Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters do not belong to me. They are the creations of JKR and I am merely playing on her playground for a brief time.

Author's Note: I originally wrote this (chapter one) for a 100 word challenge at WIKTT detailing how Severus would tell of his love for Hermione. Someone had suggested that it might be interesting to hear Hermione's POV once she woke up so here it is.  The first chapter is the official answer to the WIKTT challenge while this chapter is just something extra.  I hope you all enjoy and please remember to review.   ~Jules    

I Will Wait Forever…

Chapter Two

My eyes open and I am assaulted by the starkness of the room in which I now lay. The sterility of it all does not escape my notice, foggy though my mind seems. I feel a weight draped across my arm and I look down to see the blackness of your hair fanned across the sheet. Such a striking contrast, black against white, much like your recent confrontation with Lucius Malfoy. Good against evil, though I doubt you would consider yourself to be the angel of light that I have found you to be. I find myself laughing at the thought of your reaction to such sentiment knowing that you would never agree. And yet, you are an angel though your wings might be rumpled and your halo tarnished. You have suffered so much and paid such a price in your relentless pursuit to protect others from the reign of evil that Voldemort has brought upon our world. A price of which very few people are aware. I wish that I could tell you that I do not regret my actions and had they ended in my death I would have considered it a small price to pay knowing that you would live on. But I know that you would not wish to hear the 'foolish ramblings of a silly girl.' I sigh and wonder how foolish you would think me if you were to learn of my true feelings for you, the love that warms my heart when I look upon your face. No, you would think such emotions nothing more than sentimental claptrap, some silly notion perhaps that I read in a book. You would be wrong because though I am young, I know my own heart and recognize the song that it sings whenever you are near.  

You stir and slowly open your eyes ever so slightly when all of a sudden you sense a change in the room.  You raise your head to stare at me and I am momentarily overcome by the happiness I see in your eyes. Oh were that happiness anything similar to mine and we might both stand a chance of seeing a happy ending to the cruel story we have lived. You stand but do not let go of my arm as you move your other hand to push a stray strand of hair away from my eye and then gently cup my face as if I were the most precious thing in the world.  For a moment I almost believe that I am as I stare into the depths of your eyes.

Our eyes lock as recognition begins to dawn on us. You pull me close, still struggling to believe what you have just witnessed in my expression. I too find myself struggling to believe that my deepest hopes might actually spring forth from the pages of the storybook to become a welcome reality.

"I love you," you tell me softly, confident in your feelings but unsure of my reaction. I see a promise in your eyes that I instinctively know will stand the test of time.

"I love you too," I reply and see the tear glisten in your eye, knowing that it mirrors my own.  We share a soft kiss as you are mindful of my current medical state and will risk no further damage to my well-being.

"You waited for me," I whisper in awe and you answer my words of wonder in your customary way, straight to the point, piercing my heart and bringing tears to my eyes. 

"For you my love, I will wait forever."

~The End~