Hermione POV

The trials for the captured Death Eaters began a few days after the showdown with my…mother-in-law.


I loathe that I am so closely related to the woman, even if it is not my blood. Whatever…she's a bitch and deserved everything she has coming to her.

James, Remus, and Lily were in the Auror department quite often over the last few days. Helping finalize their testimonies and providing countless memories to use as evidence from their time during the battle, and before I had arrived to 1979.

Once the trials began, Sirius and I had to attend almost every trial, not only for Auror protection but also to testify against specific Death Eaters.

Narcissa was the crown jewel for the Ministry during some of the inner circle of Death Eater trials. Being the former wife of one of Voldemort's most loyal followers, she was present during meetings, revels, and sometimes even raids. But the Death Eaters never gave her a passing glance. Surely a devoted wife wouldn't spill their secrets? How wrong they all are.

The men on trial, used to bribing their way out of scenarios or having their family connections and legacy, started out cocky when they were brought in. As soon as Narcissa was called as a witness, she would rise in her perfect posture and composed face, and the men knew they were fucked.

As the weeks went by, one by one Death Eaters were sent away to Azkaban. Between the trials, following leads Regulus sent us for the missing Death Eaters, and other Auror work, Sirius and I would come home each night and automatically go to sleep.

Our previously incredibly..active..sex life, was at the current moment almost non-existent, exhaustion being the main factor. We've been able to sneak a few shags whenever we have a few minutes in the Auror office, but it's always quick trysts, just to take the edge off.

"I swear on Merlin's grave if we have to pull one more overnight shift and I don't have the energy to shag your brains out….I'm going to Avada these Death Eaters myself and put an end to these trials." Sirius groans out as his body collapses onto our bed next to me.

I groan as he moves to curl up next to me, "My love, I'm right there with you. We should have never came back from our honeymoon."

He leans forward and places a gentle kiss on my lips, "Soon, my heart. Soon."

We both drift off to sleep almost automatically. In the early morning hours, we're both woken by a hoarse yell coming from the fireplace in our bedroom.

"BLACKS! Wake up! Get to the Ministry, NOW!" Alastor Moody's head yells from the floo.

Sirius is spooked out of a deep sleep and shoots up and falls out of the side of the bed.

"IM UP! IM UP!" He yells dazedly.

My heart pounding a thousand miles a minute from the abrupt wake up call, I scramble around trying to find my clothes. "Lolly!" I yell frantically.

Lolly appears in the middle of the bedroom with wide eyes. "Mistress calls for Lolly? Howz can Lolly help?" She asks frantically.

"Thanks for coming quickly, Lolly. Moody just firecalled us and needs us at the Ministry. Can you help us get our gear together? I normally wouldn't ask but Sirius and I are both half awake." I say, spinning in circles aimlessly looking for where my things are.

"Lolly is on it, Mistress!" She squeaks out and apparates away.

"Love….what do you think has happened? Normally Moody would just let us know by Galleon if we were needed…." Sirius frustratedly grunts out.

Before I could answer, Lolly reappears with our things and snaps her fingers, automatically dressing us in our mission uniforms. My hair ties up into a plait and she passes us each a travel mug filled with coffee.

"Done! Nowz, shoo shoo! Go get the bad wizards!" Lolly yells out sternly, looking like she's ready to kick our arses through the floo.

Sirius runs up to her, travel mug in hand, and bends down to give her a quick kiss to the top of her head. "You're a gem, Lolly. Thank you, I currently don't know my arse from my elbow." He grunts out sleepily.

Grabbing my wand I run to grab Sirius's hand and we grab a handful of floo powder and off we go.

Running through the Atrium of the Ministry in the early hours of the morning is always eerie. Not a soul in sight, our dragon hide boots and panting breaths are the only sounds echoed in the vast area.

We hop in the lift and quickly sprint back off it when we land on the floor of the Auror department.

Turning down the hallway, there are shouts echoing from the bullpen and we turn the corner to see that all hell has broken loose.

"MOODY! We're here!" I yell out, eyes wide looking at half of the Auror staff frantically getting dressed in the middle of the bullpen and Moody barking out orders.

"Blacks! Took you long enough. Lupin and Kingsley have corned Greyback, but seems he found himself a rather large pack so they are in need of backup. Since you're both dressed, go ahead and apparate there. Here are the coordinates." He sternly says as he walks over to the both of us, handing over the bit of parchment.

"You lot be careful, it may not be the full moon yet but this group is feral." He says nodding his head with a bit of concern on his face and then spins back to the rest of the Aurors to call them halfwits.

Sirius and I look at each other with wide eyes….our thoughts mirroring each other in that moment.


Remus….

Sirius grabs on to my hand and leans in for a quick kiss and grumbles against my lips in a desperate tone, "I love you, Hermione."

I sigh against his mouth, "I love you too." And quickly pull away to memorize the coordinates. Not even a second later, we're pulled through apparation and land in the middle of a field. To our right is a tree line, and we can see multi colored spells wizzing out in different directions.

Sirius and I take off running to the tree line, throwing up disillusionment charms on our way. When we reach the tree line, we slowly creep our way inside, trying to get a better vantage point of the pack.

After 50 or so meters, I notice a break in the trees and see a large cave. Remus, Kingsley, and 5 other Aurors are facing off against 20 of Greyback's pack. My eyes shoot to find Remus, and see he's dueling with Greyback at the mouth of the cave.

In stealth mode, I crouch down and slowly make my way to the clearing, tucking my body behind a tree to get the best vantage point I can to pick off the wizards.

Knowing Remus has a better chance of lasting longer singularly dueling Greyback, I turn my attention to Kingsley who is fending off five different wizards, all sloppily but relentlessly dueling him.

Moving down to my knees, I raise my wand arm, zeroing in on my first target, almost like a muggle sniper. I nonverbally cast a quick stunning spell at one of the wizards and he drops immediately. Not giving the others a chance to react, I zero my aim again and within seconds, nonverbally stun the remainder of the four wizards duelling Kingsley.

Kingsley, knowing that backup had been called, wasn't shocked by the wizards dropping out of nowhere, and he quickly binds them all and slaps a portkey to the group to have them sent to a holding cell and he turns to join the other Aurors.

One of Greyback's pack notices that the spells came from the tree line and he shouts to alert the others.

"WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"

Seeing where my spells came from, Sirius is able to find my location and I feel his body suddenly behind mine. "Great work, love. You ready to go in?"

Not responding verbally, I quickly cancel my disillusionment charm and he does the same. I turn around to look at him, he nods his head, and we make sprint our way into the fray.

Sticking close together, we jump into as many duels as we can. Sirius and I are one hell of a team, and the other Aurors know this. We manage to pick off the pack one by one quickly, our end goal trying to reach Remus. One of the pack members managed to get their arms around me, their strength overpowering mine as they crush my previously damaged shoulder from the Battle a month ago.

Familiar blinding pain shoots through my arm and into my chest as I scream out, drawing Sirius's attention and he furiously shoots a spell at the wizard with his arms around me and the pack member flys off of me and is thrown into a tree. Sirius quickly shoots a stunning spell at him for good measure, and binds him up and slaps the portkey on him.

He runs up to me out of breath with fear in his eyes, "Love, are you ok?" He asks with wild eyes.

I nod my head and grunt out, "I'm fine. Just my bad shoulder. We need to get to Remus…NOW!"

Once the pack was whittled down to individual duels, Sirius, Kingsley, and I sprint across the clearing to give back up to Remus. Panting heavily and wincing because of my shoulder, I come up behind Remus's right and Sirius on his left with Kingsley beside him.

"Give it up you piece of shit. You're outnumbered, and there's more on the way." Remus snarls, his voice more animalistic than I have ever heard it.

Not having seen Greyback since the Battle of Hogwarts, I forgot how disgustingly inhuman he is. Much more werewolf than wizard, his body reeks of blood and sweat, but his presence alone is intimidating. My eyes shift to my left to look at Remus, his eyes are a glowing gold, teeth clenched, and his body is shaking in rage.


This is personal to him….he's face to face with the wizard who ruined his life at the age of 4.

Greyback throws his head back and cackles, and then sniffs the air, something catching his attention. His eyes snap to mine, and he looks my body up and down and I feel a shiver of terror coarse through my body.

"Why didn't you tell me Little Lupin that you brought such an enticing snack. I'd kill to sink my teeth in this little bitch…I'd fuck her cunt until her body breaks if only she weren't….." He says wide eyed, licking his lips but is cut off before he could finish his repulsing sentence.

In those seconds that Greyback is distracted by me, Remus and Sirius simultaneously roar out and raise their wands.

"Look at my wife again and I will GUT you!" Sirius screeches.
"OVER MY DEAD BODY WILL YOU TOUCH HER!" Remus snarls out.

Spells shoot from their wands, and Greyback lands with a thud on the cave floor, head slamming into the stone on the ground.

Seeing their Alpha taken down, the remaining members of the pack look over to where we are, giving the other Aurors the perfect opportunity to stun and capture them.

Greyback is out cold at the mouth of the cave floor, and Kingsley, the only one of us four that has their heads on straight, binds him up and quickly sends Greyback to a holding cell.

The clearing has gone quiet, the sounds of hexes and shouting have completely gone. I can hear the blood rushing to my head and my heart pounding in my ears as I stand paralyzed staring at where Greyback's body was.


What…..what was he about to say? If I wasn't…what?

Before my mind can begin to spiral, I see Remus and Sirius frantically make their way over to me, but before they reach me my vision goes blurry and I collapse to the ground.

Hermione POV

My mind begins to groggily wake up. Coming back to my senses, I open my eyes and am face with the familiar blurry vision I've come to know all too well.

Blinking rapidly to sharpen my vision, I realize I'm laying down when I'm staring at a white ceiling. My body is sore beyond belief, the pain in my arm is excruciating, and it's almost impossible for me to move my neck.

Clearing my dry throat I manage to whisper out, "Hello?"

I hear a shuffle from the other side of the room and a vaguely familiar face comes into view.

"Oh! Mrs. Black, so glad to see you awake." The kind face says, looking down at me with a smile.

Putting the pieces together, "Healer Jacobs?"

She nods her head, still smiling. "You're at St. Mungo's. We have to stop meeting like this, Mrs. Black. You and that pesky shoulder of yours can only handle so much." She lightly jests. "How are you feeling?"

I grumble out, "Like shit actually", as I try and sit up, but my body feels like a ton of lead so I quickly give up.

"Don't try and move yourself yet. We haven't done the procedure to fix your shoulder yet. We wanted to wait until you were awake before we did anything. Your husband and his friend brought you in, you collapsed and hit your head pretty hard. You've been unconscious for about 24 hours now, we didn't want to risk waking you too soon, so we kept close supervision on you until your mind woke up naturally."

"Makes sense, no wonder my head feels like I got hit with a Troll's club." I groan out, massaging the fingers of my good hand into my temple.

"Where's Sirius?" I ask, still working my fingers into my temple.

"Your friends forced him downstairs to eat something, he's been a right mess since he brought you in. Hasn't left your side until a few minutes ago." She says with a knowing smile on her face. "That red headed friend of yours whipped him into shape in no time though, don't you worry."

I chuckle out, "That's Lily alright. I'm surprised she didn't body bind him and drag him downstairs herself."

Healer Jacobs laughs at my comment, "From my observation, she was frighteningly close to doing just that…." She trails off.

I look up to her, seeing that she's holding something back. "What is it, Healer Jacobs?"

She takes a deep breath, "Sorry Mrs. Black. I wanted to wait until your bearings were straight before I spoke with you about this…. It's nothing bad, I promise. But with your husband downstairs I think now would be a good time to bring it up."

I look at her with confusion on my face.

"Mrs. Black, do you remember the conversation we had last time you were here about your fertility levels?" She asks.


How could I bloody forget?

I nod my head, wincing when sharp shooting pain bursts from my shoulder.

"Yes, you said that I had too much Dark Magic in my system, that'd it'd be incredibly difficult to get pregnant. Why?" I ask through clenched teeth at the pain, clutching my shoulder.

"Well, when you arrived, I ran a similar scan as before…and was quite shocked by the results… the Dark Magic is almost completely out of system, and I have no idea how." She says with curious eyes.


How on earth? I didn't do anything different…no unusual potions…no weird rituals…oh my Merlin….

My eyes shoot up to lock with hers. "Soul Bond", I gasp out in realization.

Her eyes widen in surprise as she hears what I'm saying. "Soul bond?! Merlin…you and Mr. Black? That's incredibly rare…how fascinating!"

My mind is running a thousand miles an hour, "Do you think that's what fought off the dark magic? It's….it's the only thing that's changed between then and now. We found out at our wedding, our bodies were surrounded by a golden glow for bloody hours…didn't go away until we…" I finish off blushing, catching myself before outright telling my healer about consummating my marriage.

Her eyes are still filled it's curious wonder, "Soul bonds are so rare, we've never really been able to study the affects of the bond. But I certainly don't think it's completely out of the possibility that sealing your Soul Bond has fought off the Dark Magic. Soul Bonds are immensely powerful, I'm happy to set you up with information we healers have available on it. Granted, it's not much, but might be worth looking into."

"That'd be wonderful, Healer Jacobs. Sirius and I know absolutely nothing about it, but now knowing it's most likely responsible for this….I want to know as much as I can." I say, the familiar itch to dive into books coming over me.

"I'll gladly pass along what I can. This helps me understand a bit more, can't tell you how puzzled I was. I probably ran your scans 100 times over the last 24 hours trying to see if it was a glitch." She says, and then reaching to take my hand in hers.

"It also makes me feel significantly better giving you this next piece of news….I didn't want to mention it to your husband yet. I wanted to discuss with you first." She says rubbing the back of my hand with her thumb.

I cock my head to the side, wondering what she's trying to say.

"You're pregnant, Mrs. Black."

My heart stops beating immediately….


I'm WHAT?! NO NO NO NO NO….I can't be! How?!

My eyes spring open and I stare at her with petrified eyes. "I'm….pregnant?! But…" I stutter out.

She squeezes my hand in support, and gives me a loving smile.

"I know this must be shocking for you, especially from what we discussed about your fertility levels the last time. But it seems once you sealed your bond, the bond started working to dispel the Dark Magic. I was worried before because I thought somehow the scans were wrong, but now understanding the change, the levels of Dark Magic are low enough that you're body is able to handle a pregnancy."

I stare at her gaping like a fish out of water, unable to form words.

"I'm not saying that this will be easy or will guarantee everything will be alright, Mrs. Black….Your case is incredibly rare, and while your levels are looking good so far, there still is lingering Dark Magic…but your chances of carrying to full term have drastically increased with the help of the bond."

I suck in a drastic breath, holding it in while I process what she's saying.

"I….I need to see Lily Potter. Please. Don't let Sirius in yet…I need to see Lily first." I say frantically.

"Of course, Mrs. Black. I'll send for her right away. Why don't you relax for a moment while I go grab her." She says and pats my hand.

I sink back into the hospital bed, eyes blinking rapidly while my mind races processing this information.

After 10 minutes go by, Lily frantically bursts through the door to my hospital room out of breath.

"Hermione! Oh thank god you're awake." She yelps rushing over to my side, Accioing a chair from across the room.

She pulls up next to my good side and reaches out to lace her fingers into mine. "How are you feeling? Healer Jacobs said you wanted to see me."

My eyes start to tear up, "Lily…I can't tell Sirius yet…I can't get his hopes up…I need you.." My voice quivers out.

Her eyes soften and she reaches out to lovingly run her fingers through my hair. "What is it, Hermione? I've never seen you try and hide something from Sirius…Talk to me, love." Her voice cooing, slowly calming me down.

"Lily….I'm pregnant." I choke out through tears.

Her eyes widen at my statement, and she leans in to gently hug me.

"Oh Hermione, that's wonderful! Sirius will be over the moon. You're going to be an amazing mother!" She says with all sincerity, placing a gentle kiss to the top of my head.

"Thank you Lily…but there's more."

Gathering my courage, I launch into the story of the last time I was at the hospital and the news Healer Jacobs gave me. Lily's facial expressions ranged from heartbroken to hopeful throughout my story. She understood my fear of losing the baby anyway, and got up to find Healer Jacobs.

The two discussed for around 20 minutes, Healer Jacobs updating her and showing her my diagnostic chart, explaining the levels previously and how we think the bond has been fighting off the Dark Magic.

My heart fills with love for Lily, the fact that instead of filling my head with false words and encouragement, she wanted to know the facts herself and speak with the Healer before giving her own opinion. She knows my head is too scrambled to process Healer Jacobs words myself, that I need someone on the outside to process it for me.

After another few minutes, Lily nods her head and I hear her thank Healer Jacobs. She walks back over to me with a smile on her face and retakes her seat beside me.

"Hermione, I agree with everything Healer Jacobs is saying. I know enough about healing to understand the risks of Dark Magic levels and how that impacts the body. She's right that there's no guarantee, but no pregnancy is guaranteed, love. But you are the fiercest witch on this planet, Hermione Granger-Black….You've succeed against far greater odds time and time again, who says this baby will be any different?" She smiles lovingly at me, sincerity dripping from her voice.

I take a deep breath and my eyes start to water again. I squeeze her hand in thanks, "Thank you Lily…thank you. I'm just so scared…I never thought I'd have the chance to be a mum, and now that I am….I can't imagine losing my baby…our baby….Merlin…I need Sirius." The tears start flowing freely down my face.

Lily stands up and pulls me into a hug on my good side, running her fingers through my hair. "I know, Hermione…I know…I can't imagine what you're feeling. I'm going to go get Sirius in a minute, love. It's ok."

We stay like that for a few minutes, Lily comforting me while I cry into her stomach.

Sirius POV

It's been 27 hours since Hermione collapsed in the clearing. 27 hours since the love of my life has been unconscious, and there isn't a damn thing I can do to help her.

Healer Jacobs has been overly patient, but I can tell she was frustrated by something every time she casts a diagnostic charm.


Future note, figure out how to read a damn diagnostic chart.

My mind completely shut down watching over Hermione unconscious on the bed. Remus went to alert Lily and James and they arrived quickly, but I've drowned out their voices. It took Lily threatening me for multiple hours to get me to leave Hermione's side, and the only reason I left was because I saw how scared my friend's were of my mental state.

Healer Jacobs came down an hour or so later, gently pulling aside Lily and whispering with her in the corner. Lily nods her head and walks back towards our table in the healer cafeteria.

"Healer Jacobs is friends with Euphemia. She put in a good word for me on wanting to become a Healer, and has offered for me to shadow her on Hermione. I'm going to go up with her for a bit, I'll let you know if anything changes Sirius." She smiles at me and gives me a quick hug.

Too tired to question her, I nod my head and half heartedly accept her hug. She quickly walks over to Healer Jacobs and they take off out of the cafeteria.

James and Remus are sitting with me at the table while I push food around on my plate. Both of them not knowing what to say, but James tries to break the silence.

"So, did Greyback survive?" He asks timidly.

Remus and I both growl at the same time.

"Unfortunately." Remus snarls out.

The question sparks emotion in my body for the first time in hours, anger.

"I should have fucking killed him right then and there." I say angrily, stabbing a potato violently with my fork.

"Let the fucker rot in Azkaban, that's a FAR worse sentence than death. Death is too easy." James says.

I continually stab the potato until it turns to mush, I fling the fork down in frustration and sink back into my seat.

I tilt my head back and close my eyes. Breathing deeply and praying to every god under the sun that my wife will be ok.

Not realizing I drifted off to sleep, I feel a gentle shake of my shoulders and a calm voice calling my name.

"Sirius…Sirius…wake up." Lily says.

Finally awake, my head snaps forward and I lock eyes with Lily.

"Lily…sorry, I must have dozed off. Is everything ok?" I ask nervously.

She smiles back at me and nods her head. "She's awake and asking for you."

My heart stops beating as my eyes widen. I shoot up out of the chair and sprint out of the cafeteria and push through a group of people to get inside the lift.

Bouncing up and down on my toes, the doors finally open onto Hermione's floor and I race off to her room. I fling the door open, and I stare wide-eyed at my wife sitting up in bed.

Her eyes are puffy and red, and I see her wincing when she turns her neck towards my direction.

"Hermione…" My voice cracks, all the void emotions that I've been pushing aside for the last day rising the surface.

"Hi, my love. I missed you." She softly smiles greeting me.

I let out of a deep breath of relief, and sprint over to the side of her bed on her good side and I gently lean in to kiss her.

The anxiety and pain I've buried beneath dissipates as soon as her lips touch mine. The feeling of relief and love swimming to the surface at her touch. Tears start raining down my face as I gentle cup her cheeks, not wanting to pull back from her.

I feel her wince and I realize this is straining her neck and affecting her shoulder. I pull back quickly and gently release her face.

"I'm so sorry, love. I'm just so bloody relieved you're awake. I thought I lost you…."

She chuckles a bit, "Don't ever apologize for kissing me. You and your lips are worth it." She smirks at me.

I bark out laughing, "Good to know, Kitten. Glad to see you haven't lost your cheeky sense of humor. How are you feeling?"

She smiles back at me, and carefully shifts over in the bed and pats the space beside her. "Come join me, love."

I eagerly get into the bed with her and curl up next to her. My body finally relaxing, knowing she's safe. She turns on her side and faces me, I lightly graze my fingers over her cheek and jaw while she starts talking.

"I'm doing ok. They didn't want to operate while I was unconscious, so I'm in quite a bit of pain with my shoulder. My head hurt for awhile when I first woke up, but it's feeling much better now. I'm sorry I worried you…" She softly says, almost guilty.

I smile at her, "My love, this was not your fault, don't apologize. What matters is that you're alive and ok…that's all that matters." I say, leaning in to place a soft kiss to her forehead.

"We're ok…Not just me….we…" She shutters out.

I sigh into her, "Yes love, we're both ok…I'm here." I say running my fingers down her arm and then tracing her ribs, letting my touch wash over her.

She chuckles at my comment, and I give her a confused look.

"That's not exactly what I meant, but yes…I'm more than glad you're ok too." She smirks at me.

I cock my head to the side, "You've lost me love…if you didn't mean me, then who did you mean?"

Her smirk moves to a smile as she snatches my wandering hand and moves down to her stomach.

"Love, as much as I'd like to feel that pretty little cunt of yours, I'm not sure this is the best time." I chuckle out at her scandalous thoughts.

She starts laughing, but stops my hand from going any further and she places it on her stomach.

She rolls her eyes at me playfully, "Of course you're mind thought that what I was doing….Enticing as it is, I'm trying to show you what I meant."

She squeezes my hand, and presses our hands lightly into her stomach.

"We….Sirius….We are ok. Myself and our child." She whispers out, eyes staring into mine, the slightest bit of fear showing in hers.

It takes me far longer than I care to admit to process what she just said. My eyes flick back and forth between her eyes and our hands on her stomach. They finally land and stay on her eyes, and I take a deep breath in.

"We're…having a baby?! But….I….I thought…." I say frantically, not knowing how to understand this.

She squeezes my hand again, and she nods her head. "Yes…against all odds, we're having a baby." She says with a soft, hesitant smile. No doubt waiting for my actual reaction.

"How?!" I yelp, still in a state of shock.

She laughs a bit, "Well….when two people love each other very much…" She starts off teasingly before I cut her off.

I scoff and roll my eyes at her, finally snapping back to myself.

"Love, I'm quite well versed on the mechanics. Shagging you is undoubtably my favorite past time, but….I thought with the Dark Magic…"
She leans forward and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.

"Our Soul Bond….Turns out, when we sealed our bond, it started fighting the Dark Magic. Healer Jacobs was going crazy while I was unconscious, she couldn't figure out how my levels were so low and how I was able to get pregnant…"

I stare into my wife's eyes as she tells me that quite literally our love…our bond…is what made this miracle happen. That after every horror she's been put through, our love actually managed to heal her….and I've never felt more overcome with emotion in my life.

Happiness, joy, pure absolute love for my wife and our child…

The tears start welling up in my eyes again, and I drop my forehead to hers and gently caress her stomach.

"We're having a baby!" I chuckle out in happy disbelief, my smile so large I can feel my cheeks straining.

She nods her head frantically, her eyes pooling with tears.

"Yes, love…we're having a baby."

"I fucking love you so goddamn much Hermione… and I'm going to love our child just as much." I growl heatedly as I swoop in to kiss her lips.

"Damn straight you will." She cheekily teases me.


Every day is the best day of my life with my wife, but today….today might officially be the BEST DAY of my life.