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Twenty Four Hours	By : Dazzlious Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 10678 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from JK Rowling’s fantastic books or films, I’m just borrowing and playing with them for a little while and get no monetary reward for doing so. Original Characters are mine.

Chapter List
- 1-Prologue
- 2-One
- 3-Two
- 4-Three
- 5-Four
- 6-Five
- 7-Six
- 8-Seven
- 9-Eight
- 10-Nine
- 11-Ten
- 12-Eleven
- 13-Twelve
- 9
- 10
- 11
‘Have you told him?’ Severus’ voice was curt as he warily eyed Hermione.
She had made him wait until after their meeting, and his natural mistrustfulness and her dour expression made him suspect that she was stalling for time again. Although he understood that informing Weasley that their marriage was over was a difficult task for Hermione, a month was surely more than sufficient time for her to do the deed.
The decision had been made, she had told him she had chosen him, so why was it so hard for her to pass that information on to her husband? He could feel the tension inside him turning to anger as he waited for her to try to stymie him with her latest excuse.
Hermione nodded. ‘Yes. I told him, although it was difficult with him being holed up in that bloody shop in Hogsmeade for the last few weeks.’
Severus knew he should be relaxing now that Hermione had told Weasley, now that they would finally be together, but for some reason her still-tense expression left him feeling inexplicably anxious.
‘You told him about me?’ he asked, wanting it to be clear that Weasley knew exactly where things stood.
Hermione nodded again. ‘I did. Not exactly in the way I meant to tell him, but he knows you and I have been sleeping together.’
‘Are you okay?’
Severus moved towards her, ready to take her in his arms, now worried that the slight coldness between them was because of something Weasley had said or done to her. Before he reached her, Hermione moved away from him, deliberately moving behind her desk so that he couldn’t touch her. He frowned.
Hermione thought for a moment, then said, ‘Ron and George have finished the shop. It opens next weekend. He kindly arranged for someone to come to the flat to pack up all our stuff and transport it to Hogsmeade without bothering to tell me he was doing it.’
Snape realised from the tone of her voice that Hermione didn’t expect an answer, although his mind was working overtime trying to place what she was telling him in the context of their relationship.
‘He thought he was being considerate, but as you can imagine I wasn’t best pleased by his actions.’
‘But why did he do it? You never agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him, did you?’ Severus asked.
Hermione shook her head. ‘No. At no time during any of our discussions did I even hint that I was interested in going with him. But he’d made his mind up and decided I had agreed — he just assumed that I’d accept what was happening. He was talking about me working in the shop and even about me giving up my place on the team.’
‘But surely he knows you wouldn’t do that?’ Severus said with a frown. ‘He knows what this project means to you.’
Hermione sighed. ‘Apparently not. He seemed to be under the impression that once I was at the shop I would be happy to settle down and do what he wanted. Obviously, he knows better now.’
‘So when are you going to move in?’ Severus asked. The tightness in his chest had eased somewhat at hearing Hermione’s confirmation that her marriage was over.
‘I’m not,’ Hermione told him. She looked upset, her eyes glistening with tears but her face was set.
Severus stared at her in shock, unable to believe that he had heard her correctly.
‘What did you say?’ he asked quietly.
‘I said I’m not moving in with you — not yet. I was really annoyed with Ron for trying to steamroller me into doing something that I didn’t want to do and I told him to get lost. You’ve been just as bad in your own way, Severus. You know how important you are to this team and you’ve used that to force me into making a decision that I still don’t know is right for me.
‘I really do think I love you, but at the moment any decision I make with regard to our relationship is purely to stop you from leaving the project, not because I want to be with you.
‘I asked you to wait until the project was over, just as I asked Ron, and neither of you listened to me or bothered to consider what I was going through. Instead, you both tried to pull me in opposite directions. Ron’s gone because he doesn’t affect my work, whereas you—’ Hermione broke off as the tears started to flow.
She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, then continued, ‘Your ultimatum wasn’t fair, Severus, and I will not bow to your blackmail. If you love me, as you keep telling me you do, then you’ll understand that I have to wait until the project is over before I decide whether you and I have a future together.
‘If you want to leave the project then go ahead, I’m not going to stop you. But if you do, it will prove to me that what you’ve been telling me about being in love with me isn’t true — because if it was then you couldn’t do that to me, because you know how important this project is to me and you know what you leaving will do to the rest of the team.’
Severus stared at Hermione, unable to speak, as he digested what she had just told him. She was right, of course, he had tried to railroad her into making a decision using his place in the team as leverage. Although part of him was angry that she wasn’t giving him what he wanted, she had at least got rid of her useless husband, so there was still hope that she would choose him eventually. He was strongly aware that now was not the time for him to storm off and leave the project otherwise he would definitely lose Hermione, and that he just couldn’t bear to think about.
‘So where are you going to go? You said you left Ron so I assume you’re not living with him, so where are you going to live?’
‘Don’t worry about that. I’ve got somewhere to live. It’ll give me a chance to think about things properly.’
‘You don’t want to tell me,’ Severus said stiffly.
Hermione shrugged. ‘Will it make any difference where I’m living? It’s not with Ron, and I thought that was the main thing you wanted me to change.’
‘I want you to come and live with me, you know that,’ Severus said.
‘And I may well do, but not until the project’s finished.’ She saw Severus scowl and added, ‘Anyway, if the results we’ve been seeing carry on being so good it will only be another couple of months. Surely you can wait that long, can’t you?’
Severus sighed loudly. ‘It doesn’t sound like I have much choice, does it, Hermione?’
‘Are you going to leave the project?’ Hermione asked, the ball of tension inside her stomach swelling as she asked the question.
Severus studied her for several seconds, then shook his head. ‘Of course not. We’ve got a project to finish, and how am I ever going to convince you that I love you if I walk away now?’
Hermione burst into tears. Severus went around the desk and wrapped his arms around her.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly as he held her. ‘I was being unreasonable and you were right to call me out on it.’
‘I do want to be with you but I have to see this project out first,’ Hermione said apologetically.
‘I know.’ Severus brushed away her tears, then kissed her. ‘I love you, Hermione.’
‘I was so scared you would leave,’ Hermione admitted.
Severus shook his head. ‘Never. I wasn’t willing to let you go when you were with Weasley; I’m definitely not going anywhere now that you’ve got rid of him.’
He kissed her again.
‘I want you,’ Hermione said. She had moved out of the chair to hug Severus properly and was now leaning back against the desk.
‘Time for another silencing charm?’ Severus suggested.
‘Definitely!’ Hermione grinned at him.
‘Let me remind you what you’ll be saying yes to,’ Severus told her as he lifted her onto the desk, his mouth brushing whisper-soft kisses down her throat.
‘Yes, please,’ Hermione said, her hands already on the waistband of his trousers.

‘I really think you should support Ron this weekend,’ Harry said.
He and Hermione were having a cup of tea in a café down the road from the Ministry of Magic. Hermione hadn’t really wanted to go as she suspected he was going to spend the whole lunch break trying to convince her to get back together with her ex-husband, but she hadn’t been able to think of a decent enough excuse to get out of it. They were supposed to be friends, after all.
She sighed and looked across the table at him. ‘I really don’t think it’s a very good idea. Ron and I have separated and I’m not going back to him. If I turn up at the opening everyone’s going to get the wrong idea and think I’m backing down and that’s never going to happen. I want him to do well in his new venture, of course I do, but I can send him a good luck card for that.’ She took a sip of her tea then added, ‘I’m not sure he would want to see me anyway. Let’s face it, we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.’
‘He’s been really miserable for the last week,’ Harry said as he stirred his own tea.
‘So even more reason for me not to go, then,’ Hermione answered.
‘But seeing you there might cheer him up a bit.’
Hermione gave a small snort and almost choked on her tea. ‘I think that’s very unlikely. I cheated on him, Harry, so I don’t think he’s going to be in that forgiving a mood.’
‘He might be,’ Harry said desperately. ‘If the two of you could just talk to each other, Hermione.’
She shook her head. ‘If he’s honestly that desperate to see me then it really wouldn’t be a good idea, me going to the opening. It would only get his hopes up and that’s not fair to Ron when nothing is going to come of it.’
Harry looked as if he was about to speak again. Hermione raised her hand to stop him. ‘No, listen to me, Harry. I am not going back to Ron. I don’t want to live in Hogsmeade, I don’t want to work in a joke shop and I most definitely don’t want to have children at the moment. I love my work and intend to carry on doing it for as long as I can, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but I’m in love with Severus, not Ron.’
‘I really don’t understand how you and he . . . .’ Harry’s morose voice trailed off, seemingly unable to complete the sentence as he shook his head in disbelief.
‘I know you and Ron never liked him, but I never had a problem with Severus when we were at school. I always thought he was a good teacher, even if he was extremely biased towards the Slytherins and something of a bully. Since we’ve been working together I’ve come to appreciate what a genius he is with regard to potion-making. I’ve seen a completely different side to him, one that’s much softer and far more pleasant.’
‘But you and Ron always made such a good couple,’ Harry told her, sounding unhappy.
Hermione sighed again. ‘When we were at school, of course we did. All teenage sweethearts are cute and we complemented each other. But we’ve both changed, Harry. We grew up and grew apart — we’re not compatible any longer. I know it’s hard to accept, but it’s true. We both want completely different things in life and there just isn’t a way to reach a compromise — we’re at different ends of the spectrum and whichever way we go at least one of us is going to end up disappointed or hurt.‘
Harry frowned. ‘Ginny and I have very different lives but we manage okay, so I’m sure you and Ron can work it out if you just give it a chance.’
Hermione took a deep breath and took a sip of her tea, intended to give her a chance to calm down before she lost her temper with Harry. She knew getting annoyed with him wouldn’t help and would only succeed in entrenching him even further in Ron’s camp. She shouldn’t have to defend herself over her choice with her so-called best friend, but it looked like it was the only way she was going to convince Harry that she had made the right decision.
‘Look, Harry, I’m sure you don’t believe for one minute that Ron should have to give up his dreams so that I can achieve mine and I completely understand that. But why should I be expected to give up mine for him? Life in Hogsmeade isn’t for me, regardless of what work I’m doing — early mornings and late nights in the laboratory are never going to be compatible with the demands of running a shop, and whatever I move on to next, I already know that I will be every bit as dedicated as I am to the current project.
‘I also know that there’s no way the shop isn’t going to impact my life if I have to go and live there. I honestly have no interest in it at all, nor the time to worry about stock levels or any of the other things Ron’s always wittering on about. For me, it would just be a place for me to lay my head at night, and that’s not fair on either of us. It’ll just cause more arguments and stop either of us attaining the happiness we deserve.
‘It pains me as much as it does you because Ron was such a good friend and I don’t know whether we’ll ever be able to recover that, but Severus gives me something Ron never did. He challenges me, and he excites me too. Ron just plods along doing whatever he wants and just assumes that I’ll slot into his life and become a good little Weasley wife — but that’s really not me, and if you’re honest, you know it isn’t. Ron will find someone else eventually. There are plenty of women out there who would be happy to settle into that sort of life — it’s just not right for me.’
‘But you’re not even giving it a chance,’ Harry said. ‘Perhaps once you move to Hogsmeade you’ll realise that you don’t need all the late nights at work. Maybe you’ll discover that being at the shop isn’t as bad you think it’s going to be.’
Hermione stared at him. ‘Do you want to leave the Ministry and go and work at the shop instead?’
Harry looked uncomfortable under her intense gaze. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘But if Ginny wanted to do it then I would support her and give it a try. Maybe I would enjoy it, away from the stress and pressures of the Ministry.’
Hermione’s eyes narrowed and she glared at him. ‘You think working in a shop is as boring as I do, Harry, and I don’t believe for one minute that you would do it without a fight, not even for Ginny. Anyway, there’s more to all this than whether or not I work in some stupid joke shop — you know there is — there’s the whole breakdown of our marriage, and I can assure you that me moving somewhere I don’t want to be isn’t going to make that any better.
‘Ron seems to have got it into his brain that moving to Hogsmeade was going to be some sort of magic balm that would smooth over all the cracks in our relationship without him having to lift a finger. Cosy home, children, small-town business — they’re all his idea of heaven but my idea of hell — and he didn’t even bother to check I was onboard before he put it all in motion.
‘I don’t mean moving jobs. That was a good thing for him to do. We all know how unhappy he was as an Auror, and he’s suited to working in the joke shop. But the rest of it—’ Hermione shook her head with annoyance. ‘Perhaps if Ron had been content to let me finish with this project before making his demands I might have been more open to the proposition, although to be honest, it’s unlikely.’
‘He was just keen to make a fresh start,’ Harry said, dutifully sticking up for his friend. ‘He knew things weren’t the best between you and thought this would be a good way to start over.’
‘What, by completely ignoring my wishes and attempting to force me into a lifestyle I had no desire to take on?’ Hermione asked angrily. ‘He didn’t even have the decency to wait until the project was over like I asked him to — he gave up our flat, arranged for people to come and remove our belongings and move them to Hogsmeade, all without even bothering to tell me he was doing it. He even decorated one of the rooms in the flat as a nursery. How the hell is that starting over? It just compounded the problem and made me realise that he really doesn’t give a damn about my feelings at all — it’s all about him, as usual.’
‘Maybe if you had spent more time with Ron rather than staying late at work you might have sorted things out between you,’ Harry suggested. ‘It’s hard to consider other people’s needs when you never see them and have no idea what they want. Perhaps if you’d spent more time with Ron you and Snape wouldn’t have—’
‘You can stop right there. Harry. My relationship with Severus wasn’t some accident or a mistake that happened because I was spending too long at work,’ Hermione said sharply, cutting her friend off before he could say anything further. ‘The truth is that Ron and I have been going downhill for years. We had stopped having sex, we hardly talked to each other and when we did it was mainly because we were arguing. That was one of the reasons I started working longer hours in the first place — I couldn’t bear to be at home because it was so bloody miserable.
‘When Severus and I became . . . more intimate . . . it had been at least six months, maybe even more since Ron and I had done anything in the bedroom, so to be honest, I didn’t really feel all that guilty about it — not as guilty as I probably should have done, anyway. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just natural progression, and I enjoyed having a sexual relationship again. More than that, I got support at work from someone who knew and understood the importance of what I was working on. Severus mentored me, pushing me to exceed my current achievements, making me realise that this project doesn’t need to be the end of my career.
‘When Ron said he was leaving the Ministry I was completely supportive as I knew how unhappy working there made him. But then, suddenly, he turned into this evangelical convert for country life and started going on about how it was a new start for both of us. I was stunned when he kept talking about us having children, considering we weren’t having sex at the time. Running the Hogsmeade shop and children was all he talked about, all the time, and it drove me mad, so I did the only thing sensible thing I could do and retreated back to the laboratory.’
‘Maybe if you had talked to him—’
Hermione growled with frustration. ‘Oh, Harry, don’t you think I tried? I talked to him until I was blue in the face, but as usual, he just ignored my concerns and ploughed ahead with what he wanted to do.
‘He didn’t even bother to tell me what he was doing — that’s the worst thing. If he’d told me what he was thinking about doing I would have tried to make him wait like you should have done if you were any sort of a real friend. Why didn’t you stop him, or at least warn me what he was up to? It wasn’t fair of either of you to let him spring that on me.’
‘I didn’t know,’ Harry admitted. Hermione stared at him in disbelief. He shrugged, shaking his head. ‘Honestly, I didn’t. I knew he and George were a bit ahead of schedule but I didn’t realise it was that close, and I definitely didn’t know that he had arranged for someone to move all your belongings or that he’d given up your flat. Of course I’d have told you if I’d known that was going to happen. I’m not a complete idiot, Hermione.’
‘Unlike Ron, apparently.’
‘That’s unfair. He thought he was being helpful. He knows how busy and stressful your job is and he thought that if he sorted everything out you would have less to worry about.’
‘No, what he did was completely ignore my desires and try to make me accept his by default. He didn’t tell me because he knew he was in the wrong — or if he really didn’t have any idea that what he was doing was wrong then that proves he’s never actually bothered to listen to any conversation we’ve had ever since Hogsmeade was first suggested, because he had already decided what we were going to do regardless of whatever I said to him. Both those things show that we’re unsuited to be together. I don’t need a husband that selfish, Harry.’
‘Instead, you want to hitch your star to that of Severus Snape — a man so selfish that he was willing to let both me and my father die if it meant my mother lived,’ Harry retorted in disgust.
‘And who then spent the next two decades making up for that and keeping you alive,’ Hermione pointed out. ‘He almost died to save you, if you remember, so don’t suddenly start acting like he’s the enemy. You’re right, he is selfish — as far as I can see all men are — even you are, spending the last half hour trying to convince me to go back to Ron when if you were any sort of friend you’d be outraged at what he tried to do to me. As it happens, I’ve told Severus that he’s going to have to wait until after the project finishes before I make any decision about him, too. At the moment the only thing I want to focus on is the project and I can best do that without having to worry about Ron or Severus.'
‘You’ll still see him, though,’ Harry pointed out.
Hermione sighed. ‘He comes to the weekly staff meeting, that’s all. Until the project finishes I have no interest in personal relationships of any description. Look, to be honest, Harry, whatever happens in my future, Ron isn’t going to be a part of it but Severus probably will. Nothing anyone can say will make me resume my relationship with Ron and it’s equally unlikely that anything will stop my relationship with Severus.
‘I can only suggest that you take some time to think about whether you still want to be my friend. If you do then I expect a bit of support in my decisions, whether you like them or not, in the same way that you support Ron. If not, then I hope you have a happy and fulfilling life and that everything goes the way you want it to. Obviously, I’ll be heartbroken to lose your friendship as we’ve been through so much together, and I’m already one friend down. But I refuse to compromise my principles and I don’t want to hear any more from you about why I should be giving Ron another chance. That subject is closed.
Harry stared at Hermione in surprise. ‘You can’t mean that, surely, Hermione?’
‘Which bit? I don’t want to lose you as a friend, Harry, but I’m not willing to listen to any more crap about Ron. So if that’s all you’ve got—’
‘You’re asking me to choose between you and Ron,’ Harry said unhappily.
Hermione sighed, trying to tamp down her frustration. ‘No, I’m not. There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t continue to be friends with both of us. It’s perfectly simple: you don’t lecture me about what you think I should do and you respect any decisions I make, whether you agree with them or not. Then, when Ron starts going on about me, you simply tell him to give it up as a bad idea and get on with his life. You can help him get over this and move on, Harry, but not if you insist on seeing us both as being your friends only if we’re a couple.’
‘But it’s not that easy,’ Harry retorted.
‘It is. You just have to set your mind right.’
Hermione pulled her purse from her handbag and rummaged around inside for some change. She put it on the table, then after putting her purse away she stood up.
‘I need to get back to work. Send Ron and George my good wishes for the opening on Saturday . . . and say hi to Ginny for me.’
Harry stared at the money on the table as Hermione left the café without even looking back.
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Twenty Four Hours