But

A/N: My thanks, as always, to the Furies. *blows kiss*

39: But

Finally, she whispered, "Yes."

"I don't want to ask you to stay," Hermione said, still not daring to look up. "That would be asking too much – the castle holds too much of your past, and too much of it is... yes, well. And you hate teaching." A furrow crossed her brow. "I'm going to need a new Arithmancy professor."

Staffing? Despite the seriousness of the moment, Severus smiled briefly. Only Hermione would think of staffing in the midst of... wait. "It's not the teaching I find tedious; it's the students. And both are immaterial to this discussion." The words came out a bit more formally than he'd intended.

Hermione's fingers left the desk as she turned to him. "You can't stay, yet I can't leave."

"You will be unable to control the Darkness on your own, Hermione," he said, glancing at the portraits, all of whom had gone very still.

Their listening was palpable in the dim blue light.

"Minerva," Hermione said, "are there any proscriptions against... well..."

"Do what you need to to sleep, child. The castle keeps its secrets, and those of us who hang here are bound to discretion."

A sniff from one of the older portraits.

"Hush, Phineas," Minerva chided him. "Your years are over, and these children have earned some peace. Let them find it however they can."

"As long as their Silencing Charms are effective," Phineas Nigellus retorted.

Severus raised an arch eyebrow even as Minerva's tone grew sharper. "They've realigned the castle and released the soul of one of your Slytherins. If they wish to dance naked in the Entrance Hall, I, for one, will not stop them."

Hermione giggled.

"There are certain negotiations to be had with the portraits, I see," Severus said, closing the distance between himself and Hermione, unconsciously but effectively placing himself between her and the portrait of the former Slytherin headmaster. "And those will wait for tomorrow."

Hermione's eyes were bright in the moonlight as she looked up at him.

His breath caught, and he guided her to the door the Baron had indicated.

The door swung open as she approached it.

"Headmistress," Severus said, stepping back and aside to allow her to precede him.

Inside the door, she turned and extended a small, pale hand toward him.

His fingertips brushed hers, and she grasped his hand tightly.

---

The moon slipped behind the tallest branches of the Forbidden Forest.

A silent while later, the sky paled in the East.

At the base of Hermione's old tower, the flower turned to seed, and a pale, translucent hand picked the stem.

The small ghost turned to Neville and handed him the seeded flower stem.

Her eyes shone as she smiled at him, and Neville found that he knew exactly what to do.

---

When Hermione arrived at her desk the next morning, the seeded flower lay on its smooth, dark surface, together with a parchment bearing one word.

She examined the seeds closely, the delicate feathers interlacing as intricately as the vault-work on the arched ceiling overhead. As the portraits watched, she sat, taking her place as Headmistress.

The same house-elf who had changed twenty-two years of pillowcases appeared with a tray. "Good morning, Headmistress-miss. Miss is sleeping well?"

"Very well, thank you," Hermione replied, accepting a cup of tea. She tilted her head. "And you?"

The house-elf blinked at her, waggling her ears in surprise. Half-nodding and half-bowing, she squeaked, "Oooo, yes, Headmistress-miss."

Hermione smiled. "Are you assigned to individual staff members, then, rather than specific rooms?"

The house-elf's face broke into a large, lopsided grin. "Yes, Headmistress-miss."

"I'm glad," Hermione said quietly. "You've taken such good care of me. I would have missed you."

---

All over Britain, pink stains faded from the pillowcase garments of countless house-elves.

Their masters and mistresses did not notice, or, if they did, it was to idly note that their elf seemed perkier than usual. "Strange creatures, house-elves," they mused again, picking up their Daily Prophets.

Something odd had happened at the Ministry – some reshuffling of the Unspeakables, the article said. The Minister of Magic had appointed Percy Weasley to chair the oversight committee. "It's time we cleaned house. Wouldn't do to leave a mess for Potter – he's cleaned up enough of those!"

Countless witches and wizards bobbed their heads in unconscious agreement as they sipped their morning tea.

---

"What's that, then?" Phineas Nigellus barked, sneering down through his monocle at the parchment on the desk.

Hermione picked up the parchment, holding the written side away from the portraits' line of sight. She tapped its corner on the desk, running the edges through her fingers, repeating the action for each corner.

"Well, chit? What is it?" Phineas Nigellus repeated.

"I am the headmistress of this school, and would thank you not to address me as 'chit,'" Hermione said distractedly.

Phineas Nigellus snorted.

"He tries that every time," a pleasant feminine voice said from somewhere up and to the left. Hermione didn't recognize her, but she nodded an abstracted thanks.

"Well, chit? I asked you a question. Share with your betters."

"If you don't address me as 'Hermione' or at least 'Granger,' I shall forget everything I know about Silencing Charms," Hermione said in the same distracted voice.

"Ooo, this one's feisty," Phinease Nigellus cackled, leering at her.

Hermione raised her eyebrow at him. "Minerva, by any chance do the house-elves keep a store of black baize draperies? Approximately portrait-sized?"

Minerva's eyes sparkled delightedly. "They do."

Hermione looked coolly at Phineas Nigellus.

He said no more but continued to crane his neck to try to see what was written on the parchment.

Hermione crumpled the parchment in her palm and picked up the flower stem. "And how do I request the presence of one of the ghosts?"

"Concentrate," Minerva supplied.

A moment later a chime sounded from the spiraling stair, and Neville and the smaller ghost drifted through the door.

"Good morning."

Neville cracked a shining smile. "You look good behind that desk, Hermione. Um, Headmistress."

Hermione laughed, standing and coming around to join them where they bobbed in front of her fire. "Hermione's fine, Neville, really."

She dropped to her knees in front of the smaller ghost. "I don't think we've been properly introduced." Hermione held out her hand.

The little ghost blurred as she giggled, taking Hermione's hand and giving it a gentle shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Cassandra."

The little ghost held up her thumb and forefinger and moved them close together.

"Oh, shorter?"

The little ghost nodded.

"You prefer Cassie?"

Hermione was rewarded with a shy smile.

"How'd you know her name?" Neville wondered.

"Magic, Neville," Hermione teased. "The castle told me. All the students' names are recorded in the book, of course; I think it works like a Protean Charm in a way, but with a variant I've not had time to determine yet." She turned back to Cassie. "So... I understand you've been Sorted into Hufflepuff?"

Cassie smiled.

"Well, dear, welcome to Hogwarts." Hermione stood, only to find herself enveloped in a ghostly hug. She laughed again. "We'll need to get you a wand, of course, and... hm. A moment." She removed her plain teaching robes and tapped them with her wand. A hush of fabric as the robes re-sized.

Cassie's eyes widened as Hermione held out a set of Hufflepuff robes to her.

"May I?" Severus' voice interrupted from the doorway. He reached for the robes and held them for Hogwarts' newest, and oldest student.

Cassie slipped her arms into them, screwing up her face in concentration to keep the robes from slipping through her shoulders.

"Now, about this flower..." Hermione said, showing it to Severus.

"She planted that seed in the snow with some broken glass. It sprouted, bloomed and turned to seed before the moon set. This morning, there's half a field of them." Neville pointed to the single blood-red seed in an otherwise perfectly white globe. "Considering what one of those did for Professor Slughorn's soul, I thought you should know. We left it for you at sunrise – hope we didn't disturb you?"

"Not at all, Neville, thank you," Hermione said. "Professor Sprout should be informed. Would you speak with her when she returns from her holiday?"

"Of course. We both will."

Cassie had drifted backward a bit.

"We will, Cassie. No need to be shy; you've been attending her classes for years. You could probably sit N.E.W.T.s tomorrow," he said.

She shook her head.

"We'll determine your course of study tomorrow. For now, why don't you go show your robes to the dragon. He's waiting for you down with the gargoyle, isn't he?"

Cassie nodded and waved.

Neville drifted through the door, but Cassie bounced off and hovered, startled, in the air.

"Your robes," Hermione said, but made no move to solve the problem for her.

Cassie frowned.

"There is a handle," Phineas Nigellus supplied, "as anyone with half –"

Hermione held up her hand and he sputtered to silence. "Concentrate, Cassie."

Cassie shot a look back at her headmistress and nodded. She steadied herself in the air and then, robes and all, slid slowly through the closed door.

"Impossi-" Phineas Nigellus started, but then Cassie darted back through the door, her smile radiant in the sunlight.

Her robes had become as translucent as she was, but the piping remained undeniably Hufflepuff yellow.

She spun in the air, and her robes spun around her. A happy wave, and she zoomed through the door again.

"Cassie?" Severus inquired quietly, placing his arm around her shoulders.

"Cassandra, actually," Hermione replied, staring at the door. "But I think Cassie suits her."

"And that?" He indicated the flower stem.

"Apparently they're multiplying beneath my window."

Severus quirked his eyebrow. "Interesting."

Hermione stared at the red seed. She had no idea how any of it had happened, and as yet, none of it seemed real. "How did it pierce that tall ghost's hand?"

"She made a wish."

"That's not an answer," Hermione said.

"Isn't it?" Severus countered.

The gargoyle chimed again. Glancing at Severus with a half-smile, Hermione said, "I believe I will miss my solitude."

Some shadow crossed Severus' face, but he said nothing.

The sad-eyed ghost drifted in. "You required my presence, Headmistress?" he inquired politely.

Hermione blushed. "I'm going to have to figure out how that works," she muttered. "I apologize for disturbing you."

He smiled peacefully. "It happens initially. And we ghosts are patient. We have plenty of time, after all."

"I suppose you do at that." Hermione smiled.

"Headmistress, if you'll excuse me?" Severus said formally. Before Hermione could respond, he had retreated through the door to the private chambers.

She spared a hesitant glance toward his departure, but turned to the sad-eyed ghost. "I'm sorry – I don't know your name."

"It's unimportant," he said. "You couldn't pronounce it anyway."

She looked more closely at him. "I don't remember you from when I was a student here..."

He smiled again, that same, peaceful smile. "No more would you, but I've always been here."

"Always?"

He inclined his head. "Nearly. Since before the first stone was laid for the castle."

"And who were you in life?"

"I scarcely remember. No one important, surely." He opened his hands in the sunlight. "But I will help you and the school however I can."

"You've already done much," Hermione said, "and the school and I thank you."

He bowed his head and left.

She returned to her examination of the seeded flower.

---

Severus was reading in an armchair before the smaller hearth in Hermione's new chambers when she slipped in, saying nothing as she took the chair next to his.

He marked his page and set his book aside.

"I've two things to ask you about, Severus," she began. "And I can't for my very life begin either."

"Then the need to address them both is obviously pressing. Begin with the most important."

She nodded, and drew a deep breath. "Are you planning to leave?"

He schooled his feature to neutrality. "For me to leave would pose some problems for you, I fear."

She nodded sadly. "I've no wish to imprison you in this castle, but when you said that your kind of control isn't in my nature – you're right. It's not. I can feel the edges of temptation building even as we sit here."

The fact that he registered that showed in his eyes, but all he said was, "I understand."

"And we can't very well have the headmistress of Hogwarts sneaking out to meet her Dark lover..."

"Then don't sneak." The words were out before he considered them.

She smiled sadly and opened her hands. "Obviously – but while school is in term, I have to be here."

He nodded. "I shall think on it, Hermione. As you say, I've no wish to be imprisoned."

She swallowed and said nothing.

"The other matter?"

She held out the seeded flower stem. "I've been staring at it all morning – the way you do when your mind is working on something even though you've no idea where it's going. And Severus... I think..." She had to swallow again. "Harry," she choked out.

Severus' eyes widened.