Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns a lot of crap I would imagine, with all the money she has rolling in. It's probably a good thing she doesn't get royalties from all the fan fics. Not enough banks in the world could handle that cash flow.

Life For Rent

Chapter 5

"There is no fucking way." Hermione repeated. "Snape? I am compatible with Snape?"

"Compatible, and at some point you must have found him attractive because according to these," Ginny waved a hand over the pamphlets, "you wouldn't have matched so well if you didn't."

Hermione felt her cheeks redden. Of course when she was in school she harbored a very secret crush on the elusive potions master but only for a short while. He was brilliant and mysterious and was the only teacher who really challenged her. But it had been fleeting, and Hermione firmly believed at the time that most of the girls in school had some strange romantic notion regarding the professor at one point or another. All the girls always talked about him anyway.

"Oh, Hermione, don't tell me you ever found the greasy git attractive." Harry said making a gagging face.

Hermione blushed even deeper, but Ginny jumped to her rescue.

"Harry you wouldn't understand, but he had a sort of strange appeal. Sure he's not conventionally attractive but his mystique is definitely sexy, plus his long, skilled fingers –" Ginny continued to talk in muffled tones as Harry clamped a hand over her mouth.

"I don't need to hear anymore from you. This is just really strange. You haven't seen him in years and when you were around each other on a regular basis he wasn't exactly friendly. How do you see yourselves getting along?" Harry asked seriously, eyeing Hermione with concern.

Hermione stared at the letter in front of her, eyebrows almost meeting in the middle because her brow was furrowed so tightly in thought. Hermione thought back to her school years and tried to remember everything that involved Snape.

She remembered the time he told her he hadn't noticed any difference when her teeth had been cursed to grow and grow, she couldn't even begin to count the times he had called her an insufferable know-it-all, then again who hadn't at one point or another. But she had always defended him, and had always doubted that he was truly loyal to Voldemort. She'd had a private moment of self-satisfaction when she learned that she had been right all those years.

Even though she could not recall any time he had complimented her or been anything more than his usual snarky self she still respected him immensely. Since the war she had heard through Harry that he was brewing potions for private clients but beyond that she had only thought about him when Harry wanted to talk about his mother. He would inevitably come up in those conversations every time. Hermione came to the realization that since they were matched, they obviously had more in common than she might have ever known otherwise. That would be a good foundation to start with. They both would have a lot animosity to work past, and unfortunately her heart wasn't quite available to give just yet. She had to admit, however, that she was intrigued as to why the ministry thought they would be a good match, and very curious as to how this might turn out.

"You know, Harry, I think this is going to be alright. He may have been a lot of things nasty to me over the years, but he is still a hero and I respect him immensely. It's going to be difficult at first, I'm sure but I am going to keep an open mind. If anything, I am fascinated enough by him to want to get to know him. Who isn't at least a little bit curious about the mysterious Severus Snape?" Hermione said staring off into space.

Harry and Ginny both looked at her their mouths agape. After a beat, Ginny spoke. "So you are actually going to go through with this?"

Hermione studied the paper in front of her once more, looking at the name over and over again. Severus Tobias Snape. Hermione still could not really believe it.

"Yeah Hermione," Harry said, "you still have a chance to flee the country, or leave the magical world and beg David to take you back."

Hermione felt a sharp pang in her heart at the mention of begging David to take her back. The wounds from that relationship's end were still very fresh and would be for a long time. That would make things difficult with Professor Snape, no Hermione, its Snape, no-not even that, his name is Severus, she chastised herself, but as far as she knew his heart could belong to someone else as well. Possibly even Lily still. And then Hermione thought about leaving the magical world or fleeing England. She broke up with David over magic and she was completely unwilling to leave her friends and family behind by fleeing. No, she decided, even a snarky old potions professor wouldn't stand in her way.

"No, Harry. I'm going to do this. We were meant to be together apparently. I just have to figure out how to be with him. I guess the first thing to do is respond." Hermione pulled a blank piece of parchment and a quill out of a kitchen drawer and settled back in her chair. She sucked on the end of the quill as she stared at the parchment. Her stomach was tied up in knots at the thought of meeting him again. Her mind was reeling with all the possible outcomes of their first meeting, and her heart was breaking with the realization that as soon as she sent the letter she was about to write, any chances she might have had of seeing David again would irrevocably be destroyed.

Ginny came around the table and sat beside Hermione, putting her arm around her. "Whatever happens we will be here to support you."

Harry stood on Hermione's other side and put a hand on her shoulder. "Definitely. Now what are you going to write?"

"I don't know, I don't even know what to call him." She replied honestly looking up at Harry. Well, maybe now it would be easier for Harry to get information from Snape about his mother. One thing was for sure, Snape was going to have to learn how to tolerate the presence of Harry Potter in his life because he was and would always be Hermione's best friend.

Finally Hermione put the quill to the paper. "Should I use his first name? Or just initials?" Both Harry and Ginny shrugged, unsure. She was going to be simple and direct and courageously use his first name.

Dear Severus,

I received your information from the Department of Magical Matrimony. I understand that our circumstances are rather unusual, but I would like to meet with you to discuss our options.

If you agree, please send notification of the time and date you would prefer to meet and I will arrange a location.

Sincerely,

Hermione Granger

Ginny peered over Hermione's shoulder as she wrote the letter. "That's good Hermione, but why do you want to choose the location?"

"I want it to be public that way you two can be there to give my moral support. Of course, he can't know you're there. I would feel much better if I knew I wasn't going into this alone. I have never been so nervous about anything in my life. Even the war pales in comparison right now." Hermione called her owl, Vento, down from his post by her back door and attached the letter to his leg. She stroked the tawny owl's head for a moment, instructing him not to leave without a response.

Once he was out the door Hermione let out a great sigh. "Well, that's that. Now I just have to wait and see what happens."

"I still can't picture you two together. He doesn't seem like the romantic type." Harry said helping himself to some more pizza, which was stone cold at that point. Warming it with his wand he continued to talk absentmindedly, "I mean, what could you talk about all day, potions and dark magic? Who does he hang out with? We really know nothing about him at all. Can you see him taking care of a kid?"

Hermione groaned but said nothing. Of course she couldn't answer any of his questions but they were definitely making her think. Kids? She had thought about kids of course, but she had not spent much time thinking of the manner in which children came to be. She was fully aware that she was going to be sleeping with someone else but she was so wrapped up in David she never really considered whether she would enjoy it with someone else. Now that she knew who that someone else was, she was even more unsure if she would be able to enjoy it.

"Oh my god! You are going to have sex with Professor Snape!"

"Ginny!" Harry replied embarrassed.

"Well, it's true."

"We know its true Gin, but do you have to talk about it in front of me?" Harry asked pretending to be disgusted.

Hermione would have been amused if it wasn't her they were talking about. She had listened in on plenty of conversations about what Severus Snape's capable hands could do to a woman. She had never participated in those conversations but during the time of her crush on him, she had fantasized about it.

"Hermione, you will have to give me all the juicy details. I want to know if those hands are really as magical as they appear." Hermione just grimaced at her. Oh, Merlin help me, what am I getting myself into? She thought.

"Gin," Harry cried, "I said I don't want to hear anymore!"

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Severus stared at the missive in his hands with disbelief all over his normally stony face. It was a good thing he was at home alone. He would not have wanted anyone to witness this. Hermione Jean Granger, bloody Gryffindor know-it-all, the brains of the Golden Trio, bushy haired, bucktoothed Granger was his most compatible match. She was an ex-student for Pete's sake.

"Fuck it all." He said throwing the paper down on his desk. Walking over to his minibar he cracked open what felt like the thousandth bottle of firewhiskey that month. Downing a double shot he looked at the paper one more time. Hermione Jean Granger. She was twenty years his junior! What in the hell could they possibly have in common? He imagined being set up with someone closer to his own age, someone with more experience with life. She was still a fucking child and an annoying one at that. Throwing back another double shot he flopped in his armchair and stared at the empty grate in his fireplace, considering his options.

His choices were few; he could leave the country, give up magic, kill himself, or just get on with courting Granger. He ruled out the first two immediately but he hesitated before ruling out the third. He had wanted to die many times over in his life and had yet to be successful. Killing himself was probably not even possible, no, he was fated to live this life out, and it would probably be long and full of bushy haired kids asking him questions relentlessly for whole of it. Maybe this was to be his true penance for his myriad of sins. But then again, maybe not, he had researched the methods the Ministry used to ensure compatibility and they were very sound. The chances of it being a mistake were very slim.

He didn't really know Granger after all. Severus only knew her as the child from his classroom. She had grown up before him but she was barely blossoming into womanhood before she left on that hunt with her friends. He knew she had disappeared to Australia for a year and was back again but he didn't know what she was doing, nor had he seen her around because they very obviously didn't have the same social circle. Maybe she was just as discontented with the whole thing as he was and that would be their common ground. Severus could not imagine anything pleasant coming out of a relationship with Granger. Even though she was no longer a student it still felt wholly inappropriate.

Standing up, Severus poured himself another double and threw it back, savoring the burn as it coursed down his throat. He couldn't even think anymore. He was going to contact Granger of course, he had agreed already to accept his match whoever it was but he was hard pressed to believe that he could fall in love with her. His heart was not his own, it belonged to Lily, always had, and always would. Severus settled back at his desk and drafted a letter to the Ministry acknowledging his match, and then he pulled out a fresh piece of parchment to write a letter to Granger.

He stared at it for a full fifteen minutes completely unaware of how to address her. His potions master persona would not be sufficient so he had to be cordial. Severus was fully cognizant that the situation would require less formal language. After pondering the situation for a few more moments he finally decided that he would use her first name when he was distracted by a tawny owl tapping on the study window.

He didn't recognize the owl, it was more elegant than the owls used by the Ministry, and it wasn't one he had seen any of his clients use. The owl hooted happily as Severus untied the letter from its leg and perched itself on the back of his chair. Severus offered it a treat which it took cheerfully but did not budge. Clearly the owl was not leaving until the missive was read or a reply was written. Severus peered down at his name on the outside of the scroll. He recognized the handwriting; it was neat but tiny and cramped. He had seen this penmanship over and over again crammed onto many feet of parchment throughout her six years as a student at Hogwarts. Once he realized that the letter was from Granger his stomach did an odd sort of flip and he was suddenly afraid of what it would say. What if it was a rejection? As appalling as he considered the match to be he had not prepared himself for rejection. Of course she would reject him. She was a young woman with a bright future, he was an old man doomed to live alone and unloved, borrowing pieces of himself out to anyone who needed it but never really living just for him.

The owl on his chair hooted once more. With trepidation Severus unrolled the scroll. It was short and simple, and it was not a rejection, at least not yet. She wanted to meet with him, there was still a chance she would reject him person, but she wanted to meet with him nonetheless. The letter also saved him the bother writing his own. He was really surprised that she had responded so quickly and that she had responded first. Quickly scribbling on the back of the parchment that he would meet her the next day at tea time he reattached the letter to her owl.

An hour later the owl returned bearing the simple message, Leaky Cauldron, 4 pm.

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The day of the meeting with Severus Hermione and Ginny were ripping through the contents of Hermione's closet. Severus wanted to meet with her the next day. She was expecting him to say lets meet in a year or never, but not bloody fucking tomorrow. She told him to meet her at the Leaky Cauldron so that she could just walk there from work and there were plenty of dark corners for Harry and Ginny to hide in.

"Ginny, this is pointless. I am just going to wear the robes I normally wear to work. I don't see why I should have to dress up." Hermione understood the concept of looking for nice for someone but this was Snape, she didn't even know if he would notice such things.

"Oh Hermione shut up. You need to make him eat his heart out. He probably still thinks of you as a student which means he sees you as a child, which means you need to look a little more womanly. We will tame your hair, put some make up on you and make your robes a little tighter and you will look great. It's appropriate for work but a little more dressed up than you normally are. I think you should wear these light blue ones, you look really good in blues and greens." Ginny said fussing with a set of powder blue robes that were nicer than day to day robes but not quite as nice as dress robes. Once Hermione had them on Ginny shrunk them so the inside bodice was more fitted to her curves.

Ginny carefully applied just enough makeup to Hermione's face to bring out her eyes and accent the curve of her lips and then she used about half a bottle of Sleakeasy's Hair Potion to tame her wild curls. Hermione stood in front of the mirror and admired the effect. She looked different. Normally she never wore makeup and David always liked her hair pulled back. The last few times she had dressed up it was in muggle attire for David. Wizarding robes did make her look older and more mature. Hermione loved the way her hair was cascading down her shoulders but she didn't like the copious amount of time it took to get it right. She honestly preferred to leave her hair long and bushy and having Severus see it like this felt almost like a lie because she wasn't prepared to keep it up.

"You look great Hermione. Very mature, he will be crazy not to see you as an attractive young woman." Ginny said eyeing her handiwork, and then added as an afterthought. "I wonder what he will wear."

A vision of Snape in his billowing teacher's robes flashed through her mind. She could imagine him staring down at her over his hook nose with cold black eyes, and familiar crooked teethed sneer firmly locked in place. She couldn't imagine him looking any other way.

"Okay Ginny, at 3:45 you and Harry will be at the Leaky Cauldron right?"

"Hermione relax, we'll be there but you won't even see us. We will be using Harry's invisibility cloak so don't try to find us you'll just look like and idiot staring about the room. It's going to be fine."

Hermione nodded and apparated to work. She had no idea how she was going to make it through the day.

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The afternoon of his meeting with Hermione Severus stared at the arrangement of clothes on his bed. He'd summoned the courage to contact Narcissa and tell her who his match was. She was of course shocked but was thoroughly enjoying the whole situation. A young bright witch was exactly what Severus needed.

"Why is it that you only wear black, Severus? Everyday is like a bloody funeral to you." She quipped as she matched shirts with slacks and sorted through his robes. "I think you need to skip the robes today. Everything you have billows and you probably want to look less like a bat today."

"I don't see how it is going to make a difference. Besides, I have already straightened my teeth and cut my hair. That alone is an effort." Severus said dryly.

Narcissa scowled at him as she handed him a dark blue shirt and black slacks. "It makes a difference because you are not just meeting a former student, or going on a blind date, you are meeting your future wife. You could at least pretend to care."

Severus fumbled for the nearest chair and flopped into it. My future wife. That was the first time the phrase had been uttered aloud in and in his head since he had learned it was Granger. His mouth had gone dry and it took every effort not to flee the room and seek refuge in his liquor cabinet. He wasn't sure he could do this anymore.

"Take these." Narcissa demanded thrusting the clothes onto his lap. "Get dressed, I'll be back in a minute."

She left the room so that Severus could change in privacy. He numbly got up and changed out of his robes into the casual outfit Narcissa handed him. A couple of minutes later he cracked the door to signal to Narcissa that he was decent again and then stepped in front of the mirror to examine himself.

"See, you look nice. But you do need to unbutton your top button so you look less stiff. You need to relax, she is probably just as nervous as you are if not more so." Narcissa said peering over his shoulder and looking at his reflection in the mirror. "Now go Severus you are going to be late."

Severus glanced at his watch and cursed, he had ten minutes to be there. The day had flown by without him even realizing it. Grabbing the jacket Narcissa was holding out he turned on the spot and apparated to the Leaky Cauldron, leaving his friend behind shaking her head in amusement.

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"Look Harry, there he is!" Ginny whispered pointing to the door. They had commandeered a table in the corner and had placed a reserved sign on it so that nobody would sit there. From their vantage point they could clearly see every available table in the room.

"Hmm, he's had a haircut and it's not greasy anymore either. He looks really dashing in muggle clothes. Have you ever seen him anything that isn't black?" Ginny asked Harry as Severus was led to a table just two over to the left of where they were.

"No Ginny. I haven't noticed any of those things. Great, he's close enough to use the extendable ears so we can listen in."

"Harry! I thought we were to observe not to listen!" Ginny said smirking but eagerly grabbing one of the flesh colored strings he was holding out to her. She put it in her ear just in time to tell the barman that he was meeting someone and would order when she arrived.

"Same voice." Harry commented.

"I can't wait to see his face when Hermione arrives." Ginny said checking her watch. At exactly four on the dot the door jingled open again and Hermione stepped through looking like she had rushed over, which knowing her she had. "There she is."

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A/N: So thanks for your continued readership. I would like to thank my reviewers LDeetz, catysmom, notwritten, ginnylovesharry07, heidi191976, anmarie, diamond-helen, and professor doctor for faithfully reviewing the last chapter.

Let's all raise our glasses to whoopsydaisy who has to put up with my crap before you do, she is a wonderful beta.

I would like to point out that I realize that Hermione and Severus' reactions to things are a little redundant right now, one reason for that is to show how similar they really are but that does not mean it will stay that way.

Please review!!!