Chapter Fifteen (end)

A/N: Before this part begins, let me thank everyone that left feedback along the way, that stuck with the story despite the fact that there never seemed to be a happy moment, and that continued to read while I put the characters through such Hell. I am ending this fic exactly where I have been planning to end it since part 7 or 8. There may be a sequel at some point, but at this moment I believe that I’ve said all I intended to say. Thank you again for the support.

~*~Part Fifteen~*~

It was funny, looking back over the last months, how she’d started to believe that this day would never come. That perhaps she would get mired down in the drama that had become her life, never to be seen or heard from again.

Yet, here she was anyway.

Hermione looked in the floor length mirror, running her hands along her school robes. She could still remember the first time she’d put them on, riding the train back in her first year on her way to Hogwarts. She hadn’t the slightest clue what life lay in store for her back then. No idea that Harry and Ron would become her best friends, that they would together do things she still had nightmares about, or that she would enjoy it so much. The robes still looked the same; it was her that had changed over the last seven years. Taller, shaped more like a woman than the board-flat little girl she’d once been. Her hair was still bushy in its wildest moments, half-tamed at its best. Eyes that had once sparkled with insatiable curiosity now glowed with confidence and knowledge.

She’d grown up. In between sneaking out after curfew, breaking into the Restricted Section, brewing unauthorized potions, and getting caught doing all of the above at one point or another – she had somehow grown up.

And today was the culmination of all of that.

She’d made it. Hell and high water both had come to try to overpower her, yet here she was anyway. In just a few short hours her time at this school would come to an end and her life would ‘begin’, as some said. They were right, of course. No matter how little she looked forward to what came after the Leaving Feast, it really was the beginning of her life, not the end. Come what may, she would survive and flourish.

Hadn’t she already proven that?

“You are going to be late for the Feast if you continue to preen in front of the mirror.”

Hermione looked up, chocolate brown eyes meeting the dark orbs of her husband. She offered him a smile and a shake of her head. He knew that she didn’t preen any more than he did. At one point his comment would have incited nothing short of anger in her.

Not now. It was a jibe, but a playful one. He was joking with her as much as he knew how to joke.

Again, it was funny how things changed. She had never once imagined that she would be married before leaving school – or that said marriage would be both forced and to one of her Professors.

Then again, she never would have imagined that she would have found a confidant in Snape.

But, there it was. He was her friend and confidant. Or, as much so as he would allow himself to be. It was tentative at best yet she had no doubt that her Leaving Feast tonight would change some of that.

They might never love each other, but friendship was right there, dangling on tenterhooks, waiting for them to grab onto. It had begun with his brutal torture by Voldemort and had only continued to grow from there, without either of them even realizing what was happening until it was too late. All that remained was for them to cast aside this student-teacher portion of their relationship, so that they could be more equal in their footing with one another.

“I’m ready,” she sighed, both in answer to her thoughts and to his comment on how little time she had left to get to the Great Hall. She turned, brow furrowing in confusion as enlightenment dawned on her. “Shouldn’t you already be there?”

He shrugged, black robes lifting and falling gracefully. “I have time.”

She snorted under her breath, knowing fully well that he had hung back only to make sure that she didn’t lose herself in the melancholy madness that seemed to come with this day. At least, it did for her. Harry and Ron couldn’t be happier, of course. No more Hogwarts. No more Potions or Snape.

She didn’t have the luxury of those thoughts. Hogwarts, Snape and Potions would continue to be a part of her life for years to come, even though, in the case of her beloved school, it would only be a distant association due to it being the place her husband worked in.

“Let’s go, then,” she offered him a smile, grabbing onto his arm as she breezed out of the room. Robe on. Hair as tamed as possible. All of her assignments were long since turned in and grades had been posted.

This was it.

~*~*~

He tried to avoid looking at her as the ceremony progressed, if only to bring some peace to his mind. This was a night that should have been enjoyed unlike any other, yet she didn’t see it that way because of what came next.

They would be staying at the school for two weeks after the students left, as he finished up his inventory checks for the summer and personally double-checked the finals for all returning students. After which time they would retire to Snape Manor for the remainder of the summer. Neither of them had spoken about what would come at that point. It was merely a given. The terms of the marriage contract were to be fulfilled. A child to continue to the name – which meant, of course, a male child. Thankfully there were charms and potions to ensure the sex of a child. As unsavory as the entire process would be, they would only have to endure it once, at which time he would be more than happy to pay for a nanny so that she could continue with her schooling.

He hadn’t said as much to her, mostly because he felt she would somehow construe it the wrong way. It was possible, he mused, that deep down she enjoyed the thought of being a mother; that she would not want to part from their. . .child. . .to continue her education.

It was all up to her. Once the terms of the contract were complete she had only to remain married to him. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Dumbledore was rambling on and on about the trials and tribulations this year’s class had been through over their seven years. The rise of the Dark Lord, attempts on their lives and lives of their classmates, and situations beyond their control. He was urging them to remember that, as in all things, we simply have to move on and make the best of what was given.

Words meant for Hermione’s classmates on her behalf, he supposed. She would leave this school with only Potter and Weasley as her close friends. Where one Weasley was, however, all the others followed. However her circle of friendly relations ended there. Even those housemates that had been vocal in their outcry of support had slowly dwindled as time passed. They didn’t dislike her, they merely no longer knew how to relate.

It was unfair – but that was life. She had coped marvelously, though he’d never said as much to her. For all that she was someone he could engage in conversation, he had no desire to build her up with compliments. Actions spoke louder than words, after all, and his actions in taking her into his confidence were self-explanatory. If he didn’t find something redeeming about her, something spectacular in its own right, he would never have made the effort.

“Are you alright, Severus?”

He grunted, sparing a glance out of the corner of his eye at Minerva.

“She’ll be fine. If these past months did not break her, nothing shall.”
Severus rolled his eyes, pitching his voice low, for her ears only. “I realize that, you old busy body. Forgive me if I take this time to –silently- reflect on this past school year?”

She got the point, and turned back ‘round in her seat with a small huff of annoyance coming from her mouth.

He smirked and leaned back in his chair, scowling out over the students that he would hopefully never see again, save one.

Or. . .save three, he supposed. Marrying Hermione had brought baggage in the form of Potter and Weasley.

He’d have to strengthen the wards around the Manor first thing. Having those two show up whenever they so pleased would prove to be annoying rather quickly.

~*~*~

“You’ll owl us once –“

“Twice,” Harry cut in with a glare in Ron’s direction.

”Right, then,” Ron amended quick enough. “You’ll owl us –twice- a week or else we’ll assume the slimy git has locked you away in the dungeon and start organizing a rescue mission. Bill’s already said he’d help if needed.”

Hermione laughed. They were the best, really. “He’s not going to lock me away, you two. Don’t worry.”

“But you’ll still owl, right?” Harry frowned.

“Of course,” she shrugged. “And you can visit whenever you want.”

“Riiiight,” Ron drawled, shaking his head. “No thanks, ‘Mione, but I think we’ll stay as far away from that place as possible. Snape might be workin’ for the right side, but you have to wonder about his dad.”

She laughed again, though not as brightly. Severus had told her that his father refused to join either side in the war, but that meant very little. She, like Ron, sometimes got the impression that he may just be treading on the Darker side of things.

“I’m going to miss you two,” she whispered, letting the subject turn as it had to. Other students were milling around, saying their goodbyes to one another; yet the three of them stood in their own little bubble, undisturbed.

“We’re only a Floo call away.” Ron’s eyes were wet, though no tears had been spilled. It felt like she was saying goodbye forever, instead of just ‘until I see you again’.

“Friends forever,” Harry offered, wrapping one arm around her waist, and the other around Ron’s shoulders. She felt Ron’s arm join Harry’s. They were so close that, when the two boys leaned down, their foreheads touched with hers. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, ingraining the moment on her memory. She would see them again, but she wanted to remember them like this.

“Friends forever,” Ron echoed, his hand squeezing where it rested on her hip. She smiled, opening her eyes to look first into his, then Harry’s. Tomorrow began her life in earnest, as Hermione Snape.

But, for tonight, she still had Hogwarts, and the two best friends a girl could have ever wished for. She smiled as a gentle laugh broke from her lips, her arms pulling the two of them even closer. Her eyes shut as she began to nod, in perfect agreement.

“Friends forever.”

~*~End Fic~*~