My Fair Witch

pickles87: The answer for what Draco would do is in this chapter, kind of gave it away in the title.



lisa: We would ALL hate to be pushed into marrying wouldn’t we? It’s more a matter of choice in today’s society. Yeah, I love writing dialogue especially between Snape and any other character you could wish to meet.



beeky63: Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? It could be a sixties show, I’d watch it! She could be an assistant to John Steed of the Avengers. Hope you like this chapter.



cateye: Then I know you’d like this chapter. I agree actually, as regards fanfic Draco, he does tend to show more spine in fanfic. Anywho, here’s an update.



angel: Here’s the update. I hope you love it.



sheedy: Yep, I hope you have stay tuned, as here is a long awaited update.



Queen Celestia: Hmm, you might not hope that after this chapter, but then again you might. I really hope you like this chapter and please forgive me for being a little shoddy; I only had inspiration for this recently.



firewall: I like action to, I hope you like the ‘action’ in this one.



Castle: Wow, I am surprised people want Draco to have Hermione in this story. Well, I hope you really like this part of the story.



rinniebearcg: Thanks; I hope that this supplies you with more fun.



Ania: Thanks for pointing that out. I did correct it as soon I read you’re review. Yeah, I ALWAYS think of Higgins and Doolittle when reading Snape and Hermione. I hope that this continues to hook you.



Annie: LOL. Draco is Draco, I love him! Anyway I hope you love this chapter.



Castle (again!): Nope, I haven’t, I just haven’t had any inspiration until two nights ago. Here it is.



What Draco Did Next



Hermione hid in the nearest alley as soon as she saw Snape walk out of the theatre. She had no wish or desire to speak to the man after all what he was doing. He was supposed to be Draco’s friend but he was acting more like his worst enemy. Hermione cautiously stepped out of her hiding place when Snape was out of sight. She then sat on the seat she and Draco had their lunch on earlier in the day. Draco stepped out and the evening sunshine lit up his blond hair. He truly was an angel.



She smiled and walked up to him. “Well,” she sighed. “Let’s go.”



Draco smiled and took hold of her hand. They walked off down the street not knowing they were being watched.



~*~*~



Snape decided to find out what exactly it was that had driven Potter and Hermione apart. He apparated straight to the Ministry for Magic and said ‘Calling on a friend;’ in the phone, he got the badge and pinned it on his chest sighing. He hated wearing these badges, and wished that by now the Ministry could think of something else a little more dignified than this. It reminded of him of those muggle school trips he did when he went to Muggle School. He always wrote Severus on his name badge until a teacher spotted it and told him to change it to his proper name. It took all of six year old Severus Snape’s control not to shout at the damned woman telling her that Severus was his natural name.



He sighed again when he entered the foyer. He stared once at the statue and smiled as he remembered that it coming to life almost killed Bellatrix. He wished it had. He walked up to the receptionist. This is where Hermione is supposed to be, Snape mused. She’s not meant to be where she is with whom she is with.



“Hello,” the bright Witch sitting at the desk said with a false smile.



“Hello,” Snape greeted, smiling back. The Witch at the desk blushed. “Can you tell me where to find Harry Potter?”



“Of course,” she replied with a husky voice. “Mr Potter is in his office. Do you know where that is, sir?”



“Yes,” Snape said. “I have come here before.”



He flashed her a brilliant smile and turned on his heel and walked up to a nearby lift. He shook his head as the doors hissed open and several flying memos came zooming out of the moving cages. He stepped into the lift and pressed the button to the floor of Harry’s office. The lift stopped at the floor and Snape stepped out of the lift. He walked down the corridor before ending up at the door. He knocked on it.



“Enter,” Potter’s voice said from the other side. Snape shrugged his shoulders and strode into the Office. Harry looked up and his jaw hung slightly open as he beheld Snape in muggle clothing… not any old muggle clothing either. It had to be the ultra cool sort! “Sir?” he asked.



“Yes, Potter, it is I, Snape.”



“What are you doing here?” Harry asked. “What have I done now?”



Over the past couple of years both came to an uneasy truce. They had a respect for each other akin to that of absent Uncle and newly found nephew.



“When was the last time you saw Hermione?” Snape asked drawing up a chair to him.



“A year or so, why?” Harry answered. He had become tense all of a sudden. Snape shook his head.



“Why? Why? Because she needs you,” Snape said groaning through his teeth.



“She doesn’t need me now she’s dating Malfoy,” Harry said. His eyes had taken on an icy look that even chilled Snape. He was sure that some part of Voldemort’s soul managed to stay somewhere inside the boy, wedged so deep that it couldn’t escape.



“And that’s it?” Snape asked. “Seven years of friendship is going to go down the drain all because she’s dating someone you hate!”



“You’re a fine one to talk, you never spoke to my mother again once you found out it was my dad she fancied after all!”



“I did, when she needed me, I did. I never deserted your mother! Not the way you’ve deserted Hermione,” Snape said; his voice rising slightly.



“She decided to date that Malfoy brat,” Harry said icily. “She made her bed.”



“That’s it, Potter? You are going to run out on Hermione possibly when she needs you the most?” Snape snarled. “She’s in danger; and it’s possibly going to be her death. Please, at least see her occasionally; make her feel wanted by you. I don’t like Draco Malfoy any more than you do, so please, do this for her. Make her realise that you truly are her friend before she does something she might regret.”



“Like what?” Harry asked.



“Like marrying the idiot,” Snape said.



Harry blinked. “How do you know about that?”



Snape sighed. This was it. The moment when Potter would show exactly how like his father he was. “I’m doing a Muggle musical called My Fair Lady,” he said. “She’s playing the Heroine; Eliza Doolittle, and I am playing her irascible, middle aged Professor; Henry Higgins.”



Harry resisted the urge to laugh. He knew what Musicals were. “One question, Snape, does this Higgins have songs?”



“He sings the first song and the last,” Snape replied. “I am breaking my neck in order to protect her, which should be your responsibility.”



“Begging your pardon, Snape, but I don’t think I could play this Professor guy, especially if he’s middle aged. Anyway, as I said before, Hermione has made her bed. “



“She needs you!” Snape exclaimed. “Do you realise that, Potter? She needs you!”



Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why do you care so much, Snape?”



Snape sighed. “I have my reasons,” he answered. “Please, Potter, at least look in on her. She doesn’t hate you; she misses you. The only reason why she’s dating Malfoy is because he’s the only link left to her version of reality. If you come back in her life it’ll make her realise that she doesn’t have to be entirely dependant on Malfoy. “



Harry looked at the older man opposite him. Snape did seem in earnest, and he was not sneering, leering, or anything like that. He was serious. Harry had never seen Snape like this before.



“If you think it’ll help,” Harry said. “But as far as I’m concerned the way she disregarded Ron’s memory is something I cannot forgive her for.”



“She loved him, Potter, and if anyone is disregarding his memory at this moment in time its you. Do you think if Ronald Weasley could see you now he’d like it that his two closest friends are not talking to each other?”



Harry hung his head in shame. “He probably wouldn’t. Towards the end it was him that was knocking sense into me.”



Snape smiled and sat back in the chair. “So, tell me, what number are you and your charming wife on now?”



Harry looked up with a withering glare. “Three,” he moaned. “With one on the way. It seems that she gets pregnant once a year almost as soon as she had the last one. I don’t get it; we always use precautions.”



“She’s a Weasley,” Snape answered. “They only need to look at someone to get pregnant.”



Harry paled considerably. “Oh Merlin’s beard!”



“What?” Snape asked.



“I remember in my fifth year after that interview I did for the Quibbler, Trelawney actually prophesied that I’d live to be an old man; become Minister for Magic, AND have twelve children… what if it’s coming true? What if the only time she said something accidental, it comes true?”



Snape tried not to let any sign of amusement cross his eyes or lips. His dark eyes glinted though. “Well, well, so she can predict nice things for people?”



Harry glared at him coldly. “If you’d like to be saddled with twelve children, fine, but four is fine for me. In fact ONE is alright for me, but I don’t have that option anymore, do I?”



“I was talking about growing up to being an old man, that’s a first for her. Normally, young deaths are her speciality.”



“I think you’ve overstayed your welcome, Snape!” Harry hissed through his teeth.



Snape grinned. He stood up and was about to walk out when a woman walked into the office. She set a cup of tea in front of the young man. Snape looked at her and she blushed when she looked at him. She returned a cool gaze to her boss and left the room.



“You know, you’re supposed to thank your secretary,” Snape said.



“She’s not my secretary, she’s a nuisance,” Harry said. “She tried to seduce me last Christmas at the Office Party in front of Ginny, Ginny smacked her in place. I am glad for my wife’s feisty nature. Since then she’s been cold towards me. I might have to hire another secretary,” he sighed.

“Might I make a suggestion?” Snape asked.



“No, I will not hire Hermione!” Harry exclaimed.



Snape shook his head. “Your loss!”



Snape walked out of the young man’s office. He looked at the girl, she seemed vaguely familiar; Lavender Patil or Parvarti Brown… something like that. She looked at him and blushed again. You are most certainly not my type.



He walked back to the lift and ended back at the foyer. Who else could he trust to help Hermione? McGonnagall. She would listen to him. Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin might lend a helping hand. He couldn’t believe he was going to rustle up members of the now nonexistent Order of the Phoenix for a stubborn, headstrong girl that would not heed the call of danger.



~*~*~



Hermione had taken Draco inside her flat. Draco looked around on the floor wondering where the snake was.



“Oh don’t be silly, Bella hardly ever left her cage at school,” Hermione said almost laughing. She looked at her boyfriend and shook her head. Even Ron wouldn’t have been like this. She remembered the time when she was almost attacked by an Acromantula that was sitting on a Horcrux and the spider began spinning her in its web and Ron had fought to get her out of there. Harry had told them to run.



“I had an aunt called Bella,” Draco said. “She was as vicious as a viper.”



Hermione snorted. She set her keys on the table and smiled as she made her way to the sitting room. Bella was lying, sleeping in the cage. “This Boa Constrictor is an absolute angel. I have never seen her or remember seeing her being absolutely horrible or evil to people. If she doesn’t like someone then she’ll ignore them.”



Draco nodded his head as he stepped a little closer to the table. He stepped behind Hermione just in case. “She won’t hurt me?”



“No, blockhead. She’ll be fine. Just don’t show her you’re afraid of her. Snakes can sense and taste fear… sometimes that spurns them on.”



Draco gulped and looked at Hermione. He watched her dip her hands in the cage and he saw her fingertips brush lazily on the snake’s head. Draco watched with fascination the snake rearing its head up. She laid her head on the back of Hermione’s hand and started to slither up her mistress’ arm. Draco gulped when he saw how long she was. Draco jumped away as the snake crawled further up Hermione’s arm. But Draco had stepped on something.



All of a sudden he heard a hiss and claws scratched at his shin. He screamed in agony. Bella woke up fully and noticed her mistress had another friend; she sniffed. Male, sort of! She looked at her mistress with a questioning glint in her beady black eyes as if to say; ‘Where’s the other one? You know, the MAN!’



Draco turned around and glared at the kitten malevolently. The kitten returned the look with equal viciousness; his ears flattened and his tail wagging and his hair was raised up. Hermione walked up to the kitten and picked him up and fussed him for a bit before placing him on the cushion and letting him lick his wound. She placed Bella back into her cage and turned around to look at Draco.



“Let’s see what’s wrong with that,” she said. Draco hobbled over to her kitchen and sat on a chair. He placed his foot gingerly on the floor whilst Hermione was shifting things about in a cupboard. She walked up to him and raised his trouser leg up.



“It’s just a scratch,” she said.



“It bloody hurts!” Draco moaned.



Hermione rolled her eyes and poured some orange liquid onto some cotton wool. “Now, this might sting a bit!” Hermione exclaimed.



She tenderly dabbed the cotton wool onto his wound. He winced with absolute pain as whatever it was she had put on his leg made him cringe. He looked at her with hatred. It was a similar look to when she had got the answers right in one of their first classes together.



“What was that stuff?” he asked.



“Nothing poisonous,” Hermione answered. “I had to have it put on me all the time before Hogwarts, and as you know I am still alive.”



Draco winced it was beginning to itch now. Hermione noticed and frowned.

“It itches,” he said.



“Of course it does, it means that it’s getting better. Scratch it and you might infect it.”

Draco moaned. He turned around and saw a few of her dishes were piled high. Evidence that he had indeed slept with her and she cooked him a decent breakfast it seemed.



“Did he like your cooking?” Draco asked.



Hermione turned around and looked at the pile of greasy dishes from this morning. “I wouldn’t know, as he did the cooking not me.”



Draco narrowed his eyes. What’s he trying to be? The modern Wizard or something? “Oh, was he any good?”



“Not bad, he actually cooked my sausages exactly the way I liked them, which is a first. Even my mum gets confused.”



“Really,” he said stiffly. Hermione sighed and cleared up her cupboards and began washing up. She was almost finished when Draco got up. She heard the chair scrape on the floor and she turned around to see him standing up. “Well, I best be going.”



“Aren’t we going to celebrate?” Hermione asked.



“Let’s do that tomorrow night, at my place.”



“I can’t, I have pets to look after. You don’t.”



“See you tomorrow,” Draco said. He walked up to her and drew her hair aside and kissed her on the cheek. “We will celebrate I promise.”



Hermione smiled weakly. “Yeah, tomorrow.”



Draco limped out of the kitchen and walked to the front door. He opened it and Harry Potter was standing outside; his hand poised in action to knock. Draco rolled his eyes.



“Mia, someone to see you, love.”



Harry quirked a dark eyebrow up at Draco’s pet name for Hermione, and smirked a little annoyingly, Draco thought. Hermione stepped out of the kitchen and as soon as she saw Harry she dropped the towel and ran up to him and flung her arms around her friend’s neck.



“Harry, it really is so good to see you!” she said breathlessly. Harry looked into her bright, shining eyes. Snape was right. She still liked him. Harry looked at Draco.



“How are you both?” he asked awkwardly.



“Fine,” Hermione breathed. “Draco and I are engaged.”



“I heard,” Harry said. “Snape popped by and told me. He thought I might want to offer my congratulations. I suppose that if he can make you happy I can be happy for you.”



Hermione’s eyes were brimming with tears. “Does – does that mean that we’re friends now?”



“Yes,” Harry sighed. “We’re friends now.”



“How’s little Sirius?” Hermione asked. Harry smirked. He was proud of his eldest boy.



“Showing signs of being absolutely like his namesake,” Harry said with his eyes glowing. “And little Lily is absolutely an angel on the outside, but she has got the cunning streak about her. A small part of me can’t help but think that she’ll end up in Slytherin.”



“Would you mind that?” Hermione asked.



“She’s my daughter, I love her, Hermione. If she wants to be a Slytherin then I’ll have to put up with that. I was almost put in Slytherin, remember.”



“I do,” Hermione said in a wistful tone that stank of nostalgia. “We had such great times, didn’t we, Harry?”



Harry looked down on the floor and then his head tilted up to look straight into Hermione’s eyes. He missed her. He missed her terribly. He wanted to show that immediately. He closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her waist and held her to his body. He hugged her fiercely, and Hermione returned the hug with equal veracity. Draco watched this and narrowed his eyes; he had always been jealous of Potter. Now it seemed that Potter was back in her life after he had succeeded in tearing them apart. He only wanted Hermione. Was that SO much to ask?



“I’ll see you,” Harry said trying not to choke back the tears.



“When?” Hermione asked.



“I’ll talk to Ginny,” Harry said. He looked at Draco and nodded his head in acknowledgement before he left. Draco breathed an audible sigh of relief. He was glad Potter was gone.



“I thought you were on your way out to,” Hermione said.



Draco looked at his fiancée. He was about to move in for a kiss when Crookshanks Jr turned up and started rubbing his body around her legs purring loudly; the tip of his tail twitching slightly against her leg. Draco looked at the kitten.



“Yes I am,” he said. He opened the door and turned around. “Oh, and Hermione, I don’t want to sound controlling or anything but you can’t be friends with Potter and my fiancée at the same time. It won’t work. “



“What are you saying, Draco?” Hermione asked.



“I’m saying,” Draco sighed. “You can either have a friend or a husband. What would you prefer?”



“But I can love you both!” Hermione exclaimed. “I want a friend AND a husband. Harry and I have been through so much together.”



“Choose, Hermione. Choose.”



He walked out of the door and shut it tight. Hermione sank on the floor and picked up her kitten. “Come on, let’s feed you.”



She sank on the chair and was about to cry. It seemed that so soon after gaining Harry’s friendship she could lose it again. She got up and decided to forgo supper and go straight to bed. The doorbell rang. She opened the door and Snape stood there.



“What the?”



“Are you alright?” Snape asked her. “You look pale.”



“Harry’s been here and Draco was here to, only when Harry left Draco said that I had to choose; it’s either a husband or a friend! How can I make that choice when I love them both for equal reasons.”



Snape sighed and tucked a coil behind her ear. She burst into tears at that gentle touch. “Shh,” he said bringing her into his embrace. She sobbed on his chest. Her hands clutched at the loose edges of his shirt and she crumpled the silk fabric in her hands as she sobbed.



“Didn’t I warn you, Hermione? Malfoy’s have conditions to their love. I don’t. I want you, Hermione. I want your love to belong to me. Condition free!”



Hermione looked up and saw his dark eyes grow ever darker. Hermione tiptoed up and kissed him on his lips.



Snape wrapped his arms tightly about her, as their kiss got deeper. She felt his tongue enter her throat and she pulled him further inside her flat to the living room where they collapsed on the sofa still kissing. He broke the kiss and was about to lift her jumper off her body but looked into her eyes.



“Do you want to do this, Hermione?” he asked. Hermione didn’t answer with words. Instead she reached up to him and ripped his shirt off. Buttons flung off into all corners of the room. One landed in Bella’s cage. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he purred demurely before lifting her jumper over her head and yanking it off.



“Perhaps,” she sighed. “Perhaps, Draco isn’t the right one for me. But,” Snape captured her lips with his before she could utter anything else after that but! Hermione raised her legs and wrapped them around his waist.



“I want you to be happy, and safe, Hermione.”



Hermione swooned at his velvet rich dark voice being spoken so softly in her ear. His lips grazed the edge of her earlobe.



“I know,” she sighed. “I know you do.”



A/N – Harry’s back, Draco’s delivered an ultimatum, and Snape has found a way back into Hermione’s panties... what will Hermione do? Will she dump Draco? Will Draco manage to smooth talk her? What will she say? What will Harry say? What will ANYONE say, and does anyone really give a damn about what I’m saying? Tune in for the next time!