Chapter 6: True Lies
Title: The Snape Identity
Author: To Be Announced July 29, 2011.
Betas: To Be Announced July 29, 2011.
Recipient: borg_princess
Rating: High PG-13 / Low R
Warnings: Fantasy Violence; Implied Sexuality; Language; Murder Most Foul.
Prompt: SS/HG, amnesia!Snape, SS/HG work together as comrades in some capacity, beginning of a relationship, AU, EWE. Absolutely no mention of SS or HG having past relationships, no Ron bashing, no Dumbledore fatherly figure, careful how you use their names, no overly nice!Snape, Luna is love.[paraphrased]
Summary: Ten years after the fall of Voldemort, Unspeakables Granger and Snape are at the top of their game, and on the trail of a dangerous killer who falls under their jurisdiction. But Snape is injured in a wand fight - his memory of the last few years, and his partner, erased. Pressed for time, Granger and Snape must rediscover the partnership that makes them so effective before another witch is murdered.
Chapter 6: True Lies
Hermione knocked on Snape’s door, a bottle of firewhiskey they had been nursing together for over a year in hand. After the sour faces he had been making every time she let herself into 221-B, as was their custom, she thought it was best to respect his newly rediscovered boundaries. It was another thing that brought home the fact that years of friendship had been erased, but Hermione determinedly put it at the back of her mind. She was going to celebrate, and she’d not let her own inability to accept Severus’ injury ruin the occasion.
After ten minutes passed with no indication at all that Severus was going to open the door, she knocked again.
When there was still no movement from inside, she became vaguely alarmed, drew her wand, and went in.
It was pitch black inside, sending a cold finger of dread down Hermione’s spine. “Lumos.”
She crept down the hall to the lounge, pausing when she found a glass shattered against the wall. Throwing caution to the wind in her panic that something else had happened to her partner, she called, “Severus?”
Stepping into the lounge, she could see his face and hands, skin faintly blue in the wandlight. “Severus!”
He opened his eyes.
Hermione’s heart hammered in her chest as she waved her wand, lighting the candles and lamps about the room. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss Snape in relief, or smash his stupid face in. “What are you doing sitting here in the dark? Why didn’t you answer when I knocked?”
She didn’t ask about the broken glass. Instead she simply repaired it and promptly poured herself a glass of the firewhiskey she still held, then knocked it back in one go. It burned all the way down, making her cough and sputter, but as her neck muscles unclenched she felt it was worth it.
“Now then, Severus. Why are you in a strop? I’ve brought over the firewhiskey to celebrate your passing the Unspeakable Examination.”
His eyes darted to a book sitting on the coffee table before him, his fists clenched so hard that his knuckles turned whiter than the rest of his skin - which was quite a feat. Following his gaze, Hermione felt her heart sink. She should have thought to take it out of his house. She hadn’t considered how he would react to finding it, especially as he wouldn’t remember some of the events it discussed.
Severus had been reading his copy of The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, Revised by Rita Skeeter.
“There are three chapters about me,” he said flatly, though his eyes said more than the words ever could.
“Oh, Severus…” Hermione sighed, uncertain what to say. She went to sit next to him on the sofa, pouring another measure of firewhiskey into her glass. This time she handed it to Snape. He ignored her offer at first, but eventually frowned and took it when it became obvious she would not withdraw her hand until he did.
Hermione fidgeted with her hands as she watched him sip. This was something they had never discussed, in all their years of partnership. Severus refused to speak on the subject of Albus Dumbledore, or what had motivated him to switch sides in the war. He always said it was history, and that was how it would stay.
“Is it true?” he asked quietly after he had finished his first glass of firewhiskey. Hermione poured him another.
“Yes and no,” she answered. “The facts are there but… Rita tells them in her own way.”
She took the glass from his hand to have a few more sips herself. Neither of them conjured a second tumbler. Neither of them knew why.
“I killed him,” Severus said, pressing his lips into a thin white line. His eyes glittered with things unsaid.
He took the glass of firewhiskey back.
“Yes,” Hermione confirmed, looking at the picture of Albus on the cover of the book that had brought about the tense moment.
“Did I ever forgive him?”
She squeezed his leg. “I don’t know.”
Severus finished the firewhiskey. “I doubt that I did.”
Neither Hermione nor Severus knew whether he was speaking of Albus Dumbledore, or himself.
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