The Christmas holidays passed quickly and soon Hermione found herself sitting in another empty compartment of the train. As the hills zoomed past her as she made her way to the castle her thoughts drifted to that very morning, when Severus had said goodbye to her. Her bags fully packed and making sure nothing had been forgotten, she noted a hesitance from him, in his usual black get up. He had recovered well since the meeting, and hadn't been bothered by Hermione's dad after he saw that Severus had been in a fight. "How are you getting back?" she had asked him, partly to release some of the tension in the room.

He snapped out of the little daydream he was in and said "How I got here." Hermione felt the prickles and so knew to leave it as she continued to look down her list.

"Will you be escorting me to the station?" she asked chirpily, trying to have a conversation with him.

"Well I thought as one of the Golden trio you could just about manage to make it to the station," he practically growled. She just kept going on about her business like nothing had happened. Just because Severus appeared to be PMS-ing didn't mean that she had to…That's when it hit her. Paling, Hermione felt faint and immediately began counting. She hardly noticed when Severus skulked out of the room, a faint popping sound coming from the corridor.

This left Hermione now on the train deeply contemplating everything. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud opening of the door. A quick glance told her that it was Harry, minus Ron, coming to join. He sat silently opposite her. "Haven't heard from you in a while Hermione."

"Thought you might be too busy with your new friend Lavender."

Harry looked both confused and annoyed in that moment. "Hermione, you can hardly be lecturing me on how to treat a friend! Ever since November you've been acting really distant, plus you are clearly hiding something and yet you refuse to tell anyone, even though we only want to help you!" His face had now turned red with anger, and Hermione just shrunk away into a corner, or that what she felt anyway.

After a few minutes Hermione just quietly asked "Harry, how are your Occlumency skills? I can barely trust Ron with any secrets and I didn't want to run the risk of him finding anything out. I'm sorry."

"They've gotten better over the summer. I haven't had any messages from him. Please, Hermione. Just tell me," he said, sitting on the edge of his seat and held her hand, looking intently at her.

Hermione gave a steely look at him. A million thoughts ran through her mind. She wanted to blurt it all out. Instead what slipped out was a silencing charm on the door and "I think I might be pregnant." Harry just sat there stunned for a few minutes before a barrage of questions came out at one, who's it was, did she know for certain whether or not she was, did her and Ron end up having a fling after all, what was she going to do, and Hermione just sat there until Harry was done questioning her. "I don't know for certain yet, but I'm late. I suppose it could be stress, but I don't know. As for the father, it isn't Ron it's…it's my husband's."

Harry's eyes had turned into saucers. Eventually he responded with "WHAT!? You got married!? Why didn't you tell me or Ron or…anyone? Does Dumbledore know?"

"It was important to keep it a secret. It was a diversion whilst you got on with Dumbledore's secret missions Harry. Dumbledore knows; he was a witness. It was going to need to get done anyway Harry, the Ministry enacted a marriage law," Hermione explained, her voiced never rising to meet Harry's angered tone.

But then Harry got to thinking. "Hermione. The only way that your marriage would act as a distraction would be if…you married a Death Eater. But...Dumbledore wouldn't let any one of them marry you unless he knew that you would still be safe. And the only Death Eater that I know that Dumbledore trusts- for reasons I just don't know- is Snape." Hermione just looked at Harry, before averting her eyes, not out of shame but because she knew what was coming. "You married Snape!? You had sex with Snape!? Ewwww!"

"Oh grow up Harry!" she said, swatting him. Harry only gave a half smile as Hermione blushed furiously. "Yes…I am married to Snape. He's been a gentleman Harry. He's not as bad as you think. Harry…I need you to keep this a secret," she requested, holding his gaze. Harry thickly swallowed before nodding. "Good," she said before sharply getting up, reaching up onto the shelf above her head before grasping at the plastic stick that she had managed to buy before getting onto the train that morning. She had managed to smuggle it out of the train's bathroom in her small bag she kept at all times. Enough time had passed, and she looked at the small indicator, before looking back at Harry's expecting face.

Severus swooped into Dumbledore's office in his usual dramatic way, to find the man expecting him as usual. The older man looked sterner than usual. However, Snape refused to back down. "You summoned me."

"I did Severus. The Burrow was attacked over the holidays Severus. Voldemort wasn't meant to know about Harry's location there for that very reason. What happened?" Dumbledore said very slowly and surely. Snape's cheeks coloured ever so slightly. He then explained how he had given the information away, unaware it was to remain a secret, after being beaten and then tortured for the information. But the hard glare of the old man in the chair with the blackened hand showed no sign of sympathy. All he said was "I've made a mistake."

Snape was shocked at this. "A mistake? How?"

"I had forgotten one of the side effects. It makes one complacent." Snape looked quickly at the cursed hand, then back at the man's face. Even now he was speaking in riddles. Albus just smiled shortly at him and said "Not the curse Severus. Love." Snape just continued to look confused at the older man. "Not me Severus. You. I should never have let you fall in love."

"Let me…?" Snape repeated, a sick feeling growing in his stomach.

"I made it all up." Albus said, still looking thoughtfully at the old man. "After Sirius' death I saw the fatal flaw was Harry's lack of Occlumency skills – something I had tasked you with teaching him with, I needed a way to bring your full attention and skills to the war once more. And love is a strong motivator. So I looked at the candidates and the only one who could match your intellect was Miss Granger, besides I knew that she would do whatever she could for the war."

Snape was shell shocked. His entire body had frozen into shock. This couldn't be true. It wasn't! Hermione had gotten a letter from the Ministry demanding she get married! This wasn't true! "But Miss Granger got a letter-"

"Shacklebolt owed me a favour. I simply asked for some Ministry letterheads and an owl." Snape felt his mouth was open but he couldn't help it. Surely, he was going to wake up from this nightmare any moment now. He would wake up and Hermione would be there and…this mess just wouldn't have happened. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner Severus. But then I suppose your attention was elsewhere. Were you not surprised that no other muggle born girls were swept away by husbands?" I presumed they were keeping it a secret, like we were Severus found himself answering, but still too stunned to physically respond. I never would have thought that it was all lies. The fact that Dumbledore had orchestrated this entire thing made Severus sick to his stomach. But then there were other factors that made it seem so glaringly obvious which he wished he could have stopped, like Dumbledore telling him that he was to marry Hermione the morning before she even got her letter. He felt like such an idiot.

"You…you know what it takes to fully seal a magical marriage Albus. Why would you get me to do that with a young girl?"

"Because I knew that she would. And please Severus, she's practically an adult now." Ablus let a few minutes pass before saying "But like I said. This was all a big mistake, this past incident shows that even when you have love you're still distracted. And since I deceived you both into this marriage, you can easily get it annulled, providing there's no children in the pipeline. You can get away scot free."

"Scot free?" Severus repeated, anger lacing his tone now. He leaned over the desk and got into Albus' face – something he had never done before, and spat "She has lost everything. It cannot be replaced you foolish old man! You are not yourself, the Albus I know wouldn't do this, why!?"

"…Severus. Truthfully. You deserve love more than most. I wanted to give it to you. But I can't have it risking Harry's health. Get out of the marriage. I'll have the house elves move Miss Granger's things tonight." Albus said, before slowly getting up and leaving, whilst Severus continued to stare at the empty chair he left behind, shaken by the new information he had just been given.

Hermione was waiting in their chambers. He needed to know as soon as he entered the door. The train had gotten back earlier than normal so it was in the middle of the afternoon, when she heard the heavy door swing open and watch Severus stomp in, something clearly on his mind. Of course, he stopped in his tracks when he saw the white stick on their messy coffee table. Running a hand through his hair he picked it up, turned to Hermione and hissed "What is this?"

"I-I-It's a pregnancy test." She stuttered, her nerves beginning to show through.

"And you didn't think to wait till I was here to take it!" he said throwing it at her, making her jump slightly. He marched over to his table, sorting it out somewhat whilst his back was to her.

"But there would have been no point – I'm not pregnant," Hermione tried to reason, feeling like she was dealing with a dragon and she was a lamb for slaughter.

Severus turned back to Hermione. "No point?" Hermione felt shivers down her spine, though she sensed fear in his eyes. "That child would have been mine as well. I deserve to be one of the first people to know its fate."

Hermione closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him. "What's the real issue here?" She then gently placed a hand on his face, her thumb stroking a cheekbone. His gaze that he had managed to hold was broken as he looked away. "Severus, what's going on?"

They were interrupted when a house elf entered with a big trunk and began to gently pack Hermione's things into them. "Severus!? What's going on!?" she asked with surprise as the small creature continued its tasked.

She felt his big hand gently clasp hers and pull her hand away from his face. Still looking at the floor he said "Our marriage is false Hermione. Dumbledore orchestrated it from the start. Because it was based on deceit we can get out of this. He has decided that that is the best thing for everyone," he explained, and she saw a tear roll down his face.

A lie? She shook her head at this. Then her brain kicked into gear "Severus? Look at me," and he did, silent tears passing down his face, whilst the house elf continued its job. "Is this what you want?"

Severus considered her words for a few moments before gently cupping her face "I just want your happiness."

Hermione began to cry at that moment. She looked into his dark eyes before saying "Then don't let me go."