Surprise!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Sorry that this chapter took so long! I swear I will never promise a chapter will be up quickly again. It seems to curse me every time. Life has been very full, and this has unfortunately been on the back burner for a quite a while. In case you are wondering, I have had Gall Bladder surgery, a much needed vacation, wrote and helped produce a play and... Kidney Stones. Whew!

All that said I hope you all really enjoy this chapter. There is a lot of fluff at the beginning, but I thought Severus deserved a bit of that. The story has a more interesting twist at the end. And again sorry for the wait!

Thanks to ancientgirl for reading this over and for your helpful suggestions. And a huge thanks to my wonderful beta June for all your hard work, especially on all those dates. You are awesome!

Chapter 12 - Surprise!

Severus slowly began to wake. But when he became aware of the warm body snuggled beside him, he immediately became alert and had a comfortable, sated feeling within.

He smiled as he remembered last night's events, evidence of which were still scattered about his rooms. Hermione's knickers hung from the chandelier above him. Funny, he didn't remember that happening, but then he didn't remember much about what occurred before their frantic coupling. It had been a mad dash to remove as much of their clothing as quickly as possible last night. He grinned wickedly; they had been so eager they hadn't even reached his bedroom until much later. There truly wasn't a room they had missed in their progress to the bedroom.

And now, here they were back in his sitting room on the floor, next to his fireplace.

Severus stretched happily and gently began to extract his arm from beneath his bushy-haired Gryffindor. She shifted in her sleep, mumbled something, and rolled over onto her side.

He stood gently, bits of him creaking and protesting as he did – bits that hadn't ached in ages. Severus smirked as he reminded himself just what had occurred to make his body ache.

He walked across the room to his magically spelled coffeemaker. A cup of his favorite Dragon Brew coffee was waiting for him. The Potions master drew in a deep breath of the coffee aroma and sighed.

He took his cup and moved towards the sitting room's enchanted glass window, which gave him an underwater view of the lake above and its calm, green waters. He'd never really appreciated the beauty of the lake and its view until now. Sunlight was glinting through the water as Severus enjoyed his moment of peace and took a long draught of his morning coffee ... and then very nearly spit it out.

Severus squinted at the odd moving shape in the water in front of him. At first he had thought it an odd reflection of the sun's morning rays from above. But the more he stared at it, the more it was starting to look like something else. Once he determined what it was, he began to choke and gag.

Thebeus was swimming up to the window with an excited and happy grin on his face.

Severus frantically searched the sitting room for something to cover himself with, but could find nothing. His coffee cup would have to suffice for now, although it barely covered anything.

To his dawning surprise and horror, Cranaus and Molossus swam up to join Thebeus. Anwar and Peraethus waved happily at him too.

"Oh sweet Circe's tit!" Severus swore under his breath. The whole lot of them were swimming up to his window now, something the very naked Potions master wasn't happy about. At least the merpeople had scales covering their bits; he had nothing.

Severus quickly turned to look behind him, praying Hermione hadn't wakened and seen any of this. Fortunately, Hermione remained sound asleep on the floor. He turned back to the window and nearly dropped his cup of coffee as Anwar was now tapping at his window with his trident.

"Shhhh, you fool... Shhhhh!" he whispered desperately at their smiling faces, even though they likely couldn't hear him through the glass. Severus was wondering just what they were doing outside his window and how long they had been there. All four of his mermen friends had married at the recent mating ceremony where he and Hermione had almost... so why weren't the mermen off with their new brides?

He hadn't even thought of anyone or anything looking through the underwater window. Had they seen him with Hermione? One look at Cranaus gave him his answer. The merman was making lewd gestures with his arms and tail – gestures that were entirely reminiscent of Severus's last interlude with Hermione.

Severus felt himself blush all over.

Meanwhile, Anwar and Peraethus seemed to be having an animated conversation about Severus's entirely exposed bits and pieces. The topic seemed to be fascinating them. Apparently they had never before seen a naked human.

Severus looked on in horror, temporarily frozen to the spot while he was being sized up.

Meanwhile Thebeus was smiling at him and giving him the thumbs-up sign.

The mermen were enjoying themselves immensely. Molossus and Cranaus were now acting out the frantic coupling when Severus and Hermione first entered the room. Cranaus made a motion as if he was throwing Hermione's knickers high in the air, and Molossus was pointing at the knickers where they were still hanging on the chandelier.

Severus turned and stared at the knickers, wishing he had his wand so he could get them down and hide them quickly.

Anwar and Peraethus seemed to have ended their discussion of the human's private parts and were nodding and smiling in admiration and approval. If anything they seemed impressed and happy for him.

Severus felt some of his horror melting away and a bit of male pride coming back. A smug smile crept over his face. What man wouldn't be proud of what he had just accomplished? Normally a private man, Severus felt a sense of camaraderie with his merfriends. It was rather nice knowing that they came looking for him to share his happiness, although he wished it was not at so intimate a moment.

Suddenly, behind him he heard Hermione shift and moan as she was slowly waking up on the floor. It was time for his friends to leave. There was something to be said about privacy when entertaining one's new lady love. And he was sure Hermione would not have appreciated their friends' act of voyeurism no matter how innocent it was to them, Severus thought, remembering the very public mating ceremony. Seeing one's friends mating was a common occurrence in the mervillage, but not at Hogwarts!

He looked frantically between Hermione and then back to Anwar and gestured wildly to the merman for them to go away.

Anwar seemed to understand and called the other mermen to him.

"Severus?" said Hermione sleepily.

"Yes?" said Severus, his voice a few octaves higher than usual while spreading his body up against the window behind him, trying to block out as much of the view as possible, even at the expense of exposing his own naked body to his friends.

"What are you doing?" she asked, sitting up on the floor.

Severus gasped and spun back around to the window, but all he saw were the quickly retreating tails of his friends. He turned back again towards Hermione.

She had seen nothing. She smiled coyly at him and gestured to the spot next to her.

"Come back to bed, Severus," she said with a special sexy smile, one that Severus was just beginning to understand.

He felt himself immediately harden as he stared at her all tousle-haired. He growled deeply before considering his next actions. When he spotted his wand next to her, he quickly crossed the floor to retrieve it.

"Accio, Hermione's knickers!"

This surprised Hermione, who was expecting him to do something quite different when he crossed to her.

"Severus, what do you want my knickers for?" Hermione asked curiously.

He gave her a wicked grin as he dangled them from his hand.

"I have a few ideas," he rumbled in his deep voice. "Besides, I rather like taking them off of you."

"Severus!" She giggled and smiled at him coyly.

And that was really all he could take from her. He reached over and pulled her up in his arms.

"Severus!" she squealed. "Where are you taking me?"

Severus gave a look over his shoulder at his window and then said, "To my bedroom."

"But, why not here?" she asked, confused.

"There are no windows in the bedroom," he said cryptically.

Hermione wasn't sure just what he meant about that, but given how private the man could be, she considered herself lucky to have been let this far in with him.

Severus strolled into the bedroom and bounced her onto the bed, which brought about a whole new bout of giggles from Hermione.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, her eyes dancing. "Throw me on your bed and have your wicked way with me?"

"That, my dear Gryffindor, is exactly what I intend to do."

Severus eyed the distant window in the sitting room one more time before he carefully closed his bedroom door. He quietly whispered a shielding charm, just in case any curious merpeople were able to see through the keyhole. And then he moved to the fireplace and sealed the floo. The last thing he needed was for Dumbledore to show up in his fireplace, offering him a lemon sherbet or something equally embarrassing and stupid.

Hermione watched him with bemusement. She wasn't sure what was going on but she did not question him. Right now she just wanted to enjoy her time alone with him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Several hours later when the grumbling in their stomachs could no longer be ignored, Severus and Hermione dressed and began to make their way up to the Great Hall for dinner.

Hermione smiled as she entwined her hand in Severus's. She couldn't recall a time lately when she'd truly been this happy.

Severus smiled down at his fiery Gryffindor when she took his hand. He was smitten. He would admit that to no one but himself, but he was. And he would make damned sure no one ever took her away from him.

At least he didn't have to worry about Potter's reaction, as the boy seemed to have his hands full at the moment with Draco. The thought made Severus laugh, although he tried to cover it up with a cough that came out as a sort of snort.

Hermione smiled up at him as they neared the Hall doors.

"And just what was that about?" she started to ask as they walked through the doors, but loud cheering soon prevented their further conversation.

Severus automatically pulled out his wand and stepped in front of Hermione defensively as streamers flew down around them. Somewhere he heard the sound of the Hogwarts bells pealing. Wait... Great Poseidon's fishy tail, were those doves flying around him?

Professor Dumbledore looked absolutely besides himself with glee and rushed forward along with Minerva, Potter and Draco.

'This can't be good,' Severus thought to himself, his wand tightly and defensively gripped in his right hand.

"Congratulations! Congratulations!" shouted Dumbledore, clapping like a fool.

"Oh, Hermione dear, we were so happy when we heard," said Minerva as she leaned in to give Hermione a hug and kiss.

"Yes, yes," said Dumbledore. "I wasn't sure if you had it in you, Severus, but it seems you've come through beyond any of my hopes and dreams old boy," he said as he grasped Severus's left hand.

"Why, thank you everyone," Hermione said as she looked around at the Great Hall, now noticing that it was full of flowery things, confetti, and... were those doves? "But what in the world are you all congratulating us for?"

"Why, your marriage to Severus my dear," said Minerva. "Didn't you know?"

Severus gasped. At the same moment a dove landed on his head.

Hermione's eyes widened. "My... my... I'm sorry, my what?"

"Your marriage, dear," boomed the Headmaster. "We were wondering if you would complete the mating ceremony. I must admit I had my doubts." He nudged Severus in the ribs.

Severus aimed his wand at the magically conjured dove and blasted it away. A shower of feathers fell to the floor.

"But once things began appearing in the Great Hall, we just knew it had to be true," Professor McGonagall continued on.

"Things began appearing in the Hall?" said Hermione, confused. "And this means we're married?"

"Oh, no," the Headmaster said laughingly. "The things appearing in the Hall seemed to correspond with your, shall we say, completing the mating ceremony that you began underwater."

"Yes, we were quite impressed," piped in Draco with a mischievous grin. "They've been appearing once about every hour or so. By my count that brings it up to..."

But, Harry stopped him with a gentle touch to his arm.

Hermione's mouth dropped open and her cheeks turned a shocking red.

Severus had turned an odd shade of gray, and his wand hand was twitching. Dumbledore began to wonder if the man had forgotten to breathe.

"Oh, my," Hermione finally said, quite embarrassed.

"So, you mean to say that by completing the mating ceremony, we have in some sense become magically bonded?" asked Severus at last.

"Completely legal and binding marriage," boomed Dumbledore happily. "You may even be setting a trend. It would seem magical creature weddings are all the rage as of late." He then beamed behind him at Harry and Draco.

Draco smiled at Hermione and held up his hand. A smartly cut emerald was on his ring finger.

"Harry gave it to me today," he said.

"It seems our stint as hippogriffs did the same thing, Hermione," Harry said gently to her.

"Let's just hope I don't end up laying any hippogriff eggs," Draco said laughingly.

Harry turned a bright shade of scarlet and turned to Draco. "I told you not to joke about that, Draco! Dumbledore says he still doesn't know the consequences of our time together like that."

Draco waved him off. "Don't be silly, Harry. I'm not going to have a hippogriff baby." And then he gave him a little snog, which seemed to end the matter for the time being.

Hermione's face suddenly drained of color. She turned quickly to look at Severus.

"But, does that mean... Ariana, she said she got pregnant with Sarafina at the mating ceremony... I... Are we... Do we need to worry about... a merbaby?"

"Oh, no, dear," said the Headmaster. "I'm afraid I was just having a little fun with Harry and Draco. Any type of enchantment you had on your bodies before you mated will have no affect on your offspring. If you mated as humans, you will have a human child. And your chances of having gotten pregnant will in no way increase because of the ceremony. I'd say you have just as much a chance to have gotten pregnant now than if you had as a mermaid."

Hermione seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but Severus had tightened up.

"And you failed to tell us all of this, why?" asked Severus, acidity dripping from his voice.

"Why, Severus, I thought you knew. Certainly with all the knowledge between the two of you, I imagined you would both understand the consequences," said Dumbledore.

A sense of anticipation seemed to hang around the Hall as everyone watched to see just what the Potions master and his bride would do.

Severus had a strange glint in his eye as he stared down Dumbledore. He seemed to move stiffly to face Hermione. She hadn't moved since she had turned to him before. He looked down into her sweet face.

'It's now or never,' Severus thought to himself.

He cleared his voice and said, "Hermione, I am aware that you have unintentionally entered into this arrangement, and therefore I will in no way hinder your walking away from it now. However, it would make me exceedingly happy if you were to agree to stay in this marriage with me."

And then he waited with dread in his heart. He fully expected her to attack him with her infamous flying canaries and file for annulment in wizarding court.

Instead he was rewarded with a flying leap of a hug. And what was this? Was she kissing him too?

"Severus," she whispered to him. "I know it was a shock and we haven't had much time together, but I'd like nothing better than to continue on this journey with you. And maybe even a little Sarafina of our own someday?" She smiled at him.

He smiled too and felt joy come into his heart for perhaps the first time in his life. He was loved, truly loved. He kissed her so hard that the room nearly doubled in flowers.

Dumbledore reached over and squeezed Minerva's hand.

"You see, Minnie? I was right all along," he whispered.

"You got lucky," she hissed in return. "This whole thing could have blown up in your face."

"But it didn't," Dumbledore replied, winking at her. "It didn't."

Harry and Draco watched the whole scene play out before them. Harry was very glad to see Hermione happy at last. Though the pairing rather disturbed him, if the wedding fluff and stuff about the room was an indication of their love life, they were well matched indeed.

He gripped Draco's hand a bit more tightly. He was happy as well. His feelings about Draco had been a shock, but everything seemed to make sense now.

Now if only he could get Ron to unlock his door and come out to talk to him. That was going to take a bit longer to work out. Harry wondered what Ron was going to think when he saw all of this wedding mess for Hermione and Snape. The resulting thought made him chuckle.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Near the lake's edge, a tall, dark wizard was kneeling to hear the report from this grindylow spy, his only source of information of what went on in the mervillage.

"Khai had been imprisoned," the grindylow had reported. "There are only a few of us remaining in the lake. The others of our kind have been banished, and that mermaid – that little mermaid – has been returned safely to her family and is now well guarded."

The wizard was sparking with rage when he stood up. He reached into the pouch he carried by his side, pulling out a small glass sphere. Inside, an image appeared of a mermaid swimming, and a prophecy played out before him.

"Just before the second hour of the second equinox, before the second year after the end of the second millennium, a merchild shall be born. It is she who shall unite the magical creatures in great conference against an evil one and restore their peace with the magical world. Under her leadership and representation, the magical creatures of the world will hold equal power with witches and wizards, even working together as members of the Wizengamot

Then the sphere ceased glowing and the mermaid's image faded away.

The dark wizard pulled the wand from his cloak pocket. How he hated using the thing, but it was a necessity.

He whispered the spell, and his form began to shift and change. No longer was he suffering in that damnable human form. Instead, his body stretched out into its beautiful and strong elegant form, taller and with hooves.

Finally back into his true centaur form, Bane picked up the prophecy globe with disdain and placed it back in his pouch. The wand – which he had stolen from a fallen Death Eater during the last war – went in too.

Well, he had lost this battle to destroy the merchild Sarafina, but he would try again. This time, he would have to make sure that annoying witch Hermione and that dark wizard of hers would have no chance of helping the merchild again.

Yes, he knew he was beaten this time, but there was a long time between now and when Sarafina was supposed to bring about this supposed peace between their worlds. And he was determined that peace would never happen. He hated humans, whether they were Muggles or wizards. What had humans ever brought to magical creatures other than enslavement and their silly wars? The goblins and house-elves used to be more powerful than wizards – look at them now! Centaurs were part of the so-called "Beast Division" of the Ministry of Magic, lumped together with dragons, werewolves, and "dangerous creatures." He'd heard of the Ministry's huge statue, depicting a centaur, house-elf, and goblin looking up adoringly at a witch and wizard. Bah!

Bane slung the pouch to his side and trotted away, leaving his last remaining grindylow spy dead with a kick of his hooves. He felt no remorse. It was all for the greater good of all magical creatures, and he would leave no trail of his deception behind.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Sarafina was born just before 2:00 a.m. on September 22, 2001 – "Just before the second hour of the second equinox, before the second year after the end of the second millennium." There are two equinoxes each year – vernal and autumnal. The term "equinox" refers to the two times of year when night and day are both 12 hours, the same length of time; hence, the significance of Sarafina seeing the era when magical creatures and magical beings (wizards and witches) are granted the same recognition, both equal in power.