A special thank to all my reviews and all of those that have added me to your alerts.

Shopping

Hermione, Ginny and Severus apparated into the Leaky Caldron and then walked into Diagon Alley. Ginny needed to pick up her dress for the wedding, Hermione wanted to get Severus's Christmas present and do some other shopping.

As they headed into the alley Hermione whispered to Severus, "What do you want to get Ginny and Harry for a wedding present?"

"I looked at their list of wanted items and there is a crystal bowl at the jewelers I thought I could pick up while I was out today if you were happy with that?"

"I think that is perfect I was going to suggest that. Do you have anything you need me to pick up for you today?"

"No I'm fine please get yourself anything you see that you want."

Ginny turned around to the two, "Ok you two break it up you can do that back in your room, we have a ton of shopping to get done today." Then Ginny started laughing at the face Severus made. "Professor your face is priceless; I'm not stupid you know I know that you guys are husband and wife and what that implies."

"Ginny!" Hermione glared at Ginny and then grabbed her arm. "Severus we will meet you at George and Fred's shop in about 2 hours if that is agreeable to you?"

"Yes, I will meet you both at that time."

Ginny continued to laugh as they headed to Madam Malkin's to pick up Ginny's wedding gown. A half hour after entering the shop they were stepping out of the door with Ginny's dress.

"Ginny I need to go to Flourish and Blott's; I have an order to pick up. I found a special addition book that Severus has been hunting for years. It's his Christmas present, they owled me last week that it was in; I was starting to think I wouldn't get it in time."

"No problem I need to find something for Remus yet would you know any thing he would like?"

"Oh there was a DADA book he was talking about in the lounge the other day, let me think what the name of it was and you could get that for him. Severus and I got him a new cape.

The only person I need to still shop for is Severus I want to get him something more then the book; but I honestly don't know what to buy the man!"

"Remus is my last I got Tonk some new hair care products. And I got Harry a new broom."

Ginny and Hermione hurried to Flourish and Blott's where Hermione picked up the order for Severus and found the book for Ginny to give Remus. Then Hermione checked out some of the new books that had to do with Charms combined with Potions. She picked up two new books for herself.

After leaving the book store Hermione dragged Ginny into the new lingerie shop that had just opened. She treated Ginny to a beautiful sexy nightgown for her wedding night. While they were in the shop Ginny found some knickers and bras that she thought Hermione should get. Hermione wanting to see if she could get her hubby to maybe fall in love with her decided Ginny had a good idea and found a couple of sexy bra and knicker sets.

The girls had a ½ hour before they were supposed to meet Severus so they ran into the jewelry store to see if anything caught their eye. While in the shop Hermione found a silver man's bracelet that was shaped like a snake with 2 emeralds as eyes. As soon as she saw it, she knew it was the perfect gift to finish out Severus's Christmas gifts.

The girls hurried towards the Weasley's once the package was wrapped so that Severus wouldn't need to wait on them. When they got to the shop Severus was in the back talking to the twins about a new candy they were making and helping them with the potion portion of it. Hermione was surprised to see Severus so involved with the twins.

Ginny banged into the room, "Hey what are guys working on now? Something new for the shop?"

George laughed at his sister, "Yep we have a new chewy that should cause you to talk like an elf, if we can get it stabilized; that's what the Professor is helping us with a stabilization."

Hermione asked if she could look at what they had done so far, as she looked through their notes she noticed that they were using arrowroot to thicken their potion. "Severus could the arrowroot be causing the stability issue; could they use dried and ground sassafras leaves instead?"

Severus looked at his wife with a very strange face, "Hermione I think you may have just solved their problem. You amaze me every day with your grasp of ingredients."

George and Fred gasped at Severus saying that to Hermione, "Well we always new our Minoie was the brightest witch of the age, but it sounds like she's even brighter then we thought!"

Hermione just laughed and them and asked Severus if he was ready to go back to Grimmauld Place. Fred and George told the trio good bye and told them they would be at the house about 6:00.

When the trio got back to the house Ginny went to put her dress up while Hermione and Severus took their packages up to the room and then came back down to the kitchen.

Severus was glad to see Tonks and Remus in the kitchen when they got down, soon the couples were having tea and talking about a variety of subjects. Hermione was always amazed with how well Remus and Severus got along; and she enjoyed spending time with Tonks. The two women had become good friends during the war and now that Hermione was married to Severus they had become even closer.

Around 5 Molly came into the kitchen to get Kretcher and Dobby to start dinner. The two elves were more then capable of doing it by themselves but Molly didn't seem to realize it; or if she did she wanted to feel like she was contributing.

Just as Molly called for Kretcher the fire place flared green and Minerva and Albus stepped out of the floo. Hermione was still not totally comfortable with Minerva; they had worked through some of their problems but not all of them. Hermione was still having trouble with the fact that Minerva had never told her even after her parents had been killed. Albus and Severus were the only two other then Minerva and Hermione that knew Minerva was Hermione's mother.

Molly, Tonks and Remus quickly greeted Minerva and Albus. Hermione quietly told them hello and then excused herself and went to her room. Severus stayed for a few more minutes talking to Albus and then went to check on Hermione.

Severus checked the library and then headed for their room, he knew Hermione was still having a lot of trouble dealing with Minerva and he was worried about her. "Hermione are you in here" he called as he entered the room.

"I'm in the lab Severus!"

"Are you ok? I know you weren't expecting to see Minerva today, I felt the tension as soon as they stepped out of the floo."

"I'm ok I just still don't understand why she didn't tell me when my parents were killed. She knew how upset I was and how alone I felt we talked about it!" And then Hermione started sobbing once again.

Severus really didn't know how to deal with a crying Hermione she was such a strong person, it really overwhelmed him. He finally pulled her into his arms and pulled her down into his lap on the floor, "Hermione please don't cry love, I can't stand to hear you cry, and it just breaks my heart when you cry."

Hermione continued to cry and Severus continued to hold her and comfort her, finally she cried herself out and settled into the hiccups. "I'm.m. sorr.ry Sev..us! I.i.i did n't mean to cr. Y on you."

"It's ok I'm just wish there was something I could do to make this better for you. I know that you still care about Minerva. I think that you feel she abandoned you when she should have come to you, am I right?"

"Yes!"

"Mia I don't know why she didn't' but I'm sure she thought it was for the best."

"Severus what did you just call me?"

"What? Mia?"

"Yes, why did you call me that?"

"I don't know I guess I call you that in my head a lot. It's just kind of a nick name."

"I like it!"

Severus felt a little hole open up in his heart when he saw the little smile on Hermione's face. He reached down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Then pulled her into his chest and just held her tight.

Hermione started kissing Severus's chest where her head was buried in his chest. Soon she was unbuttoning his shirt and turning in his lap so that she could reach him and kiss him. Severus was pulling Hermione's t-shirt over her head and she was unbuckling Severus's belt and they were laying on the floor making passionate love to each other.

Just as they were both dropping off to sleep on the floor Ginny was knocking on their door telling them dinner would be served in ½ an hour. Hermione called thank you to Ginny and then groaned!

"How in the world does someone always manage to interrupt us?"

Severus just laughed and pulled Hermione up and led her into the shower.

Soon they were doing a drying spell and pulling on clean clothes before heading down the stairs for dinner.

NOTE:

Dried ground Sassafras leaves is also call File Powder or Gumbo Powder