Rita Skeeter Strikes Again

A/N: Thanks to my beta, MadBrilliant. Also, thanks to all who continue to read and review!

***

"Good morning." Hermione heard a deep voice float over her. She opened her eyes and saw Severus leaning over her.

"I trust you slept well?" he asked.

"Mmm," she replied as she burrowed into his shoulder. He was deliciously warm. She wished they could stay in bed all day.

"It's Sunday," he whispered into the mass of curls covering her head.

"Can we just have a lie-in...all day?" she asked softly.

Severus wrapped his arms around her. "Is that what you want?" he murmured.

She brushed the hair from her face as she turned to face him. "I just want to stay with you all day, cozy, and warm," she replied.

He nuzzled her neck, and she suddenly realized they both were naked. She saw the school uniform from the night before strewn across the floor. She smiled and trailed her hands down her husband's chest and stomach.

"Hermione," he breathed.

She kissed the trail her hands had made. Severus watched his wife descend on him, her wild curly hair in tangles. He couldn't believe the rightness of it all.

"I saw you during the battle," he said suddenly.

Hermione lifted her head from her husband's stomach and said, "You did?"

His face was inscrutable. Finally, his eyes shone as he spoke. "I don't especially like to think of you in certain ways when I consider my life before the battle. I saw you grow up. It makes me uncomfortable. Therefore, I've had to split my life into 'before' and 'after'. However, during the battle I saw you, and I remember thinking, 'How remarkable!'

He played with her hair tenderly as he continued. "It's been difficult, coming to terms with all of this. Life has always led me down one road with which I felt familiar and was fully aware of the burdens that would come along. This life with you is a road that keeps shocking me at every turn. Nevertheless, I would be a liar if I didn't say I love every moment. I never thought I would be a man to enjoy surprises and the unknown behind every turn, but with you it makes it all exciting and intriguing," he said softly.

"I was so unbelievably jealous, you can't imagine!" she said laughing. "How could a little know-it-all like me barely out of school keep the interest of a hardened spy and ex-Death Eater who used to sneer and scowl at me! I was so sure after a few tumbles, you'd say, 'She's boring!' and look for greener pastures."

"No, Hermione. I'm yours, and you are mine."

She looked into the open and vulnerable face of her husband and sighed contently. He leaned down and kissed her slowly and sweetly on her lips. He moved over on top of her and kissed her neck, collarbone, and moved to her breasts. She closed her eyes and felt the sensations wash over her. Soon, she was feeling her legs nudged apart, the heat radiating from him trapped under the covers making her sweaty. He rubbed his erection lightly over her clit, and she arched her back in pleasure. She opened her eyes and saw her husband grasp her legs and enter her. His breath caught as he shifted inside her. His black hair brushed against her face as he watched her body move in time with his thrusts. He rested on his elbows and cupped her face in his hands. He kissed her as he continued to thrust into her. It was slow...excruciatingly slow.

"Please," she moaned.

He drove into her deeper and harder, but no faster. She could smell his scent, look into his face, and see all the lines and imperfections that came with age and worry. She contemplated his facial reactions as she clenched and unclenched her walls around him. He started losing his ability to breathe normally. Hermione loved that she had this vision to herself. No other woman would know Severus Snape, the man, as she did. She finally accepted that he was hers, and she was his...forever.

He was panting, and his faced was flushed. "Tell me you love me, Hermione," he breathed.

"I love you," she whispered.

"With my name, Hermione, tell me with my name!" he urged.

"I love you, Severus," she whispered into his ear.

He shuddered as he emptied inside her. He lingered over her to catch his breath and then shifted to her side. Hermione kicked off the covers to cool down. She was sweaty and exhausted. Her husband was asleep. She lay there feeling his essence seep out from her.

Was it only two years ago that he had been her teacher? She thought. She never would have known then that in two years she would be laying in a bed she shared with Professor Snape, making love to him, telling him she loved him and that he loved her. How odd that things changed. Just seven months ago, she was with Harry and Ron, destroying Horcruxes and planning to defend the castle. How so much had changed in such a short period of time!

She recalled her Defense classes with Professor Snape. He had seemed so annoyed with her. He had cut her down so badly, but last night he had made up for it in spades. His Veritaserum induced confession of his pride in her had made her feel more secure than she had felt since their wedding.

The staff could not help but notice a shift in the demeanor of their Headmaster and the Charms Instructor. It was apparent to all that calmness had settled between them, an understanding of sorts. Everyone was very happy for the newlyweds.

Hermione stayed grounded in her faith. She willingly relinquished her time to Severus so he could help Professor Holden with her duties as Head of House. She did not feel any jealousy, for she knew from first-hand experience that Samantha Holden was shagging Professor Selenski. So each Monday evening, Severus spent a couple of hours in the common room or in his office to mentor and assist Professor Holden as she waded her way through dealing with her Slytherins. Hermione also kept the parchment Severus had written the poem he had read to her on her person at all times. Whenever she felt the stirrings of insecurities, she would take it out and read it or at least finger it in her pocket when others were around. It was becoming a personal talisman to ward off ill will against her marriage.

Hermione took the time to visit with the "gals" during this time. Monday nights became hen nights, where the blonde triplets, Hermione, Rosmerta, and Rosie, if she could make it, would gather and blow off steam. Mondays were always hard. Students were lethargic and spacey during classes while the teachers were trying to gear up for another week. These 'hen nights' became more than just an excuse to get pissed and rowdy. They became a time of reflection and airing out problems. Hermione had really gotten to know the blonde triplets as real people. Emilie, Christine, and Satine were interesting young women in their own right. Their previous frostiness towards Hogwarts had started to melt, and they were coming round. They were very intelligent witches, eager to excel in their field, and they were all new in their careers. Rosmerta and Rosie came to listen and give moral support. Poppy was also a calming and light-hearted presence. She had so many stories of the old days when Vector, Sinistra, and Trelawney had begun at Hogwarts. She reminded them to not push or judge themselves too harshly.

"The school is doing incredibly well!" Poppy reported. "Mafalda, Amos, and Robards have had nothing but the nicest things to say about what they have heard the parents mention the school."

That made Hermione's heart glad. Things were really coming together. Hogwarts was becoming a family again as the staff grew to learn and respect each other.

"You know, I think we should invite the Durmstrang lads to join us. I did ask Miss Pince to join us, but she just stuck her nose in the air!" said Emilie.

"Don't forget Mr. Ketsall, if you are going to do this. It would not be nice to snub anyone. Also, Mr. Shunpike is a most agreeable fellow," mused Poppy. "He's quite harmless and a lonely soul. He'd be pleased as punch to join us."

"Why not?" mused Hermione. "After all, they are probably lonely and bored to sobs after hours."

The women murmured their thoughts amongst themselves. Hermione leaned into Emilie and whispered, "I'm sure Professor Selinski is lonely on these nights as I am with Severus in conference with Professor Holden!" She giggled at the thought of the memory of watching the two of them making love.

Emilie's face grew nervous and uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" asked Hermione.

"Well, I talked to Professor Domask last night. He and I have been getting friendly, and he told me that Selinski called it quits with Samantha! Just about broke her heart, bless her," she said sadly. "So she may really need comforting."

Hermione felt a familiar stab of fear and jealousy run through her veins. She reminded herself of her husband's words under Veritaserum. He loved her. He wanted her...only her. She had nothing to fear.

She returned to her quarters and waited until eleven o'clock before Severus returned. She spent her time dawdling over her evening toilette and then sat and read her poem over and over, running her fingers over Severus' cramped, scrawling handwriting. When Severus returned, he was agitated and put out.

"What's wrong, Severus?" she asked concerned.

"Oh, I spent two hours on educating Professor Holden on being head of Slytherin house, and then as we were packing up for the night, she started to tell me about her romantic woes. Hermione, how does one tell a witch he does not want to be a 'girlfriend?" She was so emotional and confused. I sat there like a trapped animal for an eternity!

"Finally, Professor Domask came in, seeing that my office was open, and saved me! Do you think you could speak with her, Hermione? God, I wish I could just be mean, cold and run her off! But, I promised Kingsley I'd be the 'caring' Headmaster...damn it all to hell!" he muttered.

Hermione laughed. "I'll speak with her, darling. Now come here and snuggle with me. I missed you so much!"

Severus came to bed quickly and wrapped his arms around his wife. She smelled like lavender and clean cotton. She was fast becoming a drug to him. She was intoxicating. He thought just before he slept, I could get used to sleeping normally. This is perfect!

***

The holidays came and went. The Snapes attended several Ministry parties and in between spent their days wrapped in each others arms and limbs, not caring whose was whose. They were deep in their honeymoon phase and loving every minute of it. The staff seemed to understand and went about their own business.

The new semester came without incident. Mondays remained the standard weekly staff get together. Hermione noticed that Domask was not as friendly as the others. Although he was seeing Emilie, he did not care to socialize with the other staff members. It didn't bother Hermione much. She was married to a man who was the same in demeanor and temperament. What did concern her, though, was the way he looked at her, as if he knew something she didn't. He was smug, and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

***

Two weeks after the students had returned, the owls came in during breakfast as usual. Severus unwrapped his Daily Prophet, and as he gazed on the front page, his normally pale face became even paler. The nerve on the side of his mouth was twitching madly, and the vein that signaled a major outburst was pulsating so badly it threatened to burst! Hermione was in the middle of biting into her toast with marmalade when she saw her husband's reaction. She hastily removed the toast from her hands and wiped her face. She gazed among the students. It was quiet, too quiet. Then there were sniggers and tittering coming from the Slytherin Table. Hermione didn't make any quick, sharp movements. Severus looked as if he was going to Vesuvius all over the Great Hall, his rage and ire was so potent. Then on her extreme left, she heard a woman shriek with anger.

"That fucking bitch! That fucking piece of shit!" screamed Professor Holden as she jumped up from her seat and walked out of the Great Hall through the Staff Entrance.

Severus jumped up when the tittering among the students suddenly broke out into laughter. He didn't need to cast a Sonorous Charm. His voice could boom across the Hall with ease.

"There will be absolute silence!" His voice ripped through the laughter and there was immediate quiet. Hermione had never seen Severus so angry. Even during her third year when he had caught her, Harry, and Ron in the Shrieking Shack with Lupin and Sirius, he had been murderously angry. This made that experience seem like a holiday at Brighton!

"There will be NO discussion of today's article in the Prophet. Any student seen with it or heard discussing it will be expelled! Accio Prophet! he roared. Each copy in the Great Hall soared onto the High Table. The copies spilled over onto the floor, there were so many! Hermione was shocked...utterly shocked! When each paper had made its way to the High Table, Severus incinerated each copy with an explosion so fearsome, it sounded like the beginning blasts of the final battle. He cast a Muffilato spell over the table and spoke to the teachers in a calm voice.

"There shall be a staff meeting this evening after dinner. If you are not there, consider yourself sacked! I will be requiring answers, and we shall not end the meeting until I am satisfied. Is that clear?" he whispered.

Each teacher nodded cautiously. He removed the spell and turned to his wife. "Madam Snape, we need to return to my office immediately. We shall breakfast there." He grabbed her hand and marched her out of the Great Hall. You could have heard a pin drop. Hermione was afraid. She didn't want to be alone with him. What if he were angry with her? She grew increasingly anxious the closer they got to his office.

Once they were safely inside, Severus let out a ferocious stream of obscenities that frankly, made Hermione want to laugh. She suppressed a giggle and Severus glowered at her.

"Oh, amused are we? Here, wife, please read for yourself!" he snarled.

He thrust his copy of the paper at her, and she took it slowly from him and began to read.

Adulterous Sex Scandal Revealed at Hogwarts!

It has come to the attention of the Daily Prophet that there indeed exists a horrible den of iniquity inside the Serpents' Lair. Headmaster Snape, not satisfied with seducing his student, Hermione Granger, into marriage, (or perhaps it was the other way around?) now the Headmaster has been carrying on an illicit affair with the Head of Slytherin House, Professor Samantha Holden.

As for Madam Snape, one can only say that it is a fact that a person's past will eventually catch up with them. We all have seen and witnessed Madam Snape's lack of moral judgment over the years. Now it has come home to roost. Nonetheless, it is a sad day for Britain's Wizarding Community.

Hermione was blind with rage. She was pale white and shaking like a leaf. Severus had been patiently waiting for her to blow-up and rage, but instead, she looked as if she were going to collapse.

"Hermione?" he whispered as he went to touch her shoulder.

"Why?" she whispered.

"I don't know, Hermione. That woman has it in for you, me, and for this school, obviously!" he said angrily.

"No," she said, her voice shaking, "what I mean is how could you do this to us?"

He drew himself up to his full height. "I did nothing to us. That miserable woman did this to us...and to Professor Holden!" he hollered.

"You just HAD to spend every Monday night with her! You just HAD to listen to her sob stories. You just HAD to put yourself in a position to be judged!" she screamed as she took the tea tray and hurled it across the room. Severus' face was dumbstruck by the force of how it crashed into the opposite wall.

She burst into tears. "It's just too hard. I have to keep fighting everything and everybody for every bit of happiness, and I can't do it anymore!" she sobbed.

Hermione wanted him to hold her and tell her he was firing that bitch and then was going to poison Rita Skeeter that would result in an agonizing death. She wanted him to scream and curse that he had been a damn fool to be alone with that stupid witch and beg her forgiveness.

Instead, he just stood there, doing nothing.

"Are you quite finished?" he said coldly.

She looked up at him in horror. Perhaps she had overreacted, but didn't she deserve to? Hadn't she been holding up her end of this school, this 'New Era' of Hogwarts? She was starting to feel she had reached her limit. It was too much...too hard. She turned and walked out.

"Hermione?" Severus called. He followed her and called her name. She didn't care anymore. They all had won. Her students had conspired against her, the Daily Prophet wanted to break her, and hell, even among her so-called friends, her colleagues, there was a traitor in their midst. She just couldn't fight anymore. She couldn't live her life with the Wizarding world not wanting her marriage to succeed, her career to flourish, and her efforts to secure Hogwarts as a school of excellence take root. She had fought for her place in this world since her very first day when she had been teased about knowing how to levitate a feather better than anyone else, fighting Voldemort, being called a Mudblood every other day, and targeted for being one...to now...a less than worthy witch married above her station, forced to take on responsibilities far beyond her nineteen years. It was just enough. She was tired and didn't want to do it anymore.

She reached the main door that led out of the Headmaster's office when Severus stopped her and barred her way.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" he asked in a voice she had never heard before.

She looked up at him, and he sighed. He saw the defeat in her eyes and couldn't blame her. Anyone else would have broken a long time ago.

"Please, don't do this, Hermione. Please don't leave me," he whispered softly.

"Don't make me fight you, Professor," she whispered. "Just let me go."

"Professor? NO!" he raged. "I WILL NOT LET YOU GO!" he hollered wildly. He sounded as if he was going to lose his mind.

"Hermione," he begged as he fell to his knees. "Don't do this...I can't bear it. You can't leave me. You can't! You have to love me. You have to love me!" he demanded sadly as he held on to her hands.

"Don't make this about loving or not loving you, Severus. It's just too hard! No one wants me to be here but you. I have no place in this world. I'm going to go get my parents and break my wand. I'm done with this world and this life."

"And of us? I love you!" he choked out. "I'll break my wand as well, Hermione. I can't live without you."

A glimmer of light came over her eyes. She slid to the floor next to her husband. "You'd do that? You'd break your wand just to be with me?" she asked unbelievably.

He grabbed her arms and pulled her to him. "There is nothing without you. If you go, this will be empty, no life, no reason for living. I would die without you. Therefore, yes, I'll go wherever you go. We'll go to Australia, I'll live wherever you wish, I'd do whatever you say, Hermione. Don't you understand? I can't do anything if you aren't with me. If you'll stay, I'll kill that slag, I'll fire the whole lot of them and start from scratch, I'll expel every Slytherin here. I'll do it, Hermione, I'd go to Azkaban happily, if you'd just swear you will never abandon me!"

She grabbed him and held him fiercely. "I never knew I held that much weight with you," she whispered.

He wrenched himself from her and bore into her eyes. "You are precious, so precious to me. You are my standard, my hope; there is nothing without you. It's meaningless if you aren't here! Without you, everything falls apart."

She looked at his anguished face and knew she had more power than she had ever realized. Her mum had told her that once, that a great and powerful man would only be great and powerful because of a woman, whether wife, sister, mother, whatever. She had told her to wield her power carefully over the man who loved her. She would have the ability to raise him up or tear him down. Hermione had always believed that was only for certain women who were incredibly beautiful or sexy. Not her, plain old Hermione, yet here was the most powerful wizard in Britain, probably in the world, and he would happily spend his days as a Muggle if she said it had to be.

It didn't seem so heavy now. She didn't have to fight it alone. Any battle she would face she would have him to face it as well. She would never fall as she would never let him fall. They would hold the ends of this school up and refuse to allow it to topple to the ground.

She took her husband by the hands and said, "You are right, Severus. We will fight this together. But, from now on, you and I must have synchronization. No more Professor Holden. Get rid of her. She is a liability and a sore spot between us. None of the other women professors has caused such insecurity deep inside me. She also has acted inappropriately with you, using you to cry over about her poor choices in lovers! In addition, if ANY woman tries to pull a stunt like that, you send her to me, post haste! I'll fix that shit. You're MINE! Have I made myself clear?" she said ferociously.

Severus was impressed. His lovely lioness was ready to show her claws, and he decided he wasn't going to stop her. If they were going to do this together, she had to assert her self and not be held back by him. Hell, this could even be highly entertaining! The thought of his wife hexing another woman because of her need to protect her territory was highly arousing. He didn't mind being the territory, as long as he got sex out it. However, he wasn't going to admit that.

"You have made yourself quite clear, wife. I await this evening staff meeting with relish! You may do whatever you deem is appropriate."

"No interfering?" she said with narrowed eyes.

"Absolutely not. I wouldn't dream of it!' he said smoothly.

She got up and he followed suit. She was far from mollified. "You seem a bit smug! Trying to condescend your wife?" she challenged.

"Hell, no!" he said with a chuckle. "I honestly can say I would not like to find myself on the business end of your wand!"

"Fine!" she said. "Now that we are agreed on the particulars, we have things to plan before tonight. And a few students to expel... but first things first!" she said as she sauntered to her husband.

"You, Headmaster, are going to get your arse in our quarters and await your punishment! I've been made to be the wife of an adulterer. True or not, you have acted foolishly, and I need to reassert my territory!"

Severus was in quite a predicament. He knew every past Headmaster and Headmistress was listening to every word spoken. Moreover, what burned him was that she knew it too!

She dared for him to defy her. Well, if had to place his balls in someone's hand, he couldn't think of anyone he rather have them.

He heard that old codger, Phineas Black, hiss in the corner, "You'd best get your arse where it's told to go, boy! You've been a right dunderhead, and you'd best take your punishment like a man!" he growled.

He glared at the old Slytherin and heard a familiar chuckle. He averted his eyes to Albus, who was smiling with that damn twinkle in his eye.

"I agree, Severus! You have acted rather recklessly, and now you have to face the consequences."

A bunch of sniggers and catcalls came from the various portraits. Hermione beamed at all of them.

"As you wish, Madam," Severus said humbly and then departed into their quarters with his usual billowing of robes trailing behind him.

Hermione sat in her husband's chair and turned to Albus. "Was I too hard on him?" she asked.

"That remains to be...heard, I believe, Madam Snape," he chuckled.

She laughed wickedly. She felt better than she had in years. She was going to clean house and kick ass. She was going to start with her own house, and then she was going to deal with that little nuisance of a bug. And this time, there would be no air holes!