@therearemoreimportanthings
"Yet you still foolishly thrown yourself into danger as though you have no consideration for your life or future. This is Potter's destiny, not yours. Gryffindors are practically unbearable.
I do apologise Miss Granger, would you rather I extol your virtues in sonnet form? Or perhaps a grand, romantic gesture to sweep you off your feet and talk to you about my feelings and my fears of inadequacy that can only be healed by the light of your love?”
"Its not foolish, what else was I supposed to do? Sit around and bake cookies? Let the men do all the work? Let the purebloods and halfbloods do all the work? It became my destiny as soon as I got my letter, this is my war just as much as it is Harry's. And Harry needs me. I don’t expect that but not being insulted constantly is apparently too much to ask for. I already get that a giant spider is more appealing, and so is an airhead with a prettier face than my own.
"It was never your destiny, it was your choice and it was a foolish choice that led to you almost being killed. Indeed it is pushing the envelope of what is acceptable in a time of war. Love has no place in war, love is what will hasten your demise, I know it, I have seen it. This situation we have found ourselves thrust into is less than agreeable but, truly, can you say it would not perturb you if I was anything other than my usual acerbic self? "
"What should I be doing instead? Have I ever been the type to let things be or to not help others? If my dying would save more lives I'm willing to risk it, I'm the best in all my classes and yet here is this wizard that kills people saying he is better. That only pureblooded wizards are worth anything and sometimes halfbloods are too. I didn't say anything about love, but love is the one thing at least harry, ron and I have on our side. If you suddenly turned into a gushy romantic I would be perturbed, but there's a lot of room between that and insulting me."
Severus tried not to growl, beyond frustrated and enraged by this slip of a woman who seemed to be more focused on helping others than preserving her own life. He had signed away his life, forfeit it many years ago but that didn’t mean that she had to do the same. He wanted to reach out for her, to grab her and shake some sense into her. It wouldn’t accomplish anything though other than act as a conduit for him to vent his frustrations. Severus thought that Lily had been his soul mate and he had lost her and now, now it turned out that Hermione Granger was his soul mate and there was the strong likelihood that she too would die to save Harry Potter. Severus couldn’t bear it, he had grown sick of seeing life and talent so wasted.
“Will you stop and listen to yourself for even one moment Miss Granger?” Severus thundered. “You are not in some fantasy story where it is noble to sacrifice your life for the cause because it will all work out in the end. You aren’t even in your twenties and you are ready to throw yourself on the pyre. I am not insisting that you stop fighting but at least curb your natural inclinations towards recklessness.” Severus took a breath to try calm his heart beat. His blood pressure had probably sky rocketed with the force of his mostly contained temperament.
“How can you even begin to expect this to work if you are endangering yourself every time that I turn my back?” He muttered, a small acknowledgement that he was more committed to this than she may have originally thought. He didn’t want a relationship with her, they weren’t going to be moving in together and picking out matching curtains and rugs for their shared library but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t come to some arrangement to nourish only the soul rather than the body. She was young and clearly Mr Weasley was panting over her like a dog with a bone (Severus shuddered internally at the thought) and this shouldn’t interfere with her life more than it needed to.
