7

A/N: All hail the end of evil cliffies and awesome betas like DreamyDragon and Persevero.

Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made. *hides behind flimsy disclaimer*

Hermione walked down the hallway towards the room where she'd spent the past four days. The house seemed quite secure. Between the original owner's wards and the new ones, she suspected this was the safest place in all of Europe, if not the world.

While portions of the house bore evidence of the new owner's decorating...if it could be called that...the majority of the house rather screamed Albus Dumbledore. Seven Chinese contortionists from the 1932 Wizarding World Circus Troupe literally had screamed "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore" before cartwheeling out of their portrait. She still couldn't suss out the exact location of the house; the location spell she'd cast had stubbornly refused to reveal anything but "the summer home of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore". Still, it had calmed her harried nerves to know the lineage of the house; it was far more likely she'd encounter dancing teapots than a hexed object or an anti-Muggle jinx.

Having investigated the area thoroughly, she relaxed and thought back to the kiss she and Lucius had shared before their captor's interruption. If they'd had wands, she might have suspected him of befuddling her. Instead she'd fallen prey to his natural charm, which was far more ominous. She flushed as she remembered the kiss. Oh, it had been a good kiss.

She shook her head. As much as she wanted to puzzle through her feelings for that haughty pain in her arse, there was still work to be done, questions to be answered. Why they were here, and what business their captor had with them, for example.

Hermione quietly unwarded the door, unsure what scene awaited her on the other side. She congratulated herself for having left Lucius alone with the man while the Polyjuice wore off. After hearing Lucius talk about him so fondly, she'd suspected that finding out Severus Snape was alive...and had kidnapped them...would cause a maelstrom of emotions that Lucius would be loath to process in her company.

Lucius still crouched on the floor next to their abductor. After shutting the door quietly behind her, she was quite shocked to see him, tears still glistening on his cheeks and clutching Snape's hand.

'You were right, weren't you, Hermione?' Lucius asked quietly. 'Thank you.'

The reverence in his voice still surprised her. Dammit! Focus!

'There's no one else here. Well, except for the house-elf I accidentally stunned,' she said sheepishly. 'It seems Snape inherited this house from Albus Dumbledore, which explains why Severus Snape has a Room of Requirement in his home. Oh, and I found our wands.' She handed over Lucius's, wondering afterwards if it was the brightest idea to arm him.

'So, are you ready to find out what's going on?' she asked.

Lucius nodded, casting a spell Hermione didn't recognise to clear the physical evidence of his reaction to Snape's survival. The warmth she'd grown accustomed to seeing in his eyes was replaced with cold steel.

'Ennervate,' Hermione cast.

Severus Snape groaned and slowly stirred, wincing as he turned his head. He looked considerably better than the Snape from her memory...the one lying in a pool of blood in the Shrieking Shack. His hair brushed the top of his shoulders. He was heavier. His cheeks were tinged with pink rather than sallow or gaunt. Granted, the bruise blooming across his neck didn't make him the picture of health.

He squinted at her. 'Buggering hell! Hermione Granger? Did you conjure a twenty-five stone brute to flatten me, or was this your handiwork?'

'My handiwork entirely.' She continued pointing her wand at him. 'Perhaps you could resolve some mysteries here, Professor Snape. As well as this room has treated us, I'm rather looking forward to returning to my home.'

'I don't suppose you could be arsed to loosen my bonds or cast a Healing Spell. This neck has taken quite a bit of abuse over the years.'

Hermione glared at him before murmuring a basic healing charm. 'There, any internal damage should be healed. You'll need Bruise Paste to clear up the last of the bruising.'

Snape's eyes narrowed. 'Obviously, Miss Granger.'

She grabbed a piece of parchment off the desk and scribbled down several questions. 'Auror Granger, actually. How is it you survived the Shrieking Shack, Professor Snape?'

'If I tell you, will you leave me in peace?'

'Perhaps,' she replied, making a point to flutter the business end of Snape's wand.

'Albus arranged a number of Portkeys tied to my physical well-being. After that damned snake bit me and I lost consciousness, one brought me here where Albus's rather attentive house elf, Fluffy,' he winced before continuing, 'cared for me.'

Snape's eyes, which had been trained on the wand, flicked away, searching the room. 'Lucius.' His voice wavered.

'Severus,' Lucius returned, his voice chilled, 'would you care to explain why you abducted us?'

'Is it so hard to believe that after surviving a long period of convalescence I wanted to see an old friend, Lucius?'

'Severus, kidnapping me for half a week hardly leaves me inclined to believe you.'

'Lucius, you idiot, I sent you the package with the Portkey four weeks ago, at a time when I was in Britain and available to meet you post haste.'

Hermione interjected, 'And where exactly have you been, Professor Snape?'

'I've been in the Maldives for two weeks, gathering a number of rare ingredients. You weren't meant to be here so long. Actually, Auror Granger, you weren't meant to be here at all. Bloody hell, the house-elf was having an apoplectic fit when I Portkeyed back. Do you have any idea how much you've cost me between Sainsbury's and expenditure in seven different countries?'

'You send Fluffy to Sainsbury's?'

'Granger, do you take me for a complete fool? I taught her to use the internet. Thank Merlin for their delivery service. I simply cannot tolerate grocery shopping. You two spend more in a month than I do in a year!'

Hermione imagined Snape pushing a trolley through the aisles of Sainsbury's, glaring at the heels of the little old ladies inevitably blocking the entire tea aisle and scowling at children screaming at their mums for a box of Coco Rocks. Thank Merlin for Sainsbury's delivery service, indeed.

'Yes, it's quite clear that you aren't keen on grocery shopping. Lucius, Professor Snape here has an entire cupboard of white bread from Shoprite,' she accused, momentarily forgetting that Lucius was hardly acquainted with Muggle groceries. At Lucius's blank look, she explained, 'They were sold in 1994. He's had loaves of bread under Preservation Charms for over ten years!'

'Auror Granger, some of us do not require daily deliveries of Pain Poulain direct from Paris," Severus ground out.

'Still,' she argued, "you weren't even living here then! What, did you have Fluffy retrieve an entire cupboard full of old bread?'

Snape left the rhetorical question unanswered.

'So, the first package was the Portkey. What did you send to Mr. Malfoy in the shipments that followed?'

'How are you so certain the other packages weren't also Portkeys that either escaped your detection or didn't fall into Lucius's hands?'

As Hermione opened her mouth to respond, Snape sighed laboriously and continued, 'The other packages were not Portkeys. I found several texts that I thought would be of interest to Lucius, particularly given his penchant for wine, both magical and Muggle, and gardening. I especially thought Pratt's Gardener's Guide to Fritillaries would captivate him. Only Lucius would invest an entire greenhouse to beautiful, rare flowers which give off the stench of rotting faeces.'

'Honestly, Severus, it's not so difficult to remember to cast a Bubble-Head Charm before you enter the greenhouse,' Lucius said with a smirk.

'Yes, Lucius, it is. Granger, have you finished ascertaining whether I pose a threat to Lucius? I would very much like to renew my acquaintance with my friend. In private.'

'Professor Snape, as your Portkey has inconvenienced me for several days, I think you can spare a few more minutes to answer my questions. Why the Polyjuice?'

'I use it whenever I go out. Frankly, I'd rather the entire world not know of my existence. However, now that one of the "Golden Trio" has found me out, I'm certain that my anonymity has a life span of five minutes after I show you to my front door. I'd Obliviate you except I suspect the memory gap would be noticed during your next six-month Auror check-up.'

'I assure you, I'll leave you living in as much anonymity as possible. Yet, you do realise my supervisors will have noticed I was missing. I shall have to be quite creative to come up with a story with enough shreds of truth to be believable.' She glanced at her questions and continued, 'Why such a convoluted plan, Professor Snape? Why not Apparate to his home? Why not owl him to arrange a meeting?'

'Do you know how absurdly prohibitive his wards are? They might allow me to enter in my own form, but they won't allow access to someone who is Polyjuiced, Disillusioned, or under a glamour. On the off chance that Lucius does entertain visitors, I wouldn't dare Apparate to his home without a disguise. And how could I have possibly revealed my continued survival via owl? Even I am not that callous.'

She continued with her questions, ignoring Snape's mutterings that the entire interview was like having her back in the classroom all over again. In relatively short order, Snape gave terse answers to her inquiries regarding his whereabouts, his normal activities, who...if anyone...he was in contact with in the wizarding world, pseudonyms he'd used, his plans for the future, and why he'd waited until now to contact Lucius.

She left Snape and Lucius alone while she revived Fluffy and sat in Snape's study trying to concoct a plausible explanation for where she and Malfoy had been for three days. Was it three days? She counted the number of dinners. Oh, she would miss those dinners. The takeaway around the corner from her flat didn't begin to compare to the curried aubergine she'd eaten here.

At great length, she fabricated a story involving her parents, a mobile phone, and a Portkey they'd accidentally picked up from her flat. At the words "Muggle mobile phone", she was sure to scare off anyone in the department, save Harry. She sighed. There were a thousand places she'd rather go than back to her dingy office at the Ministry. Perhaps she should give some serious consideration to leaving. She did have some money saved up, after all.

She meandered over to the bookcases and blinked owlishly at them. The variety of texts was dizzying. Was this Snape's influence or Dumbledore's? She laced her fingers behind her back to keep herself from grabbing any of the books. Snape would probably treat such an invasion of his library as if she were rooting through his underwear drawer. She contented herself with skimming the spines.

Before she could ogle more than one or two shelves, Snape barged into the room with Lucius in tow. With scarcely two words, he escorted them outside, walked them to the edge of the property's wards and bade them farewell.

Lucius faced her. 'Hermione, I must leave. It's Thursday, and Draco will be expecting me at the manor for dinner shortly. I'm sure the house-elves have already alerted him to my absence, and I must see him before he does something foolish like report the two of us missing. I shall see you sometime?'

She nodded. With that Lucius Apparated. She looked at the house, or rather the direction of the house if the wards allowed it, and frowned. The excitement was over. Back to her flat. She kicked a rock, bouncing it against the wards, and Apparated.