Common Ground

That night when Hermione slept, she dreamed of Hogwarts. She and Acara were in Snape's office, and Draco and Snape were having tea. Hermione was looking around, and as she craned her neck, she felt a tie. She looked down and saw she was in her Head Girl's uniform.

"Miss Granger, please have a seat." Hermione was startled out of her reverie by the dulcet tones of the Potions master. It had been such a long time since she'd heard him that the sounds were like music to her ears.

"Yeah, Granger, come sit." Draco made room on the couch between him and Snape.

"This isn't real." Hermione stood her ground. She wanted to stare at Snape, but locked her eyes on Draco's.

Snape walked to her and took her hand, leading her over to the couch, but still, she didn't sit. "I assure you, Miss Granger, that it is very real. At least, as real as a dream can be."

"Is that so? How?" Hermione locked eyes with Snape in a silent dare. He smirked.

"I left Draco a piece of me. Not a Horcrux, but not unlike a Horcrux. More sentient than a painting, but sadly, I'm still very much deceased."

"And this non-Horcrux is...?"

"In my ring." Draco waggled his fingers at her. "Uncle Severus is my ephemeral companion and confidant."

"I don't believe you." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"What would it take to convince you?" Draco asked, desperate for her to believe him. As much as the village was ready to wait for Hermione to come around, he knew it wouldn't work. He had loved when she would fight with Potty and Weasel and loved how stubborn she could be. No, his Hermione needed a much shorter leash than these people were giving her.

"Tell him the secret." Hermione crossed her arms and leaned on one leg, pushing her chin out in a perfectly know-it-all kind of a way. She would have looked down her nose, except that she was the shortest of everyone in the room. She may have been standing, but she could never be more arrogant than either of the other people in the room.

"A secret?" Draco looked between Snape and Hermione, very interested in Hermione's secrets, or even Snape's, if that's all he could get.

"Not a secret, Ferret, the secret." Hermione whipped her head around to Snape, who had turned slightly toward her, draping his arm across the back of the couch.

Severus looked at her and smiled. He was not an attractive man, and his smile was crooked, but Hermione revelled in it. "Only if he promises not to destroy the ring."

"Why would I destroy your ring, Uncle?" Draco turned to face the other man on the couch, leaning against the armrest.

"You won't like what you hear, Draco. You really won't like it."

"Fine. I swear," Draco said impatiently.

"Eh, eh...wand oath." Snape said as he pulled his wand from his robes. "If you do this, the ring will be indestructible." Draco pulled out his wand and he and Snape made the oath. Hermione couldn't believe her eyes.

"Okay, what's the secret?" Draco was alight with anticipation.

"For most of your sixth year, I was shagging Hermione." Severus couldn't help but smile into his cup of tea, his eyes drifting from Draco to Hermione, and once upon Hermione, they traced down her body and up again.

Draco froze. He could not believe what he had just heard. "What?"

"I shagged Snape, over and over again. It. Was. Amazing." Hermione couldn't help but twist the knife, enjoying when Draco flinched.

"But he's so... Snape." Draco was fighting a variety of reality implosions. First, Snape was like his father, and while his father was a virile man, he did not shag. Therefore, Snape also did not shag. Also, Snape was ugly and greasy and old. Gross. Also, Hermione would not have been of age, and there was that whole, student-professor thing. Also, Snape knew Draco had been obsessed with Hermione, though at that time, he was still playing it off as hate and disgust.

"No." Draco stood up. "No. No. No!"

"Yes, Draco. I shagged Snape for months. It started with botched Amortentia potion we were adjusting for the Order's purposes, and we found that even after it had worn off, we couldn't keep apart." Hermione leaned towards Snape, looking at him for the first time now that she believed he was real. "I went to Peru, like you suggested."

"I know, Draco has been talking about it for days. Your hair is rather fetching like this, by the way. I like it. Though, it does make it harder to pull." Snape was about to push his fingers through Hermione's hair when Draco cried out in torment. Snape whipped out his wand and froze Draco.

"I lost all my hair and nails when I broke my wand. It's darker now, too," Hermione said as she crawled into Snape's lap and curled into his body. Her arms automatically went around his neck as they quickly fell into a position they had spent many post-coital hours in.

"And you are earth or fire?" Snape said, untucking her shirt to slide his hand underneath. It was less a gesture of sex than it was of intimacy, but Hermione was still shocked to feel his long fingers on her flesh.

"You can touch me?" Hermione squeaked in delight, relishing the way his long, thin fingers wrapped around her ribs once again.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be able to?" Snape said as his hands reached up and cupped her breasts. Hermione arched back, her head dropping back as Snape began to play with her.

"The damned dragon on my neck." Hermione turned to show him. "It's some pre-marriage fidelity thing." Hermione usually resisted when Snape touched her because she lost her ability to focus, but this time she was happy, thrilled even, for the capacity to be incapacitated.

"That little prick." Snape growled and sank his teeth into her neck, sucking softly. "Maybe it's because I'm dead." Snape whispered something, and her shirt unbuttoned. Nuzzling her breasts, he turned and met Draco's eyes. Snape pulled back when he saw how covetous and vulnerable Draco was. Damn, he had a soft spot for the boy. Hence this whole, post-death presence business.

Hermione whined when Severus pulled away and buttoned up her shirt. Not that she wanted to have Draco watch them, but it had been over a year since she and Severus had last touched, and Merlin, how she missed Severus Snape!

"Now, now, as much as I'd love to give a lesson, I'm not here to show Draco how to make you scream. I'm here to chat him up to you," Snape said, turning her in his lap and cradling her there. "Draco, I'm going to unfreeze you, but only if you can contain your temper," Snape warned and then flicked his wand, unleashing the dragon.

"You whore," Draco gritted through his teeth. He would have advanced on the couple on the couch, but Acara began to growl at him. She had curled up next to Snape's feet and now had her ears tucked and her teeth bared.

Snape simply rolled his eyes and gently pulled his fingers through Hermione's hair soothingly. "That is no way to speak to one's affianced, Mr. Malfoy."

"Don't you speak to me, Uncle. You knew! You. Knew. And you knew about this... place, too! We spent weeks searching!" Draco seethed, and even in her dream, his wand was shooting off angry red and black sparks. Acara didn't seem bothered by the sparks at all...she began to crouch in front of the couch, ready to defend at the drop of a hat.

"Didn't I say to you, Draco, that one day you'd reap all you'd sown?" Snape looked down at Hermione thoughtfully. "And here we are, you having chased the poor girl halfway 'round the world because you can never ask nicely for the things you want." He smoothed the hair off Hermione's forehead and looked down at her. "You should probably consider yourself lucky that she thinks of me as an ally, or you would have no one in your corner with her."

"She is still in the room, if you don't mind." Hermione moved to sit up, but Snape had a hold of the collar of her uniform oxford shirt and gave her a hard pinch inside her thigh.

"She needs to remember her manners, I think." Snape looked down at her meaningfully, and he felt a shiver go down her spine.

Hermione loved when Snape dominated her. He'd never hit her, although they did play a little on the rough side.

Snape had dished out too much pain in his days to do anything to her, but they'd often role play, and it was as excellent a stress relief as the sex itself.

"They are letting him train for a mage-ship...They are just going to let him have me. It's like I never left Britain." Hermione drew herself up and curled into Snape's arm. "I broke my wand." Hermione paused to mime the act. "Broke my wand, Severus. It nearly killed me, and Malfoy still wins."

"Who decided this?" Snape said, continuing to pet her soothingly.

"The council. Ariulo." Hermione sneered. Betrayed. She had never been so betrayed.

"Ah, Ariulo. I met him. You are his... aide?" Snape looked at Hermione meaningfully, and she blushed.

"Yes, he is the highest ranking fire." Snape smirked, knowing full well that Hermione was dying to live as the other mages and to be included in the things that Draco would hardly approve of.

"I see. Draco, stop shooting sparks like a first year and sit on the bloody couch already." Snape flourished his hand over the other seat, and Draco sat down, glaring into space and rolling his wand between his fingers and thumb. "Well, Miss Granger," Snape purred at Hermione, "as I see it, that would be the lesser of two evils. Would you have rather they just let Draco take you away? Back to Britain?"

"I would rather they cast him out! I do not want him. He has made every moment of my life since I got to Hogwarts horrible!" Hermione exclaimed quietly, having been completely lulled by the rhythms of Snape's fingers.

"But he is yours. You will make darling babies, I am sure." Snape chuckled as Hermione opened one eye to glare at him. "Draco told me he has sent you dreams. I know, Hermione, that your body has needs. You can't tell me that Draco would be unable to take care of you adequately."

"Not the point." Hermione sighed. She couldn't argue with Snape, but she did not want to admit defeat.

"I know, but there is no use in swimming up river on this Hermione. Take Draco. The council can teach him; Ariulo can teach him. You can teach him. He'd do anything for you. Just because you don't approve doesn't mean that he hasn't already done everything he can think of to have you." Snape's voice was getting very wispy. Hermione was falling asleep on his lap, but because she was already asleep, it was just taking her out of dream levels.

"Severus?" Hermione tried to reach out, but only encountered her blanket. She woke up extremely confused. She was disoriented. She thought for sure she should be in Gryffindor Tower, but she quickly caught onto the hammock she was lying in and the walls of her cottage. When Acara jumped up next to her, having left to answer nature's call, Hermione curled up around the beast and fell back to sleep with her brow furrowed. In the delicate space between awake and asleep, she couldn't imagine what had just happened. Fortunately sleep claimed her, and she was able to sleep well into the afternoon.

Hermione spent Saturday dazedly thinking of Severus, Ariulo, and Draco. She made books. She copied books. She taught some of the children about spelled writing. However, through it all, she kept thinking of those men and the web she was in. Severus had said to take Draco. Ariulo had facilitated a situation where she could stay, and if Draco became a mage, surely he would stay and adopt the customs here, as long as he got to make Hermione his bride. Paruin would be thrilled by the opportunity to relieve Hermione of Draco for some evenings, she was sure, and there would be others. Most certainly though, Hermione couldn't go back to Britain, no matter how homesick she got. This was her place now, thanks to the Ministry of Magic's Marriage Law and the wonderful elemental fire she'd found here.

Hermione was staring into space, her hands submerged, as she had been processing fronds, though she hadn't actually been doing anything for several minutes. She was too lost in her thoughts. Suddenly, Maank was in front of her, and when she noticed, she jumped up, unsettling the tub and spilling water to the floor.

"Those blond devils have addled your brain, Hermione." Maank chuckled, coming around to right the tub as Hermione evaporated the water. Once everything was set, Maank pulled her into a hug like a bear, crushing her against him, making her feel as though she were a small girl. After Kress had found her, Maank had set watch at her bedside and waited for her to wake.

"It's not just the blonde ones, Papi." There was something about this man that reminded her of her father so intensely, Hermione had called him that from the very beginning. For someone who hadn't been in the colony even a year, she'd found so many people who simply fit inside of her. "It is the dark ones, and the pale ones, too. It is the night and it is the day."

"Ariulo wishes you'd come to him."

"Not yet. I cannot see him now, not after..."

"Just because the timing was bad? It was coincidence only. This had been our move since you became a Mage, whelp." Maank tapped her chin lightly with his knuckle and smiled at her, seeing how weary she was.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Hermione said as her face shot upward.

"When? When you were just blooming? Or when he hadn't shown himself for months and months? Maybe just before, but it was possible that it could have been months more, and all the while you have done all this, and more, resigned to your fate or maybe leaving us? We don't want you to leave. If we have to take all of Europe's giants in to keep you, we will, and they can all build their own houses with taller doors," Maank finished, chortling softly.

Hermione shook her head at him. Up in the window, Dondi appeared. He looked about curiously, as though he hadn't been in the window ever before, although he had spent countless hours in it.

"See... even now, Ariulo can't stay away from you. He is like a dog, and you are his master," Maank said softly, rubbing her neck as she looked at the door for Ariulo. "You two have put the people on edge for a week; be done with it." With that, Maank left, and Hermione could see his bird fly down from the roof outside and swoop past him as he strode away.

Hermione took a deep breath. "Dondi," she whispered, and watched as the cat looked at her shyly. "Come on, Dondi." Hermione smiled weakly. The cat walked over to her slowly, slinking up and down as he crossed into the centre of the room. Hermione moved to sit cross-legged on the floor next to Acara, who was lying about, Hermione's turmoil leaving her beast lethargic when she wasn't set to defend her mistress. Hermione curled up with the cats and was just dozing into the sounds of purring when Ariulo came into the doorway.

"This is a work room, not a hotel," Ariulo said, leaning against the doorway, wearing only pants and sandals.

"You mean a veterinary clinic. This cat is making such a racket." Hermione scritched her fingers down Dondi's tail.

"You are speaking to me?" Ariulo said, holding his breath.

"Yes. I am." Somehow, this did not lessen the tension in Hermione's belly. He was just... looking at her.

Ariulo had often hated that mark. He'd hated it when he'd found out it was forced upon her. He'd hated it the first time she'd laughed with him as they were reaping in the fields and she had been so beautiful. He hated it every time she'd begged him to set her ablaze, pawing at him and trying to pretend. None of those times paralleled his hatred for it now. "Just in time for worship tomorrow, and a new initiate."

"Yeah, that was cutting it close." Hermione got up, holding Dondi in her arms, and walked over to the doorway. She lifted Dondi up, and he lurched toward Ariulo's shoulder. Once he was settled, Hermione knelt and dropped her head, giving up her fight. "I should not have questioned the Council's plan."

"The Council should have considered the spirit of the matter and executed the resolution differently," Ariulo said formally before dropping to his knees and taking Hermione's hands and forcing his fire through her body until they burned together, not too hot to bring down the building, but enough to heat the place up. Hermione looked at his eyes as they churned with fire.

If she could not rend Draco Malfoy from her life, then at least she would bear the burden with people who loved her.