After three years of working together he was her best friend.
Married to Ron but living at hogwarts where she became the history of magic teacher shortly after graduating, hermione had never really given up her passion for potions.
So when, after two months of teaching here, severus was injured in an explosion in a first year potions class and therefore couldnt brew remus's wolfsbane potion single handedly dumbledore suggested hermione as an assistant. After some convincing severus agreed and so began the rocky road to the friendship they now have.
And a good friendship it is, it took some coaxing but severus finally opened up to hermione and she to him and these days there probably isnt a single thing they don't know about each other, from the mistakes severus has made in the past, to the troubles in hermiones marriage.
And it was this one afternoon sitting in severus's lounge room infront of his fire that they were discussing the latest hiccup.
You see hermione wasnt happy, Ron followingin harrys footsteps like a good little side kick had of course gone off to become an auror. Being away from each other was hard on the couple in the beginning and they started seeing less and less of each other, hermione began to doubt rons fedelity and when she questioned him one night the abuse began. It was a simple push at first, and eventually got worse and worse, the time apart didnt help, especially when ron would make special visits on a friday for a purpose that hermione just wasnt up to after a long day with bothersome students. And the bruises didnt go unnoticed. Severus just couldnt belive hermione would allow herself to become one of those girls. She just couldnt see all those that cared about her around her and realise that this man, this boy was nothing but an abuser, and he would never change.
He remained supportive but he hated to see hermione hurting.
This day during their tea severus had noted the wince hermone gave as she leaned forward to place down her tea cup.
" what was that?" he asked suspicious and worried.
" its nothing sev honestly'" she replied dismissively.
" hermione,seriously im no fool'" severus said standing up and walking towards her.
When he reached her he placed his hand on her shoulder, she winced as if in pain and he slid the shirt down to reveal an angry purple and yellow bruise.
" hermione what now." he asked solemnly afraid of the answer.
" its nothing I couldnt fix myself sev seriously im fine im used to it now'"
" hermione you cant keep letting this happen what was his reason this time"
" he just got a little angry, it was friday sev you know what he expects, I just couldn't this week, I forgot to tell him, its that time of the month and well he got angry and threw me across the room onto the bed, my shoulder dislocated but its okay, thats the least of it that I can fix."
" hermione," severus said fear creeping into him making his blood go cold " he didnt.. "
" no sev, I, I was in pain too much screaming for him so he just up and left, telling me im a pathetic wife on his way'' she said, nonchalantly, shed been through this too mny times before for it to affect her any more.
Inside severus's heart was breaking, he cared about this woman more than anything else in this world and here she was hurting at the hands of another, he felt weak, as if he was letting this happen and he knew he shouldnt. But she had always said it was fine. It was much worse than he feared and just the thought of weasly made his blood boil in anger.
He stared down at hermione, the cool stony expression setting on her face so as to remain clinical.
" enough' he said in a low voice.
He reached a hand down under her chin and lifted her eyes to look at his.
" you deserve better than that hermione, your beautiful and intelligent and the most individual mindive ever met, he doesn't deserve you one bit'"
finally a single tear rolled down her cheek, the emotionless mask slipping away, what he saw in her eyes surprised him , but no more than her next words
" who does deserve me then severus"
he lifted his thumb to wipe away the tear in a caress, looked down at the most amazing beautiful witch he had ever met and leaned down.
His lips met warm full lips and his heart soared It was short but enough for him to realise he was in love with the girl, and had been for a long time.
She opened her eyes after a second and looked into his, what he saw there in those eyes made his heart pump so wildly he was sure she could hear it, she smiled up at him then and simply said
" I agree''
he leaned in and kissed her again, the second kiss of thousands more to come.