Maternal Instinct

"Ew!" Corrin yelped, scrambling away from her cat, "Ew! I kissed his eyeball!" Mr. Snuggles jumped from the sofa and sprinted out into the hall, as his owner wiped her mouth, "Ew! Eye juice!" Hermione laughed and stood up, but before she could speak, Corrin scuttled over and curled her arms around her waist, "Don't go yet!"

Hermione smiled, "I never said anything about going..."

"You didn't have to." The girl said, pressing herself closer, "When you want to go home, your shoulders do that droopy thing!"

"No they don't," Hermione denied, amused. Then she sighed and stroked her hand gently over Corrin’s black hair, "But I do have to go home."

Corrin's arms tightened like a vice, unusually strong for one so young; but, then again, when children wanted something they really could be stubborn. "Are you coming back tomorrow?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, sweetie. It's Sunday tomorrow. I wasn't really meant to be here today."

"But you are here today! Why can't you be here tomorrow? Don't you want to be here? Don't you love me?"

Hermione hesitated, shocked by the question. Then she recognized the potential repercussions if she gave the wrong answer. After putting herself in Corrin’s place for a second, she realized that the girl must be confused; her mother had taught her that she was always a liability and had now left for no apparent reason, her father was completely uneducated in the art of parenting and was hardly ever at home due to his job; and she was five years old, new to life and looking desperately for affection and reassurance. But she wasn't getting the attention she needed and it was essentially Amy's fault.

Admittedly, Severus could have at least tried a bit harder, but he did work for most of the year when Amy was at home doing nothing. Well, the woman would probably say she was keeping up her social status and that that was a job, but there was absolutely no excuse for her to treat her daughter the way she had.

Hermione sighed, "Of course I love you, Sweetie. Why wouldn't I? You're wonderful."

Corrin giggled and pushed her face further into Hermione t-shirt, "Are you staying then?"

She shook her head, "No. I really have to go -"

"Then that means you don't love me!" The girl wailed.

Mentally berating herself for giving in, Hermione sighed, "Fine. Ten minutes, but then I really have to go."

Corrin jumped back, "Yay! Let me go and get Mr. Snuggles!"

As the girl ran from the room, Hermione almost collapsed back into an armchair. Her head was still throbbing and her wrist was aching from the mornings events, but Corrin’s childish innocence and happiness was so infectious that Hermione had almost forgotten the fear that had still lingered within her, even after she was told about Malfoy's murder.

Seconds later, Corrin re-entered the room, Mr. Snuggles nestled firmly under her arm. If cats had expressions, Mr. Snuggles would have had a resigned look of boredom on his little fury face; but he was only a hairpin, so it wasn't like he could feel pain and Corrin couldn't do any real damage.

After ten minutes of playing with Mr. Snuggles, Hermione sighed, "Alright, that's ten minutes -"

"No!" Corrin whined, "Not yet!"

Hermione stood up, "I have to go home; I have things to do."

Corrin sighed, apparently realizing that she wasn't going to win this time, "Fine..." She smiled sweetly and fluttered her eyelashes, "But will you come back and put me in bed?"

"Yes, if you want." Hermione rolled her eyes at her own susceptibility to emotional blackmail.

"Promise?"

Hermione sighed, "Promise."

Corrin nodded, smiling, seemingly happy with her persuasive techniques and then, realizing that Mr. Snuggles had escaped yet again, ran from the room. Her footsteps could be heard as she headed up stairs.

Slowly, Hermione followed the girl upstairs, but only because she knew Severus would be up in the library; it would be horrible to go without telling him, after everything he had done for her today. The door to the library was slightly open and, as she had expected, when she pushed the door open, Severus was sitting behind a desk, leaning over something.

He raised his eyes to hers, not looking particularly happy, "She's finally let you go, then?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "Only because I promised that I’d come back later and put her to bed. I really do have to go now though. Ron will be wondering where I am; he probably went home when I didn't show up... I was supposed to meet him."

"But you're coming back later?" He asked, standing slowly and moving towards her.

She nodded, "Yes, when I’ve seen Ron and had a shower..."

He slipped one arm around her waist, his other hand coming up to stroke her hair. Hermione leaned up and kissed him gently. There had been something different today, perhaps in his eyes or maybe just his whole manner, but it made her want to smile.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to leave if she didn't go soon, Hermione pulled herself away and left the room.

""""""""""""""""""""

Severus heard the pop of apparation and knew she was gone. He was still coming to terms with the fact that Lucius Malfoy was dead. He wasn't grieving or anything, rather trying to control the smile that was constantly attempting to break free.

Before Albus had told him of the murder, Severus had been worried that Lucius would come back for Hermione. But finally Narcissa had managed to stand up for herself. Severus had no doubt that Albus would prevent her from going to Azkaban - after all, she had killed a well-known Death Eater. An Auror would have done it sooner or later. Or Lucius would have had a date with a Dementor. But that would have only occurred if the Ministry stopped taking his bribes, and it was unlikely that that would ever have happened. The Ministry really were greedy bastards.

Severus sat back down again and stared to look over lesson plans. He only realized that he had been daydreaming when the room was almost completely devoid of any light.

Shaking himself out of his own thoughts, he stood up and looked out of the window; the moon was full and he vaguely wondered where Remus Lupin was and if had managed to get hold of a potion or not.

""""""""""""""""""""

"Ron, I have to go now. I'm fine. Malfoy's dead -"

"You've had a shock!" Ron argued, "You should stay here! Surely Snape doesn't expect you to go back and do his washing or something like that!"

"No," She sighed, "I promised Corrin that I would put her to bed. And I told you; Severus looked after me really well! And he was the one who got me out of there! I would probably be dead by now if he hadn't!"

"Yeah, yeah, I understand that." He waved his hand dismissively, as if he didn't understand, and didn't really want to, either. "But he should have brought you back here and you should go to bed now."

"Ron, I promised," She argued, "It'll only take five minutes! See you later..."

She disapparated and found Corrin in the living room. The girl yawned and staggered over. Hermione put an arm around her and took her upstairs. When Corrin was in bed, Hermione tucked her in.

"Are you going home now?" She asked.

Hermione nodded and smiled, "Yes. To bed."

"Are you going to talk to daddy?"

"Probably," Hermione shrugged, "Why?"

Corrin's eyelids were dropping steadily and she mumbled something, but Hermione didn't catch it and didn't want to press because the girl was so tired. She left the room quietly and was immediately met with strong arms curling around her.

"She's asleep," Hermione told him. She hesitated, then sighed, "I really have to go. Ron's already really... well, you know what he's like. I can't put up with an argument tonight; I’m too tired."

"Are you coming back tomorrow?"

Hermione shook her head, "No. Monday morning."

"I want to see that tomorrow." Severus pressed, grasping her bandaged hand carefully.

Hermione shook her head again, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure that Ron will drag me off to St. Mungo's anyway."

"I don't care what Weasley does. I want you back here tomorrow."

"I have other things to do, you know." Hermione smiled.

"Like what?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well... Shopping and... Stuff.." She glared at him, "Anyway, surely you have better things to do than sort out my broken wrist." He looked like he was about to make some smart comment, but Hermione stopped him, pushing at his arms, "I'm going home."

But he wouldn't let go, "Not until you say you will be back tomorrow."

"I'll be back tomorrow."

"Say it and mean it." He growled. When Hermione realized that she wasn't going to be able to remove his steel like arms, she sighed and leaned forward, resting her head on his chest. "What are you doing?" He asked suspiciously.

"I'm going to stay here and probably fall asleep. So when you get bored or tired and let go of me, I’ll fall over, wake up and go home."

Severus said nothing, and Hermione let herself become comfortable in his arms. Despite standing, she could feel herself getting drowsy and her last thought before falling asleep was wondering how long it would take before Severus would wake her.

""""""""""""""""""""

Severus pulled the covers up around them and rolled over to look at her. She was still asleep, thank Merlin. He didn't want her to go home, and it wasn't entirely because he wanted to make sure her wrist was all right.

He had expected her to be tired after the day’s events and when she fell asleep it had been easy for him to put her in bed. His bed.

He watched as her eyelids flickered. She was obviously dreaming and she looked peaceful enough, so it wasn't a nightmare. Severus suspected that most people would have bad dreams if they had been in Hermione’s position earlier. Lucius Malfoy had surely haunted many people’s nightmares. Severus would bet on that.

That feeling was back again. Bubbling in his chest and spreading warmth through his veins. Perhaps he was ill. He tried to delude himself into considering sickness as a possibility for the feeling. But he knew the real cause of the feeling. And she was sleeping next to him.