Lendoren

Disclaimer: everything you recognise belongs to Jo

Story by kelokelo, chapter translated by septentrion and beta’ed by Tanit.



Chapter 29. Gusts.

Hermione consented to stop working only when the night started to fall. They were manipulating air, water, and fire. Earth was a bit more of a problem because Hermione had worked less with this element at school. She was obviously not as tired as their first attempt had left them, unlike him. She’d quickly learnt to lean on him, but she’d always been a fast learner. If only she could link their powers without using anger as a trigger, it’d be far better!

“Then stop making me angry and we’ll see how it works,” Hermione replied.

“And you, stop trembling even before danger is upon us, my dear. Prepare yourself the best you can and you’ll be even better when you come face to face with danger. Now, how about eating?”

Harry, Ginny and Ron warmly welcomed Hermione when she arrived with Severus. The latter felt like he was transparent, and the feeling irritated him to no end.

“Well, now, you know how I felt the first six years I’ve spent at Hogwarts,” Hermione told him through their link, her voice laced with irony. “At last, you know why you’re being ignored, a fact I didn’t have when I was eleven.”

Severus cast her a dark look, but refused to let go of her hand. It was time her friends accepted that they were companions.

“And it’s time for you to accept they will remain my friends in spite of our link. It’s with them that I’ve faced Fluffy, the Devil’s Snare, McGonagall’s chess set where Ron had sacrificed himself for Harry, your stupid potions riddle …”

“Stupid? You’re exaggerating!”

“Now, I solved it in less than one minute, so it was stupid. I’ve done all of this so that Harry could defeat Voldemort. You know, Harry thought it would be you that he’d meet down there with the Philosopher’s Stone.”

“I knew I had the villain’s role since the beginning!”

“Of course, you were the villain. They’ve always defended me against that scum named Malfoy, while you were overprotecting him like a mother hen!”

“Hermione! I hope you’re not going to dwell on past things?” he moaned.

“I’ll dwell on them until you understand why you’d better smile when you meet them, understood?”

Severus sighed deeply. Why, but why was his companion best friend with that git James Potter’s son?

“Severus Snape!” Hermione yelled through their link. It was the first time that she used his complete name. “If I ever heard you say such things again, I swear you’ll sleep on the couch. And not just for one night.”

“You don’t know what I went through when I was at Hogwarts because of the Maraudeurs,” he yelled back at her.

“True,” Hermione admitted. “But you refusal to get to know Harry better because he’s his father’s son! It’s totally unfair! And don’t tell me you were perfectly innocent either. First, you’re a Slytherin, and I was told that you were very much involved in the Dark Arts. So, if you were as nice as Draco Malfoy is, you might understand that, in my opinion, Harry’s father, Sirius and Lupin deserve the mitigated circumstances.”

The Lendoren were stupefied. The room was full of unusual draughts. They were watching Severus and Hermione with incredulous eyes, they seemed to be so angry with each other. Only Harry, Ron and Ginny didn’t worry too much. They were just commenting aloud.

“Hogwarts’ draughts has followed us up until here,” Harry said quietly.

“Yesterday was a day to remember,” Ginny added. “It’s been the first day without draughts in a long time.”

“Do you think we need to bring the scarves now, or will they calm down before long?” Ron sounded while a violent gust was making him to squint.

«Do these quarrels often happen?” Albane was worried.

She was taken aback when they burst out laughing right in front of her.

“Sorry,” Ginny said. “The unusual day was yesterday, when it seems that they didn’t quarrel, or at last not when we were close to them. They quarrel no less than two to three times a day. Hermione has already sent half the students to Hogwarts’ Hospital Wing. Our nurse, Madam Pomfrey, has never seen such an epidemic of colds and flu!”

The wind died down, and Hermione flushed with shame. She hadn’t shown her best side to the Community members. She was crossed with not only herself but with Severus as well for having put her in such a position! And to see Harry, Ginny and Ron broadly smiling and slightly mocking them, didn’t improve her mood. She only started to relax when she saw Albane turn to Severus and tell him with irony, “So, Erwin, to have a companion didn’t make your temper better as far as I can see. And Hermione, we understand that Erwin may sometimes be terribly annoying. No later than yesterday …” she didn’t finish her sentence and glanced sideways at him.

“Why am I always the guilty party?” Severus protested. “You’re not the one whose ears are assailed by yelling every day or so!”

Harry, Ginny and Ron had to stop themselves from laughing when seeing the outraged expression of the man who was still their Potions Master. But for once, he was the target of the others’ critics.

Severus rolled his eyes in front of what he considered being too much injustice, but some quarrels were better kept between Hermione and him. Though he itched to include the three students standing in front of him in an argument, just to have them spill the beans about, for instance, that Polyjuice Potion story.

Albane felt they were treading on dangerous grounds and cut the discussion short by introducing Hermione to the Community members whom she didn’t know yet. Hermione was happy to see her friends and to show them that, in spite of the previous draughts, she was happy. When they asked her what she knew, she answered, a grimace on her face, “Harry, I now have a better understanding of what you had to put up with since our foray into the Ministry for Magic. You have Voldemort, and I have the Dictator. But I think I’m lucky,” she added after a while. “When I fight the Dictator, I won’t be alone, Erwin will be with me.”

“I thought you were the stronger one,” Ginny asked, curious.

“True, but when we use the same magic together, and not only our telepathic link, we’re even stronger. I feel like I could move mountains.”

“And who’s the boss?” Harry asked.

“Me,” she answered fiercely. “For once, I say, he does.”

They all burst out laughing at that comment, which hadn’t been lost on anyone, especially Severus, Albane and Marcus, as well as Vera and Oleg.

“She needs them to keep her balance, Erwin,” Vera said softly. “Ginny and Harry are genuinely worried for her, especially after what’s been revealed yesterday.”

“I realise that,” Severus sighed. “I’m not delighted with it, but I imagine that I will have to put up with it.”

“Don’t let your judgment be distorted by your past experiences, Erwin,” Oleg said. He was one of the Lendoren who had welcome Erwin when he became one of them at his seventeenth birthday. He knew how much Erwin had changed since that time and that he was still the kind of person who held grudges like other horded gold, especially against those who had spoiled his Hogwarts years.

Severus shot him a dark look, but didn’t answer. For the second time in his life, he felt like he had lost control of it. The first was when he reached his seventeenth birthday; he’d found himself brutally deprived from a big part of his magic, and in danger of losing his life if his close friends, all Death Eaters like him, found out about this. He’d lived since in fear. He’d also tasted the bitterness of seeing the other Lendoren happy in their companionship, while he was the only remaining single man. And when, step by step, the Community had understood that his great power could only exist to destroy the Dictator, he had thought that he’d reached the bottom of life. That was not true though, he now had to put up with Potter! Or Harry, he had to call him Harry if he didn’t want to be flayed alive by Hermione! Hermione, his only light, his happiness, after all those years of being single, if only in his heart. He wished she hadn’t chosen to be best friends with Harry.

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