My Double Agent

Chapter 20 ~ Letter of Love

Friday evening, September 19, Severus is sitting at, what use to be Dumbledore's, desk holding the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. He sighed, he was really stressing out. All the sudden an owl flies onto his desk and drops a letter. The owl chirps and Severus looks up and pets the owl. He looks down at the letter to see it's from Hermione, he quickly grabs it and reads the letter. He sighs with relief at her safety. He gave the owl a treat before it sits on a perch nearby.

Severus stands up and puts the letter in his secret bag under his bed. He then grabs some parchments and a quill and begins to reply.

My dearest Hermione,

Not a day goes by where I do not think of you. I am sorry I haven't been able to respond to your letters until now. I've been very busy. Being the new Headmaster of Hogwarts is not something I ever thought I would be doing. Minerva should be Headmistress. She deserves it, not me. And, I know I always complained about never being the Dark Arts Professor, but I would do anything right now to be teaching potions again.

Hogwarts is not the same, Death Eaters are everywhere. The students don't have any fun anymore, they have to be well behaved or they're.... disciplined. The teachers are being forced to stay against their wills. I am not happy with the way this has gone. Hogwarts and the students deserve better. This is supposed to be their home away from home, now it's like a prison.

And, with the Ministry under Voldemort's control now, parents were forced to make their children attend. I am very hated by a lot of people at the moment. I try to stay in my new quarters all the time. Unless its for food or events. Which aren't really anything, we stand in the great hall and test each student to see if they are... worthy.

I am sorry to hear about Weasley. Make sure he drinks a lot of tea and has a lot of chicken broth. You may have healed it, but we don't know how much dirt entered his body before hand. Need to make sure he doesn't get sick. I am glad you are safe, I was worried when I found out you Polyjuiced as Umbridge's assistant.

Crookshanks is doing well, Minerva found him in my room recently though. She instantly knew it was your cat, I told her I didn't care who it belonged too and that it was mine now. Had to make her think I stole your cat. It was quiet funny.

Please stay safe my love, I count the days as they go by waiting to hold you in my arms once again. I love you so much Hermione. I can't wait for your next letter. You may send another one in a weeks time.

Oh, and Happy Birthday my love.

Always yours,

Severus Snape

Severus stands and up and walks back over to the owl, making it perch on his hand, "Please be careful as to not be seen by anyone, make sure she is completely alone when you give it to her."

The owl chirped, as if it understood, took the letter and flied out the window. Severus stood on the balcony watching it fly away. He leans on the railing and sighs.

~

Hermione was lying in bed as she heard Ron messing with the Radio. She gets up and grabs a cardigan before walking outside of the tent and sit by Harry next to the fire. Harry smiles at her, "Hey, can't sleep?"

"No not really."

"Yeah, it's hard to sleep."

Hermione looks at the fire and sighs, "I can take watch for a bit if you'd like."

Harry looks at the tent and shakes head, "No that's ok, I do need to pee though."

"Ew..." Hermione giggles, "Just go do your thing, I'll keep watch."

Harry laughs before standing up and running off into the forest. Hermione looks up to the sky and takes in a deep breath of the air. She then notices an owl flying down, she stands up excitedly knowing who it was from. The owl then drops the letter without landing so it isn't seen and flies away. Hermione sits back down and opens the letter reading every word of it. She hugs the letter close to her heart and smiles; he was safe. She then quickly hides the letter in her purse right before she heard some rustling.

Hermione stands up and continues to listen, noticing the sounds came from a different are from where Harry wondered off to. She walked to the edge of their bubble and froze once she saw a group of snatchers walking by. She noticed some of them from the papers. Greyback was carrying a body, hopefully not a dead one, and then she noticed Scabior. He was a really sick man, had a thing for... playing with the female wizards he snatched.

All the sudden Scabior stopped in his tracks, "What's that?" He then back tracks and stops right in front of Hermione, right where the bubble meets, he keeps sniffing the air. Hermione held her breath as he stood there. Just when he was about to move forward, Greyback drops the body causing Scabior to look at him, "What are you doing?" As he directs his attention back to his snatchers she breaths again. All the sudden Harry walked up behind her, "Snatchers, it's good to know your enchantments work."

Hermione looked back to the snatchers, "He could smell it... my perfume."

They start walking back to camp and Harry sighs, "We should move on."

"I told you, Ron isn't strong enough to aparate."

"Well then, we'll go on foot."

Hermione sighs and then Harry chuckles, "Next time Hermione, as much as I like your perfume, just don't wear any."

Hermione giggles and grabs his hand, "Fine."

The next morning, Hermione was up making breakfast while Harry and Ron was still asleep. Once she was done, she woke the boys up to eat and begun slowly packing up the tent while they ate. Harry finished his food and stretched, "Thank you Hermione, food was delicious."

"You're welcome, now come help me pack."

Harry chuckles and runs over, "If I must."

Hermione looks back at Ron, who barley ate, "Everything ok Ron?"

Ron looked up at her and hisses, "Whatever. Do you need my help with anything?"

"No, you just rest, Harry and I can do this."

Ron rolls his eyes and walks out of the tent, Hermione looks at Harry, "What's wrong with him?"

"No idea... Maybe he's just worried."

"Yeah."

Once everything was packed up, they began to travel on foot across the country, trying to figure out their next plan of action. They just knew they needed to keep moving.