Love is Blind

Chapter 17

Severus sat at his desk looking over some pathetic
excuses for essays that were just turned in by the third year Hufflepuffs. He
had left the Great Hall and gone straight to the dungeons for his first class,
the aforementioned Hufflepuffs. He was missing Hermione already it had only
been two and a half hours. Over the past 5 days, he had not left her side but
for very short spans of time. He definitely knew that he was in love with her.
He couldn’t stand to be away from her. When they were apart, she was invading
his thoughts. Many times through his class, he looked at the front table,
picturing her there with her hand raised, ready to answer any question he
asked. It had been a few years since she was his student, but it was the
easiest thought for his mind to recover when he was standing in front of a
class full of gaping dunderheads.

He heard a door close in the lab, and assumed that
Hermione had been returned from the Headmasters beckoning. He stood to look in
on her, but before he could get to the door, his next class was walking in.
Gryffindors. Severus dreaded how long this next hour and a half would seem to
take. All he wanted to do was to open that door and see her. He didn’t have to
hold her or kiss her; he just wanted to see her.

The class period seemed to take days. The
anticipation of who was on the other side of the 3-inch piece of wood was
driving him crazy. He had never remembered acting like this, even with Lily.
Hermione had encompassed him with her presence. He felt whole when she was
near, like the pieces of himself he had lost while serving Voldemort had been
returned to their natural place.

Severus watched as a few Gryffindors were finishing
up their cleaning. His leg started twitching, his impatience was a
characteristic he would never be rid of. He hated waiting; especially
considering it was Hermione he was waiting to see. He kept his face cold, and
scowling, just toe sue sure that the students left would not overstay their
welcome more than they already had. In too long an amount of time, the last
student finally left, and Severus found himself taking long strides to the door
of the Potions lab.

He opened the heavy wooden door and stood there
watching her. Hermione was sitting on a stool, her head dropped toward a … book?
‘How could she be reading a book?’ he wondered to himself. A small squeak
interrupted his concentration on the beautiful woman sitting in front of him.
He looked down to see a small House Elf who was wearing the customary Hogwarts
tea towel and what looked like a tea cozy as a hat.

“Mr. Snape, sir. Winky is here helping Miss
Hermione. Please excuse me for being in Mr. Snape’s rooms. Professor
Dumbledore, sir, has instructed Winky to stay with Miss until Miss is
comfortable with the walking stick.”

“Walking stick?”

“Yes, sir. Look there, next to Miss. It helps Miss
not run into things.” Severus saw a long white stick with a red tip. He had
seen Muggles in London using something like this. He could see how this would
help Hermione and smiled.

At his smile, Winky gasped and turned away. He
assumed that it was shocking even to house elves that he could actually smile.
He knew the staff and students were shocked, why not house elves too?

Severus cleared his throat and dismissed the elf.
“But sir, Professor Dumbledore said for Winky to stith ith Miss.” Winky was
shaking slightly afraid of disobeying the Headmaster.

“I am sure that Professor Dumbledore will
understand. Go tell him that I have taken your charge for now.” Severus said
firmly. Winky nodded and with a pop she was gone.

Hermione seemed enthralled in the book in front of
her. Severus could see her fingers playing across the pages. Periodically, a
smile would play across her face. She hadn’t seemed to notice him yet, and he
was going to use that to his advantage. The aroma of the lab was so much like
his own scent, that he doubted that she would be able to smell him at all,
leaving him the perfect opportunity to shock her.

He slowly crept up behind her and wrapped his arms
around her waist. At her jump of shock, he held tighter so she didn’t fall.
Before he was able to say anything, Hermione had swung around and slapped his
arm. “SEVERUS SNAPE!! Don’t do that! You scared the hell out of me!”

A low chuckle rose from his chest and slowly turned
into a laugh. “I’m sorry, love. You were just oblivious to everything, so I had
ee wee what you would do.”

“You’d better be glad I didn’t hex you,” she said
playfully before reaching up toward his face. He grabbed her hands and brought
them to his lips, kissing each knuckle and fingertip.

“I see you have new toys,” he was intrigued as to
how she was reading a book. “Care to explain and demonstrate?”

Hermionegledgled and explained the cane and the
Stone that Albus had given her. “The man is a genius,” Severus said shaking his
head in amazement. Only Albus Dumbledore would think of something like an
Audious Stone. Severus had heard of them but only thought that they were mere
figments of someone’s creative imagination. That explains Albus to a tee though
doesn’t it?

Hermione even read a bit of the book for him so he
could fully understand what this did for her. “Well, there goes our nightly
‘story time,’” he said jokingly, not able to completely hide any disappointment
at the idea of losing that special time together.

“Your voice is much better than the one from the
stone. I love it when you read to me. Even if I could see, I would have you
read to me all the time,” she said with a huge grin.

He leaned down and covered her lips with his. The
kiss was not quite hungry, but not so chaste either. She was amazing. He
couldn’t believe how well she was taking all of this. If the positions were
switched, he knew he would be snarkier than ever and ‘bastard’ would be an
understatement.

“Hermione, I am so proud of you,” he said into her
hair as he held her close to his chest.

“Did Professor Severus Snape just give me praise?”
she asked facetiously.

“Yes, indeed I did. But in all seriousness, love, you
are the strongest woman, let alone person, I have ever met. You are taking all
of this with a grain of salt. I don’t understand it, but you can take the worst
situations and just deal with it. I would already be insane. You are…” his
voice trailed off.

“I am what, Severus?”

“You’re unbelievable, Hermione. Unbelievable,” he
said as he wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled into him. He could
stand her all day with her. His heart swelled that this amazing, strong and
beautiful woman would want to hold him like this. He could see them
growing old together, working together on new discoveries in Alchemy, possibly
publishing a few theses. He was in love with this woman, but still unsure of
himself to go anywhere with it... right now.

They sat in the lab in companionable silence for a
while, Severus reading the latest edition of Ars Alchema, and Hermione reading
up on the uses of Dragon’s blood. Neither one of them spoke until it was time for
lunch. They didn’t need to talk; the comfort of each other’s presence said all
that they would ever need to. This is what they both wanted and needed, and
nothing was going to change that.