𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 II SS/HG ✔️

Abroad

Finding the Grangers—or Wilkins, as they thought they were named—took only a few hours.

Hermione had insisted they bring Crookshanks. "Dad loves Crookshanks," she explained. "He liked to wear him around his shoulders like a scarf. He'll remember Crookshanks."

Severus had insisted they leave the cat in the hotel room.

Hermione rubbed warmth back into her arms as they stood across the street from the Wilkins' new, tiny home. Severus tired of snapping at her to put on her gloves. Her hands were blue.

It was well-past dinnertime when Severus suggested they wait until the morning.

Hermione seemed relieved. She Apparated them back to the hotel. Severus hid in the loo to have a coughing fit brought on by the frigid air. When he was done, reluctant, but also hungry, he followed Hermione down to the restaurant in the lobby.

Hermione laughed at his sour face when they were seated. "This is what holiday is like sometimes." Her hands turned red in the heat, then faded to pink.

The booths were gaudy and the place was packed full of families.

They perused the menu.

"Okay, just try it," she said.

He must have made another face.

He slid the menu away. "You order," he murmured.

She had to lean over to hear him in the din. His left hand seized up again. Severus pressed his palm flat into the table. If Hermione noticed, she carried on with the waitress as if nothing was amiss.

The cramp passed.

"I—I didn't expect to find them so soon," Hermione admitted.

"More time to get reacquainted." He cleared his throat after.

She grabbed her tiny purse. "Need anything?"

He shook his head.

He hated her constant pestering about the pain.

"What if—what if they don't want to get reacquainted?" she asked.

"I think." He paused for a sip of water. "You are overestimating how cross they may or may not be."

The waitress dropped off a glass of wine each. He had never seen Hermione drink aside from the post-war celebration at Grimmauld Place but her tapping foot nearly shook the table. So Severus slid his glass over the table to her.

She rotated her wine glass in a full circle. "I know if someone messed with my mind I'd be a little cross."

"They'll get over it."

Instead of replying, she downed half of the glass in one go.

The food was far too expensive for what they received (though it had, at least, come in a timely fashion) and the drinks watered down. Which was probably for the best based on how much of the wine Hermione inhaled, if only to occupy her fidgety hands. Severus had ordered two more though neither had eaten more than half a plate.

"Do you think I was wrong?" she asked.

"No."

Her foot kept tapping against his leg. Her fingers drummed on the edge of her glass. "Greyback definitely went to their house. I wasn't wrong." She tried to convince herself.

"They would have died."

Her brown eyes darted to his. She nodded. "Yeah."

Severus put down his fork. The portions on their steak was massive. Even if it hadn't aggravated his throat, he wasn't sure he could get it all down.