The Gilded Cage

ArabellaSnape- You’re not the only one. More SS on way.
Pittwitch- Thanks. Her character lends itself to neurotic behavior, but that’s good fun too.
VoraciousReader- I was intrigued by your theory about SS’s need for security. Fascinating thought.
Trytohangon-I try to stick to a M/W/F schedule if that makes things easier for you.
SnapesPet30- She’s rubbing a lot of people that way, but she’s had a lot thrown on her.
LadyRed-As it pleases you m’lady.
Ailishmckechnie-I suppose it’s a bit paired down in comparison to others. I’ve never analyzed it though.
Carlieisastreetmonster- This one is much longer.
mlmonty- She’s bitten off more than she can chew. It’s just stress, but it’s still Hermione.
neelix- Hm… curious question. Wonder if it’s related to the Theory of Expanding Crap.
jocat- Yes, it is kinda parceled out that way, but it’ll all twist up once the foundation is laid.
Phoenix Rhapsody- Ah, well, this is all pre-written stuff, that’s why. I’m a slow writer.
morganabythesea- Oh yes, and there’s more of that coming too.
CB13- In the same vein I wondered how much preparation homeschooled purebloods actually got to prepare them for writing essays and such. Can’t imagine Crabb or Goyle had a decent foundation. Kinda sad.
Lily, catysmom, SorceressFujin, ismene5- I’m so pleased you enjoyed it.

*


Chapter 15 - Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam


Long after Ginny had abandoned her to her own personal hell, and a second bottle of wine was consumed, Hermione was lounging on her couch reading as Crookshanks warmed her feet. She wasn’t yet ready to admit it. To make the concession that Snape had done an admirable job of, well… doing her job was too much. So instead Hermione took to scrutinizing everything he’d written looking for flaws and even spelling errors.


He had a nasty habit of omitting apostrophes and connecting outrageously long run-on sentences with semicolons. But for a wizard without reference books to fact-check off of he actually had done a decent job. No wait… scratch that… He’d done an adequate job. Marginally good.


Oh who was she kidding? Snape had managed to pick up on exactly the same things she would have and made exactly the same comments and suggestions she would have as well.


What gave her pause, the thing that caused her the most consternation, were his notes regarding Imelda Gibson’s project.


Gibson’s project was so unique they were charting new waters and there was very little historical data to suggest that anything of the like had ever been attempted before. Hermione had the idea after listening to Harry describe something he had seen in a penseive. She wanted to view it herself to see if there were any details Harry had missed, but the penseive wasn’t available.


Most people didn’t have access to penseives; they were exceedingly rare and damned unaffordable to the average witch and wizard. Most were so small that they could be viewed by one or two people at a time. One night after watching an old black and white movie on her television Hermione’s mind wandered to the old style projectors and a bizarre idea took root. What if it were possible to project memories like a film? At least they would only have to take a three dimensional source and pair it down to two dimensions, which in theory sounded easier than the other way round. Theoretically of course…


Before any type of enchanted projector could be constructed there was first the difficult task of working with the gossamer vapor-like material that memories were made of. Gibson, her potions maven, had jumped on the idea immediately by spouting off ideas of binding the mist with a potion so that it was more stable without degrading the contents.


Her progress had been painfully slow, but the results were promising. And until the lab blew up Hermione had a lot more confidence that they’d have the breakthrough they needed. Lee Jordan was already almost finished with the projector, or at least he was before he left. Now she wasn’t so certain the endeavor was even worth it. Imelda’s potion was really volatile, too volatile to bring to market and she nearly lost her life in the explosion.


There in the margins next to her progress report in cramped handwriting read:


Potion highly unstable.
Moonflower essential oil will
react unfavorably to the combination
of dittany and copper cauldron.


“But it needs to be in a copper cauldron,” she whispered to herself.


Suggest substituting 1 oz tisane
of pettigrain and 5 crushed billywig
stingers for moonflower.
The hair of the Centaur must be freely given.
Potion will need an additional 3
clockwise stirs and 1 additional
counter-clockwise stir on the final
series of stirs only.
Final product must resemble the
viscosity of memories as closely as possible.
Theory: final potion color will be
deep violet.
--HBP


“Oh now what do I do?” Hermione moaned.


This was bad. She reviewed the process in her head several times before coming to the same conclusion she had first arrived at. It would work. Damn him.


What did Snape want? Money? Credit? His name on the patent? Residuals? A stake in her company? She owned Granger Industries 100% outright and had no plans on ever going public. Oh this was bad.


She pulled out her cellular and dialed up Edwards. He was accustomed to getting frantic calls in the middle of the night.


“Jake? I need your help. I’m in big trouble.”


“Trouble? What’s wrong mama? This isn’t about that time I did that thing, cuz you said it wouldn’t come back to haunt us, and I just can’t…”


“Jake! Stop it. This is no time for you to go all ‘oooh shiny’ on me. We’ve got real problems. Snape problems.”


“Oh-my-lo! What’d he do? You’re alright, in one piece? You don’t need me to come over and bring tissues and Carly Simon?”


“No. Never mind all that, I’m taking care of it, but I need you to clear my schedule for Friday.”


“Pardon?”


“I need the day.”


“I don’t understand. I’m confused. You’re going to miss work?”


“Yesss,” she hissed losing patience. Hermione sighed loudly, “You’ll have to reschedule the distributor meeting; and Jake, I don’t want to see them any time before next Friday.”


“Oooh yikes, they’ll have kittens. Anything else I can do sweets?”


Hermione wracked her brain. “Yeah. I need another Snape Care Package. A good one. Go all out again. You seem to know what he likes… Oh, and he’ll need a proper bookcase and bed. Nothing too big, but something to replace his nasty cot. You’ve got that?”


“Absolutely. And while I’m out shopping I can pick up a little something for myself, right?”


“Yes of course. I don’t care as long as the Snape box is stellar.”


“And that’s why I love you my sweet sugar mama.”


“Good night Jake.”


Her next call was to her lawyer, who was less accustomed to getting calls in the middle of the night, but was still all too familiar with his client’s unusual work habits.


******

Friday morning found Severus Snape in high spirits. It was a ‘Hermione Day,’ which was always a cause for a bit of celebration. Not only did the little chit provide countless hours of entertainment by being so much fun to provoke, but she brought goodies too.


Although he was expecting her visit, it was still much too early when the morning guard Strathmore called for him to stand for inspection.


“Oh good grief!” Severus groused, “Give me a minute to get presentable.”


He knew it. The moment he let the witch into his life she was going to muck with his finely tuned schedule. It was after breakfast and before lunch meaning it was calisthenics time. Having Hermione show up unannounced at such an inopportune moment was infuriating. The witch would pay for this.


Hermione was amused. Little did she suspect when she turned up early at the prison that she’d get a show from her husband through the jailer’s slot. She’d interrupted him while he was engrossed in push-ups. Hermione supposed it was because she had only brought him proper robes that he was doing his exercises in nothing more than fitted trousers, but she had to bite back a giggle when she thought that he might always have done his exercises that way. Was it possible in the bowls of Hogwarts the man exercised in three layers of wool? Since Hermione couldn’t imagine him in trainers and gym shorts she supposed he did.


When her mind drifted to what he might have worn in Azkaban before she brought him the sets of robes her giggles ceased. That was something she didn’t want to even consider.


Severus toweled himself off briefly before snatching up a collared shirt and throwing on his robe. He held out his arms wide open, “See nothing. Not like I need anything to strangle her with.”


“Let’s see you try it Snape,” Hermione retorted as she walked in.


“Madam Granger, missed me so much you couldn’t wait until this evening?”


Hermione dropped her satchel with a deafening thud. “I’m here on business Snape.”


“Last time I heard those words from you my dear you were proposing marriage. What brings you here this time? Some other harebrained scheme? Perhaps you want to start the honeymoon, Vixen?”


“This,” she hissed, pulling out the thick dark blue folder, “is why I’m here.”


“Ah, that,” he smirked.


“Yes, ‘that.’ You crossed a line Snape. What the hell gave you the right to go through my stuff?”


“Granger, I believe we’ve had this conversation before and while I found it highly amusing at the time I’m in no mood to listen to you wail about your insecurities again. I read your files. So what? I made a few comments. So what? I dare say my pearls of wisdom have benefitted you.”


“I’m not going to answer that.”


“I’ll take that to mean they did.”


Hermione rubbed furiously at the point between her brows that was starting to scream. “Why Snape?”


“Why not? I was bored. I was curious. And loath as I am to admit it, the work was fascinating.”


She took her usual seat on the leather armchair and Severus sat again on the cot though he was really tempted to throw her off of it. It was his chair after all.


“So what now?” Hermione asked. When Severus’ face remained completely blank and betrayed not even the slightest flicker of recognition Hermione continued, “What do you want? I’m not giving you any stake in my company if that’s what you’re thinking.”


Severus let out a long rich belly laugh the likes of which Hermione had never been treated to. He laughed without a trace of self-consciousness, as if he didn’t care if anybody was listening or judging him. Hermione was momentarily transfixed. Not only had she never really seen the man laugh, or honestly believe that he could, but her laughter was always stifled into nervous giggles and chortles. She was always so embarrassed that someone might be analyzing what she was doing. People watchers always tended to believe others were watching them.


“Fine, I take it that somehow amuses you, but you still haven’t answered the question. What do you want?”


As he recovered Severus solemnly said, “I want to be involved.”


“Involved? How? I’m willing to put your name on the patent as co-creator, is that involved enough for you?”


“Hardly. I want this,” he gestured toward her bulging satchel and she drew it closely to her chest.


“Granger, I am a solitary man. I’m not accustomed to working with anyone or even relying on anyone for anything. And I find myself in a position where I’ve become dependent upon you of all people much too much for my own liking. It’s not as bad as I had feared.”


His eyes took stock of his much improved cell. “But a man who has nothing, has want for nothing. And it seems as if as I have more, or at least the trappings of more, I want more. It’s not longer enough for me to sit idly by and watch the sun rise and set. I want to be productive again, feel useful in some way. I need to work. Nothing would make me feel more connected to being alive than having a purpose in life.”


Stunned by his impassioned speech, Hermione didn’t quite know how to respond. After a few seconds she found her voice again. “Well you can’t have it. It’s my company.”


“And don’t we all know that Madam. But I believe you’re missing my meaning entirely. I have no interest in taking over your job, there’s no way I could do it from my cell either. I would however like the opportunity to work on more production reports and market research analyses and whatever else you’ve got stashed in that bag of yours.”


Sensing her apprehension Severus targeted her irritating Gryffindor sentimentality. Their heartstrings were so easy to manipulate


“My body is deteriorating here from disuse, my magic is weakened, my psyche degenerating from the torture of being imprisoned...”


“I didn’t put you here Snape. You put yourself here,” she interrupted.


“Yes, that’s very true and I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t deserve my punishment. I do. Hermione, please listen to me, don’t let my mind atrophy as well. You could use me to your benefit.”


“I’m not putting you on payroll”


“I don’t want you to.”


“You’ll have to sign confidentiality and non-disclosure contracts.”


“Done.”


“And you have to accept that I’m the boss. You will have to answer to me.”


“Regarding work? Yes.”


This wasn’t what Hermione set out to do. Hiring Snape, even unsalaried was not what she planned at all. She was supposed to bribe him, get him to sign over rights to the amended potion and other affidavits.


“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered under her breath.


Severus looked as if Christmas had come early as he hid his joy behind a veil of long sable hair.

*

A/N:

Chapter title: Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam: Either I will find a way or I will make one

Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. Please consider leaving a review as well, AV