Hogwarts, a History I
Title: Hogwarts, a History I
Team: Order of the Phoenix
Rating: all ages (for the moment)
Challenge: Hidden Agenda challenge, It’s Not What It Looks Like challenge, Hogwarts History challenge
Characters: Severus, Hermione, Neville
Word Count: 4 x 100
This is the third installment of a drabble trilogy, which starts with Professor Longbottom and continues with Pneumonia. This begins in the same school year that "Pneumonia" ends:
***SSHG***
The summer holidays were approaching, and Severus was looking forward to a dozen weeks of quiet and relative solitude. He still had duties as headmaster to perform, of course, as did everyone else, but almost everything was done by correspondence during the summer.
He’d been watching Hermione since February. Valentine’s Day had found him in her rooms, sharing tea after her last class, but since then, some of the closeness they’d shared as she recovered had faded. But perhaps he could do something about that; she had more work than anyone else to do in the summer.
He couldn’t wait.
*
In late May, Severus was approaching the faculty section of the library when he heard Longbottom murmur, ‘But what happened to your aunt?’
Severus froze outside the doorway.
Hermione replied, ‘She died last autumn.’
Shocked, Severus scowled. How could she not tell him?
‘I sold her house, so I have nowhere to go for the summer. It’s not that the castle is awful, it’s just that I get a bit tired of the same scenery.’
‘Have you thought about buying a house?’
‘It isn’t practical, when I’m here ten months every year.’
‘Then spend the summer with me,’ Longbottom said.
*
Severus fled, his mind racing.
Hermione hadn’t told him when her only living relative died. He now had an explanation for the weekends she’d taken off in October and November. But why had she not told him?!
It seemed she hadn’t told anyone, actually; it was news to Longbottom, as well.
Longbottom. An ugly, aching sensation boiled up in Severus’ chest, like a cauldron of Bloodrain. He hadn’t stayed to hear Hermione accept the invitation, but why wouldn’t she?
Longbottom was handsome. Longbottom was rich. Longbottom wasn’t twenty years Hermione’s senior.
Face like a thundercloud, Severus slammed his office door.
*
He paced his study angrily.
I don’t want her to go. What was the point of staying at Hogwarts for the summer, if she wasn’t going to be here? And asking her now would do no good; if she was accepting any invitations for the summer, courtesy dictated that she accept the first invitation she received.
Half an hour of sulking didn’t yield any results, so Severus started to ask himself if he had any options.
What did she love?
Was there anything outside her normal duties as deputy headmistress that he could give her?
What would keep Hermione here?
***SSHG***
Hogwarts, a History II
Canon compliant through the end of HBP; this was started before DH came out. The Bloodrain potion isn't Potterverse canon; I borrowed it from Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe. A gallon of that stuff, when put into a water source like a lake or river, will poison the water and everything that lives off that water for many miles around.
Team: Order of the Phoenix
Rating: all ages (for the moment)
Challenge: Hidden Agenda challenge, It’s Not What It Looks Like challenge, Hogwarts History challenge
Characters: Severus, Hermione, Neville
Word Count: 4 x 100
This is the third installment of a drabble trilogy, which starts with Professor Longbottom and continues with Pneumonia. This begins in the same school year that "Pneumonia" ends:
***SSHG***
The summer holidays were approaching, and Severus was looking forward to a dozen weeks of quiet and relative solitude. He still had duties as headmaster to perform, of course, as did everyone else, but almost everything was done by correspondence during the summer.
He’d been watching Hermione since February. Valentine’s Day had found him in her rooms, sharing tea after her last class, but since then, some of the closeness they’d shared as she recovered had faded. But perhaps he could do something about that; she had more work than anyone else to do in the summer.
He couldn’t wait.
*
In late May, Severus was approaching the faculty section of the library when he heard Longbottom murmur, ‘But what happened to your aunt?’
Severus froze outside the doorway.
Hermione replied, ‘She died last autumn.’
Shocked, Severus scowled. How could she not tell him?
‘I sold her house, so I have nowhere to go for the summer. It’s not that the castle is awful, it’s just that I get a bit tired of the same scenery.’
‘Have you thought about buying a house?’
‘It isn’t practical, when I’m here ten months every year.’
‘Then spend the summer with me,’ Longbottom said.
*
Severus fled, his mind racing.
Hermione hadn’t told him when her only living relative died. He now had an explanation for the weekends she’d taken off in October and November. But why had she not told him?!
It seemed she hadn’t told anyone, actually; it was news to Longbottom, as well.
Longbottom. An ugly, aching sensation boiled up in Severus’ chest, like a cauldron of Bloodrain. He hadn’t stayed to hear Hermione accept the invitation, but why wouldn’t she?
Longbottom was handsome. Longbottom was rich. Longbottom wasn’t twenty years Hermione’s senior.
Face like a thundercloud, Severus slammed his office door.
*
He paced his study angrily.
I don’t want her to go. What was the point of staying at Hogwarts for the summer, if she wasn’t going to be here? And asking her now would do no good; if she was accepting any invitations for the summer, courtesy dictated that she accept the first invitation she received.
Half an hour of sulking didn’t yield any results, so Severus started to ask himself if he had any options.
What did she love?
Was there anything outside her normal duties as deputy headmistress that he could give her?
What would keep Hermione here?
***SSHG***
Hogwarts, a History II
Canon compliant through the end of HBP; this was started before DH came out. The Bloodrain potion isn't Potterverse canon; I borrowed it from Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe. A gallon of that stuff, when put into a water source like a lake or river, will poison the water and everything that lives off that water for many miles around.