Hello lovlies! I am so sorry I am late with the update, did I forget to mention I was going on vacation?Lots and lots of inspiration, hopefully I can crank chapters out now. Hope this was worth the wait. -TGP

Hermione was curled up on her couch with a cup of tea, a book below her fingers and a long and tattered blue afgan across her lap. At a first glance, the scene would haven't looked amiss; but the fact that the cover of the book was closed, the tea was hours cold and Hermione looked like she hadn't slept in days. Her gaze kept darting back between her front door and the clock, the church bells down the lane were ringing past three in the morning.

It was her birthday and she was alone.

Six days earlier...

"Severus I think someone is outside."

Severus froze, his wards were impenetrable. "Go home Hermione," he said quietly. Severus' tone was firm and calm but there was a lacing of worry that leaked into his words. Her hand tightened on his, "Not on your life mister." At his look of contempt at being disobeyed (although when Severus thought about it later, when had she ever listened to him?) she whispered softly with a small, forced smile "I haven't put this much work into you and have you be blasted apart by some wizard with a grudge."

Severus frowned, there was no way it was a wizard, their magical signature would identify them immediately after they stepped onto his front path. Muggle repellant charms would make anyone just keep walking, suddenly remembering some shopping they had to do or some other sort of matter than needed sudden attending. There was no one that could get it. The wards were old, older than Severus himself in fact.

With this he paused and closed his eyes when the answer suddenly illuminated in his foggy mind. It couldn't be. It had been years and he knew he would kill him if he had ever came back here.

Time slowed. Severus felt his Occlumency shields rise and he turned to the door while slowly opening his eyes. His hand dropped Hermione's like it was wet fish and he grasped the knob tighter than perhaps was necessary.

"Go home Granger," Severus said, his voice cold and sent shivers down her spine. "Go home or go upstairs. I won't have you watch this."Her lovers spine went completely stiff and she almost missed his words as she stepped onto the stairs, "I never want you to see this of me."

The rain was lapping at her window when Hermione finally saw him. His cloak was drenched and he was walking so slowly and awkwardly. It had taken much longer than he had planned to get back, especially since he could just apparate onto her doorstep.

When Severus had finally reached her doorway Hermione had a towel on hand as the other tore open the door.

Her heart broke into a million pieces when she saw the look on his face, lost and pained. Hermione was soaked when Severus pinned her to the now closed door. His hands lifted her bum so she could lock her ankles around his hips as Severus took her mouth possessively.

Severus turned her tank-top into tatters and his cloak was left to make waterstains on the hardwood as he entered her quickly, desperate for her warmth. Desperate to feel warm again.

Hermione left trails of fire on his frozen skin, her lips becoming bruised from his welcome assault and their breathing became ragged gasps. His sodden shirt and trousers only heightened the feeling of her orgasm that quickly came and went unnoticed by her lover.

He was so bloody cold and she was the only warm thing in this world for him.

It was gently misting rain outside and there was a sheen on everything it touched. The old man in the middle of the path seemed surprised that the door was opened and such complex emotions were crossing his face that Severus didn't even know which was which.

Tobias Snape had grown old.

The last time he had seen Severus they had been almost eye to eye; now the few inches between them could have been miles. His curly black hair had turned whispy and black wire frame were resting on his prominent nose. The once muscular abuser had turned frail and looked like a pebble could break his arm.

"'ello stranger. Been while since I seen yeh hadn't it?" Tobias said loudly. It wasn't raining hard and the street was silent. The mill must have done damage to his hearing before the lay-offs started. Severus didn't reply, only stood in the doorframe, waiting and watching. "Been hearing from the old hags down the way that you had been seen but they said you looked older then meself and blimey you do lad. Been hearing you had got a wee lass drivin' yeh around and not botherin' to see the old man. Heard she's a fine piece of arse as well lad, are you jumpin' her bones boy?" Tobias finished with a leer that turned into a ragged cough.

Severus had felt his fingers grip his wand tighter when Tobias had mentioned Hermione. Of course this fool would think of women as meat and to be treated as such. He had nearly jumped out of his skin when Hermione had come quietly down the stairs and wrapped her arms under his jumper and slowly stroked his back. Severus didn't know it yet, but that is what she did when his nightmares started ever night in any attempt to soothe him. If she hadn't been so small (and her hair didn't stick out like a shrub behind him) Tobias would have noticed her.

"Anyway lad, I just wanted to see if you had some room for me, ya see me landlord had gone and locked me out of my place again, such a silly thing as rent ain't it?" Tobias stepped closer to the house and Hermione felt Severus take a deep breath in as the stale scent of ale reached them. "Please lad, I know I did wrong by your Mum and by you-" "You whipped us both with a belt when we ate before you, even if it was past two in the morning. You beat us both senseless whenever you felt that we were looking at you wrong. You killed her and left and got away with it-" "Now you listen here lad,"Tobias said gruffly. The abuser finally peaking through the facade. "This is me house and you and that whore of yours are damn guests and I ain't going to Mrs. Flannery's again and asking for a fecking hand out. I went to prison for four years for whackin' your Mum so don't you dare say I haven't paid." Her own wards she had been crafting while Tobias had been speaking flew up in addition to the ones already there. She heard him slam onto the concrete and his curses reached the house.

Severus stood staring at the door for hours. He was silent and didn't even blink when Hermione tried to pull him into the library or force a cup of tea into his hand. The grain of wood turned darker as the limited sunlight gave way to the lamps Hermione wandlessly turned on. Severus noticed nothing. He moved nowhere.

Severus traced the line of freckles down Hermione's arm as she finally slept on his shoulder. They had finally settled into a nest of blankets on her floor amid the boxes.

She had said that she needed a few more things from the flat when he had gotten the call. Mrs. Flannery told him he needed to get down to the city morgue to identify Tobias. There had been a bad man that came to the door and said that he was owed money. She said that is why he had been out looking for a place to stay... or rather hide.

Severus had thrown a handful of floo into the fire and told Hermione to stay put, he had something to take care of for a few hours but he would meet her at the flat before supper. He had ignored her questions and shut the call.

"He's dead isn't he?" a sleepy Hermione asked, tracing her fingers through his sparse chesthair. Severus tightened his hand around her shoulder and rolled so his nose was in her neck.

"I didn't do it," he said softly, gently nipping at her neck and soothing the bites a moment later.

"I know."