Epilogue

August 1999

Who knows where we might go in life? Some of us become academically inclined, some of us religiously inclined. Some of us are happy to work, day to day, at a job that on most days we love and others we hate. Some of us spend time as activists, others as pacifists. Some of us enjoy being a devoted mother, father, brother, sister, or lover.

No, we never know where we might go in life. Neither did Severus Snape and Hermione Granger.

They fought furiously as only two people whose souls know each other intimately will do, but they also made up as passionately as they fought. Being virgins, they had a lot to learn about sex and what pleased each other, but sex for the couple was something they were surprised to find they enjoyed very much and spent many hours exploring and learning when the calendar indicated they would be 'safe' from conception.

They worked and studied together, researching in their spare time ways to dissolve the bond. But if you had cornered the couple and performed Legilimency on them, you'd find they weren't researching very hard. As they were soulmates, they were fated to be together and their souls overrode their minds sometimes.

Eight months after they married, the law was repealed. As they sat at breakfast the morning of the announcement, they looked at each other, The Prophet between them, its bold headline shouting silently at them.

"It's been repealed," said Severus quietly.

"So it has," Hermione answered as quietly.

"Shall we head down for our divorce?"

Hermione shrugged. "No hurry to do it today, I suppose; there'll be a queue I suspect." She took a noisy sip of her tea.

"Oh, that's pleasant to hear so early in the morning," Severus snarked at her. "We'll go another day perhaps?"

"Perhaps." Hermione smiled wickedly and slurped her tea again. Wiping her mouth, she said, "Severus, I need to go to St. Mungo's today."

"Are you all right?"

"Nothing I suspect six and a half more months won't cure."

"I see." Severus tapped his fingers on the table. "The Beltane party?"

"I think so. We did have quite a bit to drink that night."

"So we did. We might not have been paying attention to your dates, I think." Severus pulled the paper upward so Hermione wouldn't see his smirk. That had been quite a party and when Hermione drank, she became overwhelmingly horny. They had been in that cupboard a long while before she was finally satisfied.

"You know," said Severus from behind the paper. "The Wizarding world usually frowns on children borne out of wedlock. It would be hard for you to be a single mother."

"Yes, it would. But Harry would help me, I'm sure."

"I'm sure he would," agreed Severus, "but since we are already married, perhaps we should just continue as we are for the time being?"

Hermione shrugged again in answer. "Okay. Less fuss in the long run, I guess."

"Less complications when the child is enrolled in Hogwarts."

Hermione stood from the table and walked to her husband, leant down and whispered in his ear, "Did you know that early pregnancy is sometimes accompanied by an increase in a woman's hormones?"

"Oh?" he purred.

"It's true." Hermione knelt down between her husband's knees and pushed open the sides of his dressing gown. "It also makes us sentimental. For example," she lifted his prick in one hand, guiding it to her mouth. "I seem to come over all sentimental when I remember that this," she twirled her tongue over Severus' tip, "is how I managed to become pregnant."

Severus hissed, "Well not that particular way."

"But it's how the evening started."

"Do continue. I would like to be a bit sentimental myself, love."

Hermione smiled at her husband and began bobbing her head. "Me, too, love, me too," she murmured between breaths.