Lendoren

Disclaimer: everything you recognise belongs to Jo

Story by kelokelo, chapter translated by septentrion and beta’ed by vonHardenberg

Chapter 40. An Unexpected Return


Severus surprised everyone in the Hall by Apparating there in the middle of the afternoon. He was smiling. The fact was rare enough that everyone knew what he was going to say before he uttered it.

“I thought you’d like to know that she has opened an eye, only for a second, but she was conscious then. Well, isn’t there something to eat here? Do I have to cook as well?”

Since he had awakened, Severus had been eating like a starved man, as if he needed to eat for two to transfer his energy to Hermione. Harry, Ginny and Ron, relieved, had embraced each other. That was good news.

A few minutes later, Severus understood that everything wasn’t right. The faces had become serious again, and a few of them were discreetly but firmly discussing something.

“Well, what is the day’s bad news?” he asked.

They looked at each other, not knowing where to begin. Severus checked Hermione was sleeping through their link, which was the case, before he resumed, “Don’t rush to answer me!”

“Er,” Albane started, “there are several problems, and most of them concern you and Lumina.”

She turned to Harry, who bore a disgusted face at the reminder.

Severus took place in an armchair and turned to Harry.

“Spit it out!”

“Umbridge is coming back as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” Harry mumbled.

“Who?” Severus asked. He must have misunderstood.

“Umbridge,” Ginny said clearly.

He couldn’t have been anymore surprised.

“But … Dumbledore’s gone crazy!” Severus boomed.

“He isn’t responsible, it’s the Ministry!” Harry was losing his temper. “It’s because …”

But he abruptly stopped speaking when Ginny pulled on his hand.

“What is it?” Severus asked.

Albane spoke, “The Ministry’s decision was caused by another problem, Erwin.”

“What other problem?” Severus was getting impatient. “Do I have to dig each word out of your mouths?”

“Umbridge claimed you weren’t qualified anymore to teach Potions because of your relationship with Hermione.”

Severus looked at them. Their faces were solemn.

“After everything we’ve done for the Wizarding world? The Dictator’s death? They dare reproach this to us? Is this a joke?”

“No, Erwin, unfortunately, it is not. The Ministry admittedly rejoiced in Voldemort’s death, but they can’t overcome the fact that we’ve kept the Dictator’s existence hidden from them. Besides, Umbridge—that’s her name, right?—seems to be holding a grudge against Lumina. She says she only asks for the school’s rules to be applied. It’s forbidden for a teacher and a student to have such a relationship, and she pretends to be magnanimous by not asking for Hermione’s expulsion.”

“Magnanimous? Toward the one who has saved the Wizarding world? I’d like to see her dare to expel Hermione! Who’s going to replace me in Potions, and who’s going to replace Flitwick?”

“Malko for Potions and Filick for Charms. But Umbridge was imposed by the Ministry for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. They’ve used a three-year-old decree that has never been repealed, the same one that had brought her to Hogwarts three years before.”

“Not repealed? Well, I’m not concerned. Umbridge won’t be able to prevent me from Apparating in Hogwarts every evening.” He was quietly ironic.

“But she’s an abomination of a professor,” Harry protested. “How do you suggest that we pass our NEWTs without practicing the spells? Besides, I’m sure she’ll use the most insignificant excuse to subject Hermione to the same fate as me. I very well can imagine her having Hermione writing lines saying ‘I must not sleep with my Potions teacher’!”

“Explain,” Severus said abruptly, his eyes furious.

“Here, this is the explanation,” Harry yelled, showing his hand and displaying the scar ‘I must not tell lies.’

“How and why did she do that?” Severus growled.

“She made me write this line on a parchment for four hours in a row with a quill of hers. You don’t need ink with it, it writes with your blood. After a week, the scar doesn’t leave, you can trust me on that. I’ve had it for two years. And why? Because since the end of the Triwizard Tournament, I was maintaining that Voldemort was alive and the Ministry didn’t want to hear a word about it. They wanted to silence me by any means available.”

Severus thought for a moment, then resumed his questioning. “What’s this story about taking your NEWTs without practicing the spells?”

“She refuses to permit us to use our wands in class. We only learn the theory. The practice is supposed to come to us naturally on the exam day!”

Ginny had answered instead of Harry, who was still shaking with rage at the idea of having the old toad back teaching of his favourite class once more.

“Now, I understand better why the OWLs and NEWTs results of Defence were so disastrous that year. We didn’t know how to explain it, since the results for the other topics were quite respectable, but now we know. To cast spells for the first time on an exam day, as if! I only can imagine the results too well, were I to do the same with Potions!”

“There’s something else,” Albane resumed quietly. “Hogwarts defences …”

“What about Hogwarts defences?” Severus grunted. “You’re working on them, aren’t you?”

“We aren’t powerful enough to build them by ourselves.”

“Perfect! Hermione and I will have that on our plate too. As if there wasn’t enough already! Wait a minute. Does the Ministry know about it?”

“That you two are the only ones who can rebuild the defences? Not yet. The Minister is worried, because he knows that only the Community can put them back, but until now, we haven’t told him only you two could …”

“Don’t tell them anything. Umbridge will realise that I’m not the Head of Slytherin House for nothing. Hermione will need two to three weeks more before she can go back to Hogwarts. Until then, Harry, Ginny and Ron, you bear with her and don’t get a detention. Understood? Afterward, when I come back to the school, you’ll have to bear with me again, though I don’t know for which class yet.”

“Honestly,” Ron mumbled, “it can only be better than the smarmy toad.”

They laughed when they heard him.

Severus remained tight-lipped on what he would do when he would go back to Hogwarts with Hermione, but it was clear that he already had his riposte in mind.

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Hermione didn’t know anything about these goings-on. When she opened her eyes normally the next day, she was happy to be in her chalet, snuggled against Erwin who was softly stroking her cheek and who tenderly told her, “How is my Sleeping Beauty? Have you at last decided to join the living?”

She tried to speak, but her mouth was too dry. At once, Severus slipped some water in her mouth, and she could answer, “You’re here.”

“Of course, my dear, I’m here! You don’t believe that you would get rid of me so easily?”

“I was so afraid.”

“Shush, it’s over, my dear.”

He was rocking her in his arms while wiping the tears that were running on Hermione’s cheeks.

“I couldn’t feel you at the end.”

“Yet I was there, my dear. Perhaps I had kept ,by reflex, some energy for me, which you didn’t understand and misinterpreted. But I’m glad I did it. If not, I wouldn’t have been able to pull you out from where you were gone to.”

She felt a drop on her hand; she would never have thought that he could cry.

“I’ve been so afraid, my dear, when I woke up and felt you so near to death … so far from me.”

“So, that was you who was yelling at me to move away from the light?”

“I don’t know if I told you to move away from a light, but I tried by any means to make you come back to me, to the world of the living, even if I had to bother you.”

He raised her chin and she could see the depth of his feelings, which he didn’t try to hide from her. He put his lips on hers very gently. It was a kiss of pure tenderness, of pure love. He was stroking her lips with his more than he was kissing her. He smiled softly when he saw that her tiredness had got the better of her: she had fallen asleep during the kiss. She would still need time to recover her physical forces, and probably a little more time to recover all her powers, but the most important part was done. She’d come back to him. They would be able to make the most of their life as a couple. Well, after Umbridge would be pushed aside. He had a surprise in store for her, something special, which she wouldn’t expect. She was so sure that she’d won everything.


Answer to reviews


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Your praise had me blushing. I'm glad that you liked Furry Matchmaking. That one is entirely from my mind, story and English alike.


MB: I'm glad you found your way to this story. It's 46 chapters, without the author's note. I try to keep a steady rhythm of an update every Sunday. Thanks for commenting.