Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.
"As long as you take it easy for a day or two, Andromeda, you'll be fine."
"Thank you, Poppy."
Andromeda looked at the blanket as Poppy left the room. She could feel Severus's anger toward her and reached for a way to diffuse it. "Severus…" She was lost.
"Look at me."
She turned and watched his adam's apple work as he decided what to say. "I know it looks…" She broke off because she realized that she had no idea how it looked to him.
"All winter I've wondered, and just now I was brought to task by your son, and I have no idea." He said it quietly, and she felt the heat of his anger shift to something cold. "What on earth have you been thinking of me? Why does your family treat me as they do?"
"It's ok. Even with everything, you can still go. I won't hold you-"
"Andromeda," she heard him swallow, "are you saying you want me to leave?"
"No!" It came out as a moan. She saw the way his eyes glittered and realized that this time, at least, she owed him the truth. "I don't want you to pity or regret me, but the idea of you leaving is killing me. I don't know I'll manage when you leave. I roamed the house feeling sick half the time when you went for the N.E.W.T. testing. I can only imagine what I will be when you're gone for good."
"If you want me to stay, then why are you pushing me to go?"
"Narcissa says…"
"Narcissa!"
His eyes bored into her, and she nodded. "So all of this matchmaking with all the eligible pure-blood bachelors is to get you out of my life?"
She nodded again, timidly because she could see he was getting angry again.
"And you think so little of me that you went along with it?"
Andromeda didn't know how to answer. She'd never seen it that way. "No. I love you so much that…"
"So you don't believe me when I tell you I love you? You expect me to lie?"
"It's not like that! I can't explain, but it's not like that at all. I believe you, but I also know that you're young, and I'm older, and you've said yourself you finally get a chance to have a say in your future while I'm stuck with the past. How can I dream of tying you to me forever?"
He summoned a chair from across the room and sat down heavily. "Of all people, I thought you trusted me."
"It's not like that. I swear." Andromeda had known all along that she'd have to have this conversation, but now in the middle of it, she was starting to feel panicky. "It has nothing to do with you."
He snorted. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"I didn't mean it like that. I don't know if I can explain it."
He moved to sit next to her on the bed. He patted her hand. "Narcissa and your mother have done a number on you, haven't they?"
"They just told me what I should have seen for myself."
He sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Narcissa can go hang. Why do you expect me to leave?"
"Because you're in love with someone else."
"Why would you think that?" Before she could answer, he nodded and said it with her. "Because Narcissa says. Has she picked my love for me?"
"You do show her preference, and she's clearly special to you. I can't think of another reason…"
"Who is it?"
"One of the students."
"Oh, and now I'm some sort of predator who can't find a student promising without wanting to have sex with her?"
"Oh! No!"
He sighed and said it with her. "It's not like that."
"It's that... Well, now that she's taken her N.E.W.T.s, she's not your student any more, is she? Now she's just a witch you think is bright and attractive."
He glowered, but nodded his head, finally."All right then, Andromeda. Suppose you tell me who she is. It is a she?"
By this point, something in Andromeda's mind that was trying to be logical pointed out that if he was about to leave her, he ought to know who with, so it was with wrinkles in her forehead that she whispered the answer, "Hermione."
"Hermione?" he shouted loud enough for it to be heard downstairs. All Andromeda could do was nod.
"Of all the hairbrained ideas-" Severus got up, turned his chair to look out a window, and sat for several moments. Andromeda played with her blanket again and tried not to sniffle. She'd imagined all sorts of terrible things for the day they had this conversation, but this was beyond horrible. Deciding that she had to at least do something, she swung her legs out of the bed and stood up.
"Get back in bed, Andromeda," he said tiredly but without turning. "You heard what Poppy said."
"I should pack your things for you. I want to-I need to feel like I'm your wife this last little bit."
"So I can go be happy with Hermione?"
There, he'd said it. Her heart missed a beat, but she bit her lip and walked toward the foot of the bed. He still wasn't looking at her, so she had to answer aloud. "Yes."
"I'm not leaving you for Hermione." It was said definitively, but he still didn't look at her. Not knowing how to respond, her heart sank a little.
"Then because you're so angry with me that we can't-"
Now he stood up and shook his head. "I'm furious, Andromeda. I'm so angry that if Potter were here, I'd hex him." His fists were balled up at his sides, and now she saw that he was indeed shaking with rage. "Get back in the bed, Andromeda, before I put you in it. If you don't care what Poppy said, I do."
Her eyes became enormous as she sat down on the bed and pulled her legs up under the sheet. He pulled the covers back over her and sat back down on the bed. "You and your sister-" he started. He looked at the ceiling and swallowed hard. He tried to continue- "After everything I told you about wanting to choose my own life and make my own choices… For her to decide who I need to marry, and then plot to make it happen is such a sneaky, Slytherin stunt. But for you to go along with it, especially when you feel as you claim you do is worse. I expected you of all people to understand. There a certain amount of betrayal in it."
She nodded. "I do understand. You won't be able to forgive me." She was back to pulling on the blanket and folding it between her fingers. "I can't forgive myself. I don't blame you for leaving me."
Suddenly he sighed and laughed a hollow laugh. "You don't understand a thing, my beautiful idiot, my dear wife who's older than me but plenty young, as it happens. You will, though."
She looked up in confusion.
"First of all, I'm not leaving you. I have a family here."
She shrugged. "A rather odd one, and I'm not going to hold you against your will just over that."
"I believe you, but if you expect me to leave just because we've had a disagreement, you're an idiot."
"But you said I've betrayed you."
"Do you expect me to give you up just over that? Don't you understand how I've come to depend on you? Don't you realize how lost I was without you during the week at Hogwarts, even in the place that was home to me for almost thirty years?"
"So you're staying?"
"Of course." He tilted his head and slid his hands up around her neck. Andromeda wasn't sure what he was doing, but an instant later he leaned back, holding the chain she'd been wearing. "You may have tinkered with the contract, but I meant the vows. I mean them for as long as we're both on this side of the veil." He slid her rings from the chain and held them to his lips.
"Oh." Suddenly, Andromeda was filled with hope, and the feeling of love that was returned. She could tell that he was still angry, but they would work through it. She slid her hand along the blanket to touch his, and he took it. He placed the rings on her hand and held it up to his face. She looked and realized that his ring was already on his hand.
"The thing is," he said while looking thoughtful, "that I haven't been utterly honest with you, either. It's past time for me to explain a few things, myself."