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Amphitrite	By : AndreaLorraine Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 9426 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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
- 8
- 9
- 10
Draco
waved to the departing truck, smiling to himself. He was tired, dirty, and bruised (a
two-by-four had clocked him in the face earlier that morning in a crumbling
building), but he felt accomplished.

He was
glad to finally be in Preveza. The small
city didn�t look much better than some of the others had; the streets were
still littered with rubble, some of the buildings still sagging dangerously,
the fire-scorched shop fronts still gaping darkly in the avenues like teeth
that had been knocked out. But there
were people about, and they were going about their business normally.

Preveza
still had a calm, aged beauty about it in spite of the earthquake. It seemed like the ocean was everywhere in
this country; he could not remember a moment of his journey that it had been
out of view, and it seemed it would stay that way - his father had said they
were working on a beach. What he hadn�t
said was that the whole damn city was on the water; there were probably twenty
beaches to choose from. Even so, only
one would be surrounded by magic. If he
tuned his senses well enough, he should be able to find it.

Closing
his eyes, Draco attempted to block out the everyday noise. Magic sometimes had a sound, and something as
large as the wards necessary to block off the beach always had a particular
feel. Most Muggles could not sense it if
it was right on top of them, but a focused wizard might be able to feel such
things from a distance.

Already
he felt the subtle tug of magic. He was
not too far off. If he just kept walking
along the coastline, he would find it eventually. Tucking his hands into his pockets, he set
off.

* * * * * *

�What a
mess,� Cyrus sighed, staring out at the beach.
Though they had made some progress, it still looked like a disaster
area.

�Who
cares what it looks like up here,� Joeri muttered over his breakfast. �It�s down below that counts.�

�True
enough.�

�We
should start reinforcing the passageways today,� Dharvish added. �They seem to be holding up now, but who
knows what will happen if there are more aftershocks.�

�I�m sure
they had spells and charms to support the structure,� Hermione said. �It�s amazing that they�ve held up for so
long.�

�Amazing
and lucky,� Dharvish agreed. �Some very
strong magic was used here.� There were
murmurs of agreement all around the table.

�It makes
one wonder,� Severus said after a few moments.
�If they were so strong, and if they spent so much time and effort
creating this school�why did they ever leave?�

* * * * * *

Draco
frowned to himself. He could sense that
he�d finally come to the right beach. He
felt the slight hum of the wards; they were most definitely working. If that was the case, then why were two
Muggles about to walk right into them?
The charms and spells designed to ward off Muggles should have kept them
at least ten feet from the edge of the beach.
Was it possible that they only looked
like Muggles?

As Draco
tried to twist his brain around it, one of them stopped just short of the
wards. The other, noticing his
companion�s halt, stopped as well. They
both looked straight at him. The first
man pointed.

�Hey, are
you Lucius�s son?�

Draco�s eyes
widened in surprise. His father making
friends with Muggles? Local
Muggles? What was wrong with this
picture? Maybe he�d gotten whacked on
the head by something during the earthquake.

�Ah�well�yes,
I am. May I enquire as to who you
gentlemen are?� Draco asked cautiously.
He didn�t want to insult them if they were, in fact, wizards in
disguise.

�Oh, my
name is Nick, and the quiet one is Anatole.�
He smiled amicably as he spoke.
The one called Anatole just lifted his chin a bit in acknowledgment. �I suppose you�re going to the same place as
us.�

�Yes. Could you perhaps show me to my father?�
Draco said, still perplexed by the whole situation.

�Er...well,
I guess.� The friendly look on Nick�s
face faltered, and Draco thought that perhaps his father had made enemies as
well as friends. That wasn�t uncommon,
although it was always purposeful. He
wondered what Nick had done to earn his father�s wrath. �Come on then,� he said, waving a hand. �Hope these things are set to accept you.�

�It hurts
a lot if they�re not,� Anatole mumbled.
Draco smiled. These two weren�t
so bad, wizard or not.

�Why
don�t you two go across and ask whoever set the wards if they�ve been altered
to accept me or not?�

�Good
idea�umm��

�Draco.�

�Yes. Draco.
We�ll be back.�

* * * * * *

�There�s
no mistaking those two as father and son,� Nick said, once they were out of
Draco�s earshot.

�Well,
you know what they say about the apple and the tree.�

Nick
nodded, scanning the beach. It was
looking much better already; he only wished that the witches and wizards could
use their magic on the city. Without it,
it would be a long cleanup. Still, the
elders said the city had fared much better in this earthquake than the quakes
of the past. In an area so prone to
shifting earth the architecture had to adapt, so most buildings had stayed
upright.

�You
know, if we went to the media we�d be millionaires.�

�Billionaires,�
Anatole agreed. �But they�d kill us, and
money won�t do us much good if we�re dead.�

�I still
can�t believe this is real,� Nick commented, shaking his head.

�Maybe
it�s not. Maybe we�re in the Matrix,�
Anatole joked, deadpan.

Nick
chuckled.

�I guess
we�ll find out how far this rabbit hole goes.�

* * * * * *

Draco
cringed slightly as his father hugged him.
His ribs and abdominal muscles were somewhat sore from lifting things,
and a crushing �thank God you�re all right� hug was not what he needed. Not to mention that it was quite out of
character for his father.

�I�m glad
you finally made it,� Lucius said, smiling and holding his son at arm�s
length. The unadulterated parental love
and concern in his face was mildly disconcerting. Thankfully, though, a moment later his eyes
regained their usual spark of deviousness.
�Now we can put you to work.�

�Oh no,�
Draco said, shaking his head. �Not until
I get a decent night�s sleep on a real bed.�

�Brat.�

�Pot and
kettle, old man.�

Laughing,
Lucius commented, �I see you haven�t neglected your talent for obnoxiousness.�

�I
learned from the best.�

�Oh, off
with you, boy, before I hex you,� he said.
In spite of his dismissal, he took Draco by the wrist and began pulling
him towards the food.

�I�m not
three, father, you don�t have to force-feed me,� Draco protested. There
was a time when he had to, because Draco had been an incredibly picky
child. But certainly not now; Draco was
starving, because the volunteers didn�t eat any better than the people they
were helping.

�Of
course I don�t have to, but it�s amusing.�

�You�re
insane.�

�Try some
octopus,� was all Lucius said in response, and he slapped a grilled tentacle on
the plate, suckers and all.

* * * * * *

�Hey
there, Granger.�

Hermione
looked up from her work and smiled.

�Hey,
Malfoy. You finally made it, hm?�

�Yes,
your wait is over,� he said snidely.

�Oh,
shush,� she replied. Surprisingly, he
did shush for a minute. Hermione glanced
up from her work. Following his eyes,
saw that he was staring at his father.
Lucius was crouched down near the edge of the original cave in helping
to reinforce the structural spells.

�So��
Draco began, �which one is he shagging?�
He asked it point-blank; his face was completely serious, perhaps even a
bit glum. Hermione was so taken aback
that all she could do at first was cough politely. He�d hardly been here an hour and already he
wanted to know every detail of his companions� social lives. She wondered how long it would be before he
was demanding to know how much time had gone by since her last shag. Too much was the answer, but she�d never tell
him that.

�That one
there,� Hermione said, pointing as discretely as she could. If she didn�t tell him he�d just find out
from someone else; she might as well save him a trip. Dawn was standing next to Cyrus, and from the
looks of it, she was arguing with him.
Probably over Anatole and Nick, she thought. Hermione didn�t think they would be a
problem, but she wasn�t the head of the site.
He was probably thinking about how he�d have to obliviate three hundred
muggle reporters if either of the men broke their promise.

�The
blond one?� Draco asked, interrupting her thoughts.

�Yes.�

�Ah. She�s cute.
Nice tits.�

�Draco!� A firm slap on the arm accompanied the
admonishment. He shrugged.

�What? It�s true!�

�Is that
what you say about me behind my back?� she asked, only half-kidding.

�Of
course not,� he answered. �I would never
pay you such a crude compliment.�

�Good,�
Hermione said, nodding.

�Now
Potter on the other hand��

�Oh,
you�re such a liar!� she snapped, delivering another well-earned slap.

�Hey!� he
said, holding his hands up. �It�s what
we snakes do best, right?�

�I wish
you were gone already,� she sighed, exasperated.

Their
relationship since Draco�s grudging turnabout had always been like this; full
of bickering and half-insults. They got
on each other�s nerves so much that sometimes Hermione wished he had never come
to the good side. But then he would do
something so thoroughly uncharacteristic of a Slytherin and a Malfoy that all
previous transgressions were forgotten, and the cycle started all over again.

�So
what�s her name?� he asked, poking at a seashell with his toe.

�Dawn.�

�Oh? Where�s she from?�

�America.�

At this
Draco frowned. �There aren�t many
purebloods in America, are there?�

�No.�

He
nodded, his brow wrinkled in thought.
Blood was and would always be a sensitive topic between them. She could tell that he wanted to ask if Dawn
was a pureblood or not.

�She�s
not a pureblood,� she said softly. �They
had a drunken one night stand and the next morning they had a huge fight when
he realized it.�

�That
sounds about right.�

�They
made up at some point. Just before the
quake, I think.�

�There�s
no point. I don�t know why he does
this. As soon as the dig is over he�ll
be on to the next pretty girl.�

�I don�t
know, Draco.�

�And how
could you,� he replied, sighing.

�You
know, you�re not exactly Mister Monogamous yourself, so why don�t you let him
alone.�

Draco
didn�t respond for a moment. Then he
turned toward her, a thoughtful look on his face.

�Actually��
he said at last, fidgeting a bit before trailing off. Hermione knew something big was coming; no
Slytherin was comfortable with self-disclosure, and seemed supremely uneasy
even when they chose to tell.

�Ah�well�I�m
actually engaged.�

If there
had been anything in her mouth, it would have fallen out onto her lap.

�What!?
To who? Does he know?� Questions poured out of her; now she had
become the gossip.

�A girl,
and no.�

�Are you
going to tell him?� she demanded, ignoring his cheek.

�Eh�I
don�t know.�

�Why?� Then it dawned on her � there could be only
one reason for his hesitation. �Do you
think he wouldn�t approve?�

�I just
haven�t thought about it much, is all.�

She knew
that was the most she�d get out of him for now.
Sure enough, a minute later his face brightened and he turned to her once
again.

�So�� he
waggled his eyebrows, �any special someone in your life?�

�I�m not
really sure at the moment,� she answered curtly. She wasn�t ready to tell anyone about Severus
yet. She didn�t even know if there was
anything to tell.

Sensing
that the conversation was closed, Draco shrugged and picked up a brush to help
her.

* * * * * *

Draco
bumped into his father�s new lady friend without meaning to. As he was heading toward one of the repaired
cabins, he nearly knocked her over. His
exhaustion had begun to hit him hard, and he could barely see straight. His only desire was to find a flat surface
and lay down; if that surface happened to be a comfortable bed it would be an
added bonus.

�Oh�sorry,�
he mumbled.

�It�s all
right,� the female voice said. �You look
tired.�

Draco
blinked. Her accent was distinctly
American. He looked up, knowing it had
to be Dawn.

�Yes. It�s been a rough few days,� he agreed. Her face was pretty in an understated way,
and her eyes, though expressive, were guarded.
He could see what his father liked about her � she wasn�t an open book.

�Glad to
finally meet you, Draco,� she said, smiling.
�Your father was very worried about you.�

�Yes,
well, we Malfoys always manage.�

�Well, I
won�t keep you. You look about ready to
pass out,� she chuckled, patting him on the shoulder. With a little nod, she turned and began to
walk away.

�Wait,�
Draco said after a moment. She paused,
turning back, her face amicable. She
wouldn�t like what he was going to say, but he felt he owed it to her.

�What is
it?� she asked, coming closer.

Draco
took a breath and let it out slowly.

�You
see�my father�� he trailed off, searching for the least hurtful words. �My father is a bit of a playboy.�

Her brow
furrowed slightly. Her eyes were even
more shuttered now.

�He�he�s
always with women a lot younger than him, and he always gets bored after a
while. Sometimes it�s a week, sometimes
a few months, but the result is always the same.�

�So you
think I�m just another convenient toy for him?�

Draco�s
jaw worked. Her voice was sharp and
intense, and yet her face was remarkably calm.

�I�I
don�t know. I just thought it would be
right to warn you.�

She
looked as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just nodded
shortly and said, �Noted.�

Draco
watched her as she walked back toward the site with the vague feeling that he
had done something wrong. She wasn�t
like the other women his father fraternized with. There was substance to her, something that
those other ladies had lacked. He could
not put a name to it, but now he knew why Hermione had been hesitant to dismiss
the relationship as doomed.

Perhaps
this explained his father�s overly affectionate behavior. Perhaps he really was happy. His father, happy
with a woman of questionable blood? It
seemed ludicrous, as ludicrous as the painful attraction he had felt for
Hermione towards the end of seventh year.
As much as he had tried to prevent it, to quash the feelings, his
grudging respect of the bold, intelligent muggle-born had transformed into
something entirely new to him � infatuation.
She had filled his mind for weeks, and he could not stop it, which was
terrifying for him. There was no doubting
that she had shed her ugly duckling look sometime around fourth year, and aside
from her physical beauty, he found himself incredibly fascinated by her mental
prowess. He knew some very smart women,
but none of them were assertive with their knowledge the way Hermione was. Some of them feared being labeled a
know-it-all or a snob, so they would hold back.
But Hermione had never been afraid to let people know how smart she was,
and the thing that really irked people was that she made no attempt to be
modest about it. Still, Hermione had
been called a know-it-all and worse, and had made it through everything better
off than many of her persecutors.

There was
never any hope for Hermione and him.
They were too different and there was too much bitter history between
them. At best they existed back then like
Snape and Black, able to admit that they were colleagues and recognize each
other�s talents, but hardly anything more.

That first
stirring of unrequited adoration had frustrated him to no end. His own mind mocked him when it drifted off
in fantasies about her, in more ways than one.
But it had taught him that there was one thing that could level any
playing field: love.

Draco
glanced at the jagged fissure in the earth, now stabilized with several dozen
spells and charms. Maybe the field had
at last been leveled for his father. He
only hoped that Dawn would not take his words to heart if that was the case.

* * * * * *

Severus
frowned as he watched the moon rise. It
sat on the horizon, a fat white semicircle, huge and luminous. He concentrated hard on the pockmarked surface,
thinking of what the grey mountains and shadowy craters would look like in
person. Ever since he was a boy he had
wondered about such things; in a way he envied Muggle astronauts, for space
travel seemed to be the one thing they could do that wizards could not. Well, it was not that wizards couldn�t do it. The wizarding community at large did not have
much of an interest, and lack of interest meant lack of funding, so the best he
could do was read as many astronomy books as he could find.

It had begun
to climb now, its shape blurred and obscured by the heat and moisture rising
from the sea. Even so, he could tell
that it was a full moon. It did not seem
right; only a few days ago he had looked at the waning moon with Hermione. By all calculations, tonight should be a new
moon, not a full moon.

�Lucius.�

�Huh?�

�Look at
the moon.�

�Yes,
darling,� he said sarcastically.
�Beautiful. What, are you
practicing on me for Granger?�

�No,
Lucius. It shouldn�t be a full moon.�

�What do
you mean?� he asked, his interest piqued.

�The
other day it was waning. It should be a
new moon, not a full one.�

Lucius
frowned. Severus could tell he was
searching his memories. After a moment
his frown deepened.

�You�re
right. When I was staring at it a few
nights ago, it wasn�t more than a sliver.
What could it mean?�

Severus
shrugged. It didn�t make any sense, but
strange things often happened after natural disasters.

�I don�t
like it,� Lucius said, narrowing his eyes at the white orb.

�Nor do
I,� Severus replied. And just then, they
heard a sound that made Severus�s entire body go cold.

Awooooooooooooooooooooo�

* * * * * *

Hermione
and Dawn were sitting around a small fire with Anatole and Nick. They were at last introducing the men to the
joys of butterbeer and firewhiskey. It
had effectively drawn Anatole out of his sullen little shell; he promised
Hermione in a mildly slurred voice that tomorrow they would bring a bottle of
ouzo.

Nick had
never had a shell in the first place, and they all burst out laughing at
another one of his ridiculously bad jokes.
They were making a lot of noise, but no one seemed to care. An air of relief hung over the site now;
everyone was accounted for and much of the damage had been repaired already. Hermione felt only a pleasant, warm buzz
between her ears � her thoughts were still clear and sharp, though they took a
second more to compute. Dawn was
perfectly fine, and, oddly enough, she seemed to be the quietest of the four
tonight.

�So there
was this one time,� Anatole said, sloshing some firewhiskey onto the sand, �we
were fishing with our friend Stratos, and he has the worst luck ever, so the
first time he tried to cast, the line got stuck in the tree. He couldn�t get it untangled, so he had to
cut it. And the second time�guess what
he did!�

�You�ll
never guess,� Nick chimed.

�Got it
stuck in the tree again?� Hermione tried.

�No, it
swung back at him and GOT HIM IN THE LIP!�
Anatole and Nick roared with laughter, and Hermione and Dawn chorused,
�Ewww!� in unison.

�We still
call him Fish Hook!� Nick said, holding his stomach and attempting to calm his
giggles.

�Yeah,
and the doctors at the hospital told him he was the catch of the day!� Anatole
chortled, little tears making their way out of the corners of his eyes.

�This one
time my friend Ron tried to cast a slug-vomiting hex-�

�Slug-vomiting?
Nasty!�

�-On this
stupid kid, Draco actually,� here she laughed at herself, �but his wand was
broken and it rebounded on to him. He
was vomiting slugs for hours!�

�That is disgusting!�

�I know!�
In spite of how unpleasant the thought was, three of the four companions
burst out laughing again. Dawn did not
laugh. She remembered what Hermione had
said about Ron. It was strange how
easily she spoke of him now, whereas before she had been nearly hysterical with
grief. It was probably the firewhiskey;
firewhiskey could make you forget everything but the small microcosm you were
in.

Finally
they settled down, and the firewhiskey bottle circulated for one last
round. Just as Hermione was about to
speak the toast, a long, loud howl filled the air. Dawn, Anatole, and Nick just looked
confused. However, Hermione�s glass
slipped from her fingers, spilling the whiskey in the sand. She knew that sound.

Her head
whipped around. The moon. The moon was full! How could it be full? They weren�t stupid, all magical sites took
precautions when the moon was at its peak.
That day should not have come for another week or two.

�We have
to get inside!� she said, panic edging her voice. The wolf was near. She knew what they sounded like up close; it
was something she�d never forget.

�What?�
Anatole asked, perplexed.

�Inside. Now.�
Hermione�s voice brooked no argument, and both men got shakily to their
feet.

�Whoa��
Nick said, blinking owlishly and swaying.

�A
werewolf?� Dawn said, her hand reaching instinctively for her wand. �The cabins are wood, they won�t withstand
it!�

�We�ll
have to cast reinforcement charms!�

�A werewolf?!� Anatole cried. �They�re real?!�

�Yes, all
too real,� Hermione said. �If you�re
lucky it will just bite you and maul you slightly, but if it�s hungry or mad it
will tear you to shreds.�

�You�re
luckier if you get torn to shreds,� Dawn said grimly.

�Then
let�s get the hell into the cabin!� Nick exclaimed, clamping onto Dawn�s hand
and tugging. The group began to run
across the beach as best they could; the sand was hard to navigate, and the two
tipsy men were having a hard time staying upright. But they made it to Dawn�s cabin without
being attacked, and she pushed Anatole and Nick unceremoniously through the
door.

�Are you
coming, Hermione?� she demanded. For
some reason Hermione was hesitating.

�Severus!�
was all Hermione said before taking off in the opposite direction. Dawn could only gape as the crazy British girl
sped over the sand, her curly hair flying behind her.

Panic had
spread quickly around the site. Those
who had been outdoors were scrambling back to the cabins, some diving inside
the nearest one. Dawn looked toward the
fissure, hoping no one was still down there working.

A moment
later, a dark, bent form emerged from the gap.
She could see the silhouette of pointed canine ears, the long snout, the
rail-thin, fur-covered body. It raised
its head and howled again, its vicious claws swiping at the air.

�My God��
Nick whispered. �It�s real��

�Hermione�s
still out there!� Anatole said, his voice shaking.

�She�I�there�s
no one to protect you if I go after her!� Dawn said, pushing them back inside
and slamming the door. �She�s a very
capable witch, and I suspect she�s dealt with werewolves before. And Snape�s still out there.� As she said it, a sinking feeling filled her
insides. If Snape was out there, so was
Lucius.

She
wrestled with her desire to go find them.
She could not leave two
helpless Muggles at the mercy of a crazed werewolf. They had no chance, no chance at all.

At last,
she bolted the door and cast several strengthening and repelling charms on
it. All she could do was hope.
- 8
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