Severus Snape had inherited his stubbornness from his mother.
When the truth had been revealed to her, Mrs. Prince refused to fully accept that her sweetie-son had been clever enough to erase all of her memories. However, being led around by the nose under everyone's gaze was not something she took to lightly and she felt the proper punishment would be to keep Severus' cat ears for the duration of Hermione's stay. She said it made him look darling, but it was really because she found it much easier to box him that way.
During their stay, Severus taught Penny how to refill vessels and make objects levitate in the air. He taught Vinny how to chop ingredients for a simple potion. As for Hermione, he did his best to be cordial with her until the moment he loaded the last of their bags into the red Mini Cooper. Then, she could have sworn that his eyes had dropped a bit as he mumbled a quick 'goodbye' and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Mrs. Prince made up for that awkward farewell by promising to keep their rooms intact until next summer, should they care to visit Cokeworth again. There was a mischievous glimmer in her eye when she told Hermione that, "no other Mrs. Snape and children will do, but you, dearies."
When they pulled up in front of the Dursley's home, Hermione was surprised when Penny and Vinny gave her a great, big hug and told their parents that they had the 'best summer ever!'
And when Hermione noticed that there was no mention in the Daily Prophet about their appearance in Cokeworth, she decided that they were correct.
It became a yearly tradition for the Dursley children to visit Cokeworth. Neither their Uncle Harry nor Mr. and Mrs. Dursley understood the children's sudden fascination with the English countryside.
As far as Mr. Dudley Dursley was concerned, two children out of the house were better than two inside: faces blue from the computer screens that teenagers so often spent their time by.
Mrs. Giovanna Durlsey concluded that two children who returned home tanned and a few pounds heavier and with smiles a few inches larger than before, were a blessing on the family.
Ms. Hermione Granger was a proper sort of nanny.
The following summer, they agreed to let Penny and Vinny visit Cokeworth again. It was completely free of stregas and totally unmagical (or so they thought).
Penny and Vinny gathered their bags and their books and their abnormally large collection of magazines and toys (which were actually Hermione's old Hogwarts school supplies) into the red Mini Cooper and were on their way to the Black Sheep Bed and Breakfast with their new favorite nanny. They spend the whole car ride reading through Potions Weekly and Transfiguration for idiots and casting spells on each other.
Every year, they would come and stay for at least a month. Of course, it had to be in August when the gooseberries were ripe for the picking.
Ms. Skeeter had her happy ending as well. Turns out old Toby had swallowed her whole and after a bit of coughing on his part and a whole lot of transfiguration on Severus' , she had been brought back to her human form. Although not all in one piece and looking a bit crumpled.
Her wits had taken a turn for the worst. Now as docile as a lamb, she spent her days being wheeled around in a little chair about the garden by Mrs Prince and her evenings playing mahjong with the elderly couple across the street.
As soon as the Mini Cooper would pull up, she'd wave and smile a crooked (and lipsticked) smile and give a cheery 'hullo!' and Penny would always be the first to give her a big hug.
There was always much work to do around the house and the garden.
Severus, of course, was the master when it came to the matters of his green paradise, and was determined to care for it alone.
His garden was his own pride and joy. He was not only a good wizard, but a very good horticulturist. Why, he had to be, with fingers like his!
Hermione could not be permitted to help. Not after her fiasco with beheading his favorite marigolds, tempering with his lilacs and letting her little subordinates meddle with his gooseberries.
So, she watched him work from the comfort of her bedroom window, but naturally, her curiosity overtook her. She was determined to learn. And in her usual, impatient manner, she'd begged him to let her help.
After days and days of persistent begging, Severus finally agreed to instruct her. When she got her hands into the dirt, she was determined to become the best gardener and tried…perhaps a tad too much.
She'd water his cukes so carefully, that the ground would dry up the moment she left the greenhouse. As a result, their skins would be tough to the touch and dark and bitter to the taste and the seeds, far too large.
His toms she'd leave out in the shade, and they'd come out too small and not fleshy at all.
"Better luck next year?" she said sheepishly after his fickle squashes refused to plumpen.
"There will be no next year. Not with your impatience and your haste," he said with a snarl.
After a summer of bickering about it, Hermione left Cokeworth damning him and his entire garden to the dogs.
Then, deciding to act like the female variety of their specimen, came back the next summer with a new boyfriend and a 'devil-may-care' attitude. Severus, despite initially stating that he didn't care if she was carried into his mother's BnB by the entire shirtless Auror Department, decided that he would be more civil with her if she'd only dispose of the lad.
So the boyfriend went and he had agreed to teach her to tend to his gooseberries as reconciliation.
At first, he led the way in his instruction. After all, gooseberries may be sweet, but could hurt you with their prickles if you weren't careful.
"There's nothing to it, just reach in and grab them," she cried, reaching her hand in to pick one succulent nub.
Severus held her back from his bushes and explained that there was a protocol.
By squeezing one plump, juicy gooseberry between your fingers you could tell if the branch was ready for picking. This was the perfect test to determine a gooseberry's readiness.
This had made Hermione blush for she didn't think it would be prudent to ruin the product with the rough handling. And it was all rather silly, and inefficient. And her blushing made him reconsider if she was the right witch for the job.
This was no magic-schmagic. This was horticulture.
He concluded that was that for the day, and perhaps forever.
Mrs. Prince had, watching them from the window, caught him at a later time and explained that perhaps, witches just need a bit of coaxing for the job. When she was a young witch, she had a great many things to learn about the blossoming world and if he was going to be such a grouch about it, perhaps he would miss his gooseberry.
So the following afternoon, Severus invited Hermione out. Again. She hesitantly accepted.
When she broke an entire branch of the plant off, he had to force a smile on his face and assure her that nothing bad would become of his bushes if they were tempered with from time to time.
So the picking began. First hesitantly, and then little by little, his bushes became familiar to her and she learned to tame them expertly.
By the end of the summer, they'd both become quite good at squeezing the gooseberries. One might even say, they'd taken a fondness for the activity (and might I add, came dangerously close to exterminating large numbers of the produce at hand).
And when they were done their picking, and their lips were red (from all the gooseberries they sampled) and their clothes all wet (from the heat of the greenhouse and vigorous work), they'd bring their harvest inside and help Mrs. Prince brew a delightful fruit punch for supper.
Mrs. Prince, too, was delighted to gain two grandchildren. Perhaps not the ones she's expected, but the one's she gladly accepted.
By now, Penny had become quite good at transfiguring the napkins into perfect swans and she'd taken a liking to the matters of managing the home.
Vinny had come to appreciate not only the taste but the preparation of food. He was a gifted brewer. Severus had once given the boy this compliment, mainly to cheer him up after he'd made a passable hollandaise after which Vinny declared that with his success, we will also help Severus replace all of his potions (the ones Penny tempered with).
In those hot summer evenings, they set the table up with fine china and glass goblets. Severus made a roast and Mrs. Prince made her famous punch. Hermione would bring fresh rosemary for the potatoes. Ms. Skeeter would smoke by the window and babble about some silly neighborhood gossip and draw shapes in the sauce of her plate. Toby the cat would nibble at her fingers (for old times sake).
And one night, there was a visitor at the Black Sheep inn. She came dressed in green robes and had square glasses and a tight bun above her head. She admired the transfigured napkins and praised the well-brewed hollandaise sauce and then demanded in a thick Scottish accent, why these two young Wiccans were not admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?
That will be a story for another time.