"About a week actually." The young woman explained, cradling her teacup to her chest. "I suppose your next question is why I didn't tell him." A sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes, fighting the emotional and mental exhaustion threatening to overtake her.
"I was going to tonight. I needed to work up my nerve to do it. I was…I was afraid to. I wasn't sure how he would react. He has expressed to me more times than I can count that the idea of fatherhood…is not…appealing to him. He always stressed being careful." Hermione sighed, feeling more tired than she had the night after the final battle. Taking a sip, she tried to steel herself for the interrogation she knew was to come.
"This was not planned then?"
"No."
"Then how—surely you're not suggesting Severus made a mistake when brewing?"
"It was my fault. I wasn't feeling well one day. He was in the crucial stage of brewing the experimental potion he has been researching for months. I knew he couldn't be bothered to brew a potion for something as trivial as a common illness. I went to Madame Pomfrey instead but I was feeling so ill I didn't think to ask if it would be okay to take with the contraceptive potion I was on. I found out later that it would nullify the contraceptive potion's effectiveness." She squirmed slightly refusing to meet her mentor's eyes. She had been so stupid, had assumed that it was safe. The know-it-all had failed to do her research for the first time ever and it proved to be the worst time to make such an error.
"How much later?"
"Six weeks."
"Then you are seven weeks along?"
"Yes." She bit her lip, chewing it nervously as she waited for the next question.
"What are you going to do, Hermione?" Minerva clucked her tongue softly, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before settling her gaze once more on her former pupil.
Hermione drained her cup of tea and placed it on the table in front of her, instantly missing it's warmth. After wringing her hands for a few moments as she fretted over what to say, she lifted her gaze to meet the older woman's.
"I don't know." There, it was out, the great Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age, one third of the golden trio, defeater of death eaters, and assistant vanquisher of Voldemort, had no idea what she was going to do. She was pregnant and alone.
"You are not alone." The older witch disturbed the younger's thoughts and Hermione realized she must have spoken aloud. "Pregnant, yes, but alone, no." Hermione and Minerva had grown closer since the war's end with all the time Hermione had spent at the castle with Severus. The older woman had come to seen the younger in a familial way, feeling sure that if she had ever decided to have children then her daughter would be sitting in front of her right then.
Suddenly, all the thoughts and problems that had been troubling Hermione burst forth from her trembling lips.
"What am I going to do, Professor? I don't have anywhere to go—I mean, I'm sure I could go to Gin and Harry's but what about after the baby is born? I can't stay there forever and expect them to put up with a squalling baby. Ron is staying at the Burrow and I know Mrs. Weasley would let me stay there, would be delighted to have me and a baby, even after it was born, but I can't just impose and not give her anything in return. Which brings me to the fact that I don't even have a job! I've been doing independent research for the past two years! No one is going to hire a pregnant witch whose husband didn't even want her." The tears started again and she was not surprised when Minerva pulled her closer, rubbing her back in gentle soothing circles.
For a moment only sobs and soothing murmurs punctuated the silence in the rooms of the Deputy Headmistress. The spell was broken, however, when a third voice chimed in.
"Severus did not say he didn't want you." The Headmaster's voice startled the pair and they both jumped. "You did not give him a choice."
"Only because you didn't give me one!" Hermione bit off, drying her eyes once again.
"She better not mean what I think she means for your sake, Albus!" Minerva snarled, doing her best impression of Severus. When that seemed to fail to make an impression upon her employer, she resorted to thinning her lips to the point where Hermione could no longer be certain she possessed them.
"I'm afraid she does. Please sit, Minerva, I would invite you back to my office but it seems it is a bit…occupied at the moment." Dumbledore still looked just as old as he had when he had first called Severus into his office. In fact, he looked as though he had aged even more in the time since Hermione had last seen him.
"You-"Minerva spluttered, clearly quite furious despite his attempts to calm her, "Explain yourself!" Hermione winced slightly, it was the same tone she was used to hearing when she, Harry, and Ron were in a load of trouble for their own adventures.
"Three days ago Lily Potter decided it was time for her to come out of hiding. She felt that with the capture of the most recent Death Eaters, it was finally safe for the world to know the whole story, the true story. I think the best way to explain all that has happened in the last three days would be for you to see it." A pause and then, "Winky." A mere moment after her name had left the Headmaster's lips, the house elf appeared with a crack, placing a tray of lemon biscuits upon the table and curtseying in her tea towel. She found bringing the Headmaster his biscuits when called upon would save her unnecessary time.
"Whats can Winky be doing for you, Headmaster?" She squeaked out.
"Please bring my pensieve to me. You know where it is." The house elf barely waited for the words to reach her ears before she disappeared with another crack.
Minerva narrowed her eyes at her long-time friend, lips still impossibly thin. He would not escape her infamous temper easily.
"Would you like a lemon biscuit, my dear? They're quite delicious." Albus offered to Hermione not unkindly, ignoring his angry deputy for a moment.
Before Hermione had a chance to accept or decline the man's offer, Winky had reappeared, the heavy stone bowl hovering in the air beside her and a look of utter distress on her face.
"One moment." Dumbledore told the house elf before, with the flick of his wrist, he transfigured one of his precious biscuits into a pedestal-like table. "Ah, there we are." He gestured for Winky to place the magical object on the newly transfigured object and then turned his full attention back to her.
"What is wrong, my dear?" The wizard questioned.
"No respects, Headmaster! Theys be doing it in fronts of alls the portraits and—ands on your desk." Winky wailed, leaping toward the coffee table. "Winky tries to stops them but theys wouldn't listen. Theys makes messes of Headmaster Dumbley-dores stuffs! Winky is bad elf!" Each sentence was punctuated with Winky banging her head upon Minerva's coffee table.
Hermione closed her eyes, a green tinge coming to her face at the thought of her husband so swiftly moving on without her. After a moment, the steady stream of images that had been triggered by the house elf proved too much and Hermione staggered down the hallway into Minerva's bathroom, leaving the house elf, wizard, and witch to hear the sounds of her retching into the toilet bowl.
Several minutes later, Hermione reappeared, looking slightly less queasy though she swayed slightly. Minerva immediately offered the young woman her arm, glaring at her longtime friend for not having the grace to insist Severus and Lily vacate his office before leaving them unattended. The portraits would no doubt spread it around the castle soon enough and the whole wizarding world would know that Hermione's husband was with another woman, even if the man himself would not know he was eviscerating the vows he had made.
The Headmaster looked profoundly uncomfortable and looked toward the house elf who had ceased her self-inflicted punishment. "It's not your fault, Winky Please return to the kitchens and make yourself a cup of tea. No butterbeer." The last statement was added as an afterthought upon Dumbledore's remembrance of the elf's drinking problem.
Once the house elf had disappeared, Dumbledore turned to Minerva and Hermione to make a request of the Scottish woman,
"Do attempt to refrain from hexing me until after you have seen all the memories, Minerva. I would rather not have to go through it more than once."
Hermione looked hesitantly from one Professor to the next. She wasn't sure she wanted to be involved in or even witness to a duel between the two but she knew if Professor McGonagall was dead set on hexing the Headmaster she would feel obligated to step in, given that this situation was partly her own fault as well.
"Here we are." The Headmaster said after a few moments of silence, drawing out several silvery threads from his temple in quick succession. "First, I shall show you my meeting with Lily Potter, followed by a meeting with Severus, and another with Harry. We will move on to my meeting with Mrs—Miss Granger, and to what I showed her there." He motioned them over and both Hermione and Minerva stepped closer to the pensieve. The older witch grasped the young woman's hand tightly and with a shared look, the pair leaned over the bowl until they felt themselves being lifted off their feet.
When they landed, they found they were in the Headmaster's office but the aforementioned man was alone. Hermione looked to Albus quizzically.
"Patience, my dear." Sure enough, the flames in the fireplace began to turn green and Lily Evans stepped from it.
"Albus!" Lily greeted, her green eyes twinkling as madly as the Headmaster's usually did. "I heard the Aurors caught the last of them! The last of the known Death Eaters are in Azkaban!" Her laughter was light and full of happiness, a smile plastered across her face.
With a pang, Hermione noted that she looked even lovelier when she was smiling and happy.
"They are." Albus acknowledged, nodding sagely. "Are you ready?"
"I'm more than ready to reclaim my life! I miss magic! I miss my son! I miss the Wizarding World! I miss—I miss—I miss Severus! He was my best friend and I loved him, not as much as I loved James, but I did love him. James is gone. Severus is not. It is time I moved on and showed him his love is not as unrequited or hopeless as he once thought!" Lily was twirling around the room. She felt like a little girl again. She was finally free! Free of the prophecy, free of her Muggle life, free of Voldemort, and free to be herself once again.
"I'm afraid you are too late for the last one, Lily." The old man said gently, trying not to cringe when her laughter stopped abruptly and her eyes narrowed at him.
"What do you mean, Albus?" The look on her face was scarily reminiscent of the one Severus often paired with that exact phrase and Albus let out a long sigh.
"He is married."
"To whom?"
"Hermione Granger."
"My son's friend? She is old enough to be his daughter! He spied for decades for me, for my memory. He was willing to sacrifice himself for my son, my mere memory, because of his love for me. He would choose me. I will not have it, Albus. Severus has been mine since long before she was ever born!" Jealousy made Lily Potter's eyes turn a whole new shade of green.
"It is ill-advised."Albus tried to make the woman see sense. "Does he not deserve happiness? After all this time?"
"From what I understand, the reason he could not have happiness was because I was not here. I am now. Does he not deserve to find TRUE happiness? Albus, you owe me a life-debt. I demand you fulfill it by removing Hermione Granger as an obstacle in the way of my attempts to develop a romantic relationship with Severus Snape." Here, Lily paused, a determined look in her eyes as she drew her wand and pointed it at the Headmaster. Calmly she continued speaking, " I, Lily Potter, nee Evans, invoke the life-debt owed to me by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, forged at the moment in which I saved him from death at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, and charge Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore with removing Hermione Jean Snape, nee Granger, as an obstacle in the way of my attempts to develop a romantic relationship with Severus Snape." Black threads seem to snake their way from Lily's wrist, and drawn wand, to the Headmaster's, even across the distance that stretched between them in his office. The minute the cords wrapped themselves around the Headmaster's wrist, they glowed white for a second before vanishing.
"Very Well."
The memory ended and the scene faded away, leaving them suspended in a blank space for a moment while the next memory began to take shape around them.
Minerva turned to eye Albus, her expression dumbfounded. "You owed Lily Potter a life debt? I understand now how that manipulative—manipulative—whore of Voldemort got you agree to it but how did you get Hermione to?" After a moment of silence where both Hermione and Albus were attempting to shut their jaws at hearing Minerva's colorful and inventive language, Hermione opened her mouth and spoke
"I owed him one."
A/N: If you guys haven't figured it out by now, this story is AU. I forgot to put that in the description but I will probably correct that today. Anyway, I hope this answers some of the questions as to why Albus/Hermione would agree to this. More memories to come in the next chapter!
-RB