Author's note: Another one shot delivered by my mostly absent muse. This one may be pretty sad, and is reminiscent of my very first HP Fic "I Woke Up In Your Arms Today". Soooo, if you didn't like that, then this is probably not your thing. I can't promise a HEA in this one guys. Sorry. Reviews are always appreciated and welcomed!

I own nothing. JK is the master of this universe. I'm just fooling around.

SS

It was pretty unbelievable…that he was not dead after all. All things considered, things had not gone as planned. He gasped the raspy drawn breath of one whose lungs were still full of fluid as-against all believable odds-she worked over him. Her voice was soothing as she drew vial after vial of potions from the bag at her side where she knelt over his prone form. As weariness overtook him he marveled once more at his dumb luck…and the sheer unbelievable chance he now had.

…..

It was pretty unbelievable…that she was beside him in this moment. Her hair was a mass of violent honeyed curls that cascaded down her back. He could see the lights from the candles shining in her eyes and it was only after a few well timed throat clearings that he realized he was supposed to be saying something. His abrupt "I do" was heard by all, an audience that regarded the couple in awe and realized they were witnessing something unbelievable.

…..

It was pretty unbelievable…this feeling of total and complete satiety. His eyelids were heavy and his body felt drained-but with a lightness and feeling of serenity that he had not felt in…years. She curled against him and her delicate fingers stroked against the shadowy stubble of a day's growth on his sharp jaw, and his lips curved upwards at her touch. She murmured words of love, unending devotion and eternal bliss to be found in his arms. If he hadn't witnessed her saying her own I do's not a day earlier, in front of all of their family and friends, he would have thought the whole darn thing…unbelievable.

…

It was pretty unbelievable…what he would do for his wife. The consummate snark, the reticent professor, the reluctant hero, found that he would do pretty much anything his pregnant wife asked of him. Including trekking to Hogsmeade in the middle of January in Scotland in the middle of the night to fetch a pitcher of Madam Rosmerta's mulled cider and a plate of her pickled beets. He made his way back through drifts of snow that reached half way up his shins. His boots dragged mud and slush into the entrance way, but he didn't care. As he looked down at his now sleeping wife, one hand cradling the swell of their child, his mind reeled at the changes his life had gone through in so short a time. It was pretty…unbelievable.

….

It was pretty unbelievable…the sounds coming out of his wife's mouth. His eyes were wide with incredulity as he watched her labor their child into the world. Her face was flushed and damp with sweat, trickles of it running down her cheeks, sliding down her lithe neck where her tendons stood out from the formidable effort of pushing, and slowly made their way down the swell of her heaving breasts as she puffed and swore. And then, there it was. Severus' eyes grew wider still as he stared between his wife's legs. There, sliding it's way into the world, was the black mass of tufted hair, and then a face, and then some shoulders. And finally, the rest of his….daughter. Severus held his little beauty while sitting next to his other best girl and as he looked from the squalling pink wrinkled face to Hermione's pink flushed cheeks, he stared in wonder and thought…this was truly unbelievable.

…

It was pretty unbelievable. After everything he had tried to teach her, all of the words of wisdom he had imparted, never for a moment had Severus believed he would be sitting at the kitchen table waiting for his daughter to "sneak" back in to their quarters at Hogwarts. After having gone to check on her before going to bed, the realization that she was not in her bed that evening was one that struck him to the core. He could not believe that his daughter would lie to him. Hermione was presently taking it much better than he, and had just shaken her head as he'd plopped himself down at the kitchen table in the dark. She'd kissed him lightly on the temple and brushed a gentle hand through his hair as she had whispered: "She's seventeen, love. She's not a baby any longer. You have to let go Severus." Unbelievable. But as he heard the door open and his eyes met the terrified matching ones of his daughter, he realized that she suddenly looked….so old. His eyes softened and he gazed upon his first and only child in awe. How had she grown up so fast? "Father….I…." But to her surprise he put out a hand to quieten her. "Serena, there is hardly a need. You are, an adult now, are you not?" * Serena was taken aback, but nodded slightly, her mannerisms so like his. "Yes father. I am." And he realized that it was all pretty unbelievable."

…

It was pretty unbelievable. Severus stood as Hermione adjusted his tie as he stood, waiting to give his daughter away. She was twenty five now, and he couldn't know where the time went. But, he thought, as he turned to Serena he was so proud of her. Severus sighed feeling his throat go tight as he took his daughter's hand in his…for the last time before she would no longer be only his. He knew that he'd long since been replaced as the most important man in Serena's life. That honor belonged to someone else. He handed her off with a small smile and a nod of his head toward her worthy betrothed, and he watched her get married. Hermione held his hand in hers as they stood by, and he realized, that to have had the love of two women as beautiful as his wife and daughter was pretty unbelievable to say the least.

…

It was pretty unbelievable. Muggle cancer. Severus' head reeled as the sat in St. Mungo's. His heart felt like it had stopped. He looked at his wife, pale and frightened as they hooked her up to the muggle chemotherapy drip for the first time. He couldn't believe how strange she looked with her shorn hair, cropped close to her scalp. His wife's wild mane of curls was her trademark, and though he understood her decision to cut it for the chemotherapy treatments as a preemptive measure, it saddened him to see his wife without her mane. Through it all, Hermione had been amazing, unbelievably strong. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. He looked at her as she gazed at him from the bed, and he felt a frission of fear as he saw the terror in her eyes. This was all so unbelievable.

…

It was pretty unbelievable. He stood with his daughter's arm wrapped in his as he watched his wife's body be buried on the grounds of her beloved school, Hogwarts. It had been their home, and as per her wishes she was to be buried in the staff graveyard. The rain blew cold and hard against his cheeks, but he welcomed it. "What'll we do now Dad," Serena's voice trembled as they said their goodbyes? Severus turned to look at her, black eyes looking back at him as if he were staring into a mirror. "We go on," he said gently. And the tears fell. It was pretty unbelievable.

…..

He believed it. All of the things they say about death, he believed it. He stood at her grave as the winter wind howled and he knew that every bit of it was true. Many years had passed since she had left this world, but she had never left his side. He was old and weak, and his life had been long. His vision was poor, his hearing faint, but sitting there, with his hand against the cold stone, he could feel her there, and he believed it. When he heard her calling his name, he believed in it. It was time. When the sun finally came out and they found him there, his family looked on in awe, for the legend would have it, as it was told for many years to come, that when they found him, he was sitting as if he were in an embrace. He was buried next to her of course, as were all of the future generations from there on out. Eventually, their tale became the stuff of legend…of love that is so strong, not even death could stop it. But, they were only stories after all, and pretty unbelievable ones, at that.

The End

All comments and reviews are appreciated and welcomed! Thanks for reading. SS