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Chapter 24

"Hermione, may I have one dance?" Using his mask as a means to shield his face from showing emotions he asked his apprentice in his baritone drawl once he stood next to her.

"Of course, Severus. Can you watch Harry and Draco for a while?" The Weasley's nodded and so Hermione took Severus' extended hand.

On the dance floor they began to sway softly to the rhythm of the rather slow ballad that was currently playing.

"I will miss this." 

Hermione's eyes were sad as she said this. Her mask did its best at hiding everything else her facial expression might have told him, but the way her brown eyes looked into his seemingly black ones said more than words ever could.

"What do you mean, Hermione?"

"This. All of this. 

I'll miss the two boys running around, their laughter, the way they act when they are around each other - I am no fool. I know that this will end and this will end really soon. It's just that I have grown so accustomed to having them around me at all times. 

I will miss the joy they are bringing me. I will miss the way they make you smile so easily, and I will most definitely miss living with you. 

Despite what everyone else always said about you, I do think that you are one of the most passionate and loving people I've ever met. I will miss our conversations and the way you comforted me and cheered me up. I - I will miss you." 

Realizing what she just told her mentor, her eyes widened in shock before she fled the great hall, never looking back as she left him standing in the middle of the dance floor looking after her.

It took him a few seconds to realize what she just said, but when he did, he started to chase after her. He followed her hurried footsteps down the many flights of stairs into the all too familiar dungeons.

He ran after her through the dungeons and into the eighth graders' quarters. Severus was amazed at how fast she could run in her dress and high heels.

He saw her running up the stairs to her rooms, and she slammed her door shut just as he stepped foot onto the little hall leading to her rooms.

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"Hermione, please open up. Hermione, please." He knocked on her door, speaking loudly yet very softly.

He heard her crying on the other side of the door, and so he took out his wand using alohomora to open the door for him.

She sat curled up on the armchair he used to frequent during his stay with her here, with her shoes already discarded. He quickly made his way over to her, careful to not startle her.

"Hermione, why did you run? Talk to me, please." He begged her before he got down on his knees in front of the armchair gently pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear that had escaped her bun.

He sighed before starting to talk to her very softly in his baritone drawl. 

"I have to say that I really enjoy having you and the children around me and I will definitely miss the two troublemakers once they're grown-ups again. I just hope that they won't become the enemies they once were during their school days. 

I enjoy this so much. This is some kind of second chance for me and I intend to make full use of it. I never even thought about having a family after I finished Hogwarts. I joined his ranks officially just a few days after graduation and I turned out to be his spy until I switched sides and became a double agent. 

That destroyed every illusion of ever having a family of my own completely. I am so lucky to be alive and finally free to live life as I please, and I enjoy it the way it is now. Yes, I will miss those two, and I will miss their laughter, but you know, you don't have to move out as soon as they are grown up again?" He got up and took her into his arms sitting down on the couch with her in his lap crying into his neck.

"I am sorry. I should not have run away but instead talked to you. I made a fool out of myself and by that dishonoured you in front of all the influential people of our community. For that I'm very sorry, Severus." She sniffed some more looking up into his face.

His dark eyes looked at her with a softness she didn't expect, and it caught her off guard as she still vividly remembered those same eyes looking at her with such a malice and just thinking of that sent a shiver ran down her spine.

"It is no problem. I don't have many friends, none other than Minerva, you, Lucius and Narcissa - and my standing in our society has always been low so don't you worry. I'd worry about yours. I don't want to see what ever lies Rita Skeeter no doubt will publish in tomorrow's Daily Prophet about us."
He chuckled darkly at the truth in his words.

He flicked his wand and from somewhere around them the sound of the same slow ballad they were dancing to earlier started to play. "You still owe me that one dance, Hermione."

She looked at him with her eyes big, red and slightly swollen from her crying that had subsided. After a second she got up from his lap and waited for him to stand up, too.

Soon they were moving around her small living room just the way they did in the hall. Hermione was now considerably smaller than him with her high heels discarded somewhere in the room. As the song came near its end they had got considerably closer through their dancing and neither of them really noticed.

"I should probably go and get the boys from Molly, it is late enough for them to be up," said Hermione stepping away from him after the song ended. He just nodded looking a bit disappointed as she took her leave of him.

"I'll be in our chambers." She nodded at this and softly closed the door after her. 

Once in the hallway she turned and leaned her forehead against the wooden door leading to her room in the eighth graders commons. She really needed to take a deep breath to get a clear head feeling way too light-headed after the dance with the man she really came to admire.

Some minutes later she arrived back at their shared chambers with two rather tired yet still enthusiastic and thrilled young boys. Together with Severus she brought them to bed before finally changing into something a bit more comfortable and going back into the living room where she found Severus already in his pyjamas, sipping on a glass of firewhiskey while staring into the flames.

"Still not able to sleep I take it?" She leaned against the door frame observing him.

"No, not really and not anytime soon I suppose." was his slightly bitter and sad reply. 

She started to make her way over to where he sat and sat down right next to him.

"Severus, you need to let go of the past. It's been so many years, and she won't come back. She was always a taker and never a giver - the opposite of you. Everyone needs to give once in a while just like everyone has to take at some point. 

I know that you loved her and I won't persuade you to do anything else, but you really need to stop blaming yourself. Just let go of what is in the past and use this second chance at living the life you've been given again."

She sat there for another minute or two before she stood, looked down at him and said: "Please, I beg you. You are not to blame and quite frankly, she never deserved you. I wish you a good night, Severus." Her eyes looked sad as she turned around and took her leave of the dark-haired wizard.

She hadn't even reached the door when she felt a hand grab hers and turn her around. Hermione found herself face to face, well, face to chest with the potions master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she looked up at a pair of incredibly dark eyes looking at her compassionately and with a hint of something else she couldn't quite place her finger on.

"You're right. She was never the one meant for me, but I think I just needed some time and the right person to realize that."

Without another word his face neared hers and in the blink of an eye his lips were on hers.