Author Notes: Without Further ado, the other foot.

Severus puffed the cigarette as Harry sat with him on the porch. He rarely enjoyed the rancid textures of them, but his nerves were shot. Harry scratched at the stubble on his cheek and was visually contemplating what Severus had said.

"So, you both have," Harry paused and cleared his throat. "But now she's got her, ya know?"

Severus groaned and waved his hand. "She wouldn't even talk to me about it. It could be multiple things. The potions she is taking are optimal. I made them myself," Severus hissed. "Which I don't even care about! I don't care if she is."

Harry blinked and breathed. "Why was she so upset then?"

"She's afraid and acted like a child," Severus huffed with a puff of smoke.

"Maybe she's afraid to lose you?"

"How is this not counterproductive to that?" Severus snapped. "I've done everything, everything, I possibly could to show her I'm present for the entire affair."

Harry scrubbed his face under his glasses. "Oi, you both are so stubborn. Severus, when Hermione gets afraid to hurt or disappoint someone, she shells up and pulls away."

"That's ridiculous," Snape growled as he blew out another cloud. "She could never disappoint me. Even if she isn't with child or never becomes pregnant. I wouldn't have a shred of disappointment."

"She doesn't know that," Harry insisted.

"I told her I love her, how is that not enough?" Severus inquired.

Harry's eyebrows shot up, and he tongued the inside of his cheek. "You told her you loved her? That's pretty massive, Severus."

"I know," Severus hissed. "How can I show her that this doesn't matter? Nothing but her happiness matters! I've obsessively fought for her comfort and happiness for weeks. Her mind is beautiful and untarnished by the wicked wounds of the world, and I want to preserve her innocence as a man who covets his rose garden. She's reincarnated my heart into her chest."

"Well, have you asked her to marry you?"

Severus flicked his cigarette and groaned. "She knows we're getting married."

"Have you given her a ring, gotten on your knee, and asked her formally?"

"No, I didn't want to promote anxiety," Snape grumbled.

"That's a poor excuse," Harry paused at Severus's glare. "Well, she's going to have more. It's pretty clear, two weeks ago, that she wants to marry you. She needs to know you want to for love, not a law," Harry insisted.

Severus took a draw from the cigarette and hummed. "That would be a plausible source of anxiety. Yes, I could cement the relationship."

"That's a good man," Harry nodded. "She needs to know that no matter what happens, you'll love her in the long run, not the short."

Severus tapped his free fingers to the wooden chair arm. The smoke swirled around him as he glanced out to the garden. "Why won't she move to my home, Harry?"

"She's afraid. Hermione may be courageous about fighting for what is right and just. She'll take curses and torture and even the possibility of death. However, she's frightened of love. Because love, she can't cast a spell to mend a broken heart and is deathly scared of disappointing someone."

Severus groaned. "She could never disappoint me."

"You and I both know that, but she doesn't. If she loves you whole-heartedly, like I know she does because I've heard her talking about you to my wife, then she will fear that. You've become the most important person in her life, and a law was to blame. Without the law, she feels it's likely empty wishes."

Severus puffed on the cigarette and exhaled a long cloud. "How does this work? How do I convince a woman I'd never leave her? Marriage is plausible, but not the gesture she needs."

"Honestly, Severus, I really can't help you with that. I'm lucky my wife has known from the beginning I love her entirely. We've had our struggles, but doubtful of love was never one of them. You know her language better than we do; you speak it fluently. What could she do to solidify her love for you?"

Severus snuffed out the smoke in the ashtray and hummed. "She had. She was willing to relinquish boundaries for me."

"What boundaries do you hold that she needs you to pull down?"

Severus caressed his chin with his fingers and tilted his head. "I don't believe I've held any up for her. No, this isn't about my boundaries," he sighed. "This is where that minuscule two percent makes a difference. I'm not positive what I can give that I haven't."

"Are you positive? Nothing you feel needs to be said?" Harry pried.

Severus tightened his expression. "Nothing warranted."

"Well, Severus, I don't know then. Maybe start with a proposal and go from there? You've gone to so many lengths to show her you're her support, but I don't know why she's blinded to it. This law is really a bugger of a thing. Without it, she wouldn't be so scared, I think."

Severus waited a moment as the figurative page turned. There was something that made him wince, and his demeanor crumbled. Something rotting that would be a curse of exile. "She could choose to leave me."

"Now, why would she do that?" Harry frowned.

"What if what I give isn't enough, Harry? She could do much better, and I have been making an effort, but what if it tarnishes in her fingers," Severus cringed as he exhaled his doubts. "What if she only feels this way because of this law? Her urgency to have a child. Her need to comply with a fucking law. I don't care about children. I had never wanted them and have tried for her benefit."

Harry's expression grew pained. "Severus, maybe you should tell her that. It might free her from this. That is warranted to talk about, whether you want to or not."

"No, it would ruin it," Severus sighed with a contorted brow. "I'm fearful of the father I would make, and to tell her these things would devastate her. I promised that I had it under control."

"Is that why you're obsessing about her comfort? The heart of the issue?"

"It contributes to it," he confessed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I never wanted this, but I do for her. For her happiness. For her love. I'm willing to go to such lengths only for her."

"But, you don't want to be a father?"

"It isn't a necessity in my life. I was relieved when I thought I could escape this law. If it were anyone else, they would have disavowed from the start. However, in her clawing and tenacity, with her writing and her loyalty, I've succumbed to her needs to entirety."

Harry tapped his cheek with two fingers and grimaced. "Do you think she knows about your disinterest in having children?"

"No."

"Do you think she'd leave you if she did?"

Severus glanced out to the garden. "Yes. She wants them. I would try for her, Harry. I would attempt to be the father she wants for her children, but I cannot promise that. No, it would be an ill-ventured trial."

"You can't keep this from her, Severus. No matter how frightening it is. She has to feel you're holding something back. Witches are excellent when it comes to intuitive thought. If you let it go and let her know you're feeling the nerves of being a father, then it might release that monster your building between you."

"And if she leaves me?"

Harry shook his head. "She won't. She loves you."

Severus cringed and scrubbed his face. "Harry, I can't ruin her."

"Then don't and just love her, Severus. Love is difficult, and sometimes there isn't a right answer," Harry murmured and patted his shoulder. "You have to do what your heart tells you."

Hermione puffed and scowled at the letter in front of her. She had trashed four drafts before this one. None of them seemed good enough. Her fingers were stained with ink. Her teacup was empty. However, Hermione needed to make this the most beautiful letter she had ever written. Putting every inch of her soul into it. Doubts, concerns, apologies. Everything.

She spilled everything in those pages as she bared her soul for him. Her worry about being barren. Her desires of him as a partner in raising their children. The hopes of tomorrow all running away and her cowardice to share her pain with him. Hermione was wrong and directly admitted to such.

Her hand had detailed the dreams and desires so thick and lovely that it caused a feeling of pure vulnerability as she wrote. Oh, she loved him so much. How she wanted his happiness and for them to share this journey together. He was the man she wished to walk to the ends of time with.

It was four in the morning. Hermione slept but felt ill from the note she left on with Severus. He was so reasonable and kind, and she was a horrible witch. He'd been so gentle and generous in his care. She felt obsolete with her return. However, he was not one to ask for anything.

Hermione sat back after rereading it and hummed. It was detailed and emotional, but it felt so murky suddenly. So difficult to understand. Shaking her head, she puffed and went to her window. Tallus, her lovely barn owl, sat in the enclave outside her window. Hermione handed him the note before stroking his feathers. The bird took flight, and she watched with a bit of misery.

What if he read it and exiled her for it? Could her vulnerability cause him to discard her?

Hermione breathed and sat down on her sofa, massaging her eyes. It was horrible to think that her ineptitude and fear of disappointing him caused this ridiculous fight. She was the reason he was upset. She was the reason he was suffering through this. Hermione whimpered and caressed the spot over his shirt, where her heart knotted. It caused her to feel queasy and ill at the thought of his anguish.

She had to have been on the sofa for an hour, just contemplating her most vile fears when the flutter of wings returned. Hermione jumped up to see Tallus with the beautiful handwriting she had come to love. Her hands shook as she took it and sat down on the couch with a deep breath.

Hermione opened it, and her heart dropped to her stomach.

Hermione,

It appears we're at an impasse. I only share your longing and despair over not having children for you. I wish you wouldn't fear of disappointing me, you could, nor shall you ever. You see, I was never one to want children, and I feel I am doing you a disservice by not expressing that. Your words devastate me. Please understand, I am not deserving of your love and adoration.

I appreciate the beginnings of your apology, but we should contemplate if this is the path you should take with me at the helm. I no longer trust that my interests align with yours if you feel so strongly about this. Your sadness yesterday pulled me into the abyss, and I lose breath recalling it now. I knew then that I was wrong for you. Despite my scraping for a direct root and asking a man, you trust to give me answers I already knew.

My father was an abusive, abrasive, and sadistic man. You've seen the destruction etched across my body, and my mind is just as tattered. My greatest fear is to be him, and I refuse to take you on the path my mother lived through.

Your letter, it pulls at my shields and reveals this truth. I will never be worthy enough to keep you content through this next step in your journey. If you were any other woman who I didn't infallibly love, I would not have put in the utmost effort to keep you. I did try.

But your words secretly demand my honesty on if your sterility would disappoint me. It does not, not for myself. Only for you, but I know in my heart you aren't, Hermione. This just isn't your time, and I am not the man to bore you children.

I don't prefer having children but wanted you to have them. My desires were to keep you content, happy, and safe, which meant putting the entirety of my soul into my love for you. I shall fail in your contentment, happiness, and safety if we continue.

I apologize profusely for not being the man you need for this. I wish… I wish that I could be, but I would never chance your happiness for my selfishness. The father you described me as in your words is false and cringe-worthy. That is not myself, and I can't disappoint you with him not being revealed when you will need that man the most. I have failed you on this front. At least if I halt this falsehood now, you may be free to find him.

Hermione, I don't want you to think this is a rejection. I'm not rejecting you, and if our visions of the future were similar, I would insist we continue. However, they are not.

I am rejecting myself for you because you would be too kind and loving to do so.

My actions, though painful now, will save your heart I love most. So, those years from now, when I've turned into a gnarled man of ill-fortune and temper, you aren't sobbing in the bathroom while our son is begging you to come out. My greatest fear brought forth in a horrific reality of repeating the sin of my father.

I don't want you to get damaged. I don't want your children to be ruined. I can't live this lie of pretending I want to father children when after how easily you were broken over not, it was my relief. You do not need a man nor a future father ever to feel comfort for your devastation. It is now time for me to descend to the dark hole I was living in before you brought light to my life.

The meeting I'll schedule and push forth the hearing on my own. You will not have to worry about this. I will complete the mission through entirety and keep you with minimal scarring. This will hurt now, Hermione. It will feel painful and genuinely uncalled for, but as I've said before, everything from the beginning, misstep or achievement, has been for your care and my deepest love for your beautiful heart and mind.

I beseech you. Please take care of that heart so that someone worthy of fathering your children will come. I'm so profoundly apologetic that I pushed my way into it instead of remaining at a distance. I hope you intend to take care of yourself. If there is anything I can do to show my regret, please don't hesitate to ask. I will never shut the door to you, I've only stepped from it into darkness so that you could find your true happiness in the light where you belong.

With all my love,

Always,

Severus Tobias Snape

The tear splotches on the parchment toward his signature were the only signs that he was breaking his own heart for her. Hermione felt the hot flood of her own drop from her face and sound on the page next to his. Why? What happened? All she could think of is how much she needed him now more than ever. Holding the pages to her chest, she sobbed and shook her head. What was he so afraid of if they did this together?