Evening Schnapps

A/N: Amusingly enough, this was written quite a while ago. After I got my life sorted out, my dear ubber-beta had an attack of Real Life ™, too. But, sweetheart that she is, she was kind enough to make some time and get this back to me.

J.K. Rowling is the owner of all except specific characters, situations, and plot bunnies that are unique to this story. I make no money, but lots of satisfaction from taking out her characters and playing with them for a while before putting them back.

Many thanks to my ubber-beta SignoraAligheri, and my sweetie Evan! They just prove that you really can’t do anything in this world without people looking out for you.

So, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and here we go!

Chapter 14- Rain

Maddox worked his way through the forest, flanked on his right by Tybalt. Professor Snape had sent them off into the north, in search of a missing Hufflepuff second year. They had come to an unspoken agreement not to search by calling out her name. There were too many dangers in the Forbidden Forest to go about advertising ones whereabouts. They moved through quietly, separated by the distance between two trees, with their wand tips illuminated only very softly. The glow was enough for them to see clearly in front of them, between them, and out to each side. They crept slowly; keeping a sharp ear out for any noise that might be the young and likely frightened little girl.

Maddox paused as Tybalt halted suddenly, bending low to the ground and reaching out with his hand to touch the soil in front of him. He looked up sharply and motioned for Maddox to join him, with a jerk of his head. He didn’t move as Maddox stepped carefully over to stand just behind him. Looking down, he saw small footprints imbedded thinly in the loamy soil. They came from the southwest, from the direction of Hagrid’s hut. Nodding at Tybalt, the boys stood and began moving along the path of the footprints. With Maddox keeping them on his right, and Tybalt keeping them on his left, they were able to make good time while maintaining their quiet progress.

-------

Severus moved along behind the boys. He had nodded to himself with mute approval as Tybalt picked up the girl’s tracks and relayed the essential information to Maddox silently. In fact, Severus had found it difficult to track the boys at first. They worked well as a team, and seemed to understand the dangers inherent in the forest.

‘Very unlike The Boy-Who-Lived and his red-headed side-kick,’ he thought to himself. Those two boys had displayed a habit of getting into trouble and then making as much of a racket getting out of it as possible. Severus had spent years trying to keep the three out of trouble. Often ending up injured as a result. He often thought about those years, and wondered if they would have made near as much progress in their trouble making, had Hermione not been there. Harry was intelligent, to be sure, but not on par with the fiery brunette. Ron and Harry both had spent years proving they were Gryffindors through and through. Living life by dashing madly of into whatever noble, yet reckless, cause they could find.

He thought about what Hermione had told him, during their first ‘Evening Schnapps’ in his study at Hogwarts. She had told him that the Sorting Hat had declared that she was not a blend of House traits, but was instead equal parts of all four Houses. Many years ago, when he was a child, the thrice-damned Hat had told him the same thing. His was a fractured personality. Severus squeezed his eyes shut, momentarily, fighting the tears that started to seep between his eyelashes.

The bloody Hat had placed him in Slytherin, telling him that one side of his personality would have to gain dominance to ensure that he would grow up to be a healthy, balanced Wizard. The Sorting Hat had never tasted the mind of a fractured personality, and only had experience with minds showing pure House traits to draw from. The Hat had placed him in Slytherin, after pronouncing to him that only the Slytherin part of him could wield enough deviousness and ambition to suppress the other three.

Severus had been outraged when Hermione had told her of the Hat’s decision to place her in Gryffindor. The comment that Slytherin would allow her heart to die was based solely on the hat’s experience with Severus. For years, the Hat had berated Severus privately in the Headmaster’s office for allowing himself to be swayed to Voldemort’s side. Severus had never spoken in his own defense. Hated in Slytherin, for his bookish, heroic, and empathic ways, reviled by the Marauders, and generally disliked by the student body politic for being a sneaky Slytherin, Severus suffered. In time, as the Sorting Hat declared years too late, being placed in Slytherin had killed his heart. Cold and alone, Severus withdrew from those who could hurt him.

True, there were times when small glimmers of the other traits showed their unwanted heads. When the Sorcerer’s Stone was in peril, Severus had spent months without proper sleep researching the barriers he contributed to the elaborate protections the Order placed around the Stone. Even after Harry had attacked him in the Shrieking Shack, Severus had still thrown himself in front of the children when Remus changed into a werewolf. Finally, when Harry snuck a peak into the Pensieve and saw how horrible James was as a child, Severus had provided a compassionate distraction by yelling at him for intruding on private memories, allowing him to think that Severus was deeply embarrassed by the scene. In fact, to Severus, being hazed by the Marauders was just another example of the Sorting Hat’s grave mistake, hardly his own fault. When those little glimmers of his personality crept up on him, he did his best to ignore them. They hadn’t been strong enough to survive the hell he had faced growing up.


He saw how brave, kind, intelligent and powerfully sneaky a young woman Hermione had grown into and he was at once relieved and angered. It should have been the same for him. He should have been given the same chance. To this day, he despised the Sorting Ceremony and looked for any excuse to be elsewhere. Some years he succeeded, some he didn’t. Regardless, over the years he did his best not to think about what could have been. Then, she came back into his life.

Looking up to track the boys, he spotted a figure standing in his path. He began stepping aside to duck behind a tree. Then he saw the figures face.

Emerging from the oppressive dark of the forest was Hermione Granger.

-------

Hermione stood looking at Severus. He seemed deep in thought, and she was afraid that he would be upon her before he realized someone was there. She knew he would have been badly startled and might attack first and ask questions later, but he looked up and saw her in time. Relieved, she waited for him to reach her, before she spoke.

“Severus,” she said softly, “what is happening? It looks like there is a search party combing the woods. What’s wrong?”

She was surprised when he continued walking up to her and for a moment, she thought he would walk right through her, but for the fact that he maintained eye contact as he swept up to her. She nearly flinched as he stopped a heartbeat away from her, his breath warm on her forehead.

“Shhhhhh,” he hissed almost imperceptibly. His breath tickled her ear as he moved his face around her, so that his lips just missed her skin.

“Please, there is nothing to worry about. You must go back to the castle, quickly and so that no one sees you,” he finished. Holding his position, so that she could speak to him without making any noise.

Hermione frowned; this was not what she expected. If there was a problem, she expected the alarm to go out, and the full staff of Hogwarts to be leading the search, leaving only a skeleton staff to guard the children in the Main Hall. Before speaking, she tried to fathom what would cause so many to be searching the Forbidden Forest at night, when it was obvious Severus didn’t raise the alarm.

“Severus,” she whispered, “I don’t understand. Why?”

She waited, tension filling the seconds before he responded. Finally, she felt him shift his weight and the warmth of his breath on her cold ear again.

“Go back to the castle and wait for me. Say nothing. Avoid everyone. Trust me, please.” With his final word, she felt his warm lips brush against her cheek, pausing to press lightly against her, before he whirled away from her and disappeared silently deeper into the forest to the north. Hermione stood frozen to the spot, her fingers pressed against the cheek Severus had… kissed?

A cold rain began to fall.

-------

Tybalt moved around to the right, taking the forward position. They had tracked Caitlin’s footprints to a deep and silent hollow in the forest. It had started raining, a cold drenching downpour. They couldn’t hear much beyond the sound of the rain hitting the trees on the way to the rich soil. But, as they had come to the rim of the hollow, Maddox had halted suddenly, jerking up and looking sharply at Tybalt. He had heard a young girl cry out softly. Motioning to Tybalt, they began to creep into the dark hollow. Maddox fell behind Tybalt, being careful to watch their backs.

As they crept into the blackness, they extinguished their wands with a murmured ‘Nox.’ Pausing jointly to let their eyes fully adjust to the blackness, they listened intently for any other sounds. All they could hear was the rain.

Moving quietly forward, Tybalt inched along towards the center of the hollow. As he slid forward, his dark-adjusted eyes caught sight of a form on the ground. Swallowing, he moved quickly forward and knelt down. It was the girl. She was bundled tightly in a blanket. Tybalt reached down to touch her shoulder, and froze, horrified. The blanket was not woven cloth, but strand upon strand of sticky webs.

“Who disturbs my sanctuary?”

The hair on the back of Tybalt’s neck stood on end, at the deep, rumbling, dangerous sounding voice. He stood, turning to face the danger, and watched in horror as the entire side of the hollow began to move.

“Lumos,” he whispered in a shaky voice and gasped as he saw a massive spider creep out of the dark towards him.

“Why have you come to me? To my prize?” rumbled Aragog.

-------

Hermione sat in her study. She had retreated to the castle after Severus had disappeared into the black forest. The rain hampered her progress, as did avoiding the pairs of students moving through the trees. By the time she had made it to the first hall, she was tired and cold. Even the high tech Muggle clothing had limits, and prolonged exposure to torrential rain pushed those limits.

She sat in front of the hearth in her study, stripped of her wet garments and wrapped in the quilt off her bed. Her grandmother had made the quilt when she was only a very young girl, and she had finally retrieved it from her parents home, soon after her arrival at Hogwarts after Christmas. She had left it in her mothers care while she attended Hogwarts and then while she was in America during college. Hermione would never forgive herself if anything had happened to it, so she had her mom pack it away in her cedar chest.

She watched the fire, mesmerized as the wood popped and snapped. Her mind still reeled at the exchange with Severus in the Forbidden Forest. She could not understand why he would behave so strangely. Why he would not tell her what was happening, and to insist she return to the castle to wait for him. His proximity had been unnerving, feeling his breath against her skin, and the power of his body almost, but not quite touching her. He was like a force of nature, and she had felt herself sucked into the whirlwind.

Hermione felt her heart skip a beat when she replayed the scene in her mind, and a surge tightening her belly. He had kissed her, of that, she was sure. What she could not fathom was why. They had grown close over the last few months. Even developed a friendship, she believed. But a kiss? That was another matter entirely, and such a furtive one at that. It almost seemed like he either couldn’t help himself, or had hoped she wouldn’t notice the kiss, or both.

She shivered against the quilt and lifted the steaming mug of cider to her lips, wrapping both hands against the hot ceramic. She settled back into her chair and for the thousandth time that night, she wondered what Severus was playing at. She had begun to settle into the idea of a single life at Hogwarts, with only the teachers as her companions. She knew that Severus was the nearest to her in age, and would likely become her closest companion. In fact, to a large degree, he had already become so. Even if there was still some sense of distance between them, she considered it to simply be a function of propriety. But that kiss, there was a furtiveness to it. Almost as if Severus had stolen it, thinking it wouldn’t be missed.

‘That must be it,’ Hermione thought as she took another sip of cider, ‘he thought he was taking something not freely given.’

“How very Slytherin,” she murmured to the silent room, only the crackling of the fire giving witness to her words.

-----

Tybalt backed carefully away from the monstrous spider moving towards him, stepping back to cover the girl.

“I have come for the girl,” he said, with a strength he wasn’t sure he felt. “She does not belong to you.”

“I think not,” rumbled Aragog. “No one enters my domain and leaves, unless I approve of it. It has always been so.”

“I can’t allow you to keep her,” he said, closing his eyes for a moment, trying to steady his voice. “She is young and must be brought back to school and given a chance for life.”

“Life? Life?” the great spider said with evident humor. “My children deserve life and I don’t think I am willing to deny them this meal that will sustain so many of them.”

Tybalt stared up at the black beast.

“No.”

Aragog laughed for a moment, and paused in his forward progress.

“Well then, I will just have to take you as well, and feed all of my children tonight.” The great beast pulled himself up and prepared to lunge at the boy.

“Petrificus Totalus!”

Aragog was frozen in place before he could complete his leap. Tybalt looked up in relief as Maddox stepped out from behind the spider.

“You sure took long enough, mate!” Tybalt laughed with relief as the other boy came to help him untangle the girl from the cocoon.

“Well, I had to make sure I could get a clean shot off. I couldn’t take the chance of hitting you, now could I, mate?” Maddox placed a particular emphasis on the last word that brought Tybalt up short. They stared at each other for a moment, absorbing the notion that they could be friends, and what that might mean at the end of the day.

A soft skittering sound intruded upon the steady drumbeat of the rain falling and broke the moment. The boys whirled around to face the danger, illuminating their wands brightly as one.

--------

Severus watched as the boys bested Aragog. Cloaked in darkness, his presence was unknown to both spider and man. Caitlin was enclosed in a web cocoon, only her head sticking out from the mass. They would be able to get her out safely. Then, he could get back to Hermione.

Hermione.

He had been so deep in thought when she appeared in the forest before him, that he had thought her an illusion for a moment. Then, realizing that she was real, fear struck him that his elaborate plans would be ruined. He had spent every second for two days putting together the ruse to get the Houses working as one. Hermione’s social experiment had become his mission. Getting Minerva’s acquiescence had been difficult, but getting Aragog’s had been damn near impossible. Only Hagrid had been able to arrange the bargain, ultimately.

Minerva had agreed to declare the area around Aragog’s lair a preserve, severely limiting human encroachment into his territory, and greatly reducing the chances of the Ministry moving against him. Hagrid arranged to supplement the arachnidan children’s prey with ferrets he hunted in another part of the forest. Aragog agreed to play the heavy in the ruse. The hardest part was finding the girl. Caitlin Hollingsworth had been a sheer stroke of genius on the part of Hagrid.

Severus had been hoping to simply place a child under the influences of the Dreamless Sleep draught, and get them back to their rooms before they knew what happened to them. Hagrid, however, had pointed out the fatal flaw in his plan. Aragog would not likely move to protect any child from his children, even with the offers on the table. However, he had a better suggestion.

At the beginning of term, Hagrid needed help tending Aragog, when the giant spider and one time pet, had grown ill. A rotted tree had collapsed under his weight and his carapace had been damaged severely. He had needed help tending to the wound every day, and in typical Hagrid fashion, he had asked young Caitlin for her help with the dangerous job. Over many months, Caitlin had accompanied Hagrid into the hollow and had tended to Aragog compassionately. Her fear of the spider had faded many months earlier. The giant spider had been so taken with the young girl, that he had promised Hagrid that he would protect her from his children, and had agreed to the elaborate set up.

Once Caitlin allowed Aragog to bind her in the cocoon, Minerva had been ready, and had placed a subtle memory charm on the girl. When she woke up, she would believe that she went to visit the spider on her own and his children had given her trouble, and the boys had come to her rescue. All essentially true, just omitting the fact that it was all a ruse.

Severus grinned as he watched the plan grow to fruition. He could repay Hermione for the kindness she had shown him. His mind still reeled at the memory of the kiss he stole, when he pulled away from her cheek. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. She would never be interested in him. She was far too young and full of life to be interested in a bitter, broken man like him. He was damaged goods, and he knew it.

‘Still,’ he thought as he closed his eyes and reveled in the memory of her soft skin against his lips, ‘she did kiss me first, even if she thought me asleep. I did no different. I took from her only what she took from me. Maybe not freely given, but certainly not missed.’

Severus felt sure that his move had been too fast, and too subtle for her to have noticed it.

He looked up; there was noise in the forest that was disturbing in a way the heavy rain was not, a noise that made the hair on his neck stand on end. As he stood, light from the boy’s wands flooded the area.

------

Maddox watched mutely as the hollow came alive with smaller versions of the monster he had immobilized. There were hundreds of them. He reached out and touched the girl, she didn’t move.

“Tybalt,” he whispered, “one of us needs to carry her.”

“You’re right,” Tybalt murmured, “and you’re faster at offensive spells them me. I’ll get her.”

“Ok, count of three then.”

At the silent three count, Tybalt levitated the girl’s body and began to back out of the hollow. Maddox followed, keeping his face towards the moving mass of legs. They backed out to the rim of the hollow and as one, the spiders rushed them.

Maddox fired off spell after spell as they ran through the rain and trees. Black spiders the size of Mastiffs scattered as he threw spells as fast as he could yell the incantations. Tybalt lead the way, pushing Caitlin’s levitating body in front of them as he ran.

Then Maddox tripped. Sprawling across the muddy ground, he shook his head as he pushed back up. He was just about on his feet as he was knocked back down from behind. Rolling over, he had to grapple with one of the pursuing beasts. His wand hand was pinned underneath a hairy leg. Wrenching his shoulder, he finally twisted his wand arm free and blasted the spider right in the eyes with the brightest solar spell he could muster.

He broke free and ran to cover Tybalt’s back as they continued to flee. Finally, as the spiders were beginning to overtake them, Maddox spotted a cave entrance in a low hillside.

“Tybalt! Cave!” he shouted as he came up behind them. They ran to the entrance and Tybalt went in first, checking it for spiders as he went.

“It’s safe, Maddox!”

“Go!” he pushed Caitlin in and whirled around, standing in the entrance of the cave, waiting until the spiders were so thick, that he couldn’t see the ground. Finally, he steeled himself, he was getting tired, and this next step would be a huge drain. He had to get it right.

Whipping his wand out forcefully, he pulled from the bottom of his very soul and cast.

“Immobulus!”

He watched with satisfaction as the spiders all froze in place, unable to move. But it would only last for a little while, and there was no guarantee that he got them all, and certainly no guarantee that they would make it to the castle before the spell wore off.

He stepped out of the cave and cast a shower of red sparks in the air, before ducking back in. Once he made it to the back of the cave, he looked around. Deciding the space was large enough for safety, he pointed his wand at the mouth of the cave.

Looking back at Tybalt for confirmation first, he got the nod he was waiting for.

“Bombarda!”

---------

Severus watched as Aragog’s children moved as one, menacing the boys. He crept around to the far end of the hollow. He watched as the boys took off, leading the spiders off towards the castle. Once the coast was clear, he stepped out to stand by Aragog’s body. He lifted the spell Maddox had used, and stepped back, waiting for the massive spider to come around. Finally, the spider gathered his legs under himself and stood up.

“Friend of Hagrid,” he rumbled. “Are the children gone?”

“Yes Aragog,” Severus said solemnly. “But it appears that your children are more zealous in acting out the ruse than we agreed. They have all gone after the boys.”

“That is because we never agreed that I would be attacked,” Aragog said, looking down at Severus. “Once I was left unable to control my children, they were free to do as they pleased.”

Severus looked up at the aging giant, comprehension dawning in his mind. He spun on his heels and began running after the boys and their pursuers.

“Friend of Hagrid,” Aragog called behind him, “don’t run. My children are likely already enjoying their meal.”

Severus ran until he felt his lungs burn, tracking the boys, he kept up the brutal pace. He could not have anticipated the flaw in his plan. Hagrid was such an innocent as to never believe that the creatures would harm the children. Even Minerva had not brought the possibility up.

A set of red sparks appeared in the trees ahead of him. Pushing himself harder, he ran down into another little hollow, and stopped.

Looking around him, he was astonished to see hundreds of Aragog’s children paralysed on the ground. A few wandered around among their siblings. In the middle of all the bodies, on the far side of the hollow, was a mound of freshly disturbed dirt and rock. Most certainly a cave-in.

The remaining spiders gave Severus a wide berth as he moved over to the mound. Levitating portions of the debris, and moving them aside, it only took a few moments to clear a path.. As he moved his way in, using his wand to illuminate the cave, he found the boys standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the prone Caitlin, wands at the ready. When they saw him standing drenched in the cave entrance, relief was plainly evident of their faces.

-------

He looked down at the sleeping witch. He had finally cleaned up the search party, after reviving Caitlin and delivering her and the boys to Poppy for a night in the hospital wing. It had taken several hours before he finally found himself approaching her door, to tell her of the day’s events. Nearing 3 o’clock in the morning, he had entered her unlocked and unwarded door when she failed to answer his knock. He found her sleeping soundly in her chair at the hearth. She was wrapped up in a hand-sewn quilt.

After watching her for a few moments, he leaned down and scooped her up in his arms. Carrying her back to her bedroom, Severus bent down and laid her on the bed. Pausing for a moment, he thought about his choices. Finally, deciding that she would be far less upset finding him in bed next to her, if she awoke in the middle of the night, than she would be if she woke with no one to tell her everything was fine, he laid down on the bed next to her.

“At least we are both clothed,” he thought as he drifted off to sleep, “unlike those nights in America.”

------------------

A/N: Love you all, love your reviews, keep them coming!

Sheedy: glad you stuck around and had patience with me. Thanks!

Amsev: I need to wait until after finals to mess with sychophant hex, but will share on that side later in December. Hope you love this chapter, too.

Juls: Yeah, I thought I’d mess with the House rivalries and see what happened. ;) Sorry this update took so long.

Lily: *blush* I’m so glad you think I’ve kept them in character. That was a major goal of mine. Sorry about the O chem, I’m drowning in Geo chem. What a nasty blend of chemistry, physics and mineralogy. Bleh. Have fun with finals!

Ruby Wolf: Damn it. It just occurred to me that I took your last email and put it in my ‘respond to’ pile and never got to it. I’ll be sending you an email later this weekend!

Bill- you’ll need to wait a little longer for the answer on Snape’s pain, I’ve been dancing around that for a while and the music is still playing! ;)

Pickles87-Outer banks? I’m so jealous. They are on my ‘places I want to visit in my life’ list. Hope all is well with you, Bill and the wee ones.

Moyra: We’ll have to see if we can both manage to have time at the same time! Damn Real Life ™ anyhow! ;) Hermione is a clever monkey, so I figured she could pick up the acupressure after a few sessions. But, you are right, it takes guts to intentionally cause Mr Snarky Pants pain, even with a warning.