Thank you guys for your wonderful reviews. They make me feel all warm and toasty inside. Here is the next chapter. Thank you so much to trinastar818 who managed to get me a few chapters as she's finishing up finals and wrapping up her study abroad!
Severus stood in the hallway, waiting for Hermione to come down the stairs for breakfast. They had been dating for about a month now, and everything was going pretty well. Nothing had really changed, they still took all their meals together outside of the Great Hall, they still did all their studying together, but now there were snogging sessions sprinkled throughout. So far, they hadn't done much more than kiss because whenever things got a little more physical, Hermione pulled back and put the breaks on it. Which was fine with Severus, he didn't really fancy losing his virginity on the stone floor of a classroom.
He watched as a stream of Gryffindors came flowing down the stairs. He stood on his tiptoes trying to see around them so he could spot Hermione. She was later than she usually was. He watched as Sirius Black and James Potter walked by, Lily Evans on Potter's arm, without even glancing his way. The best part of the last month was that the Marauders had left him alone. Hermione had even mentioned that Black had stopped harassing her. He didn't know what caused them to finally leave them be, Hermione's threat to report him to McGonnagall, or her punching him in the face.
The stream of students slowed but Hermione still hadn't come down. Severus frowned and he tried to think back to the night before. Was she not feeling well? He didn't notice anything off. She had seemed fine, but that didn't't mean that she hadn't come down with something overnight. Maybe he should go ask one of the other Gryffindor girls if she was okay. He was about to turn away from the stairs, when she came around the corner. She wasn't alone though and Severus's frown deepened as he watched her descend the stairs with Remus Lupin. The two were close enough that they could easily touch and they had their heads bent together, talking quietly with one another. Hermione was talking so animatedly that her hands were flying, and Remus was laughing at whatever she was saying.
Severus felt his chest tighten. Of course. It was inevitable that she would start to make more friends other than him. He tried to stay reasonable; they were only talking. Just as he was calming himself down, Hermione pressed a hand on Lupin's arm and laughed at something he said. That was it. He couldn't hold his anger in anymore. He dropped his and Hermione's breakfast on the ground and the crash echoed through the entranceway. Hermione and Lupin stopped their descent and stared at him.
"Severus?" Hermione asked, concern coloring her face.
Severus just shook his head, and turned and started walking away, trying to school his features as he stormed through the hallway.
"Severus!" he heard Hermione call behind him, followed by the slapping of the soles of her shoes on the stone floors as she came after him. Still, he didn't turn around. Instead, he picked up speed, his robes billowing around him as he made his way through the hallway, before ducking into a classroom. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it.
He could feel the warm sting of tears springing up in his eyes and he squeezed them shut, willing them to go away, but he could feel the hot, wet trails down his cheeks as the traitorous tears fell. He banged his head back against the door a few times, before sliding down and bringing his knees to his chest, hugging them tightly. He couldn't believe it was happening all over again. Only this time, he let himself get more attached. He really thought Hermione liked him. She let him snog her. Hold her hand. She spent all her time with him. Was she going back to Gryffindor Tower and laughing with the Marauders every night? Was this all an elaborate prank, only for her to break his heart by revealing she was really with Lupin this whole time?
Severus pulled out his wand and blasted one of the chairs in the classroom to bits. Destruction of property didn't help. He still ached and hurt. Would he ever learn? Was he ever meant to be happy?
A knock sounded at the door.
"Severus, I know you're in there," Hermione's voice came from outside the door. "Let me in."
Severus didn't answer. He didn't want to see her. Didn't want her to break his heart to his face. He would rather they just move on, start with the ignoring phase.
"Severus, let me in or I'll blast this bloody door open," Hermione shouted.
Severus stood up, wiping his cheeks. He opened the door and stepped back into the classroom, turning his back on the door. He heard Hermione come into the room, and shut the door behind her.
"Do you want to explain what that display was all about?" Hermione asked.
Severus just shrugged.
"Severus, my breakfast, that I was quite looking forward to eating by the way, is all over the floor in the entrance way. I don't understand why you dropped it. I would like you to tell me."
"Please just get it over with," Severus said, quietly, trying to hold in his emotions.
"Get what over with?" Hermione asked, confusion in her voice.
"Breaking up with me," Severus said. "I know that's what you followed me for. So just do it so we can both move on."
"Break up with you?" she asked. "Severus, I don't know where this is coming from."
Severus spun around. "I watched you come down the stairs with him," he spat out. "I'm not fucking stupid Hermione. I watched you laugh, and touch. How long have you and fucking Lupin been laughing about me behind my back?"
"What?" Hermione said. "We haven't! Remus was having trouble with the Arithmancy homework and I was helping him before breakfast. We were talking about a prank one of the second years tried to pull on the seventh years this morning as we walked to breakfast this morning. That is all. Why on earth would you think I'm breaking up with you? Because I talked to another bloke? Are you jealous?"
Severus looked down at his feet, feeling like a complete dolt. He was no better than Sirius Black, implying that the witch belonged to him and shouldn't be talking to anyone else. "Hermione, I-"
"No, wait just a second, Severus Snape, because I'm not done," she snapped. "Let me make myself perfectly clear so that we don't have any more incidents like we just had this morning. I am not, nor will I ever be, your possession. I can and will talk to whomever I please. Remus is my friend. My only friend in the Tower mind you, and I don't plan on ending that with him. And while I may be friends with Remus, that doesn't in any way diminish my feelings for you. I like you. I'm dating you. I'm snogging you. But if you throw any more of these tantrums, that may change. What you just pulled makes you no better than Sirius Black."
Severus sighed, trying to hold back the pain the implication that she would break up with him brought to his chest, and the fact that tears immediately sprung to his eyes. "I know, that. I know that, but seeing you with him. He's a fucking Marauder, Hermione. You know what they've done to me for the last seven years. And watching you walk down the stairs with him, laughing, it just made me think that maybe things really haven't changed. The last month has been wonderful, but what if that had been just a ruse. What if this whole time you've been teamed up with them on an elaborate prank to just break my heart?"
Hermione shook her head, and walked up to him, placing her hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at her. "Severus. I'm sorry that seeing me with Remus caused all of this turmoil. I was insensitive to just walk out there with him knowing your past with him and his friends. I'm not playing a trick on you. I'm not. And now I know why we were brought together. I know what I'm supposed to bring out in you."
"What?" Severus asked, quietly.
Hermione moved forward, and stood on her tiptoes so that their foreheads and noses were touching, and whispered, "Your confidence."
What'd you think? Next chapter will come out in a few days!
