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Never once did he use Legilimancy on her; he didn’t have to, he knew his friend inside and out.
Here they sat across a familiar round table Severus had brought back to his Hogsmeade cottage from his office in the dungeons. He had loved that table. He loved the solidness, the lack of hard corners (which seemed soothing somehow for a man who had to be hard in life for so long), the size (he could spread his research notes out in a way that pleased him)....But now he disliked that table very much.
The dislike was due to his friend of five years sitting so far away from him. Hermione was all the way on the opposite side staring into her cup of Earl Grey he’d provided this rainy afternoon.
Normally, she would be chattering on about this and that...anything and everything that crept between her curls. She felt comfortable doing just that, knowing he would let her go on; contributing himself when appropriate. He knew his manners. Growing up in the constant fear of his father and surrounded by the impeccably pureblood Malfoys had taught him to mind his p’s and q’s.
But today, today, she was mysteriously quiet.
And it was driving him crazy.
Legilimancy was an option. He hadn’t lost that skill after the snake bite unlike the skill he was happy to lose of cutting a student’s self worth with a single glare. He supposed he still could do the cutting if he wanted to, but “use it or lose it” they say and he couldn’t find it in him after the war when so many were feeling lost.
So instead of trying to catch her eye he was patient. He stared out the window looking over his garden watching the leaves vibrate with the pelting of the raindrops.
“Severus?”
Finally!
“Yes, Hermione?”
“Why don’t you ever sit next to me when I’m here?”
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What did she just say?
He must have said this aloud as she repeated herself.
“I said, why don’t you sit next to me when I visit?”
She shifted a bit and slowly brought her eyes up to meet his. Whiskey colored eyes met black and he considered his answer. Severus took measured breaths as well. For some reason, this question had so much weight behind it. It was as if a great deal was riding on the answer. What would be his answer anyway?
I didn’t want you to have to inhale the potion fumes off my robes?
No, that would indicate I stink.
I’m backlit from the window so I can lip read as my hearing isn’t as impeccable as it used to be?
No, I would be bringing light to the fact of our age difference.
The chairs just happened to be in these spots and I never thought to move them?
Yes! That’s what I’ll say!
And when he said it, his eyebrow quirked up and his voice beheld a slight chuckle.
What he really wanted to say was:
I don’t trust myself to sit next to you and not touch you in some way. I don’t trust myself to not swoon at the light perfume wafting around your ridiculously riotous hair. I ache to have you near me everyday and living here alone is worse after you go.
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“Oh?”
“Oh.”
Their eyes still trained on each other and she is the first to look away. She looks to the left toward the garden window and he can see her shoulders raise up then down in a sigh.
She seems...disappointed?
So very quietly, very spy-like he inched his chair closer to her.
He sipped from his tea and asked if she’d walked to the cottage from her flat above the yarn shop. Anything to get her talking again. Hermione remained looking away as she answered “Yes. I can’t pass up a good drizzle stroll, but you know that. I passed so few people on the way here it was if I was the only one left in the world. But I knew that couldn’t be, I was on my way to see you.” She could hear his cup clank back down on the table.
“Oh Severus. What if we were the last people in this village? Would we even notice?”
She quirked a smile and turned to gauge his response to her silliness and….was shocked to be face to face with him!
He must have scooted the chair over as she was turned away, masking any noise with the setting down of his teacup. Sneaky spy!
Their noses were just touching and they were breathing each other’s air when she felt a hand grasp hers. He gently lifted her hand to his lips and deposited a gentle kiss on the knuckle.
“Hermione, I’d not notice a herd of hippogriffs in my yard with you here much less other people.”
The smile she gave him reached all the way up to her eyes then and she rested her head on his shoulder.
They remained just like that, watching the rain, until dinner...which they ate on his round table.