𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 II SS/HG ✔️

Deciding

1:04 AM

Hermione stared at Crookshanks in his cat basket. His tail twitched as he slept.

Hermione flipped over to stare at her bookshelf. She snorted.

What good are those books going to do me now? I've spent my entire life reading those books, learning them—fat lot of good that did me! Obviously I'm not good for anything but breeding!

Hermione drew back the covers. Crookshanks opened one sleepy eye to watch his mistress walk to the open window.

Will I have to replace my Defence books with baby nappies? she wondered. Trade my bookshelf for a cot? Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She put her head down on her arms and sobbed.

Hermione wandlessly Summoned a handkerchief when she finished. She blew her nose. "Professor Snape won't make me have a baby. He's disgusted enough as it is!" Hermione pulled her hair into a ponytail. "No. There is no way I'm having a baby."

Crookshanks watched Hermione gather a torn parchment and a quill.

"Okay—options." Hermione chewed on her tongue and dipped her quill into the inkwell. "Run away. Get married. If I run away, I'll be vulnerable, alone, and a criminal. I could leave the country, but that seems more like a short-term solution—regardless, I would still be me." Hermione scratched that option out.

She turned in her seat to face the Wall of Terrible Prospects. Five parchment scrolls, filled with the names of every man that had proposed to her.

Hermione frowned at the bottom of the last page. She refused to add Professor Snape's name to the list. Even if he did want to marry her—which he clearly and loudly did not—she absolutely did not want to be stuck with him for the rest of her life. They only just now started on the civil conversation part of a workplace relationship!

"Which of these Death Eaters can I handle on my own?" she asked, pacing in front of her lists.

Malfoy was immediately removed. If she set foot in that mansion, Voldemort's "secret" hide out, she would never be seen again.

She could take Theodore Nott, but she stood no chance against his whole family.

If Crabbe junior was big, what could his father look like?

Hermione felt nauseous.

Mundungus Fletcher. Hermione chewed on her thumb nail. I could hold my own against him. But…what if…a baby?

Hermione ran for the window. The contents of her stomach splashed onto the outer wall of the castle. Several times.

3:28 AM

That son of a bitch Moody, Severus thought as he stomped throughout his lab for the sixteenth time. If the Order weren't already such a small group, I'd kill you and hide your body so well, finding it will be on the Department of Mysteries' To-Do list.

Professor Snape snatched a glass jar off the worktable as he passed. He didn't stop his oblong circuit around the room. Bastards! No Death Eater would dare try to pigeon-hole me! A few Cruciatus Curses later and they'd be begging my forgiveness! He spun around to pace the other direction. No—Muggle means embarrass those purebloods more than spells.

He put the onion root jar back on the table before the desire to smash it against a wall overwhelmed him.

How can I get out of this?

You can't. The Dark Lord wants Granger in his hands. What happens when Weasley turns of age? Will bloody Minerva be forced to marry him?

He snorted. Weasley had moved on straight to Miss Brown, once Granger was out of the equation. At least you won't have a love-sick Weasley trying to steal your wife away.