Disclaimer:- I neither own nor own anything from this story. My plot is my own but the world of Harry Potter is the intellectual property of JK Rowling and associates.

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A/N:- So, in for a penny while I'm posting stories, this story is pretty much all written, so I've decided to offer it for reading too. To the question of Ron bashing, yes, Ron appears to be a nasty character in this story, but all is not as it appears. Of course, as is usual in my stories, the epilogue has been ignored and this is an AU story.

This story jumps into a strong established friendship between Severus and Hermione, and starts at the point where they're just starting to navigate the 'I want more than friendship' minefield. I would like to welcome my new beta, the dragon and the rose, and thank her for her work on this chapter. Finally, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, if you are not a fan of SS/HG just move on.

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Chapter One – How Things Stand

Hermione Granger would never have thought it possible, but at the age of thirty-five she was at the top of her particular ministry ladder. In October, the year before last, she had been promoted to head of the Arithmancy department. The position had not come to her without having worked very hard. However, it may also have had something to do with the fact that no one else wanted the job when, at one hundred and three, Delius Dribble had decided to retire.

Being extremely organised, both in her own work and in managing everyone else, Hermione's fellow department employees seemed to have had no qualms in recommending that she take the job. Of course, their endorsement may also have had something to do with the fact that the head of Arithmancy had to share an office with the head of the Potions department. The office had once also included the head of the Herbology department as well. But for the last year, the occupant of that desk had been absent on long service leave after a rather unfortunate encounter with a very rampant variety of tentacula he'd been developing, and a replacement had not yet been chosen.

In any case, as far as Hermione was concerned, once she'd been on an equal footing with him, the head of Potions—one Severus Snape—she'd discovered that he was nothing like his war-time persona. He would never win a mister congeniality competition, and he had no patience for those who did not give one hundred and ten percent of their attention to the detail of their work. This little fact also partly explained his foul temper and loathing of his former position teaching teenagers, most of whom had no interest whatsoever in learning his subject whatsoever.

Of course, none of that took into consideration that during the war, while he was teaching at Hogwarts, that he'd been being put under stresses that they were unaware of, or the fact that he'd been instructed—under an unbreakable vow—to favour Slytherins amongst many other demands. Under those circumstances, it was totally understandable that the man was a fire-breathing beast on most occasions.

Mind you, their shared office often reverberated to the sounds of him roasting an underling for being an idiot, but Hermione found that she got on well with him; very well in fact, and in most cases she totally agreed with his point of view.

It had been the general inadequacies of their respective employees that had been the thing that had broken the ice between the pair initially, and now, they were true partners in almost everything. Friends who could finish one another's sentences, or spontaneously burst out laughing about something that nobody else understood, and Hermione had to admit that hearing Severus laugh was a joy in itself, because to see his public persona, he did not look capable of it.

After work, Severus often had dinner with Hermione and her children. It was now, as she sat with her glass of wine, that Hermione was reflecting on how far they'd come. As she thought she watched him patiently showing her eleven year old, Rosalyn—who preferred to be known as Rose—how to crush Sopophorous bean with the flat of a potions knife.

Rose was a very serious girl who was going to do well at Hogwarts, and she had a particular affinity for Potions. This was something that Severus had picked up on when he'd first started to visit the family in their home, and so he'd taken it upon himself to start instructing her. Sometimes Hermione wondered if he took such pains with Rose in an attempt to make up for her own woeful Potions tuition during the war when he could not teach impartially.

Hermione's thoughts continued to the inevitable, with the quiet rising and falling of the conversation between teacher and student, and it landed on the subject it always did as she watched Severus and one or all of her children interacting. She wished that she got along with the wizard she was married to even half as well as she and her children got on with her supposedly dour office companion and friend.

Unfortunately, she didn't. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had married pretty much straight out of Hogwarts, after all, it had been expected. Harry would marry Ginny, and Ron would marry Hermione, and there had been no one else banging down her door. It had seemed the right thing to do, everyone else had been pairing up too, but it had been too quick. Yes, they'd known one another really well, but too late she'd realised that perhaps they were better as just friends. Now, almost thirteen years later, it was too late for even friendship, but she was at a loss to know what to do about it all.

It had worked at first because Hermione had been completing her apprenticeship, and Ron was living out his childhood dream of playing professional Quidditch. They'd hardly seen one another, and they were living at The Burrow, so there were many other people to interact with if they didn't want to be alone.

The problems had started to surface when they'd moved into the cottage that Hermione and the children currently lived in. They'd been planning—well, Molly had been planning—their family, but before Hermione had even fallen pregnant they'd started fighting.

Hermione sighed softly, and came back from her thoughts as she saw her middle child yawn, and glancing at the clock she said, "Hugo, love, it's time for bed."

"But, Mum, Rose is still up," he whined predictably.

"And when you're eleven you too will be able to stay up longer, but you're only nine…"

"I'll be ten in thirteen days," he chimed in hopefully, still watching Rose trying to hold her knife exactly as the professor was showing her.

"Hugo, you have school tomorrow, and you want to be fresh for after school," Hermione pressed, smiling at him, and knowing that she'd just won.

Once he heard that he capitulated easily, after all, tomorrow afternoon was his favourite afternoon. Uncle George and his sons, Fred and Harold, would be with Nanny Molly when she picked them up from school. His favourite uncle then took all three boys to Quidditch practice and out for treats afterwards. Hugo glanced at Severus, and he wondered what it would be like to have this man take him to Quidditch and out afterwards.

"Yes, Mum," he sighed, and he walked over to where Hermione was sitting. Her arms were already outstretched waiting for him. He smiled as he accepted her hug. "Good night, Mum," he stated as he was enveloped in her arms. "I love you," he whispered. "Can you read me a story?"

"I love you too, and you bet. You go clean your teeth, and choose a story, and I'll be in directly."

"Okay," he called, already scampering off towards his room. "Good night, Professor," he said, over his shoulder to Severus.

"Good night, Hugo," Severus replied, glancing up from watching Rose.

"Night, sis," he added, but she was far too busy concentrating to hear.

Hermione got up and walked over to where Rose and Severus were sitting at the table. She squeezed Rose's shoulder and said quietly, "You should be packing up soon too. Have you finished your school homework?"

"Yes, Mother, of course I have," Rose replied.

There was a good amount pompousness in Rose, and Hermione despaired about this character trait sometimes, but she'd also realised that Molly Weasley had probably been just as bossy when she'd been younger, and she knew that she'd been as well, so it was not unexpected that one of her children would turn out the same.

"Excellent," Hermione replied. "I'll just read Hugo his story and be back," she said, to Severus as she turned to him. She found him watching her with a softness in his eyes that she'd seen a lot lately. She sighed and smiled. However, she was shocked when the lovely private little smile he seemed to save only for her arrived on his face and made her insides literally quiver. The problem was that this wonderful feeling was followed by a short stab of pain in her head that seemed to ripple up her arm from her left hand.

It had happened before, but as usual she didn't think anything of it, war wounds often twinged unexpectedly. She quickly turned away, but not before she'd blushed. "I'll look in on you when I've finished reading to Hugo," she said to Rose, after tearing her eyes away from Severus. Then trying to sound casual as she added, "Pour us some more wine, Severus, I won't be too long."

Severus gave a rather mechanical nod and immediately started cleaning up the mess they'd made as a rather flustered Hermione walked towards Hugo's bedroom.

"Mum?" Hugo asked, as he handed her the book he'd chosen.

"Yes, love?"

"Do you think that the Professor could come with us to watch me play Quidditch next Saturday?"

"I don't know, Huie, perhaps you should ask him," Hermione replied, but almost laughed as the boy started to get out of bed. "Not now, love. Next time you see him."

"Oh," he said.

Bless him, he's so literal, Hermione thought, and she settled down to read him his chosen story. He was soon asleep, and she smiled as she kissed his freckled brow, brushing his carrot-red fringe with loving fingers.

On the way back out into the lounge room, she opened the door to check on her youngest daughter, and she saw Minerva's little curly brunette head snuggled down under her blanket, sound asleep. Minerva—who was known as Minnie—had been an unexpected surprise. Hermione had only ever planned for two children, and she had not been prepared to discover that she'd been pregnant with a third, but the child had been a pure joy so far, so she was very pleased to have her as part of her family.

Ron had come home for Arthur's sixtieth birthday that time she remembered. Since Hugo's conception they hadn't slept together, but this night after they'd tucked Rose and Hugo into bed, one thing led to another, after all they'd had quite a lot of wine and they'd had sex.

She closed the door again and walking up the hallway, she looked into Rose's room. Her eldest daughter was in bed, but she already had her nose in her latest book, and Hermione smiled. "Don't read for too long," she said, walking forward and kissing Rose's silky auburn curls.

"I won't," Rose assured her mother. "Night."

"Good night, love," Hermione replied, closing the door as she left.

Hermione paused and squared her shoulders before walking back into the lounge room. Severus had lit the fire and was currently terribly engrossed in watching it as he nursed his glass of red. He'd replaced his frocked coat and buttoned it tightly, and his hair was covering his face again. She knew from experience that meant that he was uncertain about something, and she wondered if he was uncertain about the same thing that she was. He glanced at her but quickly looked back at the fire.

She flashed him a smile and picked up the glass he'd prepared for her. "Thank you," she murmured as she sat opposite him.

"Pleasure," he replied without looking.

They sat there in silence for some moments before Hermione ventured, "They're all growing up so fast."

"The children?" he questioned, glancing through his curtain of hair to see her nod. He exhaled, and then inhaled deliberately before speaking. "Yes, in just the two years that I've known them…" he murmured without finishing his sentence, and then took an extremely deep breath. "Hermione?"

She wondered what he was planning to ask her, because she'd heard him take a very deep breath before speaking. "Mm?" she murmured.

"Are things settled how you would have wanted them?" he asked, still not looking at her.

"Things?" she questioned, maybe he was thinking the same thing she was, but she wanted to be certain before she answered.

Severus knew he had no right to question how she handled things, but he also knew that it was getting close to time for the ginger prick to turn up again out of the blue, disrupt the entire household and then disappear into thin air once more.

Hugo's birthday was coming up, and while Ron had missed Rose's birthday, devastated the young girl, he was certain to show up for Hugo's. Hermione had told Severus in May, after Rose's party, when Weasley hadn't come that she was so angry with him for not arriving, and in her rant she'd revealed that he'd never missed one of Hugo's birthdays, but had been absent for every single one of both Rose and Minerva's birthdays.

"Things," he repeated, and then inhaled a deep breath. "How do you know that there isn't a better reality out there for you and your children?"

Was Severus hinting at something? No, she couldn't even think that he might like her as more than a friend. He was far too important to her to risk him dropping her because he thought she was wanting more, so she answered carefully. "Taking all other factors out of the equation," she said cautiously. "I think I do quite well at providing my children with a good reality."

"Yes," he agreed. "You provide everything for them… But haven't you ever wondered…" but he didn't finish that sentence, and he suddenly muttered, "Never mind, I think the wine's making me maudlin," and he rose abruptly from his chair. "My apologies, I'll see you in the morning. In any case, it's high time I went to my home and fed Morgana before she takes her displeasure out on my furniture," he said, glancing at Crookshanks who had been drawn from wherever he'd been to the warm fire.

"Oh," Hermione gasped, blinking at his abrupt change of topic. She hadn't anticipated him baulking that easily. "No," she answered suddenly. "No, I hadn't expected to be raising my children alone," and she eyed him earnestly as she placed her wine on the side table and rose from her chair.

"Then why do you?" he asked.

She'd never really thought about it before, and she wondered why she hadn't. "I suppose it's because having him here would be much worse," she stated.

"There is such a thing as divorce, you know," Severus told her.

"Yes, there is," but she didn't elaborate.

His temper suddenly got the better of him. "Then what are you waiting for?"

Again, she really didn't know how to answer him. Why had she not thought of these things? Finally she settled on, "Weasleys stick together, Severus, and I'm obliged to the Weasleys to allow me to keep working to support my family."

Severus was incensed at this comment. "Hermione, does that useless swine not send you any support?"

"I earn good money," she replied defensively, her headache starting to bloom savagely.

"Yes, you do, but he is your husband, and your children did not beget themselves."

"True," Hermione replied, "but that doesn't change my circumstances, and if I kick up a stink then I'll lose the support I have."

"You're correct, the Weasleys do stick together, but I cannot imagine that they would turn their backs on the children, especially Molly and Arthur."

Hermione sighed and sat back down. She knew he was right, but something was stopping her from ending things, and she suddenly wondered why.

She sat there willing Severus to see what was wrong, because it was starting to scare her. She'd never thought of ending things with Ron, and she should have, but Severus seemed too caught up in his own distress to notice her not speaking.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but for an intelligent woman, I think you're being very… Never mind," he added, before inhaling slowly. "Morgana needs feeding. I'll see myself out," and even to his own ears his voice sounded too gruff.

"Severus, use the Floo, it's chilly out tonight," she offered, trying to get things back to their steady status quo. As he turned towards the Floo, she told him softly, in a somewhat desperate move, "And please know that I appreciate your words, it's just that I don't seem able to discuss such things."

If he heard her, he didn't say anything. She flopped back in her chair in frustration, rubbing at her head. She knew what it would take for a man like Severus to broach subjects like that with her, and here she'd not been able to discuss it. She was beyond frustrated that he was so flighty about personal matters, but she understood completely why, and she levered herself up to go and get some paracetamol for her headache.

xox

Severus strode out the other end of the Floo into his dark sitting room and he growled in frustration. "Can't, or won't discuss it," he snapped, looking back at the fireplace. "You're a fucking fool, Snape, lusting after a woman half your age," he said, flopping gracelessly down into his chair by the fire and scrubbing his hands over his face. "You're pathetic, pandying to her children just in the hope of a scrap of affection," he spat to the empty room, but saying that brought him up short. Rosalyn, Hugo and Minerva were charming children, and he loved spending time with them as well as their mother, but it would only break his heart all over again when Ronald bloody Weasley turned up and reminded him that he wasn't a part of any family.

The fact that he adored all four of them had driven him to start the ill-fated conversation tonight, and he'd pulled out before he'd ruined everything. He felt a painful sense of responsibility toward them, and damn it, he wanted to be a part of their family, even as he knew he had no right to feel that way.

It was the low, mewling yowl and the feel of thick fur on his leg that snapped him out of his musings, and he finally flicked a hand at the lantern on the side table next to his chair. It sprang into life, and he looked down at the insistent jet-black kneazle, her lamp-light yellow eyes staring up at him as she wound around his legs.

"Good evening, Morgana," he said softly.

The feline answered with another low meow, and Severus sighed and pushed himself up out of his chair to get her food. I am a fool though, he thought, as he walked towards his kitchen. I've finally rid myself of one unrequited love, only to saddle myself with another, and just like the first she's my best friend. At least Hermione has the loyalty not to dump me like Lily did.

He gave Morgana her dinner, and sat at the kitchen table after starting the heat under the kettle. "What was it Hermione said, she couldn't talk about it?" he said, and he considered that for a moment, but then decided, "No, that ginger prick is too much of an idiot to facilitate that."

Morgana glanced up at him as if she agreed, but then went back to her food without comment. Being the only thing that Severus had to confide in, his kneazle was used to listening to him talking to himself.

The kettle boiled and the frustrated Potions master got up and pulled a mug from the cupboard. He made his coffee and took it back into his sitting room and his favourite chair as he continued to think.

It is blatantly obvious to me that the ginger prick is stringing her along, yet she stays, he considered, disappearing deep into thought on the subject.

xox

While Severus was thinking about things, Hermione was also thinking about the question that he'd posed to her. Did she wish for things to be different? "Of course, I bloody do," she muttered, but then her next thought surprised her somewhat, although she'd known it had been there for a long time. "Oh, Severus, I wish things were simple," and saying that made her headache somehow worse. "You know, one of the reasons I married was to have a partner…" she muttered. "I wish I knew why I can't talk about it," and she sighed, as she heard Crookshanks meow in irritation at her, as if offering his opinion on her verbal dissection of the situation.

Then she considered that maybe if Ron didn't work and live in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, then she might have done something about her situation before this, but having only his occasional presence in their home… and that set her to thinking about something else. How long has it been since his last visit, and why am I putting up with it?

She got up and went to her study, being Hermione Granger, she kept a detailed journal that noted everything from huge life-changing experiences to the tiniest details for her day, and she reached for the journal marked 2004, the year that Rosie had arrived. She had been four months pregnant when Ron had suddenly announced that he had been offered the position as coach with the Ballycastle Bats Quidditch team.

At first, she'd offered to move up there with him, and she sat back and thought about that scene with fresh eyes. He had been adamant that she stay in their home near his parents at Ottery St. Catchpole, and he'd taken himself off to Ireland. At the time, his reason had sounded valid to her, but he's a wizard, why couldn't he have commuted? Why haven't I thought of this before?

Man, this headache is getting bad, the Panadol Isn't even touching the sides of it, she thought. It would be great to have a partnership like Ginny and Harry have, or Hannah and Neville. Mind you, Molly, bless her, had been—and still is—a wonderful supporter, Arthur too. Harry, Ginny, Angelina and George have also been wonderful, she thought.

Hermione rinsed her glass in the sink and decided on an early night. As she walked back through the lounge room, she stopped at the pictures on the sideboard, and picked up the one of her and Ginny when they were both pregnant. But after he'd all but abandoned me when I was pregnant, why did I not question that? Right about now she wished that Severus hadn't left. But then perhaps he's not the right person to talk to about this while I'm still trying to work out what's going on. Severus is more of a father to the kids than Ron ever was, and Ron rarely comes home now. Just lately especially, a question had been burning inside of her. Have we been deserted completely? Well, I guess that with Rose going to Hogwarts and Hugo's birthday coming up, we'll see what happens, and she continued through the lounge and into the bedroom she shared with her youngest daughter.

Their little cottage was bursting at the seams accommodating the four of them, but she was trying to make ends meet on a single wage, and she also wanted continuity for her children.

She quietly got ready for bed, and gratefully lay her aching head on the cool pillow. However, she lay there unable to sleep. She really wanted her currently denied opportunity with Severus. Severus already treated Hermione and her children as a surrogate family, and she particularly enjoyed the times they spent together outside work. In a way, both she and the children had moved on without Ron in their lives, but that was to be expected, he was never here.

Rose still remembered who her father was, but with an avid interest in Potions, she loved spending time with Severus. However, Hermione was certain that little Minerva wouldn't know Ron in a line-up of wizards. In fact, she probably thinks that Severus is her father, Hermione considered. Hugo was the only one who looked forward to seeing Ron, but Hugo was the only one of the three children that Ron seemed to value too.

She sighed once more. Maybe the time had come to find out what was what, but she was surrounded by Weasleys who were bound to side with Ron. No, Severus was the only friend she had outside that sphere, she would have to hope that he would help her. After all, it had been he who'd started the conversation tonight.

xox

The next day at work, Severus was fairly standoffish, but Hermione cornered him at lunchtime. "Severus?"

"Mmm?" he replied, not looking up from his ledger.

"Would you have lunch with me?"

He looked up. "I normally have lunch with you, Hermione."

"Yes, well, I find the need to ask specially today."

One of his raven eyebrows rose in question. "Indeed," he replied. "And why would that be?"

"Because I have a particular problem I wish to discuss with you," she said, rubbing her forehead as her headache pulsed.

"I see," he said, but the words were only just out of his mouth when a violent explosion rattled the windows, and rolling green smoke issued from the place where the door into the lab had once been. The splintered piece of wood was now on the other side of their office, having been soundly blown off its hinges.

"Sturges!" Severus muttered ominously, his scowl instantly arriving on his face, and with a quick glance at Hermione, he said, "I'm sorry, but it looks like lunch was just cancelled, you better get out of here for a while," and donning a Bubble Head charm he stormed into the lab.

Hermione nodded and sealed the doors out into the hallway, leaving via the door into her own department with a longing look after the tails of Severus' robes.