Remembrance

The cold winds swept across her face as she brushed back her long hair. Time had wrought few changes to her physical features and inwardly she was still the same 'insufferable bookworm' that Harry and Ron had always labeled her at school. However, time had changed this trait from eagerly telling all she knew to keeping it quietly in her own head, the years had taught her that this made it more comfortable for everyone.

She thought back across the many years wondering if somehow things would have been different if she had only listened to what her heart told her then. She had never regretted the choices she made but sometimes she wondered how different her life would have been.

Sighing softly, she glanced at her watch, wondering if it was even time to start to get ready for work. The last year, she had taken to waking up after only sleeping two or three hours. She was exhausted mentally and physically but somehow sleep eluded her, despite her desperate search for it.

She slowly made her way back to her currently stormy ocean fronted house in quietly. She went quickly around making a pot of tea, trying to keep as silent as possible to keep from disturbing the other member of the household. She felt arms slip around her and she smiled and leaned back into the warmth. It was obviously too late, as it often was. He seemed sometimes to have a 6^th sense for telling when she was gone.

"Are you all right?" he asked, his sleepy voice sounding concerned.

"Oh, I rather think I will be, when I fall into the four day sleep that I've desperately been craving," she said, with a smile in her voice.

"Hermione, maybe you should see a doctor it's not healthy and you're looking rather ill..." He trailed off as he saw the look on her face when she twisted around in his arms.

"Severus, I will be fine," she said in a steely tone of voice, softening once she saw the look on his face. "Listen, I promise I'll go see a doctor if I can't get a good nights sleep in the next week."

She put a hand on his cheek and he turned his face into it gently pressing a kiss into her palm. He smiled up at her with all the charm he possessed.

"I just worry you know, I almost lost you once I don't relish doing it again," he said quietly a look of remembrance passing on his face.

'Severus, I will be fine. It's mostly the memories that are keeping me from sleeping anyway."

A troubled look crossed his face but he sighed gently.

"Just promise me you'll go if you can't sleep this week."

"I promise," Hermione said, smiling at him.

He kissed her for a long moment before pulling away with a disgruntled look upon his face that clearly said he wished he could keep going

"I'm going to go get dressed, so I can prepare for another week of teaching those brats we call students," he said his tone so snappish it made her smile. It was classic Severus Snape, feared Potion's Master of Hogwarts but it had long since ceased to unnerve her.

Hermione continued to finish making her tea and along with that a small breakfast for the both of them. She felt a small moment of dizziness but it soon passed and she shook her head, wondering if she had only imagined it.

He entered the room, striding and catching her around the waist and pressing a kiss to her cheek as she laughed softly at his antics.

"Mmmm, smells good," he murmured against her neck.

Hermione just chuckled softly and ordered, "Go sit, Severus, Breakfast is almost done"

He grinned up at her boyishly as he took his place at the table and waited impatiently.

As she was setting the eggs she had taken great care in cooking on the table, another small wave of dizziness past over her. She steadied herself by placing a shaking hand on the table. She heard a chair scraping across the floor and a concerned voice saying her name. Everything around her became blurry and suddenly she was swept up into Severus arms and then everything went black.