Lost Along the Way

by Charlie9646

Hermione Granger, 24, had imagined a million ways her life would turn out but this was not one of them. When she least expects it she finds a photograph that might change things for the better, but instead it doesn’t work out exactly as she plans. Time travel is a tricky thing after all. Sometimes what is meant to happen will always happen, whether we like it or not.

6. Chapter 6

Hermione gazed up at the stained glass windows above her head. The sunlight streamed through them and reflected off the pews looking a bit like streams of magic. She reached out with her right hand, her tanned skin nearly glowing. She dropped it back down after a second, realising just how foolish she was being. She stood at the far end of the church, her back pressed against the oak wood doors. The nervousness that she had buried twisting up to the surface like tentacles grappling for purchase. She had no flowers. Her mother would have insisted that she have them, but she was not here to do so. Hermione and Severus were far too practical for such things, much to Eileen's dismay, but Severus had another idea that did suit Hermione just fine. In her hands was lavender, rosemary, baby's breath and ivy. He had left them outside the room where she had been getting ready in with a note; in his tiny clean script, it said, 'I will use these next week for the potions I need to make for the hospital wing."

It seemed Severus was to be the peacemaker between the two women. He gave both of them what they wanted, finding a middle ground of sorts.

Eileen looked down at Hermione and gave her a small smile. "It's okay to be afraid. You know that, right?"

"I am not afraid." Hermione twisted her fingers into her dress, clutching at it and asked, "Were you nervous at your own wedding?"

The other woman was silent as Hermione stared at the sun-bleached red carpet, the runways of sorts that led to her future and straight to Severus. She looked at the priest who stood next to her soon to be husband. The minister was old, bald and built like a brick house. He stood in contrast to her fiance, who towered over him. Severus shoved his hands deep in his pockets and curled his shoulders forward, as if his goal in life was to fold in on himself.

"Yes," Eileen said, reaching out to take Hermione's left hand into her own. "But then I think everyone is. However, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can figure out another way if you would prefer it. I will not force you. I am not one of those people, and I will not be like my own mother."

Hermione did not know what that meant, what the other witch was hinting at, what Eileen herself had been pulling at over the last few hours.

'Everyone has trauma,' she thought. 'Everyone has pain. Everyone has things they keep locked up inside behind shut doors and the cupboards of their mind. All people have a story, but not all choose to tell them. I am no different than any of them, and neither is Severus' mum.'

"No, this is what I want," she said firmly, more to herself than to the other woman. She tucked behind her ear a curl that had slipped out of her updo. Hermione took a step forward and let go of Eileen's hand. Three steps followed soon after. Severus gazed up at her, his black eyes filling with joy. He smiled at her; it was just for a moment, and then it passed, his face slipping back into his usual slight frown. Hermione sighed and smiled back at him; she took another few steps bringing her closer to the two men. The other steps followed quickly after, happy to have the lavender bundle to clutch between her hands. She turned to face Severus, and he reached out to take her left hand into his own. They weren't doing this in the wizarding world because there would be too many questions to answer. Too many people wondering about the whys and hows. There were too many old witches who would poke and prod. It was just more than the young couple wanted to deal with then. They would have to answer those questions one day, but today was not it. All due to their desperation to get this done and over with, along with Severus' need to not miss too much time from work. Eileen had used the confundus charm on the priest. Hence his willingness to ignore the time frame that a couple has to wait, as they usually did in the Muggle world.

Their vows were simple, they were old as time and traditional, but still, the words made Hermione's heart ache as she spoke them. It was not because of fear or worry but out of a firm understanding that this path was uncharted territory. It was like pushing down the pause button of life and letting the tape continue on.

'This is the right thing to do, she thought, she knew it in her heart, but it was still a big step. It still felt she was stepping out onto the water, hoping that she would not drown. It felt like riding the Hogwarts Express for the first time. This feeling was everything, and yet the only thing she felt in this moment was happiness. Part of her knew when she found that photo this was how it would go, this was where she would end up, and this was what her life would become, yet she did not regret her choices. She was not mad at Dumbledore and the others for sending her here in their own little way. Hermione had not become lost along the way, but she simply did not know what the right path was for her. This life was hers, and nothing was ever going to change that.

"Severus Tobias Snape and Hermione Jean Granger, have you come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?" the priest asked, raising a bright red eyebrow as he did.

"I have," they softly said together.

"Are you prepared, as you follow the path of marriage, of love and honour, and health. Repeat after me, I will love you and honour you all the days of my life."

She slipped Severus' wedding band on his finger and pressed her thumb into the back of his hand.

"I, Severus, take you, Hermione, to be my wife," he said, pausing and shutting his eyes before continuing, "I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life." He slipped her ring onto her finger sending shivers up her back.

It could have been hours that clicked by, possibly even days, but more than likely it had been a few moments. Hermione reached up for him, her hands going to the back of his neck, tangling her fingers into his hair. She pulled herself up, trying to reach him as she did. His expression was rather shocked, his eyes wide, and he took a sharp intake of breath.

"You may kiss the bride," the priest said, his voice filled with cheer.

Severus froze as if spell were upon them, and then Hermione crashed their lips together. Severus gave into her after a moment, leaning into her tongue, his tongue asking for entrance, plunging into her, teasing her as she teased him.

She wanted him. She wanted him today, tonight, tomorrow, and maybe even forever. Hermione needed this feeling and him like she needed air in her lungs. Everything else could be figured out later. The sound of someone coughing caused the two of them to separate. She could feel her cheeks heat up and Severus' also flashed a bright scarlet. Together the two of them walked hand in hand out of the church and into their new life.

This time and place were where Hermione was supposed to be, even if the path ahead of them wouldn't be an easy one. The two of them would face it together.

Hermione brushed the tips of her fingers against the porcelain counter in the loo. She was trying to calm and settle herself, but the only thing the icy countertop did was make the hair on her arms stand on end. That was not the result that she wanted, but there was nothing that could be done about that. She gazed up at her reflection in the mirror; her updo was half undone, falling down her shoulders in tangled ringlets. Her eyes were wide and her lips bright red from how many times Severus kissed her in between the church and when they had gotten to the inn.

'Is it even worth getting dressed?' Hermione questioned silently. Severus was only going to undress her once she walked out of the door, but the very idea of walking out of the loo stark naked sat in her stomach like a bloody rock. 'No, I will put on a dressing gown that is easy to take off and is at least some sort of clothing.'

Hermione went back to work on untying her hair. She took out the pins one by one, setting them aside on the counter as she did. Her dark brown curls were wild, cascading down her back and falling into her face. She would have to shower if she wanted to get out the knots, but then if she did, she would only need another shower afterwards. It wasn't as if Severus cared about her hair; did he? Not really when it came down to it. It was just bloody hair, and it did not really matter in the end, now, did it?

No, it did not.

Hermione took a deep breath and softly sighed. She gave up on wasting time, pulling on her dressing gown and stepping out of the loo. She found Severus sitting on the bed, his tie undone and his eyes shut. If she did not know better, she might think he was sleeping, his long hair falling in his face. The silence that had settled on the room was comfortable and safe. Hermione sat down next to him on the bed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Part of Hermione could not help but wonder what would become of them, the life that they would make. Will it become something we are proud of? Will we become something that we can be proud of? Will we have a family? The photo spoke to that quite clearly, but the true question was: Would it be a happy one? A loving one? Hermione knew that she could not count on anything, neither the past, nor the future.

"You are thinking so loud that I can nearly hear you," Severus murmured, resting his head on her shoulder. "But I am sure you know that, don't you?"

She rested her hand on his thigh, which caused her husband to hiss in something that might be pleasure. She teased him, "Of course I do, Severus, but you do the same. We don't have to do this; you know that, right?"

"I am a man, you know," he said, his tone rather crusty. "I should be jumping straight into bed with you, the beautiful woman who is now my wife. Any other man would be doing that. I should be doing it without a bloody care in the world, but it seems even in this I am an oddity."

"Then I guess we will be oddities together," Hermione mused, taking his hand into her own, knotting their fingers together. "Unless that is not what you want?"

Severus sighed. "I don't know what I want. I wonder why we even did this, but I know I care for you, and you care for me… In the end, that's all that should matter, isn't it?"

'I think I could love you,' she thought but did not voice it. 'I do love you, Severus. I think I have loved you without knowing it. I think I want you like I want air in my lungs, the feeling of the sun on my skin, and everything else I have ever wanted or needed. You are my future, this thing with you is my future, and it's all I ever want.'

Hermione stayed silent, but it was not painful. It was not like the quiet after a scream or the calm after a storm.

"There is time for this, and it doesn't have to be now if we don't want it to be," she said and gently kissed his forehead, brushing Severus' hair out of his face. We have our lives ahead of us, and this is just one night of it."

"What did I do to deserve you?" he murmured, his thumb pressing into the back of her hand. "Why in the world would you want me? Why didn't you find someone who deserves you in your time?"

Hermione pulled away from him, crossing her legs and resting her chin in her hands. "Stop with the self-deprecating, Severus. I don't want to hear it anymore. I am here because I want to be. I am with you because I want to be. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and yeah, I do want to fuck you. Merlin, I want a cigarette."

"I thought you hated them?"

She fought the urge to roll her eyes at him and sighed, "You and your mother have convinced me to try them."

"It's a dirty habit, you know," Severus teased her, smiling, but he still grabbed the pack of cigarettes and lighter that sat on the bedside table. "And one that's hard to break." He handed her one and lit it for her.

"Hush you, Mr Pot, please meet the Kettle."

Hermione puffed on it, feeling the sting of the nicotine as the smoke filled her lungs. Severus handed her the ashtray without a word, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip as if he were holding back a bit of snark. Severus lit his own cigarette, slipping it between his lips and began unbuttoning his dress shirt. He tugged it off, tossing it into a corner. She watched as his pale skin became revealed to her bit by bit, enjoying the sight of him. Her husband might not be classically handsome, not in how Draco Malfoy would one day become, but he drew her to him. The presence of him left her with this strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, that twisting tightness that made her feel all warm and lovely. Like a butterbeer or the mulled wine Mrs Weasley had once let her have on Boxing Day before everything had gone to shite. There was something sweet about Severus though she would never voice it to him. She knew it would only cause him to grumble and hiss. He was who he was, and for the most part, she was okay with that.

Hermione had not imagined her wedding night. It too had been an afterthought along with many other things, but sitting next to her husband in a cheap Muggle inn smoking, oddly enough was a happy place, and she would choose to be here. Next to Severus Snape with his ring on her finger and his on hers. When their cigarettes had long since turned to ashes and were smoking in the ashtray, Hermione pulled Severus in for a kiss. His fingers knotted into her hair, pulling her closer to him. His tongue slipped into her mouth as he pressed her against the bed. She wanted him. No, she needed him. The feeling in the pit of stomach had taken on a warm glow as Severus kissed down her neck, untying her dressing gown and letting it fall to the side. Her eyes shot open against her will and she stared up at the white popcorn ceiling, not knowing whether she wanted to beg him to fuck her or tell him all the things that she wanted to do to him.

"Do you want to do this?" Severus asked, breathlessly pressing his mouth against her ear. "Do you want to do this? If you don't, I will stop, okay?"

"I want to do this with you," Hermione murmured, reaching up and pulling him closer to her. She hooked her left leg around Severus' waist. Severus' hardening cock pressed against her belly, causing her to hiss.

They struggled with words, and yet it seemed that they both could understand this very well. This thing made sense to her, and from the looks of it, Severus felt the same. Hermione loved her husband, maybe not in the sense of deep and undying feelings. It was not the kind of love that seemed to bleed into everything, capturing and ensnaring a person, but she did love him. She loved how he would sit across the table from her in the morning, drinking his tea with a silent and wandless spell as he turned the pages of his book, which floated a foot off the table. She loved him in the sunshine with leaves sticking in his hair. She loved him when he smiled to himself when he had gleaned some vital piece of knowledge. She loved him because he claimed only to tolerate Ivy, and yet he allowed her to sleep on his chest, petting her every so often as he snored softly. Hermione loved him for the man he was. The one who was grumpy, kind, generous, snarky, and funny. She hoped that Severus felt the same about her.

"You have done this before?" she questioned, her hand shaking nervously as she reached for him. "Haven't you?"

He pulled away from her, sighing and shutting his eyes. "Once or twice with women. Another few times with men. Not with anyone I really cared about, at least not in a long time. He's… not alive anymore, and nothing can be done about it. Have you?" His black eyes were wide as he whispered, clearly nervous as if he were waiting for something to go wrong or for her to run away. "Are you okay with the fact I have been with other men? If not, I understand and wouldn't blame you. I was careful if that's what you are worried about. I am clean and won't cheat on you. It doesn't mean that I am interested in every person or even most of them… I just… It's like…" He shifted and pulled away from her. He stared out the window as if the large tree was the most exciting thing he had ever seen. As if it weren't just another German oak, same as all others that surrounded this inn in this little seaside village.

"It's no different than you admitting that you like or have been with other women. What type of person you like or don't doesn't make you more or less likely to cheat on me. It's a part of you, no different than that you having black hair, being a Slytherin, or needing to drink that horrible mint tea you like. It's a bigger part, but still just a part," Hermione knew she was rambling, going on and on, but she wanted to let him know she understood it, and it didn't change anything. "I love you, and the fact you have loved and been with other people no matter their gender doesn't change that. You are allowed to be yourself, and if anyone tells you any different, they will have to deal with me." Hermione said the last bit a little bit more firmly, hugging him tightly, causing him to crumble into her as if he were a puppet whose strings were cut.

"I don't deserve you…" Severus sighed. "But then I didn't deserve him either… I think I could love you, Hermione."

Those words weren't a speech of great devotion, but they meant more to her than anything anyone had ever said to her before. Severus was closed-fisted, clutching things to himself, desperately trying to keep himself safe from the world and all those who might dare to get too close. 'I think I might love you' might be foolish compared to anyone else, but with him was a great declaration of love.

Hermione kissed him once more, pressing her husband against the bed. Severus pulled away from her to tug off his trousers and pants. She threw off her dressing gown onto the floor, where it landed in a haphazard pile. She leaned over, tracing patterns down her husband's chest, causing him to shiver and groan. Then his fingers were inside of her, two of them filling her just barely, teasing her more than anything. It did not give her what she needed. He pressed his thumb into her clit, causing borderline painful sparks to dance across her skin.

"Do you want to do this?" he asked once more. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Hermione murmured, "I want you, Severus Snape. I want you as I have never wanted anything ever before, and I love you. If you don't want to do this, we don't have to, but if you want this and I want this? We should do this. Fuck me or make love to me. I honestly don't care which."

"Then do it," Severus growled, wrapping his hands around her hips and pulling her closer to him but leaving the rest up to her.

She sank onto his cock. It filled her in a tantalising way as she did, causing her to hiss. This feeling was how things were supposed to be. It was right in a way, and she could barely begin to put it into words. Like a prayer or some sort of spell she said, "I love you more than you will ever know and more than I can begin to put into words. Never forget that. I love you just as you are."

He didn't say anything for once, and she was happy about it. Hermione pinned his hands above his head, holding onto his wrists and pressed them into his pillows. She knew he was allowing her to do this, but it still sent a thrill through her body and mind.

I am the one doing this to him, Hermione thought. I am making both of us feel this—bloody hell.

"Move," Severus snarled through gritted teeth, both of his thumbs pressing into her hip bones as he did. His touch was like lightning against her skin. "For the love of Merlin, move or do I have to do everything?"

It seemed that love would not change him. Severus was the same snarky bastard that he always was.

Hermione could not help but giggle at that.

"Insufferable little brat," he growled.

"Would you expect anything less of me?" She teased, letting go of one of his wrists to press her thumb against his lips. "Would you want me to be anyone else?"

"No." Then Severus' body went rigid under her, and after a moment, he flipped them over, roughly slamming her against the bed.

His black eyes were cutting into her with his sharp, steely gaze. His cock had slipped out of her when he had flipped them over, but once again, they were drawn back together. He rested on his elbows above her, their bodies like magnets once more. She silently reached down, wrapping her fingers around his shaft, desperately trying to get him back inside of her. There was an oddness to this, a strangeness, but Hermione enjoyed every single moment of it.

Severus shoved her hand off gently but firmly and then quickly encouraged her to wrap her legs around his hips, pressing inside of her once more, filling her. Their bodies danced together as they found a rhythm of sorts together. His fingers twisted into her curls, tugging on them. His mouth went to her neck, teasing her. He kissed, sucked and nipped at her skin, borderline worshipping her in a way as he fucked her. They were two people bound and tied together by something Hermione couldn't put into words that made sense, even within her own mind.

Moans and whines fell from her lips as they fucked. Their hips were meeting as they danced closer and closer to an edge. Severus let out a gurgled cry into the pillow next to Hermione's head. His fingers slipped down between them as he slammed into her, brushing that spot within her. His touch was cold against her fevered skin.

"Merlin," she cried out, her vision fading into white. "Bloody fucking hell."

"'That's not my name," he snapped, his mouth pressed against her ear as he harshly slammed into Hermione once more. "And you'd better remember my name when I am the one who is fucking you."

"Whatever you say," Hermione teased as she grappled for purchase against his shoulders. She was not sure if she wanted to push him away or pull him closer to her.

But there was a harshness in his voice that came out rather unexpectedly. Severus was at times harsh lines and rigid edges, but he was kind and gentle on the other side of the coin. He was a pile of contradictions, but she would not have him any other way. Part of her wondered if he saw her the same way but did not mind it. His thumb pressed sharply against her clit, drawing circles on it. He caused her stomach to twist into knots, and her eyes to roll back. Hermione's muscles tightened down, and then she was coming. It was an earth-shattering feeling that snuck up on her. The sounds of cries filled her ears, but Hermione could not tell if the sounds were coming from her or Severus. After a few moments, her husband was groaning above her and coming inside of her, his seed filling her. He fell on top of her, crushing her under his weight. Both of them were sticky and sweaty, something that had felt comfortable and safe, now simply felt like too much, though it was only for an instant. He quickly rolled off of her and onto his back next to her, but only after she gave him a slight shove and a gentle poke in the ribs. Severus was softly snoring; it wasn't nails on the chalkboard, like Ron's had been, which made her want to bury her head under her pillow and scream, but something only slightly annoying.

Hermione turned on her side, facing him, and brushed a bit of his black hair out of his face. Even in his sleep, he grumbled softly but still leaned into her touch.

'Men', she thought, but yet could not stop herself from smiling at him. She did, however, remember something that made her want to scream… They had forgotten a contraceptive charm. 'Both of us are to blame for this, aren't we? I should have remembered, but then so should have he.'

She grabbed one of the throw pillows that they had tossed haphazardly onto the floor, and she flung it at the wall to her right, letting out a sharp cry as she did. Maybe history was not set in stone, or perhaps it was. It wasn't that she did not want children, she did, but not right now, not when they both barely could take care of themselves. The two children in that photo were a far off thing to her, something that would one day happen, but it was far off things like the stars that were in the sky. They were not real and present like a pebble in a shoe or a cat scratch on your cheek, until now, of course. Part of her wanted to shake Severus and wake him. To tell her what she was worried about, no, what she was panicking about, but it wasn't worth it. It might turn out to be nothing.

'There are only a few days a month that a woman can get pregnant'… She reminded herself, but Hermione also thought darkly, 'but I am me, and my luck is generally about as horrible as it could possibly be.'

However, there was nothing that she could do about it in this instant, not a God damn bloody thing. What was going to happen would happen, and Hermione willed herself to go to sleep, but instead, she spent the rest of the night staring up at the ceiling, counting the tiles and turning them into patterns within her mind. Hermione only fell asleep at near dawn and wrapped her arms around Severus without much thought as she did.

The words that Severus said half asleep earlier that morning floated past Hermione's mind, "I will always trust and listen to what you have to say."

But she had so many worries she had not voiced, though she did remind herself how foolish it was to panic over something that might not come to pass. She might not be pregnant, and what if she did?

'Would it be such a horrible thing?' she mused silently. 'Possibly…'

She knew that she and Severus needed to get to know one another. They needed to figure out how they were going to make a life together. They both had wounds that needed time to heal. Hermione silently watched Severus as he climbed the dunes in front of her. He looked quite odd like a vampire or another creature of the underworld, but mostly he just seemed out of place.

As his feelings weren't clear about such things already, Severus turned to face her. His pale face pinched ever so slightly though the sun was in his face, along with his black hair streaming behind him in the morning breeze. He wore all black, much to her dismay. She did not comment on it, though.

"Are you coming?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her and crossing his arms over his chest. "I am only out here because you asked me to be, Hermione. No more, no less, and surely not because I enjoy this environment." His expression was going borderline cheeky at the last word.

"I am," she said as she made her way up to the dunes. Hermione pulled her cloak around herself tighter, trying to keep out the bit of chill that seemed to bleed through her clothing. It was late fall, the trees mostly bare at the moment, speaking to the fact that winter would soon be coming with its shorter days and longer nights, along with the sheer dreariness of it. It also reminded her of just how long she had been here and away from her other life.

'This is my life now,' Hermione thought as she tucked a curl behind her ear. And I don't hate it. I might even like it.

Severus was a different story and a more complex one, but she set those thoughts aside, smiling at her husband and reaching out to take hold of his arm. He leaned into her touch and sighed softly as he did.

"You seem a bit like you are on another planet, is something wrong?" Severus questioned, turning to face her as he did. "And if so, is there anything I can do about it?"

She knew she should tell him her worries, even if she could admit they were downright illogical at this point. Hermione knew that. She knew that she and, therefore, they would not know whether or not she was pregnant for at least a few weeks and how it was rather unlikely to become pregnant after only having sex once without protection. Though her racing mind brought up that it could happen. That it had happened to other people. There were fifty million things she could be thinking about instead, the foamy waves just a few feet away, the dolphins far away near the horizon, surfacing and diving back down, the birds above their heads, and Severus who was desperate from the way he was acting to know what was wrong with her. However, none of those stopped Hermione's thoughts from running away from her or giving her the power to tell her husband her worries.

Hermione croaked out, "I am fine."

"Sure you are," he murmured, rolling his eyes at her. "And I am the bloody queen of England."

"Does that make me a king?" she asked, giving him a severe look but after a moment laughing when he smirked at her. The change of topic allowed her mind to leave the panic spiral for the most part. She would tell Severus the truth later, but now she would not make him carry her worries which might turn out to be a whole lot of nothing.

"Possibly, but you and I would make piss poor royals, wouldn't we?"

"Yes, I think we would," Hermione said. "Now, do you want to walk by the water?"

"I assumed that's what we were here for, wasn't it?"

She reached out and clasped Severus' hand into her own. "It is. Come along, Mr Snape. I want to walk in the waves with you." she teased him, though not with any malice.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead, whispering to her softly, "Only for you, Mrs Snape, only for you. Though I will not be building a sandcastle, I will have you know."

"I wouldn't expect such a thing from you, and thank you for being willing to do this."

"It's no problem, Hermione. You are making me step out of my comfort zone, which I need to do more of," Severus said. "Now come along; I want to see what you look like in the waves."

"Cheeky bastard," Hermione mused.

"But you wouldn't have me any other way, now, would you?" Severus asked, smiling at her.

"No, I wouldn't."

Together the two of them walked hand in hand down to the water. This might not be the life either of them had planned, but it could be a good life all the same. Once they reached the water, Hermione stopped and slipped off her sandals, enjoying the feeling of the cool sand between her toes. It felt wonderful though a bit chilly, with the water lapping at her toes, its foamy suds reminding her a bit of bathwater. Her mind slipped back to her childhood, and the days her parents would take her to the shore. Her mother's big hats atop her springy black curls, bright brown eyes, and laughing as she sat on a towel, sunbathing. Her father would make sandcastles with her and would bring his radio with him, playing his tapes. The Beatles and the like had been the soundtracks of her life so long ago. She could see it all within her mind like it was some sort of movie playing behind her eyes, even herself.

Child Hermione said in her squeaky voice, "Jack and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling down after."

Her father smiled at her, his green eyes warm as he patted down the moat of their castle. "Hermione, do you know the rest?"

The little girl in her memory never got to answer her father's question. Hermione's husband snapped her out of the memory like a lightning strike. Though it did not remove the longing, she yearned to be near her parents once more, but they were gone. It wasn't as if she could walk up to her parents in this time as clearly Muggle as they were, not even yet knowing the daughter they were raising was a witch. They would call the cops on her, and she would end up in the Muggle hospital hopefully but more than likely in the Janus Tickery ward, or worse, Azkaban.

No, she thought. It's best to leave things as they are, no matter how much it hurts. Some things cannot be changed, and what I can do will be ruined if I end up with the Aurors on my trail.

"Aren't you cold?" Severus asked. "Because to me, it's bloody freezing."

"A bit," she muttered softly, pulling her feet out of the waves as much as she did not want to do so. But she quickly changed the subject. "Can we come back during the summer?"

Severus gave her a grimace but then quickly softened his face and nodded after a moment.

"You don't have to come along if you don't want to, you know that, right?" Hermione questioned and brushed some of Severus' hair out of his face. "And I wouldn't blame you if you didn't."

He reached out for her, both of his long pale hands going to her shoulders. He laughed softly as if he found something so utterly amusing.

"What's so funny?" She snapped. "Please tell me the hilarious joke because I don't get it."

Severus shook his head and pressed his mouth against her ear. "I thought it was funny, Hermione, because if you haven't realised it yet, I would do anything for you… Well, pretty much anything that is. There are just some things someone just can't do…"

"Then pretty much anything, legal that is?"

"Yes," he said, his eyebrows trying to do their best to shoot into his hairline. "Just ask me the worst I can say is no."

"Help me prove Sirius Black is innocent," Hermione said firmly, staring directly into Severus' black eyes as she did, and a sharp betrayed look reflected back at her. "Please," she begged still. "I promise he didn't betray the Potters, and you promised that you would always trust and listen to me this morning. Didn't you? Or were those just stupid words that meant nothing?"

Part of Hermione knew she was pushing the man too hard. This would be painful to him, but it was also painful to her, and a man was rotting in jail for a crime he did not commit. Sirius Black might not be an innocent man, and surely now, just as he had so long ago in her time, had some guilt for what he had done. But that didn't mean he needed to spend over a decade paying for it next to the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange. The world was not full of good and bad people; they were mostly just murky shades of bloody grey. And in the end, you had to meet them where they were whether you liked it or not. But when that was someone who had been cruel to you that was harder. It would be like someone asking you to twist a knife into your own belly. It simply went against any bit of good sense and self-preservation a person might have, yet that was exactly what Hermione was asking her husband to do.

'Could I make friends with the children who used to make fun of me?' The thought was an odd one, but it wasn't exactly what this was now, was it? The children who called her batty bucktooth did not try to feed her to a werewolf, now did they? They hadn't, that was for sure. And Sirius had done that to Severus even if he had not been that downright unruly teenager when she had known him. But now? In this time and place? He was closer to that, if not still it. Prison was not a place that a Muggle or Wizard grew up in, at least not to a man who could fit into the world easily. But it didn't matter if Sirius would fit into it easily, now did it? What mattered was they would try, and if it did work, he would have a chance. He would have an opportunity to raise Harry, to have a life with Remus, and maybe a chance to not die at the end of his own cousin's wand. Beyond that was not something that even someone with knowledge of the future could plan for, and she didn't even know if she could count on any of those for Sirius, and for this, she would need her husband's help, but she was not starting out on a good foot to get it.

Severus opened and closed his mouth, his limbs going rigid, his eyes hardening and then quickly softening. "If you were anyone else, Hermione Jean Snape, I would walk away and never look back, but you are you so I will promise this… I will try. I can't promise any more than that. Now, if you know he didn't betray the Potters, then you surely know who did… And I, of all people, need to know that. Who was it?"

"Peter Pettigrew was a spy just like you, but for Voldermort," Hermione muttered, staring at the horizon and the place where the dolphins once were. It seemed they had long since moved on, diving back to depths of their watery world or further out to sea. Part of her wished she could join them. For a moment, Severus looked furious, not unlike the portraits of the founder of his house.

"Impossible!" he cried. "That mouse of a man is a good for nothing; he couldn't be a spy…"

"And that's exactly why he was a good one," she said darkly. "People like Sirius don't make good spies; they draw too much attention and tend to fly too close to the sun. Peter, on the other hand… Men and women like him are used to being ignored and flying under the radar. They are used to listening more and talking less. They flit in and out of situations, getting closer but then slipping away into a cloud of dust when it is best for them. But when people are so upset about things, they tend to not think about logic. They tend to fall into what is easy and leave behind what is right. I don't blame any of you besides Dumbledore, but now it is time to make it right. So are you going to help me, Severus, or do I need to do this by myself too?"

"I will help you, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or trust him, though I do trust you and that matters far more in the end."

Time stretched on like a never-ending mountain pass or an ocean with only one shore. When you did one thing, there was so much left to face. Life stretched on, but it did matter what you did with it. Soon when her husband was less worried and stretched far too thin, she would tell him about it, or maybe she would simply wait until she knew the answer to her question, but either way, they would do it side by side. For once in a long time, Hermione had a family, and whether it was a family of three soon to be four or just one of three, it did not matter because the one thing her parents had taught her was family was everything. Your family mattered. Who they were and why they were there mattered little so long as they loved you.

But Sirius, Remus and Harry deserved that too, and she would do her very best to make sure they had it. The world might be full of people with broken hearts, and you couldn't save everyone, but, she could try to save this few. In the end all that mattered was putting one foot in front of the other and trying.

Hermione rocked up on her toes and pressed her lips to Severus'; he wasn't shocked this time and did not wait to kiss her. He deepened it, slipping his tongue into her mouth and wrapped his hands around her waist. For that instant, they felt like one single person stretched over two bodies, and she knew that she wouldn't give this up for anything, much to her dismay, not even to save Sirius, though she did not voice it.

Sometimes you had to put yourself first, didn't you? But it didn't really matter, not really. Severus was willing to help her with this, and Hermione was grateful for that.

He pulled away from her and whispered, "Can we go back to the inn now? Or do you need to see more of this beach?"

"I think that could be arranged," she laughed, taking his hand into her own. "Mr Snape."

"Then shall we?" Severus asked.

But this time, Hermione promised herself she wouldn't forget the contraception charm, and she would mention it to Severus either.