A/N: This chapter is for the user who immediately commented on the last saying how excited they were to see me back. It's literally seconds after I finished typing it, which I did as fast as I could, so let me know if there's any mistakes, as I'm sure there are with it being the middle of the night here.

There will be one more, final epilogue to this chapter so stay tuned, and of course, R&R!

~faceless


52: May

"Sev! You were supposed to pick me up 20 minutes ago, I swear on the Deathly Hallows if you forgot and left without me-" Harry was cut off as the door in front of him flew open.

"I'm not going."

Harry sighed. Of course this would happen. If he'd learned anything in the last two years, it was that Severus Snape had a flair for the dramatics. He was standing there in his usual brewing robes rather than his dress robes and looked pouty, rather than actually upset, so Harry didn't mind being a little rude. "I'm actually going to kill you. Get inside."

It was the commemoration of the final battle tonight, and as Severus had missed it last year, Harry wasn't about to let him do the same this year, and he told him so.

"I just don't get it, Sev. You're a hero! For one night, let people treat you the way you deserve to be treated. Also, and this is just an aside, did you really think that if you just didn't show up that I wouldn't notice?"

Severus looked marginally recalcitrant. "I figured you'd assume I left without you so you'd leave and then you'd get to caught up to come looking until it was too late."

Harry laughed, "You're actually a child. I cannot believe I ever thought you were scary." He sat on the couch, suddenly serious, "What's the problem here?"

Severus shrugged, but since his therapy began five month ago, Harry had grown into a remarkable listener. He was able to not only wait Sev out, but also hear and understand his true concerns. It was as if, in learning to know himself, he and learned to understand people around him better too.

"I'm weak," he finally admitted.

"You know that's not true, and I know you know it because you wouldn't go into work and let everyone in your shoppe see you if it was."

"These people have different expectations, Harry. They expect a war hero to walk in there, tall and proud, not some buffoon who has heavy steps and shaking hands."

Harry took one of Sev's hands in both of his. "You are not a buffoon. You are a war hero, and you can be both tall and proud, and have heavy steps and shaking hands. They are not mutually exclusive."

Severus gave him an odd look, "Mutually exclusive? Aren't you supposed to-"

"Be selling the books not reading them. I know, I know, you say that every time I bring home a smart people phrase." Harry had done something that had shocked the wizarding world, shortly after being released from the hospital wing. He had opened up a muggled bookstore. He'd found a love of reading during his stay, and he wanted a place away from magic and the prying eyes the magical world held. He also wasn't completely ready to cut ties with the muggle world, even if his experience with his relatives had been terrible. He'd countered the argument by saying that not everything was perfect in the magical world - plus, they could not expect equality if they didn't embrace muggle culture.

He waved away Severus' attempt to joke the situation away, "My statement still stands."

Severus nodded, sighing but seeming to accept what Harry was telling him. He moved to get up, but Harry stopped him, "And hey? If all else fails, know that there's one person who thinks you're the absolute best thing in his life, yeah?"

Cracking a smile, Sev nodded again, "Teddy, right. I am the best thing in his life."

Harry swatted him as he walked off laughing, "I meant me!"

HPHPHP

It hadn't taken Severus long to get ready, and while the arrived a bit late, it just meant that they missed the majority of the paparazzi, which they'd planned on getting there early to avoid anyway. They took their seats, Harry grinning stupidly at the fact that they'd been given a joint name card placed neatly between the two place settings.

The ceremony was short but beautiful, a reading of the victims' names, a speech on hope and equality, and a call for donations and reparation work that still needed done, and they were left to mingle and enjoy the meal laid out before them. This year, as Hogwarts was mostly fixed, there was a call to donate to orphanages. Many children had been rendered orphans like Teddy - either from their parents' deaths or incarcerations. They deserved the chance to move on from the war just like everyone else.

HPHPHP

Harry and Severus stuck to their circle of friends for most of the night, avoiding the press and social climbers. Even then, simply being in the public eye was exhausting, and Harry was checking every so often that his dragon hide gloves were still in his pocket, just in case. It wasn't long before Harry was ready to turn in, citing the need to relieve Andromeda as his excuse to head home.

"Come with me," he asked Sev before he left. They took a moment to pause on the steps leading up to the event building, allowing the press waiting outside a few good photos of them together as it made them less likely to hound them other times. "Teddy misses you."

Severus pretended to hesitate. When Harry had been on his own in Grimmauld Place for a few weeks, he'd officially stepped into his role as godfather and let Teddy move in with him. It was an odd spot in their relationship, as Severus was suddenly dating a man with a child. He worried constantly about what Teddy would think of them, and what they would tell him as he grew older, and, most importantly, what the child could hear, understand, and remember about them, but he adored the child to no end, and spent every moment with him that he could.

He nodded, acquiescing easily, and they apparated quickly. Harry was laughing at Snape's faked reluctance when he opened the door, and immediately stopped in his tracks. The entire entryway had been covered in rose petals and soft candles glowing from everywhere they could perch. Harry glanced back at Severus, knowing this was his doing, then followed the path into the kitchen.

The kitchen was aglow with candlelight too, and Harry gasped, covering his mouth. Bouquets of roses surrounded him, and he spun in a circle. "It's beautiful but why-"

He stopped suddenly as he noticed the small black box sitting atop the table. Plucking it up, he turned to face Severus, coming face to face with the man down on one knee.

"This is the night that changed our lives forever. It was terrible, but it also made us the people we are now - the people who were able to fall in love together. This night is a commemoration of what we've lost, but it's also a recognition that we move forward everyday. Two year ago, you are the person who gave us that chance," Severus told him. "And you are the person that has given me that chance again and again every day since."

He gently took the box from Harry's grip, opening it to reveal a silver wedding band. It was muggle custom for men to wear silver bands until their weddings when they were replaced by gold. Even while it was obvious what was coming from everything leading up to it, Harry still gasped at the sight of the ring. "Would you do me the honor of marrying me, Harry? Make me the happiest man alive. Make me your husband."

"Yes," Harry answer, voice choked with tears, "yes, yes, yes."

HPHPHP

It was morning before they retrieved Teddy from Andromeda's house.