Part 37
His office door was unlocked, she heard the click as she depressed the handle, but did not immediately push it open. She had no idea what she was going to say to him, or even if she could keep from bursting into tears at the sight of him. She was afraid.
She felt the door she was still clutching begin to move from the inside, and she knew that her time for contemplation was done.
"Maya?" Severus' voice was hushed and gentle, and everything she needed it to be in that moment. "Is something wrong? I was worried when you didn't come in." She chanced to look into his eyes and felt the tears welling.
"Maya?" his voice was more urgent now. "What has happened?" He pulled her into his arms, closed the door with his foot and kissed the top of her head where she had curled it into his shoulder.
"Oh Severus." It was all she could manage to say.
"Please tell me what it is? I'm certain it is nothing so terrible that we cannot fix it." He expected she would confide in him a sadness at being separated for many days, a less than perfect grade, perhaps even a fight with one of her friends. He was not at all prepared for the next whispered words he heard as he continued to hold her.
"I'm pregnant."
She could feel his whole body around her stiffen in a horrible, icy way, and arms that had been consoling became wooden. He pushed her away from him, just a little, so he could look into her face.
"What did you say?"
"I'm pregnant."
He pushed himself completely away from her.
"What have you done?"
"Severus?" The loving concern on his face had faded to a hardened darkness; his eyes were flat lumps of coal, where once they had been bright. His jaw set into a terrible line, all as Hermione watched, aghast.
"What have you done to me?" The repetition of the line practically dripped with malice, a tone she had never heard from him before. "You presumptuous little mudblood!"
That stung, more than anything he could have said to her, or so she thought. He advanced on her menacingly and she took several steps backwards till she had her back to the door.
"You knew that the only way you would ever be worth anything in this world was to find a powerful wizard with ancient blood and seduce him into giving you a child!"
"Severus, I never," he cut her off.
"You found out about my maternal bloodline and chose me as your target. What kind of spell did you put on me to make me vulnerable to you?"
"Nothing! I never put any spell on you Severus, I love you." She was growing frantic and afraid as he continued to advance on her. She fumbled to pull her wand from her clutch.
"Ostendo sum verum!" She screamed it at him as she pointed the wand in his direction. It wasn't a spell to hurt him, but it was the most powerful one she knew to reveal dark magic. In an instant he was enveloped in a black cloud so thick that Hermione could barely make out his form within it.
"Oh God Severus." Despair hit her square in the chest and she felt as though she was going to throw up. The cloud betrayed the power of the dark spell that had been cast on him.
"What have you done to me!?" He bellowed from within its confines.
"It wasn't me! I don't have the power to do something like this!" It was the truth, that level of darkness required such a depth of evil in one's soul that Hermione knew she could have never achieved it. The cloud began to dissipate as he growled his anger from within it, and before she could glimpse the hatred in his eyes again Hermione fled the room, slamming the door behind her, trying to put as much distance between herself and Severus as she could.
She didn't know what to do, or where to go, everything she had taken as truth over the last four months had been thrown into chaos. While she had not expected that Severus would be exactly pleased at what had happened, neither had she expected the outright rage that overtook him. And to see that he had been the victim of some dark spell only made her feel that much more sick. She had no idea when the spell had been cast, and by who, and if anything that they had shared was even real; anything except the baby that was. All she wanted was to find a place to hide, somewhere she could think for a while and sort out what to do, and someplace that he wouldn't find her, because she wasn't sure what his anger would lead him to do.
She kept running, headed for the owlery, because she could think of no other place that would be deserted at that time of night, what with all the guests around.
"Hermione!" Harry called to her from out of nowhere and she stopped and pivoted, looking for him. He emerged from under his cloak.
"Have you been following me?" She asked.
He looked sheepish, but only until he drew close enough to her to see the tears streaked on her face, and the accompanying state of panic.
"Hermione! What's happened?" He was beside her in a second, an arm around her waist and she allowed herself to lean against him, needing his support to simply keep standing. A wave of pain shot through her gut and she partially doubled over.
"I'm taking you to Mme. Pomfrey."
"No Harry." She straightened up, "you can't."
"Why not?"
She looked into his face, and it was the face of her best friend once again, the same haunted look with the anxious eyes that had been her almost constant companion for seven years. He was reliving every moment of terror from those dark times and she hated that she was doing that to him.
"Harry, something has happened to me, and I don't know what to do." The last part of her sentence came out with a sob.
"Tell me, we'll figure something out."
"Oh Harry, you were right about the dark magic, it is here, in the castle, in Severus." Every fear about the prophecy slammed down on Harry's chest.
"What has he done to you?!" Harry's voice was angry. The rage she could feel emanating from him was like acid, and she again found the bile rising in her throat.
"Harry, I'm pregnant." She doubled over again.
He registered the words, but pushed their implications aside as he swept her up in his arms. "I'm taking you to see Mme. Pomfrey, something is wrong." Hermione did not fight him. At that moment she needed someone else to do for her because she couldn't think straight enough to sort out what she should do for herself. She gave up the choices to Harry, trusting that they would find a way out of this together, just as they always had. There was a warm reassurance in relying on him again and she closed her eyes as he ran through the castle, invisibility cloak pulled over them both so no one would see and stop them.
Mme. Pomfrey hadn't been expecting visitors; in fact she had closed up most of the beds for the holidays and was just enchanting her cupboards so no one staying at the school could get into any mischief if she wasn't around. She had intended to take a few days with her family this year, but of course, she was never more than a few seconds away from Hogwarts thanks to the Floo network in the Headmistress' office. She was thinking about the wonderful meal her sister was likely organizing right at that moment, the House Elves were certainly good cooks, no denying that, but there was just something about a crowed house and home made sweet potatoes and sausage stuffing and poultry gravy that just meant Christmas to her, and she was lost in the memories until Harry Potter came bursting through her doors carrying Hermione Granger in his arms.
"Mr. Potter, what has happened?' She was immediately back into her healer persona, "put her down over here." She motioned to the bed closest to her desk, which was still made up with sheets. Harry did as he was told.
"She said something about dark magic Mme. Pomfrey, and she keeps holding her gut like she is in pain." Hermione put her hand out onto Harry's arm.
"Harry, no."
"Hermione, something is wrong, you have to let us help you." He tried to reassure her by clutching her hand.
"Yes child, what is wrong, what is this about dark magic?"
"Not me Mme. Pomfrey. I'm alright."
"You most certainly are not Hermione. You are white as a ghost, and your hands are clammy, you're obviously in pain. Tell me what's wrong."
Hermione looked into the healer's eyes, again seeing compassion, the look she had so desperately wanted to find in Severus' eyes. The vision of his anger came back to her and she shuddered.
"I'm not sick, I'm pregnant."
Mme. Pomfrey's mouth opened without a sound and she stared at Hermione.
"Are you sure?" She asked when she regained her composure.
"Firenze told me." Mme. Pomfrey had her wand out and was sweeping it back and forth along the length of Hermione's recumbent body. She was shaking her head as she did so.
"About two months." She muttered to herself, and upon hearing that Hermione burst into tears again.
"Are they both okay?" Harry asked quietly, never taking his eyes off Hermione.
"Both fine it would seem. But this is serious Hermione, you need to tell me who the father is."
"No." She shook her head resolutely.
"The baby's mine Mme. Pomfrey." Two sets of eyes turned to Harry, dumbfounded and shocked at what he had just admitted.
"Harry don't," Hermione squeaked out, "you don't have to do this."
"Of course I do Hermione, I've never run away from my responsibilities before, and they were much worse than this." He moved his hand, very tenderly to her abdomen. "This is something wonderful."
"I'm going to have to tell Professor McGonagall about this you realize." Mme. Pomfrey seemed so reluctant.
"Follow whatever rules you have to Mme. Pomfrey." Harry spoke without ever taking his eyes from Hermione's face.
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry, I'm not." Harry's voice held such strength that Hermione couldn't help but feel some hope that somehow things would work out.
Mme. Pomfrey did leave, but only after she had assured herself that Hermione and the baby really were safe. As soon as the doors closed Hermione began to speak again.
"You can't do this Harry, this isn't your problem."
"Of course it is Hermione, you're my best friend, you've done more for me in the past seven years than I'll ever be able to repay you for."
"Harry, this will just kill Ginny, not to mention that Ron and George will have your head. What will you tell them?"
"Well between the two of us, I'm sure we'll think of something."
"Please Harry, I'm begging you, tell McGonagall you lied, to protect me."
"No."
His steadfastness brought tears to her eyes.
"It's Snape's, isn't it?" At that she burst into sobs, nodding her head. "Bloody hell Hermione." But his voice wasn't angry; instead it was laced with resigned compassion.
"You can tell me all about it later, but now we'd better get you out of here before there are questions neither of us wants to answer right now."
"Okay." Hermione swung her shaky legs out of the bed, slipping back into her shoes. "Where will we go?"
"We'll go to Grimmauld place, we can reset the charms on the place to keep anyone from following. The house is mine so we can enter. We can stay there until we figure out what to do next. We'll need a fireplace that isn't being watched."
"Snape's office." Her voice was deadpan. "He has the powder on his mantle."
"Excellent." Harry held out his hand, "let's go."