Severus looked skeptically at Hermione's half-hearted attempts to hobble from the hall to the kitchen and decided that she needed bed rest and they weren't going anywhere.
"You can barely stand on your own!" He concluded, crossing his arms over his chest. Hermione didn't argue. She fell on the couch and shielded herself from the world with a pillow.
"I can't understand, do I really look as bad as I feel?"
Severus sighed, untied his apron, and left the kitchen. For the last hour, he had been busy preparing healing potions and breakfast for his seriously ill witch.
"And you have the audacity to ask! I don't understand at all how you managed to bring yourself to such a state and still move around!" He admonished her and plopped down on a chair.
Hermione closed one eye, trying to hide from his accusing gaze. It wasn't enough for her to have a portrait, so now his completely lively version pounced on her with diatribes.
"I'm tougher than meets the eye," she waved him off listlessly. "And you have one thousand deadlines. I can easily go a couple of hours without your moralizing me."
"Will you survive without potions? You're worse than Reg, I swear," Snape asked, making a face for Hermione.
"Okay, one-one. How is he, by the way?"
"Sirius and Marlene are looking after him while I'm doing a part-time job as a mediwitch."
"Marlene McKinnon?" Hermione vaguely remembered something like that.
"Yeah, Black's girlfriend. She is quite a witch. A half-blood from Slytherin, she drives a motorcycle, she rides a racing broomstick, and aims to become an Auror one day. To the dismay of all my former friends. Once she was predicted to be Tom's favorite, but Black turned out to be more cunning and charming than the Voldypants."
Hermione shook her head in disbelief.
"But what about his prejudice that all Slytherins are future Death Eaters?"
"That stereotype doesn't seem to apply to girls," Snape shrugged. "One half of the school always dreamed of marrying him, and the other one of strangling him. He didn't give in. But with Marlene, everything seems to be serious. He drags her to the ball to introduce her to his parents."
"What about Lady Walburga?"
"As long as they are decently dressed and follow protocol, everything is fine. By the way, we are also invited. Someone should talk to the Death Eaters while Sirius is busy with the duties of the future Head of the Family."
Hermione rolled onto her side and covered her head with a pillow, muttering from there.
"I can not dance."
"Nonsense. I will teach you. Nothing complicated. You will be my companion in the snake's lair."
"Can not wait! Tell me, how does a kid from working-class districts know palace etiquette, court dances, and read volumes on the Dark Arts in Latin?" said Hermione suspiciously, straightening up. Snape beamed like a polished basin.
"Narcissa Black. The bright head girl of Slytherin, who always had a soft spot for poor ragamuffins. We somehow unexpectedly got together in the winter of the second year, when both were painting landscapes near the Black Lake and a snowstorm overtook us. I showed her my hiding place under the Willow, and she gave me a set of brushes. Too mannered, she hated my accent and my lack of upbringing. I was hiding from the Marauders, she was homesick, and somehow we became friends. She taught me everything. And then she introduced me to Lucius, who almost dragged me into the Death Eaters."
Hermione listened to Severus' ingenuous narration and thought about how much she didn't really know about her husband. A reasonable question came to mind:
"What about Lily? I heard you arguing in the kitchen of your house when Regulus was found. You seem to be friends."
"We were friends," Snape confirmed. "She was my first friend, as children we understood each other quite well, then we got older, she got bored, I continued to follow her tail, wrote her letters at Christmas, and stole for her candies from Hogsmeade. It was a fool, a teenager. We stupidly quarreled, she left to look for another entourage, and I found myself the group of merry Death Eaters... If not for you, I would now be flaunting the Dark Mark and collecting tortures and failures."
Hermione was silent for a moment. She realized that by her appearance in this strange reality, she had already managed to change and immediately cross out a whole tangle of probabilities here. And not to say that it upset her too much. The main thing was to save the children and destroy the Horcruxes. And romance Severus as a bonus. Hermione smiled and lay back on the pillow.
"Still, why are you messing with me?"
"You have scars, they smell of Dark magic. I have scars. Even Lily and Narcissa have scars. We can change the situation which we got ourselves into due to our own stupidity. And let the older purebloods drink tea while the revolution is being made around them."
"Listen, you revolutionary, one, didn't the Sorting Hat offer you Gryffidnor? You and Black, in my opinion, were put in the wrong Houses during the Sorting."
Severus grimaced but said nothing.
"Stupidity is everything, Maya. Bold and fearless, treacherous and impartial, smart and cold. These are fairy tales that we believed in all our childhood, so that one half of us is now afraid of our own shadows, and the other joined Voldemort. And it is high time at least to try and think, you know."
"And leave the country?"
"Well, I'm not really ready to go that far just yet. But what Black is trying to pull off with his parents, I really like. It's all bullshit that purebloods hate muggle-borns. An unfortunate lapse in our education, which old Dumby lifted to the skies and made us believe. Pureblood magic is much more complex than it seems at first glance. They were called by fate itself to protect the weaker ones, to guide them if you like. Ancestral Magic came from them - an alliance of ancient families that, united together, can resist any darkness. Or light. The thing was successfully manipulated by the Dark Lord. Once upon a time, it was the purebloods who ruled our world, created laws, and administered justice, but as time passed, Muggle-borns wanted freedom and stopped honoring the traditions of ancient families. The more technology entered our world, the weaker the magic became. Incest, again, played its cruel joke. In an effort to preserve magic in its original form, purebloods increasingly resorted to incest or misalliance, losing power as a result. That's why everyone believed the words of Tom Riddle about the revival of the former domination. And they rushed after him like a flock of sheep."
"And what about you? "Hermione asked another reasonable question.
"And I wanted recognition, I wanted to get an education and find my place in the sun."
"And how did you find it?"
"Do not tease me. It's good that you fell on my head and I caught myself in time. I wrote to my maternal grandfather, Nicholas Prince. We quarreled for a long time in correspondence, but in the end, we agreed to meet. From everything it turns out that I am the direct heir, and if I agree to join the Family and join the Alliance, which is being restored by Black along with the Potters and Longbottoms, and then the Malfoys, the Dark Marks would not be a threat to us anymore. Purebloods will defect to the side of the one who promises more magic and protection. The Horcruxes are waiting for us. Dumby is about to have a heart attack."
"You're not being very flattering about the esteemed headmaster," Hermione drawled, leaning on her elbow and looking at the ranting Severus.
"Because he was always interested only in his precious Gryffindors, he pitted the children against each other and tried to revive the former glory of the Hero of the World. He defeated Grindelwald, with whom, as they say, he had a long and lasting romance, and who knows how they would have ended if they did not have a quarrel. Maybe as a married couple? Stop laughing. In short, Dumby fell into depression, which gradually turned into insanity, and began to play with the lives of children, like with chess pieces. Instead of providing the same Lupin with treatment or at least safe conditions for the duration of the transformation, he placed him in a cage under the Whomping Willow and kept him in it like an animal. He almost ate me once when I foolishly poked my head in to see what was so interesting hidden in a tree trunk. The headmaster asked me not to be too upset, and I saw nightmares about werewolves for two more years after that. And I now owe Potter a life debt for saving my life in the process. Therefore, Maya, I will follow even Black, even after you, even after a bald demon, just to achieve some kind of justice when everything goes to hell!"
"Do you think we can do it?"
"We don't have a choice. Now, get some rest, and I'll make breakfast."
Hermione searched his eyes and smiled at him.