First Comes Baby

{2}

Hermione was happy. It was a strange occurrence, for she hadn't thought the possibility of happiness was even plausible while living at Spinner's End.

The place was creepy, if she was going to be honest. She knew nothing that had went on there, and Severus only spoke vaguely of what had happened during the war, hating to dwell on it.

The worst thing about the whole ordeal was the fact that Hermione cared for Severus. It only took her a couple of weeks, really, but just over her third trimester and she realized that it wasn't the pregnancy which made her care for him.

When he'd told her to call him his first name, she'd shied from it, but it grew on her the first time she snapped at him. Severus was a wonderful cook, and Hermione only wanted to make her own food once. Regardless, they'd gotten along very well besides her strange changing in emotions every so often.

There was a wonderful dynamic that they had which was beyond anything that she shared with Ron or Harry. It was the intellectual part of her that had begged for an appropriate partner for years, and now that it finally had it the damn thing had gone and got attached.

Hermione was attached to Severus Snape, living with him in small quarters made it very hard not to be attached to such a man.

He'd apologized almost the moment she'd gotten there for the tiny space, but honestly, she loved it. After months of camping and being out in the open, the lovely confinement of a small house was probably one of the best things for her. She'd kept all of her apartments small over the years, not daring to live like Harry did in Godric's Hollow with Ginny. Their house was large and very homely, but it gave Hermione anxiety and being cozy by a warm fire where walls were seven feet away was preferable to vaulted ceilings and twelve rooms.

His apology for his home was followed immediately with an apology for how he'd treated her and her peers over the years. He gave them as though he knew they wouldn't mean much to her, that that time was merely nothing now, it was void because even she did not act her usual self at Hogwarts during those years. How could she when she had such bad influences upon her named Ron Weasley and Harry Potter?

Severus told her everything about him, and it was... disconcerting to Hermione as she took the few weeks to adjusting knowing everything about one man. Especially a man who'd been her professor but a few years back. She knew his past, the torment he'd gone through in his home... how terrible his past was. She almost felt bad for disrespecting him in school, but all the odd comments he'd berated her with during that time evened out the feeling.

So knowing all of this, she'd told him everything about herself of course. The strangest part of it wasn't the doing it, no telling him she actually had no problem with. It was even easy to divulge all her secrets to him, even some she probably shouldn't have. The odd part of the exchange was that he listened so intently she could have mistaken his silence and stillness for a Petrificus Totalus charm. Every once in a while there was a slight nod or hum, but besides that he was engaged and listening. Despite its oddness, Hermione reveled in not being interrupted to ask what something meant or to elaborate. It was refreshing and exhilarating.

What else could she say than that she cared for Severus Snape? It wasn't love per se, it was moreover the complete attachment she was having for him, and the fact that he was admittedly an attractive man. There was grey in his hair now, and he held himself higher than when Voldemort had controlled his life. Although Dumbledore had done the same thing, so poor Severus Snape hadn't had free will in years.

Hermione couldn't exactly say she loved him. No, love couldn't come yet her heart was still too hard from Ron's idiocy. He'd played her, and Hermione was remiss to trust her heart to someone else, but right now all Severus had signed up for was her child. He didn't want her, and from the living circumstances that she was in, it was obvious to her he did not have the same inclinations. She didn't know for sure, but Hermione didn't think he'd just give in to her.