A/N: Okay people, a new story. I know I suck at getting these things finished, so I would love a beta who would kick my ass a bit to get this one (and maybe some of my other stories) finished! PM me if you're interested.
It was all this stupid wars fault, Hermione thought as she placed her hand on her slightly swollen belly. If it hadn't been her unending desire to change the course of wizarding history, she wouldn't be in this situation. She remembered all too clearly how it began, either eight months ago, or an hour, depending on your perspective; or twenty years, if you were the man sitting across the desk from her, conflicting emotions tumbling across his usually emotionless features. Then again, a lot had changed since she watched him die in the Shrieking Shack. For one, he was alive, and two, his sleeves were rolled up and there was no mark on his forearm. More to the point, the castle wasn't on fire, so her trip had done its job.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again," the sullen man said, finally, his hands steepled on the desk top.
"I didn't think I would see you either," Hermione said to her hands, still clasped over her stomach. "But to be fair, we both saw each other earlier today."
"No, my dear," Severus said quietly. "You saw your seventeen year old lover, and I saw my seventeen year old student. I haven't seen you in twenty years." Pain flashed across his face, and then it was blank again. "You accepted my proposal and the next thing I knew, all that was left was this note," he pulled a very worn piece of parchment out of his desk. "And a pensive full of very disturbing memories."
"I didn't want to leave that way, but there wasn't another option." A tear slipped down her face, things had been so perfect, she should have known it couldn't last.
"And then, six years ago a little girl with big bushy hair shows up in my classroom, and I knew it was all true." He sighed and pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey and poured himself a glass. "I waited all year for you to turn those eyes to me, to tell me you had come back, but she was just my student, it was torture, and now here you are and I don't know what happens now."
"What happens now is whatever we want." She twisted the ring round her finger. "I'll understand if you want this back, too much time has passed."
"You don't know me anymore," Severus said. "I would like to think I'm not the man in your memories, but nor am I the boy you knew, I'm an old man now."
"Oh please, Severus," Hermione rolled her eyes at the self-deprecating man. "You may be older that I am, but you are certainly not an old man." Hermione smiled into her lap. "And you are most certainly not the dungeon bat I knew."
Severus chuckled, "no, I am not." His face changed and grew sad. "I have had a very different life then he did. I had to; I had a fiancée and child I had to be here for. I had to become the kind of man who she would want to raise our child with."
"From what I've seen, you've done well," Hermione smiled.
"I can't say that I'm a favorite among the staff. My temper hasn't much improved, and I expect a great deal from my students, most of who do not live up to my expectations."
"Do I?" Hermione asked, not sure if she really wanted an answer.
"You are not the girl I taught today," Severus said firmly. "For the last five months I've had torturous watched as the woman who shared my lovers face fell in love with that insufferable Weasley boy, I've watched as she fawned all over him in my classroom, and caught them more than once in the Astronomy Tower." Severus thumped his fists on his desk, upsetting an ink bottle that crashed to the floor. "By the way, you have detention with me every night for the rest of the school year."
"I understand," Hermione said, trying to keep her amusement at his temper to herself. "I suppose I'll have to break up with Ron for her, then. Wouldn't want him thinking this baby is his."
"And how are you going to explain that you are four months pregnant and it's not your supposed boyfriends?" Severus raised an eyebrow at the amused girl.
"Don't know, that's a problem isn't it?" Her lips curled into a sinister smile. "I guess you would get sacked if I said we had been having a torrid affair."
"It would be true," Severus pointed out. "It just happened twenty years ago."
"Yep, longest pregnancy ever," Hermione relaxed and leaned back in her chair. "But seriously, we have to think of something to tell people, I have two months left of school, and I'm only going to get bigger. The only people outside of the two of us who know what happened are McGonagall and Dumbledore, mostly because I scared the pieces out of them when I appeared in the Headmaster's office in my nighty."
"The green one?" He asked.
"I didn't exactly have time to change," Hermione said sadly.
"I've missed you."
"I'm sorry this all happened like this," she told him quietly. "I didn't know how long I had. I was half hoping I would have a chance to have this one before I left, so I didn't leave you all alone."
"It's better this way," Severus said, still watching her from across the desk. "This way she will be raised by both of her parents."
"Still pushing for a girl," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Do you really mean it?"
"Yes, I've always imagined I would be a much better father to a girl." Severus smirked.
"No, that she would be raised by both of us?"