MARRYING SNAPE- mypseudonym

All the usual disclaimers apply.

AN: Sorry for the long wait guys. My Internet has been on-again-off-again lately, so I couldn't really use it during my usual times. Anyway, this chapter is another one I wrote by hands, given the circumstances.

Chapter 13

A week after the students left Hogwarts, the Army was officially ready. They all lived in the castle and trained in various places around the castle - including the forest. Dumbledore's plan was to draw the Dark Lord and his minions to Hogwarts, so it was vital that the army knew how to fight on any part of the Hogwarts campus. No one drew the line at the youngest warriors so much anymore, as every former DA member had proven him- or herself as a valuable soldier.

As Hermione led her aerial battalion in their daily jog, Lavender Brown ran up to the castle. She ran straight into the Headmaster's office, interrupting one in a never-ending series of meetings.

"Miss Brown, what is it now?" Dumbledore asked.

"Sorry sir, I didn't mean to interrupt. I just couldn't wait to tell you that the Ministry finally agreed to look into the Marriage Law again. Can you believe it! It didn't even take me one full year of prodding!" she exclaimed, trying to catch her breath.

"That's wonderful, Lavender. Perhaps you should share this with the others- maybe someone you don't have to interrupt." snapped an extremely weary Remus Lupin. It was nearly time for the full moon again, and Remus had been working almost all through the night of his transformation. Lavender recognized her cue to leave and bustled out of the office. She hurried down to the Hospital Wing to tell Tabitha.

Tabitha was expressing appropriate sentiments when Hermione jogged in straight from her run. She usually spent this time before lunch with Daisy and Jordan. Today, she was nursing a heavily blistered hand. Everyone in the Hospital Wing turned to look at Hermione when she sat down on one of the medical cots.

"Aunt Hermione, what happened?" Jordan asked, turning over her hand and looking at the cluster of blisters, a token of gratitude from her broomstick.

"It's nothing, just some blistering. I thought I'd let you and Daisy apply the soothing cream and wrap it up for me. It's not difficult." Hermione said. The children cleaned it, applied the soothing potion without difficulty, despite a hiss from Hermione and a half-hearted attempt to wrench her hand from Daisy's grasp.

Lavender, in one unpredictable moment of tact, refrained from mentioning her development in repealing the Marriage Law in front of Hermione and the older Snape children.

Maddy ran in and jumped up onto the cot beside Hermione as Daisy and Jordan wrapped her hand securely in clean, white bandages.

That afternoon, while the children were occupied with learning to make potions from Alex in the dungeons, Hermione took it upon herself to put Severus Snape through the gauntlet once again. It had taken Hermione and Alex a full week to get him to become a sane man attacked by grief and guilt. Usually, they tried being nice and gently prodding him in the right direction. Well, Hermione was fed up with being nice. He'd had a nice long vacation from reality, and now it was time for that plane to land. She was going to tell him the truth and hope that it would make him stronger, rather than break him.

She entered the room, gruffly shutting and locking the door behind her. "Good afternoon, Professor Snape." She began tersely. He looked up at her before focusing his eyes once more on the braided rug at his feet. "I suppose you've had a lovely vacation in here, escaping from everything, but I think it's high time for you to come back and take up your responsibilities once more. It's exhausting for poor Alex to cover your responsibilities as well as his own. Quite a lot has happened since you started hiding."

"If I recall correctly, Miss Granger, it was you and my dear brother who locked me in here. I'm not inclined, therefore, to pity either of you for having to pick up the slack." Severus sneered. Hermione slapped him soundly.

"Since I know you haven't been informed, I've decided to come here to tell you everything that has happened since Julia's death. Perhaps then you'll realize just how much we need you and how selfish you're being by staying in here. It's high time you get off your bloody arse and help out!" Hermione yelled. Snape seemed unphased by her attacks.

"I doubt that, Miss Granger. For, as you can tell, my principal purpose of supplying our friends with information has been compromised. I'm of little worth now, just cannon fodder. But by all means, tell me your little story. If nothing else, I could use the entertainment."

For every moment up until dinner, Hermione regaled her former professor with tales of the past few weeks. She told him about Alex, the children, the school, the Order, the DA, and the war. He seemed particularly enraged when Hermione told him of his parents coming and taking away Morgan and Quinn while Daisy and Jordan were hiding. With every sentence, Hermione became more and more convinced that telling him all of this was the right thing to do. Each sentence was a shot of life to him- a burst of anger for the greasy Potions Master. When she finally finished, Severus was standing up, looking much more like himself. She told him to get cleaned up and meet her outside the door because it was time to go to dinner. Tonight, Severus Snape would reenter the real world.

When Hermione and Severus entered the Great Hall for dinner that evening, they didn't attract as much attention as Hermione thought they would. Perhaps people just saw Hermione walk in with a tall, dark-haired man and assumed it was Alex. Alex, Daisy, and Jordan were already seated at a table with Harry, Ron, Tonks, and Maddy.

"I don't believe it!" Alex murmured, spotting his fiancée and his brother at the other end of the room. Daisy followed his gaze, gasped, and took off running across the hall. Jordan was right at her heels. Severus Snape, the cold Potions Master, stood in the middle of the hall, hugging his children. Albus got up from his table and welcomed Severus back.

After a moment, Hermione managed to drag the little family back over to the table. Maddy ate while sitting on Hermione's lap so that there was a chair available for her 'Uncle Sev'rus' right between Jordan and Daisy. The meal itself was conducted quietly, but there was a lot of love at the Snape table.

That evening, Severus decided that there should be some changes to the living arrangements in his suite. Hermione and Maddy moved downstairs permanently. Alex kept the master bedroom, but he now shared it with Hermione every night. Severus bunked with his son while Daisy opened her room to Maddy. It wasn't really a big change for anyone, since Hermione and Maddy had been sleeping over regularly since Alex and the children came to Hogwarts.

The next morning was Severus' first day of life in the army of the light. His family did everything they could to help him out, including building him a schedule. He did the morning training with the rest of the army, spent the late morning working on strategies with Albus, Remus, and occasionally Harry. In the afternoon, he took over Alex's job of teaching his children how to make some of the most common healing potions. They would be in Poppy's office during the actual battle, making all of the potions that Poppy and Tabitha would need most.

Hagrid stopped Hermione at the beginning of her afternoon session with her aerial team. She was prepping the equipment while her team set up the targets.

"Afternoon, 'ermione! I've got a presen' for ya!" Hagrid called. Hermione turned to see him leading a dozen Aethonon (see definition at end) out of the forest. The beautiful winged horses followed obediently.

"Oh Hagrid! They are beautiful!" she exclaimed, striding over to pet the lead horse on his nose.

"Yes they're beautiful an' dead useful too. I thought those might be better than those broomsticks. I thought abou' bringing ya some hippogriffs to use, but the bowing an' all that might be a bit impractical for the war. This lot is all just like Muggle Horses- 'cept for the wings of course." Hagrid said, chuckling slightly. Hermione examined the horses and saw that each one was equipped with a saddle and bridle. Hermione's team had finished setting up the targets, randomly scattering them through the battlefield, and had gathered around to see the Aethonon. Several other soldiers were watching as well.

Hermione looked at her group. She had mainly younger DA members, which was good because the immediately accepted her authority without question. They were chosen because they were light, fast, and comfortable flying. They were all trained to fire spells from the air as well as fire magical arrows. Many of the soldiers were still having trouble with the bow and arrow though, because it required two hands. They also couldn't move and shoot at the same time on their broomsticks. Hermione could see a real benefit in having winged horses.

"Okay team, these are Aethonon. We're going to try working with them today. Listen closely, we're going to fly over the battlefield once, turn smoothly over the forest and pass over the field again, firing arrows only. After one pass, we'll land on the far side and see how many kills we got. Understood?" Hermione explained. The group nodded in assent. "Good! Mount up!" she ordered, swinging herself into the saddle of the lead horse. Her team scrambled to grab their equipment and mount a horse. Hermione whistled and the horses took off toward the forbidden forest, rising into the air. As they came out of the turn and streaked through the sky, Hermione wrapped the reins around her wrist and readied her first arrow. After she fired, a volley of arrows followed from her team. Every arrow found its mark and every mark was hit. Best yet, they were too high in the air for the most malicious of spells to hit them. When they landed, Hermione saw that most of the army had turned to watch the team on horseback glide through the mid-afternoon sun. Hermione decided that the Aethonon would suit her team's needs quite well. She ended the practice instructing each team member to get to know her horse, even name it.

Lavender tracked down Hermione immediately after dinner that evening. She was out of breath again and excited. Alex continued on with Severus and three kids, leaving Hermione alone to hear what Lavender had to dish out. It was almost certainly not appropriate for the whole group to hear.

"Spill in Lavender; what's got you so excited?" Hermione asked, hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible. She didn't much like taking time away from her family to indulge Lavender's gossipy instincts.

"I did it Hermione! I got that bloody law repealed! Now I don't have to fear that horrid little boy and his disgustingly doting father anymore!" Lavender explained, narrowly escaping squealing with glee.

"That's wonderful, Lavender! I'm so proud of you! You got yourself out of a sticky situation, saved Tabitha, and saved yourself from the Ministry all without doing a thing that wasn't perfectly legal." Hermione said, genuinely feeling happy for her former classmate.

"Yes, it feels good- not just for me either. It's wonderful to think that all those girls and women are free now. Why, you and Alex are no longer legally engaged to be married." Lavender explained, not even really looking at Hermione. The latter felt as though her heart had fallen into her stomach. She and Alex didn't have to marry, but she was looking forward to becoming Mrs. Alexander Snape as soon as the imminent threat had passed. Now would Alex even want to get married- now that he didn't have to? Hermione knew she was acting silly, but she couldn't help but be a little sad. With a heavy heart and an overflowing mind, Hermione Granger trudged gracelessly back t her quarters. She took a moment to compose herself- with some amount of difficulty- before opening the front door. She knew Daisy, Jordan, and Maddy would still be awake. Hopefully, just talking with the little ones would pull her out of this gloomy mood.

Sure enough, Hermione was able to push her troubles to the back of her mind. She could tell that Severus knew just from irrepressible Legilimency that she was upset about something. Hermione skillfully avoided meeting his gaze all evening. That night, when she and Alex were in bed and she was almost certain he was asleep, Hermione cried silent tears into her pillow.

Fortunately, Hermione didn't have to wait long to find out what Alex thought of Lavender's actions. The next morning, the abolition of the Marriage Law was the front headline of the Daily Prophet. Hermione found it ironic that the enactment of the Marriage Law was buried but the abolition of the aforementioned law was front page news. When Alex picked up the paper, Hermione stared fervently at her lap- afraid to see his reaction. She heard his chair scrape back. The next thing she knew, he was looking up at her from the floor.

"Hermione Jane Granger, will you marry me?" he asked.

"Of course." Hermione said happily, wrapping her arms around him as they both stood quickly. He seemed only slightly inclined to notice her lack of surprise and confusion. It isn't every day that your fiancé proposes.

"You knew about this already, didn't you?" Severus asked. Hermione nodded. "Is that what Miss Brown wanted to tell you last night?" She nodded again. Fortunately for her, Hermione's future bother-in-law let the conversation drop at that.

AN:

Aethonon: breed of winged horse, chestnut in color, lives mainly in Britain. (according to the Harry Potter Lexicon)