Chapters 61-70

Would You Pass Me the Sugar, Please?

What softer side Severus Snape might possess, he’d very definitely left it behind in the dungeons today. Like the proverbial bat out of hell he swept up the stairs and through the corridors, scattering students left and right, who winced in his wake and didn’t even dare to respond to Hermione’s reassuring smile.

‘My Lady Greensleeves,’ Snape hissed at the gargoyle that guarded the office of the headmistress.

With a black swirl of his robes, he imperiously entered the room that had briefly been his two years ago. ‘Minerva.’

‘S– Severus. And Hermione. What a pleasant surprise. I did not expect you. How are you, my dear? I hope you are feeling better.’

‘If you did not expect us, Minerva, then you still have a lot to learn,’ Snape interrupted.

A stifled chuckle issued from the golden picture frame behind McGonagall’s desk. Snape scowled at Dumbledore’s portrait. ‘Dumbledore. Don’t you have…business to attend to? Places to go? Canvas to adorn? Oil colour to sniff?’

The former headmaster’s eyes twinkled almost as brightly as they had in real life. In the portrait he’d shrugged off his robes. He stood before them in shirt sleeves and bright pink braces that held up a pair of violet trousers. ‘Actually, Severus, you are lucky today. My golf partners just informed me that they had to cancel our match for this afternoon. So today my time is completely at your disposal.’

‘Albus, don’t tease him so. Don’t you see that he’s not in a good mood?’

‘Minerva, Severus has never appreciated being mollycoddled, neither by our own dear Molly, nor by you or even by myself.’

‘Minerva, Severus can speak for himself, and if you really want to do something for him, send that old codger on his way,’ Snape snarled.

The Headmistress frowned and fixed Snape with her patent penetrating stare. Snape merely raised a black eyebrow towards the portrait and crossed his arms in front of his chest in a gesture of exaggerated patience.

McGonagall’s frown deepened. ‘Albus, if you don’t mind, I would prefer to speak with Severus and Hermione alone.’

Albus Dumbledore glared at his successor, but then he winked at Hermione, picked up his robe and quietly slipped from the frame.

Minerva moved around her desk and sat down, gesturing to Snape and Hermione to take a seat as well. ‘I am sorry, but I have no new information for you about the attack. The Aurors, and I assume the Unspeakables are still working on the case.’

‘This is not about the attack,’ interrupted Snape. ‘At least not…only about it.’

He did not look at Hermione, but concentrated on the Headmistress.

Hermione’s heart was thudding in her chest, and her hands felt unsteady. She would have liked to fidget and squirm or play with her hair or scratch at a hangnail. But that kind of thing was not quite the appropriate behaviour when your fiancé was going to talk to your boss about the planning of your wedding. She felt the almost irrepressible urge to cup her face in her hands and mutter an endless stream of ‘Ohmygods’. For almost a year she had lived with The Plan. For almost a year she had thought about little else. For almost a year she had not hoped to succeed.

Now she had succeeded and failed and all at the same time.

‘In that case, what do you want to talk about?’ A straight line appeared above the bridge of Minerva’s nose.

Snape remained completely unfazed. ‘You are keeping up with my schedule for the Probations Officer, I believe?’

At this change of tack, Minerva had enough. She removed her spectacles and glared at the Potions Master. ‘Severus Snape. Either you tell me what you want, or you get the hell out of my office. Hermione, if you need to talk to me, you can stay, of course.’

Hermione dared to cast a glance at Severus out of the corner of her eye. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes glinted with the barest hint of mirth. He was enjoying himself!

‘I will need no more than a minute of your precious time, Minerva. Then I will leave you to consort with your lion-cub in peace.’ He looked at Hermione for the first time since they’d entered the room. She could have sworn that just for second, maybe not even that, the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Then his expression grew stern again.

‘Hermione and I are getting married,’ Severus said simply. ‘I wanted to ask you to ascertain the necessary requirements regarding the ceremony in order to fulfil the conditions of my probation.’

It said a lot about the resilience and presence of mind of the Headmistress of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry that Minerva McGonagall did not faint on the spot upon hearing that quiet announcement.

oooOooo

‘Ron? Would you pass me the sugar, please? Oh, and before I forget…I’ll be in London on Friday next week. And uh…if you don’t have anything else to do, maybe we could meet?’

Harry felt his brows knit together and resisted the urge to rub his scar.

Ron, however, remained completely unconcerned. ‘Sure ‘mione. No problem. I was going to meet Lois for lunch, but we can reschedule or meet all together. What are you doing here?’

Harry saw Hermione’s lips quiver, then she bit down on her lower lip the way she always did when she was nervous. But something was different. A strange spark was gleaming in her eyes. That was it! Her eyes were shining today! Harry remembered that light in her eyes. From way back when a simple five House points earned in Transfiguration could make Hermione happy.

Could it possibly be…?

Hermione couldn’t suppress a grin now. ‘I’m getting married on Friday, Ronald. And I would be very happy if you and Lois and Harry and my other friends could be there.’