No complaining from me! I love the line "And although they did talk after that, aside from a muttered Scourgify to get the blood off, it was somewhat incoherent and very private." It sums their relationship up perfectly and is in many ways more satisfying than a technical description of what we all know happened-let them have their privacy. I did enjoy Winky's musings and hopes for the future though.

I absolutely loved this, cliches and all. ^_^

I feel a lot, I don't speak English... rs rs rs Using translator. Forgive me… I love this history. One of my favorite ones. I read and I read and I always find beautiful. Touching! Wonderful! Intriguing!! Unexpected! Too much!! Thank you, thank you very much for the pleasure of this reading! Kisses in the heart…

I love this story so much, I think I've read it 20+ times. I know what's going to happen, I know the ending, but still, it makes me so happy to read it again :) which is why I'm reviewing now, to thank you for your brilliant writing and making my life just that much better :D

Applauds

Nevermind the cliches, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thank you.

She really was digging her own grave while she kept talking. Amusing, really... and Snape too while he kept perusing over Hermione's stash of books.

Brilliant story. It's a wonder how I hadn't found this sooner.

best lines:


Potter got up, walking over to them, and for a long moment he and Severus locked gazes. Then he held out his hand, giving Severus a small, rueful smile. "I... think it's time we both let bygones be bygones," he said quietly. "I'm sorry, for everything."
...
"Too many Bludgers," Ginny said wisely. "One of them must have knocked some sense into him."

they'd been married without having a party, or a lavish ceremony - or even guests. Hermione's parents had been their witnesses, and that had been all they'd wanted. Their relationship had started in quiet and companionship, it had seemed fitting that their wedding be the same.

"For the next ten years, I plan to build up the business and have however many children we decide on, which is tentatively three. Then when I'm thirty, I'll enter the Ministry. I'm reasonably confident that I can make Minister for Magic by thirty-five."
...
"In ten years, mate, we flee the country," the other twin told him.

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She'd had to make a special trip to buy a set of mugs so hideous that nobody cared if they got broken...

Winky looked around the room and uttered a tiny, squeaky snort...
"She's a lot more argumentative now than she used to be, have you noticed that? I think she's finally gotten used to the idea of freedom."
"She's positively bossy." Severus poked around the plate of biscuits until he found a lemon cream. "I blame your dreadful influence."

he wasn't sure he could stand holding her while she wept for someone else. He was a jealous man, he always had been, he would only wind up hurting her more.

(It's a pity to see Hermione suffering because of a fool like moRon. He continues to ruin her life even from the grave.)

"It was always his best subject, as I recall." He was not going to say anything unkind about her friend, not today. And as mad as Neville had always driven him, he felt guilty about how his evil-teacher guise had made him treat the boy.

He was tired of punishing himself. He had risked more than anyone else, had faced death and torment time and again, and it was not fair. It was not just. He'd gone from being abused by the Marauders to being manipulated by Voldemort to being controlled by Dumbledore, and he was suddenly blisteringly angry at all of them. He would NOT keep torturing himself on their behalf. It was over, it was finished, and he was done with them all.

"We're both idiots," she told him, cuddling against him as she kissed him again. "But you're a bigger one, I'm sticking to that."

He giggled. He actually giggled.

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It didn't help that his response to her sniping was to snipe back - which she'd liked right up until she realized she'd been liking it in comparison to Harry and Ron's tendency to look wounded or sulk. It had made her feel horribly disloyal, realizing that she preferred Severus in yet another way.

Luna's ability to puncture inflated egos and poke holes in convincing lies was on the increase, and it had been pretty good even at school.

Slowly, relentlessly, Hermione was being pulled out of the protective shell that was the house at Spinner's End. She hated it.

Friend? Partner? Ally? She wasn't sure how to think of him anymore...Increasingly, though, she found herself thinking of him simply as 'mine'.

the wizarding world DESPERATELY needed a few good mental health professionals!

A nice little bicker later, she felt a bit better.

"Hello, Severus," she said quietly. "We... haven't seen you for a while," she added awkwardly.
Hermione bristled beside him. "You noticed!" she said, in the cuttingly sweet voice she saved for when she was especially angry. "And after only eleven months! It must be wonderful to be so keenly observant."
Severus smiled just a little, pleased by her protective anger and decidedly amused by the stunned look on Minerva's face.

"We work well together - and I very much enjoy the challenge of working with someone who doesn't need me to do his homework for him," she added, a rather wry note in her voice.

"I'm very much enjoying our work. I'm sure you'll understand my relief that he's not planning to give it up to return to a position where he was neither wanted nor valued."

He paused, and decided he could risk just a little emotional vulnerability. He did, after all, have a devoted protector beside him. "I am glad to see you," he added more quietly. "I have few friends, these days."

From his reading, he knew that sudden confusion and embarrassment after such a potentially revealing statement could mean one of two things - either she was attracted to him, or she wasn't... Which was not, really, very helpful.

"[Percy] and I are the only members of the family who're any good at keeping secrets..."
"I mean, I love your family, Gin, you know I do, but it's the easiest thing in the world to get secrets out of them. Just wind them up enough and it stands out all over them."

" If he was easier to read, I'd know what to do."
"If he was easier to read, you wouldn't be half as crazy about him," Ginny pointed out.

"When did everyone in the world suddenly turn all perceptive on me?" she asked plaintively. "Neville, Percy, Fred, George... and now you!"
Ginny shrugged, giving her a rather sad smile. "We're all growing up, I guess," she said softly. "Finally."

(You know, this must be the second time I'm reading this. All I can say is, I must be enjoying it a lot more the second time around.)

Quills were very pretty, but she wasn't at Hogwarts any longer, and one of the first things she'd done when the money started coming in again was to buy a couple of good-quality fountain pens. They were less messy, they were less fiddly, and she could chew on them without making herself ill.

He nodded. "We need a decent Elvish dictionary," he said, scowling at the translation in front of him. "I'm not getting anywhere working from the German, I might get further with the original text."

He opened it again turned back, scanning the preceding paragraphs... not an abusive relationship, he realized, as he had first assumed. Jane was a child, bullied by other children. By children indulged and pampered by those around them, who were not punished for their treatment of her... indeed, he discovered, reading on, she was punished herself for fighting back. Close to home indeed...

He closed the book again, more gently this time, his hands shaking a little. If he hadn't known better, he might have suspected that some Dark Magic was at work, drawing his worst fears and memories from his mind to shape the words as he read them. To be solitary and hated... who would want to live under such circumstances? He hadn't.

He should put it back. It was one of her favourites, she'd be annoyed if he took it. But, looking down at the book again, he knew he wouldn't. He wanted to know what happened to stubborn, unhappy little Jane, if she managed to escape her fate and be happy...

"I'm fine! It's not... he..." Hermione covered her face with her hands. "He took one of my books and he's READING it!" she wailed.

"It's a literary classic," Remus said, giving Hermione a sympathetic look... although his lips were twitching just a little. "In which... uhm... the heroine winds up finding true love with a tall, dark, unattractive-but-charming man with a dark past who happens to be twice her age."

Tonks reached over to pat Hermione on the shoulder. "Why did you even bring it into the house, if it's that... er... obvious?" she asked curiously.
"I didn't NOTICE," Hermione whimpered, sitting up. Her face was so red it felt painfully hot. "I mean... I know it sounds stupid, but I've had that book since I was nine, and I didn't think! I really didn't notice the parallels until I saw him holding the book, and then it all sort of hit me... and he wouldn't give it back!" she added indignantly. "He's actually strong enough to hold me off, now! Of all the times for him to be getting some of his strength back!"

(I was laughing my head off at this point. I'll have to read the Eyre book at this rate.)

"The Marauders didn't like him at all, did they, any of them? Of course, you can't blame them. Scrawny little git, not much fun to have to look at, bit of a swot, no sense of humour, always bleating about how you'd get in trouble if you kept doing that..."
"Exactly," Remus said, giving her a rueful smile.
"...exactly like me in first year, in other words," Hermione finished, closing her mouth with a snap.

(Yes! Brilliant line! Btw, I've got a list of bullying!Marauder fics in my profile)

.. but he got damn near hysterical every time Harry tried to pick a fight with him. I thought it was strange at the time, but I was too young to understand why at first. I didn't work out that it was a deeply ingrained learned response until much later."

(Hunh. Hadnt thought of that before)

Remus looked at the floor, his thin face a little pale. "It wasn't... that bad," he said in a small voice, as if trying to convince himself.
...
"So imagine me in his place, Remus, all the oh-so-amusing things that James and Sirius used to do happening to me, and YOU TELL ME IT WASN'T THAT BAD!"

"...you didn't spend seven years at school hanging around with someone who he hated with an undying passion but who he kept saving because he couldn't just stand by and let a child get hurt!"
...
"You won't stand by and let someone helpless get hurt, either," Ginny continued.

Hermione hadn't cried, really, since that agonizing month just after Ron had died. A tear or two here and there, but no actual crying. At least not while she'd been awake. Now, having apparated directly to her room, she curled up around Crookshanks and wept...for the young, frightened Severus, for the bitter, unhappy adult he'd become...

"Torrential floods of tears are not, so far as I am aware, included in the usual definitions of 'fine'.

The books had been... surprisingly informative. Much attention had been given to the whys and wherefores of people's behaviour, and since both were told from the feminine viewpoint, and written by female authors, they provided a valuable insight into the working of the feminine mind - which had always been a near impenetrable mystery, to him.

They had merely reinforced his opinion that romance - and, by extension, love - consisted of a mixture of treacly sentiment and frantic pawing. Treacly sentiment set his teeth on edge, and although frantic pawing had its moments...

(three cheers for frantic pawing...)

Esteem. It was a word he'd never before associated with love.

Severus had never thought that Ron Weasley was worthy of Hermione, even when he'd been teaching them both and determined to dislike the brats. Ron had, it was true, been brave and loyal. He'd also been stupid.

He could do it. He'd deceived Voldemort, how difficult could it be to deceive himself?

Best lines:

As painful as the trial had been, however, he felt a faint but persistent relief. So might someone with a hideously infected wound feel as it was drained... left closed, the filth and poison it concealed could be hidden, but only when it was revealed to the world could it be healed.

"Yesterday was... I'd say 'emotionally draining', but that would be wasting a perfectly good excuse (to) use 'nightmarish'."
He nodded. "I would have suggested 'painful and demeaning', but your word choices are also acceptable,"

She was honest, ethical, and one of the most fundamentally good people he had ever met - although he didn't share the traits, he admired them in others.

(I'm not sure if Hermione is always ethical)

...he had no intention of having her pestering him. Not that she ever did pester, he had to admit - actually, she'd barely asked a single question since she came to Spinner's End, most perplexing...

"The trial wound up fairly quickly after we left. For some strange reason, Minister Scrimgeour lost his taste for grandstanding after we'd made our appearance."



"At noon. It won't be a public event, but anyone she's wronged has the right to see her sentence carried out." She stirred her tea, her face introspective. "Neville's going. He said he won't believe she's really dead until he sees it with his own eyes."

They'd played a few times - she was an average player at best. Her tendency to think there was a One Right Way to do things tended to block her perception of other options.



Hermione looked at the other witch, who blushed and hurried into the front of the shop. "Do you have a red-haired one around somewhere as well, to make up the set?" she asked rather dryly.



"How did everyone get so damn perceptive?" Hermione asked, smiling back. "I mean, Neville, Percy... now you two. Next I'll be finding out that you're going around being considerate of others."
"Who us?" Fred asked, looking shocked. "Never!"

"I wanted to ask you for a favour," she admitted. "It's... kind of a big one."
"Of course."
"Just name it."
She winced. "I need to borrow some money," she admitted in a small voice.
"...But... Hermione, why do you need to borrow money?"
"Because I don't have any, Fred."

She scowled, not knowing how fiercely protective she sounded.

"Your secret is safe with us." Fred grinned at her. "And we'll even throw in a SweetDreams Cap. See if you can get the old git to wear it."
"Of course, I'm not sure he'd qualify frolicking mermaids, unicorns, and damsels in distress as good dreams," George added brightly. "He might be ill."

Hermione couldn't quite believe her ears. She'd hoped, she knew she was good, but... the Apothecary hadn't approved a new distributor in nearly twenty years! "I... thank you!" she blurted, beaming. "I will! I'll get started at once! I have a laboratory at the house that I can use, very well-appointed... I'll send samples to you as soon as I can get them done!"

Hermione felt the startled black gaze on her, and blushed a little. "House-elves love cooking implements, the more exotic the better," she explained, giving him a sheepish smile. "Dobby told me once."

"You are talking, you know, to a girl who taught herself to read medieval French over one summer holiday. I ran out of homework."

"Dear god, yes. You have NO idea what kind of sentimental dribble people think teenage girls ought to read." Hermione shuddered.

"You didn't really think Harry took those out of your office back in second year, did you?" she asked, giving him an impish little grin. "I mean, what would he do with them? Eat them?"

Hermione did not NEED a concentration-enhancing syrup. A concentration-lessening one, maybe, then she might remember meals without Winky having to go and bang on the door...

"Hermione Granger, what on EARTH are you doing?" he expostulated, when he'd finished a brief and completely deniable moment of gaping.
...
She looked at the bottles, she looked at the boxes, and then she looked at him, dark eyes dancing with sudden, impish amusement. "Knitting," she told him, absolutely straight-faced.

"I owe you an apology," he said rather grimly. "I hadn't considered the burden I must-"

How very helpful of her, to render any plotting unnecessary.

That of a serpent - a python, he thought, from the shape of the head- and 'closer' to the eye, the blunter head of a big cat... no, a lioness. It was a distinctive symbol, and... a meaningful one.

There was definitely something in this 'companionship' notion... he didn't know why anyone bothered with romance, when this was an option.

Best lines :

"Address?"
"Number twenty-three, Spinner's End, Millcote."
"Occupation?"
"Invalid."

Rufus Scrimgeour scowled. He hadn't been expecting this, Hermione was sure. He'd been prepared for the Severus Snape who had kept an entire generation of Hogwarts students trembling in their shoes; the wreck of a man who had had to be helped up to the witness's seat had caught him off-guard.

"And you claim to have been a double agent?"
"No," he said calmly. "I have never claimed that."

... She had a small crystal ball between her hands... Truth spell, Hermione realized. It was one of the few practical uses for crystal balls...

"Including me." The look of distaste deepened. "Something I regretted very much, later."

"Like all members of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, Narcissa is... less than completely sane. Unlike Bellatrix, however, she is not a sadist - and she adores her son.

Hermione beat Scrimgeour to looking at the crystal again. Clear. And Harry had dared not to trust him, when he'd been willing to sacrifice everything...

"You told him what you had done? You were willing to risk death?"
"The prospect of a painless and merciful death - and Dumbledore would have been merciful, as the others would not - had great appeal, by then."

"Harry Potter," Severus said, cool contempt in his tone, "is even more pathetically inept at Legilimency than he is at Occlumency, and does not even recognize it when he sees it.

(Hell, I love any line that shows up Harry.)

Harry looked stunned, and she recognized the expression he always got just as he realized he'd been monumentally stupid. Again.

(I like the 'Again' bit)

"You may not believe that I was, to the end, loyal to Albus Dumbledore." He stood, swaying a little as he dropped his cane and held up his scarred hands to indicate the ruin of his face. "But Lord Voldemort, as you can see, did. He was... most displeased."

"Because he is not, at this time, capable of caring for himself," she said matter-of-factly. "As a keen observer might have noted from his inability to get through an interrogation without collapsing."

"I am certain that anyone who studied Potions at Hogwarts in the last fifteen years will not be surprised to learn that he is no more tractable and good-natured as a patient than he is as a teacher."
A quiet but definite ripple of giggling circled the room, and Severus smiled rather sourly.

"Of course I was the key speaker, in quite a few trials that day," she said dryly. "I was the only witness who, at the time, was alive, not hospitalized, was fully conscious and able to speak, and was still possessed of all four limbs."

"Minister," she said, in an icy voice that would have done Minerva McGonagall proud, "what, exactly, are you implying?"
"Yes," the Indian witch agreed, her voice no less frosty. "What ARE you implying, Minister?"
"I am implying, I suppose, that Miss Granger is very young...Perhaps even before leaving school, she-"
...at least fifty people in the audience had gone into hysterics, the roar of laughter drowning out any other sound. Draco was laughing so hard he almost fell off his chair. Neville Longbottom had his head down on the back of the seat in front of him, his shoulders shaking. Pansy Parkinson's distinctive and unmusical shrieks of laughter were clearly audible. Remus Lupin was doing a very creditable impression of a goldfish while his pink-haired paramour laughed herself almost sick. And Harry Potter himself was clearly torn between outrage and giggles, and the giggles were winning.

(A wonderfully described scene!)

"Allow me to clarify, Minister Scrimgeour, in case the gales of hysterical laughter did not make this point clear enough to you. I was on particularly bad terms with our former Potions Master, when I was at school. He considered me to be a showoff, a member of Harry Potter's little gang of juvenile delinquents, and an insufferable know-it-all, and he was not hesitant to make his opinion known in public. I, for my part, considered him to be hypocritical, unjust, and unable to behave like a civilized human being, and I was no quieter about it than he was. So no, Minister, I do not think you will find any takers on your disgusting and slanderous theory that he seduced me into speaking in his defence!"

"...cease your attempts to make yourself look clever before they scuttle your career entirely. Good day, Minister." She turned, her robes swirling around her, and stalked over to the seats where the witnesses had been sitting... the majority of the audience applauded.

"I mean, I know teachers are people, and that the robes must theoretically come off at some point, but one doesn't really ever think about it."

Being able to finally admit that he'd been spying for Dumbledore all along, his most secret and most useful spy in the ministry, had helped a great deal.

"It's not... easy, knowing that most of your family just put up with you. And I didn't really have many friends at Hogwarts, either. I just... studied. Worked."

(I like the idea of Percy being a spy for Albus in the Ministry - it always seemed quite likely. Pity that ** Rowling didn't see it. Then again, she didn't see a lot of things, such as the stupidity of the RHr ship.)

"And I hate to be the one to break this to you, Hermione, but you're very pretty...Hermione, I want you to look at yourself," he said gently. "Really look." He lifted the mirror, tilting it towards her a little.
...
"When did that happen?" she asked in a small voice. When you've always believed that you're plain, finding out that you are, at least, moderately attractive comes as a shock.

"I was unattainable?" Hermione beamed. "Really?" That was a much better explanation for the severe boy-shortage in her school years than the one she'd always assumed was correct - that she simply wasn't particularly attractive.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "When did you work out that I preferred boys to girls?" he asked mildly.

She giggled. "Very well. International Magical Cooperation is yours." She pondered thoughtfully. "I think I'll revamp the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures into something less totally bigoted and offensive, and put Remus in charge."
Percy looked torn between outrage and a snickering fit. "Hermione, you wouldn't dare!"

Best lines:

"For heaven's sake, you're acting like a bashful virgin."

"Some... I believe the Muggle term is 'closure'?"

Although she'd been disturbingly accurate about his basic motivations and tactics, and if he hadn't known she had no training whatsoever in Legilimancy...

He didn't want to do this. He would, in point of fact, have preferred to be tortured again. But it was only what he deserved. He could never atone for what he'd done, he deserved to be punished for it, so he would do what he had to do.

House-elves were notoriously possessive of their humans. Most of them didn't trust the average human to be able to take care of him-or-herself, let alone taking care of someone else... and to trust another human to look after THEIR person was almost unheard of.

He followed, the cane she'd convinced him to use clunking softly on the floor. No Lucius Malfoy style pimp-cane for him.

the fountain had been rebuilt with a rather different theme - no worshipful non-humans or smirking beauty-contestants now. Instead, a bearded wizard supported a heavily bandaged man, and an earnest-looking young witch held a sleeping toddler in her arms

Hermione did not need Legilimency to see that Severus was mentally awarding his former ally points for not flinching at the sight of him as he shook Arthur's hand briefly.

"I thought you would." Arthur nodded. "And... well, no offense, but your appearance is going to help you," he added, giving Severus a sympathetic look. "Very few people know how badly you were injured - you certainly can't be accused of falsifying your claims of being tortured."

best lines:

"I... wanted to see you, sir," he said lamely, and then wanted to kick himself. That sounded so stupid.
"And you have seen me." Snape leaned back in his chair, his remaining eye surveying his former student with a cool, calculating gaze. "Did you come by merely to enjoy the freak-show, Draco, or did you wish to speak as well?"

"Why haven't you gotten rid of her, if you don't want her here?"
"I lack the ability, at this time, to eject that wretched girl from my home. I assure you, I will throw her bodily from the house the moment I am capable of doing so."

"I want to know... why you changed sides so often."
"I didn't," Snape said coolly. "I only ever changed sides once, Draco."

"You let me walk blindly into the Death Eaters because you were too concerned for my welfare to WARN ME!"

"Why are you here?"
"I sort of got volunteered by fate."

"Why would YOU care?" he fired back. "Even for a sentimental Gryffindor-"
"Oh, for god's sake, stop it with the House rubbish!" she snarled. "We're not at school anymore, Draco, remember? I wouldn't have left anyone alone and suffering the way he was. Not even you, and unlike him, I have NO respect for you."

Poppy Pomfrey was a good nurse in her way, but she fussed. Endlessly. Continuously. He would have jumped out of a window within days, just to get away.

. "Oh, god..." she whispered. "It's been weeks since I had that one." She looked up at him, and he wasn't sure if it was the moonlight or the nightmare that left her as pale as a ghost. "Thank you," she whispered, her lip trembling. "For... waking me up, before..."

And then he stopped, because she'd started to cry, helpless, convulsive sobs that shook her slender body. "I... I'm sorry, did I say something...?"
"I... you were just being so normal, and it felt so unreal, and I just..."

"We're both kind of broken, I guess," she whispered. "It's... easier to admit to someone else, if they are too."
"And that is a good description, I think. We are both... somewhat broken."
"But still standing," she said softly, smiling a little. "We're both stubborn. None of that sissy falling down."

He opened his mouth, and closed it again, giving her the furious look that she recognized from Potions as 'you've actually out-logicked me, but I'm never EVER going to admit it'.

"I'll make a potion, you can watch and criticize, it'll be like old times."

Hermione swung helplessly between wanting to laugh and wanting to throw the dead mouse at him. He'd actually laughed, and made a joke about his infirmities, and that was so GOOD that she wanted to dance for joy...
On the other hand, he'd left her to do all this cleaning by herself, and THAT merited a dead mouse if anything did.

Best lines:

"Harry, spare me," Hermione said flatly. "We all know you hate him. You've hated him since first year. It has nothing to do with what he's done or hasn't done, and you know it...He was in the process of being slowly tortured to death when we got there, Harry, remember? ...he was in a coma for weeks... He's been punished enough, Harry, even for you."
"But-"
"No buts!" Hermione glared at him. "...I am not a stupid, selfish, grudgebearing ingrate ..."

"I'm gratified that you at least acknowledge that you don't understand me," he said, less bitingly than usual. "Please, never fall under the delusion that you do."

"Make haste a little more slowly"

Self-loathing gripped him... he could never earn forgiveness for what he'd done, nor did he believe that he deserved to. Thoughts of the Greater Good might have helped Albus Dumbledore... they did nothing for Severus Snape...

"Well, he's lucky to have you. A great many poor souls, these days, have no-one to call on."
"He didn't call on me. He orders me out of the house daily, actually." She smiled ruefully. "I ignore him. He's... well, his judgement isn't at its best just now."
Emendis laughed softly. "I see you know something about sick people."

The man told the truth at the most inconvenient times. Like when he could plausibly deny everything when he woke up.