Sometimes That's What It Takes

Chapter 2

The cool, damp air did me good, although I did pull my hood over my head to keep the drizzle off my face. Making sure the door was locked and the box securely tucked under my arm, I set off, my eyes focused on the broken pavement to avoid any deep puddles. I hadn't gone more than a few steps, however, when I ran straight into someone. I looked up, mortified, an apology on the tip of my tongue, and found myself peering into a familiar, round face.


"Susan!"

"Hermione?"

We stared at each other for a moment, then I laughed. Susan didn't join in. Maybe I'd stepped on her foot. "What are you--" we said together, an odd tension in the air. All of a sudden it dawned on me what Susan Bones would be doing at Spinner's End.

"Don't tell me you're Professor Snape's new therapist?" Her small, tender, nubile body hovering beside his; her soft, deft fingers pressing and probing his flesh... I felt weak. And then I ordered myself to come back to reality. Susan Bones was not interested in him in that way. She was a Healer, for Merlin's sake! I definitely had to get my mind out of the gutter.

Susan pulled herself up stiffly. "I certainly am. I suppose I'm not surprised to see you here after all. You always seem to be in the midst of things. I'm sure he's mentioned me."

"Yes, yes, of course he has," I said easily, not sure exactly how to take her comment. "He didn't mention your name, that's all. He's very impressed by your disposition, you know," I told her in a half-joking manner.

"Is he?" Susan seemed to soften up.

"Yes, he was telling me how cheerful you are. If I might..." I leaned in conspiratorially and lowered my voice. "It won't hurt to be firm with him once in a while. Too much good cheer puts him off." I had meant it as a joke, but Susan didn't take it that way. I was putting my foot in my mouth right and left today!

"Oh, and I suppose you know what Severus needs?"

I was momentarily taken aback. 'Severus'? No one of our generation called him 'Severus'. Well, I admit I may have whispered the name during the course of one of my baser fantasies, but never to his face, nor even in discussing him with other people! My mind hovered, halfway back down to the gutter. On the other hand, maybe this was just Susan's way, and she called everyone -- or at least all of the patients she worked with -- by their first name. Maybe it had something to do with fostering trust; what did I know about such things, after all?

I had to answer her challenge, however. I thought I did have a pretty good idea of what he needed. "Well, I have known him--" I began, but she interrupted me before I could finish my sentence.

"Exactly as long as I have," she said, and was it my imagination, or was that a gleam of challenge in her eye? "And not on such an intimate level as I do," she added. The innuendo could not be overlooked; the gutter opened up to welcome my mind like an old friend, with a cup of tea and a warm shoulder.

My mind reeled. Surely there was nothing between Susan and the Professor? He would have said something; someone would have said something. I soon realised, however, that was an incorrect assumption. If there was one thing Professor Snape would not discuss with anyone, it was the existence of a personal, intimate relationship involving himself and a young woman. I doubted he would even discuss it with the young woman in question. And yet... was this what had been gnawing at him? Why he had seemed somehow different today, edgier and more sensitive? Had he been worried Susan would come while I was still there? That I would find out about them? I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked slowly, uncertainly.

Susan smirked, obviously smelling blood. "Exactly what I said. I know you come by once in a while to check on Severus, do menial tasks." Oh, no, you don't. Now you've crossed the line, I thought. Even if she did have something with him, she wasn't going to get away with disrespecting me like that. "He told me he finds your visits unnecessary and, quite frankly, tiresome," she informed me loftily. "In fact," she said, as her eye alighted on the box I was still holding, "I'll be handling his potions deliveries from now on."

She reached out and tried to physically remove the box from my possession. I was having none of that. Perhaps it was the fact that she seemed to have seized on the idea on the spur of the moment, but something about her entire story didn't ring true to me. Or maybe I was in denial. Heavy denial.

"I'm afraid I'll have to hear that from Professor Snape personally," I said coldly, wrenching the box back and holding it out of her reach. "There have been attempts to cheat him in the past."

Susan's eyes grew big and bulged out in a way very reminiscent of Luna Lovegood. I'd always wondered if she didn't have a thyroid condition. "Are you accusing me of trying to cheat him?" Susan demanded, her voice rising. It was a good thing this was a run-down, half-abandoned part of town, and raining to boot. There was no one's attention to draw. On the other hand, the fact that there were no witnesses might turn out not to be in my favour. "I think you're the one who's cheating him," Susan shot back at me. "Come to think of it, does he even know you've taken these? I think you should stay away from this house from now on, Hermione Granger." She seemed to be drawing strength from her tirade, and delivered her punch line with force: "There are going to be some changes around here."

I, however, was not ready to give up quite yet. Or maybe it was just the madness in me talking now. "You can't tell me whom I may or may not visit. I most certainly will not be staying away from this house, unless Professor Snape asks me to himself, and only then if I am assured that someone else is taking proper care of him and his business. In fact," I suggested, "why don't we go in and ask him right now?" I congratulated myself on my brilliance. What I wouldn't give to see Professor Snape's face when confronted with both my and Susan's presence at the same time! The bastard deserved that small discomfort, after all he'd put me through. Not that he knew what he'd put me through, of course. And it was better that he never knew. Still, although it was petty of me, I would take a small degree of satisfaction in seeing him squirm at being found out.

I turned sharply on my heel and marched back toward the house.

"Don't you dare!" Susan shrieked.

I looked up at the windows of the surrounding houses. Surely such a volume and pitch should have drawn the neighbours' attention. Not that I was feeling nervous and hoping for rescue; I knew Susan wasn't about to hex me or anything. But embarrassing Professor Snape not only in front of me, but in front of his entire neighbourhood, would have been the icing on the cake.

Susan rushed around and put herself between me and the house. I raised my eyebrows and put my hand (the one that wasn't holding the Professor's precious potions) on my hip.

"For all I know," she said, "you're going to put some enchantment on him without my seeing it. You always wanted to keep all the men for yourself, but you were too much of a tease to ever take advantage of the situation once you had them! I saw how you lost it when Ron got together with Lavender, but then you never wanted him for yourself, either, did you?" She was getting quite worked up about things that had happened years ago, back when we were teenagers. I wondered whether she had led a very sheltered life, or was just grasping at straws to find things to accuse me of. "Or when Harry and Ginny got together, you couldn't even stand to be in the same room with them; don't think I didn't notice, just because I wasn't in Gryffindor!" Victim of a Hufflepuff inferiority complex? I thought cattily. "And now they're married and out of your clutches, so you have to come over here and bother Severus, and stop him from having any sort of relationship with anyone else. You're sick! And you're not going to come between me and Severus, that's for bloody sure!" She was breathing heavily and had gone quite red in the face. I began to get the distinct impression that she was not entirely in touch with reality.

"Come between you and--" I said softly, my face twisted up in disbelief. "You're the one who's sick, Susan. Honestly, no one would believe half of what you're saying. I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. But I'm certainly beginning to question how healthy it is for you to be treating Professor Snape. It's obvious you have some sort of delusion about the nature of your relationship with him. I think we should go in together and get to the bottom of this." And I did. If I was wrong, by Merlin, I would apologise and never set foot in that house again. Not even in this city. In fact, I might go so far as to emigrate. But if she was wrong... There was no way I could allow her to continue to work with Professor Snape. The girl needed help. And he didn't need any more madness in his life. His own was more than enough.

I tried to walk around her to get to the door, but Susan grabbed my arm. Her grip was surprisingly strong. "Stop right there!" she thundered. I never would have guessed she had such a tone of voice in her, but there it was. "Hermione Granger, I'm warning you: get away from that door!"

"Get your hands off me," I told her, shaking her off with an effort. She made another lunge at me, but I was faster and had already tapped the knocker with my wand.

"Password?" the woeful brass face requested, but before I could respond, Susan had whipped out her wand and pointed it at me. I was paralyzed; I hadn't expected this. I wasn't able to start so much as a Protego when she screeched out her spell.

"Exilinimbus!"

With a flash of light and a puff of smoke, I disappeared.