Severus Snape, famed Potions Master and feared Potions Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was sitting atop one of the parapets on the Astrononmy Tower.

Drunk. Very, very drunk.

Not that this was a problem of course. He had wanted to get drunk for quite some time. He just wanted everything to go away. Far away.

He wanted to forget the screams of the muggle women as they were forced to do terrible things. He wanted to forget the cries of their children. Suddenly, he grinned in his drunked stupor.

That's it! I'm alone anyway, so no one will miss me, Severus thought to himself.

Then, he stood up on the parapet, and spread out his arms, one containing a nearly empty - and rather large- container of firewhisky, leaned forward, and began to fall.

"Oh no you don't," a stranger whispered, and a hand shot and grabbed Severus' black robe's collar.

As the young woman struggled to pull her inebriated ex-Potions Master back onto the sturdy tower, and away from the black abyss that had threatened to swallow him whole, she was greeted by no less that 7 different curses, 3 threats, and a 'pox on her throat'. She had almost dropped him on that one, it had made her laugh so. As she gripped the back of robes, and braced herself against the wall, she gave one final tug.

Severus allowed himself to be pulled back up, and promtly fell on his rescuer. He turned to her and asked, with venom in his voice, "Who are you to take away my solitude?"

"Oh, Severus. There was only one reason. And that reason is, you're not as alone as you think you are," the voice answered back with an obvious catching in her throat.

With that, she pulled down her hood, and stood there, awaiting the man's approval or disgust.

"Hermione?"

Severus could hardly believe his eyes. The one woman he had respected, possibly even loved, was standing there in front of him. Not to mention, she had also just saved his life.

He shook his head.

"Hermione, I am alone. It was destined to be. I don't deserve friends, family," Severus was so close to breaking down, "or a lover. I just don't deserve them for all of the horrible things that I've done."

Hermione looked back at him and smiled. "Don't say that, because you're blind if you do." She stepped closer to him, raised her head, and kissed him, gently. She stepped back then, and then turned and headed towards the stairs.

As she dissapreared from sight, she left a very bewildered Potions Master in her wake.

"Maybe I'm not so alone afterall," Severus thought with a smile.

And touching mouth to ease the tingle that one kiss had left, he turned around and gazed up at the stars.

Happier then he had ever been in a very long time