AN: thanks to everyone who reviewed...

I have to apologise again – I fell off the world for a while... it just seems to have been one thing after another for the last little while – the cherry on top of the disaster cake being my internet not working for two weeks making me unable to post even if I had finished writing the chapter (which I admit I hadn't) I will hopefully be hauling myself and this whole tale back onto track from now one... once again, I'm so sorry, I will try harder in future, please forgive me.

Disclaimer: I never intended plagiarism – not to JKR nor to any other writers... if you recognise it I didn't invent it...

Chapter Nine

Severus lay very still staring at the ceiling. He could feel Hermione's warmth beside him and was trying not to admit that it felt nice to have her there. She wanted to talk. She wanted ground rules. She would, doubtless, also want him to tell her all sorts of things that he hadn't told anyone else in decades – or more likely never. She would want to make lists and write notes and oh, Merlin, what had he agreed to?

The alarm clock on Hermione's bedside table told him it was 4.30. He slipped out of the bed and got dressed silently before padding down the stairs and into the kitchen. If he wasn't sleeping, he could at least get a few things clear before she came down to interrogate - talk to - him. First things first: coffee.

Sipping the hot liquid made Severus feel a bit calmer, more clear headed. He needed to evaluate how he felt about this marriage, about her, about, well, everything really. So, he asked himself, how did he feel about this marriage? If he was being completely honest - which he supposed he probably should be, at least to himself - it could be worse. It was conceivable that he could have wound up hitched to some dithering bimbo who's capacity for intelligent conversation only stretched as far as the colour of her lipstick. He could have not gotten married at all; he could have been living as a muggle, or be serving a term in Azkaban.

Next, how did he feel about Hermione? That was harder. Maybe he could work out a point system. She isn't a dithering bimbo – plus one point. She still asks far too many questions – minus one point. She went out to work – plus one point. She insisted on spending time with him –minus one point.Severus let his forehead fall forwards onto the cool wood of the table; this was going to take some deliberating. At some point over the last twelve hours he had come to the conclusion that she was definitely not an 11 year old any more. He didn't want to look too closely at when that realisation had hit, probably when she had – no, it was enough that it had. So, maybe she was... tolerable. Maybe if he made full use of the time she wasn't there and she learnt to respect his quiet they could make this work. If not, there's always poison, he told himself darkly.

The room grew steadily lighter around Severus, who was still sitting with his head on the table, his hands cupping the mug of half drunk coffee, as he tried to limit himself to 10 main rules. It was only the sound of approaching footsteps that finally made him sit up. Determined to look both relaxed and dignified, he pulled the coffee a little closer to himself and sat back in the chair, Just in time to see Hermione coming through the door. She looked surprised to see him sitting there, but she managed a cheery "good morning," anyway.

Severus said nothing, he didn't know if it was a good morning or not yet and didn't like to commit himself either way. Finally, he rose to his feet, "cup of tea?" He had promised himself he would be civil after all. She nodded and he flicked the kettle.

-#X#-

Severus glared at the piece of parchment Hermione was scribbling on. She had drawn up a housework rota. He could cope with that. She had written out a list of 'house rules'. He could cope with most of that. The one that was giving him trouble was rule 51 –

Rule 51 – At least one hour per day shall be set aside to talk about the day and to get to know each other.

"No." He said the moment she stopped writing it. "Absolutely, no."

"Why not?" she had that patient tone that suggested she was dealing with an unruly toddler.

"Because there is no need for it. Because I already know more about you than I need to know, and, most importantly, because there is not enough gold nor torture devices in this world that could induce me to share my innermost details with a prying Gryffindor."

"What do you mean you already know more than you need to about me?" at least she wasn't arguing about his reasons for refusing. Severus rolled his eyes.

"I mean exactly what I said; I have no need for further information about yourself, just as you require no further information about me."

"You need no further information about me." Hermione repeated it slowly, "you need no further information about me. Well, you may think you know enough about me, but I certainly don't know enough about you. For a start I'd be quite interested to know why there are no records of you even existing in the ministry archives." She folded her arms and raised her eyebrow in challenge.

"You'd have to ask the ministry that. Although, I have to say that does raise an interesting point. How do you know that there are no records of me in the ministry archives?"

"I did ask the ministry. Every single person connected with the creation and maintenance of the archives swears that all your information is there exactly like that of every other witch and wizard in the country. " She didn't really want to respond tor how she knew as she had the feeling he wouldn't be happy with the answer. Gryffindor courage. "And I know because I did a bit of research after we bumped into each other at the ministry the day after the letters were sent out." It sounded bad even to her own ears; Hermione braced herself for the shouting.

Hermione almost fell off her chair from shock when she realised that Severus was laughing. "Research. Yes, of course you would do research." He finally said. "Who wouldn't go trawling trough hundreds, possibly thousands of files looking for information on the history of a known Death Eater they were about to be forced to marry. Congratulations, you've just proved that I did the right thing getting rid of those files."

"You got rid of the records? But, how? Why?"

"Every single scrap of knowledge, no matter how small and insignificant it may at first appear, is worth something to someone. People like the Dark Lord and his followers were particularly interested in the kinds of information that are kept in those archives, because in those tomes there most likely lay the key to either blackmailing someone, or at least finding a way to get close enough to put a spell on them. In those dossiers, there are lists of addresses, health records, family records, financial records and any number of other records, all just waiting for the wrong person to come along and exploit them. I, for one, do not particularly like the idea of the ministry magically recording and storing information about anything I have done, let alone the things that could, perhaps, be used against me. "

"How did you do it?" She asked her voice no more than a whisper following his impassioned speech.

"I used magic to convince the wizard in charge to allow me access to the records room. I found my file. I read it, decided that I didn't want anyone else to read it and used a spell of my own invention to remove the information. It's not hard."

"But, surely someone would have noticed that the file was missing when they did their annual checks. Why have they never started a new file?"

"They've never started a new file because they've never noticed that the file is missing. I may have cast a spell over the shelf where the file was so that it looked like it was still there to the workers of the archive, but negates any desires said workers may have to open and examine the file, or indeed take it off the shelf."

"That's... that's... you invented the spell to fool the staff?" Hermione's head spun, a thousand questions at the tip of her tongue, how had he cast the spell without setting off the ministry's alarms? Had he removed anyone else's file? What would happen if the ministry ever did find out? Severus merely nodded once to answer her question. "That's... in its own way, slightly crazy... but impressive... I guess." She finished a little lamely.

"Yes, well, contrary to popular belief, this," he tapped the side of his head "is not just a hat rack." Did Severus Snape just make a joke? Hermione wasn't entirely certain what she should say to that, but soon found her tongue ravelling off something.

"I always knew you were intelligent, and probably very powerful, magically, I mean, obviously you'd have to be both those things to have gotten so advanced in your occlumency as to fool the Dark Lord for , I'm sorry, I don't even know how many years precisely. Oh, and you're the youngest person pretty much ever to receive the Masters in potions, and all those spells you invented in your sixth year , and probably a lot after or even before –" Severus held up a finger to silence her.

"Whilst obviously, most normal people would never tire of hearing their achievements babbled back at them at high speed, do you think, perhaps, we could save it for some other time?"

"Oh, err, sorry." That was it, silence reigned. It stretched on and got more and more uncomfortable until finally Hermione was just overcome with the need to say something, anything to fill it. "you know back when you were teaching I think you alone managed to hold the full attention of a class every single lesson, even Minerva, though of course I'd never say it to her, doesn't have quite the same presence that you do. "

"That's because Minerva was never quite as... feared, as myself." He almost sounded like he was remembering all those students he had made cry with some perverse fondness.

"it wasn't just the fear, it was for the boys, well, most of the boys, but I know for a fact that a fair few of the girls were in absolute raptures because of your-" Hermione clamped her hand over her mouth. What was she saying? Why was she saying it? What on earth had happened?

"Because of my?" that eyebrow was raised again, should she finish her thought? Was he going to laugh again if she did?

"Because of your voice, and the kind of dark mysterious thing you had going on." She admitted finally in a whisper.

"I am but a mere mortal, I can only use what God has given me." It took her a moment to realise that the arrogant, almost Gilderoy Lockhart-esque way he had spoken was meant in jest. What was even more amazing to her though was that he seemed to acknowledge her discomfort with the way the conversation had turned, he continued. "Alright, have your hour, but no more than an hour, and I reserve the right to tell you to move along if you start asking things I don't think you do really need to know." She nodded mutely. "Good. You always did know, much better than those dunderheads you hung around with, when to just agree to the terms and hold your tongue."

"are there any other rules you'd like to add?" she asked in a small voice, still feeling a little uncomfortable, and trying t work out if he had just complimented her.

"Only that my lab will remain out of bounds to yourself unless under my direct invitation and supervision. Oh, and that I will not allow any of your friends" he spoke the word as if it was something slimy and disgusting, "in this house so if you wish to see them you will have to do so somewhere else."

They sat in silence for a few more moments, before Severus rose and made towards the door of this lab, "assuming there is nothing else, then, I have a little work to be getting on with." He told her stiffly.

He had almost closed the door when Hermione spoke up again, "Severus?" she called. He didn't respond, except to reopen the door a little. "Do you think, that, as we are trying to actually make this work, we could behave like any other married couple, you know, upstairs?" she tried not to blush, but could feel her cheeks flaring.

"I imagine that would not be too much of a strain." The door clicked shut and Hermione silently punched the air.

AN; yet more apologies for a short chapter – I don't know why I found that so hard to write... fortunately next chapter is coming along quite easily... this one was just a conversation that they needed to have... without wanting to drop any spoilers, things are going to get a little more complicated from chapter 10, so please bear with me... Hugs and cookies, ForeverPandora