Eight

Snape was awakened by a sound at his door. Thinking that a student was hurt or ill, he hastily pulled on his robe and walked barefoot through his sitting room, damning the stacks of books as he walked around and over them.

Opening the door, however, revealed not a Slytherin, but Hermione.

"Miss Granger? What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" He knew that she sometimes snuck out with Harry and Ron, but he had heard nothing of their midnight escapades since Voldemort's demise.

"I just wanted to talk to you...professor..."

Her large liquid eyes looked up at him expectantly, and he stepped aside to allow her passage.

"You could have saved whatever you have to say until the morning."

She made her way to his sofa and sat down, still looking at him expectantly. He sat next to her.

"I have class with you tomorrow, Severus."

"Yes, I am aware of that."

"What I wish to speak of is hardly appropriate classroom conversation."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? And what is it that you particularly wish to say to me?"

"Only this," Hermione answered, pulling his head to hers and pressing her body to his.

Snape was shocked at first by her actions, but he did not stop her. Instead, he lowered her until she was laying on her back, and he took his earlier position on top of her. This time, however, he was naked under his robe, and he was both pleased and surprised to find her equally attired. In no time, he had removed their robes and was gently exploring her with his fingers whilst she explored him with her hand, wrapping it around him expertly and applying pressure as though she knew him already, and understood what he wanted from her.

"I want this, Severus," she whispered as he ground against her.

Merlin help him, he did too. "Yes," he hissed as he pushed into her.

"You're so good," Hermione answered as he began to pound in and out of her over and over.

Snape wasn't sure if it was the ease of taking her or his pleasure awakening him, but just as he got past the point of no return, he realized that it was his mattress receiving the benefits of his attentions, not his fiancée.

With a slight feeling of guilt overpowered by pleasure, he ejaculated with a loud grunt and rolled over onto his back, draping his arm over his eyes. Logically seeking to reason with his feelings, he determined that (1) Hermione would be his wife an a few months, and it was only natural that he would think about her in a carnal way, (2) it was nice to feel a bit randy again after such a long period of self-imposed abstinence, and (3) that fiancée or not, Hermione was still very much his student, and he ought to be ashamed and disgusted for his dream.

Wearily, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed so that his feet touched the hard cold stone of his floor. His wand sat on the bedside table, and he used it to quickly clean off the memory of a most satisfying dream that lingered on his sheets. As for himself, he decided that an incredibly cold shower would help to clean both his body and his mind.

Snape padded into the bathroom and turned the shower spout on to full blast, then moved the temperature selector all the way over to the right and stepped in. He stifled a yell as cold droplets of water began to pound mercilessly at his skin, but his hands clung to the walls of the shower, his knuckles turning white under the pressure to stay still and allow the water to cleanse him.

Finally, when his body began to feel numb and his lungs began to beg to take a full breath, he reached over and turned the knob to the middle and washed himself quickly, but not before he began to wonder if Hermione would ever feel comfortable enough in their marriage to interrupt his shower by joining him.

Flinging his long wet hair out of his eyes, Snape exited the shower and grabbed his dressing-gown, wrapping it around his body, securing it with the belt. He gave his hair a good rub with a towel, and then walked back to his bedroom and sat down at his desk.

It was still very early in the morning, but Snape did not want to go back to bed. The night before, Apollo, his family's owl, had brought a letter from home, and he had been reluctant to look at it. As he had no papers to grade and his tests had been written, he saw no reason to leave the letter untouched any longer.

In his father's tight yet elegant handwriting, he found a summons to Sunday dinner with the request, or order, that Snape bring "his" Hermione with him, as Snape's mother was eager to meet her.

Snape set the letter down and wondered why he couldn't have been allowed to properly woo and win Hermione without the constant knowledge that his insane family would eventually come into the picture.

Of course, if left on his own, he would never have given Hermione a second look. She was pleasing to look at, it was true, easily one of the prettiest girls at school. Even more, she was well liked by everyone but those in Slytherin. Though she was often accused of being a bit too strict, she had managed to find a balance between being an authority figure and being a friend. Little happened at Hogwarts without her knowing about it, she was almost like Dumbledore in her abilities to discern what was happening around her.

Women as remarkable as that did not connect themselves to men like him unless they were forced to do so.

No, Hermione was not "his", nor was she likely to be.

Still, she had asked him to meet her parents, and after putting her through a night of his family, he was sure that he would owe her more than dinner at the Grangers, where there were only two to be obnoxious and insulting, not an entire brood complete with three unruly children.

Snape took out a small note card and scrawled an answer on it, hesitating slightly before he sealed the envelope and handed it over to Bubonis.

"Here you go," he said dimly. "Take this to my father. I'm sure he'll be well pleased."

The owl preened its tail feathers before grasping the letter in its claws and flying out the window, the new sun of summer shining brightly before it. Snape sat back in his chair and watched as dawn awoke out the high windows facing east.

By the time breakfast came around, Snape was back to his usual self and grumbled a reply to Dumbledore when he wished him a good morning. By the time his third class was over, he had managed to frighten the wits out of a chatty fourth-year and deduct points from Hufflepuff due to a clumsy second-year. The seventh-years, however, were both silent and adept at making their potions leaving him time to think over what he would say to Hermione at the end of the class.

Then his thoughts began to drift towards the fact that this would be his last full week teaching at Hogwarts, indefinitely. It was both liberating and frightening at the same time, to know that he was finally free. Harry had lived, Voldemort had died, and he had managed to keep his promise to Dumbledore throughout the past nineteen years. Now he would be free to travel to distant lands and observe diverse cultures. There would be new potions to discover, new books to read and write, and all the while, Hermione would be with him. He hoped. She might even be happy.

"Miss Granger, I wonder if you would stay for a few moments and talk with me before you leave for lunch?"

Hermione smiled as she set her potion vial down on his desk. "Of course."

"Watch it, Mudblood," a terse voice said, and the next thing Snape knew, Hermione was falling forward. He just managed to catch her before she landed in his lap and stood up, righting Hermione as he did so.

"That's twenty points from Slytherin, Mr. Goyle. Twenty more for using a derogatory name to refer to Miss Granger."

Goyle stared back at Snape with contempt in his eyes. "We could just call her teacher's pet, as that's all she's good for."

Snape felt rage boil within him. "Very well, fifty more points from Slytherin for insubordination, and you shall serve detention with Mr. Filch tonight."

Serving detention with Filch was something that even Goyle hated. Sneering, he turned and left the room. Hermione sat down on the chair next to Snape's desk, and he continued to stand at the head of the class, fairly begging another student to challenge him. None did, however, and soon he was alone with Hermione.

Turning back to her, he noticed that her cheeks were flushed, and her hands were clenched into fists and laying rather tensely in her lap. Kneeling down in front of her, he took her hands with his own and slowly started to rub the anger out of them.

"Goyle is a foolish boy, I am surprised that you would allow his feeble attempts anger you so much."

"It's not that," Hermione said softly, the anger in her voice barely contained. "I just suddenly realized that no one in your circle would ever accept me. I'll always be just your Mudblood wife."

Snape was taken slightly aback. He had not thought about that himself. "I am hardly in the inner circle of ex-deatheaters any more. You saw very well my conversation with Lucius Malfoy, and I promise you that all of his friends feel the same way towards me."

Hermione suddenly looked up at him with curiosity. "What did Lucius mean? When he said that your family was already a disgrace, what did he mean?"

Snape sighed. He knew that this question would come eventually, but he had hoped that it would take longer in coming out. "My eldest sister is Thalia. You already know that, as you were reading my family tree all those weeks ago. She and her husband have so far been incapable of producing children. While this is not so completely disgraceful, it is quite shocking. Her choice of husband was at lest acceptable, Loren is a Pureblood and his parents were death eaters until Voldemort had them killed three months after Thalia was married. This, of course, prevented Loren from joining the ranks, which I believe he was thankful for. My youngest sister, Pasithea, is a completely different story, however."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Her husband is not a Pureblood, I noticed that right away."

Snape gave a smirk. "No, he is Halfblood, though he did accept the Dark Mark, mostly to please my father. Luckily, Ian managed to remain mostly unnoticed by Voldemort. The disgrace he brought to my family, however, was not so easily disregarded."

"What did he do?"

"The same thing that Draco Malfoy did to Pansy Parkinson, only it was in her sixth year, and her condition kept her from graduating from Hogwarts." He looked down for a moment at their clasped hands, and then back up to her eyes. She smiled at him. "Premarital sex is not frowned upon in our world, Hermione, but children are considered to be something saved for wedlock. You'll not see many single mothers, unless their husbands are dead."

Her eyes were slightly shocked as she took this all in. Snape could not resist reaching out to touch her face briefly.

"I do not blame you if you no longer wish to tie yourself to me now," he said softly.

To his surprise, Hermione gave a slight chuckle. "Sorry, Severus, but I'm only appreciating the irony. Of course I still want to marry you. There's no one I'd rather be an outcast with."

He was taken by surprise when she threw herself into his arms and gave him a rather large and unnecessary hug, but he enjoyed it all the same. Disentangling himself from her, he moved back and sat on the edge of the desk.

"The reason I wanted you to stay after was because I thought over what we talked about yesterday. I think that you're right, but don't let that go to your head." He gave her a smirk and was rewarded by a smile from her. "I should meet your parents, and you will be introduced to mine. My mother particularly wishes to meet you and has requested that we go to their house on Sunday. Is that acceptable to you?"

Hermione seemed to think over his invitation. "Oh," she said a little breathlessly. "Oh, I see...but that's the night before my first day of N.E.W.T testing. I don't know if I should, for we would not be able to stay for long. Or, at least, I will not be able to."

Snape was briefly touched that she seemed so uneasy about denying him. "Trust me, my dear, I would dearly love an excuse to leave them all as soon as possible."

She seemed to consider this for a moment. "All right, I'll go, but only if you promise that we will leave by nine."

"I promise."

She stood and kissed his cheek. "Then I accept."

He looked at her for a moment and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Outcasts. You make it sound so dramatic."

"And lord only knows that you're never dramatic," she countered.

Looking into her eyes, Snape was suddenly struck with a very disturbing thought.

His father had been right.

~*~*~*~

Hermione took another look through her closet.

"I should probably just wear my dress robes," she said.

"I don't think so," Ginny advised. "Dress robes are for formal occasions, not every day."

"I want to make a good impression on them, though."

Hermione heard Ginny sigh as she joined her at the wardrobe. "If you weren't so much taller than me, I'd loan you something of mine. Here, this is appropriate."

Ginny handed Hermione a simple black dress that she had bought on the off chance that someone would ask her out. She'd been able to wear it five times already that year. "I don't know," she said as she looked the dress over. "It's my date dress."

"So? Isn't this a date?"

"I'm meeting his parents, I'd hardly call it a date. Besides, it just doesn't seem appropriate to wear a dress for Severus that I've already worn for five other guys."

"Then you'd better wear this dress." Ginny took a red dress out of the closet and handed it to her.

Hermione's eyes grew wide. "I don't know how I ever let you talk me into buying this dress, but it was very wrong of me."

"The dress looks great on you, and you know it. Besides, if you put it on with gold jewelry, you'll be wearing the Gryffindor colors. Knock all those Slytherin's socks off."

Hermione was about to protest when a knock at the door stopped her.

"Hermione? Are you ready?"

It was Snape. Before she could stop her, Ginny went to the door and opened it.

"Hello, Professor!" she greeted happily. "Hermione is almost ready, just have a seat there and we'll be with you in a moment."

Unable to protest, Hermione found herself being dragged towards the bathroom by Ginny.

"Ginny, I can't wear that," Hermione said when the door was firmly closed.

"You don't have much choice now, do you?" Ginny pulled at the tie on Hermoine's dressing-gown. "Now lift up your arms like a good girl, and I'll zip you in."

"I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself," Hermione growled as Ginny slipped the dress over her head.

"I'm sure you are, love," Ginny answered as she zipped the dress closed.

Hermione felt very self-conscious. The neckline of the dress plunged down to her cleavage in a V that was very provocative. A little too provocative, in Hermione's opinion.

"What are they going to think when they see this neckline?" Hermione asked as Ginny snapped a gold necklace around her neck that, to her dismay, brought even more attention to her chest.

"Who cares about them? What's Snape going to think?" Ginny's tone was a little too mischievous for Hermione's liking.

"I care!" Hermione protested, trying to pull the neckline a little higher.

"Oh, leave it. Just go out there and watch his eyes when he looks at you."

Hermione sighed and turned to face the door. All her life, she had been known for her brains first and her looks somewhere in second or third. She hated to think that Snape's parents would think that she was only a pretty face with nothing more to say for herself.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and breezed into her room. Snape was sitting in her desk chair, reading a book. Grabbing her cloak off of her bed, Hermione secured it around her and smiled.

"All right, let's get this over with."

Snape looked up just as she was buttoning up.

"Hermione, the weather is actually quite uncharacteristically warm outside, and my mother always keeps a good fire blazing. I doubt you'll need such heavy outerwear."

Hermione could feel Ginny smirking smugly at her.

"Nevertheless, I don't want to be without it. Just in case."

"In case of what? A sudden snowstorm? I think not. Don't you have something lighter?"

"She has a light wrap here," Ginny offered, pulling a black shawl out of the wardrobe.

"That's much better," Snape said, reaching for the buttons on her cloak.

Looking into his eyes, Hermione suddenly came to a revelation. "You heard!" she accused, grabbing his wrists and holding them still.

"Of course I heard," he answered, leaning forward with a sarcastic smile on his face. "I think that everyone at Hogwarts now knows that their Head Girl is wearing a dress that she finds inappropriate."

Ginny cleared her throat. "I'll see you both later on. Have a nice evening."

Hermione looked over as Ginny left, but her attention was brought back to Snape by his hand on her face. He stared at her so intently that her breath stopped for a few moments.

"Let's take this off, shall we?" he murmured as he undid the buttons of her cape.

Feeling naked, she could only stand still as he slipped the cloak from her shoulders. His hands moved over her hips and up to just next to her breasts, pressing her close to him.

"I see what you mean," he conceded. "The neckline is rather low, but one can only see your endowments if they stand just like this and look down."

Hermione felt scandalized at his words, but all she could do was grab onto his arms and bring herself closer. "I am only worried about your parent's opinions of me," she said, grazing her lips across his neck.

She felt him shudder, and then to her great surprise and displeasure, he pushed her away from him.

"If we are to leave my family at nine, then we must be on our way now," he said rather gently.

Hermione nodded. She felt as though her heart was about to explode out of her chest, especially when he fingered her necklace, his hands brushing against her exposed skin.

"I suppose this was Miss Weasley's idea of a joke?" he asked, his voice bemused.

"I think so. Where will we be going?"

Hermione desperately hoped that he didn't recognize her feeble attempt to change the subject, but judging by his smirk, she suspected that he was not fooled in the least. He did stop touching her so intimately, however, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"We'll be leaving Scotland and heading towards Derbyshire."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I'll apparate us both so that you won't get lost."

When he let go of her, she thought that she would fall, and it embarrassed her that she had been clinging to him so much. However, he didn't seem to mind, he merely put his arm around her waist and walked out the door with her. The portrait covering her door closed quietly, and the couple made their way down to the main doors of the castle.

"We'll have to walk towards Hogsmeade to apparate. Are you up for that?" he asked, eyeing her high-heeled sandals and, Hermione suspected, looking a little too hard at her legs.

"I'm fine," she promised.

The trip to Snape's family home was a little quicker than Hermione would wish for. Especially since in order to apparate them both, he had to wrap his outer robe around her and hold her close. Hermione held onto his arms during the transfer, and rested her head against his chest. With a crack and a pop, they were standing several yards away from a very large, sprawling manor house. Imagery from Jane Austen novels began to flutter through her head, and she wondered for a moment if this was the house that Pemberly was modeled after.

She then banished that thought, knowing that Muggles would not be able to see this house, and the Snape family had undoubtedly owned it for countless generations. Looking up at Snape's face, she realized that she was still clinging to him. But then again, he still had his robe wrapped around her.

"Nervous?" he asked silkily.

Hermione blushed and moved back a step. "Not at all. Merely anxious."

"Anxious for the night to be over?" he teased.

Hermione gave him a smile. "Thalia will be here, won't she?"

Snape took her arm and began to lead her up the long path to the house. "Of course. This is a family affair, after all."

A house elf opened the door as they climbed the steps to the entrance. It did not speak, it only moved out of the way and gave a slight bow. Snape handed his outer robe and Hermione's wrap to it, and led Hermione to a very lovely sitting room where several people were congregated. Hermione was thankful that the first person she saw was Thalia. The tall woman gave her a smile, but said nothing else. Snape's parents sat on a settee, looking like a pair of monarchs on their thrones.

"Mother, Father, allow me to introduce you to Miss Hermione Granger."

Iona Snape was the first to stand and welcome her, both her hands outstretched. "Miss Granger, how lovely it is to finally see your face!" Hermione found her right hand seized by one of the tallest, most commanding women she had ever laid eyes on. If Iona looked like a queen sitting, she looked like a goddess standing.

"Thank you," Hermione answered, looking up at the woman in awe. "I confess that I have wondered about you for several months now. I cannot tell you the pleasure I feel at finally meeting you."

Iona attempted to smile sweetly, but Hermione could see the signs of a Death Eater behind her eyes. This woman was a force to be reckoned with, she was sure.

Tetricus Snape stood second. He was every bit as tall and imposing as his son, if not more so.

"Miss Granger," he said regally, "I am so exceedingly pleased that you accepted my son's offer of marriage. Consider yourself family from this moment forward."

Hermione was not sure what to make of that. "Thank you," she said simply. "I shall."

"You already know my eldest daughter, do you not?" Tetricus asked.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, and it is a great pleasure to see her again."

Thalia smiled once more.

"Then you shall meet her husband now. This is Loren DeWinter."

Loren stepped forward, looking completely different than Hermione expected. The man who was supposed to be tall and lanky and dark like the rest of the Snapes was broad and handsome and had sandy blond hair framing his tanned face. Hermione almost laughed out loud at her presumptions, but managed to hold off her inner embarrassment and gave Loren a bright smile and a handshake.

"Shall I call you Miss Granger as well?" he asked playfully.

She smiled at him. "Please call me Hermione."

"Then you must call me Loren."

"And this is Pasithea, my youngest," Tetricus continued.

Pasithea was partially distracted by her three children, but she managed to shake Hermione's hand happily and wished her joy in her upcoming marriage.

"And Ian is my husband," she said, passing the pleasantries off to the tall dark-haired man on her right.

Hermione mused that at least she had the physical descriptions of one of the brothers-in-law correct.

"How do," she said pleasantly.

"Adequate," was his reply.

Hermione stepped back over to Snape and looked up at him. She could now see why he wished to leave so early. As the evening went on, his reasoning became more and more apparent. The only civil people there that she could see were Thalia and Loren and herself. Snape had reverted back to his usual hard-faced manner during the course of the meal, and Hermione could not help but notice that while Tetricus seemed to care for his children in his own way, he was also quite abusive to them. Iona was quick to point out any and all flaws in the meal, the state of dress of the various occupants of the table, the way Pasithea reared her children, her husband's topics of conversation and the way the house elves served the meal.

Hermione wondered what it was like for Iona, being the only perfect person in a world of inadequate beings.

When the clock on the mantle struck nine, Snape stood and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Forgive us, but Hermione will begin N.E.W.T. testing tomorrow, and she must be allowed to return to the castle."

Iona did not seem pleased by this. "Ah, but we have not got to the pudding yet!"

Hermione stood. "I am so sorry, madam, but I fear that Severus is right. I wish to do my best tomorrow, and I'm sure that after this week, we will all have sufficient time to spend with one another."

Iona accepted that excuse, but she still did not seem happy.

"Do the family proud, Hermione," Tetricus urged in his overbearing voice, lifting a glass of wine to toast to her.

"Thank you, I shall," she answered politely before Snape pulled her out of the room. "Goodbye, Thalia, it was nice meeting all of you," she called as she followed him out of the room.

Behind her, voices echoed her farewells, and she was soon alone with her fiancée, collecting her wrap and his robe from the closet. They walked quietly down the lane until they were in the same general area of where they landed.

Without a word, Hermione wrapped her arms around Snape's waist and leaned her head against his chest. He pulled his robe around her and apparated them back to Hogsmead.

"I don't think I prepared you for that," he said apologetically when they were standing on the familiar road that led to Hogwarts.

"How could you have?" she asked, closing her eyes and snuggling closer to his chest.

He sighed and rested his chin against the top of her head, an action that took Hermione by surprise.

"I don't suppose I could have done. Still, I could have warned you about some of it."

"Honestly, I know not how I will go about preparing my parents for meeting them, and I have not the obligations towards them that you do. It is a situation that one must go into with both eyes open, however. I will say that."

He stroked her hair, which had been smoothed down by a potion, and tightened his hold on her.

"Mother was right, we never did get our pudding. Would you like to go and have some ice cream?"

Hermione looked up at him and thought it over. "I truly should study tonight, Severus." She thought over her options. "I suppose that you could come and help me?"

He ran his hand over her cheek and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I don't think that is such a good idea, but I will walk you to your room."

TBC

AN: Sorry that the smut was a little...short...and a dream...But I promise that more is coming. Also, this was a difficult chapter for me to write. I kept deleting and rewriting it. I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it, but I'm trying.