Archways

Summary: Severus is angry, Hermione is determined, and Mimi is all about the shiny.

A/N: My thanks, as always, to my alpha- and beta-readers, Anastasia, AnnieTalbot, Lady Karelia, Machshefa, and Melenka. And a heartfelt thanks to all of you for reading and enjoying the story. *blows kiss.

Demetrios and Mimi are thrilled to have been honoured with an Order of Merlin, First Class, for "Best Original Character(s) in the 2009 OWL Awards. They send their thanks, too :)

The Petulant Poetess Edition of this chapter is dedicated to Lady Karelia and Blue Paris - may their journey bring them where they long to be.

~ Ari

22: Archways

"Yes. No. It doesn't matter! This can work. This will work."

Demetrios exhaled softly, his translucent face dimpling as he beamed after her. "Well, yes, my dear, of course it will," he mused, "but which 'this,' I wonder? Ah, well, Athena, in all her bright wisdom..."

-----

Hermione arrived home breathless and exultant. "Profes- Severus!" she called, only to jump out of her skin when he answered far too close to her ear.

"Miss Granger, what the bloody hell do you think you are doing?"

She took a step backward, only to be met with a cry from underfoot.

Mimi darted under the lounge.

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione's eyes flashed as she stepped neatly away from the wall.

She heard Severus's boots creak and surmised he was drawing himself taller. Uh-oh.

"I do not enjoy having my memory tampered with. But that's rather your specialty, isn't it?"

She blushed furiously. "Wha– my parents? How did you kn–"

"Phineas," he said dryly.

"How did he–"

"You talk in your sleep."

"The old relic," she spat as the adrenalin, which had so recently coursed through her at her certainty that their plan would succeed, flowed into a different path. "My parents are perfectly well, thank you very much."

Severus's boots creaked again. "I'm so glad to hear it," he said softly, his voice carrying a current of growing anger. "Do let us stay on topic, Doctor."

"You were the one who – oh, what is your issue?"

"What were you doing in the forest?"

She sniffed. "Following you, of course."

The empty space near her front door said nothing.

Hermione waited, her eyes narrowing.

She didn't need to hear his eyebrow rise.

"Oh, don't go raising your eyebrow at me; you know I can't see it. Try to save your life... death... whichever..." she muttered, going over to the lounge to try to coax Mimi out from under it. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Just because he surprised me, I trod on your poor tail..."

The tail in question twitched, affronted, and Hermione burst out laughing. "You two really are a pair."

"Meee," Mimi complained, turning around to blink at Hermione.

"Oh, for pity's sake. Do come out." Hermione sat cross-legged on the floor, her back to where she assumed Severus was still standing.

Only then did she bite her lip.

"As gratifying as that particular expression is, I repeat – what are you playing at?"

She glanced up toward his voice. "Playing..." She shook her head. "I took the opportunity for a control trip to confirm Demetrios's assertion that history can be altered, at least slightly, if one works around the edges."

"You," he drawled derisively.

Mimi poked her head out from under the lounge. "Meee?"

"Not you, her."

Hermione extended a finger toward Mimi's ears. The kitten stared toward Severus for a moment, but soon was arching the rest of her body out to lean awkwardly into Hermione's hand. Hermione exhaled. "What about me?"

Severus exhaled softly. "You, Miss Granger, felt you had to confirm Demetrios's 'assertion'?"

Hermione blushed.

"Fetching," Severus murmured.

Her blush deepened. "Oh, do stop... well, no, don't; I rather like it – but I... oh, I know, it sounds ridiculous, me cross-checking Demetrios's eons of experience, but he's not the one who will have, oh, point-oh-four seconds whilst Harry is distracted by receiving your memories to try to save your life. I had to be certain, for myself, that the coin works the way Demetrios said it would."

An indeterminate muttering as he crossed the room.

Mimi's eyes tracked him toward the window, and Hermione turned. "Severus, I imagine it must be disconcerting to suddenly feel your memories... erm..."

"The word you seek is 'doubling.'"

"Doubling, then, but..."

"It is. That is not the problem."

"Then what is... oh! You were brewing, weren't you? Oh, I am sorry; is the potion..."

A soft snort. "My concentration was sufficient to the task."

"Then I don't understand."

A burst of anger from in front of the window: "Your behavior in the forest was most unseemly."

Hermione blinked. "Unseemly?" She held her breath. Surely she hadn't betrayed... well... that.

"For a first-year to display such..."

As he sought the next word, Hermione swallowed carefully. She could only imagine the sneer that was building.

"... such concern for a teacher is... was? ... most unseemly."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I wasn't really twelve, Severus."

"I know that now. I didn't then."

"And I was lying."

"That I knew."

"Liar."

A soft hiss as his robes moved closer to her.

Mimi lifted her head at the sound, the tip of her tail starting to twitch.

"'Liar'? You use that word very casually."

"If you'd known I was lying," she shot back, "you'd've taken far more points from Gryffindor, sir." She shook her head. "Severus, I mean."

The silence roiled.

"Just out of curiosity, why did you take so few points?"

The roiling quality fled, leaving the silence baffled in its absence.

She instinctively pressed the point. "An out-of-bounds violation should have been fifteen, at least, plus a detention."

"I was and am aware of Hogwarts' rules, Miss Granger."

She opened her hands curtly. "Enough of this 'Miss Granger,' really."

"We are talking about your first year; you were 'Granger' to me then..."

She nodded. "When I wasn't 'Potter's swotty sidekick'?"

"Nothing that complimentary, I assure you."

Hermione ignored that. "Why so few points?"

He said nothing.

"Do you even know why?"

After a moment, he rumbled. "I do not. And I find that disturbing. Very disturbing, indeed. I should have taken far more."

"You knew something was off."

He rumbled, confirming without conceding ground. "You should not have dared follow me, Miss Granger. Or to speak so to a teacher. Especially not to me."

"Granted, but, if you recall, I did neither when I actually was twelve. Besides – on whom should I have tested the coin's abilities, then, as your history is precisely the one we're trying to affect? Really, Severus – popping up behind you to ask if you'd ever heard of Athena's owl would have given the game away entirely –"

He interrupted, muttering, "I doubt I'd've heard you."

"Regardless; I think I did rather well."

"You should not have done it, Hermione!"

At his tone, Mimi started.

"Whyever not? I was testing the process, and it worked. It's not as though I altered the course of the war."

"You were a first-year!"

She felt his glare and pressed her fingers to her temples. "I didn't choose to go back to first year, Severus. The coin took me there."

"I should not..."

"Should not what?"

A wordless silence threatened to explode between them.

"What, Severus?" She glared a challenge toward the window.

He bit his next words: "I've memories of a twenty-six year old woman lurking in the eyes of a child."

"Did you know that then?"

"What matters is that I know it now. Whatever you may have thought at the time, you rarely registered as more than..."

"Harry's swotty sidekick."

"That will serve. I would prefer not to remember your childhood any better than I already do."

Hermione turned that over in her mind for a moment, and a dimple appeared in her cheek.

"Stop smiling," he snarled.

"No, Severus, I don't think I want to."

He said nothing for a while, then, "It's bloody awkward."

Hermione longed to laugh, but bit her tongue. "Try being stuck as a twelve-year-old, admiring your arse as she set it on fire."

A strangling noise.

"I assume you figured out it was me eventually," she said, tilting her head.

At her movement, Mimi batted at her necklace, drawing it into her mouth with her paw.

A crisp rustle indicated his sharp nod. "Afterwards, yes. Not then."

Hermione removed the necklace from Mimi's mouth. "I was terrified you'd discover it was me."

A soft snort.

"Well, you were rather scary, Severus, especially first year."

"I intended to be." A sound that she assumed indicated his leaning against the windowsill. "Perhaps your lack of fear is why I deducted so few points."

"I should think that'd've had the opposite effect – Harry's courage lost Gryffindor more points than I can count."

"His, yes. Yours, no; that was not your hallmark."

"Perhaps you were surprised less by my courage than by my compassion."

The silence froze, and she knew she'd hit the mark.

Compliment him – quickly. "Oh, do sit down. Even now, you're a bit intimidating when you loom about like that."

He rumbled again, but she saw the lounge cushion yield as he complied. She refused to show the smile she was feeling. Wizards.

"In my experience, Hermione," he began quietly, and something in his tone dispelled any thought of smiling, "compassion and courage were always synonymous, and never directed toward..." He coughed.

His hand came to rest on her shoulder, and her throat tightened.

"Never..."

She covered his hand with her own and nodded. "I know."

They sat that way until Mimi, in the absence of Hermione's stroking, reached again for necklace, catching a claw in one of its links.

"Poor thing," Hermione crooned, sorting out the tangle.

"Meee," the kitten responded, reaching determinedly for the necklace with her other paw.

"No, Mimi."

Mimi's eyes stayed locked on the necklace as Severus's hand left Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione felt him reach down, saw Mimi's fur compress slightly, then heard him lean back.

"And I dislike having my thoughts altered for any reason."

He left Dumbledore's and Voldemort's names unsaid, but she nodded quietly. "I quite understand. I am sorry, Severus."

She heard him exhale and then a soft rustle she assumed was a nod. She continued, "But –"

A sigh from the lounge.

"I am sorry to go on, but it's too important, because – well – I am planning to 'alter' a great deal more than your thoughts, after all..." Her voice trailed away.

"Indeed – but not without with my prior knowledge and consent – nor without my assistance." A soft rustle as his invisible gesture indicated the kitchen arch, through which Hermione saw the hazy pink steam from the potion hovering near the ceiling.

"Of course."

The silence between them eased into smoother lines.

Hermione leaned back against the lounge. "Now that we know slight changes to history are possible without any ill effects in the future... erm... present, I mean, saving perhaps to your temper, I've no need to go back again until you've finished brewing the potion." She shifted Mimi in her lap and fished the coin from her pocket. "Here, you keep it. We'll call it earnest mon –"

As the coin flashed in the sunlight, Mimi pounced, batting the coin from Hermione's hand.

"Mimi, no!"

The coin spun upwards, and Hermione lunged to catch it.

---

From one of the shelves back in the ever-expanding Hogwarts section of the Archive, Demetrios heard a soft, tentative guitar melody.

He stopped twirling the rose and listened.

The melody repeated, this time with increasing self-assurance as another shelf joined in counterpoint, providing a steadying but somehow wistful harmonic line.

At the sound of two file-boxes falling in quick succession to the floor, his eyes sparkled.

The melody began a third time, and he drifted through the Archive, eyes closed, head back, singing, " 'On a dark desert highway...'"

---

"Mimi, no!"

As Severus watched, Hermione rose, spilling Mimi out of her lap as she reached for the tumbling coin.

Her fingers closed around it.

He saw her eyes lose focus the moment before she collapsed facedown into his lap.

Demetrios's soundtrack for this chapter is "Hotel California," by The Eagles. Because Ari is wise and listens to Ana.

~ A.