Severus woke the next morning to a weight in bed beside him. He opened his eyes and found himself accosted by hair and blew it out of his face but found Hermione lying beside him curled in a ball. When had she snuck in his room and crawled into his bed? But at the moment that would be a question for a later time. Right now she was curled up tightly with her arms wound around her body and a deep furrow on her forehead. Something was wrong and he suspected she was having a nightmare. Severus sat up and shook Hermione awake as he rubbed at the furrow. Her eyes shot open and tears escaped and fell on to the pillow. She didn't speak. Severus seeing the fear and sadness in her eyes immediately pulled her towards him and held her as sobs racked her body.
God what was she dreaming of? It took a while for her to calm but she was now sniffling and Severus was able to grab a handkerchief out of the drawer in his nightstand and gave it to her. Hermione blew her nose but remained by Severus' side.
"May I enquire what the nightmare was?" asked Severus beside her. For a moment she was quiet and only her occasional hiccoughing broke the silence.
"I was in Malfoy manner being tortured by Bellatrix, then she turned into Ron and he was carving into my arm then yelling at me and hitting me." She started to cry again and covered her face.
"Hermione, I need you to listen to me. Quiet your mind." He said in a quiet tone nuzzling closer to her so he whispered into her ear. "Clear your mind." Hermione started to quiet herself and stare at Severus. "Think of the deep ocean and nothing else." He intoned into her ear. She did just that and Hermione was calm once again and breathing evenly. "I want you to do that every time something like this happens."
"Thank you Severus." Severus simply nodded and held her closer. It was still early even though the sun was up. Though, Hermione still fell back to sleep and this time had a dreamless sleep.
They woke just before noon and separately got up and showered before heading downstairs to make themselves something to eat. Hermione made her way to the library afterwards to read more of the books she had left. Severus stuck in his head to let her know he would be running a few errands.
"I'll be apparating into the sitting room so if anyone knocks you know not to answer it."
"Of course." She responded and watched as he grabbed the two crates under each arm and promptly disapparated. Hermione now found herself alone but that was fine so long as she stayed indoors. Not that that would be hard to do since it was pouring sheets of rain with thunder, lightening, and high winds. Not a chance in hell she'd step outside. And so she threw a log in the fireplace and continued reading comfortably.
Her reading was interrupted by thought if earlier that morning. Severus had held her as she sobbed into his chest then helped her calm down then pulled her in closer to his body to get her to sleep. Since she was staying with him Hermione had noticed Severus becoming kinder towards her. Anything she asked he would do or help her do. Then again the things she asked of him were easy and not mundane. Hell he even brewed the monthly contraceptive she took that stopped her monthly and its symptoms from coming all-together, much to her comfort. Hermione smiled at this revelation. She was rubbing off on him and she wondered how much else she could do to get him to open up around her.
Severus returned some hours later to the smell of something baking. He removed his outer robe and hung it up and carried the parcels he had with him to the kitchen. Hermione was cleaning up and the oven was going with the smell of bread.
"Did you get bored?" he asked and she jumped at his voice.
"No, we didn't have bread and I thought I'd make some since you have the ingredients here to make it." Severus nodded and left one parcel on the table and took the other down to the lab and returned. Hermione was checking her bread when he came in and unwrapped the box.
"This is for you from Mrs. Weasley." He said as he passed on the package. She opened the package and was pleasantly surprised to receive a knitted dark blue and violet blanket that could wrap her thrice around. Severus smirked at the over largeness of it but couldn't complain. He had been knitted a similar blanket in green and gold years back that he still kept for the coldest of nights. The other items were books on wand lore for Hermione. She was already gaining her own library on wand lore alone in the sitting room. Not that Severus could complain, she was keeping herself occupied with something he frankly always wondered about himself.
Hermione proceeded to drape the blanket around her shoulders and grabbed one of the books and sat and read for a while in the kitchen occasionally stopping to check her bread. When she was satisfied it was done she took the bread out and cut herself and Severus slices and put them on a tray with butter and jam. She found Severus brewing oblivious to the fact that she just entered. Quietly she placed the try on the coffee table in front of the sofa in the far right wall away from anything else. She sat and watched him move gracefully. Severus had an art with brewing. It was like watching a well-choreographed ballet. His movements were precise and purposeful and never faltered. When he put the potion to simmer he turned and found Hermione sitting on the sofa sipping at a cup of tea with a saucer on her lap with bread. Severus half smiled and sat beside her and indulged himself with a cup of tea and slice of fresh backed bread with a slather of orange preserves.
"How's the book?" asked Severus between sips.
"Its all right, it not as helpful as I had hoped it would be and it seems that the author is not too confident in the subject matter. He makes generalizations and guesses that have been proven to be wrong in other texts." She answered frustrated.
"Maybe another talk with Olivander might help. Hopefully he hasn't croaked yet." Muttered Severus with a smirk.
"I'm sure if he did we would know." Commented Hermione smiling. It was rare that Severus tried to be funny. But when he did it always put an even wider smile on Hermione. Severus had started to like her smiles. It was rare that someone sent one his way, but she gave them readily. The comfortable banter between the two of them was always welcome. She seemed to be one of a handful of people he's ever met that could hold an intelligent conversation with him.
Unexpectedly Hermione reached over and pushed Severus' curtain of hair behind his ear. Her fingers caressing his cheek and chin. Severus turned to look at her quizzically. She didn't answer verbally but scooted closer to him and continued to play with his hair. Severus refused to move or stop her. Her touch was gentle and it seemed to keeping her calm. Severus put down his cup and moved even closer so their thighs were touching.
"Penny for your thoughts." Whispered Severus. Hermione blushed a bit.
"I was thinking about this morning and all the days since I've been here and how kind you've been to me." She whispered back. "Thank you Severus." she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. When Severus turned to face her so their noses were a breath apart she leaned in and kissed his lips. Here Hermione was kissing a man that wasn't her husband and it felt fully right. She didn't feel guilty at all.
She pulled away and opened her eyes. Severus was stunned silent. But he regained himself quickly. He took her cup and placed it on the table and pulled her into his lap and kissed her soundly. God this felt right. It was as if he was feeling something real for the first time. And in reality it was the first time. He never really kissed another woman. Even the whores of Knockturn a lifetime ago didn't receive kisses form him. No woman in existence other then his mother (who received a peck on the cheek) ever got a kiss from him.