"I can honestly say today has been the most pleasant birthday I have had throughout my life, and I would not be opposed should you wish to repeat the scenario in the future." His expression softened somewhat then. "Thank You, Hermione, but please take care of yourself, you look tired and I would not have you exhaust yourself for my expense"

Turning he exited the room, but almost...almost, froze when he heard her softly spoken words behind him. Instead he broke stride just for a moment before carrying on into the night.

"You're worth it."

They were trying to get her to walk, or to at least to be able stand. The fact of the matter was she had been bedridden for months and they had waited as long as they could to allow her to heal before they began on the much needed physical therapy to get her anywhere near back to mobile.

It pained him to see her hurting so much, the gruelling physical therapy often leaving her sobbing and vomiting just with the pain of the effort it took to get her upright and out of the bed. But it needed to be done, and they all knew it , including her. So she soldiered on and never complained.
She cried though. And for Severus that was so much worse.

Her muscles would atrophy and only further weaken if she did not begin to use them and exercise them and the longer they waited the very small chance she had of regaining any type if independence,dwindled and became smaller and smaller.

They had taken to setting wards around the hospital wing around the time of her physical therapy after one incident where Helena had caught sight of a sobbing and vomiting Hermione, whilst she was sneaking into the wing and had ended up needing a calming draught herself.

Severus had made sure that Baby was shielded from it entirely. Helena was upset , but she was a strong girl and she would get over it in time, she too understood it needed to be done but was full of empathy for Hermione and rightfully so.

Gray however ? Severus didn't know if he'd be able to cope with seeing Hermione in so much pain, and the other staff agreed with him so it was by unsaid agreement that everyone ran interference to make sure that nothing like the incident with Helena would happen with Gray.

Severus continued to worry though, over Christmas and his birthday she had looked overtired and the more time he spent with her, the more he noticed her looking drawn and haggard as though she wasn't sleeping at all. She insisted she was, and she didn't seem to be lying but she looked...weak. She should be getting better, even with mostly muggle methods, supplemented by the potions that she could stomach. She should be getting better...not worse.

They had spoke to many specialist healers but the truth of the matter was that Chimaera attacks were so rare, and for the most part fatal, that very little was known about injuries caused by the beasts. And being doused in the beast's blood ? Most were lucky to flee by leaving a limb behind for the beast to devour, no one had managed to wound one, let alone kill one , to get the beast's blood in their wounds.

It was frustrating and confusing for Severus , with roadblocks springing up seemingly at random as they were never able to predict how her body was going to react. At times she was able to ingest potions and others her body rejected them outright, Severus had been able to cast numerous spells around her but sometimes Poppy's simplest diagnostics failed, leaving them to continually rely on the muggle methods.

He was grateful she'd chosen to go for independent study , it made this ...thing... between them somewhat more tolerable and less worrying to his sensibilities. He worried of course and felt a large degree of self loathing for his feelings, until he had bit the bullet and talked to Minerva. Minerva was good friend but had been more of a mother to him than his own had, so even though she was Hermione's head of house, he found himself trusting her with his jumbled thoughts.

Hermione had been much more open , the typical Gryffindor, and her hints had been less than subtle really that she was indeed interested in pursuing something with him. But Severus had been afraid, both of his own feelings and the potential repercussions, he was sure now that she understood he felt likewise, but where she would be openly affectionate and at times even flirt with him in company, he had always remained coolly polite and not shown any of the affections he did with her in private. There was no fooling Poppy of course, who had always seen right through him,.

Which was how he now came to be sat with Minerva, fully expecting her to box him around the ears. She hadn't though , she'd listened to what he had to say and at the end she'd stood beside his chair, while he remained seated, the only way she could ever expect to rise above his towering height, and in the privacy of her rooms, she'd wrapped her arms around him and cradled his head to her chest as though he was indeed her own son.

She'd given him her blessing, once she had withdrawn for independent study of course and was no longer technically his student, and he had cried. Cried at the warmth and acceptance and the sheer emotional release of planning for a future that wasn't all death and heartache.

There was Grey as well to think of and there in the privacy of Minerva's rooms he opened up about the boy aswell, about his increasing feeling of protectiveness and affection towards the boy and his hidden desires that he hadn't even spoken out loud to Hermione of. The desire to not just be his guardian at school, but to adopt the boy as his own. The boy that reminded him so much of a younger version of himself and to give him the love and upbringing that he never had.

Once more even though he was convinced he would be found undeserving, he was found worthy in her arms as she praised and supported his decision.

There was the question of Hermione though, of how she would react to him adopting a child that was barely a handful of years younger than herself, something that was no small source of pain and self loathing for Severus.

Minerva had set him straight though. "Severus , this war has aged you beyond you're years. You're not some jaded old goat , you're what...37? for Merlin's sake boy. What's 20 years when the two of you could have another 150 together? When you're 80 and she's 60, not even a muggle will bat an eye at the age difference. Besides that girl has what my Mother would've called an old soul. She's too intelligent by far to ever be happy with a boy her age, and anyone that knows her knows that to be true. And as for Gray? A better maternal figure he couldn't ask for. It's clear she cares for the boy and she may be young but she's been mothering her friends for the past 6 years, without her those boys can't find their bollocks with both hands! Do you know they've both dropped two grades since they fell out with her? Hell so has half the Gryffindors, without her browbeating them to do their work they're about as useful as a chocolate fireguard"

He had laughed then, truly laughed and standing it had been him who pulled Minerva into a hug. Holding her tight as the tension left his body and he felt lighter than he had in years. Despite everything, despite Voldemort, despite the war...he had a future to plan for.

Squeezing her tight for a moment, he placed a kiss on her cheek. "Thank you mum" and she squeezed his hand "Och away with you" but he could see from her smile she was pleased. "I'll go tell Albus..." Minerva had pretty much been running the school since the great defection as it had come to be known. Albus was headmaster in name only, it was Minerva calling all the shots and they all knew it. "Now you go see your girl"

With a smirk that was much more of himself, he brought himself up to his full height and she busied her hands with straightening the front of his robes. "Go boy, much longer of this and we'll need to change our robes to yellow and black, be off with you" a bow and he left. A spring in his step he hadn't had for years.

He walked to the hospital wing with new purpose, excitement bubbling in him that was hard to contain and it took all of his control not to run those last few steps into the hospital wing. Making his way through the doors the smile fell off his face at the sight of the pandemonium inside and Poppy shrieked his name as soon as she saw him.

"Severus, I need you over here now! She's having a seizure!"