Ch. 10

For the next few weeks for Hermione and Severus Snape; were for the most part scattered for the two of them. They were either spending time in the garden, enjoying the summer sun, or Severus was being called to be in front of the Dark Lord. Each time he came back; he would look even paler that he was before; it nearly made Hermione sick with worry each time he had left.

As time seemed to pass for the two of them; she was finding most of her morning in the bathroom, with her morning sickness. The only things that she could keep down for more than a few minutes were tea and ginger cookies. By night fall; when Severus was home, he was cuddle up to her and read her a book to help soothe the baby down, which seemed to help a lot.

This was one of those nights; Severus was reading from of William Shakespeare's plays, it was the only thing that was calming the babe that night. He had tried reading a Potions book earlier and it was causing Hermione to become more ill than she was that morning. With his deep baritone voice that seemed like rolling thunder across the room, Hermione was sitting in front of him, with her back lying against his chest as he read aloud.

"I have liv'd long enough: my way of life

Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but, in their stead,

Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not."

As the scene took place upon hearing of the approach of ten thousand troops to besiege his castle, Macbeth voices a mixture of despair and stoicism.

Hermione was in near tears; if she were to picture Macbeth, she would be seeing Severus. Both men, who fight many battle of their own, seem that there is no more hope to be seen in sight. She knew that she holds nothing towards his heart, but that of Lily Potter; Harry's mother. He was talking in his sleep a few times and that was when she found out about Lily, and it nearly broke her heart when she found out, but after that she kept him at arm's length unless he was willing to help her with her morning issues. Other than that; she mainly left him alone to his potion making that he had to do for the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.

The only time she let herself feel like it was something more, was when he would sit down and cuddle her, and his deep dark voice that would sooth their growing child. Hermione had hoped against all that was Goodness that Severus would be there for the birth of their son, he did deserve some kind of happiness in life.

Hermione then had started to yawn. Severus then placed a bookmark into the pages. When Hermione had gotten upon her feet to get ready for bed, Severus had starting hissing and grabbing his left arm.

The pregnant women in the room sighed, "I'll see you in the morning. Whatever it is; I hope that everything goes well."

With a grown, "Thanks, wife. Sleep well," and he was gone with a sharp twist and a crack.

Hermione swish her wand in front of her and found that it was July 31st at 9:54pm. She whispered, "Happy Birthday Harry." With another swish of her wand, the works and numbers were gone, and found herself getting ready for bed and fell asleep as soon as her head had hit the pillow.

xXx

Later that night; Severus came home was his silver mask upon his face; he had forgotten that it was still there. He was still surprised that he had a faceoff with the Order, which he had killed Mad-Eye Moody and cut off Gorge Weasley's ear off; at least that was who he had shot that cutting curse at that night. If Sirius Black was still around, he would have killed him that night, for his entire dam bullying that he had done, back when they were Hogwarts together.

Hermione had woken up; when she felt her room shudder from someone bypassing the wards that were placed within her bedroom. She opened her eyes and noticed that Severus was standing beside her, with his mask in place. She noticed a lot was tears upon his Death Eater robes; she had also saw cuts, burns, and bruises from the damage that he had gone through that night.

With her sore rugged body; she had gotten out of the bed, went to the bedroom and grabbed some oils, ointments that she would need and towels. Ever since that day that he had come home from the first time, he had made medical potions, for her to use on him when he was hurt again. When she came back; she found him still standing by the bed, just like she had waked up to. She went hand tried to take his robes off, but he was frozen in place, she then grabbed her wand and started ripping the fabric off of him and through it upon the floor, and far away from the bed as possible. She then cleaned his wounds, pored potions upon them, and then cast spells to close the cuts back up.

Once Hermione was done with cleaning him up, she was about to take his mask off; when he started to move, but moved away from her. With his deep voice had gotten deeper, and colder than she had ever heard before. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"But you are my husband."

"Not when I come back from a blood bath, Hermione. You don't deserve to see me like this. I will sleep on the couch in the library," with a deep sigh. "I don't want to taint my son, with the darkness that I'm carrying right now."

The little woman growled; which surprised Severus, he never heard something like that coming from her. Not even from all the times that he was hard on her in his classes. "You listen to me, Severus. If I want you to come to bed, then I want you to come to bed and there is nothing that you can do about it." She slide her way over to him and raised her hands, which graced his face through the mask that he still wore. He had closed his eyes and felt the mask heat up from the heat from her hands, and then he let out a moan of need. "You see Severus; you need me too." She then moved his silver mask off of his face and saw his pain that he was hiding from her, the pain from the war and the destruction that he had to take a part of.

Severus then found himself lying in the bed, with his pregnant wife, holding her had she was trying to find sleep.