Binding Ties

Binding Ties

Chapter Three
Familiarities

Ron walked through the front door, stretching. The house was quiet and seemed nearly empty. He walked up the stairs, opening his children’s bedroom doors as he went. Neither Hugo nor Rose was in their bed.

“Must be at Harry’s,” Ron muttered to himself as he walked further down the hall, eyes on his destination, his bedroom. Inside, thought Ron, I’ll find Hermione in her cute little nightdress. She’ll most likely be reading with her glasses on the end of her nose, like I like them. I’ll just walk inside and…

Ron opened the door to a clean, but empty, bedroom. His disappointed eyes scraped the room for some sign of a note. That sign came in the form of Hermione’s traveling cloak removed from the back of the door. He sighed, sitting on the bed and looking around him. Where had his wife gone? He decided not to worry about it.


xox

“You seem spacey,” said the raven-haired Lily Potter, looking at her cousin through curious eyes. Rose sat gazing off of the balcony with a slightly unfocused countenance dominating her face.

“I’m just thinking.”

“Well, that’s obvious. What are you thinking about?” Lily prodded as she climbed off of her bed and walked across her cavernous bedroom to sit on the balcony with her best friend.

“Scorpius.” Rose was furious with herself for admitting it, but she had not stopped thinking about him since that morning.

“I see,” remarked Lily, scrunching up her nose bitterly. “Why are you thinking about that greasy git?”

“I think I like him.” A long silence followed her words. When Lily finally mustered the strength to close her gaping mouth, Rose began again. “The way he said good morning to me,” she paused, “it was almost as if he wanted to talk… or something.”

“Rose, we’re best friends, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Then you’ll eventually forgive me for saying that you’re an idiot if you think that you and Scorpius, the ugly Slytherin git, would ever work out as a couple. Face the facts, Rosie. He’s a pureblood.”

“So am I! Think about it Lil! My mum’s a witch, and my father’s a wizard.”

“Yes, Rosie,” Lily added exasperatedly. “But you’re mum’s a muggle-born. He won’t see around that.”

“Girls,” Ginny said as she poked her head around her daughter’s bedroom door. “It’s nearly midnight. Shouldn’t you be considering going to sleep soon?”

“Yes, mum.”

With that, Ginny shut her daughter’s bedroom door and left that wing of the house. She walked the length of the large Potter manor, finally entering her own chamber. Harry Potter sat on her bed, hands relaxed behind his head, nearly asleep.

“Harry, I’m just going to take a quick shower.”

“Alright, Gin,” Harry mumbled through the warm clutches of imminent sleep.

xox

Hermione’s warm brown eyes dilated with terror as she wrenched her hand from the stranger’s. The man’s own long white hands reached up for his hood and removed it.

“But you’re dead.”

“Well stated, Miss Granger,” Severus Snape said sarcastically. “Though I’m afraid not.”

“We saw it! You died,” Hermione nearly shouted, tears welling in her eyes. Snape did not look any older than he had at Hogwarts. He, in fact, looked no older than Hermione herself though little more than two decades separated their ages.

“Miss Granger, it is an insult to my intelligence that you think I would not have had brewed an antidote to the Dark Lord’s snake’s venom. Did you think Dumbledore had not foreseen what would happen?”

“You were bleeding everywhere. And don’t call me Miss Granger,” Hermione retorted angrily.

“How many wizards do you know who have died of loss of blood? That’s a muggle’s ailment. Wizards and witches simply heal their wounds and create more. And as for you, I didn’t realize we were on a first name basis,” he sneered at her remark about her name.

“We’re not,“ Hermione replied sharply. “Granger is my maiden name.” An unmistakable darkness passed over Snape’s face. His eyes flicked in the direction of her left hand.

“Who?” was Snape’s only reply. Hermione watched Snape’s expression for nearly a minute before telling him.

“Ron and I were married shortly after the war ended,” said Hermione quietly. “Why should that bother you?”

“It doesn’t,” replied Snape, looking away from her eyes. Hermione’s chest felt suddenly heavy, and she left without another word. Severus Snape’s eyes followed her out of the bar.

Hermione was facing numerous internal struggles. Severus Snape was alive. Her nephew’s namesake was alive. That she would come to accept, but what else pained her so? Hermione had always believed the best of Snape, even when mounting evidence seemed to prove her wrong. When he died, she had faced a complete meltdown. Something inside of her cracked. She had pretended it was nothing, and ran off to marry Ron. It had been a teenager’s dream, marrying your school sweetheart. It had turned out to be a teenager’s decision. She would never say that she regretted marrying Ron, as he had given her many years of love and devotion, not to mention her two beautiful children. She, however, sometimes wished she had thought more.

Hermione looked to the sky. Through the dense black velvet of night, one star shone through. Feeling rather ridiculous, Hermione began the age-old rhyme.

“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.” Hermione paused, thinking hard. “I wish I would have known he was alive before I married Ron.” She waited for some miraculous feeling to tell her that the wish came true, and then scolded herself for being childish when none came.

“Would it have changed anything?” A voice came from behind her, causing her to draw her wand. Snape stood in the shadows of the bar door.

“I don’t know,” Hermione lied. “But I need to be home with my family. I shouldn’t be here.”

“You shouldn’t have been in the room with Fluffy. You shouldn’t have been in my store room for ingredients. You shouldn’t have been in the Shrieking Shack with Potter. Are you not tired of listening to where you should and shouldn’t be?”

In two strides, Severus Snape was within inches of Hermione Weasley, only she wished she was Hermione Granger again. His cold hand found her cheek. Their lips met briefly, slightly hindered by Hermione’s tears. The world, for a moment, was bliss before Hermione collapsed in Snape’s arms.