Chapter 10

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Chapter 10 - Holiday's End

With only one week left until the end of the holiday, the Hogwarts castle had been re-inhabited by all of the staff again in preparation for the new school year. The classes had to be planned and the plans submitted to Severus for approval, and the supplies had to be replenished, as well as the potions in the Hospital Wing re-stocked, which Hermione generously helped Severus with, although they didn't actually get much done at times.

As they had neglected to do before their honeymoon and holiday away, both Hermione and Severus decided that it would be prudent for them to share rooms, seeing as they were married. And Hermione didn't particularly like the idea of being separated from the man she had grown to love. To be honest, he was never going to let her keep her old chambers, apart from her office, even if she had begged. He wanted her by his side for as long as she was happy to stay with him.

Hermione had planned to go to Diagon Alley to purchase some books that she'd had the owner of Flourish and Blotts keep aside for her, as well as a new pair of teaching and dress robes, and, finally, some new quills that she had never been able to get in Hogsmeade. She was just about to leave the dungeons when Severus entered their chambers, and she remembered that she hadn't told him that she was going. With a squeak, she found herself wrapped in his arms.

'Are you going somewhere?' he asked, kissing her neck and eyeing the outdoor jacket she wore when she went out.

'Hmmm, yes. I'm sorry, but I forgot to tell you,' she answered. 'I've got to get things in Diagon Alley, and I figured you'd be busy, so I was going to go and be back by dinner so I didn't interrupt you.'

'By all means, I just finished with the subject plans and have a few things to pick up from the Apothecary there,' he said softly.

'Oh, so you're coming with me?'

'If you're not averse to the prospect, I wouldn't mind joining you,' he said with a small smile, releasing her from his embrace.

She grinned and summoned his outdoor jacket from the coat cupboard and handed it to him with a sweet smile and a kiss on his lips. 'Alright, let's go. I have to get new robes, and that might take a while,' she said, tugging on his hand for them to leave. 'We can stop by Fortescue's later for ice cream if we have time.'

'Fine,' he said, removing his teaching robes and pulling on the smart, long black jacket and letting her lead him out of the Dungeons.

They went to the Apparation point together, and he pulled her close to his side, wrapping his arms around her and smiling before Disapparating them both. They reappeared in Diagon Alley and released each other, lingering momentarily before they parted ways, agreeing to meet at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor when they had finished with their shopping.

Hermione went straight to Madam Malkin's, had the witch take her measurements, and then chose the design for both sets of robes before leaving to collect her book orders and quills. Half an hour later, she returned to the shop to find that the robes had been completed and she only had to quickly try them on. The teaching robes were perfect, and the dress robes only had to be adjusted in the waist because her waist was relatively small.

'Just put them on my tab, please, Helia,' Hermione said politely to the shop owner.

'Not a problem, Madam Snape,' the woman replied with a sly smirk.

Hermione smiled back and left the store with all of her purchased items in hand, making her way towards Fortescue's to meet with Severus. When she was still fifty meters off, she could see him sitting there already with a coffee before him and her favorite ice cream opposite him. She really did love that man.

'I took the liberty of ordering for you,' he said casually as she seated herself across from him.

'Thank you, it's my favorite,' she replied with a grin.

'I know,' he said with a smirk as she dipped her spoon into the delicious-looking cookie-dough ice cream before her and seductively drawing it into her mouth.

'Want to try some?' she offered, holding a spoonful towards him.

'I'm not really in the mood for ice cream,' he said in tones that suggested much and made Hermione shiver in anticipation. 'So, hurry up and eat so that we can get out of here.'

'Impatient, are we?' she asked, slowly and deliberately sucking the ice cream from the spoon. 'I can get this to go if you're in that much of a hurry, my dear Professor.'

'I suggest you do,' he said, impatiently tapping his foot as she stood and walked into the shop, only to emerge ten minutes later with a tub of ice cream and a small, smug smile playing about her lips.

'Ready to go, oh Potions master mine?' she asked.

He stood up and collected all of their bags, and walked quickly with her back to the Apparation point, and when there, was in a hurry to get them back to Hogsmeade and even closer to the castle, where he could show her just how impatient he was. By the time they reached the dungeons, the throbbing of his loins was almost unbearable, and he practically threw their purchases onto a chair and dragged her into their bedroom. Hermione loved it when he got like that, rough and possessive, yet still showing her that he needed her.

'Undress now,' he commanded as he too began to practically tear off his clothes.

Hermione smirked and did as she was told, but obviously not fast enough because he was on her, kissing her hard and pressing his tongue past her ready lips as he tore at her clothes. Once they were both fully unclothed, Severus teased her to the point where their need to be joined was mutual and thrust into her warmth, pounding into her hard and fast.

'Gods... Sev... er ...us – I'm close,' she panted in between thrusts.

'Me too, love,' he replied in kind as his balls tightened.

When her walls clenched around him and she shouted his name, he lost it and released his seed deep within her in several spurts and then collapsed onto the bed beside her. He immediately wrapped her in his embrace and pulled her tight so that he spooned her with one of his arms under his head and the hand of the other resting against her flat stomach.

'I love you,' he murmured softly into her ear as she dozed lightly.

'Mmmhmm... love you too,' she mumbled, drawing a soft chuckle from her husband, who merely snuggled closer before falling asleep with her.

Two hours later, however, Hermione woke, feeling suddenly ill, and ran straight to the bathroom where she promptly vomited the contents of her stomach into the toilet. She retched up everything and spat it all out before the wave of nausea passed and she stood on trembling legs to reach the basin. She turned the faucet and washed her face with cold water, looking at herself in the mirror.

She looked a sight with her hair mussed from sleeping and the activity that had immediately preceded that. With a sigh, she left the bathroom and returned to the bedroom to find Severus sitting up and looking worried.

'Are you alright, love?' he asked as she sat back down on the bed next to him and slid between the sheets.

'I just felt sick, suddenly,' she replied. 'I've been having waves of nausea all week now, but that was the first time I've actually vomited.'

Severus' eyebrow rose at that, and he reached over to his discarded trousers and pulled the wand from the pocket. 'Will you let me check, just in case it is serious?' he asked quietly.

Hermione simply nodded and lay back to let him get it over and done with so that they could get back to sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day after all. He murmured a spell and let the wand travel over her head and downwards, ensuring that all was the way it should be, until he reached her abdomen. The tip of the wand was glowing blue, and he was positive of what it meant.

'Hermione, my love, you're pregnant,' he exclaimed with wide eyes.

'What?' she exclaimed, sitting up.

'You are carrying our child within you and have been experiencing what is called morning sickness,' he answered, a smile forming on his face. 'You're going to be a mother. I'm going to be a father.'

Hermione let it sink in for a moment and then felt a smile spread across her features. 'You're really happy about this, aren't you?'

Severus kissed her so lovingly then that she found herself near breathless. 'I love you, Hermione Jane Snape,' Severus said with a tender look before they became wrapped up in each other once more.