Hermione's mother watched the exchange between her daughter and the older man behind hooded eyes with heightened interest. They seemed way too close for a professor and a student, and her mother, for the most part, felt a little uncomfortable at the small but blatant exchange of affection between the two of them.
"Hermione?" Her mother managed to peep out meekly, almost inaudible as her mind moved at the haste of a galloping wild horse trying to make ends of what she was seeing. Her mind ticking over like a well maintained swiss watch. Her memory may be hazy, and she might be forgetting a few things, but a fool she was not.
"Yes?" Hermione got to her feet, gently smoothing her clothes back into place, smile now plastered on her face. She really couldn't believe this.
"How's Harry and Ron?" Her mother managed to ask as she sat down on one of the hospital beds, Hermione followed and sat beside her gently.
Harry and Ron are... Harry and Ron are not the people I thought they were. Ron wanted things that I didn't at the time and he wouldn't wait for me so I left him and Harry, well Harry turned out to be-" She was cut off by Severus.
"A total and utter bell end if I must say."
"What Severus said." Hermione inclined her head in Severus direction, approving of what he had just said.
Hermione's father watched with interest from where he stood. He wasn't stupid, he could see there was clearly something more than a platonic relationship going on between the two.
"I'm confused. I thought Harry and Ron were lovely boys. Truth be known, I thought you and Harry would have ended up together," her mother interjected sadly. She really did like Harry and Ron.
Hermione snorted indignantly, "So did Harry." She shrugged.
"So, who are you with?" Her mother asked with trepidation in her voice. She knew, she had to know and she just wanted confirmation.
"Who says I am with anyone? Why do I need to be with someone?" Hermione asked in an offended upward inflection to which her mother pinned her under her harsh gaze. She knew better.
"So, you expect me to believe that you aren't with anyone right now, despite the fact you and Severus were just looking way too close for more than a platonic student and teacher relationship? Pray tell me, how does my young, adolescent daughter get tangled up in a romantic tryst with her professor? Isn't there some code of conduct that is meant to be followed?" Her mother grew irate with every word she spoke.
"Mum," Hermione's tone was even but bore a warning.
"What? I have a right to know." Her mother folded her arms tight across her chest and looked across at Hermione, jutting her chin out and it was at that moment Severus realize where Hermione got most of her mannerisms and strong-headed attitude from.
Brushing a hand over her face and tucking a stray hair behind her own ear Hermine took in a long breath and released it hastily as a loud, annoyed sigh as she looked to Severus for some backup who, by the look on his face probably wasn't about to offer it.
"When you and dad went to Australia and I was left here... Things changed. Harry and Ron became somewhat idolized over something that happened … And long story short they both pretty much turned into huge jerks. I went back to school and they decided they wouldn't come with me so I went alone. They ignored me for months and months without even as much as a letter back. I later found out that Ron had gone on to marry another girl who went to school with us and I wasn't even invited to the wedding." She shrugged her shoulders, trying to push the feeling of hurt she felt away but it was gnawing away at her with the ferocity of a million piranhas.
"I'm still not understanding what this has to do with you and Severus?"
"I'm getting there, trust me. So, while Ron and Harry were being total bell ends to me and I felt like I didn't have a friend in the world, Severus found me, picked me up and brushed me off and made me feel as if someone in the world cared. As if I meant something to someone. Now you and dad weren't around and I was pretty much totally alone. Without Severus, I don't know if I would be here. One thing led to another and now... Well, I love Severus. Mum, Dad I am sorry if you don't approve but I am old enough to make my own choices in life." She harrumphed, standing she began to pace the length of the room backwards and forwards like a caged lion, waiting to hear something, anything from either of her parents. The awkward silence shrouded them like thick fog on a freezing winter morning and she thought that right here and right now would be the moment her parents disowned her over something so trivial.
"So Ron married, Harry wanted to be with you and you rejected him, Severus comforted you in your time of need and showered you with affection and you climbed into his bed so willingly and now after all of that he confessed his undying love to you and you accepted his proposal to marry him, despite not wanting to Marry either Harry or Ron when they offered?" It was her mother's turn to pull herself up to full height and fold her arms tightly across her chest, she was the same height as her daughter and not at all intimidating.
"Well, actually it pretty much went like that, but how did you know about Severus asking me to marry him... How did you know Ron and Harry both asked?" Hermione ran a shaky hand through her mess of curls that hung limply around her face.
"The ring on your finger, Hermione. And I know the friendship between the two boys would have ended over something rather big rather than something so minuscule. I am betting they now know about Severs and neither of them approves and thus you have pushed them further away and have no intentions of reconciliation."
"Oh, right." Hermione blushed, looking sheepish. She never thought of that to be honest. "And yes, they don't approve... Their choice. I extended the branch of friendship out to them only for my efforts to be thwarted."
Hermione began to pace again under the scrutinous gaze of her mother. "And when did you plan on telling me you were pregnant?"
Hermione came to a skidding halt as the rosy colour drained from her face in an instant and her stomach had turned into a lead weight that was now in her feet.
"How...I...What..." She began stammering, tripping over her own words as she went, her mouth as dry as the desert and she found it hard to even form any words with her tongue now void of any moisture.
"Unless you have been to an all you can eat buffet recently, I can see no other reason why your midsection has expanded substantially. The glow in your cheeks I had with myself when I was pregnant with you." Her mother smiled like the cat that got the canary, she liked being right. She was her mother, she knew things about Hermione that Hermione wouldn't even know about herself.
"I'm going. I've had enough of playing twenty questions I love you both, I will be back to see you shortly," Hermione called over her shoulder as she started walking about of the room. She needed to get to her appointment and she was already running late.
O-O-O-O-O
Days had passed and Hermione didn't know how to feel, she loved her parents but they had been on her case ever since they had found out about her and Severus. Constantly at her about the who's what's where's and when's of their relationship. She was thankful they were back and she was ecstatic that they had fully had their memories restored and she could talk to them in full about things now. Her mother whilst she didn't say it, always looked at him with a disappointed look in the depths of her eyes, like she was silently judging her daughter for who she was marrying and who she had gotten herself pregnant too. But her mother knew it was her choice, and her choice alone so while deep down she wouldn't approve of it, she would keep those feelings and concerns locked away.
Hermione decided that it was time to put the effort into fixing this house up because before she knew it, the baby would be here and she would have nothing and be totally unprepared, and that scared her. So, to take her mind off of everything that was going one in her life, she began scrubbing, sorting and cleaning the house, starting with her and Severus's bedroom. With the help of a little magic, she had the entire bedroom painted, decorated and brand-new furniture in within a day.
The night Severus had come home he was almost certain he had walked into the wrong bedroom and it wasn't long before Hermione had the entire house fixed and looking immaculate thanks to herself and her desire to be more than prepared for the baby.
The last room she was left with was the nursery and the thought of fixing it really ate at her. To her, doing this would make it real and she couldn't ignore the fact she was going to be a mother. She wanted to put it off but the voice in the back of her mind constantly nagged at her to do it. By the end, she was beaming like the Cheshire cat. She had chosen greys and blues, unsure of the gender of the baby she played it safe and didn't add any hints of pink or peach.
She couldn't believe it was finally done and she was actually going to be bringing a newborn home to the room and it wouldn't be that long before it was going to happen either.
Severus had been out every day preparing his store and working just as hard as Hermione had been on the house and he was only days from opening. He looked around the store full of potions, vials and boxes upon boxes of ingredients. Was this a stupid idea? Should he just sell the store right now before it was even open and cut his losses. This honestly scared him more than the thought of being a father in the not too distant future. He had to do this, it was now or never. As his eyes raked over the store once more before he shut the door for the night. Maybe, just maybe he would face his fears and his demons head on and open tomorrow, after all, the only thing getting in the way of his goals was ultimately himself.
And the only thing left to do in his life was marrying the girl that had brought all of this to fruition. The one who had helped him through his darkest times and the one that had pulled him from the deepest and most hopeless depths a person could be in. And he, of course, had pulled her from the deep depths of despair, they both needed one another and he loved her with all of his heart. He didn't want an extravagant wedding by any means and it was right there as he was making his way home, to the home his wife-to-be had spent hours upon hours perfecting for the two of them that he would marry her, sooner rather than later.
O-O-O-O-O
"Hermione?" The rumble of his voice startled Hermione as she had almost drifted off into a peaceful slumber upon his chest that night.
"Mmm?" She managed to hum through the tiredness that was encroaching upon her, pregnancy really wasn't all it was made out to be. She hated it if she were honest.
"I was thinking, we should get married."
She cracked an eye open in the darkness and furrowed a brow. "I thought we were already getting married?" She propped herself up on an elbow, staring at him through the inky darkness, just making out his form lying before her.
"I meant let's get married now. Well, not right this second but sooner rather than later." He stared at her silhouette in the moonlight. She was perfect in any light, he thought to himself.
"A wedding takes months to plan Severus I-" He cut her off as his lips pressed needily to hers, a breathless, passionate kiss ensued for what Hermione could only imagine was a minute or so.
"Let's elope, Hermione. Let's just go out on our own and do this. Tell only your parents and just do this. No audience, no being on show like a caged animal for all to see and sneer at, no snide remarks made behind our backs." He held her hand gently as if willing her and pleading with her to agree.
Silence shrouded them for what felt like an eternity to Hermione, bearing down on her like a hard blow to the stomach.
"Oh, thank god," she finally managed to bite out. "Getting married in front of an audience was honestly my worst nightmare." she sighed contently, her life was going ahead in leaps and bounds right now and if you had have asked her a year ago if this is where she saw herself, she probably would have laughed straight in your face.
"It's settled then. Elope we will."
A/N: This story has honestly gone about ten chapters over what I thought I would get out of it. I am so thankful for all of your reviews. I think this chapter, another and then an epilogue and we are done (Although I think I said that ten chapters ago so... don't mind me.)
-Aliasmel1