Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoy! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Updates every Saturday!
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Two weeks had passed since the battle of Hogwarts.
There was a period of healing slowly starting to happen in the wizarding world.
Still recovering at home, Severus and Lily Snape were certainly part of it.
Harry had tried to give his parents some privacy, though he called daily to check on them, having access to a muggle phone through Hermione's kindness.
Lily's childhood home still held an operating, muggle phone. Severus had never disconnected the device all those years while Lily slept, anxious for her to wake and return.
Since Severus's release from the hospital, he and Lily had spent many hours holding each other.
Weeping with each other out of joy and sadness……..
Severus made progress in his healing with each passing day.
While Severus was doing better, Lily was struggling along.
Though she was ambulatory and alert, Lily's organs were still waking up.
Being the victim of a magical attack, she hadn't needed the catheters and I.V. bags that muggles in long term care required.
That also meant that she hadn't used her digestive or urinary systems in over sixteen years. At first, Lily had trouble holding her food down and going to the loo, but with time, her body remembered what it was like to be able to eat and drink. Lingering stomach upset came and went, but she continued to experience pressure headaches.
Severus was concerned, but the healers assured them both that minor symptoms could arise as a result of her survival.
While Severus worried about Lily, she worried about him.
Severus thoroughly enjoyed the attention that Lily lavished upon him over those couple of weeks. He soaked in the soothing patterns of Lily's gentle voice while she changed the dressings on his wound, cooked for him, and helped him bathe so he wouldn't put pressure on the healed area of his throat by moving around.
Altough their physical conditions currently left sexual relations off the table, Severus and Lily were still enjoying the intimacy of their bond by cuddling together on the sofa and lounging in bed, sleeping next to each other.
Soft gazes, loving touches……...the little affections that the couple exchanged were deeply cherished by both partners.
When the third week arrived, Severus and Lily both noted their progress. Lily didn't really feel much better, but she put on a brave face for Severus and insisted she was doing fine.
Severus no longer needed to wear a bandage on his throat.
Once Severus was able to speak without pain and Lily seemed strong enough, the visitors began to appear.
As the shocking facts about Harry Potter, er, Snape's parents, spread across the wizarding world, everyone wanted to come and visit with Severus and Lily.
Some brought gift baskets.
Many thanked Severus for his bravery.
Several wanted to see Lily once again from knowing her years ago.
More wanted to meet Lily after hearing so much about her.
Severus was not fond of social situations, but he quickly found out that he had little choice in the matter.
There were times when even Lily found the deluge of well-wishers overbearing.
Besides the physical injuries, there was a tremendous amount of emotional damage as well.
Lily attended more funerals in those couple of weeks than she ever had in her life.
Severus sat by her side when he could.
Lily watched as Molly Weasley's son was buried, along with her old friend Remus and his wife.
All the victims of the war were gone far too soon.
Tears streamed down her cheeks at all of the somber services. After each one, she and Severus always squeezed each other's hands more tightly, marveling at just how fortunate they were to recover what they had lost.
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While the consequences of the war were sobering, Lily and Severus were finally resuming their places in Harry's life as his parents.
The couple discovered that having an adult son was much different than caring for an infant.
It was awkward at first.
….Especially for Harry.
…..Even more so for Severus.
…..Less so for Lily.
The trio made slow strides at rebuilding their little family.
Severus and Lily's recovery helped to break the tension a little. Harry was very eager to help in any way, though Severus kept refusing his son's assistance.
When Lily was strong enough to cook and Severus's throat had healed to the point where he could move and talk without pain, the couple invited their son over to dinner.
The first Snape family dinner in nearly seventeen years.
In truth, Harry was a little nervous that night as he apparated to the house where he had spent his infancy.
That didn't matter, though.
Harry blinked at the house and took a deep breath as he walked towards the door.
He had thought about asking Ginny along.
The porch steps creaked slightly as Harry boldly ascended them and reached out to ring the doorbell.
He had changed his mind about Ginny when he paused to consider the emotions that may be processed that evening.
Some things were best kept between parents and children.
Harry pushed the doorbell with his index finger.
He heard a scurry of motion behind the door and he swallowed thickly, feeling his heart speed up as footsteps approached.
Harry's eyes went wide as the door opened. He never cared for women that were weepy but as he stood looking at his mother, who covered her mouth with her hands while happy tears gathered in her eyes, Harry changed his opinion.
With his own tears welling, Harry threw his arms around Lily, and closed his eyes as she hugged him back, whispering lovingly into his ear, "Welcome home, son."
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Breaking out of their tearful hug with a mutual, nervous laugh, Lily stepped aside and allowed Harry to walk into the house.
Harry was curious and he looked around, admiring his surroundings.
Everything was…...old, but it was clean.
Quite clean, actually, and comfortable. It didn't look like a house, it looked like a home. The kind of home that Harry used to fantasize about having when he had suffered at the hands of the Dursleys as a small boy.
And Harry realized who had tended to the dwelling's upkeep during the last seventeen years.
"It's nice." Harry said to Lily with a polite nod.
It would have been much nicer if Harry could have grown up there, with Severus and Lily as his loving mother and father. But he pushed the bitterness out of his mind. Harry saw no point in focusing on what could have been.
"I wish you could remember it, sweetheart." Lily said with a sad smile.
"Would you like a tour~?"
A very familiar, low, rumbling voice called out from somewhere in the stairwell.
Harry turned slightly and glanced up to see Headmaster Snap-...his father, standing on the stairs, looking down at him and Lily.
It was still odd to Harry, knowing his true relationship with someone who he had spent nearly half of his life considering one of his bitter enemies.
Severus Snape's expression was unreadable as he glanced from Harry to Lily, though Harry did catch his father's coal gaze softening just a bit when it moved onto his mother.
That didn't make Severus appear any less bat-like as he stood forebodingly on the steps, with his arms crossed, in a dark, button-up shirt and pants.
"Sev! Come down from there!" Lily laughed.
It was even stranger for Harry to see his father in regular clothes.
Severus slowly walked down the stairs towards them and Harry felt that same sense of subtle dread that he used to have in the potions classroom whenever his intimidating professor approached.
And to think that all along, that had been his dad?
Harry batted the feeling away and remained calm as Severus came to stand beside Lily, his dark eyes scanning over Harry inquisitively.
Harry couldn't help but notice the gold wedding band that adorned Severus's left ring finger.
"A tour might be nice!" Lily beamed, "Why don't you let your father show you around while I finish setting the table?" Lily asked Harry, looking back and forth between her husband and her son.
"Oh, mum, that's ok. Here, let me come and help you. I really just…." Harry began but Lily cut him off.
"-Nonsense! I don't need any help! You two should spend some time together!" Lily insisted with a laugh.
Before Harry could protest any further, Lily had already turned and walked away, heading back into the kitchen.
Standing there, wordlessly in the foyer, beside Severus Snape as they faced the terrifying prospect of navigating their father and son relationship may have been the single most uncomfortable moment of Harry's life.
Severus looked at Harry intently and Harry couldn't help but feel like he was about to be assigned detention.
"Well?...Shall we?" Severus asked.
Harry threw up his hands in a nervous gesture and then he nodded quickly, "Yeah….uh, let's go."
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From the living room to the den to the kitchen to the small powder room, Severus stalked through the downstairs with Harry following closely behind him.
Severus murmured only a few words as they passed from room to room, but though he was outwardly quiet, Harry could see his father's true sentiment as he examined the insides of the house more closely.
It still looked like a baby lived there.
Severus had never taken down Harry's high chair or his play pen. The toys that had been Harry's favorite in his infancy were still scattered about.
Harry was struck by the fact that Severus had kept all those things for such a long time.
All his things.
When they reached the upstairs, Severus seemed to slow his pace and he showed Harry the two spare bedrooms, then he paused outside of his and Lily's room.
"This was your mother's room when she was young." Severus explained. He opened the door slowly and let Harry walk in first, "...It later served as our room when you were little and now……….it does so once again."
Harry gingerly looked around, his eyes taking in every detail of the room until Severus swept past him and opened the bathroom door, directly across from the bed.
Harry glanced over and nodded, but Severus stood there with his hand on the door, holding it open, and staring back at Harry as if he were waiting on something.
"I imagine that one looks similar to the others." Harry nodded.
"This is where you were born." Severus stated boldly in his low, rumbling drawl.
The significance of that revelation hit Harry hard.
Neither father nor son spoke for a moment.
Harry held eye contact with Severus as he walked closer, stopping only when he stood beside his father and peered into the small bathroom.
"There." Severus said, holding out one of his long, thin hands and pointing towards the tub.
Harry looked at the bathtub and thought for a moment, silently.
"You learned to walk downstairs, in front of the sofa." Severus went on, "And we stood in the foyer together, just as we did a few moments ago, before your mother and you were………"
"...Taken away?" Harry finished.
"Placed into hiding." Severus replied, choosing to manage the pain of the past by using different verbiage.
Harry was still staring at the bathtub as he spoke, "I can't imagine what you and mum have been through."
"We're not asking you to do so, though we realize your own trials have been tremendous. I was merely sharing another memory with you." Severus explained.
Harry pulled his eyes away from the tub and stepped back to look at Severus.
Father and son gazed at each other for a long moment.
"...Look, I don't know what to say." Harry said with an exasperated sigh, shrugging his shoulders.
"Neither do I. That is why I've said so little." Severus replied.
"Are you………." Harry asked nervously, "Are you…...glad….that I'm here? Or was this all mum's idea?"
Severus's face softened into an offended scowl as if he were very hurt by Harry's questions. Speaking harshly, he replied, "Of course I'm glad you're here, son. I caught you in my hands! I put my life on the line to save yours every day since your birth! I-"
"-DINNER'S READY!" Lily called from downstairs.
Harry laughed to break up the seriousness of the moment and played off of his mother's announcement, "Brilliant! I've been waiting to eat this meal all day."
Severus gave Harry a very serious look as he spoke, "I've been waiting to eat this meal for seventeen years."
Harry felt foolishly sheepish.
"Well, yeah…..I was…..I was just talking about food." Harry said with another nervous chuckle.
Severus stared at him intently and Harry's smile fell away.
Why did he expect Severus Snape to suddenly develop a sense of humor?
"I wasn't." Harry's father responded dryly as he turned and walked briskly out of the room.
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The atmosphere at the Snape family dining table was full of happy tension.
Harry asked a lot of questions and that at least kept the conversation rolling.
Lily was happy to answer Harry, eager to speak to her son about anything and everything.
Severus chimed in every once in a while, but Harry still couldn't infer his father's emotions.
Though Harry did notice that neither Severus nor Lily seemed anxious for him to leave.
After dinner, Lily served dessert and then the little family moved into the living room, chatting some more.
Harry saved his heaviest questions for after dinner.
While they sat together, he asked his parents the musings that permeated his thoughts.
"So you two never had a wedding or anything, really?" Harry asked.
"We couldn't, sweetheart." Lily said with a wry smile.
"Your mother and I had each other and that was all we needed." Severus replied simply, closing the subject.
Harry nodded and fell silent for a moment.
"I really like Ginny, dear." Lily smiled at Harry, reaching out and gripping his hand in hers with a bright smile of approval.
Harry had introduced Ginny to his mother shortly after the battle.
His father already knew her quite well, though Severus wasn't surprised that his son was interested in the Weasley girl.
The Snape men seemed to favor red hair in their mates.
Harry couldn't help but notice that Severus offered no opinion on Ginny.
He wondered if his father had one at all.
Letting the matter drop, Harry chose a different topic.
"I'm…….." Harry started to say.
Severus and Lily watched and listened as he tried to find his words.
"I…….um, never mind, I forgot." Harry finished after a moment.
Severus gave him an incredulous look and Lily frowned.
"What were you going to say, sweetheart?" She asked sadly.
"Nothing." Harry said quickly, "I'm just….I'm glad we can do this, you know…..be together."
"So am I!" Lily beamed.
Severus was holding Lily's hand in his as they sat side by side on the couch and Harry sat in the chair across from them.
Severus however did not share Lily's happy smile.
Instead, he scowled at his son, as if he were reprimanding Harry silently for the truth he had used to cover his lie.
What was on Harry's mind was not "nothing".
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"Well? What do you think about it?" Harry asked excitedly after he and Ginny entered the muggle wedding shop.
Harry proudly walked Ginny through the aisles, showing her the fashionably gaudy wedding decorations he had chosen.
Ginny looked around and blinked, "...What do I think about what, exactly?"
"Everything!" Harry said with a proud grin, "I've incorporated the majority of this into the plans. It'll all be used, won't that be nice?"
Ginny didn't seem too sure.
Everything was ornate and large and flashy.
"Harry…….are you sure about all of this?" Ginny asked hesitantly.
"Of course I'm sure!" Harry laughed, "I've spoken with the planners many times over the last few days, all of this is very fashionable right now."
There were few shops in the wizarding world that sold goods specifically designed for weddings.
But Harry found a remedy for that.
Why not go into the muggle world?
In 1997, the wedding industry had seen a boom and everyone wanted a palace perfect event.
Almost everyone, anyway.
"Right, but…...I don't know your mum too well, but this doesn't really seem like her kind of style. She's more...understated…….Elegant." Ginny said with a frown, pausing to pick up a strand of a very tacky-looking garland with hideous, plastic crystals hanging from it.
"...She'll like it, though." Harry shrugged in denial.
"What about him?" Ginny asked Harry, glancing away from her boyfriend to look down at the ugly garland. "Do you honestly think that Professor Snape will enjoy being surrounded by…..this?" Ginny asked as she looked back up at Harry.
Harry sighed as Ginny let the garland slip from her fingers, faking to the table with a clunky plastic clink, "Look…...I just wanted to do something nice for them, that's all."
"Then why don't you give them some of your money and let them decide on something for themselves? You still have the Potter fortune, they aren't making you give it back!" Ginny suggested.
"He'll never accept that." Harry said, shaking his head quickly, "He'll see it as charity, as an insult…..and I really did want to see them happy. They've been through so much, for me, for each other…..I want to do something good, something really good, for them."
"May I help, then?" Ginny asked.
Harry blinked.
"Let's make it simpler," Ginny suggested, going on when Harry's eyebrows started to raise in protest, "-But grand in its own way…..I'll handle this part and you make their travel arrangements."
"Travel arrangements?" Harry asked.
"Yes, they didn't have a honeymoon either, right?" Ginny replied, "I'm sure that after seventeen years apart, your mother and father would love to go on holiday together, just the two of them."
"But where?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes, "Can you honestly see Prof-...my dad on a beach?"
"No, silly!" Ginny laughed again, "We'll think of somewhere else to send them besides the beach. First, let's get rid of this awful garland, alright?"
"Alright." Harry agreed as he and Ginny began to trade ideas back and forth.
Lily and Severus had given up pieces of themselves, years of their life, time with each other, all for Harry.
Harry was mischievous and a bit of a troublemaker at times, but Harry was kind like Lily and he could be sly like Severus.
Harry Snape was determined to give back to his parents, if only in a small way.
What better way to do that than to give them to each other?
Harry, with Ginny's help, was going to throw Lily and Snape the celebration of their love that they had deserved to have so many years ago.