-1Chapter 7

The Robes & Lace

Planning your own death was methodical, tedious even. You had to will everything away, then spell everything so they would curse anyone who handled them besides that person. He even left notes for Dumbledore and Hermione, explaining why he did this, and apologizing to Hermione, saying he was sorry for not being able to be there when their child was born.

He decided to pull a cowards death, and just drink a potion. That night Severus was in the middle of brewing when Hermione came in. She walked in and wafted the scent to her face, before he could stop her. Her grabbed her wrist and started checking her thrice over to make sure she wasn't harmed in anyway. "Is that the abysmal potion?" Hermione gasped. One drop could kill you, there was no telling what inhaling it could do to an embryo.

He shook his head yes. "Go see poppy now!"

She ran out of the classroom. The potion was done. The only thing he had to do was wait for it to cool. Twenty minutes, thirty on the outside. He sat down with a quill and a piece of parchment. He began to write a letter to his unborn child. Telling them everything, how horrible he was, and the only good thing he did would be dying, and allowing Hermione, and the baby to live a normal life. One sentence stuck out on the paper. I did love your mother, no matter how much she thinks otherwise. He rolled up the parchment, placed it with all the others, and sat down next to the vial.

As soon as he put the vial to his lips, Hermione stormed in and smashed the vial, with a "quasso-potion" and he quickly moved backwards. Hermione had a new presence, although he had never seen her this angry before. Her hair blew back with the wond of her won power. He scrambled backward. Dumbledore didn't have this type of power. It actually felt as if the earth was shaking. Her presence glowed red. Her eyes were like fire. And she was storming towards him. Bring up against him water, fire, earth, and air. Air was whipping around his hair, fire was nipping painfully at his skin, earth was rumbling threatening to swallow him whole, and water was building up in the back of his throat threatening to drown him.

She flung her hand out, and with it power. A gash appeared on his cheek. Blood ran in a long red rivulet. She did it again, and another gash appeared, this time on his other cheek. She stopped about three feet away from him, and just stared at him. His jaw set tense, blood running down his pallid face. She spoke one word, but it wasn't filled with rage, it was filled with pain. "Why?" What had happened to her? What had he done to cause her this much pain? The abysmal potion, she inhaled it. Did she mean? Did she lose the baby, because of him? Him dying would not bring out this much pain in anyone, so it couldn't be that, he thought

"What have I done?" He said in a pained voice. What had he done to their child?

"You didn't do it, and you won't!" She said her voice gradually growing louder, wont became a yell.

"What do you mean?" he said with utter surprise.

"You were trying to kill yourself. You will not do that. You will not use me or this child as an excuse to kill yourself. Do you even care that it could mean this child's life?" She said still yelling. She let out a cry of incoherent rage, and looked at him.

"I don't understand." he said shocked. He couldn't believe she had done this because he was going to do away with yet another evil in this world, himself.

"You don't understand?!? Dumbledore told us soul-mate-bonding, seals the deal with a child, but not the conception. No, the conception is the sign to let you know that your soul mates. The child is the deal sealer. When this child is born, we will be soul mates, before then, if one of us gets hurt the child dies." She said slipping into lecture mode pretty easily. He had a sarcastic smirk on his face, and it was pissing her off again. "Why are you smirking you inconsiderate coward!"

"I am smirking at myself. For one moment I thought you were angry at me, because you valued me. I thought that inconceivable. Then I found out that I was right with my earlier assumption that no one would give a damn. I realized it was not my life you valued, but the life of our unborn child." He said matter-of-factly.

"You don't believe this is about you." she repeated the words, still disbelieving. "You think I would want this? You think I would want a child with no one whom I love or value as the father? No this child is screwing everything up. Disrupting my life, possibly ruining my career, and education. You think I do not value you?!? I could have more children, at a later date, and have all my dreams. But no, I want you, I love you, and I value you. You think I don't value your life? Why would you think that? You need more proof than me having this child? Fine, if you kill yourself, I will follow shortly after. I will die with you, and if the child survives your death, it sure as hell wont survive mine. I love you Severus, why can everyone else see it but you?" She started at a yell, but at the in it was a whisper.

"I can see it and that's the problem. I do not deserve any of it. Not the love, not the child, none of it. I do not deserve anything but death."

"If I cant make you see it then I must write my goodbyes." She swiveled around and sat on a stool. Soon parchment and ink appeared on a desk, and a quill started writing down what she was thinking. He came up behind her, and turned her gently around.

"How did you know what I was doing?"

"I felt like I was loosing connection with the baby, and then your thoughts broke over me. When you started writing a letter to the baby, I heard every word as you put it down on paper, and then I saw you picturing things in your mind I knew I had to get to you. Don't do that to me. Don't scare me like that. If I was just another second you'd be gone."

She clung to him then, and didn't let him go. When returned the embrace in the first few seconds, he realized how deep his love for her went. He was pained by the prospect of her dying. He had never felt that level of fear, or this level of protection for someone before. He knew that he had to give her his heart, in the end. Soulmates, he knew they were soul mates, but until now he hadn't realized he'd have to love her. He already did love her, he just hadn't told her. They stood like that for a moment until he whispered down in her ear.

"I love you." he said knowing exactly what he would have to do. Even though it may be too soon.

She unburied her head from his chest and stared up at him. The look she gave him was of happiness, and skepticism. Than after looking in his eyes, hers turned only happy. She looked at him as he pried himself away, and watched him walk away. Before the afterglow faded, and before she had time to miss him, he was back. He held two packages out to her. One he had gotten in the robes store, and one he had gotten in the undergarments store. She sat down, and opened the first box, which was the one with the lingerie. The green material slithered through her fingers. She held it up against the robe. She had actually looked at this inside the store, and put it in the category marked: too damn expensive.

Then she opened the second box. It was a red dress. A slinky red dress, with silver embellishments. There were silver high heels, and a jacket. He looked at her "Go put it on, we're going out."

She quickly got changed and realized that there were slits on either side of the long skirt. It showed off her legs gloriously. The dress had a built in bra, and was totally backless, until a smidge above the base of her spine. Some form of magic kept it tight against her body, and in place. It had a silver broach, which connected the fabric at the base of her breasts. She put on the heels and did a spell to her hair to make it an elegantly twist into a half up style, and threw on the jacket. The jacket was floor lengths, and she buckled it, so he could not get the full show until later. Severus was waiting for her. His hair tied back with a black ribbon, Making his features less sharp, less angular. He was wearing dress robes. Elegant black and white. He looked like he came out of a fairytale, and she remembered on of their conversations about fairytales. As they walked out of the castle they held hands. What she chose not to remember was what she said at the end of that conversation.

"Do you trust me?" he said as the reached the outside of the gates.

"Yes." she replied honestly.

"Close your eyes." He said softly, as he embraced her. She obliged, and he aparated. The stomach lurching feelings didn't even disrupt his plans tonight. When he left her arms, she felt as if a part of her soul had been ripped away.

"Open your eyes." he said.

When she opened her eyes, she saw a ballroom, a large room with honey toned floors and high tables on an upper level that out looked upon the dancing portion, a blue haze surrounded the whole thing and he held out his hand for her jacket. He gasped as she took it off. The red of the dress, looked magnificent on her skin, and she knew it. She placed her jacket in his hand, and that seemed to break the spell. He blinked and she blushed.

He held out his hand for hers, and she placed it there. Music started playing, and they got into the expected formations, then they started to move. In ballroom dance, you have to have trust in the other person or it won't work. You have to be willing to bend, just like a tree bends in the wind, because you must. Swaying from side to side, back and forth, and Severus actually maintained a smile, being patient when she made a wrong move, always bringing her to the right formation. Then he kissed her, long and lingering, and when they came up for air, he led them to one of the tables. Food had been dished, and it was exquisite. He reached across the table for her hand After grabbing it and looking in her eyes he spoke.
"I need a beauty, and I was wondering if you would be my beauty?"

Then she remembered, the conversation about fairytales. And a particular one about Beauty and the Beast. Her last comment, before he laughed everything off was: I need a beast someone to be mean and arrogant, but try and have us fall in love. I need a beast. Will you be my beast?

"Yes, I will be your beauty."

"I need a wife, I was wondering if you'd be my wife?"