Chapter 13: Shopping Day

Saturday had finally come, Hermione was so excited, and she couldn't place a time when she felt like this. She was shopping for her wedding, the happiest day in any woman's life. She froze and thought, 'Why and I so excited? I am marrying the schools most hated professor, and my parents are basically pushing this on me even if they don't mean to. I shouldn't be happy for this; I should marry Ron not Severus.' She paused her thoughts and plopped herself in a chair by the fireless fire place, 'but we kissed, he makes me feel safe and secure.' She threw herself back and groaned. 'Don't be ridiculous Hermione, he knows what is at stake and he is just trying to make it easier on everyone, when the Dark Lord falls, he will release me of this binding and then Ron and I will be free to marry and all will be as planned.' But was marrying Ron what she really wanted, no not really, she just wanted to stay close to the family that had always helped her out.

Hermione was all confused about the thoughts she was having, she thought she cared for him but then she thought it might just be hormones that don't give you any sense at all, and her emotions were nothing more than a crush. She sat there for a few moments before she looked up at the clock, it was eight sharp, Ginny and the boys would be here in about fifteen minutes, and then in an hour they would go meet Professor McGonagall in the entrance hall then her mother would meet them in at the edge of Diagon Alley. So she could do nothing but wait.

Ginny, Ron and Harry arrived five minutes early and so they left and arrived in the entrance hall two minutes early. Professor McGonagall showed up right on time, as always, and so as soon as she arrived they left. Hermione was still wrapped up in her confusion so she didn't say a word the whole trip there. Just before they arrived to the meeting point outside of the town, Ginny had had enough of it, "Hermione" she grabbed her best friend's arm to make sure she had her full attention, "Are you alright?"

"I don't know, maybe." She smiled a big fake smile and then suddenly broke down into tears, "No no I am not ok, this hurts, and I don't know if I can do this." Tears came up and blurred her vision

"Do what Hermione, this shopping trip?" Minerva asked.

"No all of it, the wedding, the binding, the spying, any of it, I am so confused."

"Why are you confused, what is there to be confused about?" Harry asked.

"Why am I doing this, is it for the Lestranges, to keep people alive? I just don't know if I can be in a loveless marriage." That was it; the tears broke loose and rolled down her cheeks.

"Loveless, what makes you say that?" McGonagall asked putting a comforting hand on her young companions shoulder.

"Never mind, this isn't worth this, I suppose no relationship truly is, let's go and get this over with." She wiped the tears away forcefully and didn't say another word; she just walked away with the boys right behind her all confused about the workings of a woman's mind. Minerva and Ginny just looked at each other before following the Golden Trio to the edge of Diagon Alley. As planned, Bella was there waiting for them with a smile on her face. "Hermione, Mr. and Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter and Professor McGonagall, are you five ready to shop till we drop?"

"I know I am, are you ready Hermione?" Ginny asked and the boys nodded in agreement.

Hermione slightly smiled and said, "Where should we start?"

Bella looked at her daughter slightly concerned with her demeanor but decided that it would be better left for later and said, "How about with your dresses?" Hermione gave no response but let her mother lead the way, Bella led them to a shop that when they entered, their noses were filled with the scent of Jasmine. It didn't take long for them to get noticed by the lady behind the counter, "Well, hello, what can I do for you today?"

"We are here for a wedding Annie"

"Oh hello professor, I didn't see you back there."

"Please Annie, we are not in school anymore, it's Minerva."

"Alright, Minerva, you said a wedding, I assume not yours."

"Not this time, actually we are here for Miss Hermione," she paused in hesitance, "Granger's binding."

"Ah congratulations Miss Granger, who is the lucky man?"

"Actually my marriage is a, um, my marriage is a betrothal of sorts to, well," hesitant to finish her statement, she mentally kicked herself and said quite bluntly, "to Professor Snape."

The girl named Annie, stopped dead in her tracks, stunned into silence. When she came out of her stunned state she said, "Oh well, you're a very brave girl to go through with it, you do know that he is the most feared, if not hated professor at Hogwarts don't you?"

Hermione smiled at the girls attempt to act to make the situation easier and the boys said to her, "oh we all have an idea."

"Sorry, I do believe that you came for a dress, not to chit-chat about your situation, I can just be so nosy sometimes. Fallow me please," and she led them to a back room full of dress bags on racks. She took out her wand and with a flick of her wrist; the bags vanished revealing numerous white, ivory, and baby color gowns of all shapes, sizes and styles.

Hermione was gob smacked, not even in the muggle world were there so many dresses. She was brought back to reality when Harry nudged her to go look around. Hermione took the gesture and grabbed Ginny, dragging her to the right, the boys went to the left and the two older women went down the middle in search of the perfect dress. They searched for an hour before they tried anything on, at the end of that hour; the four women and two boys had thirty six dresses between them. Hermione tried on the first six and dismissed them instantly; they all had too many ruffles and poof. The next ten were also dismissed; one, while astonishing, had too much detail, another had a huge bow in the back that made her butt look like the size of an elephants, the others just had little things that made her feel uncomfortable about her body in general.

After another hour of trying on the other dresses, Hermione had six dress left "Ok these are the last ones, I suppose that if it's not here we'll keep looking," Hermione said.

Hermione tried on four dresses and when she came out the group discussed all of the details and one of them would make a point that logically made sense for the situation so it was dismissed.

Hermione got to the fifth dress and wouldn't come out of the changing room, "You guys this is ridiculous, and who picked this out?"

"Like we would know off of the top of our heads which dress is which, Hermione," Ginny said, "especially the boys, we all know their attention span."

"Hey!" they said in unison.

"We can make good choices" Harry said.

Hermione pulled back the curtain separating her from her panel of judges and was greeted by a wave of giggles. She had tried on a dress that was, well, let's just say that it's not her color. The dress is a baby yellow, which from the front looks normal, nice and smooth, compliments where it needs to. The back however is not as helpful: the back had about fifteen layers of ruffles that got bigger as it went down and it made her butt look quite a bit bigger then a hippopotamus'. She was fuming, "Seriously, who picked this?!"

All the girls simply were dumbstruck, for they knew how important this was for her. Harry was unsure how to express his emotion, and Ron was just in hysterics.

"Ron! How could you? This is serious and you're not helping" Hermione stated bluntly.

"I thought, ya know, if it was an ugly dress he wouldn't want to marry you. You know a crazy thought but I had to try." Hermione grabbed her purse from the fitting room and threw it at his face and was so upset she missed and hit him in the gut. After which she stormed into the fitting room to try on her final choice. It too was dismissed and as she looked down at the dress that curved her body, she sighed and fell down in disappointment.

"This is useless. Nothing is going to work." She was a step away from a breakdown. The group was silent and just looked at each other with a shared look of sadness; they had failed the one person that this mattered most to.

"Hang on," Ron said suddenly, "I think I may know the perfect dress for you." Everyone looked in shock as the tall red head disappeared into the racks of dresses.

"I swear Ronald if it is another dress like your last pick, I'm going to hex you."

"It's not, you'll see what it is in a second, let me go find it." Ron yelled from behind a random rack, A few moments later, Ron came back with an ivory colored dress. Hermione tried it on and came out to a group of faces that looked like they were looking at a celebrity.

"Hermione, it's perfect!"Ginny said.

Her mother and professor nodded in approval for they didn't know what else to say.

Harry went up to his best friend and gave her a hug and said, "You look amazing, turn around." She did as instructed and saw why they were all flabbergasted. She looked like a model, no a princess. Her pale skin made the dress almost pop out. The dress was full length and lined in a bridal shine and silver giving the dress dimension. The dress was off the shoulder, and had a Cinderella poof to the skirt, it was magical.

Ron, not so magical, he was sobbing like a little girl in a candy shop after her mother told her that she didn't need the sugar. "Ron, what's the matter" Harry asked.

"She's just so beautiful and it's not for our wedding, I just never thought it would come to this, this is ridiculous, I just wish that I could be the one to be surprised at the alter." Hermione was surprised, after all this time, she only thought that he was against the wedding and here he was actually putting an effort into making her day special. Hermione looked at her friend and once again, tears came to her eyes, she picked up the dress and walked over to her best friend and gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek and said "Thank you."

They paid for the dress, and left the store to go shop for rings. That only took them thirty minutes, when they were done there; they went for lunch at a quiet tea shop just north of the sweets shop.

After they got settled and ordered, the boys decided that there was one last thing that needed to take care of, so they left for a few minutes while they waited for lunch to come. Bella thought that now would be the best time to bring up her daughter's demeanor earlier that morning. "So my dear, what's going on inside your head, you seem really distracted."

"I'm not distracted, I'm fine."

"She thinks that she is going to be trapped in a loveless marriage." Ginny blurted.

"GINNY!"

"Hermione, Severus adores you, what makes you think that your binding will be loveless?"

"Oh please mother, you can cut the crap. He is just being this way to make it easier on everyone, that's no secret."

"No, I have seen the way he looks at you… you are being ridiculous."

"You know what? You all can say what you all want because I know what I feel and until I feel otherwise, this is what I am going to stick with."

Bella wanted to pursue the matter further but saw her husband's temper coming out in their daughter and thought better. And no sooner had the thought crossed her mind had the boys walked in. Perfect timing. Ginny thought.

They finished their lunch, and continued with their day. They shopped for the bridesmaids dresses, looked at flowers, and after all of their shopping was done, they decided that it was time to call it a day and at the edge of town, they said their goodbyes and when Hermione went to hug her mother, Bella said this, "Hermione, sometimes our guts are what get us into trouble, trust it on certain issues, but listen to us on this one, Severus looks at you like there is no one else around."

Hermione stood there in her mother's embrace and thought about her words. She pulled away and nodded slightly before joining the others. "I love you mother," she said, and then she continued to go and join the others. As they departed, they heard a pop and assumed that Bella had gone. They walked in silence back to Hogwarts. Once there, Professor McGonagall bid her four students farewell and the girls made their way up to Gryffindor Tower with the boys lagging behind.

Everyone dropped off the bags onto the table in the middle of the room in the Head Girls' common room, Ginny wanted to stay and talk but by the look on her best friend's face and the boys nagging, it was best just to let her be alone. She said goodbye and then fallowed the boys for the Gryffindor common room.

Hermione was alone at last, she plopped herself on the couch and sat there and thought about what was going to happen, she was so distracted that she didn't notice her exhaustion and she drifted off to sleep.

Severus hadn't stopped pacing in front of his fireplace since he got the floo from Minerva that she was taking Hermione shopping for the bonding. He didn't know how long he paced but he was did take notice of the pain in his legs and feet. He tried sitting down but every time he did he jumped right back up and started pacing again. He finally ended up wearing himself out to the point of exhaustion he sat down and fell asleep. So that is how Bella found him, she started poking him with the spoon that she had from her yogurt.

"Severus, get up," she said, there was no response. She tried ten more times and still no response, so she said, "Severus, there's a student cheating on their paper." In an instant he darted up and shouted, "POTTER, DETENTION!" Bella tried to keep a straight face but burst out laughing instead.

Severus realized that Bella had awoken him and he did nothing but glare at her, "That's not funny, Bella." Then it dawned on him, "how did you get in here."

"You left your front door open."

Severus went into thought on what he had done that day and it seemed plausible, he couldn't remember a single thing he had done, nothing but pace all day. "Would you like to sit down?" Bella nodded and took a seat in one of the leather chairs by the fire place. Severus went and made tea and came back to join her when it was ready. When they were both settled, he continued, "So how was your shopping trip?"

"Good."

"Did you learn anything about your daughter that Draco hadn't already indulged you in?"

"Well actually I did," she paused trying to think on how to phrase her next statement. "Severus, I must say this, can I be honest with you?"

"Well, I would prefer honesty," he said sarcastically.

"This is serious Severus; Hermione is thinking some things that are outrageous."

"Like?"

"She thinks that you don't really care for her and that you are only being nice to her to attempt to make this easier for you both."

Severus was hurt but tried not to show it, "how do you know that your know-it-all daughter's intuition isn't dead on?"

"Because I have seen the way you look at her."

Severus was cornered; he didn't know what to do, "so what am I supposed to do with this information?"

"Dammit Severus, do I have to spell it out for you? I want you to prove her wrong!"

Severus did nothing more than shrug, "Severus Tobias Snape, you are an impossible person" and with that she walked to the fire place and was gone.

Severus was genuinely hurt, Bella was right; he needed to prove Hermione wrong, the only thing was, he didn't know how.

A/N: and there's chapter 13 for ya! Woot. Ok read and review cuz I'm kind of in school right now so my brain isn't fully functional so my ideas are coming slowly. Hope you are still enjoying! Love Pup