Two

CHAPTER 2

Hermione arrived early the next morning, smiling and ignoring Severus' scowling at her cheery disposition.

"Good morning!" she almost sang.

"Hermione, no one is that chipper in the morning."

Hermione shrugged. "I am. I'll just get settled in front. Don't worry about anything. If I need your advice, I'll come back and ask."

Severus was about to say something when she disappeared into the front part of the store. He shook his head before taking a few ingredients down from the shelves and beginning to brew.

Hermione settled in up-front. There was a nice desk towards the back of the store with a plush office chair. Orders could be taken and filled from that spot. Hermione settled into the chair and looked around. The shop was quite familiar as she had been frequenting it for seven years now. She'd garnered Severus' help with a particularly difficult case at the Ministry, and to her great surprise, she'd found him to be quite different from the dragon of a professor she remembered. Since then, she'd come to Severus with many issues, and they had become friends.

Hermione's musings were quickly pushed away as the bell over the door rang. An elderly woman, who more closely resembled a character from The Wizard of Oz than a real witch, came slowly in. She was bent over and used a cane to walk. Making her way to Hermione's desk, the woman sneered.

"Where's Severus? I need my potion."

Hermione smiled. "I'm his new assistant. I'll be more than happy to get it for you. What's your name?"

The woman screeched and started to yell. "My name?! Severus knows my name. Now tell him to get out here now and give me my potion!"

Before Hermione had a chance to respond, Severus swept through the curtain that separated his lab with the store holding a small vial.

"Here you are," he said calmly. "That should last until next month. I'll see you then."

The old woman grunted and slammed two galleons down onto Hermione's desk. Glaring at Hermione, she turned and slowly stalked out of the store. Once she was safely out of earshot, Severus turned to Hermione.

"One thing to remember about our clientele, Hermione: never ask them their names." With that, Severus disappeared through the curtain, leaving Hermione to stare after him.

The day literally dragged by. Few people came into the shop, and Hermione was beginning to realize why Severus didn't already employ an assistant. He simply didn't need one. A few orders came in via owl, and Hermione packed them up quickly and sent them off to what she suspected were fake addresses. That, however, was all the activity that came through for the day. At closing, she went into the back room and looked at Severus, who was furiously stirring a cauldron. Waiting until he seemed to have completed his task, she began when he looked up at her.

"Severus, is it always this slow?"

"Yes. Most of my business is done via owl shipments."

Hermione's eyebrows knit together. "How do you survive?"

Severus huffed. "The price of my orders make up for the lack of quantity."

"Yes, but think of how much better you could be doing if you catered to more of the population."

"Hermione..." Severus ground out. "We went over that yesterday. I will not compromise my products' name just to be accepted."

"I know, I know. It's just that..."

"Hermione!" Severus said with finality.

Hermione scowled at him. She'd long ago learned not to be offended by his gruffness. She usually found his attitude comical these days, but today, it just irritated her. "Fine!" she retorted. "You won't hear another word about it from me!" She turned and stormed out before Severus had an opportunity to tell her how perfect her solution was.

In the front of the shop, she fumed as she gathered her purse to leave. This wasn't over. Severus needed help, and she was going to give him help, whether he liked it or not. She looked around the small shop, taking in the rows of potions packing the thin shelves that lined the walls. It was unjust for him to have to suffer for everyone else's bigotry. Something had to be done. With a determined look, Hermione vowed to herself that she'd have an answer soon. Swinging her bag over her shoulder, she yelled to the back room, "Good night, Severus. I'll see you tomorrow."

She smiled slightly when she heard the grunt he gave in response. The man was almost endearing in his predictability for being gruff.

The next morning came quickly, and Hermione entered the shop with a bright outlook. She meandered to the back of the shop and greeted Severus. His customary scowl was her only reply.

"Would you like something to eat?" she asked him. "Maybe a muffin or toast with some tea will improve your morning disposition?"

Severus looked up at her and then quickly back down to the cauldron he was filling with ingredients. "That would be welcome," he said.

"All right, then, I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later she was back with a large platter of toast and jams and two steaming cups of tea. Severus moved to an empty table and motioned for her to place the small feast there so they could enjoy it.

"Where did you come upon all this?" Severus asked as he took a piece of toast and began to spread currant jam liberally upon it.

"Have you heard of the Floo network?" Hermione asked saucily. "It's just a second to get back to my flat and whip up a decent breakfast."

Severus gave her a measured look. "No press was waiting at your fireplace, eager to find out who you were with all night?"

Hermione frowned. "Very funny." She pulled The Daily Prophet from her robes and placed it on the table between them. "I was going to wait until after breakfast to look at this, but it seems she's at it again."

Severus opened the paper and read the headline aloud.

"Gryffindor Princess a Spoiled Brat!" He huffed as he took a bite of toast.

"Wonderful," Hermione said in disgust. "You might as well read it aloud. Perhaps I can gather some perspective from sharing this with someone instead of steaming alone in my flat at her lies."

Severus nodded and began. "Gryffindor princess, Hermione Granger, war hero and best friend of the "Boy who Lived", is not the sweet, angelic, goodie-two-shoes she's led us to believe. According to a close source, Granger's ex-mother-in-law...Molly Weasley, the young woman throws tantrums at the drop of a hat."

Severus continued. "My Ron loves his Quidditch," reports Mrs. Weasley. "Of course you all know that. He's a superstar. Well, Hermione would never support him. She would hardly ever go to his matches, always complaining about the time taken out of her schedule. She never supported her husband. It usually ended up with her stomping out of the room in a huff, screaming that she wanted to do something-or-other and that he was keeping her from it."

Hermione choked on her toast. Severus looked up with concern. Hermione was taking large breaths to calm herself. She could feel her blood boiling within her, and the urge to throw the whole platter of breakfast across the room was so great, she was having trouble controlling herself.

"All right?" Severus asked as she fought to calm down.

"I trusted that woman! I opened up to her as if she were my own mother!" She looked down and swallowed hard. "I loved her like my own mother," she said quietly.

"Hermione..."

She lifted her head quickly. "Do you want to know the truth of that story? That 'tantrum' happened once, just before we split up. She claims I never went to his games. I never missed one! Never! But no one seems to remember that. No. This game, however, was right during the time I had a huge audit due the next day. I had been running behind on my work because Ron insisted I take off to accompany him to the Cannons/Falcons game. If I didn't finish the audit by that night, my job was going to be in jeopardy. You would have thought I'd stabbed Ron through the heart telling him I couldn't attend his precious game! Did I stomp out of the room? Yes, I did! Was it childish? Probably, but his actions were even more childish. He accused me of loving my job more than him! I didn't... I couldn't... I..."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Severus had risen and was standing next to her, leaning forward with a look of concern on his face. "Hermione, let it out. You've had it bottled up inside you for months now. Just let it out."

Her carefully constructed dam of emotions broke, and the tears she'd denied herself since her divorce fully consumed her. She buried her head in her hands and cried. "Why must she lie to make her son look good? He's a celebrity. Everyone loves him anyway. Why does she have to make me look like a heartless wench?"

Severus stooped down and rubbed her back. "She has grown used to the media attention and thrives on it. She isn't doing this for Weasley; she's doing it for herself. If she doesn't come up with lies to say about you, she will not have the attention."

She lifted her head and looked into Severus' eyes. "I trusted her. She's twisted everything I've ever said to her into a trashy news story."

"The press will eventually lose interest. She will be left with nothing then."

"What if they don't?"

"Well, a judicial curse or carefully placed potion will silence her for good."

Hermione pulled back and giggled. "Don't you dare, Severus Snape. She's not worth getting in trouble with the law."

"I'm always in trouble with the law, remember? My shop is located in Knockturn Alley because no one wants to be associated with a criminal and all that claptrap."

"Still, I wouldn't want you to be in trouble because of some sense of chivalry and revenge on the woman who is out to destroy me."

"You take away all my fun," Severus said sarcastically.

Hermione smiled, but her cheeriness was short-lived. Her face fell as her mind drifted to Ron and their last conversation together.

"He said I never loved him--that I only was with him because everyone expected that of us," she told Severus quietly.

"Is that true?" Severus asked.

"I loved Ron."

"I don't doubt that, but was it the love of a man and woman, or that of a dear friend?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but closed it rapidly. Looking away, Hermione thought hard. Her eyes closed as she recalled Ron's proposal to her. She had been happy, but not ecstatic, as a bride-to-be should.

"I loved him like that once," she confessed. "A long time ago. Right after the war." Her eyes met Severus'. "He was right, though. I'm just realizing, he was right. By the time he asked me to marry him, we'd become very comfortable. There were things about Ron that I didn't like, but I just figured that was part of any relationship."

Severus nodded.

"But those things... they were too much for me. In the end, we were so very different, and our commonalities disappeared without a cause to fight against. I don't think I ever realized that until just now." She hid her face in her hands again. "What did I do? I should have never agreed to marry him!"

"Hermione," Severus offered. He moved his hand to her shoulder and grasped her firmly until she looked up at him. "Never regret what you gave fully. You may not have loved him as completely as you thought, but you gave of yourself to him. You spent years trying to make it work." His jaw tightened. "And he rewarded you by sleeping with anyone he could find."

Hermione looked to Severus gratefully. "Thank you," she answered quietly. "I wouldn't have thought..."

Severus frowned and stood up quickly. "You wouldn't have thought what? That someone as inexperienced as I would have anything to say on the subject of love?"

"No, no, it's not that!" Hermione replied quickly.

"Then what did you mean?" he snarled.

"Severus, I know very little of your love life except for your love of Lily Potter. I wasn't implying that you're inexperienced.... Are you...? I guess it doesn't matter.... I just meant that you are so direct and matter-of-fact all the time. I wasn't expecting the depth of your concern toward a problem that hardly affects you. Oh, I'm not explaining myself right. I just was surprised that..."

"Stop now, before you hurt yourself," Severus said sarcastically.

Hermione frowned to herself. "I only meant that I wasn't expecting you to comfort me with my petty problems."

"I am your friend. Why wouldn't I want to help with your so-called 'petty' problems?"

"I... I just..." Hermione looked down into her lap.

Severus' tone lightened somewhat. "I believe I understand what you are trying to say with all those half-sentences. Really, Granger, you do get tongue-tied when you're embarrassed, don't you?"

"I... Just forget it." She looked away crossly.

"I misunderstood what you said before. I am just joking now," Severus replied as an explanation for his actions.

Hermione looked back at him. "And you're back to your clipped directness again. See what I mean?"

"I suppose," Severus conceded. His gaze sent a shiver down her spine.

"Thank you again," Hermione said as she smiled at Severus. "You have a way of making me see things differently, things as they should be." She trailed off and stood. "I should get to the front--could have a customer at any minute."

"Not likely," Severus grumbled as he turned and went back to his cauldron. "Have at it anyway," he said in dismissal.

Hermione felt a bit let down as she went to the front of the store. She wondered why that was.

A/N: Sorry this has taken a while to post. Was on vacation. Hope you are all enjoying this. Many thanks to slytherinlaurel for the beta work.