You're Married, Professor! Prologue
Teen · Romance · Drama · Humor · Post-War · Established Relationship · Multi-chapter · On Hiatus
I declare that the whole world of Harry Potter is the sole property of J.K. Rowling and that this story was not written for profit.
Hermione looked at her trunk and smiled. She glanced around the room she had lived in for a whole year and allowed herself a little melancholy. It was strange. So much had happened in the last five years that she didn't know what to focus on first. Then she stroked the ring on her finger and chuckled.
When Harry killed Voldemort, Hermione went with the boys to Auror training. Even though they hadn't finished their education, their status as war heroes allowed them to skip it. Hermione was a little sorry she hadn't finished school. But she convinced herself she could manage. Then she realised she would never make a good Auror. She didn't need excitement, nor paperwork. She wanted to work in research, or teach. She loved Potions and Transfiguration. And that was where she hit a snag. Education.
With a sigh she asked Minerva McGonagall whether she could come back to school. Minerva told her she could, but unfortunately not for another two years, because there simply wasn't room. Hermione despaired a little, because she had no idea what she would do for those two years. Then Minerva told her that Professor Snape had started teaching at a university overseas and needed an assistant who would teach on certain days of the week and mark students' work, and she asked Hermione straight out whether she would like to take it as a kind of preparation, so she wouldn't fall out of practice. Apparently she had no problem with Hermione's unfinished education. And so she accepted.
Severus Snape worked Monday to Wednesday at Hogwarts, and on Thursdays and Fridays he travelled to the Ohio University of Potioneering. As Hermione found out, he planned to teach there full time later, but he was still bound by his contract at Hogwarts, which wouldn't run out for another two years. She worked out easily that by then he wouldn't be teaching her anymore. Surprisingly, she found that she would be rather sorry about it.
Even though she moved in a week before the school year started, she only met him at the opening feast. She saw him roll his eyes as Minerva explained who she had taken on as his assistant. But otherwise he said nothing. After the feast he stopped by her and asked her to walk with him down to the dungeons. To talk.
That evening they had tea together, agreed to use first names and spent a thoroughly pleasant evening chatting about what Hermione had done so far and what Severus expected from her.
During the first half of the year she fell in love with Severus. How? Gradually. It started with friendship, they spent a lot of time together, then came fleeting touches when she took papers from him. She noticed that he had stopped wearing his infamous frock coat and started wearing a white shirt and black dress trousers, and then one day he came in with his hair cut. But what was interesting was that Hermione had never noticed Severus's hair was silver. And then it dawned on her. He dyed it. The life he had led must have left its mark on him. And that was the moment she fell for him. She fell in love. And she had to figure out what to do about it, because working with him was getting harder and harder. She noticed the way he smiled and the way he laughed when she said something that amused him. What she didn't know was that Severus felt the same. The change in his appearance was caused by feelings that were slowly making their way through him. When he asked her to dinner, she thought she would die of happiness. She dressed carefully, and that evening she fell for Severus completely.
Six months later they got married. Hermione stroked her ring and sighed. Severus had looked incredibly handsome at the altar. Their photograph hung both in their flat in the dungeons and in the flat in Ohio. And that was where Hermione was heading now. She had stopped working as Severus's assistant last year, when he could finally start teaching at the university full time. She had been sad about it, they only saw each other at weekends, when she travelled across the ocean to him, and she spent that last year studying so she could start at the university where he taught, as a student. And finally the day had come...
Hermione let the house elves take her trunk. She went to say goodbye to Minerva and set off to sort out her personal matters at the Ministry before travelling for the last time. Her choice of partner had come hand in hand with an unpleasant falling out with Harry and Ron, and with Ginny too, but there was nothing to be done. She would find other friends in Ohio. She would never forget these ones, she would probably keep writing to them and waiting for an answer. She would still want to make up, but that would be their choice now.
When she was done, she stepped out in front of the building and smiled. She pulled the official intercontinental Portkey out of her pocket and looked around Diagon Alley one last time before she squeezed it. She appeared in Ohio on a street much like the one in England and went to return the Portkey at the local branch of the Ministry, which would hand it in at headquarters. Then she walked down the street towards the exit into the Muggle part of Ohio to catch the bus home.
You might also like
Mimosa Confiante
By day, I work somewhere between marketing, copy and campaigns; by night, I usually end up somewhere between fanfiction, cosplay and yet another “what if” that refuses to leave me alone. I write mainly in the Harry Potter and Mo Dao Zu Shi fandoms, most often Snarry, Snamione, HarryLu and WangXian. My healthcare background means that anatomy, medicine and far too much research occasionally find their way into my stories. Cosplay is another way for me to play with the characters I love, whether I stay close to canon or turn them into my own fanfiction and AU versions. In Diary of a Slytherin Girl with ADHD, I write openly about life with a brain that usually has far too many tabs open at once.
📖 More stories on AO3 and Wattpad · 📸 Instagram · 🎥 TikTok · 👉 More about me
