Chapter Six

"Marriage is honourable in all" Hebrews 13:4

That weekend, Hermione was heading past the main sitting room to get to the library when she heard someone say her name in her own voice. It always gave her the creeps when she heard Hermatica speak because it was like listening to herself. And what is she talking about me for? Hermione wondered with a touch of annoyance. She crept closer to the doorway. After all, if she had no compunction reading Severus' mail when it was coming from Voldemort all those years ago, she certainly was going to eavesdrop on a conversation that involved herself.

"You should talk to Hermione about it, Severus," the girl in the portrait was saying to someone, either Severus-the-first or her own Severus.

"I don't want to put any pressure on her to do something she may have a strong objection to. I don't want to make her feel guilty for saying 'no' if she's really against the idea," she heard Severus reply, sounding tired and subdued. Of course, Hermione could never tell the difference between her Severus' voice and Severus-the-first's voice either.

"You don't even know if she has a strong objection to it because you've never really spoken to her seriously about it, have you?" Hermatica said gently.

"No, not really," one of the Severus' admitted. "But if I do broach it seriously and tell her how I feel, and she does strongly object - it may eventually drive her away from me. I don't want it that badly. I'd rather have Hermione."

From this last speech, Hermione could tell it was her own Severus replying to Hermatica. She was beginning to feel guilty about eavesdropping but reasoned that if Severus was afraid to talk to her about something, this may be the only way she'd find out his real feelings. With a troubled expression, she kept listening.

"You couldn't drive Hermione away from you with a herd of wild horses," Severus' voice said dryly, obviously Severus-the-first.

"She's still so young," Severus replied to him in his deep voice with a tone of worry that Hermione heard very rarely. "She has plenty of time to change her mind."

"She loves you. She's not going anywhere," Hermatica said flatly.

"Something like this may change her mind," Severus reasoned doubtfully.

"It's not about her mind, it's about her heart. That won't change," Hermatica said softly.

"Yes but. children. It's a big issue. It's a life-changing issue. Even if Hermione hands any children we had over to the care of nannies for most of the time, she still would have to be involved in their lives at some level. It would change her life and she may not want it changed," Severus said in a pained voice.

"I think she doesn't even know that it's a significant issue for you. If she did, I'm sure she would take your wishes into account," Severus, the first said.

"Of course I would," Hermione whispered to herself. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and went into the room. "Sorry to eavesdrop but I overheard what you all were talking about," she said. Her Severus looked around sharply, an unusual expression of apprehension in his deep-set, black eyes that was quickly gone to be replaced with guardedness.

"Hermione!" he exclaimed.

"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?" she asked him gently, her gaze caressing his face.

Severus visibly relaxed, and Hermatica and the other Severus looked at each other significantly with triumph written clearly on their faces. Hermione glanced at the portrait and saw their smug expressions and smiled to herself.

"Don't you think you two have interfered enough for one day?" Hermione said pointedly but with affection.

"Fine, we can take a hint. We'll remove ourselves to another part of the Manor," Hermatica said with mock indignation and with a wink at Hermione, took her Severus off to another landscape picture somewhere else in the Manor.

"Good, now we can talk," Hermione said to her Severus and folded herself into a comfortable armchair next to him. "I repeat, why didn't you tell me how you felt?" she said to Severus.

"You must have overheard why. It is important to me but not important enough that I want to lose you over it," Severus admitted, looking down at his own hands.

"How long have you felt this way?" she asked gently.

Severus frowned. It was a difficult question to answer accurately. He had never thought about an heir as his life had taken the wrong direction into the Death Eaters at a very young age. By the time his life was on the right track and he felt he owned it again, he was already into his late 20s. He had felt exhausted and jaded and hated himself so much by that stage that he felt unworthy of the attention of any woman he may have been attracted to. He had frankly never thought he would have the opportunity to provide the Snape line with an heir.

Then Hermione came into his life and turned it on its head. At the beginning, he had been so stunned that a young and beautiful woman like Hermione was genuinely attracted to him that it took him quite some time to get over that. Then it took another period to really fully absorb the fact that she truly loved him and didn't really want to be with anyone else. In that time, he'd sensed her ambivalence about marriage and children, and when he finally did bring the subject up, she was dismissive and said she was happy the way things were.

In a sense, so was he but over the past few years he'd found himself wanting more than what they had. He had begun to have some sense of hope for the future after experiencing a run of truly good, happy, peaceful years with Hermione - an occurrence that had never happened before in his life. If things had been so good, maybe they could be even better? Maybe he could plan for a future for the Snape lineage after all? Maybe it didn't have to die out with him? Maybe he had finally seen a kind of life that was worth living and felt that bringing a child into the world wasn't an automatic sentence of misery? There were any number of reasons why there had been a growing longing within him to marry Hermione and have children with her.

All these thoughts and feelings ran through Severus' brain in a flash but he was still unsure how to answer. "I guess I've been aware of it since the early stages but it's only recently become a strong desire - in the last few years," he finally replied, still looking frowningly at his hands.

Hermione glanced at his hands too. They were probably the most physically attractive thing about him; strong, slender, long-fingered and pale. They still fascinated her and drew her gaze. Hermione sighed. "I wish you'd told me," she said quietly.

Severus' frown grew deeper. "How do you feel about it?" he asked, his deep voice low almost as though he didn't really want the answer.

"I want you to be happy. If you want an heir, we can have some children. Wizard medicine would make it very easy and painless for me, and if we used nannies I wouldn't have to take too much time away from work," she said reasonably. "I didn't know you felt this strongly about it, otherwise we could have had them sooner."

Severus' face went very pale and then his cheekbones stained red. Hermione knew from long experience that he was in the grip of some strong emotion. He rarely showed it in any other way but his translucent skin always gave him away to her. His hands were also clenched so tightly that the knuckles showed white.

"I don't want my children to be illegitimate, Hermione," he said quietly, suddenly looking away out of the nearby window.

"If that's your idea of a marriage proposal, then it really sucks," Hermione joked.

"You never seemed to be interested when I mentioned it before and I never wanted to put any pressure on you," Severus explained, his face tense and still not looking at her.

"I didn't know it was important to you. I was happy so why change anything? It has been very good, Severus," she said soothingly.

"Yes," he agreed, his voice rasping slightly. "But I think it could be even better."

Hermione swallowed nervously and took a deep breath. Severus glanced at her quickly, a dark frown still etched on his face. She took the garnet ring he had given her on her 18th birthday off the third finger of her right hand and still holding her breath, put it on the third finger of her left hand. "There," she said. "Now we're engaged." Then she let out her breath, feeling a bit shell shocked. It felt like she had just stepped over the edge of a cliff. She felt terrified and light headed with it but she's defeated fear with regard to her relationship with Severus before and she'd do it again. A memory of the shudder of fear that had torn through her frame on the moors that morning after Voldemort's defeat as Severus held her came back to her clearly.

Severus stared at her, his frown disappearing. "It doesn't feel any different," she said with a smile, relaxing slightly. She held up her left hand and wiggled her fingers at him. "There, all official." Colour flooded Severus' sharp cheekbones. He took the hand that was being wiggled at him and placed a kiss in its palm. Hermione's fingers caressed his face, so beloved to her. He lifted his lips from her palm and kissed her on the mouth.

"Mrs Hermione Snape," Hermione muttered when he lifted his mouth from hers. "That doesn't sound right. Mrs Hermione Granger-Snape? Mrs Hermione Snape-Granger? Argh! How about I just keep my own name for professional purposes?" she suggested.

Severus didn't appear to care one way or the other, as he simply proceeded to kiss her again.