A Dish Served Cold

A/N - Not to worry, I haven\'t met a plot bunny yet who wasn\'t capable of beating me up and forcing me to finish a story, I just meant that my full attention will not be on this story untill TT and EPU (and Dawn Breaking - God help me) are done. (Please let them get done!) I will finish, I have dangling plotholes.>:(

As a clarification, Taliesin DOES think his wife was murdered by Snape. Helena will certainly be back, as will Taliesin, no, Helena has no clue that the scary Professor Snape of her friends\' descriptions is her brother and yes, she is about a year younger than Hermione.

Thanks to Kate for the wonderful beta-ing job, complete with snarky commentry! Thanks also to those who took time out of their otherwise wonderful lives to read this next bit of my deepening insanity. :P

Chapter 2 – Trapped

Severus received the letter at breakfast. It was a Ministry owl and the bland, innocent seeming missive was shoved into his pocket to be read later. He cared very little for anything the Ministry might have to say to him.

He ignored it through the entirety of the day, finally opening it after he returned from dinner. It was simple, straightforward and to the point. His father had, as was his right under the terms of the new law, arranged his marriage to one Hermione Granger, aged seventeen, etcetera, etcetera.

Snape sat very still as the information seeped into his brain. It was a slow pain that built up over time. How much must his father still hate him to have done this? How much bitterness, how much loathing was still pumping through every vein and artery of the man who had sired him?

The second wave hit as he thought of his position with Voldemort, his job at this school, the war they were fighting, and all the things that would be drastically altered by this act of vindictive cruelty. His own life and comfort would be horribly impacted, plans and arrangements he had carefully crafted would have to be altered and quickly.

Finally he thought of Hermione Granger whom he disliked but certainly not enough to inflict himself on her as a husband. He pondered the horrible fate awaiting the girl -- the shame, the ridicule and the inevitable ostracism that would follow hard upon the news of theirrothrothal.

He needed to talk to Albus and he needed to talk to him now. He tucked the letter into his breast pocket and sped off to the Headmaster’s office. He felt as though reality had shifted under his feet, his assumptions were swept aside and he was left stumbling and off-balance.

Hermione was fetched from class by Madam Pomfrey and hurried off to see the Headmaster. Her mind whirled with terrible scenarios -- her parents were dead, killed by Death Eaters, her recent work for the Order had been found terribly wanting, an attack had been made and some other friend or loved one was injured or dead.

Madam Pomfrey hustled her into the Headmaster’s office and then scurried away. The large round office, with its whirring gadgets and artifacts of magical antiquity contained three people already: Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore. They all three looked grave and upset though Snape especially looked wan and almost ill with distress.

“Miss Granger.” Professor Dumbledore gestured her to be seated in an overstuffed chair between Professors Snape and McGonagall. Her Head of House was looking at her with a remorseful and almost pitying expression and Snape wouldn’t even look at her at all. What had happened?

“Miss Granger.” The Headmaster started again. “You are not doubt aware of the new marriage law and all that pertains to it.” The voice was old suddenly and had no humor in it.

“Yes, sir.” She responded confused and bewildered. Of course she knew about it, hadn’t she done all the legal research for the Order in their attempt to get the law repealed? What had happened that made them all look so ill?

“The Ministry has determined that the age requirements weren’t lenient enough and that anyone over the age of sixteen is now eligible. As of six a.m. this morning you were put on the eligible list.” His words made no sense to her, what did he mean she was eligible? Half their plans to get the law repealed weren’t in place yet; they hadn’t even finished with the research. She stared at him in silence, her face gone as pale as the two teachers’ had.

“Miss Granger, you are a member of the Order and therefore you already know a great deal about the how and why of this law.” McGonagall added and it was true, Hermione did know.

She knew it was a subtle plot by the Death Eaters to rid the Wizarding world of the Muggleborn and half-blood population. They had backed this law when it was proposed with all their financial might, seeing it as a chance to drive the impure from their world. They expected few marriages and fewer children from this law; they expected either to separate Muggleborns from their protection so that they might be killed or to force them from the Wizarding world entirely if and when they refused to obey the law.

“As a member of the Order, we cannot afford to lose you; you are too valuable to our struggle.” The Headmaster picked up where the Transfigurations Professor left off. So, he was suggesting that she would have to marry or the Order would lose her assistance. “You have received ten different offers, Miss Granger.” His words were only slowly absorbed, she was so shocked by this turn of events.

“From whom?” She asked, amazed at how steady her voice was. He didn’t answer, just handed her a stack of parchments that he pulled from a pile before him on the desk. Hermione took them with steady hands, her face a stony mask. She began to page through them, her horror rising as she read the offers.

“Mr. Ollivander? Oh my God, he’s ancient! Theodore Nott, Draco Malfoy, two baby Death Eaters! Both Crabbe and Goyle, what a choice! Blaise Zabini? I thought he was batting for the other team?” that got a snort from Snape and a muffled chuckle from McGonagall. “I don’t even know who these three people are and…” Her voice trailed off as she read: “On behalf of my son, Severus Snape”. The words hung in her mind, more shocking than all the others. She looked at him and he turned his face away.

“I had no knowledge of my father’s actions, Miss Granger.” His voice was unlike anything she had ever heard from him. She had heard that voice raised in anger, hissing in spite, sneering and drawling lazily to great effect. This was the first time it had been drained of all emotion and she felt a touch of fear.

“Why would he do this without your knowledge?” Hermione had the question surprised out of her.

“Because he hates me!” Snape roared and slammed himself out of his chair. He began pacing frantically in front of the fire and she was reminded of the way he had looked in the Hospital Wing after Sirius Black’s escape.

“Taliesin Snape thinks his son is a Death Eater.” Dumbledore added softly and Hermione’s eyes widened in sudden comprehension and . “He is trying to cause Severus harm in return for a harm he thinks Severus caused him.” She felt a little insulted that marriage to her was considered a punishment, but for the average Death Eater, marriage to a muggleborn would be.

“Let’s be frank. My step-mother was murdered by Death Eaters for being Muggleborn and my father is convinced I had a hand in it when, in fact, I knew nothing of it.” Snape was still pacing as he spoke, his robes snapping behind him. Hermione felt sad as she watched him.

“Couldn’t you tell him the truth?” Hermione asked him with a soft voice, somewhat intimidated by his angry demeanor.

“Taliesin is not someone that can be trusted with so big a secret.” Albus was shaking his head in negation and Snape nodded as well.

Hermione turned back to her choices and sighed. They were none of them appealing and she knew the stipulations of the law quite well -- she only had a week to decide between suitors.

“What should I do?” she asked the Headmaster.

“You have a decision ahead of you, Miss Granger, one that we cannot make for you.” Professor Dumbledore replied with compassion. “We can only advise you as best we can.” He sounded reluctant and unhappy with the situation. There were no lemon drops, no sparkling lights in his eyes and no expression of quiet confidence.

“Then what’s your advice?” She looked around at her teachers and sought from them what she had always found before, knowledge, guidance and enlightenment.

“We would suggest not marrying Malfoy, Zabini, Nott, Crabbe or Goyle.” McGonagall interjected briskly with an expression of distaste. Hermione smiled mirthlessly at that and nodded.

“Mr. Ollivander is right out as well.” She retorted. “That leaves Professor Snape or three strangers I know nothing about.” She said what she knew they were all thinking. Snape was a member of the Order, a spy for the Light and was thought to be a loyal Death Eater by Voldemort.

If it came down to it, he was the only viable choice. Ron was going to be marrying Luna, Harry was already being petitioning for by Moira, the blonde Ravenclaw he had been dating since last year, and the other Weasley boys were already either married or engaged. Remus Lupin was excluded from eligibility by the law because of his werewolf status and there were no other members of the Order either young enough or single for her to marry. Moody was the only single male besides Snape and he was too paranoid and well, mad, to be married off to.

She supposed that Viktor was old enough but he wasn’t a member of the Order and she wasn’t sure that her friendship with him was enough to presume to ask him to do such a huge and rather permanent favor. All these thoughts ran through her head in a blink, they were nothing she hadn’t thought of before as she researched the law for the Order.

Though, to be honest, Snape hadn’t been an option before, as her Professor the complications would be terrible and she had never expected him to willingly go along with such a plan. She had assumed that by the time she turned eighteen she would have found someone suitable to marry, in name at least, and continue her work for the Order. She had simply run out of time long before she had expected to.

She noticed the Headmaster call for tea and was grateful that they left her to her thoughts for a moment. She glanced at Snape; he was watching her in return, his expression drawn and weary, a scowl plastered firmly in place. He bent his head, the lank, greasy hair was hanging down across his face and his nose rose from the concealing strands like an island rising from a black sea. In truth, his eyes were the only attractive thing about his face: dark, deep, but filled with hidden shoals and reefs to trap the unwary and at the moment they were obscured by the concealing hair.

Was that a face she could wake up to every morning for the rest of her life? She had a moment of panicked horror at the thought of sleeping with him. She knew the law, childwerewere required and she doubted artificial insemination had made it to the Wizarding world yet. Could she close her eyes and think of the Order? The thought made her snort aloud and Snape’s eyebrow rising sobered her instantly.

He disliked her though their work in the Order had smoothed the animosity between them somewhat. Still, on an essential level they were two very different people. He was bitter and angry, filled with pessimistic despair; she was perky and bright, friendly and optimistic. She was an idealist and he was a cynic -- could they keep from killing each other? Did she have a choice?

Not really. He was the only person she could choose. She sighed.

“May I borrow your quill, Professor?” She asked Dumbledore, pushing aside some papers and a teacup so that she had enough room to sign her name to the bottom of Taliesin Snape’s petition. An interesting name, she thought idly. As her signature was finished, the scroll folded itself into non-existence and vanished. It would reap in in the Ministry and in one weeks’ time she would be Mrs. Severus Snape.

The thought would be hilarious if it were happening to someone else. She picked up her teacup with nerveless fingers and drank it without tasting a drop of the liquid. Her parents were going to kill her.