The long and winding road to love

Chapter 16: Love is all you need







Well, my friends… I wish to thank you all for your awesome reviews.
Thanks for your support.

What do you think about the story? In the next chapters important things
will happen… so stick around; you will not regret it.

 

Anyhow… here it is; chapter 16… enjoy!

 

Chapter 16: Love is all you need

 

He had walked all the way towards the
library his father had cherished so much all his life.

 

When you think of it, it is strange that Severus
never thought of burning that library in his Death Eater’s days. He could have
easily done it in order to get even at the memory of his father, but somehow he
did not. Perhaps because that library was the only thing they had in common or
perhaps because he respected his mother too much to ruin a house she had loved
so much.

 

All the same, he was now facing more than
three thousand books on the most diverse subjects. It was indeed one of the
greatest libraries in Britain and Severus’s heart filled with pride at the mere thought of it.

 

He sat on his leather chair; a chair that
had belonged to his father many years ago. Little did he know that Hermione was
silently watching his movement from the doorframe, trying to catch a glimpse of
her sobbing husband.

 

“Why is he crying?,?”
she thought to herself; her soul filled with pain. It was a different feeling
from the one she had felt when she woke up, but somehow she knew they were
connected.  The pain in her heart had something to do with the love in her
heart.

&nb
A
And then she knew. She would give
everything in the world to makm ham happy, to make him stop crying, even her
life.

 

“Why are you crying?” she finally asked;
her voice echoed through the room. 

 

Severus couldn’t have been more shocked to
find her there. He knew he would wake up sooner or later but he never thought
she would find a library he had never shown to her so quickly.

 

“Did you follow me?” he defensively asked,
clearing his tears away with his left hand. He was a man. And men don’t cry.
His father had told him so a thousand times as Severus used to cry every time
his father shouted at his sick mother.

 

“You never answered, why are you crying?” she firmly asked while walking to where he
was. But the quickness, in whic man managed to stand up, scared her; an abyss
separated them now.

 

“I am not crying, Miss Granger,” he coldly
replied, obviously upset at her. If it had been otherwise he would have called
her “Hermione”.

 

“What happed with “Hermione”, Severus?”
she kindly asked, slowly walking to the corner on which he was standing,
pretending to look at an old edition of “A tale of two cities”, her mother’s
favourite muggle book.

 

“I am sorry,” was all he managed to
pronounce. He hadn't notice, however, that Hermione stood only a metre away
from him now and that it was too late for him to escape; he was trapped in the
nets of love.

 

“Why are you crying?” she once again
enquired, with a tone of voice Severus had never heard. She seemed more mature;
more a woman now than she had ever been.

 

“I was not crying, Miss…Hermione,” he
said, biting his lower lip, “Could you please drop the subject? I am a little
bit tired and furthermore I haven’t had a decent meal since breakfast, would you
be as kind as to join me for dinner?” he politely asked with a smile on his
face despite his headache. As I said, Severus was a pretender… the best of alreteretenders.

 

But just when he thought that a nice warm
supper was in order, Hermione proved him wrong. Their conversation wasn’t over.


 

“Why didn’t you tell me you had such a
vast quantity of books? We could have spent a lot of time here,” she said
catching a glimpse of the full shelves. Her eyes were bigger than usual and she
looked impressed.

 

“It didn’t occur to me that you would be
interested in these books,” he lied. He’d rather die than tell her he hadn’t
thought of books at all over the past few days. He had been thinking er
er
only… of his beautiful wife.

 

“You don’t know me at all then,” she
muttered. She was so incredibly fascinated by the number of volumes he
possessed that he dare not speak a word, he didn’t want to interrupt her, “I
had the funniest dream today,” she started to say, but he suddenly interrupted
her, knowing for sure what would come next.

 

“Hermione let me show this fantastic book
my father bo bef before he died. It’s a wonderful edition of “The best 100
potions of the XX Century”,” he said quickly, searching for the book through
the shelves.

 

“Oh, really?” she shouted, her eyes
shinning with happiness. He loved those sparkling eyes of her.

 

“Of course, why would I lie?” he whispered
into her ear. He then, immediately, walked the other way refusing to grin. He
was a man of almost forty years old but when he was around her he couldn’t
avoid acting like a child.

 

She seemed to be enchanted by one book,
however, and refused to pay him any kind of attention. After a couple of
minutes of patiently waiting for her to say something he said from another
corner:

                                                        


“What are you reading so carefully?”

 

“A book I found incredibly mesmerizing, of
course,” she said, not taking her eyes off the book.

 

“May I enquire about the nature of said
book?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. What could she possibly find
so fascinating?

 

“Yes, you may,” she said, almost giggling,
“the book I am holding is called “Lady Chatterley’s lover”. I am sure you must
have heard of it,” she said, turning around in order to face him. Even though
she was 20 feet away from him, his panic could be sensed. She could smell his
fear like a dog.

 

“I am familiar with D.H Lawrence. That
particular copy belonged to my mother, actually,” he said, as pale as a ghost.

 

“This story is about love,” she whispered
walking slowly to where he was. She would feel his apprehension; she was
enjoying the experience of having total control over his soul.

 

“Certainly.” alleged Severus. &nb  

“Are you familiar with love, Severus?” she
whispered, her lips only inches from his, as she was on her toes, “Have you
ever declared your love to someone?” she asked, looking straight into his beady
black eyes.

 

“No,” he sincerely answered.

 

“I dreamt of you today,” she whispered
into his ear, brushing it with her tongue, “I dreamt of you making love to me.
You looked so incredibly handsome, you smelled so amazingly good and you acted
so astoundingly romantic that I wept as I climaxed,” she confessed, her lips on
that exact same place near his ear.

 

“We should go to dinner now,” he proposed,
but she pushed him to the shelves with all her might. She had something to say
and he was going to listen.

 

“You told me you loved me, Severus… and I
told you I loved you too. Such a remarkable feeling filled my chest that I
thought I should tell you now that every time I see your face and every time I
smell you perfume I am invaded with this extraordinary feeling I call love. Do
you feel the same?” she asked, her lips kissing his neck softly.

 

But Severus did not answer. He had heard
his wife telling him that she loved him and that was enough for him to become
speechless.

 

“I do, Miss Granger,” he whispered, while
tightly embracing her wioth oth his arms, “but I dared not speak it out loud.
You make me so happy, Hermione, dear,” he said sweetly.

 

“I love you, Severus,” she shouted for
everyone to hear. Even the house elves cooking in the kitchen heard her.

 

“I love you too, darling,” he confessed.

 

And with that, he kissed her because
kissing the one that owns your heart entirely is the best thing one can do.
Love was all he needed indeed and she had given him just that. She had scared
his darkness for the night and that, my friends, was enough for him to be
thankful.

 

Oh, to be young and in love!