Sleeping with another person was...an experience. First, his war-trained reflexes woke him every time Granger shifted. Second, there was a terrible moment when a hank of her hair ended up in his mouth causing him to think he was being suffocated. And third, there was the incident when he, innocently of course, claimed more than his fair share of the covers, which resulted in his gentle bed-mate emphatically confiscating all blankets from his person.

He could see that the new arrangements would take some adjustment.

On the other hand, waking with her warm backside pressed up to his morning erection seemed more than adequate compensation for those small inconveniences.

Suspecting that she would be sore from yesterday's extended play, he very gently slipped inside her. He heard the welcome in her sigh, savoured it, and then proceeded to drive them both to an easy, shimmering peak in the early morning light.

SSSS

Several hours later, Snape was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, when the front door opened and a shout rang through the house.

"Mum! We're home!"

This declaration was followed by footsteps clattering towards the kitchen. Rose was first through the door.

"Good morning, Rose. Your mother is currently in the shower."

Rose took off her handbag, plopped it on the table, helped herself to a mug, and poured herself a cup. He raised an eyebrow.

She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "It's the weekend. We're allowed. And don't you look...different." She appraised him rudely. "Had a good time, did you?"

Hugo, who had followed his sister into the kitchen, plopped his own bag onto the table, and served himself a cup as well. "Oh, leave off, Rose. He's happy."

Severus frowned at the boy, and Hugo laughed, albeit nervously. "I didn't peak, promise, it's just all over your face. Believe me, if Rose can tell, you don't have to be an empath to see it. Ow!" he muttered half-heartedly when she punched his arm.

Severus muttered in disgust. "Rose, if you are going to punch people, your wrist should align with your forearm, lest you do more damage to yourself than your opponent. Proper alignment will also vastly increase the effectiveness of your strike."

"Oy!" Hugo cried, "Who's side are you on?"

He looked down his nose at them, "As generations of children at Hogwarts can attest, my own. I do not wish to have to reconstruct Rose's wrist simply because her brother is being obnoxious."

He took Rose's arm, aligned her wrist properly, then when a second arm was presented to him, repeated the instruction with Hugo.

Rose jabbed her newly aligned fist into the meat of her brother's arm and nodded with satisfaction at the deeper thwack it made. The glee on her face was positively feral.

She turned to Severus with calculating eyes. "What else can you teach us?"

SSSS

Hermione descended several minutes later.

"Severus, why are my children in the kitchen punching each other?"

Keeping his face blank, he shrugged his shoulders, and returned to his book.

With narrowed eyes that looked, at that moment, very much like Rose's, she muttered "Yeah, right." and left the room.

SSSS

Before beginning his work with Hugo's shields, he wanted Hermione's approval. If they were to get the job done before the children left for school later that week, they would need to devote some time to it each day. He did not want Hermione wondering why the two of them were sequestering themselves in the library so frequently.

"He requires training, that is all. He needs to block out distractions more efficiently. His focus problems...they can be overcome."

"And he asked you for help?"

"He described his issues to me, and I offered to assist him."

Hermione considered. There was something here, something he wasn't sharing with her. She could feel it. She considered prodding for more information, but then decided against it. She trusted Severus implicitly. If he felt he could help Hugo with his academic challenges, then she had no doubt that he could. As for his not telling her everything, if the two of them had taken each other into confidence, all the better.

Maybe it was a man-to-man thing. She knew Harry was doing his best with her children, but an uncle who lived on the other side of London was not the same as having a man right in the same house. She didn't expect her children to claim Severus as a father, but she wanted, very much, for them to love him. If they shared things with him that they didn't with her...well, it was a good sign, not a bad one.

"Well, if anyone can teach him mental discipline, it would be you. Have at it."

Snape turned to walk away, then whirled back. Not telling her...it did not feel right. Nor could he betray Hugo's confidence in such a delicate situation. He sighed. "It is...a bit more complicated than I have led you to believe."

She looked at him, smiled. "I thought it might be." She patted his hand reassuringly. "Keep his secrets, Severus. I trust you to do the right thing."

His eyes unreadable, he nodded and left the room.

The moment he was out of eyeshot, he leaned against the wall, and placed a hand to his suddenly aching chest. She'd known he was holding something back. And yet, she trusted him. She trusted him with her child.

That, more than anything that had come before, led him to believe that maybe, just maybe, this entire interlude was real.

Maybe she really did love him.

Maybe his heart really was safe.

SSSS

Later that evening, while the children were working on their winter-term homework, he and Hermione sat by the fire. She was reading Pride and Prejudice, a book-she informed him-that she read every new year. He looked at the cover, a rather romantic shot of a couple embracing. Hmmm...if she read it annually, he should probably read it at least once.

Meanwhile, he was reading one of her tomes on mystigenesis, a field that had apparently made great strides since he'd gone incommunicado.

They had been thus engaged for almost an hour when Rose stalked into the room. She proceeded to march up to him, dragging a large leather ottoman behind her, which she aligned two inches in front of Snape's knees. He looked to Hermione whose face moved quickly from startled to amused; whatever was transpiring, she knew exactly what was about to occur. Rose then hauled a wingback chair from the library, all the while muttering to herself about heavy objects and the idiocy of the restriction against underage magic.

Snape looked to Hermione once again for explanation, but she just smiled, said, "Good luck!" and removed herself to the other room.

Two minutes later, Rose descended the stairs carrying a flat wooden box. She ceremoniously set it down onto the ottoman. He could hear grumbles from within the box, so he was not totally surprised when she pulled out the chessboard, and began to set up her men.

She gave him a challenging look, to which he raised an eyebrow, and began to set up his own side. When both sides were prepared, she said:

"Don't give me quarter because I'm a kid, because I sure won't be giving you any."

He nodded. "I would never do you that dishonour."

They began.

SSSS

An hour and a half later, they completed their third game. She had taken the first using a risky, but, he conceded, brilliant manoeuvre. He took the second, barely, using a gambit he'd devised playing the old Greek. And the third had been a stalemate. Each contest had been fast, brutal, and hotly contested. And fun. It had been, he had to admit, completely and utterly fun.

He sat back on the sofa and looked at Rose. She shoved all the grumbling chess men back into their box, lovingly folded away the board, sat back in her chair, and looked back at him.

She spoke first. "That trick you used in the second game..."

"Yes."

"Nice."

"Thank you."

"It won't work again."

He smirked. "I'd be terribly disappointed if it did."

They sat a while longer. Just looking at each other.

"Same time tomorrow?" She asked, almost hopefully.

He let the smile that had been threatening for minutes sneak over his features, and was gratified when a similar one bloomed on her face.

"Indeed."

She picked up her chess box, and began to leave.

"Rose?"

"Yes."

"What house did you say you were in?"

It was her turn to smirk. "Didn't you hear? First Weasley in three generations to be sorted into Slytherin. I'm quite the scandal."

He waited until she was well clear of the room before laughing out loud.

End Chapter 27