Coda at Hogwarts or Are We There Yet?

Dances with Witches by Pearle

Summary: Severus Snape loses a magical bet. The consequences? The Tango! My answer to the codpiece challenge on Wiktt. HG/SS

Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. of the Harry Potter series are not mine they belong to J.K. Rowling and Co. I promise to return them when I am through. Well, most of them anyway.

~~~~~ Dances with Witches ~~~~~

Chapter 16. Coda at Hogwarts or Are We There Yet?

"I thought I'd find you here. Are you buried there or do you have a few minutes before the gr..." Her heated glare cut short the childish nickname he was about to utter. Ginny's words came back to him in force. Hermione was happy. He, for one, was not about to rock the boat, even if he did not like the focus of her affections at the moment.

Hermione had lost track of time. Having unrestricted access to the Restricted Section of Hogwarts' library was a dream come true for her. Three hours had passed since she sat down to look up just a few facts before trying to find her friends. Hermione's sigh spoke volumes. "Do I have a few minutes before what, Harry?"

"Uh, before you, uh, before the great research you're doing takes you away. I just wanted to talk to you a minute." Nice save, he thought. Maybe she won't notice the slip.

"My great research, eh? With my brilliant lab partner?" Hermione laughed. She had never been able to stay mad at Harry. "All right. What? What is it?"

Harry smiled at his friend. It almost felt like they were back in seventh year, all they needed was for Ron to come bustling around the corner to complete the picture.

"I thought I heard voices back here." Madam Pince moved into view.

Madam Pince, Irma, had been called away on a family emergency. It had been two weeks before she had been able to resolve matters at home and return to the castle. Poppy and Minerva had been more than happy to bend her ear last night and fill her in on the goings on with the students and staff in her absence. Especially, the 'goings on' regarding a mysterious Potions Master and former student, no less. And here was Hermione Granger sitting with Potter. Interesting.

Not for the first time did she wonder if something was going on with those two. She knew Potter was seeing the Weasley girl, but you just never knew about some men. And these two seemed to be uncomfortable about something, as far as she could tell. Just wait until Minerva heard about this. "Do you need any assistance?"

"We're fine. Thank you, Madam Pince. I was just doing some research for a project I am working on." Hermione smiled at the woman. She had endured long hours being glared at by the librarian during her time as a student.

The library had been her real home during her seven years here. Hermione had found peace and solace among the stacks of books. Knowledge and the ability to expand her mind, as well as her talents, had proved to be just as much a friend to her as Harry and Ron had been. Books, unlike people, had never let her down.

"Please, dear, call me Irma. You are no longer a student here. Is there...something, I can help you with?"

What exactly did she see in Snape, Irma wondered? She'd had a few errant thoughts about him herself. There had been rumors of his sexual prowess from several of the bints that had chased after him in the months following the final battle. While they may have sated his baser appetites, not one seemed to have more than two brain cells to rub together. It was no wonder he soon tired of them.

Asking the girl if the rumors about Snape's ability, or questions about the size and proportion of his endowment, was not exactly considered the height of good taste, Irma decided. Madam Pince's eyes seemed to glow with an odd light as she appraised the two.

"Thank you, but, we're fine... Irma."

'Okay, that was uncomfortable. I really do not want to know what that is about,' thought Hermione. The woman annoyed her just as much now as when she was a student here.

"If you need me, I will be in the main library." The librarian turned and left the Restricted Section. Her mind whirled as she etched the details into her brain, phrasing and rephrasing her thoughts and the comments of the last few minutes. She couldn't wait to find Minerva.

Harry shifted in his seat as he watched the librarian leave. "Was she always that weird?"

"Yeah, she was. You probably spent all of ten minutes in the library during your whole time here or you might have noticed."

"I spent more than ten minutes. 'Course, whatever time I spent here was because you dragged Ron and me here to study." Harry grinned affectionately at her. "So, you want to tell me what is going on between you and Snape? You pushed me out the door this morning, 'Mione!"

"I did, didn't I?" Hermione smiled. "What's happening between you and Ginny?"

"You probably know more about what's going on between Gin and me, than I do. You seem to be her favorite topic of conversation lately."

Hermione raised one finely arched brow. "Jealous?"

"If you weren't like a sister to me..." Harry laughed. "Though, I suspect Snape would have my head if I did try anything. Then again, there probably won't be anything left of me for Snape to attack when Ginny gets through with me."

Harry shrugged. "So, you want to talk about it? About, you two?"

Hermione sighed. "There's not a lot to tell. I told you before about Severus losing that magical bet to Albus. And the consequence was me, teaching Severus to dance the Tango. I don't know, sometime in the last few weeks, something seemed to change between us. We started talking about my theory of altering the Wolfsbane Potion one night, before his dance lesson, and sort of lost track of time. I really didn't think he would be interested, but he was. I know you don't like Severus, Harry, but he is the leading Potions Master in the United Kingdom. Do you have any idea what it means to have him interested in my theory? We plan on publishing our findings after the final trials. Severus thinks we may be able to extend the process to other potions and possibly improve the results of those potions."

Harry watched Hermione's eyes sparkle as she spoke of her work with Snape. He was lost as she explained some of the processes they were exploring. He was sure Snape would not feign an interest in her theory just to win her over. Hermione was brilliant in her own right. It actually made sense that the two of them seemed to get along. There were very few people on the face of the planet that could understand his friend once she worked herself up to explaining her theories.

'Maybe Ginny was right,' he thought. Snape could possibly be one of the few people Hermione could talk to and not only understand her, but also not grow bored with her explanations of things. He seemed to enjoy research as much as she did. But snogging Snape? Harry shuddered inwardly at the thought. Well, she seemed happy enough. "So, you really think you two can help Remus? By the way, why was Snape calling Remus by his first name yesterday?"

"At the match?" Her smile was wicked. "He lost a bet to me. If Gryffindor won, he would have to call Remus by his given name for a month."

"What if Slytherin had won? No. Don't tell me. I don't think I want to know. Hermione, you two are comfortable working together, great. I know there is something more then that going on. Are you really happy?" Harry watched her eyes, trying to read the emotions behind her words.

"Yeah, Harry. I am really happy. I know you two don't get along."

Harry snorted at the comment. That was a gross understatement on her part.

"Okay," she amended, "it goes beyond not getting along. You hate each other. I got that. But Harry, he's, I don't know, different when were together. His sarcasm is not, mean. It's actually funny sometimes. We talk for hours. He has some very interesting theories on quite a few subjects other then potions. I've always respected him. You know that. I finally got a chance to see behind the robes. I am happy. Really. Can't you try to get along with Severus, for me?"

Harry agreed half-heartedly. "Yeah, I can try. He was actually human this morning. I can't believe you talk to him like that."

"What?"

Harry shifted uneasily in his seat. "Well, Ginny said you told her..." He couldn't say it. He really did not want to know. All right, he was curious, the same way you can't look away from a really bad accident. Morbid curiosity. Snape, as anything but the over-grown bat of the dungeon, would take some getting used to. Snape being intimate with his best friend was an image that could melt his brain.

Hermione grinned at his discomfort. She was not about to let him off the hook so easily, not after the little scene he staged this morning, even if he had thought he was acting in her best interest. "You mean, Severus and I engaging in...."

"Enough! Okay. You win. I'll talk nice to him. I won't hex him when he stands too close to you. But, please, I don't want to hear the details of your love life." God, what was she going to tell him? He had heard a few rumors himself about Snape, he had no desire to know if they were true or not. That was her business, not his. If she was happy, he would be happy for her. End of discussion.

"I was only going to explain how our research would help Remus. I have no intention of sharing my love life with you. That is not open to discussion." 'If she didn't get Severus alone soon, there wouldn't be a love life to discuss!' Hermione thought.

Her birthday was coming up the end of this week. She knew exactly what she wanted. And her gift would come nicely wrapped in black silk, if she had anything to say about it. Maybe, she could magic up some costume samples for him to try on. A few adjustments to the codpiece and she might just have a very Happy Birthday after all.

Harry grinned boyishly at his friend. "Care to join me in the Great Hall for lunch?"

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It was early afternoon when Hermione left Harry and Ginny in the Great Hall and headed for the dungeons. Lunch had been a pleasant affair, reacquainting her with some old friends and meeting some new people. She had left promising to owl Ginny sometime this week. She would see them next Saturday at the Burrow, in any event.

Before leaving, Hermione had taken Ginny to the side and asked her what had transpired this morning in the hospital wing. Ginny had heard Albus talking to Severus before she had left the hospital. Ackart was being transferred to St. Mungo's for treatment. His roommate, Kinnard, would receive counseling at the school. The Headmaster and Professor Snape had left the wing to make the arrangement with St. Mungo's and the student's parents, Ginny had told her. Ackart still refused to tell them where he had obtained the potion.

When asked how she thought Severus was, Ginny was hesitant to offer an opinion. "He's always polite to me, Hermione. He just seemed a bit...distracted, if I was going to say anything was different at all. He did look tired, though." Hermione had thanked her and left to find Severus.

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Hermione drew a deep breath before entering the lab; ready to deal with whatever mood Severus was in. The room was empty. Looking around, she realized he had not worked today. Everything was in its place. The benches were spotless. She walked through the doorway to his private quarters. The sight of Severus, in his shirtsleeves, slumped in a chair, contemplating a glass of amber liquid, met her eyes. She suspected it might not have been his first drink of the day.

Severus had felt the wards shift when Hermione had entered the lab. He felt her presence when she entered his quarters. His mind was weary, stripped bear with the events of the previous night and this morning.

Hermione sat across from him, watching his face. "Severus, are you all right?"

He ran a hand through his hair before dropping it tiredly by his side. "I'm fine. Did you finish whatever you needed to?"

Hermione moved forward in her chair, her knees touching the side of Severus's leg. His hand moved forward to trace a meaningless pattern in the fabric of her pants. His other hand tightened on the heavy glass as he took a long pull from the amber liquid.

'Firewhisky,' she thought, as the smell of the whiskey drifted to her. "Severus, talk to me. What happened?"

"I'm fine, Hermione. Did you find Potter? Ginevra? She was in the hospital wing this morning." He drained the remainder of the glass in a single swallow.

"I didn't ask how you were, I asked what happened. I know you don't care about Harry, especially since you can't take house points from him. What happened?" Hermione's tone was harsh. He needed to snap out of this malaise, now. She was not going to sit back and let him shut her out. Obviously, he was not aware of who he was dealing with.

Hermione moved behind him and started to rub his shoulders. She felt his body tense before easing back into her hands. She remained quiet, gently massaging his shoulders and the back of his neck, trying to remove the tension she felt radiating from his body. She could not have said how much time had passed, when he suddenly started to talk to her. Hermione remained quiet, allowing him to talk at his own pace.

"I should have known he would try something like this. I watched him all last year. He seemed so...alone. I should have realized the level of his desperation. Did I tell you I knew his father? The bastard was a supporter of Voldemort's. He had enough pull in the Ministry to keep himself out of Azkaban since he never sported the Dark Mark. Ackart told me in confidence one night; his father had expected him to take the Dark Mark after his graduation. The boy was grateful to me for the Dark Lord's defeat. Can you imagine? He actually thanked me." Severus yanked the cuff of his shirtsleeve back, exposing the silver scar on his forearm. "There are days I wish I had the courage to cut my arm off, and this bastard wanted his son to wear the brand of a madman."

Hermione understood this went deeper than the young man's attempted suicide, though Severus's maudlin thoughts seemed to revolve around the boy and his father. She moved to his side, her hand covered the scar of his Dark Mark. "Severus, I know you regret ever joining Voldemort. But without your help, the light would never have won. Harry may have fulfilled the prophecy, but without your information, we would not have been prepared for the final battle. Don't you understand? We could not have won without you! More lives would have been lost. Voldemort would have won. I know you don't think of yourself as a hero, but you are. To a lot of people, you are a hero."

His tone was bitter, "And to quite a few, I am still a Death Eater who saw a chance to save his own skin."

"That's not true. I don't care about the people that question your loyalty. I have a few questions about them, myself. You know what side you stand on. The people that matter know where your loyalty lies." Hermione's voice was quiet. "I have always respected you, Severus. It's time to forgive yourself. Stop torturing yourself for a past you cannot change. Whether you realize it or not, you have a good heart. Even it you don't believe it, I think of you as a hero."

Severus looked at the woman sitting next to him. He marveled at her strength. At the ultimate faith she had in him. Faith he was not so sure he deserved. "Is this the type of talk you gave Potter when you were students here?"

Severus thought back to the final battle. He held an image of Hermione in his mind. Her hair wild and unkempt, her face smudged with dirt. It was her eyes that held him that day, as they did now. She had radiated power as she stood next to Potter, sure in her convictions. He had moved to cover the boy's back, showing his true loyalty to the light at last, as Potter faced the Dark Lord. She was there first. Severus turned instead, and cursed the Death Eaters moving forward to protect their master. Albus moved to his side, and between the two, they cast an ancient spell, allowing Harry to destroy the evil, once and for all.

"No. He normally raged about how unfair you were and I would have to remind him that it was probably hard on you, working for both sides at the same time. That he should respect you. Then he and Ron would recite the list of points you had deducted from Gryffindor that day. Actually, there were a few times I thought of hexing you myself, but students that hex teachers tended to get expelled." Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "It all worked out in the end, anyway."

Severus reached out and pulled her onto his lap. He played with the mass of curls that cascaded down her back. Her hair fascinated him. It felt like silk sliding between his fingers. His arms came around her as he buried his nose in her hair. 'Vanilla and cinnamon,' he thought. His voice was quiet. "I should have known, Hermione."

"You couldn't have known, Severus. Ginny told me he never mentioned it to anyone. What happens now?" She watched his eyes as he spoke. He looked weary but seemed to have lost that haunted look that she had noticed when she first spoke to him.

Severus sighed. "Now he goes to St. Mungo's, and they try to help him understand his fears. Do you know what test he failed?"

Hermione shook her head.

"It wasn't really a test. They were working on boggarts in Defense Against the Dark Arts. His boggart turned into his father. He was unable to banish it. I spoke with Lupin last night. He said the boy was distraught but seemed to pull himself together. He told him he could try again next week. There were others that had failed, but none were as upset as Ackart." Severus was still worried about the young man.

"Kind of like when Neville's boggart turned into you in his Grandmother's clothing. Maybe he was afraid to see his father again?"

He glared at the witch. "You had to bring that up, didn't you?"

"I thought you looked fetching in a dress and vulture hat."

Severus shook his head. "Not funny, Hermione. Not by a long shot."

Her hand traced the planes of his face. "How is Remus doing?"

"Lupin? He's upset too. I suspect we will all watch our charges a little closer for sometime to come."

"You mean Remus, don't you?" Hermione's grin was smug.

"No, I mean Lupin. The bet stated I had to address him using his given name for a month, nothing more. And since I do not see him anywhere in this room, I am free to call him anything I like."

"That's not what I meant! You were to call him Remus."

Severus shrugged his shoulders. "Call, address. Semantics. It is the same thing. You should have been more specific."

The clock over his desk chimed, signaling dinner in the Great Hall. They had been sitting talking, for several hours, without being aware of the passage of time. "Do you have time to eat dinner here, or do you need to get back to Cambridge?"

"No, I can have dinner before I go." Hermione took a deep breath. "Severus, I wanted to ask you about next weekend. Molly always has a joint birthday party for Arthur and me. She's planning on having everyone at the Burrow on Saturday evening. Will you go with me?"

Her birthday. Severus had pulled out her old school records to verify the date when she had mentioned her birthday, the week before. She would be twenty-two Friday, thanks to the use of the Time-Turner. He had planned on a quiet dinner Friday night, just the two of them. "Friday is your birthday. I was hoping to take you to a wizarding restaurant, in London, Friday night. Just the two of us." His hand trailed along her side, feather soft.

"Friday sounds great. Will you come with me to the Burrow on Saturday?"

"Hermione..."

"What?" The anger snapped in Hermione's eyes at his tone.

Severus chuckled to himself. She could go from soft to hellcat in a heartbeat. "Hermione, don't you think you would have a better time if you went alone? I am sure Potter and Weasley will not be happy with my presence."

"I don't care what Harry or Ron want. I have endured enough bimbos on Ron's behalf that he could put up with my boyfriend for one night."

Bimbos? He had no clue what she was talking about. Her boyfriend? Did she just refer to him as her boyfriend? "Did you just use the adolescent phrase, boyfriend, when referring to me? I believe I am too old to consider this relationship to be part of any pubescent phase you maybe going through."

Hermione thought the phrase would irk him. "All right. What would you have me call you?"

"Companion, master, inamorato." His hands tangled in her hair. Severus infused his voice with silk as he nuzzled the side of her neck, "lover comes to mind."

"Mmm. We definitely need to work on that." The sound of the clock chiming again drew Hermione's gaze.

The hand with Severus's picture had moved to 'You are needed in the Great Hall.'

"Severus." Hermione pointed to the clock.

Severus reluctantly detached himself from his exploration of her cleavage. Were all the fates conspiring against them? "I suppose we should go."

Hermione stood and rearranged her clothing. "You'll go with me to the Burrow Saturday night?"

"If you are sure that is what you want?"

Hermione nodded her head in agreement

"Very well," Severus agreed. "I will accompany you. You can give me the details Friday night when I pick you up."

"What time do you have to be back Friday?"

The gleam in his eye set her heart to flutter. "I don't have to be back at all on Friday. I am not on duty again until Sunday night." Severus watched as Hermione's nostrils flared with her sudden intake of breath, as she absorbed the meaning of his words.

Severus chuckled darkly. He intended to make this a birthday she would never forget. He held his arm out to her. "Care to join me for dinner?"

Hermione smiled up at him, thoughts of ravishing his body flooding her mind. She was sure the time between now and Friday would pass at a snail's pace. If she had a Time-Turner she would move ahead to Friday, and the consequences be damned. Her smile was sunny as she took his arm. "Thank you, I would love to."

They left his quarters discussing the research Hermione had covered that afternoon. They talked of the potion, but truth be told, both their minds were fixed on another subject entirely.

TBC

A/N: The steps and form of the dance (as well as those that appear in future chapters) are from this web site: Tango tutorial - http://64.70.140.102/ourdance.htm. Challenge rules can be found following chapter one.

Coda - Literally "A tail"- the closing measures of a piece of music. Closing section of a movement.

Inamorato - a man with whom you are in love or have an intimate relationship

Thank you to Nakhash, my beta. Another set of eyes is always helpful, the mistakes, however, are still my fault.

For those who asked how many chapters are left, my estimate is between ten and say, one hundred. For example, I would never have thought the weekend at Hogwarts would have taken three chapters to cover all the events that occurred. I have a hard time estimating how many chapters the remaining material will require. That, and I tend to write longer chapters than I originally plan for. Add to that, I have not reached a final stopping point for the story. I know I want to carry it past Christmas. I happen to know about plans Severus and Hermione have for the summer break, some type of research sabbatical or something. I assume we will know more on that front when they decide to tell us. So, how does between 10 and 100 chapters left sound?

Still to come, Thursday's dance lesson, costumes (at last!), Hermione's Birthday (Lemons!), The Burrow, and more. Enjoy. Please review and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you! As always thoughts, comments, reviews, whatever are always welcome.

Regards, Pearle