Warning: May contain DH Spoilers!
……
Hermione sighed to herself as she headed down the grand staircase. The first four weeks of her job had been hectic but she'd loved every minute of it. Hermione finally felt as though she had her own life back, something she thought she would never have after being married to Ron for over three years.
Hermione loved Ron. After all he was funny and good fun to be around. Or at least he used to be. Things started to changed when they got married. She had always known that Ron had faults, after all she had known him for over seven years. But when she had tried to live with them twenty-four hours a day, every day of the week… well, basically it had pushed her to the edge of sanity.
Today she was finally going to see him again; it would be the first time she had seen him since her new job started and she didn't know what to expect. She was meeting him in half an hour outside 'The Three Broomsticks', and walking along beside the students she was accompanying to Hogsmeade, she was far too immersed in her own thoughts to pay much attention to the people around her.
Half an hour later, Hermione sat down at a spare table in the pub and waited for Ron to make an appearance. She was sitting there for over twenty minutes when she saw a cloaked figure entering the room. She stood up thinking it was her darling husband Ronald finally making an appearance. 'Better late than never, I suppose'. However, as he pulled his hood down from his face she sat down just as quickly as had she stood up. Hermione realised that it wasn't her husband, but in fact Severus Snape, who was heading toward the bar with a rather surly expression on his face. 'He obviously doesn't like the company of normal people, so I fail to see why he actually bothers to come in to the village'. Hermione rolled her eyes and watched him as he ordered a drink from the bar, and she continued to watch him as he paid for it and looked around, trying to find a seat in the crowded pub.
Unfortunately Severus noticed her sitting in the corner and Hermione realised, blushing, that she had been caught staring at him again. Looking down at her drink she hastily took a sip and prayed silently for the ground to swallow her up.
"Mind if I join you, Miss Granger?" a voice commented from beside her.
Hermione looked up, startled, as she saw that Severus was now at her table. She shrugged as he proceeded to sit on the chair opposite. 'God, I wonder what he wants…'
"Waiting for Mr Weasley, were we?" he looked at her curiously.
"Emm…yeah I was actually," Hermione answered honestly, "But he's almost half an hour late…" she added without even thinking. 'Why did I tell him that? It's not as though he cares about my problems!' But to her surprise Severus merely laughed and took a sip of his drink. He then looked out the window for a minute before continuing.
"Hermione, you do realise he most likely got lost on his way here, found himself in the sweet shop, discovered the Sugar-Coated Quills and has now forgotten all about meeting his wife-"
"I really doubt that Severus!" Hermione interrupted quickly, "He probably got delayed at the Ministry, I mean… he does a lot of hard work there!" Hermione finished by glared at him, no longer making any real pretence of friendliness.
"Oh, really?" Severus raised his eyebrows sceptically and leaned back in his seat.
"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed angrily, "And besides, I don't see how my husband, or his faults, are any of your business!"
"Well it's not really any of my business, but…" Severus paused for a minute thoughtfully. "I'm still trying to figure out how you could stand marrying him in the first place you see…" Severus finished quietly, looking her in the eye. He didn't appear to be asking questions for the sake of irritating her, but it still annoyed Hermione that he was asking at all. It was nothing to do with him…
"Perhaps because I loved him, ever thought of that?". Hermione finally snapped at him. "Although, knowing you Severus Snape, you probably don't even understand the bloody concept of love!". Severus cringed visibly at the accusation before looking away and then finally looking up at her. His black eyes were painfully cold, his expression was unreadable. Hermione stopped there, but she could sense that she had already gone too far.
He stood up and, sweeping his long black hair away from his face, he turned to her and smiled darkly. "Miss Granger, once again you acted like the Know-It-All you are, and once again you've got it wrong. Still, I do hope you have enough brains to notice that your husband can't seem to tell the difference between yourself and the bar maid over there…" he laughed harshly before walking away from her table, leaving her trying to decipher his last remark.
'What did he…Oh." Hermione saw what he had meant. Her husband had not only been in the bar but was now standing chatting to the young blond, nineteen year old barmaid. She had been too busy talking to Snape to notice him coming in. 'I hate it when Severus is right', Hermione thought to herself miserably. She stood up again and marched over to her husband. Hermione wasn't going to let him get away with this sort of behaviour that easily…
……
Severus had found a seat on the other side of the pub, and was watching half-heartedly as Hermione pulled her husband away from the irritating witch who was at the bar. He couldn't take much pleasure in watching Ron Weasley being ripped to pieces by his wife, however; he was too busy being annoyed with himself. Why did he have to go and open his big mouth? Why did he even bother going over to her in the first place? He had felt sorry for her, waiting in the corner like that. Although up till now Severus's instincts had always told him that sympathy was never, ever a good idea. But for some reason he had still felt the need to go over and speak to her.
'Perhaps I'm getting soft in my old age…' Severus considered, a bitter smile playing on his lips as he watched Ron and Hermione head out of the pub, neither of them looking particularly happy. When he had went over he had been planning to make a couple of jokes at Weasley's expense in the hope it might lighten her mood a bit, but the look on Hermione's face when he had mentioned her husband's name had been more than enough to kill any sarcastic comments he had prepared. She had looked so damn miserable that it had been quite painful to watch. 'There you go, feeling sorry for people again!' the voice in the back of his head warned him. 'Keep on going that way Severus and you'll be taking flowers to the werewolf and giving chocolates out to the students!'.
In the end, Severus couldn't resist having a go at Ron after he had heard that he was half an hour late, it had seemed too good an opportunity to miss. However, Hermione on the other hand, hadn't see the humorous side to it. And when she had tried to tell him that Ron Weasley worked hard at the Ministry… Severus almost started laughing out loud (Now that certainly would have scared any students in the nearby vicinity). The mere idea that Ron Weasley had ever done a single day's hard work was quite laughable in Severus's opinion.
But obviously Hermione didn't share the same opinion on the matter. Or more likely, she simply wouldn't admit it out loud to him. Either way, he had found the whole situation rather amusing. Well, until she had made that comment about him and not being able to understand love.
On the contrary, he had loved Lilly Evans more than life itself. Every time he thought about her it felt like someone was plunging a red-hot blade into his body, twisting it deeper and deeper, until there were times when he couldn't stand the pain. Helping to defeat voldemort had made him feel slightly better. At least now he could start to forgive himself for her death. But even so, he knew he still could never stop loving her - it was physically impossible for him. Severus had given in to this truth along time ago, and nowadays he very rarely noticed that the blade was being twisted. He had really gone beyond caring at all about the pain, and well...beyond caring about anything else really.
Severus stood up, drained the last of his whisky and pulled his cloak hood back over his face. Hermione's comment had still hurt him, although more because he hadn't been expecting it than anything else. He walked out the pub and turned up the cobbled street, back in the direction of Hogwarts castle. He was planning to go up and see Remus tonight, to give him the finished wolfsbane potion. Glancing in the distance to his right, he saw two figures in the rain that appeared to be arguing with each other. Severus was sure that one smaller one was Hermione. 'Well, its none of my business anyway,' Severus thought to himself. But as he looked away he realised he had seen a tall, black cloaked figure standing not far from Hermione. He looked back quickly, but there was no one there. Could he have imagined it? Could it have been a Death Eater? Severus wasn't sure.
Still paranoid, aren't we?' the voice it the back of his mind whispered to him mockingly.
Severus shook his head and kept on walking up the muddy path. 'Of course I'm still bloody paranoid!' he told the voice in reply. 'What do you expect?!'