Of Myth and Magic

Chapter Five: Go North

Chapter Five

Go North

The fact that she'd managed to find him no longer seemed odd; the fact that she seemed happy to see him, however….

"Perhaps your conversation with your mother went better than I thought," he said.

"Not necessarily," she replied. She clutched her bag, the smile sliding away. "But it wouldn't have done, would've it? Not at this point."

"I suppose not," he relented. They were standing at an awkward distance apart - far enough for passengers to feel comfortable walking between them, noticing too late and making apologetic faces whilst they half-ducked the two steps from one side of their conversation to the other. Snape couldn't bring himself to move closer to her. It would have felt, he thought, like admitting to something.

"Besides," Hermione said, "I can only stand to be told I'm wrong so many times." She tucked a wild curl behind her ear and lifted her chin. "I'm not accustomed to it, and I won't stand for it."

Snape stuffed his hands into his pockets, hunching into the collar of his coat.

"Where will you be going, then?" he asked, wanting this conversation to end.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "With you," she said, with an implied of course. "Any objections?"

Millions, Snape thought. "Why?" he said.

Another family passed between them, and, frustrated, Hermione took a hold of Snape's sleeve and dragged him closer. Her fingers lingered on his cuff a little too long before he tugged his arm out of her grasp, tired of being manhandled by strangers. This conversation - this conversation that he'd never intended on having in the first place, that he'd left in an effort to specifically avoid - was going somewhere he hadn't expected. And, judging from her expression, would continue in the manner she had determined.

"I can't do this anymore," she said, dropping her hand back to her side. "It's too much."

"I wasn't aware you were doing anything," he said.

"That's my point," she snapped, his irritation rubbing off on her. "I'm wasting my life, and spending far too much of my precious time completely caned on medication I'm prescribed because everyone tells me I'm wrong. And now you're here…" She had a hold of his damned sleeve again. "…and I know I'm not.

"I'm an adult," she breathed, "and I bloody well think it's time I acted like one."

She was so proud of her speech. He could tell. She must have been storing up those words for years, practicing them in her head, readying them for the right moment. She must have always imagined she would recite them to her parents, not to him - though, thinking about it, he supposed she might have, before she came to meet him here. It would explain why the color in her cheeks was so high. He could imagine her pacing about in the kitchen, having refused to give ground to her mother's demand to retreat to the study. She would be gesticulating wildly, fighting her side, wanting, for once, to be heard, wanting someone to understand her.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Snape said.

Hermione's bright eyes flashed. "Why not?"

"It's not healthy," he said. "What we're doing."

"Is it hurting anyone?" she said.

He bit his tongue; droplets of coppery blood slid between his teeth.

"Not yet," he said.

Her eyes widened. "Please don't tell me that's a threat," she whispered.

"What? No!" Snape protested, his face reddening. "Of course not. I'm not a monster."