She nodded at him then looked directly into his eyes, as though truly seeing him.
"Just now, she smiled at you more times than I've seen her smile at Ronald, Ever."
He looked bashfully down at his feet, so was taken completely by surprise when she slung her arms around him and kissed his cheek, just as rose had.
"Severus Snape" She said with a shaking voice "You are the most wonderful man I've ever known, now come back to bed"
The rest of the night passed without a hitch, though the same could not be said for the morning.
He awoke before Hermione, thank the gods, with the most stupendous piece of morning wood he'd had in, quite frankly, decades.
Though he felt quite like a pervert for doing so, he crept into the bathroom and relieved himself of it in the shower, taking himself in hand and pleasuring himself.
It was a very long time since he'd gotten so hard, depressingly enough it was before the end of the war in fact, and he wasn't about to waste the rare opportunity, and considering the length of his abstinence he came fairly quickly, the pleasant lassitude that followed easing some of the tension in his frame that he'd been holding for a long time.
Finishing his daily ablutions he checked on both women, still sleeping, and the time, 8am.
He smiled softly at Hermione, her eyes were puffy from where she'd been crying last night and her hair was an absolute birds nest. She most definitely was not a graceful sleeper. Having never slept the night with a woman, he had assumed that women slept quietly, neatly and politely like all the movies show. That was not the case with Hermione. She was laid on her stomach, sprawled out taking at least 2/3rds of the space. Though she wasn't snoring per say, she had her mouth slightly open and was breathing heavily.
As he was watching she let out a soft noise and turned, kicking the covers from her. He fought a groan when the lowered quilt revealed that her tossing and turning had caused the shirt she was wearing to ride up, exposing just the slightest curve of her arse. With disbelief he felt a twinge below the belt once more, but quickly left the room awash with self loathing for having looked at her in such a way.
Rose, like her mother, was sprawled in bed on her stomach. However she had a firm hold of the teddy bear in one arm, and was sucking her thumb. He noticed with a start that there were some fingerprints in the dust on the boxes he'd planned to move upstairs. Judging by their position, it looked like at some point in the night, Rose had attempted to drag them closer to the bed.
He realised she was trying to create a 'safe place' or a wall around her bed, and an idea began to form in his mind, that he mulled over as he went to prepare breakfast.
oOo
He wasn't sure what Hermione or Rose liked to eat, so he decided to fry up an English breakfast and let the pair choose what items they wanted. Before he got a chance to go and wake the girls he heard the stairs creaking as Hermione came down carrying Rose, who was looking around the room with interest, Herman still held tightly in her grasp.
"Good Morning Hermoine, Miss Rose" He said softly. "Are you hungry? I have made breakfast"
"Good Morning, Merlin I'm starved, this looks fabulous Severus, thank you...but you didn't have to go to all this trouble"
Waving her off he gestured for her to sit at the table, and Hermione transfigured one of the chairs higher for Rose to sit in it beside her.
Noticing that Rose was reluctant to let go of Herman, Severus casually flicked his wand, raising the seat besides Rose up as well.
She gave him a little smile then and placed Herman in the seat beside her.
When he turned around with the food, Hermione was once more giving him that look, and he returned it with a smirk. Still, nobody would believe you.
She snorted then chuckled softly and he just smiled as he sat at the table.
He'd placed a large plate in the centre, so they could serve themselves what they wanted, along with a jug of juice.
Rose had eaten some breakfast, not as much as Severus would've liked, but Hermione said it was actually very good for her so he let it go.
They'd washed up the plates together, at Hermione's insistence, and rose had decided that she wanted to help as well so Severus gave her a towel and allowed her to dry any items that were not breakable or sharp, which mostly consisted of the plastic cups they'd used for juice and some spoons. Rose however took her duty very seriously, and showed Severus each item for inspection and approval before she would give it to her mother to put away.
They were just about to plan their day, when Kingsley's patronus shot through the wall, requesting that he be allowed to speak with them. It startled and upset Rose who began to whimper, and Hermione went to take her out of the room but Rose refused to leave Severus on his own, which meant that Hermione had to sit on the arm of Severus's chair, with Rose in her lap.
When Kingsley entered, Hermoine could tell from the look on his face that it was not going to be good news, so she carefully cast the sound dampening spell over Rose so she didn't hear their conversation.
"I am afraid I have to be the bearer of bad news" He said in his calm voice, though his face looked pained.
"Just tell me Kingsley, don't beat around the bush" Hermione said tiredly and Severus raised his eyebrow at the man.
Sighing the minister scrubbed a hand over his face before he began to talk.
"We dispatched Aurors to your home address, they found Mr. Weasley, he was not dead but he was quite injured. However when the Auror's approached him, he reacted aggressively"
"Are they alright ?" Severus asked, mirroring Hermione's look of concern.
"Green lost an eye. Block was crucio-d but thankfully not long enough to do permanent damage...however..."
"Spit it out man" Severus growled, as he took in the worry on Hermione's face.
"When Mr. Weasley fled, he cast a dark hex to distract the aurors and prevent them from tracking and following his apparation"
"What dark hex?" Severus asked, and the minister looked away.
"What..Dark..Hex..Kingsley?" Hermione spat out.
"Fiendfyre" Kingsley said softly, and apologetically.
Severus sucked a breath in through his teeth, and Hermione closed her eyes as tears escaped.
"Block and Green managed to apparate out without being burned, but they were both injured and-"
"How much?" Hermoine spoke resignedly.
"You must understand that they really had no choice-"
"How..much.."
"Everything." Kingsley said sadly.
"Everything inside the house was incinerated, and the house itself is only partially left standing...I'm so sorry Hermione"