A Plan
‘We need a plan,’ Harry stated.
Hermione stared at him. A plan to keep Snape out of Azkaban. A plan to convince Snape of all people to marry her … wait a moment, Harry had suggested that they need a what?
‘A plan, Harry?’
Harry rolled his eyes at her. ‘Yes, Hermione. Contrary to what you may believe I am capable of imagining this concept.’ He hesitated, then attempted a grin. ‘I figure that keeping someone alive might be a bit more difficult than trying to – to kill someone.’
He swallowed hard.
‘A plan sounds good,’ Ginny commented, breaking the awkward silence.
‘A brilliant plan would be better.’ Neville sounded scared.
Luna, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, smiled to herself. As far as Hermione could tell, everything was proceeding according to the master plan her Ravenclaw friend had already devised in the strange and wonderful corners of her mind. Ron was standing at the window, staring into the rain. She tried not to look at him. Somehow she forced her mind back to the matter at hand.
‘Healer Mugwort said that he’ll wake up any day now. She thinks that he’ll need another three weeks or so at St. Mungo’s because he’s been out of it for so long. But then they’ll send him home.’
Ginny scrunched up her forehead. ‘Do we have any idea where ‘home’ is for him?’
‘That would be Hogwarts, wouldn’t it?’ Neville gave her a blank look.
Hermione shook her head. ‘Not necessarily. The school’s not open again. I talked to Prof—Headmistress McGonagall the other day, and they’ll only open again in July – summer school to make up for the missed year.’
Ginny shuddered. ‘Mum’s already talked about private classes.’
‘If he doesn’t return to Hogwarts that would make things rather difficult,’ she added.
‘And if he does return to Hogwarts, you think trying to manipulate him into marrying a student is going to be easier?’ Ron turned back from the window. Hermione winced. She wasn’t used to hearing his voice harsh with sarcasm. But he had a point. A very good point.
‘He’d never allow himself to see anything in her but a student,’ Luna put in. ‘The castle’s enchanted to keep everyone in it safe – physically and mentally – if at all possible. There has never been an incident of a student seducing a teacher at Hogwarts. Or the other way round. Whereas at Beauxbatons Academy there are two ghosts that are the result of an unhappy love affair between a student and a teacher.’ She beamed at them.
Ron paled. Harry frowned.
‘Somehow I need to get close to him in a way that’s not obvious,’ Hermione said thoughtfully. ‘Hogwarts would be easier than wherever he lives. And he will need a job.’
‘Oh, I think he’ll go back to Hogwarts,’ Luna said cheerfully. ‘He’ll feel so guilty about what he had to do as a headmaster. And as the Prophet has already decided that no one would ever marry him, I doubt anyone else would employ him. After all, they’d have to assume he’ll be taken to Azkaban after only three years. That’s really not enough time to build up a good employer-employee relationship.’
Hermione chewed on her lower lip. ‘I mustn’t be a student, then. How about – is there a problem with apprentices marrying their masters? In the Muggle world it would be.’
Ron and Ginny shrugged – they had obviously never thought about that. Neville’s wide-eyed look said more than words. But Luna – well-informed of all sordid tales of wizarding society – exchanged her usual distant smile for a naughty little grin. ‘In the Muggle world that may be the case. In the wizarding world such contracts are bespelled to protect apprentices. A Master’s feelings cannot interfere with his evaluation of the apprentice. Perenelle Flamel was Nicolas Flamel’s apprentice when they got married.’
‘However do you know such stuff, Luna?’ Harry said full of admiration.
Luna’s smile turned beatifical again. ‘My father once ran a series about legendary wizarding love affairs. Morgaine and Merlin, Nicolas and Perenelle, Minerva and Albus.’
‘Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore?’ Hermione gasped. ‘I don’t believe that!’
Luna merely shrugged. But Ginny giggled. ‘That makes more sense than the crumple-horned snorkack.’
‘The apprentice idea sounds good,’ Harry said.
‘It would give me three years of working with him every day. That would give me – us – time. And opportunity. I guess.’ Hermione’s stomach tightened. ‘I hope.’
She’d never said a private word to Professor Snape while at school. The only personal thing she’d ever said to him had been ‘Don’t you fucking die on me’ before they’d both been whisked off to St. Mungo’s. And the only personal thing he had ever said to her had been his observation that he couldn’t see a difference between her normal and her hexed teeth. An incident that still hurt. Apart from that they had only ever interacted as teacher and student. And he hadn’t really liked her then. If he hadn’t liked her when she was a student, how likely was he to accept her as his apprentice? And while she’d managed top grades even in Potions, especially in her OWLs … she was well aware that she was not up to his standards. She’d never given much thought to that, either, as she’d never considered a career in Potions.
‘I will need to take my NEWTs as soon as possible,’ she said at last. ‘And I’ll have to be better than I ever was.’ After spending more than a year out of school.
‘I’ll need someone to coach me in Potions,’ she added. ‘And I’m afraid we’ll still need someone to bully Snape into taking me on as an apprentice. He never had an apprentice before, so why should he get one now? And even he considered that on his own, I think he’d never – ever – consider me.’
Luna nodded, pleased as a mother whose child has just solved a riddle. ‘We will need to talk to Headmistress McGonagall.’
What a great setup! I love the way you’ve modified the Marriage Law enough to make it plausible, as opposed to the ridiculous version of the original challenge. That choice shifts the dynamic, removing the distraction of needing to deal with why the Ministry has become so obviously corrupt. Making Severus the one who needs saving, instead of Hermione, is a great role reversal, and having Severus unaware of the plan is a very nice little plot twist – I anticipate a great deal of suspicion on his part, making things difficult for Hermione.
W00t! Great to see you here. 😀
The original MLC the lawyer in me stimply couldn’t stomach. But at the same time the *idea* absolutely intrigued me. And didn’t let go until I figured I’d try to twist it and bend it a little and see what happens …
Having Severus unaware of the plan was a lot of fun. And yes, he’ll be definitely a pain in the behind. But that’s his job!
What a great start. Lots to like. Luna being smarter than everyone thinks. Hermione marching off to a fate worse than death, feeling honor bound to do so. The sneaking suspicion that Luna is really getting Hermione out of the way so she can become a Weasley. She’d fit right in.
Mwahahahahahah!
mk
PS: It needs classic soap opera cliffhanger organ music.
Hi,
I really love your story so far, and I can’t wait to read on!
Just wanted to let you know that the link to part 2 does not work, either you get a warning that it “Cannot modify header information”, or the page closes down… *sobs*
Budgie
It should work now. I’ve been trying to get a caching plugin working to speed up the performance of the site, but the dratted thing won’t work and even worse, as you’ve seen, BREAKS stuff. *ARGH!*
Happy you like the story so far! 🙂
I love your whole plot. I am so excited to keep reading. You take things at an absolutely perfect speed– the characters developing bit by bit is perfect. The whole idea is brilliant.
I don’t think I’d be able to rave enough about your work. *claps*
Thank you very much for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
I’m very happy you like the story so much so far!
I think I’m going to love this! I’ve been an avid reader of SS/HG since 2003, and I especially love when an author does a post-DH fic. 🙂 I followed the link from some artwork on DeviantArt and am so glad I did! I’m also happy to see that this is a completed fic, so yay! I can read to my heart’s content and not worry about it being abandoned! 🙂
Thank you for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the story!
Followed your link from ff.net, and am so glad I did! I read this when you were first putting it up, and loved it then. I love it even more now that I have actually gone back and re-read the gloriousness that is Abhorsen. 🙂
Also, may I say that I absolutely love the site. There’s something about reading a wonderful story in a functional, beautiful setting.
You have always been one of my favorite fan fic authors for your skill, unexpectedness, the way you deftly take a story I think I know and turn it upside down and inside out while remaining true to the spirit of it, and this story is no exception.
Thank you for your kind words. That means so much to me! 🙂
Iv’e just read this entire fanfic in a few days, it was AWESOME. Of course, I didn’t take the time to write reviews then, I was too enraptured with the story. And when I saw you had a sequel, of course I had to read that first too. I did resolve to come back latter and leave a review on every tenth chapter, so here I am.
So, starting with chapters 1-10:
Really well done. I like the tension in Ron, Hermione, and Harry’s relationship. Especially that Harry and Ginny foresee the coming doom of Ron and Hermione’s romantic relationship.
I like the cute nicknames you give Harry, like ” the Boy-Who-Could-Use-Cusswords-Without-Being-Scolded.”
The healer at Mungos is a treat, extremely likable. 🙂
And best part: Arthur Weasley mentions that Snape’s sentence has some similarities to muggle theories of rehabilitation and Hermione just has to express her frustration. Her hitting her head on the desk is like a facepalm X 10.
And last but not least, I am definitely looking forward to seeing how the sequel develops. My only hope is that further maiming of our beloved main characters is limited. If the pace of terrible injuries maintains itself from this fic, by chapter 200 of the next one they’ll all be sitting around in Mungos each of them in a “johnny got his gun” kind of situation.
Intriguing setup. I’m not quite sure how I feel about Ron’s characterization, but after the summary, he has to get out of the picture. Even after finally reading all the books, my feelings for Snape are not overly friendly ;-).
You just totally and absolutely MADE my day. *dances*
Now, your comment: Yes, obviously writing SS/HG Ron must disappear. Mostly. 😉 But also, I never liked him (much) in canon, so … Otoh, I always adored Snape. In HBP I *knew* without any doubt that he hadn’t killed Dumbles … Also, one thing about “Apprentice” is definitely that I’m not always sharing the characters’ opinions. I have them being stupid and making mistakes, and being beastly, and doing things that made me go “DON’T DO THAT!” even as I was writing the relevant chapter. It’s pretty wild and sometimes even *gasp* controversial. But I had tons of fun, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too — even if you don’t really like Snape. 😉
But you make him likeable. Through Hermione’s eyes, no longer a child, some of his choices make more sense.
I tried hard not to whitewash or bash any character. I’m happy the characterisation works for you so far! 🙂
I was referred to your story as a “must-read” and I’m happy that I followed this recommendation. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful idea. I especially enjoyed the way you made them behave “real” and how smothly you added Alina and her mother to the known characters.
I hope you will some day continue with the sequel.
Thank you for spending time with my story, and I’m thrilled you enjoyed it — especially my OCs. I know many people are dubious about OCs, so I’m always very happy when readers like the additional characters I created. I really, really want to finish the sequel (it’s all plotted out!). But offline life has been utterly awful since 2010, each year in its own way, and 2013 is less than fun so far, so I doubt much will happen this year. 🙁
I’m excited to start your story–I stumbled across it through a “favorite story” link on FF.net. I’m not sure how I feel about Ron and Harry’s characterizations so far, but then again I don’t particularly like either one of them in canon, either, so you’re probably spot-on.