Chapter Six

To his surprise, Granger had accepted his hand readily and tucked herself against his chest in the manner of someone accustomed to travelling by Side-Along. Amused by the gesture, Severus twisted them into the Apparition, taking extra care to make the sometimes jarring journey as smooth as possible. Happily, they landed almost silently, and his companion was able to step back without staggering. Severus was curiously pleased to see that she didn't look the least bit nauseated by the journey and was already looking around in interest.

"Where are we?"

"This is Heaton Park in Manchester."

"It's gorgeous!" He watched as she turned around, taking in the full scope of the park with its rolling hills and deep valleys filled with trees. "All this is really in Manchester?"

"This is just part of it." Severus realised that he was pleased that she liked it. Since finding the place he'd always wanted to be able to show it off to someone else and, although this girl was not that person, her response to the beauty of the park was oddly gratifying. "There are a number of buildings dotted around if you keep walking to the south. It's a public park, but the northern area has light anti-Muggle warding that makes it useful for our purpose."

She turned her attention back to him, smiling widely. "Which is?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's time for you to take to the air."

The girl blanched, her large eyes dark against her pale skin. "Really, don't you think it's a little soon? I mean I know we've gone over a lot of the necessary spells, but we haven't even touched on flying itself."

"Hermione," he interrupted. "I shall do the flying itself, at least initially. All you have to do is trust me."

There was a long pause in which neither of them spoke. Severus began to wonder if he had moved too quickly and spooked her, but after a few more moments of silence, she set her jaw and nodded. "What do I have to do?"

When he lifted his wand, she flinched visibly. "I'm just going to cast a Disillusionment charm, to be doubly sure. You may cast your own if you prefer?"

"No, no," she demurred. "Go ahead."

Severus bit back a sigh and cast the spell, watching as she faded into the undergrowth behind. Even blurred and coloured like a cartoon chameleon, it was easy to tell she was gnawing on her bottom lip.

"If you prefer it," he heard himself offer, "you may take my arm."

Instead she grasped his hand, her sweaty palm slick against his, their fingers laced almost painfully together. Severus cast the familiar spells to bind her weight to his magic and watched as she relaxed back into their secure grasp. Steeling himself, he lifted them from the ground.

He allowed them to rise until they hovered some five feet from the ground. "See?" he asked. "It's no different from floating in the office. This place simply has a better view." Her grip on his hand was painful, but a quick glance confirmed that she still seemed resolved to this, and he sent a surge of power into the spell, bringing them level with the tree tops.

To the south, it was just possible to glimpse the imposing, stately Heaton Hall. The graceful Orangery was closer, larger than the average home, and beyond them both, half hidden in a haze of sunshine and traffic fumes, lay Manchester itself. At this height, the Capability Brown inspired landscaping of the park was laid out beneath them like a child's game.

It was a beautiful view. Perhaps the odd hot air balloon had traversed this path, but as far as Severus knew, he was the only one who had ever seen it like this. Until now.

Unexpectedly, Severus found his concentration was broken by a sharp tug on his arm. The jolt spun him towards his companion, and he suddenly found the witch grasping him tightly around the neck, her face pressed to his. Her nose was squashed against his ear, and he could feel her hot, gasping breath against his neck.

"Take me back down!" she hissed. "Please, I can't do this!"

The moment their feet touched the ground, she wrenched herself away from him and sank to the ground, pale and sweaty. She swallowed convulsively and Severus was certain that she would vomit, but after a few minutes her breathing evened out, although she remained distinctly green about the gills.

"I'm sorry," she sniffed, and Severus was appalled to realise that she was dangerously close to tears.

"Should we try again?" he ventured.

"No! This is useless! I've spent all this week thinking this was going to be easy, but I can't." Her voice grew higher and sharper. "I just can't!"

Severus tried again. "A fear of heights is nothing to be ashamed of."

"It's not the heights I'm worried about," she snapped, finally turning to face him. "It's the falling from them that gets me."

Severus took a step back. "I would not have let you fall."

Snape Apparated them closer into town and steered her towards a pub. They found a table by the window, and Severus went to the bar to order their drinks. Hermione requested a large syrupy coke, remembering Harry's insistence she have something sugary after their attempts at the Burrow. When Snape brought the drinks to the table, she was touched to find it had been supplemented with a large glass of wine. She drank the coke down, surprised at how thirsty she was, before sipping more daintily at the house white.

She glanced at her companion, the poor man whom she'd clung to like a limpet whilst shrieking like a banshee, and felt like crying all over again. He had spent so many hours preparing her for that moment, only to find that all his precious time had been wasted. Hermione had compounded the issue by doing what she always did when upset, and snapped at him. It had been easy to see that she had hurt his feelings. For all he had berated Harry as a student for not being able to control his emotions, Snape was surprisingly easy to read. Harry had been good natured enough not to take offence when she had compared his prized broom to an enchanted twig, but her old professor was not the sort of man who would take any impugning of his magical capability with good grace.

Her stomach rumbled loudly, and Hermione was surprised to realise that it was past midday. She passed the menu to Snape like a white flag, hoping that an offer of food might work as well on him as it used to do on Ron.

She was relieved when he sullenly requested the most expensive steak on the menu and another pint.

The food arrived quickly, and they ate in silence. Hermione was grateful for the quiet. Normally she liked to dissect each and every exam, especially when she could identify the parts where she had faltered. This time, there would be no academic satisfaction in knowing where she had failed.

She felt as if she ought to at least try and explain herself to him.

"I've never been able to fly," she began quietly. "I've never been able to ski or roller-skate. After Harry and I flew Buckbeak up to Professor Flitwick's office I was sick all over Harry's trainers. I was twenty before I learnt how to walk in high heels. I thought with you teaching me, it might be easy." She risked a glance at Snape to see if he was actually listening. His face was stony, but he was watching her intently. "I just... I just find it so hard to trust something that isn't completely under my control."

Severus' face remained hard, his eyes sharp with anger. "Look," he said, pushing back his plate. "If you can't bring yourself to trust me, then perhaps we're just wasting our time."

"You're right," Hermione sighed.

His voice was quiet. "You want to stop?"

"No!" she cried. "That's not what I meant at all. It's not an issue of trust. This whole fear of flying nonsense is just that: nonsense. I know that I can trust you," she reasoned, snagging the last onion ring and dunking it in the dregs of the mayonnaise. "I do trust you. And just say you did drop me," she continued, "I've proved time and again that I can catch myself. What?"

The flashing anger was gone and he was smiling. It was an odd sort of smile. It was triumphant, almost savagely so, but didn't look particularly happy. "You trust me."

"Of course I do." She waved the onion ring at him to emphasise her point. "I'd love to be able to say that I've always trusted you, but we both know that isn't true. You made such a convincing villain when I was eleven."

The odd smile slipped. "What changed?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I no longer need you to keep proving yourself to know that you are one of the good guys. Professor Dumbledore initiated or condoned everything that you did, but we never questioned him. Even now I still sort of believe that everything he did was for the best in the end, even if it did cause individual suffering."

Snape was still watching her, his face so carefully impassive that Hermione – who only moments before had been able to see each emotion chase across his face – felt cold. "I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm thinking, bringing all of that up."

"It's alright. Any discussion of my trustworthiness is always going to come back to that."

Hermione sighed. "Well I don't think it should."

When he rose from his chair, she was certain that she had probably ruined everything. Would it be too late to rescind her resignation? Perhaps one of those other Ministry jobs might not prove to be as boring as she feared.

"Come on then," he chided. "While we still have the light."

It was late afternoon, and the early summer sun leant a golden tinge to the air, bathing the park in a warm, bright light. It was slightly cooler than before, but the air was still.

Severus held out his hand, his feet just brushing the springy grass beneath. As his fingers closed around hers, she was aware of his magic reaching out to hold her.

Hermione twined her fingers in his, and then the ground fell away.

It would have been a lie to say her heart wasn't threatening to beat out of her chest or that her mouth wasn't dry as dust, but Hermione refused to let her fear take her. It was like riding a rollercoaster. No matter how fast or far they went, she knew his magic would hold her safely. Although, just to make doubly sure, she pulled herself closer and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Peering over his shoulder, she could make out the park below. They were just brushing the treetops, their toes just inches from the canopy below. Severus drew them past a slightly taller tree, and Hermione marvelled at the thought that she could simply reach out and touch the highest leaves.

"It's beautiful," she breathed.

She felt the satisfied rumble in his chest.

"It's all before you," he murmured. "Anything, anywhere. All you have to do is reach forwards and your magic will take you there. Freedom, unlimited and unparalleled."

Hermione pulled back to look at him. His normally sallow cheeks were flushed from the wind, which had lifted his lank hair from his face, teasing it this way and that. It was his eyes that caught her. They were alight with the same longing that coloured his voice.

It was then that she finally understood just what a gift he had given her. "Thank you," she whispered.

For a moment, she was certain that he was going to kiss her.

Instead, he cleared his throat. "In a moment, I'm going to remove the charms holding your weight. Alright?"

Hermione nodded, pulling herself back against his chest. His mouth was by her ear.

"But first, you need to know how to fly."