Prologue
"Sir, I know this sounds terribly nosy of me, but I have to ask," Hermione said almost breathlessly as he stood silently behind her, his tall frame cloaked in dark wool and the hem of his teaching robes brushed against her leg. "What do you see when you look into the mirror?"
He was silent for a long moment Hermione thought he would not answer. She tore her eyes away from the looking glass, her eyes flickering to the ground, 'of course he would not answer, you insufferable swot!' she thought bitterly.
"I see you Miss Granger." He had said so quietly she almost missed it, only the presence of his arms, now securely wrapped around her shoulders confirmed she had heard him correctly. Snape burrowed his nose into her lilac and honeysuckle scented hair. He knew damned well what he was getting himself into by indulging his fantasies, but he also knew that things were about to change immensely, and not at all for the better. He may never again get the chance to simply hold her like this, and he'll be well damned if he shall die without even getting a single kiss. And with his mind quietly made up, he spun her around, her soft caramel curls billowing behind her like a soft halo, and he kissed her.
He kissed her softly at first, and they both sighed. And then he kissed her deeply, tasting her and savouring the scent her lips left on his. He would commit the feel of her lips and her hair and her skin softly pressed against his tall frame to memory, so that if this may very well be their first and last, he will have something to hold on to. His little piece of sunshine in this dreadful place. And so he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, until all else have been forgotten, and the outside world became just that; the outside world.