The trip to the library is fast and uninterrupted by anything other than the girl's thoughts. She is, in fact, so wrapped up in her own had she does not hear the not so silent Severus Snape following behind her with a shuffle to his normally well lifted feet.

Hermione took a deep breath and stepped forward to face the mirror. It's 1:15am and she can't put off fate any longer, she had promised herself she would look in the mirror at one in the morning. She doesn't make promises and then break them, not even to herself. This moment brought great fear, she didn't know what she would see, nor what she wanted to see. Her hands were shaking and her breath was a shaky staccato as she looked up into the mirror only to see a slightly older Hermione with a baby on her hip and a rounded belly with a very familiar man holding her waist, a smile playing at his lips. She looks at the image before her and a tear rolls down her face and lands on her slippered foot. Without thought his name passed her lips, "Severus." A small laugh echoes through the room around her and she realizes for the first time she is not alone.

A million things passed through her mind, but her breathing stopped and she was horrified at the things she didn't know would change after this. Her stupid hearts desire was already fucking things up and it hadn't even been five whole minutes.

~O~

She spun around and met black eyes that weren't quite as cold as usual, which was something she was surprised by but she was completely mortified by all the feelings she was having so she only met his beautiful eyes for a moment, and after that moment she dropped her head and avoided him, stepping back and dropping her head, but those seconds were the most embarrassing 45 seconds of her 17 years.

"Look at me Miss Granger," he wasn't asking but the mortification made the last thing she wanted to do looking at the man standing before her. Humiliation burned through her core. Upon finally meeting his eyes she is surprised to see that they're not as cold as usual, almost like there is no judgement this time. Bt that wasn't possible because every single day for the last seven years this man has teased her and made her and her friend's lives worse. Little did she know however he already knows her secret.

"What did you see Miss Granger?" He can see her thinking, and he knows this might be the one time she outright lies to a professor. Hermione hates not having an answer to a question and until she has one she believes she will not rest… which may actually be interesting for him depending on how she answered but this time he didn't intend to torment the girl.

Hermione's mind whirrs as she tries to think of any answer, anything but the truth, but for the first time in her life the know-it-all golden girl didn't have an answer. She looks away again as she tries to think of the one thing to get her out of this. As the lie fell from her lips she knew how ridiculous she sounded, "I saw myself holding a perfect sheet of NEWT scores sir."

With a smirk he steps forward and tilts her chin up so their eyes meet, "Are you sure Miss Granger? Would you care to know what I see when I look in that mirror?"

"I really should be going sir," she tries to pull away but her arousal and her desire to know what he sees keeps her rooted to the spot. She flushes redder than Ron's hair and watches the man with an expression of almost awe. She may not want to admit it but something about this moment was intoxicating with his hand on her jaw and her body completely relaxed for the first time in a very long time.

"I see myself holding the child of a brilliant young witch while we stand around a Christmas tree with the family I have always wanted. Miss Granger what do you really see?" But before he pulls her close, he has started to crane his neck so he can kiss her softly. She melts against him, and then they're kissing. It's slow and gentle, like it's the most natural thing for student and teacher to do. Neither of them are aware of anything, not the magic in the air, not the blue light surrounding them, and most certainly not the impropriety of the situation like Hermione had bee so quick to fear.

The second they break the kiss a wave of magic ripples through the air, pausing time and seeming to keep everything stuck in that blissful moment. Or it was blissful until Hermione faints and Severus is left holding the limp form of the girl. This evening just isn't turning out how he suspected, something he didn't know yet he would become all too familiar with.

~O~

In an office way up high in the castle an old man smiles as old magic floods the castle again. This moment was prophecised and now so many things will change for the whole of the wizarding world. You see, the 19th of September, was going to be a night of new beginning and new creations, but for the moment it was the 19th of September until the prophecy's first stage was complete.

With one look at his tempus he sends a patronus to the pair in the library, the whispy blue phoenix flies off to find the newly mated pair who have yet to realize what's happening. He asks the pair to come to the office, but time will tell what happens next, even stalled time.