(Disclaimer: Characters and world are JK's)

Hello again! So this is it, the last chapter! I had quite a bit of fun with this story and I'm glad that I was able to share with you all (and that you liked it-yay!) Thank you all for the reviews and the love! They really made my day.

I have started posting my other story-another SS/HG story-which is why I was a little behind with posting the last two chapters. So check it out! Ok enough of that-now onto the story!

The Fourth Surprise

"It's absolutely preposterous!" A voice yelled in the crowded staff room, causing Rolanda to bang her fist against the table.

"I know what I saw and heard. It did happen!" the quidditch coach replied looking around the room in defiance.

"I knew this would happen!" Sybil barked from her seat eagerly. "I saw it all already!"

Aurora, pausing only to send a reproachful look towards the divination professor, raised her hand in a placating gesture, "we're not saying that you're lying, Rolanda. Its just…are you sure that you really saw what you did?"

Nodding her head, Poppy joined in, "Indeed it was rather late at night, and the dungeons are pretty dark. Maybe the shadows were…"

Rolanda cut in her agitation growing, "the shadows were what? Undressing him too quickly for me to see? I tell you his shirt was practically falling off him!"

Sybil got up from her seat to grasp Rolanda's arm. "Was he really shirtless then? What did he look like?" Her reedy voice shook with anticipation as she asked, causing several of the professors to snicker behind her.

Raising an eyebrow in a look that was eerily reminiscent of her broody colleague, Minerva asked, "Surely Sybil you already know what he looks, since you claimed to have seen it all before."

"Well…y-y-yes of course I saw it, but you see..." She stammered, pausing to think up an answer, "Ah! Yes, you see visions can sometimes be blurry, so I didn't have a clear view." Sybil announced as she marched back to her seat with her nose in the air, ignoring the amused chuckles from the others.

Minerva quickly picked up her teacup to hide her knowing smirk as she quickly agreed. "Of course, how silly of me."

"Besides Sybil, we're not really interested in knowing what he looks like without a shirt." Filius patted the divination professor's hand soothingly. Hagrid nodded his head in agreement, valiantly trying to keep the image of a half naked Severus out of his head. He liked Professor Snape well enough, but he had no desire to the man naked.

"The hell we aren't!" Rolanda snapped before turning back to the other witches around her and smirking lasciviously, "If you all saw what I did-well…" she trailed off suggestively.

Septima leaned forward, "oh do tell! What's he hiding underneath all those robes?"

"Is he fit? He has to be, lugging all those cauldron around all the time." Pomona asked.

"Well I could've told you that with all the examinations I used to have with him." Poppy sighed wistfully. "Oh how I miss his monthly check ups. He had such a lovely bum-like a ripe peach!" She held her hands up, squeezing at the air suggestively.

"Oh honestly Poppy!" Pomona sputtered, playfully hitting her friend on the arm as Rolanda and Aurora roared with laughter.

"Is he hung?" Sybil asked abruptly, causing the others to laugh harder. She ducked her head in embarrassment. "Ah, never mind," she mumbled as she concentrated on her teacup.

"Merlin help me," Filius muttered sharing a look of agony with his fellow male professor.

Before the conversation could disintegrate any further, Minerva stepped in. "Alright, that is quite enough. Its entirely inappropriate to be invading Severus' privacy like this." She finished, giving them all a disapproving look.

"But Minerva. Aren't you worried about whoever this mystery woman is?" Poppy asked. "You said it yourself-no one can enter the castle without your permission or knowledge."

"So," Rolanda finished for her, "whoever she is-you should know about her already."

Minerva rubbed her temples as she sighed, "yes I should. Though its entirely possible that she is either someone that I've already given permission to, or someone who was already in the castle, and thus no reason for concern."

Septima looked around the room curiously, "well there aren't a lot of guest in the castle at the moment outside of the staff. We only have three apprentices with us at the moment, one of which is a man-so that leaves only Sandra and Emily."

Rolanda snorted into her tea. "Please, those two vapid girls-no offense Septima, Filius, but I don't see Severus falling for either of your apprentices."

"Well no one said anything about him falling for anyone…" Sybil pointed out in an irritated tone. She crossed her arms and looked at the fireplace with a pout.

With a dismissive hand wave, Pomona corrected her. "Of course he's fallen for the woman. He visited my gardens-remember! And when I went back the next day, a dozen of my red tulips were missing, and you know what red tulips mean." When no one tried to give an answer the Herbology gave a disappointed sigh before finishing, "they mean 'perfect lover' and 'deep love'."

"Oh my," Aurora breathed out clutching at her robes. "That's so romantic…and entirely unexpected considering this is Severus were talking about."

Poppy clucked her tongue, "my dear, there is nothing about this entire situation-starting from that fateful 'hickey day'-that has not been unexpected, unnerving and utterly astonishing."

"You got that right," Rolanda agreed shaking her head ruefully. "But now that we've concluded that Severus is indeed taken with whoever this girl is, we still have to figure out who she is."

"The only other guest we have at the moment is Hermione," Aurora mentioned.

"Well it can't be her," Filius cut in, "last I heard she had an understanding with young Mister Weasley."

Rolanda agreed, "Besides, I highly doubt Severus would ever think about dating a former student-and vice versa!"

"Which takes us back to square one again," McGonagall said tiredly, "in any case, no matter who the woman is, its none of our concern. We must-"

A knock on the door interrupted her and the man that had been on all of their minds lately walked through the door with a raised brow.

"Severus!" Minerva exclaimed, sitting up in her chair.

The suspicious atmosphere caused Severus to pause as he took in the room and its occupants who studiously averted their eyes in a guilty fashion. Choosing to ignore them for now, he nodded at the headmistress. "Minerva, I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment." He looked at his colleagues pointedly, "…alone if you please."

There was plenty of grumbling as the other professors made a show of leaving the staff room. Severus decidedly shut the door in their faces.

"Well!" Poppy exclaimed as she stared at the door flustered. She turned to leave when Hooch grabbed her robes and yanked her back. "Rolanda! What are you doing?"

"Hold up Poppy, this might be our chance." Rolanda rubbed her hands eagerly as she pressed her ear up against the door. "Filius, place a ear charm on the door so we can hear better."

"Rolanda, I don't think that would be a good idea…" the charms professor started to say uneasily.

"Oh come on Filius! If he really wanted privacy he would have asked to talk to her in her office and not a public space." Rolanda argued back.

Filius hesitated, but curiosity eventually won out. Looking down the hall to see if anyone were around, he quickly flicked his wand at the door to cast the charm. The voices from within the room filtered out into the hallway.

"-something you were looking to do?" Minerva asked.

"Actually yes. I wanted to let you know that I'm not going to be around during the summer, so if you need anything from me, I'd like to know now so I can prepare before I leave," Severus said.

"Oh marvelous! You're finally going on vacation. I'm glad you're finally taking my advice and taking some time out for yourself. Where will you be going?"

"I was looking at Italy actually."

"Ah, Italy. I have such fond memories of that place. If you visit any wineries, do pick me up a bottle or two."

"Of course. I will be sure to remember you in my travels. But I did have one more favor to ask of you."

"By all means, Severus, tell me what I can do for you?"

"Well I had actually meant to tell you for some time now…there has been someone that I've been seeing for a while. And for obvious reasons, we decided to keep our relationship quiet until we were absolutely sure we wanted to stay together. Less drama, you understand."

"Yes of course. You are a prominent figure in the wizarding community after all."

"Exactly, and since she is rather well known too, we knew the press would have a field day if we didn't keep it to ourselves. We wanted to feel comfortable in our relationship first before the entire wizarding world decided to shove their noses in our business."

"Yes they do have that nasty habit, don't they? So, when will you introduce her to us then?"

"As a matter of fact-"

Outside in the hallway, Rolanda, Poppy, Pomona, Filius, Septima and Aurora were still huddled against the staff room door listening in on the conversation.

"I told you he was seeing someone!" Pomona whispered triumphantly.

"What I want to know is who is she? If he's saying that she's as famous as him, then we must already know her." Poppy added quietly.

"Someone who was apart of the war then?" Aurora suggested.

"Perhaps, maybe she was apart of the Order with him," Septima added.

"No, no, no. That's unlikely. I met nearly all of the Order members and none of women seemed to fancy him," Poppy said, mentally going through all the female members that she came across in case she missed something.

"Oh will you all shut it! I'm trying to hear what they're saying," Rolanda huffed, pressing further into the door.

"Hear who?" A voice asked behind the group of teachers, causing them to jump and scramble away from the door like errant children. They turned to find Hermione Granger watching them patiently with an amused grin.

"Is someone in there?" Hermione asked motioning towards the door.

Poppy was the first to get up from the ground, brush off her robes and address the young woman with as much dignity as anyone who was just caught eavesdropping could manage. "Severus is in there with Minerva, talking about something. We were just waiting for them."

"Wait, Severus is in there with Minerva. Do you know what they were talking about?" Hermione asked starting to look agitated.

Rolanda exchanged puzzled looks with Poppy then answered, "Oh nothing really. Just something about going away for the summer."

"Oh that impossible man! I told him to wait for me!" Hermione pushed past her former professors and yanked open the door to charge inside.

The others watched from the doorway as the young witch rounded on the potions professor without fear and jabbed her finger into his chest, while crying hotly, "Severus you told me you would wait until I arrived before telling Minerva about our engagement!"

"WHAT!" Several voices cried out at once, and the silence that followed after was nearly deafening.

Hermione looked around at the complete and utter shock on all the faces around her, and sheepishly turned to her fiancé who was smiling smugly at her from his chair. "I take it you didn't actually tell Minerva then."

"No I did not," Severus smooth voice replied, taking delight in her reddening cheeks.

"Ah…oops," Hermione said as she went to give Severus a greeting kiss. Behind them, there was a loud thump as Filius fainted.

Severus and Hermione continued to receive several looks from both the faculty and students as they ate in the Great Hall that night. It seemed word had gotten around fast that the bat of the dungeons had not only snared the Princess of Gryffindor but had been shagging her around the castle for nearly all of Spring term. It also didn't help that the two secret lovers were openly affectionate with each other as they traded smiles and caresses through out dinner. Now that the cat was out of the bag they were disinclined to pretend any longer.

"They're taking it better than I thought they would," Hermione nodded towards the students who were still openly staring at them. "I was expecting more protests and hubbub."

"All demanding to find out how the headmistress allowed such a deviant to steal an innocent's virtue right under her nose, no doubt," Severus suggested.

It took all of her might to keep herself from laughing at such a ridiculous thought. "Oh Honestly. Innocent virtue indeed-If I hadn't shown up naked on your bed last November, we'd still be puttering around each other. If anything, I was the one who stole your virtue."

"Yes, I have learned to appreciate your brash Gryffindor tendencies since then."

"Of course you have," Hermione smiled at her fiancé mischievously before looking at the students who were finally turning their attention back to their meal. "Still, I'm shocked that the unveiling has gone so smooth."

"Smoother at least, than Potter and Weasley's reaction," Severus snorted, his mouth curling in a malicious grin as he remembered the day they had walked into the Burrow hand in hand. "I had no idea Weasley could turn so red."

"You took entirely too much pleasure from that visit." Hermione rolled her eyes at him then smiled at his obvious cheer. He practically radiated with happiness.

"You know if you keep smiling like that you might shock the students into a coma," Hermione teased as she tucked a lock of Severus' black hair behind his ear. The movement caused the large diamond on her left hand to shine in the light.

"Then the little voyeurs should mind their own business," Severus remarked, sending a lazy glare out at the student body.

"Well you can't really blame them. Feared potions master, Severus Snape in love? And with a Gryffindor no less? Its quite the surprise."

Severus smiled as he looked into the bright brown eyes of his future wife. He was sure for so long that he would die during the war, and at the time he was perfectly fine with that. In fact, he looked forward to it eagerly. When he woke up in St. Mungos, he railed against the world and the cruel fate that denied him his peace. So many nights he teetered on the edge of depression, so close to ending it all. And then, Hermione came along, determined to pull him out. With her stubborn spirit and calm concern she helped him heal from his injuries and offered her friendship and eventually her love.

She never gave up on him, even when he was less than pleasant with her. Ever sarcastic, cruel remark was met with understanding and compassion and on one occasion a book that she threw at his head. Still, he was continually baffled by his good fortune. So, no he couldn't care less if others saw the miserable greasy git smile. For once in his life he was truly happy.

He bent down, and he whispered against her soft lips, "I'm sure it is, my dear." He then proceeded to kiss her in front of the whole school, ignoring the scandalized gasps. He smirked as he deepened the kiss. He didn't care if he was going to become the top story in the gossip column of the prophet soon, or that their relationship would cause quite a stir in the wizarding world. It didn't matter. He had Hermione-the greatest surprise that fate had ever given him and that's all he cared about.

A/N: And that's it. I'm glad that you've liked the story and I hope you enjoyed the ending. I was thinking about adding an epilogue to this but only because there was an idea from viola1701e that I absolutely loved but couldn't fit in like I wanted to. (Sorry viola I really tried to get that red thong in there). So I might do something with the kids barging in on them…..

Anyway thanks again for reading!