Chapter 5

"Shit," Hermione muttered to herself as she realized that she had been standing in the rain, staring at the spot where Severus Snape stood.

"Severus, wait!" she cried, hurrying towards the gate of her parents' front garden.

There was no one in the street.

The rain fell, heavier now.

"Shit," Hermione said again, turning back and racing into the house.

"Ducky?" called her father from the sitting room.

"Not now, Dad!" Hermione called back, grabbing her coat and Summoning her wand.

"Not in the house, Hermione!" shouted her mother as the wand zipped past her.

"Sorry, Mum! But this is an emergency!"

"What happened to Severus?"

"That's the emergency! I'll be back as soon as I can!"

Hermione dashed out the door and down the walk.

"Point me," she muttered, thinking of Snape. Her wand spun and then pointed towards the High Street.

"Severus!" she called again, pursuing the fleeing wizard.

Panting and out of breath, she finally caught up with him at the Underground station.

"Severus! Wait!" Hermione ran through the barrier, flicking her wand at the turnstile, which spun madly. Her conscience pricked her - she reminded herself to pay twice the next time she frequented the Tube.

He did not reply, but moved to stand on the platform heading for London.

"Will you stop, you pillock!" she cried, out of breath and patience.

"Why?" he sneered. "So you can Avada Kedavra me in the back as I run away?"

"No!" She stopped, gasping for breath, bending forward. Years of office work had taken their toll, and Hermione realized she was not in the shape she had been during the war.

"God, Snape, why do you," gasp, "think that the world is out to get you? When are you going to wake up and realize that you're," gasp, "a," gasp, "hero! You received a posthumous Order of Merlin," gasp, "for fuck's sake! You're the name on the front of," gasp, "a successful line of cosmetics, which is ridiculous! Nobody wants to fucking kill you! Least of all me!"

"What about those parents of students who were tortured when I was Headmaster?" he asked. "What about those families whom I did nothing to save? Don't delude yourself, Miss Granger; there are plenty of people in your world who would gladly dose me with my own medicine."

"My world? It's your world too, Snape!"

"Mr Snape to you!"

"Not anymore, apparently. You belong to the wizarding world just as much as I do, and you know it!"

"Not without my magic, I don't."

Far down the tracks, a faint light glimmered in the rain as the train approached.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Home. Via St Pancras; then maybe Bermuda, and after that, someplace else warm. The weather's lovely in Bermuda this time of year, and I don't have dangerous, pesky witches hunting me down."

"You can't take the train!"

"Do you suggest I Apparate?"

Hermione closed her eyes and took another deep breath.

"Just tell me how it happened," she said as the train pulled into the station.

"When I awoke in Mrs Longbottom's second best guestroom, I discovered my magic was gone. I couldn't even Summon a book. My wand was presumably destroyed, but it wouldn't recognize me anyway. Mrs Longbottom thought perhaps the venom had some long-term effects; her guess is as good as mine."

The train stopped, and the doors opened.

"Please, don't leave."

Snape did not reply but moved into the waiting car.

"Let me fix this, please! Let me help you."

"Miss Granger, I doubt you can fix me. And even if you could, why would I want to be made into your latest charity case? Do you think I didn't know about the house-elves?"

"Just . . . may I come and see you?"

"Swear not to reveal my presence. On your wand, please. It may not affect me, but it will affect you." Snape sounded harried.

Hermione's heart leaped in hope. She held out her wand. Snape put his hand upon it.

"Oi! Are you boarding or not?" shouted the conductor.

"I swear not to reveal your presence," Hermione whispered.

"Good enough," Snape replied.

"On or off, make up your mind!" shouted the conductor.

Hermione stepped back onto the platform and glared at the conductor, who wished her all the joys of the season with a brief flick of two fingers as he snapped his window up and the doors closed.

Her last view was of Snape, settling himself carefully into a seat in the empty carriage.

Boxing Day with her parents was not particularly pleasant - her mother was annoyed about Hermione's use of magic in the house, and her father was worried about his daughter's preternatural silence.

It was with relief that Hermione escaped to her flat close to Diagon Alley that afternoon.

Snape's condition worried her: the man who had once terrified her and awed her with his prowess, even with "foolish wand waving" had been reduced to nothing, at least in the eyes of her world. But he had made a life for himself without his magic.

What sort of life, Hermione wondered. His house, from what little she had seen, had seemed comfortable. His clothing and grooming certainly spoke of some income - The Late Severus Snape Presents products were selling well, and he had intimated that he was comfortably well off thanks to the royalties; perhaps he really was a simple village librarian - a retired wizard.

So why had he looked wistful when he had touched her wand, sliding his long, elegant, pale fingers up the vinewood shaft?

Hermione shook her head - she was due to return to work soon, and the library in her department had the best resources available (even surpassing the Restricted Section in the Hogwarts Library) for the Dark Arts and Dark Artifacts.

And Nagini had been nothing if not a Dark Artifact.

Hermione smiled to herself as she reheated her mother's turkey curry for dinner. There was no stopping her now, she thought.

"Get your nose out of that book, will you, Granger?" Blaise whinged from Draco's lap.

They were comfortably ensconced in Draco's luxury flat on the south side of the Thames, (courtesy of his father, a properly penitent Lucius), with several other of their friends - well, Draco's friends really, most of whom were in a corner by the bar trying to get as drunk as they could as fast as possible to welcome in the New Year.

"Hmmm?"

"I said," Blaise enunciated each word slowly and carefully, "Get. Your. Nose. Out. Of. That. Book."

"I'm sorry, Blaise," Hermione said, looking up. "I'm just on the trail of a problem and ..." She trailed off thoughtfully.

"Draco," she said to the blonde trying his best to clean out Blaise's ear with his tongue, "Draco, what do you know about Nagini?"

Draco shuddered, withdrawing the tongue, which earned him a pinch from Blaise.

"Don't talk to me about that fucking thing," Draco said. "It slept in our conservatory, it shat everywhere and it smelled. Oh, and did I mention how I officially don't talk about those days? Ever."

"I thought it was a she," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Hermione!"

"What?"

"Shut up, get drunk, and snog Ernie Macmillan before I throw you out of here," Draco snapped.

Hermione snapped her book shut and stuck out her tongue at Draco, who didn't notice because his tongue was otherwise occupied in Blaise's mouth.

She didn't get completely drunk, but she did get tipsy enough to be slightly gratified when Ernie grabbed her bottom and told her she was the prettiest witch at the party.

She was less gratified when he offered to take her somewhere quiet.

"Not unless you're an expert on magical herpetology," she said.

"Magical what?" Ernie asked.

"Herpetology."

"Oi, do you have herpes? I'm sorry! Did that git Weasley give that to you?" Ernie slurred.

"No, no, no, no, no," said Hermione, "herpetology is the study of snakes and amphibians."

Ernie was silent for a moment.

"Well," he finally said with a certain lascivious dignity, "I have a bloody great snake if you're interested."

Hermione decided at that point that she should probably go home. Alone. At the very least, she should get some sleep before Ginny's New Years Day let's-set-Hermione-up-with-Quidditch-players brunch.

AN: Not mine, no money. Thanks and praise go to Subversa for taking this and making it recognizable English. And thanks also go to Lulabelle72 for the lovely prompting!