These characters belong to J.K.R. No money will be made from this story.
"I'm not good enough for you!"
"Why do you always say that? How many times do we have to go over this before you realize none of your past matters to me?" Hermione asked Severus for what felt like the hundredth time.
"It's over, Hermione. You deserve better than me. You deserve someone younger, someone whose past isn't tainted by the sins I've committed. Someone you have more in common with, who…."
"Someone I have more in common with?" she asked shrilly. "There's not another soul on this planet I could have more in common with. How can you do this to me? I've given you everything. My love, my body."
Severus looked at her coolly. He was trying his hardest not to show her how much this was breaking him. Why couldn't she understand that he was trying to do the right thing? She was so beautiful, so bright. She had so much to offer the world.
He was cold, hard and world weary. He felt like he was dragging her down.
"It's over. I promise, one day you'll understand and you'll thank me."
She laughed bitterly. "I'll thank you, will I? We'll see. Answer me this honestly. How will you feel when one day you see me walking down the street with another man, when you hear that I've gotten married, am carrying another man's child? Knowing it's supposed to be you I'm sharing these joys with."
Severus felt a sickening blind rage come upon him. The very thought of her with another man was enough to make him double over in pain. He knew seeing her with someone else, seeing her belly grow large with another man's baby would break him.
He visibly started shaking. "No," he stated. Maybe he hadn't thought about this enough. Is this really what she wanted? To share the rest of her life with someone like him?
"No?" She tentively asked.
"Maybe we should talk about this a bit more."
She reached for him then. She placed her arms around his neck and gently kissed his lips.
"Your lips are the ones I was born to kiss," she softly whispered.
He felt himself giving in. If this was really what she wanted, who was he to deny her? Who was he to deny himself the only happiness he had ever known? Because he knew as surely as the sun would set, he wouldn't want live even one moment without her.
"You do understand, don't you Hermione, that if you chose to stay with me, I'll never let you go? You can never leave me because I will surely die without you. I wouldn't…couldn't live without you."
She looked at him with utter adoration in her eyes. "Yes, I understand. Because I feel the same way. I'll love you forever."
"Just as I love you," he stated.
The kiss they shared after that proved their love for each other beyond a shadow of a doubt.