Madrigal

We dropped off the car and the majority of her belongings in a storage unit Hermione had rented on her mother’s credit card the previous month. “Are you heading to The Burrow now?” I inquired, slamming the gate shut on the unit and locking it. She sighed and rubbed her face in an exhausted sort of way. “I don’t know. I really don’t feel like dealing with those boys and all their questions yet. And The Burrow is always so loud and crazy. I kind of need some time to process, I think. I don’t know where to go, though. My parents’ house probably isn’t safe, plus it would be really depressing there now. I don’t want to go back to Hogwarts and have to lie to McGonagall about what happened, since I can’t admit you’re the one who tipped me off…” she trailed off.

“You could go to Grimmauld Place,” I suggested. “It’s safe there. And no one to bother you...”

“It’s so lonely and creepy there now with Sirius gone. Just me and Kreacher…” she gave an involuntary shudder.

“I have no desire to be in residence at the castle at this point in time,” I replied crisply. “I could stay there too, so you wouldn’t be alone.”

She broke into a huge smile and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! That would be great, Professor! Are you sure it’s not a hassle for you?”

“Of course not. I wouldn’t have offered if it was. Plus, we could get some actual work done instead of sitting around on our asses for the next five days.”

We side-along apparated onto the top step of Grimmauld Place, and I opened the door, ushering Hermione inside. Kreacher came limping into view and hissed, “Oh look… the Mudblood and the Greasy Nose are here. What are their filthy hides doing here, Kreacher wonders?”

I snapped, “Please stop talking, Kreacher, before I do something I’ll regret. We’re going to be staying here a few days. DO NOT BOTHER US, got it?”

Kreacher sneered but walked away without a word. “Did you really have to be so mean to him?” Hermione whispered. “Yes,” I replied curtly. She rolled her eyes but said nothing.

I carried her school trunk and the small box I’d given her upstairs to the room she usually shared with Ginny Weasley. I bade her goodbye, closing the bedroom door behind me as I left. It was around 7 pm, and I was famished from the powerful magic I’d been using all day, so I headed down to the basement kitchen. The cupboards were mostly empty, but I found some potatoes, eggs, butter, and swiss cheese that had been preserved with a stasis charm.

I charmed the potatoes to shred themselves on the ancient metal grater as I whipped the eggs with just a bit of water. I tossed the potatoes in a cast-iron pan with a bunch of olive oil, then pressed them firmly down with my hand. The cheese shredded itself as I poured half of the egg mixture into a small round skillet with a pat of butter. I gingerly scraped the egg solids towards the center of the pan, sprinkled cheese over everything, and carefully rolled up the French omelet. Not a speck of color on the egg. Very nice.

I set aside the first omelet with a warming charm on it, and started the next one. I spelled the cast-iron pan to flip the potatoes, and it caught nearly all of them. I vanished the fallen shreds with a shrug. I went to the door and yelled at the top of my voice for Miss Granger. She came scurrying down the stairs, obviously panicked something had gone wrong. When she walked into the kitchen, she laughed in delight. “This smells amazing, Master Snape! You made dinner?”

“Sit,” I replied simply, tossing her a cloth napkin from the cupboard. I rolled her omelet, sliding it deftly onto the plate. I loaded it up with a more than half of the potatoes, and placed it in front of her. We spent the meal in companionable silence- except for Hermione repeatedly exclaiming how delicious the food was. I rolled my eyes, but was enjoying the compliments too much to say anything sarcastic. Taking care of her just felt too fucking good.

She was yawning and struggling to keep her eyes open as we were drinking our post-dinner tea. When she nearly fell face forward into her cup, I said, “That’s enough of that, girl. Go on to bed now. You did great today. Tomorrow, we have more work to do.” She stretched and got to her feet, asking me, “What are we going to do here without all your equipment and ingredients?”

“Research.”

“Research on what?”

“A lot of things. But I’ll give you a query to ponder before bed… What can muggle medicine do that magic can’t?”