Love is Blind

Chapter 33

November came to a close quietly, as Hermione’s treatments
progressed. By the start of December, she was almost ready for the final step
in her healing. The tension between she and Severus was becoming thick, and
Hermione was unsure of the exact reason. She knew that she was excited about
her eyes healing faster than expected, but at the same time she was scared out
of her mind. She knew what the outside world looked like. It had only been
three months since she was struck blind. Somewhere in the back of her mind she
wondered if it would be the same. She knew that many things had changed in
those three months, that she would never change back, the main thing being her
relationship with Severus.

She loved him with all her heart and she knew
that he felt the same. Her life had completely turned upside-down. If anyone
had told her at the beginning of the school year that she would be engaged to
Severus Snape before Christmas, she would have laughed her arse off. But here
she was lying in his bed, curled up in his arms, wearing his engagement ring.
She lay there daydreaming of being married to Severus Snape when she was
brought out of her thoughts by a soft pair of lips gently kissing her earlobe.

“Good morning, my love,” Severus drawled. She
smiled and snuggled closer to him; his voice still turned her to jelly.

She hummed contentedly into his chest, reveling
in his scent, and in the rhythm of his heartbeat against her cheek. “Sickle for
your thoughts...”

Hermione looked up toward his face. The lights were
dim in his chambers in order to protect her still sensitive eyes. Lately she
had been wearing her sunglasses throughout the castle, but the light still hurt
a bit. Her vision was still not clear. Everyone had his or her own distinct
blob, though. Hermione knew all of the staff and some students, just by their
smell and the shape of the blur in front of her. Severus was looking at her
expectantly and she finally realized that she had not answered him.

“Just thinking about how so many things have
changed in the past few months.” He nodded in acknowledgement, he too was
dumbstruck and the progression of their relationship. He had never dreamed that
he would be engaged, especially to an ex-student. But this was the happiest he
had ever been, there was no denying it. He loved her. No, he adored her.

The two lay in bed for a few more moments before
nature called to Severus. After a quick trip to the loo, he returned to find
Hermione standing in her dressing gown and sunglasses looking out the small window
in his chambers. He came up slowly behind her, wrapping her in his arms. He
followed her gaze and smiled. The grounds were white, completely white.

“Severus, why can’t I see anything outside? I
had to put my glasses on. It hurt. It’s too bright.”

He squeezed her against him and she could feel
the rumble in his chest of suppressed laughter. “Hermione, my dear. It snowed.
The whole of the grounds is covered in a white blanket of snow.”

Hermione released a breath she had not realized
she had been holding. She was so scared that her vision was deteriorating
again. It was just snow. It was SNOW! Hermione smiled and looked up at Severus.
When he looked down he saw the equivalent of a rambunctious child silently
asking to go play in the snow. How could her refuse her?

Silently he gathered her clothes and dressed
her. This was an occasional ritual for them. When she stayed in his rooms, he
would dress her. It guaranteed that he was constantly thinking of her
throughout the day, many times, resulting in some of the most heated lovemaking
they would experience. The tension he felt in his trousers would grow
throughout the hours, waiting until he could be with her again.

After he dressed himself and bundled them both
in their winter cloaks, they headed to the entrance hall. With a quick wave of
his wand, he cast a warming charm on each of them, so they would not catch
their death of cold in the snow.

Severus looked across the expanse of the
Hogwarts lawn. The snow was fresh, unblemished by man or beast. He then realized
that it was a Sunday anst ost of the students were still asleep. He had all
that snow to himself and Hermione. A mischievous grin spread over his face as
he guided Hermione toward the rose garden. The rose garden was a giant spot of
red in a field of white. The bushes had been charmed to bloom all year around,
in either snow or blazing sun

Hermione inhaled deeply. She knew that he had
brought her to the garden. She subconsciously reached up to her neck to feel
the rose on the chain there, the memory of their first kiss. She stopped
abruptly when her hand touched only skin. Severus must have noticed the
panicked look on her face as she tried to recall where her necklace was. She
racked her brain and then suddenly jumped into Severus’ arms.

“I am so sorry, Severus. I lost the necklace. I
seem to remember the first night Ginny and Draco were here, when I was crying,
I threw it across the room. I don’t kn...”

Severus stopped her frantic rambling with a long
tapered finger to her lips. Silently, Severus turned her around and after a
second of fumbling in his pocket, he strung a fragile chain around her neck and
clasped it under her hair. “I think, this belongs to you, my dear,” he
whispered against the nape of her neck, letting his lips linger a bit longer there.

Hermione turned into his embrace, trying to
reign in the emotions that had just consumed her a few moments before. “How’d
you...?”

“I have very quick reflexes,” he teased.

“You mean..?

“Yes, my dear, when you threw the necklace, you
threw it right at me. You didn’t know I was there and suddenly a small gold
object was flying at my face. After playing quidditch as a student, it comes
naturally to catch anything gold when it’s flying at you.” They laughed
together and walked across the grounds, enjoying the peace and quiet that comes
with the first snow.

*

On the other side of the grounds, a group of
friends had just come out of the castle heading for Hogsmeade. The four men,
two raven-haired, a sandy blond and a redhead, couldn’t help but notice the
dark man and his beautiful chestnut-haired companion walking toward the rose
garden. “Can you believe those two? He is acting like a lovesick teenager and
she... well, I still don’t know what she sees in him,” the elder raven-haired
man growled through gritted teeth.

“Sirius, they love each other,” the blond spoke
up.

“Re I h I have to agree with Padfoot, I think
it’s just wrong. Hermione deserves so much better than Snape,” added the redhead.

The younger black-haired man sighed heavily out
of frustration. “Really, Ron. After all that Severus did to save our arses over
the years. After all he did to help the Order. Can you really say he doesn’t
deserve a bit of happiness?”

“Harry, he’s a git - a slimy, greasy, arrogant
bastard.”

“Ron, I have to agree with you, he is a git, but
that arrogant bastard is the one thing that make Hermione happy. Honestly, do
you ever remember Hermione being so content. Look at her smile. When was the
last time you saw her smile like that? Severus brings that out in her.” Remus
knew that Ronald Weasley was stubborn, but when it came to Hermione, he was
downright obstinate. “Sirius. Ron. I know that it is difficult to comprehend
what she sees in him, but whatever it is... she is in love. Harry and I have
had the... I wouldn’t necessarily call it a benefit, but... Harry and I have
been able to witness our best female friend’s relationship with our worst
enemy. Sirius, I thought we had discussed this on Halloween. I thought you
understood. They love each other, more than life itself. I think that Severus
would die for her if he was ever put in that position.”

“He said that about Lily, too, and look what
happened.”

Remus grabbed his best mates shoulders roughly.
“Jesus, Sirius. Severus had nothing to do with that, and you damned well know
it! The night he found out about the plot, he turned to Dumbledore. By the time
the aurors arrived, it was too late. He tried to save them.”

“He tried to save his own arse. He didn’t want
to go to Azkaban,” Sirius muttered.

Harry couldn’t help but stand up for his best
friend’s fiancÈ, “But he did go to Azkaban, albeit, it was a short stint, but
he did go.”

“Harry is that supposed to make me feel better?
I was in that hellhole for twelve years! Twelve goddamned years! All because he
wasn’t fast enough to stop it from happening.”

Remus pulled Sirius into a brotherly embrace.
“Sirius, why are you blaming Severus for what happened to James and Lily?
Wormtail was the one who betrayed us. Why are you putting this on Snape?”

Sirius shook his head resolutely. He honestly
did not know anymore why he had originally hated Severus Snape with every part
of his being, but right now, he hated him because he had Hermione. Remus knew
that was the underlying motives for both Sirius and Ron’s obsessive hatred of
the potions master and he called them on it. “If you two love her so much, why
don’t you want to see her happy? He makes her happy. How do you know that you
would have been able to do the same?”

The four men stopped at the sound of laughter.
They looked in the direction of the rose garden and all four mouths sat gaping.
What they saw was something that was definitely not normal or expected.
Hermione and Severus were in the midst of a snowball fight. She was
surprisingly accurate for her sight not being up to par. That was not the thing
that surprised them all, though. The sight of Severus Snape covered in snow,
laughing, was truly a sight to behold. Harry looked over at Remus and they both
exchanged a look. Harry moved toward the couple and grabbed his best friend
around the waist, while Remus pelted Severus with snowballs. That move had
started a huge snowball fight that Ron and Sirius couldn’t refuse to join. The
unspoken exchange between the couple and the other four, cemented the idea that
their relationship was finally accepted. Hermione couldn’t help but smile at
her husband-to-be. Finally she had her love and her friends.

When the students finally decided to crawl out
of their beds and acknowledge the beauty that Mother Nature had left, no one
could believe their eyes. Never before had they seen grown adults acting like
children, like the six snow-covered people, wrestling by the rose garden were.
The fact that two professors were included in the melee did not go unnoticed.
The students wondered if this fun-loving side of Snape would spill over to the
Potions classes. When the six adults had enough and walked back toward the
castle, many students were gaping at them. “Ten points from everyone for
staring. It’s impolite,” Snape drawled, not belying the laughter wanting to
bubble up again. The students knew at that point that no, he was still going to
be the greasy git they were accustomed to, Severus Snape was Severus Snape.