had more experience and less things to lose by going. There had to be some way to administer polyjuice potion to someone and… no. He didn't want anyone but Hermione to have kissed him. Then again, would he have known if it was someone else? Probably not. It would've been the first time he'd met her.
He wouldn't have fallen for another witch in disguise, though. It was Hermione's quirks that attracted him to her- the way she smiled even while harsh words were being said, the way her eyes lit on fire when talking about good literature, the way she was easily lost in thought and could ignore everything around her, the way she bit her bottom lip when she was worried, the way she ran her tongue over his teeth when they… Nymphadora was dispensable enough, in his opinion, but he doubted that she could manage any sort of even slightly complicated mission on her own. Instead of the smooth entrance Granger had when she came, Nymphadora would probably trip over her robes, fall flat on her face, and be humiliated by the Marauders instead of taken in. What irony that would be considering she was pregnant with her second child by the wolf.
But there was no point in dwelling on this now. It was obvious that Dumbledore did what he thought was best. He always did, after all. Even if it made things complicated for everyone else.
He pursed his lip and turned to the sleeping witch on the bed. It was the third day since she had returned, and he knew she was well enough to eat her own food and bathe herself. It was time for her to be woken up.
Wondering how he should go about this, Severus reached into the bedside table's top drawer and lifted a small flask. Green slushed angrily against a pearly white. The potion was perfect.
There was a good chance that Minerva would want to be told. There was not a doubt in his mind that Potter and Weasley would want to be told. Hudson and Lupin would probably like to be there as she opened her eyes. Molly would have his head if she wasn't there.
Smirking, he closed his eyes lazily. Oh yes, they would all want to talk to her immediately. However, Severus had other plans. He had selfish desires that involved getting over his own misery and waking her so that he could gauge his own reaction. If he didn't wake her now, he never would simply because he was a coward. He knew how he felt about her even after all these years, but he didn't know if he wanted those feelings. If he didn't want to love her, then the best course of action would be to separate himself completely from her. He would be cut out of her life, and there wasn't anything she could do about it.
Unstopping the flask, he gripped the end of a dropper that was still in the drawer. He brought its tip into the flask and extracted a small amount of the hissing potion. The potion was put on the table and stopped again. Severus only had one thing left to do now, and that was to administer the antidote. Stilling his nerves, he thanked Merlin that he had remembered to ward the door, and let three tiny droplets fall between her parted lips.
Brown hair scraped against the pillow as she slowly started to stir. Next, her arms twitched a bit under the covers. Then, when Severus thought she was going to open her eyes, she unceremoniously flipped over in one smooth motion and laid on her stomach. Well, that was unexpected. He didn't think she would be brought out of her potions-induced sleep only to fall into a natural one.
The little chit always did do what she wanted.
He was about to stand up and walk out of the room when she suddenly rolled over, sat up straight and looked around frantically, looking for the wand that was previously attached to her arm. Her mind worked quickly, and after only a second of discomfort and paranoia, realization settled in. Her still pale face turned slowly to him, and her chocolate eyes flashed with relief.
"How are you feeling, Miss Granger?" He asked stiffly.
"I'm feeling quite a bit better, Severus. Thank you," she responded taking a few deep breaths and reaching for a glass of water on her bedside table. She swiftly drank the lot of it.
"Are you experiencing any major pains?" He asked softly, watching her tongue dart out to wet her lips.
"Beside my head, no." She instinctively put her right hand to where there was previously a deep gash in her head.
"Good. Let me inform the others that you are awake, and I'm sure they will be here to see you shortly," he said, taking his wand and unwarding the door. He produced his patronus with a silent flick of his wrist. The doe looked at him in question for a moment before nodding and running through the door.
"Wait, Severus…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say.
"Yes, Miss Granger? Is there something I can do for you?" His voice came out more exasperated and annoyed than he meant for it to.
Hurt flashed in her eyes and stayed there as she dropped her gaze momentarily. Just as quickly as her head was lowered, it was back up.
She stared at him for a few moments before replying, "No, Severus. Never mind. I should have known better than to expect you to come to me after all these years," she said sourly. She always was a girl of logic.
He hesitated for a moment, wanting to prove her wrong. Unfortunately, the door opened, and the room was flooded with Weasleys and Potters and other miscellaneous people.
Her eyes still on him, he took a few steps back and retreated to a corner. Soon, a crowd had enveloped her completely. Questions of well-being were thrown about. Everyone in the room had enough sense to not pester her with questions about the past now (besides Weasley who probably had to be reminded repeatedly before he was allowed to even enter the room). Hermione easily shrugged off their concerns and assured them that she was right as rain.
Severus saw Bade enter the room and nod at him before he managed to easily push his way to the front between Ginevra and Harry Potter. The red-headed man brought one hand to his face to push away his youthful bangs before he leaned down to give Hermione a long hug which she returned with ease. The chattering in the room quieted down the same way as when Severus had scooped Hermione into his arms a few days earlier.
Severus watched the scene with interest. He was not informed that Bade Hudson and Hermione Granger shared a friendship. He should have inferred as much when Hudson asked questions about the young girl even when he was not in the Order. In fact, Hudson had only spoken to Dumbledore and later McGonagall about joining the Order in the later part of the war and had only joined afterward.
Hudson was also always concerned about her even while they were at school. They must've had a friendship that he was blind to. He suppressed the childish jealousy that rang through his body and reminded himself that there were worse things he kept from Hudson.
"You've grown up well, Bade," said Hermione, laughter evident in her teasing voice.
"And you, my dear, are just as I remembered you from the midnight Hogsmeade trips we took when you felt rebellious," Hudson teased, a boyish grin playing on his face.
Midnight Hogsmeade trips? He arched an eyebrow to no one in particular.
"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed in mock outrage. "All that time during our sixth year when you were scolding us about sneaking to the kitchens, and here you are, sneaking out of the castle!"
She laughed, her voice no longer filled with the annoyance it had when quelling their concerns. "I was stressed! I spent the majority of my free time trying to keep your dad," she paused to find the male Potter and pointed at him in mock anger, "out of trouble! Lily and I had to babysit him and Sirius and even Remus sometimes so that they wouldn't get themselves killed."
Everyone in the room laughed, and Severus could practically feel the joy radiating off of Potter when he heard Miss Granger talking about his parents.
"Remus, I had no idea!" Nymphadora exclaimed, pinching her husband in the side.
"I was never that bad," Lupin muttered through a lighthearted pout.
"If I recall correctly, Lupin, I remember a time when you tried to pantse me, and that was in our seventh year!" Hudson smirked in a superior manner, settling himself down on the bed next to Hermione, throwing one hand around her waist casually. Severus growled to himself and wondered how close their friendship was. Did she cry to him and Lupin when Severus mistreated her? He hoped not.
The small room roared with laughter, and everyone looked questioningly at Remus.
"I remember that. You saw it coming and threw up an invisible barrier. Remus had his hands on your pants when he was thrown back, his brown hair dyed silver and green, the words "I bat for the other team!!!" stitched into the back of his robes without him even knowing," Hermione said, joining in on the progressively louder laughter.
"WAIT A SECOND," bellowed Lupin, the laughter no longer in his voice. The room suddenly quieted down at the outrage in the adult wizard's voice. "My robes said what?"
Even Severus had to laugh at that. The wolf had managed to get rid of his Slytherin hair by the end of double potions, but he donned the rainbow lettering on the back of his robes for days. The room fell into comfortable laughter as Hermione continued to share and reminisce with Lupin and Hudson.
Severus stayed in the corner for a while longer, listening to anecdotes of how Hermione and Hudson spent time together. He finally decided to leave the room when his heart began to grow tight from jealousy. He was a 40 year old man, and he did not like the 17 year old boy in him stirring in rage.
So, why did he feel like he wanted to rip out his best friend's throat for the way his hand had been drawing lazy circles on her waist?