MARRYING SNAPE- mypseudonym

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Only Snape's family is mine and I'd be willing to share them with anyone.

AN: Thanks for the great reviews. I told you guys it would be Tuesday before I got an update up here. I thought it would be Tuesday morning, but my sister went into work much later than she normally does. I only post when no one is around. Anyway, you guys are still getting your Tuesday update, this chapter in particular took at bit of work in the post-production stages, so I hope you like it as much as the others.

Chapter 4

Late Thursday night, Hermione lay awake in her bed. She had tried to sleep, but the excitement of the next day was too much for her, it was worse than Christmas Eve to a small child. She'd passed the time playing various scenarios in her head. For instance, what would she say to him when they met? What would he say to her? What would they do before bed? Would they kiss? What was she going to wear? All of these thoughts kept floating around in Hermione's head. All of a sudden, the atom bomb of thoughts struck Hermione so hard that she gasped for breath.

"Ginny. Ginny." She whispered urgently, shaking her sleeping friend. The thought was so overpowering that Hermione couldn't even begin to deal with it alone.

"Hermione? What's the matter?" Ginny whispered groggily

"My hair. He's not seen my hair. What if he decides he doesn't like me because of this untamable shrub I wear on my head?" Hermione whispered, nearly in tears.

"If you're that afraid of it, braid your hair before you go, so he doesn't meet your hair right off the bat. Then, if you need to wear it down later, put some Sleak Easy's in it." Ginny whispered.

"Ginny, that's so simple it's brilliant. What would I ever do without you?" Hermione whispered, hugging her best gal pal.

"You'd have frizzy hair and a terrified fiancé. Now go to bed or at least leave me alone, because I'm tired." Ginny whispered. Hermione smiled at her before scurrying out of the room just as quickly as she scurried in.

When Hermione finished with her classes on Friday, she was both excited and nervous. She packed a couple of Muggle outfits to take with her, as well as one robe. She realized that she didn't have much there, as they wore uniforms most of the time at school. Hermione made a mental note to owl her parents and ask them to send her more clothes. With everything shrunken to fit in her school bag and a book for her free time, Hermione left the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ron had agreed at lunch to collect her issues of the Daily Prophet for her and leave them in her room, so she didn't have to worry about that. Down in Severus' quarters, Hermione realized how dreadfully early she was. He still had another class to teach. She settled into one of the chairs in the living room and opened her book. Professor Snape walked into the room when it seemed to Hermione that no time had passed. To the clock, the situation was quite the opposite. He was still early, but much less early than she had been.

"You're early." She noted, looking up from her book.

"Yes, well, those dunderheads were getting on my last nerves, so I sent them away early with a rather large essay to ruin their weekend." he said gruffly, picking up a bag that she hadn't notice before. Professor Snape took a deep breath and transformed into Severus, her much more friendly future brother-in-law. Hermione was glad to see this, for she dreaded traveling with the utter git that was Professor Snape.

"Are you excited?" he asked her quietly.

"I think so." she responded.

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to get used to the place and get settled in before you meet Alex. It's only 1 o'clock now and he doesn't get off work until 6, 5 at the earliest." Severus said. Hermione was relieved to hear this, she didn't really want to meet him and get used to a new place all at the same time. She also wanted time to make sure that the long braid cascading down her back was tight and orderly. It had taken her several tries to get it as presentable as it was. The first time it just looked like a large woven Brillo pad.

"Hermione. Hermione. Wake up Hermione!" Severus prodded. Hermione shook herself loose from her thoughts.

"Sorry, what did you say?" she asked, embarrassed to be caught off guard.

"I asked if you were ready to leave?" he stated, smiling knowingly at her.

"Oh, sure, let's go." She said, tucking her book back into her bag and following Severus out. She was glad that their conversation hadn't delayed the pair's departure until the class change. She didn't really need the whole school to see her following the Potions Master out of the castle.

The odd pair walked silently to the end of the No-Apparation Zone, where Severus Apparated them to the walk leading to Snape Manor. As they trudged up the lawn, the large white house revealed itself to Hermione. It looked old and stodgy, and she found herself desperately hoping that its inhabitants weren't the same way.

Severus held open the front door, allowing Hermione into the house several seconds before himself. Hermione stepped into a large formal foyer that would have been terrifyingly imposing if not for the little boy pushing a toy train about in the floor. He looked up curiously at Hermione, but his eyes grew huge as Severus stepped in behind her.

"Daddy! Daddy!" he yelled as he ran to the door. Severus scooped him up and threw him into the air with practiced ease.

"Hi champ! Can you say hello to Hermione? She's going to be visiting this weekend." He said gently, settling the small boy on his arm. The little boy gazed at her curiously and waved. Hermione waved back at him, which cause him to grin furiously.

"Hermione, this is Morgan, my youngest." Severus said as means of an introduction. Morgan responded by stretching out and reaching for Hermione. She took him carefully, and the boy settled comfortably on her hip after giving her a big wet kiss on the cheek. "It seems you've made a friend. Well, Morgan is a good guy to have on your side. Morgan, where are Mummy and Grandmum?" Severus asked. Morgan pointed down the hall.

As if on cue, a curvaceous woman with her hair in a messy bun stepped into the room. She was looking for something low to the ground, so she didn't even notice them standing on the other end of the room.

"Morgan. It's time to go get cleaned up for Daddy. This isn't a good time to hide from Mummy; she's already running late." The woman sang tiredly.

"He doesn't look too dirty to me." Severus said, startling the woman.

"Severus! You're here early!" she squeaked, quickly closing the distance between them and kissing the professor. Hermione stood there with the baby and tried her best not to look uncomfortable.

"There's my baby!" she said dramatically, taking a giggling Morgan from Hermione. "You must be Hermione. I'm Julia, Severus' wife. I see you've already made friends with Morgan. Well, let me show you to your room so that you can get settled in before you meet the family." She took Hermione in her free hand and led the girl up the stairs. She set Morgan down partway down the hall and told him to go see what his siblings were up to. They watched him toddle down the hall in what Hermione assumed was the correct direction before moving on.

"This is the rose room." she explained, opening one cream-colored door. "Alex requested that I get to you first and set you up in here. Annick would have put you in the lavender room or something, but this room is Alex's favorite. You can leave anything you want in here, because this will be your room in the house until you and Alex marry. Don't worry about the security, I've checked it thoroughly to be sure Alex didn't do anything fishy and warded it so that he can't. Sorry to be so gruff and short with you earlier, but it's been a long week and the last thing I need is to have Alex mad at me." Julia explained, smiling pleasantly.

"It's no problem. Do you have time to stay and chat for a bit while I unpack?" Hermione asked, slightly desperate for the company of a mature woman.

"Of course! I'm in a better position to hear the kids here anyway." She said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her. Hermione turned to get her first glimpse of her room.

The rose room was beautiful, if words could even describe its beauty. The walls were painted in a very light shade of pink. All of the furniture in the room was wooden, chestnut to be precise. The large bed was covered in white bedding with pink accents. She had a private bathroom attached to her room. Two dozen roses spilled from a glass vase resting on top of her dresser drawers. She didn't have to think hard to know that they were from Alex. She set down her bag and began to pull the clothing and other personal items out, putting them in their appropriate places in a couple of the drawers and on top of the vanity.

"I bet I know why Alex likes this room so much." Julia said excitedly, rushing to a set of doors previously unnoticed by Hermione. These doors were thinner, with fabric in the middle. Julia led Hermione out onto a private balcony that overlooked the most beautiful rose garden she'd ever seen. "This is Alex's personal rose garden, no doubt the source of the roses on your dresser. Probably the only room with a better view is Alex's own room" Julia explained.

"It's beautiful." Hermione said, struggling to find the right words. They stared at the garden a few minutes more before they heard a ruckus from downstairs.

AN: Sorry only a slight cliffhanger. As penitence for leaving you like this, I wrote two more chapters this weekend, as well as determining where the chapter lines should be. I'm writing in Chapter 13 right now, to give you an estimate. The next chapter will probably be up sometime tomorrow.