A Ritual of Courtship

This is going to be a comedy in the style of Jane Austen. I love her books and I wanted to write a love story much like she does for ages but with a bit more smut in it. I hope that you like it. This is only my second attempt at this pairing.

Prologue

He was miserable. He was alone. The War had been over a decade ago and there was nothing he had to show for his deflection. Rodolphus Lestrange had changed sides during the last year of the war when he found out that Bellatrix, his wife, was actually having an adulterous affair with McNair; on the Dark Lord’s orders. Loyalty meant nothing to the Dark Lord, and it was quite a shock to the older man that he actually loved his wife and was heartbroken by her betrayal. It was obvious that she didn’t have any feelings for him. What did it matter anyway? She was dead, as was the bastard McNair.

He didn’t have anyone now. He was alone in his Mansion; his idiot brother was also dead, and he had to kill him. He wasn’t even thanked for it. He walked around his home and spread his hands in the air.

“Why?” he asked. “I am living but I am not alive!”

He picked up a book to read. He sighed as the words were jumbling around on the page. He couldn’t decide what to do. He was about to sit down when Severus poked his head through the fireplace. Severus was deliriously happy with Ginny Weasley and Rodolphus had always wanted to punch the permanent smile off his friends face.

“Hello, Rudi,” Severus said. Rodolphus snarled.

“I wish you wouldn’t come here and gloat about how happy you are!” Rodolphus exclaimed.

“What’s wrong with my being happy?” Severus asked.

“Everything; when I’m not!”

Severus shook his head. “Rodolphus there are plenty of young women out there. Why don’t you just walk out and find one?”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Rodolphus growled. His dark hair flopped over his brow and his twilight blue eyes sparkled furiously.

“Is it?” Severus asked urbanely. “I didn’t think that I would ever find happiness.”

“It was lucky for you that Potter died in the battle wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Severus said with an innocent tone to his voice.

Rodolphus snorted. “Besides you said, young women. I am afraid I am too old and too set in my ways for any young woman.”

It was Severus turn to snort contemptuously. “Right, and my name’s Julie Andrews. Rodolphus, even I can tell that you are the sort of man that ANY young woman would love to have. How old are you anyway?”

“Who’s Julie Andrews?” Rodolphus asked.

“A muggle actress;” Severus replied shrugging his shoulders. His tone suggested he didn’t have any high opinion of her. “She played Mary Poppins.”

“Oh, that Hufflepuff Witch?” Rodolphus said.

“Yeah,” Severus sighed. “There’s going to be a Memorial Celebration at Hogwarts tonight; why don’t you turn up?”

~*~*~

Hermione sighed. She had been talking to Ginny Snape. She loved her friend still and wanted so much to have that same happiness but knew it would never be hers. Her heart broke the moment that Ron had died in order to save her life. There was no one else that knew their secret. Hermione and Ron were secretly married. She had missed Ron terribly and kept tossing and turning at night even now.

She had loved that impish redhead with a passion that hardly any body understood. She sighed and looked in her mirror. As the only surviving member of the Dream Team she had to go even though she didn’t feel like it. All she felt like doing was crawling in a quiet corner to sob herself to death like she had been trying every night for the past ten years.

She walked up to her wardrobe and picked out a deep, purple, velvet dress with silk ribbons at the waist that when pulled and tied had the corset effect. She held it against her body and shook her head. Ginny was right she had to get out once in a while. She just felt as if it was a betrayal to Ron’s memory to have any kind of fun even though he was fun lover himself.

She drew a bubble bath for herself as she had a few hours to get ready. She allowed herself to soak in the water and smirked a little. From what Ginny had been saying she could gather her mischievous red haired friend was up to something and she didn’t like it.

“There’ll be plenty of men there,” she said.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Men were the last thing on her mind at this moment in time. She wanted to do a lot of things; she wanted to fulfil most if not all Ron’s dreams for him. There was one that she couldn’t fulfil; and that was his dream to be the best Keeper England ever had. She sighed as she slipped into the tub and soaked her hair. She smiled a little as she thought of seeing Severus again; the man was like an Uncle to her.

She washed her hair and got out of the bath and dried herself off. She’d shaved the previous night. She walked into her bedroom and sat on the mattress of her bed and looked into the mirror. It was a non-magical Mirror.

She opened the top draw of her chest and whipped out a pair of black panties and a matching bustier. She found a pair of black rose patterned tights. She placed them on her legs carefully; she then placed her feet in a pair of purple sandals and buckled them up. She sprayed herself with perfume and put some make up on. She polished her nails in a dark purple and waited an hour before she put the dress on. When she had finished she stood in front of the mirror to examine herself. She smiled as she studied her reflection.

She rounded her shoulders and picked up her bag with some lipstick and eye shadow and mascara just in case and she picked up her wand belt and placed it around her waist. She flicked the light switch off and walked out of the bedroom. She picked up her keys and walked out of her flat and locked the door.

“Hello Mrs Weasley,” an elderly neighbour greeted her with as she was putting her cat out of the flat.

“Hello Mrs Johnson,” Hermione greeted.

“Going out with some young man?”

“No, just a party with some old friends; a reunion party.”

“Oh,” Mrs Johnson said. “Well I think it’s a great shame that a young woman like you hasn’t got a handsome young man on her arm. It’s such a waste if you ask me.”

Hermione giggled. “Thank you, Mrs Johnson, but I am still getting over my husband’s death.”

“That was ten years ago, wasn’t it? Let go, dear, that’s my advice.”

You didn’t know him, Hermione thought sadly. She was about to say goodbye to the elderly woman but she had walked back inside and Hermione heard the key turn in the lock.

~*~*~

Rodolphus decided to dress up in a set of dark forest green robes. He had a bath and washed his hair and shaved. Severus was determined to get him fixed up; it was always the case of extremely happy people. They wanted everyone else in that same state; whether that other person wanted it or not.

He rolled his eyes and wrapped his wand belt around his waist and studied the overall effect. He wasn’t wearing his medallion. He’d feel better with a medallion hung around his neck. He decided also to wear some of his rings. He felt practically naked without his rings. Poor women, he thought to himself in a rather narcissistic manner, there’s nothing like building up a false hope in a woman.

He sighed as he twirled around and nodded. He walked out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the apparition point on his vast, extensive grounds. He left Le Court De L’Amour – his family seat – for the soirée to see what it was that Severus was up to.

He apparated to Hogsmeade and was about to walk up to the school when he heard someone cuss behind him. He turned around and found to his delight a beautiful young woman. She was hopping around and holding her toe.

“Watch where you’re apparating in future!” she hissed.

“I could say the same to you,” Rodolphus snapped irritably.

“I got here first!” she replied. She placed her foot down on the ground and winced as she felt her big toe throbbing in the shoe.

She was hobbling and would have fallen on the floor had not Rodolphus felt a small swell of pity for the young Witch. She was right he should have looked where he was going. He wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her up the hill.

“When we get to the Castle you take some pain relief,” he said.

“Do I know you?” Hermione asked narrowing her eyes at the tall dark stranger.

He laughed. Hermione actually liked the deep vibrating laugh.

“I shouldn’t think so, I feel sure I would have remembered meeting someone as beautiful as you.”

“You’ve always been a smooth charmer, Rudi,” Severus replied as he slunk to the other side of Hermione. “What happened?”

“He apparated on my foot,” Hermione said.

“Rodolphus Lestrange meet one of the finest minds I had the misfortune to teach,” Severus said. “This is Hermione Jane Granger.”

Hermione was about to correct him but remembered that he didn’t know she had married. She winced and hissed every time she set her foot down on the ground.

“I thought you seemed familiar,” Hermione said. “You came over on our side towards the end. That was a very brave step!” Much to irony’s delight she had placed her foot softly on the ground at the last word. The two older men smirked a little appreciating the coincidence with sheer delight.

The two men helped her into the Great Hall and they sat her down on the nearest seat. Severus had then departed to his Dungeons to find some ointment for her. Rodolphus didn’t really want to mingle so he decided to sit next to the young woman whom he had injured.

“Are you well?” he asked her.

“What, you mean apart from the sore foot?” Hermione asked slightly acidly. She noticed his jaw set. She softened her attitude. “Sorry, yes, I am fine.”

“We’ve been having some very fine weather,” he remarked. He was never one for small talk but felt that he couldn’t dive in the deep end with a relative stranger.

“Yes,” she sighed. “Rather warm for this time of year.”

She hated small talk as well. She sighed and placed her hands in her lap twiddling her thumbs. She began circling her good foot in the air.

“I am terribly sorry for clumsily apparating on your foot, Miss Granger.”

“That’s all right, Mr Lestrange, I am used to men treading on my toes.”

And she was. She had missed Ron treading on her foot in the dark when they used to sneak under the invisibility cloak. She tried not to tear at the unbidden memory.

“Call me Rudi,” he said. “I feel old enough as it is without young women calling me Mr Lestrange!”

She laughed. “Then call me Mia,” she said. “It’s the shortened form of my name. Hermione has always made me feel like a middle aged crone.”

He laughed at that candid response. He offered his hand and she shook it. He put his hand on his lap.

“Here’s the ointment,” Severus said.

“Severus?” a female voice called. “Could you please put little Jolyon back in his bed!”

Rodolphus and Hermione peered round to find a wavy red head six year old in his pyjama’s wondering in the Great Hall.

Severus rolled his eyes. “Could you, Rudi?” he asked the other man.

Rodolphus narrowed his eyes and muttered something under his breath. He watched as his friend went to put his son back in bed.

“Did I do it right, dad?” Jolyon asked.
“You were perfect, son, now I am going to tell you off, so cry your hardest!”

“Yes, daddy,” Jolyon said.

Severus went into a tirade at his son earning disapproving glances from other more liberally minded parents. Jolyon’s dark eyes widened and started brimming with tears and he bawled. Severus snarled and grabbed his son’s hand and dragged him back to his bedroom. Rodolphus got up off his seat, knelt down on his knees and put the pot of salve on the floor as he unbuckled Hermione’s sandal. He took it off and saw that she had a pair of good fishnet tights on.

“Shall we go somewhere more private?” he asked. Hermione shook her head.

“No, it’s all right. I’ll just suffer in silence.”

Ginny walked up to her husband when he re-emerged. She was scowling.

“What was that about?” she hissed.

“I was not going to rub salve on her foot... besides, I wanted to see what they’d do if presented with a rather intimate situation.”

“You never said it was him you had in mind for her.”

“Relax,” he said to his young temperamental wife. “Why who did you think I had in mind?”

“Draco, perhaps?” she said scathingly.

“Draco’s happy with Kayleigh,” he replied.

Ginny looked at Kayleigh. A dark haired Irish Witch that was a Ravenclaw two years below them.

“I don’t like her.”

“You’re only sore because your attempt at matchmaking ended in complete disaster. Let me have my fun.”

Ginny sucked in her cheeks; Severus could tell she was annoyed.

“If this fails and she finds out, you’re dead!”
Severus laughed. “Watch and observe my darling.”

“I don’t like him!” Ginny said.

“Rudi is my friend, Ginevra, and she’s your friend. It’s perfectly logical.”

“It’s sick! How old is he?” she demanded.

Severus sighed and rolled his eyes. “He’s ten years older than I am.”

“WHAT?” she roared. She turned around to see a few people wrinkling their brow. “Sorry,” she whispered. “He’s sixty?”

“Yes, he’s sixty, and she’s nearly thirty. We were frowned upon you know. Your mother wouldn’t talk to you for months.”

“Yes, well I love you, Severus, and there’s only twenty three years at most between us.”

Severus sighed and tucked a coil of his wife’s hair behind her ear. “I think Hermione can handle it, don’t you? She’s mature enough to.”

Ginny rolled her eyes and looked over at the awkward couple. She relented.

“All right, I suppose he doesn’t look sixty.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

She looked at her husband. “If you screw this up Severus Christopher Snape I won’t forgive you!”

Severus wrapped an arm around his petite wife’s waist and kissed the top of her head, which caused her to blush.

“I won’t.”

~*~*~

Hermione did have a reason to go. She had a speech to give - one that she was extremely nervous of giving. She sighed thinking that what she was going to relate happened almost twenty years ago and that made her feel old.

She hobbled up on the platform in front of the assembled crowd. She placed a sonorous spell on her throat and began to talk.

“I first met Harry Potter on the train to Hogwarts. I didn’t realise that it was him until he flipped aside his fringe and I spotted his scar. It wasn’t that, that bothered me though. What did bother me was the fact that his glasses were broken and he wasn’t in his school uniform. I fixed his glasses for him – from then on I began to fix more than just his glasses.

I helped him with his homework; corrected his spelling and grammar. I helped bring his self-esteem up when it was low and it often was. I made him aware of his power and goodness.

It wasn’t just me though; there was another boy; another hero. His name was Ronald Weasley. This boy turned out to be my true love. He and Harry were like brothers sharing secrets and were the closest of friends. Ron was closer to Harry than I was. Ron and I fell in love in our last year at Hogwarts and we secretly got married. A fact that I have never spoken of until now; he died protecting me from the Dark Lord, and I have lived without him all this time.

I want to raise my glass to the two heroes of the Last War. To Harry James Potter and Ronald Bilius Weasley.”

The people in the crowd raised their glasses in reverence to the dead.

“It has been ten years since their deaths but we should never forget the sacrifices they made for us; we should always strive to work for a better future and to do it with them in mind. Harry and Ron were happy go lucky wonderful young men whom I was proud to know and love. Lets not forget them.”

She waited a few moments and people started clapping. She walked down the stairs to the floor where Ginny ran up to her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded.

“What was the point?” Hermione said. “It was secretly done because neither of us felt like a lecture thank you.”

“But that makes us sisters,” Ginny said.
Hermione nodded her head and smiled.

“I suppose it does,” she answered. She hobbled back to her seat thankful that the task was done.

“That was sad,” a voice whispered. Hermione looked up. Rodolphus hadn’t left. “Such tragedy to happen to one so young.”

“I am not the only one,” Hermione replied.

“I know but you are the one that least deserved it,” he said. Hermione blushed a little. “You and I both don’t really want to be here do we, shall we go somewhere else?”

She nodded. Ginny and Severus were watching them as they quietly and stealthily left unnoticed.

“I think she’s going to be fine,” Severus whispered to his wife.

“She better be,” Ginny replied.

A/N - I hope you did like that; I hope that the idea of Severus interefering in the matters of love doesn't squick anyone - personally I find it rather funny!