Chocolate Enchantment

Chapters 30: Cleaning up and 31: Visiting Godric's Hollow

Chapter 30: Cleaning Up

The sun was shining in the window when Hermione opened her eyes and tightened her arms around the man in bed with her. The first time they had made love it was fast and ferocious, breathtaking. Each time since then had been different. Last night it had been sweet, drugging, so right she couldn't describe it. He had filled her and emptied her, left her floating until she rolled into sleep. Now she awoke refreshed and much more capable of taking on the day.

She lifted her face to look at him and found him gazing at her, his eyes full of concern. She hadn't looked closely enough to notice the previous evening, for she had been too wrapped up in her own grief. He looked worn out, worried. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I wonder what else they'll do in their haste to take you all down, to break Potter. Losing you, losing any or all of the Weasleys, would be more than he could take. You saw how he was after Black died. Breaking him so he can't fight is one of their greatest weapons. That makes your death or injury one of their greatest weapons. Even with the Dark Lord currently happy about the way I'm manipulating you, it could change in a heartbeat. His moods are mercurial: we never know from day to day what he will do or say. I worry about you constantly."

The last few words had been halting, as though they were hard to speak, and Hermione knew they must be. After all, he wasn't one given to much emotion, except that of hate and anger. Even then, his control had been amazing. When she looked back on all he had lived through, it was incredible he had managed to restrain himself from killing Sirius all those times he came by Grimmauld Place. A man with lesser control certainly would have given into his hate.

Not that she hadn't liked Sirius, in his own way. He certainly cared about Harry, and he could be a jolly companion, but he and James—and a host of others, should she be honest—had made Severus's life miserable. That kind of misery often created monsters. And despite all he had lived through, she couldn't call him a monster. She loved him so much. "That's why you're pretending to be manipulating me, isn't it? To make me too valuable a tool to dispose of?"

"So far your contribution has been minimal; as a school girl you don't have all the information other Order members get. That makes you somewhat vulnerable."

Hermione debated for a moment, then decided to make her own admission. "That situation should change soon. When Harry turns seventeen in a few days, he, Ron and I intend to seek Order membership. We want to be more involved in the fight. Right now nobody will take us seriously. The best way to get involved is to become members."

"You cannot join—you're too young. Still in school." His anger and worry rose inside her.

"We aren't planning on returning to school. Even if the school governors do decide to reopen, we're going to fight. It's far more important than our N.E.W.T. scores." The admission only caused her a twinge of regret now, after the past month of getting used to the idea.

"You have decided not to return to school? Miss I-Can't-Soak-Up-Knowledge-Fast-Enough-Granger, er, Snape?" He looked annoyed with himself for needing to make the correction. "How happy will you be if you don't get a decent job because you never took your N.E.W.T.s?"

"Tell me how happy I'll be if the Dark Lord wins and I'm dead, or turned into nothing more than chattel?"

He paused a moment, studying her, then trailed a finger down the side of her neck and along her collar bone, ending with a kiss on that sweet spot below her right ear. "As long as you were my chattel, I think we'd get by."

"Don't joke about this, Severus." Hermione was frustrated by his attitude. "I can take my tests later. You know Professor McGonagall will pull for me, as will all my other professors, to see that I get a chance to test—not that N.E.W.T. scores are likely to do me any good in Australia. But if we don't win the war, my scores are hardly going to matter. Many of the Order members may protest, but we're going after the evil git either way, and we'll be safer with their help."