Disclaimer: I dont own them.
Out Into The World
She asked me so many questions before she left to make a life for herself, but it was the last on that struck me as odd. She asked why, if I hated the students so much, did I continue as a professor. She asked me, in her round about way, why I still taught. I think I was trying to be witty but she caught me off guard. No one, not even Albus, had asked me that question. I said something along the lines of it being a dirty job but someone had to do it. She simply stared at me waiting for me to continue, knowing that I wasn't being entirely truthful, but then what does a spy know to do better. Merlin help me, but I did answer her. My answer was that I had seen many more horrible things in my life time as it stood than she would ever see in her entirety, and that fear and hate make the best motivators to see the mistakes of others and avoid them. I dismissed her after that. I mean where would I be without my 'Bastard' mask, and she went. She went out into the world and made a name for herself. She's the worlds youngest curse breaker/charms master in a century, and had she spent one year less in training she would have beaten my record as worlds youngest potions master.
She came back to this musty old castle that I've come to call home. No longer was she the annoying, bushy haired, know-it-all from her school days. The last battle, where she lost her parents, Ron, Draco, Ginny, and Lavender, where Harry and Remus disappeared into the black veil to find Sirius after the defeat of the dark lord, had changed her. She was no longer the exuberant child I remembered. Now she is a young woman, who has simply seen, and lost too much.
She stands in my doorway. I can see she's exhausted but haunted by ghosts and dreams, and demons. She's asks for a dreamless sleep potion but I refuse her. No, tonight I will let my mask sit on its shelf, I will chase away her plagued thoughts. She eyes me warily as I take her hand and with a wave of my wand have her and myself in pajamas. I place her in my bed and scoot in next to her. She's staring at me now, wondering why. I pull her close to me and wrap my body and heart, black though it is, around her.
"Sleep my precious Hermione. I will keep them all at bay." I say.
"Thank you Severus." was all she managed before sleep claimed her.