A Likely Story

Chapter 14 of A Likely Story

"Good Morning."

Hermione made her way into the kitchen for some morning tea. "Hi!" she responded brightly, grinning at Victor, who was perched on a stool, a hot mug already grasped in his hands. He was still shirtless, but Hermione had noticed on her way through the sitting room that there was no sign of whichever bimbo he'd brought home last night. Before he could say anything else, she thought she'd better let him know that she'd be gone for the weekend.

"Where're you going?" he asked when she'd finished explaining.

"Order business," she answered quietly. On one of the rare occasions when they'd both turned up in the cafeteria for the same meal, she'd told him, in whispers, about her involvement in the Order of the Phoenix. He'd been rather ambivalent on the subject, and they'd rarely discussed it since. Now he simply nodded.

When her tea was finished, she went back to her room, packed a bag, and tossed it over her shoulder. "See you Monday, if your room's not back in order by then," she said casually, making her way towards the fireplace. She intended to stop by Ron's flat before she left, and she wasn't sure the wards would let her apparate through anymore.

"Alright. Be careful," he replied. She figured he was already congratulating himself on fooling her.

"Thanks, I will. Oh, and Victor? You're buying me a new couch. Take this one with you when you go back to your own dormitory." She wrinkled her nose at him and he winced and swallowed hard.

"Right. Bye then."

"Bye." She was gone in a spurt of green flames and he shook his head. He should have known better. Still, she'd taken it more calmly than he'd expected, and he could certainly afford to get her a new couch.

After a quick talk with Ron and Luna, Hermione apparated to the location Albus had given her, completely unaware of what was awaiting her. Severus was watching from an upstairs window as she made her way across the grounds. His house was NOT friendly to Muggleborns, and despite his assurances to the Headmaster, he'd done nothing to make it so in the 8 hours since he'd arrived.

Naturally the doorknocker, in the shape of a serpent, bit her the moment she touched it, sinking its marble fangs all the way through her hand. She cried out and hexed the thing to dust, unwittingly contaminating the wound, and making it sting even more. At the sound of her cry, Severus wrenched the door open, his face as cold and unexpressive as it had ever been. She looked up at him, tears springing to her eyes.

"Couldn't you have told it I was coming?" she hissed, brushing past him angrily. She tossed her bag to the floor and took out a shirt she'd packed, wrapping her hand tightly to stop the bleeding. A House Elf appeared and cleaned the blood off the floor, though it made no move to help her. It didn't even acknowledge her presence.

"Yes, I could have," he answered dangerously, his eyes narrowed as he let the door fall heavily shut behind her.

"What's gotten into you?!" she demanded, standing abruptly. Everything about him exuded danger. She hadn't been this afraid of him since her first year at Hogwarts.

"That's not the question, my dear," he said, venom dripping from his voice. "The question is what, or who, has gotten into YOU?" He took her roughly by the elbow and propelled her into the next room, guiding her towards a chair. But she wasn't about to be landed in another unknown situation. She pulled her arm violently from his grasp.

"Thank you, I'll stand!" she spat angrily. "For all I know, that chair might eat me! Now what are you talking about?"

He laughed bitterly. "Too smart for that, but not smart enough to close off your floo connection when you're otherwise involved," he mocked.

"I only leave it open when I'm at the library in case you come by!" she retorted swiftly.

The first fleck of doubt crept into Severus' mind. What if he'd been wrong? What if it hadn't been Hermione with Krum? He changed tactics swiftly. "Why don't you tell me about Victor Krum?" he asked, his voice low and challenging as he held her gaze.

Understanding swept over her like a wave, and she swore, not that the look in her eyes wasn't enough to convince him that he'd been right. Before she could answer, he turned away from her, his anger suddenly shifting to a hurt he knew he couldn't keep from registering on his face. "That wasn't me. I found them when I got home from talking to Albus last night." He didn't turn to face her, and she stood for a moment, indecisive, cradling her injured hand. "His dormitory is being fumigated. They expected it would only take a week or two, so I told him he could sleep on my couch."

"Where in that explanation is the reason for not mentioning him to me?" Even if it wasn't her, it could easily have been, if the boy was living with her. Then it hit him. Naturally she wouldn't have thought anything of living with Krum for two weeks. She'd spent an entire summer living with Ron and Harry. She'd been surrounded by boys all her life. He closed his eyes and wondered if his temper had just ruined everything. Of course it wasn't her. She wouldn't have -

"Honestly, it wasn't important enough to mention," she whispered, breaking into his thoughts. Cautiously, she put a hand on his arm. Still he didn't turn. Tears were spilling down her cheeks now. "I would never - "

He turned suddenly and she stepped back in haste, afraid he might not believe her. But he took two strides toward her and caught her in a tight embrace, burying his face in her hair. They held each other in silence for several minutes, until the pain in her hand overcame her relief. "Help me with this, please?" she whispered. He pulled away reluctantly and she offered him her hand. He summoned a House Elf.

"Get me Lupso," he demanded. The Elf disappeared and an instant later was replaced by another, older Elf. "The doorknocker, Lupso," Severus said quietly, indicating Hermione's hand. Without a word, the Elf healed her wound, then, to their amusement, cleaned the blood-soaked shirt and offered it back to her, neatly folded.

"Thank you," she whispered, a slight smile springing to her lips in spite of the situation. Lupso bobbed once and cast a look at Severus, who nodded. Looking pleased with himself, the Elf disappeared. Hermione thanked Severus as well. For a moment he didn't respond.

"Lupso was the only one brave enough to tend my wounds, against Father's orders," he said thoughtfully. "If you need anything, call for him rather than one of the others." He turned from her again, then seemed to rethink. "Don't venture into the rest of the house. It is still wild. I'll clear the hallway and your room and come back for you shortly."

"Shouldn't we perform the charm immediately?" she asked, before he could turn away again.

Severus was beside himself. Here they stood in the midst of a house that was designed to make sport of people like Hermione, a house that he'd already allowed to harm her, purely for spite, and she was still offering to protect him. For a moment the words stuck in his throat. In the end, all he could choke out was, "shortly." Then he turned and went about the business of what he should have done last night. He disenchanted several dangerous Dark Arts artifacts, took down the most obnoxious paintings, and, with Lupso's help, cleared her room of anything that might hurt her.

"See to it that she has no interaction with the other Elves," he told Lupso sternly. "And transplant the Vanishing Verintigi in the greenhouse into several pots to decorate this room."

As was his way, the Elf simply nodded and disappeared to begin his task. He would also ensure that the other Elves knew to make no rude comments about Muggleborns. It was the least he could do. After all, he knew now for whom his master had requested the flowers the first time. He determined that he would do all he could to make the girl feel welcome.

Returning to the parlor, Severus found Hermione standing, just as she had been when he left her. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she wiped hastily at her face, unwilling to let him see her crying. He looked at her for a moment. He had no idea how to tell her he was sorry for accusing her, for hurting her. His mind flickered over bits of advice from Minerva, and even Warrington. Nothing of use. Sadly, to his mind, it was Harry Potter's apology that offered the best guide. He gritted his teeth as he came to stand before her. Improvising a bit, he took her newly healing hand.

"I wish I could make you understand how I felt when I saw them, thinking that it was you with him. Forgive me. I could think of nothing but my anger." He kissed her hand gently and left it at his lips, taking heart from the fact that she let him.

"I've never given you any reason to think I would do that to you," she responded softly.

"No. And if I'd been able to think at all, I would have seen that."

She looked up into his eyes, knowing she'd already forgiven him, but not sure how to convey that to him. It seemed her hesitation was more than he could take, and he leaned toward her, hoping to capture her lips, which were already parted as she tried to form the right words. "Please," he whispered, just before their lips met.

They held each other tightly, each trying to show the other something that they hadn't yet managed to admit with words. Finally, when both felt reassured, the charm was performed.

"Albus wanted me to check in with him when this was completed," Hermione said nervously. The last thing she wanted was to leave just now. However, she was loathe to spend the night in this place, as she'd originally planned.

For his part, Severus didn't want her to leave at all, but he knew she still had end of term exams to take, and Albus certainly deserved to be kept informed. "Will you take this to him?" he asked, gathering a piece of parchment and writing a quick note to remind the Headmaster that when the battle began he expected to be informed.

"I'll be back as soon as the Christmas Holiday begins," she said, kissing him softly.

Hermione took the note to Albus, and then flooed to her dormitory to find Victor sitting on the couch with a girl Hermione didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't the same groupie as last time. But her giggle was just as annoying as the rest. His eyes widened worriedly when she appeared in the flames.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't encourage them if you don't want to be chased around, Victor," she said slyly. Then she shut herself in her bedroom. When she emerged half an hour later, Victor, his groupie, and Hermione's couch were all gone. There was a note on the floor letting her know when the new furniture would be delivered. She grinned, then grabbed a notebook and quill and headed for Professor Warrington's office.

"Professor?" she asked, a moment before she opened the door. She grinned at the flutter of movement.

"I don't have office hours just now!" he exclaimed, before he realized who'd entered. This was true. His office hours had ended nearly four minutes before her arrival. She was pretty sure from the blush on Minerva's face that there'd been someone sitting on his lap much longer than just four minutes. If there'd been any doubt, then his unwillingness to stand to greet her would certainly have alleviated it. Thankfully they both started laughing when they saw that it was only her.

"I just came to ask you a quick question," she said, still laughing. "I was wondering if there were any computers on campus linked to the internet."

Warrington looked at her strangely for a moment. "I'm guessing those are Muggle terms. You'd have to see the Muggle Studies professor."

Telling them in no uncertain terms that they had to behave themselves, and getting a good laugh from both of them, she bid them goodbye and hurried to the next building. The professor was pleased with her interest (by now all the professors were hoping she'd give up one of her chosen majors to study with them instead), and showed her to the internet facility: A single computer with a magically enhanced DSL connection. It was practically instantaneous.

When she was alone in the lab, Hermione quickly typed in a URL she'd seen her older cousin looking at once, and a tasteful, pink and white web site appeared before her. She browsed through the items and chose what she wanted. When she began to enter the purchasing information, she was pleased to notice a small icon near the bottom, where credit card information was supposed to go. It was an image of two crossed wands. She clicked it and a prompt came up to enter a Gringotts vault number. Grinning, she entered her own vault number, then put in the address of her dormitory. She hadn't truly expected it to be that easy.

Two days later she arrived in her room after an exam to find a package and a small white owl. She paid him for the delivery with three sickles, as the site had indicated that she should do, and opened the package. Satisfied, she placed her purchase in her trunk. Only two more tests and she'd be able to join Severus for the Christmas holiday.