Chapter 16: Unanswered questions

"This... Cough cough, did I hear you right...did you say you knew where the Prince family ancestral ring is?" this was quite a shock to Severus, he couldn't believe that Hermione Granger knew this.

'Could it be that the whole story she told me was true, maybe she wasn't the Hermione Granger of canon, but it's too much of a coincidence to rule it out, but it's also impossible that she could know where my family ring was otherwise' Severus began to question internally.

'Mmmm maybe her relatives knew and before they died they told her or had it in their family records, damn, I don't know' Severus was almost convinced that she was Hermione Granger, her way of talking, acting, her need to explain everything, she matched the description of Hermione Granger and she also looked identical.

'It could be that it was all just a coincidence, a dirty trick that Death was playing on him as he was two people in one body in this world, and maybe since the union of their souls things had already started to change in the canon of this world. Damn, too many unknowns and she's not helping me solve any of them' Severus had so far verified that everything had happened just as described in the canon of Harry Potter's world and it had only been a few hours since the union of their souls, how was it even possible that so many things had already altered in the world, none of this made any sense to Severus.

"Oh, it seems you are interested in my story now aren't you? Severus Snape" Hermione couldn't help but control herself and tease the confused young Severus a little in front of her.

Severus was getting more and more confused, he couldn't understand well anything that was happening, he knew that it was impossible for someone who wasn't related to a pureblood family to know where the ancestral ring of the family was, his mother never told him anything about the Prince family ring, not because she didn't know, but because she was denied to everything related to the Prince family.

And now the person Severus was sure was Hermione Granger from the future, she comes and tells him that she is a distant relative of his family and that she also knows where the ancestral ring of the Prince family is, with which Severus could become the heir, that without a doubt was more than enough to believe that she was a distant relative as she said, that obviously if it were not because she is the exact replica of Hermione Granger and that she also has the same name, many coincidences, but now Severus did not know what was possible and what was not.

He couldn't rule out the possibilities that all this was a complete lie, but it could also be all true and that scared him more, because if everything she said wasn't a lie and she wasn't from the future as he thinks, everything he knows about canon could be starting to vary without him doing anything, because if it was true that she was his relative things would only get more complicated, now Severus would have to be careful to see what else changed in canon with the union of their souls.

But for now, he had to leave that for later and think about his current situation with this supposed Hermione Prince who claims to be a cousin of him.

'Mmmmmmmm if she was from the future maybe she got the information from the adult Snape, yes, maybe Snape in the future discovered the location of the ring and told her, but that was highly unlikely considering the dislike he had for most people in canon, especially towards Hermione Granger, unless my future self was forced to tell, he wouldn't mention or give the location of the Prince family ring to others, no matter what his future self was, he could tell that it was almost impossible for him to say something so intimate about his life under any measure and considering that Hermione's current age is the same as his(he knew this thanks to the magical scan he did of her body), there wasn't much chance that Hermione in her 5th year at Hogwarts would have gotten future Severus to reveal something so important to him.

Obviously, there was also the variant that the future was different from the one he knew, and for some reason, Hermione traveled to the past, but it was still hard to believe, especially if one also took into account that time travel so many years into the past could not be permanent, it was an unbreakable magical law and as long term as the one he would be witnessing in case she was a Hermione Granger of the future.

Unless she decided to travel and then return to her time and die for the added years, which had no logic.

There were many possibilities and nothing certain, for now, Severus had no choice but to wait and take his time to listen to the young woman in front of him, and then he would be discerning the truth about the whole thing, if she was from the future, sooner or later she would have to return to her time, it is a fixed rule in time travel, now if not, he would have to consider more things, but for now, it loses nothing to play along and believe her version of things.

"Well, first, you can call me Severus, and second, I'm going to be very honest with you Miss Hermione, I find it very hard to believe your version of things, but I can't deny that it has surprised me and even made me question the things you say, now I'm starting to believe that it could be true, but for now let's get back to the matter of the Prince family ancestral ring, what exactly do you want in exchange for telling me where it is? " admitted and asked Severus in his usual cold voice, but much more sociable than before, his tone had stopped being so dry, direct, harsh and intimidating, he didn't need to get information out of Hermione anymore, he knew he won't get more than what she already told him, so there was no need to keep acting harsh and intimidating in front of her.

To say that Hermione was surprised by the sudden change in young Severus' attitude is an understatement, she was very confused, she hadn't expected the young man in front of her to be acting intimidating and irritable on purpose, she would have sworn that young Severus was just like the adult Snape, with some small changes, but no, she was wrong, he was not only more sociable and open when talking now, but he also didn't seem to be bothered one bit by the fact that she was a squib-born mudblood.

'Come to think of it in the whole conversation he never showed any signs of displeasure at the mention of my squib family mixed with muggles and etc, he just looked irritated at my constant explanation, but nothing else, how odd'

Hermione knew he was a half-blood but like Voldemort, he did not consider his father's blood his own, Voldemort called himself a pureblood and abhorred him who was not or did not believe in blood supremacy and it was her understanding that Severus believed in the same ideals as the dark lord, Severus hated his father and compared all muggles to him, that's why he wanted to serve a powerful wizard-like Voldemort, but apparently he wasn't that way, or didn't show much interest in it at least.

'Maybe he only appeared that way on the outside, but inside he was never really like that' Hermione began to question herself, remembering the different scenes in which she saw a young Severus Snape behaving like a typical blood purist.

She could now tell that the Severus in front of her was very different from what she thought he would be, not only did he deceive her with his attitude at first, but now he was completely different.

Yes, Severus was still cold and quite dark, but much more relaxed when talking, to the point where he told her what he had been thinking, something the adult Severus would never do, Professor Snape always kept his thoughts and doubts to himself, always being mysterious, cold and dark, never letting anyone know what was going on in his head, but Hermione was now in front of a young Severus who was admitting his doubts and leaving himself open to talk like more sociable people, he even told her to call him by his name, that was almost unthinkable for Hermione, to call Professor Snape by his name, that was only done by Headmaster Dumbledore along with a few others.

"Miss Hermione?" spoke Severus again interrupting Hermione's inner thoughts, who apparently had been thinking longer than she should have, making Severus a bit nervous who thought that maybe she was thinking about what to ask him in return for telling him about the location of the Prince family ancestral ring.

"Hermione," she said directing a serious look at him.

"EH?" Severus was quite confused by the serious look she gave him, he didn't understand what she was meant by saying his name so seriously.

"If I'm going to call you S-Se-Severus, it seems logical to me that you call me also just by my name" Hermione answered quite seriously as if she wanted to validate her logic and the importance she gave to this matter, she made mention of Severus' name with a bit of difficulty, but strangely pleased to be able to call him by his name and not as Snape or professor.

Severus who saw the serious look on Hermione's face as they talked about such a mundane matter as names and how to address each other, couldn't help but laugh.

Seeing Severus laugh so suddenly surprised Hermione even more who was not expecting these reactions from him.

"Puff, sorry sorry sorry, I didn't expect that to be such an important matter, I expected another answer from you when I saw that serious look on your face, I don't know, like something related to what you wanted for the ring or anything else really, it just surprised me," Severus said trying to hold back his laughter.

Hermione was dumbfounded, she could swear that not even in her wildest dreams or thoughts could she ever see this scene before, but now she was seeing the stoic, the unchanging, cold, dry, hard, and dark Severus Snape laughing and apologizing like it was nothing, worst of all his laughter was so unique, he had a deep and cold tone of voice that when he laughed created something unique and very pleasant to listen to, that day Hermione realized that Severus when he laughed, was quite charming, but she was brought out of her thoughts again by Severus Snape's call.

"Hermione?" Severus called her name in his deep, cold voice, making Hermione freeze.

It was so strange for her to hear that unique voice of Severus Snape's calling her only by name, but Hermione had to admit that it wasn't unpleasant at all.

"Yes?" she replied without thinking too much.

"I'm still waiting for an answer, I don't want to be nosy either but I would recommend you to stop getting so lost in your thoughts, otherwise the conversations you have will become quite awkward" Severus spoke again and suggested good-naturedly to her to stop thinking so much while talking.

This made Hermione fall again that the young man in front of her could be very similar to the future Professor Snape, but no doubt he was completely different now and that could save him, he couldn't be a death eater again, something she would make sure wouldn't happen in this time.

"Sorry..., this, well, it tends to happen to me quite a bit and thank you, I will take your advice into consideration. Regarding what I want for the location of the Prince family ancestral ring, I partly already told you, so you can guess a bit already" he apologized and thanked Hermione a bit embarrassed and surprised.

"To sum up, what I ask Severus is that you integrate me into the Prince family as a distant cousin of yours, I want to be able to appear as Hermione Prince as part of the Prince magical family from now on, also that you as the next head of the Prince family give me your absolute support with all the paperwork that I will be doing at the Ministry and also enter Hogwarts, Hermione needed all these things to be able to integrate in this time.