Part One, Day Six

I don't own the characters, only the storyline and I make no money with it.

Thanks to Dacian Goddess for her beta skills.

Severus's jaw went lax in the middle of the night, and he woke up with drool gliding along his chin and pooling on his pillow near his cheek. He could not even sleep without being bothered by his undisciplined body! He took care of his offending temporalis muscle with a sip or two of the Muscle-Controlling Potion, Scourgified his bedding, and joined Hermione at seven a.m. on the dot.

She looked a bit tired this morning, but greeted him with a broad smile nonetheless.

"Good morning, sir. I've already ordered your breakfast. The same thing as yesterday."

He raised an eyebrow and sat down in front of her. "What if I had wanted something else?"

"I've had breakfast with you for several days now, and you always eat the same."

He was pleased with her answer.

When they finished, he suggested that they have a look at Warrane Lane before heading to Minar Sinan's. "Eight o'clock might be a bit early to arrive at a stranger's door."

They traipsed along the biggest wizarding quarter in Australia for the better part of two hours. It was quiet when they arrived, with only a bakery open. Little by little, the shopkeepers opened their shop for the customers. Hermione and Severus compared the wands in the Ollivander's Heritage window with the ones the British Ollivander made and could not really see a difference. They bought a couple of books about Aboriginal magic and treatments for snake bites, and barely spared a look at the broom maker, though Hermione would not have minded a stop at the flying carpet shop (those items were obviously not prohibited in Australia). Before they knew it, it was ten o'clock.

Here goes nothing, Severus reflected. I'm just going to meet with a man whose life was destroyed by Death Eaters, and I am... was one.

Minar Sinan's address led them to the Victoria Barracks. Severus swore under his breath when he saw those were buildings still used by the Australian Army. A Muggle military setting? What was the man thinking?

Severus looked around them and cast an Anti-Detection and a Muggle-Repellent Charm. Then, he waved his wand and traces of magic gleamed in the air. "This way, Miss Granger," Severus said, indicating the gleaming traces of magic with his hand. Dumbstruck by what she had just witnessed, Hermione followed him wordlessly. She made a mental note to investigate this charm later. They reached a building that had hosted officers in the past, but which was concealed with magic. Hermione could feel wards around it.

Severus took one more step and was suddenly suspended spread-eagled in the air, not like with a Levicorpus Spell, but more like an insect taken in a spider web. Hermione tried all sorts of spells in rapid succession, but Severus would not budge. Whatever the enchantment was, it was very well crafted.

The door of the building burst open, and a tall, broad man in his forties came out. "You filthy Death Eater!" he barked. "I'll skin you alive..." He stopped abruptly at the sight of Hermione looking desperate, standing at Severus's side, her wand raised and ready to fight. He was literally frozen, as if he had seen a ghost.

"You will take him down," she hissed. "He's done nothing wrong. We've just come to talk to you."

"I don't speak with his kind!" Sinan replied, but his eyes did not leave Hermione's face. "A bunch of cowards! Look! He's even pissing on himself! Coward!" he shouted, pointing at the stream of yellowish liquid running along Severus's shoes from under his trousers.

Severus, who had been trying to hide his misfortune, chose to look at Sinan defiantly. He would not take humiliation with his head down.

"Oh, no, sir!" Hermione exclaimed. She made to wave her wand in Severus's direction, but Sinan grabbed her arm. "Don't! No magic can interfere with my wards without serious repercussions!" he warned her.

"But I want to clean him, nothing more!"

"No magic, I said." Then, he proceeded to watch Hermione attentively, and she saw the moment he recognised her. "You're Hermione Granger, one of Harry Potter's friends," he stated.

"Yes, I am. Please, take him down. He's with me."

Sinan raised an eyebrow. Hermione blushed when she realised the way her sentence could be construed. "I mean, I'm travelling with him. Hogwarts governors have mandated the both of us to come and speak with you." This was not exactly the truth...only Severus had been mandated...but she was not above a little distortion of the truth, after all.

"Let me check you for jinxes first." Sinan waved his wand in front of her. "You're not under the Imperius Spell, nor can I detect Dark magic upon you. Very well. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but you'll have to explain why a Death Eater...and I don't care if he's been labelled a war hero or not...was mandated to speak with me, when my opinions about him and his followers are well known." Another wave of his wand had Severus falling down ungracefully. Hermione was immediately at his side. She Scourgified him and gave him his potion.

"What's this?" Sinan asked, jerking his chin to indicate the potion.

"A Muscle-Controlling Potion," Hermione answered curtly while Severus stood up. He was in a very, very foul mood; his hands were shaking but, by his attitude, he dared Sinan to ask for more clarifications or, heaven forbid, to make fun of the incident. The architect would not live to tell the tale.

Seeing that his two visitors were unwilling to elaborate on the matter and that one of them was on the verge of exploding, Sinan invited them to follow him into his home. One day, his curiosity would kill him.

"So, what were you mandated for?" Sinan asked without preamble once they were all seated in comfortable armchairs, each with a cup of tea in their hands.

"I suppose you have learnt of the events in Great Britain?" Severus asked diplomatically.

Sinan nodded.

"Hogwarts had suffered great damage from the Dark Lord's attack," Sinan's jaw twitched at the mention of his enemy's title, "and mere repairs will be insufficient. To celebrate the Dark Lord's final downfall in the walls of the castle, the governors have decided that the school ought to be more than repaired, but to be given an unprecedented magnificence as well. Your work with the Sydney wizarding opera has not gone unnoticed, and they're of the opinion that only you could give Hogwarts the splendour it deserves. As the Headmaster of the school, I've been mandated to make you an offer."

"It doesn't explain why you're travelling with one of Harry Potter's best friends, if only to put pressure on me." Sinan's expression was puzzled, but his expression visibly softened when he looked at Hermione, the way one's expression softened when one watched pictures of one's lost loved ones.

"Not at all," Severus lied smoothly. "She had sent her parents to Australia last year. Now that the war has ended, she needed to come and fetch them. We merely killed two birds with one stone by travelling together: I helped with the formalities, and I benefited from her knowledge of the city." He would not say that she had been more useful to him than that given his handicap, but Sinan seemed to catch on, for his eyes darted to the pocket in which Hermione had slipped the empty phial of potion.

Sinan was afraid he found Severus very persuasive. "I don't want to go back to England," he said abruptly. "There's nothing more for me there."

"If I may, sir," Hermione intervened, "I think there's something in England for you...at least at Hogwarts. The castle had been badly damaged, especially by the giants. The school can't reopen before the renovation work has been done, and some parts even need to be rebuilt. You know how important Hogwarts is in the wizarding world, and not only in England. You know it's one of the greatest schools of witchcraft and wizardry. Can't you see the good you could bring about if you directed the repairs? Hogwarts would be an example of reconciliation."

Sinan persisted in his refusal, while Severus watched the proceedings with interest. He admired Hermione's demeanour, pleading but without humiliating herself.

"I won't go. I have enemies there."

"Do you think I would have sent my parents back if I thought there were any dangers?" Hermione retorted hotly, her eyes alight, her cheeks reddened, her air indignant.

How could I not want her? Severus averted his eyes from her so as not to advertise his intentions for her.

Sinan sank back in his armchair at her words. Clearly, they had struck home. He sulked in the heavy silence that permeated the atmosphere for a few minutes, then uttered slowly, his eyes cast on his cold cup of tea, "Since you've taken the trouble to travel all the way to Sydney to meet me, I will return the courtesy and travel with you to Hogwarts. I want to sleep at the castle. I will look over the damage, and I alone will decide what will be done in term of refurbishment and repairs. I will not lower my price, there will be no bargaining." He looked Severus in the eyes. "Those are my conditions."

Severus nodded. "Agreed, but I will need a couple of days to prepare decent accommodations for you at the castle."

"Fair enough," Sinan acknowledged. "Expect me the day after tomorrow at the gates. I'll be there in the morning."

"Will you accept my invitation to eat with us to seal our arrangement?"

"No. I'll see you at Hogwarts."

"Very well. Goodbye, Mr Sinan."

Hermione and Severus took their leave. As soon as they had crossed his doorstep, Minar Sinan retrieved a photo album from his bookcase and passed his afternoon watching pictures of the woman he had loved and their baby daughter. The woman had incredibly bushy brown hair and blue eyes.

Severus and Hermione ate in a nondescript restaurant before they went to the Portkey terminal to book their return ticket to England. The employee told them that the evening Portkeys could not take more travellers..."You know the rule," he had said. "One traveller every seventy centimetres, and the plank is only three meters and seventy-five centimetres long. We really need a bigger terminal."...and they had to book centimetres on the five a.m. Portkey on the next day. They had a very nice afternoon after that: they went touring and had a nap at their hotel. Each time he could, Severus touched Hermione: putting his hand on the small of her back to guide her through the crowd, brushing her fingers with his while giving her a drink or an ice-cream, and offering her his arm to go to dinner. She did not seem to mind his discreet familiarity. They decided against sleeping that night. The five o'clock Portkey would bring them back at seven p.m. the previous day in London. They would rest then.

"Would you like to go to the opera?" Severus asked Hermione. "It would be the occasion to see Sinan's work with our own eyes."

They had seen the exterior of course, but to see the inside as well?

"That's a great idea!" Hermione answered.

Sydney wizarding opera was really amazing. As an architect, Sinan was a real concurrent to the Hogwarts founders, though his creation was nothing like a medieval castle. Severus felt smug at Hermione's awe. "Professor, it's wonderful! I can't wait to see what Sinan will do with Hogwarts!" If I were a Hogwarts House, I would award points to myself.

They shared a drink afterwards. Their conversation, which had started to drift to more personal subjects...Severus even alluded to Lily Evans...was barely interrupted by Severus's right arm muscles, which had begun twitching in the middle of Hermione talking about her holiday in France between her second and third years. Hermione caught his glass before it could fall and spill all over their table, and Severus took one swallow of Muscle-Controlling Potion; the whole incident did not even last thirty seconds. They were already so well-coordinated together.

After a while, they resumed their nightly sightseeing in Sydney. Their silences were longer, but comfortable. Hermione felt as if she were with a friend. Professor Snape listened to her, asked intelligent questions about what she said, challenged her, opened her mind to other, new perspectives. All the things she could learn if she worked with him! No, when she would work for him.

As for Severus, he thought things were going in the right direction. He had realised that he would not seduce her in a couple of days; it did not matter. She would become a great woman; she had the potential for it. She had the potential for being the "more" he craved to have in his life. He would seduce her for keeps. He would steal her from Weasley.

They retrieved their luggage from their hotel, and at half past four a.m., they were in the waiting-room of the Portkey terminal. At five, they departed for London with a group of weary-looking, yawning travellers and arrived in London at seven p.m. the previous day as expected.

"Er, sir?"

"Yes?"

They were in the Atrium at the Ministry, which looked deserted but for a guard.

"Would you mind going with me to my parents'? I'm sure they'd be delighted to see you again, given that you were very helpful in Australia."

I can't exactly refuse an occasion to ingratiate myself with people who might be my parents-in-law one day. "Very well. As it is, I feel a bit drained myself, and I don't fancy a stroll across the Hogwarts grounds right now. Are you able to Apparate the both of us to your parents'?" There was no scorn in his question, only concern.

"Yes, sir." She seized his arm...the first time she had taken the initiative to touch him...and Apparated them both into her parents' garden.

William and Josephine Granger ushered them inside and offered them a light dinner consisting of soup and fruit. Hermione and Severus were completely exhausted after their sleepless night in Sydney, so much so that Hermione's parents took note and did not pester them with questions. Severus used the Grangers' owl, which had managed to survive during their absence and had reappeared the day after they were back, to inform Minerva of their return to the motherland and turned in for the night in the guest room, while Hermione went to sleep in her childhood bedroom. Neither of them took the time to freshen up or even clean their teeth. Both fell asleep as soon as their head touched their pillows. But both dreamt of the other.