Severus Snape pulled at the cold iron ring that served as the handle of the church's ancient and pitted oak door. It was nearly midnight. This was the only time he ever came to the church for Hogsmeade, the all-wizarding village on whose outskirts this church lay, was often bustling during the day and early evening. He didn't enjoy the thought of being packed into a church with Muggles who would annoy him and the Wizarding faithful who might recognize him. He was still wanted, after all.
It was November, five months after he had…
Well, anyway.
It had been five months since he'd had a moment's peace. Peace. That was not the right word. It never would be the right word.
There was a merciless groan from the hinges and he exhaled in annoyance. All he wanted was fifteen minutes to center himself with silence, and even that was proving impossible.
A dark hooded figure, decidedly feminine, was kneeling in a pew in the front of the church. "I wouldn't expect to find you here."
He froze, but he recognized that voice, though not without a bit of surprise. "Nor I, you." She had not even turned around. This unnerved Severus for, after two decades of mastering Occlumency, he would have thought that he would be able to hide himself well from the likes of Hermione Granger. But he bypassed her sudden onset of sixth sense and shut the heavy door behind him. What surprised him even more was that Granger didn't already have a wand at his throat.
"This is my last stop before we leave tonight." She crossed herself and stood up. Her dark traveling robes billowed around her in the draft. Hermione pushed the hood from her head but pulled her cloak tighter around her. The early winter chill had a tendency to seep into the bones, and even Snape, who had spent over a decade in the dungeons at Hogwarts, was feeling it. She was slight now, having lost at least fifteen pounds since last he'd seen her.
"You really are going then. You really are going to follow Potter to the end."
No smile, but the corner of her mouth twitched. "Even you followed Dumbledore to your demise."
So. She did know. That explained why he still had his head. She walked down the aisle toward him but did not make a move for her wand.
"I had nothing else to live for," he answered evenly.
She put all her weight on the door and Snape could see it took all her strength to open it. How would she survive out there with Potter and Weasely? He wondered fleetingly if he'd ever see her alive again.
Her words traveled on a foggy breath there in the cold doorway. "If Voldemort succeeds, no one will have much else to live for… Sir."
Snape said nothing and let the high rafters swallow her last echoing words.