In Sickness and in Health

{8}

The more time Hermione spent thinking about it, the more it horrified her.

She had been continuously laboring over the things Ginny had told her, all the concerns and fears the quidditch player had held, and they now worried her too. Hermione could never seem to get over the fact that Ginny may have had merit in her worries. Every time she thought it, though, she would immediately put it from her mind as though it weren't true because it wasn't.

Severus had no feelings for her, nor she for him. They got along because of their intellect, and as the day arrived that Hermione was to give her presentation, she was sure of that fact. The month hadn't gone by ridiculously fast, but it certainly had time going by further than if work had maintained its regular monotony.

She had seen Severus once since Ginny had aimed her frustration at Hermione, and everything had gone on normally. They finalized details on her project, and secured her a good finishing statement. It would all go according to plan, and even Kingsley didn't have a doubt.

When the hour finally came for Ron to receive his fourth potion, Hermione had been ready for her presentation. She had whipped her hair into place, that itself only taking an hour, and then had done her make-up, not anything too extravagant because this was professional. The only thing she had not done was dress, and that was because the white robe would be much more comfortable than the purple dress she planned on sliding into. She wore stockings already, to shield her bare feet from the wood floors, and her robe was tied tightly about her waist.

The dress was the same one she had worn to the date with Ron when he had gotten sick. Hermione yearned for his presence, another bullet in Ginny's strange idea that she would leave Ron. She wanted him to tell her, like he always did, that things would turn out just fine. Maybe it was just a coping mechanism for him, or a way to brush off important things so anxiety couldn't plague him and his lazy attributes, but Hermione had always found solace in it.

A knock came to her door, and Severus was right on time. Hermione's watch stated five, and she smiled. Ron would be one step closer to waking up.

"Good evening, Hermione."

"Severus," she greeted back as he strutted through the door. She was so used to seeing him in his muggle suit that she could hardly imagine what it would be like when he started to come by apparition from Hogwarts in his black teaching robes. They indicated an almost completely different person than the wizard she was familiar with now. How odd it would be to combine the two.

"I hope you aren't attending your event in such attire," he probed, black eyes shining with something that looked like anticipation.

The school year started that very next day, and on the last day of August, he must have been excited to begin. That, or completely terrified.

"Not at all, I just didn't want to be ridiculously uncomfortable while you gave Ron his potion."

"Understood," he responded, pulling said potion from his pocket and following her into the bedroom.

The window had been opened to keep the air moving, and Ron was in the same position he had been since he'd arrived. Hermione had stopped being unnerved by seeing him like this, her days as a witch, and working in the center of magic for Britain, gave her a thicker spine than most.

"You will need to give him another sustenance vial for the upcoming month."

"Are you excited for it?" She asked as he poised the vial over Ron's forehead and let it drip like a carefully timed IV.

He looked at her curiously before smiling, nodding with a brief moment of thought.

"Parts of the year beginning, if I am to be honest with you Hermione, scare me slightly. The students who have had me before, and Merlin forbid, the ones who had me when I was their headmaster, are probably horrified at the prospect of seeing me. I understand that I will not bring back pleasant memories, but I own all of what happened. Eventually, I think they will come to see me as fair and maybe even insightful. I can only ask they not despise my very being, in the least."