Chapter Text
She closed the door behind her quietly and he was left alone in his armchair in front of the crackling fireplace. The events of that night had profoundly agitated him, he would not be able to sleep until the sun rose over the horizon. The deep wound on his upper arm burned fiercely, but the physical memory of her soft hand on his skin added a bittersweet note to the pain.
He tried to think back to the last time a woman had touched him. It must have been Lily, if certainly not caring or affectionate. Since that disturbing and humiliating experience, he had deliberately avoided every encounter that could have led to a feeling of intimacy.
And now this gentle beauty crashed into his life like a flaming comet.
>*
When Albus' Patronus tore Severus from his studies in the middle of the night with the message that his carriage had been ambushed by a roaming pack of werewolves on his way home from a visit to Nicolas Flamel in France, he rushed after the Phoenix to incapacitate the evildoers in a brief bitter fight. Driven by the adrenaline in his veins, he pushed open the door of the wagon to see if there were any more injured. And as his gaze met Hermione's startled, but yet so determined hazel eyes – he was already lost to her.
Unlike the other passengers, she had shown no signs of anxiety or fear. Calmly she stepped out of the carriage, fetching bandages from her trunk, and kneeling next to Severus in the damp grass to treat Albus, without any disgust of dirt or blood. He remembered the overwhelming sense of responsibility as he holstered one of the impulsively prancing Thestrals and led the traveling party safely back to Hogwards through the pouring rain. All that time he could only think of her. And that he had to protect this vulnerable treasure at all costs with his own life.
Then suddenly the icy emptiness of loss as Minerva led the guests into the kitchen to warm them with hot stew and tea, while he and Remus carried Albus into the headmaster's private quarters. He missed someone with whom he had never spoken a confidante word – whom he had not even thought of in so many years.
After the turmoil of war had subsided, he was acquitted of all allegations and even awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. But he had been too occupied with the task of reconstructing and reorganizing Hogwarts to follow the further life paths of his former students more closely. All that he knew was that Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasly had successfully got through their Auror training, Mr. Longbottom took over from Prof. Sprout after while Miss Granger completed her education at the Sorbonne University in Paris to become Healer-in-Charge at the Department of Potion and Plant Poisoning at St. Mungo's Hospital.
And that his chest now widened and filled with warmth as that considerate and tenderhearted woman she had grown to knocked softly to bring Albus and him steaming soup and bread – with this incredibly intriguing combination of shy reticence and resolution.