Chapter Text
Tying her running shoes, Hermione thought about how lovely her new house was with the lightly wooded area in the backyard and extensive wildflowers in the front garden. After all this time working and living in London she found this place peaceful.
The natural rhythm of her feet hitting the ground, in time with her heartbeat and breathing made her feel at peace with the world and forget some of the guilt she felt. She would never forgive herself for letting Severus Snape die. Harry saw him as a hero, but Hermione knew he was just a flawed man who made mistakes. Hero or not, he deserved someone to at least help him in those final moments. No one deserved to die like that. Shaking her head, Hermione tried to banish those recurring thoughts. But they kept flying at her like the magpies in springtime near her parents' Australian home; swooping at her and demanding attention.
Perhaps I wouldn’t be focussing on it if his body didn’t go missing , Hermione thought to herself, then shaking her head again to concentrate on her route.
If she were paying attention she would have noticed the fairy ring. Not that she believed that nonsense, but you could never be too careful and she usually avoided them in any case.
One step, it was a bright and sunny late morning, the next step, it was dark and someone was holding her hand. In her shock, she lost her footing and tripped.
It was then that she noticed the fairy ring just behind her, and she watched it fade in front of her eyes. Then she looked at the tall, dark figure she had been holding hands with and had dragged down alongside her.
"Professor Snape?" she gasped
"Miss Granger?" He replied, mirroring her confused tone.
Two pops of apparition sounded nearby, with two voices calling out "Lumos"
"Hermione?" Harry called
"Are you there?" Ron said
"Harry? Ron?” Hermione called back,
An eerie chuckle sounded on Hermione’s other side, causing her to jump and whip her head around to find a Fae crouching down right there next to her, leaving no personal space.
She heard the intake of breath from Snape beside her as he noticed the creature when she did.
The fae’s mane of waist-length red curly hair, with matching long, gravity-defying eyebrows and exaggerated ear tips filled Hermione with trepidation and familiarity.
“Now, Little One, you have what you wanted, I will return for what I want later,” with that, they kissed her forehead, winked at Severus and shimmered out of sight.
“But I don’t remember anything!” Hermione cried out, looking around for the Fae.
“I am sure it will be fine, Hermione,” Severus consoled. Hermione looked at him with shock, he, too, looked taken aback, “I apologise, I don’t know why I said that, Miss Granger,” he amended,
“Are you alright?” she asked, never would she ever expect to, not only be consoled by the sharped-tongued Slytherin but hear him say her first name. The fact he looked as shocked as she did that clued her in that he was missing memories, too.
“There you are ‘Mione,” Ron sighed, relieved when they had finally come to where Hermione and Snape sat on the ground.
“Snape?” Harry questioned, “You’re alive?”
“So it would seem,” Severus responded tensely,
“Shit, we should do an identity check,” Ron mused scratching the back of his neck, “Mione, why did we break up?”
“We told everyone it was amicable and we both decided we didn’t mesh well, but the truth is I caught you cheating on me,”
Ron nodded, looking over at Harry, who didn’t know,
“We’ll talk about that later,” Harry said through gritted teeth, “Snape, why did Voldemort kill you?”
“He thought I commanded the Elder Wand,” Severus said, “Is that not widely known?”
“We told everyone you showed him your true loyalties, it helped with your post-mortem trial to get you cleared of all charges,”
“The Dark Lord thought I was loyal to the end,” Severus chuckled grimly,
“Hermione, it’s been a month, where have you been?” Harry asked, getting back to the task at hand.
Ron leaned down to help her stand, she accepted only because her ankle hurt. Severus stood on his own accord.
“I… I don’t remember. I think I was in the Otherworld with the Fae,” she explained, “There was a fairy ring,” she said, pointing where it once was,
“Let’s get back to your home,” Harry offered, “We’ll apparate. Will Snape be let in?” he asked,
“He will if I take him,” Hermione said, taking hold of Snape’s elbow, and with a pop, they appeared in Hermione’s open-plan kitchen/lounge room.
In the light of her cottage, Hermione finally saw that Snape looked the same as the last time she had seen him, except there were no bloodstains on his shirt or frock coat. It had been ten years since The Battle of Hogwarts, and he looked the same, except, perhaps, he looked healthy. His gaunt cheeks were filled out, and he was tanned, not sallow. Wherever he had been, he had been well taken care of.
Remembering she was still holding his arm, she let it go suddenly flustered.
“I’ll go make some tea,” Hermione offered, taking a step, unforgetting of her sprained ankle, and immediately stumbled back into Severus, where he automatically caught hold of her by the arms.
“Could one of you please make the woman some tea before she hurts herself further,” he sneered. Harry went off to the other side of the room to get it started. Ron watched as Snape helped Hermione sit on her favourite armchair. Snape methodically lifted Hermione's left ankle and carefully removed the running shoe, gauging every hiss of pain she gave.
“Does it hurt here?” he asked, running if fingers on her inner ankle tendon,
“No,” she said,
“Here?” He asked, looking into her eyes as he ran a finger on the outside part of her ankle,
Hermione winced in pain.
“That is a ‘yes’,” Severus said to himself, “Hold still,”
He held her foot in his right hand to hold it still for his left hand to cast. He took a deep breath and murmured a healing spell, his fingers tracing the wand movements along her sprain.
“Better?” Severus asked, straightening to stand again,
“Yes, thank you,”
“Think nothing of it,”
“So,” Ron said, breaking the tension he was horrified to be witnessing, “Where have you been, Snape?”
“I have no memory of it, but I have a theory,” Snape commented blandly, “Tell me, what year is it, Mr Weasley?”
“It’s September 1st, 2008,” Ron said, for both of their sakes.
“September?” Hermione squeaked out, “I had a deadline, blast it all!”
“Yes, well, the case was given to Hazel, after we couldn’t find you for a week,” Ron explained, “We’ll have to send for Kingsley,” Ron said to himself,
“Give it a rest, Ron,” Harry said, entering with a tea service, “Let Kings know tomorrow, let them sleep for the night,”
“Kingsley is the Minister,” Hermione explained,
“Indeed?” Snape said, making a cup for himself, “Let me guess, Tweedledee and Tweedledum are Aurors?”
“Yes,” Hermione answered with a grin,
“Actually, I quit,” Harry said, “I’m DADA Professor now, well, will be tomorrow morning,”
“Can’t be worse than Umbridge,” Severus commented,
“Huh, that’s what I said,” Ron mused, “Bloody hell, Robards is gonna kill me,” he complained, sitting down and taking the tea Harry offered, “You really don’t remember”
“No,” Hermione said, “but like I said, I think we were in the Otherworld,”
“And they gave you Snape to bring back with you?” Ron asked,
“I guess so,” Hermione replied,
“At what cost?”
“I don’t remember,”
“Seelie or Unseelie?” Ron asked,
“I really couldn’t say, I don’t actually know much about the fae,”
“Bloody hell,”
“Ron, relax,” Harry tried to soothe his long-time friend, “Go to Kingsley and Robards first thing in the morning. Hermione and Snape will still be here, as long as they don’t go walking into another fairy ring,”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Do not leave this house until Kingsley or Robards meets with you. I need to go start the reports so I’m at least prepared when they ask me about it before I get fired,”
Ron left via Hermione’s floo, accidentally taking his cup of tea with him.
Harry chuckled, shaking his head.
“He’s been stressed since I quit. He got a new partner, who’s new to the force so he’s been trying to set a good example. It’s been hectic since you disappeared, Hermione. Ginny is pregnant again,” He smiled bashfully,
“Harry Potter!” Hermione said, smacking his bicep, “Molly is going to murder you. When are you going to marry Ginny?”
“I keep asking her, but she keeps turning me down,” he chuckled, “This baby is a girl, so hopefully that will distract Molly enough so I don’t get murdered,”
“Thank the Gods I no longer teach, I don’t think I could stand being around another Potter generation,”
“I’m sure Minerva will drag you back once she knows that you’re alive,”
“Goody,” Severus replied, deadpanned.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve got to run, too. We put an alarm on your property in case there were any alerts, and seeing as you’re both fine, I don’t see any reason to stay. Snape, I’ll let Hermione fill you in on the last ten years unless you need to sleep. I’ve got to go back to Ginny, I promised I would deal with Jamie during the night so she can rest up,”
Harry stood, placed his empty tea cup on the table, and kissed Hermione’s cheek.
“I’m so glad you’re back, I missed you. I was so worried, love,” Harry murmured affectionately,
“I’m sorry, Harry,”
“It’s not your fault, I’m sure you didn’t ask the Fae to whisk you away. Catch ya later,”
With Harry's departure through the floo, Hermione and Severus sat in silence.
“Thank you for healing my ankle,”
“It’s no bother. It’s nice to know I can still cast wandlessly,”
“I have a spare bedroom, I’ll show it to you and refresh the sheets,”
“I suppose you don’t know what happened to my belongings?” Severus asked as he followed her upstairs,
“Well, Harry made himself your executor. After the evidence he provided for your testimony it wasn’t contested, and no one else wanted to deal it with. So, uh, we emptied the house at Spinners End, and all the effects were placed in a storage vault at Gringott’s. I may have borrowed a few books from time to time, but I made sure to place a protection charm on them before use. Harry couldn’t bear to discard anything, and since we never found a body I think he’s always hoped you would return. The bathroom is here, on the left. I only have one bathroom,”
“I see,”
“Here’s your room, I don’t have many visitors, but if you prefer different decorations or colours, feel free to transfigure to your heart's content. Do you want to rest for the night, or would you like to be filled in with more goings-on?”
“What happened to my house? You all seem to be pushing me to stay here when I could just as easily be contactable at my residence,”
“Well, uh, the council bought out all the neighbourhood to build apartments, and since we didn’t know, Harry eventually took the payout, he had it converted into galleons and that is also in the vault,”
“They gentrified Spinner’s End?” Severus laughed, it was a loud booming laugh that made butterflies erupt in Hermione’s stomach. It was a surprising laugh and made Severus look very attractive.
“Do you not remember anything? You were there longer than I was,” Hermione asked,
“No, I only remember the Shack and making sure Potter had the memories as per Dumbledore’s request. It gets a bit fuzzy, and then being dragged onto the ground by some clumsy witch twenty minutes ago,” he smirked at Hermione, with an unexpected gentleness in his eyes, causing the said clumsy witch to blush.
“I’ll let you get comfortable, I'll just wash up the tea,”
Hermione left her spare room and headed back down the stairs, internally berating herself for noticing attractive things about her former professor. She packed up the tea service Harry had set out without using magic, needing to keep her hands occupied. When she had them in the sink she noticed Severus leaning around the wall in his button-up shirt, sleeves rolled up, showing bare forearms, a black vest and trousers, no cloak.
Oh no , Hermione thought, blushing again.
“Not much to unpack,” Severus explained when their eyes met, “Let me help as a thank you for letting me use your room,”
“You really don’t have to,” Hermione said, letting Severus take over hand washing the dishes,
“You can dry and put them away,”
Hermione nodded.
“Oh, no, I had better clean out the fridge and pantry, if I’ve been missing for a month it’ll be -” Hermione stopped her nervous rambling when she noticed her fridge wasn’t filled with mouldy food, but it was in pristine condition as if no time had passed.
“Hmm,” Hermione hummed, taking a few steps to her pantry to check that, too. It was even better organised than the last time she had seen it,
“Huh,” she thought aloud, leaning against her countertop.
As she was thinking her eyes landed on a large bowl of pecan nuts, where she had had a bowl of fruit.
“Oh,” she walked to the nuts, “I see,”
“For the love of Merlin, please explain,” Severus groaned from his position in front of the sink, hands covered in suds.
“Um, well, I don’t know what happened exactly, but that Fae from before must’ve made sure my food didn’t turn bad and reorganised my pantry,”
“Indeed,”
“They also left pecans, and they did say they’d be back for what they asked for, perhaps I offered to make them my pecan pie,”
“Deals with fae are tricky, Granger, if you’re wrong they may be offended. Are you sure it wasn’t your firstborn child you offered?”
Hermione laughed, then stopped, “Oh, you’re being serious?”
“No, I’m Severus,” he said with a straight face, causing Hermione to snort a laugh, earning a half-smile from Snape.
“Can’t hurt to try, it’s a very good recipe, and all the ingredients are here,”
So, Hermione started making her party staple pecan pie. Even Molly Weasley asked Hermione to bring it along to family gatherings. When Severus finished washing the dishes, leaving them to air dry, he asked Hermione if he could assist, which she politely declined. She offered her bookshelf for his perusal, which he took, but he found his eyes unable to focus on the words in front of him, even if it was a potions periodical, he was watching Hermione move about her kitchen. She had pulled her hair up into a messy bun before she started and the effort of kneading the pie crust had caused some flyaways to escape. Some flour attached itself to her cheek when she tried to brush the hair away. Severus found himself enamoured with her.
Even though Potter had left the pair to rest, Severus hadn’t felt fatigued in the least. He felt refreshed and energised. Even though it was late at night on Earth, he felt he could stay awake for another few days. It was clear Hermione felt similarly.
Hours had flown by but Hermione had finished the pie. It smelled heavenly to Severus. Sweet and buttery. He was surprised to find that he wasn’t hungry, even though he hadn’t remembered the last time he had eaten. It must be from being in the fae realm, he reasoned. Hermione opened her kitchen window and placed the pie on the sill, next to a glass of cream. Then she ventured back to the lounge room and sat next to Severus on her couch.
“I hope you aren’t bored,” Hermione said,
“No, I - you have a good collection of potions journals,”
“Thank you,” Hermione smiled, “I have a very varied collection, too, in case you were after other topics. The non-fiction is down here, the fiction is a smaller collection, but that’s upstairs,”
“Well, my Little One, you’ve outdone yourself. I thank you for including the cream, although, unnecessary to enticing me to see you,” a melodic voice cut through the conversation. Severus went to reach for his wand in his surprise forgetting that he doesn’t have it. The mysterious curly-haired fae had materialised out of the air without a sound, along with the fresh pecan pie on the coffee table, and the cream, now whipped.
“Come along and summon the plates your grandmother left for you,”
Hermione brandished her wand and carefully summoned the heirloom Royal Dalton dessert plates.
“Sev, if you could do the honours,” the being asked,
Severus leapt to action, part in fear of the unknown and partly because they felt familiar, and not just from the short meeting earlier that night.
“It’s so lovely to see you again, Little One, having you visit for a month was simply not enough, and before that, the last time we had met was when you were quite small, barely walking, if memory serves,”
“Oh?” Hermione croaked out, then cleared her throat, “I apologise, with the trip back, I don’t remember anything from the Other Side,”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” the fae grinned, looking over at Severus with glee, “Now, let’s see how you’ve managed with the pie,” they spooned a large mouthful of pie and cream, into their mouth and groaned, “My, I do believe you have improved the recipe, dear,”
“Oh? You’ve had it before?” Hermione asked, timidly, having a much smaller mouthful.
“Yes, it was how I met your great-grandmother, after all. My darling Evelyn,”
“You knew my great-grandmother?” Hermione asked, shocked,
“Has Robert not told you? Boys,” the fae rolled their eyes, “I was disappointed when my Eleanor had a boy,”
“Are you..?” Hermione started,
“Your great-grandparent, yes,” the fae continued, heaping another spoonful in their mouth with glee.
“My great grand… Can you believe this, Severus?” Hermione asked the silent man in the room. He swallowed his own mouthful of pie, some cream stuck on his lip.
“It would seem you have located the source of your magic, Hermione,” he offered,
"That isn't all you inherited, " the fae said, gently caressing a lock of Hermione's hair, which so matched their own texture.
"What do I call you?” she asked,
“Hmm,” they smiled, “As your father before you, you may call me Spark,”
“Thank you, Spark. Please pardon me if I offend you," Hermione started, "but, you had Severus in the Otherworld, and you sent him back with me for pecan pie?"
The fae laughed.
"Of course not, Little One, he was so dreary all this time, and then you showed up and it was a good opportunity to be rid of him. So, we wed you, and here you are. The pecan pie helps, of course, but I would like my line continued. You and Sev proved to be a strong match. I was getting worried you wouldn’t have children, you know,"
Severus and Hermione stared at each other while the mysterious being feed themselves another slice of pie.
"When you went off to that school I couldn't see you, and then you were in a city of all places for just as long. Now you returned to the wilderness I could see you again and, as fate should have it, you were thinking if our dear Sev at the time and, well, best not spoil it, you'll remember soon enough," Spark continued,
"But I.. Married? Children? How many? I never wanted any..” Hermione spluttered,
"It was a condition of release, darling, for both of you, and besides, you have no siblings to carry on the line. One child has been enough so far, just please, not another Robert. One was heartbreaking enough!"
“But,”
“No but, darling, you both already agreed. You two best get to work. I’ll be back,”
And with an astonsished blink of the eye Spark disappeared.