A/N: It's late I know. I'm sorry. I've had some personal issues. Please keep in mind that this chapter was very difficult to write for me and it is also unbeta'd. The end of the chapter is probably of better quality.

It's also short but there will be another update in a couple of weeks.

Warning: This chapter may make you cry (made me cry writing it)

1 year later.

"Hello, Jeddy," Hermione cooed, opening her arms so that the spaniel could jump into her arms. "How are you, my baby?"

He licked her face furiously before jumping out of her embrace and dashing along the hallway, sliding a little on the wooden floor. Hermione laughed and followed the dog into the kitchen, where Severus was cooking dinner. She kissed her husband on the cheek before sitting down on the kitchen stool.

"How are you?" She asked, a little hesitant.

"Fine," he said.

Hermione opened her mouth to ask something else but stopped, noticing the way his shoulders were tensed up and how he hadn't yet looked at her. She fought down the emotion that threatened to rise within her but she couldn't help but remember how their relationship had deteriorated.

-flashback-

"I found us a new house," Severus said, a rare smile upon his lips as he gazed at her.

"When can we see it?" Hermione asked.

"Now?"

She slapped his hands away as he attempted to help her from the chair. She rested her hand on her abdomen. It was curious. As soon as she had found out she was pregnant, Severus had changed. He was a completely different man; always there to help her and to keep her off her feet as much as possible. She was only seven weeks along, but they had already started house hunting and picking out colours for the nursery. Only a couple of weeks ago, Severus had hauled her along to the Ministry and made her an honest woman. As far as he was concerned, she wasn't going to give birth to his child without having his last name. It had been an rather entertaining day, as Severus wasn't technically alive, so waltzing into the Ministry asking for a marriage ceremony was unorthodox to say the very least.

It had included a fainting secretary, a weak-kneed Minister and a few blood tests to prove his identity. Finally they had left as husband and wife, with Severus' promise to always provide for her and their unborn baby.

The house that Severus had chosen was beautiful, situated near a local village which had very friendly people, but far enough away so that any magical occurrences wouldn't raise alarm. An old Victorian house, the rooms were spacious and tall, and the three bedrooms were large. A dining room ticked one of Hermione's boxes, as did the Master bedroom's en-suite. Severus was pleased with the amount of basement area, as that could easily be converted into a private lab. Quite simply the house was perfect for them.

Then it had happened.

They had been at the new house for a short while, and had just had their first argument about Hermione working whilst pregnant. She had put her foot down and gone to work the next day, flooing into the Ministry's Atrium. Hermione hadn't paid attention to the scuffle that was happening near the fountain as she walked over to the elevator; sometimes the Aurors struggled to subdue a prisoner. Her back had been turned, so she didn't see the spell come towards her, but it had knocked her off her feet and caused her to fall forward. She didn't have time to react and her entire front hit the stone cold floor.

A horrifying wetness had spread from between her legs, and she had reached down, her hand smearing the blood that was leaking from her. She had reached her blood-stained hand out to the nearest stranger and whispered, 'help',

Then she had fainted.

-end flashback-

Their baby had been lost that day, and they had suffered every day since. Hermione wished that she listened to her husband and had resigned from her position when they had argued about it but the stubbornness in her had refused. She hadn't even cried and neither had he.

"Severus, I'm going to leave."

That finally caused a reaction. He spun around, his dark eyes focussing on hers, fear and loathing contained within. He held himself stiffly, trying desperately not to react and then briefly nodded to her.

"Is that it?" Tears stung her eyes. "You're not even going to ask me not to go?"

"It's your choice." His voice was monotonous.

She shrieked, all the emotion that she had held in her bubbled over and exploded. She leapt off the stool and ran to him, thumping her fists against his chest as she sobbed, desperate for him to hold her like he used to. Desperate for him to forgive her for her mistake in choosing to work because she couldn't. That guilt was there, knowing that she had lost their baby, that she had been stupid enough to work.

"I love you! I fucking love you," She cried out. She slid down to the floor, kneeling at his feet. She hadn't heard him say those words to her since before they had argued all those months ago. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to keep our baby. I'M SO FUCKING SORRY!"

She was barely aware of movement but suddenly he was in front of her, their knees touching, He grasped her chin in his hand and gently eased her head up so that she could look in his eyes.

"It's not your fault," he whispered to her. "It was never your fault. I never blamed you."

She broke, collapsing into his waiting arms, soaking the front of his shirt. Her hair was splattered with his tears as he wept along with her. In that moment, they were stripped to only feeling raw emotion. All the pain was there, wrapping itself around them and drowning them.

"I love you," he choked out.

"I love you too," Hermione kissed him, their tears mingling.

Neither of them were sure how it happened, but the kiss changed its intensity. Suddenly they were clinging to each other, hastily unbuttoning shirts and ripping off panties until he was buried inside her, on top of her. It hurt, because she was definitely not prepared for him, but her mind craved the comfort, so she wrapped her legs around him and urged him to thrust. It was fast and rough, their clothes half-ripped off their bodies, their sweat mixing until they were both slick. When her orgasm hit her, Hermione was ill-prepared. It was sudden, overtaking her entire body as she screamed her release, clutching desperately to her husband as he emptied himself inside her. It was over in a matter of minutes.

When she finally calmed down, she was aware that she was still clinging to him. Hermione slowly unwrapped her arms and he pulled back enough to look into her eyes. He was still inside her but she didn't want him to leave.

"I never blamed you," He said, his voice raw. "I just didn't know what to do."

"I thought you blamed me," Hermione admitted, her eyes filling up again.

"I could never blame you," he kissed her softly.

"Can we try and be a couple again?" Hermione asked. "I want to be your wife again."

He nodded, swallowing to hold back the tears. Severus finally pulled out of her, helping her to her feet before pulling her close to him and holding her tightly.

"I don't want you to ever leave," he said.

"I don't want to leave."

Hermione looked down at her clothes and laughed. Her skirt was hanging on by a thread and her shirt was ripped in such a way that she had one breast exposed. He was in a similar state of disarray.

As she glanced down at their clothes and then up at her husband's face again, she felt something that she hadn't felt in a long time.

Hope.

Several months later.

Hermione stood at the entrance to the room, her eyes wide as she looked at the sheer amount of people in the room. It was ministry fundraiser, and she was only there because the fundraiser was for one of her closest friends, Harry. After Hogwarts, he had quickly risen to the top of the Auror Department, and had, for a few years, successfully managed the team to hit record numbers of arrests and consequential convictions. Now, the Boy-Who-Lived was running for Minister of Magic, and he was winning by far. Hermione caught sight of him, and he took her breath away. He looked so different from how he used to.

He had finally managed to tame his hair and last year had the wizarding equivalent of laser eye surgery so his beautiful green eyes could be seen. His black suit was tailored and he was flanked by the absolutely beautiful Ginny Weasley, who was dressed in a deep purple strapless dress that lightly skimmed the floor.

"Are you ready for this?" Severus looked at her and offered one of his rare smiles.

He was aware that since Hermione's miscarriage she had barely contacted her school friends. In fact, it had been almost a year since she had last seen Harry, Ron or Ginny. Her heart was thudding rapidly in her chest and she grasped Severus' hand for comfort.

"Don't panic, you look beautiful and they will forgive you," Severus soothed.

He looked handsome himself. Dressed in a suit that perfectly fit his frame, with his hair shining (Hermione had developed her own shampoo for his naturally greasy locks) and his face brighter than usual, it wasn't difficult to realise the attraction that he held for Hermione. Hermione herself was clad in a black dress with white detailing that fell just below her knees. The straps were thick and her hair was pinned up. A slightly grimace crossed her face as Severus began to steer her into the room. She attempted to move towards her work colleagues to stall seeing him, but Severus instead kept a firm hand on her and led her straight to Harry and Ginny, who were currently laughing and conversing with possible donators.

"Mr and Mrs Potter," Severus greeted them.

Harry looked at him and then at Hermione. There was a moment of silence, where the donators clearly sensed the tension and tactfully moved away from the group, allowing them a few minutes of privacy.

"You made it."

His voice was quiet, barely audible over the music and background chatter, but Hermione heard it clearly. It was obvious that those three words held a year's worth of disbelief, of disappointment when she hadn't shown up before to these important events.

"I couldn't miss this," Hermione said, swallowing. "Harry, can we talk?"

Severus stepped forward and offered Ginny his hand, whisking her away to dance on the spacious floor. Harry and Hermione stepped closer and they began to dance, ignoring the other people as they swayed from side to side.

"Still a terrible dancer, I see," Hermione said lightly.

"You never replied to me for almost a year," Harry said, ignoring the small talk. "What the hell happened, Hermione? I hear random rumours about you marrying Snape of all people, who is supposed to be dead, and then you drop off the face of the Earth."

"Harry, I," Hermione paused and then began to speak again, her voice raw with emotion. "I had been seeing Severus for a while but he wasn't ready to tell the world that he was still alive. I found him in a pub that night that I left Ron and things just happened. The reason that I disappeared for while…"

She stopped, blinking back tears. Although it had been almost a year since the miscarriage, it was still incredibly painful to think about it. Since their breakdown, she and Severus had sat down at least once a week and discussed it, making sure that their feelings were out in the open and they weren't hiding away from each other anymore. It had brought them closer, and they had regularly been talking together and had even begun to make love once again.

"I found out I was pregnant."

"You have a child?" Harry said excitedly. "Boy or girl?"

"Harry," She said sadly, and his face fell. "I went back to work when I found out and then one day, the Aurors were struggling with a prisoner. He managed to hold of a wand and shot a random spell. It hit me, I fell over and hit the floor and lost the baby."

Her voice broke at the end. Harry's face echoed her pain.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry. I was in charge of that prisoner. I was told that someone had been hurt but I didn't know what had happened. If I hadn't had lost control of him..."

His face twisted in anguish and Hermione pulled him close and hugged him. Tears fell from both of their eyes as they sobbed into each other's shoulder.

"I didn't talk to Severus for months," she confided. "I blamed myself and I thought he did as well. I didn't even cry. It was only a short while ago when I told him that I was going to leave him that we finally talked it out and actually were able to cry. We're slowly picking up the pieces of our marriage. It's hard, but he's worth it."

"Does he treat you right?" Harry asked, wiping away the tears from his eyes.

"He's fantastic," Hermione smiled, having stopped crying. She was grateful that the make-up that she wore was waterproof or she would have looked a state. "He's still his usual snarky self but I love that about him. We can sit together at night and discuss scholarly journals about potions and other subjects."

"It sounds…" Harry struggled for a word. "Boring. It sounds boring."

"We can't all have a life like you and Ginny!" Hermione said. "Spending your spare time flying around on broomsticks chucking balls at each other. Besides, it may sound boring but that's because you haven't heard about our sex life."

"Ew!"

Harry pulled away from her and shook his head vigorously.

"Harry, I hope that we can be friends again," Hermione said seriously.

"We never stopped being friends," He took her hand. "Hermione, you've been one of my best friends for years and just because you've had issues and didn't want to talk about them doesn't stop us from being friends. I love you."

"And I love you," Hermione replied.

They embraced tightly and then kissed each other on the cheek.

"You have my support," Hermione said. "We'll put some money forward for your campaign."

"Thank you," Harry pulled away at the approach of their significant others.

"We should be heading off," Severus said.

Hermione looked uncertainly at Ginny.

"Dinner at ours next Tuesday?" The redhead asked.

"Absolutely," Hermione answered.

They smiled at each other and both of them knew that their friendship was repaired.

The Next Morning

Hermione placed the knut in the owl's pouch and took the Daily Prophet from where it was strapped around it's leg. She offered it a piece of her toast which it devoured and then watched as it flew out of the open kitchen window. She unfolded the paper and her eyes were instantly drawn to the picture on the front page, which was surprisingly of her and Harry.

It was the moment from last night when they had embraced and then kissed each other on the cheek. She was bemused by the significance of this picture until her eyes drifted upwards to read the headline.

THE BOY WHO LIVED AND KRUM'S EX ARE HAVING A SECRET AFFAIR!

Last night, at Harry Potter's fundraiser, one, Mrs Hermione Snape, formally known as Hermione Granger, danced intimately with the contender for the Minister's role and then they declared their love for one another.

"Fuck!"

A/N: I would appreciate it if someone could help me shape it because I'm aware that it is of horrendous quality compared to normal. Message me if you think you can help.