** I don't own these characters or the stories they belong to **
It was an hour and a half later, though Hermione did not know this, before she registered that she was reclining on a large sofa with Severus. She was burrowed into his chest half atop him, his arms were around her and his hands and fingers worked absentminded caresses on her back and neck. She recalled that she had been able to keep it together long enough to arrange a way for them to get away from the crowd and the reminders, but everything was a jumble after that. It was frightening how real her memories had become, and that reality had become less than a dream. The day of honoring past deeds had brought to the forefront memories she usually kept reigned, until visions of the death and dying of her friends and comrades and of her own traumatic torture at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange slipped their leash and overwhelmed her mind. It did not matter that she was now safe, or that some of the worst deaths had been rescued by life, the memories of the horrible remained, vivid enough for her to relive them in terror. Hermione took in a large breath and sighed out some of her tension.
She looked up at Severus and saw that he was gazing into the fireplace, his dark eyes unfocused and terrible looking. Whatever visions he beheld, he saw with his mind and not with his eyes. Hermione adjusted herself very carefully so that she could lightly nuzzle his neck. Severus tensed at first with the movement, but when Hermione sensed him release the rigid tension, she brought her hand up to lightly caress his waist. Tension and release, tension and release, it was a slow process. Keeping her movements very soft and slow, she increased the comforting contact in increments. At every step, Severus' tense reactions became less, and she relaxed in slow degrees with him. Eventually, when she was placing light kisses on his neck, her fingers were lightly skimming the skin of his back, and her body was flush against his, Severus sighed with a quiet groan and hugged her tightly against himself.
Hermione lifted her face to look at Severus. He opened his eyes, which had evidently closed at some point during her ministrations, and she was pleased to see his eyes look with sanity and presence, if intensity into her own.
"Hello," she said quietly.
"Hello," he returned, placing his hand to her face.
Neither of them smiled or asked unnecessarily how the other was doing. They each read "I love you" in the gaze of the other and took thankful solace in their union. This time, when he pulled her against himself, they were present and somewhat more sane.
"So what did you do this morning?" Hermione asked him. "I can only imagine that Narcissa's method of keeping me occupied the day entire before precisely 2:55 p.m. was not the same that Draco and Lucius employed."
"Made you shop all day long, did she?" Severus asked with a dark chuckle.
"Yes. It was horrible. Never make me do it again." Hermione answered, well aware that the idea of shopping as horrible compared to the true horrors they had recently been reliving was ridiculous in the extreme, but therein lay the humor.
"Never," he answered and kissed her on the head. "Either you comported yourself with impressive composure in the face of your reluctance or Narcissa's acting abilities are incomparable. She did not appear to be vengefully wrathful when you appeared this afternoon. Impressive in either case. Which of you am I to be impressed with?"
"With me, of course," Hermione replied haughtily, but then continued with grudging humility. "I suppose I can't take full credit, though. Ginny mitigated when necessary and otherwise played along and kept her diverted while I tried to apologize to the shop keepers. It would not have ended well without her...What about you? I can't imagine Lucius subjecting you to the same thing, or that if he tried, you would tolerate it."
Severus snorted. "I was subjected to enough, more than I planned on, certainly. Thankfully, my day also included lounging with food and drink and sharing my manuscript with publishers. The book is to be published, and they have requested I write additional texts. Curriculum, to be precise. I am undecided on the matter."
Hermione raised her head again to smile at him and nudged his head down for a kiss. "I am proud of you, Sev. Why not share your brilliance in text?"
Severus grimaced lightly. "You, madame, have always been under the mistaken impression that knowledge entire is contained within the pages of books, and that the written word is somehow not subject to the same level of fallibility as the mere mortals that write them. There is more to be learned of experience, experimentation and independent thought than in books."
Hermione blushed slightly. "Fine, so teach logic and critical thinking within your text; you can't deny those lessons are sorely needed. And I know books can lie...and that experience teaches..." she grumbled.
He cut her off. "Oh? You've never disbelieved something merely because you could not find proof of it in a book?"
They heard a snort of laughter and looked up to see Harry entering the room.
Hermione blushed more heavily but huffed and continued. "It doesn't mean that recorded, written knowledge is not an excellent place to start." Hermione calmed herself recognizing that Severus was trying to get a rise out of her. "And you can stop trying to rile me up for the fun of it. I know you know this already or why would you read as much as I do?"
Severus gave her a subtle look that she read as amusement.
"Ready for dinner, then?" Harry asked, giving them a half grin. Hermione could see shadows in his eyes as well. He neither asked them how they were doing nor they him. Hermione answered his weighted grin and rose to follow.
As Severus rose with Hermione and joined her in straightening their clothes and the quilt, he said, "My apologies. You are right." Then drew her against him and dipped his head to speak in a quiet rumble in her ear. "There are better things that I could do with you for the fun of it. I simply didn't think it a good idea to do them on Molly Weasley's couch for everyone to see."
Hermione answered him with heat in her eyes and a smirk of her own.
They held hands as they entered the kitchen and sat to a blessedly quiet and light-hearted but not boisterous dinner. Both because they had mild ones of their own, and because they had learned to recognize the symptoms of "bad days" in Harry - Arthur, Molly, and Ginny had worked together to get Hermione and Severus settled together somewhere quiet and had heeded Harry's advice of limiting the occupants of the Burrow for the evening. All plans for a family celebratory dinner had been cancelled and Molly had used a silencing charm in the kitchen to keep it quiet as she bustled around to fix dinner. The girlfriends had been re-directed home, the twins instructed to stay in their flat above the joke shop, and Ron-the-ever-tactless had even been sent home with Bill and Fluer for the night.
Everyone at dinner avoided the obvious topic of the day in favor or lighter and different topics, for which Hermione, Severus, and even Harry were inordinately thankful. Ginny and Hermione discussed Astoria. Severus displayed an air of mild disdain toward their girlish meddling, but secretly he was also amazed and thankful that Hermione had taken Draco Malfoy, of all people, under her wing. Just as he was begrudgingly thankful to the twins for their knack of drawing his godson back from the brink of unhappy loneliness and regret and into laughter. Hermione and Ginny, between them, had worked nothing short of a miracle in his own case, and he supposed he would not interfere with their meddling in Draco's affairs.
The unfortunate side of his decision not to quell their meddling, Severus mused, was that he found himself, well not embroiled in, that was overstating it, but privy to the sort of relationship drivel that he usually avoided at all costs.
He was forced to listen to Ginny Weasley blather on, "Draco looked loads better after he came back with Astoria and Luna. I don't know Astoria all that well, but she seems the right sort. It looked like they were getting on really well, anyway. I'll get to know her better, and you know, help, when I go back to Hogwarts, but you know Luna. No doubt she knows what she's talking about, just like she always does."
Severus snorted at this and actually deigned to interject, "This is Luna Lovegood you're discussing? Batty and eccentric just shy of Sybil Trelawney proportions, save that her head is filled with infinitely more unbelievable nonsense?"
To his surprise, Ginny, Hermione, and even Harry smiled and answered a chorus of amused but emphatic "Yes"s.
Severus raised an eyebrow.
"You'd have to get to know her," Ginny said. "She has this unique ability to see people and things as they really are and she says the most uncomfortable but accurate things sometimes. Well, aside from her unbelievable creatures, and some of that is actually just a defense and a distraction."
Ginny turned to Hermione and said, "Before flooing back to Hogwarts she told me to advise you against mistletoe at your wedding. She looked at Draco and Astoria where they were talking and said, 'Tell Hermione there's really no need to risk knargles at her wedding, won't you. Mistletoe isn't necessary, you'll see,' and then walked off dreamily the way she does. It was funny to watch Draco's reaction to the things she said. He didn't know what to make of her."
Harry thought about the time he took Luna to the Slug Club party and laughed fondly. "She can be highly entertaining, no doubt. But when everyone else dances around uncomfortable topics she has this knack of saying the truth about whatever it is just in the way you need it at the time. She saw right through my polyjuice disguise at Bill and Fleur's wedding, but didn't say anything to anyone except to introduce me to her father. And then, when he started nattering on, she told him, polite as could be, that I didn't want to talk to them but that I was too polite to say so, and she drew him away, completely un-offended. She's also the only one that had sense enough to direct me toward the Grey Lady to find the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw while everyone else went on about how no one in living memory had ever seen it. Special girl, Luna."
"Unless you try convincing her an erumpent horn actually belongs to an erumpent and not a crumple horned snorkack. But yes...we've learned to trust her and to listen when she says something...relevant." Hermione conceded.
Ginny and Hermione then went on to vaguely and quietly discuss plans for Draco and Astoria in a manner that suggested they would continue their planning in more detail at a later time. At one point during their discussion, Harry caught Severus' eye and said quietly, "Poor Draco." Severus snorted in agreement, and even Arthur chuckled in benign amusement.
Though troublesome topics were avoided, the tempest continued to threaten just beneath the surface. Severus and Hermione maintained contact at all times. He stayed right by her side as they cleared the table and she helped to clean dishes. When that chore was done, she grabbed his hand and asked him almost desperately, "Stay with me tonight?"
He looked at her and nodded, glad that she had asked. "I'll go the the Malfoy's and grab a few things and then come back, alright?"
Hermione sighed in relief and hugged him around the waist. He kissed her head and then departed.
Molly agreed to Severus' overnight stay when Hermione asked and offered to get pillows and blankets for the transformed sofa. Hermione knew the wedding dress could be moved out of Ginny's room, but she was fine with the sofa, so she didn't argue. When Ginny tried the same thing, Molly declined her request, adding, "You're welcome to stay in Ronald's room, of course, Harry."
Harry smiled and said, "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." Ginny glared at her.
Hermione was already feeling fidgety without Severus, and not in a good way, so she went upstairs for a quick shower and changed into her pajamas. When she came back downstairs, Severus was sitting on the sofa in pajama pants, a tee shirt and a robe with his legs stretched out, reading a book. Hermione curled up beside him and put her head on his chest. He put his arm around her and they shared his book for a while. Mrs. Weasley took multiple trips upstairs, ostensibly for pillows and blankets to bring to them, but really to check on Ginny and Harry, until finally she sent them to bed, separately, and came down to turn off the lights and bid Hermione and Severus goodnight, but not before giving them a warning look as well.
Severus chuckled quietly when she left and they got up to make up their bed before lying down together. He lay on his back and situated Hermione so that she curled on her side against him, with her head on his chest and her leg draped across his.
"I could get used to this," he told her.
"Mmm," Hermione replied, reaching up to give him a kiss. "Soon," she said, and settled against him again, placing her hand over his heart so that she could feel its steady beat. Severus played with her hair and closed his eyes. He focused on the feel of her to keep plaguing thoughts away.
They had nightmares aplenty that night, but less than they would have apart. She was his angel in the night again, soothing him back to sleep when bad dreams awoke him, and he was hers.
