two

When Snape received his list, he quickly threw it to the side of his desk with a group of missives from various others that he did not care to read. The entire idea was still the most absurd thing he had ever heard, and he silently cursed his parents for not bringing him into the world two years earlier. Then he would be too old for this ridiculous farce.

He found, however, that he could not ignore the list for long. Only a week after he received it, his father came to the castle to take tea with him. Snape automatically knew what he wanted. Too long had Tetricus [1] Snape railed his son for shunning marriage. He would see his son married with children before the age of forty if it killed him. Snape knew this. He silently wondered if his father wasn't behind the marriage law as a way to finally get his wayward son hooked up with a woman.

"Hello, Severus," the older man said, shaking his son's hand as though he were a loose acquaintance rather than his only son.

"Father," Snape greeted, pressing his hand against his father's without ceremony. "Come in, please. The house elves have fixed us a fine tea, just the way you like it."

Tetricus patted his stomach as he looked down at the table laden with fruits, jellies, scones, biscuits, sandwiches, and a nice cake. Not to mention tea with cream and sugar waiting at the ready.

"Ah, alas, I cannot eat anything so extravagant, Son. My tastes have run more toward the simple of late and I find that anything other than dry toast and a little marmalade at tea gives me indigestion."

Snape rolled his eyes. He had anticipated such a turn of his father's appetite and rang the bell for the elves immediately. The table changed in almost a moment, leaving the tea things, but turning the heavy meal to a lighter fare.

"Much better," Tetricus decided, seating himself in Snape's usual chair.

Snape quietly took the other chair and did not touch anything as he was not hungry to begin with. Instead, he watched his father eat daintily and take small sips of tea until he felt that the older man would drive him mad.

"Look, I know why you came here," Snape finally said, "And I don't care whose name is on that list, you are not soliciting any of them for me."

"Confound it, Severus!" Tetricus bellowed, his mood turning apparently sour from being called out by his son. "I am the head of this family! I make the decisions!"

"I am of age and I make my decisions," Snape countered. "You will not solicit on my behalf."

"I will do what is best for our family and our line. You cannot stop me, you are not allowed! You know the laws!"

"They are archaic! You can hardly expect me to respect a law that allows a father to make decisions for every member of his family until that father is dead!"

Tetricus stood and towered over his son's seated frame. He looked every bit as horrible as Snape remembered from the times when the man would reprimand him for being foolish or naughty as a child. When he behaved this way, Snape knew that there was no reasoning with the man.

Besides, Tetricus was right. Severus must do what the head of the Snape family said, and too long had he managed to curtail his father's obsession for getting heirs out of him. Too many times had he said no. It was time buck up and ensure that the family name lived on.

"Where is the list?" Tetricus demanded.

Snape had no choice but to hand it over.

~*~*~*~

Hermione had used great self-restraint in order to keep from ripping open her list the minute she got it during the morning mail. Instead, she did as she promised and waited until she was safe in the Gryffindor Common Room with her other friends. The seventh years felt far more apprehensive than the fifth and sixth years, and rightfully so. Should anyone solicit one of the girls, or a father solicit on behalf of his son, they were honor bound to comply within the limitations of the law.

Of course, one was not compelled to give a favorable answer to any one person, as far as they could tell, but the Ministry had added a paragraph to the original agreement denoting sovereignty to their decisions made on behalf of any participant. Hermione was quite sure that she did not like her fate to be decided at the discretion of the Ministry, but she saw little choice in the matter.

"Who's going to open first?" Ginny asked, staring at her parchment as though it would leap out and bite her at any moment.

"I'll go first," Harry said bravely. Hermione could have killed him for that. Instead, she sat still while he opened his roll, reading the names from the top, where the most compatible candidates were, to the bottom, which were of course, the least compatible.

"Luna Lovegood?" Neville asked dejectedly when Harry read her name so close to the top, but still under Ginny's.

"I guess so," Harry answered. "Well, I like her all right I suppose...but we all have plenty of time!"

"Of course we do," Hermione agreed.

She tried to not notice the looks that the purebloods exchanged, and she tried to not think about the fact that most of the married wizarding couples she knew seemed to have been married within two years of finishing Hogwarts.

~*~*~*~

"Here you are, Severus, the first name on your list."

Snape took the list with an exasperated look that turned to shock when he read the first name. Was everyone going insane?

"Father, she is one of my students."

Tetricus shrugged the comment away. "She wouldn't be when you marry. You would wait until after she graduates." He turned away, still studying the list and said absently, "As though I'd have you marry a girl not yet finished with her education."

"Even after she's finished, Father, I cannot consent to such a marriage. It would be improper, and anyone who heard about it would conjecture that our relationship started improperly when I was still teaching her. It would be a bad match all around-think of the honor of our family!"

That, he was sure, was what did it.

"Well, I suppose we can't have others thinking wrongly about your marriage. Very well, let us weigh your other options."

~*~*~*~

Hermione opened her roll of parchment with fear. Thinking about opening such a life-changing piece of paper while one is telling jokes to ones friends compared to actually opening it and reading what ones choices are were, to Hermione, two very different things. No one was laughing and no one was joking. These choices were taken very seriously and weighed for merit.

This was real.

Her eyes immediately went to the last name on the list and, not to her surprise, it was Goyle. She made her way up from there, only recognizing one or two names along the way until her eyes continued up towards the top of the list. She saw Ron and Draco after him and her stomach clenched to think that Ron rated lower than Malfoy. She suddenly wondered if Malfoy had cheated on his answers. After that, there were more names that she didn't recognize, and a few she did as Death Eaters whom she had fought against during the wars, until she got to the first name at the top. And her heart stopped beating for a few moments.

"Well?" Harry asked.

Hermione tore her eyes away from the scroll to look at her friend. "Ron's on the list," she said with forced happiness. "As is Neville and a few other friends. I doubt that the Death Eaters listed would want anything to do with me, or the sons of the Death Eaters. After all, I was fighting them. And besides, like you said, we still have plenty of time. I doubt that anyone will make us offers before the end of school."

"I doubt it as well," Ginny said, breaking the seal on her parchment. "Oh look, Harry. Here's your name."

Hermione turned away as Harry leaned over to examine Ginny's list, and her eyes fell once again to the first name on the list.

Severus Snape

Severus is an alum of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and is currently their resident Potions Master. Severus has written three books entitled Potions and Their Function, a textbook, Standard Medical Potions, an informative book for those in the healing industry, and Protection Potions and their Uses, which was used in the latest wars. In his spare time, Severus enjoys inventing new potions, reading, and taking long walks.

Hermione almost started laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it all.

TBC

AN: [1] Tetricus-Latin for harsh, gloomy, severe. Pretty much the same thing Severus means. I toyed with the idea of naming him Severitas, Severus being an offshoot of that name, but I restrained myself.