This chapter is for Platoruledtheworld, because they called me a genius! I think this is an adorable chapter, as we get to look at Snape and Ivy a bit more closely. I hope you enjoy!

Warning: Bit of Snarryness.

Disclaimer: I wish I may, I wish I might, own Harry Potter this very night!

Ivy woke to the bed dipping as weight was shifted around. Unlike the previous morning, Ivy had no confusion as to where she was. She remembered every minute of the night before, and just recalling what had occurred made her blush heavily. The night had been her first time with anyone, but Severus had made it wonderful, knowing just what to do to make it easier and pleasurable. Now she lied on his bed with nothing else covering her but his sheets. She looked over to where Severus was, sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in one hand. Ivy took a finger and ran it down his bare, pale back, feeling him jump.

"I didn't know you were awake." he said, turning to face her.

"Just woke now." she told him, watching his eyes betray his internal debate of wether he should leave or stay. She decided to make it easier for him and beckoned him to her. Severus paused for half a minute more before lying back down on his stomach beside her. Ivy moved so that she curled against him. She would be damned if she let him leave the morning after such an amazing night. Pretending it had not happened would only make things worse.

"We should talk." He said. Ivy nodded in agreement and lifted her head on her hand to better see him. Now that he had her attention, he looked rather intimidated. "Erm... Well, I- we- that is..."

Ivy schooled herself not to smile. She had never seen the stoic potions master act so flustered. Ivy decided to take it into her own hands.

"This situation may never have come about in a normal way of things." She said. "But it has happened, and we can't back out of it. We are married, and expected to act that way. I... I think we could learn to live with each other. I know that their is a large age gap between us, but I feel drawn to you. I feel like we can make this work, and maybe even be happy with it."

"I feel similarly." He said, daring to touch her face gently. Ivy's heart leapt at the touch. Nobody had ever dared caressed her like that. It made her feel cared for.

"But I know it can't be easy for you." He continued. "I am old enough to be your father's age, indeed, James and I were schoolyard rivals."

Ivy imagined that it was rather as if her own daughter had grown up to marry Draco. She tried not to shudder at the idea.

"Your mother and I were best friends up until our fifth year."

"You were?" Ivy asked curiously.

Severus nodded.

"I can't quite figure out if Lily would curse me for this, or thank me for taking you away from the Dark Lord. Probably both, and then James would hex me some more."

"Well..." Ivy said slowly. "If they were here we wouldn't be in this predicament. We can't worry about what might have been."

"I suppose not. But doesn't it bother you?"

"Not as much as it could. I could be Mrs. Goyle right now."

Severus winced.

"Point taken."

Ivy gave a small smile in his direction.

"Out of all of the Death Eaters Volde- Erm, the Dark Lord could have chosen, he chose the one I would pick myself."

"That isn't saying much, considering whom you had to choose from."

"Well, maybe that is true. But I would have picked you out of everybody else in the Order too."

He raised an eyebrow.

"What about one of the Weasleys?"

"Well, they are like family to me. Had I been forced to marry one of them I suppose we could make things work sufficiently, but you are more similar to the kind of man I would have chosen for myself."

"I find that rather difficult to believe."

"Well ask Draco. He knew my own taste in men better than I did."

Severus gave a snort of laughter, which made Ivy smile. She had never heard him laugh in amusement before. Laugh in distain, maybe, but this was different.

"Oh dear Merlin..." he said after a moment, his joviality draining away and his eyes growing wide. "Lupin is going to murder me..."

Ivy couldn't help it. She buried her face in the sheets as she bursted out laughing. She had the sudden vision of Moony chasing Severus with a furious look on his face, sending stinging hexes at his ass. Ivy stopped laughing in surprise as she was hit over the head with a pillow.

"Impudent brat. Do you want to be made a widow?" he asked, with an amused quirked eyebrow.

"Not just yet." she told him, surprising him with a kiss and crawling on top of him.

Nearly an hour later they made their way downstairs after a morning that closely rivaled the night before. Severus had taken the time to get fully dress, but Ivy had just pulled on her pants from the day before and the shirt she had hastily taken off Severus last night. Dobby served breakfast, and Severus placed a bottle of potion beside his wife's place setting. She looked at it and then up at him in confusion.

"A contraceptive." He said plainly. "One teaspoon, after every... ah... intimate night."

Ivy understood what he meant and took a dose. And continued to have to take the dose for the entire following week until Severus returned once more to the Dark Lord's service come night fall. Ivy stayed up all night the first time he left, and sprang to her feet to meet him when he came back home.

"Nothing really happened tonight." He sighed as she led him on upstairs. "More plans, more plotting... Draco and Lucius kept staring daggers at me all night once they realized we had taken marital liberties with one another. But the Dark Lord seemed pleased enough. Kept hinting at a Snape heir. He told everyone that he found the idea funny of a Malfoy pregnant so young."

"And what did you say?" She asked.

"Nothing. What could I say? I just sat there and prayed he did not insist on one. He didn't, thank Merlin. He just asked for another report on our progress next time."

"This is sort of like his pass time. His hobby. Stirring up people's lives for the fun of it." Ivy frowned.

"Indeed." Severus sighed.

Nor did things much change after that. Severus would go when he was called, and return in the early morning where Ivy would be waiting for him. But one morning Ivy did not give Severus a chance to tell her about what had happened.

"It didn't work." she said as he came in the door. He gave her an exhausted blink.

"What? What didn't work?" he asked. Ivy muttered the answer to her knees, and Severus sighed in frustration. "What didn't work? Speak up!"

"The contraceptive." She said, louder, bringing her head up to look him in the eye. "It didn't work Sev. I'm pregnant."