Chapter Eight: The Tables are Turned

Chapter Eight: The Tables are Turned

"Ah, Miss Weasley. A moment of your time, if you will."

Ginny startled to find Severus Snape awaiting her as she left the Transfiguration classroom. Hermione was still inside, discussing some esoteric research she had found with Professor le Blanc. "Er... sure, sir," she replied.

"In here will do," he said as he indicated an empty classroom across the corridor. Ginny found herself ushered courteously through the door by the Potions master.

Once the door was closed and locked, he leaned against it with arms folded. Speaking calmly without his usual intimidation to the now curious seventh year, he said, "You will be wondering why I have detained you, Miss Weasley."

"Well, yes, I am actually, sir."

"It has come to my attention that you and my fiancée are rather close. I suspect you know rather more about my personal life than I would prefer." Waving her attempted protest aside, he continued. "I am well aware Miss Granger is still only nineteen and as such needs a female confidante. I only ask that anything she shares with you goes no further. It is bad enough knowing two teenage witches in this castle are aware of my personal issues without them becoming fodder for gossip."

Ginny knew exactly which personal issue concerned the professor. "Sir. As far as your, er... that... is concerned, Hermione did not tell me. I'd already suspected it," she reassured.

"You did? How?" he hissed, composed façade almost slipping.

"Just from things I'd overheard at home. Don't worry; your secret is safe with me. It's not that it will be the case for much longer, anyway," she said blithely. "And anything else Hermione feels the need to talk about remains between us. I would never betray that sort of confidence, sir." Ginny was essentially her mother's daughter and decided a little 'Weasley intervention' was required. "May I ask one personal question, sir?"

He sighed. "As I have little doubt there is anything you don't already know, go ahead."

"Do you care for her?" Ginny asked. At his stunned look, she added, "It's just that I love Hermione like a sister, and I don't want her to be hurt. I know this marriage was originally arranged for other reasons, but she has become very attached to you. I would like to know if there is any chance you reciprocate her feelings." As hope lifted years from his face, and his eyes closed in relief, Ginny knew her friend's heart would be safe.

"Thank you," he whispered.

At that moment, Ginny saw the man her friend knew. Her fierce, Weasley protective instincts vowed to support this wizard and his wife-to-be in the bumpy ride of their new relationship, come what may. Placing a small hand on his arm, she offered, "If there is ever anything I can do, you only have to ask, Professor."

"I think you have already done more than I could have ever hoped for, Ginevra. Friends like you are rare in my experience. Once again, I thank you for supporting my fiancée, and I hope you will continue to visit her... us... once she has joined me in the dungeons." He met her gaze with an open sincerity that reassured her more than any number of words.

"Oh, I will. Someone has to keep an eye on you two," Ginny dared to tease.

"Indeed."

The odd pair in the classroom shared a brief smile as they forged the tentative beginnings of a new alliance.

Lunch was only slightly rowdier than usual for a Friday. The reaction to the previous morning's announcement had diminished more rapidly than Hermione had expected. As far as many of her fellow students were concerned, she was still the peculiarly swotty friend of Harry Potter who had been involved in helping him despatch Voldemort. Marrying Snape was simply another of her many vagaries. After all, if a girl could Polyjuice herself into a cat, be chased by a werewolf, spend weeks recovering from being cursed by a Death Eater, and then run off on a hunt for Horcruxes as it if were a camping expedition, marrying the ex-Death Eater, ex-spy, greasy Potions professor was hardly out of character. They had quickly realised the potentially more contented Severus Snape Ginny Weasley had been heard to mention the previous day would benefit them all.

However, the Slytherins' opinions were divided. Millicent's cronies were bristling with indignation over her petition's failure. The girl herself had found her suddenly increased popularity over the previous few weeks waning again, much to her dismay. Being slighted by her Head of House was something her limited mind could not understand, and being discarded in favour of a Gryffindor, no less, was madness. Obviously, Snape had been affected by the war; she sincerely believed she had been spared a fate worse than death. But this didn't stop her throwing poisonous looks towards the other side of the Great Hall whenever she glimpsed her bushy-haired nemesis.

Those of Snape's house who had a little more savoir-faire kept their opinions to themselves and awaited developments. The implications of a bond between their house and the vastly more popular, and populous, Gryffindors were something the average ambitious, forward-thinking Slytherin could not ignore.

Predictably enough, it was the hotheaded, outspoken Gryffindors who had the most to say on the matter. Despite the relatively rapid acceptance of the affair by the adult students amongst them, no doubt aided by the brief explanation they had been given the night before of the circumstances under which the engagement arose, many of the younger members of Hermione's house saw it as a betrayal. Marrying any Slytherin would be cause for disapproval, but marrying the horrible Potions professor, who had always made their lives miserable, was simply unacceptable.

"Don't worry about it, Hermione. They'll come around," reassured Ginny as they gazed down the table at those who had chosen to sit apart from their group.

"I don't really care what they think of me, Gin. Most of them are acting through ignorance and ingrained prejudice, exactly the behaviour we attribute to the Slytherins. Did you know several seventh-year Slytherins came over and wished me good luck this morning? It's a sad day when Slytherins behave more reasonably than my own housemates."

"Except Bulstrode. She keeps giving you the evil eye. Do you think I should Bat-Bogey her?" Ginny offered with a twinkle.

"No. She's not worth the detention you would get, probably with Severus," Hermione replied as she nabbed a bun before the boys scoffed them all.

"Oh, I don't know. Detention with him would probably be OK." Ginny grinned at her friend's puzzled frown. "We had a little chat today. Let's just say we understand each other."

"Ginevra Weasley! Exactly what have you been saying to my fiancé?"

"Oh, nothing much. He'd figured out you tell me everything and wanted to warn me not to blab. As if I would. We had a brief conversation, he thanked me for supporting you, and then he told me I was welcome to visit you in his quarters." Ginny was smart enough to leave out the part of the discussion involving Hermione's feelings for the man. That was for the two of them to work out, but hopefully Snape would be a little more forthcoming with his intended after their talk. "He even called me Ginevra!"

"Good grief! He still calls me Miss Granger, most of the time." Hermione blushed as she recalled one of the few times he had addressed her by her first name. Her use of that particular memory had made for a wonderful sleep the night before.

"I'll bet that will have changed by this time on Sunday." Ginny grinned.

"Sure. By then, it will be Mrs Snape! I swear that man will come to bed tomorrow night fully dressed and with the lights out," Hermione grumbled.

"And I swear you'll have him naked and totally compliant within five minutes." The redhead smirked as Harry and Ron looked up, obviously wondering what the girls were discussing so quietly.

"Ginny! Shh. You don't want to put the boys off their lunch, do you?" Hermione giggled at their suspicious expressions and poked her tongue out at them.

"Very mature for a woman about to get married, Hermione. Do you really think anything would put those two off their food?" she asked.

"At least some things never change. I wonder if Severus will allow them to visit too?" the older girl mused.

Ginny chuckled at the thought of her boyfriend and her brother sitting uncomfortably in the Snapes' sitting room taking tea. "Put it this way, I wouldn't hold my breath. How about you get him over the whole sex business first and calling you by your first name, then worry about inflicting the boys on him!"

It was Hermione's turn to giggle as she reached for the pumpkin juice. "I'm not entirely sure who I feel sorrier for, the boys or Severus!"

Watching the males under discussion industriously making obscene sculptures with their food and then blushing furiously when they noticed the two young women observing, Hermione and Ginny turned to each other and said as one, "Severus!"

The younger witch blushed. "Oops! You are a bad influence, Hermione Granger. If I get detention for calling your husband by his first name by mistake, I will expect you to sweet talk him out of it."

Hermione grinned as her gaze suddenly lifted to a point behind Ginny's head.

Her friend's face dropped into her hands. "Tell me he is not right behind me," she pleaded.

"He is not right behind you," Hermione replied obediently.

"Unfortunately, my intended has a loose affinity with the truth," a smooth, masculine voice drawled near Ginny's ear. "Now, were you inquiring about a detention, Miss Weasley? I'm sure I could oblige."

Ginny's cheeks flamed as she turned and met the mocking gaze of the Potions master. "Er... No, sir. I don't think that will be necessary."

"Severus. Be nice. And what do you mean, 'a loose affinity with the truth'?" Hermione demanded.

"Troll hunting? Stolen boomslang skin? Sneaking around under Invisibility Cloaks? That wasn't you then, my dear fiancée?" His smirk was infuriating.

"You know damn well there were good reasons for..." She broke off as she realised he was actually teasing her. "Oh... you... you..."

"Hey! Break it up, you two. You're gathering an audience," Ginny hissed urgently.

With a final, triumphant lift of an eyebrow, Snape spun on his heel, glared the onlookers into finding other, more fascinating topics of conversation, and left. Hermione rolled her eyes at his back as he left and turned back to her friend, who was resting her head on her arms and shaking slightly.

"It's OK, Gin. He's gone. Don't worry; he didn't really mean it." She laid a comforting hand on the redhead's shoulder, only to be met with a huge grin and twinkling eyes as she lifted her head.

"Sorry, Hermione. I lost it for a minute there. The idea of Professor Snape flirting with you like that..." She burst forth in another uncontrollable bout of laughter.

"Ginny! He was not flirting!"

"Trust me, my friend. The man was flirting. Sure, he has a weird way of doing it, but he is Severus Snape, you know. You can't expect him to do anything the normal way."

Hermione stared dumbfounded at the younger witch for a long moment, then turned to study the man she was to marry. Blushing as he met her gaze and lifted his glass in a mocking salute, she nibbled on a roll as she wondered, not for the first time, whether she had bitten off more than she could chew. Despite her recent experience with sex and more relaxed attitude towards physical intimacy, her fiancé often left her feeling like a novice blundering around the minefield of intention and emotion.

"Hermione! Pay attention!" Ginny's voice nudged her out of her brown study, and she indicated the boys, who had been trying to get her attention.

"It's your last night as a free woman, Mione. We need to have a party! Please?" begged Ron.

"Yeah. We'll get Winky to smuggle us some food and drink. Just let us know who you want to come," Harry added.

"What? You boys want to come to my hen party? Isn't that against the rules?" she teased.

"Well, it's not like Snape is going to throw a stag party, is it?" Ron retorted.

"We could insist they dress up in frilly skirts if they want to come," suggested Ginny with an evil grin.

Hermione giggled. "And then we could ask Lavender to make them up, so they look like real girls."

Hearing her name, Lavender moved closer. "Make who up?" she asked. "Whoever it is, I'm in."

"The boys want to crash Hermione's hen party," Ginny explained. "We think they should only be allowed to come if they dress as girls and allow us to pretty them up."

"Oi, little sister. If you don't show a little respect, I'm telling Bill. He'll sort you out!" Ron threatened.

"He doesn't scare me. He tried to pick on me in Defence class yesterday until I Bat-Bogeyed him in front of the whole class. That'll teach him for using his position as a professor to get round Mum's rules about being nice to his sister," she gloated.

"You didn't!" Hermione was astounded at Ginny's cheek.

"I certainly did. He was supposed to be teaching us nonverbal spells and thought he had the drop on me, but he forgot who taught me how to recognise the signs of someone casting nonverbally," she replied with a smirk.

"Who?" Hermione asked, curious.

"He did it himself, the great idiot. Last summer! Brothers. Absolutely hopeless, the lot of 'em!"

"Oi! I take exception to that!" Ron expostulated. "Some of us are extremely handsome, intelligent individuals." He couldn't understand why all three girls were incapable of coherent speech for quite some time after that announcement.

Walking to Potions class that afternoon, Hermione smiled to herself at the antics of the two boys walking ahead of her. Party planning obviously required a great deal of vigorous gesticulation and discussion. She pulled up short as once again a hand grasped her robes and pulled her into a dark classroom. Before she had a chance to protest, a firm mouth claimed her lips, and a familiar tongue worked its way between.

He tasted of coffee and spice, and two minutes later swept away without a word, leaving her breathless and bemused.

Arriving in the dungeons a minute late for class, she realised the Potions professor had managed to arrive before her. A subtle twitch of his lips revealed he was enjoying her discomfiture far too much.

"Late, Miss Granger? Ten points from Gryffindor."

Her glare left her fiancé unmoved. He turned and resumed class as if nothing unusual had occurred. For the next hour, Hermione pondered his actions as she made notes on the day's assignment. Realising she needed some powdered moonstone for her Draught of Peace, she headed for the potions store room. As she reached up to the third shelf on the right, the door closed with a definitive click. A hand reached around and pulled her into a lean body, hard in all the right places, while another reached under her shirt and trailed across her sensitive skin.

"Bloody hell, Severus, someone will come in. Have you been drinking?" she admonished in a whisper as, despite herself, she melted into the warmth of the hand now wandering closer to her breasts.

His only reply was a long finger placed to her lips. As his lips nibbled at the tender spot behind her left ear and his ministrations created pinpoints of fire across her breasts, culminating in a fierce tug of pleasure when he tweaked her nipple, Hermione gave up wondering why he had so radically changed his behaviour. She was reaching to grasp the urgent need she felt pressing into her from behind when he abruptly released her and returned to the classroom.

Flustered, aroused, and frustrated beyond belief, the young witch gathered her wits and the moonstone and stalked back to her cauldron. Several sets of curious eyes flicked from her flushed face to their professor's smug expression as she commenced brewing.

Hermione noticed Harry clearly suppressing mirth. "What?" she snapped.

"Nothing..."

"Well, get on with your brewing then and stop looking at me!"

"Yes, miss." He grinned as he resumed working.

"Miss Granger. You appear to be having trouble concentrating on your work. Perhaps a detention this evening at seven will encourage you to... pay attention to the matter at hand." His eyebrow lifted fractionally as he turned to the unfortunate students who had been winking and nudging behind his back.

"Twenty points from Ravenclaw for speculating on your professor's sex life!" he snarled.

Hermione could only stare at the man. What in Merlin's name had she unleashed?

Despite the distraction of the wizard to whom she was to be wed looming over her cauldron, brushing his robes past hers at all too regular intervals, and black eyes studying her from across the room, she managed to brew her usual, perfect result. As she handed the vial to Severus, his fingers grasped hers briefly.

"Seven. Don't forget," he murmured.

"As if I would, Severus, dear," she replied with a sweet, coquettish smile. Two can play at this game, she thought as she leaned in and brushed his cheek with her lips, much to the amusement of the remaining students in the room.

The faint, pink stain on his cheeks improved her mood considerably as she joined Harry in the corridor.

"What the hell is going on with you and Snape, Hermione? Why don't you just jump each other in front of the whole class and get it over with?"

"I have no idea. The man seems to have suddenly found his libido. Not that I'm complaining, but there is a time and a place..."

"Perhaps you'd better have a talk to him at detention. That is, if it really is going to be a detention?" Harry snorted at her affronted expression.

"One can only hope... not." Hermione grinned, looking forward to detention for the first time in her scholastic career.

"I still don't get it. Snape?" he asked.

"Harry, let's just say I have discovered a more appealing side to the man, OK? You don't really need to know details."

He shuddered. "Believe me, I don't want details!"

Chuckling, they entered their quarters to find preparations for the party already well underway.

"Bloody hell, the party!" Harry exclaimed. "And you have detention?"

"Don't worry, Harry. It's early. I'll be back by eight-thirty when the party starts."

"Oh, I'm not worried. I'm sure we can start without you if you get a better offer. Ouch!" He rubbed his arm where she had whacked him.

"Hey, Mione! Why are you assaulting my boyfriend?" asked Ginny with a grin as she joined them.

"Because he is making lewd suggestions about my fiancé," Hermione explained, pulling a face at her black-haired friend.

"That's only because you and Snape were snogging in the potions store room," countered Harry.

"We were not!" Although strictly true, her blush belied the words.

"Hermione! I thought you said he wouldn't..."

"Ginny! Not here!" Hermione dragged her friend into her room, much to Harry's amusement.

"I don't want to know, anyway!" he called after them.

"OK. Give. What's going on?" Ginny demanded once the door was firmly closed.

"I don't know. Severus is acting really oddly..." Hermione went on to explain his unusual behaviour during the afternoon.

"Well, that is strange. Although you did say you wanted him to make the first move sometimes."

"I know, but... just what did you say to him this morning, Gin?"

Ginny simply smiled.

Prompt: 1. Something Old. The Marriage Law Challenge. Many thanks to karelia for the beta.