A/N: Take heart we're almost finished. Please enjoy, I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Kind Regards, R

Aurora smiled softly as she climbed onto the large antique couch. Her deep chocolate eyes shining with mischief as she crawled her way closer to the man seemingly unaware of her presence. The tiny toddler took great care, using her tiny frame to disturb as little as possible before pouncing with a soft squeak onto the book in her victim's lap.

The man under attack retaliated with claws of his own, eliciting a joyous near silent giggle. Aurora squirmed in their hold before she was pulled right way up in his lap. When she was able to catch her breath she raised her hands to lightly trace over her father's features before turning her brightly shining eyes into his own.

As she settled back, she couldn't help but notice the deep sadness crossing over her Father's features. A dark, almost haunted look, making her little heart flutter with worry that wasn't entirely her own. Her Father had called her once an empathetic legilimens but she was much too young to understand either of those words. All she knew is that when Papa was sad, she was sad.

'Sad, Papa. Why?'

The man she lovingly called Father gave her a whispering smile that did not reach his eyes. Instead, his long fingers brushed back the mass of deep chestnut curls from her face, taking her cherub-like cheek into his large palm. She gave him another smile when his thumb brushed over her lashes, closing her lightly freckled eyes. They were an odd mixture of bright golden brown and deep near black, a cosmos all their own.

'You look so much like your mother.'

Aurora smiled to the compliment, feeling the love in her father's heart. He never spoke to her, not with his mouth but to her, it was all the same as she didn't know anything different, 'Am, pretty? Mama pretty.'

'No, beautiful.' Her father leaned forward placing a gentle kiss to her tiny scrunched brow before accepting her into his arms to rest against his chest. He never denied her affection.

'Mama, see? See, today?'

'Yes.'

oO 15 Months Prior Oo

"I need you to hold her hand, talk to her. Keep her as calm as you can."

"Why must she be awake at all? Surely the amount of pain she's in will stress the baby?" Minerva didn't need to be a mind reader to interpret Severus' glare. His voice was still weak even though it had been repaired months prior, though he never really was the loquacious sort.

"We need to flush out the eternal sleep in order to make sure we can perform any needed medical treatment on the infant. While our protections seemed to have held, we won't know for sure until they are here with us. It's truly a wonder either of them has survived this far at all." The healer in charge, an elderly man, understood both of the educators before him but he had taken an oath to save lives and sometimes difficult decisions needed to be made, "We've had put off all other necessary treatments thus far in fear for the child. On your wishes no less but the longer we wait the chance of Miss Granger's full recovery goes down. We have to do this today."

Severus turned his head away from the man, his throat ached with the emotion he forced down it. Would her torture ever end? He had thought he had been trying to help her but now all it seemed was that he was bringing her more pain. That all he'd done was take her from one hell to another. How had his good intentions gone so wrong? Was there any good that he could possibly bring into the world? Why not him? Why couldn't it have been him?

"Severus?" Minerva's hand lightly rested over his arm, fearing that she had lost him to the hopelessness of the situation, "Hermione is right here, waiting for you. It's you she wants at this moment, I know you're strong enough to do this and I know deep down you know she is as well. Neither one of us could have foreseen this but that doesn't mean we stop trying." She paused long enough to catch the flicker of determination in his eye, "You have fought so hard, don't let a moment of doubt take it all away from you."

Severus took a slow breath. Despite everything telling him that she was wrong he needed desperately to cling to hope. Why else had Lily left him here? Why else had she told him how proud she was to have known him? If not for the choices he made when there was only darkness at the end of every path?

A cautious turn brought him into her room. A team of medi-witches and healers all at the ready. The room was only slightly warmer than before but no less sterile, the only addition now was an oh-so-small incubation crib on the back wall with two nurses standing to each of its sides.

It was still a month early for the baby to have come full term and they seemed to have prepared for its oncoming needs. Still, Severus had his doubts. They had tried to monitor the baby throughout but it had been a difficult road. All they presently knew was that there was a heartbeat, a slow heartbeat.

Severus took the chair beside the bed, positioned higher up by her shoulders. A curtain had been placed just under her ribs preventing him from watching the healers work. Not that he wanted to, he'd seen well enough of her blood already, he didn't need to know what her organs looked like.

A strap had been placed tightly over her chest, in the event, her waking caused a panic. It hadn't been the first time they had tried to bring her around and it was clear they'd learned. They had left her uninjured hand free but had strapped down her other at the wrist. The mere sight of her so restrained made his stomach churn.

He hadn't been there when the healers had tried to talk with her. All he had heard were her screams of fear and confusion. By the time he'd made it across the hall, they had already put her back into a coma. He had nearly taken their lives that day with his bare hands and probably would have succeeded if a healer hadn't caught him from behind. Though he did relish in the overheard tongue lashing Minerva had given them. Garnering some of his respect for the elder witch.

"We will move as quickly as possible, everyone at the ready. Ama, start the clock."

Severus took a deep breath while taking her good hand into his, pressing the backs of her knuckles against his lips. His eyes tracked the cleansing potion running down the IV directly into her heart. At first, nothing happened, though the doctors were already moving behind the curtain; Severus wondered if she had finally succumbed to potion poisoning. It was about his tenth slow breath when a small twitch steadied his heart.

Hermione could feel the dark void that had become her home beginning to shift. Small pricks and tingles along her limbs registering in some far off place in her conscious. Fear thumped into her heart at the complete lack of sensory input. Like she'd tumbled headfirst back to the forest.

Her desperate need to escape felt distorted and out of sorts. Her limbs felt as though she were trapped in a dream, the one where you found yourself desperately punching a foe only to have the inexplicable sensation that you're merely pushing through muddy water.

Just as she was sure her heart was about to explode from her chest the faintest of sensations trembled up her arm. As though someone had squeezed her hand. It had felt faint, a mere pressure but it was something to hold onto.

"Shh... that's it. I'm here, I'm here..." Severus had moved closer now, the bridge of his nose resting against her temple while his ragged whisper pressed into her ear. He didn't know if she could hear him or not but it wasn't going to stop him from trying to bring her comfort.

"Se...versus?" Hermione's voice cracked and popped, her tone more of alarm than a question.

A low rumbled answered her slurred plea. Not really words exactly but surely speech of some kind. The bandage over her ear prevented the feeling of his breath from entering but the small squeeze to her hand that had accompanied the heat over her ear assured her wary soul that she wasn't alone.

Severus pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of her lips garnering him another whispered inquiry. The hand that he held to his heart slowly opened and closed before digging desperately into the fabric of his shirt. The fog of sleep was quickly leaving her system. Reawakening nerves that had been cut off.

"Hermione...shh.. breathe, just breathe..." A small glance over the edge of the bed sent a glare towards the tartan woman who watched on helplessly.

"I... I can't..." Her body felt so oddly heavy. Like something or someone was sitting on her chest. The pain over her eyes made her wish to rip them straight from her skull but the hand that held hers was not letting go and the other felt as though it were sitting inside a pot of boiling water, "Why...why?"

Severus shook his head from her hiccuped sob. How could he explain to her all that had happened? How much time had passed, "Your...your baby... it's time..."

Hermione's mind reeled back. Her entire internal clock was completely off sync, factually it felt as though it had simply stopped. The entire idea that she had gone from spitting in the face of death to giving birth to a child was merely impossible to comprehend.

"Baby...?"

"Yes..." Severus grimaced at the wave of emotions that crossed her face between the pain.

"Yours?"

Severus didn't know, they'd never tested the child. It was something they had planned to do if the babe made it, though there was no way of telling her that. Instead, he squeezed her hand harder, "Ours..."

Hermione smiled briefly through everything that pressed down around her, "I...I can't feel..."

"Your spine was damaged..." Why had they waited until now to inform her of her condition?

"Will I...?"

"Yes. In time." His lips pressed to the back of her white knuckles, a solemn promise.

"You...your a... great li-iar..." Hermione smiled despite herself and turned her head towards where she believed him to be. Her effort was rewarded with a soft kiss to the ridge of her chin and a slow stroke of his thumb.

"Almost there!"

Severus glanced down her prone form but didn't move from her side. Her hand was shaking now, "Stay with me... you're doing great..."

"Severus...? Please...?" Her head shifted marginally the pain of merely existing was already beginning to take its toll, "Are they here...?"

"Not yet. Almost." A tension was starting to grow between them with her weakening voice.

"I don't...I don't think...I can... much longer..." Hermione did her best to hold onto him, her lifeline.

"Just a little more, they're almost here... Don't you want to hold them? Name them?"

"We've got a girl!"

Severus lifted his head then, shouldn't the babe had been crying? Didn't babies cry when they were born? Why wasn't she crying? His body shifted just enough to see the healer holding the tiny child in the palm of his hand. So small, so fragile. Their skin was an odd blueish hue, their impossibly small arms and legs lax as a ragdoll's.

"Sever...us?"

"It's a girl, a daughter..." Severus turned his head forcibly away. The doctor had begun to shake the child gingerly with tips of his fingers against her ribcage.

Hermione's lips twitched into a one-sided smile, "Is she beautiful?"

"Impossibly so..." His hold grew tighter as hers began to slip, "A name...she needs a name..."

"Aurora..." Hermione could feel the world beginning to float. The pain of life slipping away into the darkness. It was like falling down a well, leaving her stomach flipping over itself.

"Aurora?"

Severus leaned closer, her fingers were no longer holding his, merely trembling in his tight grip, "Squeeze my hand...come on..."

Hermione tried to do as he'd asked but her fingers no longer felt attached to her person. His warmth was all she could feel now. His mere presence beside her.

"I'm tired..."

"Just a bit more..." Severus turned away again, he had to know her child lived. That all this torment actually meant something, "Don't you want to hold her?" Severus was trying to think of any way to keep her with him just a bit longer.

"So... tired..."

A soft cough and weak whimpering cry broke through the low murmur that had filled the room. A collective sigh ringing out from the small team that worked on bringing a new life into the world.

Severus could feel his heart somewhere near his feet at the mere sound of it, "Did you hear? Can you hear her?" It was highly improbable that she could, it was clear she could only hear about every third word from him, and he was so close.

"Hermione?" Severus turned his head towards a movement in the corner of his eye, "No! Not yet!"

The healer next to the IV jolted from the sudden outburst. It wasn't so much the volume, as it was barely that over a normal volume, rather it was the rage in his eyes.

"Severus!" Minerva moved forward gathering his attention.

A soft cry halted any violence that was surely about to come about. Their heads turned near simultaneously as the doctor came around the end of the bed. The small bundle in his arms whimpered and whined, her skin now a beautiful healthy pink. Her lips suckling the air instinctually looking for her mother.

Severus' chest heaved as tears filled his eyes, his hand trembled against Hermione's lax grip. Despite himself, he turned down towards the bed. Hermione was gone. Her head turned towards him, a lone murky red tear staining her cheek.

Severus had never felt more afraid in his life as he did when the doctor came closer. His eyes took in everything about her in seconds and there was no question in his mind that she was his. He raised Hermione's hand with his own as the doctor lowered her down. The innocent cherub immediately took hold of her mother's finger while her Father's lightly caressed her cheek.

oO Present Day Oo

"Oh my, how you've grown."

It had taken Severus nearly a year to get used to all the attention he received when—on the rare occasion— he ventured out in public with Aurora on his arm. The beautiful child just seemed to attract every woman in a five-mile radius.

He had come to know the medi-witches at the hospital on a first name basis. Especially more so after Aurora had been born. The child had been under constant care after her birth. While her premature status had initially raised concerns, her slow development had them returning on a weekly basis just to ensure that her health remained stable. He hadn't even been able to take her home until she'd been nearly three months old. In that time she'd successfully wrapped every medi-witches' heart around her tiny fingers.

"How has she been eating? Good, I trust?" The witch gave the budding toddler a bright smile that was equally returned.

Severus nodded, simply wanting to pass on through. He had hoped they would have been able to sneak past the medi-station but as always luck was never on his side.

"I bet you're here for Mummy, aren't you? Are you excited? I bet you are." The witch gave Aurora's outstretched hand a little shake with her finger before turning to look up into the less than amused face of her father, "She's just down the hall, third door on the left can't miss it."

Severus nodded his thanks, turning slowly so that the medi-witch would release his child. He resisted the urge to roll this eyes as the woman blew kisses and continued to coo at his back. Aurora simply lavished in the attention as any healthy babe would, waving her hand around his arm as they made their way down the hall.

'Here, Papa?'

'Yes, we're here.'

Aurora smiled brightly leaning back in her father's hold. She was barely bigger than the length of his forearm and as such always had a most comfortable place along his bicep and chest leaving her legs free to dangle. She very much enjoyed being up high.

'Is dark. Why dark?'

'She must be resting.' Severus took care when coming into the room, not bothering with the lights, he allowed the light from the hallway to mark his path before he closed the door. His eyes adjusted quickly, bringing him to sit in the chair beside the bed. A small bit of light from the window gave him plenty to see.

'Gently, careful.' Severus placed the tot onto the bed beside her mother's hand. To which Aurora took it in her own bringing it up towards her face to lean her cheek into the palm.

'Hi, Mama.' Aurora nuzzled her face into her hand smiling brightly when her mother took a deep breath indicative of waking. Her smile grew when the hand she held began to hold her back.

"Mmm..." Hermione turned her head slowly towards her daughter, a smile growing on her sleepy face when the innocent girl placed light yet sloppy kisses on her palm, "Hey, Boo Bear."

Hermione allowed her sense of touch to enjoy the smile on her daughter's face. Since Aurora's birth, her health had been steadily increasing. The healers had wasted little time in bringing her back to near full strength. So much so that she had been able to go home with Severus–much to Harry's protest—only a month after Aurora had been released into his care.

Walking was still painful at times but she was finally able to get around without the aid of crutches or braces. The burns on her hand had all but disappeared leaving behind only a small line where the skin had been restored. Her shoulder had been pieced back together to perfect function and the tear in her lungs was completely sealed. Her hearing had returned on its own once they no longer had to keep her sedated. Allowing the rest of her treatments to be taken in small visits. Today was the day they were finally going to restore her sight. Today, she'd finally be able to see her daughter's face.

She had never really given any thought to having children. Certainly not at 20 but when she felt her daughter in her arms for the first time how could she ever have considered her a mistake? Severus had apologized profusely for ruining her future but never for the life of their child.

Despite not ever wanting to be a father himself he promised that he would take responsibility for Aurora's care. That she wasn't tied to him, that she was free to seek out her worldly happiness no matter where it may lead her. His words, his resolve that day had eliminated any doubt Hermione held over their relationship.

The first time she'd ever held her had been more terrifying than making a last stand against Voldemort. Her entire body had trembled still not believing that she had created the life in her hands. It had taken long talks with her mentor to even see the baby. Even longer for her to try and care for her needs.

Her fear that her scars would frighten the child, her confusion on how it even happened, reliving the memory of when it surely had. So many things a brain set to heal shouldn't have been dealing with. It had taken time but with her family of friends, she had managed to come to terms with everything that had happened. Nowadays it was rather a game of keeping Aurora out of the hands of her friends.

Harry had claimed more than once that if he would surely squirrel off with her in the middle of the night if he could get away with it. Molly had all but done the same when she'd come to offer her home to Hermione for as long as she needed. Ron remained wary but smartly kept his comments about the father outside of her earshot but was clearly smitten. Minerva had ensured that everything the child could possibly need was taken care of; from furniture to nappies Aurora wanted for nothing.

Hermione sat up carefully, mindful of the child now climbing into her lap. Her touch was cautious as always. The band of gauze around her eyes prevented any light from coming through but even still the darkness didn't seem as deep.

"How do you feel?" Severus took her offered hand but didn't stop himself from pushing her hair behind her shoulder, so long had he waited for this moment it was almost like the first time all over again.

"Better, no pain. Harry and Ron did come by though gave me a small headache." Hermione smiled as she lovingly raked her nails through Aurora's hair. Her relationship with Harry and Ron had been on the mend. After a few rounds of emotional crying, storytelling and omitted information and lecturing things seemed to have calmed back into a somewhat easy relationship for all of them.

"Now you understand my avoidance." His deadpan tone was lightened by the grin on Hermione's lips.

"Noted."

A small knock on the door halted any further conversation. The lights came on and Severus came to his feet as the head healer came into the room, they had said it would be difficult but his heart still hoped.

"Miss Granger, how are you feeling? Any pain, nausea or vertigo?" The man approached with a smile towards Aurora who gave him an odd look before nuzzling back into her mother's breast.

"I feel fine. No discomfort at all." Her hands came to rub at her daughter's back but she did lift her head towards his voice.

"Good, good. I'm going to dim the lights down low. Please tell me if anything feels off." The healer cast a few diagnostic spells before cutting the gauze away at her temples. With skilled patient hands he pulled the bandage away, a slow smile growing on his face by the results underneath, "You sure you don't want to make a career as a healer Professor Snape?"

Severus made a small face at the compliment, he was neither a professor nor healer. He had only been working with the head alchemist at the hospital for the term of Hermione's recovery and he had no desire to be out in the world any more than he had to be.

Hermione took a slow stuttering breath too nervous to open her eyes just yet. She could feel Aurora leaning up against her, her small wisps of breath brushing across her lips, "How does mama look?"

'Mama, pretty. Beautiful.' Aurora smiled brightly and as cautious curious children do, lightly brushed the tips of her fingers over her mother's eyelashes willing her to open them.

Severus took hold of the hand that had rested against Aurora. He would be a liar if he didn't say he wasn't amazed by the results. The only mark left behind was a soft nearly skin toned line to the sides of her eyes. The alchemist and he hadn't always seen eye to eye on things but their combined work had certainly done miracles.

Hermione took a slow breath, her lashes fluttering as she pulled them open. At first, everything appeared to be caught in the moon's shadow then, two beautifully dark brown eyes came into focus.

A tearful bubble of mirth broke through the back of Hermione's throat, "She has your nose...oh my sweet child..." Hermione's fingers ran over the gentle cheeks, the angled jaw—definitely her father's—, her petite but very roman nose. Her hair was definitely more like her own but she could see parts of it growing dark with her age, "You're more beautiful than I could have ever imagined..."