The Seaside Retreat

Chapter 28... If You Ever Touch Me Again

The Healer and his nurse had long ago arrived and revived Severus. They were currently enduring the worst part of labor, which was playing the waiting game. Hermione had taken pity on Severus, who flinched and paled every time a contraction hit her, so she kept sending him on little errands. She sent him for ice chips, which he retrieved by hand, forgetting for a moment he was a wizard, and to tell her friends little messages. At one point she asked him to tell Ginny and Millicent to come in and asked him to wait outside.

Once they were inside her room, she tasked her girlfriends with keeping Severus busy and calm, and the girls promised they would do whatever they could, after all half of Hogwarts was outside waiting to see the her and the babies, so they would have help. They were getting ready to leave and let Hermione rest when Millicent reached across Hermione and patted her on the shoulder. Just then Hermione let out a shriek so loud that Severus came running to her as if he had apperated at her bedside.

“Another one already Darling? Okay get ready grad my hand.” He coached, obviously trying to act tougher then he was around his former students.

Hermione just chuckled and hurried to explain why when she saw the worried looks of her friends who obviously though the pain was making her delirious. “No Severus, I am not having a contraction, sorry. But umm, Millicent will show me your hand? Don’t be sneaky either; I want to see your left hand.”

Just as Hermione suspected, when Millicent presented her hand, there was a modest but very beautiful diamond perched atop a white gold band. She looked sheepishly around the room, and a slight blush rose to her cheeks as she explained to Hermione.

“Well, Ron and I are getting married, he proposed last evening. We didn’t want to say anything until after the babies were born so you didn’t get over excited and shoot a kid out across the room or anything.”

“Really Miss Bulstrode, a Weasley? Oh well if you must, but I certainly thought you had better taste then that” Severus interjected in a teasing voice.

It was Ginny that replied to that as she mumbled under her breath “Really Severus, as if you haven’t had a go at a Weasley yourself.”

Luckily it was only Severus and Hermione that heard this reply, and they laughed good naturedly at the reminder.

“Oh well, I believe congratulations are in order. I hope you are as happy as I have been lately.” Severus patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. Though she was more friend then former pupil at this point, he still hadn’t gotten over his fear of showing students affection. It just seemed wrong, well except for the one that was about to have his daughters.

Congratulations went around the room and the girls left to sit in the nursery that had become somewhat of a makeshift waiting room. The contractions began again and Hermione breathed deeply, willing herself not to fall apart at the pain. For Merlin’s sake though, she wanted these babies out of her. NOW. Her parents had arrived about ten minutes ago, and Hermione was glad Severus had the distraction of her father looking at him pityingly, having been through this before. She would have though Arthur would have been a better choice for that, but he was currently running around the house more nervous then anyone else.

The Healer checked her again and pointedly ignored the warning look he was getting from Severus (honestly, how is he supposed to deliver the babies if he can’t look at her vagina?) then announced she was fully dilated. Severus grabbed onto her hand and soothed her with encouraging words while the nurse bustled around preparing everything and he doctor instructed her to breathe and begin pushing.

It wasn’t long before Hermione was letting out streams of expletives and yelling at Severus for ever touching her. He tried to take it all in good humor, but finally yelled back, telling her she went after him first. Apparently while she was in labor wasn’t the best time to reason with her, because she simply told him to “shut the fuck up before he ended up with another pregnancy belly, this time with labor pains”.

Soon though pushing and breathing kept her suitably occupied, and it wasn’t long before they announced their first daughter had entered the world and her sister not too long after. Both girls were whisked away to be cleaned up and cared for before they were handed to the proud parents. The couple looked at each other and their daughters, and Hermione promptly burst into tears, where she sobbed quietly murmuring about how lucky she was. Severus felt the same and probably more, being a man that had though he would die alone without friends or a family, but he was able to keep his emotions under wraps a bit easier.

He just looked between one tiny baby and the next before flicking his eyes in wonderment at his wife who had calmed down and was softly singing a lullaby. He was astounded that he could have been part of making something so beautiful, let alone two something’s so beautiful.

He looked up to Hermione and softly said “we should let the other know. You know they have your nose”. She nodded and smiled.

“Everyone will be happy to meet them. Thank god they have my nose by the way, but they have your hair.”

“Thank the gods on that front as well. Can you imagine your hair with my nose? They would be super intelligent and horribly ugly. I’m not quite sure how they came out so beautiful, but if they grow up half as pretty as their mother I am locking them away until they are thirty.” Severus replied with a look on his face that said he really wasn’t kidding at all.

Severus stood and very carefully carried the bundle in his arms to the door which he stuck his head outside of and announced they could come in and see his new baby girls. He returned to his place by Hermione’s bed and waited patiently while the group shuffled in and conversed in hushed tones. There was a collective gasp when the two held their daughters up for everyone to see, and the little ones moved their little fists and feet and gurgled, saying hello to the largest extended family two lucky little girls every had.

“May we present to you Lauralie May Snape who is the oldest by seven minutes whom Severus is holding. And Cloey Eileen Snape our youngest” she said as she tickled Cloey under the chin with her fingertips and smiled lovingly at everyone in the room.

After an hour or so more of conversing and planning a viewing of the children at Hogwarts in about a month, everyone left the couple alone with their new family. Hermione’s parents were staying for about a week to help out, and they quickly said goodnight to their Daughter and Son in law and their new grandbabies then retired down the hall. Severus and Hermione spent a little long cuddling with their daughters before setting them down to sleep and curling up around each other to drift off themselves.