Emergence: 31 December, 1997 (28 and 29)
Title: Emergence: 31 December, 1997
::Deathly Hallows Spoilers!::
Team Name: Apparently, a Death Eater...
Word Count: 200
Rating: PG-13 ish
Challenge: "Absolutely No Dialog"
Additional Challenges: Compulsion, Hidden Agenda, Runaway
Disclaimer: I am making no profit. Nor am I claiming creation or ownership of anything Harry Potter related. All of it is J. K. Rowling's.
Ron Weasley overheard the Auror in charge of his training speaking to a woman, and addressing her as Hermione Granger. Then, Ron heard Hermione's distinct voice retort, "I told you -"
Hermione's admonishment was cut off by Ron's horrified exclamation, "Hermione?" After the Final Battle, they tallied the dead, tended the injured, and searched for the missing. Amoung those missing was the girl Ron loved: Hermione Granger. Ron now saw a witch of about a hundred, standing beside an equally aged Severus Snape.
"Yes, Ron, it's really me. But, my name is Hermione Snape now," the witch said, in Hermione's voice.
************
Before another word could be said, Kingsley Shacklebolt strode imperiously into the room. He wore his authority with casual confidence. No one questioned the commands he issued in his even tones. "Everyone in this room is to report to St Mungo's, except," he paused to observe Severus and Hermione, after a brief appraisal, he forged ahead with his assumption, "the Snapes. Go directly to the Unidentified Contagion Department, room three. Remain there, until I come for you personally."
No one moved.
"Now!" Kingsley commanded.
When the room was empty; except for the Snapes, Kingsley closed and warded the door securely.
************
Kingsley Shacklebolt looked at Severus and Hermione Snape, and shook his head in wonder. "I know that your age is noncommunicable. I needed to contain everyone who knows that you've returned. We'll have to decide if they need to have their memories modified."
Severus's silky baritone was unchanged by his apparent age. "What do you know about us?" he asked.
"I was told to watch for you to return from an unexplained disappearance. I was told that you might be older than you should be. If those things happened, I was ordered to compel you to take this Portkey immediately."
************
Severus and Hermione landed in front of an unusual little home. It was made out of a warm grey stone, as were the solid walls surrounding it's yard.
Kingsley had given them their wands when the Portkey activated. They immediately tried to escape. Apparition was impossible. There was no aperture evident in the walls. They cast every revealing spell known between them, to no avail. When Severus tried to magically blast their way out, he was met with spectacular failure.
The temperature began dropping as daylight waned.
They knew they would have to try to go in the suspicious house.
************
Severus touched the wrought iron of the door's latch. Wards dropped, and the door swung silently open. Severus drew Hermione behind him as they crossed the threshold. They stopped just inside the door. Candles lit, and a fire flared to life in a large hearth. They held their wands at the ready. All they could see was a comfortably appointed, and welcoming circular, room. There were several doors leading off it which they assumed opened into turret rooms. They could sense no apparent danger, however, they knew that meant little.
"Finally, you've come in."
The Snapes turned toward the voice.
************
"Silence! I will not converse with a two dimensional charlatan," Severus snarled at the portrait that had spoken.
Hermione placed her wrinkled hand on Severus's sleeve in comfort. He gently covered it with his own, his demeanor softening somewhat.
"Why aren't you hanging in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked Dumbledore's portrait.
"Ah. But, you see my dear girl, I, like my esteemed contemporary Phineas Nigellus, had many likenesses of myself created."
"Of course you would," Severus said with a contemptuous sneer.
"Please, please, let's save this. For now, there are many things that I must, rather urgently I'm afraid, impart to you."
************
"I was given information and compelled to reveal it to you only under these exact circumstances."
"No." Severus snarled. "Albus would have told me anything he wanted me to know when he was alive."
"Not in this case. He only wanted you to know if this unlikely occurrence came to pass. Miss Granger, did you save Severus's life and take him into the past?"
"That's obvious!"
"Yes, I did."
"As was expected," Albus said.
"What do you mean, expected?"
"You were given a Time-Turner in your third-year for a reason. It's not common to hand them to children, you know."
************
"Albus expected me to save Severus?" Hermione asked. "There was nothing between us then. How could he... you... know?"
"That's absurd! I would never have -"
"I'm talking now," Hermione snapped at Severus.
"He had a premonition, if you will, that there would be something between the two of you."
Severus snorted.
Hermione and Albus's portrait ignored him. "He hoped that if you ever needed to, you would think of saving Severus by taking him to the past. He never imagined you'd have to save him from Nagini's bite. Although, he did think an escape to the past would be necessary."
************
"I have heard enough," Severus said coldly. "We're leaving."
"Where will you go?" Albus's portrait asked. "Outside? You'll catch your death. No, no, best stay here. When we've finished our business, it will be safe for you to leave."
"Safe? What are you blathering about?" Severus asked curtly.
"Why, the fact that our dear Miss Granger -"
"Mrs Snape!" Severus growled.
"Is it? Well, congratulations! Although, you may find that your marriage is not quite what you think it is."
"Have you got Turpentine sickness?"
"No such thing."
"What do you mean, our marriage is not what we think?" Hermione asked.
************
"You were married to Severus in your sixth-year."
"Hermione," Severus said, "will you stop talking to that? It's clearly deranged!"
"You were married without either of you being aware of it. Severus, signed documents giving Albus access to his vault at Gringotts. You, signed adult-status documents on your seventeenth birthday. Along with these documents, you unknowingly signed yourselves in legal matrimony. The documents were drawn up by solicitors. They became legally binding once both of you had signed them."
"Why would you do that to us?"
"Because of Severus's Unbreakable Vow. You were tricked into marriage to keep you safe."
************
"Marrying me to a child, without my knowledge, was strategic security."
Like the real Dumbledore, his portrait ignored the sarcasm in Severus's voice. "Quite right. It's all about the compellability of witnesses. Our old law where spouses may not be compelled to testify against each other, has not been changed. Severus doesn't need that loophole anymore. I'm sure Kingsley told you that Severus was irrefutably cleared of all wrongdoing last week. But, you Hermione, helped a fugitive to escape from justice. You harbored him in the past. That is a very serious offense, with a mandatory ninety years in Azkaban."
************
Dumbledore's portrait smiled incongruously. "There can be no defense for you taking Severus into the past, Hermione. Of course, Severus can't be made to testify against you."
"The fact that I am not a compellable witness will not be enough in the face of our age!" Severus snarled.
"It will help if she is charged with aiding in your escape and harbouring you."
"That won't matter if she goes to prison for taking me to the past by illegal Time-Turner use."
"No, but, just as my living self gave Hermione the Time-Turner, he prepared for the consequences."
"How?" Hermione asked.
************
"The contingency plan is quite ingenious, if I say so myself. You see, my dear friend Nicholas Flamel slipped me some of his special elixir before he died. Do you know what it is?"
"The elixir of life," Hermione said. Despite all the years that she had lived, that spark of the Hogwart's student she once was, drew a snort from her husband. She smiled unrepentantly at him, and he returned it with an almost indulgent smile of his own.
"I only have two doses," Albus continued, ignoring the the aged lover's intimate exchange.
"How will it work?" Hermione asked.
************
"It will restore each of you to perfect health. Perfect health for your birth age. You Hermione, will be a perfectly healthy eighteen year old. And Severus, you will be an unscarred thirty-seven year old. No one will ever be able to prove that you lived seventy-three years together in the past."
Hermione could see that Severus was bristling to blast the canvas version of the manipulative old wizard into oblivion. She stepped between them, and asked, "Where is it?"
"In an indestructible box beneath the mattress, with a fertility potion," the portrait said with a twinkle in his eye.
************
Severus drew his wand. Portrait Albus ducked behind his painted chintz chair.
"Dear boy, I mean no insult. This is an integral part of the plan," Albus called from his insubstantial hiding place. "It's necessary that you impregnate your wife tonight. After you take the elixir -"
Severus raised his wand.
"Wait!" portrait Albus said, in a facsimile of his old commanding tone. "You can't speak of your marriage from the past. The paper marriage you were both tricked into signing can be contested. If Hermione carries your child, no member of the Wizengamot will allow a challenge to that marriage."
************
"How dare you?" Hermione asked shrilly. "This is my body. Mine. You have manipulated enough! I will not have you trying to dictate our reproduction, or lack thereof." She seemed to have forgotten that it was a painting she was berating. "To stand there, in front of me, and have the audacity to tell my husband to impregnate me! I'll hex... I'll hex..." Tears of indignation streamed down Hermione's face. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She was in Severus's arms before her knees gave. He supported her as she dissolved into his sheltering embrace.
************
Severus knew what was causing Hermione's distress. "You were a good mother, Hermione. We did everything that we could. Alexandru couldn't have a typical life, you know that. No one could have been a better mother than you were. I know you wish you could have given him more. You couldn't. We couldn't. He was a fine man. Having to grow up hidden from history was hard for him. But, he did well." Severus held Hermione closer.
"I know, Severus. I'm fine."
He drew back and scrutinised her.
She cupped his cheek. "Really." She assured him with a watery smile.
************
Hermione addressed Albus's portrait. "I realise that no one can know that we were married without coercion in the past. If the Wizengamot dissolves the marriage you tricked us into, so be it. It changes nothing between us."
"You must consider carefully. If your marriage is dissolved, they can force Severus to testify against you, under the influence of Veritaserum. You will go to Azkaban for a minimum of ninety years. It's too much of a risk, don't you think? If you conceive a child together first, no official will dissolve your marriage. Then, your escape to the past will remain unrevealed."
************
"These posthumous machinations will not come to fruition. My wife already conceived and gave birth to my son. There is no need for whatever schemes your model had in mind," Severus told the portrait coldly.
"It sounds as if your son is no longer with you. You both must take the elixir, or your physicality itself will condemn Hermione. Once she ingests the elixir, her body will bear no signs of anything it's gone through, including childbirth. They will use anything to get you to testify. Consummation itself will not suffice. You didn't enter this marriage with freedom of will."
************
"Will we be allowed to leave this place?" Hermione asked.
Dumbledore's portrait sighed. "The wards will drop twenty-four hours after you both take the elixir."
"I'll not be suppressed," Hermione asserted. "We'll flee again."
"Kingsley will Apparate here as soon as the wards drop. Before you flee, consider talking to the Order. Tell them everything. Perhaps, they can help you. They won't stop you if you choose to go into hiding." Some steel crept into the defeated tone of the portrait. "However, I will caution you one last time. Comply with my plan. No good will come of your defiance."
************
"I daresay, you're more forthright now. But, you're no less intrusive," said Snape, his lip curling, "and no more substantial than canvas and paint." His voice became soft and menacing. "You will not upset my wife again."
Dumbledore's portrait managed to flee his frame a mere fraction of a second before Severus's spell obliterated it. Severus turned to Hermione. "Now, he should stay in the Head's office at Hogwart's, where he belongs."
"Well done, dear," Hermione said with a smile. "He'll believe you intended to destroy him."
"Whoever said that I didn't?" Severus asked in a bored tone.
Hermione laughed.
************
Severus swept to the place where the portrait had told them the elixir was hidden. Before Hermione could react, he had withdrawn the phials and downed one of the two holding the Elixir of Life.
"Severus!" Hermione exclaimed, as she flew to him. "You should have -"
"Tested it first?" he supplied. "Impossible. This was the only..." He trailed off and fell to his knees. Hermione followed and supported him. She caressed his deeply lined face.
"A bit worse than Polyjuice," he said with a smirk.
Suddenly, Hermione was holding a perfectly healthy thirty-seven year old Severus Snape in her arms.
************
Severus stood, drawing Hermione up with him. He moved to kiss her. She pushed him away. "No, Severus. Let me take the elixir. I want to look young for you."
"Hermione, please, we're alone." he responded, his voice thick with passion. "I want you."
"I'll take the elixir first. Think of it, Severus. I'll have firm breasts, a concave stomach, smooth skin -"
"I want you as you are," Severus said ardently, as stalked towards. He backed her against a wall. He pressed the hard length of his young body into her. His lips captured hers in a sensual kiss.
************
Severus trailed his lips across Hermione's cheek and down her neck. He stopped at the juncture of her shoulder. He sunk his teeth gently into her flesh. Then he soothed the sting with open mouthed kisses. He breathed in her scent, and pressed his body more firmly into hers.
She moaned softly.
He kissed his way to her ear.
Her skin came alive, as jolts of longing thrummed through her body.
He whispered breathily into her ear, "My body is younger. But, my experienced mind is in control. The desire I feel for you is real. I want you. Now."
************
Severus lay in the comfortable bed and smiled to himself as he remembered the night with his wife. Hermione had become even more amorous in the last few years. He remembered well their first years together. The intense passion that flared between them was hardly forgettable. But lately, it was as if sex had become an art form for his wife. She was Aphrodite personified. He smiled, and sighed in satisfaction. Logically, he knew it was her body's last ditch effort to reproduce. Muggles called the phenomena a woman's sexual peak. He would miss that when she took the elixir.
************
Severus pulled his nude wife closer. He inhaled the scent of her pleasure appreciatively. He realised they would have their whole life to live over again. But, this time there would be no tentative beginning to their lovemaking. He shook his head and chuckled at his choice of words. Hermione had most definitely had an influence on him. He wondered what it would be like, to be a young wizard with such a different outlook on the world.
Hermione awoke with Severus gently caressing her side. She opened her eyes and looked into his. "I dreamt of Alexandru," she whispered.
************
"Was it a nightmare?" Severus asked.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "It was odd."
"How so?"
"Dru told me he was well. He said that we should begin a new life. That it wouldn't diminish all that we'd already lived. He said we should go forward and be happy, as he was." She took a deep breath. "It was so real. It must have been my subconscious trying to tell me something."
"Tell you what?"
"I don't know. I meant it all those times that I said I would never want more children. Didn't I? Was I just trying to convince myself?"
************
"Only you know that," Severus said, with more patience than he would have believed himself capable of. "Drink the elixir first. Then, we can make decisions."
Hermione took the elixir, and collapsed back on the pillow. Severus watched in fascination as her body changed before his eyes. A few minutes later, Hermione opened her eyes and smiled at her husband. "My arthritis is gone."
"Unsurprising," Severus said sardonically.
Hermione swatted him in the chest. She stretched, causing her bare breasts to press against Severus. "I know what I want to do, Love."
"We're going to talk? Now?" Severus practically pouted.
************
Hermione laughed. "Now I remember the good old days. When I didn't have to seduce you. You were ready all the time."
"Hmm, as you've been these last few years."
"Too true," Hermione agreed breathily, as Severus toyed with her nipples.
He nuzzled her neck and beseeched, "Please, Hermione."
"Wait," she breathed, pushing him off.
"The contraceptive charm," he said, his frustration clear in his deep voice as he rummaged for his wand.
"No."
"No?" He'd been casting that charm daily for decades.
"I think we should let nature take it's course. No fertility potion. No contraceptive charm. Just us."
************
Severus was thwarted again.
"We need to make a decision. First," Hermione interrupted.
"Decision?"
"What do we do when the wards release us?"
"Yes... best decide now... rest of... time here concentrating on more important things," Severus said from between her breasts.
Hermione grabbed Severus's hair and pulled his face up to look at her. "I think we should tell the Order everything tomorrow."
"Yes. Fine. Now?"
"Severus!" she snapped.
"I mean that I agree. It's all settled. Tomorrow we tell the Order anything they want to know."
Hermione smiled to herself. A thirty-seven year old Severus was so easy.
************
Severus watched Hermione think. He knew she'd decided to allow nature to take it's course. He knew too, that there was almost no chance that she would conceive. She had only become pregnant because she had begun to take a daily potion for a hormonal imbalance. Once Alexandru was born, they knew to use contraception to counteract the potion. A potion she hadn't taken since they'd been discovered. Without the daily intake, it would be a miracle if she conceived.
"Wine?" Severus offered.
Hermione accepted absently. "When we answer the Order tomorrow -"
He cut her off with a kiss.
************
Severus smirked to himself. An eighteen year old Hermione was so easy. She'd been too busy thinking to notice him slipping the fertiltiy potion into her wine. When they were first married she'd always been involved in something. Whereas, his wife of recent years spent more time studying his anatomy. His young wife had been passionate and keen; but, she wasn't as single minded. His thoughts turned serious. He refused to take chances. He did what had to be done, to ensure that their marriage could not be contested. Hermione need never know that he had a hand in it.
************
The Order fell silent as Kingsley led Severus and Hermione into the room.
Severus stood proudly beside his wife. His solid black attire was unsurprising. Hermione, however, barely resembled the girl they knew from two short months ago. Instead of jeans and trainers, she wore a long bronze lace skirt, and bronze shoes decorated with intricate black beadwork. Her matching silk blouse fell in a soft portrait neckline, perfectly framing her jewellery. The jewellery that flashed on her hands, wrists, ears, and throat, brought to mind royalty. With her fine black shawl, she looked more like an exotic gypsy princess.
************
The group of senior Order members openly goggled at Hermione. She moved infantesimally closer to Severus. He put a reassuring hand on the small of her back. A gesture that didn't go unnoticed. His other hand wrapped around the wand hidden within his coat, as he surveyed the faces grouped around them. Minerva's face was pinched and white. Severus thought it stood out well, in contrast to the sea of predictably red faced Weaselys. At the forefront of which was Ron, who looked ready to explode. Beside him, Harry Potter managed to look furious and chagrined at the same time.
************
::Deathly Hallows Spoilers!::
Team Name: Apparently, a Death Eater...
Word Count: 200
Rating: PG-13 ish
Challenge: "Absolutely No Dialog"
Additional Challenges: Compulsion, Hidden Agenda, Runaway
Disclaimer: I am making no profit. Nor am I claiming creation or ownership of anything Harry Potter related. All of it is J. K. Rowling's.
Ron Weasley overheard the Auror in charge of his training speaking to a woman, and addressing her as Hermione Granger. Then, Ron heard Hermione's distinct voice retort, "I told you -"
Hermione's admonishment was cut off by Ron's horrified exclamation, "Hermione?" After the Final Battle, they tallied the dead, tended the injured, and searched for the missing. Amoung those missing was the girl Ron loved: Hermione Granger. Ron now saw a witch of about a hundred, standing beside an equally aged Severus Snape.
"Yes, Ron, it's really me. But, my name is Hermione Snape now," the witch said, in Hermione's voice.
************
Before another word could be said, Kingsley Shacklebolt strode imperiously into the room. He wore his authority with casual confidence. No one questioned the commands he issued in his even tones. "Everyone in this room is to report to St Mungo's, except," he paused to observe Severus and Hermione, after a brief appraisal, he forged ahead with his assumption, "the Snapes. Go directly to the Unidentified Contagion Department, room three. Remain there, until I come for you personally."
No one moved.
"Now!" Kingsley commanded.
When the room was empty; except for the Snapes, Kingsley closed and warded the door securely.
************
Kingsley Shacklebolt looked at Severus and Hermione Snape, and shook his head in wonder. "I know that your age is noncommunicable. I needed to contain everyone who knows that you've returned. We'll have to decide if they need to have their memories modified."
Severus's silky baritone was unchanged by his apparent age. "What do you know about us?" he asked.
"I was told to watch for you to return from an unexplained disappearance. I was told that you might be older than you should be. If those things happened, I was ordered to compel you to take this Portkey immediately."
************
Severus and Hermione landed in front of an unusual little home. It was made out of a warm grey stone, as were the solid walls surrounding it's yard.
Kingsley had given them their wands when the Portkey activated. They immediately tried to escape. Apparition was impossible. There was no aperture evident in the walls. They cast every revealing spell known between them, to no avail. When Severus tried to magically blast their way out, he was met with spectacular failure.
The temperature began dropping as daylight waned.
They knew they would have to try to go in the suspicious house.
************
Severus touched the wrought iron of the door's latch. Wards dropped, and the door swung silently open. Severus drew Hermione behind him as they crossed the threshold. They stopped just inside the door. Candles lit, and a fire flared to life in a large hearth. They held their wands at the ready. All they could see was a comfortably appointed, and welcoming circular, room. There were several doors leading off it which they assumed opened into turret rooms. They could sense no apparent danger, however, they knew that meant little.
"Finally, you've come in."
The Snapes turned toward the voice.
************
"Silence! I will not converse with a two dimensional charlatan," Severus snarled at the portrait that had spoken.
Hermione placed her wrinkled hand on Severus's sleeve in comfort. He gently covered it with his own, his demeanor softening somewhat.
"Why aren't you hanging in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked Dumbledore's portrait.
"Ah. But, you see my dear girl, I, like my esteemed contemporary Phineas Nigellus, had many likenesses of myself created."
"Of course you would," Severus said with a contemptuous sneer.
"Please, please, let's save this. For now, there are many things that I must, rather urgently I'm afraid, impart to you."
************
"I was given information and compelled to reveal it to you only under these exact circumstances."
"No." Severus snarled. "Albus would have told me anything he wanted me to know when he was alive."
"Not in this case. He only wanted you to know if this unlikely occurrence came to pass. Miss Granger, did you save Severus's life and take him into the past?"
"That's obvious!"
"Yes, I did."
"As was expected," Albus said.
"What do you mean, expected?"
"You were given a Time-Turner in your third-year for a reason. It's not common to hand them to children, you know."
************
"Albus expected me to save Severus?" Hermione asked. "There was nothing between us then. How could he... you... know?"
"That's absurd! I would never have -"
"I'm talking now," Hermione snapped at Severus.
"He had a premonition, if you will, that there would be something between the two of you."
Severus snorted.
Hermione and Albus's portrait ignored him. "He hoped that if you ever needed to, you would think of saving Severus by taking him to the past. He never imagined you'd have to save him from Nagini's bite. Although, he did think an escape to the past would be necessary."
************
"I have heard enough," Severus said coldly. "We're leaving."
"Where will you go?" Albus's portrait asked. "Outside? You'll catch your death. No, no, best stay here. When we've finished our business, it will be safe for you to leave."
"Safe? What are you blathering about?" Severus asked curtly.
"Why, the fact that our dear Miss Granger -"
"Mrs Snape!" Severus growled.
"Is it? Well, congratulations! Although, you may find that your marriage is not quite what you think it is."
"Have you got Turpentine sickness?"
"No such thing."
"What do you mean, our marriage is not what we think?" Hermione asked.
************
"You were married to Severus in your sixth-year."
"Hermione," Severus said, "will you stop talking to that? It's clearly deranged!"
"You were married without either of you being aware of it. Severus, signed documents giving Albus access to his vault at Gringotts. You, signed adult-status documents on your seventeenth birthday. Along with these documents, you unknowingly signed yourselves in legal matrimony. The documents were drawn up by solicitors. They became legally binding once both of you had signed them."
"Why would you do that to us?"
"Because of Severus's Unbreakable Vow. You were tricked into marriage to keep you safe."
************
"Marrying me to a child, without my knowledge, was strategic security."
Like the real Dumbledore, his portrait ignored the sarcasm in Severus's voice. "Quite right. It's all about the compellability of witnesses. Our old law where spouses may not be compelled to testify against each other, has not been changed. Severus doesn't need that loophole anymore. I'm sure Kingsley told you that Severus was irrefutably cleared of all wrongdoing last week. But, you Hermione, helped a fugitive to escape from justice. You harbored him in the past. That is a very serious offense, with a mandatory ninety years in Azkaban."
************
Dumbledore's portrait smiled incongruously. "There can be no defense for you taking Severus into the past, Hermione. Of course, Severus can't be made to testify against you."
"The fact that I am not a compellable witness will not be enough in the face of our age!" Severus snarled.
"It will help if she is charged with aiding in your escape and harbouring you."
"That won't matter if she goes to prison for taking me to the past by illegal Time-Turner use."
"No, but, just as my living self gave Hermione the Time-Turner, he prepared for the consequences."
"How?" Hermione asked.
************
"The contingency plan is quite ingenious, if I say so myself. You see, my dear friend Nicholas Flamel slipped me some of his special elixir before he died. Do you know what it is?"
"The elixir of life," Hermione said. Despite all the years that she had lived, that spark of the Hogwart's student she once was, drew a snort from her husband. She smiled unrepentantly at him, and he returned it with an almost indulgent smile of his own.
"I only have two doses," Albus continued, ignoring the the aged lover's intimate exchange.
"How will it work?" Hermione asked.
************
"It will restore each of you to perfect health. Perfect health for your birth age. You Hermione, will be a perfectly healthy eighteen year old. And Severus, you will be an unscarred thirty-seven year old. No one will ever be able to prove that you lived seventy-three years together in the past."
Hermione could see that Severus was bristling to blast the canvas version of the manipulative old wizard into oblivion. She stepped between them, and asked, "Where is it?"
"In an indestructible box beneath the mattress, with a fertility potion," the portrait said with a twinkle in his eye.
************
Severus drew his wand. Portrait Albus ducked behind his painted chintz chair.
"Dear boy, I mean no insult. This is an integral part of the plan," Albus called from his insubstantial hiding place. "It's necessary that you impregnate your wife tonight. After you take the elixir -"
Severus raised his wand.
"Wait!" portrait Albus said, in a facsimile of his old commanding tone. "You can't speak of your marriage from the past. The paper marriage you were both tricked into signing can be contested. If Hermione carries your child, no member of the Wizengamot will allow a challenge to that marriage."
************
"How dare you?" Hermione asked shrilly. "This is my body. Mine. You have manipulated enough! I will not have you trying to dictate our reproduction, or lack thereof." She seemed to have forgotten that it was a painting she was berating. "To stand there, in front of me, and have the audacity to tell my husband to impregnate me! I'll hex... I'll hex..." Tears of indignation streamed down Hermione's face. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She was in Severus's arms before her knees gave. He supported her as she dissolved into his sheltering embrace.
************
Severus knew what was causing Hermione's distress. "You were a good mother, Hermione. We did everything that we could. Alexandru couldn't have a typical life, you know that. No one could have been a better mother than you were. I know you wish you could have given him more. You couldn't. We couldn't. He was a fine man. Having to grow up hidden from history was hard for him. But, he did well." Severus held Hermione closer.
"I know, Severus. I'm fine."
He drew back and scrutinised her.
She cupped his cheek. "Really." She assured him with a watery smile.
************
Hermione addressed Albus's portrait. "I realise that no one can know that we were married without coercion in the past. If the Wizengamot dissolves the marriage you tricked us into, so be it. It changes nothing between us."
"You must consider carefully. If your marriage is dissolved, they can force Severus to testify against you, under the influence of Veritaserum. You will go to Azkaban for a minimum of ninety years. It's too much of a risk, don't you think? If you conceive a child together first, no official will dissolve your marriage. Then, your escape to the past will remain unrevealed."
************
"These posthumous machinations will not come to fruition. My wife already conceived and gave birth to my son. There is no need for whatever schemes your model had in mind," Severus told the portrait coldly.
"It sounds as if your son is no longer with you. You both must take the elixir, or your physicality itself will condemn Hermione. Once she ingests the elixir, her body will bear no signs of anything it's gone through, including childbirth. They will use anything to get you to testify. Consummation itself will not suffice. You didn't enter this marriage with freedom of will."
************
"Will we be allowed to leave this place?" Hermione asked.
Dumbledore's portrait sighed. "The wards will drop twenty-four hours after you both take the elixir."
"I'll not be suppressed," Hermione asserted. "We'll flee again."
"Kingsley will Apparate here as soon as the wards drop. Before you flee, consider talking to the Order. Tell them everything. Perhaps, they can help you. They won't stop you if you choose to go into hiding." Some steel crept into the defeated tone of the portrait. "However, I will caution you one last time. Comply with my plan. No good will come of your defiance."
************
"I daresay, you're more forthright now. But, you're no less intrusive," said Snape, his lip curling, "and no more substantial than canvas and paint." His voice became soft and menacing. "You will not upset my wife again."
Dumbledore's portrait managed to flee his frame a mere fraction of a second before Severus's spell obliterated it. Severus turned to Hermione. "Now, he should stay in the Head's office at Hogwart's, where he belongs."
"Well done, dear," Hermione said with a smile. "He'll believe you intended to destroy him."
"Whoever said that I didn't?" Severus asked in a bored tone.
Hermione laughed.
************
Severus swept to the place where the portrait had told them the elixir was hidden. Before Hermione could react, he had withdrawn the phials and downed one of the two holding the Elixir of Life.
"Severus!" Hermione exclaimed, as she flew to him. "You should have -"
"Tested it first?" he supplied. "Impossible. This was the only..." He trailed off and fell to his knees. Hermione followed and supported him. She caressed his deeply lined face.
"A bit worse than Polyjuice," he said with a smirk.
Suddenly, Hermione was holding a perfectly healthy thirty-seven year old Severus Snape in her arms.
************
Severus stood, drawing Hermione up with him. He moved to kiss her. She pushed him away. "No, Severus. Let me take the elixir. I want to look young for you."
"Hermione, please, we're alone." he responded, his voice thick with passion. "I want you."
"I'll take the elixir first. Think of it, Severus. I'll have firm breasts, a concave stomach, smooth skin -"
"I want you as you are," Severus said ardently, as stalked towards. He backed her against a wall. He pressed the hard length of his young body into her. His lips captured hers in a sensual kiss.
************
Severus trailed his lips across Hermione's cheek and down her neck. He stopped at the juncture of her shoulder. He sunk his teeth gently into her flesh. Then he soothed the sting with open mouthed kisses. He breathed in her scent, and pressed his body more firmly into hers.
She moaned softly.
He kissed his way to her ear.
Her skin came alive, as jolts of longing thrummed through her body.
He whispered breathily into her ear, "My body is younger. But, my experienced mind is in control. The desire I feel for you is real. I want you. Now."
************
Severus lay in the comfortable bed and smiled to himself as he remembered the night with his wife. Hermione had become even more amorous in the last few years. He remembered well their first years together. The intense passion that flared between them was hardly forgettable. But lately, it was as if sex had become an art form for his wife. She was Aphrodite personified. He smiled, and sighed in satisfaction. Logically, he knew it was her body's last ditch effort to reproduce. Muggles called the phenomena a woman's sexual peak. He would miss that when she took the elixir.
************
Severus pulled his nude wife closer. He inhaled the scent of her pleasure appreciatively. He realised they would have their whole life to live over again. But, this time there would be no tentative beginning to their lovemaking. He shook his head and chuckled at his choice of words. Hermione had most definitely had an influence on him. He wondered what it would be like, to be a young wizard with such a different outlook on the world.
Hermione awoke with Severus gently caressing her side. She opened her eyes and looked into his. "I dreamt of Alexandru," she whispered.
************
"Was it a nightmare?" Severus asked.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "It was odd."
"How so?"
"Dru told me he was well. He said that we should begin a new life. That it wouldn't diminish all that we'd already lived. He said we should go forward and be happy, as he was." She took a deep breath. "It was so real. It must have been my subconscious trying to tell me something."
"Tell you what?"
"I don't know. I meant it all those times that I said I would never want more children. Didn't I? Was I just trying to convince myself?"
************
"Only you know that," Severus said, with more patience than he would have believed himself capable of. "Drink the elixir first. Then, we can make decisions."
Hermione took the elixir, and collapsed back on the pillow. Severus watched in fascination as her body changed before his eyes. A few minutes later, Hermione opened her eyes and smiled at her husband. "My arthritis is gone."
"Unsurprising," Severus said sardonically.
Hermione swatted him in the chest. She stretched, causing her bare breasts to press against Severus. "I know what I want to do, Love."
"We're going to talk? Now?" Severus practically pouted.
************
Hermione laughed. "Now I remember the good old days. When I didn't have to seduce you. You were ready all the time."
"Hmm, as you've been these last few years."
"Too true," Hermione agreed breathily, as Severus toyed with her nipples.
He nuzzled her neck and beseeched, "Please, Hermione."
"Wait," she breathed, pushing him off.
"The contraceptive charm," he said, his frustration clear in his deep voice as he rummaged for his wand.
"No."
"No?" He'd been casting that charm daily for decades.
"I think we should let nature take it's course. No fertility potion. No contraceptive charm. Just us."
************
Severus was thwarted again.
"We need to make a decision. First," Hermione interrupted.
"Decision?"
"What do we do when the wards release us?"
"Yes... best decide now... rest of... time here concentrating on more important things," Severus said from between her breasts.
Hermione grabbed Severus's hair and pulled his face up to look at her. "I think we should tell the Order everything tomorrow."
"Yes. Fine. Now?"
"Severus!" she snapped.
"I mean that I agree. It's all settled. Tomorrow we tell the Order anything they want to know."
Hermione smiled to herself. A thirty-seven year old Severus was so easy.
************
Severus watched Hermione think. He knew she'd decided to allow nature to take it's course. He knew too, that there was almost no chance that she would conceive. She had only become pregnant because she had begun to take a daily potion for a hormonal imbalance. Once Alexandru was born, they knew to use contraception to counteract the potion. A potion she hadn't taken since they'd been discovered. Without the daily intake, it would be a miracle if she conceived.
"Wine?" Severus offered.
Hermione accepted absently. "When we answer the Order tomorrow -"
He cut her off with a kiss.
************
Severus smirked to himself. An eighteen year old Hermione was so easy. She'd been too busy thinking to notice him slipping the fertiltiy potion into her wine. When they were first married she'd always been involved in something. Whereas, his wife of recent years spent more time studying his anatomy. His young wife had been passionate and keen; but, she wasn't as single minded. His thoughts turned serious. He refused to take chances. He did what had to be done, to ensure that their marriage could not be contested. Hermione need never know that he had a hand in it.
************
The Order fell silent as Kingsley led Severus and Hermione into the room.
Severus stood proudly beside his wife. His solid black attire was unsurprising. Hermione, however, barely resembled the girl they knew from two short months ago. Instead of jeans and trainers, she wore a long bronze lace skirt, and bronze shoes decorated with intricate black beadwork. Her matching silk blouse fell in a soft portrait neckline, perfectly framing her jewellery. The jewellery that flashed on her hands, wrists, ears, and throat, brought to mind royalty. With her fine black shawl, she looked more like an exotic gypsy princess.
************
The group of senior Order members openly goggled at Hermione. She moved infantesimally closer to Severus. He put a reassuring hand on the small of her back. A gesture that didn't go unnoticed. His other hand wrapped around the wand hidden within his coat, as he surveyed the faces grouped around them. Minerva's face was pinched and white. Severus thought it stood out well, in contrast to the sea of predictably red faced Weaselys. At the forefront of which was Ron, who looked ready to explode. Beside him, Harry Potter managed to look furious and chagrined at the same time.
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