The First Summer and Summer Series
The Third Summer Ch. 1
(in answer to a recent question: yes, the final segment of the series IS called Summer Wedding ;-)
Hermione Granger anxiously drew in her breath. She was back home again, her childhood home, and she had something monumental to tell her parents, something they weren’t going to like. For the last year and a half she had been seeing Severus Snape. In fact, the two had been living together on summer breaks and the occasional weekend. But Hermione never had been quite able to tell her parents. And now she hoped to bring Severus to the family home for the Christmas holidays.
It was bad enough that he was almost as old as Hermione’s father. But that, she felt, could be dealt with. The other problem was that Hermione had spent a lot of her younger years complaining to her parents about Snape. She had no doubt that her father would remember his name well. Mr. Granger had written to Dumbledore about Hermione’s former Potions Master on more than one occasion.
Hermione did not know whether Dumbledore had ever discussed these letters with Severus but on the whole she thought not. Surely it would have come up in conversation before. So she had a gu sec secret from him. The thought gnawed at her. She hoped her father would have the sense not ting ing it up when he learned who Severus really was.
Her parents had greeted her effusively. It had been pleasant to be back home. Crookshanks had walked about, exploring the place where he had stayed on numerous occasions. He rubbed his face on the furniture and purred. Hermione took a large gulp of tea, smiled nervously at her parents and began.
“I was wondering, would you mind inv invited someone to spend Christmas with us?”
Her mother patted her hand. “I think that that would be lovely, dear! Is it your American roommate?”
“No.” She looked at her father and her eyes faltered.
“It’s a boy,” he guessed.
“Sort of,” Hermione mumbled.
She saw her parents exchange looks.
“Is it serious?” her mother asked.
“Yes, it’s very serious.” Hermione admitted, “I wyou you to meet him because, well, he’s the one. I‘m planning on spending the rest of my life with him.”
“How long have you known him?” asked her father in a serious tone.
“I’ve known him several years, but we’ve been a couple since just after I left Hogwarts.”
“Hermione!” her mother cried, “That’s nearly two years! Why haven’t you brought him around or mentioned him to us before?”
“I, uh,...I,” she caught her father’s look of disapproval.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked. “He’s not a punk or something is he?”
Hermione laughed nervously, “No, it’s just...he’s older. I didn’t know how you were going to feel about it.”
“How much older?” Mr. Granger asked sternly.
“Now dear!” Mrs. Granger interrupted. “Hermione has a brain. We need to trust her.”
“How much older?” her father persisted.
“A year younger than you,” Hermione admitted.
There was a shocked silence.
“I love Severus. We’ve been together for a long time now. It’s permanent and I think we’ll probably get married after I finish at the university.”
“He’s a wizard I take it?” her father added.
“A brilliant one.”
Another long pause ensued.
“Will you let him come here for Christmas?” Hermione asked meekly. “I want you to meet him. I want you to like him.”
Her mother answered, “Of course he’s welcome, Hermione. We trust you.” She shot a significant look at her husband.
“He’s welcome in the spare room.” her father answered briefly.
“Daddy!” Hermione cried out.
“No! There’s no discussion on that point. I won’t have anything like that under my roof!”
“we awe already live together during holidays andkendkends!” Hermione complained.
Her father looked slightly disgusted, “What you do outside of this house is your business. You’re an adult. But while he’s here he stays in the spare room and YOU stay in your own room!”
“I think that’s only fair, Hermione.” her mother agreed, “You did rather spring him on us. You need to give us time to get used to the idea of a potential son-in-law.”
“Especially a middle aged one.” her father muttered.
So it was with trepidation that Hermione sent a lr tor to Severus inviting him to stay at the Granger household.
My Darling Severus, Would you mind terribly much if I asked you to dress like a muggle? My parents know you are a wizard but I can’t help thinking they’ll accept you much faster if you look and dress more like them. The only wizards they know are the Weasleys. It sounds awful but I’m very afraid that after Mr. Weasley you might look intimidating.
The other thing is, my father wants you to sleep in the guest room instead of with me. Would you mind very m Thi This is very important to me. I want you all to like each other so much!
Do this for me. Please!
Severus looked at Hermione‘s letter and sighed. He felt uneasy just thinking about meeting her parents. It was so important to her and yet he knew the chances of this meeting going well were slim. Merlin knew, he’d do anything he had to make her happy. Even dress like a muggle! He folded her letter with a sigh and started sorting through his wardrobe.
“No karma sutra this holiday,” he grumbled.
Three days before Christmas, Severus met Hermione in London and they apparated together to her parent’s house. It was a quiet dignified neighborhood, upper middle class, much like you’d expect the daughter of two dentists to live in. The lawn and gardens were small, precise, manicured and frosty. As they walked up the path to the house, Severus felt like he was about to be fed to the lions.
“You’re sure they want me here?” he said quietly to Hermione.
“Of course. They’re anxious to meet you.”
“And you told them how old I am?” he asked. “Of course they must know I’m older if I was your teacher.”
Hermione turned to him and straightened his tie. “Nice touch, the suit and tie.” she commented. “Good quality too. Where did you get them?”
“Milan.”
She looked at him judiciously, “Daddy’s going to hate that ponytail though.”
“I’m not cutting my hair!” he snarled.
“No, don’t be silly! I didn’t mean that! It’s just he’s....”
The door opened and Mrs. Granger appeared.
Hermione introduced them, “Mummy, this is Severus.”
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Mrs. Granger responded, extending her hand. “Won’t you come in and meet my husband?”
“Thank you. Pleased to meet you as well.” Severus answered with a nervous smile. He presented her with flowers as Hermione had advised. His case also containerewarewater whiskey for Hermione’s father and Christmas gifts.
Mr. Granger stood behind his wife. He gave Severus a handshake that nearly had him on his knees as the two men eyed each other warily.
“Well! Let’s all get acquainted!” Mrs. Granger began brightly.
They sat making the most inane conversation that Hermione had ever heard. The weather, quidditch (Thank god her father followed quidditch!), cricket (Thank god Severus followed cricket!) and the Louvre in Paris, summers in Spain. Crookshanks wandered over to Severus, rubbed on his legs and wandered off again.
“The creature knows you,” Mr. Granger commented.
“Yes, we have an armed truce,” Severus replied. “He ignores me and I ignore him.”
“You must see him often, to reach an understanding with a cat.”
Severus felt this was getting on dangerous ground. “Do you care for cats?” he asked.
“No,” Mr. Granger replied simply.
“Dinner!” Mrs. Granger announced. “Severus, won’t you come into the dining room? Hermione, please fetch the plates.”
Mr. Granger busied himself opening a bottle of wine. The atmosphere was heavy and ominous. Severus made a few polite comments about the wine and Hermione served. The meal began and the silence became overwhelmingly oppressive. Hermione glanced at Severus across the table. He loosened his tie slightly as though he were being choked. She was aware this was not going well.
Mr. Granger finally spoke. “So Severus. I don’t seem to have caught your surname.”
Hermione froze as seardeard him reply quizzically, “It’s Snape.”
“Hmm, not any relation to that bastard at Hogwarts are you?”
A uncomfortable silence followed. She glanced up to see Severus looking at her oddly, one eyebrow delicately lifted.
“I rather suspect I AM the ‘bastard’ from Hogwarts,” he replied slowly.
“What?” Mr. Granger’s mouth fell open. For a moment he was speechless. Then he turned on his daughter in a fury. “Hermione Granger what are you playing at? You’re not going to tell me that this is your former teacher? The one you hated? The man you spent seven years complaining about? The man you said insulted you, took house points from you for no reason, harassed and embarrassed you and your friends? This is the man you had me write to Dumbledore about nearly every term?”
She couldn’t bear to look up to see how Severus was taking this.
“Hang about!” Another, worse thought occurred to Mr. Granger. He swung around to face Severus, “If you’re her boyfriend now, what were you doing to my little girl during all those years you were teaching her?”
Hermione injected vehemently, “Daddy! Don’t be ridiculous! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Embarrassing you? He’s the one who should be embarrassed! Being at this table! In this house! And apparently he’s slept with my daughter as well!” He turned on Severus again. “Did you ever touch her at school? Because if you did I swear...”
Mr. Granger stood up and threw down his serviette.
“Daddy please!” Hermione cried. Her face was red and tears began welling up in her eyes. This was not happening the way she had hoped.
“It’s all right Hene,”ne,” Severus replied calmly. “Your father has every right to question me under the circumstances.”
“Damned right I do!”
“And to answer your question Mr. Granger, I never touched your daughter while she was my pupil. In fact, as you relate, we weren’t particularly fond of one another during those years.”
Hermione glanced up. Severus was still looking at her. She knew he was concerned about her being upset, but she could also see hurt confusion in his face.
hapshaps,” Mrs. Granger suggested, “Hermione can tell us how you two came to be together.”
Hermione wiped her eyes and briefly related the story of their courtship, deliberately omitting the parts where they had shared accommodations. She did not forget to tell her parents how Severus had saved her life after a Strigae attack last year.
“Teaching potions, now that must be interesting!” Mrs. Granger stated. “Won’t you tell us what it entails?”
The rest of the evening was spent walking on egg shells. It was quite a relief when Hermione offered to show Severus to his room.
“And Hermione!” her father called after them as they walked up the hallway, “Remember what I said?”
“Yes Daddy.” she replied glumly.
“What was that?” Severus asked.
“I’m not to stay in your rooo ‘no ‘nonsense’”
Hermione turned the light on in a small but pleasant muggle bedroom. “There are fresh towels on the bed and the bathroom is the second door to the right.”
She turned to look at Severus and, meeting his eyes, immediately collapsed into tears. He took her into his arms and tried to comfort her. There were a million things he wanted to say but couldn‘t. This wasn’t the time.
“It all right,” he whispered softly into her hair. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
Hermione tried to stop crying but couldn’t. She leaned into his shoulder and let go. He stroked her hair, shoulders and back, rocking her in his arms and hushing her gently.
“I’m so sorry, Severus,” she whimpered, “I didn’t mean for you to be attacked like that.”
“I rather expected it would be unpleasant actually,” he admitted, “But for god’s sake Hermione, why didn’t you tell him WHO I was? ...And did you really used to hate me that much?”
The last question was added in such a quiet hurt voice that it brought fresh tears into her eyes.
“I’m so sorry!” she sobbed. He resumed his patting and soft words.
They heard someone clearing his voice in the doorway. Severus looked up to see Mr. Granger but Hermione kept her face buried in his shoulder, still sobbing.
“Time to say goodnight, Hermione.” Mr. Granger said gruffly. His daughter’s tears were making him uncomfortable but seeing Severus soothing her was worse.
Severus lifted her chin gently and looked into her tear swollen eyes. “See you in the morning.”
Hermione gave her father an angry glance then deliberately pulled Severus’s head down for a kiss.
“Goodnight,” she whispered. Then walked out the door without saying a word to her father.
“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all!” Mr. Granger complained to his wife.
“Get a good night’s sleep and let’s worry about it in the morning,” his wife advised.
“Do YOU want a middle aged son-in-law with a pony tail?”
Mrs. Granger sighed. “You know perfectly well that most wizards have long hair. I think it was very thoughtful of him to come here dressed as a muggle and try to fit in. He’s doing his best. I wish you had been a little more diplomatic at the dinner table. Think how badly the man must feel!”
“And what about my feelings?” Mr. Granger demanded. “Why didn’t my daughter tell me this boyfriend of hers was that blasted potions master if there wasn’t something sordid about it?”
“Probably because she was afraid you might do just as you did. Can’t you trust Hermione?”
“Not anymore.” Mr. Granger stated.