Chapter 2: Discoveries

Sun filtering in through the low windows woke Hermione. She didn't want to wake up. It was nice and cozy where she was, but she could tell that something wasn't quite right. Someone was holding her hand and mumbling something. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying, but she could tell it was a male speaker. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt heavy. After a few seconds of trying, she was finally able to open them. The speaker came into view and she realized that it was Severus. He was in the chair beside her bed, one hand holding hers. His other hand had his head in it and he was still mumbling something she couldn't quite catch. When she flexed her fingers in his hand, he looked up and saw her eyes open.

"You're awake. How do you feel? Do you need me to get Poppy?" He said in a rush sitting up and leaning closer to her.

"No. Calm down, I feel fine now. What happened exactly? I remember getting... dizzy… and then… everything… went black." Hermione said, glancing away for a moment while remembering but then looked at him again to await his answer.

"Well, what happened is you passed out in the library. I carried you here and Poppy cast spells to find out what happened. She found what I have suspected this whole time might happen and I have been trying to tell you, but every time I tried someone interrupted me." He responded.

"What did she find?" Hermione asked, trying to sit up. Severus reached out and helped her by pushing her pillows up behind her to support her with his free hand. He sat back and answered her question with a little hesitation.

"Well, you are pregnant. We forgot the contraceptive spell when we had sex. Poppy wanted to know when you woke up so that she can talk to us about your due date, necessary appointments, and things that we need to know." He paused before adding, "Unless you decide that you don't want to keep the baby." He watched her reaction as he finished his revelation. Her face went through a myriad of emotions; Surprise, Fear, Excitement, uncertainty and it stopped on confusion.

"I'm Pregnant?" She looked down at her stomach and touched it with the hand he wasn't holding. "I don't really know how to feel about this… How do you feel about this?" She looked up at him and waited.

It took him a moment to answer properly. After thinking about how to word his response, he said, "I never thought that I would have kids, but now that I am going to be a father… I'm excited. I hope you are too. I know that you are young and that you will want to finish school and I will help you all that I can if that is your wish, but it is up to you. You are almost done with Hogwarts, but if you want to further your education with an apprenticeship then I can watch the baby during the day or we can find a sitter while I teach. " He watched her and waited for her decision, hoping that she would keep the baby and let him help.

She sat there for moment and thought it all over. He was right on a few aspects. She did want to graduate and she was young. She knew it wouldn't be too much longer before she graduated but she wasn't really sure if she could be pregnant and study for the NEWTs at the same time. But she would never terminate a child's life, not even if it was inconvenient for her. She knew that as soon as she saw her... no… their baby, she would love him or her like nothing else mattered. She looked up at Severus and assessed him for a moment as well. He said that he wanted the child and she could see that he was thinking about it a lot but she wasn't sure if he really did want their child. She could tell that he didn't know if he would do very well at helping her with the child, but she knew that under all his walls and acting, he was really a softy. She had found that out when she had been stuck as Katrina. She had seen his tender side a few times like when he had admitted to her that he had been out searching for her after she had gone missing. She knew without a doubt that he would love any child of his own even though people on the outside might question it. "I thought you hated kids. You were always complaining about Harry, me, and… Ron before we fell in love." Hermione inquired, pausing before saying Ron's name. It was still hard to say his name without bursting into tears. She missed him and her grandfather so much.

"No child of mine will do anything that you three did. You three were nightmares, getting into trouble at every turn. No. My children will be better than that and he or she will be taught by me so they won't be dunderheads like all the other students here." He said, shaking his head.

"Hey, remember. They will be half mine, too. They could be 'know-it-alls' like me. They could be… dare I say it? Gryffindors." She said, trying to get him to admit that this fact was true. She knew she would love to taunt him about this until they found out for real, but she already knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"Absolutely not! They will be Slytherins. There will be no debate on that." He insisted, shaking his head.

"Fortunately for them, you don't get to choose; the Sorting Hat does." Hermione laughed. Severus looked at her and the corners of his mouth lifted in a small grin. He loved her laugh. He would never admit it out loud, but he did admit it to himself.

"Does this mean you want to keep the baby?" He asked, after she stopped laughing.

"Yes, I want to keep this baby." She paused for a moment and looked down at her hand on her flat stomach. She smiled and continued, "I would never kill a child." She looked back up at him, "Could you get Madame Pomfry in here now so that she can fill me in on everything, please? I mean fill us in." She corrected herself. Severus nodded and stood up, releasing her hand in the process. He walked over to the nurse's office door and knocked. A few seconds later, door was opened and Poppy stepped out.

"Can I assume that she is awake and knows about the baby?" Severus nodded in answer and started back to Hermione's bed with the nurse following. When they reached it, Severus sat in the same chair as before and Poppy conjured a chair for herself. She sat down as she began explaining. "So I need to ask a few questions first. Have you been experiencing any morning sickness?"

Hermione thought for a moment before answering "Yes, but not that badly, maybe once in the last 2 weeks. Mostly just dizziness, but that could be caused by my not eating as regularly as I should have. I hadn't passed out before until a few hours ago. I have been feeling... off... lately. I don't know how to describe it." Hermione answered thoughtfully.

Poppy nodded. "Ok, good. You should really eat more regularly. Also, your body was trying to tell you that you were pregnant, and that's why you felt different or off, as you say." Hermione nodded. "It's good that you haven't gotten much morning sickness yet, but you still might so if you do, please come to me and I will give you a potion to relieve it. You won't be able to take it everyday because it isn't good for the baby in large quantities. You can take it 3 times a week at most. Some people never get morning sickness so you might never have to go through the bad bout of it." Poppy explained. "I have a question before you start explaining. Can we still have sex without hurting the baby?" Severus asked, to the embarrassment of Hermione. Poppy smiled at her in reassurance. "Yes, it is fine until further into the pregnancy. I will tell when you have to stop as the pregnancy progresses." Poppy continued to fill them both in on things that could happen during her pregnancy. After all questions had been answered, she stood up and started to turn toward her office. She stopped and turned back towards them to add, "Oh, and a few more things. Your due date is September 17th. I want you in here for an appointment once a month until the last 2 months. At that time, it will be every 2 weeks. If you make it to full term, the last 2 weeks will be 3 times a week. You are free to go. Please get something to eat and remember to eat regularly from now on. And if either of you have any questions please don't be afraid to ask." With this she turned around and walked back to her office closing the door behind her.

"Let's go get you something to eat from the kitchens. If I have to, I will come get you for every meal, so that I know that you eat properly. I know you get into your studying but you need to slow down now for the baby. We need to talk about what our plan will be when you get further into the pregnancy." Severus said, helping her stand up from the bed.

"I know. Why don't we talk about things on the way to the kitchens? And while I eat. I know that after I have the baby, I will have to take some time off my education. I want to graduate Hogwarts and get an apprenticeship set up for after he or she is a year old." They headed out of the Hospital Wing and headed to the kitchens while she continued to talk. "During my apprenticeship, I might need somewhere for baby to go as you have to teach as well."

"Don't worry about that or anything to do with school or your apprenticeship. We can talk to Albus to arrange things so that you can do your work and still not be too stressed especially for your NEWTs." Severus said as they finally made it to the kitchen portrait. Hermione reached up and tickled the pear. When it turned into a door knob, she turned it and walked through the doorway.

As soon as she stepped through, she was attacked by a flying blur which attached itself to her legs. After a moment, Hermione realized the blur was Dobby.

"Hello, Dobby. It's good to see you again. Please let go of my legs before I fall over." Hermione said, laughing. She had her arms out to keep her balance before Dobby let her go and backed up. He was beaming at her.

"Dobby is sorry. Dobby is just wanting to tell Harry Potter's friend congratulations on baby." Dobby said still, beaming at her and jumping up and down with apparent excitement.

Hermione looked at Severus. who looked a little shocked himself. She looked back at Dobby, "Dobby, how did you know I was pregnant? We haven't told anyone yet. I just found out myself."

"Oh, House-elves just know. Wes can just tell, miss." Dobby nodded his head so hard that his ears flopped a few times. "What can Dobby get for miss and professor?" He asked and then waited patiently.

Hermione thought for a moment and then said, "A few BLT sandwiches and an orange juice, please."

"Nothing for me." Severus said.

Dobby nodded and ran to finish the requested task. Severus took her arm and led her over to a table that had appeared when they entered. He held her chair out for her. After she had sat down, he sat in the chair to her right.

"That's not a very good breakfast, you know." He said, looking at her disapprovingly.

"I know, but that is want I was craving. Ok, anyway, we need to go to Professor Dumbledore and let him know what we have found out and what we need. What about us living apart? I mean, I like my rooms, but what happens when it is closer to time for me to deliver? I don't want to be dependent on Draco in case I go into labor early or while in my rooms, but at the same time, I don't want you to get fired for having a relationship with a student. Dumbledore might be okay with this, but I'm sure the school board won't be when they learn of it." She told him. Dobby came up and handed her a plate of 6 BLT sandwiches and her orange juice. "Wow, Dobby! I can't eat all of this by myself."

"You is needing to eat more now. For the baby." Dobby stated, matter of factly. Then he turned and went back to helping the other elves with breakfast for the rest of the school. Severus looked after the elf and then looked at Hermione with his eyebrows raised.

"He's right, you know. You should eat as much of that as you can, because of the baby and the dinners that you have missed." Severus said as Hermione picked up a sandwich and took a bite. After she was done chewing, she said. "I know. I promise that I won't skip anymore meals. I don't want anything to happen to this baby."

As she ate, they talked about school and homework. After she was done with 4 of the 6 sandwiches, she suggested they go talk to Dumbledore. They left the kitchens and walked until they came to the gargoyle statue. Severus said the password ("Bloodpops" He grimaced) and stepped onto the revolving stairs with her. Soon, they came to the office door and Hermione knocked.

"Enter." They heard a voice inside call out. Severus opened the door and walked inside behind Hermione. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk with his hands clasped together. He watched them come into the office with a small smile as if he knew what was coming. "Please, sit down and tell me what you need." He waved his hand at the two chairs in front of his desk. The couple looked at each other and then walked to the chairs and sat down.

"Well, Professor. I… We have some news that we need to talk to you about." Hermione took a breath. "I'm pregnant and Severus is obviously the father. We figured you needed to know and we needed to ask you to help us solve a few problems." Hermione finished quickly. Dumbledore looked at them with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

"Congratulations. I hope you are both happy about this baby." He waited for them both to nod before continuing. "Good. Now, what are the problems you have so that I may come up with a solution"

Hermione looked at Severus with a question in her eyes. He nodded and looked at Dumbledore. "We were wondering about when she's further into the pregnancy. Her quarters are far enough away from any normally populated area. What if she goes into labor early or something goes wrong? We don't want to put Draco in the position of having to help her with every problem that crops up, if any. I want be there to help her. Is there any way we could live together in my chambers or another chamber close to mine?" Severus asked.

Dumbledore looked at each of them in turn. "I really don't know if I can help you, but I will look into it. Maybe you can stay where you are and still be able to get to each other's quarters easily. Are there any other concerns?" He asked.

Hermione answered this time. "Well, what about my classes when I am further along? I want to finish my schooling which won't be much longer, but it will be long enough that I will be about 6 months along when I take my NEWTs, but I don't know if I will be able to do everything I need to with the stress, plus the fatigue. I just need a way to be able to get my homework, have it returned to the teacher, if I get sick and to study and take my test without causing baby too much stress."

Dumbledore looked at Hermione and smiled at her. "Your friends will be able to get your homework to you and return it to the appropriate teachers, if you should become ill." He got up and walked to a cabinet behind him. Opening it he pulled out a red muggle notebook. Walking back towards the two, he handed the book to Hermione. "This notebook will record notes to all of your classes as soon as you write your name on the front. I don't want you to use this until you are farther along or unless you get sick, understood?" Hermione looked confused but nodded, looking at the book for a moment.

Hermione looked up from the book and smiled. "Thank you, sir. I believe that is all our questions for now. If we have anymore, we will come to you." Hermione began to stand up, but then sat back down, "Actually, I do have one more question. Or more accurately, a concern. Some of my classes require spell work, but I don't want to accidentally be hit by a wayward spell. Would you be able to talk to my teachers and let them know of the changed circumstances, please?"

"Of course, don't even worry about that. Before you leave would either of you like a lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked, holding out the bowl of candy. They both shook their heads and stood from their chairs. Severus reached the door first and opened it for Hermione to walk out of the office. He followed her, closing the door behind him before following her down the stairs and into the hall again.

A/N: I know this isn't a cliffy but I just couldn't think of anything else to write for this chapter without it being too long. I hope you like this chapter. Sorry that I didn't update for this long but I promise that you won't have to wait this long for the next chapter.

Please Review!

Edited: July 2nd, 2017