A/N: Lemon-flavored chapter ahead. Skip it if you don't dig it.

"I can't believe you would do something like this without consulting me! I don't want to leave Hogwarts – this is my home!" Hermione ranted and paced as her husband sat stoically in his office chair.

"Wife, I made a decision for a difficult situation for the benefit of our family." His stern reply was met by disbelief.

"Severus Snape, our child is sleeping in the nursery! I am your wife! I don't deserve a decision like this just thrown at me. I deserve input, a chance to give an alternative. Now you've handed me a fait accompli that removes me from everyone I know and love."

"Everyone?" his eyebrow quirked. This was not good, but it had to be done! They could not lose their daughter, and this was the only way to protect her.

"Oh, Severus, I… just,… just everyone else." She sat dejectedly on the sofa and put her face in her hands. "The people I've known since I was a child, my friends, my work. I know we need to keep Amey safe, but there has to be a way other than abandoning all we have here."

"Hermione," he said, moving to her and taking her in his arms. "I knew this would be upsetting, but it is for the best. I told Minerva that we would be taking a year, and she seemed to think that was a good idea: bond with our child, as a family."

"She doesn't know, does she?"

"The fewer that know, the better. I have already placed safeguards around the Potters and the Weasleys to make sure their knowledge does their families no damage."

"Thank you," she said softly, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

"Any place I am with you is home, but… there's no easy way to do this, is there? I didn't think of anything. I think that's why I was mad."

"You were put, through no fault of your own, into an untenable position. My wife," he said as he pulled her to his face. "I would not do anything to hurt you with malice. This is also… painful for me. But," he added, his face hardening, "I will not lose my child to any threat, hereditary or man. And I know you feel the same. We will sacrifice what we must for her."

Hermione nodded, moved by the intensity of her husband. She was still dreading what they would have to do to help their daughter, but the passion she held for the dark wizard threatened to enfulge her.

"I take it I've moved you, Wife," he said, the silk in his voice becoming more pronounced.

"I love it when you talk protectively," Hermione said with a sexy smile. "Take me, Husband."

"Ah, I estimate that my study has missed your cries of passion. Let us see if we can rectify that."

The walls fairly shook with the power he took her with, his pulsating member thoroughly straining her elasticity as he pounded into his wife; frustration, need, worry, and lust copulating with the love he held for his woman.

"Oh, Severus," she moaned, as he took her to the heights.