Four Years Later
"Isabella I don't want to go to a Transfiguration conference." Hermione was laughing as her best friend slug her arms around her waist as they walked down the street in Rio de Janeiro , causing her to do a sort of wide duck waddle behind her. Rio had been their home for the last few months. They never spent more than 6 months in any one place, so they never really acquired much by way of furniture or clothes or trinkets that they had to move. When Hermione had met the girl in New York City after only her first 3 days there they had hit it off amazingly. They had been inseparable during her time in the states. To an outsider's view they might have been seen as a couple, but they weren't although they had slept together on more than one occasion it was always after way too much to drink at one party or another. That was until Hermione had to her that she would be leaving soon. Isabella had avoided her for almost a week after that, but showed up at her apartment one afternoon to announce that she was going with her. They had free-fallen their way through America and South America after that and had the time of their lives doing it.
"Come on Mia, it'll be fun. We can sit in the back and make faces at the speakers and see how long it takes to get thrown out." Izzy was laughing too.
"Yes, but it's transfiguration Izz. What if she is there?" Hermione still after four years did not have any desire to see Minerva bloody McGonagall.
"You can't live your life in fear of running into her Mia. Besides, I will be there and if she tries anything I will just kiss you and we can leave." Many times over, had the two women covered for each other when someone flirted too much. Hermione distinctly remembered one individual at a club that wouldn't leave Isabella alone until she had strode across the dance floor, after a few too many glasses of liquid courage, and grabbed her best friend into a prolonged lip lock. The look on the man's face had been priceless and that had been the first drunken shag between them.
"Your right, but that doesn't mean I have to openly seek her out or put myself into a position where she might be." The British witch countered.
"Oh but think about it. We can show up in shorts and bikini tops under mesh shirts and knee high boots and if she is there we can see what she think about turning you down, huh? Please? Please please PLEASE!" The darker skinned woman squeezed her around the waist.
"Oh, FINE! But, if this goes wrong I will kick you from here back to New York." Hermione laughed and turned in the circle of her friend's arms to hug her back.
"That doesn't seem like a fitting punishment for what you are getting yourself into, Little Gryffindor. Personally I'd hang her by her thumbs in my dungeon."
Hermione froze. Only one person ever used that nickname, the only one who knew it, the one who gave it to her. Turning she saw Severus Snape standing in front of them and with a scream of "Uncle Sev!" launched herself at the potions master. They had become excellent friends after the war, when she had saved him from dying that night and he had dropped his greasy git persona. He was actually a decent man beneath that mask.
Severus caught her and hugged her. "So this is where you have been hiding?" He was upset that she hadn't kept in contact with him in the last four years. He was angry that she hadn't kept in contact with anyone from Britain in the last four years. "Why did you never send me a letter."
"Well no, I haven't been hiding in Rio. I went to New York first. That's where I met Izz, after that she and I floated through America some and filtered down through South America. This is just our latest stop. We are leaving here soon anyway. And I haven't kept in contact with anyone from Britain. Well except Ginny every once in a while. Mostly just checking on things and seeing how I am doing and how the baby is." Hermione explained. "What are you doing in Rio?"
Severus held up a bag. "Potions ingredients."
"Ah. So I take it you are on your way back then?"
At Hermione's crest fallen look the potions master pulled her in for another hug and whispered into her hair, "I can stay for another day, Little Gryffindor."
This delighted the younger girl to no end. As much as she was looking to avoid her old life, there were certain people she did miss from time to time. Severus being on that she missed a lot more than anyone else.
Isabella took that moment to step up and introduce herself. The two shook hands and the two women continued on their way back to their apartment with Severus in tow. "So when is this conference that you are dragging me too?"
"The end of the month. So I figure that gives us more than plenty of time to pack before and then get the heck out of dodge after. All we need to figure out is where to go."
"We can play a game of blind map darts when we get home and see what that comes up with. No cheating this time though. No magic, luck only." Hermione poked the girl in the ribs.
"You mean you don't plan where you are going? You just throw darts at a map and go where it says?" Severus was shocked at this. The Hermione he knew always planned everything out to the last detail. She never did anything on a whim. Apparently that had changed.
"Pretty much. We don't own any furniture, or many clothes, and whatever doesn't fit in our bags without magic, fits with magic. So we just pack up and leave whenever we get too bored with one place. We have been here in Rio for, what is it 4 months now?"
"Yeah, give or take a week or so." Isabella answered.
"Interesting." Severus was working out a plan, and if what he was hearing was true, he didn't have much time to see it through.