A Debt Of Life

Both Hermione and Severus knew that Dumbledore would spin some great story about them, so they decided that they would cut the rumour circulate down to half, by attending the evenings order meeting together.

It was time to face old and new foes and it was time everyone, including themselves, got use to the idea of them as a couple not as two single people.

Hermione dressed in a pair of hip hugging, bootleg black jeans and a green halter neck top. Severus dressed in his usual teaching robes, to let them know that he hadn’t gone soft, and could still kill any one of them easily.

They arrived to the meeting early and took seats up in the back, in the shadows.

When the room filled up, they still were unseen. Dumbledore go up to speak to the group and Severus and Hermione got ready to defend and defuse.

So when Dumbledore started to tell the order that Hermione was in London and that he was worried that she may not be as trustworthy as he once thought, Severus and Hermione realised even he didn’t know that they were there, because he just dug his own grave.

Severus and Hermione stepped out from the shadows.

"What have I done to give you the impression that I would betray the order Albus?" Hermione asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

The noise in the room ceased and Albus Dumbledore shook off the look of shock before anyone noticed, that is anyone except Severus and Hermione.

"You left us when we needed you!" Harry said from somewhere in the crowd.

"I left, so I could bring something back that would do more good, then learning how to cast an unforgivable, that we incarcerate others for using. Who else, other then Poppy, is going to heal your wounds, because I can guarantee that Poppy, only has two hands, which means one patient at a time. So how does she choose between five fatally wounded people? Which one does she save?"

"Healers from St Mungo’s will be there when the time comes!" Another voice spoke up.

"Can you guarantee that, that they can drop the patients they have and any possible cross fire victims, to come help the minority? Because they may not get their until long after the battle has finished!" Hermione replied calmly.

"If all of this is true Ms Granger, then why are you sleeping with our Death Eater Spy, and not staying here with your old friends?" Dumbledore asked, pleased with the groups gasps of shock.

"First, his name is Severus, he is a person, not just your spy, second the friends I used to have, disowned me when I went to school away from London, and third I am with Severus because I love him."

"Considering that you only portkeyed in a few months ago, how can you be sure you love him already?"

Severus was getting impatient and wanted in on the fun of making these people pay for dragging their private lives into the open.

"Hermione and I have been corresponding via owl for the past two years, since she left London, and she came back at my insistence. So before you make any other wild accusation I suggest you get proof, or at least some facts."

It took another two hours to convince the majority of members that neither Hermione nor Severus were working against then, and another forty minutes after that to get Dumbledore to admit he may have jumped the gun.

Dumbledore was furious at himself for not checking to make sure that Hermione wasn't in the room, when he practically accused her of being a traitor to the cause.

And even more annoyed that Severus had come out from the shadows and not only stood by her, but also defended her and their so called relationship.

He was very curious as to where the boy, that Severus saved, had disappeared to and what exactly Hermione was doing for Severus, and the reason he asked her to return to London in the first place.

His plans were disintegrating before his eyes and he knew he would have to stop his out right manipulations and keep working on what he already had in motion, to keep the peace, even if only for a short while.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The days flew by and turned into weeks, which then turned into months.

Hermione had been involved in learning all she could about Severus and trying to convince him that everything in their relationship was a good thing, that she forgot about the other things she would have usually done.

So it was just as shocking to her as it was to Severus, when they stood by the window arguing over the Order, Dumbledore and their relationship, with the sun blaring down on their skin one minute, and the next minute the sun light was gone, and darkness had replaced it.

A night in a day, some would call it, but many realised it was a solar eclipse.

Not but ten minutes later an owl arrived calling them to an Order meeting, and their nasty words and rash reaction still hung in the now bitter air.

When they arrived at the Order headquarters they split up and noticed the rushed feeling of dread and finality that swept over the room, when a frowning, worry line sporting on Albus Dumbledore's face rose and announced that the war had arrived, and the Death Eaters were currently swarming places including, Azkaban, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and last but not least Hogwarts grounds.

Every member of the order took their well known positions via portkeys and apparation, and begun to disable and kill as many of the enemy as possible.

Severus had been surveying his surroundings after his last kill when he witnessed Hermione duelling. He was about to move on and find another victim when he witnessed her get hit with three consecutive hexes and fall to the ground.

He was about to move over their when she didn’t get back up, but was caught off guard by another Death Eater and was drawn away from Hermione and into another fight, all he could do was hope and pray that she would still be alive when he got to her.