Severus placed a delicate kiss to the top of Hermione's head as he left her in his room. She drifted off to sleep, exhausted from a day of planning their lessons for the next week, when students would return, and brewing some very complicated potions.
He would join her soon, and soon could not come quickly enough for him as he stepped into his personal lab.
Yes, he would much rather be in his bed with his little witch curled against him than in the lab, seeing to a few last minute potions for Poppy.
Luckily, she understood his need to complete his work and had, grudgingly, told him to go and work, all but pleaded with him to stay until she'd fallen asleep.
He knew she was still struggling, though perhaps not as badly as she had been only a few months earlier she still had troubles, still had night terrors that woke her screaming and thrashing, eyes open and mouth agape.
His nightmares had dwindled since she'd begun to share his bed, all but faded aside from the odd flash of horror when he dreamed he woke and she was gone.
And she was gone in the way that she had never been there.
It was a nagging, disgusting feeling, thinking he could never win such a witch.
He had though, and she looked at him with those wide amber eyes, so full of trust, so full of care.
Severus dreaded the day she asked about his scars, the day she asked about his past, what he'd done for the Dark Lord.
What he'd done before going under cover, before acting as a double agent, and then while he was a double agent.
It turned his gut to think she may ask him that someday, that he would tell her.
That it may be the final straw, there was every chance she would not forgive him that.
He should enjoy his time of peace while he had it, he knew this. Knew he should indulge in every smile she granted him, every hug, every time her fingers grasped at him as if he wasn't real.
And of course he did, in his own way, he'd catalogued every time in his memories, stored them for the day that she inevitably discovered what a wicked man he really was.
It would destroy him, when she did.
He stirred the potion in front of him and rubbed at his eyes, he was exhausted. Needed to silence his train of thought before it carried him off the deep end.
Severus had promised, promised her he would never leave her again, that she would have to force him away, and even then he may never leave her completely. He would still feel the strong urge to watch over her, to care for her.
What had started out a relationship built on the need to repay a debt had turned into something so much more. So much deeper.
Could he claim to love her? He very nearly thought he could.
"Severus!" Her cry tore through their chambers and caught his ear in his lab, the door left open so that he could hear her should a nightmare take her while he was away.
This was not the voice of her sleep though, and it brought him to her faster than he'd ever thought his legs could carry him.
Her cries rang through their chambers and he dashed into their room to find a man, death eater's mask fixed firmly in place with his fingers in her hair, tugging her, trying to drag her toward the fireplace.
She was fighting valiantly, pulling back until her scalp bled trying to reach her wand, just out of arm's reach.
"Stupefy!" Cast without a second thought the man immediately released Hermione's hair and she rolled across the bed with a wince, grabbed her wand and joined him at his side, her wand in the air.
The man fell to the floor and his mask fell away, if the long white blonde hair poking out from his cloak hadn't given him away it may have been a shock that Lucius Malfoy lay on the floor, unconscious.
Hermione cast a quick Incarcerous charm and fell onto the bed, the blood from her scalp ran freely down the side of her face and Severus hissed, coming to her side.
"Thank Merlin you heard me, I couldn't reach my wand, couldn't focus for Accio, my head is throbbing." She gripped her head between her hands and his own came up to cover them. Wand still in his left hand held there as well.
"I should have known he would try for you, the best way to get to Potter is to get to you, and Potter is the best way to sway the Ministry, how did he enter though?" He glanced to the man, prone on the floor and still unconscious, the man that had been his friend.
He had to wonder if Lucius had actually come for Hermione, or if he'd just thought to drop in on an old friend and stumbled upon an irresistible opportunity. The witch asleep in his bed. He would need to seal his fireplace.
"I think he came through the floo." She blinked over at him as well, a sad look in her eyes.
"Draco will be glad he's been found, but Severus, it will break his heart to send the man to Azkaban." She blinked up at him, there was that sympathy, that desire to help even those who did not deserve it.
Was he so undeserving as he thought Lucius to be?
He hoped he wasn't.
"Lucius knew what he was doing when he joined the Dark Lord's side, Hermione." She winced at the reverential name and gave him a look.
"Voldemort, that title continues to give him power, Severus." She blinked up at him and he nodded his head, the fingers of his free hand drifted down to her jaw.
"I'll do my best, love, I make no promises, it was beaten into me." He blinked down at her, her head leaned against his stomach, pleased with his answer.
He held her to him for a moment before she whipped back, stared in horror at her blood staining his shirt.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bleed on you." She winced, the motion her face made caused her discomfort as it tugged on her scalp.
"I will heal you and then take him to Minerva, she can deal with him from there." He brought his wand up as she leaned back away from him, so he could see the damage.
"I'll get in touch with Harry and Draco at Grimmauld and give them a heads up, then, shower." She leaned forward to kiss his abdomen after her head was sufficiently healed and he tensed.
"Hermione, love, please." He gritted his teeth, black eyes burning into the top of her head. She glanced up at him, an innocent- not so innocent- shrug.
"Sorry." She smirked and hooked her fingers through those of his free hand.
"Come back to me soon." She kissed the back of his hand this time and he nodded, black hair swayed around his face before he turned to Lucius and lifted him with a simple charm.
As soon as he'd left the room she sighed and leaned back on the bed, her eyes creased at the corners.
That had been a close call, it had been incredibly difficult to play off that she was okay. She slunk into the bathroom and slipped into the shower, let the warm water was away her blood, and her tears.
She'd hate to worry Severus over something so silly. He didn't need more difficulties than he already had out of her.
SSHG
"Dunderheads, everywhere." Severus muttered to Hermione who sat beside him at the staff table. As his apprentice it was her place to sit at his right. She watched the students file in behind Neville, who had begun an apprenticeship under Professor Sprout, and had asked for the honor of caring for the first years.
Hermione thought it was sweet, the way he was already prepared to look after them. She hoped he'd find his way to head of Hufflepuff someday, she would say Gryffindor but Neville had insisted he did not want the title.
'Headstrong Gryffindors, no thank you.' He'd huffed at her when she asked and she'd only laughed and shook her head.
It had probably been herself, Harry, and Ron who had soured him on the idea to begin with. They had not made his first years as suspicious housemate very easy. Though now he was a great friend.
She was certain a non-Hufflepuff could still end up their head of house. He portrayed their traits as well, loyalty, kindness.
Hermione glanced over at Severus' scowling face and shook her head. He would be softer on his students this year, however minimally it was. Still, she could see he'd lost some of that edge, that mask of pure hatred he'd worn when she'd met him as a first year.
The sorting began and she grasped his hand under the table.
"Yes, I suppose we can say goodbye to our halcyon lifestyle now." She smirked and he returned it in kind.
"I feel you are being sarcastic, love." He muttered to her as another Ravenclaw was called out.
"I fear you are correct, dear Severus." His smirk deepened and she could tell he was fighting a chuckle as they watched the rest of the sorting in silence, their hands still twined beneath the table.