Repaying The Life Debt Chapter 7: Her Sixth Week

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Her Sixth Week

Chapter 7 of 21

At the end of yet another week with her, Severus contemplates his arrangement with his apprentice, Hermione, and finds himself caught off guard with her.

This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for May 5.

This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for March 22.

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

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I wish to give the accolades due to my beta, Southern_Witch_69, for checking this over and making sure I didn’t misuse any commas in writing this drabble. Thank you, and I just want you to know I appreciate it very much.

May 5

It’s been six weeks, and she’s been in my home now for thirty days and twenty nights under this guise as my apprentice. But who’s counting… Severus looked up from under his curtain of hair as he watched Hermione clean up the workspace in the lab before stopping for the day with a sense of déjà vu. It is almost like watching one of my students cleaning up the Potions classroom for a detention, except she is actually cleaning, no imbecilic pretense of cleaning, actually cleaning. Not only that, but even after tolerating my chastisement and belittling for another week, she is actually smiling and humming. Oddly, he rather liked hearing her hum, although he’d never admit it. He did have to admit, when he would allow her to work with him on a potion, it was as if they just seemed to find a natural confluence. He glanced up and caught her eye as he dipped his quill, then quickly lowered his head to hide his smile. Blasted girl, why in all Hades does she still want to be my apprentice? There are a dozen Potion masters who’d have her, even without my recommendation. Surely she doesn’t like me? Six years of my mistreatment, and she comes here asking for more?

He’d seen fit to posit his authority and set the rules and boundaries regarding her habits of dress in his home. He was still surprised that she seemed to prefer his tiny childhood bed to scurrying away each night after he’d dismissed her. Not that he didn’t like the T-shirts and pajama bottoms she wore, but they fit her too well and were highly distracting, especially when she was lying on the floor as she was wont to do, feet in the air, wiggling her toes. In fact, when she wasn’t curled up on his sofa, legs crossed underneath her, book balanced on her lap, she was usually on the floor in front of his fireplace, several books in front of her, writing out her findings to the questions he put to her to keep her from engaging in idle chatter. It was fully possible he was being far too lenient with her. The lenity he allowed her made him ponder their reluctant association, but even when his temper got the better of him, she simply nodded and acquiesced his demands with a subtle smile as if it were only a maelstrom to be waited out. But when he’d said he expected her to wear proper nightgowns and dressing robes, the satin dressing robe and long silky nightgowns were not any better. In fact, I’m simply going to have to insist that she…

“Sir, I was wondering what you’d like for me to do with this?” Hermione asked, interrupting his thoughts, indicating to a set of scales she’d just cleaned that Dumbledore had given him for Christmas – his last Christmas with the man, before… “It’s not like you use these scales, and they seem rather – gaudy. It’s gimcrack compared to the standard scales you seem to prefer, what with the extra dials, measuring indicators and such.”

“Put them back where they were, Ms Granger!” he snapped at her harshly.

“I’m sorry, sir, I only meant to… Sorry.” She set the complicated scales back gingerly, next to the Halcyon nest he’d found with his mum on one of their few summer outings, then turned back to him and smiled. “They mean something to you, don’t they? I never see you use them, and well, sorry. I’m prying, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are,” Severus replied more sternly than he’d meant to.

Hermione looked at him cloyingly, a smirk gracing her lips. “I saw a set of these once in the apothecary. They were awfully expensive… but you didn’t buy them. Were they a gift, sir?”

“Yes, they were a gift,” he snarled, angry that she was still prying into his procurement of the scales. She wasn’t Slytherin enough for him not to see right through her.

She tilted her head, looking at him expectantly. “They are really quite interesting. Have you ever used them? I heard that the Potions brewers at St. Mungo’s use them.”

If I don’t tell her, she will not let it drop until she figures it out, will she? “If you must know, the Headmaster gave them to me.” He set down his quill and put away his journal and parchments. “Are you through cleaning? I’d like to go eat,” he said, rising from his desk.

“I’d be delighted, sir,” she replied, beaming. “I’ll just change into something clean and be right back down,” Hermione added all too quickly, then turned and ran from the room, her foot falls clearly audible as she ran all the way up to his old bedroom.

Bloody Hell! Does she think that I – did I…? Severus walked into his kitchen in a state of shock. Hermione returned several minutes later wearing very nice, dark green robes and having actually combed and tied her hair into a respectful hairstyle that framed her face nicely. She looks like she is ready to go out – on a date – with me! How in Hades did I manage to give her the impression I wanted to take her out – on a date no less?

“I’m ready whenever you are, sir,” she said, smiling.

Well, all right. It’s not like I have anything edible in the house anyway. “Do you like Thai food, Ms. Granger?” he asked, pleased that he’d given no indication that she’d caught him off guard.

“I love Thai food,” she replied, clearly delighted with the prospect of going anywhere with him.

“Shall we?” he asked, indicating the door to the sitting room.

~TBC~

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Author’s Notes:

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

1. confluence

2. posit

3. maelstrom

4. gimcrack

5. lenity

6. cloy

7. halcyon

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

confluence \KON-floo-uhn( t)s\, noun:

1. A flowing or coming together; junction.

2. The place where two rivers, streams, etc. meet.

3. A flocking or assemblage of a multitude in one place; a large collection or assemblage.

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posit \POZ-it\, transitive verb:

1. To assume as real or conceded.

2. To propose as an explanation; to suggest.

3. To dispose or set firmly or fixedly.

--------

lenity \LEN-uh-tee\ , noun:

The state or quality of being lenient; mildness; gentleness of treatment; leniency.

--------

maelstrom \MAYL-struhm\ , noun:

1. A large, powerful, or destructive whirlpool.

2. Something resembling a maelstrom; a violent, disordered, or turbulent state of affairs.

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gimcrack \JIM-krak\, noun:

1. A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.

2. Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

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

cloy \KLOY\, transitive verb:

1. To weary by excess, especially of sweetness, richness, pleasure, etc.

2. To become distasteful through an excess usually of something originally pleasing.

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halcyon \HAL-see-uhn\ , noun:

1. A kingfisher.

2. A mythical bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was fabled to nest at sea about the time of the winter solstice and to calm the waves during incubation.

3. Calm; quiet; peaceful; undisturbed; happy; as, "deep, halcyon repose."

4. Marked by peace and prosperity; as, "halcyon years."

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Latest 25 Reviews for Repaying The Life Debt

229 Reviews | 7.33/10 Average

10/10

Shadow

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