Chapters 151-160

Coming Home for Christmas

‘I don’t think this is a good time to spend Christmas away from Hogwarts.’

‘On the contrary, Severus.’ There was a hint of steel in Minerva’s voice. Within the safety of his portrait frame, Phineas Nigellus took a step backwards. ‘I think it’s the perfect time to go away for Christmas,’ Minerva continued. ‘You have assured me yourself that brewing the Sempiternal Solution will take exactly three days, no more and no less. I have been taking care of students for longer than you have been alive, so I can promise you that your Slytherins will be quite safe with me while you are gone. Therefore, you and Hermione will leave on the 22nd and you may return on the 2nd.’

‘And if I feel like staying here?’ he asked mutinously. He hadn’t cared for being manipulated and ordered around by Albus Dumbledore. And he most certainly didn’t feel like allowing Minerva to walk all over him now.

The headmistress fixed him with a beady-eyed stare. ‘Severus, you know very well that I have only your—and Hermione’s—best interests in mind. As your friend, I ask you to consider spending a few days away from it all, before…you do what you have to do. Surely that can’t be such an ordeal for a young couple such as you are? However, if you insist on being your usual obnoxious self, I also ask you to keep in mind that as the Headmistress I can make you take a few days off. Whether you “feel like it” or not.’

Feeling thirteen all over again, Severus squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

‘I’ve sent Winky ahead to your home,’ Minerva added. ‘I’ll come to see you off tomorrow, of course. Does 5:00 p.m. sound all right to you?’

Aware that he was outmanoeuvred and outgunned as well, Severus inclined his head in silent acquiescence.

Walking back to his dungeons, he wondered how in Merlin’s and Nimue’s names he was supposed to salvage the first and only Christmas his wife would share with him. He hadn’t returned to Spinner’s End since May 1999, and he rather doubted that even the magic of house-elves would be strong enough to make the place habitable again.

oooOooo

‘Happy Christmas, Minerva,’ Hermione said. Her voice sounded a little choked because of all the things she wanted to say, but couldn’t, not with her husband looming over her and looking so thoroughly disgruntled. Instead of talking, she opted for hug. To have a few days alone with Severus was the most precious gift anyone could have given her under the circumstances.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered into the older woman’s robes.

When they parted, the headmistress dashed fiercely at her eyes. ‘Just the wind,’ Minerva muttered. ‘Don’t mind me.’

Then Minerva turned to Severus. Her lips moved, but no words would come. For a moment Hermione almost expected her to hug Severus. Judging from his expression of absolute discomfiture, he feared the same. But the headmistress only extended her hand, and when he took it reluctantly, she covered his long fingers with her left.

‘Happy Christmas, Severus.’

oooOooo

When the dizzying, nauseating sensation of Side-Along Apparition faded, Hermione was still wrapped into the embrace of her husband.

As a result she heard and felt the terrified gasp their surroundings provoked in him. His arms tightened around her. She reacted instinctively to Severus’ fear, stomach tightening, hands itching for the comforting touch of her wands.

‘What’s wrong?’

When he did not move or answer, she twisted around in his arms and…gaped.

After a few heartbeats of stunned silence, she inhaled deeply and gave voice to her astonishment. ‘Didn’t you warn me that Spinner’s End is a dreary, deserted, dilapidated industrial area?’

He still held onto her tightly, so she could feel how he had to swallow heavily before he could answer. ‘I—well—’

‘When were you here the last time?’

‘Uh…May last year. Just a few days between when I was released from St Mungo’s and when Minerva came to take me back to Hogwarts.’ He scowled at her. ‘In time for you to begin your apprenticeship.’

‘Well,’ Hermione swallowed hard. She couldn’t honestly say that she was sorry for that, because she wasn’t, not at all. Instead she gazed around her, wide-eyed and fascinated. ‘I think things have umm…kind of changed around here since you’ve been in the area for the last time.’

She stared at the banner that was fluttering in the breeze above them: ‘Celebrate the “Greenest Corner of the City” Award 2000 with us!’

‘I—I—have really no idea what this is all about,’ Severus croaked.

She leant back into his embrace and tried to suppress the giggle that was bubbling up inside of her. But he was so attuned to her by now that she wasn’t surprised when he stiffened. Hermione didn’t even have to see his frown. She felt it, in the way his body tensed behind her.

‘What do you know that I don’t?’ he asked suspiciously.

Her attempt to huff, take a deep breath, and remain serious all at the same time failed miserably—and turned into a rather undignified cough. When she could talk again, she still had a hard time not to chuckle.

‘Well, I don’t know anything,’ Hermione said. ‘But it looks like Spinner’s End was the target of a successful project of sustainable urban development, recultivation, and revitalisation.’

‘A what?’

‘It looks as if the local authorities did some work on the area,’ Hermione explained patiently. ‘Rebuilding and restructuring, getting new people and businesses here, establishing a whole new flair for the neighbourhood. Has it changed a lot?’

He relaxed ever so slightly. ‘Changed a lot?’ he muttered. ‘You could say that. I barely recognise the street.’

‘Is that good or bad?’

‘I—I—I don’t know. What kind of question is that?’ He frowned at her.

‘Why don’t we find out together?’ Hermione suggested. ‘Let’s go and explore the new Spinner’s End!’

oooOooo

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