Disclaimer: JKR owns everything but the plot, and besides I have no money so suing me is pointless.

Facing the World

It had started a letter, addressed 'Private and Confidential' and delivered to Hermione. She never realised when she opened it how much it would change her life. The letter had been from Albus Dumbledore, penned before his death. In it, he directed her to a pensieve in which she saw the full conversation between him and Snape. Albus had ordered Snape to kill him.

A further letter was delivered, directing her to track down Snape and act as his go-between to pass information to the Order. The only person she was to divulge this information to was Minerva McGonagall, she would share whatever Snape told her with Professor McGonagall, who would then disseminate it. That way both Snape and Hermione would remain safe from discovery.

Hermione, who had always felt a bit left out of Order business was more than willing to fulfil Albus' last wish and understood that out of the three of them she was the most likely to protect Snape regardless.

The hardest part had been tracking Snape down, he'd been a spy for many years and knew how to disappear. However, Hermione, if nothing else was thorough, very thorough. It took a few weeks and countless dead ends but she eventually ended up one rainy night standing outside a run down cottage in the back end of nowhere. Snape had been suspicious at first but when he realised she had come alone and she showed him Albus' letters he began to relax.

Thus began their weekly night time rendezvous'. Hermione became extremely apt at sneaking out of Grimmauld Place and if she was honest enjoyed the time she spent with Severus, as she was now allowed to call him. They would have a chat over a cup of tea and while he was still prone to bouts of sarcasm and general snarkiness he wasn't really the Professor she knew in school. While he gave plenty of information to help the cause he rarely spoke about what he got up to as one of Voldemort's favourites and Hermione didn't really want to know, but some nights he looked haunted.

It was several months later when the little comfy bubble they had burst. She arrived at her usual time to be virtually dragged inside the house. Tomorrow was the day apparently. D-Day, the final battle, what they'd all been waiting for, what it had all been building up to. Voldemort was ready to take on Harry. It was then that Hermione realised that Severus didn't expect or plan to survive. By one wand or another he would not live an she could see he was scared though he would never admit it. So Hermione did the only thing she could do and offered him comfort.

It wasn't a pleasant initiation. There had been little in the way of preliminaries, they hadn't even removed their clothes. Hermione's jeans and knickers where pushed down to her knees, Severus trousers just to his thighs. He had tried to stimulate her but it hadn't been enough. His first thrust was painful and it didn't get much better, fortunately it didn't last long. Severus collapsed against her and she held him while he shuddered. For Hermione it hadn't been about having great sex, it had been about an act of kindness and closeness towards someone who had experienced so little of it. She thought she might love him but didn't dare say it. "Thank you" was all he said with the most gentlest of kisses as she left soon after.

The final battle had been frantic but they had won. Harry yet again defeated the greatest evil in the Wizarding World and now he was 'the boy who saved us all'. Which as an 18 year old irked him considerably, after all he was a man now. Severus was missing presumed dead. Voldemort had attacked him when he realised he had been betrayed but when they went looking for the body none was found. Hermione cried every time his name was brought up and it wasn't long after that, that she found out she was pregnant.

She was glad she had broke it off with Ron before the war had really begun considering both his and Harry's reaction to her admission to who the father was and that no she hadn't been raped. Ginny who had finally got her man and had no intention of losing him again wanted to stay out of it, and the only person she could turn to was surprisingly Molly Weasley.

Hermione's parents had been killed not long after her, Harry and Ron had left Hogwarts. They had been sensible people and had left her relatively well off but it didn't fill that gap now in her life and right now, more than ever she needed a mother. Molly had stepped in. Molly didn't judge her, didn't make snide comments, didn't look at her in disappointment. Instead she accompanied her to her mediwitch appointments, gave her practical advice on what to do, what to eat and what to expect. She was a shoulder to lean on when it all got too much.

She had even helped her find a nice cheap cottage for her and the baby and helped her figure out a way to support herself. She made little vanity and simple medical potions to sell in a local Apothecaries shop. Potions for better skin, sleeker hair, headache cures and the like. It didn't pay particularly way but between that and her parents legacy she would be able to manage until the baby was old enough for her work properly.

Molly was also going to be there for the birth and was who Hermione was about to floo when there was a knock at the door. She took a deep breath and rubbed her swollen belly as another contraction hit and shuffled over to open it. Before her stood Severus Snape, soaked to the skin, no longer missing presumed dead. Her jaw dropped open and she grabbed the door frame to stop from falling over.

"You're not dead." She managed eventually.

"No," he ventured with a self depreciating smile, "but if it's any consolation I was very close. May I come in?" She stepped back and gestured a welcome. As he walked past another contraction hit, a hard one, she reached out and grabbed his arm as she doubled over in pain.

He grasped her hand, "Hermione are you all right?" he asked in concern. She nodded, unable to speak. She breathed out in one long breath.

"My waters broke a few moments ago, I was just about to floo Molly," she said moving over to the fireplace. Severus frowned.

"Where is the Weasley boy?" he asked moving over to assist her. She grabbed a handful of floo powder.

"Ron? No idea! Probably playing Quidditch somewhere." She turned back to the fireplace and flung the floo powder towards the grate completely missing his look of anger as he walked away. He spun round as he heard her panicked "no, no, no, no!"

"What's the matter?" he asked striding forward.

"The floo's down," she wailed, "what am I supposed to do now?" She looked terrified. Severus took her by the shoulders.

"It will be all right, I can help. Just take me to your bedroom and tell me where you keep the clean towels." He kept his voice gentle. She nodded and moved towards the stair case leading him up. Reaching her small room she watched as he took off his cloak and began laying out of the towels.

"What happened to you Severus? I looked for your b..." she swallowed, "I looked for you after it had ended and I couldn't find you anywhere. You took bad hit, we assumed that, well..." she tailed off and shrugged. Another contraction hit. Severus sat beside her and gave her his hand to grip.

"There will be time enough later for proper explanations, but simply put I was fortunate enough to fall beside a discarded port key. I didn't even know where I was going and it took me a long time to recover, I still haven't really." He looked at the ceiling as if collecting his thoughts.

"You were the first person I came to see," he added quietly. Hermione gave a small smile.

"You were pardoned you know. I showed them the letters and the pensieve. Minerva and I made sure the pardon was public." She gave his hand a quick squeeze. He smiled back. It was a rare event and Hermione felt lucky to be audience to it. He stop again.

"Right," he said firmly, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling his sleeves up. "Lie back on the bed and prop your legs up. I'll check how you're coming along." His tone was all business like but Hermione still felt embarrassed, they hadn't even seen each other naked that night nine odd months ago. A few moments later he pulled her dress down over her knees.

"You're quite far along, it shouldn't take much longer," he said standing up. "I cannot believe that boy left you at this time." he muttered under his breath. Hermione was struck by another contraction and wasn't sure of what he said but was glad when he again grasped her hand.

"Were you and Molly going to do the partis poena spell?" He asked and she nodded. He muttered the casting and grabbed her hands, immediately taking half of her pain.

Severus didn't lie about it not taking long, just over an hour later she was cradling a little girl with a shock of black hair. She'd taken the healing potion was feeling nothing more than tired. Severus was sitting on the end of the bed looking dazed.

"Thalia Molly Snape," Hermione said with an air of exhaustion, planting a kiss on the top of the sleeping baby's head.

"Thalia for my mother and Molly for my surrogate mother." She smiled to herself. "Molly will be upset she missed the birth you know."

Severus remained silent, he hadn't said anything since he had seen the colour of the child's hair.

"Severus are you all right? I know it must of been a shock but..." she didn't get to finish.

"Hermione, I just assumed..." he began hesitantly, "that is, you and the Weasley boy were seeing each other and it was only that one time." He looked at her bemused. Hermione gave smiled faintly.

"For someone who knows so much about midwifery I would of thought you would of known that one time was all it takes How do you know so much about midwifery by the way?" She queried as an afterthought.

"Albus insisted I did a stint as a mediwizard, thought it would make me more compassionate or some such." Severus replied dismissively. He stood up and gently lifted the baby from her arms and put her carefully in the crib at the end of the bed.

"What happened Hermione? Why are you here? Alone." Hermione twisted the bed clothes in her now empty hands.

"I told you that we looked for you after the battle?" He nodded and she continued. "When we couldn't find you it was just assumed that you were dead. I didn't want to believe it, but I went back to the cottage and you weren't there, I looked at Spinners End too." She sighed and shrugged. "I didn't know where else to look and by then the trials had started." She lay further back against the pillows.

"They did the 'big ones' first, Lucius, you, even though they thought you were dead. Lucius didn't get away this time and he's back in Azakaban. However Minerva and I went through Professor Dumbledore's effects with a fine tooth comb and found enough evidence to show that you had been working 'under orders' as it were. The Wizenmagot had to find you innocent. By this point I knew I was pregnant." She looked towards the crib and smiled.

"I was glad when I found out you know. If you were gone, then at least I had some small part of you. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, and I no intention of hiding who the father of my child was but I didn't expect my friends to give me the cold shoulder." A look of sadness crossed her face.

"Despite the evidence that we produced to prove your innocence, Harry couldn't forgive. Wouldn't forgive. He blames you for his parent's deaths, although I know you didn't realise at the time what the prophecy referred to. Ron of course disliked you any way, that combined with always siding with Harry and a lingering crush on me meant that he wanted nothing to do with me. Ginny. Ginny would of stood by me, but she and Harry had just gotten back together and I guess that was more important. " She swallowed the lump that had appeared in her throat.

"Minerva was too busy trying to get Hogwarts up and running again. Molly was really the only person who wanted to help me. I know you don't have a very high opinion of the Weasleys, but I don't know how I would of coped without Molly." Severus took her hand.

"Molly is a good woman and most of her children are tolerable. It was just those infernal twins and the Ronald boy that drove me to distraction." He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

"I don't deserve this Hermione, I don't deserve you or what you've done for me. When I was hit with the hex and grabbed the portkey I didn't expect to survive. I lay there, dying, and all I could think of was that I would never see you again. Apparently that was worse that the thought of death since I kept on breathing. You have been the only thing that has kept me alive Hermione." There was a tortured look in his eyes. Hermione knew this was close as Severus would get to bearing his soul to anyone. She lifted his hand to her mouth and gently kissed it.

"Severus everything I want in is in this room right now." She said softly her eyes searching his. He smiled at her then lent forward and kissed her lips.

"It won't be easy you know," he said seriously.

"I like a challenge," she replied on a wide yawn. He kissed her again on her forehead.

"Sleep now, we can face the world in the morning."

Finis

Author's Note:

My first SS/HG fic. I know it should be more than a one shot so the whole thing seems rushed but I'm finding it really hard to write a longer fic. Please feel free to offer constructive criticism.

"partis poena" Is supposed to be share pain in Latin, but as I don't speak it, I used on online translator. So sorry if it's completely wrong!