A\N: This story has really gotten away from me. I originally only expected this to end up with 15 to 20 chapters, but I can see that it will last a lot longer than that. I hope this information doesn't make any of my readers want to run and hide from the rest of the story. While I am writing this story, I am also writing a story for my cousin Minimoon1999, which I actually told her was for her birthday last year and then for last year's Christmas. It hasn't been going very well, but I have 7 out of 10 chapters done, so that won't be a distraction much longer. I am also attempting to write a new… Genre?… Type?… Of fanfiction that I have just discovered, which is supposed to be a one-shot story, but will probably turn into a 20 page story. That story is also almost complete, but it is taking me longer than I had anticipated.

I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and thank you for reading it whether you enjoy it or not.

Chapter 18

Hermione made it to the portrait that hid her and Severus's shared rooms and she said the password. She waited for the door to swing open before she stepped through the portrait hole. Looking around she realized that she hadn't really been gone very long. It might've been an hour but most of that time had been spent walking the halls to get to where she needed to be. Severus looked up from his book in surprise.

"I thought you were going to spend the afternoon with your friends. Why are you back so soon? Did something happen?" Severus asked standing up and placing his book on the coffee table. He began walking toward her but Hermione shook her head and walked toward him instead and motioned for him to sit back down on the couch, sitting down herself. She didn't even say a word but she did hand him the photos that she had procured from her fellow Gryffindor's bulletin board. She waited for the anger that she knew was coming which would be aimed at her friends. She wouldn't blame him, I mean, of course he should be angry that they were being spied on whether it was intentional or not.

"Well, that explains their behavior as of late. Can't say I'm surprised that your friends decided to spy on you." Severus said, sounding a lot calmer than Hermione thought he would be. Although she knew she had to tell him that they had not intentionally spied on them, she didn't want to give them an excuse to get away with this kind of thing.

"It doesn't excuse their behavior, but they didn't spy on us on purpose. One of them was just trying to avoid getting in trouble so they hid and saw us but instead of coming out to let us know they were there, they froze when they saw something they didn't expect to see and no, it wasn't our kiss that shocked them at the time. It was something we didn't even see, but we have seen it once before. The pink orb that we saw the other morning was seen again by Colin Creevey and he said that he saw it split in two instead of it just being one piece. We still don't know what the orb means but I'm going to guess that it splitting in two is probably significant." Hermione explained, not really intending to tell Severus who the culprit was who took the pictures. It just came out without her meaning to say it and she could tell that Severus was not surprised at who had done it.

Severus shook his head in exasperation at the many antics Colin had gotten into in the past and the current one he was in, "When is that boy ever going to learn to keep his nose and his camera out of everyone else's business? He's going to get himself killed if he isn't more careful. So, what did he do with these pictures to cause all this commotion with all of the Gryffindor's?" He asked with a purely curious tone in his voice.

"He had decided it was a good idea to post it on the corkboard in the common room so that everyone could see them and see how close we were getting, according to them. I don't even know why he decided it was a good idea, but he won't ever bother us again because I kind of pulled him out of the proverbial closet on something he was doing that he knew he shouldn't have been. It turns out that he was triple timing two girls and one guy, one of them surprisingly, was Susan bones. I never expected her to go for a younger guy, but to each their own I guess. I personally prefer older men… I mean guys… uh… Never mind. Forget I said that." Hermione replied, nervously rescinding her last comment and averting her eyes to try to cover up what she just revealed about herself.

Severus was silent as he processed the information he was just presented with about his new soulmate. He hadn't known anything about Hermione's dating preference from before they had run into each other in the hallway that day. He remembered that he had thought it was weird that there had been no rumors about Hermione's love life or about who she could be dating or crushing on at any point during the time she had been at Hogwarts. After his initial thought on the subject, he realized he didn't really care, as she now belonged to him whether she knew it or not. In the end he decided not to comment on her slipup about prefering older men.

"How did you even know he was triple timing anyone? Did one of your friends tell you about it or what?" He decided to ask instead. "Did something happen to you? Did the potion that was in the orb finally do something?" Severus finally realized that nothing had actually happened with the potion she had landed in and the nurse hadn't been able to run anymore tests on her because of the risk of her being pregnant.

"I don't know, I just saw three threads with different colors coming out from Colin's chest and I just knew that they were his connection to his partners. I don't remember seeing that thread with Seamus and Dean when we caught them being nosy outside the castle. It could've been the potion taking effect, but it should've shown me the person who felt the deepest emotion towards Colin at that moment." Hermione thought about what she just realized for a moment before continuing, "I guess those three strings could have been emotional attachments instead of relationship attachments, because I don't know the difference. At the same time it could've been anything and we can speculate all we want, but I think we have more things to deal with right now. Such as the reason your Dark Mark disappeared or what the pink orb signifies or why it split in half or even why the last time we kissed was yesterday morning and it only happened because you keep embarrassing me about the position we wake up in." At this Severus stood up from the couch, putting his book down on the coffee table in front of him. Unfortunately, Hermione didn't notice this so she continued to ramble, "Why hasn't Dumbledore found out more about our situation? What is he doing up there in his cozy little office? Doesn't he realize that…" Hermione was silenced quite efficiently by Severus' mouth covering her own in a very surprising kiss. In her surprise, Hermione gasped, opening her mouth and allowing her soulmate the opportunity to explore her mouth a little more thoroughly. Severus accepted the invitation not really knowing why he was doing so, only that Hermione seemed to be affected by their lack of kiss.

Severus was beginning to learn how not to allow any of the emotions that made them want to kiss each other through his mask, or what used to be his impenetrable mask. Hermione had really started to affect him recently in a way he never thought anyone could. With her he could be playful or joke around or happy or even sad about pretty much anything and she wouldn't judge him for it. He never thought he would be this accepted by a Gryffindor let alone one so much younger than him. At least, she used to be a lot younger than him but now they were only 10 months apart in age. Severus's mind had lost some of its adult knowledge which of course was disappointing, but maybe it was for the better. He still remembered how to make all of the potions he had invented, all the spells he had invented, most of the stuff he had learned in school when he went through it the first time, he remembered his parent's names and how he grew up the first time around, and he remembered everything that had happened to him up to a certain point. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the day he had gotten his dark Mark, or the day he had made friends with Lucius, or even the day he had become the potions teacher here at Hogwarts. Now he still remembered that they happened, but not the exact events of those days and he knew that eventually they would all just disappear and he would be able to make better memories with the person in front of him; ones that lasted until he passed away right alongside her. He stopped thinking after that because he realized he was becoming very sentimental and was beginning to feel like he wasn't being true to his past personality.

When he focused back on Hermione and the kiss, he realized that his hands had buried themselves into her thick brown hair and her hands were in his hair, or more appropriately one of her hands was in his hair while the other was exploring further south. He really didn't know how he felt about that except that his heartbeat was going crazy and he almost couldn't breathe. He pulled back and began to pant as if he forgot that he needed to breathe and Hermione looked at him curiously.

"What's wrong? Why did you kiss me? Why did you stop so suddenly?" She had to ask.

"First of all, I kissed you because you seemed to want me to and if I can help I always try to fulfill my side. Second of all, I stopped because I don't know if you realize that your hand is exploring where it probably shouldn't, at least not out here. If you wish, we could go into our room and continued this exploration." He told her as calmly as he was able to. Hermione looked down at her hand that was not buried in his hair and she looked surprised for only a moment before she looked up at him and smiled.

"Huh! Sorry, I didn't realize, but now that you mention it I would like to go explore a little. I hope that's not too forward for you, but once I get to know someone I prefer to tell it like it is." Hermione surprised him by saying. He nodded without even thinking about it and grabbed her hand out of his hair to pull her toward their bedroom. He reached out and grasped the handle of the door and turned, pulling it open and pulling Hermione inside. He closed the door behind them and locked it just in case any of her friends decided it would be a good idea to visit at this inappropriate time. He was sure they wouldn't due to the fact that they were probably all embarrassed about the pictures and their behavior, but he wouldn't put it past them to come down to apologize to Hermione and him personally. Some of her friends just didn't know when to wait. Severus turned toward Hermione and watched as she walked over to the bed and sat down. Severus could tell that she wasn't sure how they would proceed or what to do, so he figured that he would show her.

Walking up to her, he reached up to his shirt and started unbuttoning it, glad that he had decided on a button-down shirt today. He watched as Hermione's eyes followed his fingers and saw the emotion in her eyes as flesh was revealed to her. When he got to the last button he reached up to his collar and slowly peeled it off over his arms, dropping it behind him. Next he reached forward and grasped the bottom of Hermione's shirt, intending to pull it up over her head, but Hermione stopped him by placing her hands on his and shaking her head. Severus let go and dropped his hands thinking that she had changed her mind, but Hermione surprised him by pulling her shirt off herself and tossing it down with his at his feet. He looked at her with a questioning expression on his face obviously not knowing how tonight would end.

"You lead, I will follow for now." Hermione answered his question. Severus nodded and glanced down at her bare shoulders and with his eyes traced one of her black bra straps down to the cups. Nobody would've guessed that under Ms. know it all's school uniform, she hid a fully developed woman's body including breasts that would've made most of her old roommates jealous, but they didn't cause her to have back pain. Hermione had always thought that she was lucky in that aspect at least and she knew that if she didn't hide them then she would probably be hit on to distraction and not be able to finish any of her school work. Without the shirt on, Severus could see that her waist wasn't the smallest of her classmates, because she did have some meat on her bones, but she was not under any definition fat. She had rounded and moderately large hips. The kind of hips that Severus appreciated and preferred on his women so he was happy she had them. When Severus's eyes reached the top of her pants, Hermione reached down to unbutton them, but Severus had a thought and reached his hand out to stop her.

"Wait, why have you suddenly changed your mind about me? I mean, I know that you are probably just trying to adapt to your new circumstances and your new future with me, but why do you seem so happy about the current circumstances. Why is it suddenly okay for you to have sex with me?" Severus had to ask before they could continue. This question had actually come out of nowhere, but he had long ago stopped wondering why certain things were important to him while others didn't think the topic was important. Hermione glanced down and smiled obviously thinking of something funny that Severus would not have minded knowing. She looked back up at him before answering his question.

"You're right, I am trying to adapt to my new future with you, but I have already learned that what you show on the outside has nothing to do with what's on the inside. Plus to answer your last question, I figure we have already had sex at least twice before now so why should I be reluctant or embarrassed about doing it again? And for all we know I'm already pregnant…" Hermione paused as if suddenly realizing something. Severus waited for her to figure out what ever had caught her attention, knowing that it was probably her realizing that she was pregnant. Although, he didn't know that she was for sure but maybe she had noticed something about her own body that he couldn't have noticed that made it obvious. Hermione shook her head and smiled up at him again. "Spacing out on you… Sorry. Where were we?" Severus stared at her for a moment before shaking his own head.

"Are you okay? This is not exactly the time to be spacing out and I haven't known you to space out during something important." He had to comment hoping that she wasn't keeping something from him.

"I'm fine. I do tend to space out when I am in a situation that could change things majorly in my life. Consciously doing this with you, is one of those times." Hermione finally confided to him.

"You don't have to worry about this changing anything. Well, Okay, maybe just a little bit of your life. Only the part that changes the dynamic of our relationship. I had already decided to show you the real me, my real personality. I hope that you have come to realize that changing how you relate to me will only make our lives easier. If there is anything that you wish to confess to me about yourself, whatever you say will never leave this room. Do you still want to do this?" Severus said trying to calm his mate down enough so that she could answer the question.

A/N: Sorry, but I had to end it here! I have actually had this chapter mostly done except for the last two paragraphs for about three weeks or however long it's been since I last posted a new chapter. I was done only three or four days after that was posted. I hope you're not mad!

Please enjoy this new chapter!

Questions I leave you with:

What will Hermione's answer be to Severus's question?

Is Hermione pregnant?

Why did the orb split in two?

Will Dumbledore finally be able to tell the pair the truth about the orb in the next chapter?

If Hermione is pregnant, what should they have?

Please review!