This story was created for Articcat621 for the LiveJournal SSHG Giftfest 2016. She gave me such wonderful prompts to chose from, and I not only chose the one that is this story, but squeezed in two other smaller ones in the epilogue. I hope you enjoy this!

Many thanks to Melody LePetit for allowing me to 'steal' her husband for this fic and for the beta, to timandsophsmom for another beta, and to my lovely Velveteenbunny, who Brit picked and beta'd as well!

I do not own the Potter Universe; JKR has that privilege.

Chapter 1

Early August 2003

Hermione Granger entered her flat, exhausted from her long day at work, and dropped her bag and cloak on the sofa. Unbuttoning her cardigan as she walked, she headed for the small kitchen and switched on the kettle. As she reached for a cup and saucer from an adjacent cupboard, the urge to wee hit. She smiled softly as she realised this urge would happen frequently for about the next four weeks as her body adjusted to its new state.

The curly-haired witch sat on the toilet and snorted incredulously. I'm going to be a mother! Me! A mother!

As she completed her needs with little thought, she tried to remember when it could have happened. The only time she and Jani had had sex without the charm was after a rather boozy party at the Ministry two months ago. She had felt sick for several mornings in a row recently, and after checking her daily planner, she realised she was late for her period. It occurred to her that there could be a slight possibility she was pregnant, but was also hoping that luck would be on her side.

Luck was not with her as proven at her appointment with the Healer earlier that day.

Washing her hands, she decided that her next course of action was, of course, to tell Jani, but how? He was in the middle of a possible career shift at the Finnish Ministry, and any change in his job was bound to turn their lives upside down. Hermione felt things had been very steady in their relationship of three years; would it continue to be so?

She had met Jani during as part of her employment as liaison between Minister Shacklebolt and the Muggle Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. Jani was part of an international delegation sent to the Ministry to hammer out security details ahead of the Muggle G20 summit to be held in the United States the following year. Hermione needed to finalise the itineraries of both Ministers, and Jani was her point of contact.

She was surprised when Jani asked her out a few days later. Her experience with foreign men was dismal, and Finnish men were not expressive as a general rule. Jani, however, was brilliantly smart and had rather a dry sense of humour. He reminded her a bit of a certain former professor in that they had similar colouring; dark hair, dark eyes, and tall. But that is where the similarities ended. Jani had a beard, and the last time she had seen Professor Snape, he was clean shaven. He also made Professor Snape look like a bubbly, talkative teenager when it came to expressing emotions. Not to say that Jani was not emotive, but these moments tended to be within the privacy of their home and rarely in public.

He could only give her vague details about his job in security; although he was not an Unspeakable as such, his job was very exclusive. Hermione understood the importance of his job and rarely asked for details of his day other than was it a good one.

The couple worked well together, combining work and free time seamlessly. For Hermione, this relationship was for the long term. She loved Jani and since he was a Wizard, she could be completely at ease with him; no making up stories about her career or her schooling, no downplaying why she had nightmares or wore long sleeves. Even their parents, who had met each other, were friends, making the entire relationship absolutely perfect in Hermione's eyes.

The couple had discussed the future of their relationship on several occasions, and although there were times when Hermione was uneasy about the level of commitment on Jani's part, she chalked it up to Finnish stoicism. It seemed marriage was in their future, but not a priority. Perhaps now that priority would shift?

She had just put the finishing touches on their dinner when Jani arrived home. Taking off her apron, she flung it on the counter and hurried into the sitting room.

"Hello, kulta," she said, pressing a kiss to his face. "How was your day?"

"It was fine." His response was not his normal happy response; he was usually in a good mood when he got home. Hermione's stomach lurched, and not because of the baby.

"Something's happened. What is it?" she asked.

"Sit down, won't you?" Jani asked, dropping into the squashy armchair that stood to the left of the sofa.

Hermione walked dazedly to the sofa and sat. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. In fact, everything's fine. Well, for me that is."

"Spit it out, Jani," Hermione spluttered. "You're worrying me!"

"There's really no circling like a cat around hot porridge about this," he began.

Hermione giggled. Although Jani could speak English quite well, his use of idioms was sometimes funny. He glared at her, and she immediately stopped and mumbled an apology.

"I've finally got that promotion at work."

With joy, Hermione bounced on the sofa and squealed, "Oh, love! That's wonderful! When do you start?"

Jani stood and paced behind the sofa, and Hermione sensed he was not telling her everything. "Jani?"

"The promotion means that I will have to transfer to China. I will be there for months at a time, only coming to England or Finland for a few days at best."

"Couldn't I come with you?" she asked tremulously. In her mind, she felt she already knew the answer. "Surely I could find a position there?"

"The Chinese government does not allow witches in any of the foreign ministries. And my position is, well, even more top secret than what I do now, to be honest. I can't even tell you what I'll be doing in a circumspect way."

"Well, surely a magical oath would keep me from revealing where you work, if that's your worry."

Jani stopped his pacing and stood, looking out of the window. "No, that won't be enough in this case."

Hermione looked at Jani's back as he faced the window. "Are you saying I need to be Obliviated?" she asked incredulously.

"No, not that extreme," he answered.

Hermione's mind ran away with her. What could he mean? If not Obliviation, then what? The silence grew longer as she began to realise what he was implying. She gulped and took a deep breath, "Are you saying we need to break up?"

He said nothing, and that was all the answer she needed. "Have I meant nothing to you? Has our life together meant nothing? Were you using me?"

Jani turned to look at her finally. "Our life together has meant a great deal to me," he said earnestly. "But we're so young and there's so much I want to do. So do you! We've talked about this before."

Hermione realised now why she had always felt uneasy about his commitment. "You've never really been into this relationship one hundred percent, have you? It's always been me giving more and more. You lead me to believe we were in it for the long haul, even marriage!"

"Hermione," Jani spoke evenly, "I did not lead you on, and I'm sorry if you got the impression that I wanted marriage. I do care for you, but I must do this. The job is too important to our worlds. I've been working so hard to achieve this goal in my career. Surely you can understand that?"

"I can, but I don't understand why we need to end our relationship over your job!" Her voice was shaking and nearly shrill.

Jani scrubbed his face and blew out a breath of frustration. "All of the witches and wizards who work in this detachment have no spouse and no relationships that would cause them to second guess any task they are given to do. We even need to distance ourselves from our immediate families. As it was explained to me, I can have no entanglements to worry about as I do it."

Hermione leapt to her feet. "So I am an entanglement, am I?" she spat, her well-known temper starting to flare. "Would you like me to tell you of another entanglement?" she sneered. "How about this: I'm pregnant. With. Your. Child. What do you think of that entanglement?"

Jani's expression nearly made Hermione laugh in spite of the situation. "You're pregnant? How? We've always been so careful!"

"Does the Ministry ball two months ago ring a bell?" Hermione watched as Jani's shoulders dropped in realisation. Quietly she asked, "Does this change your mind at all? You're going to be a father. How could you want to just traipse off to a job, knowing you're leaving a child behind? You'd be satisfied just being an occasional father? More or less an uncle who comes to visit?"

"You want me to turn the promotion down just because I'll be a father? I'll never get a chance like this again!" he said.

"I'm not asking you to turn the promotion down; I'm just asking you to think about it before you accept. Surely there'll be other jobs you can look into, ones that won't mean you'd have to give everything up?"

"How long do you think I'd last before the resentment of turning down this job… this dream of mine begins to eat at our relationship?" he asked, his voice laced with derision.

Hermione blew a defeated breath. "I know, I know." She dropped back onto the sofa. "So what do we do?"

Jani sat in the chair opposite. "How far along exactly are you?"

"Almost eight weeks. Why?"

"There's still time, then?" he asked.

Hermione's next retort stalled as she frowned in confusion. "Time for what? What do you mean?"

"To get rid of it."

She gasped, "Get rid of it? You want me to abort our child? Are you mad?"

"No, just practical. The English Wizarding community will not approve of you as a single mother. You will not be able to find a job."

"I have a job, you twat."

Jani scoffed, "You think you'll be able to handle your job and motherhood? I've seen you when events are coming up or there are foreign dignitaries visiting. You work hours and hours; you don't eat, and you don't sleep. You would not be able to keep that up. No, an abortion is your best option. Our best option."

Hermione's countenance went from shocked stillness to utter fury. With deadly calm, she drew her wand and said, "Leave. Pack your things and leave. If you are not out of here in thirty minutes, I will hex you into oblivion. You were never into this relationship as much as I was. I can't believe I let myself dream of a future, of being together with you for always. I'm such an idiot! GO! The clock is ticking!" She sent a Stinging hex toward the man she had loved and he moved, dashing to their bedroom.

Hermione just sat, staring at nothing when she smelt something burning. Almost robotically she stood and went to the kitchen to remove the chicken she had made for their dinner from the oven. It was ruined, so she just dropped it in the sink, walked back to the sitting room and sat on the sofa.

Twenty minutes later, Jani reappeared. "I've gotten everything from our bedroom. I'll need to come back later for my other things."

"No, you won't return here," Hermione said. "I'll post everything else to your parents. Just get the fuck out of here and out of my life, you bastard."

"What about the baby? You know how I feel."

"Don't worry, you won't be the father. I will be visiting my solicitor to ensure all your rights to the baby are revoked, magically and non-magically. I will not allow you to find any loophole to take my child away from me," she said vehemently.

"Hermione," Jani began and hesitated, "you surely can see my side of this and why I think aborting the baby would be for the best."

Hermione leapt from her sofa and began hexing. Small yellow birds flew straight for Jani's face. "Get the fuck out of my house, you bloody bastard!" she screamed. "GO!"

Jani fled the flat, and Hermione slammed the door behind him, changing the wards quickly so that he would not be able to return. Once she was done, she collapsed to the floor. She cast her Patronus and sent it to Harry with a message: Harry, please, I need you. Come as soon as you can.

She dropped her wand and heaved as she cried. Her life was over; things would never be the same.

Mid September

Harry Potter placed his teacup onto the saucer and set it on the desk in front of him. "So you can see why I came here, can't you, Professor? She needs to be watched, feel useful. I need to know she is protected and cared for." He shook his head. "I still can't see why Kings let her go."

Minerva McGonagall nodded in understanding. "Hermione was always a favourite of mine, you know that?"

"I do, and I admit I was hoping to use that to her advantage." He smiled ruefully.

From a portrait to the left, Phineas Nigellus spoke, "A little Slytherin cunning is useful, don't you think, Potter?"

"Phineas," Minerva admonished, "hush, and you too, young man." She smiled as she turned back to Harry, who was doing his best to smother a laugh as a cough. "As far as Kingsley is concerned, he'll soon feel the weight of my tongue, you can count on that. But," she sighed, "if truth be told, I can see why he let her go. Sadly, many of the foreign magical ministries are more old school than we are. I feel Kingsley was protecting not so much his status, but Hermione's reputation."

"I suppose so," grumbled Harry. "It's still unfair."

"Yes, it does seem so doesn't it? And of course I can help Hermione. Although it's already several weeks into the school year, we do need a replacement teacher for Muggle Studies. It seems Professor Dietrich liked her sherry far more than Sybil ever did. We had to dismiss her because she was intoxicated while teaching. I've been having the students read the books and do essays, and Professor Snape has been grading them as he's the only other one on staff with any sort of Muggle knowledge. He is complaining rather loudly, as you might imagine."

"As loudly as he can at any rate," said Harry. "How is he, Professor?"

Minerva sighed, "Severus is Severus. He continues to heal, of course; Poppy sees to it that he takes the potions prescribed by St. Mungo's, and he gets a visit from the physio healer once a week. His one leg is still a bit lame, but it is getting stronger. His voice…well, the speech healer says it is as good as it will be. I admit I miss his former voice; it was so commanding."

Harry agreed, "He could terrorise an entire room simply by speaking quietly before he was attacked."

"He told me he has learned how to control his breathing so that he can speak loudly, but he will forever have the rasp. At the end of a long day, he can barely speak at all. The healer says that as he grows stronger overall, even that will improve."

"That's good to hear. So, you can offer Hermione a job then?"

"I surely can. I'll owl her right away."

"And her pregnancy? Will that affect things? She should deliver before the end of the school year; late March I think she said."

"I will ask Hermione to be up front about the situation, but without all the details. If she puts to rest rumours right from the start, there'll be less gossiping. The Board of Governors will have to accept things as they are. If not, she and I will go all war heroines on them. Or perhaps," she looked slyly at Harry, "the-boy-who-conquered could use some of his 'Slytherin ways' with them?"

Harry burst out laughing. "I would go to the ends of the earth for Hermione, you know that."

Minerva clapped her hands in agreement. "Very well then, Potter. I'll owl Hermione right now, and you can run along home. I'm sure Mrs. Potter could use a hand with the children about now."

"You've got that right; James has a fever and Al is teething. She could have hexed me when I said I had a meeting with you this morning."

"Go, Potter!" Minerva shooed him off with flapping hands. "Go!"

Two weeks later

Hermione closed the lid of her trunk and turned to the elf that was assisting her. "There we go, Polly. All done."

"Yes, Missy Hermione. Will yous be needing anything else?"

Hermione looked at the kind little elf that seemed proud to wear her crisp Hogwarts pillowcase. "Are you a free elf, Polly?"

The elf nearly burst into tears. "No, Missy. I don't wants to be free! I likes it here. Please don't give me clothes!"

Hermione knelt and stroked Polly's face. "No, I won't. I won't free you, I promise. But you know how I feel about house elves, yes?"

"Yes, Missy," the elf sniffed. "Yous is known as the Hat Lady in the kitchens. Some of the elves is afraid of you. "

"Well, I can promise you I won't give you or the other elves clothes. I understand more now."

Polly shyly smiled and nodded. "Yes, yous understand now." The little elf turned to go, but stopped. "Missy Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"You is going to have a baby, yes? A little master or miss?"

"Yes, Polly, I am. But I don't know whether it's a boy or a girl."

"Elves have magic; we cans tell. Do you wants me to tell you?"

"NO!" Hermione hollered, startling the elf. "I mean, no" she said more quietly, "I'd rather wait until the child is born."

"I shall takes care of both of you!" the elf squealed excitedly.

Hermione laughed. "I'm sure you will. Tomorrow I have an appointment before classes begin with Madam Pomfrey. Can you make sure I have some tea and a few crackers ready before I go?"

"Yes, Missy Hermione, I will. Will you needs anything before bed tonight?"

"I don't think so. I have a staff meeting in an hour. Once that's over, I'll get something to eat from the kitchens and then go to bed."

"Yes, Miss."

"Good night, Polly."

Hermione braced herself outside of the doors to the teacher's room. Minerva had planned that the staff would meet once she'd arrived in order to introduce her, discuss her pregnancy, and get her acquainted with her classes.

"Either go in or don't but get out of the way, Miss Granger. Some of us have things to do."

It had been years since she had heard his voice, and although it shocked her that it had changed so much, it nevertheless still caused her to quake a bit. However, she was not going to let it intimidate her now.

"Still your sarcastic bastard self, I see."

"Some things never change," he rasped dryly and glanced down at the slight swell of her abdomen with a sneer. "Now," and he shoved Hermione into the room as he spoke, "get in!"

"Severus! Don't push the girl! It's quite rude," Minerva scolded her colleague. "Come along, Hermione; there's a seat here near me." She led Hermione to a comfortable looking desk chair. To the rest of the room she spoke, "Now that everyone has gathered, let's get the meeting started."

Minerva sat at the head of the table. "Many of you know Miss Granger, but for the few new faces on staff, let me introduce Miss Hermione Granger. She will be teaching Muggle Studies now that Professor Dietrich has left us."

"And good riddance," chimed in Professor Flitwick.

"Headmistress," began Severus, "I must speak."

"Go ahead, Severus."

"We as teachers are to be above reproach in our conduct in front of the students. I hardly see how Miss Granger's current condition is conducive to that conduct."

Hermione sat up straight. "What are you implying, Professor Snape?"

"I'm not implying anything, Miss Granger, only questioning whether or not your conduct would be an example to the students."

Hermione stood from her chair and approached Professor Snape, stopping knee to knee with him where he was seated.

"Of course you're teaching career is riddled with examples of the highest conduct, no?" She glared at him. "The circumstances surrounding my pregnancy are no one's business but my own and certainly not for you to speculate upon." She looked down at the man who treated her and her friends so rottenly when she was younger. Shaking her head, she turned to the room at large.

"Just so we can end the gossip," she spat the word out, "I was in a relationship for three years with a man I met through my work at the Ministry. We had a loving relationship, and I thought we would marry. On the day I discovered I was pregnant, he returned home from work and announced that he had obtained the promotion he was hoping for. It meant a transfer to China and is quite hush hush as they say. I offered to transfer to the embassy in China, but found out that witches are not welcome in governmental positions there. When I intimated that he would need a base to come home to, he said that would not be possible. The ensuing argument brought to light that our relationship was more one sided than I suspected."

Hermione stopped speaking and moved to a window.

"Hermione," said Minerva. "We don't need to know all this. It's your business, not ours. I have no problem with your teaching our students."

"No, I want you all to know. That way you can stop the rumours that will spread, if you wish." She looked pointedly at Severus. "Jani and I argued for quite a long time about our relationship that evening. He said we could go no further as there could be no entanglements, quote, unquote." She wiggled her fingers in the air to emphasis the word entanglements.

"That's when I told him I was pregnant. He wanted me to abort the child. While that is an option for some women, it is not for me. He was insistent. I then demanded he get his things and leave the flat. Just before he left, he disclaimed the baby. I have gone to my solicitor and ensured all his parental rights have been severed both magically and non-magically. The child is mine and mine alone.

"So now, Professor Snape, you know the reason behind my apparent misconduct. I will not announce to the students what happened, but if asked, I will not lie. Minerva and I have already discussed just what information I will give them. Should the students ask any of you, please direct them to her or me." She returned to her seat when she had finished speaking.

The room was quite silent after that, and Hermione sat staring at Professor Snape so long that she was pleased to see him actually wiggle in discomfort.

"Can we get on with this meeting, Minerva?" he snapped.

"Very well," she answered, shuffling a few parchments about. "It seems as though there has been an uptick in pranks between classes…..

A/N: 'Kulta' is a Finnish term of endearment meaning akin to 'love'.