One, the Loneliest Number

Standard disclaimer applies. I own nothing.

I couldn't do this without Keladry and Subversa. You girls are amazing!

Chapter 2- One, the Loneliest Number

Severus dropped onto the wingback chair in front of the large casement overlooking the grounds, swirling the rich red wine in the goblet a bit before taking a short sniff of the fragrant bouquet and sipping it. He would not lie to anyone if they asked. Being Headmaster definitely had its perks, one of them being the largest and finest living quarters in the entire castle. Even if he could no longer retreat to the dungeons for solitude, he loved the fact that he actually had enough room to spread out his things. He even had a separate room for a study and library, on top of his own laboratory and three large bedrooms for guests, Thea and himself. On top of that, he repeatedly received gifts for no apparent reason, like the expensive bottle of wine that had been sent to him via two eagle owls, courtesy of Malfoy Manor.

With his own child due to begin at Hogwarts this term, Draco was apparently resorting to his father's bribery tactics.

Severus leaned his head back against the chair, watching the sparkling lights of Hogsmeade fade out into black Scottish countryside. It would have all been simpler if he had gone there this afternoon to collect Thea's things for school, instead of taking her to Diagon Alley. No one except the Hogwarts professors knew of his daughter, and he had endeavored to keep it that way for as long as possible. Taking her to Diagon Alley had been a big risk, and now everyone would know something of his private life. He had only taken her because of Granger, anyway. He had thought that perhaps meeting Thea would make Granger see that he was different now and would not be so difficult to work for.

Severus frowned into the goblet and grunted. That big mouth of Granger's surely would not remain shut for long, once she saw her friends. For all he knew, she had owled them especially just to let them in on the secret that the Greasy Git had a child.

And damn Granger anyway for even realizing the reason he had toted Thea out to Diagon Alley! Time was running out, and he was beginning to worry that he would not be able to fill the Potions position. Why had he even thought his ruse would work with Granger? And why did she have to be so stubborn, anyway? He was giving her an opportunity that someone her age did not deserve. He was handing it to her on a silver platter with perquisites a first-year professor should not be allowed. Instead, she wanted to stay in her little bookstore earning a pittance with a blond-haired Adonis named Luke.

What angered him the most, though, was the fact that he specifically sought her out for this job. He had chosen her, and she still did not seem all that impressed with the fact that he was asking her...nicely, even!...to take the Potions professorship at Hogwarts. Did she even realize what it had taken for him to humble himself enough to offer the post to her, of all people? After all, she was Potter's best friend, the most insufferable know-it-all and an incomparably silly girl, whose penchant for going along with those idiotic boys had frequently given him the desire to slap her senseless.

However, he was not fooled by the happy face she put on when she said that she was content to stay where she was. He didn't need Legilimency to know that her confirming smile did not reach her eyes. When he mentioned her not being married and having children of her own, he saw a great deal of despair in her face. It was clear that she loved children. The Prophet had written any number of exposés about her apparent love for children...toting the Potters' child everywhere and visiting multiple Weasleys at St. Mungo's when a new brat was born into the family. The writers had even gone so far as to suggest her biological clock was running into overdrive and that readers should start writing in and giving names of eligible wizards to whom she could be introduced! Even if Hermione Granger was a brash Gryffindor, she had a private side that no one deserved to read or speculate about. Hogwarts would have offered her solace away from the media's prying eyes and plenty of foolish children to watch over. Surely she realized that.

Severus was getting worried, though. He had two weeks until the start of term, and he still had not found a suitable teacher for Potions. He had no intention of teaching it himself until a teacher could be found! How would that look to parents of his students if the new Headmaster could not even hire a qualified teacher for the school? Horrible. He would get so much flak over that.

And it wasn't as though he had stayed at this school since the end of the last war for his health. He had stayed because there was the prospect of finally being the head and being able to shape up this school a little bit at a time: by hiring better educators. Sure, Albus and Minerva had both been great heads, but Severus had a plan to make the educational requirements a bit stricter. For years, the educational requirements for students graduating and moving from year to year had been lessening. Students were often passed in classes just to get them out of the school as quickly as possible. It was now his job to make sure he stopped dunderheads in their tracks. He wanted Hogwarts to live up to its reputation of being the premiere wizarding school in Western Europe. But how was he going to do that if he couldn't even get qualified teaching staff?

"Father?"

He turned his head toward the quiet, beckoning call. Thea padded over to him, cautiously stopping a few feet away. She held one of the books from Flourish and Blotts against her chest and waited apprehensively for him to acknowledge her. He certainly had not been happy when he left the bookshop earlier, and Thea had known it instantly. The girl seemed to have a sixth sense about his moods and would often disappear when all clues were pointing to the advent of his less-than-charitable demeanor. This was besides the fact that he had been incredibly short with her a few times since they had come back, about her toy broom in the middle of the floor, or her incessant questioning.

"Yes?"

"Will you read to me, Father?"

He let out a long breath and sat up in the chair, placing the goblet of wine on the side table. "Of course."

Thea smiled brightly and made short work of crawling into his lap and resting her head against his shoulder. He would be loath to admit it to anyone, but he did so love times like these where it was just the two of them. Such... tender moments had indeed grown on him, and he often wondered what it would possibly be like when she got old enough that she did not need him in such a security blanket capacity any longer. "Lonely" wouldn't even begin to describe how he felt, or so he had convinced himself. He worried that he would be even lonelier than he had been before her unceremonious entrance into his life.

However, as much as keeping the girl to himself for as long as he could manage was important, he was also well aware of the fact Thea needed a female presence in her life. Minerva had been wonderful before as a surrogate grandmother, but now that she was no longer at Hogwarts, Thea would be left wholly to his whims, even when he was in a despicable mood. Even he knew that was not something anyone should have to live through. He had hoped that if Granger had accepted the position, if in part due to Thea, that she would be the one to take Minerva's place. For those nights he needed to be gone at the Ministry or doing other things, Miss Granger could take care of her. When Thea got older, they could talk about whatever women spoke and giggled so annoyingly about together.

Except, he knew Granger, and she would probably read into things and start thinking he was conditioning her for a more permanent role as a mother. And that definitely was not what he wanted or needed. He was perfectly content being single, and he certainly did not need the Granger girl as a significant other.

No matter how physically appealing she was at twenty-eight.

Thea just needed... femininity... in her life, or she would eventually end up exactly like him: a crusty old person.

"What are we reading tonight?" he asked quietly, pulling the book away from her chest.

"Cinderella," she said. "Miss Hermione said it was her favorite when she was my age."

He ran his fingers over the gilded lettering spelling out "Charles Perrault" on the cover of the thin book. It was a strange book. Definitely not one made by a wizarding publisher, if he was going by the shoddy binding. The tome's unrealistic, unmoving picture on the front cover convinced him of its inferiority.

Muggles.

"Did you like Miss Gran... er... Miss Hermione?" It was a struggle for him to get the woman's given name out of his mouth. She would forever be Miss Granger to him and nothing else.

Thea nodded her head enthusiastically. "I did, Father. She's really clever, like you."

He could not decide what to focus on: the fact that his daughter thought he was intelligent, or that Hermione was being compared to him. In the past, he might have balked at anyone who compared that insufferable know-it-all to him, but now it was more a compliment than anything. Insufferable she may be, but dimwitted she certainly never was. At the very least, she should be honored to be considered in his league...and to know that he personally considered her clever enough to take over his old classes.

Severus rolled his eyes, pushing the thoughts of the woman out of his head. Tomorrow he would start the hunt once more for a teacher who would not melt a cauldron during lessons.

-----

"I still can't believe it. Snape seriously has a kid?"

Hermione glanced up from the Evening Prophet she was reading, toward the voice of the quite pregnant redhead standing over a steaming pot. "That's what I said, Ginny. Trust me, I still don't believe it myself, and I saw the girl with my own eyes."

Ginny shook her head and leaned over the pot, lifting a wooden spoon to her mouth to taste the concoction. She lowered back down onto her heels and set the spoon aside. Hermione smiled as the woman waddled over to the chair opposite her in the little breakfast nook to the side of the kitchen.

"I've got to tell you, I'll be glad when I finally have them."

"Your mum never told you that the predisposition for twins runs in the female line, did she?" Hermione asked with a raised brow.

The pretty redhead shook her head and laughed. She rested her hand on top of her burgeoning stomach. "I was lucky I even knew what went where when I had sex for the first time, much less the... what do the Muggles call it? 'The Birds and the Bees'?"

"And she thought you, of all people, were still a virgin when you married Harry," Hermione remarked.

"Hey, now! I was never that loose." Ginny frowned, but it quickly turned into a smile and a laugh. She and Ginny had become very close friends since Hogwarts, especially since Ginny and Harry had finally realized they were perfect for each other. Because they were really the only younger women in a sea of males...Luna had always been in her own little world...they had to band together out of necessity for sanity. War had brought them even closer. Hermione dating Ron for a little while had aided the bond even further. Now they figured they might as well call each other sisters. And what a pair they made, the pureblood and the Muggle-born.

Because of this and her business ties with Harry, dinners at the Potters' rather large manor house had become a regular occurrence for Hermione. She visited several times a week to discuss business, since Harry was the silent partner in the bookshop. He cared little for the running of the business, but Hermione had insisted he stay as informed as possible on the matters of the shop in case something ever happened to her. He had only laughed, stating that he was certain everything he needed to know was written and catalogued in notes in the shop.

Truth be told, though, she insisted on visiting so often only because she was lonely in her little flat after the shop closed for the day. A sixteen-year-old Crookshanks was not an exciting companion. Here, at least, she had loud-mouthed Ginny to gossip with, Caroline to spoil, and oftentimes, the Potters' nieces and nephews to take her mind off her rather mundane life. Other times, when she really wanted excitement, she visited the circus that was Ron and Luna's home, but that sort of excitement was only for the days she felt most able to do battle. It seemed that both Harry and Ginny had realized very early on why she called upon them as much as she did, but they had never seemed to mind her company.

Damn Snape for being able to sense my unhappiness, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

It was all she could think about for the rest of the day: Snape and his visit to Flourish and Blotts, including his offer of employment at Hogwarts. Hogwarts, the school that had been truly home to her ever since she first learned she was a witch. It was an honor to be asked to teach there...and even more of an honor that Snape intentionally sought her out to take over his subject. He was asking her, the girl he had loathed in his classes, to teach.

It was a dream position that many people twice her age only could have wished for. She should have asked where her rooms were. She should have asked to sign the contract. But she just couldn't leave the bookshop. There was still so much to be done.

"And then he showed up wearing nothing but a ribbon..." said Ginny, sufficiently drawing Hermione out of her trance.

"Huh?!" Hermione asked.

Ginny crossed her arms over her chest and rested them atop her distended abdomen. "There's something on your mind. You're too quiet."

"Just thinking."

"About?" Ginny asked, but they were interrupted by Caroline waking up from her nap in the sitting room and requiring her mother's attention in the toilet. The sound of the front door opening had two-year-old Caroline running down the hallway, wearing only her nappy, a security blanket and a stuffed Pygmy Puff toy beneath her arm. Ginny appeared in the hall with a harried expression, a tiny dress in her hand.

"Daddy!" squealed Caroline.

"What happened to your clothes, little one?" a disembodied voice asked with a short laugh. Ginny stomped toward the entrance, tossed the dress at the voice and stomped back toward the kitchen.

Hermione tried not to laugh, but it was futile.

Ginny grumbled. "If the twins are anything like her... I don't know what I'll do. I've had these nightmares that Fred and George will pop out."

"Well, they'll definitely take a keen interest in their nephews or nieces, whatever you have."

Harry entered the room with Caroline on his hip. He set the small girl down and walked to his wife to give her a kiss. Hermione knew she should look away from the private moment...after all, it would only serve to thrust her own spinsterhood into harsh light...but she was enthralled by the way Ginny and Harry acted with each other. They were clearly very deeply in love, if one could tell by the starry expressions in their eyes after a short welcoming kiss or the way Harry gave Ginny's abdomen a light caress as though greeting his unborn children. It made Hermione's heart melt and harden all at the same time. Why couldn't she have that? Sure, Harry deserved this idyllic happiness after everything that had gone on in his early life, but didn't she deserve a small slice of it as well?

"Hey 'Mione," he said as he walked past her seat and squeezed her shoulder in a friendly gesture. Soon he had divested himself of the navy-colored Auror robes, hanging them on a peg to the side of the room.

Caroline finally noticed that Hermione was there as well and ran over, arms outstretched. "Aunnie Ermione!"

Hermione, covetous of her friends' happiness, did not need another enticement to take the girl into her arms and hold her tightly. Meanwhile, Ginny and Harry began to talk about Ministry gossip.

"To tell you the truth, I'm a little worried it's so quiet," he said. "Something's bound to happen. Who knows, maybe Snape's last nerve will finally snap, and we'll have to clean up the kids who got the worst of it."

"I think it snapped a long time ago, Harry," Hermione said quietly.

"Speaking of Snape," Ginny began; she could always be counted on to stir things up. "Guess who came into the bookshop today?"

"Snape?" Harry asked, unimpressed.

"And his daughter," Ginny added.

"His what?" Harry asked, suddenly flabbergasted.

Ginny nodded and deferred to Hermione to recount finding out about Snape having a daughter, and a rather well-adjusted daughter, at that. Harry still did not seem to believe it at the end of the story and just sat back in his seat, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Why did he make the trip to Diagon Alley, anyway? Isn't that a little far from Scotland?" Harry questioned.

Hermione sighed. She might as well tell them because they would pull each tooth out of her one at a time if they had to. "He wants me to teach at Hogwarts. Potions."

"You didn't tell me that!" Ginny exclaimed. "You hadn't said you applied for the job."

"I didn't," Hermione said.

"You mean he intentionally sought you out to teach Potions?" Harry asked. "Is it a cruel joke or something?"

"Yes, because my master qualification in Potions means absolutely nothing, Harry." Hermione pursed her lips together. "I told him no."

"Why?" Ginny exclaimed. "It's perfect for you, Hermione. You love school. What could be more perfect for you than teaching?"

"But it's his subject, Ginny. You know how he treated her in his classes," Harry said. "Am I right, Hermione?"

She nodded. "I am worried that he would hold me to an impossible standard, considering everything. He'll probably be breathing down my neck like he did when he was overseeing brewing back then."

"But it is a good opportunity, Hermione," he said, the gears clearly turning in his head. "And I would have a reliable source of information, should anything unsavory happen at the school."

"I refuse to be your informant," she said. "If you want to uncover something happening, you'll just have to do good old detective work. Besides, I have the bookshop to run."

"Luke can handle it and hire a flunky," Harry offered.

Hermione shook her head. "But you bought it for me, Harry. I wouldn't feel right."

Harry scoffed. "Don't worry about what you 'think' is right, Hermione. What's the worst that could happen? We sell it again. If you really want to teach, then you should."

"I just..."

"Don't go there." He raised his hand in an effort to stop her. "Hermione, I'm saying this just because I love you...saying it because both Ginny and I love you. We see how unhappy you are right now."

"I..."

"Don't disagree with me, you know you are, and we're worried about you. I know you've been waiting for something like this to fall into your lap," he continued.

Hermione glanced at Ginny, who nodded in agreement with her husband.

"He's right, Hermione, we are worried," Ginny confirmed, though she clearly had not planned on this heart-to-heart happening like this. "You've been searching for a place to fit in, and Hogwarts is it. School is it."

Crossing her arms across her chest, Hermione frowned slightly. "I don't know."

"Just think about it," Harry encouraged. "You'd definitely be a million times better than the previous Potions professor."

Hermione couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the looks both of the Potters were shooting at her. It was one of those parental you-will-do-as-I-say looks that they seemed to have mastered recently, and one that Hermione had only seen on her own parents' faces a few times in her life.

"Fine! I'll think about it." Hermione threw up her arms in disgust.

She hated it when other people were right and she was wrong.