Of Days and Ends
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
43
Views:
35,963
Reviews:
333
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Snape/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
43
Views:
35,963
Reviews:
333
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
3
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters, plot, etc. from the books or movies. I also do not own the AdultFanFiction.net site. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
All On the Table
Chapter 30—All On the Table
“Sit, Ms. Granger!” Snape’s use of her formal name seemed to carry the venom of a threat, so she obeyed. She sat in the chair farthest from him, spinning it towards the door and poised on the edge as though ready to bolt at any moment. “You have been in my ancestral home for more than two months, and you haven’t spoken to me yet. I am not, nor have I ever been a man who tolerates disrespect in any form, and yet, I have allowed you to do so for far too long. You may not stay here if you continue to treat me like a leper. As you’ll recall, it was I who brought you here.”
She didn’t answer until a gentle voice from the next room said, “Answer him, Hermione.” Apparently, her mother was listening in from the kitchen.
She allowed herself two more fuming breathes. “How may I be of assistance to you, Professor?”
“Allow me to be of assistance to you, Hermione.”
She paused for a beat. “No.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
“I am fully capable of finding them on my own. It’s a basic task.”
Snape scowled. Rising from his chair, he stalked silently around the table. When he was near enough, he leaned around the high-backed chair to put his lips just beside her ear. From so close, he could smell her sensual, rosy scent. “Come with me. I know what you need.” The silky smooth palm along the back of her tiny hand reached around to grip her fingers snugly and draw her along in his wake. She wanted to resist him, but his warm grasp made her feet move beneath her as though she were under the Imperius Curse. Eventually, she found that he had led her into the library.
“I’ve been combing this place every day… and all day today.” She complained.
“I’m aware of that, but have you checked the dark arts collections?” The widening of Hermione’s eyes made it very clear that she had not, nor did she expect him to. “Well, I think you will be pleased to know that I found them this morning.”
“Harry and Ron?”
“Yes.”
“Of course it doesn’t please me! Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”
He shrugged unconcernedly. “You seemed to be leaving rooms when I approached, and I find it hard to talk to someone who is disappearing around the corner. Besides,” he added sharply, “I answer to no one.”
“Excepting, of course, your Dark Lord.” Hermione said bitingly.
Snape glared at her as he sat gracefully in his chair, and allowed his eyes to sweep her form. It had been a while since they had met for sex, and he couldn’t stop his mind from thinking about her delicate arms, crossed and hands hidden beneath her pert breasts, circled around his neck. Her lips, held in a delicate pout, pursed against his chin. He could imagine her legs, with one foot tapping the ground angrily, twined around his hips like irons.
The few months without her had been very difficult for him. He had expected for the spell to release him from the emotional feelings that he gained from her, but that hadn’t happened at all. To add to his confusion, he had expected for her to feel the same way, but she had seemed cold. After their first blowout argument at Kent and Elizabeth on the evening after her arrival, she had been diligently avoiding him.
Then finally, he approached her and held out a pair of Onyx stones on a silver chain. “This will get you near them, but you can’t see them. I suspect, however, that they can see you.”
“What about this spell is Dark? I’ve never heard of a dark locating spell.”
Snape gave her a long calculating look before rising out of his chair, turning on his heel, and striding away from her.
“Severus!” He couldn’t help but stop at the sound of her horror stricken voice. “What have you done?”
He took a deep breath and began, “The spell calls for the body of the mother.”
Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth in surprise.
“I led a raid arranged through Voldemort’s spy, and Molly was there. I managed to surprise her and disarticulated her toes, keeping only her Hallux. Then I travelled to Lily’s grave, and took a portion of her sternum. The onyx stone came from James’s jewel box. I think he used to keep it on a fibrous necklace. There wasn’t any sign of it in the box. I found it in the ruins of Godrics Hollow. The chain is something I ripped off of Arthur’s neck. The stone is active now. It will override your… ‘cunning’ wards.”
Hermione had gone pale, closed her eyes, and warred with several feelings. On one hand, she felt grateful that he had managed to create a way to locate Harry and Ron. She also felt relieved that they were safe, sickened that Mrs. Weasley had lost her big toe and that he had raided the tomb, and angry that she had been bested again. Eventually, she calmed enough to open her mouth to thank him, opened her eyes, and found herself alone in the room. She sighed. She needed Snape to recreate the separating potion and create a way to deliver it to the boys, so she set out to find him. She wandered the house for a while before she caught a glimpse of him whispering conspiratorially with her parents in the foyer.
She hesitated at the corner of the second floor, remaining in the shadows to try to make out what they were discussing, but they were much too quiet. When her mother appeared to get upset and her voice rose a bit, Hermione was able to hear, “She doesn’t deserve that, and you both know it! She’s a very capable girl, and she won’t stand for that in the slightest!” Mr. Granger shushed her with a gentle pat on her arm, but Mrs. Granger snapped and pulled her arm away, “Don’t try to shush me! She deserves to know! Severus, you know I’m right!”
Hermione held her breath and strained her ears to hear Snape’s response, but all she could make out was the bass purr of his voice as he soothed her mother. “Hermione, come here please.” He called gently.
Taking a swift step back into the shadows, she composed herself quickly before stepping back out and delicately leaned over the banister. “I was looking for you.”
“And that’s just as well, but before you chastise me—”
“I was going to thank you, actually.”
Snape was caught off guard. “Thank me?”
“Well, yes. After all, the dead are not only dead, but also gone, and I’m sure Mrs. Weasley didn’t need all of her toes and would likely have cut it off herself if she knew it would help her find Ron. I, uh… just needed a moment to process that information.”
Snape couldn’t help from suspiciously narrowing his eyes at her.
“I’m serious, Severus. Thank you.”
He merely nodded his response before sending a quick warning glare back to Hermione’s mother who had muttered something to him. “Hermione, we have to talk.”
“We need you to be very open-minded and understanding—” Her father began.
“May I have a moment, Paul?” Snape murmured. “Elaine?”
Hermione met her mother’s eyes, and the sympathetic look in them. “I’ll talk to you soon.” She assured her daughter as her husband took her hand and led her up the massive staircase.
Snape, likewise, took Hermione’s hand and led her through the large rear entrance doors to the vast garden behind the mansion. They walked in silence for a while. She allowed him time to formulate his words in peace and distracted herself with admiring the property’s landscaping. The red, brick path they were following ended at a small clearing under the vast, drooping arms of the weeping willow. He drew his wand gracefully and conjured a beautiful stone bench near the trunk.
“Sit.” He offered, and when she complied he settled beside her. “We are very, very close to war, Hermione.” He paused to read some sort of reaction in her demeanour, but received no change in emotion. “Voldemort has received the allegiance of the giants, the dementors, and the werewolves. He also has great command of legions of inferi and imperiused wizards and witches. I am no longer his spy, and some serious information has been fed back and forth through someone at Order Headquarters.” He paused here, and surveyed her general lack of change carefully before deciding to continue on. “We need to know who that spy is, and your father and I could only imagine one person capable of that. You must re-establish yourself at the Order, and we will likely communicate through our patronuses.”
Hermione nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation immediately. “You need a relay.”
“There is… more to it than that. We are going to need someone to stay at base after everyone else has left for war. We will send the dead and wounded, but Madame Pomfrey will have to be the battlefield medi-witch. We need someone competent back at base.”
“You need me at base?”
“Yes, Hermione.”
“You want me to hide out at base.”
“No, you will have a function to serve.”
“You’re trying keep me protected at base!”
“No, Her—”
She turned toward him on the bench. “I won’t do it!”
“Hermione, that’s not all you will be doing. You will have to protect the dead and dying from the spy. If they see that things are not going well on the battlefield, they will be sent to kill all of the wounded, so that they can’t recover and be sent back out. A fight could break out at Headquarters.”
“Don’t lie to me, Severus! The odds are slim that—”
“The odds become better the more successful we are, which all depends on how good your intelligence on the Dark Lord’s spy is!”
“I’M NOT YOUR PATSY!” Hermione shouted, emphasizing her anger with her fists in front of her chest
Snape grabbed her wrists roughly. Her eyes focused unwaveringly on his, and she found his eyes blazing and open for her perusal, and though she’d never tried it before, she could suddenly enter his mind while he shouted desperately. “YOU ARE MY ONLY OPTION! YOU ARE MY MOST COMPETENT ALLY, AND YOU ARE MY ONLY REDEMPTION!”
His thoughts spewed into her mind, and she struggled to process it all. The emotion was so raw as she was sucked into a scene of a young black haired boy cringing in a corner as a woman screamed in pain. The smacking sounds of domestic violence clear even over the boy’s pleas.
The scene changed and the young boy was older. His hooked nose was dripping, so he wiped it with his sleeve. He needed some hygienic guidance that much was obvious. “Hey, Snivellus!” The voice seemed to echo persistently, slowly fading, but never reaching silence. Suddenly everything in the vision was upside-down. Someone was laughing. No, many people were laughing.
Another change, and he was standing in front of the still smoking ruins of Godrick’s Hollow. The emotions he felt confused her, and she exhaled sharply as though the wind were knocked out of her.
The final scene made the tear she was holding back roll down her face as she saw Dumbledore, helpless against the far wall of the Astronomy Tower. “Severus… please.” He was begging, and yet Snape’s emotions were clear. It affixed all of his previous life emotions in clarity, and she suddenly felt just as trapped as he did. Trapped by two wills against his. She could feel his mind fighting the trapped sensation. He couldn’t run from this situation. His arm raised and the blinding green light, along with the hiss, “Occlumens!” pulled her from his thoughts. It had only been a second, so she felt bombarded with the emotions, and stood much too quickly. The blood rushed to her head, and she began to swoon, but Snape quickly grabbed her arms to steady her.
Suddenly, the tears began to flow without reserve. It wasn’t only he who was trapped, but now he was trapping her.
“I thought we don’t enter each other’s minds without consent!” He growled.
“I didn’t mean t—I don’t know how—”
He shook his head, and held a hand up to stop her. “I have to get this off my chest, because I didn’t bring this up to your parents, Hermione.” He said, looking up at her as though he were studying her. “You haven’t been eating recently.”
“I haven’t been very hungry.”
“And you’ve been very moody.”
“I’ve not!”
“And your mother says that you haven’t been spending nearly as much time as you used to in the library. She can’t seem to find you at times.”
“I usually try to sleep on one of the terraces where it’s warm and sunny.”
Snape reached out suddenly and touched her breasts through her black robes. Hermione gasped at the sensation, furrowing her brows. “Oh, Hermione…”
He paused, studied her confused expression, and grabbed his wand from his cloak. He seemed to have felt the need to steel himself before pointing the wand at Hermione and saying, “Substantia.” Immediately an array of lights shone from her. They were brilliant colours that seemed only distantly related to the colour spectrum that she had known all her life. She smiled at the beautiful display, but found that Snape didn’t share her joy. “Finite Incantatem.” He mumbled. Then he turned the wand towards himself and repeated, “Substantia.” She squinted away from the brightness of his aura, though the colours themselves were much darker toned. Colours that were distantly related to blues and greens with streaks of a pinkish colour, made her eyes roam his body. She suddenly had so many questions to ask, but knew better than to do so now. Snape repeated, “Finite Incantatem.” Then after three large breaths, he turned the wand back on her and smoothly purred, “Probo Gravida.”
She didn’t have to know Latin to know that he had performed a pregnancy test, and by the way the lights shown from her stomach in a beautiful dance of colours, it was a positive confirmation.
Snape appeared frozen in place, and she couldn’t explain why she didn’t feel worried or afraid or concerned in any way. There was no joy either. It was as though he had just shown her that she had an extra pocket that she didn’t know existed on her robes. She definitely didn’t feel as though she was pregnant, but the light still shone brightly.
Finally, Hermione felt it was time to interrupt Snape’s trance. “Uh… congratulations… I guess.”
His eyes rose to meet hers. “Finite Incantatem.” It suddenly seemed dark under the willow. Snape closed his eyes, and put his hands over his face as he leant over and rested his elbows on his knees. Hermione suddenly felt awkward. She had never seen Snape so defeated, and she didn’t know what to do. Luckily for her, he said, “Go to your mother.” She respected his desire for time alone and responded immediately, rising and heading towards the massive home. As she walked the gears began to slowly turn.
She was pregnant. She placed a hand to her belly, still flat with youth. How long had it been? How long did she have? It had to have been conceived just before they took the separation potion. It. No, not it. What? Boy? Girl? Was he sure? He. Snape. Potions Master Severus Snape, wizarding public enemy number two, was the father of her child. The situation suddenly became unreal, and she stopped on the steps and sat down, leaning her head against the balustrades. She realized that the emotions still seemed very distant from her, and she knew that she was in shock. She decided that she would remain on the stairs for just a moment more as she wallowed in her emotionless state of shock before going to see her mother. She sat in the quiet of the house where the light streamed in from a window warming against the side of her robes long enough that she didn’t even realize when she fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: I truly appreciate the reviews! You have been sooooooo faithful, and I appreciate it. Therefore, in honour of ALL of my wonderful reviewers, I am going to be posting all of your names. As usual, I have posted my top reviewers, and I would like to draw extra special attention to makaem, Citten, Vidia Vidalia, a_reader, and MewMew2 who are among my newest reviewers.
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Phoenix Rhapsody ~~*
“Sit, Ms. Granger!” Snape’s use of her formal name seemed to carry the venom of a threat, so she obeyed. She sat in the chair farthest from him, spinning it towards the door and poised on the edge as though ready to bolt at any moment. “You have been in my ancestral home for more than two months, and you haven’t spoken to me yet. I am not, nor have I ever been a man who tolerates disrespect in any form, and yet, I have allowed you to do so for far too long. You may not stay here if you continue to treat me like a leper. As you’ll recall, it was I who brought you here.”
She didn’t answer until a gentle voice from the next room said, “Answer him, Hermione.” Apparently, her mother was listening in from the kitchen.
She allowed herself two more fuming breathes. “How may I be of assistance to you, Professor?”
“Allow me to be of assistance to you, Hermione.”
She paused for a beat. “No.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
“I am fully capable of finding them on my own. It’s a basic task.”
Snape scowled. Rising from his chair, he stalked silently around the table. When he was near enough, he leaned around the high-backed chair to put his lips just beside her ear. From so close, he could smell her sensual, rosy scent. “Come with me. I know what you need.” The silky smooth palm along the back of her tiny hand reached around to grip her fingers snugly and draw her along in his wake. She wanted to resist him, but his warm grasp made her feet move beneath her as though she were under the Imperius Curse. Eventually, she found that he had led her into the library.
“I’ve been combing this place every day… and all day today.” She complained.
“I’m aware of that, but have you checked the dark arts collections?” The widening of Hermione’s eyes made it very clear that she had not, nor did she expect him to. “Well, I think you will be pleased to know that I found them this morning.”
“Harry and Ron?”
“Yes.”
“Of course it doesn’t please me! Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”
He shrugged unconcernedly. “You seemed to be leaving rooms when I approached, and I find it hard to talk to someone who is disappearing around the corner. Besides,” he added sharply, “I answer to no one.”
“Excepting, of course, your Dark Lord.” Hermione said bitingly.
Snape glared at her as he sat gracefully in his chair, and allowed his eyes to sweep her form. It had been a while since they had met for sex, and he couldn’t stop his mind from thinking about her delicate arms, crossed and hands hidden beneath her pert breasts, circled around his neck. Her lips, held in a delicate pout, pursed against his chin. He could imagine her legs, with one foot tapping the ground angrily, twined around his hips like irons.
The few months without her had been very difficult for him. He had expected for the spell to release him from the emotional feelings that he gained from her, but that hadn’t happened at all. To add to his confusion, he had expected for her to feel the same way, but she had seemed cold. After their first blowout argument at Kent and Elizabeth on the evening after her arrival, she had been diligently avoiding him.
Then finally, he approached her and held out a pair of Onyx stones on a silver chain. “This will get you near them, but you can’t see them. I suspect, however, that they can see you.”
“What about this spell is Dark? I’ve never heard of a dark locating spell.”
Snape gave her a long calculating look before rising out of his chair, turning on his heel, and striding away from her.
“Severus!” He couldn’t help but stop at the sound of her horror stricken voice. “What have you done?”
He took a deep breath and began, “The spell calls for the body of the mother.”
Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth in surprise.
“I led a raid arranged through Voldemort’s spy, and Molly was there. I managed to surprise her and disarticulated her toes, keeping only her Hallux. Then I travelled to Lily’s grave, and took a portion of her sternum. The onyx stone came from James’s jewel box. I think he used to keep it on a fibrous necklace. There wasn’t any sign of it in the box. I found it in the ruins of Godrics Hollow. The chain is something I ripped off of Arthur’s neck. The stone is active now. It will override your… ‘cunning’ wards.”
Hermione had gone pale, closed her eyes, and warred with several feelings. On one hand, she felt grateful that he had managed to create a way to locate Harry and Ron. She also felt relieved that they were safe, sickened that Mrs. Weasley had lost her big toe and that he had raided the tomb, and angry that she had been bested again. Eventually, she calmed enough to open her mouth to thank him, opened her eyes, and found herself alone in the room. She sighed. She needed Snape to recreate the separating potion and create a way to deliver it to the boys, so she set out to find him. She wandered the house for a while before she caught a glimpse of him whispering conspiratorially with her parents in the foyer.
She hesitated at the corner of the second floor, remaining in the shadows to try to make out what they were discussing, but they were much too quiet. When her mother appeared to get upset and her voice rose a bit, Hermione was able to hear, “She doesn’t deserve that, and you both know it! She’s a very capable girl, and she won’t stand for that in the slightest!” Mr. Granger shushed her with a gentle pat on her arm, but Mrs. Granger snapped and pulled her arm away, “Don’t try to shush me! She deserves to know! Severus, you know I’m right!”
Hermione held her breath and strained her ears to hear Snape’s response, but all she could make out was the bass purr of his voice as he soothed her mother. “Hermione, come here please.” He called gently.
Taking a swift step back into the shadows, she composed herself quickly before stepping back out and delicately leaned over the banister. “I was looking for you.”
“And that’s just as well, but before you chastise me—”
“I was going to thank you, actually.”
Snape was caught off guard. “Thank me?”
“Well, yes. After all, the dead are not only dead, but also gone, and I’m sure Mrs. Weasley didn’t need all of her toes and would likely have cut it off herself if she knew it would help her find Ron. I, uh… just needed a moment to process that information.”
Snape couldn’t help from suspiciously narrowing his eyes at her.
“I’m serious, Severus. Thank you.”
He merely nodded his response before sending a quick warning glare back to Hermione’s mother who had muttered something to him. “Hermione, we have to talk.”
“We need you to be very open-minded and understanding—” Her father began.
“May I have a moment, Paul?” Snape murmured. “Elaine?”
Hermione met her mother’s eyes, and the sympathetic look in them. “I’ll talk to you soon.” She assured her daughter as her husband took her hand and led her up the massive staircase.
Snape, likewise, took Hermione’s hand and led her through the large rear entrance doors to the vast garden behind the mansion. They walked in silence for a while. She allowed him time to formulate his words in peace and distracted herself with admiring the property’s landscaping. The red, brick path they were following ended at a small clearing under the vast, drooping arms of the weeping willow. He drew his wand gracefully and conjured a beautiful stone bench near the trunk.
“Sit.” He offered, and when she complied he settled beside her. “We are very, very close to war, Hermione.” He paused to read some sort of reaction in her demeanour, but received no change in emotion. “Voldemort has received the allegiance of the giants, the dementors, and the werewolves. He also has great command of legions of inferi and imperiused wizards and witches. I am no longer his spy, and some serious information has been fed back and forth through someone at Order Headquarters.” He paused here, and surveyed her general lack of change carefully before deciding to continue on. “We need to know who that spy is, and your father and I could only imagine one person capable of that. You must re-establish yourself at the Order, and we will likely communicate through our patronuses.”
Hermione nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation immediately. “You need a relay.”
“There is… more to it than that. We are going to need someone to stay at base after everyone else has left for war. We will send the dead and wounded, but Madame Pomfrey will have to be the battlefield medi-witch. We need someone competent back at base.”
“You need me at base?”
“Yes, Hermione.”
“You want me to hide out at base.”
“No, you will have a function to serve.”
“You’re trying keep me protected at base!”
“No, Her—”
She turned toward him on the bench. “I won’t do it!”
“Hermione, that’s not all you will be doing. You will have to protect the dead and dying from the spy. If they see that things are not going well on the battlefield, they will be sent to kill all of the wounded, so that they can’t recover and be sent back out. A fight could break out at Headquarters.”
“Don’t lie to me, Severus! The odds are slim that—”
“The odds become better the more successful we are, which all depends on how good your intelligence on the Dark Lord’s spy is!”
“I’M NOT YOUR PATSY!” Hermione shouted, emphasizing her anger with her fists in front of her chest
Snape grabbed her wrists roughly. Her eyes focused unwaveringly on his, and she found his eyes blazing and open for her perusal, and though she’d never tried it before, she could suddenly enter his mind while he shouted desperately. “YOU ARE MY ONLY OPTION! YOU ARE MY MOST COMPETENT ALLY, AND YOU ARE MY ONLY REDEMPTION!”
His thoughts spewed into her mind, and she struggled to process it all. The emotion was so raw as she was sucked into a scene of a young black haired boy cringing in a corner as a woman screamed in pain. The smacking sounds of domestic violence clear even over the boy’s pleas.
The scene changed and the young boy was older. His hooked nose was dripping, so he wiped it with his sleeve. He needed some hygienic guidance that much was obvious. “Hey, Snivellus!” The voice seemed to echo persistently, slowly fading, but never reaching silence. Suddenly everything in the vision was upside-down. Someone was laughing. No, many people were laughing.
Another change, and he was standing in front of the still smoking ruins of Godrick’s Hollow. The emotions he felt confused her, and she exhaled sharply as though the wind were knocked out of her.
The final scene made the tear she was holding back roll down her face as she saw Dumbledore, helpless against the far wall of the Astronomy Tower. “Severus… please.” He was begging, and yet Snape’s emotions were clear. It affixed all of his previous life emotions in clarity, and she suddenly felt just as trapped as he did. Trapped by two wills against his. She could feel his mind fighting the trapped sensation. He couldn’t run from this situation. His arm raised and the blinding green light, along with the hiss, “Occlumens!” pulled her from his thoughts. It had only been a second, so she felt bombarded with the emotions, and stood much too quickly. The blood rushed to her head, and she began to swoon, but Snape quickly grabbed her arms to steady her.
Suddenly, the tears began to flow without reserve. It wasn’t only he who was trapped, but now he was trapping her.
“I thought we don’t enter each other’s minds without consent!” He growled.
“I didn’t mean t—I don’t know how—”
He shook his head, and held a hand up to stop her. “I have to get this off my chest, because I didn’t bring this up to your parents, Hermione.” He said, looking up at her as though he were studying her. “You haven’t been eating recently.”
“I haven’t been very hungry.”
“And you’ve been very moody.”
“I’ve not!”
“And your mother says that you haven’t been spending nearly as much time as you used to in the library. She can’t seem to find you at times.”
“I usually try to sleep on one of the terraces where it’s warm and sunny.”
Snape reached out suddenly and touched her breasts through her black robes. Hermione gasped at the sensation, furrowing her brows. “Oh, Hermione…”
He paused, studied her confused expression, and grabbed his wand from his cloak. He seemed to have felt the need to steel himself before pointing the wand at Hermione and saying, “Substantia.” Immediately an array of lights shone from her. They were brilliant colours that seemed only distantly related to the colour spectrum that she had known all her life. She smiled at the beautiful display, but found that Snape didn’t share her joy. “Finite Incantatem.” He mumbled. Then he turned the wand towards himself and repeated, “Substantia.” She squinted away from the brightness of his aura, though the colours themselves were much darker toned. Colours that were distantly related to blues and greens with streaks of a pinkish colour, made her eyes roam his body. She suddenly had so many questions to ask, but knew better than to do so now. Snape repeated, “Finite Incantatem.” Then after three large breaths, he turned the wand back on her and smoothly purred, “Probo Gravida.”
She didn’t have to know Latin to know that he had performed a pregnancy test, and by the way the lights shown from her stomach in a beautiful dance of colours, it was a positive confirmation.
Snape appeared frozen in place, and she couldn’t explain why she didn’t feel worried or afraid or concerned in any way. There was no joy either. It was as though he had just shown her that she had an extra pocket that she didn’t know existed on her robes. She definitely didn’t feel as though she was pregnant, but the light still shone brightly.
Finally, Hermione felt it was time to interrupt Snape’s trance. “Uh… congratulations… I guess.”
His eyes rose to meet hers. “Finite Incantatem.” It suddenly seemed dark under the willow. Snape closed his eyes, and put his hands over his face as he leant over and rested his elbows on his knees. Hermione suddenly felt awkward. She had never seen Snape so defeated, and she didn’t know what to do. Luckily for her, he said, “Go to your mother.” She respected his desire for time alone and responded immediately, rising and heading towards the massive home. As she walked the gears began to slowly turn.
She was pregnant. She placed a hand to her belly, still flat with youth. How long had it been? How long did she have? It had to have been conceived just before they took the separation potion. It. No, not it. What? Boy? Girl? Was he sure? He. Snape. Potions Master Severus Snape, wizarding public enemy number two, was the father of her child. The situation suddenly became unreal, and she stopped on the steps and sat down, leaning her head against the balustrades. She realized that the emotions still seemed very distant from her, and she knew that she was in shock. She decided that she would remain on the stairs for just a moment more as she wallowed in her emotionless state of shock before going to see her mother. She sat in the quiet of the house where the light streamed in from a window warming against the side of her robes long enough that she didn’t even realize when she fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: I truly appreciate the reviews! You have been sooooooo faithful, and I appreciate it. Therefore, in honour of ALL of my wonderful reviewers, I am going to be posting all of your names. As usual, I have posted my top reviewers, and I would like to draw extra special attention to makaem, Citten, Vidia Vidalia, a_reader, and MewMew2 who are among my newest reviewers.
All Reviewers
1st-----Catysmom
2nd-----Queen Celestia
3rd-----meankitty69
4th-----johanna3030
5th-----Sslover
5th-----slytherin-princess
5th-----Openthedoor
6th-----Sureves Epans
6th-----JunoMagic
6th-----Lilmisblack
7th-----Jen618
8th-----Lady_of_Clunn
9th-----Sampdoria
9th-----PyroAngel
9th-----Megan
10th-----Perservero
10th-----Carha
Zigflorian
CB13
Nanoq
Anon
Dresoul
Lauriurix
Snapeaddiction
Jocy
Mlmonty
Pookah
Doodle
Nmos
JB
ginnylovesharry07
FlitterKat
Lady Disdain
Prospera
Lucy
Lyssander
Winters
Curikitten
Serenablack9000
Dragonsqueaks
Sandra
Maria
neko36
scootergirl_81
Tristanshawk
Tasha
MrsDeLay07
RedWritingHood
sallypoe
lennon-luvr
phistolemon
Kimberly1983
teenertots
sarehtipsreh
Fifteen_Stitches
cait
silverfalcon
Jan
Jess
kp1028
Snapescello
Gryffindor_Slytherin
iamtherealmaverick
losername
trm
d
Toto
Monkey Lady
makaem
Citten
Vidia Vidalia
a_reader
MewMew2
My love always!
Phoenix Rhapsody ~~*