A Startling Wake Up
Severus Snape was lying in bed, in a deep, peaceful sleep. The sun had just risen and his wife Hermione lay curled beside him, also resting peacefully. The house was quiet and carefully warded as it always was.
As the couple slept, stealthy, padded footsteps sounded, slowly drawing nearer to their repose. The Potion master shifted, but didn't awaken as the door to their bedroom was carefully cracked open. A pair of brown eyes peeked through the small opening.
Yes, they were still asleep.
Slowly the door opened and two people entered the room, quietly creeping towards the bed. Snape shifted again, unaware of the two intruders.
"Now!" one yelled, charging the bed, followed by the other.
Snape jerked awake at the cry and was pounced on by his two assailants, Hermione letting out a short, startled shriek.
"Happy Father's Day, daddy!" seven-year-old Jocelyn Snape cried, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his big nose.
"Yeah, happy Father's Day dad," his eight-year-old son Horace said, lying on top of the covers between his mother and father with a broad smile, his brown eyes twinkling as Hermione laughed.
"You two! You could have waited for your father to get up!" Hermione said to her children. Horace grinned at her, pushing his long black hair out of his face.
"That wouldn't have been any fun, mum," he told his mother, looking back at Severus, who was kissing his daughter on the forehead.
"You could have been hexed, young lady. Your father is very dangerous when suddenly ambushed," he said to her warningly, trying to look stern.
"Oh daddy, you wouldn't have got me. You're too slow," Jocelyn replied, her dark eyes crinkled as he sat up, the young witch still hanging on to his neck, her bushy brown hair standing up all over her head. Hermione and Horace sat up too.
"Happy Father's Day, Severus," Hermione said to him, leaning past Horace to plant a light kiss on his lips.
Severus gave her a thin smile, then looked at his two smiling children and his loving wife.
His heart swelled.
Life had finally come full circle, and this time around, it was much, much better. He had love in abundance, something he once believed an impossibility. He stretched out his arm, drawing both Hermione and Horace into his embrace, Jocelyn still clinging to him.
"For me, every day is a happy day, Hermione" he replied softly, surrounded by his family. "and every day is Father's Day, children. Believe me when I say I wouldn't have it any other way."
A/N: And in a better, kinder and rewritten world, Severus Snape, neither would we.