Part Two, Day Six

Thanks to my very wonderful and very patient beta, Dacian Goddess.

As always, I make no money with this story.

"You realise we do have to get up," Severus whispered in Hermione's ear, keeping her unruly hair out of the way with his hand.

Hermione opened her eyes with difficulty. "Don't I know it?"

Severus chuckled.

"Chuckling in my ear isn't an incentive to get up, you know," she chided him, snuggling closer against him.

"Sunday morning, we'll be able to lie in as much as we like, my dear. Today is delivery day."

Hermione shuddered at the reminder. The Ministry had imposed on the governors and Severus...how Kingsley could have condoned it was beyond her comprehension...four sets of wizarding automatons replaying the key moments of the Battle of Hogwarts. They were to be installed on mezzanines in the Great Hall until the celebration so that the students would still be able to have their meals there. The elected scenes were: Harry being "killed" by Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest; Nagini attacking Severus in the Shrieking Shack (this one Severus did not know how he would react to); Neville beheading Nagini; the final duel between Voldemort and Harry. Some fake giants and Death Eaters, all wizarding automatons, would be roaming the grounds on Monday to entertain the guests as well. Wizarding paintings of other scenes would be displayed on the walls in both the Great Hall and the Entrance Hall as well: the Room of Requirement on fire; the secret passage to the Hog's Head; Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix Lestrange, etc.

"I know," he said, rolling over and getting up, "but the school wards would not let strangers tamper with them, and the charms that put those monstrosities, as you put it, into motion will have to be combined with the school wards."

"I've never liked to play Meccano, even a magical one," Hermione said disdainfully, getting up too.

"No, indeed. You'd rather play the nurse to her Headmaster," he teased, his eyes roving her body, his sex clearly erect. They had slept naked, and the sexual tension in the room was nearly palpable.

Sighing, Hermione picked up her robe on a chair and donned it. "Have a shower! I'll come back for breakfast in half an hour."

Severus did not like one bit the moment when Hermione had to leave his rooms for hers. He looked down at his dwindling erection. How long would it be before she lived with him full time? I give her two years at most. Less if I have my way.

Breakfast was barely finished that the delivery men were at the gates with enormous cardboard boxes behind them. It was more impressive than the flower delivery. Filius and Pomona, who had a free hour, helped bring the boxes into the Great Hall while Hagrid and Filch cleared out the Great Hall and started to build the mezzanines, which would be lowered at ground level for the ceremony on Monday. All Care of Magical Creatures classes had been cancelled that morning to this effect.

"The content of the boxes is written on each of them. Please, place them near their designated mezzanine," Severus instructed.

When the boxes were sorted out, it was time for Pomona and Filius to head for their classes. Aurora Sinistra and Septima Vector, who had less classes than the others, had agreed to help until noon. The Muggle Studies teacher, John Milestone, had pleaded a backache and was not there. It was all the better, for Hermione did not like the man much.

When Hagrid and Filch were finished with the mezzanines, the caretaker rummaged through the boxes for the paintings.

"Headmaster Snape!" he called. "This one is damaged." He was holding a rather big painting in front of him. Coming closer, Severus distinguished Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger coming out of the Chamber of Secrets with basilisk fangs in their hands and then, in a very dramatic shortcut, dropping their newly acquired weapons to share a passionate kiss. The canvass had been ripped at one corner, and there were indentations in the frame Severus was sure were not intended to be there.

"Send it back to the manufacturer," he ordered scornfully. "I won't have a damaged painting in this castle." Especially not this one.

They worked hard all morning. It soon appeared that Hermione was best at deciphering the assembly plans and directing the others on how to assemble the automatons before putting them into place. When lunchtime came, the second set was almost complete. Severus Levitated the mezzanines and boxes and, with a swish of his wand Hermione was jealous of, restored the Great Hall to its original state.

Sybill Trelawney always had her Friday afternoons free, but nobody thought to ask for her help, and Slughorn was genuinely ill and lying in the Hospital Wing, so it was only Professor Truthiful with Severus and Hermione for the afternoon. The scene in the Forbidden Forest turned out to be more complex than the others to assemble. The trees and the number of scattered Death Eaters made it difficult to get it right. Besides, there was a mistake in the assembly plan, and because it took Hermione nearly an hour to spot it, they were put behind schedule. When Truthiful announced that she had to go because she had promised to attend her sister's birthday...with the Headmaster's permission...Severus resorted to pulling the Head Boy and Girl from their classes. Ginny Weasley and John Bentley scurried into the Great Hall and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the automatons.

"That was what was Levitated above our heads!" Ginny exclaimed. Clearly, she did not find the automatons tasteful. "We could only see the platform from our table."

"Not a word, Ginny," Hermione admonished her. "It was chosen by the Ministry. We need your help to finish assembling them before dinner time." Ginny did not answer, but did not bother to keep her own dislike from her face either.

Without a word, the two students set about arranging the automatons on their respective sets. In an unspoken agreement, they took care of the Shrieking Shack scene without supervision, for Severus did not want to see it too closely, though the garish set-up would probably take away part of the trauma attached to the memory of that particular moment of the war. They were so absorbed in their task that John did not notice when Severus nearly fell when the muscles of his left foot and ankle became lax, and Ginny, who had yet kept glancing at her friend all along, nearly missed it. She observed Hermione's interactions with Severus. They looked very comfortable together, indeed. If Ginny could read Hermione's body language correctly, she was sure they had slept together. The mere idea was enough to make her queasy, so she redirected her mind by going back to work.

The little group only had half an hour to spare before dinner when they finished. Without consulting, they each elected to have a shower. The weather had been warm, and sunrays had been generously pouring through the windows of the Great Hall all afternoon.

"They're really hideous," Hermione commented on the automatons while regaining her quarters.

"I agree with you wholeheartedly, Hermione, but there is nothing either of us can do about it," Severus replied.

Hermione yawned widely and loudly just before she reached her rooms. "I wish we could have an early night tonight."

"Agreed," came the immediate reply from Severus. "But we still have to meet the school governors after dinner."

"It's a good thing none of them is like Lucius Malfoy," she said ironically.

"Lucius is not a completely bad man, you know."

She groaned. "How can you have been friends with him?"

Severus's face darkened. "We will not have that argument again, Hermione. I'll probably have to tell you more about my relationship with Lucius, since we are a couple, but for now, I want to keep my strength for the meeting."

She looked sheepish. "I'm sorry. I find it hard to get over what he did to Ginny with Voldemort's diary and how he insisted we be brought before Voldemort when we were captured last year."

"And that is the reason why I haven't renewed with him since I survived. But I can't just forget everything he and I shared."

"All right," Hermione admitted. "I ought to understand, after all. I'd break off all contacts with Ron if he tried to hurt you, but I couldn't forget everything we've shared either."

"Coming to that understanding has deprived us of five minutes of precious time. Meet me in my office in twenty minutes."

Severus turned on his heel and strode to his own rooms, leaving behind him a somewhat embarrassed Hermione.

The sky was still clear when the governors filed in Severus's office. His desk had been replaced with a big oval table and chairs.

"Welcome, gentlemen."

When they finished exchanging pleasantries, they settled around the table, and the meeting itself began. It was a short affair; the governors found nothing to criticise about the plans made.

"I don't remember this school to have ever been so well run," a portly man with grey hair congratulated Severus while taking his leave. Needless to say, Severus's earlier bad mood evaporated like a puddle of water in the Sahara. He could not help but be sensible to praise, and to deserved praise especially.

"Come, Hermione. Let's go to bed," was all he said, but with tenderness, when the governors had departed. He offered her his arm.

"Young love," Dilys Derwent's portrait said with longing in her voice while Albus Dumbledore's portrait stroke his beard pensively.