Repaying The Life Debt Chapter 15: Three Months And One Week

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Three Months And One Week

Chapter 15 of 21

Hermione spends an evening with her friends and attends a party for the Order, but realizes she’d rather be somewhere else.

Severus has a visit from Lucius just before he decides to attend the party as well.

This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for June 28.

General Drabble/100-Word Alternate Universe Epilogue What Epilogue? Potions Under Duress 24,381 Words 21 Chapters Complete

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Thank you, Southern_Witch_69, for not only agreeing to beta each one of my drabbles in this saga, but for also giving us the list of vocabulary words so I can play with them! I'm really having a fun time seeing just how creative I can be with this!

~June 29~

Hermione had gone home that Friday feeling positively elated. Right after her N.E.W.T. lessons the following Saturday, she showered quickly, grabbed her robes for the party and Apparated to the Burrow to meet up with Ginny and Luna. As soon as she'd walked in the bedroom door, Ginny had jumped up to meet her. "You look positively winsome! What happened?" Ginny asked, pulling her over to the bed.

"Well, beside a goodnight kiss?" Hermione asked, grinning. "He kisses me goodnight now! Friday, we snogged for an hour!" she said as she spun around and collapsed on the bed.

"So much for blow-him-off or play-mind-games," Luna said, slipping on her dress robes.

"I did that Monday, and he was livid! Plus, I turned him down for tonight, and he just got that stony expression. And I've been playing mind games all along!" Hermione said exasperatedly as Ginny arranged her hair. "I've reinvented myself, worn provocative clothing, and tried to respect his privacy. I helped stock his fridge with what I think are his favorites, although that's hard to tell sometimes, just so we can actually eat decent meals. All we do is cook and brew together. I've applied lip-gloss in his presence only to be told to wipe it off! Either I'm not any good at this get-your-man thing, or he's just really dense! So I finally just told him I like him and then kissed him."

"He's probably just not used to a witch having any interest in him," Luna stated as she made big check marks on the copy of the article they'd posted up on the wall. "Maybe you should try the suggestions on, 'What pleases him' or this one, 'Do you send out sexy vibes'?"

"I don't think I'm ready to tickle his balls just yet," Hermione replied, making Ginny giggle uncontrollably. "I haven't even gotten to where he's trying anything, yet."

"Maybe you should start wearing my blouses again for a while," Ginny suggested, still laughing.

Hermione cringed. "I'm not sure that worked very well. You should've seen him scowl! And I busted a button!"

"But you are getting somewhere. Far better than I'd have thought, considering we're talking about Snape. Well, tonight we can cross 'be-a-social-butterfly' off your Cosmo list," Ginny said, laughing, handing Hermione her dress robes.

The capacious room in the Cockaigne Café the surviving Order members had reserved for the party was lavishly decorated, almost to the point of being ostentatious. However, the lavish robes, many quite bedizen, only added to the décor. An hour later, Hermione began to feel listless. She wished she'd invited him to come, even though she knew he'd have refused. Hermione helped herself to a savory as a house-elf passed by with the tray, immediately regretting picking up the glutinous sweet.

"My gods, Hermione, it's a party! Why do you look so forlorn?" George asked as he sat down at her table.

She managed a weak smile. "I've a lot on my mind," she said as she wrote on the napkin with a pencil.

"You're acting like a harbinger. What's gotten into you?" Harry asked, joining them.

"What's that you're drawing?" Ron asked, leaning over her shoulder. "Don't tell me he actually gave you an essay or... Arithmancy equations to do over the weekend?"

"It's for my N.E.W.T.s. I just can't figure it out, that's all. Every time I try, it looks... mazy," she said, dropping the pencil.

Ron picked it up to examine it. "What's this?"

"A pencil," George stated as Harry interpolated, "It's what Muggles use to write with."

George continued as if uninterrupted, "Muggle children use them. Dad saw a kid drop one once and brought it home. Goes dull quickly."

Hermione looked around the room, wishing she'd plucked up the nerve to ask Severus to come.

~*~

Severus had been sitting in his lounge, listening to music and feeling a little forlorn. Miss Granger had opted to spend the evening with her friends, a previous engagement she'd said, of which she was obliged to attend. He knew very well it was the party at the Cockaigne Café for the surviving Order members, but he'd had no inclination of attending. He hated formal parties.

Lucius had stopped by just as Severus had considered going home to change into his dress robes.

"Your space is hardly capacious, Severus," he'd said, twirling his walking stick indolently in his fingers. "Surely, for a rara avis such as this, you would prefer a more... accommodating environment," Lucius had suggested as he'd examined the glutinous substance in the vial he'd been holding in his other hand. "I'd be happy to remunerate you for your time."

Severus knew that of the potions Lucius wanted, one would take at least five days and the other two weeks, depending on the quality of the Chimera blood and horn-toothed viper eggs. Given the current situation developing in his own lab, he didn't wish to be gone for a week. "The Recherché Potion holds no guarantee of success, you know," he'd stated, keeping any emotional infection out of his voice.

"It would behoove you to consider my offer," Lucius had stated amiably. "You may even bring your apprentice by the house as long as she doesn't intrude upon the rest of the house."

"If Miss Granger were to come with me, she would most certainly not only know what I'm brewing but would in fact, assist me." Lucius had looked up, and his eyes had narrowed at Severus' statement. "Just like last time. She is not a paramour, Lucius, she's my apprentice and thus my assistant, as you well know. You can go back to your Cockaigne and tell your harbinger that I am not coming. If you need something, I will brew it in my lab, respectfully and with the precision you expect. You are, after all, a valued customer."

Lucius had left, carrying his latest purchase. Severus had smiled as he'd pocketed the Galleons in his pocket. He'd overcharged Lucius and both knew it, but few knew the secret added ingredients he'd used so that the Exfoliative Potion only removed the excess hairs grown from the Anguicomus Curse and not the person's own natural body hair. He'd wondered if it was Narcissa or Lucius' latest paramour who was the cause of Lucius' need of the exfoliate.

Severus arrived at the Cockaigne late, making his way through the mazy arrangement of tables and chairs while avoiding as many people as possible. He saw Hermione from across the room, looking resplendent in rich amber dress robes. He made up his mind to speak to her and ask her to dance.

Somehow, Horace Slughorn managed to corner him while he'd been distracted by Miss Granger. "Ah, Severus, just the man! I was telling Miss Sunhed about your use of my Acromantula venom in curing Lengerathy Syndrome for those suffering extended abuse from the Cruciatus Curse. I was pleasantly surprised that you won the Dagworth-Granger Award of Potions Excellence, my boy. He was a colleague of mine, you know, Constance, and one of my prized students. Has a head for..."

"Pardon me," Severus interpolated and made his escape as Slughorn continued telling the witch about his academic prowess.

Just as Severus made it across the room to where he'd seen Miss Granger last, he watched as she slipped through the back door.

"Severus, you came!" he heard Hestia Jones exclaim behind him as he headed for the door to follow her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o0o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ TBC ~

Authors Notes:

I thought a bit of reaction from friends was in order, so I wrote this as both Hermione's POV and Severus'. The list Hermione rattles off is from my roommate's Cosmo, in the article '12 ways to get your man.' They include: Blow him off, share your own fears, reinvent yourself, respect his privacy, make him happier, don his clothes, be a social butterfly, play mind games, act like the grand prize, let him see you primp, cook together, and stock your pad. Apparently, it isn't working very well on Severus.

Poor Lucius, he thinks he can buy anything, doesn't he?

The word list (swiped from the past week's list from dictonary.com) :

1. capacious

2. glutinous

3. forlorn

4. Cockaigne

5. harbinger

6. mazy

7. interpolate

---------Words with definitions- --------- -

capacious \kuh-PAY-shuhs\ , adjective:

Able to contain much; roomy; spacious.

------------ --------- --

glutinous \GLOOT-nuhs\ , adjective:

Of the nature of glue; resembling glue; sticky.

------------ --------- ---

forlorn \fur-LORN; for-\, adjective:

1. Sad and lonely because deserted, abandoned, or lost.

2. Bereft; forsaken.

3. Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition.

4. Almost hopeless; desperate.

------------ --------- -----

Cockaigne \kah-KAYN\, noun:

An imaginary land of ease and luxury.

------------ --------- -------

harbinger \HAR-bin-juhr\ , noun:

1. (Archaic) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings.

2. A forerunner; a precursor; one that presages or foreshadows what is to come.

3. To signal the approach of; to presage; to be a harbinger of.

------------ --------- --------- --

mazy \MAY-zee\, adjective:

Resembling a maze in form or complexity; winding; intricate; confusing; perplexing.

------------ --------- --------- --

interpolate \in-TUR-puh- layt\, transitive verb:

1. To alter or corrupt (as a book or text) by the insertion of new or foreign matter.

2. To insert (material) into a text or conversation.

3. To insert between other elements or parts.

4. [Mathematics] to estimate a value of (a function) between two known values.

5. To make insertions.

The spell I created, Anguicomus, is Latin for: having snaky hair.

The Latin comes from my favorite translation source: http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl

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Shadow

I really enjoyed this story. You have a real gift for taking those words and weaving them into your plot seamlessly. Well done.