Chapter 8

The next morning Hermione returned to Severus' potions lab and they continued testing various ways to get the Light Blocking Potion into the yarn. They worked the entire morning without success and with neither of them mentioning what happened the previous night in Severus' garden. After they had regained their breaths, Severus had the presence of mind to remove himself from her body and cast a cleansing charm on both of them. They lay on the blanket looking up at the puffy white clouds in the blue sky for a while before Hermione's flesh broke out in goosebumps and Severus suggested they return inside. Once inside they got dressed and had a cup of tea before making plans for Hermione to return in the morning to attempt more trials of the potion. She had gently pressed a good night kiss to his lips before slipping out the door and crossing the space between their buildings.

Now it was lunch time. Severus had not known how to bring up the subject that he desperately needed to discuss with Hermione while they were in the middle of such complex testing, but now that they were seated in Misty's café having some smoked salmon on rye bread, he felt safe to broach the topic. He looked around carefully before casting a charm to keep others from overhearing their conversation.

"Hermione, last night..." he trailed off, "was brilliant, amazing, and I have never had a better night in my entire life. But we must take precautions now, and next time they should be done before we get carried away into the throws of passion again."

"What do you mean?" she asked him. He raised an eyebrow. "Oh!" she blushed. "I am so sorry, Severus, I never meant to worry you! Honestly it slipped my mind and I completely forgot that I never got around to explaining to you how I ended up in Magikylä to start with."

"What does the reason you came to the village have to do with protecting against pregnancy?" Severus asked, completely confused by what Hermione was saying.

Hermione took a deep breath and steeled herself against possible rejection. "I'm… well… uh... I'm infertile." She breathed the words in barely more than a whisper.

Severus gaped at her.

"My uterus was irreparably damaged during the final battle. I found out a few months after. Ron proposed a few weeks after that and completely went nuts over the news when I told him. I wanted him to know before I agreed to marry him. His family, except the twins, treated me like I was leading him on and using him and trying to trap him into a childless marriage even though I told him the truth before I accepted his proposal. After a while they made my life such hell that I just had to get away somewhere that no one from England would ever find me unless I revealed to them where I was." Hermione said all this in quiet low voice but it grew stronger with every word until finally in her normal voice she said, "I quite understand if you want nothing to do with me, but a contraceptive is unnecessary since I no longer have the organs required to become pregnant." She looked straight into Severus's eyes for a moment before turning her gaze to the food on the plates in front of them.

Severus took a moment to collect his thoughts before reaching over and placing a finger under her chin to lift her eyes to his. There was a deep sadness and understanding in their obsidian depths. "I am profoundly sorry that such a terrible thing has happened to you," he said sincerely before moving from his chair to pull her into a much needed hug.

Into her ear he whispered, "I am profoundly glad that we have not made a mistake by overlooking the potion last evening, but I would not give you up for anything. I never felt as much love and passion in a woman's arms as I felt with you. It is of no consequence that you cannot have children, as I have never desired a family of my own. I did not believe I would live to see the end of the war and I would consider myself as beyond blessed to have you as a friend and lover as well as a neighbour, but at least you will always be my friend."

"Oh, Severus, thank you so much for understanding and not judging me too harshly. I will always be your friend. I too found passion and love beyond measure last night. I had no idea sex could be so fantastic. You have shown me paradise in your arms and I cannot wait to return there again if you so chose to welcome me back into your bed. Now, let's sit and finish our lunch so we can return to our project." Hermione released him from her arms and took her seat, briefly wiping her cheeks and eyes with her napkin to remove the traces of her tears of joy at Severus's whole-hearted acceptance of her.

Severus canceled the privacy charm and they finished their lunch quickly. After returning their trays to the collection point they bid Misty good day and walked hand in hand across the street to Severus's shop.

Once inside, Severus brewed yet another batch of the Light Blocking Potion and as he did so, Hermione sat lost in thought.

"I think I've figured it out! Or at least thought of a new thing for us to try," she exclaimed halfway through the brewing process.

"Do enlighten me," Severus said in his usual clipped tone.

"After the potion is brewed, you cast a spell to levitate part of it into a floating disc, and I cast to levitate the yarn through it," Hermione said. "I think if there is less yarn in contact with the potion at one time then the reaction will happen at a slower rate and therefore it might not burn up."

"Well, at least it's worth a try and it would ensure that the yarn strand was evenly coated in the potion," he conceded.

After the potion was completed, they took their places and cast their levitation charms on their respective targets. Hermione guided the yarn through the disc of potion and was surprised to see it come out the other side intact and fully coated in the slippery potion. She used her wand to coil it into a graceful coil on the table. There seemed to be a delay in the potion soaking into the yarn, but at least it wasn't burning up into a melted mess.

"Let's leave this here and have a cup of tea. We could use the break," suggested Severus.

"All right, but I'll brew it," Hermione agreed.

Severus led her into the kitchen and showed her the tea things before searching through the cupboards for something to serve with the hot beverage.

They sat out on the terrace in companionable silence with their tea and some jaffa cookies that Severus found for them.

After a long while, Hermione broke the silence. "I never expected to find someone I knew here, or someone I would love. I expected that I would live here and learn the language and grow into an old maid who made lace doilies and sweaters."

"What an uneventful life you had imagined for yourself. I cannot imagine you ever living such a boring life. You had so much adventure in your Hogwarts years," came his silky reply.

"After all that adventure, I could really use the downtime, to do what I want at my own pace, read books if I want, or maybe write one, crochet and knit and enjoy the company of my neighbours. I know I'm young, but I feel like I lived so much in those formative years that I am ready for a nice peaceful life here in this beautiful village on this beautiful lake."

"I too desire a quiet life, quite similar to the one you have just described. Perhaps it would be nice to spend such a life with a likeminded person?" His voice held just a slight note of question to it.

"I look forward to seeing where this friendship and partnership takes us." After a few more minutes of silence Hermione said. "We should check on the progress."

They returned to his lab and saw that the potion had been absorbed by the yarn and it appeared to be completely ready to attempt working into an eye mask. Hermione waved her wand at the appropriately sized hook and it flew into the air and began turning the pile of yarn into a beautiful eye mask. There was enough yarn to create two exactly identical masks.

"Let's take them outside and test them," Hermione suggested. She grabbed them up and headed towards the garden. She lay down on the blanket still spread from their activities the previous evening and put on her eyemask. It blocked out the sun completely; no light, not even a slight sliver, was getting past the magic imbued into the yarn from Severus's potion. She felt him lay down on the blanket beside her.

"Your idea worked," came his rumbled praise after a few minutes. "We can start selling them to the villagers tomorrow night."

They took off their eye masks and walked to the town square. Both had forgotten that it was Midsummer, and every resident of the village stood in the square when they walked in. A huge bonfire was lit. Severus pointed his wand at his throat and magically magnified his voice. "We have been successful in our attempts to find a light blocking solution to help you sleep. We have imbued yarn with a light blocking potion and then Hermione has knit the yarn into eye masks that work brilliantly. We shall go back to our shops and work through the night to create many more of these. They shall be available for purchase from The Needle Village Shoppe tomorrow by midday." He removed the charm then and they bowed to the thunderous applause that greeted his announcement before walking hand in hand back down Main Street to their buildings to start another batch of potion to create more eye masks so they could begin sales on time tomorrow.