Disclaimer: So, yeah. I pretty much only own the not yet born child, and I'm not even claiming that, 'cause if someone from the J.K. Rowling/Warner Brothers camp wanted to say it was theirs, they could have it. I'm not looking for trouble.
"We're expecting."
Hermione's words hung in the air like a fog. Severus briefly entertained the idea that she couldn't possibly mean what he thought she meant. Perhaps they were expecting company—her parents, maybe. Or dinner. They could, very simply, be expecting dinner. They could even be expecting the Owl post. He knew, though, that all of these were absurd. No one put as much emphasis on those two small words as Hermione had without them meaning far more than simply expecting guests. They were expecting a far more permanent addition to their household than an overnight guest.
"A baby?"
In all the years Hermione had known her husband, even before he was her husband, she had never heard him so dumbfounded. Nor had she ever seen such a look of shock cross his face. But there it was. He wasn't emotionless, as she had been preparing herself for, but he certainly wasn't shouting for joy—as a small part of her brain had secretly hoped he would. It looked as though he was searching his brain for appropriate words to form appropriate sentences.
"Yes, a baby. Our baby."
Hermione hadn't moved an inch from her curled up position on the bed, Severus noticed. He had moved, though he wasn't sure when, to sit on the edge of the bed, near her drawn knees. Had he been any other man he would have taken her hand, held her, kissed her in his excitement—that would require excitement, though, wouldn't it? And he wasn't sure excitement actually described his mood accurately. Any other man would have realized that she was curled up like that, with that worried look on her face because she was waiting for his reaction. Any man would have comforted her immediately, assured her he wasn't mad.
Severus was mad, though. Mad at himself, mostly, and maybe mad at her, too. Just a little. Mad at himself because he induced such fear in his nearly fearless wife. Mad at her because she let herself fear his reaction. Did she really expect him to scream and rant when he found out he was to be a father? Could she not have realized he would be too speechless to scream or rant? Given the defensive way she protected her stomach, the answers were clear. She did and she couldn't.
"Say something, Severus. Yell if you'd like."
He didn't want to yell. Not at all. Babies could hear sounds from outside the womb, couldn't they? He wasn't sure, but he made note to look it up. He really didn't want some of the first sounds his child heard to be the angry voice of its father. There was enough time for that later, when the child was a teenager and breaking rules.
He couldn't seem to form the words that would make it clear to Hermione how little he wanted to yell. He turned, bringing one knee up onto the bed, while leaving the other leg in its normal seated position, and stared at the area of Hermione's body that was blocked by her knees. For a few moments, the sat that way in silence.
"Severus, really. Speak."
"I'm not a dog for you to command, Hermione. I certainly hope you don't take that attitude with our child." It was far snappier than anything he had said to her in months. At least he had spoken, he thought, proud of the simple accomplishment.
"You don't have to be rude. I understand if you don't want this child, but whether you want it or not, seven months from now, we're going to be parents." Hermione couldn't help but begin to cry. That was one of the reasons that had led her to wonder if she was pregnant, earlier that day. For weeks, she had been an emotional wreck, crying at nearly every drop of a hat. Ron tripped over his own feet on the way to class and Hermione burst into tears. Harry got hurt during a Quidditch match and the normally calm Hermione became frantic, tears streaming. A potion Severus had been working on reacted badly, a loud boom carrying from his classroom to their living quarters, and Hermione sobbed, suddenly terrified that he would die while experimenting.
"Parents. Dad. I'm going to be a dad." Wonder that neither had ever really heard from him filled Severus' voice. It was an amazing thought that one day he would be called 'Dad', that he would be responsible for another life. "You can't honestly believe I don't want the child. How could I marry you and not expect this to happen one day. I didn't expect it this suddenly, obviously, but only a fool wouldn't expect you to become pregnant at some point. It's impossible to have sex and take no precautions and not know that this might be the result. Did you really think I wouldn't want the…our," he amended, "baby?"
"Well, you aren't exactly the most enthusiastic professor when you see the students, especially the younger ones. And you've never made mention of wanting a child. And honestly, Severus? You just seem like a man who'd be just as inclined to never have kids as to have them." She couldn't help but smile while she had listened to his insistence that he was angry, he sounded so precise and distant from the situation, and yet had he sounded happy or thrilled she would have wondered if it was really her husband.
"Crazy witch," he said with a shake of his head and a look that could only be described as the beginnings of a smile, "Those are almost always incompetent, snot nosed brats, who wouldn't know their caldron from their wand if they weren't told the difference. This is our child. Our smart, intelligent child. There's a difference." He rose from the bed, the towel he had dried his hands on balled up in his grasp, and moved toward the laundry basket. He truly believed that no child that he and Hermione could create would be anything near disappointing, but a small thought rested in the back of his mind. He had always been a disappointment to his father, even though he had been the smartest child in all his classes and had rarely disobeyed. What if he was too much like his own father—the type to never be satisfied with anything or anyone?
A/n: Long time, no post, right? Sorry about that. I hope this makes up for the wait just a little…a tiny little bit. Happy reading.