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Disclaimer: I do not own or ever will, the rights and such to the Potter Universe. Please don't sue me, I'm poor. Thanks to alicat999, Neo-Queen Serenity, Tweetyiscool, Anarane Anwamane, Makalani Astral (more of Severus's thoughts will come).
Chapter 6: New Life
December was much more eventful. Hermione had discovered that shopping by herself was much easier than shopping with Ron. He couldn't understand why she needed certain items and she was tired of explaining herself to him. One particular day on her way to the market, she spotted luscious oranges imported from Florida where it was still warm. She bought four and vowed to make the most delicious orange and walnut scones anyone had enjoyed in many years. She continued to the market to buy the bread and other goods she was in desperate need of.
She tried to heed Ron's warnings about letting someone help her, but also felt determined to enjoy the freedom of shopping once more. She bought several loaves of bread, coriander for the fish she was planning on making that night for Henry's return from school, breakfast cereal, and some early infant items she knew she should've been stocking for months. She purchased nappies, formula in case she needed extra, and extra handkerchiefs for spit up. It made her feel like a mother to buy these things, as Henry was already seven when she was thrust into motherhood and she had never gotten the chance to buy infant items.
Upon her return home from the market, she realized she should've asked for someone to help her bring the bags home. It wasn't that she couldn't carry them comfortably, it was awkward with her belly and her arms were beginning to beg for relief. In one fell swoop, she dropped all five of the bags and swore quietly under her breath.
"Bugger, should've asked for help, stubborn old goat..." She said, trying to stuff the scattered items back into her bags.
"Are you in need of assistance, Madame Stuart?" Hermione heard from the pebbles in front of her. She didn't want it to be Severus Snape as she hadn't spoken to him since their last tea, but alas, fate was resigning to curse her.
"Yes, thank you, Master Snape." She replied, watching him stare at her as if he had never seen her before. He carefully picked up the heavier bags and left Hermione with the bread and baby bags. She almost wished she hadn't accepted his offer, as his strides were so large she hardly kept with him.
"You really should exercise more, Madame." He offered sarcastically. She huffed to herself and declined to comment to him.
"Why isn't Henry helping you with these things? Michael wrote just last week that he was returning to Hogsmeade." Severus asked, as she opened the back door to the kitchen.
"He isn't in yet. Harry is picking him up at King's Cross so I can get the house straightened and have my exercise." She quickly began putting the groceries away as if he weren't even there, but decided to be civil and offer him some tea.
"Would you like tea, Sir?" She asked, watching him stare at her as she moved from the refrigerator to the kettle. Hoping he wouldn't be disagreeable as he had been before.
"Yes, that would be agreeable." He replied, no feeling whatsoever. It made her a little uncomfortable to be in such close range to a former professor whom she hadn't really cared for. Sure she had always defended him against the boys and their unkind words, but she hadn't really grown attached to him over the years as she had with Remus Lupin and Minerva McGonagall. She poured water into the kettle and set it to boil on the range. As she moved from the perishable goods to the ones that belonged in the pantry she tried to think of something intelligent to say to Severus Snape.
"I read the paper you published on the basic guidelines for any potions classroom...they were quite informative." She stated walking from the pantry to the kitchen.
"That's very kind, it was simply something Albus...Albus Dumbledore asked me to write." She noted that his eyes had managed to avoid hers completely during the sentence.
"Henry is finding the new professor quite challenging, but I keep telling him that unless he pays attention and follows the rules, he'll never get along with any of the professors."
"Yes, well, some manage to make acquaintances of the professors even while being quite unruly." She laughed a bit at herself in the pantry, thinking and knowing he was speaking of herself and her comrades in arms, Harry and Ron.
"Do you know the new professor, Severus, Sir?" She asked finding his given name quite uncomfortable on her tongue.
"I know enough of him. I was asked to research and pick my replacement before you graduated; I hardly know how he teaches, though. Michael seems to think he is too lenient on some of the Hufflepuffs."
"How is Michael adjusting to Hogwarts?" She asked, hoping he didn't think she was trying to intrude.
"Well enough." She had pried. The loud scream of the tea made her jump a bit from her obvious distraction at Severus's words. She rushed to it quickly, but before she could remove the kettle from the water, it exploded steam and singed the hairs on her left arm.
"Bloody water." She yelled, moving the kettle from the range and placing it on the cooling rack. She went quickly to the fridge and dabbed mustard on burn.
"Mustard, Miss Granger?"
"Yes, mustard, Professor Snape, it cools the burn faster than any spell I can find." She replied with serpent tongue to his obvious misuse of her former name, making her think back to her days as a student and how he had been less than accommodating.
"Let me see the burn before you make it worse." He said, pulling her arm away from her body.
"It's fine, really. I've done it a thousand times."
"Yes, well perhaps someday you will learn to remove the kettle before it blows steam warm enough to burn your arm."
"That will be good enough, Sir." She said, trying to retrieve her arm from his grasp.
"Hold still, you insurable woman, it won't hurt." He pulled his wand from his robes and was about to cast a spell when she pulled away quickly.
"I can't use a spell, Sir." She said, turning towards the sink to run her arm under the water.
"It can't be any worse than killing the skin with the water. I am quite sure that the water is more painful."
"I have been advised not to use magic or allow myself to be the subject of any spells, if at all possible. So far, I have been very fortunate in finding other ways to solve things."
"I have never heard of healer actually advising someone in perfect health not to use magic. Preposterous." Severus eyed her arm one more time, then stepped back from the young woman knowing how equally stubborn and courageous she could be.
"Apparently, during the final stages, my magic could interfere with the process, and I don't want to complicate anything." She replied, wrapping some extra linen around her burn.
"That is simply preposterous! What is the name of the healer your are seeing, I will have to either speak with them or report them."
"When a muggle witch is with child, especially with the child of a wizard, the amount of magic that remains in the body is uncontrollable and therefore the child can be injured or killed due to any spell inflicted on the mother, Severus." He turned towards her face quickly, eyeing her body as if he had just learned she was pregnant. Because she certainly didn't look very pregnant. But this was what she had meant at tea when she spoke of her condition. He hadn't understood before. It all made sense now that he could remember all the little things she'd said, he thought, looking into her eyes from across the kitchen.
"Surely you aren't in critical stages yet."
"Six months."
"Have you been eating correctly? You look as though you've gained very little weight." He asked as she pulled her hair back into a bun haphazardly lying on her head.
"Yes, I eat well. I have gained ten pounds already since October."
"Indeed."
"Thank you very much for your help today. I fear I am becoming quite weak in everyday tasks. Ron warned me against going to market by myself, but I didn't head him. He will be very glad to know that you helped me, Severus, Sir."
"It was nothing, Madame, I was on my way home anyway." He bowed towards her and she knew he was going to leave. As he bowed, his dark hair fell like cotton against his collar, making Hermione think of his hair when she was in school and how greasy it had always looked. She also noticed that he was again wearing muggle-type clothing, a simple pair of black trousers and a dark hunter shirt that met at the collar like a priests'. She couldn't help but smile wondering where he had managed to buy such an outfit and how difficult he probably had been to the person who had tailored him.
"Mum! Where are you? I'm home." Hermione awoke from her imaginary thoughts and walked to the edge of the kitchen and let Henry know she was making tea.
"Good day, Madame." Severus said, opening the door and walking out towards his own home.
"Was Master Snape here?" Henry asked as the door closed behind the enigmatic man.
"Yes, he helped me home with my groceries today."
"Mum, you look so different." Henry hugged her tightly and then stepped back to take a look around the kitchen.
"Harry and Ron are waiting for us at the bookstore." Henry said, giving her another large hug. She looked out towards Severus's house and then let Henry go.
"We'll need to be going then." Hermione walked with Henry out of their front door and down a path she had grown quite accustomed to in her months at the house. She knew the turn of the cobblestone road once it met Gentry station as if she were blind.
"Did you have a nice trip home, Henry?" Hermione asked, her arm around the twelve year old.
"It was okay. I've invited Michael Snape to stay the night, if that's all right. He doesn't really want to be home today for some reason."
"That's fine. I am making a roast. When we get back home you'll have to prepare the guest room beside yours as Ron has been staying in the other one." She noted that Henry's face was filled with concern for his friend.
"Did he not say why he didn't want to be home tonight?" She asked, hoping to learn why her son suddenly seemed very solemn.
"He just said he didn't want to be home tonight." They were silent for the remainder of their journey to the bookstore. Hermione felt it was silly to press the matter further and would somehow ask Michael about it when he was at dinner.
"Ron and Harry have a surprise for you Mum. I wouldn't normally want to ruin a surprise, but I think this needs a bit of warning, considering." She observed another cautious look from Henry and then took a deep breath before entering the store. Holding Henry's hand, Hermione took one step into the store and then stopped in her tracks completely.
"What have you done?" Hermione asked, staring up towards the ceiling and all around the room. There were hundreds of pictures of she and Wallace. Baby pictures, their wedding pictures, pictures of Henry as a child, and also of Hermione's days at Hogwarts.
"This is your baby shower, Hermione. We thought it would be nice to include Wallace as much as possible." She turned to her best friends, tears in her eyes from the moment she saw the pictures, and walked to them quickly, not knowing that there were quite a few people in the room aside from them.
"You two are wonderful." She embraced them both and turned to other people in the room. Molly and Ginny Weasley were sitting together on a faded couch that looked like the one from her basement. Her mother and Wallace's were at the counter along with Sallie and Tonks.
"How did you all escape from hogwarts?" Hermione asked Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, and Pomona Sprout. They all smiled sweetly towards her and said that it was after all Christmas holidays. Ron led her to a chair where there were several gifts around her.
"We wanted to make sure you had a proper shower." Harry said, handing her a gift from he and Susan.
"This is all too much." She said, waving towards Sallie to come sit with her.
"Open your gifts, Hermione, so we can eat." Ron whispered in her ear.
"Oh, Harry, how lovely." She showed everyone the outfits.
"You can change the colour once you know what you are having, Veronica liked the one with the lioness especially." Harry added, watching Hermione open his other gift. An oak changing table with a terry cloth pad where the baby would lay. She shrank it back to the smaller size before opening Ron's gifts. He had found her a self-rocking chair and loads of nappies. Hermione went through the remainder of the gifts. Sallie and Harrison had given her the loveliest journal and quill set for writing about her child during crucial months and her own feelings as well.
"You all have given me such lovely things. I can hardly thank you enough." She stood and went around to all of the ladies in the room, hugging them and thanking them. She gave Harry and Ron hugs as well.
"When did you all do this?" She asked, noticing a rather devilish look on Ron's face.
"Let's just say we had a little help from your neighbour." Harry said.
"What?"
"We asked Snape to follow you to the store and make sure your grocery bags fell. He actually seemed keen on the idea to give us time. We didn't tell him why we needed the time in case he accidentally on purpose told you." Ron answered, smiling rather proudly towards her.
"He did it on purpose." Hermione stated, feeling her arm burn again where the kettles' steam had exploded.
"It was only to keep you busy, Hermione." Harry added, noticing that she wasn't very pleased. He took her hand in his and become aware of the burn on her arm.
"How did you do this, Hermione?"
"Making tea today. When I got the groceries home, I offered tea to Severus and then lost my thoughts when I was taking the kettle from the range." Harry accessed the burn and then turned to Ron.
"We didn't mean to get you burned, Hermione." She giggled at his honest concern for her welfare and then recovered her hand from his.
"You have made me very happy, boys." She walked to Henry and put her arm around his shoulders, a feet that was becoming harder due to his increasing height.
"Do you like your siblings things?" She asked, as they looked towards a picture of Wallace's youth.
"Yes, it was all very nice."
"Your father would've loved to have been here. " They stood together for another five minutes or so before Henry faced her abruptly. She looked at one particular picture of she and Wallace when she was fresh out of Hogwarts. She had her school robes on and he was wearing his own working robes of the darkest blue she'd ever seen. His blonde hair and hazel eyes seemed to glow against the dark robes.
"I want to come home when the baby is born, Mum, even if there is no holiday. I am the man of the house now, and I want to be there."
"Of course, Henry, I'll write to Dumbledore." Hermione answered Henry and then went to talk with her mother about the progress of the pregnancy. Her Mum always seemed worried that she wasn't taking care of herself, but Hermione knew she was pleased all the same. She noticed also, that her mother seemed quite withdrawn. She'd spoken to Wilmette, Wallace's mother, but no one else. Hermione hoped she would enjoy the socializing, but then knew her mother didn't want to enjoy the party.
After socializing and thanking everyone for their gifts, Hermione beckoned Ron to her side.
"I am getting a little tired, Ron, I think it's time for me to head home." Ron nodded and floated towards Harry and gathered some of the gifts together.
"Harry and I are going to take Henry and Michael to Hogsmeade for a bit. Henry wants to look at brooms. I am going to eat with some friends tonight, so don't expect me." Hermione hugged Ron tightly and waved as the majority of the people exited the store.
"Sallie, we're just going to close early tonight. Will you remind Severus that Michael will be with us?" Sallie nodded, looking solemn for a moment as she finished recording the receipts for the day.
"I will make sure to do so." Sallie grabbed her handbag and walked with Hermione towards Sedna Station. It was a quiet walk, one Hermione wished would be less so, yet was comfortable. Before walking towards her own house, Hermione hugged Sallie and thanked her for the wonderful gifts.
"Have a good evening, Sallie." Hermione said politely as they came upon the walkway to Snape Manor.
"Thank you Hermione." Sallie turned towards the gate, but paused looking towards her. She smiled softly and then opened the tall, rod iron gate and continued on her own lonely path.
Finally at her kitchen table, Hermione gulped back a tall glass of milk and got ready for the days exercise. She was exhausted, but needed the exercise to release the day's stress. She quickly walked up the long stairwell and into her bedroom. Nothing much had changed in the room. It was still odd for her to want to decorate such a room. A room she dictated as empty without her husband.
After changing into a modified leotard and loose cotton pants, she headed back downstairs to stretch and get motivated. The music she had chosen was light and then intense like the feelings she felt when she first danced before an audience. It had been when she was ten. Her dance instructor was a true ballerina and wasn't afraid to boast of it; yet Hermione was humbled by her grace. In the years at Hogwarts, she had given dance up, knowing it would interfere with her studies. She became a clumsy and awkward girl, nothing like the poised and confident one she had been in her muggle life.
After stretching and warming up, she used her wand to turn the music louder and began to dance in slow, wide circles around her large den. The song was one she had heard many times in her youth. A self-composed instrumental by her late father. There were several parts in the song where she could swear her fathers voice was present. As the music got faster she twirled and threw her arms at her side, taking simple jumps across the room. As the music slowed, she danced in place, feeling her entire body pleading for release. The music engulfed her and made her body move so quickly that she felt as though she was flying. She stopped briefly to pull her long hair from her face and then resumed her dancing for about thirty minutes. She was unaware of the room around her, the fact that Henry and Michael would be returning soon and that she would have to be the same responsible and reliable Mum she had always been. Before she had time to catch her breath, she heard a knock at the door that sounded very harsh and quick.
"Hold on a sec." She quieted the music and towelled her face, realizing there was more than sweat there.
this is the end of the first part of this chapter.
to answer a few questions:
Severus resigned as potions master the summer after Hermione, Ron, and Harry graduated school. His niece and nephews came to live with him two years later after the fall of voldemort. Draco Malfoy, Severus' brother and sister-in-law, and countless others were killed. that will be explained further into the story. thanks for reading, the second part will be up shortly.
