Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

And They Didn\'t Live Happily Ever After	By : ElizabethStump Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 90306 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 78
- 79
- 80
“And They Didn't Live Happily Ever After”

Chapter Seventy-Eight
"Discretion Guaranteed"

Disclaimer:
Rowling own Potter
Lawyers might sue
If I don't make disclaimers
I'm gonna get screwed

============

Sipping a cup of coffee at the hotel, Severus wondered how many customers he would have the first day his shop opened.

He had placed a small ad in the town paper, The Daily Times & Tides, advertising his services.

"Severus Snape: Potions Master
Over 20 years experience, certified E.T.F.C.
Available for tutoring, commissions and consultations
No potion too small or large, too easy or complex
Discretion guaranteed
Opening Friday January 2nd
Business hours: Monday - Friday 9 to 6
Evenings and weekends by appointment only
42 Humuhumunukunukuapua'a Lane"

Looking over his ad, he wondered if he needed to add one of those friendly hibiscus graphics, given that people sometimes needed something flashy to grab their attention. Draco was better suited to this advertising stuff. He wondered if he should have had Draco write something up for him and design the graphics before his wedding.

If business was slow, he could have Draco put together something for him for next week's paper.

Just then, the very same wizard Severus was thinking about showed up.

"Ready to open shop like a regular working slob?" Draco drawled, leaning against the doorjamb, his hands in the pockets of his shorts.

"I am not slovenly," Severus retorted.

"Except when you've drunken yourself blind over Hermione," the blond wizard reminded him.

Severus didn't need to be reminded of that, and ignored the comment.

"Come on," Draco urged him to get going as it was almost nine o'clock. He started singing the chorus from a wizard song about dragon parts for sale, rubbing his hands like a greedy goblin. "It's money, money, money by the pound..."

Draco walked with Severus across the street and down one of the major side streets towards the small back-alley lane where his new business was ready and waiting to open.

The younger wizard saw the people lined up around the street, standing along the sidewalk.

"What's going on?" Draco wondered aloud.

As the two wizards rounded the corner, they noted the line went along the street's sidewalk and turned right down the small alley where Severus' shop was waiting to open.

"There must be close to two hundred people in line!" Draco said, which seemed to have caught the attention of the people in line who turned around and beamed bright smiles at the town's newest Potions master.

Some witches had their children in line. Some had dragged as many as four children along, though some were too small to start studying Potions and were probably there because their mother was in line along with their siblings.

"Care to earn a little pin money playing secretary for me today?" Severus asked in a deadpan voice.

"I guess I'm here to help."

Getting to the front, the people moved away while he unlocked the door. As soon as the door swung open, people rushed at the door.

"Wait, just wait a minute!" he called out in his best professor voice when he sought to regain order amid chaos in the classroom. "Please remain in line."

Looking at the mix of people, he instructed them to part into two lines: one for tutoring, the other for consultation and commissions.

"What if we're here for both?" one witch called out who had two children with her, one around ten, the other who was about fifteen.

"Then once you are done with the line for tutoring, you can get in the consultation/commission line," the Potions master informed her, to which there seemed to be a least a few groans from the other people in line who’d had the same idea.

Draco said he would be right back and ran off.

Severus went inside and made extra copies with a quick duplication spell before handing out packets to each parent in line who had come to inquire about tutoring, one packet per child for his services.

As he handed them out, he informed the parents that their child should fill out the form, with their supervision. The form was a questionnaire about the child's current level of skill regarding Potions, including a list of potions with little columns of tickey boxes – one column to mark for which potions the child had attempted to brew, and one for the potions where they had succeeded, with an additional section at the bottom to list potions not already included in the lengthy list. There was also a section requesting a list of which books the child had studied regarding the subject. As he handed them out, he suggested that people go home, and come back to schedule an appointment once they’d filled out the form.

Draco came back and tapped his wand to a couple packs of playing cards. He then started handing them out to the people standing in the consultation and commissions line.

Severus' helper announced that as it would take a while, once their card was called, the card would flash and vibrate. It would also mark in the corner, in smaller print, how many people were still ahead of them, and the number would drop with each client served. Those farther back in the line could go about their business and come back when their card was called, depending on how long it took to get through the people in line before them.

Once that was done, Severus lit the candles and torches inside, donned his new black cotton robes and called his first customer from the commissions line.

Draco was shown where the appointment book was and began taking reservations for those who decided not to wait for their card to be called, even though they could be at home relaxing in the meantime. Some people had to get to work and made evening and weekend appointments. Severus instructed Draco to make sure to leave half the day available for tutoring, since there seemed to be a huge call for it, starting on the 12th of the month. It would take at least a week to get through all the consultations regarding the children's current level of education and aptitude.

By the time lunchtime rolled around, Severus had met with over twenty consulting and commission clients alone. Some merely needed guidance on a potion they were working on at home for personal use, some wanted to pay Severus to brew something to help them be more attractive to their spouses or get rid of an embarrassing rash in a delicate area. A few wanted some Veritaserum in order to get their wives or husbands to confess if they were cheating or not. There was one witch who requested Wolfsbane Potion for her daughter. The Chinese witches came and asked Severus for that male stamina potion he'd mentioned the night of the luau. A few broke down into tears, needing a bit of coaxing from the former gigolo – who was used to weeping witches – as to the nature of their visit to him. There were a few wizards who needed a potion for gout and other ailments, as they didn't like Arnold, the other Potions master in town who couldn't keep his mouth shut. Ranjit's gout cure formula tasted like spicy flavored vomit, which they didn't care for, and his arthritis formula was less appetizing.

It seemed there was a lot of dirty laundry that could have been aired in public, had many of these witches and wizards gone to Arnold, which is why Severus had so much business. The new business owner was sure the part in his ad that said "discretion guaranteed" was the cause for many of his consultation visits.

In addition to booking clients, Draco also played cashier, collecting monies from whatever Severus wrote down on a scrap of parchment, charmed to not be altered between Severus' desk and Draco's hand. Each one was marked in the ledger with name and potion order, as the standard was half the payment up front, half upon delivery, based on Severus' previous freelance work during summers.

Ginny popped by to present a sheaf of wheat, symbolically wishing Severus riches and prosperity for his new business, and saw that the line was still substantial. She offered to go pick up a couple of sandwiches for the new Potions master and his “assistant” to eat while they worked.

Severus didn't like to eat and work, preferring to concentrate fully on one or the other, but he needed to make an exception this first day.

By early afternoon, some of the witches with children who needed tutoring were bringing back the filled-out questionnaires. Severus suggested to Draco to book them in fifteen-minute blocks per child. The consultation was free, as it was his time teaching that would cost money. No doubt Rainbow had told half the town about all his years of experience teaching.

Some of the witches and wizards took a good few minutes to come back when their cards were called, as they were no doubt back home doing other tasks while waiting for their turn. One wizard Apparated to the alley in front of the shop, still rinsing the shampoo from his hair with a towel wrapped about his waist, not wanting to miss his turn.

A reporter from the town paper swung by and took a few photos showing the long lines still down the block, and asked Severus for a quote.

"I'm thrilled I can provide a valuable service to this community that has welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home," Severus said in his statement. It was so diplomatic, it sounded as if Malfoy had written it for some advertising fodder.

When it was time to close, there were still some people who had cards but hadn’t been served. Draco adjusted the charm to reflect their place in line, and they would be dealt with on Monday morning when Severus opened up for business again.

There was a stack of tutoring questionnaires that had been returned during the day that Malu Palekaiko's new Potions tutor would work on over the weekend, when he wasn't dealing with some of the weekend appointments.

Draco had booked him from nine to noon for Saturday and Sunday, which would still allow Severus time to go through the questionnaires and begin brewing some of the Potions he had been contracted to concoct.

As he closed up shop, after his first day in business, Draco patted Severus on the back and congratulated him on a successful launch.

"We'll see how successful the tutoring portion goes once they deal with me," Severus remarked grimly.

Just a cursory glance through a few of the questionnaires told him he had his work cut out for him. He wondered if there was no standard curriculum that these home-schooling witches and wizards went by when teaching their children, or just that some of them were coddling their children by not pushing them hard enough to achieve a level of academic competency that was expected by a certain age.

Severus already had a book regarding the American testing standards for American witches and wizards, the SAT: the Stupendously Augean Tribulation. It seemed that there was one standard test once a child had reached the same age as Hogwarts students were when they took their NEWT's, and there was no equivalent to OWL's. If parents wanted their children to pass the Potions portion of the SAT, he might have a very, very busy time indeed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hedwig delivered a note from Harry that seemed a bit cryptic, but Hermione had a feeling she knew what to expect, based on Kingsley's update on Harry when she last saw the senior Auror.

Arriving in the afternoon at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Hermione was greeted by Harry with a broad, warm smile.

Before Hermione could ask Harry about his accident, the broom race, or anything else, he said gushingly, "I'd like to introduce you to my wife, Zhubanysh."

Hermione thought he might be bringing the witch to England as his girlfriend or fiancée, but she had no idea Harry would marry so quickly after the traumatic and sudden divorce from Ginny.

Harry stood next to his blushing bride, who smiled shyly at Hermione. Zhubanysh was still wearing her native dress, which involved a lot of felt and decorative stitchwork on a long-sleeved blouse, a vest, several layers of skirts, a highly decorative apron, and woolen felt boots.

Hermione knew she shouldn't look shocked, and she did her best to cover it up by smiling and trying to be happy for Harry, but a large part of her was wondering if this was nothing more than a rebound romance that got swept away with the moment.

"Wow, Harry. This is so... sudden!" she tried to say brightly, her smile faltering a little as she tried to hide her shock.

"Yes," Harry sighed, his voice plainly expressing the heady sensation of someone who had fallen in love and was still enraptured by the initial thrall of it all.

Sticking out her hand, Hermione said with as much grace as she could muster at that moment, "I'm very pleased to meet you, Zhubanysh."

The young bride, who barely looked like she was of age of consent, clasped Hermione in a hug. "Harry said you were like sister," she said with her thick accent and slightly stilted and awkward English. "That make... makes you my sister."

Hermione hugged her back, knowing that this witch was in some ways very innocent and there was no duplicity in her broad and open face. It was then that Hermione noticed she had green eyes, like Harry, but a different shade.

Zhubanysh's face had the almond-shaped eyes and skin coloring that was halfway between European pale skin tones and the warmer brown and yellow tones of the Chinese to the east. She really captured the look of someone who lived along the old Silk Road where cultures crossed and blended. Her face had the roundness that was exemplified with the Russian matryoshka dolls, the eyes of someone from eastern Asia, the eye color of the Europeans, along with a European smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks, and the long, thick, dark, straight hair of the Indian subcontinent. She was uniquely and sweetly beautiful.

Harry turned to his bride and spoke to her in Kyrgyz, a Turkic language, a subgroup of the Kypchak languages.

"When did you learn to speak their language, Harry?" Hermione asked, perplexed at the fluency in which he was speaking a foreign tongue.

"Translation spell. It's easy, Kingsley taught me," he explained, teaching Hermione the spell so she could converse with Zhubanysh.

Dobby served up lunch, but he felt a little out of place since it was uncertain how much Zhubanysh wanted his help. She had never seen a house-elf and was uncertain how Dobby would fit in with her domestic duties to her husband. Harry explained to his wife that even though Dobby was a free elf, the house-elf felt a debt of gratitude to Harry and remained in his service out of a sense of honor, though he could leave any time he chose.

After lunch, Zhubanysh poured tea for her husband and his guest, even offering a cup to Dobby, which endeared her to Dobby with her kindness, before pouring a cup for herself.

Hermione wanted to drag Harry aside and ask him if he had gone mad. Before she could do that, Hermione played the dutiful guest and listened to how they had fallen in love.

It was very sweet. Yuri Novgorodich, a fellow broom racer, found Harry in the snow and took him to the nearest yurt he could find, since who knows how many more miles he would have had to fly with Harry before finding other help. Zhubanysh explained how she fell in love with him at first sight without even knowing who he was. She had never even heard of Harry Potter, so she was unaware of his celebrity status or why he was famous.

It seemed that Zhubanysh playing nursemaid to Harry and tending to him so attentively endeared her to him and quickly won over his heart, especially with her sweet songs Harry claimed healed him.

Since she was a young witch, who was barely seventeen and ripe for marriage since witches tended to marry young in her culture, the father was always present. So with little chance to do physical wooing, their courtship consisted of trying to communicate until Kingsley came along and healed Harry's frostbitten parts. After learning a translation spell, they could converse more easily and spent lots of time talking, though they had already fallen for one another by that point.

By the time that they finished telling Hermione, she was much less circumspect about the sincerity of these two regarding their bond. Harry recounted the wedding customs he had observed, which appalled Hermione, since bride-kidnapping seemed akin to abduction and rape. He assured her that it was an old tradition based on some very, very, very old customs – and the kidnapping does not occur without the bride's consent and her family's. She was a witch after all, and to take her against her will would prove to be a short marriage. Zhubanysh was very proficient with a wand, to be sure.

Hermione eventually asked Zhubanysh if she could speak to Harry regarding some other matters of a personal nature.

Harry's bride smiled sweetly and replied, "Of course, sister," before rising to go to another room.

Ending the translation spell, Hermione said in urgent hushed tones, "Harry, are you mad? How long have you known her, and now you're married to her in what? Less than a week?"

Harry looked at Hermione flatly and said, "And how many hours did you spend with Snape before falling in love with him? And did you fall in love with him or while he was under some pseudonym?"

Hermione's face fell. She didn't tell Harry about that part, but she guessed while he was lying there in a yurt in the Himalayas, he'd probably figured out that Severus originally didn't introduce himself as Severus Snape. Or Ginny might have made mention of it, but he doubted it. Plus Kingsley did warn Hermione that Moody knew about the masks Severus and Draco used. So that probably trickled down to Harry's ears as well.

Hermione was guilty as charged. She had spent less than forty hours in Severus' company under the guise of Calleo before she had fallen for him, then realizing she was in love with Snape after overhearing Moody and Kingsley talking at Harry's birthday party. Even then, once she knew who he really was, she was already hooked and had fallen for Severus.

Harry had spent nearly a whole week in the company of this witch doing nothing but talking before deciding he loved her enough that he wanted to marry her. There was no desperate dry humping in the kitchen, no dance lessons where they were in each other's arms, nor their hormones driving them towards each other – only the simple act of conversation. Granted, Hermione and Severus did talk a lot, but there was also a whole lot of physicality added to the fire between them that urged them on.

Recalling Bill's comments from New Year's Eve, Hermione asked herself, 'If Harry is happier this way, then who am I to judge what is best for him?'

"Are you happy?" she asked her friend.

"I thought I was happy with Ginny, but we both were kidding ourselves and I didn't want to see it. But with Zhubanysh, yes. Happier than I have been in a long while," he admitted, smiling brightly, his eyes crinkling towards the edges like when he was younger.

Looking at him, she saw more of the boy she once knew shine through than of the man who had looked tired and haunted in recent years and months.

Patting him on the leg, she said, "Then I'm happy for you, Harry. For you both. I hope you both have a long and wonderful marriage together."

Suddenly remembering Bill's wish, she said, "I went to Bill and Fleur's for New Year's Eve. He wants to know if Ginny is safe and happy. So if you could let him know that you talked with her and she is indeed, that would ease his mind."

Harry nodded, but also indicated he would not disclose her location. He knew that some members of the Weasley family might not respect Ginny's decision and could show up to make a scene, or worse, try to haul her back. Molly might be transported to the edge of the caldera, if she was foolish enough to try and take Ginny away from Malfoy.

"I hope you know that when the press finds out you married someone so quickly after your divorce with Ginny, they're going to have a field day. There was speculation wondering about Ginny's whereabouts, the notice of your divorce in Ministry records, neither of you available for comment..." Hermione began listing the many things that would invariably happen, having recently been through the wringer herself lately.

Harry assured her he had already warned his wife of what might happen. He said that a statement has already been sent to the press that would show up in Monday's Daily Prophet.

Hermione also asked if Harry had a Pensieve she could borrow. Unfortunately, Harry didn't have one, but indicated he was thinking of buying one.

Zhubanysh was urged to rejoin them. She brought out a tray of honey-soaked fried bread with more tea, eager to show off her culinary skills to her new sister.

Hermione, using the translation spell once again, told Harry and Zhubanysh about Ron's wedding to Lavender. There was a lot of back-story that the younger witch did not know, but she knew that Ron and Hermione were once married, but were not anymore. She also knew that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were childhood friends. Zhubanysh wasn't told of the finer details of Ron and Lavender's history and their affair behind Hermione's back.

"It was a very... solemn wedding," Hermione admitted, not wanting to say it was more like a funeral. She didn't want to confuse Zhubanysh as to why it wasn't the joyous occasion it should have been, but wasn't. She would eventually learn many of the details over the years, or probably sooner.

Hermione was invited to stay for dinner, at which Zhubanysh proudly served her national dish to her new "sister." To Hermione's relief, Zhubanysh couldn't get any horse meat so beef was used instead. It was a dish of meat stewed for about three hours and served with homemade noodles sprinkled with parsley and coriander. It was very filling and delicious.

She asked Zhubanysh if sometime she could teach Hermione how to make it. She was eager to learn a new dish, feeling inspired to expand her repertoire of dishes since learning new ones from Severus. Harry's bride was flattered and ebullient that her cooking was appreciated, not just by her husband, but Hermione as well.

Harry and his new wife ate with their hands, which Hermione copied, having done the same when she had eaten Moroccan food with Severus while blindfolded.

After dinner, Hermione excused herself. She had much more studying to do since Albert was going to test her that week on how much Greek she had learned and absorbed so far.

The newlyweds bid Hermione farewell with hugs and kisses, before she Floo'ed home to the Red Ginseng.

Sitting in her study, Hermione suddenly realized that of all these divorces, that she was the only who had not paired off already. She was guessing that Ginny and Draco tied the knot shortly after arriving at wherever their sanctuary was.

There was a moment when she wondered if she had left with Severus, would he eventually have proposed to her, or was the memory of Gabrielle, his first wife, too painful for him to consider marriage ever again. And though Severus had closed his note – the one that he included with the vials of his memory – with the word "eternally," a thread of doubt crept into Hermione's mind.

'What if he met someone else where he is now? How long would Severus wait for me? What if I show up and he no longer wants me or loves me the same way?'

There were things they never talked about, or more likely they avoided to deflect the unpleasantness of the topic.

In the absence of Severus' reassuring presence, the faith that he had helped restore in herself began to falter, no longer nourished by his words and encouragement. A part of Hermione was withering from the lack of Severus, and the care he gave her. She didn't doubt her love for Severus, but began to doubt herself that she was worthy of him to wait for her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Work was good for Severus. It kept his mind off of how much he missed Hermione. But at the end of the day, when he got back from a long day at his shop after staying late into the night brewing, he would walk back to the hotel, up to his room, and find it empty. The photograph of Hermione was his only company late at night when he longed to feel her arm thrown possessively across his chest, as if claiming that he was hers. And he was. Still.

He had been working late so many nights that he had taken to eating take-out, since he didn't have much time to cook now. The food was good, but there was something more satisfying about a home-cooked meal. There were invites from the Malfoys for dinner, but playing catch-up to the surge of work he had when his business first opened claimed much of his time, and he often had to bow out.

Severus did leave work at six o'clock on his birthday, which fell on a Friday that year, and went to the Malfoys for a birthday dinner. It turned out to be more like a mini surprise party. The whole Finau family was there, along with Halulu and her husband, Greg, Gary, Gary's wife, Iolana, Arnold and Ranjit. There was a barbecue in the backyard, and chicken and fish were grilled up, drinks were served and everyone enjoyed themselves. Iakona and Draco talked about how Draco could improve his kick-off from the ocean, since he was still having trouble learning that move. The Potions masters talked shop, with the two old-timers congratulating Severus on his business and thankful they didn't have to turn away so many customers any more. Neither Arnold or Ranjit were the least bit interested in tutoring.

Ginny baked a cake and Severus enjoyed himself, but still wished Hermione was there to share the day with him. He wondered if she remembered his birthday, or was she so busy with work and her apprenticeship that she forgot, and if her affections for him were just as strong, or were they waning with him far away. Severus wondered if she had received those memories Marf promised to deliver and if she had seen them yet. Then there was the inevitable question of would she join him if she did know where he was?

Draco was still coming into work with Severus every day, happy to continue working with the wizard who mentored him and worked alongside him at The Lovely Lavender Company. They had a good working rapport with one another and it was easy when they knew each other's habits and nuances. The backlog of potions was beginning to ease up, and the schedule was more moderate and not overwhelming. Still, now that Severus was tutoring students, each one between one and five days a week, he was rather busy.

Some of the witches began asking for recommendations of a Charms and Transfiguration tutor. Draco hadn't studied under a Master, but Severus recommended him highly, which was enough for the parents to trust their children's supplemental education curriculum under his care.

Draco used Severus' Potions questionnaire as a template for his own. He finally began to understand why Severus had pinched the bridge of his nose so often during class. There were major gaps in the education of some of these children. Some were learning things that would be considered sixth-year level without mastering some other spells that were considered essential for a first year. It was appalling.

Rainbow had done a fairly good job of teaching her own children, as Iakona was a very talented student. He was only twelve, and already doing potions that a fifth year would do. But there were still gaps in some of his basic Potions skill set that explained why he was having some difficulty advancing in his studies. It surprised Severus that Rainbow – who worked as a part-time Healer – didn't cover more of the basics that were missing.

Severus considered bringing up at the next town council meeting the creation of an education curriculum standard that would address these issues. To him, it seemed more like a hodgepodge where the better educated parents were doing a better job, while the lesser educated parents were barely able to teach their children the basics. This current approach to local education was hindering any chance of the poorly-taught students of bettering themselves by scoring high enough on their SAT's to go onto an apprenticeship. Given his years working in institutional academia, he hoped his advice would bear some weight with the locals.

In a rare moment, there was an hour in the afternoon when there were no consultation appointments or tutoring for Severus. Draco was currently working with a student regarding his Charms work in a second tutoring room Severus had built out. There were no students doing their practical Potions work in the front lab where Severus supervised and guided them. Instead, in the rear Potions lab that was his work space, Severus made the most of his time by beginning to stew some iridescent jeweled scarab beetles that needed to simmer overnight when the front door opened.

There was the small chime of a bell to let Severus know a customer had come in. He made sure the flame was set at the right intensity before going to see his next customer.

Severus entered the waiting area to see Halulu standing there, her face a little more weighty than her usual smiling self.

"Do you have a moment to speak about a commission?" she asked, her voice less commanding than customary.

"Of course. I have the next forty-five minutes free until my next appointment," the Potions master said as he ushered her into his office he used for such business.

The office was charmed so that no one could overhear anything said within the confines of the space, in order to stop nosy parkers from sticking their wands where they didn't belong.

Shutting the door, he turned to his friend and asked, "What can I do for you?"

Halulu licked her lips, and he could tell she was having difficulty trying to say why she was there. She took a steadying breath before looking Severus in the eye and saying, "I need a fertility potion."

Witches were naturally fertile women, as their magic tended to lend a certain ability to conceive without the issues that many Muggle women could suffer from. This kept witches from experiencing problems such as an imbalance in hormones, infections of the ovaries that could damage them, unusual-shaped uteruses that could interfere with implantation, endometriosis, and a whole host of other problems of a congenital, genetic or secondary cause. For a witch to need a fertility potion was a great scandal that made some witches question if they were truly magical.

"Have you seen a Healer?" he asked, seeking to address a host of other causes before using a fertility potion.

"Yes, and Rainbow says that everything is working fine. I'm ovulating, Greg is fertile, my cycles are regular, I'm not anemic..." She trailed off as she began to cry.

Severus had a box of tissues on his desk, and he pushed it towards Halulu for her to use as needed.

"Thanks."

Her list crossed off many of Severus’ first line of questions. "How long have you been trying?" he asked, since he didn't know how long they had been married.

"Ten years, though, for the first five years we were married we decided to wait. Fifteen years together and no children. I'm beginning to lose hope," she said, the tears coming back once more.

"What were you using for birth control for those first five years?" Severus asked.

"Arnold supplied contraceptive potions to the local apothecary, and I used those. Other witches have used them, but after they got off the potions they later get pregnant, so that's not it," Halulu informed him.

That was another thing checked off on Severus’ list of questions.

"If I may ask, how long are your cycles?"

"Twenty-nine days."

"And if I may also ask, how often do you and your husband have sex between your seventh and seventeenth day of your cycle?" Severus asked. He kept this as professional as possible, since this was a very personal question.

"Every other day. We were told that trying every day when I'm most fertile might lower his fertility, so we try every other day."

He nodded, trying to think of other things. If he was going to brew a potion for her, the Potions master needed to know what had and hadn't been addressed in order to narrow down the possibilities.

There was something he remembered from a few books he had regarding fertility, arousal and sex potions. Just as stress and anxiety can interfere with arousal, so it could as well with fertility.

Severus knew Halulu was a busy woman. She ran the local hula school, was a town council member, worked part-time in the Portkey office, and worked part-time in the Department for Imports and Exports as well. Whenever Severus saw her, she was always on the go, and he did not know when she found time to socialize. She seemed so full of energy, but now sitting in front of her, she looked tired and exhausted.

An idea struck upon Severus. It was a bit unconventional, but he thought it would make for a good case to study, exploring the aspect of stress and fertility.

"When was the last time you and Greg went on a holiday?" he asked, trying to confirm a suspicion of his.

"Gee, I don't know," she strained to recollect. "Um, maybe thirteen or fourteen years ago? Before I opened the hula school? Yes, it was a few months before I opened the hula school. Thirteen years," she confirmed her earlier guess.

"And you've been trying for ten?"

"Yes."
Severus sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him, his elbows resting on the arms. "I could take your Galleons, Halulu, and brew you a fertility Potion. But I don't think my potion will be nearly as effective as you and Greg taking a two-week holiday abroad."

"But...?"

"Stress has been suspected to affect fertility. With your busy schedule, you and your husband have had little time to relax and let your mind and bodies rest," Severus went on.

"I can't just go away for two weeks!" Halulu insisted.

"Why not? Do you not have other women who have substituted for you at your hula school in the past? One day or two weeks, it will not be the end of your school. Besides, what is more important to you right now? Living up to the expectations of others and this grueling schedule you keep yourself to, or conceiving a child?" he flatly asked her.

Halulu gazed blankly in front of her. She had kept a busy schedule, trying to live up to some self-imposed image and high set of expectations she had set for herself. Severus knew the type, since it had once been his own lifestyle. He had run himself ragged before, especially during his days in the past trying to play Potions teacher, Head of Slytherin, reluctant slave to The Dark Lord, and faithful spy for Dumbledore. He had drawn himself so taut that he’d nearly snapped a few times, living on Invigoration Draughts to keep himself going.

"So do you take Invigoration Draughts to keep up with the schedule you set for yourself?" he asked, wondering if she did.

"I... Well..." She looked away, perplexed that this wizard had seen through a careful facade of the ever put-together, on-top-of-it-all Halulu who could do everything, and usually did.

"Japan is lovely in April with the cherry blossom festivals, I hear. Though they say that in spring, Paris is for lovers." Severus remembered Hermione's tale of her honeymoon with Weasley, then added, "And then there is the Island of Capri off the Italian coast. It has a little wizarding restaurant that serves the most wonderful aphrodisiac oysters. They are harvested from the same beds as the Sirens eat from. The restaurant also serves them with a lime blossom-infused limeade that supposedly can be quite... stimulating, regarding conjugal bliss. It can enhance the already romantic setting of Italy."

"But what about my work?"

"Everyone else seems to take a holiday now and again. I'd say you were overdue." He quirked a brow at her, slightly surprised that she should dare to refute him. "You work in the Portkey office. I think you could arrange something in the near future. April is three months away. Plenty of time for you to put your affairs in order for a two-week holiday that is long overdue. And no more Invigoration Draughts."

"But what if..." She didn't want to say what if she couldn't get pregnant.

"If within two full cycles after your trip you have not conceived, then I will take your Galleons and will use all my knowledge and my entire library to help you and Greg conceive," Severus promised. "But for now, I recommend a nice relaxing holiday far way. You can forget your troubles, relax, sleep in, and not worry about trying to get pregnant. Take a sabbatical from life and your worries."

Halulu seemed to give a sigh of resignation, as if finally admitting to herself that she could not do it all.

"I have been where you are now," he confided to her. "Sometimes you have to recognize your own limits, even though you think it can all be done."

Severus did not tell her he did do it all, but it had ravaged his body and strained the limits of his mind when he needed his mind the most to keep him alive.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione was eating the last piece of cake. She had baked it on Severus' birthday, lit a candle, and softly sung "Happy Birthday" for him, though she was all alone.

Each night, while she studied her Greek that she wasn't grasping as fast as she had hoped, Marf served her a cup of tea and a slice of cake. It had taken her two weeks to finally eat all of it, not wanting to gorge herself on it. She didn't want to buy a new wardrobe if she couldn't fit in her current one. Besides, she finally had some really nice dresses, and she wanted to be able to keep wearing them for a long while.

Working in Albert's garden certainly made up for the fact that she was no longer lifting and hauling boxes around the Department of Standards & Regulations. Using magic to lift boxes of magical ingredients was not exactly the smartest thing to do, as some ingredients might react to even the slightest bit of wand work. And given that she was now working most of the day every Saturday for Neville, fulfilling the Herbology portion of her Potions apprenticeship, she was getting an extra work-out. Even her biceps had become leaner, but more muscular.

Fortunately, working with Neville was helping her master Greek. Neville was fluent in Greek and Latin. He explained that though it wasn't part of his apprenticeship, he had decided to learn them since most plants were named using Greek and Latin. The Greek and Latin words often described the plant and its characteristics. For example, his beloved Mimbulus Mimbletonia – the Latin “-ulus” diminutive indicates the Mimbulus is smaller than the Mimbus.

Hermione knew all the binomial nomenclature for all the Potion ingredients she had tested over the years, which helped her learn some Greek. However, Hermione and Albert did not often converse in Greek at work. To help her, Neville would converse with her in the language, which made learning the language a bit easier.

The old classmates would be in a heated repotting shed conversing back and forth. With their arms elbow deep in freshly mixed potting soil, Neville would guide her with proper conjugation, tense, and grammar. At times, he would expand her vocabulary with a word that better fit the context of the conversation.

Hermione hoped when she learned Latin, the next language she was going to master, that it would go much easier. But Neville was happy to help her, as she had helped him back at Hogwarts, especially in Potions.

She wondered if she should work on two languages at once, but was cautioned by Albert it was better to work on one language at a time. He had tried the same thing, and wound up making slower progress than when he stuck with one language at a time.

As Hermione was repotting dormant daylilies that she was dividing, she thought to ask Neville, since nearly everyone else was unable to help her.

"Say, Neville, you wouldn't happen to have a Pensieve, would you?" She tried to make it nonchalant, but she was getting quite anxious to locate one since she had been in possession of Severus' memories for nearly a month.

"Nope, sorry to say that I don't. I did think that maybe I would need one to help organize my thoughts. Anything specific you need it for?" he asked, curious to her need for one.

"Just need to review some old memories regarding some research I'm doing," she sort of truthfully explained.

Hermione was stumped. Everyone she knew was either thinking of buying one and hadn't gotten around to it, or didn't have one. The only person left Hermione hadn't asked was Lavender, but she didn't think her boss had one. Lavender didn't seem like the type who would have one, like Dumbledore had. Usually the more academic types tended to have them for review of historical analysis, and to organize their thoughts and see patterns for research. But Hermione figured it couldn't hurt to ask since no one else seemed to have one.

============

A/N:
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the state fish of Hawaii, pronounced hoo-moo-hoo-moo-nu-koo-nu-koo-ah-pooh-ah-ah. It Is an aggressive reef triggerfish with a pig-like snout.

There is a song called “Every Little Piece from the movie, Pete's Dragon. I borrowed a line from the lyrics: "It's money, money, money by the pound..."
There is a link where you can listen to the song without video here: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Every_Little_Piece?file=Pete%27s_Dragon_-_Every_Little_Piece

American testing for college entrance exams are called SAT's for Scholastic Aptitude Test. The wizarding population adopted a similar acronym so witches and wizards could complain about their SAT's and Muggles would be none the wiser.

Zhubanysh is a Kyrgyrz girl's name meaning "comforter."

Thank you, Wikipedia, for being an invaluable resource. Here is their page on the Kyrgyz language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyz_language
- 78
- 79
- 80
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

And They Didn\'t Live Happily Ever After