A/N: A fluffy one-shot set in my The Serpents' Kiss fanfiction universe, many years later, around the time of the second to last epilogue of the original fic. Check out that story if you're curious. Hope you enjoy!

Amortentia

The potion simmered and steamed in the cauldron, the fumes a faint purple with the slight smell of garlic mixed with lavender only if you were close by. A subtle brew, nearly perfect. A few more stirs, precisely counter-clockwise with the wand held at an angle of 75.9 degrees, and then-

"DAD!"

The wand flew out from Severus's fingers and splashed the thick purple liquid all over the cauldron and his papers, while the remaining potion in the vessel gave a little 'puff', and then turned vomit-brown and began to smell of wet socks. He looked up and fixed the two adolescents running down the stairs to the basement with a steely glare.

"Dad!" Thomas was clearly oblivious to Severus's lack of amusement as he barreled down the stairs with an excited grin on his face and waving a parchment in the air. The spunky raven-haired girl followed at his heels. "Dara's here! And we both just got our lists for next year with the post! You've gotta show us how to make all the potions we're going to cover so we've got a head-start!"

"Do I?" he frowned and raised an eyebrow at the children. Not that this was unusual. He always helped to prepare his offspring, as well as his honorary nieces and nephews, each Hogwarts year with a bit of introduction to the potions and defensive spells they would be learning. It never hurt to give them a head-start over their peers, especially with infernal dunderheads such as Professor Eugene Wilkins teaching Potions at the school these days.

"Uncle Sev? Why is your desk all messy?" Adara, who would be entering her fourth year at Hogwarts this fall, asked quizzically.

"Oh, you noticed, did you?" He smirked a little but could not bring himself to scold the two in the way he would his ordinary Hogwarts students back when he had been a teacher there himself. The students then, especially those not in Slytherin but even those in his own house, would have cowered in their knee-socks to see that they had displeased him in any way, but he was soft on his own family. Relatively speaking. "I've been trying to craft a new brew to ease sore throats. The idea is to submit it to the upcoming Potions conference this fall for review, along with some of my other creations."

"Um, it's kind of smelly and gross-looking, isn't it?" Tom offered as he stared into the cauldron. "You might want to change those things a little if you want people to ingest it. After all, you always say that visual and olfactory appeal are just as important as function in medicinal brews, right?"

Severus's hands fell to his sides and he could not help rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling. This denseness was something they both got from their mothers. "Thank you for reminding me."

"Tair could probably help, you know. He likes doing medical potions. He says he's gonna be a healer."

"And is your brother here today?" Severus asked as he waved his wand to clean up the mess the two's arrival had prompted. Adara was the third-eldest child of his former-rival Sirius Black and Sirius's wife Lucy, while Tair, short for Altair, was the second-eldest. It was true that Altair did have a knack for potions-brewing. Perhaps this monstrosity would serve as a good lesson for the other boy in trying to identify what had gone wrong. At least then it would not be a total waste.

"Nope! Just me this time," Dara grinned, "May invited me for a sleepover."

"Ah, well. I'll save this for him then." Severus put the foul potion into a small vial and set it aside before cleaning up the rest of his desk to make room for helping Thomas and Adara. "Perhaps you can help Maylene prepare for her new apprenticeship at the Magical Research Institute of Greater London. I daresay she's spending much too much time fretting about the logistics of the matter, and I'd certainly rather you sleep over and help her than that Seth Templeton."

"Why?" her head cocked to the side, "Seth's nice. I like him."

Ah, the innocence of youth. Truth be told, Severus had quite warmed up to his daughter's boyfriend now that they'd been dating two years, but spending the night together at this house, separate rooms or not, was still absolutely off limits. "He's a decent boy. But he doesn't need to spend every waking moment here, and most certainly not overnight. Though it's hard to for even me to keep anything off limits to that magical genius of a cousin of yours. I doubt she'll be just an apprentice for long."

"You let Owen spend the night," Dara pointed out.

"Merlin," Severus gave another good-natured roll of his eyes while his son covered a chuckle next to Adara. The girl's oldest brother was close to Maylene, no doubt, but they were much like siblings even though there was no blood relation. Between Thomas and Adara, though, there was something else that had been slowly simmering since the two 'cousins' had been children together. It helped that Adara was entirely clueless in romantic matters, though, even at 14. "There are key differences involved in that which we do not need to get into at this time. Now shall we begin looking through your lists for next year?"

"Yeah! Tommy's list is way longer than mine. He should go first."

"Okay," Tom spread out his parchments on the table with his hands. "Nope, that's Transfiguration," he swiftly brushed aside the parchment on top to reveal the one below. "Ah, there's Potions! Sixth Year is apparently where things really start to get interesting. The first thing we learn is, of course, the Draught of Living Death. Hey, can I use your book in class?" he turned the wide-eyed question up to his father.

Severus was puzzled. "The curriculum already uses my Potions book for both Sixth and Seventh Year courses at Hogwarts."

"No, no, I don't mean your new book. I mean the original inspiration! The Half-Blood Prince book! It's got all the cheats in it already and I bet everybody would be jealous of me." He grinned.

"We'll see," Severus cracked a smile, a touch flattered but not sure if it was a good idea nonetheless. "Your mother didn't spend hours searching the Room of Requirement so you could use it to flaunt your impressive parentage to others. Though I daresay it's a reasonable use for it."

"Is this a 'The Great Severus Snape' moment?" Thomas teased with the signature raised eyebrow of the Snape family, which Severus had passed on to not only his children but his wife as well.

He raised the eyebrow right back at his son. "Perhaps. You've never heard of any 'The Great Eugene Wilkins' moments, have you?"

"Weeeeell, he did make that one potion that one time," Dara giggled.

Severus flushed at the mention of the Youthening Potion that had afflicted he and his wife for some time, turning them back to pubescent sixteen year olds for months. The girl made a good point despite his dislike for Wilkins. Even though it had been a rotten trick to play, the youthening had done a great deal to help him in the long run. "Yes, well." He cleared his throat. "The Draught of Living Death. Made famous in the Potter boy's sixth autobiography covering that year of his schooling. Of course even Slughorn was ignorant of my methods at the time. It can be made much more efficiently, even nearly dunderhead-proof. Adara, would you please fetch this list of ingredients for Thomas?"

"Sure... but, um... I can't reach those ones," she pointed at his upper shelves.

He recognized his niece's self-consciousness about being so petite. It hadn't helped that she was the first girl in her family and much smaller than the older boys, as well as his two children. He waved his wand to summon a stool over to her and smiled. "Use this. I'd trust you to use magic over the summer, but the law would say otherwise."

"Thanks! Though I'm pretty sure the law can't tell the difference between me doing magic and you doing magic."

"Best to follow the rules anyway," he watched as she scooted the stool over to reach the higher ingredients. "You'll break enough of them as it is given the amount of time you spend with Maylene."

"I don't break them!" A look of complete innocence was on plastered on her face, "Just Maylene. Tommy won't let me break them. He's too much of a Hufflepuff for that. But there's nothing wrong with that," she tacked on.

"I suppose not. I married a Hufflepuff. Thank you," he took the first set of ingredients she laid out and began introducing Thomas to the best cauldron setup and tools for making the draught. Once all of the ingredients were assembled, they were ready to begin. "Now, of course, the most crucial change from the original instructions is to crush the Sopophorous beans with the edge of the silver dagger, rather than chop them," he demonstrated with one of the thirteen beans Adara had provided.

"Okay," Tom took a dagger and a bean. "Can Dara try one?"

"If she wishes." Severus offered his niece the dagger he had just finished using.

"Thanks," the girl reverently took the dagger, as always somewhat awed when she was allowed to try something the 'big kids' could do.

Thomas gave a weak press to the bean, and as expected, it jumped a bit to the side and he had to chase it with the dagger.

"No, son. You must be more decisive. Yes, like that. Watch how Adara is doing it."

"Mum says you have to be firm with potions," she crushed the bean with passion.

Perhaps too much passion, because Tom was now watching her fingers instead of his own. Severus cleared his throat; "Thomas."

"Oh, um… yeah. Firm." Tom crushed the bean and the juice squirted him in the face.

Adara giggled, "Careful Tommy! Concentration is key in potion making. Mum says so."

"I never knew your mum was so interested in potion making…" Thomas trailed, trying to concentrate on his beans again.

Severus watched as his son finally managed to crush one in a satisfactory manner and began adding them to the cauldron. "I may have spurred her on by prohibiting her from brewing Wolfsbane so many times in the past."

"She says it's 'cause she used to be an Auror. Papa says it's because you won't let her make Wolfsbane... in case she blows herself up."

"Caution first," Severus held the cauldron out to allow his niece to place her beans into it.

She plopped them in one at a time.

Severus helped them walk through the remainder of the potion and allowed Thomas to stir with his wand, seven times anticlockwise and then once clockwise. The final result was a relatively decent brew, for a first time trial. "Well done. When you do this in class, try and be a bit more focused with the ingredient preparation. Potion-making is a good deal like cooking."

Tom made a face; "I've never cooked a thing in my life."

"Papa says he never would have landed Mum if he couldn't cook. She smacks him when he says that. O agrees though. So you should learn to cook if you ever want to get a girlfriend."

"If I-" Tom was instantly flustered and Severus took this moment to store the potion and clean out the cauldron for the next item on the list, though he continued to observe the two young ones' interaction. Tom had finished staring at Adara and moved on, stammering, "Er, would you… that is do you think I need to learn how to cook?"

"I don't know!" Her eyes grew wide and her face matched the color of her Weasley family's hair.

Ah, so the girl did have some sense of romance. Perhaps she and Thomas might see their feelings for each other blossom into something more sooner rather than later. Then again, Adara was still quite young. But it was obvious she had feelings she didn't quite understand yet.

"Can you cook?"

"Just spaghetti," she shrugged, turning to study the next spell on the list.

"What is the next potion?" Severus could tell the moment was over as quickly as it had begun, as Tom turned a somewhat-dejected countenance back to his list as well.

"Amortentia," said his son.

Severus stiffened. It took a moment for the words to settle in. Then they did. "Adara, go upstairs. You are too young for this potion."

Her head shot up and she looked at him with an almost wounded expression. "But... but... I'm not too little!"

He grimaced. Curses, when had he become so weak to the pleas of children? He must hold strong. "This potion is not even introduced until Sixth Year for a reason."

"Well Expecto Patronum isn't taught till seventh year but I-" she clapped her hands over her mouth.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not surprised you've already learned it. It's become a staple since Potter broke the rules on it his third year."

"To be fair the school was crawling with dementors to catch… her dad," Tom shrugged as he gestured to Adara.

"I can't do it," she mumbled, shuffling her feet.

"You can't?" Tom was immediately at her side, a hand on her shoulder. Severus shook his head. They'd raised the boy well.

Adara shook her head, cheeks tinged pink again, "But Uncle Harry says that's normal."

"I should think so since it's not normally taught until seventh year," Severus grumbled at the mention of Potter again.

"I haven't even tried to learn it yet," Tom defended, then turned back to Severus. "Come on, Dad, can't she just stay downstairs? I know about Amortentia already, so we don't have to go into detail about it. But she can watch us make it, can't she?"

"Pleeeease?"

"Infernal…" Severus growled at the two of them, but he was clearly weak. "Fine. Adara, you stay a few feet back. I wouldn't want you to get a whiff of this." He stormed off to the shelves to fetch the ingredients, and a sample vial of what it should look like when finished.

"But why?" she dutifully went and sat on the stool recently used to reach potions ingredients.

Severus paused with his hand on one of the Amortentia vials. The last thing she needed to know was that merely smelling the potion could bring about strong feelings or even arousal. It had been bad enough when he'd had to teach May this potion. The verylast thing he'd needed to know was what Seth Templeton smelled like. "Never you mind. This is a dangerous drug and you just stay in that seat."

"Oh," she sat on her hands, "Ayla would probably like to make it then. She likes making dangerous potions."

"If only you knew," he mumbled, uncorking the vial of Amortentia he'd grabbed and immediately being accosted by the scent of rain.

Ah, rain. Rain, falling first on his umbrella and then drenching her long, golden-blonde hair, until his umbrella intercepted it once again, and then it had fallen on him. But that had not mattered. That day, that first intimate moment between himself and his wife. It had only been a brief touch of her hand, but it had begun a whole life. The warmth he'd felt on that day had pierced the old, familiar coldness in his heart and now he could barely remember a time when it hadn't been warm. Even now, the mere touch of her hand could still send him into-

"Uh. Dad?"

Severus shook his head rapidly to bring himself out of his trance. How foolish he'd been with the potion to distract himself so entirely in front of these children. He cleared his throat. "I apologize. One moment." He quickly corked the potion and grabbed the rest of the ingredients before returning to the cauldron on the desk and beckoning Thomas forward.

The boy was entirely too curious as he craned his neck to get a good look at the vial. Severus pulled it back a bit, then stepped back himself to avoid the fumes, but uncorked the potion nonetheless. He cleared his throat again. "Amortentia. You see the characteristic mother-of-pearl sheen and spiral fumes emanating from the vial. Only a potion that has this appearance and these traits will have been brewed properly, and thus be fully effective. It is a subtle brew, yet also the strongest love potion in the world. One sip of this and you may go mad with infatuation."

"Is that what happened to Bellatrix?"

Severus was so surprised by Adara's question that he got yet another whiff of the potion in his hand, and tried to ignore the citrusy lemon smell of his wife's cuticle cream which she had begun using regularly after he had enjoyed the scent, since lemon was a favorite dessert flavor anyway… "Er… um…" he had to shake his head again to clear it, and once more corked the vial. "Though she was certainly mad with infatuation, I believe that stemmed from her own natural tendencies toward madness. I know of no love potion inspiring her affections toward Voldemort."

"Oh. I just thought... maybe that would explain..."

"Not a bad assumption, really, if the facts didn't say otherwise," Severus admitted. "But truth be told, I think she was simply crazy."

"Also, remember, it turned out the love she had was real," Tom pointed out, staring rather intensely at Adara, "When my Mum helped their lingering spirits. You can't fake real love."

"That's what Grandmum Molly says when Papa does something ridiculous and Mum just rolls her eyes at him."

"Well, real love does certainly mean accepting your partner's ridiculous tendencies," Severus smirked a little.

Adara started to get up but quickly reseated herself, "I was gonna hug you but I promised to stay here," she explained.

Severus melted a little. Just a bit. She was a sweet girl. "Well, I don't know what prompted it, but I suppose I can allow you to get up for a moment if you return immediately to your seat."

"What about me, do I get a hug too?" Tom pleaded, and Severus had to hide a chuckle. His son did look rather pathetic in his appeal for affection.

"Only if you say sweet things too," she instantly wrapped her arms around Severus's middle.

Severus returned his young niece's embrace as Thomas whined a bit.

"I started this whole real love thing in the first place," the boy pointed out.

Severus grinned down at Adara's adorable face. "You'd better hug him, too. He needs it more than you know."

"Dad!" Tom's face went beet red, and Severus could not help another laugh. It was certainly a parent's right and privilege to embarrass their children.

"Doesn't your mother ever hug you?" she giggled, embracing his all-too-willing son.

Severus sighed and shook his head as he watched Thomas hug Adara tight and rather blatantly inhale the scent of her hair. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, the girl had no clue.

"Sure, but this is different," Tom mumbled, his voice somewhat obscured by the thick black waves.

"Hmm?" she looked up.

"Mum's my mum, and you're… my Dara," his face managed to flush even redder than before.

"Of course," she accepted, "but I have to go sit down again. I promised."

Severus had to hide even more amusement, and a bit of pity for poor dejected Thomas, as he shook his head again and tried to bring the children's attention back to the potion at hand. "Very well. I suppose we'd best get back to our Amortentia brewing, unless…" he raised a teasing eyebrow at Tom as the boy returned to the cauldron, "you'd rather skip this one and not compound your suffering for the time being."

Thomas narrowed his eyes and pouted, kicking his foot against the bottom of the desk. "Let's just do it."

"Is something wrong, Tommy? Should I go get Aunt Dinah?" Worry was evident in Adara's voice.

"I'm fine," Tom insisted, diving into the preparation of the ingredients with a vengeance. Well, at least now he had his firm touch. It wasn't too long before the freshly-made Amortentia simmered and steamed in the cauldron.

It was certainly a good thing he'd sent Adara some distance away, Severus thought, because the fumes from the large cauldron spread much further than those from the tiny vial. He had to use all his powers of concentration and discipline to not get lost in the jumbled intoxicating scents of rain and lemon and Dinah's hair…

Meanwhile, Thomas… well, his eyes had gone wide as saucers as he leaned in and inhaled whiff after whiff of the steam, only torturing himself unnecessarily in Severus's opinion. After all, he himself could simply go upstairs after this and indulge in his wife's presence, but Thomas…

"Did it work?" He turned to see Adara stretching as close to them as she could from her seat.

Severus held a hand up to caution her back, while Thomas, a curious mixture of intense passion and childlike wonder on his face, turned and cocked his head at Adara. "It smells like… you!" the boy said, and it was all Severus could do not to slap that hand up to his forehead and roll his eyes in astonished amusement at the outburst.

"Me?!" she squeaked, face screwed up in confusion, "Why me? Do I smell?"

"N-n-no, I mean…" Thomas blushed and stammered and now Severus was literally about to burst out with laughter at this entire situation. It wasn't something he did often but this moment was truly too amusing for words. He tried with barely managed success to hold it in.

"That is," his son continued, "it's a nice smell. You smell like a flower."

"Oh... it's probably my honeysuckle shampoo."

"Honeysuckle…" Tom murmured, as if tasting the words, veritably swooning at them, inhaling again and then walking over to Adara and leaning over to sniff her hair. "Mmhm, so that's honeysuckle?"

Severus's eyebrows were both raised but he really did have no words left as he watched for the girl's reaction.

"I guess so..." she blushed and squirmed in her seat as if she wasn't sure if she wanted to scoot away or get closer.

"You smell nice," Tom insisted, his lips brushing against her temple a bit as he formed the words.

Severus was starting to wonder if his eyes were going to pop out of his head. It was time to break this up. He cleared his throat. "Well, excellent brew then. Shall we move on?"

"Can I help now?" Adara's face was flame red this time.

"Eh…" Severus realized he was staring and then quickly smacked a lid on top of the cauldron, blocking out the delights of rain and lemon and – well, it was probably best for all of them if they moved on. A nice basic fourth-year potion sounded excellent right about now. "Yes. Thomas, you've brewed two. Let's move on to two of Adara's. There will be more summer days to practice the rest."

"Uh, right, sure," Tom finally seemed to regain his senses and pat Adara awkwardly on the shoulder before scurrying back to stand in front of the desk.

"Can we do this one?" Adara bounded over and pointed to one on her list.

Severus nodded and they began. Of course, what he thought would be fairly tame was a bit less so because Tom insisted on hovering behind Adara and showing her how to cut or stir things, half the time putting his hands over hers when he did so. She blushed a bit, too, but remained mostly oblivious to the extent of his feelings, and, really, to the extent of her own as well.

By the time they had finished the second fourth-year potion, their session was interrupted.

"Adaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaraaaaaaaaaaa!" Severus's daughter Maylene called from upstairs. "Supper's nearly ready and I want to show you some things before we eat! You two have been doing potions forever, come see me, I'm getting lonely!"

"Did you say hungry? Maybe you should have a secret cookie!" Dara called back, teasing.

Severus rolled his eyes at the usual joke inspired from the fact that he would sometimes sneak his children cookies before supper when they were younger, and Maylene could not keep a secret to save her life.

"I said lonely, not hungry!" May whined as Tom laughed.

"I'm coming. I'm coming," Adara turned to him, "Do you want me to help clean up first?"

"You're fine, Tom and I will take care of that. You wouldn't want to keep Maylene waiting. It could be dangerous."

"Right! Thank you!" she scampered up the stairs.

"Tom," Severus placed a hand on his son's shoulder after Dara had disappeared. "Give her time."

Tom sighed and nodded. "I'm doing my best."

Severus cracked a small smile. "You'll manage it. But I think I would avoid Amortentia except for in the Hogwarts classroom from now on if I were you."

"I suppose you're right," he agreed. "But, Merlin, did that smell so-"

"I know," Severus raised a hand to cut his son's comment off.

"I guess you don't smell honeysuckle, though. Don't tell me what you smell. I don't want to know." Thomas was firm in his request.

Severus smirked and raised an eyebrow. "I assure you I don't want you to know, either. Now, you put away the ingredients while I bottle up this dangerous thing."

"Fair enough," Tom did not argue as he went about putting things away.

Meanwhile, Severus took the closed cauldron and retreated to a back table to pour the intoxicating mixture into vials and sore them on a shelf. He noticed Thomas glancing over every now and again, noting where the vials were, and considered locking the basement when not in use. He had done it when the children were young but not now that they were older and responsible and not inclined to get into his potions. But now there were other things to consider…

Ultimately he simply shrugged and figured to leave it alone. He had considered locking it after introducing Maylene to Amortentia as well but the girl was so talented at magic and had found ways around even the underage magic rule, that keeping the two of them from something that was a part of their own house seemed futile at best. If they wanted a way in, they would find it. He simply needed to trust them and trust that any excursions here were a natural part of the growing up process. But apart from that, he did not need to think about it.

Did not need to think about it at all.

The light of the first floor was astonishingly bright after emerging from the dimly-lit basement, as always. Tom headed immediately for his bedroom, hopefully simply to play some infernal Muggle video games, and Severus made his way to the kitchen where Dinah stood chopping up some ingredients on the counter.

"Would you like any help?" he smiled, joining her.

"Certainly," she beamed, offering him a knife to chop some onions. "How did it go?"

"Thomas could use some cooking lessons." Severus took the knife and spelled it to begin chopping. While potion-making was like cooking, actual cooking required much less precision, and Severus had done enough hand-chopping downstairs already. Magic was welcome.

"Is that so?" she chuckled.

"Adara certainly thinks so. Apparently it will help him get a girlfriend."

"Well, I admit, you do handle that knife well," she teased. "You're just lucky I'm so domestic."

He leaned over to sniff her hair, which smelled like a certain potion from downstairs. "You are a powerful witch. Domestic or not, no one can take that away." He liked the blush that rose in her cheeks at his compliment. "Today was Amortentia day."

"Oh dear," she covered a giggle, turning away from the counter to face him more fully. "And you let Adara stay down there?"

"Sitting far away. She could not get a whiff of it, though I certainly can't say the same thing for Thomas."

"Oh dear," Dinah repeated, sighing a motherly sigh, though an amused smile still graced her lips. "And Adara isn't the worse for wear? She came up cheerfully enough to meet Maylene."

"Mm, she's delightfully innocent, that one," Severus agreed.

"So true," his wife smiled. "Just as well, I suppose."

"Yet, she does have feelings for Tom. She barely realizes it, but they're there."

"I know they're there," Dinah's smile grew sweeter, and Severus reached to place his hand over hers, curling his fingers around her own as she met his gaze and his own smile, and curled her warm fingers right back around his, squeezing tight. He returned the squeeze, his smile widening along with hers, as again, just like that day in the rain, only the touch of her hand, and all was perfect in the world.