Come What May

Chapter 26

The following few days were a blur; long, arduous hours filled with nervous pacing and then, silent waiting. Hermione was laid on her back in the middle of the simple double bed. Severus had folded her arms gracefully over her abdomen, a serene pose. His spot was warm beneath his seat, the worn armchair pressed close against the side of the mattress. It had been days, and still she had not woken. In the painfully long, drawn out time, he had agonized over the predicament at hand.

The news.

The unspeakable, gut-wrenching, abhorrent news. She would go mad, he just knew it. Severus had given his little wife one thing to look forward to, a symbol of hope. To his immense and great disappointment, it had been snatched away from them both. Hermione might never be the same, now without answers and without the tiny beacon of light within her. With sadness, he turned slightly to shield her from his pained facial expression. Severus leaned back against the chair, resting one leg over the other, his fingers curled at his lips in silent contemplation.

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After the battle between the aurors, Hermione and Severus had apparated to Viktor's safe house, arriving in a bloodied heap on the rug in the front room. Hermione worked quickly to disrobe Severus and search his body for further wounds. To her surprise, she found only the scrapes and bruises from falling in the street after being struck with the spell. His hair, damp from the wet ground and matted from the mud, clung to his pale face. She brushed her bloodied palm over his forehead to clear it, wiping his nose to rid it of the blood. He began to cough, sputtering red-tinged fluid over them both. Hermione reached back into her bag for the third vial of potion, opening his mouth with a strong grip of his jaw. Her hands shook as she pressed it shut, praying that he swallowed. What seemed like an eternity later, the blood stopped seeping from his nose.

The scarlet mess had begun to pour out on the rug and dark wood floor, Hermione standing to go search for a towel. As she stood, she felt her legs give out beneath her, and she he turned on her back to glance at them, puzzled. Her hand felt along the floor beneath her, realizing she had slipped in a thick pool of blood. She climbed to her knees, searching her husband once again. Where was this blood coming from? Hermione used her strength to push on his legs and back, rolling Severus' limp body onto his side. She examined him once more, but found no cause of the large amount of blood between them. As she turned him back, Hermione put her hands on her thighs.

Hermione held her hands up towards the light, dragging her fingers over her soaking palms. Oh. Oh, no. Her chest heaved in realization. It was hers; the blood was coming from inside of her own body. Lifting her hands up once again, the room before her began to spin, her vision blurring. Hermione climbed over Severus, rummaging through her backpack to withdraw an adrenaline-like potion, and the final blood-replenishing potion. She'd used all but one on him, and there was nothing else that could be done to save her now. The damage was already done. Blackness had begun to creep over her, her palm clammy as she clutched the vials in her grip.

Hermione looked down at Severus, running her bloodied, moist hands over his face once more. She bent over and pressed her lips roughly against his, fighting back sobs. "Forgive me," she whispered, her face glistened with tears and snot.

With shaking hands, she uncorked the two vials, pried Severus' mouth open once more and poured the liquid down his throat. Hermione felt herself grow weak, an eternity stretched out before her as she waited for the results. Severus remained lifeless, his bruised, pale form exposed before her in the middle of the room.

That was all she remembered before Severus drained of color and everything went black.

When Severus emerged into consciousness, he was disoriented and shaking. He sat up quickly, as if he had been plunged into an icy bath. His eyes were wild as they looked about the room, searching for his wife. A strange sensation prompted him to look down and see Hermione's limp hand on top of his. Her body was strewn across the floor, her faded pink lips parted slightly. Severus hurried, pulling on his pants, turning over to devote his attention to his wife.

He worked tirelessly to rectify the situation, but found that it was too far gone. Nothing could save the child, to his great disappointment and immense pain. Hermione's chest moved with shallow breaths, Severus' chest soaring with hope. He took her limp body in his arms, carrying her to the bathroom, a wide space at the end of the hall to his left. It was now nearing dawn, a soft pale blue light beginning to touch the floor. With gentle hands, Severus lowered his wife into the white porcelain clawfoot bathtub, peeling the blood-stained clothes from her body.

She was ghostly white, her auburn hair appearing a chocolate brown in contrast to her pale complexion. Had she lost that much blood?, he thought. As he reached across the tub to turn on the water, Severus examined his wife's body; dirt and blood was trapped beneath her growing fingernails and her altered breasts were shadowing her slightly swollen belly. Severus's eyes fell away when he came to the realization that he would not see her grow with child. Perhaps not now, but possibly in the future, he hoped.

This thought stopped him, his arms resting down into the warm water of the bath. Did he actually want a child? Severus Snape, a father? This role was terrifying and foreign to him, something he had never planned for. Granted, he had never expected to have a wife, one other than Lily. Severus turned back to bathe Hermione, lifting her arms delicately and scrubbing them deftly. The intimate moment he had longed for, snatched away by the loss of their child. Severus had imagined bathing his wife, taking the time to massage her scalp, working his hands through her thick tendrils.

Severus crawled behind her in the tub, hurriedly cleaning himself and washing his wife's crimson-colored back. With wandless magic, he altered both of their appearances back to how they had been before their journey. Before him, Hermione's hair began to shrink, kinking into frizzy curls stopping between her shoulder blades. He reached up and felt his face, relishing in the feeling of his hair-free chin.

As he let the stained water drain, Severus lifted his naked wife from the tub. He carried her back through the house, entering the bedroom and rested her body in the center of the bed. It was an intricate four-poster rattan bed, sheer curtains tied to the posts. Severus pulled the white fabric around to cover them from the morning sunlight. He slipped between the covers, to wrap his arm around Hermione's waist and pull her subtly round bottom against his groin. He held her close, warming her cool body with his own heat, kissing the base of her neck over and over again as he finally succumbed to sleep.

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Severus had not even realized that he had fallen asleep until he heard a rustling that awoke him. Sitting erect, he inhaled sharply when his eyes met his wife's large, round honey iris'. She had pulled the covers back, smiling weakly up at him. In one swift movement, he moved from the chair and shot across the bed to pull his wife to his chest. His long fingers were spread at the back of her head, soft curls intertwined between his skin.

"I know," she whispered into his chest, clad in a low-buttoned white linen shirt.

Severus pulled her away from him, holding her at arms' length to furrow his brow in confusion. He shifted to sit back on the edge of the bed, one knee bent as he faced her.

"I can feel it. I feel... Empty."

"You must know that I tried everything... But it was already gone," he turned away, his back curved over as he silently grieved. Severus placed both feet on the floor, his hands gripping his thighs.

"I know my love, I know," Hermione uttered, reaching her hand out, but finding only the sheet to grab ahold of. "It was a price I was willing to pay."

"What?" he stood and kneeled on the bed, his brow knitted together once more. Severus' long black waves dangled down before his eyes as he peered down at his wife.

"I was willing to sacrifice everything for you."

At this, Severus bent over fully, his face buried in the oversized muggle shirt that hung from her body. He gripped her hips, mourning into her abdomen.