[Harry Potter] Hands
Title: Hands Author: Trio Maxwell-Chang Fandom: Harry Potter Pairing or POV: Snape/Hermione
His fingers are long, the hand worn from years of hard work and toil. Short fingernails, but well-manicured, as though he actually pays attention to his appearance. The nails are yellowed, likely due to the preparation of ingredients. The hands are gnarled in places, calluses showing where he has burned or cut himself, knots where he has worked the fingers too hard. His skin, like his nails, is yellowed, the stains ground in until no amount of cleaning will remove them. His hands are ugly.
And yet she notices them, watching their sure, quick movements with eagle eyes. She wonders somewhere within herself if, perhaps, he would be willing to touch her with those hands, to drive away the doubts that crawl up into her mind, latching hold like burrs, little stabs of pain that won't go away no matter how many times Ron and Harry jump to her defense. Their defense doesn't matter, because they could never see her as anything other than 'Mione, best friend and almost-sister. She wants those hands to drive the thought away, wants their deliberate grace to run over her skin until it sings.
She sits at her desk and watches the hands, analyzing every imperfection and flaw, and knowing in her heart of hearts that somehow, if she could just explain things to those hands, they would fulfill her every desire. Those hands would, but the man they belong to would never. And that is the sticking point, after all.