"Pregnant?" Hermione echoed.
"Do I have to repeat myself again?" he asked, wearily. Inside he was a mass of nerves. Of course there was a very good chance that the child wasn't his – she did have a boyfriend after all. But there was a chance…
"Is the baby okay? After the curse and… the draining spell?" Her voice was almost shy and he wondered why.
"The baby is fine, yes." God, why didn't he just come out with it and ask her? Mind you, would she even know? Would there have been more than a few days in between what happened between them and…
He didn't finish the thought; the idea of Weasley touching her body sent a stab of acute emotion through his chest. God, was that jealousy he was feeling?
He cleared his throat. "Poppy ran all the relevant tests as soon as she realised. You are about seven weeks."
"It can't be that many weeks." Her face showed complete confusion. "They must have made a mistake with the date."
"How many weeks along do you think you are, Miss Granger?"
She flushed, her cheeks staining pink and making her look pretty, despite the tangled hair and unnaturally pale skin.
"Four or five weeks," Hermione said, refusing to look into his eyes.
"Incredible. The great Hermione Granger doesn't know everything," he said, realizing that when he was nervous, he was more biting. "They work out the age of the foetus from the first day of your last menstrual cycle, Miss Granger. Although Poppy used other methods, I think that if you count back…"
He watched her counting back in her head, before nodding in realization.
"Do you know when you might have conceived?" His voice sounded different and he coughed to clear his throat, before taking a deep breath. He didn't get this nervous when discussing his own death with the Dark Lord, why was he so scared to ask one of his students a question?
She didn't answer him, instead she peered at him looked scared and embarrassed and nervous and he wasn't sure what to do to help. He could just leave and give her some space to think, but he needed to know.
"Hermione…" Severus used her first name, and hoped she hadn't heard the tremor in his voice. "Do you know who's the baby is?"
Hermione closed her eyes for a good thirty seconds, before looking up at him, a look of trepidation on her face.
"Yes," Hermione said, her eyes almost pleading with his, but he didn't know what she wanted.
"There is no doubt?" Severus asked, needing to be sure.
"No, none."
"The baby is… mine?" As he said it, the words seemed to stick in his throat. He was a father? He'd had five days to get used to the possibility, but still the knowledge that he had been right seemed to knock him for six.
Hermione took a deep breath and said quietly, "I know you don't like children. This is the last thing you need in your life and it will cause so many different problems, but…"
She took another deep breath. "I'm not getting rid of this child, Professor."
Severus closed his eyes for a moment. A wave of relief flowed through him and he realized that all the questions he'd been asking himself about what he really wanted had just been answered in that one strong surge of emotion. He didn't know what he wanted regarding Hermione, but he did know that he wanted this child; his child; to live.
"I didn't think you would," Severus said, untruthfully. God, he wanted to say so much more but didn't know how Hermione would react to anything.
"But I don't think that this should be an end to your studies," he said instead.
Hermione's eyes widened as she took in exactly what keeping this baby would mean. She had applied to some of the best Wizarding universities in the world and now she wouldn't be able to go.
"Albus or myself can write a letter, deferring your attendance for a year or two if you wish?"
His words were reassuring, making her relax against the pillows again. He'd somehow managed to work out what she had been panicking about and had found the right way to make her forget about it for the time being.
A sudden thought hit her and she regarded him with suspicion for what seemed to Severus like an eternity.
Severus stared back, uncomfortable with the sudden scrutiny and the look upon her face.
"What?" he asked, defensively. "Stop staring at me, girl."
"Do you use Legilimency on me?" she asked him, frowning.
Severus rolled his eyes. "Miss Granger, not only would it be morally wrong to do that, it would also be bloody exhausting being inside what passes for your mind."
"You've never used it on me? Ever?" She still looked incredibly suspicious. There was definitely some Slytherin in the girl, he decided.
"Never," he said. He had never needed to, being an expert at reading people without it. Although admittedly Hermione was harder to read than most, and he had never had cause to try until bloody Draco Malfoy had forced them to work together.
"Rest assured that I have not ventured into your mind. I'm not sure I would brave enough to do so. I may never recover." Severus' tone was dry. Hermione looked at his face and was sure she spied a slight turning up at the corners of his mouth.
"You face Voldemort on a weekly basis, yet you are frightened to venture into my mind?" She said, in a pretend offended voice. "I'm quite impressed with myself."
"The Dark Lord isn't a hormonal, teenaged girl."
Hermione smiled at him, almost erasing the traces of stress and exhaustion from her face, but only almost. Her smile changed to a look of realization, which quickly turned to disappointment as she worked something out in her head. Severus waited patiently for her to get round to giving him an explanation.
"My birthday!" she exclaimed miserably. "I slept through my eighteenth birthday!"
"I was made aware of that, yes," Severus said, inwardly cringing as he remembered the youngest two Weasleys, Potter and a couple of others sitting around her bed, brightly coloured paper hats on and holding party blowers. They'd sung happy birthday to her and been impossibly noisy. They'd even brought her a birthday cake in the shape of a giant book – Hogwarts, A History had been the title, if Severus remembered correctly.
Her friends had visited every day, even though no one had actually known if Hermione would ever wake up. Severus had researched and found only two other cases of a pregnant girl surviving that spell and only one of the girls had ever woken up.
Severus had shocked every member of staff by sitting by Hermione's bedside every minute that he wasn't teaching classes. He ate his dinners with her and read passages to her from the books he was already reading. He even marked essays next to her, occasionally ranting to Hermione about how incredibly dim various students were. He even slept in the incredibly uncomfortable chair next to her bed, refusing to move when Poppy insisted he should be resting to recover fully.
He had known he hadn't needed to rest and was very aware that the reason for that lay in the girl lying in the bed next to him, pale and defenceless. He felt so guilty that his chest hurt and staying by her side, researching her condition was the only way he knew to help her.
Half way through the second night he spent in the torture device disguised as a chair, Poppy transfigured the hard, plastic chair into a small camp bed for him to sleep on. When visitors came, he slinked off into the shadows so they wouldn't see him, never far from her bedside unless teaching took him away.
When he had woken up to see Hermione linked to him, her wand grasped between their palms, he had known immediately what the incredibly brave and misguided child was doing. He had tried to pry her hand away, but hadn't succeeded. Albus had finally broken his way through the barrier, but by then it was too late and Hermione's body had crumpled to the floor, the spell no longer keeping her upright.
Severus had sat up in bed, ignoring the stabbing pains running through his body from his still unhealed injuries. He had looked at the girl on the floor, completely drained of magic and life.
She had given her life for him. For him! If he hadn't been worth her caring words, he certainly wasn't worth sacrificing her life. She couldn't possibly care for him that much?
He had pulled himself out of bed and had dropped to his knees beside her, leaning forward to pull her half onto his lap, cradling her head in his arms.
"What have you done?" he had whispered, pushing her hair back from her face.
Tears had dripped onto her face without him even feeling them coming. He realized then that this foolish, foolish girl had really cared. She had given her life for him and she could have been so much.
He was oblivious to anyone or anything else, as he held her in his arms, rocking her gently. It was then that he noticed the rise and fall of her chest. No one had checked to see if she was still breathing because everyone in the room knew that no one could possibly survive the spell.
Minerva had immediately gone to the library to scour the stacks for any explanation of what could have happened. Poppy had fussed over Hermione, performing spells and injecting healing potions. She had tried to lift her from Severus' grasp, but he had muttered a threat to Poppy in such a tone that she had stared at him in shock for a moment, before backing off to see if the spells and draughts would take effect.
When Minerva came bursting through the door into the small room, clutching a large, dusty book in her hands, Severus hadn't wanted to let go of Hermione to go and crowd around it, like the other professors and Poppy were doing. Hermione was still alive. There was still hope that she could come out of this and be okay and he wasn't ready to let go of her.
Until he heard Poppy gasp, "Pregnant? Hermione? My God, she can't be."
He had lifted Hermione onto the bed then; the same bed he had been occupying minutes earlier; ignoring Poppy who had suddenly realized he was out of bed and was doing her very best to irritate him back into it, having quickly recovered from his threat. She was too used to him, Severus realized. He'd have to try harder to intimidate her next time.
He had reached for the book, pulling it out of Minerva's hands, his stomach turning over as he read the words then re-read them over and over again.
"Advante Corporium was used frequently in Japan as a way to revive fatally injured troops. A mediator is usually needed for the Advante Corporium not to be deadly to the person giving their life force, but a Japanese General discovered by accident that pregnant women almost always survived the spell; although many never woke up from the magic induced coma."
There had been another few paragraphs about some battle the General had won with the aid of pregnant women, willing to risk their lives for the cause, but Severus hadn't cared enough to read the rest.
Poppy had performed a scanning spell, quickly finding the tiny, kidney bean shaped foetus and magnifying to check it. He watched, his heart hammering in his chest, just as the tiny creature's heart was beating in what would very soon be its chest, but now looked nothing like a human body. He could actually see it beating, taking up a good part of the tiny creature's body. It was alive. And it was… was it his?
Albus had put his hand on Severus' shoulder as he had stared at Hermione's abdomen in part terror, part awe. Severus realized that Albus was the only person in the room who realized that this tiny, tiny creature was in fact very possibly his; a possibility he realized as soon as Poppy had worked out the age of the foetus.
He hadn't known what to think that night and instead busied himself brewing various potions to keep the baby and Hermione healthy while Hermione continued to stay in the spell induced coma.
Of course, Albus had tried to talk to him about the situation. He'd said something not very cryptic about how the baby had saved Hermione's life; maybe it would save his too. Severus had given Albus a deadly glare, before turning and completely ignoring him, although he had been almost desperate to ask Albus if the baby was definitely his. Albus of course, knew everything else – he should know that.
Instead he had waited, hoping and praying Hermione would wake up. He'd watched her as she slept her coma induced sleep, his gaze occasionally straying to her still completely flat stomach, wondering if by some miracle she had conceived his baby on that night.
Which is what took him to where he was at the moment, having some inane conversation about how Hermione had slept through her bloody birthday.
"It wasn't your eighteenth birthday anyway," he pointed out. "Thanks to that two years of time turner use, you are probably nearer to nineteen or twenty."
Although why Albus ever gave her that bloody thing to use, he'd never know. She could have done any sort of ridiculous thing with it.
Rescuing Sirius Black, for example, he thought glowering.
Hermione scrunched her nose up. "At first, I kept notes on how many extra hours I'd acquired and added them to my age," she explained to him. "Except it became so confusing, I gave up."
"If you're still using it, you'll be older than Dumbledore soon," a voice pointed out from behind them. "You'll start getting wrinkles any day now…"
"Not funny Harry," Hermione said, in a mock stern tone, immediately recognizing the voice as Harry made his way over to the bed. Then she reached up to pull him down for a hug.
"I can't believe you're awake! Does everyone else know? I was just coming up to check on you. Someone should have told me." Harry was beaming, obviously incredibly happy to see his friend awake again.
Severus got to his feet, feeling uncomfortable, but trying not to show it.
"I'll leave you to your visitor," he said, feeling too overwhelmed to think of a way to insult Harry before he left.
Baby. A baby. His baby. God, he needed a drink of something strong.
"Wait," Hermione said to him, reaching out to grab his wrist to stop him leaving. "Harry, can you go and inform Madame Pomfrey that I'm awake please?"
Harry got up, giving Severus a suspicious look, but going to find the Medi-Witch anyway.
"You do realise that Madame Pomfrey already knows you're awake, don't you?" Severus said, his eyebrow raised. "She was the one who gave me the cup of water for you when she saw you stirring."
"I figured," Hermione said, looking vaguely guilty. "Can I actually drink something now? I'm so thirsty."
"I'm afraid not," Severus said, wondering whether to offer her more water on his fingers.
Her gaze was fixed on the cup and he had a sudden suspicion that she was thinking of 'Accio-ing' it to her, before he could stop her. He dipped two fingers into the water and lifted them to her mouth, aware that she was together enough to be doing this herself now. But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to care.
As she opened her mouth again, letting him slide his fingers into her mouth, he bit back a groan. She sucked every drop of water away from his fingers and as he started to remove his fingers from her mouth, she took hold of his wrist, stopping him.
"Miss Granger…"
Hermione ignored him and slid the fingers out of his mouth herself, before sliding a different finger back in. She sucked it gently, flicking her tongue against it and sliding it in and out of her mouth rhythmically, scraping her teeth gently over the tip of it every now and again.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a choked voice after waiting for long seconds, watching her suck his fingers like she was sucking on his cock.
"Apparently my nice long nap has done me the world of good," Hermione said, her voice husky as she slid the fingers from her mouth and moved them to trail down her neck and over her breasts, leaving a path of wet as they moved over her skin.
"Hermione," Severus said, almost gasping as she slid his hand under her gown and pushed his palm flat against her breast, letting him feel her nipple hard in his palm. "You need to stop this before Potter comes back in and has a seizure."
Then before he could stop himself he felt his thumb moving of it's own accord, rubbing her nipple, making it harder against his hand. He groaned and arched her back, making his breathing even more laboured than before.
Hermione used her other hand to reach for her wand on the bedside and murmured the first concealment spell that came to mind, making her, Severus, the bed and the chair vanish from sight.
"You don't think he might notice that the bed is missing?" Severus asked, bemused. He pulled his hand from her grip and pushed her back against the pillows on her bed. "I know he's not the most observant of boys, but even he might notice something amiss."
She pushed his hand under the bedcovers and placed it on the top of her inner thigh, so high up that he knew he'd only have to slide his hand up about half an inch before he could feel how wet he knew she would already be for him.
"I don't know if you have any idea of what you're doing," he said, his face close to hers as he leaned forwards. "But you are playing with fire, Miss Granger, and you know you will get burned."
Hermione's only answer was to take her hand from his, leaving his hand on her thigh as she ran her fingers through his hair and down the back of his neck. Severus shivered and then growled at her, part annoyance and part pleasure.
"You have just had a series of traumatic experiences, not to mention a traumatic revelation. I will not take advantage of you."
He raised his eyes heavenward. Honestly, he wasn't even convincing himself!
"Does it look like you would be taking advantage of me?" Hermione asked with an almost cheeky grin that made her look vulnerable and sexy at the same time. She just wanted to touch him, to make sure he was alive, and to make sure she still was too. She needed him. If she thought there was any chance he would comply, she would have demanded he carry her back to his quarters and play with her for hours.
"Erm… Hermione?" the confused voice of Harry Potter came from the door. "Where's your bed. And… erm… where are you? Hermione?"
Hermione bit down a giggle as Severus shook his head at her in bemused exasperation. He cast a sound bubble around the bed, so Harry couldn't hear anything, before leaning in close to Hermione.
"We have a lot to discuss, Miss Granger," he said quietly, his voice almost formal. "And this is neither the time or the place."
He leaned further down to close the couple of inches between their mouths. He kissed her lips gently, and was surprised when she started kissing him back almost frantically, burying her fingers in his hair and pressing her body up into his and moving against him unashamedly.
He groaned, feeling himself getting hard, and pulled back from her. He gently smoothed the hair back from her face, feeling feelings he would not allow himself to recognize. He closed his eyes, trying to push them to the back of his mind before he said or did something he would regret.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked tentatively, surprising him.
Severus fixed her with an incredulous stare. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"The… baby," she said, feeling awkward actually saying it out loud.
"No, Miss Granger. I am decidedly not alright," Severus said, straightening up and taking a step back from the bed. "But I'm sure I will be."
"Harry's gone," Hermione pointed out with a wry smile. "That has to go some way to making you feel better."
"He has most likely gone to inform Madame Pomfrey of your disappearing bed," Severus said, treating Hermione to one of his rare smiles in return. She laughed, her eyes smiling into his.
Her face sobered and she reached for Severus' hand.
"I'm sorry about this," she said.
"Why?" Severus' face was unreadable.
"Because you're stuck with more me-related problems," Hermione explained. "You don't need all this to add to everything else."
"That's for me to decide, isn't it?" His voice was gentle, almost kind.
"I suppose," she said, not for the first time wishing she could read his mind. But God, she was tired. Too tired to work him out right now.
He lifted his hand to touch her face before hesitating, stopping centimetres from her cheek. Then he turned on his heel and walked out of the sterile hospital room, leaving an exhausted and completely bewildered Hermione.
