A/N: I don't own Harry Potter
Word count: 746
Hermione slid her gloved hand into the one next to hers.
"It'll be alright," she whispered, looking at the the falling apart house before the pair.
"It will never be alright," he muttered, staring straight ahead. "Nothing will ever be alright, Miss Granger."
"Still on that, Sir?" she teased, the playfulness of her voice not matching the scene surrounding the couple. The house was little more than a skeleton on the landscape. There were dead weeds nearly hiding it. No one had taken care of the property in decades. Even the sky above them was a hazy shade of Winter. Hermione shuddered from the both the cold and the fact the whole world seemed depressed.
"Shall we get this over with?" she asked. He nodded and they started walking to the remains of the house.
"It's not much, I know I should have looked in on it before now, but..."
"You've been busy. There was a war on, you know," she replied. They had reached the structure. "The support beams are still standing," she commented, gently touching one. It held and slowly she put a slight bit of weight on it.
"Interesting. I thought the termites would have eaten them by now," he said, watching as she glanced around before pulling her wand from the inside pocket of her coat.
"There won't be anyone around. Everyone who lived here wisely left a long time ago. If it wasn't for this mess, I would have never stepped foot here again."
"It's structurally sound," she whispered in awe. "You know, if all the beams are the same, it could be the beginning of a new home. We could build it from the ground up. Make it ours, maybe that would help erase some of the bad memories?" she suggested. He touched the beams, one by one, knocking bits and pieces of debris over.
"It looks like they might be," he said, looking at her. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled back under her hood, but he could see a few of her unruly curls escaping and framing her face. She caught him looking at her and flashed him a smile.
"We could build it together."
"We could," he agreed. "First we need to clear out what's not usable, that appears to be pretty much everything that isn't the base structure. The foundation might be damaged."
She waved her wand over it, causing a faint glowing blue image to appear in the air.
"Hmm, not too damaged. It's workable," she stated.
"And how pray tell do you know so much about construction, Miss Granger?"
"I had an uncle, he worked construction. I spent every other summer with him while my parents went on holiday together. He figured he might as well teach me something, instead of just letting me sit inside and read."
"I'll thank him if I ever have a chance," he commented.
"You'll have a chance at the wedding. Now, how do we want to tackle this mess? It would be quicker to the magic way, but..."
"It will be more rewarding if we don't," he agreed. "Although, a bit of magic couldn't hurt," he added summoning a rubbish bag. "First we should start by getting rid of these dead plants, who knows what could be hiding in them."
"Great. I brought some tools. I have a pair of hedge trimmers in here somewhere," she said, rummaging through her tiny periwinkle beaded bag. She pulled out a pair of trimmers and a small machete. He stared at her for a moment.
"It doesn't hurt to be prepared, Sir, I didn't know what we'd find when you said we had to visit the remains of your childhood home."
"Our home now," he said. She nodded, handing him the trimmer. She smiled at him.
"Shall we get started then?"
"Obviously," he agreed, as the pair started tackling the overgrown dead jungle outside the house. Hermione smiled as she watched Severus trimming things back.
She'd been worried this whole business with this place would do nothing but dredge up bad memories, and turn him back into the brooding man he'd been when they'd first met.
However, the idea of making this theirs, of taking those memories and replacing them, it fit so well with them. They had been through so much and now, they both deserved a second chance. She had to admit, she could see the potential in this place, the same way she'd seen the potential in him.