I Did This

Thank you to astopperindeath for the betawork!

I heard the sound of pages turning. The simple, evocative sound, so ubiquitous in my former life, was unique enough now for me to claw my way up through the layers of fog I was in to listen to it. I was still, not moving, just listening. I became aware of other sounds. I could hear the muffled sound of chairs scraping and footsteps walking past in the distance. There! There it was again, that glorious sound: a book. Then, I remembered there were no books where I was, no chairs were ever scraping along stones in a room below me, no sound of footsteps was ever heard from outside in the hall. I must still be dreaming.

I woke up confused.

There was a gasp close by, and then I heard a shout and felt a whoosh of magic. I panicked and struggled to sit up.

"Easy, Hermione, you're safe, I got you."

"Peaches?"

I looked around to see I was in the room over the kitchen. The other bed had been removed, and the room was back to its original configuration. Peaches was next to me on the bed, leaning against the headboard and, yes, she had a book in her lap.

"Here, drink some water," she ordered. "You're very dehydrated."

I drank gratefully. I reached for the book she had in her lap, and she gave it to me. The title was Advanced Spell Repair and Cursed Tissue Replacement.

"This is marvelous; where did you get it?" I asked.

"Theo brought it for me," she replied.

Broken bits of memories came in jagged pieces. Some of them cut quite deep.

"Theo is alright then?"

"Oh, yes, he made it through fine. How much do you remember?"

"I remember... I... He's dead, isn't he?" The words came out in a whisper.

"No, Hermione. He's not dead, and he's on his way. I sent him a Patronus as soon as I saw you stir."

Relief caused me to sag back down onto my pillow, and I had to take gulping breaths.

"But Angel..."

"No, Angel's gone, along with Dusty and, well, we lost ten of our girls," she said as I reached for her hand.

"Who else?" I asked.

"Seven of Viktor's friends died, and one had to have a leg removed. Viktor got his arm back, and they think he'll be okay. Neville's okay as well, although he still has some issues, but we lost about forty of the forest folk."

She pulled me into her arms, and we cried together for our dead.

"They knew," she said. "We all knew there was a chance we wouldn't make it. It was worth it, Hermione, it will always have been worth it."

I pushed away and scrubbed my face with an overlarge cotton sleeve.

"Easy, sweetie. Let's get you to the loo. Come on, steady on my arm. He's going to be here any second now, and you don't want to cut short your reunion because you need to pee."

I struggled to get up out of the bed, and Peaches moved swiftly to support my back with her arm.

"Why am I so weak? Was I injured?"

"No. You and a few others shut down after the battle. Warrington woke up last night. You've been sleeping for almost three days"

"Three days?"

"Yeah, your man was here for a large part, but he's been needed in other places and wouldn't allow you to be alone, so Agatha and I have been keeping an eye on you when he's at the Ministry or off brewing. You need to get better quickly. I think he's starting to overtax himself, and someone needs to take care of him. It sure as hell isn't going to be any of us."

I shuffled slowly across the room, leaning heavily on her arm. I looked down and saw I was wearing a long, old fashioned cotton night gown. I watched my toes peek out and disappear again under the ruffled hem.

"Where did this come from?" I asked, lifting up my arm and displaying a ruffled cuff at my wrist.

"Huh, I was hoping you could explain it to me. I don't know if he transfigured it or borrowed it from his mother. Whatever, I get where he was going with all that fabric, and I think that makes him sweet. Just don't tell him. I don't want to die now that we've won. He's been a real bastard with you out of commission. Effective? Yes. Pleasant? Not so much."

I snorted, and it felt good to smile. If it had been anyone else helping to bunch up the yards of material in the gown so I could sit on the toilet, it would have been humiliating. However, Peaches and I had no secrets or dignity left between us, and so I didn't even bother to hide the relieved sigh. Needs met, face washed, teeth brushed, and I felt almost human again.

We were just shuffling our way out of the bathroom when we heard feet pounding up stairs somewhere off in the distance.

"Noisy in this place now," I remarked.

"Agatha won't put the silencing charms back up. She says the noise makes it sound like a home. Theo and I found that out the hard way the other night when Charlie and Ruby started banging on the wall because we had woken them up. Brace yourself, I think that's Lover Boy now."

Sure enough the pounding footsteps were getting closer.

"I'm not sure; he never used to make that much noise stalking the halls at Hogwarts."

"He probably never waited three days to speak to the woman who called him back from the dead before either."

"That's not what happened."

"If you say so, but I want details later; for now, smile."

She angled me towards the door and kept a firm arm around my shoulders.

"How do I look?"

"Wretched."

"Thanks for that."

And then the door flew open.

He stood in the doorway and assessed the picture of the two of us clinging together in the middle of the room. He was gaunt looking, but smartly dressed in good robes. His hair was evenly cut to just shoulder length. He looked tired and underfed and intensely irritable. In other words, he looked just like Professor Snape and very little like Severus.

"Why is she out of bed?" he demanded to know.

"I needed to..."

"I asked you a question, Miss Williams."

"I took her to the loo."

"How long has she been awake?"

"Fifteen minutes? I gave her a glass of water, but she needs her potions as well as a lot more water."

"Thank you, Miss Williams, for your assistance. You may go." He stepped to the side and gestured stiffly, yet politely, to the hallway outside the door.

"Yea, um, but if I let go of her she's going to fall down, and by the way she's shaking, I think that might make her even more pissed off than you just did."

She knows me so well.

His face paled, just the slightest, and he moved quickly. He wrapped his arms around my legs and shoulders and scooped me up like I weighed nothing. I was enveloped in his scent of fresh rain and lemon grass.

"Forgive me," he said to us both. "I have been... well, none of us are in top form."

"It's all right; here, let me just fix the blankets for you, and then I'll go. Hermione, I will check on you later. Minister, can I have some food sent up?"

"Please, and thank you again, Miss Williams." This time his voice was sincere.

"Thank you, Caroline," I added.

She smiled and quietly closed the door behind her.

He laid me down on the bed and covered me with blankets. Turning toward the bedside table, he started to empty his pockets of nearly a dozen potion vials. He turned back towards the bed and pulled out his ebony wand and started to cast diagnostic spells as I sat there with my arms crossed glaring at him.

"Aren't you even going to say 'hello', Minister Snape?" I huffed.

"Do you mind if I make sure of your physical state first, Madam Chief Granger?" he snapped back.

"Yes, I do mind. And what the hell are you talking about? I can't be a member of the Wizengamot; I've been asleep!"

"You can because I appointed you. They made me a damned dictator, so I exercised my currently unlimited Executive powers and made you one as well. You're Chief Witch of the Wizengamot. I'll be hanged if they're going to make just my life miserable."

"Ah, so I get to be miserable with you?"

"Yes, damn it all, for the rest of your miserable life." He turned and swept up four potions and tossed them in my lap. "Now shut up and drink these potions, woman, and I will fetch you a cup of tea."

My mind reeled in irritation and confusion as I drank the potions. I gagged and reached for the glass of water. Severus came back to the bed and sat down next to me, placing the tray of food on the bed next to my legs. He took the glass away from me and replaced it with tea.

"Drink."

I looked at him over the rim of the cup and saw how angry, nervous and exhausted he was. He lifted a bowl of soup from the tray and handed it to me, taking away my tea cup.

"You do still love me, right?" I asked, with a mixture of dry humor and abject terror.

"Desperately, now eat the damned soup."

"So we're just crap at the whole 'loving reunion and happily-ever-after' thing then?"

"Well, I don't know about you but this is my first 'happily-ever-after', and so far, it falls a bit short of my already low expectations."

"Tell me." He gave me one of his patented 'significant looks'. "Tell me while I eat my soup, then."

He launched himself off the bed and began to pace.

"I just don't see why it wasn't one of those damnable Weasleys! I mean, what the hell was wrong with Percy, for Merlin's sake? I would have thought it was an obvious choice! But no, they had to go off on the damned symbolism and emotional reactions, and it was fucking unanimous! The truth is out; they know I was Dumbledore's man from the beginning now, and even Nott only gave me one confused look before he returned to his fucking hero worship! It's out of control! Gods, Hermione! They're calling me the bloody Man-Who-Lived! I've no damned idea what needs to be done, but I spend all my time doing it instead of something useful like working more on Longbottom's healing potions.'

"What's wrong with Neville?"

"He's still blind." He waved away my concern. "He'll be fine once we find the correct potion. There's no physical damage, just spell damage. But those dunderheads at that pitiful excuse for a hospital couldn't brew a decent potion to save their lives, and I just haven't been allowed enough time.

"I don't want to be the damned Minister for Magic! I don't know what to do with all the innocent people that were locked up in Azkaban! I haven't a damned clue how to go about restoring people to their rightful homes. I have no idea what to do with the forty orphans I now have custody of. I couldn't care less about restoring the fucking legal system, freedom of the press, human rights, magical creatures' rights, free trade, tariffs, taxation, returning St Mungo's to the free care system it used to be, or even the pending trials of the previous administration!"

"You are very angry," I said understandingly.

"You're damned right I'm angry. I'm angry at the lot of them! How dare they do this to me! Do I not deserve a rest? Can I not crawl away now, duty done, and lie down in the sun? Am I not allowed to be with the woman I love for even a fucking week?

"And you! Don't think I'm not still angry at you, you foolish girl!"

I had been waiting for this one.

"Just what the hell were you thinking climbing up onto that desk? Do you know how close I came to hexing you myself? Did I not tell you to stay behind Longbottom? Didn't I ask you not to be foolish? Was that simply too much to ask?"

His chest heaved as he drew in furious breaths of air. His hands were clenched, and his face was twisted in fury, and I could tell he was trying to keep a tight rein on what little control he had left.

"You're frightened," I said softly, just a statement of fact, not a judgment.

"I'm terrified, Hermione."

"Tell me why, my love."

"Because they need so much from me, and I don't know how to be everything everyone needs me to be." He stood at the end of the bed, and I watched as his shoulders drooped and his face infused with fear and worry.

"I don't know how to run a government. I don't know how to make them happy again. I don't have any experience with this.

"Do you know what those fucking bastards said when I told them that? They said 'surely it's not much different from being a Headmaster?' As if everyone in my school hadn't been slaughtered on my watch! Don't they see? Everything I touch turns to death and ashes! I make terrible decisions! I don't know how not to, and I am terrified I will destroy what's left of our world. I'm terrified of being Minister! I'm terrified of being in control! And I'm absolutely bloody fucking petrified of being a father!"

I blinked.

His face went a remarkable shade of pale before he froze it into his emotionless mask.

Words and images started to replay in my mind.

I heard Harry's voice say 'he's coming back to watch over you both...' I remembered Peaches asking me to let her check my belly. I remembered his hand stretched, fingers splayed, across my belly. And then I remembered an outpouring of uncontrolled magic that had swirled so brightly around this very room that I had nearly been blinded the night that he had used his own blood to reseal the wards.

I clumsily dropped the soup bowl back onto the tray and brought both of my hands to cover my stomach.

"I'm pregnant?" I whispered.

"They said under eight weeks still," he replied to his boots.

"You knew?" I asked. "Before?"

His manner was stiff as he came over and lifted the tray off the bed. His hair swung in front of his face.

"No," he said. "I... wondered." He turned to walk away, to take the tray back to the sitting area. Seeing him turn his back on me sent a stabbing pain into my chest.

"No! No, don't do that!" His face whipped around and he froze, staring at me in utter panic. "I need you here, not there! I need you here! You can't... don't... no walking away!" I stretched my arms out to him, but then used one to shove the blankets off my legs as I tried to make it out of the bed and reach for him at the same time. He looked at the tray like he wanted to destroy it for offending me and bent over and dropped it to the floor. Three long strides brought him crashing into my arms, and he lifted me and twisted as his momentum brought us down onto the bed.

"I'm here," he crooned. "I'll always be here."

I burrowed my way into his robes until I was completely enshrouded in his embrace as he murmured into my hair and stroked my back.

"I admit I'm scared, Hermione, but I am not a coward. I will never walk away from you. I will be here for you always, just, please gods, tell me what to do, for I am completely lost. Tell me you forgive me."

I scrambled back out of his robes until I was eye to eye with him.

"Forgive you? What did you do?"

His hand slid down my back and around my waist; he pushed me gently until I was on my back again and splayed his hand over my belly. He brought his head close until his forehead was touching just above my ear.

"This. I did this. I am so sorry."

"Why? Why are you sorry? Do you not want this? Or did you do this intentionally?"

I could feel the tremors running through my body from him as he shook.

"I didn't give you a choice. I didn't make a conscious decision, but yet, Hermione, I wanted this to happen. That night that I lost control of my magic, all I was thinking about at that moment was how I wanted to claim you as mine for all to see. I want this," his hand clutched at my stomach, "but I did not ask."

I snorted. "You did nothing intentionally that night, Severus; you were practically out of your skull. Yes, something like this would have been better off planned, but if the future of the race was left to planning for convenience, we'd be extinct soon." I placed my hand over his, and together we cradled the new tiny life inside, still so fragile and uncertain. "So what do we do now? I don't know anything about being pregnant or childbirth or how to raise a child. I have no idea what I am doing. Gods, I've only known for three minutes; no wonder you were overwhelmed by three days."

His arms came around me, and he pulled me into his chest.

"Do you have an idea of what you will do with it, Hermione?"

"No! Not a one! I supposed it will depend on how fast we can get the Ministry back on its feet. If we're still working at that, then perhaps I could bring the baby with me to work; I'd rather not leave a newborn in daycare. Do they have daycare at the Ministry?"

I twisted around to look at him, waiting for an answer to that last question, and the expression on his face would have been comical had it not been so painful to see.

"Oh. You meant am I thinking of keeping it. Well, of course I am; don't be daft. You already said you wanted to, and I have no particular need to wait to start our happily-ever-after. I know once upon a time my priorities might have been different, but a family sounds like heaven to me just now, and we'll just have to be terrified of the prospect together. And..."

His silencing kiss was almost violent, and like a spark on dry tinder, took almost no time to go from gratitude, to reassurance, to loving, to passionate. Both of us were desperate to reclaim our intimate connection after the events of the last week. We got as far as getting him out of his robes and getting his belt off, but the rest of our clothing was simply shoved down or up as we raced madly toward our joining. Cradled in his arms as he was by my legs, I felt our completeness, our oneness, and rejoiced. No words were spoken, no demands, just a need feeding a need as he filled me and was fulfilled. He threw his head back and shuddered his release as he let out a howl that descended into a low groan and ended with the word 'fuck'.

I wiped his hair from his eyes as he recovered. He was a long, lanky pile of barely responsive limbs on the bed next to me. Somehow, he managed to retain his dignity even with his trousers bunched around his knees.

"I'm sorry," he panted. "I thought I could last long enough for you to..."

"Hush," I said with my hand on his lips. "Don't spoil the moment. You owe me, and let's leave it at that for now."

We lay in each other's arms, each in our own thoughts, until he eventually reached down and pulled his trousers back up and buttoned them. He twisted around until he had the pillows propped up behind him and opened his arms to me. I settled my nightgown and relaxed onto his chest. He hauled me up closer and rubbed his face in my hair.

"I owe you a lot more than an orgasm, Hermione. I owe you my life."

"What do you mean? I thought you took care of that with all the Hallows you had squirreled away on your person."

"Yes, well, that was the original backup plan. Did you ever read the story Albus gave you?"

"Yes."

"Well then you remember how the Brothers Peverell tricked Death and yet Death, with the exception of the one brother, managed to trick them as well in the end?"

"Yes, but Death was just a metaphor."

"Like hell he is; and let me just tell you that Death can be a ruddy prick when he wants to be. And a veritable Slytherin to boot. I tried to bargain with him, and he played me like the most simpleminded of Hufflepuffs. Oh, he took his fucking Hallows back in return for letting me live out my life with you. But he never bothered to mention that I had no connection anymore and couldn't get back. So there I was, not dead and not alive. I had a grand old time sitting for what felt like eternity on a gray rock in a gray wasteland with a gray sky and fuck all else to do but sit and think of what a mess I had made of everything."

"But how did you get back?"

"You sent Potter and Weasley to find me, and they did."

My arms broke out in gooseflesh, and my hair felt like it was trying to crawl off my scalp. He must have felt me shiver, because he chafed my arms and bent his knees up until I rolled onto his lap.

"And you made a vow to Ron..."

"Now, don't get angry about that, woman, my back was up against the wall at that moment, and it wasn't exactly a burdensome vow."

"You really spoke to them? You saw Harry? And Ron? They were real?"

"Yes; I thought you knew that. They explained that they talked to you all the time and that their relationship with you would be my connection back."

"I always had memories, images, but I thought they were fever dreams."

"Shhh, easy now. They brought me to where all our departed were. I spoke with all of them." His voice was heavy with emotion.

"Everyone? Draco?"

"Yes."

I didn't know what to say, so I just leaned up and kissed him gently.

"Such a remarkable soul, that boy," he rasped.

I wrapped my arms around him and held him.

"All this time, I thought it was a sign that I was going insane. I always looked forward to it, because it was my last escape, and whenever it was close, they would come. I always thought they were just in my head or just a half remembered dream. I, well... Severus... I... have had many bouts of madness over the years. Peaches could probably explain better. I always end up with memory gaps when I recover."

"Miss Williams explained about your less than lucid moments during your imprisonment here as well as the unseen ghosts that helped you stay sane."

"Then you aren't worried? It doesn't bother you that the future mother of your child isn't exactly, well, sane?"

For this bit of idiocy, I got one of his premium looks complete with eyebrow and scowl. I wondered if our child would inherit that eyebrow.

"Oh, heavens, a baby," I blurted out suddenly. "What are we going to do with a child, Severus?"

"Well, I've been researching what I can and asking a lot of questions in the last three days, and the best I can come up with, out of the unending stream of nonsense I have received is: practice on the first, don't repeat the same mistakes on the second, it is customary to forget to take any pictures of the third, at least make sure the fourth doesn't smell, and call it a good day. Then pretty much hand the rest of them over to the first, who by then has all the answers."

"Just how many children are we having?"

"The choice is completely yours," he replied blandly.

"Why do I think there might be some heavy lobbying involved on your part."

"I admit, I do want a large family, and that I can be persuasive, but I promise from here on in, you will always have a choice."

"Like I had a choice about being Chief Witch?"

"You can always quit, I promise. Just please don't until after the first election. Then we can both wash our hands of it and go lie in the sun."

"When is that?"

"This time next year, as things stand right now."

"Good lord, that's not much time. I'll have to do an enormous amount of reading!"

"Yes, about that...hand me my robes, would you, dear?"

I leaned over and caught the collar of his robe and dragged it up the length of the bed. He caught it from me and started searching through the pockets. In a nice display of wandless magic, he pulled out nearly a dozen shrunken books that regained their size as he tossed them down next to me on the bed. When he was done with that, he rearranged me so that I was lying against his chest with my legs propped over his knees as if he was my personal recliner. He rested his chin against my head as we perused his gathered collection of Magical and Muggle pregnancy guides, as well as the first seven volumes of The Complete Wizarding Laws of Great Britain and Ireland. We chatted excitedly about the baby books, and he constantly assured me that any changes to my body would be both welcome and worshipped, and he made me promise never to take any potions not brewed by him personally.

I reached for the law books.

"Okay, so where do things stand as of now? What decisions have you made so far, Minister Snape?"

"Well, I made it official that those living in the forest have the full use of Hogwarts until they can get back on their feet, and I have ensured that money for food and amenities will continue for the school from government funds. I have confiscated the properties and Gringotts accounts of all wizards accused of crimes committed during the wars and all deceased Death Eaters proven by testimony to have been loyal members, and the funds are in escrow with the interest payable to the Ministry."

"That's very good! I'm rather impressed, Minister Snape. What about the resettlement of people who had their property taken by Death Eaters?"

"They have also been allowed use of Hogwarts until I can figure out who owns what."

"Fair enough. What about these people you say were released from Azkaban?"

"Many of them require round the clock medical attention as well as a place to live until they can be returned to their homes so I, ahem, I sent them all to Hogwarts, along with a medical team of specialists."

"I do sense a pattern here. Orphans?"

"Hogwarts."

"Right. Well, it looks like the first order of business is Property Law."

Conversation dropped away as I became more and more absorbed in the first volume of Wizarding Law. He conjured a small lap desk with quill, ink and parchment and continued to hold me as I began to take notes. It wasn't until I stopped to cross reference a point of law in another volume that I realized he had his hands under my gown and was working his way up to my breasts. I turned to look at him and accidentally poked him in the nose with the quill stuck in my hair.

"Severus, what are you doing? I'm reading."

"I know, don't stop," he said in that dead sexy voice that made me go boneless every time. He moved all the other books and the parchment and ink off the bed with a wave of his wand and brought his lips to my ear. "Keep reading."

I tried, I honestly did, but another twenty minutes found me furiously riding his cock while straddling him backwards as a reward for bringing me my first multiple orgasm. Who knew, if he kept going eventually, he would get me off again? The man's fingers were magic. He bucked wildly as his release approached, and I leaned forward to grab his legs and hold on for dear life. He keened and pulsed deep within me, and when he was spent, he pulled me back to flop on his chest as we recovered.

There we were, sweaty and exhausted with my granny nightie rucked up into my armpits and his trousers and pants twisted around his boot-covered feet, with his limp, twitching cock still buried in me, when he proposed, while still gasping for breath.

"Marry me, Hermione Granger. Make an honest man of me. Please?"

I laughed.

"Of course I will; do you think I am so insane that I would pass up a man who thinks I'm sexy when I read? Have you even met me?"

We didn't even kiss to seal the deal; we were so exhausted. He just reached up a limp arm and patted my breast. I think he had been aiming for my shoulder but didn't have the strength to make it all the way there.

"Good then."

He waved a hand weakly at his robes.

"There's a ring in a pocket."

I nodded while still trying to get my heart to slow down.

"I'm sure it's lovely."

"Very."

We slept the rest of the afternoon away and far into the night.