Chapter Five

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated characters belong to JKR. All else belongs to me.

Author's Note: This is the sequel to Velvet Song's "Damsels and Dragons", which she allowed me to complete in her stead last year. I want to thank her for encouraging me to write this story and noybate for being my beta. The story is complete, and I am hoping to post each chapter as soon as possible.

For those coming to this particular series for the first time, I might recommend you read the first part before continuing on. The first part, written by Velvet Song, may be found on the TPP archive here: http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=18337. The second part, written by me, will be found on the TPP archive here: http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=19501. This may lead to less confusion later in this story.

Chapter 5

It was almost one o'clock in the morning, and Hermione was starting to nod off over the book she was reading. Severus glanced up at the younger witch and grimaced. Looking at the clock on his wall, he realised that Draco was not due to keep him company for at least another hour. Sighing deeply, he bookmarked the potions journal he was reading.

"Hermione," he said, causing the young woman to start in her seat and blink rapidly. "If the book in your hands is so boring, why do we not discuss what has happened and what is happening instead."

Hermione blinked some more and shook her head rapidly, trying to wake herself up. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked. "I'm sure as Athair you probably knew everything that was happening." She smiled uneasily. "It certainly felt like it, anyway."

"I apologise if my presence in your mind caused you any problems," Severus said uneasily. "I was totally caught up in the fact that there was actually someone in this benighted place that I could talk to."

"Lucius and Narcissa..." Hermione began.

Severus cut her off abruptly. "Lucius and Narcissa, yes, and Draco too, knew of the Dark Lord's...my apologies...Tom Riddle's propensities and figured out early on that I was actually the dragon they named Athair." He looked up at the ceiling of his rooms, visibly marshalling his thoughts. "After the final battle, I stayed hidden for almost four years until Minerva actively started to recruit you to return and teach potions. Lucius would often come into the forest and tell me what was happening.

"Once I understood that Minerva was serious about your return, I showed myself and began my visible protection of the school. While I did not begrudge Mr Weasley's studies of me, I was most pleased when he finally left me to myself. Before..." Severus stopped and cleared his throat. "Before the final battle, I had a premonition that I might not survive, and if I did, it would not be as a human being. The Malfoys and I made our plans in secret and swore wand oaths not to reveal them to another soul until the monster known as Voldemort was fully destroyed."

"Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco destroyed Voldemort's wand," Hermione said. "They disarmed him and snapped the wand. Once they had done so, it was like his mind snapped as well. Harry managed to destroy him..." Her voice trailed off as she remembered the horrors of the day. "I don't think Harry has really been the same since."

Severus nodded in understanding. "Taking a life, even a justified killing, rips at a wizard's soul. Harry is lucky that he only had to take one life...Voldemort's. In time, if he does not have to kill again, his soul will heal. There will always be the guilt, but not as much pain."

Hermione looked at him. "You do understand." She smiled. "I think Neville has helped a lot in the last eight years. Shortly after the final battle, he and Harry hooked up and have been together ever since. They're happy."

"What about you, Hermione?" Severus asked gently. "Have you been happy?"

"When I worked for the Ministry?" Hermione replied. "Not really. It felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall every day. Here at Hogwarts? Definitely. I feel like this is where I belong. Teaching the art of Potions to students...albeit most of them dunderheads."

Severus' laugh rang throughout the room. "Now you know why I was in a bad mood most of the time," he said. "It wasn't just an act, Hermione. Sometimes I was definitely frustrated with the lack of brains in the average student. Then, there was you..." His voice trailed off.

"Go on." Hermione encouraged him. "What were you going to say?"

"Only that you were the most exasperating, annoying, frustrating, irksome..."

Hermione's eyes lit up with humour. "Why don't you say what you really mean, Severus?"

Severus smirked in return. "You were a vexing know-it-all with horrible hair and an overbite," he said. "Every time you waved that hand of yours in the air, I wanted to hex it off. I was trying to teach dunderheads who knew you would answer my questions and didn't bother to study because of it. I wanted at least one of the others to understand and answer correctly without your help."

Hermione slumped back into her chair. "I'm sorry."

"For what? Being yourself?" Severus leaned back into his own chair and steepled his long fingers under his chin. "Hermione, you presented a challenge to me."

"A challenge?"

"Yes. How to get you to leave off answering my questions and yet still be the top student in my classes." Severus paused and took a breath. "You don't know how much I wished I could reward your efforts, but my duties..."

"As a Death Eater, I know." Hermione leaned forward and placed a hand on his knee. "You couldn't show favouritism to a Muggle-born student without it getting back to Voldemort and jeopardising your position. Truly, I understand."

She leaned back into her chair again and smiled. "You did encourage me in a way, you know," she said.

Severus blinked. "And how did I do that?" he asked.

"You made me strive to do my best in your classes if only to earn your approbation. Now, in another two years, I hope to have gained my Potions mastery." She smiled at his startled look. "I have three of the required potions and a year of hands-on experience so far. I'm still working on a potion that doesn't seem to want to pull together, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end, and I have tons of ideas that I want to try."

Severus smirked at her. "You sound like me when I was starting out. Eager and so full of ideas. If you need a sponsor, I would be most happy to volunteer." Then his face fell. "That is, if we can ever get my death and life straightened out."

"Trust in Pansy," Hermione said. "You know, I never thought I'd say that about someone from Slytherin House, but since the end of the war, she and I have really started to communicate. I've found we're not so different after all, and she told me she feels the same way."

"Then the war did accomplish something," Severus said, looking to his door. "Draco's arrived. Shall I see you to your room before he and I start our two hours together?"

"Thanks, but I can see myself out." With that, Hermione stood up and retrieved her cloak. "G'night, Severus," she said as she passed Draco in the doorway and turned toward the stairs.

"G'night, Hermione," Severus murmured softly.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

The next morning, after breakfast (and a sleepless night for our Potions master), Hermione was on the way to her Potions lab to work on the obdurate potion when she was pulled into an empty classroom. Her wand was in her hand before she realised that it was Severus who had hold of her arm. His nod of approbation for the speed with which she had responded warmed her all over.

Moving quickly, Severus warded the room and cast Silencing Charms at the door and windows. "I apologise, Hermione, for being so precipitous," he said. "I thought of something last evening that I needed to speak with you about."

"You didn't mention it while I was there," Hermione replied. "Why is that?"

"Because I didn't think of it until after you left, silly girl." Severus smirked. "Draco was looking at some of the books in my bookcases and that got me to thinking..."

"About the library at Marbh-clah!" Hermione exclaimed. She rapped the side of her head with her knuckles. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Severus smirked. "Which just proves the illustrious Hermione Granger does not know everything," he teased. "The problem is that I cannot access the library without you."

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "It's your home."

"No, Hermione," he corrected her. "It's your home. At least until we manage to get that damnable will overturned."

Hermione looked at him, curious. "I don't understand," she said. "How can it be my home when you're actually alive?"

"I was declared dead after the final battle if you will remember," Severus explained while Hermione nodded her head. "The actual declaration of my death by the Wizengamot activated my will and sealed the estate and my property against anybody except my legal heirs.

"As the last of the Prince line, I had no legal heirs except those I designated in my will. I made you my sole heir with the stipulation that you not be told any of this..."

"Until I returned to Hogwarts," Hermione interrupted. "But I still don't understand, Severus. It's the Prince family manor. You're a Prince."

"But I am officially dead, you see," Severus said, pacing off and then back. "The wards will no longer work for me because I am considered to be dead. While the committee that came to Hogwarts to speak with me allowed that I am alive and am actually who I say I am, until the entire Wizengamot declares that I am actually alive and overturns that blasted will, the wards on the house consider you the sole owner."

"And Pansy is having problems with Bowles," Hermione said, finally understanding the problem. "He's the one who has to bring the information to the Wizengamot, isn't he?"

"Yes." Severus nodded. "As the head of the Office of Last Wills and Testaments, Bowles is the only one with the authority to ask the Wizengamot for a ruling. Miss Parkinson can request a hearing before the Wizengamot, but if Bowles states that the will is perfectly valid, then the Wizengamot will rule in his favour."

"Then we have to get him to recognise the fact that you're alive," Hermione argued, her eyes bright with ideas. "We can..."

"We can do nothing, Hermione," Severus said gently. "Bowles will not listen to you or me without irrefutable proof that I am who I say I am. For all he knows, I am an impostor and party to a fraud you might be perpetrating."

"That's ridiculous!" she blustered. "Why would I, your legal heir, be considered to be doing something fraudulent? Just because I want to break the will and return your belongings to you?"

Severus sighed. "It's the way these people think, Hermione. Most of them, were they to become the heirs to a major family estate, would not even think twice about giving it up. In fact, they just might hex a true heir just to hold onto what they've gained."

"Jackasses," Hermione said with a snort. "They're all just jackasses. I'm glad I quit my job when I did. I also have more empathy for Percy now that I've had a taste of the bureaucracy that's the Ministry."

Severus covered his mouth with a hand, but Hermione still saw the glint of a smile in his eyes. "You agree with me," she said, not hiding her own smile. "Admit it."

"Oh, very well. I will admit the Ministry is populated with jackasses, but we mustn't tell them that. It would be an insult to the four-legged variety everywhere."

Hermione snorted with laughter. "Oh, I have to agree with you there," she said, then her mien sobered. "Can you pass through the wards of the estate if I'm with you?" she asked. At his nod, she started planning. "Okay, we'll Apparate to Marbh-clah and I'll get you through the wards. Once we're there, we can start researching in the library." She rubbed her hands together briskly in anticipation. "I've got to admit, I really want a look at that library."

Severus looked confused. "I would have thought you'd already done that," he said. "After all, you have been to the estate, haven't you?"

"Oh, yes, I spent a few hours there, but I didn't go near the library." Hermione turned red with embarrassment. "I had planned to spend the night, but then I realised who Perseus Evans had to be and came back to Hogwarts to confront Lucius and Narcissa. I've not been back since."

"Ah," Severus said with some satisfaction. "Then you are definitely in for a treat."