By Chance(3)
It was as if everyone was seeing Voldemort again. Their eyes were wide and their mouths clamped shut as bulbs flashed around them. People eventually began to murmur as the music picked back up, but the person everyone was really looking at was Hermione.
They'd been in the dark far too long for anyone to ruin that night for her, and she wasn't going to deny him any longer. Not that she'd been denying him, but he was dead up until a few minutes ago.
"Stop staring," Ginny huffed loudly enough that the whole room heard it.
People began to mind their own business, but those who recognized him were on top of the couple in a moment's notice.
"Professor!" They all seemed to call and a few by his name, those including professors themselves.
McGonagall made it a point to see him as did a few others, some Slytherins, and even a few Weasley's, but mostly George and Arthur.
In his talk with Kingsley, Severus knew of the casualties and of a few other things that the public knew of. He discovered that many of the Order had passed on, and nearly all of the Death-Eaters had been captured. He'd also been awarded Order of Merlin, First Class, just as Hermione, Potter, and Weasley had, but few knew about that. Kingsley said he deserved it, and Snape tried to protest, but it was given to him anyways. He'd made a joke that Severus was a lot less stubborn when he was dead.
It wasn't until much later when he was alone with Hermione on the dance floor that his novelty wore off. She was clinging to him, for more than dear life, and he didn't want to have her any other way. Swaying gently, Hermione was sheerly content on just being there for her last gala for a very long time. And probably her last dance with Severus.
She'd have to tell him of their child eventually, but that could come at a later date, for she didn't really want to tell him just yet. She wished to be selfish, and for once, Hermione was going to be.
She hadn't seen Claude since their dance earlier, and for that she was thankful. He probably ran the moment he saw her on Severus' arm.
There was no place that she'd rather be than with him and in his welcoming arms.
As the night began to end, Hermione wished her friends good-bye and winked to Ginny as they watched George still dancing away with Angelina.
"Where did you want to spend the night?" Hermione asked her lover as she toyed with his cloak, proper dress robes hanging from his body.
"Wherever you are," he murmured back, her hands mesmerizing him.
That was all she needed before she apperated them back to her flat, inevitably into the loneliness that once accompanied it.
"You live here?" He asked solemnly as he shed his cloak and took Hermione's jacket from her.
"For a few months, yes, I found that I really needed to get out of the burrow. And I didn't want to impede on Harry at Grimmauld Place."
"Understandable," he replied as he remembered Potter and the Weasley girl all over each other on the dance floor. Calmly, but noticeably.
"I'll take the couch if you want to take the bed, I don't know how accommodated you've been lately," Hermione mumbled tiredly as she let out her hair and yawned visibly.
"I was under the assumption we'd share the bed, we have before," Snape said to her surprise.
"Uh-yeah, that sounds fine," Hermione muttered somehow. "Just let me change, there's a lou over there," she pointed to a door adjacent to the wall hers was on and smiled before slipping out of the room.
