"Unanswered Prayers"

“Severus!?”

Pain brought back Hermione's consciousness.

“I’m here!”

Severus hadn’t left her bedside in days.

“I’m bleeding…”

The miscarriage they’d all anticipated had begun.

“Your cycle has started. Your condition interrupted it.”

If it was not a lie, neither was it the truth.

“Uhhh!” she moaned in distress as the contractions strengthened to expel the foetus.

Tilting her forward with ease, Severus climbed into the bed behind her, to cradle her against his body through the coming hours.

“We’ll see this through together, Gryffindor.”

“It’s never hurt like this. What aren’t you telling me!?”

Hermione felt his tears winding through the tangle of uncombed hair he rested his chin in.

“I’m pregnant…”

No answer came.

“It’s Ron’s and I’m losing it…”

His chin bobbed against the top of her head, confirming her conclusions.

Curling on her side against him, Hermione sobbed and shuddered her way through the loss of her first child. When she’d finished and fallen into an exhausted sleep, Severus collected the child’s remains and buried them himself in the Prince family cemetery under a headstone he magically chiseled. It read:

Hypolita Granger-Snape

Beloved Infant Daughter