CHAPTER 43
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 43 ~ The Results
Hermione was curled up on the couch reading when Eli came into the living room and cleared his throat. Hermione looked up.
“Harry Potter is at the gate, Miss. He wants to comes in to see you,” the elf said, rubbing his claws together. He could feel the tension emanating off the wizard even from a distance. This was not going to be a good visit, he was sure.
Hermione’s stomach dropped. Gods, she didn’t want to see Harry. She felt horrible about what Ginny heard her say, though she did mean it. She just didn’t mean for Ginny to hear it. Now Harry was here to take her to task most likely. Well, they were friends…friends were honest with each other. She took a deep breath.
“Drop the ward and let him in, Eli,” she said, closing her book and putting it on the end table.
“Yes Miss,” Eli said, and walked out the front door to let Harry in the gate.
Hermione smoothed her hair and straightened on the couch. In a moment, Harry entered the living room, his face sober. He was dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and trainers. The wizard looked as if he hadn’t slept well.
Harry took an armchair and looked at Hermione, frowning.
“You almost made Ginny leave me, Hermione. She has enough guilt of her own without you adding to it. I don’t appreciate what you said about her or you trying to tell me who to be with,” Harry said to her without a greeting.
“I was just telling you how I feel,” Hermione said defensively, “I didn’t plan on Ginny hearing me.”
Harry blinked at her.
“Well, here’s a headline for you Hermione. When it comes to Ginny, I don’t give a damn how you feel. And if you value our friendship, you will keep your opinions to yourself. I mean it,” Harry said darkly. “You think because you came to see me all those times that you are better than Ginny? Hermione, it didn’t make a difference to me. I mean, I’m glad you were so loyal and stuck by me, but if you did it to prove just how much of a friend you are and to lord it over me and everyone else, I’d rather you had just stayed away too.”
“What do you mean, lord it over you?” Hermione asked, frowning.
“I mean, trying to be seen as the long-suffering St. Hermione, that’s what I mean. That I owe you something because you came to see me all those times and found a way to bring me back. I’m grateful Hermione. I really am. But I can’t put you on a pedestal and push everyone else I care about away because they couldn’t do what you did. Ginny and I had a different relationship than you and I did. We were lovers. Intimate. It was harder for her than for you, Hermione, much harder…and she wasn’t as strong as you were. You look down on Ginny for what she did, but she did what she did to survive and keep going. You think you’re better than she is…but you aren’t. You just live under different circumstance. Look at what you’re doing. Fucking Snape so you can further yourself. What is that, Hermione? What does that make you if we use your standards? A witch who’s selling herself, a prostitute for knowledge. A whore for personal gain.”
Hermione flushed at Harry’s words.
“It’s an accepted practice to take a patron,” she said, falling back on tradition to shore her up.
“Well, for some it’s an accepted practice to have more than one lover at a time, or to have a lover who is the same sex. I’m sure it’s been going on from the beginning Hermione. Much longer than the wizarding world’s patronage system. You think I like the idea of Snape fucking you? He mistreated us almost the entire time we attended Hogwarts. He was particularly mean to you, Hermione…and now you’re letting him fuck you when he wishes, and keep you like a kept woman. Yes, it’s tradition…but a lot of people wouldn’t think it right. Do your parents know about your patronage?”
”Yes,” Hermione said uncomfortably.
“Do they know all of the details surrounding it? Did you tell them you had to sleep with Snape?” Harry asked her.
“No,” she admitted, “They wouldn’t have understood.”
“I imagine not,” Harry said darkly, “And what do you think they would think of you if they knew…or if anyone in the muggle world knew? Hmm?”
“I don’t know,” Hermione lied. She knew.
“They would think you weren’t a decent woman. Most mothers wouldn’t want you to marry their sons. You are no better than Ginny when you look at it like that, Hermione. You may not have slept around as much as she did, or have a witch for a lover, but you cock your legs for a man that mistreated you for years just to gain access what he has. At least Ginny loves me. Can you say the same thing about Snape?” he asked her.
“No. I can’t. But it’s not the way you’re describing it Harry,” Hermione said, her eyes glistening.
“Neither is my and Ginny’s relationship the way you describe it,” the wizard answered quietly. “I’m not judging you, Hermione. You have the right to live the way you want…no matter how I feel about Snape. I have the same rights. You hurt Ginny very badly with what you said. She wanted to leave me Hermione. She already feels like you do, that she isn’t good enough for me because of what she’s done the years I was without hope. But she is good enough, more than good enough. And she’s who I want. I won’t have you adding to her misery Hermione. I am trying to bring her out of it,” Harry said.
“I know you were being honest with me, but now I am going to be honest with you. I know this doesn’t sound remotely fair since we have been friends since we first started Hogwarts…but friendship doesn’t compare to love,” Harry said softly.
“I want you to stay away from me and Ginny for a while…a good while until we can get things straightened out between us. I love you Hermione, but you have hurt someone else I love…someone I want to spend my life with. You’ve made this into a situation where I have to choose who I focus on. I choose Ginny,” the wizard said.
Tears began to fall from Hermione’s eyes. She really didn’t have anyone she truly considered a friend other than Harry. She had associates…but not good true friends.
“Harry, I’m so sorry. So sorry,” she gasped, “I just…I don’t know what it was. I wanted you to need me after all these years…not Ginny. Ginny wasn’t there. I was,” she said.
“Hermione, I will always need you. You’re my friend,” Harry said, echoing Severus’ words. “But Ginny is more than a friend. She’s my heart. You have to remember, no time passed for me during those eight years. I love the witch, Hermione…and to have you in my life right now when she knows you feel that she’s not worthy of me, would cause additional strain on our relationship…and I don’t want that. So I’m going to have to leave you alone for a while. But just for a while. Just until I show Ginny that no matter what anyone else thinks, I love her,” Harry said, standing up and opening his arms to Hermione.
Crying, Hermione stood up and hugged Harry as if she would never see him again. This was worse than when he was under the Kiss.
“Harry, can’t we just forget…” she began as Harry pulled away from her.
He looked as if his heart were breaking. The wizard took a deep breath.
“No Hermione, it’s too late to forget. The damage is done and I have to fix it. I can’t fix it if you’re around adding salt to the wound. I’m sorry. I have to go,” the wizard said, heading for the door.
Hermione watched him go. When he walked through the outer gate, Hermione ran to the door.
“Harry, I love you!” she called to him, tears rolling freely down her face.
Harry looked at her.
“I love you too, Hermione,” he said softly, then disapparated.
Hermione closed the door, walked back into the living room and curled up on the couch.
She had brought this on herself. She should have just kept her mouth shut and let Harry be happy with Ginny. Now he had been forced to choose, and made the only choice that he could. Everyone wanted love, true love. Harry was no different. He was denied so much for so long because of who he was. He couldn’t travel freely or do the things that children did his age because of Voldemort. He was always afraid that the people he cared for would meet sticky ends because of him. Everyone he loved…his mother, his father and Sirius, died because of him. Now he was free and he loved Ginny, and there was no one trying to destroy them.
No one but Hermione. Yet she was no Dark Lord. He could do something about her.
The wizard did what he had to do for the sake of his own happiness.
He walked away. Not forever…but for long enough to give himself and Ginny a chance at happiness without a shadow hanging over their heads.
Hermione sat there, numb.
Harry had dumped her.
Hermione realized that Harry wasn’t the only one living in the past. Harry used to listen to her logic when they were students. She could boss him around and get him to do what she wanted. Harry was no longer that wizard, but Hermione had tried to treat him like he was, to make him listen to her. And that’s where she blew it.
Now, all she could do was wait and see if their friendship could be repaired.
The witch hung her head…and then…she cried.
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On Friday, Severus arrived to find all the potions work he’d given Hermione, completed. He also found the witch clean and healthy, and therefore ripe for the plucking. He was more than ready to light into her. But Hermione gave him a half-hearted greeting.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked her. He figured the witch would be so randy for him, she would have dragged him into her/his bedroom by now.
“Harry doesn’t want to see me for a while,” the witch said glumly.
Severus sat down in the armchair next to hers.
“Trouble in Paradise?” he asked.
He wondered what the witch did to jeopardize their friendship.
“Ginny is so lucky to have a wizard who loves her and isn’t afraid to say or show it,” Hermione said, “I was jealous, Severus. Jealous of her and Harry. But not because I wanted Harry for myself…but because of what they had. I tried to ruin it. I realize that now.”
“What happened?” the Potions Master asked her, suspecting Hermione had said something she should have just kept to herself. Hermione sighed.
“Harry mentioned wanting to marry her, and I grew furious and implied…no stated that Ginny wasn’t good enough because of all the men she’d slept with and because she had a witch for a lover…and Ginny walked in and heard me,” she said quietly.
“Ouch,” Severus thought. The witch had certainly stuck her foot in it.
“I presume Harry made a choice between the two of you, choosing Ginny. Well, I tried to warn you, Hermione,” the Potions Master said softly. “Harry is his own man. I guess you realize that now.”
Hermione nodded miserably.
“Yes, I do. And I miss him already,” she said, starting to cry.
Severus looked at her helplessly. This was not what he had expected to walk into…
Then the Slytherin in him came to the fore as he looked at the distraught witch. She hurt and needed comfort…tenderness…
The wizard’s eyes glittered.
He could give her that.
He stood up, walked over to the liquor cabinet, opened it, took out a bottle of wine and poured a bit in a glass. He walked back over to Hermione and gave it to her, setting the bottle on the nightstand.
“In situations like this, Hermione…’drowning your sorrows’ can be good therapy,” he said, handing her the glass.
Hermione looked at the sparkling liquid and took the glass from him.
“Thank you,” she said, drinking the wine straight down as Severus returned to the armchair. He refilled her glass the moment she set the glass down on the table.
Hermione looked at him.
“Are you trying to get me drunk, Severus?” she asked him.
The wizard’s dark eyes met hers.
“Yes,” he replied.
Hermione studied him, then picked up the glass of wine.
“Good. I was just making sure,” she said, bringing the glass to her lips, the Professor watching her closely…a small smirk on his lips.
Tonight was going to be interesting.
Thank you, Mr. Potter.
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A/N: Well, that was a bit harsh, but Harry only did what he thought was best. And Severus, what a vulture he is…swooping down on the remains of their friendship and using it as a catalyst to get what he wants. Hermione doesn’t seem to care and wants to just tie one on. Severus will help her there…and afterwards…most likely help himself to a well-oiled witch. Please review.