That Expectant Silence
Title: That Expectant Silence
Team Name: Death Eaters
Word Count: 7x100
Challenge: finding harmony
Rating: R
Characters: Hermione & Severus
I didn't recognize the girl in the mirror, her hair smoothed to silken waves. In the haze of the Calming Draught I'd taken, I wondered who it was for. Certainly not for my bridegroom, pale and unmoving in his hospital bed.
He needed my name to protect him, the Minister had said. Now, I was stepping into the room on Harry's arm. A few minutes and a bit of magic later, I was married...
...And he was Severus Granger-Snape.
But would he thank me, I wondered, when he woke? Or would he revile me, as he had seemed to before?
~*~
When the symphony begins, there's discord as the musicians warm up. Comparing my ex-Professor's reaction to the swelling sound of each instrument finding its pitch didn't do it justice.
I admit my courage failed and I hid behind Harry, Ron, Kingsley, and McGonagall as he raged. When I found it again, I made the mistake of promising it would be temporary, that I would be a good wife.
I had even meant it, and was prepared to try. I made my husband welcome in my parent's home, gave him his much-desired privacy, and prayed it would soon be all over.
~*~
Those first years took many adjustments. We barely spoke. Severus and I were not morning people, and thought we had nothing in common. He had spent decades living on his own, fear and hopelessness hanging over his head.
I knew how to live with people, but was still a child playing a grownup's game. I could not relate to him with my limited worldview, and eventually I stopped trying.
Once I gave up trying to reach him, we existed together, two strangers clashing and existing without truly touching each others' lives. We spoke, shared a home, but that was all.
~*~
After the musicians have warmed up, there's that expectant moment of silence. The audience holds its breath, the conductor raises their wand.
When she woke up in St. Mungo's, aching and weak, my world was that silence. Was I to tell Hermione that I had missed her? That I was no longer unhappy being her husband, but had lacked the words to say as much?
Her eyes barely focused on mine and with great effort I took her hand, trying to impart comfort. She blinked and sighed softly. Something shifted, then, as her lashes fluttered shut. My grip tightened imperceptibly.
~*~
Had we been a symphony, the baton was raised and the sheet music turned, ready to begin.
I made the effort, refusing to allow us to slide back into painful separation.
Gradually, I coaxed her into speaking to me. It turned into a tirade ending with her slamming a door in my face, but began again as she opened it to repair the damage to my nose.
We became friends after that. We conversed, cooked meals together, went on outings. It was strange, acquainting myself with my wife.
Stranger still that she kissed me.
Stranger yet that I loved her.
~*~
The symphony began in their arms, Severus's warm, thin lips pressed against hers. All those months spent fighting, the hollow anger and bitter loneliness, burning away with a simple touch. They fell to the bed, a tangle of limbs and healing hearts.
The strains of the past fell away almost audibly over the stirring sighs of their breath, the percussion of their hearts. He plucked her nipples, strummed her clit. Hermione slid down the length of his cock with a deep exhalation, crying out in joy.
The crescendo that followed would have brought tears to the most hardened of hearts.
~*~
Neither of us are morning people. Before a proper breakfast, there is an almost expectant silence as we sip tea and slowly awaken.
We part reluctantly for work or friends, but our thoughts never stray far from the other. We began in such discord, as two separate people, and I didn't know myself; I hardly recognised Severus Snape in the white hospital bed.
I had not wanted a wife, or to live at all. We began as strangers, clashing out of stubbornness and pride, but once I allowed myselt to let her in, harmony lay in life with Hermione Granger-Snape.