9 months

It was nearly a month before the morning sickness kicked in. Hermione wished it had never kicked in. She felt like she was going to die every morning. Severus had fixed up several different types of morning sickness potions but none of them seemed to do much good. It was all she could do to go to work. She was glad that she only worked a few days during the week.

Severus and Hermione were already busying getting things ready for the new babies. Severus still had a house away from Hogwarts but he wanted to raise the babies at Hogwarts. Hogwarts had always been his real home and he wanted it to be his children's home as well.

Hermione didn't really want the kids to raised at Hogwarts all the time. She thought that the family should get away sometimes. After all it was not a good idea to shelter kids that much. They would need to see the world.

Neither one of them pushed the subject. They didn't want to turn it into a fight. They had plenty of time to make up their minds.

It was still the summer time and Severus was trying to enjoy his time off. Of course it could be argued that Severus never really let himself have fun. He still had a very hard time letting himself go.

He was sitting in his chair reading when Hermione came in from work. She had a big smile on her face.

"I see you are feeling better," he said giving her a small smile.

"Yes," she said sitting down near him. "I think that the potion you gave me is finally starting to work. I feel much better today."

"That's good," he said turning a page of his book.

"Say Ginny has invited us over for a week," Hermione said. "The new baby is doing great. Little James is too cute. She wants us to come over and spent some time there. She thinks it would be great practice for us."

"I don't know," Severus said with a sigh. "I've got a little time off before the new term starts and you're just getting over being so sick. I don't think you should be going."

Hermione didn't say anything. She just nodded. She was a little taken back by Severus' bluntness. He suddenly realized he had been a little too forceful with his voice and words.

"I'm sorry," he said. "If you feel up to going you go right ahead. I'm just not in the mood to go. I've still got eight months before my term in baby jail starts."

Hermione giggled at rolled her eyes. It was just like Severus to refer to babies as jail time.

"I have a question for you," she said.

"What is it?" he asked.

"If he hate kids so much why did you become a teacher?" Hermione asked.

"I don't hate children," he said lowering his book. "I just have no patience for children that aren't too bright or that won't listen."

"I see," Hermione said rolling her eyes again. "I'm going to go write Ginny and tell her we can't make it right now. Maybe we'll go during Christmas break. What do you think of that?"

"That sounds fine," he said turning his attention to his book.

Hermione sighed before heading into the bedroom. She couldn't help but wonder what it would take for Severus to admit that he really liked kids.

---

Once Hermione was out of sight in the bedroom Severus got to his feet and put his book away. His finger ran across the bindings of all his books. His had a rather big collection and he was looking for a special book.

"Ah," he said pulling an almost hidden book off the shelf.

He walked over to the chair and sat down. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Hermione wasn't coming.

Once he was sure she wasn't coming back anytime soon he opened up the book in his hands. It was a rather old photo album. The first picture was of a pretty red headed girl.

"Lily," he whispered flipping the page.

No matter how many years it had been he still found himself looking at the photo album. He loved Hermione with all his heart but he still couldn't put Lily behind him.

The two of them had seen each other very briefly and Severus had a handful of pictures to remind him of it.

He knew that if Hermione found him looking at if she would feel hurt. He didn't want to hurt her but sometimes he found it impossible not to look at the book.

The next picture was of him and Lily. She was half in his lap and they were holding hands.

"Severus," came Hermione's voice. "Where's the nice quill? You know the one Ron gave us when we got married."

"I'll be right there," he said and carefully stuffed the book down in the cushion of the chair.