11

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I make no money here.

Many thanks to my beta, dreamy_dragon73, for all her help; she makes it all readable.

The meeting at Severus' home had thus far produced no solid plan for dealing with Nott. Ron and Blaise wanted to find just cause of his wrong doing and arrest him, but Draco theorized that if Nott had actually done anything illegal he surely would have effectively covered his tracks. Draco was sure he could find some Dark spells or curses in the Manor's extensive library that would suit the situation. Greg wanted to lure him down some back alley and beat the crap out of him. Neville swore he knew of some exotic plants that could be used in untraceable poisons. Harry just wanted to Crucio the bastard. This surprisingly left George and Severus as the voices of reason to try to keep the rest of the group in line.

Severus was beginning to think that perhaps he and Harry should have just plotted Nott's come-uppance on their own. They would have been better off without so many helpers mucking everything up. Too many cooks spoiled the broth, or in this case, too many wizards ruined the plotting. A lesson he should have learned during his days as a spy in the Death Eaters' camp. Whenever the Dark Lord had not been present to issue direct orders, the rest of the crowd would spend hours hashing and rehashing various plots and accomplishing next to nothing.

George was trying to mediate between two groups. Harry, Neville and Greg who preferred a solution that involved flat-out pain and torment. Ron, Blaise and Draco wanted a more subtle, indirect method of revenge. It was in the midst of this row that the alarm that was keyed to his wards sounded. The silence that enshrouded the group was immediate as they all looked at each other in concern.

Then came the sound of furious pounding on Severus' door. "Harry Potter! I know you're in there. You get your interfering arse out here right now, or I swear I'll take these wards apart one by one." More pounding ensued. "Harry James Potter!"

"Oh, shit, it's Hermione!" exclaimed Harry.

"Obviously," drawled Severus. "Everyone stay here," he commanded before he stalked to the door.

~*~

It had taken Hermione fifteen minutes to convince Ginny that she wasn't actually going to kill Gin's husband and her own best friend. But she was not going to let this stand without sorting it all out.

"I can't believe he would interfere in my life like this. How dare he?"

"Hermione, you know he meant well. Harry loves you; he would never hurt you intentionally." Ginny tried to calm her friend.

"But to go to Severus and warn him off? Would he do that to Ron? I don't think so, and if he felt there was a problem, he should have come to me, not Severus. I just can't believe he would do this."

"Maybe Harry was influenced by the Screeching Skarsiziams," contemplated Luna.

Ginny and Hermione both looked at the blonde in disbelief. Hermione opened her mouth to speak but then thought better of questioning Luna and just said nothing.

Luna looked at her friends and stated emphatically, "What? It's entirely possible. They were at the very peak of their season and extremely potent two weeks ago."

~*~

Hermione left the girls at the cottage and Apparated into the village; something she would ordinarily never do, but in her opinion these were extenuating circumstances. She popped in behind O'Brian's repair shop as she knew it was closed and was located on a little, out-of-the-way side street where she was unlikely to be noticed. From there, she hurried over to the Green Dragon, which was extremely busy. Friday and Saturday were the busiest nights of the week, and Severus was always at work on these nights.

Entering the busy pub, she looked around but saw no sign of Severus, Draco or Harry. She did see Paddy though and made a beeline to the bar to interrogate her friend.

"Where's Russ, Paddy? I need to speak to him."

"Hey, Hermione! Now you wanna' talk to the boss, huh? After two whole weeks of avoidin' him at every turn? I don't know what's up between the two of you, deary, but I'm knowin' I don't want to be caught in the middle of it all."

"I'll try not to let that happen, Paddy. Actually I'm looking for another friend of mine. He was supposed to meet Russ tonight, and I know that he's always here on Friday nights."

"Ah, yeah. But he took tonight off and got the O'Reilly twins to help out. Oh hey! I met yer' friend George, by the way. You were right there is a remarkable resemblance. He's a bit taller than me, and I'm a wee bit better looking of course," he said with a cheeky grin.

"What... Wait. George Weasley was in here? Tonight?" Hermione was stunned. What was George doing here in the Green Dragon?

"Yea, he came in with a tall blond bloke and another fella' with dark hair and a funny scar on his forehead."

"That's my friend, the dark-haired bloke. Where did they go?"

"Boss took 'em all up to his place, said they had some business to discuss."

"Thanks, Paddy," she replied, brushing his cheek with a kiss. "I owe you one."

Rushing back to her hiding spot behind O"Brian's, she Apparated to Severus' home and marched up to the door. She could feel the wards twitch and knew that whoever was inside would now be aware of her presence, but by this point she was too upset to care.

She pounded furiously on the door. "Harry Potter! I know you're in there. You get your interfering arse out here right now, or I swear I'll take these wards apart one by one." She pounded on the door even harder. "Harry James Potter!"

Within a few seconds the door was flung open, and Hermione was face to face with Severus Snape.

"Severus." Her voice was soft, nearly a whisper. She reached out tentatively, fingers almost touching him, but then fisted her hand and jerked it back. She clutched it to her chest as if burned.

"Hermione."

She swallowed, then chewed on her bottom lip, something she did whenever she was nervous.

"I need to talk to Harry. I know he's here so don't bother denying it."

"We are in the middle of something, can it not wait?" he asked.

"No. I have something I need to ask him; it's very important to me. I need to see him right now. Please?" she stated, her eyes on her feet. It hurt too much to be this close to him and yet feel so isolated at the same time. She couldn't look at him and risk that her eyes might fill with tears.

He sighed. "Very well, wait here. I'll get him."

That hurt. I'm not even welcome in his home anymore, she thought. Maybe it wasn't Harry's doing after all, maybe he truly just wanted to be shed of me.

Harry appeared at the door, and Hermione drew him outside a few feet away, not noticing that the door remained slightly ajar.

Harry looked nervous. "Hermione, what's wrong? I was going to come over to your cottage later. Didn't Gin tell you that? Couldn't this, whatever it's about, couldn't it wait until later?"

"Truthfully, Harry, I suppose it could have, but Gin put an idea in my head, and I had to find out if it was true." She clutched his wrist. "Two weeks ago, did you say something to Severus, Harry?"

"What do you mean?"

"Must I spell it out for you? Did you warn him off, tell him to not to see me anymore?"

"No, I did not," Harry responded. And it was the truth. He hadn't actually ordered Severus to stay away from his friend, he'd merely advised him to think about the situation.

"Oh." Hermione's heart fell. She felt devastated, so it was Severus' own decision and not Harry's demands. It must be something to do with her. He just didn't want her. Why was it no one ever really wanted her?

Harry could almost see the gears turning in her complex brain. Without needing Legilimency, he knew exactly what she was thinking. Knowing she was going to blame herself, he reluctantly admitted his actions. "I didn't out and out tell him to stay away from you. But I guess, I may have advised him to reconsider the situation. I told him you didn't deserve to be hurt again; that I thought you were starting to fall for him, and that if he didn't think he could return your feelings, then he should probably step back."

"Harry! How could you?" she cried.

"I was trying to protect you," he shouted right back at her.

"I didn't ask for your protection," she exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter if you asked or not. I needed to protect you."

"It's not your place. You're acting like you're my father or something!"

"No, I'm not your father. But I am your family. Maybe not by birth or by blood, but I am in here." Harry pounded his chest. "And I couldn't just stand by and see you get your heart broken again. I just couldn't."

"Oh, Harry," she said softly, hugging him quickly before pushing him away. "I know, it's true. You are my family, but you can't wrap me up in cotton wool and keep me safe from all the bad things that can happen in the world, love. Sometimes people have to risk being hurt if they want to have any chance at all of finding happiness."

"But don't you see, Hermione? I blame myself," he cried. "That whole mess with Nott, I should have protected you in the first place. I had a bad feeling when you started out with him; I knew he was a bad choice, wrong for you in so many ways. The smarmy, lying bastard. But I said nothing. I did nothing. And look what happened."

With a sigh, she replied, "I probably wouldn't have listened anyway, Harry. I was so tired of being alone, of being lonely all the time. I just wanted so much to have someone of my own, and Theo played into that. It's like he sensed my weaknesses and preyed on them. I was a complete fool, but that certainly wasn't your fault."

Harry held her close for a moment. "You're no fool, Hermione. Nott is just a master of deception."

"And is that what your opinion of Severus is, too, Harry? That he's just out to trick me, use me, deceive me?"

"No, not really. Personally, I've actually begun to like Severus, but realistically I just don't know, Hermione. I don't think he would set out to hurt you intentionally, but I do think he's an emotionally damaged man. You're not the type to do casual, and I just don't know if he'd ever be able to make a commitment. He devoted his life for so many years to my mother's memory, but I'm not so sure that that's a good thing. Was it out of love or of obsession? As far as I know he's never been in any other kind of long-term relationship. He's forty-seven years old and has never settled down; I don't know if he is capable of having a relationship with anyone, Hermione."

"As for whether what he felt for your mum was love or obsession, I don't know, perhaps a little of both. I think a great deal of it goes back to the fact that he held himself responsible for revealing the prophecy to Voldemort. He felt guilty that by doing so he may have inadvertently been a factor in her death. You should know better than anyone how that feels, Harry. It wasn't your fault that Sirius died at the Department of Mysteries that night, but I know you've always blamed yourself anyway.

"As far as a commitment goes, Severus and I were just starting out. After this whole fiasco with Nott, I'm certainly not looking to jump into anything permanent right away. It will be a very long time before I feel safe committing myself to anyone, so I'm really not ready for any kind of promises at this point in time. I would like a chance at least to find out where it might end up, though. And, Harry, you don't have to be in a romantic relationship with someone to be hurt by them. Being with Severus made me happy, and it hurt me horribly when he told me he didn't want to be around me anymore."

"I didn't mean for you to be hurt. I'm sorry for interfering, love. I thought at the time I was protecting you or at least trying to."

She playfully punched him in the arm. "I'll forgive you this time, because best friends are hard to come by, but don't let it happen again, Potter," she teased. "Will you ask Severus if he'll talk to me for a couple of minutes?"

"Come in and ask him yourself."

"No. I'm not taking anything for granted. It's entirely possible that he really doesn't want to be around me. That it was his own decision and not based on anything you said at all."

Hermione sat down on a bench to wait for Severus.

Harry entered the house to find Severus just inside the front door, which was standing ajar. "Spy much, Severus?" The man had the grace to look abashed.

"She wants to talk to you," continued Harry. "I'm sorry for interfering between you two. I've been instructed to mind my own business. But then, I suppose you already knew that," he concluded before sweeping past Severus to enter the other room.

Hermione stood as Severus approached. "Harry said you wanted to talk to me?" he said.

Hermione looked up at him, unsure how to proceed. Finally, she decided the best approach was to just take the plunge. Like jumping into a cold lake rather than wading in inch by agonizing inch. "I have one question to ask you, Severus."

"All right."

She took her lead from Luna's actions and without warning, she reached for him. Her fingers threaded through his hair, and she pulled him down to kiss him deeply, her tongue lightly teasing at his lips until they opened to let her in, tracing across his teeth and dueling with his tongue. One hand dropped down to grasp his arse as she clasped him close to her. His arms seemed to wrap of their own accord around her body, holding her tightly to him as though he feared she might try to escape. When they finally broke apart, they were both panting.

Hermione stepped back and asked bluntly, "Are you repelled?"

"What...?"

"Are you revolted? Was that disgusting to you?"

Severus had no idea what she was talking about. "Are you... insane?" he asked, sounding puzzled.

"I need to know if me kissing you like that... if you found that distasteful?"

"Of course not! What kind of question is that?" he asked.

"Well, the last time I kissed you like that, you came back four days later and told me you didn't want to be around me anymore. I was afraid maybe it wasn't because of what Harry said at all. I was afraid that maybe you found me to be... undesirable."

"Undesirable? Sweet Merlin, you are insane. Come here, you crazy woman, I'll show you how undesirable I think you are," he said as he pulled her in close and kissed her thoroughly. Pulling back a bit, he whispered in her ear, "I cannot believe you thought I didn't want you. Walking away was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I had convinced myself that I was doing what was in your best interest."

"Oh, Severus. You and Harry are a pair, both of you trying to protect me from reality. Let me decide for myself what is in my best interest. You know, when I learned the truth about Theo, I thought that my heart was broken, but what I felt that day was absolutely nothing compared to the day you walked away from my cottage and out of my life. You removed yourself from my life, supposedly to prevent me from being hurt, but I hurt a hundred times worse when I thought that you didn't want me."

"I'm sorry for that, Hermione. Come inside and let me make it up to you now," he insisted, taking her hand and pulling her through the front door.

Entering the living room, Hermione stopped short. "What on earth is going on here?" she asked, shocked by the grinning faces and the seven pair of eyes staring at them.

"Oh, shit, I forgot."

~*~

Severus had been so wrapped up in the thought of making things right with Hermione that he really had completely forgotten that his home was filled to the brim with a scheming throng of Slytherins and Gryffindors.

tbc