June had come to Hogwarts. It was warm, that day. Warm, and disgustingly humid. Exactly the way that Severus most despised. It made students squirrely and he hated when his students were squirrely. Several hundred points had been deducted from each of the houses.

He much preferred the cold winter months, and not only because it suited his personal wardrobe much better.

The summer months reminded him of being home from Hogwarts. Of fights heard through thin walls and the tears and screaming that had never quite left his mine. The summer months reminded him of being a child, being completely and utterly helpless to save his mother as his accursed namesake used her as an outlet to take all his problems out on.

But... he supposed there was one redeeming quality about summer. Just one.

You, yourself, were much like summer. Your bright smile that always seemed to shine like a little sun wherever you happened to be, and your eyes that felt like the sun on his skin after a swim. His life seemed... brighter, as atrociously sentimental as that sounded, with you in it. It was... fine, to not wake up alone in his bed after the nightmares returned. Not that he would rely on that at all.

His little darling was a little different than most people. You were so beautiful. The baby blue devices in your ears had never distracted him from that, nor bothered him. Your hands that formed your thoughts so softly, and slowly, as though every word had been carefully considered, conveyed in the motion like silent song. Not that you were always silent.

He loved your voice. But... you didn't speak often. He knew you were self conscious about your voice, not really knowing how it would be received by hearing people. He could understand it. He knew the feeling all too well, of a class turning to look at you and laughing softly because you did not fit what they deemed to be normal.

Summer, again.

You'd been married two summers ago. A beautiful, private ceremony with only close friends and family. Lilies and sunflowers had lined the venue, and music had drifted softly through the air. He couldn't remember a time when he'd been so very happy before.

Now, he was watching you clean as he was grading final papers. The sun was falling on you from the open windows - you always insisted on them being open - and it reminded him just how beautiful you were. You looked up, sensing his gaze - and then laughed. His heart squeezed almost painfully. "What's so funny, you?" He snorted.