Why me: At Last, We Meet Again or Who Brought the Dip?

Why Me: Three Sides of the Same Coin by Pearle

Summary: Another interlude into the marital infidelity of Hermione Weasley and Severus Snape. This time, they take a few people along with them. HGSS

Companion piece to Why and Why, Indeed

Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. of the Harry Potter series are not mine they belong to J.K. Rowling and Co. I promise to return them when I am through. Well, most of them anyway.

~~~~~ Why Me: Three Sides of the Same Coin ~~~~~

Chapter 5 - Why me: At Last, We Meet Again or Who Brought the Dip?

Severus strode through the hallway, his robes billowing out behind him. His eyes darkened with anticipation. Without breaking his stride, he bellowed at two passing students. "Mister Smythe, Mister Thomatz. Fifty points each, from Gryffindor, for loitering in the corridors. To your common room, immediately."

"But, Professor..."

Severus rounded on the students with almost childish glee. "Speaking back to a Professor? Another twenty points and detention tonight with Filch. Well? What are you waiting for? Return to your common room before I am forced to take points from your children's children to satisfy your flagrant disregard for the rules."

"Y-y-y...yes, sir." Both boys took off in a hurry, neither one understanding what they had done wrong.

In truth, the only crime the young men were guilty of was to be in the wrong place at the right time. Severus had just left the bloody boy who lived and his idiot sidekick in the Headmaster's office. He touched the corner of his mouth. His lip was still tender where the skin had been healed. Trust Weasley to act true to his nature. Albus had asked him to leave so that he might have a word with the idiot.

Snape's mood was dark as he thought about the obvious chain of events. Hermione had apparently told that fool she married she was leaving him. Even Potter, twit that he normally was, was annoyed with Weasley. Minerva, paragon of all things good, had turned on him. All this was well and good. Where the hell was Hermione? Why hadn't she owled him? Was she through with him, too? Had she finally decided he had out-lived his usefulness? Why did he even care?"

He bypassed the side corridor leading to his office in favor of the exit ahead of him. A trip to St. Mungo's was in order. Then maybe he would get pissed at some nice dark pub where no one knew him. That was after he told Mrs. Weasley he had better things to do than worry about her, of course.

In true dramatic fashion, the side door slammed against the stonewall. Severus burst through the door and headed to the Apparition point outside the main gate.

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"Troy, have you rechecked the Arithmancy figures? This variable should not have this wide a range of objectives. If this many outcomes were possible, how would the potion ever be useful in fighting this curse?" Hermione was sitting at her desk, busy recalculating the figures in front of her. A tall, blond young man stood to her right, reviewing the numbers as she spoke.

"Look at line 94. I think the value was inverted; that would throw off the entire calculation." Troy moved to show Hermione the line. He knocked over her coffee cup, spilling coffee on the papers, Hermione, and the floor. In his attempt to grab the errant cup, he sent the nearest stack of papers and several items crashing to the ground. Troy dropped to the floor, trying to clean up the debris.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. God. The report isn't ruined, is it?"

Hermione was waving her wand, trying to clean up the mess the young man had made of her desk in just a matter of minutes. "No, I think I can remove the coffee stains."

The office door opened with an unusual amount of force. Severus Snape stood in the doorway, light from the hall throwing his face into deep shadow. The effect heightened his scowl and the glare in his eyes, emphasizing the anger radiating from the man.

Hermione looked up in surprise. "Severus. What are you doing here?"

Troy managed to hit his head on the desk drawer as he picked up the last of the papers. "What did you say?"

"Excuse me, Mrs. Weasley, obviously I seem to have interrupted you." Severus's eyes darkened, taking in the young man on the floor, on his knees, and the guilty look in Hermione's eyes.

Hermione stumbled over Troy. "Troy, move. Severus, what is going on here?" she hissed.

The Potions master fixed the young wizard with a brutal glare. Seven years as a student of the dark wizard had taught him to fear the man. In the face of danger, Troy ran. Severus sneered at Hermione, his anger palatable in the small office. "I would hate to interrupt your little soirée, Mrs. Weasley. Perhaps I should leave?"

Hermione studied Severus's face. The scowl was typical of the type she remembered from her school days, but his eyes, his eyes were different. She wasn't sure if it was an unspoken feeling or she could actually read the emotions in the depths of his black glare. But fear and trepidation seemed to be lurking below the surface of his words, behind the glare currently aimed in her direction.

She sighed as she returned to her desk, vaguely indicating the visitor's chairs in front of it. "Would you like tea? I think we need to talk."

Severus sat heavily in the offered chair, not happy with her tone of voice. He knew there were no improprieties between the young man and Hermione. They were co-workers. That had been evident when he entered the room. That knowledge did not stem his anger towards the woman, unreasonable as it may have been. Years of spying had taught him patience. He waited for Hermione to speak, to give him some idea of her mindset after his disastrous run-in with Weasley this morning.

A small voice in the back of his mind told him he was over-reacting. It was obvious she had just informed her husband of her intentions this morning. It had been the catalyst for the little scene that had played out in the Headmaster's office. He really hadn't given her time to contact him, yet. He told the voice to bugger off. If she left Weasley, she had already leased a flat. Why didn't she owl him with that information he wanted to know? There didn't seem to be an answer to that particular question.

"I left Ron. I didn't tell him about us. I just told him how unhappy I was with our marriage. It would be an understatement to say he was angry. I suppose he will get used to the idea, eventually." She refused to meet his eyes as she spoke, instead fixing on some unidentified point to the left. She wrote as she continued. "I was going to owl you with my new address. Here, you can have it now. I think I still need a few days to get settled in and adjust to the changes. Why don't I owl you next week?"

"Hermione. Look at me, please."

It was the quiet 'please' that drew her attention.

"I will give you all the time you desire; however, this feels more like an obligation than something you want. Would you prefer I did not contact you again?" A part of him wanted to see her again, the other part wanted to run after that cute little blonde clerk that had waited on him in Flourish and Blotts yesterday. It was not as if he needed to be drawn any further into this sordid mess.

He had a hard time agreeing with his own assessment.

The truth was, while the little blonde might prove to be a nice distraction, she was absolutely clueless when he casually mentioned an article in this month's Arcs Amentas. He was sure Hermione could have debated the entire issue, including footnotes, in her sleep. And therein lay his real attraction for her. She had proved to be as sexually liberated as he was, but so were the others he had bedded; not one of them, however, could hold a candle to Hermione's intelligence.

The real question seemed to be, now what?

Hermione smiled. It was rare to hear Severus unsure of anything, rarer still for him to hand the reigns to her. "You are not an obligation. I just need some time."

"Weasley showed up at Hogwarts. He may still be there with Potter and the Headmaster." Severus unconsciously touched the corner of his mouth.

"Ron was at Hogwarts? Why? Severus, I never said anything about us. That wasn't the reason I left him. I've been unhappy for a long time." Concern showed in her eyes.

"Yes, Potter pointed that out. He admitted to letting our...relationship slip." Begrudgingly, he gave the prat his due. He did seem to have a better assessment of the situation than Weasley, though that was not saying much. Severus seemed to sink in the chair. "What, exactly, do you want, Hermione? I am willing wait. I would like to know what it is I am waiting for."

Hermione laughed. "Would the answer, me, be too conceited?"

Before Severus could answer, a young witch appeared in her doorway.

"Hermione, they've just admitted your sister-in-law. They said to come get you." The young woman's eyes grew large when she noticed the Potions master sitting quietly in front of the desk.

"Oh my god. Ginny." Hermione was on her feet and out the door without a backward glance.

Severus had little choice but to follow.

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Harry was arguing with one of the Matrons when Hermione arrived.

"I don't care what hospital policy is. She's my wife and I want to see her."

Molly was standing next to Harry, wringing her hands. That was her daughter in there. She needed her mother. Ron and Arthur were perched at the end of very uncomfortable bench.

"Harry, calm down. Margaret, what is going on here?" Hermione was known and respected through-out the hospital. Her position as a war hero aside, she had provided invaluable assistance in a myriad of situations since starting at the hospital almost three years ago.

"Mrs. Weasley, the Healers are in with Mrs. Potter right now. He can't go in there until they're finished." The girl looked distraught. Harry was a war hero, the man who saved the Wizarding world; she would rather not upset him, but it was her job. He could not see his wife until the Healers were through. She turned pale as she spied Severus turning the corner.

"Go on. I'll take care of things here." Hermione followed her line of sight. Wonderful, her estranged husband, mother and father-in-law, Harry, and Severus all in one spot. What type of cosmic joke was that?

Ron leaped off the couch. "You! Couldn't wait to come running, could you?" His arm was drawn back as if to throw another punch at the dark wizard.

"I do not recommend hitting me again, Weasley. This time you will find yourself on the receiving end of a few rather dubious spells." Severus's wand was out, and while not aimed directly at Ron, a slight shift would bring it to the right angle.

"He hit you? You hit him? I don't believe it!" Hermione was livid as she looked from one to the other.

"Ronald Weasley, what is going on here?" Molly was grateful for the diversion from her worries. 'What has he gotten himself into now?' she wondered.

"Enough!" Silence followed Harry's roar. "My wife and child are in there. Ron, you prat, sit down! Snape, put your wand away. Molly, you can hex Ron tomorrow for all I care, but not now. Hermione, go find out what they're doing. I want to see Ginny." Harry's voice cracked on his wife's name, worried about her and the baby.

The group was properly chastised in the face of Harry's righteous anger. Severus sat on the far side of the seating area, scowling darkly and glaring periodically at Ron. Molly sat next to Arthur, holding his hand. She would take Ron to task once she knew Ginny was all right. At six months of pregnancy, the baby would be all right, especially with the care and treatment available in the Wizarding world. It would still be better if she carried to term. Ron, for his part, vacillated between glaring at the Potions master and imagining the worst about his now separated wife.

The door to Ginny's room opened. "Mister Potter, your wife would like to see you now."

TBC

A/N: Uhm, okay a bit of a cliff hanger there; a sticky wicket, as it were and, just for your information, throwing monitors, rotten fruit, money, and garbage in my direction won't help. Sorry. Well, maybe the money might help. It couldn't hurt!

Next episode: What is happening with Ginny and the baby? What do Molly and Arthur have to say to Ron? Severus and Ron, and another go-around? And what does Hermione have to say about all this? Hermione's new flat? What pressing business does Albus have with the Wizengamot? Tune in next time for more questions and more answers.

A grateful thank you to Nakhash, my beta for her corrections and unbelievably wicked suggestions that will surface in future chapters. Another set of eyes is always helpful, the mistakes, however, are still my fault.

Please review and let me know what you think.

I love hearing from you! As always, thoughts, comments, reviews, whatever are always welcome.

Regards, Pearle