"Earth to Hermione Granger," Harry said at lunch on Thursday of that week. It was the first day this week they'd been able to eat together. Not out of the ordinary. They were both busy and were sometimes pulled in different directions.

Severus and Austin had met Hermione at the library the night before, though she'd been a few minutes late due to a delay in leaving here. It had been nice, walking around the library and letting Austin get a feel for what the library had to offer. It was, apparently, quite different from his school's library. Hermione truly had a hard time remembering her primary school library because this library had always been an option for her. Severus had gotten a library card, but no books had been checked out last evening. She imagined that would change their next visit.

Hermione had to admit it was nice to be somewhere more neutral with them than the store or Severus' flat. Not that she hated the flat, on the contrary, it was really lovely. It just felt as if all of her time with them was spent where they were comfortable.

They hadn't left with any plans on seeing one another again, other than she assumed she'd see Austin Saturday.

Austin.

Her son.

She was still wrapping her mind around that fact. With Severus' permission she had run diagnostics on him after he'd fallen asleep the other night. Unless the diagnostics were wrong, he was hers.

She'd gone home that night and tried to feel … mad, angry, hurt.

Nothing came.

Should he have told her from the beginning? Absolutely, but could she understand why he hadn't? Also absolutely.

He was, understandably, very concerned about anything appearing improper about his behavior. Yes, he was known as being a strict, taxing, and surly professor. However, there had never been a whiff of impropriety on his part. No one had ever come forth claiming he'd abused them or pressured them for sexual favors in exchange for grades.

And really, at nineteen while she was going to college, what would she have said to him? She would have laughed at him to start. By the time he was born she'd been off the wizarding world's radar for the most part. Sure, she and Harry were still part of it, but what they were doing and where they lived was not common knowledge. So, what was he supposed to do, hunt her down and tell her she had a son? And then what?

So, she'd come back to the fact that he hadn't done it to be spiteful. He'd done it truly believing she'd think the worst of him after everything she'd heard at his trial (and various other trials) and hate him. He was likely afraid that this child, who he saw as the one good thing to come out of his twenty years of hell and the war, would get taken from him. Not that she would have been able to support a child then. He didn't know that, though.

So, she could cancel their trip to the library and go on like nothing was different. Or she could see where things went with this wizard that she truly thought seven years ago she'd had a connection with.

Austin was, as bad as it may have sounded if she were to explain her train of thought to anyone, not really much of a consideration. Severus wasn't saying they had to tell the boy today who she was to him.

She could tell he was surprised when their date to meet at the library actually occurred yesterday and she hadn't cancelled or stood them up.

"I'm here," she said, taking a bite of the Italian takeout they'd ordered in.

"Everything okay? You'd tell me if it wasn't, right?"

"I just have a bit of figuring out to do, Harry. I'm fine. Nothing is wrong. You know how you came to Hogwarts and found out stuff about yourself you'd never known before?"

"Yeah," he said, clearly wondering what she was bringing up fourteen years ago for.

"Kind of like that. It'll be an adjustment but I'll be fine."

"If I need to arrest someone," he drawled, raising his eyebrows in that way that only Harry could that made her laugh.

"Yes, please! Immediately," she said, putting the back of her hand against her forehead in a very melodramatic fashion.

"Well, why didn't you say so?"

"Have you ever thought how different things would be if we hadn't become friends?"

"Besides my being dead so I wouldn't be here to think about it? Nope, never gave it a thought ."

"You'd be alive."

"Doubtful. Maybe if only any one of those things had happened, but not all of them combined. If I don't say it enough, and I know Ron doesn't, but thank you."

"That's not why I asked, Harry. I just," she shrugged, stabbing a shell with her fork. "My life could've been very different."

He got a sad look in his eyes then and she settled her hand over his. He thought she regretted becoming friends with him. Years later he still had those doubts. Things with Ginny turning out the way they had and then Ron being basically incommunicado. Well, the rest of the Weasleys weren't chomping at the bit to get Harry to come see them. He was waiting for her to bail on him, too. She wished she could take that doubt away, not that she didn't have her own to deal with.

"That's not how I meant it, Harry. You know I don't give a flying hare about my scars or Skeeter's lies. I meant without you, your friendship. Ron's, too. I'm just not sure where I'd be. No one else was giving me a chance!"

"Well, you showed them and then some. Now look at you. Not just the brains of the Golden Trio but a cutting edge muggle wizarding task force that could change everything. I mean, if this continues as well as it has with nothing blowing up in our faces, we could be going around the world training units. And this unit was your brain child. I may be the one in charge, but the idea came from you. No one has forgotten that. You could have any wizard in the world, Hermione. Forget Britain!"

"I don't want any wizard, Harry."

"Oh? But you want one?"

She smiled, knowing she was blushing. "I might."

"Is this the friend from last weekend?"

"Maybe."

"And he's a wizard?"

"He is."

"How did you find him?" Harry knew perfectly well she was not frequenting wizarding areas right now. She certainly wasn't frequenting wizarding clubs.

"Accident."

"Don't tell him that!"

"He already knows."

"Hmm. So someone objective and not overly emotional like you."

"You make me sound so loving, Harry!"

"I suppose it came out sounding that way but that's not how I meant it. You are objective, there's nothing wrong with that. You know I don't think that there is. It's just not everyone is, and they don't know how to deal with you being that way."

"I get it," she said.

"Good. I'm glad there's the potential for someone, but I wouldn't be your best friend if I didn't tell you to be careful and worry about you."

She'd had a few wizarding dates years ago. All had ended disastrously. Okay disastrous may have been overstating it, but not by much.

They'd wanted the brains of the Trio but they wanted a glamorous vixen and Hermione was never going to be that. Not that she couldn't pull it off, with minimal effort truthfully. She could and knew that she could. And without magic!

She didn't want to.

She wanted someone who accepted her for who she was. And if she decided one night to be Vixen Hermione accept that, too, without expecting it every day afterward.

She wanted someone who didn't want to be able to say they'd shagged her. One she'd found out later had been paid by Skeeter to do whatever he could to get her out of her knickers. He hadn't succeeded, but she'd found out and pretty much hung up her dating card after that.

"So, tell me about this friend."

"He's smart, funny but in a more subtle way than George."

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah, I'm not sure I could tolerate a lifetime of antics."

"Me neither."

"He's handsome, but not in the traditional sense. I find him handsome, though. He owns his own business and works from home."

"He runs a business from his house?"

"Yeah," she said. "He has a six year old son."

"A son?" Harry asked, sounding cautious now. Until now he'd sounded … hopeful. "He's divorced? I don't know, Hermione. The wizarding world doesn't look well on that."

"He's not divorced."

"A single father?" He looked contemplative at the idea, evidently not looking too closely at what the other options were for him to be a single father. "With custody?"

"Yes. It's a long story, but there is no ex-wife or anything."

"Is he nice?"

"He is, and in case you were asking about the son not the father. He is, too."

"Well, if you say he's smart he must be. Do you like him? I mean, are you attracted to him enough to pursue someone with a child? That's a lot of work, Hermione, especially if there's no mother in the picture."

"I know," she said. "And I am. I'm taking it slow. We're friends."

"All right. I just don't want to see you hurt and I don't want to see you become someone's built-in mother or maid either."

"No, I'm not."

"That's good. I know I seem pushy, I'm not really. I just want you to be happy, you know. I guess I feel responsible that you're where you are. Please don't tell me it's not my fault. Rationally I know that's true. I can't control how I feel, though. Anyway, I hope to meet him someday."

"Maybe," she said, wondering how that would go exactly. How would Harry feel about her being in a relationship with Severus? Would that be too weird for him? She liked to think not.

Severus hadn't seemed upset that Austin wanted to know about Harry. He'd clearly asked about Harry previously and Hermione could just imagine what his father's response might have been. She laughed softly at that and Harry looked at her funny.

"Nothing," she said.

"It's obviously not nothing, but it's good to see you laugh."

"Yeah, it is," she said with a nod. "So, what's new with you?"

"Nothing," he said. "Same stuff."

"No woman?"

"No," he huffed and was quiet for a moment. "I did meet one out the other night, but I haven't called her yet."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. She's muggle, and I don't like lying. I think I like it less than people knowing everything about me."

"I can relate," she admitted.

She'd felt the same way on her couple of dates with muggle men. Obviously, magical people married muggles all of the time, but when did you approach them with the truth? And how did the muggle ever truly trust the person again, knowing they withheld something so huge from them for a period of time?

That thought led her to Severus telling her about Austin. She'd wondered why he'd told her so soon after realizing she was Austin's friend Miss Harmony.

She understood now.

If they started seeing one another, even as friends because she doubted he would have told her of his interest in her without making the confession as to who Austin was. Well, if he told her three, six, or twelve months from now she would have been deeply hurt that he withheld something so important from her.

She had a son.

Austin.

What did Severus want from her? She was still trying to figure that out. To be a mother to him? A friend? A mentor?

Could she do it? Could she be around him, knowing he was half hers and say nothing?

She was able to Sunday, but she hadn't had days to think about it without seeing them. Last night had been a little more awkward than Sunday but as they were at a library it hadn't been terrible. She loved the library so showing him around hadn't been a hardship. Those types of things weren't always going to occur, though.

"There you go again."

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said. She closed the now empty to-go box and sighed. "You know how I get."

"I do, and you know that if you need time off to go talk to someone I'd support that."

"I don't. It's nothing like that. Thank you, really. I just," she shrugged. "Have things on my mind."

"All right," he said.

She collected their take-away trash and put it back in the sack it had come in.

"I'll see you later then?"

"You will," he said.

When later would be they never knew, but they both liked saying it. They tried to do something once every week that wasn't work related. Sometimes it was just getting a cup of coffee. Sometimes it was taking in a movie. Sometimes it was cooking dinner at one or the other's home (usually his). Some weeks it didn't happen, but they very rarely let two weeks in a row go by without it. It was important to both of them their friendship remain a priority even if neither said so.

She threw their lunch garbage away and went to her desk. She had a private office like Harry did, but never used it. She didn't like to because she truly considered herself just one of the team who happened to be Harry's second.

She said hi to the officers who were there as she took her spot at her desk. She pulled her phone out, staring at it. He'd given her his cell number, but she suspected he hadn't expected her to use it. He'd even told her he really only had the thing for Austin's school to be able to reach him.

She took a deep breath and flipped it open to find his information in her contacts.

IT'S HERMIONE. JUST THOUGHT I'D SAY HI.

Here goes nothing, she mused as she hit SEND.

She didn't much like texting. It was very tedious having to hit each number to get to the letter you wanted. She wasn't sure how he'd feel about a phone call out of the blue, though. She wasn't sure how he'd feel about a random text either for that matter, but at least she wouldn't be able to hear his displeasure at the interruption.

She went to work, studying the trends from the last couple of days. There'd been an uptick in muggings that seemed to be committed by someone magical because the victims, while fully aware with no seeming physical damage, couldn't describe the perpetrator(s).

At all.

It was almost time for her to go home for the day. If she were one of those people who worked an eight hour day anyway. She rarely did. Reports and statistics wouldn't create themselves. Her phone beeped, indicating a text.

"You got a hot date tonight, Granger," Francis "Frank" Howard said from a few desks over.

"No," she said. "Why would you think that?"

"The only person who usually texts you while you're working is already here," he said, gesturing to Harry's office.

"I do have friends," Hermione said. Okay, not many and receiving texts while at work was unusual.

"Yeah, I'm sure you do. They just don't text you while you're here."

She shook her head, opening the phone and smiling.

HELLO, IT'S HERMIONE. IT PLEASES ME THAT YOU WANTED TO SAY HI. I APOLOGIZE IF I TOOK TOO LONG WITH MY RESPONSE. I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A TIME-SENSITIVE BREWING CYCLE.

NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE. I REALLY JUST WANTED TO SAY HI.

SO IF I WERE TO ASK YOU TO JOIN US FOR DINNER TONIGHT YOU WOULD SAY NO?

ARE YOU ASKING?

I THINK THAT I MIGHT BE.

THEN I THINK THAT I HAVE NO OTHER PLANS.

ARE YOU SURE?

I AM POSITIVE, she answered.

"Hey, Thompson," Frank said. "Granger's reading texts and smiling."

"Oh yeah?" Lief Thompson asked. Really, who named their child Lief, though she probably wasn't one to judge, she realized.

"Who's making you smile, Granger?"

"No one," she said, snapping her phone shut. Her cheeks were warm, so she knew she was blushing. How embarrassing. Why did she choose a career with a bunch of men again?

"Uh huh," Frank said. "The whole close the phone quickly trick."

"Oh my God. You guys act as if I never talk to anyone but you."

"Well, you don't really," Lief said. "At least I've never really seen you do it. Your friend Ron, I guess, but that's by an owl not on the cell."

God, was that true? She closed her eyes, running the edge of her phone along her upper lip. She supposed it was. What the hell did that say about her? She was nearly twenty-six years old and was well on her way to being one of the stereotypical crazy cat ladies.

"Do we need to check him out?"

She scoffed at Frank's question. As if they could check out Severus Snape!

The very idea.

Although it might be kind of fun to watch them try.

"No," she said quickly.

"Oh, that was fast. Too fast. That means there'd be something to find." It was Lief who said this.

"There's not! You guys are making a huge deal out of some texts."

"Is he a felon?" Frank again. Why was he pushing this?

"No," she said. Technically, true. He had no muggle criminal record that she was aware of.

"Is he married?" Frank asked.

"No!"

"All right," Harry said. "Time for those done for the day to go home. Hermione's social life is just that, her social life and none of our business."

"She's at work!"

"She also got here before seven o'clock this morning and every day this week, Frank," Harry said. "Do you want to start tallying hours of actual work?"

He muttered something, but started collecting his things to go home. Lief did the same.

"Night, Granger," they both called out.

"Night," she said.

"You might want to come up with something to give them."

"What's their deal?"

"You're the only female on our team. They like you, not romantically," he added quickly. "They want you safe, the same as me. They're protective."

"I suppose. It was just some texts! Honestly."

"And?"

"Dinner," she said softly.

"Dinner? On a weeknight? With only a couple of hours' notice? Hermione Granger. Skeeter is right, I should have known, you are a trollop! I'm shocked, I tell you!"

"I'm only a trollop if I come in tomorrow morning doing the walk of shame in the same clothes as I'm wearing now."

"Are you planning on that happening? Because if you are, I'll be here before seven to see it."

"I am not," she said.

"Is he bringing his son?"

"We didn't get that far. In fact, he probably thinks I don't want to."

"Go home, Hermione. Go have dinner and enjoy talking to someone that has nothing to do with all of this," he said, gesturing to their workspace.

"Okay," she said, flipping the phone open again.

SORRY. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I WORK WITH A BUNCH OF TESTOSTERONE-INFESTED POLICEMEN?

YOU MAY NOT HAVE SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED THAT, NO, BUT I SURMISED AS MUCH.

YES, WELL, THEY'RE PREPARED TO GIVE YOU THE THIRD DEGREE.

I WILL BE PREPARED.

I'M SURE YOU WILL. I ALSO LAUGHED AT THE IDEA OF THEM DOING SURVEILLANCE ON YOU.

IT HAS BEEN A FEW YEARS, I MAY BE A BIT RUSTY.

I DOUBT YOU'RE THAT RUSTY.

I BELIEVE YOU MAY BE CORRECT.

SO, DID YOU WANT ME TO MEET YOU AT YOUR PLACE?

THAT WOULD PROBABLY WORK BEST ON SUCH SHORT NOTICE.

OKAY. LET ME GO HOME AND MAKE MYSELF SOCIALLY PRESENTABLE.

YOU'RE NOT NOW?

THAT'S WORK PRESENTABLE.

AH, I SEE. I LOOK FORWARD TO ONE DAY SEEING THE DIFFERENCE.

SEE YOU SOON.

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU THINK YOU'LL NEED?

She glanced at the clock on the wall. AN HOUR, she answered.

FAIR ENOUGH. SEE YOU THEN.

She closed her phone then and Harry was watching her.

"Go, have fun."

"Thanks, Harry," she said, standing.

She walked to him and gave him a hug. A real hug. The type that lasts for a minute or two. A reaffirmation that they were okay. They were all each other had anymore. They both needed that now and again. She drew away, kissing his cheek.

"See you tomorrow."

She showed up at his building a little over an hour later. She'd showered, shaved, and readied herself in record time. Until it came to her outfit. In the end she'd opted for comfort and gone with jeans and a sweater.

"You're late," he said when she made it to his door. He'd had to buzz her into the building. She didn't want to go into the store and use that entrance since she wasn't working.

"Are you going to take points then?"

"If only!"

"Well, then I will apologize and say that I'll try not to let it happen again."

"See that it doesn't, though," he said, taking her coat. "You look nice so if that is the price I pay for your being late…"

"It is."

"Then so be it."

She followed him into the flat.

"You remember where the dining room is," he said. "Have a seat. We'll be right in."

"Oh, okay," she said.

The table was set for three. His plate at the head of the table was obvious. She surmised hers was where the glass of wine above the plate was. The other plate had a glass of milk above it. It was the same seat she'd sat at the last time she'd eaten here. She took a seat, fiddling a little with the silverware.

"Miss Harmony," Austin said when he came into the dining room. He seemed surprised at her presence. Had Severus not told him she was having dinner with them?

"Hi, Austin."

"She's having dinner with us, Father?" The question obviously answered hers.

"She is."

"All right," he said.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm. She watched as their dinner appeared, a delicious looking beef stroganoff over noodles with lettuce salad and bread, which she had to admit sounded delicious on a wintery February night.

They made their way to his sitting room. Austin stayed with them, working on his homework while they talked about their days.

Eventually, Austin went to bed.

"So, do I need to defend your honour to your coworkers?"

She chuckled. "No, they just don't know me to have much of a social life away from Harry."

"I see," he said. "And do you like the idea of having a social life away from Harry?"

"I kind of do," she said.

"Only kind of?"

She shrugged. "It's a new concept. My life since I've been eleven years old has been pretty much all about Harry."

He chuckled softly with a scoff. "I can relate to this thought process."

"I'm sure that you can."

They were quiet for a moment. He, like she, was likely thinking of how they'd gotten to this point. James, Lily, Harry. She sighed softly.

"Severus," she whispered.

"Hermione," he said.

She turned then, sliding a leg under her as she shifted to face him. "I'm not going to hide from Harry," she said. "I mean, Austin, yes, I get it. Harry's a hugely significant part of my life, though. He's all I have as far as family goes. He'd never hide this type of thing from me indefinitely."

"I realize this."

"He's still James and Lily's son."

"You aren't the only one who's had time, Hermione. As much as I'd love to say that Harry is just like his father I can acknowledge that he is not. I think he made some very foolish decisions that put not just himself but you, and the entire student body of Hogwarts, at risk. However, I also know that Albus fed that to him. He encouraged it in his own way. I don't think it was a coincidence he was raised by the Dursleys."

"The blood protection…"

"As if Albus Dumbledore couldn't have cast suitable protections wherever Harry went. He could have been placed with any number of wizarding families who would have not just cared for him but educated him in magical ways."

"You think Albus didn't want him to know of magic until he got to Hogwarts."

"I think it's likely that worked well for Albus' plan. If he'd grown up with it…"

"There wouldn't have been any wonder or curiosity about it."

"Exactly. His parents wouldn't have been complete strangers to him, because he would have been told about them by whoever had raised him. The blame does not lie entirely at Albus' feet, however. Harry was cautioned repeatedly and paid little heed to those warnings time and time again."

"I know," she said.

"I also know you well enough to know that you would not stay so loyal to someone for this long if it wasn't warranted."

"No, I wouldn't."

"Are you suggesting we need to go public immediately?"

"Well, no, but, Severus, today was just the start. He's going to ask questions."

He shifted closer to her on the sofa she noticed. She closed her eyes as he reached for her chin, grazing it and her jaw with his thumb and the back of his hand.

"Is there something to go public with, Hermione?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him then. She always thought of his eyes as being difficult to read given how dark they were. However, right now she could see vulnerability and sincerity in them very clearly.

"I'd like to see if there is," she admitted.

"Because of Austin."

"No," she said. "Even if there was no Austin."

"There is an Austin, and I have told you our secret."

"I know. I'd like to get to know him, too."

"I do not expect," he said, hand sliding from her jaw to her neck. He leaned in then.

"Finally," she murmured and he chuckled as his lips met hers.

It had been a while since she'd kissed anyone. He didn't seem all that certain either, which made her groan softly against his lips. She parted hers slightly and he did the same, tongue darting out to swipe her lower lip. She scooted closer, sliding an arm to his shoulder. This close she could smell him. He smelled like potion ingredients, fresh air, and whatever aftershave he wore. There was just a hint of that, nothing overpowering. His lips as she took the bottom one in between her lips and sucked on it lightly tasted like the delicious red wine they'd had with their dinner and finished off the bottle while they talked at the table.

He slid his index finger along her lower lip. "I have waited years to do that."

"If I hadn't left would you have told me?"

"That I wished to kiss you? Or about Bellatrix's activities?"

"We'll ignore the kiss for now."

"I imagine I would have, eventually. Bear in mind it wasn't foremost in my mind immediately after the final battle."

"I understand."

"I honestly didn't even know until almost Halloween that Lucius had not exterminated the vessel."

"How wasn't she found? They searched his home. You'd think the aurors would find and do something with an unconscious pregnant woman."

"Assuming they found everything in the house. There are secret passages off secret passages."

"I suppose."

"Yes, I would have eventually. My only way of getting in contact with you was Minerva and she seemed tight-lipped on your activities. Rightfully so. I honestly thought, at first, before he was born of just having Narcissa bring him to a home."

"Severus," she said.

"I was not prepared to survive the war let alone be a father! My state of mind was … not good to say the least. I was not thinking about tomorrow. I was more focused on why I had been spared."

"I suppose," she said.

"Regardless, I did not do that, obviously as he's here. She expired, I was summoned to their home. One of the elves delivered the baby, Austin. I held him, felt his magic, and felt yours as well," he shrugged. She shivered as he spoke because she knew exactly what he meant. She'd felt Austin's magic, too, and it felt so familiar. "And here we are."

"I'm glad."

"I admit as he's gotten older and I've felt more of his magic, I can understand to some degree why my father might have not been so fond of magic."

"Oh?"

He shrugged. "I'm not saying he was correct in his approach, but knowing his wife, knowing I, could wash dishes with the flick of a wrist," he shrugged. "I feel it and can do it. I imagine he must have felt something, too, and knew it was unavailable to him. That had to be frustrating. He, of course, thought my mother should do less reputable things with her abilities."

"She wouldn't?"

"Of course not, and she was punished for it. I have no doubt if she'd been caught he would have left her out to hang."

"That's so sad."

"Not every witch or wizard has someone like you on their side," he said.

"Yes, well," she shrugged.

"Will you stay, Hermione?"

"I want to," she said. The odd thing was she really did want to stay and it was a very new feeling for her. She'd never had the desire to prolong or stay with a date. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or one she should be scared of.

"But…"

"I'm not so sure that's a good precedent to be setting."

"He's not going to walk into my bedroom."

"And if he has a nightmare? Or gets sick?"

He sighed heavily. He had to know she was right.

"What if I leave my door open?"

She kissed his jaw.

"Tempting, but he could still possibly see me and I'm not going to leave before sunrise as if I did something wrong."

"Nor should you have to."

"You could tempt me further."

"Oh?"

"Mm, tomorrow after work you could take me back to your place in Florida."

"For the night?"

"If you talk to him about it first."

"He's six, Hermione."

"I'm not saying ask him for permission, but he needs to know I'm going to spend the night."

"I can do that. He will be pleased I think at the idea of having breakfast with his Harmony."

He summoned a blanket then, shifting on the couch so she was beside and a little on top of him.

"This will suffice for now."

She rested her head against his chest and sighed. "It is nice," she whispered. He leaned up, kissing the top of her head. "Don't let me fall asleep."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he whispered.

"Something tells me you're lying."

"And yet you're still here."

"Because it's nice, comfortable. Warm."

"I will endeavor always to keep you warm, Hermione."

"Me, too," she whispered.

Story ©Susan Matthews/APCKRFAN/PhantomRoses.com