Disclaimer: I don't own Hermione or Severus, or the Sarah McLachlan song this is loosely based on. At this point in 'Mione's life, she is overcome by her desperation, validating her seemingly out of character actions. As for Severus, well, newfound realizations are such a bitch.
Cam
Hermione stood silent just outside the doors of her school. Lightning and thunder flashed and crackled in the torpid air. She lifted her chin in ecstasy when the wind picked up, whistling through her ears in perfect accompaniment to the rain starting. The sound was its own voice, a pining lover of better days. Hermione just watched as the torrent began, soaking her already-flimsy blue nightgown and plastering down her normally-bushy hair. She rejoiced in the darkness of the storm and the lonely feeling that had stirred her bones into it. And for the first time, she let her wanting run rampant, telling itself to the skies.
"I want to kiss you," she screamed. "I want to push you down somewhere and kiss you until you gasp for breath. And I want you to cry so I can dry your eyes and say 'there, there, all better,' so you'll shut your eyes and go to sleep with me watching!" She screamed it again and again until she sobbed out a name and sank into the mud puddle that had formed around her feet.
She didn't know the owner of the name was behind her. He stepped out and forward, his dark eyes hiding any trace of compassion he might perhaps feel. But when he jerked her forward and up she wasn't afraid, as so many were. Truth be told, it felt too much like a dream for her to really worry. He snarled something poetic about rain and Hermione responded in kind, but her mind was only on the two hands holding her arms so tight. Propriety be damned, she had let open the floodgates and the waves of her longing crashed out. It took him by surprise and he asked her to tell him what she had screamed earlier.
"I want to kiss you," she whispered. "I want to push you down somewhere and kiss you until you gasp for breath. And I want you to cry so I can dry your eyes and say 'there, there, all better,' so you'll shut your eyes and go to sleep with me watching, Severus."
Without a word he had her by the wrist and was dragging her inside the formidable castle, leading her up and down stairs she had never even seen before. He thrust her into his chambers, knowing full well the fear she finally exuded was trapping her. But he let her do what she wanted, even managing the sudden realization it was what he wanted as well
The next morning dawned pale and lovely; the night's storm had passed. Hermione went back to her Head Girl quarters quietly, completely unprepared for the day of lies that lay ahead. The only reality, she conceded, was the one she had created for herself with him. And in a moment of fierce cliché, she made a vow to keep him near her forever. She would not be denied.