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Conquest Is Easy. Control Is Not	By : FlorenceWeasleySnape Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 26859 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Conquest Is Easy, Control Is Not. By Florence
W. Snape

Chapter 10:

�Are you quite
certain, then, Poppy?� asked Professor McGonagall behind the curtains that
sheltered Hermione from prying eyes.

�I�m positive,
Minerva. I can�t believe it myself, to be perfectly honest. I mean, of all the
students who ever attended Hogwarts�,� Poppy whispered peeping through the
curtains while slowly rubbing her chin, deep in thought.

�Foolish girl,�
said Professor McGonagall at once.

�I wonder who
the father is�,� the matron asked, intrigued. Professor McGonagall said nothing
for she was positive who the father of Hermione Granger�s child was and she
wasn�t planning on letting her gossipy colleague find out. She sighed, if only
Poppy knew what she knew, if only she had heard what she heard... the truth
felt heavy in Minerva�s mind and she couldn�t help but feel a pang of guilt.
After all, it had been she- her Head of House- the one to suggest an
Apprenticeship in the castle, it had been she the one to persuade Hermione to
go to Severus in the first place and, wasn�t she responsible for every Gryffindor
muggle-born witch�s well-being? Shouldn�t had she taught Hermione Granger the
proper charms not to conceive a magical child when her mother obviously
couldn�t?

�I mean to say,
she is such a clever girl and so level-headed. One would think that such a
practical person could never forget about birth control,� Poppy carried on,
ignoring McGonagall�s stony silence.

�Not as
level-headed as I thought,� she said absent-mindedly, �I would never have
thought that he�,�

�What?� Madam
Pomfrey asked, raising both of her eyebrows in surprise, �Do you know who the
father of this child is, Minerva?�

Professor
McGonagall took off her glasses, Scrougify-ed
them and put them back on in complete silence. She had revealed too much. It
was not her place to talk to anyone about Hermione Granger and Severus Snape�s
relationship, whatever the state of it was. In any case, she thought wearily,
this just might be one of those few occasions in which the truth is much more
far-fetched than anything she might possibly say.

�Well, do you?�
Madam Pomfrey asked again, excited.

�No, I don�t�.
I was just thinking about Professor Snape. He should have taken better care of
his apprentice,� she answered lamely.

�Minerva, are
you unwell? When has Severus ever cared about a student�s well-being? Can you
possibly imagine him teaching Miss Granger the proper wrist movement for the
contraceptive charm? It�s ridiculous,� she said but then her eyes snapped open
and she looked at Professor McGonagall with her mouth opened, �But, of course,
Severus must know who the father is! She sleeps in the dungeons, doesn�t she?�

�I think she
does,� replied Professor McGonagall. She swallowed but it was of no use: her mouth
had gone dry. What could possibly be worse than Severus finding out about Miss
Granger�s condition through the school matron?

�Yes, I heard
they even share the same Common Room. It was extremely nice of Severus to
arrange that. He must really like her, not minding sharing his privacy with
her�,�

�Yes, yes, it�s
all very well but I don�t think you should ask Severus anything,� Minerva said,
looking down at Madam Pomfrey through her squared spectacles.

�And why ever
not?� she asked, indignantly.

�Because�,� she
hesitated, �because it may risk Miss Granger�s apprenticeship, that�s why. Severus
might not think it wise for her to continue under the circumstances,�

�And I don�t
blame him! It�s very dangerous for a pregnant woman to be around experimental
potions all the time! I have half a mind to tell him myself!�

�You mustn�t,
Poppy,� Minerva whispered for Hermione Granger had tossed in her bed, �It is
her choice. It is her life and she should deal with this situation in her own
terms. Let�s not make it more difficult,�

�Yes, I guess
you are right,� whispered Madam
Pomfrey, �She may not even want to continue with it now I think about it,�

�No. I don�t
think she will,� she, again, distractedly said.

Madam Pomfrey
raised her eyebrows again but controlled her urge to interrogate Minerva about
it. The Transfiguration teacher obviously knew something she didn�t but she
wasn�t going to tell her. No, she was going to have to find out in another
way.� Slowly clearing her throat, she
said:

�Yes, yes,
we�ll know soon enough, I expect. Now Minerva, let�s not disturb dear Miss
Granger. I will let you know when she wakes up,�

***

Severus Snape
hated the Great Hall. He hated the constant talking, he hated eating in front
of the students who never passed on the opportunity to mock him and he hated
the small talk his colleagues engaged him into. Yes, he hated the lot of them.
In fact, the only person he had ever found remotely interesting was currently
not in the Great Hall. To his knowledge, in fact, she was not even calling
Hogwarts home anymore.

�All the
better,� he thought to himself while stabbing his eggs, �She�s probably better
off in Potter or Weasley�s arms, force feeding them Chocolate Frogs,�

�

His jaw tensed
and he instinctively flexed his biceps at the thought of Hermione in another
man�s arms. Counting to ten and breathing through his nose, however, he
regained control of his emotions. It was a very powerful feeling being able to
control his heart and his mind in the same way he had always had, Severus
thought while spreading strawberry jam- her
favourite- on a crumpet. After all, fools who wear their hearts proudly on
their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories
and allow themselves to be provoked easily -weak people, in other words �stand
no chance in the world.

He smirked at
the recollection of his own words but then he remembered he had said them to
Potter; Potter, Hermione�s best friend who would miss no opportunity to bed her
if she let him.

�One, two,
three,� he counted, breathing heavily through his nose again and trying very
hard not to think about Potter�s hands on Hermione�s red bottom, �four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten,� he chanted in whispers.

�Are you
feeling alright, Severus?� Albus Dumbledore asked with a small grin on his
face.

�Fine,
Headmaster,� he replied, taking a forkful of the eggs he had tried to murder
seconds before.

�Why don�t you
try this fantastic black pudding?� he asked pushing a plate towards Severus
who, reluctantly, took a sausage, �How is Hermione?�

And there it
was again. Severus wondered, as he silently counted to 10 again, how the simple
action of mentioning her name could affect him in such a way.

�She left early
this morning, Headmaster,� Severus said, �I am afraid to say that she felt that
a Master in Potions was beneath her,�

�Did she?�
Dumbledore said stroking his long beard, �How strange. I was under the
impression that she was very much looking forward to taking over your post once
she became a Potions Mistress. Pity,� he said with a smirk, �you would have
finally gotten that Defence Against the Dark Arts position you apply for every
year with very little success, if I may add�,�

�As wonderful
as the prospect of finally getting the job I�ve wanted for almost 20 years is,�
he said standing up, �Miss Granger�s decision to leave this school was
irrevocable. Now, if you�ll excuse me, my Third Year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs
await me,�

And with that,
he was gone.

�Minerva,�
Dumbledore addressed the woman on his right who looked remarkably red in the
face, �you don�t happen to know the reasons behind Miss Granger�s sudden
departure, do you?�

�I don�t,
Headmaster,� she said at once, pursing her lips, �because Hermione Granger
never left Hogwarts. She is in the Hospital Wing,�

�Is she
unwell?�

�Not at the
moment,� she said looking up at him, �but she certainly won�t be when she wakes
up,�

�Is that so?�
he whispered looking down at her through his half-moon spectacles.

�I think,
Headmaster,� she said with a sigh, �that we need to talk�.

***

Madam Pomfrey
could rarely be found in the dungeons. In fact, one seldom saw her outside of
the Hospital Wing, her natural habitat. Severus had once run into her in Diagon
Alley and had exchanged a short and polite conversation that had left him
feeling very weird indeed: what could he possibly have in common with the
School Matron? Whereas she cared about the well-being of students in general, smiled
a great deal and enjoyed casual conversation with her colleagues, he didn�t. She
even seemed to like Harry Potter, someone who he disliked a great deal. So when
he saw her leaning against the stone wall with her arms akimbo, he sensed that
something awkward was going on.

�Severus,� she
said with a smile, �what took you so long?�

�I wasn�t aware
that we had arranged to meet, Poppy� he replied dryly, stopping in front of his
office door.

�We weren�t! But
lunch ended half an hour ago! Whatever were you doing?�

Snape stared at
her, in disbelief. Had he transcended into a parallel universe in which Madam
Pomfrey cared about his whereabouts? He smirked at her, very much in the same
way he does when a Second Year pulls a Longbottom and abysmally spoils a simple
potion; a smirk that can even send Seven Year boys crying to their Common Rooms
without supper.

�Research in
the library,� he said at last pointing at the heavy tome he was carrying in his
left hand, �Not that it�s of any business of yours,�

�Oh, I see,�
she cheerfully said.

At this Severus
raised an eyebrow. This had to be the longest conversation they had ever had. Why
had she come down to his office? It seemed improbable that she had just wanted
to ask him about his afternoon routine.

�I was
wondering,� said Madam Pomfrey slowly and walking a few steps to where he was,
�why you hadn�t come down to the Hospital Wing,�

He had been
expecting some sort of confrontation on the stress he induced in students or
perhaps a lecture on his personal hygiene (�Tooth
brushes are important, you know�) so her question caught him by surprise.
He could count the times in which he had entered the Hospital Wing as a
professor with the fingers on his left hand.

�And why would
I want to be in that infested place?� he curiously asked, turning around to
face her, all thoughts of entering his office and correcting essays forgotten.

�Oh,� she
answered with a grin, �I thought you knew that Hermione Granger had come down
with� the flu,�

�Flu?� he
asked, with incredulity. Could this be? Could Hermione still be at Hogwarts?
Could she be ill? But she had seemed perfectly well the night before. She had
been crying, and he had exhausted her physically but� the flu? It seemed most
unlikely.

�Why, yes!
Minerva found her just this morning and the poor girl wasn�t feeling well at
all! Very under the weather I would say! Her body temperature was very high
indeed! But, Severus, hasn�t Minerva informed you of this?� she eagerly asked,
knowing perfectly well that Severus was about to reveal a juicy gossip.

�No, she
hasn�t,� he whispered. In fact, his tone was so soft that Madam Pomfrey wasn�t
sure he had said anything at all.

One, two,
three, four, five, six times Severus breathed through his nose in order not to
snap at the school matron. Minerva knew and he hadn�t told him! The nerve of
that witch! He had seen her at breakfast that very morning and again in the
halls leading to Dumbledore�s office during break time and not once had she
thought it appropriate to tell him that his
apprentice was in the Hospital Wing. With a pang he realized that she no longer
was his apprentice. Perhaps she had overheard him telling Dumbledore about her
resignation. Could perhaps this all be a misunderstanding? He, somehow, didn�t
think so.

�Hasn�t she? I
wonder why�,� Madam Pomfrey said some time later, looking at Severus with eyes
so wide that he briefly thought she was using Leglimancy on him.

�I haven�t the
faintest idea why Professor McGonagall didn�t see fit to inform me about this.
Rest assured that I will speak to her as soon as possible,� he said grinding
his teeth and thinking a bit more about what all this meant.

�Well, aren�t
you coming?� Madam Pomfrey asked, offering him her arm.

�Where to?� he
asked, paying attention to the woman�s words for the first time since she had
told him the news that Hermione was still at school.

�To the
Hospital Wing, of course! Don�t you want to see her, talk to her? Don�t you
want to reassure her that all of her projects will be taken care of while she�s
away?

�There�s no
need for that�,� he said at once. He was about to confess that he had ended his
professional relationship with her patient when he remembered that he was
speaking to the nosiest witch in the school, and refrained from saying anything
more.

�And why�s
that?� she asked, a few feet away from Severus now.

��because I
will come around later this evening, after supervising detentions. Is that
alright with you?� he asked while thinking �Alohamora�. At once and without waiting for an answer, he opened the door to
his office, stepped inside and locked the door once again. He walked to his
desk and banged the table with his fists.

The news about
her health were unsettling. This morning he had thought that he had gotten rid
of Hermione Granger forever and yet she was still there, just a few stairs up,
coughing in the Hospital Wing and quite possibly sore from last night�s events.
He sat on his chair and rubbed his eyes. He was getting a migraine. He hadn�t
had one since Potter had left school.

Why would
Minerva hide the truth from him? Had she done it deliberately? Could it
possibly be because she had heard him at breakfast? But even then, Hermione had
been working with him, even if she had found her, he had a right to
know. A stern voice in his mind, not unlike Professor McGonagall�s, whispered
that he no longer had a right to demand information; not after what he had done
to her. Could she be ill because of
what he�d done? It seemed unlikely. He had bruised her and he had forced her to
do something she wasn�t comfortable with but Madam Pomfrey would have surely
said something about it if he had been responsible for her frail
condition.�

Resting his
back on his chair, he dropped his head backwards and started rubbing little
circles on his temple. But then he stopped because rubbing circles reminded him
of Hermione and the way she usually squirm when he caressed her down there. For
a fraction of a second, he smiled a small smile but just as quick his usual
stony expression reappeared. He had remembered that, sadly, he no longer had
her.

Should he
really keep his promise to Madam Pomfrey and go see her? Was she awake or was
the flu too strong? In any case, it wouldn�t do to go immediately after the
detentions were over- she could be awake and that would lead to an
extraordinary amount of awkward questions he felt no desire to answer. Plus,
going extra late guaranteed the absence of Madam Pomfrey. Yes, he was going to
visit her- after all, he was curious- and then leave. Soon enough she will be
on her two feet again and away from this castle as he had planned. Yes,
nothing�s changed, he said to himself as he poured some of Ogden�s finest into a glass with the
Slytherin emblem.

If only.

***

Madam Pomfrey
just couldn�t sleep. Even though it was very late in the evening and it had
been an extremely eventful day, she couldn�t help but lay there on her bed, restless
and with her eyes fully opened. She silently wondered while looking at the
stone ceiling if Professor Snape had kept to his word and visited Hermione
Granger in the Hospital Wing after all. There could be vital information she
could find out if she just stopped thinking about the implications of spying on
her colleague and just did it. After
all, Madam Pomfrey thought, time spent wondering is time lost from gossiping.

As she put her
fluffy slippers and night robe on, she felt a kind of adrenaline she hadn�t
felt in a while. It was the same kind of euphoria she had often felt when
leading a teen Remus Lupin to the Shrinking Shack. It was the type of
excitement that she could only connect with a good dessert and a big juicy
secret.

There�s nothing
like a gossip rush to make you do things you wouldn�t normally do and Madam
Pomfrey was hooked. Tiptoeing towards the bed across from Hermione�s, she
pulled the curtains and hid behind the screen. A good Disillusionment Charm would
do the trick and then� she would wait. She felt the familiar cool sensation
that came with a powerful Disillusionment Charm. Deciding that she might as
well sit while waiting for Severus to arrive, she walked to the bed and�

�I wouldn�t do
that if I were you,� whispered the voice of an invisible Albus Dumbledore.

Madam Pomfrey
screamed but when she did, no sounds came from her mouth. She gave Albus
Dumbledore an invisible glare.

�Dear Madam
Pomfrey,� he said softly, �It wouldn�t do to wake Miss Granger,�

�Honestly,
Poppy,� said the stern and reproving voice of an invisible Professor
McGonagall, �I knew you took your gossip seriously but spying on Miss Granger?�

At this point
Madam Pomfrey was clutching her chest and was gasping for air. Dumbledore
thought it wise to stand and pat her a bit on her invisible back.

�Poppy, calm
down,� said Dumbledore, �Here. You can speak now but I beg you not to shout.
Have a lemon drop,�

He gave handed
her a very yellow lemon drop, which to the Muggle eye would appear to be
floating in the air. She put it in her mouth with shaking hands and said, in
voice so soft that Dumbledore had to bend his invisible knees so that his
invisible ears could hear her better.

�How did you
know...?� she started to say.

�Well, of
course Dumbledore here knows everything,�
said Professor McGonagall, an invisible frown on her invisible forehead.

�No such
thing,� said Dumbledore humbly as he sat back on the bed in the middle of
Minerva and Poppy, �I just get along rather well with the House Elves,�

�So you are
waiting for Severus too?� she asked.

�Obviously,�
said Professor McGonagall with a temper, �The question is what on earth you are doing here,�

�Pardon me,
Minerva. But the last time I checked this was my Hospital Wing and I was
still in charge,� she said with a glare.

�You are
abusing your power just for the sake of gossiping,� she said at once and before
Poppy had time to interrupt her, she added, �Dumbledore, you do know that this
means that we will have to inform her of the situation,�

�Clearly,� he
said, quite amused at the verbal confrontation the invisible women at either
side of him were having, �but let�s not ruin the surprise for her. Severus will
be here in just a few moments. The House Elves alerted me at once when he
finished with his evening detentions,�

No sooner had
Dumbledore said the words, that the Potions Master silently opened the door of
the Hospital Wing and crept inside. He quietly Accio-ed a chair and sat next to Hermione.

The Hospital
Wing went completely silent. This didn�t particularly strike Severus as
suspicious but he looked around the room one more time just to make sure.
Deciding it was best to stop being so paranoid- whoever heard of someone
stalking the Hospital Wing at 2 AM?- he sat back and stared at Hermione�s sleeping
form. He sighed. Just this morning he had thought he was never going to see her
again and yet here he was, like a lovesick boy, worried about the fate of the
woman in front of him.

Even sick as
she was- and Severus couldn�t quite overlook the shadows under her eyes and her
pale complexion- she was a lovely sight. Her curls were all over the white
pillow and Severus had a sudden urge to caress her forehead. He fought that impulse
at first but deciding that it was safe enough and that no one but himself would
to know, he leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead.

She was
burning. Frowning, he looked around. He was half expecting to see Madam Pomfrey
storming out of her office and blaming the high temperature on his kiss. This
wasn�t right. Why wasn�t she being watched for signs of improvement? What if
she woke up and started coughing blood? A million scenarios flashed through his
mind and he decided at once to check the chart resting on the night table.

�Lumos,� he whispered and a small beam of
light illuminated the parchment and part of the room. He scanned the paper
quickly for any mention of the flu but found nothing suspicious in her general
numbers. He turn to the next parchment, and then to the next one, and then the
next one searching for something- anything- that could help him understand what
was wrong with Hermione. For a fleeting moment the thought of a Hermione-less
world crossed his mind but he dismissed it immediately- he wasn�t sure he
wanted to find out what he would do if she was seriously ill. His hands were
shaking when he reached the last page and, with dread, he read the diagnosis.

�The patient was brought in an unconscious state at
6:01 AM and appeared to present a severe case of the flu with a fever reaching 39�C. She looked
fatigued and exhausted. Several charms were used to give an accurate diagnosis.
However, upon finding out that the patient is pregnant (3 weeks, healthy
embryo), no potions were administered for the flu and she will remain under
observation for the next few days or until her body temperature reaches normal
values�.

His hands were
still trembling but this time it had nothing to do with fear. It was a strange
sensation, Severus thought while silently placing the chart on the night table
and collapsing on the wooden chair again. It was like nothing he had felt
before. It certainly wasn�t anger and it wasn�t panic, though at the moment he
felt more scared that during the final battle. No, it was a different feeling
altogether. It was as if the enormity of what he had read was slowly filling
his heart and his throat and his stomach and his brain. Slowly the idea that
Hermione Granger was pregnant with his child was sinking in. It was simply not
possible, a voice inside his head kept whispering, he had made the potion himself. He
had seen her drink it religiously
every night they had shared a bed.

So really there
were only two logical explanations, he thought while breathing through his
nose, desperately trying to regain control of the situation: either she had
lied and hadn�t drunk the potion- therefore, seeking this pregnancy- or he had
made a mistake brewing the concoction. The latter was simply unthinkable. And
yet, the idea of Hermione wanting his
child, seeking his seed, was
ridiculous. Surely, she wasn�t so enamoured as to think that having a child
would change things between them? No. Hermione Granger was many things but
irrational wasn�t one of them. There had to be another explanation, something
he was missing.

While Severus�
mind was working overtime, his heart was beating frantically. It kept reminding
him with every beat that he was going to be a father. He was going to have a
child. The images of a baby boy with black hair and of a baby girl with brown
curls suddenly, but very clearly, appeared in his mind. He smiled. Perhaps the
dream he had had a few weeks back hadn�t been too far-fetched after all.

If she decided
it to keep it, that is.

Quite suddenly
he remembered what he had done the night before and felt sick with himself. The
woman carrying his child had been subjected to the worst humiliation of her
life by him. It had been he the one
to fuck her almost against her will� it had been he the one to break her heart.
For a moment he had fooled himself that a life of happiness was possible.
Hadn�t he proven that he wasn�t a nice man? Hadn�t he proven, time and time
again, that he would probably end up being a poorer parent than his father? He
closed his eyes as flashes of his unhappy childhood appeared in his mind.

�I�m sorry,� he
whispered at once, grabbing her hand, �I am very sorry, Hermione,�

�It�s alright,
Severus,� she answered sleepily, then, tossing around, she carried on sleeping.

�I�m sorry that
I will never know him,� he whispered, �or her�,�

He smiled at
those words, but it was a sad smile for he had seen yet again the picture of
the happy family that would never be. She was bound to terminate the pregnancy
after the way he had behaved and he had no right to demand anything from her.

He caressed her
hand one last time and then placed it in her belly. Underneath his palm was a
heart that was beating because of him. Gathering some of the same courage he
had used when performing Occlumency against
Voldemort in his days as a spy, he stood up and left the Hospital Wing at once.
He had no idea what he was going to do but staying with her wasn�t an option.
Why would she want him there, anyway, after what he had done? She was better
off without him and he� well, he was better off not daydreaming about a life
that he couldn�t have.

Severus Snape
was unaware, however, that three pair of eyes had witnessed the whole thing and
that, inside each of their heads, a plan that would end with his misery forever
was being hatched.

***

PEOPLE! How can I thank you enough for your
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME reviews? I still can�t believe you took the time to let me
know you enjoyed my fic! It meant the WORLD to me!

What? You haven�t reviewed yet? Please do let me know
what you think! Chapter 11 is on its way and I need all the input and
encouragement I can get! Severus is SUCH a tormented soul but I promise that
Albus, Minerva and Poppy�s plan will give this fic
(where clich�s have abounded) an interesting twist. Let�s keep our fingers
crossed for our favourite couple!

Alas, chapter10 hasn�t been beta-ed yet as you have
probably guessed by now. I wanted to upload it ASAP. Plus, my betas are
extremely busy at the moment and even though two of them have sent me the corrected
versions of chapter 8 and 9, I still haven�t uploaded them. One of my other
betas hasn�t had the time to check it yet and I really owe to her to wait. I
reckon these last chapters have been readable, right? Is my English decent
enough for you to make sense of the plot, despite the obvious grammar mistakes?
*feels unsure*

Anyway, I�ll see you around (hopefully soon!) in
the next chapter! R&R!

Florence

�

�
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Conquest Is Easy. Control Is Not