A/N: Again, apologies for the delays. I have been truly awful at updating. This quite a short chapter, but I hope you find it worth the shortness. Happy Easter all.

Severus left the pub and walked down a quiet back alley so he could apparate back home. He hated how he had left things, but how did she expect him to react to a teenage girl's problems? What she did in her personal life was nothing to do with him.

But he hated how her confession had made him feel. Physical pain had engulfed him. He needed to do something about this, but nothing he had tried so far had managed to get the damn girl out of his mind.

He did what he usually did when something was bothering him - he brewed potions. It had often worked in the past to clear his head.

Hours had passed and he was halfway through a particularly difficult brew when a hissing noise had torn him from his thoughts.

"Shit," he muttered, as the cauldron to his left melted. He had left the mixture to stew for too long, a mistake he had never made before.

Frustration got the better of him and he threw the vial he was holding at the wall, glass shattering around him. How had he allowed another human being to make him feel like this?

He cleaned up the mess caused by the potion and left the basement. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of firewhiskey. He didn't even bother with a glass, choosing to swig from the bottle. He had just settled in the armchair by the fire when he noticed the owl sitting patiently outside the window.

Sighing, he got up and crossed the room, letting the owl in. He opened the letter attached to its leg.

"Professor,

I apologise for this afternoon and hope that this doesn't stop us being friends. I should've known better than to think you wanted to hear about my problems. I really enjoyed the afternoon and I hope we can do it again sometime, this time without anything personal coming into it.

Yours,

HG"

Severus replied immediately.

"Granger,

I think it's for the best we no longer engage in conversation. This 'friendship' has already gone too far.

SS"

As soon as he sent the owl on its way, he regretted his decision. He wanted to see her again. Needed to see her again. He hated to think of the pain that his words would undoubtedly cause.

SSHGSSHGSSHGSSHG

Hermione read the letter over and over. She could not believe that he had done this to her. He had been her rock in the aftermath of the battle. Sure, Harry and Ginny had been there too, but she felt they had not understood her in the way Severus did.

Weeks passed and Hermione spent most days in The Leaky Cauldron, drinking away her pain. It was a particularly grey day when she left the pub at four in the afternoon. She decided to go and see what new books Flourish and Blotts had in stock.

She was perusing the Charms section when the bell above the door tinkled and she looked up. In walked Severus, scarf covering his face, but she recognised the hair, the eyes, the posture he carried. She put the book she was flicking through carelessly back on the shelf and marched up to him.

"What the hell was that letter about?!" she demanded.

He lowered his scarf so he could speak.

"Granger, I don't think this is the time or the place to be discussing a matter which is obviously causing you distress," he replied calmly.

"This is the perfect time and place! I can't believe that you could just cut me off like that, no wonder you've turned out to be a lonely old man, if that's how you treat people who want to get close to you."

Severus led Hermione outside. He could feel people staring.

"I just don't think a friendship between us is appropriate, I am your ex-teacher and I think people would start to gossip." Severus could feel his temper rising as he processed what she had said.

"I didn't think you would be one to care about idle gossip! I thought you were the one person I could depend on, but it seems you're just as unreliable as everyone else. I'd have thought that after everything you've done, you wouldn't be such a coward!"

"Don't call me a coward, I had to cut you off for the good of both of us!"

"What good have you done for the both of us by cutting me off, coward?"

It was a red rag to a bull and he could not stop himself from saying what he had been denying to himself for weeks.

"Because I love you, ok?!"