A/N 

I don't usually do this whole top of the chapter author's note thing, but you were all very impassioned about how much turmoil Hermione was going through over Severus and this new world. Well, let me tell you a thing: this update shall ease all of your troubled minds.

I promise. Happy Reading!!

-

"Hermione?"

Still sitting in the room where Severus had given her a proper tongue lashing, Hermione watched as a guilty-looking Sagitta came from around the corner with a small, glass globe before her.

Looking at the artifact glowing in the beautiful girl's hands, Hermione couldn't bring herself to be mad, or upset at all for the young witch listening in... Her father probably would have complained to her anyways.

"I was testing it out," Sagitta smiled carefully, "I didn't expect to hear--"

"Your father berate me like an insolent child, I didn't either," Hermione said as she leaned back against the sofa in sheer exhaustion.

"That," the younger witch replied as she sat precariously on the edge of the couch.

Not entirely sure what was possessing her to be so honest with her husband's daughter, Hermione started to near-whisper the things going on in her mind.

"I've been struggling with knowing who your father is and wanting to be with him, Sagitta. I know I can't: it's not who we are. We can't just change the way we feel about one-another simply for there being this new feeling between us. Besides, it would only hurt us if I did convince Draco to change his laws. He needs to change them, it's not fair."

"Especially if after a while it will make no difference when all wizards and witches are half-bloods or less," the girl said tentatively, twirling the orb in her hands delicately.

"Exactly."

"You know," the girl said with a bit of fear in her tone, pushing back her black hair with a worried smile, "You should just go for it, if you're in such a dilemma about it. Fancying your husband isn't against the law."

The gentle suggestion from the girl made her think of what she'd told Draco and Harry the hours prior as Hermione Snape, but as Hermione Granger, she'd only been there for three days. Attraction or not, she still saw Snape who'd just died in a war.

"I can't," Hermione assured the girl truthfully, "Besides, I don't think your father would even let me at this point."

"Why not?" Sagitta asked. "He gave you the night to think on it."

Scoffing, the elder witch stood and offered her hand to the young girl.

"Thanks," she said, "But you didn't answer my question," she added, craning her head a bit with her entrancing, black eyes in hopes to persuade Hermione into telling.

"Sagitta, don't expect much, alright?"

Gulping in an obvious disappointement, the girl turned to leave, stopping at the threshold of the sitting room for a moment, however.

"I still don't like you all that much, got it?"

Laughing, the brunette just nodded and told the girl goodnight, heading up towards the guestroom.

-

Deep into the night, Hermione found herself peering over the shoulder of one Harry Potter as her dreams took her back to her past, the visions of where she belonged finally back to her weary and sleepy mind. Though, she saw not herself, only Harry as he poured the memory Snap had given him into the pensieve in the man's office.

As they flooded into the old thoughts of the traitor, Hermione wondered why Harry had trusted him enough to even watch it instead of tossing the vial into the black lake and forgetting it existed. Maybe it had something to do with the whisper he'd spoken to him.

The fuzziness only increased as memories started to play before her and Harry, though Harry was truly the only wizard supposed to see what Severus Snape, betrayer of Albus Dumbledore, knew.

First, they played through memories of Snape with a surprising friend, Lily Evans, where the two seemed inseparable even past the hurtful things that were said around them. Lily defended Severus Snape until a few years later when he began to make many large mistakes, following dark magic, and dark people. Then there was something that confused Hermione, it was after Snape had taken the dark mark... she knew it was, and yet he was grovelling at Dumbledore's feet. He had fallen in love with Lily... and he'd lost her.

Further, she saw the way Dumbledore took Snape under him, telling him things to feed to Voldemort, how to shield his mind and how to be the virtually perfect spy... a spy for Albus, not Voldemort.

Hermione was all the more confused as she watched Severus feed the headmaster a potion, telling him he'd have a year to live, at best. It must have been her sixth year, the things he was saying and the sudden truth about who Harry was... or what he was. Hermione had figured it out, yes, but to what extent of Harry being an actual Horcrux... it horrified her even though he was fine here.

Then he was defending Harry. Snape, in his odd and awfully twisted ways, showed how he cared for the boy and his friends who practically made up the love of his life, torturing him and yet giving him quite a few reasons to keep living. 

The worst part of it all, Hermione assumed, was seeing how Dumbledore had practically begged for Severus to kill him, how he'd asked for Snape to be the one as a favor.

Before his death at Nagini's teeth, Severus had been trying to get to Harry to tell him what he needed to know, it wasn't a sacrifice like she'd always thought. He had been trying to send Dumbledore's final message to the boy and reveal his true loyalties. He had tried.

Wanting to cry, though her heavy state of sleep denied such a thing, Hermione was forced to watch as the memories finished off and Harry ripped himself from the pensieve. Following him from a far-off look, Hermione saw as he ran into herself and Ron, holding hands and looking at him curiously. Then, as self-sacrificing as he always seemed, Harry proclaimed that he was to give himself up to Voldemort, so the snake and the evil wizard himself would be it. That would end it all, and while Hermoine watched herself cry in their embrace, she also wistfully watched Ron comfort her.

Her feelings were jumbled as everything went black and she awoke from her sleep, wanting to feel Ron's arms, yet also wanting to find comfort from the husband she already had.

Though, there were far more pressing things on her mind just then, for example, Snape had been on their side? The whole bloody time, and... she hadn't figured it out?!

Hermione was baffled to say the very least, though she never expected to have to come to terms with knowing such a thing. Dumbledore had been rather manipulative, but the brunette witch knew that already. Hearing that the man who she had been avoiding the whole past few days and through the whole of her schooling career was actually a spy for the Order made her queasy. It also made her question everything because now what would she use as an excuse to stay away from him in this time?

There was no longer one that would be viable any longer, and somewhere inside of her relief passed over. There was a decision to be made now, a real decision based on the feelings that had gone through her veins the past few days, and Hermione needed to make a choice.

Though, her thoughts were quite unsure as she recalled all the wizards who nearly hated her for breaking their hearts. Thinking past them, Hermione realized that she very much could decide to simply take Severus on his offer. She could have him, and for some reason the idea didn't sound awful.

The prospect made Hermione rather energized and ready to get up that morning. Getting ready couldn't have happened any quicker, she felt. It was torture to wait in the dining room for him to get up, for Severus to walk down so she could define her suddenly made decision to him.

Hermione thought of Harry momentarily, how the one she'd known her whole life was sacrificing himself and maybe right now wasn't the time to be joyful, but that wasn't where she lived. It wasn't who she even was any longer.

Hermione gulped down a swallow of tea as she heard footsteps come down the stairs, Severus' dark image coming to her sore eyes.

Standing, Hermione watched as the man looked at her in a startled way.

"Good morning," he muttered curiously, looking a bit gruff compared to the past few days.

"You gave me the night," Hermione said in a bit of a question, coming up to him and looking for his agreement.

"Yes, and what is your point, witch?" He drawled, looking completely unamused at her rather peppy attitude.

Figuring there was no better way to show her decision, Hermione leaned up and pressed her lips to his.

However cliche she felt just then, the warmth and the sparking feeling couldn't have helped at all. Hermione relished in the beautiful and utterly classic notion of the kiss her and her husband were sharing. Merlin, it was entrancing, and they could have stayed there forever if they didn't need air.

Severus pulled back first, however, shock flowing through black eyes though his face remained mostly stoic.

"You decided... that," he spoke unceremoniously, surprised to say little.

Hermione had expected this incredulity from the potion's master, however, and as he took her hands, she nodded.

"I thought through my reservations and saw their wrongs," Hermione said, admitting to half-truths, though truths nonetheless.

"I'm glad for it," he said, leaking in himself to initiate a kiss. The feelings returned, and through their touch Snape was encouraged to fall further into Hermione, their warmth intermingling and their lips partaking gratefully in the wonderful bliss.

"Oh, Circe, what did I walk into?" A nearly horrified Sagitta said as both of the elder wizards fell apart from one-another.

"Sagitta?" Hermione gasped, covering her mouth as if to hide what she'd said.

Severus merely smirked, greeting his daughter in a good morning.

"Yeah, it would be good if I didn't have to go hex my eyes from their sockets," she moaned, sitting down at the table with a textbook being pulled against her chest, black eyes like her father's wide from the experience she was just put through. "I take it you decided then, Hermione?" She seemed able to ask, however, ever the Ravenclaw.

"Yes."

"That's all I need to know, though I most likely could have deducted that myself. Now, dad, where's breakfast?"

Closing his eyes to gain some type of composure, Hermione took this time to admire him now, the strong and vivid man of black he was.

"On its way," he said sickeningly sweet, "As long as you'll help, otherwise it's nothing until lunch."

The girl sighed, but she did not disobey Severus Snape as she followed him into the kitchen.

Hermione sat in anticipation for the meal, happy to see that in only a few days things had already changed for the better. Her and Severus would certainly be able to get along much better now, her reservations of the wizard gone, and her relationship with his daughter was slowly coming. That was proabably better than any effort on the other Hermione's part, however, and Granger couldn't have been more proud of herself.

Realizing the need to be separate from the other world that had come before this one, Hermione decided that she wouldn't necessarily judge others from their first looks. It had gotten her nowhere for Severus, and now she knew better.

Their meal came soon enough, and with a smile on all their faces, the family was able to enjoy their first unified breakfast together. It was strange at first, but of course as things moved along and Severus buffeted between a still slightly hostile Hermione and Sagitta, things just went on in a wonderful bliss.

When the meal ended, however, Hermione was reminded of the promise she had made that day, and with a heavy heart she also recalled that it meant acknowledging the death of a great wizard. Hermione would visit Molly, and all the same mourn Arthur Weasley in the tragic loss which was not suffered in her past life.

Maybe some things were better there than they were here, war or not.

A/N

Aaaaaaaaand, here is where I leave you. Feel better? 

Thank ALL of you for the wonderful comments you have been leaving, I hope that my frequent updates will continue, just... wait till next week for the next one, because I started reading a new book, and well, you know how it is!!

Lots of love, 

alover_forSnape