BlueArtemis - Moon Chaser

Once Hermione overcame the shock of hearing that dark chocolate over velvet voice that she'd feared had been lost to her dreams, she closed her mouth and stepped forward, holding out her hand to her erstwhile former professor.

"Professor Snape, it is a pleasure to see you alive and well, even under these circumstances," declared Hermione.

"I am no longer your professor, Miss Granger, or is it Mrs. Weasley now? In any case, that honorific is no longer mine to claim. Mister Snape will do just fine," replied Severus Snape with a smirk.

"It is most definitely Miss Granger. I don't speak to the Weasleys any more. Ronald and I had our differences. He is currently married to Pansy Parkinson under rather questionable circumstances..." Hermione trailed off.

Snape looked at her with amusement. "Well, then you are well rid of that gaggle of ginger menaces, Miss Granger. As you managed to rid yourself of the youngest with such celerity, I feel it bodes well for our association."

"Now, then, sir, as pleased as I am to find you alive and well, this will mean nothing to my investigation. I am quite sure someone on team Mercury procured those Snidgets in order to facilitate their win..." Hermione was getting wound up when all of a sudden Severus interrupted her.

"Now, now, Miss Granger, surely you are not intimating that the Malfoys or I had something to do with this? Lucius and Draco have done everything aboveboard since the end of the war in order to maintain their freedom and build their name and reputation back up. I would certainly not jeopardize my life by playing with it so cheaply. Apparently someone is trying to besmirch our name and character, do you not see?" If he was hiding the truth, he did it very well, Hermione thought.

While he'd been speaking, Severus had been moving closer to Hermione. By the time he had finished his final question, he was almost, but not quite, in her personal space. The low vibrations of his voice practically mesmerized her. Hermione shook her head. The man was dangerous. Not pretty dangerous like Lucius Malfoy, where the beauty of the man and his surroundings were as tempting as the sharpness of his mind, but darker, with sharper edges. His nose was still too large, although it seems he had managed to fix the bump in it, his eyes were dark and fathomless, and he was tall and thin. Strangely, but it looked good together. The scar at his neck was not even particularly noticeable.

"Are you done looking me over, Miss Granger?" Snape asked, a thread of humor underlying his deep voice.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Profess– I mean, Mister Snape! I was just so happy to see that you were well. But in any case, can I count on you to stop any more questionable events happening with team Mercury?" asked Hermione.

"Since I do not believe this first action originated with anyone attached to team Mercury, I would be glad to be of assistance," responded Snape.

"Wonderful! I am glad to be working with you," she replied.

Hermione realized the conversation was over and turned to leave. She was quietly pleased to find that Severus was alive and willing to work with her. There had been very few things recently to make her personally happy, so finding one was wonderful. Like catching a Snitch.

She returned to her office in good spirits and started to mentally go through the list of people who might want to cause the Intergalactic Quidditch Cup irreparable harm. She then began to cross-index that list with the inventory of people who might want to cause the Malfoys harm. Part way through, she realized this was going to require actual writing and possibly some Arithmantic calculations. She began to get everything ready for some serious research when she heard a commotion in her fireplace. She looked over and there was Ron, calling frantically through the flames.

"'Mione, 'Mione, please. Come on, give me some tickets to the matches. At least two of them, and good seats, love, come on," he cajoled.

"Ronald Weasley, I have no idea what makes you think that I am going to give you anything. Now get out of my Floo before I hex you!" Hermione was in a good mood, or she would have hexed first.

"Harry won't give me any. He still hasn't quite forgiven me for slipping him and Ginny that love potion. You won't give me any because I wanted to have sex while I was still young. The Parkinsons have enough tickets for everyone but me. What the hell do I have to do to get tickets? Give me yours, you don't like Quidditch anyway!" Ron's conversational skills had not improved with age. Actually, very little of Ron had improved with age.

Hermione pointed her wand at the Floo and muttered under her breath. Ron saw the hex and ducked out as quickly as he could. Hermione returned to her calculations.

The next morning, she was not as sanguine. The starting Seeker for team Neptune was incapacitated. It appeared someone had decided to gift all of the Intergalactic teams with kneazles. But not any kneazles. These were special blue-spotted ones. And the only known breeder of blue-spotted kneazles was Lucius Malfoy. It was a well-known fact, at least to anyone who had done their research, that Neptunians were quite allergic to felines of any kind. This was most likely not an accident.

Hermione stormed toward the offices of team Mercury. Her hair was crackling and her eyes were sparkling. She blew through the wards as though they weren't there and demanded to speak to Severus Snape. His secretary took one look at the furious witch and sent her right in.

Hermione was taken aback at the sight meeting her eyes. There was Severus, a small kitten in a basket on his desk, and a rather large, beautiful, haughty-looking kneazle sitting on his shoulder.

"Good morning, Hermione. Would you like a kitten? It appears that Darius Sauterbaum is rather allergic. Unfortunate, don't you think?" asked Severus.

"Unfortunate? He's the starring Seeker! He's the best Seeker in decades! He is known all over the galaxies! He has all the talent and is better-looking than Krum! He was one of the biggest draws to this tournament! Unfortunate?" Hermione's voice had turned louder and shriller with every exclamation point. "You are not only not being helpful but I am quite sure that team Mercury knew exactly what they were doing when they presented everyone with these kittens! Bah. Why would I ever think dealing with you would be any different than any other man? I give up, Mister Snape. I am letting you know right now that team Mercury is going to be under intense scrutiny by my team of investigators. If we find any little thing tying team Mercury to either of the incidents that have made their matches a bit easier, they will be disqualified from the Cup and will be disbarred from International competition." Hermione turned on her heel and stomped out of the office, only to turn back, grab the basket with the kitten and leave once again, leaving a rather amused Snape in her wake.

Two hours later the following diktat was made from the office of the Intergalactic Quidditch Cup committee: Any team found to be interfering with the natural course of events during the Intergalactic Quidditch Cup will be disqualified and banned from further competition.

"I told you that would be a bit much, Severus. She went back to calling you Mister Snape," Lucius spoke from the chair in the corner of the room.

"It will be fine, Lucius. Hermione Granger needs a cause to keep her happy. Did you see the way her eyes sparkled? And if you notice, that diktat had to have been written by a Gryffindor. It doesn't say "any team interfering". It says "any team found to be interfering". She gave us a loophole to take advantage of. Anyway, no one will ever tie us to any of these little events. What kind of fun would we be having without giving this competition a bit of a Slytherin twist?" asked Severus.

"Too true, my friend. Too true."

A/N: This week's words: celerity, diktat, cynosure, kitten, wand, Knightbus, password.

A/N2: Thank you very much to ladyinthecloak for the beta!

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