"My," Severus said when he came into their flat upstairs after his day and saw the table full of his favorites. "Should I be suspicious?"

"Well, no, I would like to talk to you, though."

"Okay," he said cautiously.

He'd had a very long, but also incredibly profitable day. He had a new client that had the potential to be huge, but they were testing him. They clearly didn't know who they were dealing with. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat at the table, exhausted. He'd only slept a couple of hours last night.

Was this it then?

He sighed heavily at the thought, but he couldn't imagine what else she'd have to talk to him about other than for whatever reason ending their marriage. She had to know by now he hadn't meant the heir business.

How ironic, too, since he'd arranged to surprise her with a trip away next weekend for her birthday and their anniversary. The dates of both fell during the week, but with school in session weekends were what he had to work with if he wanted to do that for her.

"I was thinking that next weekend while we're away."

"I'm sorry?" Had she just said that?

She rolled her eyes so evidently she had. "Really? You didn't think I'd notice a reservation confirmation?"

"I really need to get a personal email account," he muttered.

"Yes, well," she said. "May I finish?"

If she was talking about next weekend this had to be something other than what he'd assumed it was about. His heart felt a little lighter with that realization. He just assumed …

Well, Severus Snape wasn't allowed to have nice things. That meant he could only assume this that he had currently would end at some point. It had to. Sooner or later she would come to her senses and realize she could do better.

"Pray tell, Wife, please."

"I was thinking we should try."

"Try?"

She blushed profusely and he wondered what he was missing.

"For a baby," she said with another roll of her eyes.

"I'm sorry. What?" he asked.

"Well, if we wait until I'm done with school completely, that could be like six years from now depending on how far I go."

"Okay."

"I just thought that you wouldn't want to wait that long," she shrugged.

"Have I given you the impression that I'm on some sort of a timetable?"

"Well, no, but your offer didn't take into consideration advanced studies that psychology requires and I presumed," she shrugged. "I don't know. That you don't want to wait ten years for at least the potential for an heir. We both know realistically I'm not going to be able to start a practice as I hope to do and then be able to take time off to have a baby immediately."

He was stunned and knew he was staring at her. So, she did want out of the marriage? If she gave him an heir she will have fulfilled her part of their agreement.

"So, I was thinking if we tried as I've done the diagnostics and believe next weekend would be optimal. Well, then the baby would be born in June or so during my summer break. That would be convenient timing, don't you think?"

"Are we having a boy then?"

"Well, I wouldn't know."

"You're hoping for one, though?"

She frowned at him. "I'm not sure what you're asking me. I mean, there's a fifty-fifty chance."

"If we have a boy, though, that frees you up then…"

"To do what?"

He scoffed. She was deliberately being obtuse. She had to be.

"Go on about your life."

"I, well, no. I mean. I suppose. I'm really just trying to think of the timing. I've looked at my cycles the past few months because I've been keeping track for a while now and I should be ovulating next weekend."

He scoffed again.

"I'm not sure why you're doing that. Isn't that what you want? I mean, I don't particularly relish being thirty and a new mum."

"And my being closer to fifty would be embarrassing. Am I too old? Is that what you're implying?"

"No!"

She stood from the table then and walked to the stove. She turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. She did not look … pleased to say the least. Well, good, if she thought he was going to make it easy for her to leave him now she was sorely mistaken. Truthfully, he wasn't sure he would have made it easy for her two years ago.

"Severus, I don't know why this is turning into some sort of quarrel. I think it would be a good time to try for a baby. Is that not what you want?"

"No," he said simply.

She frowned then. "But you…" And then her face fell. "I don't understand. Have I done something wrong?"

"No," he said.

He watched as she twisted her ring. She did that when she was nervous he knew. She looked at him, tears in her eyes. "I don't understand."

"I was never going to hold you to the heir stipulation, Hermione."

"You weren't?"

"No," he said with a shrug. "Of course not. I'm not a monster. If that had been my intent we certainly wouldn't have waited months to consummate our marriage. I threw it in there, certain that you'd say no."

"Why?"

He scowled. Wasn't that obvious? "Because I couldn't imagine that you'd wish to create a child with me."

"But I agreed."

"You did."

"So you don't want a child?"

"At that time? No. I do now, yes, but not because of an agreement made two years ago that you think you have an obligation to adhere to."

"I'm not, Severus. I've had two years to think about it. A child I mean. I want to."

"I planted the seed, though. You're twenty-two, certainly not old. You should be thinking about finishing school and not fitting a baby into that. You did enough carrying Potter and Weasley for six years. Take some time for yourself before bringing a baby into the world."

"But … I don't understand. Was this a game to you?"

"Quite the contrary," he said. "Your future is not a game."

She had no idea. He wanted nothing more than to take full advantage of her research and knowing when she would be most likely to conceive. He had no desire to have a child two years ago when he'd made the offer. He assumed she'd say no! He certainly did now. With her. Under the right conditions. He couldn't say that, though. She deserved so much better than that. His goal was to help her achieve her dream.

She deserved a career, to make a name for herself by doing something so very necessary in the wizarding world. He'd seen it as a professor. Students and staff alike over the past twenty years who did not recover from the war, the first one as he had no experience with students after the second one. People who could not admit that fact to anyone for fear of being ridiculed or losing their job.

She left the kitchen then. He heard the soft click indicating the door to the bedroom was shut. He wasn't sure which was worse, the slam he'd expected or this. It opened a bit later and he assumed she'd join him.

"I want to have a baby, Severus, because that's what you do when you love someone. Have a family so that the love continues on. At least that's what I thought. Yes, I assumed you wanted one because of the agreement we entered into when this started. That agreement is not why I want one now and didn't enter my mind when I realized the trip you'd planned could possibly end up being very memorable for us both. Being Mum to your child is what was on my mind. I'm sorry that I disappointed you somehow, but you didn't tell me that you had changed your mind."

She left the flat then and he heard the soft pop of apparition before he could even react to what she'd said.

He stood about thirty minutes later when she had not returned, walking to the bedroom out of morbid curiosity as to where she might have gone off to. He sucked in a breath when he saw that while none of her belongings were gone (a sign she would return, yes?), in the spot next to where her hairbrush was she had placed her ring.

He raked his fingers through his hair and exhaled sharply.

He picked the ring up and slid it over his pinky finger, feeling the soft thrum of magic that he assumed only he could feel given he was the blood relation to its heritage.

He'd never lived with someone before. Hogwarts as a student was the last time and that certainly wasn't the same as this. Those were dorm mates. This was sharing space. Sharing life. Sharing a bed.

He wondered when it was that she'd turned this room into theirs not hers. He had no idea. The walls were a different color than they'd been two years ago. There was a muggle picture of them on her dresser taken the day of their wedding.  One, too, someone had taken at the Potter wedding they'd been at in April. There were a few more from their trip to Paris last summer.

God that had been an incredible trip.

Yes, the museum and Opera House were magnificent buildings, housing works of art that were impressive and historically significant. She'd willingly walked through a cemetery with him, though, for hours. And then when they'd come home she'd sat with him for an additional day while he introduced her to the music that had very much been an influence on him. He'd never shared a piece of himself like that with anyone before and he doubted very highly he would again.

"Damn it, Severus Snape," she said from behind him so suddenly that for the first time in over two decades he was truly surprised. "Do you really think that I would suggest a child merely because of some sort of an agreement that we entered into two years ago?"

He turned to face her, wondering for a moment if he hadn't fallen asleep and wasn't dreaming. Surely she wouldn't have come back this soon. He expected to have to … do something to get her to come back to him. Grovel or something.

And he would get her to come back. He wasn't sure he would know what to do without her anymore.

He had no idea when that had become fact, but it was. This witch was very firmly cemented in his life.

"You said when I was done with school. If I was doing it for you, for that, I'd nurse that for all it was worth and make you wait until I was done with school and had my practice firmly set up and established. And then I'd come up with some excuse about how I can't do it now because my patients count on me and we've managed this long without one, what's another year or two."

She was right, of course. He knew that. If she truly did not want to she would have milked him allowing her to finish her education for all that it was worth.

"I know," he said softly. "I," he sighed.

It was his turn to fiddle nervously with her ring currently on his finger. Did he admit the truth? Did he bare himself to her in such a fashion? He wasn't good at doing so and wasn't sure how it would come out.

Or how she would react to it.

"I assumed you were telling me that you wanted to end this. Us."

She stared at him for a moment, long enough that he wondered if he'd actually spoken or that had just been in his head. Either was possible right now.

"Why?"

He shrugged. How to explain it?

"Why else would you have made everything I like?"

"Because I wanted to treat you? Do something kind for you? I knew you were having a busy day so I thought I'd save you the time and effort."

"Yes, well, no one's ever done that before. So I assumed you were setting me up."

"I have cooked your favorites before. I realize not often because you seem to like cooking so I let you. I should think about divorcing you for your asinine thought process. That I had any thought other than being nice to you. That I could think of having a child with you out of some sense of obligation. Do you think I'd willingly share my bed, forget my bed, Severus. Do you really think that I would share my body with you if I didn't love you, Severus?"

No, no he didn't. He didn't even have to think about it. She wouldn't.

"Where did you go?"

"I apparated to a park near my parents' house where I used to play when I was little. I thought it would bring me comfort, being near my home. I realized that you are who I wanted to talk to about my bad day. Not Harry. Not Ginny. You. You are home to me now, Severus."

"As you are to me," he said. He slid her ring from his finger. "This ring wouldn't accept you - us I suppose - if I didn't love you, Hermione," he said softly.

"I'm sorry?"

"I lied when I told you I couldn't find it the day we married. I knew exactly where it was. It won't go on someone's finger without love involved. I don't know how it works. It's a Prince heirloom and as I mentioned when we married one of the few things Mum had. It would not have allowed me to put it on your finger if my reasons for doing so were not true to my heart. And yours. It's very old magic. It's why I waited to give it to you. I felt it thrum in the palm of my hand one day and I knew. Prior to that it was just a piece of metal," he shrugged.

That also meant that at one point his parents had loved one another.

That had been a difficult pill to swallow until he'd felt the magic of it pulsating at him in the palm of his hand. He wasn't even sure why he'd thought to try the day he did. He knew how he felt by that point but was not certain about his wife.

Hope?

The idea that maybe he wasn't as bad at … this as he thought he was and she had, in fact, developed feelings for him. He certainly had no idea how to go about getting a witch to love him. Clearly. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd done to get it from her, truthfully.

"So you've known that I love you for almost two years?"

"It would seem so," he said.

He hadn't quite thought about it that way. Stupid, he realized now, but he just hadn't. She hadn't exactly shouted her feelings for him from the battlements. He called her Love, she didn't have a pet name for him. Not that he minded, he didn't want to be honey or sweetheart.

The look in her eye told him this wasn't over yet. Her hands at her hips and her hair moving ever so slightly of its own accord told him she was getting angry again.

"So why did you think then that I was only suggesting a child as part of our agreement?"

"A moment of stupidity. Loving me doesn't mean you wish to have my child and you hadn't said you love me. I could only assume that while you did you either didn't want to admit it or, more obviously, didn't want to have such feelings for me."

"And yet every time we've made love, Severus, the chance of a child coming out of that exists."

"We have used the potion…"

"And potions never fail?"

"Not mine."

"I'm glad you have that confidence in it. I do as well, but you know as well as I do it is not one hundred percent. There's always a chance."

Well, put like that…

"I don't want to wait five or six more years, Severus. If we decide for a second one, that would be a good time for that."

"My opinion about what your focus should be is not wrong, Hermione."

"I managed to study for my NEWTs while hiding in a tent, caring for two teenaged boys who couldn't manage to do most anything for themselves, and hunting horcruxes. Something tells me with the help of my husband, the baby's father, that I can handle a baby and school."

He stepped toward her then, taking her hand. He watched her face as he slid the ring back onto her finger, its rightful place.

"I love you, too," he whispered. "I apologize for forgetting for a moment that this ring knows our hearts even if we do not."

"So if we stop loving one another…"

"I can't recall the last time I saw my mum wearing this ring. It was before primary school. I do not know for certain as she never said, but have to assume it could not be worn."

"Hmm," she said.

He smirked at that. "Don't like that idea?"

"No, that just means we have to endeavour not to fall out of love with one another."

"That is a tall order to fill, Madam Snape. I will strive to ensure from my end anyway that doesn't happen. There's still a meal to eat in the kitchen. Will you join me? I want to hear about this plan of yours for next weekend. Will there be varying positions involved to ensure the best chances of conception?"

She blushed profusely and he chuckled. That meant there probably were going to be. He had no complaints on that even if a child didn't result from their efforts.

"There could be," she said.

"You mean you don't know?"

"I only know that by my calculations it would be the optimal time to try."

"I see. Perhaps we could take the next week and research the topic … thoroughly."

"You want me to look for books on positions?"

"No, Madam Snape, I want to spend the next week thoroughly investigating which are most pleasing to my wife. I can't help but think the more she's pleased the better the chance of conceiving."

"Or at least more fun while trying."

"Are you suggesting it's not fun otherwise?"

"Well, you know, it can be such a chore catering to your hefty demands."

He scoffed. He wasn't sure there'd been a time since their relationship had turned physical that he'd had to initiate or if he did initiate that he thought his desire for her would not be received enthusiastically by her.

"Do we have to eat dinner now, Severus?" she asked.

"I think it would be wise if we do, Hermione. I do not want you to regret sharing yourself with me in that way later."

"I won't!"

"Within the past hour you removed your ring and left. You didn't take any belongings so I had to believe you'd return, but I knew even before we embarked on the physical aspect of our marriage that you would keep to your word on fidelity."

"I didn't take off the ring to cheat, Severus! You were being insufferable and hurtful and I knew of no other way to tell you that's how you were making me feel."

"Do you still feel that way?" he asked.

"No," she said. "But, Severus, you have to know I would never do anything, least of all bring a child into the world, if I didn't want to."

"Why did you marry me then thinking that I would hold you to that?"

She shook her head. He didn't understand the look in her eyes just now. Was his question unreasonable? He didn't think so. "If it was anyone but you I'd assume you were fishing for compliments. You dolt, I wanted to have a child. With you."

"Even then?"

"Of course even then! I wouldn't have married you if the idea of being intimate with you was abhorrent. I realize there are people who have those types of marriages. You've come too far, as have I, to have that type. You said when I was done with my schooling, so I figured we had plenty of time to get to the point where it wasn't an obligation or a chore to either of us. I guess it was going to Harry's wedding that had me thinking…"

"Why? Are they trying?" He was not going to embark on trying to be a father because she thought she and Harry had to have children at the same time as if it was a competition.

"I don't know! That's not why. I mean, of course, I'd love for our children to go to Hogwarts with children they'll know, but no it's not a contest. I was thinking that day, though, that as it was closing in on the end of my second year that I have another year here plus three more years as well as any clinical work I need to do first. I imagine St. Mungo's would require me to do something as well."

"I would suspect so." It wasn't unreasonable to expect that, especially considering what she was wanting to bring to their world was new. No one would just allow her to start a practice that boasted to be medical in nature without some screening.

"So, it got me thinking if we had one, timed it around my school year as much as one can time such things that would be reasonable."

"So you started keeping track of your cycles more than you already do?"

"Yes. I ran diagnostics at various times during the months since then and logged them."

"I see."

"And based on what my body is telling me next weekend should be a perfectly compatible time. Would you like to see?"

He chuckled softly. "Your notes? Or your body? I don't need to see your notes and you know the answer to the second."

"You're the one insisting we have to eat."

"You went through the effort of cooking a meal for me. I want to enjoy it, and give you time to ensure you are no longer mad."

"I wasn't mad. I was hurt. There is a difference."

"Will you eat with me, Hermione?"

"Yes," she said, and he kissed her then.

"My plans for next weekend are changing it seems," he murmured.

"How so?"

"Well, I wasn't counting on your request so I'd assumed we'd have time to do things."

"And we still will. We can't have sex twenty-four hours a day."

"Pity," he said with an agreeable nod. "I will still look at our options and temper down my enthusiasm for activities. Your offer is much more tempting."

"You say that now…"

"I did not want you thinking you owed me something."

"I promise, Severus, never to do something because I feel I owe you. I mean, something life altering like a child or a career. I do think you are owed a great deal so things like your favorite meal are my attempt at doing something to show you that you do mean something to me."

"Let's go eat then and you can tell me more about your plan to conceive."

"You think I have a plan?"

"Hermione. I know you. I have no doubt that you have ideas on positions that supposedly enhance the chance for a boy."

"You behind me," she said.

"Really?"

"Among others, but yes," she said. "Not that I believe in such things. I've read that not having an orgasm can enhance the chances for a girl. Me, not you obviously. There would be little chance of conception if you didn't. I don't particularly like that option so you may just be stuck with boys."

"I'm not so sure I like that option either, but you did mention wanting a girl."

"Are you planning on my not having an orgasm for an entire weekend, Severus?"

He chuckled as they both worked at warming the food so it wouldn't be tasteless and cold. They both knew she'd be hard pressed not to orgasm for three full days. It might be kind of fun to try, though. Well, for him anyway.

"Are we trying for the girl first?" he asked.

"Well, my parents would certainly argue the point in my favor, but a girl isn't technically an heir so…"

"Mm, I see prolonging our arrangement, Madam Snape?"

"Mm hmm. Does forever sound acceptable?"

"Quite."

They were quiet for a moment as they got plates and other things necessary to eat. She wasn't leaving. She loved him. She wanted a child with him. Her thought for timing was a sound one.

"And I apologize I overreacted," he said softly.

She inhaled sharply, clearly not expecting that. He didn't apologize frequently. To anyone. For anything. This, though, she deserved an apology for.

"We both did. I apologize, too."

He nodded then, breathing a sigh of relief that whatever this was that just passed between them ended in a positive way. He truly wasn't sure what he'd do without her anymore.

Story ©Susan Falk/APCKRFAN/PhantomRoses.com