Author's note: Ah! I am attempting to start and finish another story. They're not my characters, just some toys in my toybox I've deceided to play with! I hope you enjoy the story. It's a response to WIKTT: Broken challenge. I apologize for grammar and spelling mistakes I don't have a beta, but if anyone is interested...

Hope you enjoy! Review Lots!

Chapter One

It had been a year. 5 years of treading on shakey ground and broken glass, for both of them. Five years since the final battle, since everyone died. Hermione was alone. Except for him, and that was a subject she didn't even want to get started on. They lived together, like they had been for the 6 moths prior to the battle, but now it was more like coexsisting. They hardly spoke, Severus Snape had taken to sleeping in the guest bedroom of his own apartments. Hermione kept the heavy hunter green velvet drapes drawn over the full length windows. She hardly ever left the room anymore. There was no one to see, no one to talk to. She let herself waste away all by herself. Holed up in Severus' former bedroom.

It was obvious their relationship had taken a beating. They almost never spoke to one another unless it was to fight or blame the other for something. About 3 times a month Severus would go to Hermione for squelchy, mechanical sex. She just laid there, unaffected. "How's the weather doing today? What did the house elves cook for lunch? Did you pay the water bill?" running through her head as he spent himself inside of her.

Severus often wondered how he'd let it get to this point. Why didn't they just let go and move on? Then he realised that neither one of them had anything to move onto. All Hermione had left was the occasional visit from an ever pregnant Ginny Weasley-Potter who seemed to have taken it upon herself to replace those lost in the war. Harry, once her closest companion, no longer spoke to her. Not since she told him about her and Snape.

She and Severus had everything going in their relationship. They were compatable in every way. Intellectually they matched one another and what she was missing he had because of age. They shared everything with one another, secrets, stories, desires, hopes and dreams. Everything was going to be perfect. Until he didn't return from a gathering one night in May five years earlier. She knew that her life wouldn't be the same. Of course, she knew that about 2 weeks earlier, when she was checking her calender and saw she was about 12 days late. Hermione was going to tell him that night. She never did. Twodays later he stumbled back onto Hogwarts grounds, bleeding and gasping for breath. Hagrid found him and Hermione had spent days and nights by him in the hospital wing, while the battle raged outside.
Her sleepless nights and constant worrying cost her her child and in the end the only reason she and Severus had survived the battle was because he had been in a coma and she refused to leave him by himself. She never told him.

Now when he came to her she struggled inside of her head. Thoughts somewhere between lunchtime and water bills were hopes of maybe him getting her pregnant again and despairing cries that she never have to go through that again.
They were to wed that summer. A small ceremony. She had the perfect dress on a stand in the guest room. It still sat there, even though it was now Severus' room. He found himslef reaching out for it from time to time. Wishing his Hermione would come back to him the way she was. He regretted surviving the battle as well, but what had driven her to this? She barely ate, seemingly afraid of food, and when she did eat it was small portions of meat and vegtables, hardly anything to sustain her, really.

Couldn't she see how much he cared for her? Anyone else would've been done with her. 5 years of no response from her, hardly any acknowledgement at all, but he stayed with her, hoping that one day she would snap out of it. 'Maybe today will be the day', his first thought as he woke up in the early morning, but as he sat down to breakfast alone, he realised that today was not the day and tomorrow wasn't likely to be the day either.

Hermione dangled her legs over the side of the bed. She threw the down duvet from her legs and stood up slowly, so not to become faint. She padded her way to the bathroom to complete her morning routine for the first time in a couple of weeks. She'd become a very dirty young woman.

After a long, hot shower, Hermione stepped out of the bathroom, her skin pink from scrubbing herself raw. She wrapped herself up in the large white terry bathrobe and walked into the breakfast room adjoining the small kitchen. Severus was still at the head of the table. When he saw her he nearly spit his tea all over himself.

"Hermione, what are you doing out of bed?"

"Taking a shower, eating breakfast." She motioned towards the basket of toast sat in the middle of the table. "Could you pass me the lemon curd?"

"Sure." He passed the small, ornate jar to her and watched her eat in silence.

"I'm tired Severus." She looked up at him between bites to see his reaction to this statement. Nothing. He kept looking at his paper.

"Then go back to bed. Maybe if you ate more, you wouldn't be so tired all the time."

"I meant of this." She gestured at the space between them with the knife in her hand. He sighed and put his paper down.

"We are both guilty of 'this'." he replied, mocking her gesture. "What are you trying to tell me? If you want to leave you could have done it ages ago. I've already moved out of my bed, I won't move out of my apartments completely for you."

Hermione bit her bottom lip. She knew from experience that although his words and tones were harsh he didn't mean it the way it sounded. He was right, he had given up a lot for her where other men would have just sent her away. She was eternally grateful for that. She maybe even loved him for that. Loved him. Again. She hadn't felt like that in years, especially for him.

"I wasn't asking you to, I -"

"Well then what is it? Can't you ever arrive at a point in conversation?" He snapped.

"Not with you yelling at me, no." She replied quietly, dangerously.

"Then what is it?" He asked, picking up his paper again.

"I want to go out."

"Then go. You know the passwords, I promise not to change them while you're gone."

"I want to go with you." She whispered, staring at her feet like a child.

"I have classes."

"Maybe, for dinner?"

Exasperated, Snape threw his paper down on the side of his plate.
"We have house elves to cook for us, do our shopping, why are you insisting on this? It's a waste of money and my time."

Hermione snorted at his 'waste of money' comment. He was so tight fisted. She knew that money was no issue.
"I wanted us to go out. Like we used to."

"I can hardly remember it was so long ago." He replied sourly. He looked up and saw that tears threatened to fall down her face. He almost immediately regretted his comment. Almost.
On that note, Severus stood up and buttoned the last few buttons on the collar of his robes. "I have classes until 3. I will see you this evening." And with that he left.

Hermione let the tears fall this time, hot against her red face. She was ready for change. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he had been and she missed her chance. It was worth another shot, she decided. She needed to change things. She knew there were problems, lots of them but she wanted to put things right. Like an old teacup with cracks, she wanted to mend everything and make it useful and beautiful again. But maybe this teacup was destined to break in her hands. She shuddered to think about where she'd be without Severus. Looking around at the rooms that lay in a slight state of disorder she immeditaly got around to cleaning. If he didn't want to go out that was fine. She'd cook for him.

This first chapter is dedicated to everyone who has read my other, unfinished stories. I apologize for my hiatus from them and I can definitely promise good things from this one. For everyone who reviewed them, thank you so much. Where your praise should have motivated me, I let you down by never posting more chapeters. I should be thankful for one review, instead of upset I didn't receive more. I promise not to have that outlook any longer. Thanks.