A/N: Just a slight character death warning. If I say anymore it will give it away, but I did attempt to handle it as delicately as possible while staying true to my characters.

Harry awoke the next morning bare, splayed across a pale chest, and warmer than usual. Not to mention the body aches he'd never before experienced making grabbing for his wand only a slight challenge. He cast a tempus with a little under two hours until work and pressed a gentle kiss to the other man's cheek in bed as he got up to get an early start to the day.

On the way downstairs he stopped by Hermione's room when he noticed the door ajar, a note spelled to it at eye-level.

Ending the spell he grabbed the slip of parchment and tried to quell the sudden worry, unfolding it with care.

Harry,

Went to Mungo's at roughly 4. Heard you two come home, I'm so happy for you.

Meet me at the hospital when you get the chance...

Love,

Hermione

This world didn't stop, Harry thought, as he tried to calm himself, popping back up to his room with a worried swoop of his stomach. His only thought was for her health and the baby's, hoping it wasn't her and Severus' bonds that had created this fissure in Hermione's health.

"Draco!"

Roused from sleep with a smile, it didn't take him long to catch on that something was wrong when he saw Harry's face.

"What's the matter?"

"Hermione, Mungo's, now."

"What's happened?" He asked as he got up and summoned clothes that still somehow seemed to match.

Harry caught a glimpse of his bare flesh before answering.

"Dunno, she just left me a note to meet her there. Apparently she went about four this morning."

"You don't think it's the bonds finally catching up to them, do you?"

"We'll just have to see."

Draco finished dressing and they were off, the floo to Mungo's swift and quiet as they arrived in the early hours of the morning.

The front receptionist who could be no older than either of them, looked up with disinterest as she chewed what seemed to be Fred and George's shape-bubble gum. An elephant popped before she even considered addressing them.

"May I help you?"

"Hermione Granger, she came in a couple hours ago."

"And you are?"

"The Potters," Draco cut in, seemingly annoyed at the girl who Harry had to admit was just doing her job. "Penelope, if you would just let us through, you know who the bloody hell we are."

"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes and waving her wand. Two Visitor bracelets appeared on their wrists. "Third floor, room 3618."

"Thank you," they both said, though Draco sounded more upset than thankful.

Rushing upstairs, they found Hermione's room, a private, small one where upon entering they found her sleeping.

"Hermione," Harry called, sad to wake her, but she had asked him to be there.

Her eyes fluttered, and the serene look that was on her face faded into sadness.

"Harry." With her broken cry, he had no choice but to rush and hug her as his mind went to the worst case-scenario.

"When you're ready, I want you to tell me what happened."

She nodded, and he felt hot tears soak into his robes, glancing over to see Draco come up on her other side and lay a gentle hand on her back.

Hermione cried for a few back-breaking minutes, Harry feeling the ache in his spine long after she'd sat up and tried to put herself together.

"What happened?"

"I woke up in pain… severe pain, and there was a lot of blood, they gave me a replenishing potion and-"

"Is it the baby?"

"I have to stay off my feet for a few days, but there wasn't any magical interference, just human err, I suppose you could call it."

"Hermione," Harry moaned, moved to tears for her as she avoided saying anything directly. He understood, there wasn't much to say, she was heartbroken, and doubly so now.

"I'll be back," Draco muttered, getting up and looking as though he might commit heinous crimes. "Hermione, babe, I'm sorry for your loss."

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and was off.

Harry only shrugged as he leaned on the bed with her, holding her tight.

"Merlin, he's probably gone to chew Severus out," she said, following it with a hollow laugh as she nuzzled in closer to her best friend.

"Well-deserved I think."

"And what about you, Harry? I heard you last night, I was so restless… how is everything with him?"

Looking down at her and meeting her sad eyes, he asked her, "Is this something you're doing to stay distracted in a healthy way or in a bad way. I really think we should talk about your daughter-"

"It's only been two weeks," she said firmly, "And while it's true I've grown attached as any mother should, I won't lie and say I'm not hoping to do the healing with Severus, and that we all be happy."

He understood.

"Right, well I'll start with the absolute worst of the details then…"

Hermione gave a half-hearted and excited squeal, pulling up the blankets on her bed in preparation for all the salacious details and distraction from the tragedies that had befallen her.

Severus woke up that morning with the worst headache he'd ever had and canceled all of his classes. He didn't even go to breakfast, merely summoned an elf for a strong brew of tea and a large pain-relief potion that took at most half the edge off. What he would've liked was sleep, but the barging open of the door to his rooms startled him out of any hope of that.

And really, he was so catatonic from his bloody migraine that he let the person waltz in, blearily looking through the fog to find an unmistakable head of hair.

"You're still in bed."

"Keen observation," Severus drawled, doing his best to sit up and entertain his god-son, but to no avail.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Headache, and a miserable one at that."

Draco inhaled, but didn't let it go, and finally Severus pried his eyes open to see the truly dour look on his face. Something had happened.

"Did you finally come to your senses and realize you're not exactly married to the same wizard any longer?"

"No, actually," Draco said with much more directness than he'd anticipated. He was shocked to hear such a tone from him, but now had a feeling what was coming. "See, I have spent the last week with Hermione consoling her from a very real broken heart. Her own husband has left her to the fates all because she's had a simple lapse in memory. This man who should love her through thick and thin, has bonded himself magically to her in promise of such a thing, and he's here in his cave with a mere headache not even knowing where she is."

Severus felt his face become fierce.

"And where is she?"

"Harry is still Harry, you know?" Draco would not relent. "I mean they are the same person, of course he's going to be similar in so many ways. Just last night he got jealous because some bint stuck her arse in my face, and my heart leapt. I've loved him for what feels like my entire life, and for the first time, I had to work for his love. Sure, we put in a lot of work every bloody day, even before all this, and it can't be bliss all the time with that stubborn bloke anyways, but Merlin, I love him more for it."

Severus scoffed, "But he told you."

"Because he hated me and didn't want me anywhere near him," Draco nearly screamed, causing his head to whirl in a fit of pain, though it seemed to satisfy his god-son. "I was also just... There, and Hermione cared about you enough even knowing what some other version of you'd done to her. I've read the book, it isn't pretty. Her capacity for love to a husband she didn't marry was far greater than yours to a woman you did."

So Draco was right? If she cared so much maybe she shouldn't have lied, shouldn't have stung him so hard with the truth or did better to cover it up. He was letting himself think the terrible thoughts today, his head wouldn't allow occlumency, and besides, he wanted to feel it.

"And now she actually cares about you. I haven't asked love of Harry yet, that would be a fool's mistake, but the magic of their old selves and their new memories are combining. Their previous minds are there, there's still love for you there that they're unearthing, but in the meantime, I've gotten to fall in love with Harry all over again."

Severus said nothing to this, taking in what he could see of the cruppy-like look on his face.

"I appreciate him more now, the thought of loosing him a tragedy I could not have bared. So yes, I have to live with the fact I was his nemesis in school and not his best mate. Yes, as far as he knows, we fought on two sides of a war, taking guidance from Dumbledore, but now on top of all of it, and despite it, he is beginning to care for me… has made love to me," Draco's voice grew soft and almost reverent, "We've never had a night like that before. We knew what to do when we started the first time, I was familiar with him and his body, but without a care for making you uncomfortable seeing as you probably deserve it, I relished in teaching him how to touch me, and despite the fact his mind was different as was the night itself, it was still the same, as if instinct took over and the muscle memory pulled him into me the same as always."

He'd heard too much of his god-son's life now and added nausea to his list of symptoms.

"I told Harry when he first changed that I would love any version of him put before me, even if he had become Voldemort himself, and if that's not true for you and Hermione then I am so sorry for her."

Draco stared him down then, unmoving as he had to process all of these things with an audience of one, and a judgmental one at that.

Severus knew he was being harsh. It wasn't hard to have felt duped from the moment he figured it out. Merlin, she was without anyone besides Harry and Draco, all because of him.

"James knows you two are currently split. Harry had a few lapses before the rescue of Caelum and had to explain to the Minister for Magic why we were withholding a grown woman from her husband, also coincidentally his friend. From what I heard, you're lucky he hasn't asked you about it yet. Figured I'd give you a time-constraint before visiting her."

Merlin's balls he was completely fucked.

"Where is she?"

He remembered the earlier mention of Severus supposedly not knowing where his wife was, and that was true. Why wasn't she at the Potter residence, though?

"Do you love her?"

"Of course I do," the answer slipped from his mouth faster than he thought about it. It was true, he'd loved her for a long time, those months when she was a poignant fixture in his life after her graduation the road to his enamored state.

And now, after the tongue-lashing Draco had delivered, he felt bad for his actions against her. She was his wife, he'd taken a vow to love her no matter what, under any conditions, and this too, needed to be said for such a promise.

Hermione had been infinitely kinder to him than he to her.

Merlin, he loved her.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure my patience have been tried, and I'm sure I will hex whoever gets in my way of seeing her."

Draco smiled, but it was not in a triumphant way, it was almost sad. Severus worried now.

"She's at Mungo's. Has been since about four-"

He didn't hear the rest. The apparition point to the hospital was dizzying, and he recalled only ever going for children being born to his friends.

Severus feared for his own child, for what else would bring Hermione into the hospital?

The attendant at the desk looked at him expectantly and he glared. He recognized her from her time at Hogwarts and simply raised a brow. The girl remembered as well, it seemed.

"Floor 3, room 3618."

Draco watched on in amazement as Severus' lip twitched into a smile and the uncaring Penelope looked nervous. Not that he didn't look a bit frightening at any given moment, but just then he truly was something reminiscent of Harry's book.

Draco followed up to Hermione's room in silence.

He knocked, and Harry met them at the door, seeming to understand as he let Severus pass. Draco pulled him into his arms now that they were alone again.

"She wants me to get everyone else together… we think it's time to tell them what's happened."

"I mean, they should know why she's here," Draco started, but Harry shook his head and took his hands.

"No, love, all of it… It's time."

He couldn't have been more in love with husband in that moment, glancing back to the room where hopefully, Severus was feeling the same thing for Hermione. Hope glimmered in him for the first time since they'd followed her here earlier that morning.

"Can I tell you I love you?"

Harry shed a smile through the tears. "You can."

"I love you, Harry. I'll be here for you no matter what, alright?"

"Thank you."

They held one-another and delayed for just a few minutes longer the grueling task that came before them.