Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters.

There, framed in an open doorway, stood a young woman in a navy blue suit. Her sensible pumps were still what most would call fashionable and her straight skirt ended neatly right below her knees. Her carefully tailored suit jacket almost hid the slight bump that as Harry knew was only caused by a baby.

How in the world was Hermione Granger pregnant and why was she in Snape's house?

"It was no problem, Miss Granger," Rookwood replied smoothly. "We're always happy to help the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff."

Hermione smiled perfectly, "Thank you, now, which of you lovely gentlemen are Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley? I assume that you're Mrs. Weasley?" She nodded her head in Luna's direction.

Harry couldn't think straight. Hermione was here. She was standing just across the room from him and she was pregnant.

Pregnant.

Hermione was pregnant and it wasn't Ron's child.

For the first time since entering this world Harry was completely thrown off guard. He didn't hear anything else as his mind tried to work things out in his head.

He missed Rookwood's introductions or Hermione's explanation of what was going on. Later, Ron and Luna would fill him in – explaining that someone had poisoned all of the coffee beans that had arrived in the last shipment. The found this out when a maid fed some spilled beans to the birds outside. They hadn't gone public with this because they didn't want to cause panic and destabilize the government.

Right now it was all he could do to just keep breathing as the image of the cool, confident, middle-aged woman in front of him warred with his memories of a young girl, excited about exams and extremely bossy as she ordered him and Ron around or the young woman, trapped forever in a chair, but still trying to make a difference in the world, one article at a time. The three just didn't match up.

Who was this woman in front of him and what had she done with his friend Hermione?

Somehow – Harry was never sure how – he ended up in a small sitting room with Ron, Luna, and Hermione. Rookwood and Black had finished the introductions and promises of support and secrecy and so had left.

Now, the four of them sat around, slowly drinking tea, going back over the details known so far, and waiting on the Prime Minister.

For some reason Harry felt nervous at the thought of seeing Snape again in person. Probably because the last time he'd seen he'd been bending over Harry as the life slowly left his body. The thought of seeing him again, even much older, was a little unnerving.

Harry only had about half an hour to dwell on his thoughts before the sitting room door opened again and the Right Honorable Severus Snape walked through the door.

His hair was cut short and slicked back, only the shiny appearance was familiar to Harry. His black pin-striped suit was custom made and fit him like a glove. Harry had never seen him looking so healthy, well-groomed, or happy before.

As Harry watched with mixed emotions of confusion and shock Snape said hello, nodded in greeting, and then proceeded to take a seat next to Hermione. When he sat down his hand interlaced with hers and they shared a quick peck before turning their attention back to Harry, Luna, and Ron.

"Detectives, thank you for coming on such short notice. I assume you've been briefed on the basics?" Snape's hand never left Hermione's as he spoke.

Harry was still having problems formulating thoughts, let alone words. When he didn't answer Ron jumped in and took charge.

"Yes, someone is trying to kill you and you don't want the news made public, so you want use to proceed with caution and discretion in determining who the culprit is." Ron spoke in an extremely professional manner, apparently impressed with sitting in the same room as the Prime Minister.

"That is correct. We've had the incident with the coffee beans here and at Chequers a fire started in the stables while Hermione and I were in there." He fixed his piercing black gaze on each of their faces. "I have something else for you to do, as well as finding the culprit."

Harry found his voice again. It was shocked out of him at the idea that someone was trying to kill Hermione.

"What is it?"

Snape's gaze fixed itself on Harry. "I want, at all times, for one of you to be with Miss. Granger."

Before Harry or his fellow detectives could respond Hermione took the floor, literally.

"Severus! What do you mean you want them to be with me? If they're with me they won't be finding the culprit!" Harry had seen that look on Hermione before, her body was rigid and her eyes were promising death and destruction.

Snape stood up and glared down at Hermione, "I want them with you! Obviously the assassin is after you, I don't even drink coffee and the whole world knows it." His voice was cold and deadly serious.

"Why would they be after me? No one even knows I'm more than your chief of staff! So who would want to kill me? Wasn't that the excuse you gave eight years ago?"

Harry, Ron, and Luna sat in stunned silence at the argument going on across the small coffee table from them.

Harry tried to think about why being associated with the Prime Minster in such a way was dangerous. Eventually he pulled out an old, dusty memory from before he entered this world. The previous Prime Minster, Bludge, had lost his wife to car bombing. No wonder Snape had wanted Hermione to keep hidden. Harry probably would've done the same thing with Ginny.

"Yes! But things have changed! We weren't careful and now it's quite evident that you aren't the asexual control-freak everyone thought you were!" Snape had lost his cool, the two of them were spitting daggers back and forth.

Hermione drew herself up to her full height, "Control-freak?" She hissed.

Snape seemed to have realized he had gone too far. He backed down, even going so far as to sit back down. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I just don't want you getting hurt."

Hermione glared at him for a moment before sitting down stiffly next to him. "I don't want either of us getting hurt, but I don't see how having a detective follow me around is going to help."

Snape sighed and turned his attention abruptly back to Harry, Ron, and Luna, as if he had just remembered they were in the room.

"I apologize for that display, please forget about it. Now, I have two reasons for wanting one of you to follow Miss Granger. One, she needs some extra protection, especially with the baby on the way. Two, I think they'll strike again soon, most likely against her, and your best chance of catching them would be when they do so." His voice was once again stiff and formal while his face showed no emotion.

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Luna.

"Why don't you just marry her? You could protect her better that way," she said with that eerily calm and wispy voice.

"That's a very good question," Hermione said sharply as her glare focused on Snape again.

"No, a public wedding would offer too many chances for someone to attack and a private one would cause too much talk and suspicion." He looked around the room, focusing his gaze once again upon Harry, Ron, and Luna. "I want the three of you to work with her and devise a schedule. I need to get back to work; I've already been away for too long." He leaned over and gave Hermione another kiss before standing up and straightening his suit.

Harry could completely understand why a public wedding would be dangerous. Hadn't he been killed at his own by Romilda Vane? Harry's muscles clenched at the thought of Hermione bleeding out at the altar. Only his watch cutting into his skin reminded him that it was just his imagination, Hermione was fine, she wasn't going to die. He'd make sure of that.

"Be careful, I'll see you tonight." Hermione's voice had softened back to it's normal tone, though there was still a hint of anger and frustration behind it.

"I'll see you then," Snape said to Hermione before turning to look at the detectives. "Nice to meet you, please keep her safe."

Harry watched as Snape left the room, once the door was shut he realized that Snape had never even asked for their names.

Well, apparently some things never changed. Snape may be Prime Minster, but he was still an arrogant prick.

Author's Note: And now we have a pregnant Hermione thrown into the mix. I hope you enjoyed this. Hehe :D

Here are the people that guessed correctly: magicisoutthere, akatrixie (changed her mind in a pm), Tamara Caitlyn, Laurel Tree, cjnicole, Ginny meet Lilly, and Nanchih. Give them all a round of applause people.

Oh, and kudos to The French Dark Lord for realizing that the person wasn't as important as the position, though this one might be a tie for some people.

Wow, y'll are amazing. O_O Twenty-one reviews! We broke two hundred! And another ten people put this on alert.

Y'll are amazing, give yourselves a round of applause.

Hopefully a new chapter next Sunday! Have a good week!

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