Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! Something to read while you hide from all your relatives : )
At precicely three o'clock the following day, Severus Apparated to Hermione's flat. He knocked, expecting to find her organized and ready to go, with packages stacked neatly by the door. After all, Hermione Granger had never been anything except prepared.
"Oh, Merlin! Is it three already?" Hermione walked away from the open door without even formally inviting him in. Boxes stood open and half filled. Toys littered the floor. A jar of peanut butter sat open on the kitchen counter, butter knife perched atop it. And most outrageous of all, Atticus was running around the living room in a super hero costume, screaming at the top of his lungs. He clipped the edge of the side table as he flew by, causing the lamp to topple over and crash to the floor.
Severus took one look at the unholy mess and decided to take matters into his own hands. "Silencio." He flicked his wand at Atticus, who continued to run around open mouthed for three more seconds before he realized his voice had gone mute. He froze, and slowly, his eyes travelled up to Severus. He cocked his head, and his lips twisted into a little half smile before he threw himself on the ground dramatically and began kicking his legs.
"Pr- Severus, you shouldn't." But there was no ire in Hermione's reprimand. She'd been wanting to do the same thing for the last two hours.
"He seems no worse for it," Severus returned casually, going to the counter to screw the lid back on the peanut butter jar and wash the dirty knife.
"I'm sorry about all this." She had the grace to look embarrassed. "I didn't think it would be nearly so chaotic to pack up. We just did this a month ago! But every time I pack a box of toys, he wants to drag them all back out, and he missed his nap because he was too excited to sleep with all this going on, and I can't seem to find-" She patted her pockets, felt along her sleeves, and then went to her hands and knees to look beneath the couch. Before Severus could get any ideas about appreciating the view of her denim clad arse on display, he moved to her side and pulled her to her feet. With a long-suffering smirk, he plucked her wand from her hair and handed it to her. She sighed in relief.
"Why don't you take Atticus to the bedroom for some quiet time. I might be wrong, but some one-on-one time in a darkened room might be just what you both need."
"I- yes, but all this..." She looked around at the mess and grimaced.
"I will take all the boxes already packed back to the estate. I can shrink down the furniture and get it moved as well while you are indisposed." Hermione looked as if she wanted to argue, but one glance at the little boy still flailing dramatically on the floor changed her mind.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. Severus only nodded in reply, then lifted the silencing charm from Atticus as she took him into the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Hermione emerged to find Severus stacking now miniaturized chairs in her kitchen. He'd removed his frock coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves. When he bent to pick up the whole stack of chairs, she noticed the way his biceps strained against the fabric of his shirt, and the lean muscles in his forearms flexed with exertion. Once he had the chairs securely grasped, he Disapparated. Without the ex-professor there to distract her, Hermione realized that most of the room was empty. He'd managed to move all the closed boxes, nearly all the furniture, and had even gathered the toys and tucked them away in their respective boxes.
A moment later, he Apparated back into the room and saw her. "I thought you should check over those open boxes over there before I shrink them. I did not see anything which oughtn't be shrunk, but as you say, better safe than sorry." He shrunk her table and then stacked two boxes atop it before Disapparating again. Hermione looked over the ones he'd pointed out, setting aside two that she wasn't sure about, then shrinking the others herself. Quickly and efficiently, they moved the rest of the flat's contents to the estate. Finally, all that was left was Atticus and the bed he was sleeping on.
"Perhaps, if you were to go on ahead and darken the room we will be moving him to, I might be able to Apparate him without waking him."
Hermione looked at Severus skeptically. "Are you sure you haven't worn yourself out? You've been going back and forth for a long time." Severus stopped himself from scowling at her affront to his skill. She was entrusting him with the safety of her child, after all. Surely a mother had a right to some mildly irritating concern?
"I can assure you, I am quite capable. Multiple Apparitions were necessary quite often by the end of the war. It has been a while since I've done so many in a single day again, but my stamina hasn't atrophied."
The word 'stamina' caught at Hermione's belly and tugged. How silly. It was just a word, after all. He was talking about his magical stamina. She nodded, conceding the point. "I'm sure you're right. I'll go over, get the room ready, then you can grab him, I'll grab the bed, and we can try to Indiana Jones it."
"Try to Indiana Jones it?" Severus raised a brow.
"You know, switch the treasure for the rock before the pressure switch activates the booby traps. Or, in this case, activates the crying, grumpy child."
"Ah, well then by all means. Let's Jones it." He smirked at her and she stifled a laugh. Together, they crept into the bedroom. Atticus was sleeping horizontal across the foot of the bed, his blue bunny tucked beneath his chin. Slowly, painstakingly carefully, Severus slid his arms beneath the child and lifted him up. Atticus snorted a little, then turned his face into Severus' chest and continued sleeping. Hermione quickly shrunk the toddler bed until it was the size of a bread bin, then nodded that she was ready.
Severus took a moment to focus, putting all his considerable effort into making the Apparition as smooth as possible. Instead of the sucking, churning feeling that usually accompanied Apparition, there was only a gentle slide. An instant later they were in the small study. Hermione arrived a split second after him and set about placing the bed and enlarging it. Once done, Severus stooped over and deposited Atticus beneath the covers. The boy stirred, let out a small wail, then stuffed his bunny's foot in his mouth and returned to sleep.
Both adults let out the breath they had been holding. As noiselessly as possible, they left the study and closed the door behind them. "I didn't think that was going to go half so well."
"Doubting my abilities again?" Severus asked archly.
"Never again, I promise you. That was nothing short of miraculous. Honestly, I've never seen anyone make Apparition look so... gentle."
"I may be past my prime, but I still have my talents."
Hermione laughed dismissively. "You're barely even middle aged. And your advert was blatantly misleading, by the way. 'Older gentleman?' Maybe by muggle standards, but by wizarding standards you aren't even old enough to buy a ridiculously expensive racing broom and claim you're reliving your glory years."
"I think you underestimate the toll two wars take on the body, Miss Granger. Besides, how should I have written it? Ex-Death Eater living on isolated estate seeks naive employee to clean his dirty laundry? I'd have done just as well casting a Morsmorde and seeing who comes calling."
"I'm sure you'd have gotten just as many responses as you did by wording it more accurately."
Severus smirked. "Indeed. Then I would still have ended up having to hire you, Miss Granger."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that as it was, I only got one reply to that advertisement. You."
Hermione looked aghast. "What? With that salary? You had to have gotten scads of replies. That doesn't make sense."
"Few in the younger generation are willing to take this kind of work, and in such a remote location. The older generation are mostly settled into permanent positions and in no mood to change. That leaves the pool of employees I have to choose from very small."
"Yes, small maybe, but just one?" She tried to peer at him more closely and see if he was lying to her, but saw no trace of deceit. Then again, he'd been a master spy for years. He likely could lie to his own grandmother's face and show not a sign. "Well, in that case I concede your stretch of the truth. I'll admit that I myself would have been far less inclined to answer an ad for a young, single man looking for a live-in housekeeper."
"How magnanimous of you." He curled his lip at her but with no real malice.
"I am awfully generous. And speaking of that, I feel like I owe you a spot of tea, at least, for all your help. But my tea service is packed away somewhere..."
"That's quite alright, Miss Granger. I won't impose on your time any longer. I can bring you up a tray and then leave you to your evening." He turned, but Hermione stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"No, I insist. It really is the least I can do. I'll go get the tray and bring it up. Why don't you have a seat? You've earned it."
"I was not the one dealing with a twelve kilo demon all day. Besides, your boxes were very little in terms of physical exertion when compared to a full pewter cauldron or a bundle of Giant's teeth."
"Please," Hermione looked up at him with wide, endless brown eyes. Severus was a stubborn bastard, but he also knew not to fight pointless battles. After all, he did want tea. He raised his hands in defeat. When she still stared at him, he moved back until he was sitting on one of the re-enlarged chairs.
"Better?"
"Much. Won't be more than a tick." Then she turned and made her way down to the kitchens. It took her less time than she'd feared to find his stock of tea – startlingly low – and his dishes – startlingly numerous- and put the tray together. Since she realized she had no idea how he took his tea, she added sugar, lemon, honey, and milk to the tray. Then she put a spell on the tray to keep it steady and climbed back up the stairs to the attic.
When she got to her rooms, Severus had already re-enlarged several other pieces of furniture, including a chair for her, and the table. Gratefully, she took her seat and poured him a cup.
"How do you like it?" she asked.
Severus froze, his head jerking to the side. Then he saw the innocent expression in her wide eyes and schooled his features. "I like my tea black."
"Alright. Black tea it is." Why was he shifting uncomfortably? It was just tea. But for how tense he suddenly looked, one would think they were on a date in a nudist colony. When she handed him the cup, she made sure their fingers didn't touch. Despite being an incredibly tactile person, she didn't think it would do to start hanging on her employer. Nor did she think a man like Severus Snape would appreciate it. Though he was obviously a far different person than the icy man she'd known in school, he still didn't seem like the type that would be comfortable with physical contact.
"Thank you," he inclined his head to her and took a drink. It was strong, piping hot, and smelled divine. He barely refrained from signing in pleasure. He was so particular about his tea that it was an unexpected pleasure to have someone brew it just the way he liked. When he looked up over the rim of his cup, Hermione had finished doctoring her own and was watching him as she sipped. "What is it, Miss Granger?"
"I'm just... curious."
"Merlin save me," he muttered. "Curious as to what?"
"It's just that you seem so-" she floundered for the right word, "so calm."
"Calm?" One raven brow rose.
"That's not exactly what I meant. You're relaxed. Genial, even." She scrunched up her face in frustration, knowing her words weren't coming out the way she wanted. "I guess I'm just wondering what it was that brought about so much change. Was it simply the end of the war? I was only involved in the second war and I still find myself slipping into old habits even years later. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you..."
"It's not as if I changed the entirety of my being overnight, if that is what you are asking. It took years for me to stop constantly looking over my shoulder, to stop using cruelty as armour and callousness as ready defense. I could not simply shed the Death Eater persona that had been my cloak for twenty years. The guilt that had driven me for so long did not evaporate at the Dark Lord's death. But over time, I have come to terms with most of it. I doubt that I will ever stop looking for ulterior motives in people, or wish to change my reclusive lifestyle. But time has tempered me. This house, too, changed me."
"The house? Isn't this the Prince estate?"
Severus let out a barking laugh. "The Prince estate? Whatever would give you that idea?"
"Well, I just assumed-"
"My mother's parents would have squandered every last dime and burned every possession rather than let it fall into the hands of their disgraced daughter or her tainted son. No, I have nothing of the Prince's except their name, and even that is half spite." He smirked and took another sip of his tea. "This estate is from Albus."
"This was Dumbledore's house?" Hermione was taken aback.
"I don't believe he spent much time here, but yes, this was his ancestral home." He pinched the bridge of his nose as he recalled his frustration over the gift, then sighed. "He willed it to me after his death. Obviously I wasn't made aware of that until after the trials."
"So you've been here for six years?" She was surprised he hadn't either learned to handle all the management of the estate or hired a house manager earlier.
Severus shook his head. "I refused at first. Aberforth should have received the estate as Albus' only surviving kin. Of course, Aberforth refused to take it, preferring instead to stay at the Hog's Head. It wasn't until after he died three years ago that I grudgingly moved in."
"How did the house change you, then?"
"It was everything I had dreamed of, years ago. Enormous, stately, opulent... and I found that over the years, my desires had changed drastically. Now, its solitude is what I value. The space that allows me to have a fully functional lab. I find that I care very little for it's extravagances. Realizing that I had changed so much was a sort of relief. I no longer wanted to be that sullen, petulant young man desperate to prove himself to the world. And then, living in the house bequeathed to me by the man I had killed..." he trailed off, looking around as if he could see Dumbledore in every shadow of the house.
"You know that wasn't your fault," Hermione said gently. Severus waved his hand negligently.
"I've made my peace with it. He was dying, and there was no other way that both saved Draco and proved my loyalty to the Dark Lord beyond a doubt. Still, the fact that he left his home to me, knowing that I would be the one to cast the killing curse, went a long way to soothing my soul. Being surrounded by so many reminders of the man forced me to face my resentments, my grief, and deal with them. I think, perhaps, that I learned to see myself a bit of the way he saw me. Those things, combined with the fact that for the first time in my life I had no obligations to anyone, helped me let go of the past." He took a drink of his tea and then set it back in the saucer, raising a brow. "Are you certain you didn't lace this with something to make me maudlin?"
Hermione laughed and shook her head. "Just hot water and tea leaves, I promise."
"I suppose since you are the first person to ask, you got stuck with the longest version of the story." He smirked, then glanced at the door to the study. A small thump had come from within.
"Well I'm glad you were willing to tell it to me. The fact that you did says perhaps more than anything about how much you've changed." She rose, setting her cup back on the tea service and cleaning it with her wand. "I suppose I ought to wake Atty if that wasn't him waking up on his own. If he sleeps much longer he won't sleep at all tonight, and then neither of us will be happy in the morning." Severus rose as well.
"I will leave you to your evening, then. Don't worry about noise as you are unpacking. The floors are very well insulated. I'll leave you a list of items to pick up when you shop tomorrow, as well as money, in the kitchen." He levitated the tea tray in front of him and went to the door. "Good evening, Miss Granger. I hope this is the start of an arrangement that benefits both of us."
"Hermione," she corrected gently. "And I hope so, too. Sleep well, Severus."
He inclined his head at her and then pulled the door closed behind him.
