Maternal Instinct

Severus was about to suggest that they should go and sit down, when there was the sound of some one running down the stairs and Hermione turned, pulling away from him, just in time to see Corrin jump from the last step. The girl threw her arms around the older woman, and Hermione sniffed and wiped her eyes hastily, before hugging Corrin in return.

Corrin looked up, "You're back! Why did you leave?"

"I... ah, I went on holiday." Hermione smiled.

The girl smiled back, asking excitedly, "Where?"

"Um... Spain..."

"What's it like there?"

"Hot... and... there are lots of beaches... Anyway," She quickly changed the subject, asking a question that Severus had been wondering about, "what have you been doing?"

"Come and see!" Corrin grabbed Hermione hand and dragged her upstairs.

Severus followed, half-curious to know what Corrin had been doing for the last three weeks, and half-irritated because he desperately wanted to know what Hermione had been doing for the last three weeks. Inside Corrins room, the girl pulled out several pieces of parchment from various places and handed them to Hermione.

Looking over the womans shoulder, Severus could see a drawing of what was obviously their house, with three figures; Amy was not in the picture.

"Where's you mum?" Hermione asked in the best child-indulgent voice that she could muster so soon after crying so severely.

Corrin looked at the picture in question, frowned, thought for a moment, then said resolutely, "She's out."

After looking through several other of Corrins drawings, Severus found that there was not one picture of Amy; and while this didn't bother him, it seemed to disturb Hermione to some degree.

However, Severus was rather annoyed when Corrin demanded Hermiones attention for the rest of the day; while Amy was no where to be seen. When Hermione finally managed to convince Corrin to go to bed, the sun was long gone.

"Will you come and say good night?" Corrin asked from the top of the stairs.

Hermione nodded, "I'll come up before I go."

Corrin nodded and went slowly to bed. Severus reached out and curled his fingers carefully around Hermiones arm. She smiled slightly, though her eyes didn't meet his. It was not clear which one of them decided on the location, but they found themselves on a bench outside, surrounded by silent darkness.

She seemed unable to start, whether it was out of reluctance or something else, Severus didn't know.

Playing nervously with her hair, she said softly and with a considerable amount of amusement, "Sorry... about slapping Amy -"

Severus raised an eyebrow, "Do I look like I care about that now?"

"Well, you should," Hermione told him sternly, "She's your wife and even if you divorce her, she'll still be the... the mother of your daughter."

"She could be the Minister for Magic and I still wouldn't care." He said impatiently, "Now, will you tell me what the hell is going on!"

She nodded slowly, still not looking at him, "Right... Well, I resigned because..." She sighed and chanced a quick glance at him, before looking down at her hands again, "I could hardly look at Viktor, or Amy, or Corrin without feeling guilty... I told Amy - and you, for that matter - that I would quite happily work the two weeks notice that she wanted." She smiled, "I actually wanted to work for those two weeks, because... well, Corrin's brilliant and I knew I would miss her a lot when I left. But - and I didn't know it at the time -" she looked close to crying again, "I came away from that night with something else that DEFINITELY wasn't guilt."

Severus wasn't stupid; he knew exactly what she was talking about. Some terrible emotion must have shown on his face, for she laughed slightly, even as a tear fell from her eye, "Don't worry, Professor... I won't be after you for Child Support, or anything, b-because... there isn't...."

Unable to go on, she covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. In a state of utter shock, Severus put his arms around Hermione and held her close. A sorrowful curiosity in him willed her stop crying and continue with the events of the past few weeks.

After what seemed like a life time, she wiped her eyes and sat back from him, "You saw me take the potion to get rid of the pains... well, anyway, I got home and... I suppose I passed out. V-Viktor found me and took me to St. Mungo's, but it was... too late..."

Severus nodded, an odd numb feeling spreading over his body, "Why...?"

"Now there's a question..." She said, her words laced with an amount of sarcasm that would have been more welcome coming from him, "I... I can't have children. I can conceive them, but..."

Severus held her again, as she cried. He could not honestly say that he was terribly upset, but not because he was heartless. No, he simply knew that couldn't cope with Corrin, let alone another child. That, however, didn't mean that he was just fine with what had happened, because it wasn't just his baby that she had lost; it was any child she wanted to have in the future.

And it had obviously hit her hard. Severus was sure he had never seen some one so distraught. He felt unusually out of character. He had so much that he could use to be vindictive to Hermione Granger, but... he found he just couldn't do it.

And then something that had happened a lot in the past month happened again; a thought came to Severus. It was quite a strange thought, the type of which Severus never had, but it occurred to him that Hermione had been carrying his baby. He had never really thought too much about it when Amy was pregnant with Corrin, but this time he realized that a baby had actually been inside Hermione Granger, growing.

And suddenly he was sad. Sad for Hermione and sad for their baby. THEIR baby. That was possibly the first time that Severus forgot that she had ever been his student. He was just a man and she was just a woman, and they were just grieving.

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It had been about an hour since either of them had spoken, and then Hermione remembered something, "I know you're probably thinking it, but it can't possibly have been Viktor’s. He told me - while I was still in St. Mungo's - that he KNEW he couldn't have children. So... you were right; he was using me."

"And you've left him now?" His voice was strangely quiet.

"Of course..." Hermione stood up, "It's late; I should be going..."

"Corrin," he reminded her.

She nodded, "I'll go up now... Well, good night."

Severus nodded, and Hermione went into the house. Corrin was asleep and Hermione tucked the covers around her, brushing the hair from the girls face. She sat on the edge of the mattress for some time, realizing that she would never be able to have a child of her own to say good night to, or to put to bed.

Feeling completely exhausted, Hermione left the bedroom. She went slowly down the stairs and was nearly at the front door, when she was turned around and kissed gently.

"!"!"!"!"!"

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I really love them!