Marriage Law

AN: Phoenix Flight: Yes, but was he a hottie







AN: Phoenix
Flight: Yes, but was he a hottie? :)

MadAboutHarry: His father is an owl and his mother is a
raven. I like the bird thing, it caught my fancy. Don’t know why.

 

Does anyone know if owls or ravens mate on the wing?

 

Thank you to all who have been reviewing this story. I’ve
found it all very helpful.

And another thank you to those who read what I usually write
and have patiently been wai for for the porn to start. Patience is a virtue.
This is going to be a LONG story.

 

The animagi thing: Skeeter comes before Snape alphabetically.
It’s not like she was doing light reading and was browsing. She saw McGonagall
as her control because she kno known animagius. When she looked for Skeeter it
wasn’t there. What would motivate her to look up the Snape family?

 

People have commented on how calm Hermione is and how she
would be under extreme duress. I really see Hermione as naïve. She was saved
from the hands of the Dark Lord by the Order. She’ll be a member of the Order
herself in a few months. She really sees this as her first assignment and
Severus as her roommate. She’s a little too
sensible simesimes…

 

Err…Ron is Ron. Nothing I can do about that without getting
silly.

 

The Marriage Law Chapter 11

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Severus walked into his quarters after lunch Sunday
afternoon to find Hermione sitting in a chair near a window reading.

 

He shook his head and placed a tray with a sandwich and a
goblet of pumpkin juice on it on a table near her.

 

“What’s this?” Hermione asked, looking t Set Severus.

 

“You didn’t eat lunch,” Severus said. He seemed to be
annoyed. “Your absence was noticed. Mr. Potter and Weasley kept looking at me
as if I were a monster.” He sniffed.

 

“I wasn’t hungry,” Hermione said trying not to grin. “I’m
sorry about them. I’ll go see them. I’m sure they’re on the Quidditch pitch.”

 

“How would kno know if you were hungry or not?” said
Severus, definitely annoyed. “You haven’t put that book down since breakfast.
You need to eat.”

 

“It’s not like I’m putting out a lot of energy,” said Hermione.
“I ate a large breakfast and I didn’t notice the time.”

 

“That’s not healthy,” insisted Severus with a frown. “You
can over do it, and I see you doing that with ease.”

 

Hermione sighed. If it was after lunch she had been reading
for over five hours straight. He was probably right. She nodded at him and put
her bookmark in the book she was reading to mark her place. She was halfway
through.

 

Hermione looked up at Snape. He was standing stiffly before
her, arms folded across his chest. His black eyes bored into her.

 

“Thank you,” said Hermione, shivering and reaching for the
sandwich.

 

***

 

“There she is!” shouted Ron to Harry high a the the
Quidditch pitch. Harry waved to Hermione who was sitting in the Quidditch
stands. She waved back.

 

Harry and Ron soared to the stands and landed softly near
her.

 

“Where have you been?” Ron demanded.

 

“Where have I been?” Hermione asked, laughing. “My quarters,
reading. Where else would I be?”

 

“Of course you were,” Harry said, nudging Ron in the side. “It’s
Sunday. Where else would you be?”

 

“When do we get to see this place?” said Ron, slightly
embarrassed but still testy.

 

“Whenever you want,” said Hermione. “You seem to be morducaducated about my quarters than I am.”

 

Ron beamed for the first time since Hermiones marriage to Severus.

 

***

 

Hermione opened the portal to the quarters she shared with
Severus and stepped through with Harry and Ron.

 

Severus was sitting on the black leather couch reading
scrolls, small black rimmed reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. The
sun shone in through a large windohindhind him. A comfortable chair and table
sat beside the window. The indoor shutters looked as if they were made of stone
so you wouldn’t notice them when they were shut. The wall to the left had a picture
of a purring cat on it. The wall to the right had a heavy wood door. A silver tea
service and delicate porcelain cups and saucers sat on a cart near the wooden
door.

 

“Err…hello Professor,” said Harry; wondering if this was a
good idea. Ron stayed silent for a change.

 

“Oh,” said Severus, taking his glasses off and putting them
in his breast pocket. “Hello. Come to check on Hermione?”

 

“Something like that,” said Harry sheepishly before Ron
could open his mouth.

 

“I expect you’ll find everything in order,” Severus sniffed
as he began marking on a scroll in red ink.

 

Hermione shook her head at them. She walked over to the
purring cat and opened the portal to her room.

 

“Incredible,” Ron breathed. Severus looked over at the backs
of the trio and smiled slightly. They’d be occupied all afternoon and wouldn’t
be able to get up to too much trouble. They were old enough they weren’t too irritating and they were in another
room. Babysitting would no longer be such a chore. At least he wouldn’t have to
chase them around and loom at the appropriate moments anymore.

 

***

 

“Nice colors,” said Ron sarcastically.

 

“Blimey, Hermione! I’m coming over just to use the loo!”
Harry’s voice came out of the bathroom.

 

Hermione shook her head on won walked over to investigate. He
wasn’t going to make this easy.

 

“Wow,” said Ron, impressed. He tickled a frog faucet under
the chin and a white liquid poured from one of the faucets.

 

“What’s that?” said Harry surprised. Hermione walked into
the bathroom.

 

“What is it?” she asked.

 

“Ron tickled the frog and the water changed to this,” Harry
said pointing at the sink.

 

Hermione frowned and looked at the trickle of white fluid.
She reached out to stick her hand in it, but Ron stopped her.

 

“You don’t know what it is!” Ron exclaimed. Hermione sighed
annoyed and went back her her bedroom. She was back momentarily with a clear
glass. She collected some of the substance and uttered the word to stop the
faucet.

 

“We do have access
to a Potions Master,” she said simply before turning to walk into the receiving
room.

 

***

 

“What?” said Severus, surprised. He laid the scroll he was
reading on the short table in front of the couch.

 

“I tickled it and the water just changed,” said Ron, hand Sev Severus the glass. Hermione thought he should tell him since he was the one
that had caused the reaction.

 

“What made you tickle the frog?” said Severus curiously,
swirling the liquid in the glass. He sniffed it, and then made a face at the
trio. He took a drink from the glass.

 

Ron, Hermione and Harry gasped as Severus swished the liquid
around his mouth before swallowing.

 

“Are you insane?” Ron bellowed.

 

“Did your mother tell you to say that?” Severus asked
quickly.

 

“What?” Ron asked confused.

 

“Nothing,” said Severus, waving a hand at him. “It’s milk.”
He sat the glass on the table with the scrolls.

 

“Milk?” asked Harry. “For if you fancy a drink in the middle
of the night?”

 

Hermione snorted and all the men looked at her. To her
surprise, Severus was included.

 

“Milk is good for the skin,” Hermione explained. “I bet it’s
brought up from the kitchens. I doubt Helga Hufflepuff could pop to a wizarding
shop for face cream before we were organized enough to even have a culture.”

 

“Girl stuff,” Ron said shaking his head. Harry and Severus
nodded in agreement.

 

“Really,” said Hermione, visibly annoyed. She stalked back
to her bathroom to figure out how to turn the milk off and the water back on.

 
veruverus looked at Ron. Ron looked at Severus. Harry looked
at Ron pleadingly.

 

“I know how difficult this must be for you,” said Severus
slowly. He had dreaded this moment. He was expected to be at least cordial.
Severus thought it seemed as if Weasley wasn’t interested in making this
pleasant at all. Perhaps he could at least make the boy a bit less homicidal.
Severus wasn’t comfortable with the look in Ron’s eyes at all. He thought the
blunt truth was his best approach.

 

“What?” asked Ron. Harry put a hand on his shoulder before
Ron said something he’d regret.

 

“It could have been a lot more difficult for us,” said Severus.
“You weren’t of age or your brother would have petitioned on your behalf.”

 

“What?” asked Ron.

 

“Your brother, Percival, could have petitioned on behalf of
your father,” Snape explained patiently to the dumbfounded Ron. “He very nearly
broke off his own engagement to marry her himself, but it would have looked
strange.”

 

“This didn’t look strange?” Harry asked.

 

“A bit unconventional, yes, but not so strange,” Severus
said slowly.

 

“What do you mean?” Ron said relaxing a littlealizalizing
his worst fears had not been founded. Snape was not a bodice ripper in
disguise. It didn’t mean he was comfortable about it, it just meant he didn’t
feel immediately threatened.

 

“Powerful wizards lead longer lives than the general
wizarding population,” said Severus. “Sometimes their spouses don’t last a
quarter of their life spans.”

 

“What does that have to do with Professors pairing off with
students?” Ron interrupted.

 

“Imagine you’re 130 years old, Weasley,” Severus snapped.
“You meet a charming witch 40 years your junior with a familiar last name. In
fact all the women have familiar last names because you taught each one that
passed through Hogwarts. All of them. For the last 100 years.”

 

Rons jaw dropped. “Are some of the Hogwarts Professors
married?” He tried to imagine a Madame Flitwick. The image he conjured made him
shake his head to rid himself of it.

 

“A fn thn the past,” Severus said stiffly. “It’s very hard
to see people as adults when you met them all as children.”

 

“So none are married now, except you?” Harry asked, hoping
Snape didn’t get angry at him for asking so many questions.

 

“Binns has a widow,” Severus said shortly. He didn’t like
discussing his thoughts on the subject. Some people saw it as romantic. Severus
thought it was tragic.

 

“Binns?” Ron asked incredulously. “Are you still a widow if
your husbands a ghost?”

 

“You live in hell if your husbands a ghost,” Severus snapped
at him. Ron stood up straighter, startled. He bumped into Harry taking a step
back. “Lucinda loved that daft dry dishrag, for some crazy reason and she
wilted when he passed.”

 

Severus didn’t notice Hermione standing on the doorway of
her room.

 

“He wasn’t really gone,” Severus said in a low tone. “He was
still here. Bound to the school. Correspondence was dictated to house elves and
delivered to her by owl. She got a notice of her husbands’ condition in the
same envelope as his death certificate.”

 

Ron paled.

 

“That’s horrible,” said Harry.

 

“That’s not so horrible, Potter,” said Severus silkily. “She
spends her summers here, watching his transparent form, never able to touch
him. He gets to watch her slowly age before him, knowing she will probably not
meet him when she passes, which will be long after you and I are gone.”

 

“How do you know she won’t become a ghost?” said Hermione
from the doorway.

 

“What?” Severus asked.

 

“A ghost is someone who has strong emotional ties to
something that keeps them here,” said Hermione, sounding like a textbook.
“Everyone knows Binns hes held back because it was his last session before the
O.W.L.s.”

 

“What’s your point?” said Severus loudly, making the boys
jump. His spooky demeanor vanished.

 

Hermione folded her arms. He was not going to torment her
friends for amusement.

 

Harry and Ron both turned and sat on the couch. As Hermione
and Severus bickered their heads turned left to right as if they were watching
tennis.

 

“My point is he’s a ghost and she obviously has strong ties
to him,” said Hermione testily. “If given the option, she would spend eternity
here with him. And he’s not bound to the school. The O.W.L.s being in Hogwarts
is a technicality of location. Moaning Myrtle to to go all over before the
Ministry got her to stop causing mischief.”

 

“Fine then,” Severus said with a wave of his hand. “He can
go for a country holiday. She’d still have to have the option and you can’t
predict that.” He stood straighter and folding his arms.

 

“She would be a logical choice for ost,ost,” Hermione said.

 

“There’s no logic to being chosen. Also, being a ghost is
not a pleasurable thing,” said Severus furrowing his eyebrows. “It would be illogical
for her to choose it. Someone becoming a ghost is a rare thing.”

 

“Lucinda would choose to stay,” Hermione insisted. “And
there is logic to it. We’re still learning about the process.”

 

“We? How do you know?” asked Severus. He was just getting
Weasley to shake before she made him stop.

 

“Binns began the project my 6th year,” Hermione
said testily. “We interview all the new ghosts that passed in the last year
during Easter weekend. The idea came from Sir Nicholas originally”

 

“You really should have expected something like that, you
know,” Ron interjected to Severus from the couch. Severus turned to look at
him. “She doesn’t ever start something if she doesn’t have a hidden play.” Severus
looked at her dumbfounded.

 

“Are you serious?” Severus said, loosening his stance.
“Where is your data?”

 

“Binns has it in his office,” Hermione said. “You can see it
if you like.”

 

He looked at her and saw defiant passion burning in her
eyes. She knew she was right and she wanted him to admit, as her professor,
that she was more knowledgeable than him about something. Infuriating
know-it-all. Her chin was even tilted upward, set stubbornly.

 

His body responded immediately and he drew his robes around
himself.

 

‘Where in blazes did that come from?’ thought Severus
embarrassedly. ‘I’ve been spending too much spare time in the company of
teenagers.’

 

“I would much like that,” Severus said reluctantly impressed
in her project. How the girl found the time to do everything, he would never
know. The Department of Mysteries would be banging on her door the day after
graduation.

 

Hermione watched as Severus swirled his robed around himself
dramatically.

 

‘Annoying bat,’ thought Hermione. He retreated to his
private rooms after admitting he was wrong. She gave a small smile to his
bedroom door as it closed.

 

“That was incredible, Hermione,” Harry whispered so Snape
didn’t hear him. Ron just cocked an eyebrow.

 

Hermione shrugged.

 

“Forget it,” she said. “Come on, let’s see what else we can
find in there.”