The Tale of the Halfblood Prince

Severus was angry. No, that was an understatement, he was boiling mad.

His own home, Spinner\'s End, had betrayed him and landed him in a predicament where it looked as if he was to mate for life with one of his former students, the brightest, none other than Hermione Granger.

When the house elf came to him at the dead of night, and performed the spell on him, he had half the mind to throttle the elf to death. But of course, his ex-Death Eater tendencies got the better of him, and the elf remained relatively unharmed.

\'But this--?\' Snape groaned as the beautiful and intelligent Hermione Granger lay on his lap in his own home, looking both innocent and vulnerable.

And vulnerable she was. Severus wondered how in the world he would be able to get through the rest of the rituals with the Granger girl. They were married now, yes though in a hurried fashion even by magical standards, but the spell kept on pushing them, and for fear that Hermione wouldn\'t be able to breathe with the choker constricting every now and then--especially if there was a will against the marriage--the rituals had to be completed soon.

Hermione slept on peacefully for what seemed like hours until she finally awoke, eyes bleary inside what looked like a lushly decorated room inside an age-old mansion.

She lay on a four-poster bed with emerald green sheets.

Her eyes scanned the sheets until she found the prone form of none other than Professor Snape sleeping beside her. Then it all rushed to her head, and Hermione rememberedhte chain, the chain that led from her choker to the ring. It was still there.

Severus stirred as he felt rather than heard Hermione awaking.

Unsure of what to say, he sat up with his back turned towards his former student. For once, he wished had died during the war and so that none of this would have happened. He had deduced that the reason for this rare bonding imposed upon them by the house was probably due to the many attempts at his life during the war that had made the magically mindful house finally decide that enough was enough and that it was time there was a heir to ensure the continued stay of Snapes at Spinner\'s End.

Severus decided that as intelligent as Hermione was, she probably was a suitable witch for him Yet, even as he admitted that to himself, he was afraid. He was afraid for youthful Hermione to break under the pressure with a marriage to her old, former professor.

Hermione pretended to fall back to sleep as she sensed Severus awakening. Her mind moved to what probably was to come ahead, and instead of recoiling, she shivered--her body somehow adjusting to the situation. Anticipation? The anticipation of a bride was what she felt once she realized that the powerful wizard was none other than Severus Snape. She had secretly fantasized about the professor while a student, and cried as though her heart would break when Harry told her that Severus had died of a snake bite. She had come to cherish the bravery Snape had shown in the war, and more than that, Snape was one powerful wizard a young witch like her couldn\'t help fantasizing about. She trusted Snape, and as absurd as the tradition of the bonding was--Hermione was bothered by it as much as she had been bothered by house elf conditions--she accepted the situration once Severus came onto the scene. If Dumbledore trusted him, how could she not?

Only, the rituals to be completed hung over her head and filled her with foreboding.