Fate Set Right

Chapter 37

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August 20, 1978

Severus,

I've made it back to Hogwarts by train but arriving ahead of everyone else has made the journey quite strange. Professor Dellard, Elinor, has been as eager for me to begin as I have been. It feels strange to be in the castle to learn, yet not be required to dress the part of a student. It feels like I've been at Hogwarts for the majority of my life, but that's because it often seems as though life only began when I arrived here in this era.

And now I've grown maudlin, which wasn't my intention.

Missing you has become easier since our friends and I have gone our separate ways. It feels more natural now for you to be where you are, since we're embarking on the journey to apprenticeship together. Though I do wish I could have maintained a friendship with Remus, but he seems to hold little interest in that. Sirius, I'm afraid, is the only one I'm still in contact with, as it seems even Lily has disappeared.

I wish I had more to say, but really, I merely wanted to write you a letter to tell you that I love you. I love you and I miss you, always.

Yours,

H.

Hermione clutched the letter in her hand as she walked through the silent school to the Owlery. Occasionally, as she would walk through a beam of light, she would look down at her left hand and inspect the emerald and diamond ring as its facets shone. She loved her ring, everything about it. She'd penned a letter to both Prince women to extend her thank yous for letting Severus give it to her, and both wrote back how they looked forward to seeing it on her hand in person. She loved that it was more Severus' house colors than her own, because she was not at all ashamed to be a Gryffindor marrying a Slytherin. It made her smile as her heart warmed with every look at it, so much so that for the short time she was with the McGonagalls, Delia teased her mercilessly over her examination of it.

"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said from behind her, and Hermione stopped, slowly raising her Occluding walls more than her norm as she turned to face the headmaster. He smiled at her. "I was wondering if I might have a word with you?"

"Of course," Hermione replied. "Could I meet you in your office? I'll only post this letter and I will be there shortly.

"Of course," he agreed as Hermione felt him prodding her mind. She slipped an image of Sirius past her walls, just a flash, and she felt the headmaster retreat. "We'll say fifteen minutes?"

She nodded in acceptance and continued on her way.

Severus had told her the night of their engagement party of his interaction with Dumbledore.

"He's dead set against it," he had said, lying next to her in their borrowed bed at Malfoy Manor, nothing but a blanket covering him. "He is utterly adamant that I remain alone. Unattached."

She hadn't said anything, merely smirked.

It made Severus smirk back. "You know something."

"I always know something," she retorted.

"Yes, but something that means this is—"

"I know enough to know for sure that Dumbledore will not get his way."

She had, of course, been thinking of Severus' daughter. The daughter who bore a slight resemblance to her, enough that some even remarked on it. The daughter she was now confident was her own. And she remembered from her former life that Dumbledore wasn't so convinced that Severus...