Chapter One; Father and Son

"Ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!" Teddy and Heather Snape chanted as their father carried them inside the ice cream shop.

"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" he chanted back before he set them back down on the ground and took ahold of each of them by their hand. "Now, what kind of ice cream do you want?" he asked them as they just started pointing at each of the different flavors and shouting over each other. That's when suddenly he placed two of his fingers in-between his teeth and whistled loudly causing them to grow silent and look up at him with their mouths gaped wide open.

"Inside voices." He reminded them. "Now calmly one at a time tell me what you want to get. Teddy you're the oldest so you start first." He told him.

"I want to get a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, rainbow sprinkles, and a cherry on top." Teddy said.

"Alright do you want any nuts?" his father questioned him but he just simply wrinkled his nose and made a sickish face while shaking his head. "Alright Heather what about you?" he asked her.

"I think I just want a chocolate ice cream cone." She told him.

"Alright, now are those your final answers?" he asked them as they nodded their heads simultaneously. "Good, now go ahead and find a seat and Daddy will buy your ice cream." He told them.

"But Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom." Heather told him while she started jiggling around.

"Me too!" Teddy exclaimed.

"Well you guys are six years old and almost seven. I think you can handle it for yourselves. The bathrooms are right around the corner. The ladies room is on the left and the men's room is on the right." He told them but Teddy quickly shook his head again.

"But I'm not a man, I'm a little boy." He said.

"Same thing. I just meant that it was for males. Now go ahead and meet me back here when you're finished." He told them as they quickly hurried around the corner when suddenly Mrs. Weasley entered the shop carrying Lottie by her hip. As soon as Lottie saw Snape standing there, she quickly turned her head and hid her face inside her grandmother's chest.

"It's alright Lottie, you know who Mr. Snape is." She told her while planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"Hullo Lottie." Snape began with a grin. "I thought that she was in a year round preschool." He said.

"Oh she is, but this just happens to be one of her vacation weeks so I figured that I would get her some ice cream. We just came back from the beach." She told him.

"Oh really, my son and his girlfriend just went there." He said.

"You must be talking about Harry then. So far he's your only child to have a girlfriend, but Tobey and Jessie are getting rather close to each other." She said.

"Tobey and Jessie are just friends. Tobey's still way too young to have a girlfriend. But yes I was referring to Harry. He took the day off work to spend some time with Ginny. Which I've got to admit I'm glad that he's taking a break. After all he's a very busy man with church, work, and now his music." He said.

"Well I've just got to say that even though he's not my son I'm really proud of him for all that he's accomplished. And for the way that he Ron and Hermione stepped up to help you raise your children." She said.

"I know so am I. It's been hard ever since Lily passed but I thank the Lord every night for them. They mean so much to me and they'll never have no idea how much I really appreciate it." He told her with a shake of his head. "Although I have to admit that the years just fly by so fast. I remember when Harry was Teddy's age. It just seems like yesterday to me but now he's all grown up." He said.

"Well, maybe you should schedule some father and son time with Harry." Mrs. Weasley suggested.

"I'd love to but I'm afraid that he's just too busy." He said.

"If he's not too busy to spend some time with Ginny, he certainly isn't too busy for you. After all you're his father and you deserve to spend some good quality time together." She told him as he grinned at her.

"You're right, as soon as we get back home I'll ask him." He told her as Teddy and Heather both came back from the bathroom and they waited for a few moments before their ice cream orders arrived and he carried them over to a table.

Harry opened up the front door and entered the house wearing nothing but his blue swimming trunks. Snape looked up at him and smiled as he carried his car keys over to the counter and set them down. "Hey son how was the beach?" he asked him.

"It was great but I think that we brought more of the beach with us. I have to clean my car out, it's full of sand." He told him. "First I've got to go grab a shower first." He told him as he started to turn towards the hallway.

"Uh hey Harry wait." His father began hurrying after him before he turned around to look at him.

"Yeah?" he inquired. "What's up?"

"Well I saw Mrs. Weasley today and she suggested something very interesting. You see we haven't spent much time together since your mother died and I was wondering if you wanted to pick a day where we could just hangout. You know just the two of us. Like we used to do when you were little." He said as Harry grinned.

"Sure." He replied with a nod.

"I was thinking that maybe we could play some wizard chess, go to the ballpark, and then hit the movies after dinner." He told him.

"Sounds great." He said.

"Are you sure? I mean you're not too old to be hanging out with your old man?" Snape inquired with a smirk.

"No, of course not. Maybe we can do it on Saturday. I can't take any more days off work but I don't have anything going on then." Harry said.

"Alright then Saturday it is." Snape told him with a grin while he watched him turn around and continue walking down the hallway. He couldn't remember looking forward to something and being this excited about it in quite a long time.