Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The day after the ball dawned sunny and warm. Severus woke early with an uncomfortable feeling that something dreadful was about to happen. He tried to tell himself he was being paranoid, that this certainty of impending doom was just a remnant of the life he had led before. It certainly wasn't the first time in the years since the war that he had felt this way, and usually, nothing much had come of it.

Forcing himself to behave as though nothing were amiss, he got up and went about his morning routine. By the time he got to the Great Hall, he had successfully pushed his anxiety to the back of his mind. Taking his place at the head table, he conversed idly with Minerva over bacon, eggs, toast, and tea, as his eyes scanned the students for any trouble that might be brewing. If his eyes wandered to Hermione more often than strictly reasonable, he could only hope no one would notice.

The owl post arrived, and he turned his attention to the Daily Prophet with some trepidation. As he examined the photos from the event, he reminded himself he was the one who had suggested the ruse of the night before. He smirked when he saw the front page photo of Pansy in the moments just after he had hit her with Finite, then frowned as he read the caption: "War hero Severus Snape defended the honour of his new lady love, Hermione Granger, from the insults of Pansy Parkinson. Parkinson, readers will remember, led Granger's former lover, Ronald Weasley, astray at the first Anniversary Ball, resulting in a very messy breakup." Pushing the paper away as he reminded himself yet again that this had been his idea, Severus glared at the students who were now murmuring amongst themselves as they looked from Hermione, to him, and back again. Apparently uncomfortable under such close scrutiny, Hermione abruptly hurried from the Hall without looking at Severus. He found himself unaccountably annoyed that she didn't at least smile at him.

He was just about to leave himself when Filius exclaimed, "Severus, you sly dog, I had no idea you and Hermione were together!" Severus decided to ignore him. It was none of his business, anyway.

"Together?" Minerva asked sharply. "Severus and Hermione aren't together. They're working on a research project." How, Severus wondered, had this pair of busybodies managed to avoid attending the Ball?

"That's not what it looks like here," Filius said, frowning. He Levitated his copy of the Prophet, which was open to page six, past Severus. Severus caught a glimpse of himself, looking completely absorbed in Hermione as he danced with her. He grabbed the paper out of the air and watched as the photo version of himself smiled – smiled, not smirked! – warmly (though certainly not lovingly) at his partner. He felt himself flush with embarrassment as he abruptly left the table, crumpling the paper and taking it with him.

Not that it mattered, he realised moments later, as he let himself into his private lab. He had taken Filius's copy, but had left his own, and anyway, Minerva also subscribed – she just preferred to catch up on the news in her chambers on Sunday afternoons, rather than at breakfast like the rest of them. This realisation completely negated the improvement in mood he had managed along the way by taking thirty points from a pair of Gryffindor third years who were lurking suspiciously in the corridor and then giving detention (with Argus – no need to ruin his own evening) to a trio of Hufflepuffs who had the temerity to wish him good morning as he passed.

As he began preparing ingredients for a Headache Potion (which he felt certain he would need very shortly), he wondered why it hadn't occurred to him last night that their ruse was certain to cause fallout at Hogwarts. He very determinedly refused to consider how ridiculously besotted he had looked in that second photograph.

As the afternoon wore on, he consoled himself by deciding Lucius had been right – he could be charming when it suited his purpose. And of course, his purpose at the moment was to convince Hermione to stay at Hogwarts. That was all it was.

Two hours later, Hermione was trying to focus on her marking, but her eyes kept straying to the Prophet. She had felt a tiny bit guilty at the thrill that had gone through her when she saw that humiliating picture of Pansy on the front page, but she consoled herself with the certainty that Pansy would have been thrilled without any guilt at all had their positions been reversed. She knew, because when she had finally let Ron apologise for his betrayal, he had told her, "I don't know what I was thinking, Hermione. She had seemed so much nicer than she was at school, and I got caught up in the moment. But I think she was just out to get you from the start, because after you left, she wouldn't stop crowing about how she humiliated you in front of everyone."

Breakfast had been very awkward once the post arrived this morning, with everyone staring at her and Severus. She suspected Severus wouldn't be happy about all the attention, despite his assurances of the night before, so she had hurried from the Great Hall without looking at him in hopes that her absence would allow the gossip to die down more quickly. Now she was waiting impatiently for it to be time to go meet him to continue their research. That was no reason not to do the marking she had planned to do this afternoon, however, she kept reminding herself. She glanced at the clock and then her schedule for what seemed the hundredth time that day. Still two more hours to ... Wait a minute! Where's the green?

Hermione was stunned to notice for the first time that their regular Sunday afternoon meeting – which should have showed up for four o'clock in its usual emerald green – had disappeared from her schedule. In fact, another glance showed a distinct lack of green on her calendar for the entire week!

Eyes narrowed, Hermione stared at the schedule for several minutes, trying to decide what to do. Clearly, Severus must have cancelled all their meetings in a fit of pique over the Prophet headlines from this morning. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised – she had known he wouldn't like them, hadn't she? But she hadn't expected him to avoid her altogether. And if she had thought being the subject of media attention was going to interfere in any way with their research, she wouldn't have agreed to the ruse he had suggested!

She frowned at it for another moment before a wicked smile crossed her face as she decided what to do. Picking up the parchment, she tapped it several times with her wand, then relaxed as she resumed her marking with significantly better attention than she had managed earlier.

Severus paced his office, where he had retreated once the Headache Potion had been completed and consumed. He had decided it would be fruitless to meet with Hermione for at least the next several days, since he was too irritated about the fiasco in the newspaper to concentrate, anyway. Especially since said fiasco was entirely Hermione's fault, in his estimation. If she hadn't been so rattled at the prospect of seeing her former lover and his one night stand, Severus would never have got caught in the trap of doing something so ridiculous to protect her from speculation and gossip about the old scandal.

What was I thinking? He couldn't imagine, really. And now that he had cancelled all their usual meetings for the week (thank goodness he had made her re-teach him that spell several weeks earlier), she'd probably be mad at him. He'd have to avoid the Great Hall for a few days, and it was good he knew her schedule as well as his own. He'd simply reverse his use of that knowledge, avoiding her instead of ensuring frequent encounters in the corridors.

And what had she been doing, looking so gorgeous all of a sudden? She wasn't supposed to be beautiful; she was supposed to be clever but nothing special to look at. And then smiling and laughing and seeming perfectly content to be in his company all evening? And worst yet, making him keep forgetting that their behaviour last night was all a ruse! How dare she?

Severus continued pacing, working himself inexorably up into a full head of steam. He realised he needed to calm himself, but was at a loss as to how.

Just then, Lucius's head popped into the Floo. "Severus, good work last night. You managed to charm everyone – well, I suppose the Parkinsons weren't pleased, but they've never recovered their standing or their fortune since the war, anyway, so that's all right." He paused, seeming to recognise at last that Severus looked agitated and displeased. "All right. Let's have it. What's got your wand in such a knot?"

"Have you seen the headlines, Lucius? The photographs?"

"Well, of course I have. I'm not an ill-informed cretin," he responded, sounding mildly offended. "I thought they were very flattering, if you really want to know. You can certainly see how much your health has improved."

"They're humiliating!"

"How are they humiliating?" Lucius sounded genuinely confused. He stepped through the Floo without awaiting an invitation. Brushing the soot from his robes, he continued, "The dress robes suited you admirably, your hair was less of a disaster than usual, and no one could mistake you for a vampire anymore, now you have the bloom of health in your cheeks."

"Lucius! You know what I'm talking about!"

"Sorry, old chap, but I really don't. You and Hermione made quite the dashing pair. Everyone said so."

"Which is exactly my point. The Prophet took excessive delight in highlighting my alleged designs on Hermione. They made me look like a besotted old fool!" Flopping into his chair, Severus let his hair fall into his face. "How am I ever going to face her again?"

"I don't see what you're whinging about, Severus," Lucius replied smoothly. "Stop being such a drama queen. People were bound to find out about you and Hermione eventually. If you wanted to hide it, you should have been more circumspect."

"Hermione and I are not together!" Severus protested emphatically. "That was a ruse to keep the press from hounding her about the events of the last Anniversary Ball she attended."

Lucius looked sceptical. "Really? You certainly seemed enamoured of one another. And if your whole purpose was to have people thinking you were together, I don't see why you're so upset that your ruse worked."

"What must she be thinking?" Severus moaned. "She didn't even look at me at breakfast this morning." He fell silent for a moment before an idea occurred to him. "Invite me to dinner, Lucius!" he demanded.

"Why should I invite you to dinner? I'm not inflicting you on Narcissa when you're like this."

"Yes, you are. You owe me!"

"You're being ridiculous, Severus. Go talk to Hermione. I'm sure everything will be fine. She looked just as besotted as you did. Besides, didn't you tell me your research had reached a critical stage?"

Severus glared at him, to no discernable effect. "I can't meet with her today!"

"I thought you had a standing tea time appointment on Sundays?"

"I cancelled it," Severus muttered.

"Really?" Lucius frowned at the parchment he had picked up from Severus's desk. "Then what's this on your schedule?"

"What? Give me that!" Yanking the parchment from Lucius's hand, he saw the appointments he had removed not even an hour earlier were all back in place. "How ..." he muttered under his breath. He tried the incantation to cancel them again, but this time, they flickered but didn't disappear as they had earlier. "What the bloody hell?" He tried it again; it didn't even flicker now. "What did that woman do?" He swept toward the door, so determined to confront her about locking his schedule that he forgot he was avoiding her.

"Where are you going?" Lucius's voice halted him in his tracks, and he turned to glower at the other man, whose presence had temporarily slipped his mind. "Don't you think you ought to calm down before you toss away the ground you've gained in the past two months? Anyway, I thought your big plan was to avoid her. How are you going to do that if you're off to yell at her? For something that isn't even her fault, I might add."

"How is it not her fault? She didn't have to show up looking like that. She didn't have to agree to pretend we were ... together."

"What was she supposed to do? Put on her usual teaching robes and leave her hair a bushy mess? And unless I miss my guess, she agreed to your suggestion, did she not?"

"That's neither here nor there. The point is she got so caught up in the role that everyone believed it."

"If people weren't supposed to believe it, what would be the point of doing it?" Lucius observed, sounding far too reasonable for Severus's taste. "And anyway, if you ask me, you're more upset that she didn't talk to you at breakfast than you are that people believed your little ruse."

"What? No. I just told you –"

"Yes, yes, you're upset that everyone seemed to believe you were besotted with each other. But if you ask me, the only reason you're upset about that is because you actually are besotted with her and you fear she's not besotted with you."

"Don't be ridiculous," Severus snapped. "I don't have to fear she's not besotted with me. I know she's not."

"How do you know?" Lucius asked patiently.

"What would possibly induce her to feel anything like that toward me? I've treated her like shite from the moment I met her."

"Not lately, though. Did you actually look at the pictures or were you so offended by the idea of them that you didn't really see them?"

"I looked at them," Severus mumbled.

"Well, then, look again. She looked just as besotted as you did last night, and she's always tended to show her every thought and feeling on her face, hasn't she?"

Severus ruthlessly suppressed the surge of hope that seemed determined to rear its ugly head. "I can't look again. I burned the bloody thing."

Lucius shook his head. "Really, Severus. Wasn't that just a bit childish?"

Feeling his cheeks grow warm, Severus muttered, "It seemed a good idea at the time." Drawing himself up, he added, "If you aren't going to be helpful and invite me to dinner, then at least do me the courtesy of leaving me in peace."

"How's this? You are more than welcome to join Narcissa and me for dinner, if you bring Hermione with you."

Before Severus could recover himself enough to respond, Lucius had Flooed home.