Hermione bit her cheek to keep from gasping as Ginny forced an intricate wreath of flowers through the curls she'd just tamed and braided.
"Would you quit your whining?" the younger girl exclaimed when Hermione couldn't contain a whimper. "You'd think it was knives I was weaving."
"Virginia Weasley, I pity your daughters; that's all I'll say," Hermione said through clenched teeth. In the nearly four years since Harry decapitated Lord Voldemort, she and Harry had had two lovely girls, and a third child, its sex to be determined, was certainly on its way. They certainly wasted no time in procreating. "Where are Lily and Molly, anyhow?"
Ginny spoke around the pin clenched in her teeth for safekeeping as she tucked an uncooperative curl of Hermione's hair back into the braid it escaped from. "Mum's got them," she murmured. "They'll sit with her and Ron since I'm to stand with you and Harry—"
"Is the dear Professor's best man, yes," Hermione laughed. "A pair I thought I'd die before seeing."
While he'd been her professor three years longer than he was her lover, referring to Severus so formerly felt nothing but foreign now. After he'd woken in the Hospital Wing, his recovery was speedier than anticipated. If you were to ask the Headmaster, he'd tell you it was the power of love gracing him, for you'd be hard pressed to see the professor without Hermione by his side.
They'd kept their relationship professional, cordial, while she finished her education, of course. Impropriety was not in Severus Snape's vocabulary. But the Saturday after graduation, they'd ventured out for the first time as a prospective couple and while Hermione was never a proponent, nor really a believer, of true love, she couldn't deny that nothing had ever felt as…well, right. As natural.
They didn't spend much time apart after that. He held his position at Hogwarts and she trained alongside McGonagall to assume position of Professor of Transfiguration. McGonagall gladly accepted her role as Headmistress when Dumbledore voluntarily stepped down. His health was actually very stable for being over 150, but he'd seen the battle through, he'd seen Harry victorious, and he saw fit to end an amazing career out on top; he retained a residence within the castle but only as a friendly advisor. Rather like a grandfatherly mischief-maker.
After the war, Harry was far more bent on starting a family than he was a career and though he accepted the position of Head Auror, he declined the offer of Minister of Magic. He'd had more excitement in 17 years than he'd ever desired and wanted nothing more than the calm life he'd been deprived of. Coincidentally, he'd made it is undying prerogative to force his friendship on an initially unwitting Severus. The latter had very little interest in befriending the boy who'd freed the Wizarding World but he appeared to have no say in the matter. Through the years, Severus noticed a begrudging friendship budding between he and the incessant young man and before he knew it, he was forced to acknowledge that Harry had somehow wormed his way into the former's closest allegiance aside from Albus Dumbledore.
Ron, too, had become an Auror but the taste of exhilaration he'd gotten during the battle was like a high to an adrenaline junkie; he wanted more of it, all of it, and he did his job perfectly. He'd started courting Lavender again about a year ago and if Ginny's intuition served her correctly, they'd be married before the year was out.
Hermione's wedding day was bringing about an array of mixed feelings. Former classmates were perplexed. Her parents were happy she'd found love, but forlorn that it was with someone a little over twenty years her senior. Those closest to her, however, those who saw them through the difficulties of her seventh year and the capture it culminated in, couldn't have been more thrilled.
As Ginny helped her tug her gown over the skimpy, lacy knickers she'd been forced to buy, Hermione lamented on the immense turn-around Severus had made towards her. It started after the attack seventh year, of course, but only furthered after graduation. It was like her interest in him sparked a side of him—his heart, maybe—that just hadn't been turned on previously. His temper, obviously, could never be turned off entirely but he rarely directed it at her. He was caring and attentive to an extreme and it almost pained Hermione to see him working so hard to assure that she was happy.
She knew he felt a constant inner discord, though he didn't voice it often. It was revealed to her amidst a flaming row—a rare occurrence for them—that he didn't feel he deserved her. It would forever be a sore spot, she knew, and she'd be spending an immeasurable amount of time in the future convincing him of otherwise.
Assuring him that she was all right mentally had been a beast of another nature. They'd been together nearly four years and not once had they been entirely intimate, and that was no decision of hers. They'd come close, but he'd always stop them before they ventured into what he'd single-handedly deemed forbidden territory.
It was actually that which invariably led to their infrequent rows. Hermione hadn't any idea how to convince him that she didn't equate him with the violence she associated with Lucius Malfoy. She remembered a particularly intense argument that took place not long after he proposed. He'd once again stopped her before she could take their intimacy to a step they hadn't explored and finally, her aggravation exploded.
"Severus, you can't really expect to marry without ever shacking up, can you?" she exclaimed. It wasn't her proudest moment, but she could not accept his frigidity anymore without proper explanation.
He sighed and reigned in his temper carefully. "Shacking up, as you so eloquently say, simply isn't in the forefront of my mind, Hermione, and I don't think it's a precursor for marriage. Quite the contrary, historically."
Hermione threw her hands up incredulously and vacated her spot beside him on the sofa. "Must you always be so damned polite, Severus? Its extraordinarily irritating and we needn't always practice on precedent." She turned to him imploringly. "Don't you want to…I don't know, see what you're getting, so to speak?"
Snape glowered for a moment. "Might I remind you that I already know?"
Her face fell.
He sighed. "I'm sorry, darling. I can't…" he sighed, and started pacing which was a sign of how stressed this conversation made him. "I can't seem to differentiate then and now. I…well, picture it, certainly. But the instant we reach the bed in my mind, you start screaming and crying and I look down and you've broken and—" He broke off, gasping for a breath he couldn't quite catch.
Hermione's own breath caught in her throat. This was the first time he'd ever spoken of his concerns so brazenly. She had, of course, an inkling as to the origin of his reticence but never before had she heard something so painful.
She pulled at his arm gently to urge him to rejoin her on the sofa before gathering both of his hands in hers. She cupped his face and said, "Oh, Severus, I'm so sorry. I…I didn't know you still felt so strongly."
He met her eyes and his burned with a sorrow he clearly hadn't dealt with. "I can't help it. I see it every time I close my eyes—I see you hurt, sobbing, violated. My own worst memory is the very one that haunts me."
She bit back a cry for that wouldn't exactly lull him out of his self-hatred. "Darling," she sighed, "I can't imagine. I'm sorry, I didn't know it was still so hard for you. But look," she pried, pulling his hands so that they caressed her face, "I'm here. And I'm fine, and I'm clearly not broken." She nestled her head into his welcoming embrace. "I promise not to try to coax you into anything you aren't ready for."
He kissed her head and rubbed her back gently. And in the position they lay for the remainder of the night.
A little over a year had passed since that night, but they'd come to a better understanding about the bedroom. As Ginny righted the bodice into place, Hermione wondered vaguely how the wedding night was supposed to go for them. Deciding she wouldn't pay it much mind, for this day was to be her happiest if she had to kill for it, she peered into the mirror just as Ginny declared her through.
"Hermione," she cried at last, much like a proud Mum, "you look absolutely stunning."
Hermione laughed. "And all credit goes to you, so soak it in." Still, she had to admire the way Gin had manipulated her curls into cascading beautifully around her shoulders where they met the lacy sweetheart neckline Hermione was so fond of. The bodice clung to her slender frame until a little above her knee, where it finally flared slightly into a mermaid style skirt. The whole affair was actually really imperial and Hermione mused that if she hadn't known better, she would've thought she'd happened upon a royal wedding.
The next fifteen minutes were such a blur, she couldn't have told you what happened if you used a pensive. The next thing she knew, she was watching Ginny hook arms with Harry and saunter down the aisle artfully, where they finally took their respectful sides next to Severus.
Severus…how the man could clean up. He'd had his hair tidied considerably and it shone around a face she found rather handsome. His tux hugged his leanly muscular body like he was born for it and she had to will herself to walk forward.
At long last he laid eyes on her, and she had to stifle a giggle as her father led her forward. His mouth quite literally gaped as he gazed upon his bride.
The ceremony itself was a whirlwind of prayer and vows and she didn't feel time slow until they were finally granted a kiss, which both accepted gratefully.
"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on," he whispered to her as they turned to greet their audience as husband and wife for the first time.
She let herself melt into his obsidian eyes for a moment because Hell, it was her day. "And you, Severus Snape, are the only man I could and will ever love."
Joy surged through him and prompted him to steal another kiss before they ventured down the alter steps as Mr. and Mrs. Severus Snape.
Author's Note: I do apologize for my lengthy hiatus, but I'm back and I'm through with school for the summer months! This story is very nearly finished-one more chapter-but I did promise a sequel, and a sequel you'll get. This chapter was such fun to write and I hope it's as enjoyable to read so pretty pretty pretty please review!