Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The New Life	By : lilith395 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 14590 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter and I don't earn anything from these stories.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
A/N: I am soooo sorry! I was supposed to upload these chapters yesterday, but real life (read: christmas grocery shopping) got in the way... Again so sorry! So, to make up for it, we've got a monster upload today... Right now actually... Here we go:

20 (and then some) questions

Dawn is pressing against our hotel room window, and we are still awake. After explaining as little to Nymphadora as I could get away with, (Her name is Aleéna, she lives in Greece, and no, she cannot touch you) I kicked her out of the room and sat Granger, who seems just about ready to burst with questions, down in one of the chairs, taking the other one myself. I have been organizing my thoughts for over an hour, and still I have no idea where to begin. I think I can finally admit something which I have never admitted before. I’m lost.

I look up to see the young woman in front of me on the edge of her seat, leaning forward with her elbows resting on her knees, as though I am something she finds highly fascinating and will probably never see again. Disregarding the fact that she will sit next to me at breakfast, lunch and dinner every night until either one of us dies, or resigns our post at Hogwarts. No, make that until we die, neither of us would ever resign.

With a heavy sigh, I give in. If I do not know where to start, maybe she does. Highly unlikely, but I could give her a chance. This self-imposed silence is getting us nowhere either.

“I will give you an opportunity which I am likely never to give you again, so use it wisely.”

There lies an eagerness in her eyes which makes me think that if she were a dog, her ears would perk up and her tail would start to wag. It’s an imagery left over from my own school days. Black used to do it a lot.

I settle myself a little further back into the chair.

“Ask your questions”

Her mouth drops open and her eyes go wide. Another sigh escapes me.

“Do not tell me the Gryffindor brain has no questions to ask?” I remark in a tone which almost makes me wince. No sleep has never done me good.

Her eyes narrow at me, and I can almost see the questions flitting through her brain while she sorts through them. When she finally seems to settle on one it’s not the one I could have possibly imagined.

“What’s the real deal with the Russian cabin?” She asks, crossing her arms over her chest and settling herself against the backrest of her own chair. I can feel my eyes go wide for just a moment before I recover. Then I smirk. She truly is smart, isn’t she.

“You seem to have a little Slytherin in you after all, witch.” I say, placing my elbows on the armrests and touch my fingertips together in a very Albus-like fashion. I must be a pair of sequined purple robes away from doing him proud, I imagine.

“It used to be Albus’, I used it a lot over the years, and he left it to me when he died.”

“Good,” she remarks, “I didn’t believe you would use the internet anyway.”

She says it as though it’s a fact I’m a hopeless wizard in the muggle world and I do feel a pang of something inside of me.

“I believe I take offense at that remark.” I murmur, but she seems too lost in thought to register my words. Pity. I might not have had the best relationship with my late father, he is, whichever way you look at it, still the only father I ever had, and he taught me quite a few useful things over the years. One was how to properly present oneself as a muggle and the other how to take all the shit thrown at you and never lose your temper. Helped me a great deal during my years with the Dark Lord.

“Why did you take me on this trip?”

Her question pulls me from my thoughts.

“To help me gather some ingredients.”

She makes a noise and eyes me skeptically.

“No, you didn’t.” She states. “I may have helped you with the Anarok, but if I hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have needed my help. You locked me up when we were with the Bake-Neko, without even informing me that that’s where we were, and in Malaysia you didn’t need my help at all. I have a feeling that here in Egypt I’m once again only going to slow you down, and that woman, whoever she was, but we’ll get to that later, just said that I’m putting us both in danger. Or at least, that’s what I understood from that very confusing conversation. So I ask you, why am I here?”

I have to hand it to her, she is quick on the uptake. However, had she not figured all of this out, I have to be honest and say I would be disappointed.

“You are right, Professor.” I nod at her, “However, we are far from done with our quest, if you will. There are several things coming up with which I will need your help. But I have to admit, I did not anticipate you being perceived as a threat by the Auloniad. You are merely a young woman, something they frown upon but otherwise ignore with all their might. I am at a loss as to why they would…”

She holds up a hand and I frown at her.

“Not quite there yet, Severus. I still have a few other things I want to get out of the way before you launch into a speech about that woman.”

I am already regretting my decision to let her lead the conversation. I actually believe it might be the worst decision I have ever made. I can, after only three minutes of this talk, feel the annoyance bubbling up inside me like lava bubbling up inside an active volcano. I might strangle her before the market opens. However, that might take care of our little problem with the Auloniad. Yes, it might just do exactly that. For a few moments, I stare off into the distance while imagining all the things in the room I could use to cut off her air supply. You’d be surprised how many there are.

“Are you even listening to me?” She bites out.

“No, I was not, but I am now. Repeat that please?”

“Were you telling the truth about the fire?”

I frown at her, completely at a loss. What is she talking about?

“What fire?”

She sighs. “The one in Russia, in erm… Albus’ cabin? I asked you that night, why did you extinguish the fire to rebuild it by hand?”

My frown deepens. “Is that really more important than what just happened? More important than that you might be in danger, or why I keep half of our trip secret from you?”

“No” She shakes her head, “But I’m curious about it.”

Well, at least she’s honest. Though that doesn’t change the fact that I do not at all understand her. She might be in mortal danger for all she knows, and she’s asking about something I did, which is of no significance at all.

“And I assume we are safe enough where we are at the moment, or you would not have insulted the lady in the mirror just now. And I think it has something to do with that potion you just took. Also, I am most definitely never going to have this opportunity ever again, which means I’m going to ask you everything I want to know, how insignificant it might be, just because I can.”

Right. Should’ve known. Her reasoning is sound, I’ll have to give her that much.

“The fact that I told you to ask your questions does not mean I’m going to answer anything other than what I think you need to know about this trip. I do hope you understand at least that much.”

“And I hope that you understand at least enough about me to know that the more you refuse to answer my questions, the more I will hound you with them. Refusing me only makes me curious.”

I cannot stand the look on the woman’s face, just because she knows she’s right. And I know it as well.

“Fine. It truly is insignificant.” I say with a wave of my hand towards the hearth in the corner of the room. “Look at it.”

She turns around to watch it and I continue. “It’s a wandless spell, easy enough, but tied directly to the person who cast the spell. Go and feel it.”

She looks at me over her shoulder with a look of pure bewilderment in her eyes. “Excuse me?” she asks.

“Just do it, Granger, I wouldn’t ask you if it would cause you harm, would I?” I wave my hand over to the hearth for good measure. I silently applaud her Griffindor courage when she gets up from her chair and actually sticks her hand in the flames, twice, before turning back to me.

“It’s cold. Why is it cold?”

I once again marvel at the ignorance of the girl before me. One moment she seems almost as old as I am, with true knowledge and experience, and the next, she’s like that little girl from ten years ago waving her arm at me every class, quoting texts but with the practical knowledge of a sea-snail.

“Because I’m not feeling cold. I do not need warmth so the fire will not be warm. If I open a window and get cold, then it will warm up to the temperature that I need it to be to feel comfortable.”

She remains quiet for a few moments, staring at the flames and every so often touching them with her fingertips. Then, she looks back up at me.

“Okay, so you’ll teach me how to do it.” My mouth drops a little about the fact that it’s not a question, but a statement, but I remain quiet. She continues, “But I still do not get why you didn’t let it burn all night. If it’s finely attuned to your needs, isn’t it only natural to let it burn? Wouldn’t it have heated up if you’d gotten cold and cooled down if you were hot? Wouldn’t it keep doing exactly what you needed?”

I nod. Of course it would have, I just explained that.

“Then why make a normal fire?”

“Let me ask you a question, Professor Granger. How much of an egotistical bastard do you think I am?”

Her turn to frown. “I don’t” she answers, “Why would you think that?”

“Because even while I was warming up, it’s the Christmas holiday, Granger, there’s snow everywhere, and the moment I would’ve gotten into that bed, which has blankets made of pure wool, the fire would’ve practically turned into a freezer.”

“But you would’ve been warm under the blankets, wouldn’t you? So that’s still not a reason.” She states and I sigh. I realize that she has one huge blind spot in her reasoning, one that she seems to have more often.

“Yes, Hermione, but you would’ve been freezing.”
- 17
- 18
- 19
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The New Life