Chapter 6

In less than two seconds, Hermione had risen from the tub with such apathetic deliberation that she hadn't bothered covering herself from the young man's unblinking gaze.

By the time he returned to his room, he recognized that the crushing, suffocating heaviness he'd suffered in the kitchen had returned with a vengeance, and it had nothing to do with the new robes he'd been given.

Severus the elder's chest felt... heavy. The heaviness generally experienced when one had forgotten something important, like payment on an outstanding debt or procrastination in giving a long overdue apology.

Hermione had been in the tub for well over an hour, and the door was locked. She never locked the door against him. Somehow, Snape knew that she was all right physically, even though she hadn't responded to his knocks upon the door.

This was exactly the development that Severus had feared.

Subsequently, Snape perched himself upon the four-poster, head in his hands as he waited for his wife to come to bed. He possessed a vague idea as to what was troubling Hermione, but Severus didn't have the slightest notion on how to handle it.

This was precisely why he had asked her, virtually demanded her even, to speak as little as possible to his former-self.

Hermione's acquaintance with Junior would serve no purpose for them, especially in regards to their marriage...

Severus feared the idea of Hermione associating Junior's personality with his own and causing serious havoc in this bliss he'd fought so hard to achieve.

At that last thought, Severus growled even louder, his hands clenching at the hair of his temples.

There was another turn of the dice that he needed to acknowledge. His wish that Hermione refrain from acquainting herself with Junior or, rather, that Junior wouldn't get to know his future wife had been a dangerous scheme as well.

When I was younger... back when I was in Junior's position... if I hadn't come to know Hermione, would I have pursued her... later? Where would I be now if not for my mistakes?

Snape didn't have an answer of course, but he readily acknowledged his guilt regarding this woman. He had taken so much for granted, even when the war was said and done and Hermione had returned to Hogwarts for her final year. But given where he was now...what he had now...he wouldn't change his life for anything.

The bathroom door finally flew open. Severus jerked, eager to speak to his wife.

Towel wrapped tightly around her figure, Hermione stiffly approached her wardrobe without acknowledging his presence.

Severus' entire body physically ached. Knowing Hermione had always been keen at sensing his emotions, he promptly reigned in his hurt. This moment wasn't about him.

When he'd finally stood up from the bed, Hermione quickly turned around.

"I didn't mean to ignore you. I just needed a bit of time, Severus," Hermione said carefully, eyes darting around the room.

"I know."

"I just," Hermione continued, not catching on to the complete understanding behind the force of his words. "I just couldn't bare the idea of associating you with him."

"I understand that."

She took a step toward him and stopped. "You were such... a bastard."

Severus snorted dryly but wasn't offended. "Indeed." Matching her step, Hermione didn't give any indication that his touch was unwelcome. Another thought crossed his mind. After Junior's... vileness... Hermione might need the intimate reassurance of the husband she had come to depend on.

Snape quickly crossed the room and gathered her into his arms. When Hermione eagerly let go of her towel to return his embrace, sighing deeply into his chest, Snape cursed his idiocy. This was one confrontation he knew to anticipate, but had also never witnessed.

Given everything he had experienced in his own time-travel to the future, whenever he thought he knew what to expect, life always threw him for a loop. "His appearance is a blow, and you're... hurt... that I've never given you some idea of all this before. I know. But there's one thing I've never lied to you about. I...when I'd told you I'd waited a lifetime for you... I meant it."

"You resented me," she said in argument, face pinching in disgust at the insult present in her voice.

Severus held her moistened body even tighter as he admitted, "Yes. I resented you as long as I'd waited for you. It had taken me a very long time to... separate those conflicting impressions of you."

"I can... see that. It's so...strange. I'd thought I'd understood you, but now so much is coming into perspective."

"My proposal..."

"I was horrid to you, I'm sorry."

He laughed again. "I deserved it."

Hermione pulled away and socked him in the arm. She hadn't put all of her power into the blow, and Severus knew it. He made a show of flinching from the movement and held his elbow as if wounded. "You did deserve it, git!"

He chuckled, pulling her back into his arms. "I'm aware, Hermione. I've known. Surely that seems obvious to you now as well."

"Yes," she frowned. "Severus... you should have told me. I would have..."

"Treated me differently?"

"I...yes."

He smoothed her wet curls away from her face, breathing deeply against her neck. "Then how would I have known if you truly wanted me?"

"Severus..." Hermione's voice mirrored the ache in her heart. She pulled him towards the bed and reveled at the sight of his pupils dilating, just as they always did when she initiated intimacy.

Eagerly falling on top of her, Snape yanked the towel to the floor, pulling her bare thighs around his hips as she whispered, "What have I done to you?"

The next day, Junior had welcomed the complete denial that had been his mind's immediate response to that crushing emotion. That twinge he'd felt as he'd stared at Hermione's closed bathroom door...

Walking back to his bedroom, eyes clenched, Junior had almost allowed that one, forbidden word to form. You fool. Idiot. Admit you judged poorly and accept your guil...

Junior's eyes flew open with a snarl. There was only one woman he'd allow himself to regret and that female did not have brown eyes.

In his lifetime, Hermione was nothing to him.

The future could always change.

Hours after Junior had... encountered... Hermione during her bath, he'd locked himself in his bedroom with the determination to recount everything his older self had attempted to teach him in the Potions lab. Severus wrote and rewrote his notes, memorizing every step that would be crucial to complete the potion needed to send him back.

That seemed to be the answer to his confusion... He needed to be sent back.

Junior refused to dwell on the fact that his future wife held the answers...unspeakable, calamitous answers to the path his life would take.

Given how I've seen them... the old man must have been completely open to his wife about everything. Mrs. Snape knows what will happen to me five years from now... ten years from now...

Whenever such thoughts crossed his mind, Junior would fiercely shake his head and pour himself into Potions research.

Somehow, he'd managed to avoid Hermione for three full days...and this was the result.

Severus Snape the younger couldn't stop thinking of her.

In the most random of moments...usually when he'd been taking a shower...her bare body would enter his thoughts. Smooth shoulders and slim waist followed by the memory of her neck carefully turning while she gazed blankly at his unwelcome presence.

Junior cursed, body jerking the quill in his hand and splattering ink across his notes. Thinking of Hermione's half-naked figure made him remember the things he'd said... many things... that she probably hadn't deserved.

Accept your guil...

NO! Not her... not another fucking Mudblood...

Junior didn't know the first step to make things right, which was one of many reasons he'd welcomed the denial.

Two more weeks... Merlin, help me, I'm almost there.

Lost in thought, Junior carelessly descended the stairs on his way to the potions lab. Hand clutched around the banister, he skipped over the last step, propelling himself into the entrance hall.

His feet nearly gave out under him and skid across the wet floor.

In his adrenaline rushed haze at the threat of breaking his neck, Junior scowled. He inhaled deeply, ready to summon that blasted elf for a proper scolding at such sloppy cleaning.

His mouth gracelessly snapped shut before he was able to expel a single sound.

Just across from where he was standing, there was a figure... a body braced on all floors, scrubbing furiously at the aged tile.

Junior swallowed.

A well-defined rear end was facing him. A... gyrating... rear end clothed in that ostentatious garment Muggles call 'denim.'

"Fucking hell!" Severus whirled around, face aflame at the unwanted thoughts rushing through his mind.

"What happened?" Hermione gasped, releasing her rag to face the unexpected outburst.

"What the hell are you doing?" Junior snarled over his shoulder.

"I'm scrubbing the floor, obviously. And what are you yelling at me for?"

"That's what house-elves are for, you imbecile!"

"Not all of us get enjoyment out of relying on helpless creatures to complete tasks we are capable of managing on our own."

"You're a bloody witch, aren't you?"

Hermione expelled a disgusted sound.

"Relying on magic for every minor task isn't satisfying either! And if you're going to speak to me like a git again, at least turn around when you do it. I don't understand why you're so angry with me."

Junior inconspicuously yanked at one trouser leg and pulled his robes tighter around him. Brows furrowed, he managed to face Hermione in profile. "I am not angry with you."

"Then what..."

"I'm angry that I'm still in this cursed house when all I want is to go home...why am I explaining myself to you? I am not your husband, Mrs. Snape. You've already made that distinction very clear. Perhaps you should remember it before you think you have the right to lecture me on proper behavior!"

Severus snapped his wand through the air, drying the sudsy floor before storming towards the potions lab.

"I know the step," Junior ground out very slowly in response to his future-self's demand.

"Then say it," Snape barked, leaning over the boy's worktable.

"Don't speak to me like a dunderheaded student!"

"Answer the question! What is the final step?"

In his struggle to suppress his growing irritation, his hands clutched at the rim of his stool. "After this simmers for seventy-two hours, hellebore is then added followed by three clockwise turns."

"Three clockwise turns," Snape snapped.

"I just said that!"

"I'm ensuring you remember it! Clockwise, not counter-clockwise."

"I understand."

"If for some hair-brained reason you do such a simple step wrong, this potion will be useless and it will take another month to complete a fresh batch."

"Dammit! I said I understand."

It happened so fast. Teeth gritted grotesquely, Snape hurled himself around the worktable, snatching Junior by the collar of his robes. Kicking the chair out from under him, Severus suspended the boy in the air by a vice grip to his throat.

He took advantage of his younger-self's fear and quietly entered his thoughts.

Snape saw much. Far too much, but things were progressing as he had expected.

"Good."

"You have married a beast!"

Hermione did not divert her eyes away from her cookbook. Why this man thought he was welcome to accompany her while she cooked, she had no idea.

He'd been very adept at making himself scarce the last few days, and Hermione wished he had continued with the habit.

"Had a bit of a tiff, eh?" Hermione emotionlessly responded.

"He's off his rocker! I cannot fathom... Am I to become a heroin addict?"

"Not that I'm aware."

Hermione never heard him approach. Two hands slammed down on the granite counter beside the stove, his breathing labored. Her stirring spoon fell to the floor in her abrupt step back, spraying the cupboards with tomato paste.

Junior spoke quick and nasty, "The two of you have been mocking me since I came here, and I'm putting an end to it now!"

"Step back..."

"You ask too much of me. Now... now I wish that madman had locked me in the basement for the past month. I would've come away from...this...with my sanity intact if I hadn't been forced to share a house with you."

Hermione didn't know what to say.

I resented you as long as I'd waited for you. It had taken me a very long time to... separate those conflicting impressions of you.

Her defensive stance immediately softened. For the briefest of moments, she identified a portion of her husband within this man.

Her husband had been this man.

Face almost sick with paleness, Junior struggled to voice his next words. "Ignorance would have been bliss, indeed."

"No," Hermione answered softly. "I'm... content... you're here, ultimately. It's meant to be this way, I'm sure. If you had remained in the basement, you would never have met me and..."

"And what?" Junior snarled. In one step, he was upon her, shaking hands curled around her shoulders. "And what? I would never have waited fourteen years to have you to myself?"

His entire front, chest down to his knees, were pressed tightly upon the woman in his arms.

"Re-release me."

That single stutter was her doom.

"You'll never tell me, will you? If I beg, demand, threaten... You'll never tell me the hundreds of minute details you know about me. About a life I am yet to live..."

"I can't! You know I can't..."

"I wish I never met you."

Ignoring her struggles, Junior filled whatever little bit of space still separated them. Hand clenched into her hair, he pulled her face up to his, forcing his frustrations upon her with a kiss.

A kiss he would not allow to end.

Not until he had grabbed her hand and forced it upon his aching cock did she finally open her mouth.

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER!"