Hermione moved the last of her things to the dungeons and sighed as she looked around. Snape had added a room to his chambers for her, giving her more access to his personal lab, and library.
She'd almost drooled at the sight of his library, admittedly.
"You are finished?" Think of the devil, she stuffed down her laugh. He was much better, having spent another week in the hospital wing before Poppy had released him on strict orders of rest and self-care. Of course, he had her there to help care for him as well, a deciding factor for Poppy in the end.
"I think so, I just have a few things to put away." She flicked her wand and glanced at him, he was leaned casually against the doorway, one leg crossed over the other.
It was an odd sight, the wizard without his usual frockcoat, robes, and cravat. He wore a simple thin white button up and black trousers, even his shirt was untucked, casual.
He was the picture of casual, and it drew her to him even more, seeing this other side of him. He wasn't stern, his hair fell around his face, glossy and clean, blocking most of the white bandage that still clung to his neck. His black eyes were not nearly so stern as they'd been when she was a student. This Severus Snape was a different man entirely, and she found she quite liked that.
Oh, he had still been sarcasm, and dry wit, and darkness, but he'd been more than that as well.
"Let me check your neck." She said, turning further toward him and crossing the small distance between them. She was reaching for the bandage before he could complain and he tipped his face away to make it easier for her. She pulled the bandage away and bit her lip at the damaged flesh there.
"Is it really so bad?" He caught her fingers and brought them away from the scarring flesh. Her eyes flicked to his, a deep amber that he may have stared into just a little too hard.
"No." She breathed, eyes wide on his, he still held her fingers, encompassed in his larger hand. "Just that you had to go through it at all."
His only answer a confused blink as he released her fingers. She summoned the necessary bandages and replaced the old with new before glossy black hair fell back over the stark white bandages.
He reminded her of a hawk, even his sharply hooked nose, acute black eyes as he stared at her.
"It was only a small repentance for all of my sins." He growled and turned from the witch, strode away without a second glance and she watched him go. Broken.
He was so incredibly, and so tragically broken.
SSHG
"I just don't understand why you have to share chambers with him, 'Mione, he could hurt you." Hermione's lips pursed, she was sitting across from her boyfriend in a small café in Hogsmeade, the place they'd decided to meet up every weekend for a date. An attempt not to lose touch with one another.
"He's not going to hurt me Ron." She narrowed her eyes and he tensed in his seat.
"He's a greasy git, Hermione, what if he comes to your room while you sleep?" Ron grimaced and she tugged the hand he was holding across the table away from him. Crossed her arms across her chest.
"You listen to me Ronald, he is helping me by giving me this apprenticeship, this is a job for my future. Not all of us want to go on to work for the ministry." She was referring to his training as an Auror, his future with the ministry of magic. One that had been infiltrated any number of times.
"Don't take shots at my job just because I'm worried for you, it's petty. I was just saying that I don't think it's safe." His shoulders slumped and she brought her hand across, her fingers cupping his freckled face.
"Ron, he isn't going to help me, and I think he may need me as much as I need him."
"Bloody hell 'Mione! You can't save the world one wizard at a time." He snipped and she ripped her hand back.
"You know what Ron. You can get in touch again when you've gotten yourself under control." She stood, napkin tossed down on her plate on the table and turned to walk away, he caught her, tugged her back to him.
"I didn't mean it, Hermione. I'm sorry, I just, I worry for you, I want you to be safe." He stared at her with glittery blue eyes and her lips turned up into a soft smile.
"I'm fine Ron, perfectly safe. If you've forgotten I saved your sorry bum as many times as you've saved mine." She pecked his cheek and he held her hands between his.
"Why don't you kiss me anymore, 'Mione." She pulled back, blinking with a dumbfounded look on her face.
She didn't kiss him anymore?
It hadn't yet been a month since Voldemort's defeat, she'd only kissed him once then. A passion driven, fear edged kiss.
Did she want to kiss him again? She was dating him, she should want to shouldn't she?
More than just the little pecks, the kisses on the cheek or the chaste peck on the lips. She pursed her lips and he watched her facial expressions flash and change. So quickly she'd gone from shocked, to surprised, to realization, and finally settled on something that looked like sadness.
"I'm sorry Ron. I don't know, I didn't realize, there's so much going on right now, reconstruction and moving, and we've been talking about Snape pretty much the entire time we've been together." He wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug.
He didn't want to lose her, couldn't lose her to the greasy git.
How could he keep her though? When she seemed to simply be slipping away from him.
"It's okay, I didn't mean to upset you." She hugged him back, taking deep breaths of his scent, fresh cut grass, sweet lemon, her amortentia scent all those years ago.
She wondered if it was still the same, she'd have to brew some and find out.
"I need to get back now Ron. Come see me as soon as you can?" She pulled back, stared into his face, he smiled his soft, floppy smile at her and his thumb tapped her chin.
"I will. You know I will, Harry said he'll try to tag along next time as well."
"Good!" Her face lit up, there was that little tug of jealousy at his stomach. He knew they were best friends, knew she would tell Harry more than anyone else in the world. Her brother she called him. Neither had a family anymore, they, while he still did, they were like two orphans drifting through life, Hermione's parents fallen to the war.
"I'll tell him how excited you are to see him." He grumbled and they parted ways, one disapparating with a loud 'pop' and the other walked casually to Hogwarts' gates.
SSHG
"How was your rendezvous witch?" Snape leaned against the back of the couch where Hermione read, he was still dressed so casually and she wondered if maybe this was his break attire, what he wore when no students were on campus.
"Difficult." She breathed and flipped her book close, her head falling back to look up at him over the back of the couch, he smirked.
"It is Weasley, I could easily have told you it would be difficult." She shook her head, curls tugging her scalp from beneath her head.
"No, he's not as bad as you make him out to be." She pouted as she thought, her lips pursed and he cocked an eyebrow. "It's just, I don't know, apparently I haven't been showing him affection, and I hadn't even realized it."
He blinked down at her for a moment and gave a little nod.
"He'll just have to understand, since the war you have had a lot on your mind, it isn't hard to see how things like affection would fall to the wayside."
"He thinks you will hurt me." She blurted suddenly, unsure why she felt the need to share that little tidbit but, no going back after it was out.
He sneered, the first one she'd seen since when he'd very first awoken.
"I would never…" His voice was gravelly, annoyed. "…You realize of course witch, I could never hurt you, if not because of the debt I owe you then…" He trailed off, his lips sealed shut. He wasn't willing to say more.
His face was dark as he stared down into her face and she smiled softly, her fingers caressed his cheek. She blinked and pulled her hand back, an affectionate act for her boyfriend, not the man who took her as an apprentice.
What was wrong with her?
"I know that, I do, I just wish I could make him see, you're not what you were when we were students." She blinked those amber eyes at him and his lips pulled into a tight line.
"He was a necessary evil, Hermione. I had to protect you, all of my students. Make no mistake, I am a dark man, a dark wizard, but I am not cruel simply to be as such." His voice had dropped several octaves and it chased a chill up and down her spine.
"I know that." She lifted her head back from the back of the couch and held her book up, waved it at him. "Read with me?"
He nodded, came around to her side of the sofa, summoned a book of his own and they settled into calm silence, comfortable. The crackle of fire and the turning of pages the only sounds in the room.