Title: The Nightmare of Hope
Oneshot
Parings: SS/HG
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: All rights to their rightful owners. I am not making any money
writing this.
Summary: Hermione has a nightmare. Severus comforts her. A story of old pain, and hope for the future as seen by the eyes of a man who had never before known hope.

(A/n: I'm not really sure why I wrote this. Maybe I just wanted to believe that something could have given Severus hope if things had been different.)

~~~

"Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear."
― Stephen King

Severus was awakened by the sounds of someone moaning and crying quietly. The sounds of distress were accompanied by the occasional whimper of pain. His eyes flew open and he was fully awake in an instant.

He saw Hermione, still asleep beside him, tossing and turning, fighting blindly against the blankets that had tangled around her limbs.

Carefully, he reached out and touched her cheek. He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her cheek bone tenderly for a moment and she seemed to calm somewhat.

Then he pulled the hand away and she screamed in her dream and the sound forced its way up her throat in the waking world. Her body jerked, and forced her to sit upright to wake herself up.

She woke up panting and crying and utterly disoriented.

It tortured Severus to see his beautiful wife so tormented by her past, and that day in the Malfoy Manor when Bellatrix had tortured her, almost to the breaking point.

He moved into her field of vision and tentatively he murmured, "Hermione? Are you alright?"

She blinked coming back to herself slowly and reached out weakly pleading with her arms for him to take her in his own. He did so without hesitation. His question pierced the fog of her consciousness, 'Was she alright?'

Immediately she placed a hand to her abdomen touching the bump there, reassuring herself that she still had the baby.

Relieved that it was still there she sighed in his arms her breathing beginning to slow, her piece of mind return with every soothing stroke of Severus's hand on her hair and back.

"Ssh, my sweet girl. I'm here."

"Severus. I dreamed I'd lost the baby." His hand joined hers at her abdomen and he shook his head wordlessly.

"I was so scared."

"It wasn't real, little one. Our child is still here with us." He murmured softly, his velvet voice, deep and comforting.

She held his strong hand on her abdomen tightly, reassuring herself she wasn't imagining it, that it was all real. That she was safe and the baby was alive.

He pressed soft kisses to her hair and then her forehead.

"Oh…" she sobbed quietly.

"A dream. It was just a dream." She murmured still trying to absorb it all.

He rubbed soothing circles on her stomach and she leaned into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Do you want to go back to sleep?" Severus asked after a long moment.

Hermione nodded, and then said, "Please hold me."

"Of course little one. Always." She sighed her reassurance against his chest and he lay they both back down, still holding her. She fell back into sleep within moments.

Severus stayed awake, holding his wife and child in his arms. He made a silent vow.

When he and Hermione were old and grey, and their child had grown and no longer needed them, he would still hold her like this. Some might ask him, "After all this time?" and he would reply to them without fault, "Always."

It was as simple as that. Hermione was his 'Always.' His safety, his surety, his constant presence in life. He loved her more than words or deeds could express and he knew she felt the same. When he'd learned about the child growing within her, his first reaction had been panic. What kind of a father could this child expect? He was not anywhere near good enough, or qualified enough to raise a child properly…but Hermione had made him see that it would be something to look forward to instead of something to dread.

And indeed he did. This child had been the unexpected light in their lives. And how he loved them both already.

He at last allowed himself to hope. Hope for happiness as he had never been allowed to know it. An innocent happiness. He could only pray it would not be taken away and become a nightmare once more.

With a smile on his face, Severus allowed sleep to take him once more, imagining seeing a little dark haired girl take her first steps towards his waiting arms.

~The end~