To Love And Let Go
This was originally written for fellow Severus Snape lovers Torina Archelda, Anne Scriblerian and Torino10154's birthday in 2010.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Severus Snape and all associated characters from the Harry Potter universe are the property of J.K. Rowling. The author is making no profit by this story.
2010
"Your daughter has beaten up another child!" seethed Harry.
"Our daughter, Potter!" Severus gave back cooly, tipping his wand against a cauldron until it began to glow and bubble. "I am sure she merely acted in self defence."
"I saw what happened. Hugo offered her a plastic shovel so she could play with him in the sand box. And she took it and smacked him over the head with it!" said Harry exasperated.
"Maybe she thought he was threatening her? One can never know with these Weasleys. They all have a violent streak."
Severus began to check the row of neatly arranged vials against the light, shaking them to judge their viscosity.
"She was laughing! To me she didn't look threatened at all!"
Severus didn't say, "Good girl!" but he might as well have said it, because Harry's eyes narrowed briefly. "It seems to me not much more was injured than maybe that young man's pride!" he said instead.
Before Harry could stalk out again like an offended cat, Severus snatched his wrist and pressed a kiss onto his hand. Harry rolled his eyes, but couldn't hide his smile.
2014
"Your child," said Severus, his lips pressed into a furious thin line of disapproval, "has again sneaked into my potions lab!"
"Our child, Severus," Harry's voice was a bit muffled by the newspaper he was hiding behind. "It's quite a sign of intelligence if she managed to get past your wards."
"Do you think it's also a sign of intelligence that she broke two vials of the most expensive potions and ruined my batch of asphodel?"
To that Harry tactfully said nothing.
"Next time this happens I'll deduct the damage from her pocket money." Severus said, his voice low and dangerous.
"Lily is only seven. She doesn't even get pocket money yet!"
"It's high time then that she begins receiving it!" fumed Severus, irritated by Harry's nonchalance.
"You want me to give her pocket money, so you can charge her? Can't you just charge me directly?" Harry said from behind the newspaper.
Logic was a weapon Severus was quite well versed in aiming at other people but nothing enraged him more than when others employed the same weapon against him. Furiously Severus gathered his robes and prepared to exit in his usual billowing manner, when Harry dropped his newspaper.
"Your neck troubles you again," he said in that soothing tone. "Come here, I'll give you a massage!"
2018
"That's my Lily!" Harry said with satisfaction. "Sorted into Gryffindor!" He smiled proudly at Lily's letter and then at the owl who shrugged indifferently.
Severus wanted to throw something.
"Obviously," he managed to say, stirring his cauldron with short, snappy movements. Harry looked at Severus, worried. "Please don't be mad at her! It's not her fault."
Severus stopped stirring. "Didn't you tell her that the Sorting Hat listened to you and took your wish into consideration?"
Harry blushed. "I may have mentioned ... that ... once. Or twice."
Severus frowned and bent over his work table. "All your talk about Gryffindor ... you talked her into Gryffindor!"
Harry protested: "That's not fair! She is just very ... uhm, impulsive!"
After a while Severus murmured, "They won't know what hit them! She'll be the most Slytherinesque Gryffindor they've ever seen!
Harry smiled fondly. "Slytherinesque? Is this even a word?"
"It will be," Severus said.
"2020
"Your daughter sold flu potions to the first years!"
Severus merely smirked and turned a page.
"Our daughter inherited her considerable talent in potions from me. Why shouldn't she help Madame Pomfrey a little? I did the same in her age. And there is a flu epidemic in Hogwarts this winter!"
When Harry remained eerily silent to that he finally looked up from his book.
"There is–or there was–a flu epidemic at Hogwarts," Harry told him in a low, soft tone, that Severus had learned to pay attention to, "because Lily made and sold potions that were able to fake flu symptoms. They were in fact so well made that even Madame Pomfrey couldn't tell the difference with a basic diagnostic charm."
Severus nodded solemnly to that, mainly because he could see in Harry's outraged face that this was expected of him.
Inside though he was cheering.
2023
"Your daughter!" roared Severus. "Your daughter crashed her broom into my potions lab! Through the window!"
"Our daughter!" Harry corrected Severus and put his quill down.
"Is she hurt?"
"I don't think so!" Severus snarled. "She left through the other window!"
As if on cue a broom, a blur of wild, messy black hair whizzed past the open window of Harry's study. "Dad! Dad! Look here! I caught the snitch! I caught the snitch!"
Harry hurried to the window and called after her: "Great job!" He whooped, then turned around to Severus who directed his most murderous glare at him.
"Ah, and Lily!" Harry leant out of the window again. "Shame on you for damaging Pa's potion lab ... again!
2024
"My child graduated with an Outstanding on nearly all subjects!" Severus announced, snatching the parchment with the Hogwarts seal from the owl. Harry rolled his eyes and tried to pry the parchment out of Severus' fingers.
"General Behaviour: Acceptable," he sighed, ignoring Severus sneer. "At least it's not a Poor as Minerva threatened."
"She got her brain from me and the behaviour from you," Severus said. "What did you expect?"
He caressed the parchment with Lily's grades with his thin, bony fingers. After a while Harry leaned over and took Severus' face into his hands.
"Our daughter." he said. "Isn't she marvellous?"
Severus had to agree.
2028
"My daughter: Quidditch champion of the year!" Harry held up a copy of the Daily Prophet and waved it wildly in the air.
Severus merely snorted. "One of the best to ever graduate from Hogwarts–to become a professional Quidditch player!! What a waste of talent!"
He stabbed the Daily Prophet angrily with his fork, where their Lily stood on her broom, holding out the snitch in a brazen gesture of triumph. The miniature Lily frowned at the mark that the fork made on the headline but smiled again when Severus murmured: "Sorry," and hastily smoothed the front page again.
"She can still study potions later! Let her enjoy it!" Harry said evenly. Severus grumbled into his pasta.
"Quidditch champion of the year, two years in succession!" Harry whispered in a conspiratorial tone. "Come on, Sev ... don't tell me you're not even a little proud of our girl!"
Severus snorted.
Lily's picture, all black hair whipping around her face and eyes the colour of the forest, waved at him and showed him the snitch and he couldn't help but saying: "Well done, daughter!"
2030
"Our baby!" sniffed Harry. Severus with a stern, grim face sat beside him, holding his hand. "Gone!"
Severus didn't reply but kept Harry's hand in a firm grip. He continued to stare ahead. So many flowers. So many people. On the saddest day of their lives. Somewhere between the guests he had seen Ginevra and Draco Malfoy, and their sons, and Hermione Weasley clutching a handkerchief.
He breathed in deeply.
"What are you moping around, you two?" said Lily from behind and laid an arm on Severus shoulder. "You'll be chasing away all the guests if you continue behaving as if you're on a funeral!"
"One day when you have a child that grows up to leave you, you'll understand!" he said stiffly.
"Is this why Dad is crying?" Lily asked, squeezing Harry's shoulder. "Because I'm marrying? Don't be melodramatic!"
"I am not crying!" Harry said indignantly. "Your Pa is right, one day you'll have children too ..."
Lily laughed and kissed both of them. "There comes Hugo, be nice to him! Do not scare him, Pa!"
Severus opened her mouth to retort something but shut it again, when Hugo stood beside her and slipped his arm around her waist.
"Hi Dad! Hi Pa!" he greeted them and Severus' mien darkened.
"That's still Mr. Snape to you, you–"
"Pa!" Lily glared at him.
"Best luck to you," Severus mumbled insincerely, his hands clenched to fists. He drew his eyebrows together, trying to think of something kind to say and in the end settled for: "A word of advice–"
"Thank you, Pa!" Lily said firmly. "That was very inspiring!"
"But he didn't say anything yet!" Hugo said.
"Don't wake the sleeping dragon!" Lily rolled her eyes.
"Modern marriages are said to last no longer than two years," Severus said smoothly, turning towards Hugo, whose face turned ashen underneath his forced smile.
Lily shook her head in disbelief. "Pa. Not on my wedding day, all right?"
"You should know that you always have an option!" Severus continued. "You are always welcome to return to your home ... should the marriage not work out!"
Harry embraced both Hugo and Lily. "Don't mind Mr. Grump here. It's just his way of saying: 'I love you and wish you all the best for your future!'" he whispered to them.
Hugo nodded thoughtfully. "Makes me wonder what he does, if he really doesn't like someone! Does he just snap their necks?" He looked after Severus who was walking away with his robes billowing around him. Harry and Lily laughed out loud, but sobered up quickly as soon as they realised that Hugo didn't laugh with them.
"We have to talk to the other guests, Dad! I'll see you later, yes?" Lily dragged Hugo with her.
"I knew I would find you here!" Harry said and put his hand on Severus hunched back.
He continued to pull out the weeds by hand, banishing the dust on the tomb stone. Wordlessly Harry bent to help Severus. When Lily's grave was cleaned up Severus did the same with James Potters grave, and again Harry helped him.
"It's nice that you take care of my father's grave as well," Harry said finally, when their work was done. They sat on the bench opposite the graves.
"He was the man Lily loved," said Severus gravely. "And ... he is your father."
Harry smiled and pulled Severus closer to him.
After a while Harry asked: "Could you not at least attempt to be civil to Hugo? He is your son-in-law now."
Severus looked down on his hands. "It seems like yesterday to me that our Lily beat him up with a plastic shovel ... and now he is taking her away from us."
Harry laughed at that. "Well, I still remember that little girl who flew straight through your window to catch that snitch ... and suddenly she's a Quidditch champion, flying tournaments."
He took Severus' hand. "You know she will always be our girl. No matter what."
Severus merely looked away. Harry lifted Severus hand and kissed the knuckles. "It's not him taking her away–it's the other way round! She's got the job offer as a curse breaker in Istanbul, Hugo is merely following her. Don't blame him for her independence."
"You know what I mean." Severus glowered at Harry. Then he said: "She wasn't supposed to grow up. She was meant to always be our girl."
"I know," Harry said.
He put his head on Severus' shoulder. "But hey, you wouldn't want her to be saddled with her two old Dads, hm? You want her to be happy, to go out into the world and make her luck."
Severus barely lifted one shoulder and then dropped it again, his version of a shrug. "I suppose you're right."
Harry got up and pulled Severus to his feet. "Come on ... let's get back! I want you to clap Hugo on his shoulder and get drunk with him!"
Severus grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Over my dead body ..." but followed him. They walked until they reached the gates of the cemetery and then Harry held out his arm, which Severus took, his robes fluttering in the soft breeze. For a moment they stood still, looking at each other.
Before they Disapparated Harry laid his hand on Severus cheek and whispered into his ear.
Severus smiled.
-fin-