Severus and Hermione: The Head's Office
Chapter 22 of 31
Anastadne22: How what was lost might be found - if she's very, very lucky and very, very good.
ReviewedA/N: Ari again. (P.S. Tag!)
The silver instruments whirred softly in the stillness as Dumbledore’s portrait silently marked the passage of time, awaiting Severus’s return.
Voices at the gargoyle – too faint to hear.
Voices on the stair. Coming closer.
The door slammed open.
The collective portraits woke up and stared down their ancient noses as a cloud of hair swirled in the moonlight beyond the opening door.
“A student?” Phineas Nigellus Black sneered derisively. “A Gryffindor, no less.” He leaned comfortably in his chair. “Tangled webs indeed, Albus.”
Dumbledore’s eyes narrowed. “Not now, Phineas.”
“… that manipulative old bastard!”
“Language, Miss Granger,” Severus agreed.
---
“It’s bleeding,” she spat. “And I know what you forced him to do.”
“Severus made his choice…”
“Because you gave him no alternative, Sir, for the greater good. So how, exactly, is that” – she gestured to the bleeding case – “for the ‘greater good’?” She glared at the portrait.
Silence, broken only by a spatter of blood hitting flagstones.
“No answer?”
“It was intended to shield him from –”
“Oh, spare me. The Wizengamot rejected that argument in the 18th century – ‘for his or her own protection’ – usually her – isn’t that just another form of bondage?”
---
At the word “bondage,” one of the portraits tittered. Hermione couldn’t tell which.
“By protecting the part of him that can…”
“That can love? Yes, I’ve ascertained that, thank you.”
“… that can love, I had hoped to mitigate the damage murder must inevitably do his soul.”
“By destroying it first.” Hermione snorted. “A pre-emptive strike to avoid violence? Please.”
“Not ‘destroyed,’ merely ‘protected’ within –”
“Within a bond breakable only by you as the more powerful.”
Severus raised his eyebrow.
“I did not presume I was the –”
More blood spatters.
“Your magic is killing him even now.”
---
“I did not presume I was the more powerful.”
“Your mistake,” Severus hissed softly.
“Your magic was stronger,” Hermione shot back. “His is the stronger character, however.”
Dumbledore sighed. “Had he kept no secrets from me, this unfortunate situation…”
“Blaming the victim, Dumbledore?” She walked a few paces away from Severus and wheeled on the portrait. “Are all men so stupid?”
Dumbledore blinked, and Severus’ eyebrow shot up again.
“Of course he kept a secret from you. Who wouldn’t, faced with such options – to kill, to die, just to get a message to Harry?”
“I died for no less.”
---
“Yes, but at least you did die. And properly, too. He gambled, in vain, that his magic might be stronger than yours, that his power to love be stronger than your hold over him – but for naught.”
“No,” Severus whispered.
Hermione glanced at him and hesitated, but the bleeding case spurred her on. “You miscalculated, Dumbledore…”
“Insubordination!” mumbled one of the sleepier portraits.
“… because love requires an object. Harry’s mum, you thought. Conveniently dead. Yet you never paused to consider…” her voice trailed away.
“Consider… what?”
“That the power to love isn’t the same thing as loving someone.
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Latest 25 Reviews for Hide and Seek
112 Reviews | 7.83/10 Average
Please can you add the final chapter or direct me to where else it can be found. We are compiling a list of alternative links for all of the OWL fics due to OWL closing at the end of this month, and I can't find anywhere else that has the full completed story. Thank-you.
Wow, can't wait to see what happens next!
woo
So glad you guys have come back to this story! The way you both play off of one another is such fun to read. I too cannot wait for the next chapter (but I guess I'll have to, won't I? Darnit...) :D
Wow...can't wait for the next chapter.
creepy!
Can one punish a portrait by destroying it?
Are you still working on this story? This isn't quite the end to my opinion, although their using first names is undoubtedly a breakthrough.
Oh good grief. *pulls hair in frustration* more please. btw did you know that clicking where the arrows that send you to the next chapter should be send you absolutely no where. I clicked and clicked in desperate hope.
You gotta be kidding. Why, oh why must you torture us so? Are we not faithful readers? More now, please. (I did say please.)
Burn, Dumbly, burn!
Oh, she'd better say yes!
What a horrid cliffhanger! I insist on believing that things are not as dire as they seem, and that Hermione's love for Severus (coupled by feeding Dumbledore's portrait to Fang 
) will win the day.
But I still want to find out rather quickly.
Oh no, please say he'll be ok.
Oh Gods! Quite dramiatic! What havoc and distruction love has wrought upon the office!
Finally, someone is burning the portrait! Give him hell, Hermione! Make him talk. Justice will be served with a side-order of fries and a fizzy drink, methinks...
We need new chapters. We are fresh out, so I am ordering more. How much for overnight delivery? Two-day? 
Go get him, Severus! Dumbledore's on the run now... grab him, Phineas Nigellus! Put him in a half-nelson! Don't let him leave the room! 
I await Hermione's response breathlessly.
A short chapter, but a powerful one. I can't wait to see how this is going to play out.
Go, Severus! Burn the portrait! You can do it! It will make us all feel better! The readers are behind you all the way!
Burn the portrait, Hermione... go on... you know you want to... and so do we! Do it for the readers! Or at least get Phineas Nigellus to go over there and beat Dumbledore up properly. This is an excellent time to see if one portrait can give another one a black eye or two.
Finally, a visit to Dumbledore for Hermione! I hope she punches his painted nose...
Tell us what it is!!!! 
Of course she used his! Obviously she holds him in high regard, despite (or because of) everything. Now the question is... is her regard for him high enough to fix things which seem to be going rapidly pear-shaped? I think Hermione's feelings for Severus are going to be paramount in importance for this, depending upon what it turns out to be.
I can't believe I've missed these new updates! And I've been keeping half an eye out, too! (obviously I should have used the other half as well...) On the other hand, it means I can find out where they're both going immediately, which is good. Isn't it?
Sounds like things are getting pretty hairy right now... but what the heck's going on with Severus. Somehow I'm sure that hexing Paint-Boy would make things better. Perhaps something fitting and appropriate given the circumstances...
*Works on a spell to transfigure Portrait Dumbledore's background into something from Dante's Inferno*
Sounds like things are getting pretty hairy right now. Hexing Paint-Boy into oblivion certainly couldn't make things worse, now could it?
Oh, Dumbledore left his portrait? or did he jsut flee to another? I think he did leave it for a reason, but was surprised by the recipient? hummm
OOooooo! O_o. pouncing onward ---
About time he stood up for himslef!! Whoot Severus - zap him!!