A/N: Just a small little something I came up with after watching season 7 of GoT. I added Hermione into it because I felt like it. If you haven't seen season 7 yet, don't continue reading. This contains spoilers!

This isn't beta-ed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Game of Thrones or Hermione!

"Hermione…" Ned sighs, seeing his sister slowly descending the stairs from her bedchamber. She isn't dressed for mixed company, her hair cascading in thick curls down her back - as black as their oldest sisters was. She never was someone being interested in things like that. Just like Lyanna. The only real difference between them were they goals. One strategic and intellectual, the other hopelessly romantic and headstrong. He smiles ruefully. Maybe it wasn't a difference.

He looks away from her hopefully glinting eyes when he feels her hands in his, squeezing them softly.

"Ned… are there any... " she swallows thickly and tries again.

"Are there any news about Lyanna?" Ned blinks away tears, doesn't want to be weak and fail another sister. His young face shines with his sadness, with the heavy burden he now carries. He takes a shaking breath, feels one of her hands leaving his. When he looks up to command they'll be left alone he sees it pressed to her mouth, her face uncomfortably white.

When her guards are gone, he turns back. He feels so old. The heaviness of his heart spreads through his body. Ned knows when he looks into Hermione's eyes that she feels the same way. It would be an easy way out to not say it. To never mention it again. But his honour demands it. Demands the words passing over his lips.

"Lyanna is dead." The sob leaving Hermione's throat echos around them, riding on the words he pressed through his pain and guilt. There are tears on her cheeks and desperately he wants to brush them away. When she speaks, though, her voice only quivers lightly.

"How?" Ned squeezes his eyes closed. Wants to hide from the reality of it all. But he steels himself only a few seconds after, turns around slightly and indicates to Howland Reed. The man steps forward, his heavy boots uncomfortably loud in the otherwise silent chamber. Ned watches his sister, sees that she isn't looking at the man but at what he is carrying.

"Hermione… this is Aegon Targaryen." Ned introduces taking the small bundle from his companion. He purposefully uses the whole name because he is aware that Hermione would take up all the nuances in these few words. Lyanna got married. Aegon is the love-child of Rhaegar and her. He is the truthful heir to the throne.

"I knew she would." The sentence lingers in the air when the woman takes the babe, her arms protectively closing around it. One of her fingers caresses his face, the eyes blinking open for only a few seconds then closing again.

"He'll be Jon." His sister suddenly says.

"Jon Snow." She adds, her eyes still shining with her grief. A new determination overpowers it soon, though. Hermione rolls her eyes once at Ned's confused expression.

"Robert will never accept something like this. We have to protect him. For Lyanna. And maybe," her eyes become wistful suddenly, as if she sees something noone else can see. Clearing her throat, she continues.

"And maybe for all of us." Eddard nods. His shoulders are still hurting from the weight of his sister's death. His head is still a bit numb because it tried to wrap itself around the concept. But he is as aware of the danger for the babe as Hermione.

"You'll have to take him with you." The young woman continues, her hand unconsciously rubbing the boy's tummy.

"I can't! Catelyn-"

"Catelyn will learn to live with it. She's an honourable woman. Headstrong and stubborn, but honourable. She won't accept him as her own, but she won't deny you your wish to keep your bastard son with you." He hates how logical, how clinical she sounds. As if her nephew, the last shred they have left of Lyanna is just a chess piece. Ned understands it nonetheless. When faced with traumatic experiences - like the death of their brother - Hermione always fled into her intellect.

"I'll help you protect him, Ned. I'll help you in any way I can." She finally says and as if the strength she displayed in the last hour is suddenly leaving her, she places the babe on a soft fur by the fire and sinks down in one of the chairs by it. Eddard rubs his eyes, tiredness both physically and mentally taking their toll. When he looks up she sees her small shoulders shaking. He joins her then, places a comforting hand on her shoulder which she grabs with her own.

"Noone can know about this." Hermione whispers after a while and even if Eddard wouldn't know how true these words are, he would have agreed. He would give her the world at the moment.

"I'll make sure to bind the others with an oath. They are good men. Honorable. They won't tell a soul." Ned whispers, isn't able to speak any louder. His voice breaks slightly.

"Brandon is dead. Lyanna is dead. It's only us left, Ned." As if her words cut the last strings keeping him upright, he sinks to the floor. He feels Hermione placing a hand on his head, soothing him. Tears streak his face anew, sobs shaking his build. Over his own grief he can't hear her, but her gestures say it all.

"I know."

Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think? Did I capture Eddard? Does he feel in-character to you?