Conclusion

A/N: My conclusion to wrap up the prompts. Warning: Extreme silliness ahead.

For sylvanawood, who puts up with my whinging and keeps me going when I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Thanks, as ever, to Septentrion for the beta.

Hermione had always liked wrestling with a good mystery, but only when she could eventually solve it, and this one was proving impossible to get a handle on. Huffing a stray curl out of the way, she smoothed out the parchment in front of her, wondering how best to phrase the letter so it would cause the least offence.

Having spent a fruitless day trudging around some of the biggest book shops in Muggle London...as well as some of the smaller, specialist establishments...she had been unable to find a trace of the elusive 'Harry Potter' books. 'You can buy them anywhere,' the lady in Chicago had replied politely to her enquiry. Her friend had stared at her as if she were a creature from another planet.

'Not in London, you can't,' Hermione muttered, dipping her quill into the inkwell. It made no sense, but if there were an explanation, she'd bet her Order of Merlin that Severus knew more than he was letting on. He'd been terribly evasive, changing the subject each time she brought it up, trying to distract her with his kisses, and...

'Yes, you're an expert in diversionary tactics, Severus Snape. I'll give you that.' She grinned and began to write:

Dear Severus,

There, she thought, spelling the ink dry. That should do the trick. I appealed to his better nature to come clean and managed not to call him a liar in the process.

Her office owl hooted, flapping its wings as she attached the parchment to its leg. 'Off you go, Aristotle, and don't take any crap from him. Remember, you're on official business; he can't refuse to let you in...'

~ * ~

Severus' response came by return owl:

Week progressing as usual. Slowly.

Severus

~~HGSS~~

Severus gathered the dough mixture together with his hands, kneading it into a smooth ball. The problem with Hermione, he thought, flouring the work surface, was that she was like a terrier with a rat once she got her teeth into something, and no amount of prevaricating was going to shake her off the scent. Soon, she would know everything, and then... Sighing, he started to roll out his pizza base. Why did all his relationships with women have to be so bloody complicated.

~ * ~

The cooking was well underway, wafting mouth-watering smells into the living room of Spinner's End as Severus laid the table. 'I do hope she's hungry,' he muttered, polishing his best wine glasses. This way, at least, he could be sure they'd be having something edible for dinner which would taste good and not give him heartburn afterwards...like that curry had.

Punctual as ever, Hermione arrived on the stroke of seven. She smiled wearily and pecked him on the cheek. 'Wine,' she said, thrusting a bottle into his hands.

'Thank you.' Severus looked her up and down appreciatively. She'd taken the trouble to dress nicely and apply some make-up, but it hadn't disguised the bags under her eyes. 'Are you all right?' he asked. 'You look... tired.'

Hermione nodded, and tapped her pocket. 'Been reading...'

'Ah. The, er... books.'

'Yes. The, er... books.' Hermione sighed. 'I've hardly slept. My life up until the Battle of Hogwarts is in there, and... Severus, I scoured most of central London unsuccessfully. How on earth did you manage to find them?'

Severus' response was to gather her into a one armed hug and kiss her soundly. 'Dinner first, and then I will tell you all I can...'

~ * ~

'This is the best pizza I've ever tasted,' Hermione said between munches.

Severus inclined his head, obviously pleased. 'I'm glad you think so,' he said, helping himself to some salad. 'I always find that good ingredients simply prepared make the best meals.'

'Mmm... I'll say. May I have more wine?'

'And...' Severus said, refilling her glass '... I've made Tiramisu for afters...so leave some room for it.'

'No problem...' Hermione's eyes drifted to the little pile of olives on the side of Severus' plate. 'Don't you like them?'

'Saving them for... later,' he replied.

'Oh...' Blushing, Hermione reached for her wineglass to cover her embarrassment. 'I see.' He was trying to divert her attention again, she was sure of it, reminding her of that thing he'd done with the olives the night the fuse board had caught fire, but he wasn't going to get his way this time, oh no. 'Stop trying to distract me, you sneaky Slytherin. There'll be no nookie for you until you tell me what's going on...'

~ * ~

Sated, if not stuffed, Hermione flopped down on the sofa, accepting Severus' offer of coffee with a tired, 'thank you.' He placed the small tray beside her, took a cup for himself and sat down opposite in the armchair closest to the fire. Hermione was looking at him expectantly.

'Before we get to the books,' Severus began, 'I must tell you something of my past for any of this to make some kind of sense.' He closed his eyes as painful memories rose, unbidden, to the front of his mind. But, thanks to the effect the amulet had had on his emotions, he was able to view them objectively, almost as if they had happened to someone else. 'And I have to tell you that I do not possess all the answers.' He took a sip of coffee. 'I suppose I need to go back to when... Voldemort was... defeated, the first time around...'

'Go on,' Hermione said.

'You know, of course, that Dumbledore gave me the Potions job... after...' He swallowed, struggling to find the words. 'I knew in my bones that Voldemort would return...despite all the prattle in the Prophet...it was just a matter of time. And so... I decided to make the most of my freedom, for want of a better word, while I still had the chance.'

'Oh?'

Severus sighed, resting his head on the back of the chair. 'Naturally there were limits; I had my duties as a teacher, and later a housemaster, which took up most of my time. But when I had the chance...holidays, free weekends...I would get away, visit towns and cities, go abroad or seek solitude in remote parts of the highlands, whichever way the mood took me...'

Hermione put her cup down and nodded encouragingly. Kicking her shoes off, she made herself more comfortable on the sofa, tucking her legs to the side and smoothing down her long skirt. Severus smiled at the sight, his thoughts very much brought back to the present, but pressed on with his tale.

'Often, I would take the train back to Scotland...'

'The Hogwarts Express?'

'Don't interrupt!' he snapped. 'No, ordinary Muggle transport...just for a change of pace, you understand, to slow things down a bit sometimes, to watch the countryside go past... and...'

Hermione kept her mouth firmly shut, watching Severus closely. Whatever he had to say was causing him great consternation. Better leave him tell it in his own time, however long that took.

After a pause, Severus tried again. 'On one occasion...it was about two years before you attended Hogwarts, I think...I was staring out of the window, when a woman asked me if the seat opposite was taken. I said no and she sat down. She fussed around with bags and suchlike, eventually settling down with a newspaper.' He stared into his cup. 'I was a bit put out with having my peace and quiet disrupted by all the rustling, to tell the truth, and was seriously considering Disapparating from the toilet...' and gods I wish I had. 'Then, she fished around for a pen and started the crossword.'

'Crossword?' Hermione said, no longer able to hide her curiosity. Where could he possibly be going with all this?

'She started muttering,' Severus said, ignoring her, 'nibbling her pen and frowning. "Two down, Aconite," she said. Without thinking, I said "Wolfsbane or Monkshood." She looked at me, surprised, and asked me if I was a botanist. I said not exactly but that I had an interest in plants, and she said she liked flowers but wasn't that knowledgeable, and the conversation went on from there.'

Hermione stared wide-eyed. 'What the hell did you tell her? How to brew Wolfsbane Potion?'

'No, not... exactly.'

'What do you mean, not exactly?'

'I did say that, according to legend, Wolfsbane was associated with Werewolves,' Severus replied calmly. 'Her face lit up at that as it transpired she had an interest in myths and ancient legends. She started babbling about being a writer and that she wanted to come up with a story where folk stories and mythology could be worked into the present day.'

Hermione frowned. 'Severus, are you trying to tell me you divulged the existence of the Wizarding world to a random Muggle woman on a train, who then wrote...? But... Hang on a second, how could she have known...how could you have known...? All this happened before...'

'I know.' He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. 'I'll get to that in a minute. I did not, as you put it, divulge the existence of the Wizarding world to that Muggle. All I did was give her a tale I heard at my mother's knee about a magical school, the fall of a Dark wizard called Grindelwald, the rise of another, his seeming defeat by a baby and a mother's love...she lapped that bit up, incidentally...and that was it.'

'But why, Severus?' Hermione asked, horrified. 'What on earth possessed you to do such a thing?'

What indeed. 'Perhaps because an attractive woman was taking a real interest in me for the first time in my life.'

Hermione snorted. 'You were showing off.'

'When I started talking, I couldn't seem to stop, and she just listened.' Severus stood up, put his cup on the mantelpiece, and started pacing. 'I'd never told anyone so much personal information before, but it was a long journey, it passed the time, and I thought I'd be able to do a quick Oblivate before she got off.'

'So why didn't you?'

Severus shrugged. 'Unfortunately, I fell asleep, and when I awoke, she'd gone.' He looked at Hermione, expecting some sort of disparaging comment, but she was just shaking her head in disbelief.

'There wasn't an awful lot I could do,' Severus protested. 'I didn't know her name, and, ultimately, I didn't think that any harm had been done. However... not long after, odd things started to happen.'

'What sort of things?'

'Not much at first, little things.' Severus resumed his pacing. 'The centaurs reported strange goings on in the Forbidden Forest...or, the Friendly Forest as I knew it, then. Dangerous creatures appeared from nowhere. Dumbledore was so worried, he declared it out of bounds, which didn't go down too well with everyone else as it was a favourite place for picnics in summer.'

'You're not serious.'

'But I am. And as for Dumbledore...' Severus let out a long sigh. 'I'd always known him as a rather sober, conservative sort of wizard. Then, overnight, he developed a taste for outlandish robes in clashing colours and a fondness for sherbet lemons, and it didn't end there. Things seemed to get even stranger once your year arrived; I found myself saying and doing things that were so unlike me, I thought I might be possessed at one point...like someone was putting words in my mouth. I caught myself mooning over Lily Evans...who, before you say anything, was an old friend I'd had a crush on, but I was over it by my seventh year. In fact, I was going out with a girl from Ravenclaw by then, but I digress. Days and sometimes weeks just... vanished, but no one else seemed to notice that anything was amiss, apart from me. The Muggle world, however, in the rare moments I managed to go there with Voldemort on the rise again, carried on as normal, as far as I could tell.'

Hermione was very quiet. Severus could almost hear the gears in her mind milling his words, struggling towards a conclusion that would rock her world to its very foundations.

'That is weird...' Hermione said slowly. 'Looking back, I also think there were... inconsistencies in my behaviour...particularly the year we were on the run. In fact, it was downright erratic.'

Severus nodded. 'I noticed. And... I also noticed that there was a conspicuous increase in Muggle-borns in your year...' Severus looked at her intently. '...which I found rather curious. And... to cut a long story short, I did some digging.'

'And?'

'And... I checked the records, the Muggle birth register, for you and your... contemporaries.' Hesitantly, Severus moved towards Hermione and sat down beside her, taking his hands in hers. 'There was no trace of any of you.'

'Severus, you're scaring me.'

'I'm sorry,' he said, squeezing her hands. 'There's no easy way for me to say this. I... decided to ask Minerva, as she'd gone out to the first-year Muggle-born families that year, if she'd had any problems with the parents. She could only really remember yours because they hadn't believed a word she'd said. But when I went to the address she gave me, the people living there had never heard of the Grangers.'

'Wha-what?' Hermione spluttered. 'I don't understand.'

'It was only then,' Severus said gently, 'that I realised Minerva, and probably everyone else in the wizarding world, including you, were visiting a Muggle world very different from the one I knew. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think they'd believe me. But, when you accompanied me to Chicago, you saw my version of it, saw an exhibition which does not exist in your world. Without me, Hermione, you could not have done so. The same goes for London. Which brings me to the books.'

Hermione wasn't sure if she wanted to know; it was too frightening, but she'd come this far. 'Tell me,' she whispered.

'I didn't know about them until a couple of years ago,' he admitted. 'After the Battle, with my injuries, I didn't venture far from here. But when I did find out, I was... stunned and then the truth, improbable as it was, finally dawned: I had been living in a fabricated reality.'

'No-no, it's not possible!' Hermione tried to pull away, but Severus drew her closer, rubbing circles on her back as she started to sob on his shoulder. 'I'm not a figment of someone's imagination! I'm not. I can't be!'

'Hermione, listen to me.' Gently, Severus prised her away from him and brushed a stray tear from her cheek. 'You are here. Now. You are as real and solid as I am.'

'Am I?' she sniffed. 'Are you sure?'

'Of course I'm sure. Now stop crying.' He rummaged in his pocket for a hanky. 'Here. Wipe your eyes.'

'Th-thanks.' Dabbing her eyes, Hermione swallowed heavily. 'So, what you're saying is the Muggle world I come from and visit from time to time is imaginary?'

'No,' Severus replied. 'It's real. For you.'

'But I still don't understand,' she persisted. 'If what you say is true, the time-line is all wrong. She wrote those books after the events happened, creating the-my present from the future. It doesn't make sense.'

'I told you I don't have all the answers,' Severus replied. 'If time went out of sync between the two worlds for those seven years, I didn't notice, but we seem to have caught up. Time, in any case, is relative, and if you throw magic into the mix, well, who knows what can happen. I'm not sure why I'm the only one who can still visit that reality, though...the one with the books...when it's closed to everyone else. Perhaps it's because I was the one who planted the idea in that Muggle's brain, and it fixed me at a point in time and space. But I do believe that the two realities diverged not long after that fateful train journey.' He smiled wryly. 'For all we know, there could be another alternate universe out there somewhere where Potter did not vanquish the Dark...'

'That's horrible! I don't even want to go there...' Hermione blew her nose loudly. 'Huh. I suppose it does go a long way to explain why the memories of my childhood before Hogwarts are so vague, though...if I only came into being at eleven.'

'Quite so.' Drawing, his wand, Severus cast a cooling charm on her face. Hermione smiled at him appreciatively. 'I realise this must be a terrible shock for you, Hermione. I'm so sorry you found out about it. But now you do know, the important thing to remember is that you...like me...continued on afterwards. I didn't die like she wanted: you did not pop out of existence. You have made a life for yourself, a career, which was not dictated by anyone else...'

'Oh, my God! I'm supposed to be married to Ron!'

'There. You see?' Severus said chuckling. 'Do I look like Ron Weasley?'

That got a smile out of her.

'And,' he added, pushing her hair away from her face, 'I will tell you this: it will be a cold day in Hell before I let him, or anyone else for that matter, take you away from me.' Severus tilted her chin and kissed her very softly. 'Now. Did that feel real enough for you?'

Hermione bit her lip and frowned. 'I'm not so sure... Perhaps we should repeat the experiment...?'

'Witch...' Smirking, Severus placed a deliberate trail of kisses all along her jaw bone up to her earlobe. 'How about this... or this... or... this....?'

'Oh, yes... That's... that's pretty convincing...'

~ * ~

Sometime later, stretched out on his hearth rug, Severus contemplated the turnabout in his fortunes while tracing his fingertips along the thighs of the woman beside him. Body sticky with sweat, the evidence of their lovemaking all too evident between her legs, he could only wonder at the beauty of her.

'Severus?'

'Hmm...?'

'I was just thinking...'

'You surprise me.' Lazily, Severus flicked his tongue over the nearest nipple, causing her to squeal most satisfactorily.

'No, really,' Hermione said giggling. 'I was just... pondering the nature of reality. I mean, what if everything anyone ever said or did was simply a story penned by some... omnipotent being? What if this... what we're experiencing now... was just the perverted imaginings of some-some sex-mad, middle-aged Muggle...?'

He was over her in an instant, cutting her off with a kiss. 'If that were the case, I would get down on my knees and thank him or her for giving me the most beautiful gift a man could hope for.'

'Me?'

'Yes, you, Unspeakable Granger.' He sighed, shifting his weight as Hermione spread her legs for him, resting his head between her breasts. Her hands were in his hair, raking his scalp; he could die here, a very happy man. 'And after I had done that, I would lay you on the bed, floor, or any other available surface, shove my imaginary cock up your imaginary cunt and fuck you until you were left in no doubt as to the reality of the situation.'

'You are an Unspeakably filthy man, Severus Snape.'

Severus grinned. 'How right you are, my dear. How very right you are. Now, would you like me to give you a hint as to the depths of my depravity, hmm? Accio olives!'

~ END~