If someone had come into the room and cast Crucio on her, Harley wouldn't have even felt it, let alone cared. Severus was alive! There were no words to describe her immense relief and joy in that moment, and she refused to leave his side.

All afternoon the two of them spent talking in the Malfoys' parlor, left alone by Harry and Draco for the most part. Both men knew that the two of them had quite a bit to catch up on. Despite his watching over her, there were still things Severus didn't know and wanted to have elaborated upon.

Her shop, her advancements in medicine, her lack of social life (which he scolded her on, because it reminded him too much of himself after Lily's passing), her position at Hogwarts, and of course her nephews and niece.

"They're good kids...once you get past James having Harry's attitude and none of his empathy," Harley said. "Rose, Fred, and Scorpius, too." She smiled and added, "And I'm sure you know about Albus."

At that a soft flush suffused her father's face. "Yes, I saw. At first I was livid, and then I gradually came to understand Potter's line of thinking. It was...flattering. If I'd had a heart, it would have been warmed."

"And Albus looks up to you...well, to the memory of you. He's barely twelve and already he's brilliant at Potions. I've been tutoring him, telling him stories of you in between lessons," Harley said. "He talks to your portrait quite often, though I admit at times I wanted to break the damned thing."

He reached over and again took her hand in his. "There's no need for that now. With me alive, it will be still and silent until my next death."

"Good. I don't want to see that thing again for at least fifty more years." And with wizards' longer lifespan, that was an entirely valid expectation.

Before Severus could respond, the fireplace roared to life. The chairs weren't in its direct line of sight, but they could see the face there well enough: Minerva McGonagall.

"Malfoy! Mr. Malfoy, are you there? I'm looking for Professor Snape, she's not returned yet and I am beginning to be concerned," she called.

Severus squeezed his daughter's hand as the Headmistress said "Professor Snape" while meaning her.

"I'm here, Minerva," Harley replied. "I supposed I lost track of time."

"Quite all right. Well, how was the new Potions candidate? Everything Mr. Malfoy said and more?"

Harley couldn't help the smile that came on her face. She turned to her father and mouthed, "Do you want to teach again?"

He nodded, no hesitation.

"He's better than anyone had any right to expect. I'll be bringing him by this evening," Harley said. "We've just got one stop to make first."

"All right. This is quite a relief. I know you wanted to go back to your shop full-time, and I couldn't stand the thought of another Slughorn. I'll be waiting for your arrival." With that, the fire died down to its normal height.

"What a surprise you'll be," Harley said.

The boys chose that moment to return to the room.

"Aren't you afraid you're going to give old McGonagall heart failure by showing up with a formerly dead person?" Draco asked.

Harry elbowed him in the ribs. "That's not nice! It could actually happen!"

"You underestimate Minerva," Severus said. "She endured my generation, your generation...and now another generation that combined Potters, Weasleys, and Grangers. If she can handle that, I am sure my arrival won't break her constitution." He turned to Harley. "And what is the stop we need to make?"

"Spinner's End. I assume you're going to need your wand, and I couldn't bare burying it with you," Harley replied. "It's still at home, on the mantle."

They both stood up and Harley took Draco's hands in hers. "You've no idea what a gift you've given me."

Draco removed his hands from hers and hugged her tightly. "Yes, I do. Trust me, I missed my godfather. I got to have all the things you didn't, because I grew up with him. I wanted you to be able to have the rest of your life with your dad."

Severus walked to Draco and took his godson's hand. "I always knew you'd grow to be a much better man than Lucius ever was." He then turned to Harry, who looked a little pale. Harley and Draco watched with interest, wondering what the Hell was going to happen between the two men who lived for years despising each other.

The former Potions Master held his hand out and said, "Thank you, Harry." Not 'Potter'. "For proving me wrong. You are...more like your mother than I ever realised."

Harry took his hand and said, "I was wrong about you, but I know that I had to be. What you did for Mum...for all of us...I am forever in your debt. All of Wizarding Britain is."

He stepped over to Draco and the blond put his arm around his shoulders. "The world was poorer without its modern hero in it," Draco added. "I expect you'll both be frequent visitors here, once Harry and I plan to entertain."

"More Malfoy dinner parties? Did I not endure enough of them in my day?" Severus asked, but even he couldn't help a smile. The Dark had been purged from more than just the horcrux: it seemed it had been removed from Severus' very soul. Harley felt that this was the man she was supposed to have known, the man he would have been much sooner had things with Lily worked out differently.

"Can we use your Floo?" Harley asked.

"Yeah. Powder's in the third jar to the right," Draco replied.

Severus used it first, and when Harley slipped out of the fireplace at Spinner's End to see him brushing off his cloak and gazing around the darkened room, she had to stop to be sure this was real. Those dreams she had snuck up on her. She had seen her father many times in them, doing just this in the living room of their home. And every time she'd woken up just a little more broken than she had been the night before.

"It's been so long since I've been home," Severus said, turning to run his hand along the mantle, where his wand sat on a little stand beside beloved photographs.

"It hasn't felt like home since you passed," Harley admitted.

Severus picked up his wand and Harley felt the jolt of magic that went through the room: it felt like it was in her own soul.

"Did you know I found out that our wands are connected?" he asked her. "Old Ollivander told me after he died: the wood and hairs were from the same tree and unicorn. Only one was supposed to be made, but they made two because the first one's size was wrong-it was too small by half an inch."

"I thought it was just coincidence," Harley said, recalling her fifth year when Neville Longbottom's fall had caused her and her father to accidentally switch wands. "Our power's so similar that we were destined for these wands."

Severus gave his wand a wave and the dust moved from the furniture, the fireplace roared to life, and the cold little house once again seemed like home for Harley. "Easier to Floo to Hogwarts if the fire's lit here," he told her. "It'll die itself out."

While she knew she needed to regain control of her emotions, and she would, right then she had to wrap her arms around her father's neck one more time, making up for the time they'd lost.

Once she disentangled herself, she Floo called McGonagall to let her know she would be arriving momentarily and both she and Severus arrived, sooty and disoriented.

The former Potions Master looked around his former office with an appreciative smile. Harley saw the nostalgia in his eyes. With a casual flick of his wand, he banished the portrait which was now still, sending it back to wherever it had come from.

"I wonder when Minerva will notice the portrait in her office has been empty for too long, since my likeness stayed trapped in this frame," Severus said. "I do suppose I'll need to not be seen by anyone I knew until I can see her." He raised his wand and Harley assumed he was about to cast a Disillusionment spell but she stopped him.

"I think this will work much better," she said, reaching into a Charmed drawer in her desk and pulling out a folded piece of fabric. "I confiscated it from James Sirius a few days ago."

Severus chuckled. "The Invisibility Cloak. Well, I'll be damned if I don't feel thirty-three again, sneaking with it to try and arrest Sirius Black."

Harley chuckled lightly. "Are you sure Draco isn't right and we're going to kill old McGonagall?"

Her father gave her a look before disappearing underneath Ignotus Peverell's Cloak. "I will drop the Cloak before we knock on her door, little girl."

Harley kept glancing at her side as she walked, hoping that he would reappear and this wasn't how she'd find out that she was completely, barking mad and had hallucinated the whole thing.

Harley gave the password to the statue guarding Minerva's entrance and it let her and Severus in. While they walked up the stairs, he dropped the cloak and banished it back to the Potions office. Since it was Sunday evening, the school was fairly quiet, having had dinner early. Mostly, students were studying for final exams.

"Harley," Minerva called, "you had me worried there for a moment. I-" She turned around from looking at the sunset over the gorgeous Scottish countryside to regard Harley when she caught sight of the black-clad man back from the dead. Her eyes widened behind her spectacles and her mouth opened and closed like a fish, no sound emitting.

"I do suppose you are owed an explanation, Minerva," Severus said. "The Cliff's Notes are I was once forced to make a horcrux, the Malfoy heir found a non-evil way to bring me back, and here I stand."

Still, the Headmistress said nothing.

"You're allowed to faint, you know," Harley said. "I did."

But the Headmistress was made of stronger stuff than Harley thought and she straightened up and walked closer to Severus. "This isn't possible."

"It is. Call my brother if you don't believe what's in front of your eyes," Harley said. "He helped Draco put the potion together these past six months."

"I don't even know where to begin!" McGonagall said.

"It's not as long a story as you might think. But you see, this is the perfect Potions Master," Harley said with a smirk. She turned to her father. "While you fill her in, I'd like to bring Albus here, for him to meet you."

Severus nodded. "I'd like that."

Harley slipped out of the Headmistress' office and went down to the other side of the castle, to the Gryffindor tower. This old path she tread brought a myriad of feelings to her. No longer was she an uncertain child, and now it suddenly seemed like this future-her present-was the real deal, not some hazy dream filled with loss.

She wished for Fred, she did. But this was a lost piece of her soul that had been found and it made her feel real again, for the first time in decades.

She knocked on the portrait before giving the password. The common room was half full when she poked her head in. Rose and Albus were together, studying. Fred and James were playing catch with a fake snitch bought at WWW.

"Everything okay, Professor?" Rose asked.

"Yes. I'm here for two reasons. Yours, Albus', and Scorpius' detentions with me are cancelled. Albus, if you could come with me, please."

The boy's face went pale. "Did I do something else wrong?"

"Not at all. There's someone I'd like you to meet. Come, please. Rose, tell Scorpius about the detention removal when you see him."

Albus closed his book and got up, eyeing his aunt warily. She'd never pulled anyone out of the common room before if they weren't in trouble.

They walked in silence until they got to the doorway to McGonagall's rooms and Harley stopped before giving the password. "Albus, do you know what a horcrux is?"

He nodded. "Teddy told me. They learnt that his last year here. It's when a Dark wizard kills someone and puts their soul into some object. Like, they can't die that way."

"Very good. Now, Draco found a way to bring someone back from a horcrux that doesn't use Dark magic. Which means no Darkness remains in the person, unlike with Voldemort. Are you following me so far?"

He nodded, green eyes wide.

"The person I want you to meet came back from a horcrux."

"So...they were dead? Kinda?"

She nodded.

"Cool!"

"Not quite the word I'd use but, yes." Harley smiled a little. She gave the password and led the boy up the stairs and knocked on the door. "All good in here?"

Minerva was wiping her eyes furtively as she sat behind her desk and nodded. Severus was still standing, seemingly amused at the stern Headmistress' reaction.

Harley led Albus into the room, where he immediately saw Severus and did a double take. Severus, seeing the boy with the green eyes for the first time, stared back.

"Albus Severus, I'd like you to meet your namesake: my father, Severus Snape," Harley said quietly.

"Hello, Albus," Severus said. "It's a pleasure to meet you and to know such a promising young man shares my name."

Harley watched in shock as the little boy walked right up to a man who terrified adults, let alone children, and wrapped his arms around his waist. After a moment Severus hugged him back and she held back tears that threatened to fall.

Albus looked up at the former professor and said, "Welcome home, Severus."