Oh, lookee, I have another deadline. I have until Tuesday to get my wip of 35.5k to 40k and polish it till it gleams. And write a dreaded blurb. *shudder* Hates them...
Anyway, this is a little bit transitiony again.
Hermione teased a brown strand of hair from the delicate perfection of Hope's forehead. Such velvet softness. Sunlight slanted into the warm kitchen as she sat in a well-padded window seat. It was a little bit of bliss. The great wooden dressers, the ancient but gleaming range, the murmurs of happy house elves putting together breakfast for their charges. The start of the day in a magical family home.
She wouldn't have this grand luxury, all mullioned windows and vaulted oak beams. She eyed the little house elves in their Granger Hall tunics. And possibly not a house elf. But this quiet moment, just her and her little one…
The mixture of pain and happiness in her chest twisted the thought. Hope sucked happily on her bottle, tiny fingers flexing and Hermione wanted to inhale her, her delicious baby scent, the soft odours of clean skin, washed cotton and warm milk.
Hermione breathed through the ache for her own child. She was nineteen. There would be time. There was a wizard out there for her. Somewhere... She tried not to think of the dark wizard currently sleeping along the corridor from her room.
The sound of sucking sharpened as the last of the milk drained away.
"All done, sweetling?" Hermione wiped a muslin cloth over the milk dribbles, remembering to catch behind Hope's ears to stop it becoming cheese —her mother's favourite expression. Dropping the cloth over her shoulder, she perched Hope there and began to rub gentle circles into her back.
A burp of Hagrid proportions erupted from the tiny baby and laughter broke from Hermione. Male laughter joined hers and Hermione's heart turned over.
Severus.
"What has she been feeding you, Hope?"
He emerged from an archway, immaculate in his usual wizarding wear of frockcoat, starched collar and form fitting trousers. Hermione tried not to admire the lean length of his legs…and failed. Her fingers itched to undo the buttons that chased up his calf. All of his buttons were complete temptation…
Hope turned her head and gave the wizard a gummy grin. She babbled and milk dribbled. Hermione wiped around her mouth and offered the baby to him. It was a wonder she got a chance with the little girl. Severus was a hawk around Hope.
"She only talks to you."
"Because I," he bopped the baby on her chin and nose and Hope squealed, "am the only one with whom Hope is able to hold a half decent conversation. Isn't that right?"
Hope grabbed his nose and burbled at him. Severus grinned and his dark eyes shone with affection, with…love.
Hermione looked to her hands, and found her fingers curled around the perfectly round white moonstone that hung from her neck. Severus' present to her on her birthday. Merlin, how her heart had thumped when he clipped it, his warm fingertips brushing the nape of her neck. A warm, delicious shiver had swept over her and her legs felt as though they'd been hit with a hex.
But…he stepped back and gave her one of his polite smiles.
A friend. He was her friend.
She teased the warmed stone between her thumb and index finger. Still, that little curl of jealousy was there. She wanted his look of affection, of love for herself. And that thought was a sour burn. Hope had no one. And Severus was grabbing his second –possibly his first— chance to have a family. She'd never deny them their connection.
"What are your plans for the day, Hermione?"
She looked up in surprise, letting the moonstone fall against her jumper. It was Saturday, the first day of the half-term. Her plans had been to help out with the children, but mainly to revise. She had only six weeks before she sat her NEWTs. She'd not known Severus' plans, other than monopolising Hope.
Her belly did a dangerous little swoop. Did he want to include her in their day?
She gave a quick shrug. "Revising. Mainly."
Something shifted in his gaze and he looked from her back to Hope. A warm smile tugged at his mouth as the baby grinned up at him and a tension Hermione wasn't aware he was holding seemed to ease away. "Hope and I have a full day planned. First on our itinerary is a walk around the Physic Garden. Hope expressed an interest in medicinal herbs."
The little girl cooed and made a grab for one of his frockcoat buttons.
Hermione shook her head, unable to stop the soft laughter that broke free. "You have her mapped out as a doctor at 10 weeks old?"
"A biochemist. Lady Margaret Hall, I think is a good choice—"
"Severus, you can't pick out her place at Oxford at 3 months!"
He smirked at Hermione, before looking back at Hope, who smiled up at him, her dark eyes happy and shining. "You like my choice, don't you, my Hope? Don't listen to the nasty, evil soon-to-be apprentice of Arithmancy."
Hermione glared at him, a curl of annoyance heating her chest. Terrible man! "Don't bad mouth me to—" Hermione twitched and willed a smile as a hot flare of mortification swept over her. Merlin save her, she'd been about to say, "Don't bad mouth me to our daughter".
She wanted to run. Hide. Lose her insane crush in her books. But the chance…the chance to wander around the autumnal gardens, to have Severus no doubt lecture her on myriad uses of the ordinary plants in rare potions. To live in the fantasy that they were a family… She wasn't strong enough to resist it.
"Wrap her up well. I'll meet you down by the bootroom in half an hour."
She heard the murmured, "Hermione is so very bossy, Hope. You'll get used to it" as she passed through the door onto the back stairs.
Hermione couldn't stop her smile.
Gwendolyn watched the little group wander out across the small, flagged courtyard and through an arch into the gardens beyond.
She groaned and pressed her hands to her face. What was she to do with them?
Turning back to the long table crowded with breakfasting children, a smile broke from her. She met little Lisbeth's cautious smile with a brighter grin. The four year old had been with them only a week, brought in from care. Severus was ruthless in driving the ministry to recover the abandoned children. He was such a good man. Dangerous and dark, certainly, but his heart was in exactly the right place.
"It's warm enough to go out, I think," she said, moving around the table to help with bowls and spoons and cups. Offering fruit. Wiping mouths. They babbled and chattered, growing in confidence minute by minute. Gwendolyn's smile kept on growing.
They'd need more people soon, mirroring their business in Sydney. She didn't want to rely completely on the elves. They were making these children ready for the muggle world as well as their own magical one, after all.
"I see Hermione and Severus already have gone out." There was a waspish curl to his words and Gwendolyn gave him a hard stare.
Edward ignored her and twirled a spoon, making aeroplane noises as he aimed another spoon of mashed carrot towards Parlan's open mouth. He grinned and the boy returned it, orange stain coating his gums. "Oh well done, little man. Is that yum? Yes? Here comes another!"
Edward still wasn't convinced that Severus was perfect for their daughter. Her husband was blind.
Though…Hermione was convinced Severus saw her as no more than a friend. And Severus was probably caught in the fact she was half his age, had been —still was— his student and would be in his employ in the New Year. All good solid reasons for him to hold back.
Didn't they see that they could admit their interest…and wait? She wanted to bang their heads together. She really did. Honestly.
She was also well aware that Hermione had the dreaded Collier ache, that fierce need for children. A great big pile of them… Severus would readily support her there too. She was certain of it.
Gwendolyn grinned at the crowded table, bursting with noisy children and a little bubble of joy rose in her chest. God, she wanted this for Hermione.
She reached across and eased a spoon from Tallis' grip before he smacked it over Grace's knuckles. A pair of four year old inseparable twins, who liked to take chunks out of other. "Ah, a spoon is for your breakfast, not your sister's hand."
Tallis huffed and gave her a mulish glare. Grace stuck out her tongue and happily waggled her own spoon. The little boy stuck his hand into his cornflakes and hurled a soggy pile at his sister's head. Grace screeched—
And it was time for Gwendolyn to focus before world war three broke out.
She could put off her working out her daughter's future until later.
They were wandering over the rolling lawn, the air sweet and just the right side of cool, when her mind turned to Hermione again.
Edward was carrying Parlan and the toddlers and older children were loose and roaming under the watchful eye of the elves. She had this moment to think.
Her baby girl was a natural with children. Natural as she was at everything. Though not flying on a broomstick —as the kicked-to-the-kerb boy had delighted in telling them over his third piece of cake. That had sealed Gwendolyn's dislike, over and above his bottomless stomach. No one made fun of her baby to her.
And Severus was like Edward. She glanced at her silly husband gurning at a laughing Parlan. A man —wizard— happy to make a fool of himself over the sweetness of a baby.
Oh, she knew that Severus Snape had been a complete git when he taught Hermione. And she was certain Hermione's letters home had been nowhere close to revealing everything.
Gwendolyn had made it her mission to find out about the mysterious man and worn out their little owl, Tomes, in getting back issues of the Daily Prophet. God, what an awful paper. And the book Severus Snape: Saint or Sinner. It was a wonder that woman was still breathing. Severus could not have approved it.
Her reading had revealed another complication. Lily Potter.
Her highly logical Hermione would see his devotion to Lily, and believe his heart was still caught on her.
Gwendolyn would believe it herself. He'd spent years protecting a hated man's child all in his dead friend's name, had almost died to hold his vows to her. But…she'd seen the way Severus looked at her daughter. The thing of a moment, but it was there, an affection and a…longing.
And there they were walking back from the Physic Garden. Hermione held Hope and was chattering away to her, and Severus was smiling. The smile of a contented man who had everything he wanted in the world right there before him.
Gwendolyn rubbed her hands together. Right. She would make them see.
Consider their heads well and truly bashed together.
"So, Severus, tell me." Gwendolyn leant forward in her wingback chair and lifted an eyebrow. "What are your future plan's concerning my daughter?"
Severus stilled, the cup lifted to his mouth. Firelight flickered in his impossibly black eyes. "She will be an apprentice to Hogwarts for three years. Though this is Hermione. I expect her to take half that time to complete her studies."
Oh, he'd fallen back into the stiffly correct Headmaster. Was he afraid she'd warn him off? He couldn't be more wrong. She'd be there with bloody pom-poms.
"I'm not blind, Severus."
A muscle jumped in his jaw. "Gwendolyn…"
She put the man out of his misery. "She feels the same way."
He blinked. Twice. Had she just completely thrown the unflappable former-spy?
Gwendolyn sipped her tea and let him recover. The bright fire snapped and popped, its light washing around the cosy little snug. It was approaching ten. The children were asleep. Hermione had excused herself to revise. Edward had twisted Pil into a gobstones rematch and that had left her and Severus, with tea and a chat about bringing in more people –especially those with a background in early years education. He'd said he would find people. She didn't doubt they'd be rolling up to the Hall by the following Monday.
With business out of the way, she'd seized her chance.
"And what do you –and Edward— think about her feelings?"
Gwendolyn almost smirked at him. Such a sneaky question. "Edward is her grumbly curmudgeon of a father. No one is ever good enough, blah, blah." Severus was frozen, a statue watching her. "I, on the other hand, think it would be a blessing for both of you."
He blinked again. And looked into his teacup. Perhaps it was the firelight, but she was sure there was a hint of red flushing across his sharp cheekbones. "She truly…?"
Gwendolyn in that moment shared her daughter's need to hug the man. She let out a long breath. "Tell her, Severus. My girl is as sharp as they come, but she is...inexperienced. Her numb-skulled friends didn't even notice she was a girl for the longest time." Gwendolyn would not get into a rant about Ronald Weasley. Hermione's loyalty to that boy had driven a spike between her and Severus, after all. "She thinks you could never hold any feelings but friend." Her lips twitched into a smile. "And we both know how wrong that is."
He glanced up to see her waggling her eyebrows and a huff of laughter escaped him. But then he sighed and caught his fingers in his hair. "Hermione is young. Very young." A bitter smile pulled at his lips. "I'm twice her age. Was her teacher. I am her Headmaster."
Yes, all the proper reasons for his being hesitant. "You don't have to rush. Just put my poor girl out of her misery."
He gave a nod, smooth and elegant. Severus Snape had made a promise.
Gwendolyn knew how golden that was.
Let me know what you think! :)
