Chocolate Enchantment

Chapter 26: Facing Off and Finding Space

Chapter 26: Facing Off and Finding Space

"What are you going to do, Remus, kill him?" Hermione asked the werewolf as she stood intertwined with her husband in the back corner of the book store. She refused to let go, though Severus was trying to nudge her arms away.

"It's crossed my mind. He killed Dumbledore, or are you too in his thrall to remember that?"

"I remember perfectly. It tore me apart to hear what happened, not knowing what to think, what to believe. It tore him apart too." Hermione turned to face Remus, keeping Severus in the niche behind her. "He didn't have a choice."

"He didn't have a choice? What is that supposed to mean? Either you choose to kill someone or you don't. There's always a choice." Remus's eyes were feral, his gaze hard and angry, his teeth all but bared as his animal instincts pushed him on.

Severus didn't like Hermione standing in front of him and pushed her out of the way, his charcoal gray eyes piercing her. "You will not stand between me and danger. Never."

The man is such an idiot sometimes. "What good is it going to do me if you're dead? How long do you suppose I'll live to help Harry? Just how long will I be able to think straight enough to be useful against the Dark Lord before I'm too mad with grief to do anything at all?" Though the look she was giving him would have had Ron begging for leniency, Severus didn't respond. If it weren't for the slight fluctuation in his emotions, she wouldn't know her words had made any impact at all. Unfortunately the fluctuation was so fleeting she hadn't been able to identify it.

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked. He still held his wand firmly on Severus, though his eyes shifted between the two of them.

Huffing in irritation, Hermione cast a silencing bubble around them so they wouldn't attract attention.

"First, how did you know?" Severus asked.

"I was there when she came back from your arms. I could smell your stink on her. I am a werewolf, remember." Remus glared and kept his wand trained on Severus.

"How could I possibly forget?" Severus asked with a sneer, though his sneers weren't nearly as effective in his current body. "Why didn't you say something at the time?"

Remus's cheek twitched, his jaw was clenched so tight. "I couldn't say anything in front of everyone else. I was the only one who knew she had been passing information on Death Eater activity to the Order. If I had considered things a little more I would have realized it was you. I planned to pull her aside to talk first. Then I was going to squish the miserable life from your body for even thinking of touching her. You are her teacher. How despicable can you get?"

"I assure you, it would never have crossed my mind without the little potion the Weasley twins exposed us to. If you have to blame anyone, blame them, but leave me out of it. Having her in my life has seriously complicated things."

"You're intertwined in it though, Severus. I can't leave you out."

Disgusted by the way they were speaking over and around her as if she weren't there, Hermione nudged her husband none-too-gently with her elbow. How nervy of him to tell someone else she had complicated his life—even if it was the truth. "Remus, if you knew about all those Muggle lives, and the Creeveys, Longbottoms and whomever else were saved only because Severus is in his position to spy, how could you not wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was ample explanation for what happened? Did it never occur to you that perhaps the Headmaster may have been human, but he wasn't a fool? That maybe he required more proof of Severus's loyalty than a few tears? And that maybe he didn't feel it necessary to share his reasons with Harry? Or you? Or Mad-Eye, or even Professor McGonagall?"