Own nothing, awake early on a Sunday morning. R&R if thou is so inclined.

Chapter 15 - Some Kind of Wonderful

Snape emerged from Dumbledore's office with only two days of detention and 20 point deduction. Dumbledore must have known what had happened the night before, word tended to get out about everything very quickly for a place with no phones.

He stepped out into the spring sunshine and diverted his eyes from the brightness. He pulled his sunglasses from his back pocket and was thankful they hadn't been destroyed in the fight. When he put them on his nose stung painfully. It had only just been broken and the bone was difficult to set due to previous injury. He told the nurse to leave it alone. 'Battle scar,' he thought to himself as he crossed the lawn.

He glanced over the grounds and made is way to a familiar shape by the lake. She was beautiful. He couldn't help but stare at her. He told his house mates he wore the sunglasses to keep his eyes from hurting in the light. In truth, he just didn't want Maylin to know he was staring. She was wearing her favorite loose jeans today. They looked like something a boy would wear but they fit just enough below her hips to show her perfectly curved shape. She once joked about how her hips could kill a man. Severus could think of worse ways to die.

She laid by the lake in the shade of a large tree staring straight up into the branches. Her eyes moved with wind. Cobalt blue, like crystallized water flowing endlessly. He could swim in those eyes. He often did.

He looked down where she lay and smiled a bit.

"You make a horrible tree, Severus." She said patting the grass.

Severus took the hint and lay next to her. He stared into the tree and listened for her breathing. "Let me see."

Severus looked at her puzzled. She turned her face to him and pulled his glasses gently off his face. His nose was swollen and at least 3 shades of purple. She stared his way and for a moment he felt incredibly self-conscious about his nose. He stared back and it wasn't until a little later when he realized she wasn't looking at his nose at all. She was looking at his eyes.

"Where do you get your eyes from?"

"There's a specialist in Diagon Alley who sells them cheap." Snape replied dryly. He felt a hand land on his stomach. Her eyes returned to the tree. A moment a silence led to the truth.

"My mother. She's Italian. I have her eyes."

"I like them."

Her voice was softer then usual. This meant something was on her mind.

"Thank you," she said staring upwards. Severus nodded knowingly.

"You're welcome."

Silence like this would normally kill Severus, but in this moment it was all he needed. Being with her was like nothing he had ever known. He thought back to his summer with Elise and was grateful for her affection. Grateful to know that he was human and could, in fact, handle the kindness of others. But he was also relatively grateful she had left.

She once told him that the only reason she put up with him was because one day he would make another girl, the perfect girl, eternally happy. To do so he would have to be educated. It was all just a big joke between them. She may have been slightly older but in truth could say that he honestly loved her. But this thing he had now was something else. Something greater. Something that at the ripe age of sixteen he knew could last forever.

Minutes passed. Maybe hours passed, Severus couldn't tell. Maylin's mind had closed and for a while he assumed that she had fallen asleep. That was until she spoke.

"Do you love me, Severus?"

Severus closed his eyes and thought of the million ways he could answer the question. Granted he knew the answer but his tendency to overanalyze everything threw so many things into the mix that when it came right down to it he had no idea what to say. He could feel the ground breathing beneath him. The wind blew gently, his wits failed him.

"Yes."

There was another one of those moments of silence he loved and dreaded. Maylin still stared into the trees. Her face lightened as the trees swayed and drops of sunshine lit her skin.

"Are you in love with me?"

This time she faced him. This time the answer was easy.

"Yes."

What felt like a hundred pound weight lifted from his chest.

"Is that okay, May?"

Maylin once again looked upwards and for the first time all day let out the biggest smile. One of those silly toothy smiles only achievable by young children and people under the influence. Maylin reached her hand through the grass and found his fingertips. He wrapped her fingers in his. Severus smiled back. "Yeah, Sev. That's okay."