A/N: Here is a short taste to tide you over. There will be a longer chapter posted at mid-week. Once again, I am simply overwhelmed by your generous response to this story. You rock my world. Please continue to share your thoughts with me.


For the Potions Master's Amusement

Chapter 70: Home Truths

Hermione fought to draw breath as she stared across the font at Severus Snape, who held her gaze, his own face impassive—but his eyes burned, and her skin, her heart … and her soul? … felt scorched.

How foolish could she have been? Had she really convinced herself that he would not be there because no one had specifically told her he would?

And why didn't you ask anyone? a snide inner voice demanded. Could it be that you didn't want to know? Because sure, as long as she could say she didn't know, then no one could accuse her of wanting to see him, could they?

Who else would Rafe even have considered to ask to be Daisy's godfather? No one, that's who! Oh, she was a nitwit, certainly … or a self-deluder of alarming magnitude.

She was tending toward the latter.

'Shall we get started?' the vicar asked, and the service began.


'Are you sure you won't stay for dinner, Sev?' Rafe asked, clapping his friend upon the shoulder and waving good-bye to the limousine carrying the Hunters and the Claudius family away from the church.

Hermione shifted backwards a step, wondering if she could somehow rescind her acceptance of the Lestranges' hospitality for the weekend, but t took her hand again, holding her firmly in place. Hermione gave her hand a tug, but t did not release her.

'What's going on?' Hermione demanded crossly, sotto voce.

Taffy responded to this ungracious question with perfect serenity. 'It's time to face up to things like a grown-up,' she said gently. 'No more hiding and no more running.'

Hermione opened her mouth to retort, and the professor pivoted and looked at her. 'I would be delighted to stay for dinner, if t will have me.' He raised a rather mocking eyebrow at t, who smiled and started forward, bringing Hermione with her.

'I'm serving all your favourites, you know,' she said, and as she passed Severus to reach Rafe, she released Hermione's hand.

Severus looked impressed. 'You roasted a goose for me? It's not even Christmas.'

Taffy's laughter floated back as she wrapped an arm about her husband's waist. Rafe pulled the blanket more closely about the face of his newly-baptised daughter and set off at a leisurely pace on the walk back to Odd Cottage.

'Shall we, Miss Granger?' Professor Snape inquired mildly, addressing Hermione directly for the first time, but she scuttled away from him, hurrying to walk alongside t.

Without making any fuss, the professor took the place beside Rafe, and the four walked on through the early twilight.


The Smiths were present at dinner, and it became apparent that Severus Snape was a favourite with t's parents. He sat at his ease beside t's mum and across from her dad, his hawkish face animated, and carried on an involved discussion of the similarities and differences between the Muggles' chemist shops and the wizards' apothecaries. Hermione allowed her hair to fall forward, and using his trick, she watched him from behind it, eating little. Dragging her eyes back to her plate, she pushed her potatoes and runner beans around and darted a smile to t.

'No wonder you could go to work in an apothecary,' she said.

Taffy nodded. 'When it was time for Severus to find a way to hide me in plain sight, it was a lucky thing for me that I'd worked summers in the shop,' she agreed. 'It made it easier for him to find a job for me.'

'But couldn't you have stayed here?' Hermione asked, looking around at the pleasant dining room, with its persimmon damask draperies and matching carpets, the fine old polished wood of the table and sideboard, the burnished silver of the serving pieces.

'My husband wanted me to be safely hidden, on the off chance that his family discovered my existence—and besides, I couldn't bear the idea of just sitting and waiting.' Taffy directed a frank look at Hermione. 'Haven't you found that work is preferable to a lack of occupation while waiting for time to pass?'

Hermione closed her mouth resolutely rather than utter the heated rejoinder which rose to her lips. When had t become so stern? Hermione was used to receiving loving indulgence from her friend, not hard home-truths. She resumed moving food from one side of her plate to the other, only becoming aware of Rafe's measuring regard in the moment before he spoke to his father-in-law.

'Won't you come to the study to try some of my new cognac?' Rafe said, and the gentlemen excused themselves and left the room.

Hermione watched them file out, Professor Snape stopping at the doorway to allow t's father to go first, and then he looked directly at her, as if he had known she would be watching him. Her heart skipped a beat before beginning to race, and she looked away. When she glanced back, he had gone.

'Taffy dear, I believe I'll have an early bath,' Mrs Smith said. 'Your father and I want to get an early start in the morning.'

'Of course, Mummy,' Taffy said, rising from her chair. 'Let's make sure you have everything you need.'

Abandoned, Hermione wandered into the sitting room and sat down on the sofa near the fire. The day had been quite fine, but the evening was rather chilly, and the fire was nice. She was staring morosely into the flames when t came into the room and sat down close beside her, tucking a hand through Hermione's arm and giving it a squeeze.

'You're angry with me,' t said calmly.

Hermione frowned and sighed. 'I'm not really angry,' she said. 'I'm more confused, than anything. Why wouldn't Vi or Kell talk to me after the christening? Claudius and Reg marched them off as if I were contaminated or something. Even Elinore wouldn't do more than press my hand and tell me to be a "brave girl".'

Taffy nodded. 'I wasn't told by any of them, but I suspect they were under orders from their Masters to leave you alone once Severus arrived.'

'But why?' Hermione asked. 'That makes no sense!'

'Well,' t said, 'as long as you stayed away, your reticence was respected. If you chose to sever your ties to the Roissy House community, then everyone honoured your decision. But by coming here this weekend, by greeting and hugging and catching up with everyone, your behaviour showed a desire to continue your association with us—with the D/s community. Do you see?' Taffy watched her with soft, steady eyes.

Hermione shook her head. 'Not really,' she said. 'This is all news to me—I had no idea that my decisions of where to go and whom to talk to were being monitored in such a way.'

'Well, you didn't directly tell us anything, did you?' t said gently. 'And we weren't going to trespass on your privacy to ask you. We felt that when you were ready, you would either tell us that you were leaving us, or you would resolve your issues and come back to us.'

'So coming here this weekend was seen as my return to the D/s community?' Hermione asked, perplexed.

'Of course,' t affirmed. 'Haven't you?'

And as much as Hermione wanted to deny it, the thread of honesty in her would not permit it. She wanted to be one of them.

Taking her silence as assent, t continued, 'And since you've come back to us, it also means it's time for you to allow Severus some closure.'

Hermione jerked away as if she'd been burned, jumping to her feet and staring down at t.

'What are you talking about?' she cried.

'Hermione,' t said steadily, 'you wore his collar. You ended your relationship rather abruptly and forbade him to contact you. He's honoured your request explicitly, but that doesn't mean he's at peace with what occurred between you.'

Hermione felt panic rising, unable to begin to imagine a conversation alone with the professor. Had she thought she was healed? Had she thought she was ready to see him again, to speak to him again—to discuss their relationship and how it had ended?

Fuck no she wasn't ready for that! Not for any of it!

Taffy sat forward, to the edge of the sofa cushion. 'Do you remember what you and Vi and Elinore said to Kell the night Reg came to see her, after their last quarrel?'

'No,' Hermione cried. 'I don't remember what we said to her—it was months ago! And you weren't even there, so how do you know?'

Taffy stood and moved closer, so that Hermione was forced to look into her face. 'I know because it was important, and everyone told me all about it,' she said. 'First, Vi told Kell that Reggie's request to talk to her wasn't unreasonable, because things were not resolved between them.'

Hermione's eyes widened as she remembered.

'Second, Elinore told her that you can't play with a Dom and love with a Dom and quarrel with him without ever talking things out—that grown-up people sort out their troubles, for better or worse.'

Hermione tried to step away, but t took a firm hold on her wrist.

'And you, Hermione—you told her that it had taken a lot of courage for him to come back, and that the least she could do was to talk to him.'

Now t released her, and Hermione was able to stumble back from her, fear and anxiety rolling through her like waves at high tide.

'Come to bed, little one.'

Rafe stood in the doorway, one hand held out imperiously for his submissive.

'Yes, Master,' t said, going to him obediently.

Rafe allowed his gaze to fall on Hermione's face. 'Be the brave girl you are,' he said softly. 'Do the right thing.'

The Lestranges exited the room hand in hand, and Hermione saw who had been waiting behind Rafe: Severus Snape, now minus his suit coat and necktie, the French cuffs of his sleeves folded up to show his forearms, the column of his throat visible at the open neck of the shirt. He watched her warily from the hallway.

'May I come in?' he asked diffidently.

She shrugged awkwardly. 'You're a guest here, just as I am,' she said.

He entered the room and approached her, stopping two feet away. He was thinner than she remembered, his black eyes shadowed, the lines between his brows more pronounced, the ones bracketing his thin lips longer and deeper than they had been. Even so, he filled the room with his presence, making it all but impossible for her to draw breath—and when she finally did, taking a great gulp of air into her lungs, she was overwhelmed with the aroma of his aftershave.

Scent memories flooded her, more acute and detailed than anything which had plagued her dreams. She was helpless, assaulted on every side by sights and sounds and feelings she could not combat, and the longing which followed was a pain far too great to be borne.

'Hello, Hermione,' he said quietly.

'I can't do this,' she whispered, her voice strangled, and she bolted from the room, racing blindly for the stairs.