Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Severus paced back and forth, back and forth. The scene of his pacing was carefully chosen. It was right in front of Hermione Granger's door. Back and forth he went with his hands clasped behind him. He would go five paces, twirl, and then pace off five more. His robes flew behind him, although the effect was minimized by his clasped hands, which prevented the cape from wildly thrashing about. He reached his turning point and twirled again. He stopped short when Arista appeared in front of him, seemingly from nowhere.

"Severus, just knock on the door!" she said cheerily as she motioned to Hermione's door.

Severus turned and glared at the door as if it had offended him in some way. He turned back to Arista.

"What am I supposed to say?" he demanded.

Arista spun her wand around his head. "There... That will give you the confidence you need to say what you have to."

"I'd prefer to say nothing and leave it at that."

"Oh, I know," Arista assured him. "Unfortunately, you'll never find true love with that attitude." She grasped his shoulders and turned him so he was facing the door. "Now, knock and get it over with."

Severus sighed. "Very well," he acquiesced. He lifted his fist to rap on the door just as Arista disappeared from view. He began to shift back and forth on his feet while he awaited Hermione's answer.

I didn't feel this nervous when confronting the Dark Lord.

He stopped his shifting and stood still as the door opened to reveal Hermione.

"Severus! What a nice surprise. Come in!" Hermione gestured for him to enter and closed the door after he swept by her.

She smiled genuinely at him. "What brings you here? I can't remember the last time you dropped by."

Severus began shifting again. He looked to the floor. "Umm..."

Hermione gave him a quizzical look. She motioned to a flowery armchair. "Please, have a seat."

Severus turned and went to the chair. He sat and stared straight ahead. Hermione settled in the equally flowery couch that was perpendicular to the arm chair. She rested her elbow on the arm of the chair and looked expectantly at Severus.

Severus cleared his throat. He tapped his foot and cleared his throat again. He glanced sheepishly at Hermione. "I wanted to tell you of an experience I had on the night of the ball."

Hermione lifted her eyebrows, but said nothing. Severus cleared his throat again. Swallowing hard, he decided to just say all of it. He quickly told Hermione how Arista had appeared before him from nowhere.

Hermione listened attentively, nodding in all the right places.

Severus explained how Arista had told him he'd made a wish and that she was there to grant it. He explained the changing of his wish.

Hermione quietly listened and watched Severus. He looked down often, seemingly embarrassed. The spell Arista had placed over him, though, kept him talking, even though he'd much rather make a break for the door and escape with some dignity intact.

He looked up into Hermione's eyes. She was hanging on every word.

"The wish I chose involves you to some extent."

"Me?" Hermione asked incredulously. "What exactly did you wish for, Severus?"

Severus cleared his throat. He sat staring at her for a while. The spell urged him to speak, but he could not find the voice.

Hermione urged him on as well. "Tell me, Severus. I'll help if I can."

Severus gave a wry bark of a laugh. "You must understand, Hermione, when I wished, I had no idea you would be involved."

Hermione nodded her head. "Go on."

Severus grimaced. "I wished to find love. I wished for someone to love me for who I am. My wish was granted. Only then was I told that you were the one who would love me in that way."

Hermione tried to say something, but nothing would come out of her mouth. She stood up and wandered to the window. Severus watched as she folded her arms and stared out of the window in front of her. After what seemed like an eternity to Severus, Hermione turned back to him.

"I am supposed to fall in love with you?" she asked dubiously.

Severus nodded his head.

Hermione's shoulders sagged. She gave Severus a sad look, as if he were some pathetic puppy dog that she would have to abandon.

"Severus, fairies don't exist," she said quietly.

Severus looked at her haughtily. "Of course they do, or I would not have seen one! Besides, Flitwick is constantly using entire colonies to decorate the Christmas trees every holiday."

Hermione pursed her lips. "I didn't mean those types of fairies, Severus. I'm fully aware of those tiny annoyances. They constantly get caught in my hair every Christmas. They're not the same as the fairies you're talking about. You're speaking of fairies that are full-sized, wand-waving, wish-granting fairies. They just don't exist. They're simple figments of the imagination."

Severus frowned at her. "Are you accusing me of seeing things?"

Hermione walked to her bookshelf and located a book. She pulled it off the shelf and flipped through the pages for a minute. She stopped when she'd found what she was looking for. Going back to the couch, she sat and showed Severus the page.

FAIRY-WITCHES

Although the smaller variety of fairy is common in the magical world, the larger variation, or fairy-witch, does not exist. Their existence is simply a legend created by a Muggle storyteller in ancient times. The magical world fell in love with the idea of wish-granting and embraced the imaginary creature as one of their own.

There is no proof that human-sized fairies actually exist. Usually when one claims to have seen one, it is a hallucination. Medical attention is suggested for the victims of such sightings as they have probably been under a great deal of stress and need professional care.

Severus' lips thinned as he read the passage. Looking back at Hermione, he frowned deeply.

"I think you were seeing things, Severus."

Severus' voice was soft as he replied. "I know this seems far-fetched, Hermione, but I swear it's real."

"The evidence here shows that it is not. Besides, Severus, how do you expect me to believe what you're saying? You're trying to convince me that you want a relationship with me, but you can hardly stand me, and I simply tolerate you." She shook her head. "I don't get your angle."

"There is no angle. I was as surprised as you when I found out. I told Arista that you would never think it possible."

"So, this figment of your imagination has a name, now?"

Severus huffed in frustration. "I swear to you, Hermione, she's real. She's willing to show herself to you."

"Severus, I think you need to chat with Poppy."

"Hermione, please, give it a chance. It makes sense when you stop and think about it."

Hermione gave a quick laugh. "When I think about it, I'm only more convinced that you need a vacation, Severus. How can you think we would work? We are from two different generations. You're snide and hurtful, and I get my feelings hurt much too quickly to bear your tirades."

"I know I can be distant and sharp, but Hermione, we have much in common." Severus pointed to her bookshelf, which encompassed an entire wall. "Do you know I have the same bookcase wall in my room? I've glanced at your titles. Many grace my bookshelf also. We both have a love of learning and books. We both are intelligent... more so than our friends and the majority of the wizarding population. When was the last time you had a really stimulating conversation?"

Hermione blushed. She examined her hands tentatively. "It was at dinner with you the other night."

"The time before that?"

She sighed. "Also with you."

"Do you have truly stimulating conversations with anyone else?"

"Occasionally Filius and I have a good go-round, and Minerva is quite entertaining."

"Who do you have stimulating conversations with on a steady basis?"

Hermione gave him a defeated look. "Only you, Severus," she answered softly. Squaring her shoulders, she went on. "But that doesn't mean that I can fall in love with you! And really, can you see yourself falling in love with me?"

"I couldn't until the night of the ball."

Hermione's shoulders sagged. "Severus, we can't base a relationship on a dream or hallucination that you had."

"Hermione, will you speak with Arista?"

Hermione looked down and thought. "It will prove to you that you have been seeing things, Severus."

"I would probably welcome that," he mused. Looking away from Hermione, he called into the air. "Arista?"

He waited a minute, but the fairy did not appear. "Arista?" he called again. Still nothing. Hermione arched an eyebrow at him. Severus began to fidget. "Very funny, fairy. Now come out and show yourself."

Still nothing.

"Severus," Hermione said quietly.

"If you'll excuse me, Professor Granger," Severus said gruffly as his cheeks turned scarlet. He rose and stalked out of her room before she had a chance to call him back.

He felt like running and hiding. He'd never been so embarrassed in his life. His pace quickened as he made his way down the stairs. The light around him shimmered, and Arista seemed to float beside him as he took the stairs at a breakneck speed.

"Visions... simply hallucinations," he mumbled to himself.

"Oh, Severus! You are so silly! You know I'm real."

He continued down the stairs at a break-neck pace. "Not real. Definitely not real," he muttered, not looking at the fairy next to him.

Arista huffed at him and tapped him on the head with her wand.

"Ow!" he cried as he rubbed his head. He stopped and glared at Arista. A normal person would have shied away, but she only tilted her head and gazed at him, a serene smile on her face.

"Does that feel like a hallucination to you?" Arista asked as she grinned at him.

Severus wheeled around at Arista. "If you're so real, why did you not appear when I called you?" he growled.

"She cannot see me yet."

"Why not?" Severus snapped.

"She's not ready. She doesn't believe."

"I don't believe, yet here you are tittering at my side!"

Arista laughed. Severus groaned. "You had a tiny, little bit of belief in you. She has none. She has to have that tiny, little bit or she will never see me."

"So, I am doomed for her to think me mental because she'll never believe? Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Why, Severus, if I told you before, would you have told Hermione anything?"

"Of course not, you raving lunatic! That's the whole point."

Arista nodded her head as she smiled at him. "Exactly. She would never believe if you didn't tell her anything. Now she'll open her mind. As soon as the inkling of belief enters her head, I'll pop right over there."

"Oh, yes, please," Severus said with an effeminate flourish of his hand. "Just pop right on over there!"

Arista sighed. "Severus, my dear, you really need to learn patience." She shook her head at him impatiently.

"Patience?!" Severus snapped. "You make me look like a fool and then you expect me to patiently wait for Hermione to be able to talk to you? What if she never gets to that point?"

"Oh, have faith. She will get there. Just give her some time. She's a quick study."

Severus opened his mouth to respond, but Arista shimmered away. He looked crossly at the empty air where she had stood.

"She'd better get there quickly," he mumbled to himself before stalking down the rest of the stairs to the dungeons.

Hermione mulled over the strange visit by Severus. She'd never seen him in such a state. Had someone cast a spell upon him? He certainly seemed adamant that this mythical fairy existed and had had multiple conversations with him. The whole situation was incredibly odd. It definitely deserved her attention.

Getting up, she left her room and headed for the library. After a few minutes, she strode through the doors and nodded at Madam Pince.

"I need to use the Restricted Section, Irma."

The woman nodded to her and went back to the periodical she was reading. Hermione moved to the Restricted Section as she chuckled to herself. Irma Pince was a woman who took her job seriously. Even she didn't break her rule about silence in the library. What was even funnier was that Irma was a regular chatterbox outside of her workplace. Sometimes Hermione found it hard to get her to stop talking about a subject. However, when she was at work in the library, hardly a word ever escaped her tongue.

Hermione soon found herself in the stacks of the Restricted Section. She made her way down the aisle to the section pertaining to mythical creatures. Gazing at the titles, she quickly found a book titled Fabled Magical Creatures. She pulled it from the shelf. It was a lovely book, complete with artists' renderings of what each creature was rumored to look like. Turning to the index, she found an entry for fairy-witches and quickly turned to it. Her eyes studied the picture of a rather normal looking witch dressed like a princess. The woman held a wand with a star at the end. Surrounding the star sat a pair of butterfly wings that flittered slightly in the magical picture. Looking back to the fairy, who was smiling at her now, Hermione noted that the only unique part of the woman's appearance was that her hair was platinum blonde and incredibly straight.

Hermione went on to read the description. It said much the same as Hermione's book, although this author felt that fairies truly existed. It seemed that the problem with proving their existence lay in the essence of that existence.

Generally, a fairy will only be visible to its intended charge. While it is rumored that a fairy can appear at will to anyone they wish, it is also well known that fairies are incredibly particular about whom they reveal themselves to. It would be highly unusual for a fairy to show him or herself to someone other than their charge.

Hermione mulled that over. Closing the book, she returned it to the shelf. Next to that book sat another. Faerie Tales was the title of this book. She flipped through it and found it a book of stories about fairies and their lives. It encompassed stories of traditional fairies and fairy-witches alike. She decided to take this book to her room to examine it in better detail. She tucked it under her arm and walked to the entrance of the library, waving to Irma as she left.