Work Text:
The falling sun conjures an ember sky as Severus sits near the Black Lake, awaiting twilight. Granger departs tomorrow, another gloaming, but she does not know. No, Severus promised himself long ago never to seek to tether her, not to him, not to this place. She is a marvel, and greener pastures than Hogwarts await her on the morrow, and she must set forth alone.
Her apprenticeship with him is over, three years of yearning, a ephemeral epoch. At first, he resented her presence in his lab, in his office, his classroom: her chatter, her persistence, her thousand ideas. But she wore him like water on limestone, broke into his heart like a thief in the night.
But the time to act has long passed, he tells himself. If there was ever a time at all.
Lost in his thoughts, he doesn’t hear the footsteps behind him.
“This sunset is lovely,” Granger says simply, as she sits beside him on the grass.
Not as lovely as you. He glances her way, the thought nearly escaping his mouth. But no. “The colors are partly a sign of muggle air pollution, you know,” he grumbles.
“Yes, I did, it’s called Rayleigh scattering.” Fucking Granger, always so chirpy and …
“Insufferable know-it all.” The insult is tired, but he still spits it out.
“Oh you,” she says, gives him a small smile. "I’ll miss you, you know.” She prods gently with an elbow.
“That would make you the first,” he tells her flatly.
“Severus–” she starts.
“Granger,” he ends.
“Won’t you miss me too?”
Yes, always, yes, he thinks. But instead, he tells her only, “I’ll miss your assistance grading papers, I suppose. And in the lab.”
“And that’s all there is to it?” He can hear the pain in her voice, the tremble of her words.
No, he thinks.
“Obviously,” he answers. He’s pathetic, a coward, a lout.
A single tear escapes her. “I suppose this is a goodbye then.”
She stands, and when he finally turns, she is just a distant outline of a woman heading back towards the castle.
The sun descends, and the golden sky transforms to midnight blue.
In the years after, he tells himself there was never a chance. Twilight would always have come.