AUTHOR'S NOTE: J.K. Rowling still owns Harry Potter, you guys. You know that.

*EDITED & RE-POSTED on 10-28-18*

Determined not to be denied any of Hermione's mum's fantastic desserts over the summer, Severus had behaved himself admirably. He did not ask about Lily once and for that, Hermione was grateful.

By the end of their first year, most of her friends had revealed their words to her in some capacity.

She had never shown anyone.

She denied she had them.

She always wore long sleeves.

The summer had been rather uneventful; Severus and Hermione still spent all of their days and evenings together, mostly studying the textbooks they would be using in their upcoming school year. Sometimes they would walk, hand in hand, along the shallow bank of the polluted river until they almost came upon the next town, but then they would simply turn around and walk back to Cokeworth.

Hermione still felt anger when she thought of the way Lily had dismissed their hometown.

She loved it here.

Even with the muggy smog from the factory and the boarded up houses and the crumbling cobblestone streets and the oil-slicked river.

This place was home and she would never trade it for anything.

When they were on their way back to Hogwarts for their second year, Lily, James, and Sirius had joined them in their train compartment.

"Hermione, how was your summer?" James asked congenially. He always was rather charming, even if he did have a horrible penchant for mischief and trouble.

"Lovely," she smiled, leaning into Severus' arm a little. "Read lots of books."

Sirius snorted and rolled his warm brown eyes, "Surprise, surprise. You know Hermione, if you're not careful you might try to become an Animagus one day and discover that you are, in fact a worm holding a book."

Severus hissed but she just laughed and patted his arm, "Thanks, Sirius. I'll keep that in mind."

In a rare show of inclusion, Lily turned to Severus, "And you? How was your summer?"

He seemed stunned that she was talking to him and his cheeks bloomed with color, "F… fine."

"Spent it with Hermione, did you?"

He scooted away from Hermione quickly, his eyes wide and beseeching, "No, no! I mean… we hung out a little but not every day or anything!"

James watched Hermione carefully but she pretended not to notice.

Lily shrugged, unconcerned, "I just know how inseparable you two are."

Hermione chimed in then. She didn't want to be subject to whatever lies Severus was going to spout this time. She waved her hand dismissively as she smiled, "Oh, you know how it is when you're friends with someone who lives in the same place. You're bound to run into each other from time to time."

"Yes," Severus agreed vehemently. "We just ran into each other a few times."

The rest of the train ride, neither Severus nor Hermione spoke to each other.

x-x-x

It was two entire months into the school year before Severus finally sought her out in the library.

"Hey," he said quietly, shuffling his feet and looking at the floor.

She shut her book and looked up at him. He was a little taller now, though still just as lanky as before, but he was beginning to lose some of the baby-like shape his face held when they first met. "Hi, Severus."

"Can I sit?"

She moved her things aside, "Of course."

It was quiet for so long that Hermione reopened her book and continued scratching on her parchment.

"You still mad at me?"

She sighed, "I was never mad at you, Severus. You're the one that wouldn't talk to me."

He pushed her books and her essay to the side, "I wasn't trying to be mean. I just… I didn't want Lily to think anything about us, you know?"

Hermione grabbed her left arm surreptitiously, "I understand. You don't have to explain yourself to me."

Severus scowled at the table, "I missed you, though."

"Me, too."

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, onyx to cinnamon, "Yeah?"

"Duh, you daft git," she shoved him with her shoulder. "You're my best friend, of course I missed you. Even if you were being a prat."

He smirked, "Severus Snape, at your service."

Hermione snatched her things back from his side of the table, "Now that you're speaking to me, you still coming home with me for Christmas hols?"

"Duh, you daft git," he mimicked her with a comically high voice. "You're my best friend, of course I'm coming with you."

They remained in the library for the rest of the evening and for the first time in many weeks, Hermione felt okay.

x-x-x

"I don't know… what do you think?"

Hermione surveyed the object he held in his hands, surprised that he had such good taste, "What exactly is it?"

Severus huffed, "It's an enchanted hair comb, you ninny. You know, so you never have to worry about your hair getting messed up when you wear it. Do you think she'd like it?"

She ran her hand down the back of her ridiculously bush of chocolate curls self-consciously, "Uhm… yeah. It's very pretty, I think she would."

"You're the best," he grinned as he turned towards the counter. "I'll take this, please."

Hermione bit her lip and discreetly hid the Elven glass stirring rod she'd chosen for him behind her bag as she waited for him to pay for her friend's Christmas gift.

x-x-x

He was all bravado, as it turns out.

Upon returning to school after the holiday, Severus refused to give Lily the gift himself so he employed Hermione to do it in his stead.

A few weeks into the spring term, Hermione was sitting on her crimson-adorned four poster bed, perusing the book on advanced Arithmancy that Severus had gifted her when Lily came in, her fiery red hair windswept and her robes slightly rumpled, "Hermione!"

She looked up and her brows raised as she took in the girl's disheveled appearance, "What on earth happened to you?"

"The Marauders decided on an impromptu Quidditch match and I was deemed referee. The wind is awful out there!"

"Impromptu Quidditch? At 8:00 in the evening? With five players?"

Lily shrugged, still grinning as she removed her robes, "I never said it made any sense. Haven't you learned that reasoning with them is pointless by now?"

Hermione nodded, turning back to her book. She had learned that quite quickly.

"New book?" Lily asked, falling back on her bedspread.

"Severus gave it to me for Christmas."

The other girl sat up, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, "Oooh, exchanging gifts?"

Hermione's heart twisted, "It's… it's not like that," she mumbled.

"But you want it to be," the other girl teased.

She blushed furiously, "Don't be silly, he's my best friend."

"Mmmhmm…"

Hermione set her book aside and crawled to the end of the bed so she could access her trunk. She flipped it open and dug towards the bottom for a moment until she felt the small, silver-wrapped package Severus had given her. She turned to Lily, holding to packing to her, "Here. This is from Severus."

Lily's eyes were wide with surprised as she took it, "Oh. Thanks."

She didn't want to watch her friend open it. She didn't want to catalog her reactions to the beautiful, silver-inlaid comb that had been chosen especially for her. But she knew Severus would want a full report on her reaction.

So she watched.

The giftwrap fell away and Lily actually gasped as the comb shimmered in the light from the wall sconces, "It's lovely. He bought this for me?"

Hermione nodded.

Lily looked up and in that moment, when those radiant green eyes met hers, Hermione knew that she knew. She could see it on her beautiful friend's face. "Hermione…"

"Is it okay for me to tell him you like it?"

"Hermione," Lily said again. "I… I'm so sorry. I don't… you know I don't…"

Tears threatened but she just smiled softly, "I know. But he feels how he feels. What can I do?"

For the first time in their entire friendship, Lily came and wrapped Hermione in a warm embrace, "Boys can be so stupid."

Hermione clung to the other girl, her idiotic thirteen year old heart pounding furiously, "Please tell me you don't... that you don't wear Severus' words."

Lily pulled back just enough to see her friend's face and she promptly pulled down the collar of her shirt to expose James Potter's unmistakably messy scrawl gliding across her collarbone.

James Potter's handwriting that said Quidditch.

Hermione let out a harsh breath, "Oh, thank the Gods."

Lily slumped onto Hermione's bed and pulled her back into a hug, resting her chin atop the bushy curls, "Does he know?"

"No."

"Hermione…"

"Please, Lily. Don't. Just… leave it alone."

The other girl rubbed her back soothingly, "Do you… do you have words, too?"

She hesitated, "I… yes."

"Whose are they?"

Hermione did not answer, but as her fingers tightened around Lily's shirt, it was clear that she didn't need to.

Lily hugged her tighter.

x-x-x

"Well?" Severus urged, his grip on her arm bordering on painful. "What did she say? Did she like it?"

Hermione leaned back against the willow and pulled her cloak around her a little tighter to ward off the chill, "Of course she did, Severus. It was a lovely gift."

"Did she… did she say anything else?"

She pulled her book out and feigned an annoyed sigh, "You are utterly impossible."

He shoved her, grinning, "But you love me anyway."

Her chest squeezed and she rubbed her left arm.

x-x-x

The summer before their third year was the first time things had felt a little awkward between them. Severus was fourteen now and you could certainly tell. He had sprouted a good four inches seemingly overnight and his face was spotty with acne. With the surge in hormones, his usually silken hair was slightly greasy no matter how much he showered. He was still thin, but he had a little more muscle tone now. His voice cracked every now and then but it was significantly deeper than it had been before.

It did all sorts of interesting things to her stomach.

Hermione would be fourteen as well in a few short weeks, just after the start of the school term, and her appearance was reflecting changes as well. She, too, had some slight acne but some deity had taken mercy on her and her curls became heavy, glossy ringlets that were much more manageable than the bushy mass had been. She had filled out a little so her clothes were a bit snug now, but she didn't really mind. Perhaps, if Severus saw that she was maturing, he would start to see her in a different light.

Though, that was a seriously far-fetched hope.

The word on her arm had not changed since their first year.

"We should go swimming," he said one particularly unbearable summer afternoon. "This heat is murder."

Her eyebrows lifted, though the idea of seeing him shirtless did have merit, "And where would you propose we do that?"

He motioned towards the disgusting river.

"You're joking."

"I am too hot to give a shit, quite honestly."

"Severus," she admonished. "There is every possibility we could get dysentery or something from that water. Have you looked at it?"

He shrugged and made to remove his shirt.

She grabbed his arm, her cheeks flushed with something entirely different than the summer heat, "Severus, be serious. You'll get sick."

"Then you'll just have to nurse me back to health," he yanked his shirt over his head and threw it to the ground. "Isn't that what friends are for?"

Hermione caught her breath when he turned to her. He was pale and ethereal, almost luminescent under the sun, and there was a dark trail of hair that led from his naval below the line of his trousers. All the blood promptly rushed to her face.

Merlin, have mercy.

"Coming?"

His hand was held out expectantly for her but just as she went to grab it, the world seemed to give way beneath her.

His words.

Tiny, familiar cursive etched into the skin of his right hip.

'Severus' was written in his flesh in Hermione's perfect, symmetrical script.

He wore her words.

He wore her words.

And yet, he wanted someone else.

She felt sick.

"I… I have to go," she stammered, clambering to her feet before she took off in the direction of her side of town. "I'll… I'll see you for dinner, okay?"

"Hermione!" He called after her but she couldn't stop. Her feet wouldn't let her. She kept running, faster and faster, past her neighbors homes, past her own, until she was nearly in the next town. She fell to her knees and vomited all over someone's perfectly pruned azalea bushes. Hot, angry tears stung her eyes as she retched and she held her abdomen tightly, rocking forward on her heels.

He was her soulmate.

Her best friend wore her words and she wore his.

And yet, he didn't want her.

She vomited again.

x-x-x

He had tried to ask her why she'd run away. He had tried to apologize for upsetting her. Hermione simply waved him off and told him he was being silly and not to worry about it.

Their third year, once it had commenced, continued on much the same as the others had: they were still inseparable, studying together every free moment they could spare, and he still continually asked after Lily. It didn't matter that Lily was spending all of her time practically hanging from James' arm now. Severus didn't care.

He was convinced the words on his hip were hers and that deep down, Lily wanted him.

"She'll come around," he said one day when they were on their way to Hogsmeade, arm in arm as usual. "I've done my research on soulmate magic. It's a pretty sure thing."

Hermione did not agree; look at them.

"Maybe," she said noncommittally. "It's just… how do you know the words are hers? Have you ever seen her handwriting?"

He frowned at the uneven ground, "No… but it has to be her. I can't even imagine who else in this school it could be if not her."

Hermione didn't say anything. How had they been friends for years and yet he didn't recognize her own handwriting on his skin? Perhaps he just didn't want to recognize it, for if he did…

"Hey," he nudged her. "Don't be upset, Hermione. You'll get your words someday, too."

She chuckled humorlessly as she tugged her sleeve down a little more, "Yeah."

Severus stopped and put his hands on her shoulders, his expression pained, "You… you haven't gotten them yet, have you?"

She was taken aback by the look on his face, "Why does it matter?"

A horrified realization dawned across his features, "You have them, don't you?"

Hermione tried to escape his grasp, "Come on, Severus. We only have a few hours to spend at Hogsmeade and…"

His palm wrapped around her upper arm and his voice was low, "Who is it?"

"Severus…"

"You're my best friend," he said quietly. "And you didn't even tell me you had them. Who is it?"

She snatched her arm from his grasp and stalked off towards the tiny village, "Don't worry about it," she snapped. "It doesn't matter."

He stood, seemingly frozen, for a few moments before he jogged to catch up with her.

He entwined their arms and did not ask about her words again.