"Breath in, can’t you smell that? It’s me." He held her close, the beat of her heart thudded against his chest. He held one arm around her waist to keep her in place and used the other one to wipe at her tears, remove the hair from her face and stroke her cheek lightly. "Open your eyes Hermione, you can come back now. I'm here ok, I chose  you, I’ll always choose you." Because he would, for the rest of his pathetic life he would choose the broken witch in his arms. He felt her intake of breath against his throat, felt as she lifted her tear streaked face to look at him. There were no occlumency barriers in place, no signs of steel reflected in her brown eyes as she stared at him, only piercing, pale grey eyes.