Everything familiar belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling, and I make nothing from this.

A/N...I didn't have time for my beta...aka my sister...to look at this, so all mistakes are my own. But she is gone right now, and I figured you would rather have it with a few mistakes then wait another week.

Chapter 10

Revelations

Severus stared at the vial in front of him for several minutes before finally picking it up. He honestly did not know why he was hesitating. He had already given it to several patients, and the results had been even better than he was expecting. Still...he would be putting it into his own body, not knowing exactly how it would affect him.

He had planned to wait a while longer before he tested it on himself, but with Miss Granger...Hermione...unavailable to help him for two weeks, it was now a perfect time. He gave the vial one last glance before quickly uncorking it and drinking it.

He wasn't sure what to expect, but glimpsing a portion of a lost memory almost immediately was unexpected. He suddenly remembered sitting at a bar, at a pub totally unfamiliar to him, downing a shot of whiskey. As far as he knew, he had never been to this bar before.

He quickly grabbed a sheet of parchment and began writing down the results of his taking the potion. If his results were going to be similar to the other patients, he would start regaining more memories over the next few days.

-ooOOoo-

Hermione looked into her kitchen and sighed deeply. "Luna, please sit down for a minute. Just because I am on bed rest does not mean that you have to do every single thing in my flat. I can take out my wand and-"

"Nonsense, Hermione. You know as well as I do that your healer said not to do much magic, either. It will wear you out, and you need to rest as much as possible the next week and a half. You do have to rest if you want to be off restrictions when she said you could be."

"Oh...alright. But I just feel so useless right now. I can't do anything at work, or anything here, and I can't do my research with Severus."

"Severus? Since when do you call him Severus?" Luna turned around and gave Hermione a smile. "Not that I am surprised after the way he worried about you at St. Mungo's."

Hermione blushed, then tried to recover before answering. "Since he told me to call him Severus, while I was at St. Mungo's. He said that I haven't been his student in a long time, and that he wasn't my Professor any longer."

"Hmm," Luna didn't sound convinced, "is that all there is to it? It was obvious that he was worried about you the night you were admitted, and he visited you as well. Are you sure there isn't something you should be telling me, Hermione?"

"It...it's not what you think, Luna. I think maybe we are starting to become friends. I am no longer his apprentice, and maybe he thinks of me as a friend and a contemporary now. We have had excellent conversations about the potions trials and some recent potions articles. I think we have both enjoyed the stimulating conversation."

"I'm still not sure that is it. Are you sure that only the conversations have been stimulating?" Luna waggled her eyebrows at Hermione as she spoke.

Hermione's eyes opened wide, and she coughed from trying to stifle a gasp. "Of course that is all, Luna. You are being ridiculous. For one thing, you are talking about Professor Snape...you know, tall, dark, and brooding? For another, I am six months pregnant...like he would have any interest in me, anyway. Like any male would right now...I am starting to resemble a beach ball."

"You are not resembling a beach ball. You look radiant, Hermione. And I still think his interest is more than you think it is. You didn't see how concerned he was for you and the baby in the waiting area."

-ooOOoo-

Severus picked up his quill and tapped it gently against the table as he thought of what to write in his notes. He had taken the potion four days ago, and since then, he had several random, unrelated memories that had surfaced. Most of the memories were quite benign...and many were of him doing mundane chores around his quarters, or simply relaxing in front of the fire. In fact, the only reason he knew that these were recovered memories was because they were only snippets of memories, and they had occurred at random times during the past few days. The only puzzling memories were snippets from the night at the pub. This time, the memories included glimpses of a woman. He was unable to recall much of the memories...just the sound of her laughing at something he had told her, and a glimpse of the short black skirt she had worn.

He was very intrigued by the pub memories. He had not been with a woman in years...not since he first was released from St. Mungo's after recovering from Nagini's bite. As the reluctant hero, or anti-hero, he had several one night flings with women who just wanted to say that they had slept with him. No romances, or relationships, but rather quick escapades of convenient sex. It was a shame that he might have done something with this woman at the bar, and he couldn't even remember it.

Thank goodness it will be time for another dose in two days, he thought to himself. If I had shagged someone, it would be nice to remember it.

He wrote down all of the recovered memories on the parchment, and was glad that he hadn't mentioned himself as a test subject to Hermione. Depending on the memories he continued to recover, it could be quite awkward if Hermione were to read them.

He put his quill down when he finished writing, and then glanced at the clock on the mantel. It was already almost midnight, and he had a combined class of first year Gryffindors and Slytherins in the morning. He knew he would need his rest before facing that class tomorrow.

He stripped off his clothes and climbed into bed, too tired to do anything but go to sleep. As he drifted off, his last thoughts were of the woman in the short black skirt.

-ooOOoo-

Hermione bolted upright in her bed, drenched in sweat and panting. She had another strange dream, which hadn't been uncommon since she had become pregnant. She had many dreams about the baby, and her fears of a caesarian section. Tonight she had another delivery dream again, and this time she had awoken right after the healer had handed her the baby. She looked at her baby, and simply stared at her coal black tuft of hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. Her dream had startled her so much that she had woken up immediately.

"Damn Luna," she muttered to herself. "Putting crazy ideas in my head about Severus wanting me." She couldn't believe that Luna had even suggested such a thing, and it was even more surprising that the thoughts were affecting her dreams.

She tried to go back to sleep, but she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be involved with Severus. She giggled for a second as she thought of the absurdity of it, then went back to sleep.

-ooOOoo-

"One more week, just one more week," Hermione muttered to herself. She was tired of either being stuck on her sofa, or stuck in the bed. She loved Ginny and Luna dearly, but she was already tired of watching DVD movies on the telly. One more tear-jerking movie and she would pull her hair out, or scream, or maybe both.

She looked up just in time for the floo to flare green and to hear Luna's voice. "Ginny and I are coming thru, Hermione."

Hermione smiled as she saw Luna step into her living room, followed by Ginny holding baby James.

"I thought that maybe we could catch up on some Hogwarts gossip tonight," Ginny smirked as she spoke to Hermione. "I brought the gossip page from the Daily Prophet," and she gave Hermione a stern 'Molly' glance before she continued, "and before you fuss about how horrible the Prophet is, I just bought one today to read you an article."

She handed James to Luna, then flipped open the paper, and folded it over to show Hermione a picture before she started reading.

Hermione looked at the picture, then gasped for a brief moment before she started laughing. "Is that...Draco Malfoy and...Astoria Greengrass?"

"Yes. Let me read a bit from the accompanying article to you. 'Draconis Lucius Malfoy and Astoria Marie Greengrass will be married on Saturday, January 6th, in a private ceremony at Malfoy Manor.'"

"But they both look like they've been chewing on nails. I can't believe Draco is marrying Astoria! I thought she had more sense than that," Hermione exclaimed.

Ginny nodded, "I don't think either of them had a choice. I think it was arranged between Lucius and Astoria's parents. My dad said something about Lucius wanting to improve the Malfoy image after barely escaping Azkaban. The Greengrasses, despite a history of being Slytherins, were neutral in the war and are an upstanding pureblood family."

Luna looked at the article, then back up at Ginny and Hermione. "What about Pansy Parkinson? I thought she and Draco had been together since second or third year?"

"That is just another bit of the juicy gossip," Ginny chuckled as she spoke. "The Parkinsons were loyal supporters of He-who...er, Voldemort. Apparently Lucius demanded that they break it off so he could be betrothed to Astoria."

Luna shook her head slightly, "Poor Pansy."

Hermione and Ginny stared at each other a second, then burst into laughter.

"Poor Pansy, my arse. Couldn't have happened to a nicer girl," Ginny choked out.

At that, all three laughed for quite some time.

-ooOOoo-

Severus sat next to the fire, slowly sipping on a firewhiskey. It had been a strange couple of days, and he had wanted a drink several times, but he had to wait until his last class was over before he could start drinking. He had taken the second dose of the memory potion two days ago, and again, he was bombarded with forgotten memories every few hours. Just like with the previous dose, he kept a piece of parchment close to write down notes about how the potion had affected him.

Again, most of the memories had been rather mundane. Reading a book or periodical by the fire, having a drink, or just relaxing in his quarters. But just like the last dose, he had a few memories from the pub that resurfaced as well. He had been able to piece together what had happened from the memories that he had recovered. He apparently met a woman at the pub, and they both had several drinks, then he went to her flat...at least he assumed it was her flat, and had sex with her. He still had not recovered enough memories yet to discover her identity, or even her appearance. But from what little he could now recall, it was an evening that ended with very good sex.

He watched the flames dance in the fire as he took another sip of his firewhiskey. He suddenly paled as the glass slipped from his fingers and shattered onto the floor.

"Oh, Bloody Hell!"

A/N...Sorry for the cliffie, but I'm sure you have figured out what is going on. You'll just have to wait until the next chapter to see what he remembered.

Just to clarify since I got a PM about it...this is set around 3- 3 1/2 years after Snape got bitten in the Shrieking Shack, so around 2001. Hermione is about 22-ish (since she used the time turner), and Severus is approximately 41-42. So far I haven't used exact dates, but I'm guessing I'm putting this chapter around autumn 2001.