Chapter 80: The Hallowed Realm Of Knowing

{A/N: Here's Another Update...}

My Thanks To My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.

The Battlements, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...

Cold stone surrounded the ever brooding Potions Professor as he stood alone atop the castle battlements his keen eyes scanning the grounds of the one person that made his previously solitary existence sustainable. He had watched Hermione Jean Granger from afar, a force of habit now and again given his vested interest in her welfare. He knew not what to make of his new found relationship with the bushy haired young woman but he had no wish to see it end no matter the outcome of the up coming war. A slight breeze made the already morgue like stone corridor even more chilled as he continued to watch the students. Hermione seemed quite distracted as her friends questioned and engaged her in conversation. Already he could see the changes within their little dynamic as she became more isolated with her thoughts and feelings. He had warned her before hand that there was a price to be paid for her association with him and of course she believed she'd been willing to pay it. Snape knew better however, but couldn't bring himself to put distance between them.

He had known Hermione Granger all too well by now.

More so than she'd even known herself.

He had watched with rapt attention as her barely concealed youthful desires began to get the better of her in ways that her intellectual mind could hardly navigate. There was no sense of jealousy...at least not as far as Hermione's affections had been concerned when it came to her friendship with Harry James Potter and Ronald Weasley. He'd known all too well what she desired in terms of male companionship.

Snape continued to watch his wife from afar noting her movements in silence as he stood in silence.

She'd become quite beautiful over the course of their time together. Strikingly so if he were honest and it seemed to catch him off guard. She had become a woman in the blink of an eye and the irresistible pull he had toward her seemed to increase with each passing day. The sickening sensation of relief when she came into view and the anxiousness of not interacting with her at all drove him mad. Never before had he succumbed to such intense emotions and he feared all too well that they'd be the death of him.

The madness he had attempted to bury deep within his already compromised psyche had been quite alarming.

The fine details of even one evening together computed to memory as if he could reach out and pluck it from the four corners of his mind whenever he felt the anxiousness that over took him when he had not been in her presence.

She was having a severe affect upon him, the trembling palms, the night sweats, the constant need for her be it physical or otherwise.

It had been quite a long time since he had been given to such youthful notions. So much so that it sickened him even now to have them creep back into his life after all this time. He'd been content with feeling nothing aside from the embittered anguish of loss as far as Lily Evans had been concerned and he would have gladly gone to his grave in that state, but Hermione Granger took it upon herself to pierce through his apparent "heart of ice" and force it to beat again.

He was use to sorrow and the dull grey colors the emotion brought with it along with the deepest darkest shadows and the mournful black backdrop his life had become since the death of Lily Evans-Potter. The stubborn bushy haired girl had come crashing into his life with her vibrant oranges and deep reds. As bold as any lioness he had ever known and with a distinctive refusal to be denied. He had attempted in so many ways to dull those colors but each time she'd shatter his expectations.

If someone had told him he would find himself enthralled by a young witch whom had entered Hogwarts Castle at the age of twelve and challenged him at every turn he would have surely hexed them. Dumbledore had not known the true ramifications of his constant meddling and as such opened the door to a means of opportunity.

Due to her being his wife, he became privy to things no Professor should know about his student. Every waking moment he had spent with her since becoming her husband seemed to be filed away in the halls of his memory as vivid as the day they occurred.

In the back of his mind he felt the compulsion to hold on to as much information about this beautiful young witch as he could possibly gather.

War was on the horizon whither they wished to acknowledge it or not and once the smoke cleared and the dust settled there was no telling what would become of the world at it's conclusion.

For the first time in his life, Severus Snape had truly known what he wanted.

Images of a pleasant and smiling Hermione Granger-Snape clinging to him with the intention of placing his hand along her noticeable round belly gave way to fantasy.

The breeze from the battlements brought him out of his short lived fantasy as he noted Hermione gathering her books and walking toward Gryffindor tower with her friends. While he wanted noting more than to be near her, he knew better than to give in to whims, especially with so much at stake as far as the both them had been concerned.

"Hermione." he said in a soft voice that seemed to be carried along with the breeze.

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The Grounds, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...

Hermione Granger seemed to be quite preoccupied as she made her way toward Gryffindor Castle. While she had not directly been able to see the absentee Potions Professor, she had known all too well that he'd been around somewhere watching them as he often did not only to ensure that Harry had not landed them into some kind of trouble but to let her known that he'd been thinking about her. She did her best not to look up at the battlements for fear that it would draw unwanted attention to him. She simply walked without a word about it despite Harry's remark about being watched and how eerie it felt. Hermione was more relieved than unnerved given that Severus Snape had been off the grounds since they returned to Hogwarts from 12 Grimmauld Place. While she had not liked the idea of Snape's classes being taken over via another teacher, she knew his efforts at spying for The Order Of Phoenix were vital to the overall war effort.

Although their initial steps in forming a relationship had not been ideal, Hermione knew without a shadow of a doubt that she loved him and despite him passing it off as a mere school girl crush, she was determined to prove to him that it was more than infatuation on her part.

Time and time again, he'd saved her life and the lives of her friends in rather tedious and thankless efforts sometimes risking his own well being in the process. The guilt she felt at never having thanked him for said efforts only increased her longing to make things right with him. He had forgiven her childish antics of the past, stealing from his potions stores, setting his cloak on fire, and interrupting his classes with frequent questions for her own amusement. She had forgiven him for his callous manner and sarcastic abrasions over the years despite having earned a good bit of them due to her own actions against him.

Hermione never truly faulted Severus for his demeanor. She merely sought to understand it. In doing so she found herself connecting to him on a level that far exceeded her own expectations as well as her experience.

As she traveled with her friends back to Gryffindor tower, she pondered how they would react to knowing just how much she'd been in love with their Potions Professor. Ginny had known about her marriage and that was good enough for her for the time being but the fact remained...that Harry and Ron had been in the dark when it came to her love life.

"Mione you coming?" asked Harry Potter breaking Hermione's train of thought as they neared the entrance corridor at the tower.

As her friends rushed through the door eager to get out of the cold, Hermione chanced a glance up at the distance battlements. She could barely make out a lone figure clad in ebony attire. She knew all too well whom it had been as she let his name fall from her lips and be carried along with the newly arrived breeze.

"Severus." she said softly in a tone much too low for her friends to hear her.

After a few moments she proceeded into the tower fading from view but content with knowing that her husband had returned from his mission alive and for the most part well.