Severus held her face, his black eyes searching as he wiped at her cheeks with gentle thumbs. His heart was clenching in his chest, it hadn't been his intention to hurt her.
He must have though, if she was crying, she wouldn't open her eyes. Why wouldn't she open her eyes?
His stomach churned as he continued to stroke the tears away, his warm figure still hovering above her and her eyes were pinched shut so tightly it must have been painful. His brow furrowed, his mouth was incredibly dry and when he tried to swallow he found a lump in his throat.
"Hermione?" He rasped. "Hermione, gods, I haven't hurt you have I? Are you okay? Oh, my beautiful witch I'm so sorry if I was too rough." He would never forgive himself if he'd hurt her.
He felt sick.
Silver eyes flicked open and she watched him with bloodshot eyes, shifted slightly beneath him. His thumbs were still wiping away the steady stream of tears.
"Oh Severus, you didn't hurt me!" She cried, he looked lost, his eyes searching her face.
If he didn't hurt her what was wrong? Did she regret it? Did she regret being with him?
He felt his stomach clench tighter, he didn't know if he could handle her rejecting him after such a passionate coupling. This wasn't something he did, this wasn't care he gave to just anyone.
"No, no Severus, don't look like that, it wasn't you!" She cleared her throat, the flow of tears finally slowed as she reached up to touch his cheek, he felt himself relax, however minutely it was.
"I just, it was so perfect, and you, you are so perfect, and I'm, Merlin I'm so horrible." She sobbed, her hand left his face and she covered her own, her hands hiding her reddened face from him. He furrowed his brow, unsure how she could possibly be horrible.
How had this all been sparked by passionate lovemaking?
He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.
"You asked if I'd ever been with anyone, before-hand, and, well, I lied, I guess, kind of?" She sobbed through her hands, she sounded so confused, so broken. He didn't understand, he finally managed to roll from her though and lay on his side. It took him little effort to pull her into his chest.
"I wouldn't have cared either way." He grunted, his mouth on the top of her head. What was happening?
"I have to show you something." She exhaled, pulled herself from his arms, which was a bit of a struggle when he held her so tightly. He was hard pressed to release her. She stood in the firelight as he sat up in the bed, his black eyes focused on her soft skin. His skin, she was his, his witch. He could take, accept anything she told him.
He wouldn't deny her, couldn't.
He nearly groaned to himself, he'd been coming to the realization over the course of the evening. But now, now it was so glaringly apparent.
He loved her.
Hermione dropped charm after charm, the scar on her arm she'd already shown him appearing first. Soon they'd all fallen away and he stared at this witch, his witch, her body marred and brutalized by things he wasn't sure he would ever understand.
The large scar on her neck was one he was having a hard time tearing his eyes away from. She turned her face away from him. Shame, that was the only description for what it was so obvious she felt.
He stood, completely unaware of his nudity as he bridged the gap to her quickly, his hands grasping at her. He wouldn't release when she tried to squirm away and he growled, stilling her immediately.
"I don't give two shits if you are scarred, Hermione." He hissed, his voice so low she could barely hear him as he stared into her eyes. He risked lifting a hand and running his fingers across the deep scar on the side of her neck. It was raised beneath his fingers but still soft and he wanted to know how she'd acquired it.
What exactly had been done to his witch?
Again, he was faced with the realization that there were things she was not telling him. That was the most troubling thing of all. He wanted her to know she could tell him anything, anything.
"What did you mean when you said you lied?" She exhaled, another sob shook her shoulders.
"I was captured, one of my best friends had just been tortured to death, called a blood traitor. I can still remember her screams." Hermione looked like she'd gone somewhere far away and he grasped her tighter, pulled her into his chest.
"She was so beautiful, she was wonderful, strong and magnificent, she didn't deserve it. She held out, didn't scream until the very end. I'll never forget the sound of her death, I'll never forget the look in her eyes."
Where did they torture people for being 'blood-traitors', there was something deeply troubling about her description. The faraway look in her eyes.
"When she was dead, laying in the floor beside me it was my turn. They tortured me, there was one man in particular who, well he…" He knew where she was going and he needed her to stop, stop before she shattered in front of him, fell apart in his arms.
"I understand, I understand." He cooed into her hair, pulled her back toward the bed. Her eyes were swollen and sore, his chest wet with her tears as he lay her down and pulled himself around her. He cocooned them in the soft blankets and held her to his chest.
"No more, you didn't lie, it isn't your fault. Shh, shh." He stroked her hair and held her to him.
He would get to the bottom of what was going on with her. He would find out why his witch was so broken. If not from her than from someone else, McGonagall, Dumbledore. It didn't matter to him who he needed to confront.
He would find out where she'd come from.
But first, first he would give her a chance to tell him. He would give her time. Until the end of the year, perhaps. He held her close and she clung to him.
"I didn't hurt you though, correct? You are okay?"
"I'm better than okay!" She cried. "How can you be so wonderful?" She cried as she grasped him, she couldn't reconcile this Severus Snape with the one from her own time.
Was she really having so great an impact on him? She hoped so, it would make her task that much easier.
She wanted to tell him that she loved him, she wanted to tell him so many things before she fell asleep in his arms. Unfortunately, exhaustion took her, the soothing stroking of his hand down her back lulled her into a deep sleep.
Severus held her for the rest of the night, wide awake with a racing mind. He was trying to piece it all together, felt like he was on the brink of knowing, he just needed a few pieces of the puzzle. Just a few.
SSHG
Hermione woke to find deep, dark eyes staring down at her. Her eyes burned and it took her a moment to remember where she was, to remember what had happened.
Immediately she felt a rush of embarrassment crash over her, her eyes pinched shut.
"Oh gods, I'm so stupid." She groaned, "know-it-all my arse." She grumbled, when her eyes opened she found Severus staring at her with a cocked eyebrow.
"I quite like your arse, though I get the feeling that is not what you are groaning about." He smirked and Hermione shook her head, buried her face in his chest and groaned.
"How could you possibly want me after that display last night." She groaned into his chest, her voice muffled by his arm across her face. She felt safe, cocooned in him.
It kept the horror at being naked in a bed with him at bay. At least for the moment.
"Display? I would hardly call showing me your vulnerable side a display Hermione. You are mine, are you not?" He felt her soft nod. "Then I believe it is my right to know everything you have to tell, how else am I to understand you, to know how best to treat you, to care for you?" His voice was deep, husky from a lack of sleep and so incredibly warm.
The hard life he'd lived in her future really had impacted his personality drastically, hadn't it? She wondered if this wizard, the young, compassionate wizard was buried beneath the Severus Snape of 1997, it did her no good to wonder.
She was never going back there. Not until they aged and grew into that time.
It had been made perfectly clear that, with the use of the seed of Kronos she would never be able to return to the future.
Hermione snaked an arm around his back and snuggled her face closer to his warmth. He looked like he would be cold, all pale and willowy, in reality he was quite firm beneath his robes that hid him so well, and incredibly warm.
It was a pleasant discovery.
His fingers ran delicately through her hair as both just lay, breathing one another in for a few moments.
"Now, how are you feeling this morning?" She pulled back to look into his face, the soft look in his eyes despite his relatively placid expression.
"Much better than last night, thank you." She paused, her tongue flicked out to lick her lips and his eyes focused there. "I hope no one has noticed our absence." Severus rolled onto his back, one arm still hooked around her and snagged his wand from behind him on the bed.
A tempus cast showed it was only six in the morning, on a Saturday there would be few students awake, if any.
"I think it will be safe to sneak back to our dorms, if that is what you would like." He dropped the wand back to its place and rolled back to her, staying on his side so he could look into her face.
The sheets were pulled up over her breasts but he was still entranced by the gentle rise and fall of her chest. The way silvery eyes gazed up at him.
"I would rather stay with you, I have to admit." She blinked, glanced to the door and rolled onto her side to face him. He moved so his arm was beneath her head and she draped her arm over his hip. He found he completely approved of the intimate position.
"But, I have no desire to argue with Lily, and so I must say that it would be best we slip back to our dorms."
She watched him, his face didn't flinch when she said the witch's name and she felt a deep relief rush through her. He didn't feel pain at her name, that had to mean something, didn't it?
"She needs to keep her interests in order." He growled, Hermione smiled at him, her hand moved from his hip to caress the side of his face.
"She will, she means well, really she does. She just doesn't see what I see." He hooked an auburn curl around her finger and inhaled deeply, his soft breath caressed her face with his exhale.
"You have far too much faith in those around you." He grumbled, Hermione smirked.
"That faith seems to have earned me a very special wizard." She wrinkled her nose and ran her fingers through silky black hair quickly.
"Now, where is my dress."
Both twisted to glance out of the bed to find the fabric, wrinkled and discarded.
Hermione groaned, this was one of those moments she was incredibly glad for magic, she decided. She would definitely need to transfigure the garment into something else, if she would be believed to not have stayed out of her dorm all night.