The Serpent and the Lioness

Chapter 61

Early evening found them each curled up before the fire. Severus leaning back against their couch with Hermione wrapped around his legs. Her head resting peacefully in his lap as she listened to him read.

Their shared emotional outpouring had left them both in an odd sort of blissful state, neither one wanting to break the feeling that had settled in between them. They had moved through most of their day in pensive silence. They had enjoyed a long walk around the edge of their property, just taking in the early afternoon sun then retreated to the warmth of their house to make lunch.

Neither one felt compelled to speak, just absorbing the feeling of having their connection open and free once more. They had both heartily agreed that they shouldn't attempt to keep the other out for an extended period of time ever again and left the situation as it was. Now as evening was drawing in as they continued to just let their minds and bodies rest.

Hermione had taken the time to listen to his words of wisdom and to stop keeping a sort of scorecard between them. Instead, she decided to take every moment as it came and appreciate it for what it was. It lifted the weight that had been forming on her heart, and Hermione couldn't have felt more relaxed.

She didn't even want to work on anything remotely pertaining to the creature or her book. The urge to excel and complete the tasks given to her was thrown to the side completely as she just allowed herself to fully and completely enjoy the day. It was a well-deserved reprieve from the normally racing thoughts her mind was constantly bombarded with and she wasn't about to take any second of it for granted.

Severus likewise had remained just as relaxed, though his mind was anything but quiet. He kept his walls up just so far as to keep his thoughts from slipping into her mind but didn't close down the connection completely. His mind was mulling over his own honest admission of wanting a family, and how that possibly could turn out to be true in the future.

He had, of course, read her notes in the journal she had left out on her desk—as he often did but he knew there was one small hiccup in the entire situation. For the orb to work, a woman had to be fertile, she had to already be pregnant. His mind turned back to what Poppy had said to him about her condition and it had worried him that she hadn't yet, to his knowledge, returned to a natural cycle.

His mind turned over every possible fertility potion that he could think of before he decided to formulate something of his own. He spent the better part of the day mulling over the complexities of such a feat, the arithmancy alone keeping his thoughts completely occupied.

When Severus paused to turn the page Hermione shifted her head and looked up into his face.

"Severus?"

"Mm?"

"What do you want for Christmas?"

Severus looked down from over the edge of the book, a brow raised, "You are all I need."

Hermione smiled softly, a faint blush growing over her cheeks as Ginny's idea fluttered through her mind space and no doubt into his.

"Besides me, what would you want?"

"Some more vials would be nice." He said absently, leaning his head back to glance at the tree.

"So that's what you made those from. I did have my suspicions."

"It was the only thing we had enough of for me to transfigure, it's truly amazing how resilient plates are to being shifted." Nevermind him breaking a few in their set in the process.