#6 ~ A Matter of Matrimony

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JKR (except Marcus Delaluci). All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 12 ~ Turning the Proverbial Tables

The next morning, after breakfast Marcus was at Hermione’s office promptly at nine forty. He knocked on the door.

“Come in,” called Hermione.

Marcus twisted the handle and entered her office. He went to close the door.

“No, leave it open please, Hermione said, “it gets a little stuffy in here.”

Marcus shrugged and left the office door wide open. He knew her reasons were other than just needing air. Maybe she was uncomfortable with the idea of being alone with him. Ah, well.

“How are you this morning, Hermione?” Marcus said, walking up to the desk and giving her his trademark smile. She was dressed in her normal staff robes, but obviously she had taken some time on her hair and slight makeup. Her chestnut locks hung long and shining down her back, softly curled, and she had applied a bit of mascara, and liner around her eyes, accenting their beautiful amber color. Her full lips glistened with gloss.

“Wow,” Marcus thought, “did she do this for me?” She looked good enough to eat.

She smiled at him. “I’m fine, Marcus. I’ve already drawn up your chart. We just have to fill it in.”

She motioned to a chair placed next to hers behind the desk.

“Please, have a seat,” she offered.

Marcus walked around the desk. He stood behind Hermione, leaned over her shoulder and looked over the neatly drawn grid. Each column had headings, covering subject matter, topics, period, assignments, study material, and a number of other themes that Marcus wouldn’t have thought of in a dragon’s lifetime. He gave a low whistle.

“You really know your stuff, Hermione. Wow. This is great,” he said admiringly.

Hermione flushed at the compliment.

“I’ve been doing these forever. When I attended Hogwarts, I drew these up for my friends and other students to better utilize their time for studying. It really helped them.”

Marcus raised his eyebrows.

“Did they ask you to do this?” he asked, knowing that schedules were the last thing on his mind when he was an adolescent.

“Well, not always. But I did it anyway. We needed to keep up our house average,” she said, adding some additional headings to the parchment.

“Ah, yes,” Marcus replied a bit sarcastically, ”I’m sure they appreciated that.”

Hermione looked up at him, a little scowl on her face. “They did by the time exams rolled around,” she snapped, remembering how everyone always moaned and bitched when she produced the schedules year after year. Those who followed it though, actually did well in their classes as well as on their tests. Hermione had been extremely pushy about following the schedules, and most of her housemates capitulated, rather than be nagged twenty hours of the day by the bushy-haired little homework nazi. Harry and Ron got the worst of it. She would track them down and drag them back to the common room, and hover over them as they worked under duress. But they too, benefited.

Marcus thought that Hermione must have had big control issues when she was a student. Anyone who would schedule someone else’s entire day, day after day, had to have a bit of dictator in him or her. This might explain her need to be dominated. A little secret guilt on her behalf, maybe to prove to herself that she didn’t always have to be in control. Well, he would be more than happy to make her submit. Over and over.

He settled in the chair beside her, pulling it a little closer than necessary. He could smell the jasmine in her hair, and imagined screwing the hell out of her in a field of flowers. He leaned into her a bit.

“So, what do we do now?” he purred, startling her. She had been so focused on filling in the headings, she hadn’t noticed he had sat down…so close to her. She met his violet eyes that were looking at her soberly, a slight grin on his full lips.

“Um, well you tell me what you need to cover this month and I’ll insert it in the proper box,’ she said a little taken aback by his eyes on her so intently.

“In the proper box, eh?” he said a bit suggestively, before leaning back a little, his normal smile on his face. He swung his arm up to rest on the back of her chair.

“Ok, this week I need to cover defense against…”

They put their heads together and started filling out the parchment.

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Severus was on his way to his Potions class, and noticed that Hermione’s office door was open. That was unusual. He stopped in front of the door and looked in. He froze.

Marcus Delaluci and Hermione were sitting at her desk, unnecessarily close. Both heads were leaning over a parchment, and the wizard’s arm was encircling the back of Hermione’s chair. He was practically nuzzling her hair as they worked. Severus’ chest clenched in rage for a moment, but he checked himself. He looked at Hermione closely. She looked lovely. Too lovely.

Severus smirked. She really should have been in Slytherin. She never left her office door open. She had set this up to test him. Well, two could play at this.

“Good morning, Hermione…Mr. Delaluci,” he said, standing in the doorway. Both looked up, surprised. “Working on the DA schedule I see.”

Hermione studied him carefully. He didn’t seem angry at all. She felt a little disappointed.

“Good morning, Severus,” she replied, her voice a little off-kilter, “yes, we decided to get down to it today.”

Marcus gave Severus a rather feral grin. “Yes, Professor. Hermione is quite good at this. She makes my plans seem easy. Very easy.” He couldn’t help taking a little dig at the Potions Master.

Severus resisted the urge to hex Marcus. His hand barely twitched.

“Yes, her organization skills are quite phenomenal. I’m sure her schedule will help you immensely, Mr. Delaluci.”

Severus grasped the door handle. “Students will be passing by here soon on their way to class. The noise will be distracting. So I’ll just close the door to spare you that inconvenience. Good day to both of you,” he said pleasantly, shutting the door.

Hermione was flabbergasted. Did Severus just close her up in a room with Marcus? That was not the reaction she had wanted or expected. She had wanted a little anger, a little hurt. But he gave her nothing. Didn’t he care?

Marcus looked at her sharply. The little bitch had used him as a pawn to try and get Snape’s robes in a furl. The hair, the make-up, it had all been for Snape’s benefit, not his. Marcus’ violet eyes telescoped to black. He didn’t like being used like this. He had the intense desire to choke her, and drag her down under the desk and teach her to show him some respect. But no. He’d just file away this little insult to be rectified another day.

“Well, that was very considerate of the Professor,” Marcus said, looking at the obviously confused witch, “I’ve never seen him so pleasant.”

“Yes, he was pleasant, wasn’t he?’ she replied slowly.

“Yes, he was,” Marcus said, leaning in again, “how about we finish up?”

Hermione looked at him blankly for a moment, then realized he was talking about the schedule.

“Yes. Yes. Let’s finish it.” She replied, completely distracted.

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Severus strode towards the Potions class. Hermione’s reaction supported what he had thought. She had been trying to bait him. She looked a bit hurt that he hadn’t shown any anger or jealousy. He was jealous, of course. Closing her in with Marcus hadn’t been easy, but necessary. He began to reconsider his approach to this breakup. Maybe he shouldn’t ‘pine’ either. Certainly he would work at opening up to her, be solicitous, attentive, while returning to his polite, reserved mien. But he wouldn’t play her little games. She already had the power in her hands to accept or reject him. He decided he too would “live” a little, where she could see. Maybe go out on the town a couple of nights, dressed to the nine’s and let her see him departing, returning noticeably late. Let her wonder what he was doing with his “space” while they were working out their problems.

For all intents and purposes, he would appear to be giving her the space she asked for, though he had Marcus in his sights. He needed to know Marcus’ intentions clearly. He had no doubt that the wizard’s desire was to bed his lover, but doubted he wanted a relationship with her. Marcus seemed to Severus to be a fly-by-night kind of man. With his good looks, and those blasted eyes, he probably had no problem finding willing partners to expend his lusts upon. He was interested in Hermione because he needed a diversion, Severus was sure of this. If he did manage to seduce her, he would most likely cast her aside after his desire was met. Rage washed over him for a moment. He loved Hermione. He didn’t want her to be used like that.

He had just done the same thing to her, used her and left her. He had hurt her badly. For it to happen again, even with another wizard, might affect her permanently. He had already shaken her trust. For something like this to happen, it might steal away all of her trust in men. She would shut down then, he knew. Throwing herself into her work and never try to love again, becoming cold, cynical, unreachable. The image of a hard, passionless Hermione made his blood run cold.

Yes, he really needed to talk to Marcus, to find out what was going on in the wizard’s head. Maybe he should invite him to the dungeons for a drink and wizard-to-wizard talk. Marcus was so arrogant, he wouldn’t refuse the chance to rub his progress with Hermione in Severus’s face. Particular since their relationship was on the outs. Yes, that was the ticket. He would invite Marcus to his rooms for a drink…tonight.

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A/N: Well, this ought to be an interesting meeting. Let’s see where this is going to go … eh? Please review. Thanks.