"I'm going to love you, but I need to know that you're going to return the favor."
He stilled at her words. "It's a mistake to love me. I can't be in love, and you know that. I have too much at stake--my life... and yours."
She rose up on tip-toe and kissed him. She pulled back, eyes still closed. "Severus, it doesn't matter if you never say the words; I know it'll be true in my heart. This is where you lay." Hermione took his hand placed it between her breasts.
"As you, too, lay in mine Hermione."
"You bastard! You killed him!" Hermione launched at Ron, beating him relentlessly with her fists. She sobbed loudly, thrashing at Ron fiercely. Harry tried to pull her away from the awful sight. Severus lay face down in the mud, the rain soaking his still form. She struggled away from Harry and a heavily bleeding Ron, and ran to Severus. She pulled his lifeless face into her lap and rocked back and forth, the sky shattered with thunder as that of poor Hermione's heart.
"What have you done?"
Ron snarled, "He was a traitor!"
"No, Ronald," Hermione screamed, "you're the traitor!"
Hermione placed her hand on her heart. "Harry, I once told Severus that this is where he lay, but now I know his heart lies in the ground." Silent tears slid down her face as Harry held her.
"Hermione, he's still there because you loved him, and his memory will live on because of you."
Hermione smiled wryly. "He will live on, because, as we speak, his seed grows in my belly." Her hand unconsciously rubbed her stomach.
Harry's eyes widened. "Hermione, you're pregnant?"
Hermione whispered, "Yes, and with his child."
"Aw, who's mama's little boy?" Hermione cooed happily at her two-year-old child. Gabrial had his father's black hair and his mother's brown eyes. "One day you're going to be a famous Potions master." She lifted him from the crib and carried him into the kitchen.
"Look who's here!" Ginny squealed, stealing Gabrial from Hermione.
Harry pulled Hermione away and handed her a box.
"What's this?" she asked.
"We found it at Hogwarts."
The box held a ring with a large black stone; beside the ring, a small card in Severus' handwriting read, "Even if I never say the words, you know I love you."