Shadows …
"Just one more thing –"
Severus had been about to rise. Now he paused, on the edge of his seat.
"Yes?" He glared at her impatiently.
Minerva ignored his scowl. Instead she allowed a measure of concern to show on her face. "Where is your shadow?" she asked.
Severus slumped back. Briefly, a shadow flickered across his eyes. Then he blinked and his face was schooled to impassivity again. Since Hermione's rescue the man had not relaxed for a second. And if he slept more than three hours a night, she'd be very much surprised.
"In the library I presume," he muttered.
"Ah. With Hermione?"
Severus hesitated. "I … I think so. A shadow cannot hear or see or smell. However, I seem to – to feel her presence almost as if she and I were in the same room. Not always. But most of the time since she was well enough to leave our quarters."
"So you cannot control it?" she asked. "When has this … phenomenon manifested for the first time?"
"No. – I am not sure," he replied curtly.
She suppressed the desire to roll her eyes. Getting information out of this man was sometimes as difficult as extracting teeth the Muggle-style. "Severus, I am sure you are aware of the fact that manifestations of new magical abilities or phenomenons need to be registered with the Ministry?"
"So I can be carted off to St. Mungo's to be poked and prodded and then forced to reveal even more intimate details to be filed away in Ministry ledgers?" he snarled.
Her lips twitched. "All of that, I expect."
She suspected that he had come to the conclusion that the phenomenon posed no danger for anyone and was now trying to discover just what it was and how it could be used on his own. A desire she sympathized with completely. However … "Severus, the students have started noticing. There are rumours, and some of them are quite … disturbing."
He lowered his head and wearily pinched the bridge of his nose. "There are always rumours."
"Quite so," Minerva agreed. "But Alina Petrel has been here to see me. She is worried. Apparently some students have got it into their heads that you made a pact with a demon."
"I thought that was common knowledge," Severus said bitterly.
"Please, Severus. You know as well as I do that the Ministry will have to take action if this is reported. And with those EMU registration laws looming, I dare say that waiting for the Ministry to come knocking at your door will make the proceedings much more unpleasant than filing a report yourself."
"They are fools," Severus said. "Fools to believe that registration, rules and regulations can make the wizarding world a safe place. Magic has always been dangerous and always will be. Forcing vampires to carry an ID and organise public Auror guarded dinners won't change that."
"Probably not," Minerva agreed. "However, the renegotiations of the Pacta are the greatest political opportunity for wizarding world in centuries."
"That is exactly what I am afraid of." Severus sighed. "At least Abbé Nihel knows what he is doing."
As Bishop Brown's personal secretary, Abbé Nihel was now the spearhead of the Vatican's commission during the negotiations for new treaties between the Church and the wizarding world.
Minerva realised that there was no reasoning with her stubborn Potions master today. Inwardly she sighed. Outwardly, she fixed him with her best stare, the one that told everony that she remembered them as first years, including every single detention they had ever earned at Hogwarts. "I have arranged an appointment for you at St. Mungo's next week, parallel to Hermione's check-up. Loxweild-Spalt will be there to handle the paperwork."
oooOooo
He made sure that he was late for dinner. The ceiling of the Great Hall was dark, showing a cloudy evening sky. A storm was blowing in from the Atlantic. But the Hall itself was brightly illuminated by hundreds of hovering candles.
Severus entered with billowing robes and strode imperiously towards the High Table. Out of the corner of his eye he observed the students. Most of them ducked and wouldn't meet his eyes. Others stared with expressions of fearful relief to a spot on the floor, slightly behind him and to his left. Alina smiled.
Walking up to the High Table like that afforded Severus the opportunity to take a good look at Hermione. Under a strict regime concerning diet and exercise, she was finally gaining weight and thanks to long walks every day she was not quite as pale anymore. But she still tired easily. And she still wouldn't touch a wand. Tonight her eyes looked slightly puffy and rathter more liquid than usual. He frowned. Eyebright Potion? What had she been up to?
"Severus!" Hermione greeted him with an amused smile. "What an entrance. For a second I felt almost like a scared first year again."
But even as she smiled, her gaze lingered on his shadow for a moment. So she had noticed that, too? Why hadn't she mentioned it to him?
oooOooo
"You are tired," he murmured later, in the quiet of their bedroom. They sat on the wide windowseat, looking out across the lake.
During Hermione's first days back at Hogwarts, when she had still been too weak to venture outside, this had become their evening ritual.
Hermione curled into him. She was leaning against his chest and he was holding her tightly, his right arm wrapped around her body. His left hand curled around a goblet of red wine, while Hermione idly stroked the fingers of his right. The small movements caused her breasts to press against his arm. He rested his cheek against the unruly mess she called hair.
"Hmm," Hermione agreed, taking a sip from her own goblet. "Yes."
"Did the Eyebright help?"
"You worry too much."
He tugged at a brown curl. "Can you blame me?"
Instead of answering, she captured his hand again and kissed his palm.
oooOooo
A/N: The drabble challenge in my forums is still open. Follow the link at the bottom of my profile and request a drabble for a missing scene from "Apprentice"! And I have already filled the first requests: take a look at my new story "Missing Scenes".