The Power Lies Within

Here is an update. Thank you to my beta. Oh yea, I don\'t own the characters or the world they are the wonderful creation of J.K.
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Chapter 6
Another Blow

A few hours later, Hermione sat in her Head Girl rooms thinking about everything that she had just learned this morning. First, that she was going to be forced by the Ministry to marry a pureblood wizard simply because she was eighteen-year-old muggleborn witch, then there was the prophecy that spoke of her, and then there was Lucius Malfoy trying to make sure that it was Draco that she married. The situation only got better when she learned that the prophecy said that she would have a child, and depending on who was the father would determine the fate of the war.

Then there was the last bit of information, the information that was the most troubling to her. Dumbledore wanted her to marry Professor Snape. Hermione’s head was swirling with information and she did not know what to do with it all. All she wanted to do was sleep for a long time. She flopped down upon her bed and the tears started to flow.

She cried for what felt like hours. She wanted her mom, she needed to talk to her. Her mother may not always be able to fix things but she was always a comfort to have around. She seemed to make things seems not so bad. Kathryn Granger was that best at finding even the smallest silver lining in any dark cloud.

“Mom, I wish you were here.” was the last thought Hermione had before sheer exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep.

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Harry, on the other hand, was still in Dumbledore’s office. He was pacing back and forth trying his best to wrap his head around everything that had just happened.

“Why Hermione? Could this some how be my fault? Because she and I are so close? Could I have stopped it some how?” he questioned out loud.

“Harry, you must stop blaming yourself,” Dumbledore said with concern in his voice. Harry looked very confused he had not realized that he had voiced the questions that had been running through his head since Hermione had left hours ago.

“But, how can I not? Any time I get close to someone something happens to them.” Harry finally sat down and put his head in his hands.

“Hermione is a power witch in her own right, and she was bound to attract Voldemort’s attention at some point,” Dumbledore announced.

“I guess you are right. But I just can’t help but feel responsible. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her. Hermione has come to be like family to me, more so then anyone else. I just can’t lose another person I care about,” exclaimed Harry.

“That is why Professor Snape is such an important part in this situation.”

“And why is that?” sniffed Harry.

“He can protect her.”

“I can protect her, Ron can protect her.” protested Harry.

“Harry, do you really think Mr. Weasley would stand a chance against a Deatheater that wanted to get his hands on her. They would use the Killing Curse on him before he even had his wand out. As for you, unfortunately you are not a pureblood wizard,” explained Dumbledore.

“But why Snape?”

“Professor Snape, Harry.”

“Ok. Why Professor Snape? Why not another Order member? Someone who actually likes Hermione?” questioned Harry.

“There is another reason why Professor Snape is the right person for this. If he is the one to marry her, the other Deatheaters will be less likely to continue to try to get her because he is thought to be one of them,” explained Dumbledore.

“Ok, I will give you that.”

“Also this could help the Order, because Professor Snape may then be in a better position with Lord Voldemort and be able to find out more information that we may need.”

“I just don’t want to see Hermione get hurt. She deserves to be happy.”

“They both do. And I believe that together they just might be.”

“Well, if Hermione agrees to this I will support them any way that I can,” Harry said in resignation.

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When Hermione awoke a few hours later she was not really sure how long she had been asleep, however, she knew she had missed the entire day. She also realized that she had not eaten anything all day. She had missed breakfast this morning in the hurry to get back to Hogwarts. She had missed lunch because of the excitement in Dumbledore’s office. And then she had missed dinner because of sheer exhaustion.

As Hermione got up to find something to eat, she felt a deep sadness pass through her, she was not sure why it happened but she shook it off, thinking it was just left over feeling from earlier that day.

She walked out of her rooms and went down to the kitchens to find something to eat. On her way back, with a plate full of good things to eat, she felt like she was being followed. But when she turned around no one was there. So she continued on her way, again she got the feeling that someone was following her. This time when she turned around she caught sight of a black robe darting around the corner. “Hello? Is someone there?” There was no answer. “I know you are there so just come out and show yourself,” she called out.

“It is not wise to be walking alone at night,” came a silky voice from behind her. Hermione jumped and let out a yelp as she dropped her plate and clutched her chest in fright.

“Professor, you scared me. How did you get behind me so quickly and quietly?”

“I have my ways Ms. Granger. Why are you out so late walking about?” he asked.

“I feel asleep after leaving Professor Dumbledore’s office and just woke up a little while ago and I was hungry so I went to get something to eat,” she said as she pointed to her dinner now lying upon the floor.

“It seems that I have ruined your dinner. Let me make it up to you. Follow me, we have much to discuss,” came his silky reply.

Hermione followed without question, until they had reached the dungeons. “Where are we going, sir?”

“I am taking you where there is something to eat and where we can talk without the chance of being overheard; my chambers.” he answered simply.

Hermione gulped and took a deep breath as she continued to follow him to his chambers. They walked in silence as they headed deeper into the dungeons. Severus was walking ahead of her; suddenly he stopped so abruptly that Hermione almost ran right into him.

“Sorry, sir,” she whispered.

Severus had stopped in front of what seemed to be a blank stonewall. The only thing that was adorning it was a torch sitting in a bracket. Hermione looked around in search of a way to tell the difference between this blank wall compared to all the other blank walls in the hallway. She could not find anything, until she took a closer look at the bracket the torch was resting in. There on the metal were two intertwining silver snakes wrapped around a staff. Hermione reached out to touch it; she would not have noticed it unless she had taken a hard look at the bracket as it blended in perfectly with its surroundings. “It is my family crest.” was all the explanation that Severus gave before he performed a series of very complicated wands movements. Hermione could feel the wards coming down. Finally, he spoke one word “Belladonna” and the wall dissolved. With that he motioned for Hermione to step in.

Hermione stepped in and looked around. There was dark wood paneling covering the walls. On one wall there was a large hearth and in front of it were two overstuffed chairs with a table between them. Sitting on the table was a book that it looked like he had just been reading it and a decanter with a silver snifter sitting next to the book. On the far wall was a door that looked like it lead to his bedroom and next to the door was a large tapestry. Hermione was taking the whole room in as she turned around to look at the other side of the room she noticed Severus was watching her.

“So what do you think? Not what you expected is it?” Severus asked.

“It is beautiful. So you said that we had things to talk about.”

“Why you don’t think we do?”

“Well, I guess we do. I just don’t know where to start,” Hermione stated.

“Well, first why don’t I order something to eat and then we can talk,” Severus walked over to the fire and ordered some food from the kitchens. “Why don’t you sit down?” Severus pointed towards the overstuffed chairs in front of the fire as he walked over to a cabinet on the wall across from the tapestry. He opened up the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red wine. “Would you care for a glass?”

Hermione turned around to see what he was talking about, and then she saw the bottle in his hand. “I think that would be nice after today.” Dinner arrived as Severus walked over and poured Hermione a glass. “Thanks, so can we eat before we start talking about everything? I know it is important, but I am starving.”

“Of course we can. But we will need to talk after that,” answered Severus. The two ate in a comfortable silence and drank the crisp red wine.

When the sandwiches were all finished Hermione put down her plate, tucked her feet under her, picked up her wine glass, and turned to look at Severus. “Ok, let’s talk,” She said looking at Severus expectantly.

“Well, Ms Granger.”

“First of all I think that if we are going to do this and get married we both need to get use to calling each other by our given names. So, please call me Hermione.”

“You are probably right, Ms., I mean Hermione. I know that you are probably afraid of me as are all the students here and for good reason.”

“I am not afraid of you,” she stated firmly.

“You’re not?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I was when I was a first year. But I haven’t been scared of you since third year, the night in the Shrieking Shack. I think that is when I realized that you had a life before we were here at school and that it wasn’t an easy one. I respect you more now though. After Dumbledore had you go back to being a spy I realized that you put your life on the line for us a lot more, then most students realize. I can’t imagine that your life was very easy. I also realized that most of the time when you are so mean to us during class that it is for a reason. It was either to push us to excellence, to prove a point because potions can be very dangerous, or because you had to keep up appearances.”

“That is very grown up of you Hermione.”

“What I don’t understand is why you would be willing to do this, because I know that you probably don’t like me very much. I can’t imagine that you would really want to marry me and let alone have a baby with me.”

“I guess that is a valid line of thinking. I have not given you much to make you believe that I even liked you, let alone would marry you. But as you said looks can sometimes be deceiving. Contrary to what you and probably all the other students think, I do not hate you. I push you harder and am harder on you because I know how much potential you have. I want to see you reach your greatest potential. You of all people can, but will need to work harder for it. There are a lot of people that even if they do not agree with everything The Dark Lord believes, they do believe that Muggleborns are not as good as purebloods. Thus, it is very hard for Muggleborn witches and wizards to reach the highest levels in most professions. I have great respect for you Hermione and I will do anything in my power to help you to reach your goals. If we are married that becomes a lot easier because then I will be able to do that more in the open.”

“You would do that for me? That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. So what do we have to do now?” asked Hermione.

“So are you saying that you are agreeing to this? You do realize that in the wizard world there is no divorce. So once we are married, it is for life. Also depending on what kind of ceremony we have it could be even longer than that.”

“How is that possible, S-Severus?” Hermione said testing his name out for the first time. It felt good.

“Well there are several different types of ceremony that we could choose from there is a simple binding ceremony, which is the simplest and the weakest of the bindings. There is also a handfasting, which is a strong bond. Now, witches and wizards are starting to combine magical and muggle ceremonies since there have been more and more magical and muggleborn marriages. However, the strongest ceremony is the traditional binding called the Conjugo Anima. This is the ceremony that is not done by many people because of the type of bond that is formed. It is one that lasts beyond death. The souls of the couple are joined and will search out each other after death. Also their magic is joined meaning that the couple can sometimes channel a power that their spouse has that they do not normally have.”

“Which ceremony would you want to do?” Hermione asked.

“Well I had not really thought about that. I never really thought that I would even get married. As you probably could guess I don’t date much. Most women don’t want to be with someone like me.”

“Maybe it is that you just haven’t dated the right person.” Hermione said looking right into Severus’ eyes.

The two stared at each other for a minute more before Severus broke the spell that seemed to fall over them. “It is very late Hermione. Let me walk you back to you room and we can talk more tomorrow.”

“Alright.” The two walked in silence the entire way back to Hermione’s door.

“Good night Hermione” was all he said before to spun around in a billowing of robes and stalked out of sight.

Hermione said the password to her room and fell asleep with a very uneasy feeling in her stomach. She was then awoken a few hours later by banging on her door. “OPEN UP HERMIONE.”

Hermione rolled over and looked at the clock, it was 8:00 in the morning and she had been asleep for only 5 hours. She padded over to the door and cracked it open. “This better be important.”

“It is.”

She waited a second for him to tell her. “Well what is it?”

“You need to come to Dumbledore’s office.”

“Why?”

“Umm, umm….”

“Just spit it out Harry.”

“I just need you to come with me ok.”

“Fine, I am too tired to argue anyway.”

A very tired Hermione and a worried Harry made there way to Dumbledore’s office. When they entered a very sad and tired Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk with his hands folded and leaning his chin on them. He was deep in thought. Standing by the hearth was Severus. He looked grim. Professor McGonagall was sitting across from Dumbledore with a cup of tea in front of her but she was not drinking it. Hermione took one look around and realized what that uneasy feeling was that she had been feeling. “No, please god no!” she sobbed falling to her knees as the tears began rolling down her face.
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I know another cliff hanger. I hope to have another chapter up by the end of the week. Don\'t foget to review. Let me know what you think and if you like where this story if going.