Chapter 35: A Stern Warning

{A/N: Here's Another Update...It's been while due to my having to take some time off to heal my sprained finger...hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.}

My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.

Hermione Granger's Residence, Unknown Location, Muggle World...

Still baffled by what he had figured out about the dour former Potions Professor, whom had come back into his dearest friend's life, Harry Potter did his best not to make eye contact as he, Hermione, his young niece Ellie, and of all people...Severus Snape shared a meal at the kitchen table. Snape had taken the liberty of showing off his apparent cooking prowess much to Hermione and Harry's shock. Although it had not been a stretch to believe he'd been capable of any culinary feats he had brewed his fair share of potions after all. When Snape first offered to cook diner for the night, Hermione had been against it, but his insistence that he'd like to pay her back for her kindness in letting him stay over prior to their agreement and nursing him back to health after finding him nearly frozen to death a few nights back. Reluctantly, she allowed it wondering just how well he'd fare in the kitchen especially since he'd been responsible for looking after their daughter once she'd been gone. Harry remained silent knowing all too well that Snape was simply using the opportunity to impress Hermione although he wasn't very fond of it. As far as Harry was concerned, Snape behaved like a right jackass and leaving a frightened and insecure Hermione behind to navigate pregnancy alone was one of the lowest things Snape had ever done to someone he'd cared about aside from his telling the details of the Prophecy that haunted Harry all his life to the despot Voldemort of all people.

Snape knew he'd never by Potter's favorite person, especially after everything had been revealed but he didn't mind seeing the smile on Ellie's face if nothing else.

Hermione had been quite impressed with Snape's apparent skills and attempted to downplay how much so. She's still been on guard about him, a force of habit given the nature of their association. He'd been her rather suspicious Potions Professor, allied spy, then enemy Headmaster and a murderer by all accounts but then even now...she couldn't bring herself to completely write him off. She knew first hand what he had gone through in his youth and even more of his torments during both wizarding wars. She couldn't even get the images of the night they made Ellie out of her mind no matter how hard she attempted to ignore them.

At the time, she couldn't understand why she had not been enough for him.

Snape had been the first to clear away his dishes once he'd been done eating. He volunteered to clean the rest and kept to himself mostly. Harry found himself watching Hermione when she least expected it. He could see the confliction behind her eyes and something akin to longing before it was quickly buried via her avid sense of duty and concern for her child whom had been quite sleepy at the moment.

"Come along Ellie, it's time for a bath and to put you to bed." said Hermione scooping her drowsy little girl into her arms.

Ellie attempted to protest, but one glance from her father as he stood at the kitchen sink made her change her tune almost instantly.

Hermione looked over at Snape quite impressed with how quickly he'd gotten Ellie to behave. Normally, she and Harry would have had a rather difficult time settling her down and getting her ready for bed. Then again, this was Severus Snape, former Head of Slytherin house. He had been keeping little snakes in line since before either of them were born. His own daughter had been no exception it seemed.

Ellie rushed over to Snape and briefly hugged him the moment her mother helped her get out of her chair. He treated her to a small smile before turning back to the dishes as Ellie marched toward the stairs with her mother.

{Perhaps Severus being around isn't such a bad thing at all.}

Harry turned his attention back to Snape.

"You don't deserve them you know." he said still unsure what Snape's game plan of sorts had been.

"On that we agree." replied Snape still busying himself with cleaning the dishes.

Harry looked at the man for the longest time unsure what to make of him for a few moments. He'd been sure that something happened to him. Something that not even the war could explain for him to return. He made it a point to keep from being found by anyone, especially Hermione before hand.

A brief silence fell between them before Harry had finally spoke what he had been trying so hard to suppress.

"Are you still in love with my mother?" he asked folding his arms across his chest. "Is that why you left her?"

Snape stood still for the longest time before turning to face Harry Potter, meeting those all too familiar emerald green eyes. The same eyes that once belonged to Lily Evans before her life had been prematurely extinguished courtesy of the despot and Snape himself given his actions.

"I will always love your mother." Snape admitted honestly.

Harry had figured as much but he knew that Snape also had feelings for Hermione despite his attempts to hide them.

"For the longest time, all I could think about was her." continued Snape. "I was consumed daily with the very thought of her even once the dust had settled and The Dark Lord had been declared dead."

Harry sighed.

"Then why...Hermione?" he asked.

Snape sighed.

"I've asked myself that question so many times." he replied making his way over toward the counter. "Truth be told, I had not known anything about the woman I went to bed with that night...I was given to drink and haunted memories at the time."

Harry recalled seeing the man before him that night. He'd been stumbling drunkenly in the Hogshead Inn after having been released from detainment. His eyes were dark and his mood foul despite the victory at hand. Snape seemed to have been in a good deal of pain but Harry had been much too upset with him to invest any effort in concern for him. Dumbledore's death lingered all about Hogwarts as constant as the dust of the despot's corpse following that killing blow.

"It wasn't my intention to hurt her." continued Snape with something of a far away look behind his eyes. "I just needed to take my mind off things...it was a rather dark time for me all things considered and being Undesirable number one wasn't in the least amusing...no matter the victor I was branded a traitor and hunted via my peers."

Harry knew all too well what that had been like for the dour man. A bit of guilt swelled up inside him as he looked over Snape.

"It's all water under the bridge Potter." said the dour man. "All I want is to have my daughter in my life...if nothing else...I can accomplish at least that."

Against his better judgment, Harry found himself flicking his wand and walking over to Snape. He met his gaze head on and looked at him as if he'd been attempting to peer into his very soul.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." he said before taking a breath. "Hermione's still in love with you Snape...for whatever reason...your disregard for her and your child had not damaged her affections for you too much then again she's always been sweet on you."

"Potter..." began Snape unsure of what to make of this new information.

"You'd better not hurt her again." warned Harry narrowing his emerald green eyes at his former Professor. "If by some miracle she manages to let you back in...you'd better not break her heart again or so help me Snape, I'll see that you pay for it."

"Bold words, Potter." replied Snape with an arched brow.

Harry had not been the least intimidated.

"I meant what I said." he replied not wavering in his intent.

Snape sighed once more and nodded.

"Duly noted." he replied. "Now if there is nothing else..."

He stepped away from Harry and continued to finish off the remaining dishes left in the sink from their meal.

"I mean it Snape." said Harry once more. "You deserve at least a chance to try and patch things up."

After that Harry took his leave of the notoriously solitary wizard knowing he had to see to his own packing for the trip come morning and he wished to be home in time to do so. Snape spent the remainder of his task in silence briefly reflecting on the events that had just transpired. It seemed Potter had been reluctantly rooting for him in a sense. Although they had a complicated history, he had not wished any harm to come to the boy aside from minor annoyance and it seemed the former boy had the same respect of sorts for him.

Snape found himself looking down at his hand where Sidney Sinclair's wedding ring had once been. Harry Potter had been protective of Hermione even in that strange place so far beyond his reality here.

"Hermione." he said thinking of the woman who's tears had broken through his icy exterior.

So many times he had made her cry and the haunting recollection of the last time seemed to linger in his mind.

She needed him and he had been no where to be found.

This time...this time will be different...this time he'd be there even if she turned him away.