I am SO sorry!
Not uploading for nearly an eternity, but sometimes life plays cruel games and in my case it was an accumulation of stupid incidents. First: my laptop broke down. So now I have a new one, but it took some time to get it, to get the data from the ruined laptop and to put it up here and well... Second: Finals. Oh I hate/love finals. While the signify the last test, they are also a bitch to learn for. Thirdly: I fell sick. Yes, all this apparently wasn't enough for whoever pulled the strings, NO I had to fall sick as well.
Anyway, now I'm back and I have 3 new chapters for you. As always I do not own, I took large liberties, but please enjoy.
"Good morning, professor." She greeted kindly as she walked over to the table he had just taken his seat at with his companion. "Good morning, Mister Malfoy, can I get you something?"
"A bottle of elven wine, now shoo." Hermione was about to walk away with what she hoped was her dignity after Malfoy's snobby dismissal, when her potions professor caught her by her arm, effectively stopping her and searching her eyes.
"Actually, Mister Granger, I would prefer a really good glass of Firewhiskey, if you wouldn't mind." She nodded her head and was on her way again.
The Leaky Cauldron was mostly empty at this time of the day and Tom was at the Ministry to receive a slip that would allow him to close the bar during the night – as it was Hermione and Abraxas, Alecto's substitution, had the gastronomy to themselves. At two o'clock in the morning it was a rather quiet place – especially nowadays, when people didn't dare to be out all night in fear of what might happen.
"They're not making trouble are they?" Abraxas asked when Hermes reached the bar and loaded the orders on her tablet. The bushy-haired young man turned around to look at the cook – his eyes had always felt strange to her, his whole appearance for that matter, but he was a hearty, if a bit rough, companion and she had quickly forgotten her prejudices, she of all people shouldn't have them.
Hermes shook his head at the cook. "Don't bother – I know them, they're not pleasant company but they're not as stupid as to act up."
Abraxas nodded, but still didn't leave her out of his sight when she steered back to table thirteen – of all tables… - with the wine and the whiskey on the tray. Both wizards seemed to have noticed her departing from the bar and when she had arrived, they did not speak a word.
"Mister Granger," Malfoy spoke up and she found herself looking into his steel-gray eyes, "I was under the impression that you were… muggle-born." He began as she poured him his first glass of wine before she deposited the bottle. "How come you ended up… here?"
About to answer, she felt a small, almost unnoticeable prod at her mental barriers. She didn't answer for a moment and felt his prod retreat, she had to decide – quickly – if she wanted him to know what she could do or if it would be prudent to let him believe she was clueless. The wheels of her brain turned at high-speed. She had seen Malfoy at the resurrection rite, Luna had fought him, and he'd fled early enough – it would be stupid, she concluded, to let someone so apparently close to the Snake know what she could do, it could save her hide after all.
Taking a breath, she almost smirked when she felt his prod again, she let him in instantly. "I am an orphan, Mister Malfoy, it surprises me that your esteemed son hasn't told you so… although I imagine that he has other things to worry about, than someone like me." She could feel Malfoy shift through her fake memories, adding a bit of fear when he inspected her memories of Draco and diligently leaving out the moment when she had hexed him with birds. He was so intent on finding whatever it was, that he forgot to play his role for a moment, simply staring at her, while she answered his stare with a stare of her own.
"I see…" he finally responded, "It is almost a shame, is it not? I heard you were a powerful wizard."
What was he here for? Hermione quirked an eyebrow and set down the tray again. "Did you hear that then? Surely you must be aware that it is all talk, created simply to make a friend of Harry Potter sound stronger."
The blond quirked an eyebrow this time, as he took a small sip of his elven wine nodding appreciatively. "Why would you say something as obtuse as this, Mister Granger? Surely it can't all be just silly school-talk?"
Fortunately, guests entered the Leaky just at this moment, loud guests and from what they looked like, they were trouble – but at least she was glad to finally be able to get away from the inquisition. "I say so freely, sir, because nobody buys it anyways. Now if you will excuse me, it is unusual but we have more patrons." With a perfected bow, she left the side of table thirteen and went to tend to her other guests, but surprisingly enough Abraxas had taken to them, handling them in a rough but friendly manner. So she stood at the bar and started to pull down the bottles from their place in the cupboard to clean the old wood and put the bottles back. She did this every evening, it calmed her.
She had just taken out all of the bottles, when a soft chirp broke her out of her trance, Sif circled above the heads of the guests and after dropping a parcel straight on Malfoy's head, she swooped down on Hermione's shoulder and chirped again.
"Why, hello dear lady, how are you today, hm?" The animal butted its head against hers and Hermione stroked her just beneath her beak; the owl hooted contently. "What did I tell you about flying in the night, hm, Sif? I thought we'd discussed that already and as far as I know you even agreed with me."
The animal clipped her beak and stretched out her foot, on which Hermione found a scroll – it was from Viktor. When she detached it and sat down at a table perching the owl on her crossed feet she started to stroke the animal over her feathers. Sif was still fit for her age, whatever that might be, and she enjoyed flying the long distances to Bulgaria, but she was always so exhausted when she tried to make it back on the same day.
"One day, Sif, you'll overexert yourself, now I wouldn't want that. Then I wouldn't have you to sit on my shoulder and read my books with me anymore – that would be a pity, pretty one, hm?" The owl chirped in acknowledgment and Hermione cooed, continuously patting the owl who relished in the attention.
"Granger!"
Hermione tried to extract Sif from her form, but the owl screeched once in disagreement and fluttered up to her shoulder, where she leaned against Hermione's head and rested. It was just as well to the witch, she was used to Sif's antics by now and let the animal pass.
Carefully balancing her steps as not to jostle the wary traveler on her shoulder too much, she reached table thirteen where her professor was glaring at her by now and Malfoy had emptied the bottle of wine. "Yes, Mister Malfoy?"
"Another one, if you please." He held the bottle in her direction and she received it, noting that his speech was only slightly impaired, but she knew that elven wine – especially the one in the Leaky Cauldron – took some time to develop its full potential. She turned to her professor hence, whose glass was also empty.
"For you too, professor?" the dour man nodded, glaring at something over her shoulder, but she did not care to look. Hermes stepped back to the bar and arranged another round for table thirteen, Sif purred satisfied on her shoulder, clipping her beak when she found the owl treats in a corner where Hermione usually hid them under a stasis-spell. The barn owl swooped down and clawed a treat, immediately returning to her place on Hermes' shoulder where she nibbled on the cookie as the wizard went back to his professor and Mister Malfoy.
The elven wine had set in by now and Malfoy's speech was no longer correct, but if he didn't open his mouth, then no one would have supposed that he was not clear in his mind. The package that had landed on Malfoy's head earlier was opened and only the wrappings were strewn on the table.
"Should I clear away the wrappings, or will you need them again?" she asked, not sure if she asked her professor or Malfoy, but it was her professor who reacted anyways, while Malfoy was silently sipping his wine, giving his best to not open his mouth and babble.
With a swish of his hand, he vanished the wrappings and called a chair close, beckoning it to nudge the hollows of Hermione's knees. When she ignored it, her professor gestured for her to lower herself on the stool. "Sit, Granger, I promise I won't eat you."
As strange as those words sounded by themselves already, hearing them from her professor made them sound even stranger. She sat; Sif's nibbling on her treat had turned into a veritable fight with the cookie. Normally the owl enjoyed it when her food was still wiggling a bit and treats for those fancies existed, but judging by the short, angry chirp the owl gave off, she didn't enjoy a moving treat after a long journey at all.
Clucking her tongue, she opened her palm, suggesting that Sif threw the treat into it – the owl fought with the cookie a little more, before she gave up and hurled the cookie away with a disgusted screech at the bouncing treat in Hermione's hand. Hermes did not want to know just what made the treat wiggle and bounce, but she supposed that it was a charm that activated when the treat came in contact with the claw of an owl. The animals were intelligent enough to hold a treat while they took small bites of it and under normal circumstances Sif would have enjoyed her wiggling treat, but she was tired, Hermione guessed and she only wanted something to eat. Granger solved the problem without much of a thought.
Wordlessly patting her knee, the owl fluttered down on her knee, eying the unmoving treat in the palm of her hand and deciding to give it a testing peck – it didn't move. Understanding the owl hooted and started to nibble at the immobile treat that lay in Hermione's palm.
Snape had watched the short interaction of the two, while Granger only had eyes for the owl. Lucius was off to lala-land, as he always was when he drank elven-wine, but they had figured that today was a day to drink. After all, today was the day Narcissa fled the country – it was best if they just drank to forget, they wouldn't have a lot of knowledge left after they were done, especially not Lucius, he always reacted badly to elven wine.
"Where did you get that owl, Mister Granger?" he finally asked the student, who had started to stroke the feathers of the owl while it munched satisfied on the treats that she fed it.
Earlier that evening he had discreetly cast the Finite, simply to see her the way she really was. She blossomed into such a fine woman, every time he saw her she was just a little more mature. This year would be her fifth year, only two more years and Hogwarts would have trained their first witch. Against his up-bringing he had decided not to alert her presence to the headmaster – it may be for selfish reasons, or because it was high time that women of all statuses of birth or societal classes be allowed to participate in the full curriculum of the school of wizardry; after all they would soon enter the twenty-first century.
"I didn't get her, sir." She responded and he noticed that without the Glamours, her lips were plumper, ripe and more beautiful, rosy and wonderfully shaped as she spoke. Her voice was lighter when the altering charms were cancelled, softer and yet hinting on a hidden strength – it was a voice with depth. "Sif came to fetch me on my first day to Hogwarts and since then has always returned." She smiled when Sif chirped, demanding another treat. "Actually I suspect her to betray another master while she comes back to me, but until now no one has complained and I really like her."
He wondered how she would react if she would know that Sif's name was Hera and that she'd been the owl of his mother that had passed to him when he'd entered Hogwarts – but Sif was a softer name, and after all, Hera's animal had been a peacock, not an owl. Sif fit much better than Hera… and he hardly had time for the poor animal that much was true, he hardly remembered to eat himself, let alone remembering to feed his owl; no wonder she'd taken so much to a young woman that fed her treats and stroked her so reverently. Oh what he wouldn't give to be his owl… Damn alcohol.
"Sir, do you think she'll be in trouble if found out? Normally owls don't just… change masters…"
Snape was aware that he should have snarled at her, should have said something scathing and unkind, but Lucius was asleep – his second bottle of elven wine, empty – the other guests were gone and the strange cook was gone as well, they were alone. He looked at her again and wished, just this once, to know what her name was, just this once…
"Granger, I think the owl will be the last one to have problems, but since you've bribed her with treats maybe the original owner will not be too happy about that."
She was tired from what he could tell, the night-shifts grated on her, but she still pulled through, because she had decided that this was her world, even though technically she wasn't wanted here – her Glamours were still firmly in place, even though it was three in the morning by now. As he swallowed the last of his Firewhiskey, he mused that Apparating home now wasn't an option anymore – he'd splinch himself, not to speak of Lucius who was probably dreaming about his beautiful Cissy… the fool would unintentionally splinch himself for sure.
He set down his glass, his eyes still on the young woman next to him. She was wearing one of Alecto's shirts and three-quarter jeans – daring a quick look at her legs, his mouth watered at the slim and shapely legs, and shaved, that stuck in black, flat shoes. Any wizard her age, middle-class, would have looked like her – she was incredibly apt at adapting.
"Maybe Miss…ter Granger, you'd write the bill on my name and allow the two of us to retreat to a room." Snape sighed silently, suppressing a drunken smile – though he was not sure how successful he was, when she looked at him with huge eyes, Merlin she was gorgeous.
"Of course, professor." She looked warily at Lucius – Sif had taken up residence on her shoulder again, where the owl seemed to be preparing to go to sleep. "Will you manage to… transport him? There are quite a few steps to take."
Snape nodded positively and when she grabbed the universal key and ascended the stairs in front of him, he thought that he'd carry ten Lucius if he would be allowed one glimpse of her behind in those trousers as she took the high stairs for each time he carried one. If he wouldn't have been so preoccupied in maneuvering Lucius into their room, he'd have probably drooled at the sight.
When she opened a room for them and stepped in to make sure that they were properly equipped, she helped him carefully put Lucius to bed – the care with which she arranged his body on the fluff mattress almost made him want to switch with the drunk pass-out just so it'd be him whom she'd be arranging.
There was another bed at the end of the room and he steered his steps towards that, leaving her to cover the blond man. He had sat down, holding his head in his hands, when she called him by his title – he looked up and saw her yawning.
"Sir, if you need anything, I am in the room just opposite of you. Please refrain from going down, Abraxas never sleeps and he is suspicious of either of you. And pay tomorrow." He nodded when she stepped out and almost missed her quiet 'Good night' – but only almost.
He smiled to himself… just the room opposite, yes? With a flick of his wrist the lights went out and with a silent incantation, he transformed into a black cloud, invisible in the dark – he slithered through the small split of his door… and then hers.
There are so many reviews, alerts and whatnots that I received that, at the first look at my mailbox (86 messages from fanfiction), I did not even want to go through it. BUT I decided to be a man (a womanly manly woman... or whatever) and just do it. Here, the fruits of my labour:
First of all, thank you all for your patience (or not patience... we'll see) and I AM SORRY FOR MAKING YOU ALL WAIT SO LONG!
Thank you Smurfgirlz (now that the finals are almost over, I'll be able to upload more regularly again), renaid (Viktor was strange to deal with, I'm glad you liked it), douglas. bailey. 7946 (no love-triangle, but the idea is interesting), Ceralyn (thank you), TequilaNervous (I disliked the way Harry's stamina was just taken for granted, I mean it's not the same - Also, Hermione is kickass, I just needed to show that as well), arabellagrace (I hope the wait payed up...), Known Anonymous (so sorry for the long wait, thanks for the heads up), Starflower1984 (thank you), ousia (thank you for the heads up), Allyll (I realize it took me a while, but here it is!), bushyhaired-american-nerd (I had to laugh at your review from chapter 20 - please do not be disappointed?), SMKJTF (thank you for allowing me the shortcut, it's so much easier - and also thank you for the review, I am sorry for the wait), pulchra tenebris (sorry for the wait) and Anon (thank you) for the heartening REVIEWS.
My thanks as well to greengummybears, Dkaraly, Dolphinfsg, Skythe Bioarch, CrazyReader3, islegion, hellsmile89, babybluebabybunny, jB Watanabe, cgkendall and DramaQueen4eva for the STORY ALERTS and to aly-child for the additional Story favouring, to pulchra tenebris for the Author favouring and the Story favouring, to hermionefan1999 for the added Author alert and the Story favouring, and Auroras Jenkins and cassandraburns for the additional Story Favouring.
And since we already started with the Story Favs, let me continue there and thank Ayumi kaya (also for the Story and Author Alert), SaikaHan, xiMenagerie (as well for the Story Alert) and Babycutiepie (also for the Story Alert).
I AM SORRY for the long delay - I hope these three chapters somewhat make it up, there's a fourth soon to expect as well.
