A Letter to Hermione

Letter to Hermione.

Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable.

All hail my fabulous Beta Scarlet Quill for giving me the motivation needed to carry on.


Severus had spent a long time studying Hermione's gift and messages before he understood their hidden meaning. She had managed to tell him in such a subtle and Slytherin way that even the great Salazar Slytherin himself would be impressed with such sneakiness. The only question he had now, was how does one go about telling the witch of your dreams that you return their love a hundred fold?.

He sat at his desk drumming his long elegant fingers on the deep mahogany wood in time to an old muggle song running through his head when an idea came to him, he could send Hermione the letters that he'd been writing to her ever since he'd fallen in love with her. He wondered how he should send them, should he send them all at once or should he send them singularly. What if she hates them and in turn ends up hating him, no, the letters are a bad idea.

Severus stood up and began pacing across the room, his mind whirling with various ideas, maybe he should ask somebody's advice he thought about his close network of friends, Draco and Harry were too close to Hermione to be objective enough, perhaps Lucius? He snorted at the very idea of letting Lucius' deviant mind anywhere near something as important as this. After narrowing down the list he found the perfect person to help with his dilemma.

Narcissa sat across from in a high back winged chair delicately sipping a cup of jasmine tea as Severus told her the whole sorry story.

“So let me get this straight Severus, you and Hermione went to the ministry ball together and you realized that you were in love with her, but Ron turned up, waltzed off with his girlfriend and put a dampener on your entire evening”

“Well when you put it like that I sound like a petulant school boy” Severus said with a bit of scowl on his face.

“If the wand fits Severus, wave it” Narcissa gave him a look that would have even Lucius cowering under the dining table “You then spend the next eighteen months writing letters to her that you just lock away in a drawer never to be seen by anyone. We flash forward to the events which happened in the last year, Hermione breaks up with Ron and in the six months where all she's doing is working on her potion you do nothing to test the waters, then on the very day that you verified that her potion was indeed a success she flings her arms around you in a celebratory hug, your lips meet accidentally which she then turns into a full blown kiss and this is where it all goes wrong, yes?”

Severus just bowed his head in a slight nod.

She took another sip of her tea before continuing “After the kiss you get all flustered and start talking about taking her potion to the ministry to be registered, the 'moment' passed, and the pair of you sweep the incident under the rug. So for the next couple of weeks the you both quite happily ignore the elephant in the room till you have the wonderful idea of getting Hermione registered with the Potions Guild and as her graduation present you decide it would be a good idea to send her on a year long trip around the world”

She leant forward and captured his gaze “I think this is perhaps my favorite bit of the whole sorry tale, instead of talking with Hermione face to face about the Potions Guild and becoming a Potions Mistress in her own right not to mention the graduation gift, you told her in a letter. A letter Severus! Surely even you knew better than that” Narcissa shook her head in mild disappointment at her old friend.

“I'm fully aware Narcissa that perhaps I didn't go the right way about things”

Narcissa just arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him “We finally reach the end of the tale where our delightful heroine receives her note and comes storming in here flanked by Harry and Draco to give you a piece of her mind, and quite rightly too in my opinion Severus. So Hermione tells you exactly what she thinks of you in that moment in time and doing so she pushes your buttons, which makes you tell her that you're only being an arse for her own benefit because she hadn't dated since Ron and you weren't prepared to do take things further till she knew what she wanted, then as extra icing on the cake Severus you kiss her forcefully and storm off like a petulant schoolboy” she said throwing his earlier words back at him.

“Don't hold back will you Narcissa, really tell me what you think” Severus said sarcastically.

Narcissa rolled her eyes at him “If you wanted to be told that you did everything correctly you would of gone to my darling husband, instead you know you did wrong and want to fix it so suck it up and stop sulking like a child”

Severus looked so dejected sitting in his chair with his head bowed and his black locks falling forward over his face hiding the misery that was apparent even in his posture that Narcissa took pity on him and reached over to clasp his hands.

“Severus snap out of it and remember the reason why I'm here, now by some stroke of luck after a year away Hermione has discovered that she has feelings for you and has had them since the very same ball where you decided you loved her, which is wonderful however the real crux of the problem is that you want to send her the letters to prove your love for her but you're unsure on how to do it, am I correct?”

Severus nodded again “I've behaved like an arse towards her Cissy, how can she love me after everything I put her through?”

“Because we're only human Severus and that includes you, I can guarantee that you and Hermione will have many loving years together that will include mistakes made by the both of you, laughs, tears, tantrums, arguments, forgiveness, joy, happiness, sadness and lots of sex, hopefully all behind closed doors so your friends don't have to be voyeurs in everything you do”

Severus gave her a small smile “Is that from your personal How to be a good housewife guide?”

Narcissa laughed “Don't be silly, it's firsthand knowledge from living with Lucius as for the letters do you still have Hermione's raven? And the ribbon from the ball where you both fell in love which each other?”

“Yes” said Severus looking puzzled.

“Good, now go fetch them, the letters and the same items you used to write the letters with ” she told him ushering him out of the room.

He returned a few minutes later with the things she'd asked for.

“Excellent now I want you to write down exactly what I say” she waited till he was ready before continuing.

“These belong to you, I should of given them to you long ago”

After Severus had written the short note, Narcissa placed it with the others and fastened the whole bundle with the ribbon before fixing it to the ravens leg.

“You just need to give the bird Mr. Weasley's address in Romania Severus and then all you can do is wait”

“I'm unsure that this is the best course of action Cissy”

“Nonsense, now give the bird the address before I decide to get rather annoyed with you and send you a stinging hex in a rather sensitive area”

Severus quickly complied with Narcissa and sat back nervously in his chair his fingers pressed together firmly as he thought of all the things that could and probably would go wrong.

Narcissa stood up and looked at him expectantly “Well come along then I need someone to keep Lucius and Harry out of trouble while Draco and I prepare for Hermione's homecoming ball. There's only a couple of weeks before she returns you know”

“You never said anything about a ball Cissy” Severus said giving her one of his infamous glares which of course she ignored.

Her laughter tinkled around the room “Didn't I? Well a lady never reveals all of her secrets Severus even you should know that, now come along I don't take no for an answer” she told him as she shepherded him towards the floo.

A/N:I know some of my reviewers were unhappy with Severus's attitude in parts of this story so Narcissa has rightfully slapped his hand and has given him some good advice.
Next chapter should be the last one in this story, so please review and tell me what you think.

Much love
Her Royal Goddess Xx