The long and winding road to love

Chapter 18: Brandy with the enemy






Was it Boswell who said: “Sherry is for
boys, port is for men but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy?” …
take that into consideration because it is important for the story.

Now… let’s talk business. I must apologize
for the delay; I haven’t been myself lately. I have lots of things to do as my
summer break is only three weeks away and finals are destroying my spirit, to
say the least.

I promise I will try to write more… I’ve
written till chapter 22 so far so… stay tune.

Anyhow. Chapter 18 is dedicated to Spaz141, my reviewer 100 at ff.net (of
course). To the rest, thanks for your amazing support. I love you!

So…well… here it is… chapter 18… enjoy.


 

Chapter 18: Brandy with the enemy

 

Hermione was utterly upset and extremely angry. She
was also kind of confused about her husband attitude. Why hadn’t he told Lucius
to shut up? Why had he treated her in such a cold matter in front of everybody?
Why wasn’t he talking to her now, explaining, if they were alone?

 

Severus was not thinking of Hermione, or at least not
in the way he had thought of her up to that moment. He knew for a fact that the
day would come when his services as a spy would be needed again, but he never
thought that day would be that soon. He hadn’t even considered yet the fact of
him being a married man; Hermione’s life was in danger too! What had he done?
He shouldn’t have confessed his love, now she was in trouble.

 

Or at least, she was in as much trouble as he was.

 

“Listen, Miss Granger,” he said as cold as he could,
trying to avoid the little voice in his head telling him that his was not a
good idea at all, “listen, Miss Granger,” he once again said, louder this time
as he wanted to gain her attention. She looked mad but it was probably for the
best as he kept reminding himself, “We need to think a plan fast; we need to
make him believe we are either insanely in love or so evilly attracted to the
other that the only way Dumbledore allowed our carnal union was through getting
married,” he explained, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. He had a
headache.

 

She said nothing, though. She remained stiff and still
in her armchair, her nose up in the air.

 

“Miss Granger!,” he shouted,
“This is not a game! Both our lives are on the line! Many lives are on the
line, as a matter of fact, would you mind if we focus for a second?,” he shouted even louder.

 

That, my friends, was the drop that overflowed
Hermione’s glass. She had had enough.

 

“How dare you tell me that his is not a game when I
know for certain that you have been playing with me since the very first day of
our marriage? You may think I am a stupid child, sir, but I am not and I refuse
to stay in this room one more second! How could I’ve been so foolish! You know
nothing about love! You are unable to love!,” she
cried, breaking his heart into little pieces. He had broken hers, so they were
now even.

 

“Fine, Miss Granger,” was all he said, trying hard not
to break into tears like a little boy. He was a man, now. And men don’t cry,
“Our plan, however, requires your presence and thus I beg you to stay,” he
weakly asked.

 

“Yes, of course,” she answered, “the plan you
mentioned earlier, the one where we are only physically attracted to the other
sounds believable enough as it is close to reality. The only thing we truly
shared was sex,” she said with hate in her eyes.

 

“Excellent, Miss Granger,” he said while pouring some
of his finest brandy into his special Slytherin Glass, “Do you fancy something
to drink? Pumpkin juice, perhaps?,” he suggested.

 

“Stop treating me like a child,” she firmly said with
her arms crossed across her chest.

 

“Would you like a glass of brandy, then?,” he politely asked, hanging the Slytherin glass to her.

 

“I would rather die than touch that horrible, horrible
motto,” she exclaimed with a look of disgust in her face. She had touched a
nerve. Severus Snape was the Head of Slytherin House and thus he cherished the
colours of green and silver quite a lot.

 

“As you like it,” he said, biting his lower lip. He
would have liked to say much more, but it wasn’t convenient for the clock had
just turned midnight and Lucius Malfoy’s was soon to arrive.

 

And sure enough, seconds after his last statement,
someone knocked at Severus’s door. When Severus opened the door, however, he
was surprise to see Draco Malfoy there too, in his Slytherin Pyjama’s

 

“Good evening, again, Severus,” Lucius said with his
characteristic evil grin, “I do hope you don’t mind me bringing Draco along. He
couldn’t sleep, I’m afraid,” he almost whispered, but then again, that was his
usual tone of voice.

 

Severus said nothing; he just handed Lucius the glass
of brandy he had poured for himself and walked straight to where he kept the
alcohol to pour some more. But even from where he was standing the voice of
Lucius Malfoy could be heard.

 

“Look who is here, Draco. Hermione Granger, or should
I say, Hermione Snape?,” he cynically asked, waiting
for some king of reaction from one of them. But he stood in front of two of the
best pretenders the world had ever seen and so they didn’t even blink at his
statement.

 

“Certainly,” she said, nodding.

 

“I will leave you two kids to play. Severus and I have
business to discuss,” he said, taking Hermione’s jaw on his left hand, “how a
nice girl such as yourself, married Severus?,” he
asked, but he wasn’t looking for an answered from Hermione. He couldn’t care less
about her opinion. He was seeking answers from Snape, his loyal friend.

 

“She is neither sweet nor innocent, Lucius,” Severus
said with a glass of brandy in his hand, “Miss Granger and I have an alliance.
How can I say this? How shall I put this?,” he said
rubbing his chin.

 

“Let me explain, dear,” she interrupted him, walking
to where he was and placing a passionate kiss on his lips, “I have been
attracted to Severus since my 5th year at Hogwarts. Since then we
have been engaged in a physical relationship until the day Cornelius Fudge
popped unexpectedly into Severus’s chambers where we were making love and thus
we were obliged by the Ministry to get married,” She explained while removing
the brandy from her husband’s hand and drinking the contents at once.

 

“You penetrated this mudblood?,”
Draco Malfoy asked, almost laughing at Snape who looked like he wanted to kill
the child.

 

“Come on, Draco. Play fair. Miss Granger here is a
beautiful young women and Severus has always been attracted to beautiful
women,” Lucius said, caressing Hermione’s chest with only one finger. She
wanted to vomit, but she was a pretender and for the sake of the order she was
planning on going as far as it took to deceive them.

 

“You kids should play over there. As I said, Severus
and I have business,” Lucius said, grabbing Hermione’s hand and placing it on
his son’s. Severus just stared at his wife, unable to say a thing as it would
be too risky.

 

“Very well, Severus, very
well. I see that Miss Granger has turned out to be smarter
than I thought; she joined the better side. It’s a pity the Dark Lord is not
here to see how many of Potter’s friends betray him,” he said pacing through
the room. Meanwhile in the other room, the moans of Hermione Granger could be
easily distinguished, “I see that Draco is having fun with your wife. I hope
you don’t mind,” Lucius said, trying to obtain some kind of reaction on
Severus’s behalf.

 

“Of course
not,” was all Severus managed to say. He was at the edge of madness; he wanted
to kill both Lucius and Draco for touching his wife, the only thing pure he
possessed.

 

“Perfect, Severus, because
I am here for a reason. I had wanted to speak with
you for a long time and this little wedding of yours has been the perfect
excuse. We need to destroy Dumbledore, Severus, and we need to do it fast if we
want to inherit the power of our lord,” he explained.

 

“What do you suggest?,” he
asked, trying to avoid the shouting next door.

 

“We need to recluse as many Dark Eaters as we can. We
even need the Dementors to join us if we want to take over the world. But first
things first… we need as much information as we can get about Dumbledore’s
blessed Order and you will be the one helping us, as Dumbledore’s right hand,”
he explained, only inches apart from Severus.

 

“I hardly consider myself Dumbledore’s right hand,”
was all he said, as his brain was too busy trying to listen to Hermione.

 

“You know as well as I do that the old man trusts you
with his life. And that is exactly what we need,” Lucius explained. But just
then, the moaning and the shouting stopped and minutes later, Draco and
Hermione appeared next to the fire, untidily dressed, “I think we should go,”
Lucius said, “This meeting can arouse several suspicions. We will be in touch
soon,” Lucius explained, “Good night, love birds,” was all he said and with one
last glance at Severus he was gone, Draco following his lead.

 

They were two again, and this time they both had a lot
to explain.