Chapter 9: The Two Scientists

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

A giant hug of thanks goes out to VIVAvivacious for all of her help as my beta for this story.

--

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.

– Marie Curie.

--

Greenwich, Ipswich: 2nd September, 2009

The light filtering through the curtains of the study was bright and hot, indicating that it was almost noon. Snape had spent the better part of the day locked up in his house, ignoring the countless letters he was receiving via owl post and not reading the newspaper that undoubtedly had a photo of himself and Hermione Granger plastered to the front of it.

When their potion had proved successful after administering it to the Longbottoms a week ago, they had gone back every day to ensure that the effects had not been temporary and to help Neville with updating his parents on what had gone on during the time they had been incapacitated. Everything had been going so well, and they had remained undisturbed until the day before when apparently they had managed to make the front page of the Daily Prophet because one of the employees at St. Mungo's had been unable to keep their mouth shut.

People had crowded the hallways, spectators and the media alike, and instead of getting into the room, Snape grabbed Hermione's hand immediately, and they fled the hospital from the same direction they had come. He Apparated them to her house and left her there with the promise to contact her the next day as to whether St. Mungo's had managed to contain the leak of information and drive out the media circus.

When he contacted St. Mungo's that morning, however, they simply told him that there were reporters stationed on all the entries and that it would be nigh impossible for them to visit unnoticed. Snape had considered using Polyjuice Potion, but he thought better of it. No matter what disguise they used, if they went to see the Longbottoms, they would be discovered and harassed.

He finally summoned some parchment, along with a quill and ink, and decided to write Hermione a letter.

Hermione,

Severus

He went over to the bird stand that his own Hephaestus shared with Hermione's owl, Ophelia, every time she came to his house after a flight. After gently coaxing the owl into wakefulness, he opened the window and then attached the letter to the owl's leg.

'Take this to your Mistress, Ophelia,' he said, carrying her over to the window and allowing her to use his arm as a launch pad.

He returned to his chair and dropped into it wearily to await her reply. He was startled to find that his house was oddly eerie when Hermione was not there to bring warmth into it. He wasn't sure what to make of it. On one hand, he disliked the way the media was trying to portray the two of them in some sort of secret relationship, all because the two of them were just not ready to give interviews on the matter. They barely even had the paperwork submitted for the potion, and people were on their backs trying to pump them for information.

On the other hand, however, he worried that the way the media had been talking about the two of them in the paper would affect both their working relationship and the way they interacted with one another. Since the day they began calling each other by first name, he felt he and Hermione had become friends. It was difficult for him to admit, but he liked her. She was intelligent, beautiful, and easy to talk to – not to mention, she accepted him as he was, and not once had she forced him into a social situation that he was uncomfortable with.

Shaking his head, he summoned a book from the shelves and flipped it open. He needed to keep his mind from dangerous thoughts such as those.

An hour later, he felt the wards shift and sensed the presence of another person on his property. He closed the book and left the study, heading straight to the front door. On reaching it, he looked through the peephole and saw Hermione was standing on his front doorstep. He stepped back and opened the door, ushering her in straight away and taking her robes from her shoulders to hang up in the closet in the front hall.

'I thought it might be easier if we just talked rather than wear poor Ophelia out by sending letters back and forth all day,' she explained with a shrug.

'I don't suppose you had a tail on your way here?' he asked.

'I did, actually. I Apparated to Harry and Ginny's place and chatted to them for twenty minutes before I came here to lose them, actually,' she answered with a smile, following him into the kitchen. 'How about a cup of tea?'

He nodded and put on the kettle while Hermione went about fetching the teapot and leaves. When they had two mugs of steaming green tea, the pair sat down across from one another at Snape's kitchen table. He stared at the greenish liquid in his mug and sighed heavily.

'You really hate all of the publicity, don't you?' Hermione asked, causing his focus to switch to her immediately.

'Unbelievably so,' he answered, taking a sip of his tea. 'We weren't planning to go public this soon.'

'It was inevitable,' she said, reaching across the table and putting her hand over his in what he assumed was supposed to be a comforting gesture. 'Now all we have to do is put up with a little bit of this speculative rubbish, and then when we get the okay from the Ministry, we'll call a press conference and announce our intentions to the public properly.'

'You make it all sound so easy,' he grumbled, pulling his hand out from hers. His fingers still tingled from the contact, but he thought if he left his hand there any longer, he might not want her to let go.

'Ever the pessimist, Severus,' she said, shaking her head. 'We will make it out of this just fine, you'll see.'

'I am not a pessimist, Hermione,' he argued, his brow furrowing in annoyance. 'It is more of a problem than you are treating it. This entire thing is an invasion of our privacy and borders on defamation of character, as far as I am concerned. The media has no business putting their noses where they don't belong. We have important work to do, and they are corrupting the results with their very presence in St. Mungo's. They would have followed you straight here, too, which is on the same level as stalking in the eyes of the law.'

Hermione's frown at his rant made him stop and pinch his lips together in annoyance. Surely she of all people would understand why he had such a huge problem with the media hovering over them. If she tried to defend their actions, he was sure to snap at her, so tightly wound he was that day.

'I won't disagree with you,' she said finally. 'I suppose I just haven't had as many negative experiences with reporters as you have, save for any article Rita Skeeter has written about me over the years. She has the tendency to portray me as some sort of harlot most of the time.'

'Rita Skeeter is wholly without conscience,' Snape remarked with a smirk. 'I seem to recall quite a few articles from your time at Hogwarts where you were the featured subject of her focus.'

Hermione pouted at his remark and took a swallow of her tea before looking out the kitchen window. The afternoon sun beat down on the roof of the small tin storage shed in Snape's backyard.

'This will all blow over, won't it?' she asked, suddenly not sounding as sure as she had earlier.

Snape paused for a moment to take a sip of his now lukewarm tea. 'I certainly hope so.'

--

Wythenshawe, Manchester: 4th September, 2009

The dark clouds in the sky were depressing. It had been two days since Hermione had visited Snape, and from the moment she had left his house that afternoon, the early autumn storm had barely stopped pouring rain. All the water was keeping her indoors and giving her too much time to think by herself. And in the state she was in, thoughts were a very dangerous thing indeed.

She looked across the room and saw James and Albus Potter both sitting on the rug playing with their toys. Well, at least the two boys were getting along. All day they had been fighting, and it had been a struggle to keep the two of them apart but happy that one wasn't getting more attention than the other at the same time. Once more she had agreed to babysit for Ginny, who had to go to St. Mungo's to have check-ups done for both her and little Lily, and Harry had been unable to get time off from the Ministry himself.

When the two boys had taken a nap just after lunch, Hermione had managed to get some class schedule work done. Next week would be the start of the school term, and she still had much planning left to get through before she would be ready to begin teaching again. She asked for a cut in the number of classes she had to teach due to the overwhelming demand from medical hospitals and clinics that had already begun sending letters to her and Snape.

Little did either of them know just how large a can of worms they had opened when they began researching and working on their potion.

She looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece of the fireplace and saw that it was already 3:30 p.m. Ginny would be coming by soon to collect the boys and take them home.

Deciding to make sure they were presentable and ready for their mother when she arrived, Hermione got up from her chair and walked over to begin putting their toys in the baby bag Ginny had left for her. When everything was packed save the toys the two boys were already holding, she sat down on the rug with the two of them and summoned The Tales of Beedle the Bard over to her, causing James to squeal with joy.

'Aunty 'Mione, can you read the one about the brothers, please?' James pleaded so sweetly that Hermione was hard-pressed to find a reason to refuse him.

'All right,' she said with a smile, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek. 'But only because you asked me so nicely.'

'Bard! Bard!' Albus chirped loudly, feeling left out of the conversation.

Hermione laughed and gathered both boys onto her lap, opening the book on their laps so they could turn the pages with her. When they were nearing the end of the story, the Floo activated in the fireplace, and Ginny stepped through with Lily curled up inside the baby sling she had wrapped around her. The boys were so enraptured with the story they didn't even notice their mother until Hermione finished reading.

'Mummy!' James said, jumping up from Hermione's lap and throwing himself around her legs in a hug.

'Hello, darling,' Ginny replied, tousling his dark hair. 'Hi, Hermione! The boys weren't any trouble, were they?'

Hermione shook her head and stood, taking Albus with her and carrying him over, giggling and wriggling around, so she could give Ginny a one-armed hug in greeting. 'They were fine,' she said, hugging Albus tightly to her and giving him a kiss on the cheek. 'How was the check-up?'

'Boring and long,' the younger woman replied, wandering over to the fire again and taking a seat in one of the armchairs. 'Honestly, sometimes I think pregnancy is easier than all the fuss and tests they put you through after you give birth.'

James followed his mother over and sat on the little footstool beside the chair so he could look at his little sister while Ginny rearranged her in the sling. Hermione followed suit and seated herself and Albus in the opposite chair.

'It might be a while before I even know what that feels like,' Hermione said with a small smile.

Ginny frowned slightly at that. 'And you are sure that you don't want me to get Harry to set you up on a date with that guy from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?' she teased.

Hermione laughed at that. 'Honestly, Gin. The last thing I need is to be set up on another blind date,' she replied. 'I don't like the sort of men Harry works with – all action and very little thinking involved.'

'Well, Harry always did say you were too smart for the likes of him and Ron,' Ginny said with a grin. 'Who would be the ideal man for you? We know that all that stuff about you and Snape in the Prophet is rubbish.'

Hermione could not stop the heat from travelling to her face at the mention of Snape. In a matter of seconds her face was pink, and she felt speechless. Ginny's eyes widened and her mouth gaped open unattractively. Hermione stared down at Albus' hair, embarrassed at her own instantaneous reaction to the mention of her former professor. She had spent weeks trying to convince herself that she was being ridiculous, and then to top it off, the articles in the Daily Prophet had begun appearing.

'You little sneak, Hermione Granger,' Ginny said with a massive grin on her face that screamed 'I caught you out.' 'Are you and Snape actually dating one another?'

'We're not dating,' Hermione said shyly. 'But I can't deny I have grown... fond of him during the time we've been working together.'

'Are you in love with him?'

'Ginny! What a question to ask. I don't think I have had a lot of time to process the entire thing yet, if I'm honest,' she replied. 'I've spent the past few weeks trying not to even think about it. It won't get me anywhere good, that's for certain. Snape does not have any feelings for me, other than perhaps friendship.'

'Well, what makes you think he doesn't return your feelings?' Ginny argued, her blue eyes narrowed seriously.

Hermione laughed out loud. 'Severus Snape could not possibly have feelings for me, Ginny. I was his student once upon a time. He tolerates me,' she said, anxiety settling in the pit of her stomach. 'And in any case, I thought you would be totally against me having feelings for... Severus.'

'Oh, so it's Severus now, is it?' Ginny teased. 'But in all seriousness, I don't think Harry or I have any right to be against or for anyone you have feelings for. In the end, we just want you to be happy. If Snape is the one who makes you happy, then I say you should act.'

Hermione's brow furrowed slightly. 'You've given me a lot to think about, but I won't be making any decisions now, especially not while all this nonsense in the papers is still around. If there was any hope for him to return my feelings, these stupid rumours have surely destroyed it.'

'I wouldn't give up so soon, if I were you,' Ginny said before standing. 'All right, I think it might be time for me to take the kids home for their baths.'

'I hate bath time, mummy,' James complained, reluctantly getting up from the footstool. He had been such a little angel while the two of them had been talking, but one mention of a bath and the eldest Potter child became a brat once more.

'Well, if you don't want to take a bath, maybe you will have to go without dessert tonight,' Ginny said firmly. She was such a good mother.

'Fine, I'll have a dumb bath,' James said petulantly.

Hermione laughed at the banter and carried a now sleeping Albus over to give to Ginny. After helping them into the fireplace with all their belongings, and James wrapped around Ginny's leg, the Potters left via the Floo, and Hermione was alone once more. She went around the room tidying up things the boys had left askew, and then went to the kitchen to do the dishes from the day.

After she scrubbed all the plates, cups, and cutlery, she rinsed them and began stacking them in the drying rack while reflecting on her conversation with Ginny. Despite being younger, the redhead did have a lot more experience with relationships than Hermione did, and Ginny often knew exactly what to say. She knew she should heed the advice she had been given, but part of her objected to it strongly, telling her she should give up entirely.

Sighing, she pushed the thoughts out of her mind and finished up the dishes quickly. She still had much planning to do for work, and there was no time for her to be fretting over her personal crisis. Hermione returned to the study and opened her planning journal to the marker where she had left off earlier.

There would be time to think about Snape at a later date.

--

To be continued.