Disclaimer:- I neither earn nor own anything from this story except my plot. Harry Potter and his world are the intellectual property of JK Rowling and her associates.

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A/N:- Thank you to my beta, Golden Asp, for her work on this chapter, as well as everyone for your wonderful continuing support for this story.

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Chapter Four – The Truth

As Hermione put the finishing touches on cleaning the leather of the book she was working on, her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, and her eyes kept filling with tears, threatening to undo the diligent work she'd just managed to do on the book.

She was still fighting with her emotions when she heard Severus return, and she lost her fight. He was at her side in a moment scooping her up off her stool.

"Don't cry, love," he murmured, holding her to his chest tightly.

"But you're going to hate me when I tell you."

"I declare that you cannot tell me anything worse than I've imagined."

"Oh Severus," she cried. "Alice's father is Harry," she blurted, trying to push away.

Severus loosened his arms and allowed Hermione her freedom, but he held her by the upper arms while he said, "I will let you go if you do not wish to be in my arms."

"There is no place I'd rather be," Hermione told him, winding her arms back around him.

"Good," he replied, doing the same. "Hermione, I will not cast you out because of a mistake. That's what it was, wasn't it?"

Hermione looked up at him, trying to rein her emotions in. "I'm really not sure what happened. It was a situation that got out of hand before I knew what was happening," she admitted.

"Come, we'll have some tea and perhaps together we can make sense of it."

"Maybe," and she allowed him to assist her into his study.

Severus sat her on the lounge and took the seat beside her. "I worked out that Potter was the most likely culprit the night we changed from employer and employee."

"You did?" Hermione accepted the cup of tea he handed her. "How?"

"Never mind how, let's just say that I imagined the worst case scenario from the snippets you'd told me, and what Minerva wouldn't tell me, and I figured that it was the most likely to be true," and he shrugged.

"Oh Severus, I'm sorry. I know what Harry represents to you."

Severus snorted. "But I'm the one who's still alive, out of all my bullies. I've out-lived them all, and I've ignored the presumptuous little up-start for all these years so it really doesn't matter now."

"Do you truly mean that?"

"Yes, but I wish to know what happened to you," and he cupped her cheek, ghosting his thumb over her well defined cheek-bone.

"Then I will tell you," she replied softly, placing her hand over his, and turning her head to kiss his palm. Taking his hand in both of hers Hermione started her story. Taking a deep breath she exhaled slowly and inhaled again to speak.

"I remained friends with Harry and Ron after everything, but both boys drifted away from me once they were married. I mean, that's fair, they should think more of their wives than me." She watched Severus nod slowly. "It probably didn't help that I went off on my new study quest, and frankly I forgot about them, partly because I moved on, but mostly because I was never in the country long enough to catch up with them. Then a little under three years ago Harry and Ginny apparently started having some problems, and I was surprised when Harry turned up out of the blue wanting to talk. I'd only recently returned to the country, I'd been studying in Italy for a year."

"So, you'd completely lost touch with them?"

"I would get the occasional letter from Minerva or Molly and Arthur, sometimes George too, but yes, I pretty much lost touch with both Harry and Ron. It didn't bother me. As far as I was concerned we all had different goals, and I wasn't expecting our friendship to live past its usefulness."

"That's understandable. We all have friendships that haven't survived distance and scant communication," Severus added.

"True, anyway, Molly and Arthur invited me to Sunday dinner when I came home from Italy, and Harry told me that night that he'd missed me and was hoping that we could meet occasionally for coffee. I said perhaps… I'd never really got on with Ginny. Frankly, I think she's a manipulative little cow, but again that not my problem." She sighed deeply. "However, soon Harry started turning up at my flat wanting to talk. To tell the truth I think all he wanted was attention, and he made his home-life sound terrible, but I didn't know enough about things to comment on that, and again that was not my concern."

"Did you tell him that what he was doing was inappropriate?"

"Yes, several times, but…"

"He didn't listen?"

"No, he didn't listen. Anyway, soon after I'd come back Minerva contacted me wanting me to restore some of the books that had been damaged in the battle because Irma had not wanted them to leave Hogwarts to be restored. So, I was working at Hogwarts and hating having to go home each night in case Harry was waiting for me," and she shrugged. "He always seemed to be there going on and on about his marriage and how his wife didn't appreciate him etcetera etcetera. There was nothing I could do to help him. I told him he'd have to work out what he wanted to do and do it. Then he turned up with a bottle of wine and said it was a thank you present, that he'd decided what to do. He opened it and insisted that we have a glass each, and it's all a bit hazy after that."

"Did he drug you?" Severus asked fiercely.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think perhaps he did, because I… I seemed to lose my inhibitions… but maybe it was the alcohol, I don't drink much."

"We have wine with dinner occasionally and you're perfectly rational afterwards."

"That's true," she said, but seemed to become lost in her thoughts for a moment.

Severus squeezed her hand slightly to bring her back.

"I'm sorry, Severus. I was just considering how to tell you the next bits. I didn't realise until Harry… No…" and she thought some more before she changed what she'd been about to say. "Part of the reason I was trying to avoid Harry was that until he turned up on my doorstep I hadn't realised how lonely I was for human contact. No one had ever taken an interest in me, I was always the awkward book-worm, and I didn't fit the social norms. I guess when I look back I can see that I was ripe for the picking," she paused and looked up at Severus. "I guess he knew that." She inhaled deeply. "I did try to stop him, but what he was doing felt both really good and really wrong at the same time, and I was curious."

"You hadn't had sex before that night?" Severus asked.

She shrugged. "No," and she blushed heatedly. "When he told me that I liked what he was doing I believed him. Then I woke up on my lounge, alone and naked. I had never woken up like that before, and I was mortified by what had happened. I felt like such an idiot. Then that only became worse when I realised that Harry was not coming back, and then the final straw was when I found out I was pregnant."

"What happened then?"

Severus' calm voice was like balm over her, and she loved him even more for his calm patience. I love him? she thought to herself. Yes, I do love him, she confirmed to herself, and she smiled at him. "Thank you for listening to all this," she stated quietly, and raised his hand to her lips. "You're right, it is helping to talk to you about it."

Severus smiled at her. "I'm just pleased that you're finally allowing me into your confidence."

She gave him a coy smile. "I'm sorry, but I was terrified of what you'd… I should have known you'd be stronger than that."

"I can assure you, Hermione, that I certainly wasn't calm when I first worked it out, but I realised that you and Alice are more important to me than anyone else."

"And you to us… I mean Alice has chosen you, and you're so good with her."

"This is fairly new to me, but I'm willing to try," he told her.

"Yes, me too." She glanced down at her foot and then back up to him, and she took yet another deep breath, this was so difficult to talk about. "Umm… so, you wanted to know what happened next."

"Yes, but take your time. Do you need a break? Another cup of tea? That one's gone cold," Severus said, fussing over her.

She took his hand again. "No, I'd just like to get this all out before either it becomes too much, or Alice wakes up."

"Very well, but still take your time."

"Okay." She considered for a minute, and appearing to collect her thoughts again she spoke. "As the weeks wore on I started to recover from my horror at what had happened, well, until I realised that I'd skipped a period, and that was when I panicked and I confided in Minerva." She swallowed hard. "I didn't know what to do."

"What was Minerva's advice?"

"She told me how difficult it would be for me to be a single woman in the wizarding world, but seeing how determined I was to keep the baby she agreed to keep my secret. She made Poppy Pomfrey take an oath not to tell anyone before she would allow her to see me, and she moved me into the castle. She fussed over me like I'd wished my own mother would have been able to," Hermione voice cracked at that painful reminder of her parents. Hermione's parents had died in a car accident in Australia the year after the war ended.

"I must admit to being rather curious as to why Minerva moved you out of Hogwarts," Severus told her, "I've come to know that she was very fond of having you there."

"Rose Weasley and James Potter are first years this year, and it was starting to become too difficult to hide Alice. So Minerva convinced you to employ me, and told me that we would be safe here."

He smiled. "And you are."

Hermione returned the expression. "We're more than that, Severus. We're wanted here. When I told Harry about being pregnant he told me to get rid of it, and looked at me like I was some irresponsible piece of dirt. I stupidly told him that I could never do that, and it was the next day that 'team Potter'," and she used air commas, "came to eliminate Harry's indiscretion. They ambushed me as I was leaving my flat to move to Hogwarts. I haven't been back there since. There was a heated duel, two against one, and I dived behind the lounge but I didn't get all of me out of the way in time. Being in pain has always fine-tuned my anger, and they lost soon after their first curses had hit me." Then she appeared to go off on a tangent. "Do you have a Pensieve?"

Severus knew why she wanted it. "I certainly do."

"You wanted to see the exact words she used."

He nodded, but had just got up to open the cupboard containing the Pensieve when his wand started to vibrate, telling them that Alice was awake. Hermione struggled to her feet and grabbing her cane she managed to get over to the Pensieve and quickly extracted the memory for Severus to examine while she went to collect Alice.

When she returned with Alice running in front of her, Severus was standing at the book case beside the window. He glanced up as the two witches came in and Hermione saw him smiling.

"Sit down, Hermione, I have some news."

Hermione quickly set up the warded play area for Alice and summoned her toys from the workroom. "There you go," she said, as Shotsie arrived with a bottle of warm milk for Alice. "Thank you, Shotsie," she said to the elf. "Here you are, sweetheart," and she handed the bottle to Alice, who happily took it with both hands and started drinking thirstily. Then she turned her attention to Severus and found him watching the scene with a fond smile tilting his lips. Her stomach swooped and she smiled back and then sat as he'd asked.

He came over and placed a rather large book in front of her, setting it to hover. "I would like your opinion on this," and he pointed to the paragraphs he wanted her to read.

She read through it carefully and looked back up to him. "Funiculus sanguinem? That's cord blood?"

"Did Poppy collect yours after she'd delivered Alice? It is a rather precious potion ingredient," and he smiled, "and in your case it is the key to your cure."

A reciprocating smile burst through on Hermione's face as she processed what he'd just said, and she was so shocked that he had so easily found an answer to her problem that she just sat there looking at him. Finally, she nodded and eventually she got her mouth to work. "Yes, she told me it was a special gift," but then her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and started talking again. "I didn't understand her at the time because I was already holding what I considered to be the special gift."

"I doubt Poppy understood how prophetic her words were, but as it turns out it's a priceless gift for you anyway."

"Yes, when I questioned her on why it was important, she shrugged and said that all she knew was that it could be used in an ancient baby blessing potion, and that it was collected as part of the birth process in wizarding midwifery."

"A baby blessing potion," he scoffed. "Merlin's pants, Poppy Pomfrey would be horrified if she knew what some witches used it for," Severus muttered. "However, in your case it is a true blessing."

"Thank you, Severus," she sighed, pulling herself into his arms, and revelling in the feel of his arms curling around her.

He sighed. "I'm just pleased that after all my years of fighting the darkness that I can truly do something to cure someone with my knowledge." He pulled back a little and cupped her cheek with one hand. "My dearest little love, you and Alice have brought me such joy. Joy that I never thought I'd find," and then his lips were descending to hers.

Hermione sighed as she felt his lips touch hers, and she pulled closer wanting more of him, and revelled in the feeling when he gave it.

Severus pressed her into the comfort of the lounge and slid his tongue over her lip wanting more.

It felt so wonderful and Hermione parted her lips for him still clutching at him to get closer, but then he gently pulled back slightly and whispered, "We can celebrate once you're cured."

"Yes," she murmured in a dreamy voice glancing over at Alice to see if she was all right, and her was still playing happily with her blocks, oblivious to what had just happened between her mother and Severus.

Severus studied her once he had her attention again. "I would be very pleased to see that bitch pay for what she's done to you!"

"But I Obliviated them," Hermione sighed.

"That can be undone. The echo of the memory will still be there," Severus declared, as he wavered between wanting nothing more than to comfort Hermione and tell her that he loved her, but he knew it would be too much too soon, and he said, "What she has done to you is equal to Madam Lestrange's brand of magic."

Hermione leant forward and rested her forehead on her closed hands. "I think you had better explain to me exactly what you saw in that memory."

Severus sighed. "Even though I had hoped that the Mandrake potion would have cured your problem, I can now see that it wouldn't have because she was very specific in her words."

Hermione was struggling badly with all of this. How could one person inflict this much pain and suffering on another when what happened in the first place was not her fault. "Does this make Ginny a dark witch?"

Severus nodded as he watched the woman he loved trying to come to terms with the scale of what had been inflicted on her.

"Oh my goodness," Hermione replied, slightly horrified.

"She deliberately cursed you in a manner that she believed you would never be able to cure. Her intent had been to petrify your womb thereby killing the one source of your cure."

"Is there anything else that you think I need to know?" she muttered unconsciously struggling up and picking Alice up from the play area, just needing to hold her.

Severus sighed. "No, I believe that's it."

Tears starting to trickle over her cheeks as it all sank in, and she felt Alice's little hands going around her neck.

"Mummy, sad?" Alice asked, hugging Hermione.

"No, Baby," and she inhaled the sweet smell of her daughter and wiped her eyes. "Mummy's fine, and Daddy's going to make it better," and they both looked to Severus as he stepped up and put his arms around them. "I love you," Hermione whispered to Alice, kissing her cheek and then turning her eyes to Severus. "Thank you, Severus," she told him, leaning across and softly kissing his mouth.

Now, there's an advantage to Gryffindors, he thought as he spoke. There's no beating around the bush, they just say it. Then he chuckled to himself. I like that. "No thanks are needed, Hermione" he told her.

"Oh, Severus," Hermione murmured snuggling into his arms as she truly comprehended that she'd finally found the wizard she'd been looking all this time for. "I think I need to sit down again."

Severus chuckled. "Certainly," and he smiled as Alice squealed with glee at being swept up with her mother and the both of them placed on the lounge. He pecked Hermione's lips again before he straightened. "Take heart, Hermione, from now on it is all curable."

"I know, and I think that my emotions have run away with me, but it is mostly happiness that there's a light at the end of the tunnel," she stated as more tears over came her control and Severus gently brushed them away.

"Yes, but we should notate everything and have witnesses to each step so the bitch will pay for it."

"No," Hermione told him fiercely. "Neither of them remember the incident, and we will be on our guard against them in the future. We can teach Alice to protect herself before she starts school."

"Yes," Severus stated, and looked at Hermione with pride in his eyes. "She will be a strong and proud witch, just like her mother, but don't you want justice?"

Hermione hugged her squirming daughter tightly and smiled. "No, I want to move on," she said, knowing that for the first time in a long time she felt optimistic about something. Having Alice had been the single most wonderful thing in her life, but being with Severus equalled that, and she couldn't wait to see where their newly minted relationship took them.

Severus chuckled, appearing to understand what she was saying. He too could feel the change in the air, and it wasn't just the approaching change of season. It was true that spring did appear to be coming early this year, the first jonquils and crocuses were already poking their heads through the melting snow, and he wanted Hermione to be able to walk out in the garden as the regeneration of spring came upon them.

"Then perhaps we should speak with Minerva," he said. "We are going to need a third pair of hands while you're undergoing this cure because you will be required to have complete bed rest while your body dispels the effects of the petrification, and who better than 'Grandma Minnie' as I heard her describe herself to Alice the other day."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, I suppose she's the closest thing to a grandmother that Alice has, and even if my mum and dad were here, I still couldn't ask for a better person than Minerva to share in our family as well." Alice squirmed to get back to her toys and Hermine allowed her to shimmy off her lap and she watched Severus take her back to her play area. "What about the Malfoys?" she questioned, her lip slipping between her teeth.

"They do not have to know anything at present, Hermione, but you leave them to me. They will show a united front with whatever we ask of them."

"Yes, I suppose so, but I do not want you lying to your friends over Alice and I."

"It will not come to that. Draco and Astoria owe me quite a bit, they will not be difficult to gain agreeance from."

Hermione gave him a sly smile. "How very Slytherin of you, Severus," and she pulled his head back down for a kiss. She had wanted him to kiss her for weeks, and now that he'd admitted how he felt all bets were off, she was going to have him in this position as often as she could.

xox

That night, once Alice was tucked up in bed Severus and Hermione invited Minerva McGonagall to visit, and she listened gravely as she was informed of the bits of story that she did not know.

Of course, she knew most of it, but even she was livid hearing the finer details Severus had picked up on that no one else had been able to fathom. Dark magic specialists—especially ones who walked on the side of light—were almost impossible to find now after the war, but Hogwarts had known he would be able to save Hermione, and she was thankful yet again that it had intervened on the younger witch's behalf.

Hermione did not know that it had been Hogwarts who had inserted itself in her affairs yet. Minerva had used the fact that there was a Potter and a Weasley in their midst as first years for the reason that she should move on, so she wouldn't have to explain too much. The headmistress was very pleased that the Potter children would be almost through Hogwarts before Alice started; their youngest would be a seventh year by the time Alice was a first year.

Since he'd started this year, Minerva had studied James Potter. In light of what she knew of the family through Hermione's experience, and she had found him to be a faultlessly polite boy, but very much as much of a trouble magnet as his father had been, and with Fred Weasley junior and Rose Weasley as company they were a trio to be reckoned with, although, as yet they had not wandered too far outside the rules.

However, what she said to Hermione and Severus was, "I'm very pleased that Hogwarts interceded. Now we have a positive way forward for Hermione and Alice," she declared after hearing the break-through Severus had made.

"Meddlesome bloody castle," Severus muttered darkly. The subject of Hogwarts still made him brood to a certain extent. "I would have helped Hermione and Alice regardless, without the intervention of a sanctimonious stone edifice."

"Sorry, what? Hogwarts—the building—sent me here to Severus?"

"Let's not get into that at the moment," Severus said, flashing Minerva and irritated glare and taking Hermione's hand. "There is plenty of time later for that explanation, Hermione," he told her, with a look that promised that he would tell her later.

She smiled at him, and their eyes were drawn together, but their moment ended when Minerva cleared her throat delicately.

"So when will you be ready to start Hermione's cure, Severus?" and she smiled at the pair of them, so caught up in each other that they'd forgotten that she was there.

"Oh," Severus replied, and he cleared his own throat. "It will take one week to brew the base, and then we can start administering the cure."

"Very good, and how long will you need me?"

"The treatments will take one week initially, and a further week to overcome the toxins, so Hermione must remain in bed for two weeks in all."

"Would it be all right if both Poppy and I alternate?"

"Yes," Hermione cut in, "that would be fine."

Minerva nodded and sighed, "Well, I had best get back to the mad-house," and she walked forward and squeezed Hermione's hand. "I shall await the owl, my dear," she said.

"Thank you, Minerva," Hermione managed, she was starting to become very overcome by everything, especially at starting to think that her nightmare might be coming to an end. "Good night," she managed.

"Good night."