The Last Cache

Disclaimer: Except for OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

Except for the Malfoys' party, Severus kept Katherine quiet and at home for as long as he could after her injuries in Paris. He distracted her by getting her to finish the decorating. They got as far as the second guest room before she finally revolted. What initially started as a discussion about which colors to use in the paper devolved quickly into an argument about her wanting to go back to work.

"One more major find, Severus. If I can just find another cache of them, I'll give up on the last half dozen and figure I'll find them when I stumble across them."

"It's too dangerous."

"I've been doing this for over fifteen years. I think I can handle the danger."

"Has anyone actively tried to kill you before?"

She stopped and looked at him for a minute. "No... But we don't know for sure someone is trying to kill me, now."

"The evidence is almost irrefutable."

She couldn't deny it, yet she refused to admit it.

"Severus, I have to get out of here. I have to feel useful."

"Come downstairs and brew with me, then."

It was difficult. Katherine tried to sit in a quiet corner and read, but she couldn't help trying to do things to help, and Severus gave her a simple Calming Draught to work on. The boys didn't seem to notice, but the looks from Granger were difficult to take.

Severus enjoyed having his wife in the lab with him. It was a dream come true to see her bent over a cauldron. He imagined the coming evening when the students left. They would clean the work spaces and then clear off his desk. Finally he could do what he never let himself imagine doing with a student. He had difficulty keeping a straight face as he looked over the work being done, but he managed it.

Katherine wouldn't let the other matter rest. As he brought her some ingredients, she said, "I know Mundungus Fletcher has the wands I'm looking for."

"It's too dangerous. Wait until I go with you."

"I don't think we'll catch him by surprise if he has time to find out I'm looking for him."

He chuckled and stepped away. Potter's potion needed a special sort of stirring, and he wanted to watch him do it. The young wizard did a better than adequate job, and the Potions master's attention strayed back to his wife. He couldn't help returning to her side in order to stand behind her and help her chop a root in preparation for grinding.

"I could pop over to Hogsmeade and be back within an hour. No one knows I'm going and they won't be looking for me."

His lips were close to her ear as he assisted with the mortar and pestle. First they put the chopped root into the mortar. Then he held her hands in his as they worked the pestle back and forth, grinding and crushing the chopped root. "Watch as the juices are released, my love." His lips touched her earlobe. "I can go with you in a day or two, and then I'll know how safe you are."

Katherine felt her insides turning to jelly. "Oh, Severus, you're distracting me."

He stepped away, sure that his plans for the afternoon were set. Twenty minutes later, the Calming Draught was ready for bottling. Severus pronounced the potion perfect and helped Katherine fill the vials set out for the finished product. Their fingers touched often as they worked. All too soon the task was done.

The Snapes went upstairs for lunch, discussing Katherine's plan to go to Hogsmeade as they ate. "I cannot allow you to go into danger without me," he said. It was a point to which he kept returning.

"Do you realize how odd that sounds? I've been in danger plenty of times before. If I wasn't being hunted, at least I was in danger once I got to the situation. The battle six months ago wasn't exactly a school picnic, you know."

"It's different, now."

"I don't see that."

He snorted. "You wouldn't."

"One hour. I can go and come back in one hour."

He decided to change the subject. "How are you feeling this week?"

"Very well, actually."

"I would have judged that you're still overtired." He had noticed that whenever she sat down in the late afternoon, she fell asleep.

"Well, I am a bit tired, but that's just from being injured so badly before. I hardly notice even my usual aches and pains these days, and I'm sure my energy is coming back."

"How can I let you go anywhere when you aren't at your best?" He smirked, assessing that he had won the battle.

After lunch, Katherine sat in a quiet corner, again, wishing she even had an elementary potion to make. No, that wasn't exactly true. Katherine wanted to track down Mundungus Fletcher and the remaining wands. Then she wanted to come home and finish the flat's decorating, and then she wanted to take her husband some place where all they needed to do was be together. Maybe then they could dispel the worries that crept in when she least expected it.

Weasley's potion was the first finished on this day and as Snape helped him bottle it, the elder wizard quipped. "Now you have the remainder of the afternoon to spend as you wish. If you like, you may even accompany my wife to Hogsmeade..." He tried to bite his tongue on that last line, but it was too late. Katherine had heard him.

"Done!" she said as she quickly walked toward the red-haired wizard.

Severus looked at her with lowered brows. "I really don't want you to go."

"You just said I could."

"I did no such thing."

"I suppose it's all in how it's interpreted. You said you didn't want me to go alone, and now you've arranged for an experienced dueler to come with me. I'll be fine and we can contact you if there's the slightest trouble."

"Katherine, this is not what I intended. I would really rather that you not go."

She came close enough to kiss his cheek and slipped away before he could reach to hold her. "It will be fine, Severus. Have a little faith in my abilities."

She took Ron's arm and shepherded him out the door.

Katherine stood on High Street and took a deep breath, smiling into the breeze. "I've been cooped up far too long, Mr. Weasley. This is much better."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm just playing a hunch, but I think we should start at the Three Broomsticks. There might be someone who has seen him lately."

Katherine and Ron went into the inn and found a seat. Katherine handed Ron some Galleons and asked him to get her a cup of tea and something for himself. He did as she said and turned to go back to the table, but was jostled by someone who was leaving. When he reached the table, she smiled at her mostly empty cup of tea.

"He'll be at the Hog's Head in about half an hour."

Ron looked around. "How do you know?"

"He has an appointment with the gentleman who bumped into you."

"You knew that guy?"

"'Know' is such a precise word. I'm not sure it's appropriate for the situation."

"Where was he?"

"As it happened, he was in the booth that backs up to my seat."

"Oh." Ron sipped his butterbeer.

"Supposing we think of a way to catch our friend by surprise in the Hog's Head?"

"Isn't 'friend' a precise word?"

Katherine laughed. "Wasn't he a member of your Order? Wouldn't that make him a friend?"

"He was. He knows me and will likely try to get away. His last meeting with Harry was a bit uncomfortable for us all."

"Then it's a good thing there are two of us. Do you have any ideas?"

"Me?" Ron sipped his butterbeer and shrugged. "You want Hermione or Harry for that."

"I don't believe that," she responded. "I understand you were the unofficial chess champion at Hogwarts your first year. I suspect you can be quite good at planning strategy."

"Who would have told you that?" he asked.

"Who, indeed?" she said with a smile. "We need to keep it quick and simple."

There was only one person who could have told her, practically speaking. His mind couldn't absorb it so he stared at his bottle. Suddenly he nodded his head. "I might have a thought or two."

They peeked into the Hog's Head and saw Mundungus Fletcher sitting at a table in the middle of the inn, just where Katherine had been told he would be. He was facing away from the door and too busy speaking to someone to notice them. They walked up quietly and Ron put his bottle down heavily on the table. "What do you suppose this is worth?"

Fletcher saw who it was and stood up to Disapparate, but discovered Katherine's wand at his neck on the other side. "Not so quickly, Mr. Fletcher. I would like to relieve you of some items that belong to Mr. Ollivander." She smiled and her voice was like butter.

"Oh, 'o course, 'o course," he answered, a little too quickly. "I 'eard you was lookin' for 'em." He pulled four wands out of an inside pocket and handed them to her, a little too quickly for her taste.

She frowned sadly and shook her head. "What do you take me for? Some kind of chump? Accio wands!" Mundungus looked like an odd porcupine for a moment as wands flew from various apertures in his robes. Ron kept a hold on Fletcher as Katherine started going through the wands in her hands.

An hour and a half after leaving the lab, the two arrived back, smiling happily. "It worked out well, and I have all but a handful of the remaining wands. I'm going to pop over to Ollivander, and then I'll Floo home." She didn't really notice the cold look her husband gave her as she kissed his cheek. Then again, she didn't know how she had ruined his plans for the afternoon.

The potions were just about finished, so he rushed Potter and Granger through clean up and was waiting in the sitting room upstairs when Katherine arrived back home for the day. He hid the fact that he was waiting behind a new potions text that had recently been published.

"Back again, I see," he said, pretending to be bored.

"I'm done. I told Mr. Ollivander that I would keep an eye out for the last few wands, but that I'm essentially done."

"I'm sure you're going to enjoy the time off."

"I did it for us, so we can finish up here and do something else... together."

"For us? You didn't consider my concerns nor what I want in the least. You did it to suit yourself."

"I..." Suddenly, she wasn't sure. "You said young Mr. Weasley could accompany me."

"Surely you knew I was being facetious? Most people have ignored my preferences for my whole life, of course. I'm used to it."

He almost relented when he saw how that hit her. She sat down and looked at her hands in her lap. He continued to stare at the page of his book. She glanced at him, but he was ignoring her. Stifling a sigh, she looked for something to distract herself.

"Where are the wallpaper samples for the second guest room?" Katherine asked, looking at the table where she had left them.

"Aren't those the ones?" asked Severus, indicating some papers that were on the end table without looking up from his book.

"No, these are green and blue. I had gold ones."

"And you thought you left them there?" She looked carefully at him with narrowed eyes. He was trying hard not to smirk.

She sighed. "I know you didn't like the colors I picked, but couldn't you have left them where I put them?"

He was determinedly reading his book. She sighed again and took out her wand. "Accio wallpaper samples!" Instantly an old and heavy Potions book fell off of the shelf and half a dozen pieces of paper flew toward Katherine.

Severus stood up with a curse. He picked up the book. "That's broken the binding! Why did you do that?"

She took a step back toward the door and looked at him in dismay. "I'm sorry I broke your book. Did you honestly think I would forget about my samples if you hid them there? Are you that angry about my going to Hogsmeade? Is winning this argument so important to you?"

He angrily turned his back on her and took the book to a table. He looked at it for several minutes. After a minute or two his demeanor changed. "It's easily fixed. Don't worry," he said without looking up. He took out his own wand and tapped the book. "See? Good as new..."

When he looked around, she wasn't there. "Katherine?" He walked through the flat and finally found her in her study. She was kneeling on the couch. Her feet were bare and her hair had been pulled into a quick ponytail. Her face was pressed against the window. She looked like the love-starved waif she had once been. "There you are."

She spoke quietly although she didn't move. "You're right about the color. By candlelight it's a rich gold, but when daylight comes through the windows it's brassy and tacky. I'll look at your choices again."

He walked into the room and sat next to her. "What are you looking at?"

She nodded toward the park. "That family down there, they're so beautiful."

He peered out the window. "You can't see what they look like from up here."

"It doesn't matter what they actually look like. It's what they are like. See how the parents keep coming back to touch each other, and how the kids are helping to gather their things together? I wish we could be like that."

"You really want that baby."

"I think the appointment card came from St Mungo's today." She waved at a stack of unopened mail on her desk. "That's not it, though. Severus," she said as she looked at him with sorrow in her wide eyes. "I can't fight you any more."

"We don't fight."

"What would you call it, then? We quarrel about everything and all I can think about is winning the argument or putting something over on you. Usually it's good-natured, but sometimes it hurts so much..." She looked back out the window.

He sensed that she had more to say. "Katherine?"

"I've been having nightmares. It's always after we have one of these quarrels, now. Sometimes it's my parents arguing until he starts hitting her." She shuddered and put her face on her knees. "Sometimes it's one of the few times I stood up to Cyrus and what happened afterwards."

He looked concerned and reached to touch her. "I know you've been having nightmares and that they have been getting worse." His hand found her knee. He fingered her hair.

"I don't like to bring it up. It seems so pathetic, and I don't want you to see me that way."

"You know I love you, Katherine. It doesn't matter how I see you."

"Doesn't it? Isn't that what we're based on? I don't think I can keep fighting with you, yet I'm not sure if I can stop. If do I stop, maybe you won't see me as a worthy adversary any more." She bit her lower lip to keep her chin from trembling. "Maybe these elegant quarrels we've been having are just a more sophisticated form of what our parents did."

A cloud passed over his face. "Do you really think that?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I just worry about it. Sometimes our love seems like a burst of strong magic that could destroy anything bad in its path, but at other times, it seems delicate and fragile. I haven't a clue how care for it or protect it. Can you show me?"

"My dear," he said, holding his arms open to her. She moved into his embrace and he kissed her gently. "I don't know, either. I do know that you're clever, strong, capable, and so very brave."

"I don't feel brave at all, today. I feel like an enormous crybaby, lately. I expected it to be easier than this. We love each other so there shouldn't be any problems, should there? Sometimes I wake up with the thought that maybe we shouldn't be together after all. Then I think I would rather cut off my wand hand."

He kissed her eyes and tasted the tears that were gathering. "After the nightmares?" She nodded.

"Katherine, don't you love me?"

"How can you ask?" she cried. "I can't imagine not loving you. I'm just so worried..."

"Hush, my love." He kissed her into silence. "I'm sorry. We'll stop the quarreling and unkind remarks. We'll work together more. Would you like that?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry too. Nothing happened, but I should have taken your wishes into consideration this afternoon and waited. I just wanted to be done with this job."

"Now what?"

"I want to go away. I'm tired of trying to fit in, here. I know you have your students..."

"The N.E.W.T.s are in another week. We can plan to leave after then."

"Is it that easy?"

"You're not the only one tired of the society here."

She sighed and relaxed into his arms. He touched her delicately and gently. She responded with soft caresses and tender kisses. Time stood still and the world disappeared as he slid his fingers through her hair and used his other hand to mold her body to his own. Her own arms slid under his robe and her hands ran up and down his back.

When their bodies joined it was almost a surprise to both of them that something so ethereal could be so physical. Their love for each other was leading them and they followed, still moving gently and carefully. Their movements slowed and then ceased. They shifted position slightly for comfort's sake and slid an afghan, that usually adorned the back of the couch, over themselves. Their whispered comments and endearments quieted as Katherine fell asleep. Severus watched her until sleep claimed him as well.

"Master."

Severus roused himself from his nap and looked into the eyes of the house-elf. "What is it, Wilbur?" he asked quietly as he cuddled his wife closer and kissed her forehead.

"It's Messy-hair Loudmouth, Master. She insists on talking to you."

"What time is it?"

"It's five in the afternoon. I thought you could explain the theory behind my potion to me and then I could leave by dinner time." Hermione had followed the elf to the study door.

"Ummm..." Hermione's voice roused Katherine.

"Katherine," Severus said gently as he Summoned his pants, "we have company."

She came to full awareness and knew a moment of fear until she realized the afghan still covered them. "What is she doing here?" she mouthed to her husband.

He answered her aloud. "It would appear that what she is doing is gaping. If you see anything of interest, Miss Granger, kindly remember that it's spoken for. Katherine and I are both taken."

Hermione had already turned beet red and whirled around on the spot. Her former professor chuckled at her discomfiture. "Miss Granger, you may as well go to the sitting room. I'll be with you in a moment." He likewise dismissed the elf and turned back to his wife.

As they dressed, he watched her. Her movements were fluid, with very little stiffness. Except for the exhaustion that continued to overcome her as it had that afternoon, she seemed completely recovered from the events of several weeks before. He remembered the guest in the sitting room and left his wife to check her mail.

When the former Potions master and Headmaster of Hogwarts reached the sitting room, his former student had her head buried in her notebook. The only thing showing was a very pink ear. "Well, Miss Granger, if one is going to stick her nose into people's private studies, one is going to find things she might better avoid. It cannot be undone. I don't suppose you're going to show me the difficulty you have, now?"

"Um... I-think-I-figured-it-out-while-I-was-waiting-but-I-didn't-want-to-be-rude-and-leave-I-really-must-be-going-thanks." Hermione was out the door in one breath.

"The poor thing's been thoroughly embarrassed," observed Katherine from the hallway door.

"Yes, I suppose. I doubt she'll follow house-elves around private residences again. It's one of the filthy habits she picked up from her two closest friends." He walked toward Katherine and pulled her into his arms. "Did you mean what you said, before? About going to St. Mungo's?"

Katherine extracted an arm just enough to show him the scroll in her hand. "I have an appointment this week."

"And until then?"

"I will stay close to you."

"That's where you belong."

A/N: Thank you, Trickie Woo, for looking this over!