On Marriage

Chapter Nine - Getting to Know You

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Saturday came faster than Hermione expected. To steel her nerves, which were suddenly as jangled as they had been before breakfast earlier in the week, she had spent the morning in Hogsmeade, tending to errands that weren't nearly as important as she was pretending them to be. Back in her rooms earlier than she'd intended to be, she fiddled with the new quills she'd bought, alphabetized her bookshelves and rearranged her sock drawer.

When she caught herself worrying about what to wear, she stopped halfway to her closet and placed her hands on her hips.

"Now you're just being silly," she chastised herself.

It had been too nice of a day to want to bundle up in layers of robes, so Hermione had gone to Hogsmeade in the same dress she had worn when visiting her parents. It was just a casual thing, but, being a dress, she felt that she looked nice. That would have to suffice. She did take a moment to pull her hair back, as it had gotten a bit unruly while she was out, but that was the only adjustment she allowed herself to make.

Hermione was halfway to the dungeons when she realized that Severus hadn't specified where she was to meet him. She headed towards the Potions classroom first, assuming that he would either be there or in his office.

The classroom door was locked, and there was no response to her knock. She continued down the dark corridor, making the few necessary turns to get to the Potions Master's office. Severus opened the door and stepped out as she rounded the last corner. He had closed and warded the door before realizing that she was approaching. When he looked up, she twitched a small smile, not knowing what sort of a reaction to expect from him.

"I was beginning to think that you had forgotten about our meeting," he said, not cruelly.

"I wasn't sure where you would be," she said. "I went to the classroom first."

He nodded slightly, and stepped towards Hermione, then continued past her down the corridor. She had to take several long strides to catch up with him, and followed silently until he turned down a corridor that she had never been down before. Hermione had been under the impression that they were returning to the classroom.

"Pardon me, but where are we going?"

Severus continued walking without breaking his pace or looking down at her. "To my private quarters. You'll need to know where they are and this is a sensible time for you to see them."

A bit surprised, Hermione managed a noncommittal noise and a nod. Severus sighed, as he might have if she'd asked him to repeat the steps for brewing a third year potion.

"You thought we would be residing in the married dormitory with your classmates after the Christmas holiday?" he asked, the sound of a sneer becoming more evident in his voice. "I have been living in my quarters for very nearly twenty years and I have no intention of vacating them now, Miss Granger."

Hermione felt herself blush, although she knew she had thought no such thing. The idea of cramming the Potions Master into a standard sized dorm room, surrounded on either side by eighteen-year-old newlyweds, was an absurd picture. But she hadn't quite pictured herself packing up the Head Girl's room and moving her things into the dungeon, either.

* * *

Hermione's first glimpse of Severus' rooms was nothing short of a surprise. They seemed quite spacious, which she'd somewhat expected. And they were quite cozy, which she never would have imagined.

"This is...lovely," she said as she followed Severus through the door and into a sitting room. He grunted as Hermione took a moment longer to take in her surroundings.

A large mantelpiece took up the majority of the space along one wall. It was surrounded by shelves, nicely filled with an assortment of books and items that she imagined had been collected over a number of years. In front of the fireplace was a small sofa, flanked on either side by comfortable looking chairs. Three additional doors led to other rooms.

Through one open doorway, Hermione could see what appeared to be Severus' personal office. She caught a glimpse of a large desk and shelf upon shelf of thick, aged texts. Parchments scattered across the surface of the desk suggested that the room was not just for show or book storage.

The second door led to what looked like a workroom. Hermione assumed that the locked cabinets held potion supplies - whatever Severus would need for his personal brewing and, more than likely, the items that were too expensive or too dangerous to leave in the classroom storage areas. Severus had a long table set up in the center of the room, a cauldron simmering on one end. That and several sheets of parchment on a counter suggested that this room was also put to functional use.

The third door opened into Severus's bedroom. It was the most lavish of the rooms, filled as it was with a tall four-poster bed and an armoire wider than any Hermione had ever seen before. The bed draperies were, unsurprisingly, a deep green color, so dark they were almost black. The only reason Hermione was able to ascertain their color was because of the sunlight glinting through two long windows.

Hermione blinked.

"Windows?" she asked, her brow furrowed. "I thought we were beneath the lake."

"We are," Severus answered, stepping deeper into the room. "The bedroom windows are possible due to a clever bit of magic that replaces one wall of my quarters with a wall in as unused portion of the castle."

"Impressive." Hermione nodded appreciatively and followed Severus. He motioned for her to sit on the sofa.

"Would you care for something to drink, Miss Granger? Tea?"

"Yes, please," Hermione answered without thinking. She'd been so blind-sided by his hospitality that it did not strike her as odd until after she'd already answered the question. Severus moved about the room, deftly putting together the items he needed and, in just a moment, had placed a tea pot over the fire to boil. He placed himself in one of the two chairs and they regarded each other in silence.

"You are here to shatter presumptions, I presume, Miss Granger," Severus said eventually. "While I caution you that there are subjects we will not discuss, where would you like to begin?"

Hermione sighed, the sound not unlike Severus' own long-suffering sigh. "How about with our names?" she said. "This would more than likely be much less stressful for both of us if you could please just relax."

He gave her a dark look and was thin-lipped. "As you wish. Continue." Hermione shifted in her seat and tried to think of the best place to begin. Severus noted the hesitation and smirked. "No list of questions, Miss Gra-Hermione? I would have expected you to be more prepared."

Hermione flushed, at both her slight embarrassment and what she perceived to be a hint of humor on his part. The question had certainly not been as pointed or harsh as it might have been in a classroom setting.

"I had, but then I thought that would make this seem more of an interview. I had hoped it might be a bit more casual than that. And I didn't imagine you would be much interested in reading a sixteen inch essay on the summary of my life thus far."

Severus arched an eyebrow and nodded. "You are correct." Hermione was trying to determine if this statement should upset her when he spoke again. "Conversation is preferable to an interview."

She smiled slightly, far from comfortable, but getting marginally closer. She was thrown a bit off-balance when Severus abruptly got to his feet.

"Your questions?" he prompted again.

Hermione took a deep breath and began. "What is your name?"

"Pardon?"

"Your name."

"You know my name."

"I know your first and last names," Hermione corrected. "Do you have a middle name?"

Severus grimaced slightly. "Yes," he said after a moment. "Aurelius." The corner of Hermione's mouth twitched, but she managed to keep from smiling. The glare she received from Severus helped her to keep a straight face.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No. I was an only child."

Hermione nodded. "Are your parents still alive?"

"No."

She paused. "Oh. I'm sorry." Severus waved his hand dismissively. "What were they like?"

Another pause. Severus seemed to consider his words carefully. "I imagine that, at one time, they were both vital people with hopes and dreams of their own. By the time I knew them, they had been forced into an unhappy marriage and grown resentful of one another."

Hermione made a soft noise of compassion, only to be waved off again.

"Once my mother had produced an heir as was expected of her, she wanted nothing more to do with father. They spent very little time together when I was a child. I remember my mother as a melancholic woman who spent much of her time in her rooms. My father was distant and a strict disciplinarian."

Hermione blinked. She didn't have a good idea of exactly what she should say, or if he would allow her complete a thought on the subject before waving her off again.

"My parents, in a word," Severus summed up.

"Is that why you joined the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked quietly.

Severus' dark glare was a dangerous thing. Hermione cringed ever so slightly into the back of the sofa, waiting for him to growl that that was a question he was not going to answer. He seemed to change his mind even as his mouth opened to reprimand her, surprising them both.

"Possibly," he conceded. "It was a factor, at any rate."

"May I ask you more about your time with the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked tentatively.

The fierce look returned just as quickly as it had disappeared. "No, you may not."

Hermione nodded and swallowed, scrambling for another line of questioning. It occurred to her that it might not have been such a horrible thing to bring a list of questions after all. She might have been able to conceal them so that it would not have been painfully obvious that she was reading them from a slip of parchment.

The boiling of the tea pot captured the attention of both of them and Severus returned to the fire. He poured the hot liquid into two tea cups and handed one to Hermione.

"Thank you," she murmured, wrapping her hands around the cup. Severus returned to his seat.

"Continue."

Hermione blinked and refocused her thoughts. She had a question half-formed when another occurred to her. She smiled slightly.

"You haven't asked any questions yet," she pointed out instead of asking where he'd lived while growing up.

"I have read your student file and met your parents," he answered. "There is very little, factually, that I do not know about you. The rest will come with time."

Hermione nodded, more uncomfortable than she cared to admit with that particular bit of information.

"I even know your middle name," Severus smirked. The tea cup halfway to her lips, Hermione grinned.