"I can't leave right in the middle of the ceremony. It's out the question."
His bags were packed; soon he would be out of Britain. He knew he never return, even if things were different, Severus Snape was not one to be indecisive, no looking back. This was the only choice despite perhaps some reluctance. Attending the prolonged graduation of the golden trio was his finale duty to attend to before he went back to surviving for him own purposes; he had his duty to those jumped up teenagers –well, not quite teenagers anymore- that saved them all, albeit with profound efforts from other sources, from the potential tyranny of what would be Voldermort's rein. She'd appreciate it if he were there. He wondered who would take the time to understand her when he was gone, but he didn't linger on it too much.
She was called up for her special award for services to the school; she went up preoccupied be the dark present of looming at the back of the hall her eyes boring into that familiar onyx, she knew he would be leaving and she'd never see him again. "But he came." A quiet part of her mind whispered, as if not daring to give it the worth she knew it meant to her. "There's nothing I can do. He'd never stay; he couldn't; I couldn't ask him to. He'd never ask for me to come with him, there are too many things holding me back. He means a lot to me, more than he knows, but I can't just leave my friends." Doubt and longing niggled at her decision "They wouldn't understand…And they never will understand me…All these people who respect me, have come to see me and my friends succeed, who expect me to accept my reward and say a few word on behalf of the golden trio; I can't leave right in the middle of the ceremony. It's out of the question."
She reached the stage and look one last around the crowd of smiling, expecting faces. She reached for the award, his eyes still boring into her, she turned to him surprised he was still there and he inclined his head slightly. She smiled politely excepted her award although the smile never got as far her eyes before it was gone. And she made her way nervously down from the stage. Reaching the bottom step she swathe last of his black robes sweep inconspicuously out of the hall not disturbing the procession. She looked around at the people-surrounding award still in hand, those people who were her friends, colleges, admires and saw no one she really happy to know and would want to spend the rest of her days surrounded by. And suddenly she began to run the crowd's attention, which had been starting to move to the next thing on the agenda, got caught up in her sudden movement. Smiles dropped, in their place alarmed affronted expressions tended to take their place; it was all inconsequential. A large clang sound as the award left Hermione's hand, yet it hardly registered at all in her racing mind. Her legs were gaining speed all the time, in no time at all she was at the doors of the great hall but she barely paused to fling them open and hurl her self out of them leaving a gossiping hall behind.
He had barely got ten paces when the sound of the doors he had so carefully slipped out of crashed open, making him spin around. The sight of Hermione Granger hair flying back in her haste, determination anticipation alight in her eyes met his. She flung her arms around him kissed him fiercely and then said "Severus lets run away together. Tonight." As if she hadn't just run from her own graduating ceremony and they had been practically bordering the subject anyway, "We haven't got anything to stay for, I just want to get away from everything Britain has come to me, it was my home and that's why I fought for it, and the reasons I fought for have become a reality, but I've changed because of the war I was made to grown up, and I've out grown my home, I'm glad its safe, I'm glad my friends are safe, and it only because they are I can go but nothing here appeals to me… except you."
It was all the confirmation he need, he wasn't going to argue, the finale quibble that affected his leaving was resolved she was coming with him.
"How long to you need?"
"I packed my bags already," she said blushing, "I finally planned on staying before I left for the ceremony, but packed in my indecision and could really see the harm in unpacking them later."
"And your friends?" he said evenly
"I think my exit says all I need to, all I can I could spend a million years explaining but they'd never understand if they don't already." He just nodded.