"The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty."
-Eugene McCarthy
"Is there someone knocking at the door?" Hermione asked groggily as she poked her head out from under the blankets only to be greeted by the darkness that told her morning had not fully broken yet.
"That is someone breaking and entering," Severus growled, flying out of bed his wand already in hand without a care for the fact that he was only dressed in his briefs as he barreled out of the bedroom.
"Mrs. Hermione Snape," she heard a male voice calling, clearly already inside the house, and tiny bit of curiosity edged out her fear.
"Who is that," she hissed as she wrapped the sheet around herself to shield her nightgown as well as her pregnant belly before taking her wand in hand and sliding out of bed.
"What exactly do you think you're doing in my house," she heard Severus snap at the intruder as she shuffled out of the bedroom to peak through the kitchen toward the living room.
Someone had cast a lumos so the living room was glowing with light casting Severus as a silhouette who still has his wand drawn and held artfully before him. She supposed that he should look ridiculous half crouched in a dueling stance only wearing underwear, but he still looked incredibly intimidating. She crept out of the bedroom so she could stay hidden behind him, but attempt to catch sight of who it was in the living room.
"I'll have to ask you to stow your wand Mr. Snape," the tall wizard said firmly. "Or I'm afraid I will have to place you under arrest."
"I see no auror insignia on your robes," Severus growled. "I will be doing no such thing."
"Of course you do not see the insignia for an auror, I am an unspeakable," the man said just as calmly, and Hermione noted he chose not to disclose his name. "Now stow your wand or find both you are your wife occupying detention cells at the ministry of magic."
"Why are you here?" Hermione asked quietly from behind Severus.
"What are you doing out of the bedroom?" Severus shot over his shoulder in a whisper, refusing to take his eyes off of the intruder even as he lowered his wand.
"I have been dispatched by the department of mysteries to collect any and all data and supplies related to the research project you were recently partaking in," he said blandly. "I have very little time, so it would work best if you could collect it as quickly as possible."
"Why are you collecting my research?" Hermione asked in confusion, not budging from her spot behind Severus.
"Your research is a potential violate of the statute of secrecy as has henceforth been terminated." He said firmly. "Now if you could provide your research materials."
"How is a cure for cancer a violation of the statute of secrecy?" Hermione screeched, seized by the urge to throw something at him.
"Just because you do not see the full possibilities of your work, does not mean that issues do not exist," he said cryptically. "Now provide your work, or I shall have to detain you while I search your house."
"I'll give you my research just as soon as you tell me what it is I created if it wasn't a cure for cancer," Hermione pouted.
The man swished his wand, and with a flash of orange light she found that her feet were locked to the floor and her hands locked to her sides rendering her wand hand completely useless. She saw that Severus was facing a similar problem, and wondered if the two of them should be afraid for their safety, or simply angered that their home was being invaded by a pompous ministry figure.
"While your potion is of little consequence, the spell you created has the potential to turn muggles into wizards by altering their biochemistry and could be used inappropriately in the wrong hands." The wizard explained quietly as he began searching the living room and snatching up any book that appeared to be related to her research and sticking it into a pocket in his robe that clearly had an undetectable extension charm on it.
"You have got to be kidding me," Severus grumbled, shifting awkwardly, and clearly trying to free himself from the spell holding him in place.
"Actually," Hermione said a strange weight settling in her stomach. "That is a possibility I hadn't considered, but isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. I mean the spell alters the internal vibrations on a cellular level. It is not impossible that such a spell could be cast on a muggle and used to change the frequency of the vibrations to match those of a wizard and thus creating another witch or wizard."
"Mrs. Snape is correct," the unspeakable said distractedly as he moved into their lab.
They could no longer see him, but they could hear the clinking of jars the suggested the man was putting any potion ingredients related to the potion she had developed into that magical pocket of his. Hermione was torn between surprise at what she had accidentally created, and the urge to burst into tears over all of her work being stolen away. Her only hope was that he would not venture into the kitchen and find her tattered research journal where she had catalogued all of her different trials and errors.
"Are you able to move either of your arms?" Severus asked tersely, obviously still toying with the idea of trying to remove the unspeakable from their home.
"No, I can't seem to move anything other than my head," Hermione muttered. "Do things like this happen frequently? Is it even legal for the ministry to do this?"
"By using the heading of a possible violation of the statute of secrecy the ministry has covered all of its bases," Severus answered with supreme irritation. "This event will likely be buried under a mountain of paperwork and never mentioned again."
"Oh, I'm going to mention it!" Hermione said, her ire growing rapidly. "I'll go straight to the papers if I have to."
"That will not be happening," a female voice said, causing the pair to whip their heads back toward the living room looking for the source.
A new wand tip ignited as the source of the voice stepped forward, revealing that there were actually two unspeakables present in their home. The woman lifted her wand, casting light on her face and revealing a face that did not match the full set of black robes. Hermione took one look at bedazzled cat eye glasses framed by curled hair and her blood pressure shot through the roof.
"Rita Skeeter!" she scathed. "What are you doing in my house? And since when the unspeakables bring reporters with them?"
"I am an unspeakable now," Skeeter said with a nasty smile. "Which you only have yourself to blame for of course. In an order to avoid future blackmail from you I registered with the ministry as an animagus. As it turns out it is illegal for an animagus to work for the press, but it is a happily recruited skill in the department of mysteries. Of course I am only here observing tonight. I am still in training."
"There is something missing," the male unspeakable said as he joined his trainee in the living room. "I can find no book with her research findings recorded in it."
"I didn't keep one," Hermione lied petulantly.
The man ignored her and swept his wand through the air in a set of intricate swirls that left a trail of silver smoke in their wake. When his wand came to a stop the smoke swept forward in a line that trailed before him leading him past Severus and Hermione and into the kitchen. To Hermione's horror it led him directly to where her journal sat on the kitchen table, and he swept it up and into his pocket without remorse.
"That appears to be all of it," he said with a succinct nod of the head. "I'll need your help with the next part Rita."
The nasty woman hurried into the kitchen to stand eagerly beside him, and neither Hermione or Severus were able to look at the pair of them where they stood as they were still locked in place by the spell he had cast upon them. Hermione had given up on holding back her tears now that all of her research had been taken, but she was at least managing to keep them quiet as she stare at her husband's back feeling absolutely miserable.
"Slip your arms under her elbows," the man said. "We can have her falling and injuring herself or the baby."
Hermione heard Severus hiss something as two rather less than gently arms forced their way between her own arms and her body, but then she couldn't seem to hear anything at all. Her mind went fuzzy before the world seemed to disappear entirely. Severus was desperate to be able to turn around and help his wife as he heard spells being cast, but he was frozen in place unable to do anything as he listened to the unspeakables first obliviate his wife and then stun her. His rage was only kept at bay by the lack of sound indicating that she had been allowed to fall.
There was a shuffling sound that he assumed meant Hermione was being moved, but then his own mind began to grow foggy before he forgot entirely why he had been upset. His eyes drifted closed and he slumped toward the ground, only just being caught by the male unspeakable before he collapsed on the floor. The two unspeakables positioned the married couple in their beds, and draped their blankets over them so it would look as if they had never risen from bed this morning. They made one last sweep of the house to be sure they had not forgotten any other evidence of the research Hermione and Severus would never remember having completed from the house. Rita Skeeter couldn't help but smirk at the fact that her arch nemesis would wake up without any knowledge of having ever attempted to change medical history, or even being inspired to research a cure for cancer.
Life was fairly uneventful for Hermione and Severus as Christmas drew near. They spent most of their time lazing about the house and enjoying the little joyous discoveries of pregnancy as neither of them had any work to do. Hermione still hadn't pursued employment, at Severus's request considering her condition, and Severus as well as the other farm hands had the next few weeks off as there was not much work to be done on the dormant farm.
"Severus come here," Hermione chirped happily from where she was seated closely to the fire. "You have to feel this."
Severus came in from the where he had been collecting the mail on the porch and joined her by the fire.
"Here, put your hand like this," she said, reaching out to grab his hand, and placing it on the top of her growing stomach.
She began to hum a Christmas carol, and in response their son began to move about. Severus light up when the skin beneath his hand was pushed up and his son's foot rolled across the top of Hermione's stomach.
"He likes it when I hum to him," Hermione said with a beaming smile. "You should try."
Severus leaned a bit closer, and began humming an old lullaby, his smile growing larger when his son kicked his hand once more. He kept humming, thoroughly engrossed with the movements of his son while Hermione commandeered the post still clutched in his other hand. She grabbed the letter addressed to her in Harry's handwriting and ripped it open. Her eyes quickly scanned the somewhat short missive another smile appearing on her face.
"Ginny's had the baby," Hermione announced, drawing her husband's attention back to her. "James Sirius Potter was very nearly a Christmas baby."
"That is a dreadful name," Severus said with a slight scowl as he abandoned the humming exercise and began to flip through the other mail. "Oh here's another for you Hermione."
She took it, suppressing a grimace when she saw that it was from the ministry of magic. She hadn't spoken with anyone at the ministry since she had walked out on her job at the beginning of what had once been her nightmare. To her dismay it was in fact from The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophies, and she could only imagine how unpleasant the letter would be. To her surprise it was a rather pleasant letter.
"The head of the obliviation squad, Mnemone Radford, has finally retired," she said conversationally, her eye automatically landing on Severus where he stood reading some other bit of post that seemed to displease him. "I'm on the short list of people they'd like to promote into the position. I can't believe I'm even being considered for it considering I basically just walked out on the ministry."
"Would you be working in the field again?" Severus asked, turning away from his post to meet her gaze.
"The department head only goes out in the field in extreme circumstances," Hermione answered. "Mostly is a desk job with a lot of paperwork."
"Are you interested in taking the position?" he asked, the worry seeming to drain out of his face.
"I'm not completely against the idea," Hermione shrugged. "Though it would mean moving back to London, so it wouldn't just be my decision."
"If we made this move, would you be taking the job because you are genuinely interested in it?" he asked somewhat delicately. "Or would you be continuing a misguided attempt to punish yourself for the unfortunate circumstances with your parents?"
"I'm interested in going back to work again," she answered honestly, having to think rather hard about the question he had asked. "And while it would remind me of my parents, that isn't why I am interested in the job. It would however provide me with more opportunity to research a possible reversal of their condition."
"And would I be required to foster a friendship with the Potter's if we were to return to England?" Severus asked with a slightly less amused expression.
"No," she said with a laugh. "Though I would be able to see them more often."
"I see no problem than with you going for the position then," he shrugged before tossing the letter in his hand into the fire and returning to his position kneeling before her and humming to her abdomen once more.
"You wouldn't mind leaving your job here if I got the position?" she asked, her attention focused on the movement of their son.
"I have no emotional attachment to farming," he shrugged. "There also isn't much need for me to hide in France now that the wizarding world knows I'm alive."
"Well, I'll send a letter out tomorrow informing them of my interest," she chirped, settling further into the chair to enjoy the moment.
Hermione barely made it to the post office in time to send off her letter before it closed the next day. In all of her excitement she had forgotten that it was Christmas eve and the business hours in town had been shortened. The reminder of approaching Christmas also made her realize she had never purchased a stockings or any stocking stuffers for Christmas morning. It was the one bit of muggle Christmas she had missed since joining the wizarding world and Severus had promised to indulge her. It was somewhat ironic that she had been the one to forget it in the end.
"Pregnancy brain," she muttered to herself as she swept into the little shop that sold all sorts of different trinkets.
Normally it was only tourists that shopped in this particular place, but it was also one of the only shops still open. Not to mention she had seen stockings hanging in the window, so at the worst she could try to buy the displays of the shelf stock was out.
Luck was with her however, and there were several different stockings hanging on a shelf not far from the door. She delighted at the sight of an emerald green one and immediately collected it for Severus. She was just selecting a red on for herself when she noticed another shopper on the other side of the chest high shelf she was standing up. She looked up, and surprisingly found herself face to face with Ronald Weasley again.
"Hello Hermione," he said with a crooked smile. "Shopping for Christmas?"
"Are you living in Abbeville now?" she whispered, looking about the shop as if she expected to see another Weasley somewhere.
"No, I just popped in to see you," he shrugged.
"Ron," she scathed. "You can't just pop in on me. I'm married to another man, he wouldn't appreciate it."
"I know you're married," he said with a gentle smile. "You and Severus are having a baby, but we can still be friends."
"Since when do you call him Severus?" she asked with a quirked brow.
"Would you rather I keep referring to him as the bat of the dungeons?" he said with a light laugh. "Look I'm happy for you, I really am. I just want to be friends again."
"I don't know Ron," Hermione said awkwardly, wringing her hands around the stockings.
"I know I have a lot to make up to you," he said softly, his eyes imploring her. "I'm just asking you to consider giving me a chance to earn your forgiveness."
She just stared at him, unsure of what to say.
"Just give it a thought alright?" he asked, and then he walked away leaving her staring after him as he exited the shop.
She return to her shopping for trinkets ignoring the way the shop keeper was staring at her. It probably looked awfully strange for her to be having a hushed conversation with an unknown man in a store without her husband in tow. Or perhaps the shop owner was staring because her pregnancy was showing quite a bit these days. Either way the gaze made her uncomfortable so she hurried to gather what she wanted and cash out so she could vacate the premises.
When she returned home Severus immediately engaged her in a conversation about their potential move to London and somehow she failed yet again to mention her encounter with Ron. The pair discussed different housing options while they made dinner together and there didn't seem to be a good opening to mention that anything in her day had been out of the ordinary. Then they were eating dinner, and she didn't want to spoil his appetite or her own. Then the two of them were getting ready for bed, and that certainly didn't seem like the right time.
She felt guilty, and as if she were somehow being adulterous, but she could not think any way to have a conversation with Severus about Ronald that didn't end in a spectacular row. So even though she knew it was the wrong choice she settled in to go to sleep without saying anything about who she had seen in town. Instead she simply snuggled into his embrace and enjoyed his gentle touch as he massaged her stomach, gently encouraging Philip to stop moving about so much so she could sleep.