𝑮𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑻𝑰𝑪 𝑶𝑩𝑺𝑬𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑶𝑵 || 𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟎𝟔.

Hermione woke up in a bed that was several grades above the standard hotel fair, even in a wizarding hotel. The silk sheets caressed her body and she couldn't help but remember that Severus had transfigured this soft, welcoming bed for her. She blushed slightly at her foolishness...but it was hard not to remember when the sheets were the exact shade of Slytherin green that his handkerchief had been...and when they still smelled subtly like the Potions Master. The bed was so inviting, in fact, that she was tempted to have a bit of a lie in...but she was looking forward to seeing Severus again this morning, she headed to the bathroom without delay.

He wasn't in the room when she walked into the 'sitting room' area of the suite (it was larger than the norm for a hotel, but still somehow managed to give the impression of being rather cramped). She found his note, laughed to herself at the tone, and was grateful that he had put his own plans on hold to go out of his way to protect her. He'd done that a lot for her during the war...and she had been one of the first to protect him, going back for his broken body in the shrieking shack directly after the battle, finding (to her shock) that he was alive...taking him to St Mungo's after transfiguring his appearance so she wouldn't have to explain why they were healing a death eater...

Snape himself had concocted the potion that had originally saved his life, a combination of a powerful coagulant and anti-venom for that bloody snake's poison, brewed in secret from venom samples taken from Arthur Weasley's robes. Hermione had been impressed by the man's brilliance all over again.

Nagini's venom was incredibly interesting. It contained both a neurotoxin and a powerful anti-coagulant. It paralyzed the prey, leaving them near death, but did not kill...and the anti-coagulant caused blood loss...effectively giving the snake time to devour its prey while that prey was still technically alive, while assuring that the snake neither lost the prey nor was harmed by it. Damn snake had been as nasty a piece of work as her master.

After a round of healing drafts and blood replenishing potions, she'd taken Severus back to Hogwarts to recover, secretly meeting with McGonagall and Harry. The Weasleys were a bit hurt that she didn't turn to them while grieving for Ron, but she couldn't bear it. Nursing Severus was a relief. He was much himself again within a week, embarrassed at her presence in his life and in his rooms... When she felt as though she was truly in his way, she went to him one last time, kissed his cheek, and left for Australia.

She had given her parents a need to be 'out in the bush' when she sent them there, and she deliberately made sure that she did not know their whereabouts...if death eaters had captured her, she might have withstood torture to save Harry and Ron, but she was a woman who knew her limits...she wouldn't have been able to watch them torture and kill her parents because of her...not if there was a way to stop it. The name change, distance, and isolation combined with their own ignorance to protect them, but it also hid them from Hermione for weeks and weeks. They didn't even have bank accounts in their own names anymore (she'd instilled in them a level of caution that would make hard-core spies proud).

When she did finally find them and restored their memories, she wondered at first if it wouldn't have been kinder to leave them as they were. They still loved her of course, but they were deeply hurt and just wouldn't accept that their ignorance of her was their best protection...or perhaps, they couldn't accept that their little girl had risked her life in a thousand different ways over the past year, and there was nothing that they could have done to protect her. She'd lived with them in the outback for nearly a year, rebuilding their trust while they made visits to far flung towns via a small airplane that her father had actually learned to fly. Being roving dentists actually agreed with them.

Once her relationship with her parents was on its way to recovery, she returned to England and began several projects for the Ministry. She was a war hero, and they practically pushed funding at her to keep her. She had her own section in the department of mysteries, a small staff, and she'd made a few minor breakthroughs.