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“Hermione! Hermione!”
Her skull feels like it’s splitting in two. Again. Then she sees her. Lily Potter. But not as she’s seen her in pictures. She’s older. And she’s holding a ritual blade on the dais of the Death Chamber.
“Hermione!”
“Sev’rus,” she groans. “Potion?”
A slim vial is thrust into her hands. She swallows it in one gulp. The headache abates while Severus comes into clearer view. His face is his impassive mask, but his eyes are worried.
“I saw her again.”
“Mum?”
Hermione turns to find more than Severus has witnessed her collapse. She nods, wincing with the motion.
“She was in the Department of Mysteries with a ritual blade.”
“We have to go there—”
“Harry, your mother isn’t—”
“Every vision Hermione’s had has come true! First was the earthquake. Then the Dementor swarm on Diagon Alley. Seamus nearly dying. Everything she sees happens! So if she saw Mum then Mum is there.”
oOo
Two days of bureaucratic red tape, seventeen misuses of fame, five thinly veiled threats of poisoning, three vows of secrecy, and one incredibly frazzled minister later…
“Mum?”
“H-Harry?”
Mother and son embrace tightly, falling to the floor as they sob. Hermione is still glaring at Kingsley who has the decency to look slightly abashed.
“There are protocols, Hermione,” he emphasizes. “With everything happening, the prophecies pointed to Lily, but we weren’t sure. Was I to give him false hope?”
“She’s been here for weeks.”
“And several of those were spent allowing her to adjust. Harry has shouldered far too much over the years. I thought, perhaps, we could take the weight of the burden.”
“After resurrecting his mother to participate in a blood ritual, it was the least you could do,” Severus says drily. Hermione’s lips twitch even as she shoots him a reproving look.
“Severus?”
He turns to look at Lily. She sniffles, then smiles weakly. “I’ve… I’ve heard about everything that you’ve done. I—thank you for protecting Harry.”
“Of course,” he says stiffly.
This conversation with these many witnesses is the last thing he desires. Hermione’s fingers brush against the back of his own in quiet comfort. Merlin he loves her. Potter steps closer.
“Kings, I want to take her back to Grimmauld.”
“I don’t know if that’s advisable.”
“Why not,” Potter asks. “The ritual is done. Grimmauld is warded. I’m an Auror. We won’t go out until you’ve got your press releases in order.”
oOo
Two more vows of secrecy and one week at Grimmauld later…
There’s a series of light knocks on the doorway of the potion’s lab in the basement. He looks up to find Lily standing there. Potter had taken the week off for her, but an odd case required his intervention and somehow it fell to Severus to play babysitter. They’ve shared pleasant enough conversation, but this is the first time he’s been alone with her since her resurrection.
“Do you need something?”
“Severus,” she says uncertainly. “Do we need to talk about, um, anything?”
He scoffs at her attempted nonchalance. “Are you asking if I am still harboring a romantic obsession for you? Hardly.”
“Oh, thank Merlin,” she says. Then she freezes. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just—you have Hermione, and for me it feels as if I’ve only just lost James and beyond all of that I don’t know that we would—”
“We were never meant to be more than friends,” he finishes for her. He sighs. “I only wish I could have realized that much earlier. It might have saved us both.”
Her fingers go to the locket that he knows holds a photo of Potter and baby Potter. She offers him a bittersweet smile.
“Perhaps, but then again, who knows what else it might have changed.”
“Useless ponderings, I suppose.”
“So, what are you working on?”
“Stock for Poppy.”
“Might I help you? I think I still know my way around the cauldron.”
“You can try your hand at a pepper-up.”
She scoffs. “Just tell me you don’t believe me, it’d hurt less.”
“I’ve got plans with Hermione at five, I won’t be late because you mucked something up.”
“Need I remind you who, of the two us, melted a cauldron in fourth year.”
They fall into a familiar rhythm of chopping and brewing. He smugly informs her that he was right in his modification to the Viridian brew, summoning the Potioneering journal as proof. As prone to get lost in debate as easily as he gets absorbed into his potions, time passes… far too much and far too quickly.
“Mum?” Potter’s voice calls from somewhere above them.
Severus jolts. If Potter is home then—oh bloody hell. He bolts up the stairs, vaguely aware of Lily behind him.
“Severus,” she exclaims.
He whirls back on her. His acerbic remark dies in his throat at the sight of the proffered flowers. Hermione’s favorite flowers.
“Never show up to an apology without them.”
Just as he’s taking them from her, the kitchen door bursts open.
“Oi, what’s this then?”
“Weasley, I don’t have time for whatever you’re on about. I’m late to meet Hermione—”
“She’s been locked in her room all afternoon. Which you might know if you weren’t cozied up with this—”
“Oi, that’s my mum.”
“I know that and their history.”
“Excuse me, ” Severus voice is cold with repressed fury at what’s being insinuated. Then he pales. Locked in her room. Did Hermione think—
Severus takes the stairs two at a time until he’s standing outside Hermione’s door. When she doesn’t answer, he lets himself in.
“Hermione, I swear to you that nothing—” He calms at the sight of his girlfriend, sound asleep atop a stack of books and parchments. “Hermione, love?”
She stirs. “Sev’rus? Oh! What’s the time? I’m so sorry I—”
“I got absorbed in my task as well,” he says easily. “Raincheck for tomorrow?”
“I’d love that,” she smiles.
There’s distant yelling down the stairs. They return to find Potter and Weasley having a row. Lily is crying in the corner, Ginevra at her side.
“What in Merlin’s name is going on?”
The boys stop yelling but neither speaks.
“Lily, are you quite alright?”
“I’m sure she’s fine, ‘Mione,” Weasley says pointedly. “She’s been down in the lab with Severus all day. Alone.”
Hermione looks confused. Then her mouth pops open. “You cheat!”
Potter’s mouth falls open. Weasley looks vindicated. Severus feels cold. Again. She slaps his upper arm lightly before turning to Lily.
“Did he ask you about Elio’s Elixir? We agreed to work that out independently. I can’t believe you’d ask her for help.”
“I didn’t I—”
“No, Hermione, he didn’t cheat at your potion’s thing. He cheated on you.”
Hermione stares at Weasley for a long moment. Her mouth opens and then closes.
“Why would you say that?”
“They were alone down there. He got her flowers.”
“No, Hermione,” Lily starts to interject. Hermione holds up a hand to stop her before grabbing the discarded flowers.
“He got her my birth flower?”
“Bloke made a mistake.” Weasley shrugs.
“First you call him a cheater, then you imply he’s an idiot, merlin I might let him kill you after all of this is worked out.”
He opens his mouth to protest but she cuts him off.
“You’ve been watching too many of your mum’s soaps, Ronald.” She pinches her nose. “I suppose you thought that Severus’ long-lost love would come back from the dead and work her way between us? Really?”
Weasley sputters uselessly. Hermione shakes her head.
“Ginny…”
“On it.” Ginevra drags her brother into the kitchen. The floo flares.
“Hermione, I’m so—”
“No, Lily, I’m sorry. Ron was out of line. He means well he’s just…”
“A bloody idiot,” Potter supplies bitterly.
“Yes, that.”
Lily nods and excuses herself with an awkward smile. Potter follows after her. Hermione sighs.
“Well,” she says turning back to him and stifling a yawn. “That’s a hell of a way to wake up from a nap.”
“You didn’t doubt me for a second.”
“Of course not.”
She says it so quickly. So effortlessly. As if she didn’t just utter irrevocable proof that she trusts him beyond all reason. That she would stand by him through anything. He knew she would of course. But to see it. To feel it.
“Marry me.”
“Severus?”
“I have a ring. I had a far, far better plan, but I—I want the world to know the depths of my devotion. To look at us and see that we belong to each other. Now and forever.”
Tears well in her eyes as she presses her mouth to his. “Of course I will.”