Okay, I'm merciful. I'm not waiting a full week to update. I also want to apologize, I meant to thank everyone for their wonderful words of praise last time, but it was so late when I posted and I was so exhausted that I just forgot. Um, not much. Thanks everyone!! Please review.

Not mine.

Ch. 8- One is Silver and the Other's Gold

Five hours later Severus stumbled exhausted to his quarters to find Hermione curled up on his couch reading. "What are you doing here?" he asked, a bit more harshly than he intended.

"I haven't been anywhere else lately. I didn't think you'd mind so much," Hermione replied stiffly, standing up.

Severus growled and ran a hand through his hair. "That's not what I meant."

"Isn't it? Since you don't seem to want me here, I'll just leave." Hermione walked out so abruptly that she left Severus standing there befuddled.

"Damn it, it's not what I meant," he muttered to himself, frustrated. Life was just determined to not let anything go right.

Hermione knew that she'd overreacted as she walked down one of the dungeon's many corridors. She loathed climbing the stairs up to her private rooms. She had to hide several times from Slytherins returning from dinner. Finally, too tired to keep walking she settled herself in a shadowed nook to rest. And was nearly scared out of her mind when someone else slipped in a few minutes later.

Draco also jumped. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Hermione had a horrible sense of déjà vu. "I'll leave," she said, struggling to get to her feet.

"No, you don't have to go. I just didn't expect anyone to be here. It's always empty," Draco reassured, helping her to stand. "Why are you here?"

"I had a fight with Professor Snape and really don't want to go up more stairs."

Draco looked at her, contemplating. She had kept his secret, and she looked just about done in. "Come with me. You can stay in my room tonight or until you feel better." At her skeptical look, he raised his hands defensively. "I'll be on my couch, I promise."

She nodded her assent. Making sure there was no one around, he led her to his private rooms he got by being Head Boy. Taking down his wards and saying his password, he brought her inside. "Make yourself at home. The sheets are fresh, feel free to go to sleep whenever you want." He was headed for his desk when her hand on his arm stopped him.

He turned to her, eyes questioning. "Thank you, Draco. You're nice when no one else is around," she said with a weary smile, rubbing her rounded stomach absently. Noticing him following her motion with his eyes, she raised an eyebrow in query.

"What does it feel like?" he asked earnestly.

"Feel for yourself," she took his hand and placed it there. Draco jumped when he felt the baby kick but didn't pull away. "He's been really active today."

"That's great, Hermione. I've always liked babies, though not many people let me near them anymore," Draco informed her.

"That's 'cause you act all evil and creepy most of the time. As long as you behave, you're welcome around mine anytime."

Draco's eyes lit up at her offer. "So . . . friends, outside of public view for now?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"Friends," she replied, shaking on it. "Now, I think I'm going to bed."

"Sure thing, just let me get something out from under it," Draco told her. He crawled halfway under the bed and came out with a blanket and a pillow.

"You've done this before haven't you?" Hermione asked, surprised.

Draco's cheeks pinked a little. "A few times," he admitted. He turned his back on her to pull back the covers of his bed. Only then did he continue, "Blaise has a sister, a sixth year like your friend Ginny. Sometimes he . . . beats on her, and now that I have a room of my own, I let her stay here to escape or recover."

Hermione climbed in the bed. "Ginny said there is something off with Kori Zambini. I've tried talking to her, but she's as closed mouth as they come."

"Of course, she's a Slytherin. Anyway, she's a little shy and ashamed about her fear of her brother." He was at his desk now, and suddenly seemed to realize what he was telling her. "Please never breathe a word of this to anyone especially her, okay?"

"I promise, Draco. Good night." She rolled over and was asleep that fast.

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Hermione slept until ten the next morning, but Draco was still asleep, so she didn't feel too bad about that. She did feel bad about what she'd done to Severus yesterday. She got up quietly and freshened up the best she could, and then scrawled a thank you note to Draco.

Nervously, she went to Severus's statue and knocked. A minute went by before the statue stepped aside and Severus appeared. "Hermione? What are-" he clamped his mouth shut, remembering what happened the last time he'd asked that question.

Her cheeks burned and she looked at the ground. In a small voice, she said, "I came to apologize, Severus. I'm sorry for yesterday, both at the meeting and afterwards."

"Come in," he requested. When Hermione had complied, he drew her into his arms. "I'm sorry as well."

Hermione laid her head on his shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry for," he felt her say.

"But I do, luv. I snapped and set you off." He place a gentle kiss on her hair.

"I blame it on Percy, the great pompous ass that he is," she said, voice harsher than he'd ever heard.

"Not Melantha?"

"Well, I'd blame her, but I promised you that I'd give her another chance." She looked up at him with a smile on her face.

He kissed her softly. "I love you, Hermione Granger. I never thought that I'd say those words to anyone, or hear them back. What do you see in me? I'm ugly and have a vile temper and am hated by most."

"You're not handsome in a conventional sense, I'll admit, but you are certainly not ugly. I find you to be handsome even if nobody else does. As for your temper, I have one as well, and you certainly keep a better hold on yours than I do. And while some people hate you, others don't. No one is loved by all, not even the famous Harry Potter," Hermione said, honesty and love showing out of her eyes.

This time he kissed her fiercely and she responded in kind. They were locked in an embrace until they heard someone knocking at the statue. "Damn interloper," Severus growled but went to answer.

It was Draco. Severus looked at him warily but let him in. He wasn't sure which side his godson was on. "Morning, Severus, Hermione," Draco greeted cautiously.

"Good morning, Draco," Hermione chirped. Severus gawked at her for a moment; he'd never heard her sound like that before.

"What do you want, Draco?" Severus asked tersely.

"Before I say, I need to ask Hermione if I should," Draco replied evasively.

"Go ahead, tell him. He'll figure it out soon enough, and you may need his support and advice," Hermione said, not revealing anything.

Severus was looking back and forth between the two with narrowed eyes, so Draco spoke quickly, accepting her recommendations without question. "I'm working for Dumbledore because I don't want to be like my father, so I'm spying in Slytherin and when I'm at home and giving my letters from home to him," he said it all in one breath.

Severus stared at him for a minute and then told him in a quiet voice, "I'm proud of you, Draco. You've made a good choice, though it is a dangerous path to take."

"He knows," Hermione told him, running her thumb over the faint scar in Draco's eyebrow.

"How do you know about all of this, Hermione?" Severus asked suddenly, a hint of dangerous silk in his voice.

She pushed Draco onto the couch and flopped into her customary chair. "While you were taking a nap, my love, Draco and Blaise Zambini," she made the name sound like a curse, "Dueled in the Serpent's Den, and I dealt with it. Afterwards, Dumbledore disclosed something to Draco in front of me that let me in on their little secret."

"Wonder what the old man has up his sleeve now?" Severus mused aloud.

"Who knows?" Draco and Hermione replied at the same time.

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Several days later Hermione was in the library doing homework when she heard Draco asking Madam Pince for a book Hermione had on the table in front of her. He went in the direction that the old librarian pointed him. From her hidden nook she hissed at him. "Draco! Pssst! Draco!"

He looked around wildly, a bit alarmed. Gritting her teeth in exasperation, she stuck her head through what appeared to be a solid wall from the outside. "Hermione! What is your head doing in a wall?" Draco whispered fiercely, clutching his chest.

Hermione reached out and grabbed him, pulling him inside. "What is this place?" he asked, looking at the well-lit little room furnished with comfortable chairs and a table.

"A study nook I stumbled on a few years ago. Very few people know about it."

"Neat," Draco rendered his verdict.

"Here's the book you asked Madam Pince for. Stay here with it and I'll share," she told him, holding up the required text.

He grabbed it and held it above his head. "Why should I share it?" he teased.

"Book-napper!" she shrieked, trying to get it back.

It took awhile for them to calm down before they set in to work. Long after they'd finished their work, though, they stayed in the nook discussing various Transfiguration spells and their theories.

Harry and Ron found her and Draco in this animated discussion. Draco was making a point with wild gestures when he spotted the two out of the corner of his eye. He grabbed his wand and whirled where he was sitting, nearly toppling his chair over. When he saw who it was, Draco lowered the wand but didn't put it down.

Harry and Ron, though, looked ready to attack. "Calm down, calm down, everyone!" Hermione got between her friends. Harry mimicked Draco with his wand but Ron tried to push past her.

Draco snarled and leapt forward, pushing Ron back physically. "Don't do that, Weasley, you could hurt her!"

Harry steadied Hermione, who had stumbled. "Ron, stop it!" Hermione shouted.

"What are you doing here with the ferret, 'Mione?" Ron angrily demanded to know.

"The ferret happens to be my friend now, Ron, just like you and Harry," she snapped.

"Great, Weasley, she's been trying to find a nickname for me. You just handed her one on a silver platter," Draco groaned and flopped back into his chair.

This action surprised Ron. He stopped struggling to stare at Draco. Harry took the opportunity to look Hermione straight in the eye. "Can you trust him?" he asked simply.

"I trust him with my babies' lives," she swore on that which is most precious to her.

It was all the reassurance that Harry, and surprisingly Ron, needed. "Then welcome to the group," Harry greeted, extending his hand.

Draco shook in, looking faintly pleased, and then a look of alarm came over his features. "None of you must tell," he said, panicked. "No one else must know."

Hermione gently pushed him back into his seat. "Believe it or not, Draco, we do know how to keep secrets, even if we are Gryffindors." Her voice was soft and she ran her thumb over his scar again, in what was becoming her special friendly caress for him. For Harry, it was a kiss on the cheek. For Ron, it was a pat on the cheek and ruffling the hair. To the duo, this showed that Hermione was serious about Draco.

It was Ron who spoke first. "Yes, don't worry, mate, we've got your back." He clapped Draco on the shoulder. I can't believe I'm saying this he thought. Harry seconded him.

Draco was shocked; his bitter arch-enemies were promising to, in most respects, save his life. Harry seemed to sense his confusion. "As cliché as it may sound, Malfoy, any friend of Hermione's is also one of ours," he told him.

The group sat down and started to talk. At times, the conversation did become stilted, and occasionally tempers did break out, but the trio was well on its way to becoming a quadruple.

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It was a week or so later before Hermione felt comfortable enough to ask Draco a question that had been nagging at her for quite awhile. "Draco, why aren't you Apprenticed to anyone? I mean, you're Head Boy and everything."

"Well," Draco deliberated. "I only applied for Potions Apprentice and you got that."

"I know you like Potions, but you're even better at Transfiguration. Why didn't you apply for that too?" Hermione questioned.

"I figured that Professor McGonagall wouldn't even consider me, so I didn't bother. Besides, my father wouldn't like it."

Hermione suddenly got a sly look on her face. "But he might like it if . . . well, if you told him you were trying to spy on her."

Draco still looked skeptical. "But what about McGonagall?"

"Severus or Dumbledore will vouch for you if my word isn't enough. Once she is allowed to get to know the real you, I'm sure everything will be fine."

Draco continued to be pessimistic until a week later, when he became, as promised, Minerva McGonagall's Apprentice.

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Ever since he had found out that it was very possible that Hermione was going to have twins, Severus had been researching. He was as sure as he could be that her assailant was a Deatheater. He knew from Hermione that she had no history of twins on either side of her bloodline, so he was looking into the ancestry of all known Deatheaters, only to come up with dismaying figures. The Malfoys had twins in their tree only a generation back, as did the Lestranges, Notts, and the MacNairs. Of course, there was always the Weasleys, who had twins in every generation for 5 generations.

He narrowed down the list to those who had known residences in Italy, where Hermione had vacationed. There were now the Malfoys, the Lestranges, and, of course, the Weasleys from the visit to the Burrow.

He discussed the possibilities with Hermione, but nothing rang a bell in her head, so they were back to square one, and frankly, she didn't care. She had Severus and that was all that mattered.

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Hurrah to Odessaspacey1, my 200th reviewer!! Thanks ever so much! Anarane Anwamane- Glad it touches on some reality! Innogen- Thanks, I strive for reality. Mademoiselle Morte- Thanks, glad you liked it!