A/N: Erg, I'm beginning to rethink my plan of pulling an all-nighter. Anyway, I think this'll be the last chapter for a week or more, because I'm leaving on vacation.
Disclaimer: I own nothing… especially not Harry Potter
Happy Reading!
Chapter Four – Proposing
Molly rushed off after Severus to assist with breakfast and talk to him. Everyone else settled down happily enough, drinking beverages that Harry pulled from thin air and chatting. They opened gifts as they talked, and Harry received several interesting gifts, including a dead mouse from Hedwig, who was staying with Ron, and Defending the Defensive, a book about (what else?) defense against the dark arts from (who else?) Hermione. Soon, Molly had finished breakfast and everybody ate, and they were all settling down to talk about the weather when the doorbell rang. The room fell silent, for nobody else had been scheduled to drop by. Remus grabbed up his wand and stood up, accompanied by Ron and Harry, who pulled their wands from their jeans. Christine was sent into the kitchen and ordered not to leave until told to do so.
Severus stood and walked to the door, imagining all sorts of horrible scenes in his mind in which Ministry workers told him that they had found Miranda, dead in the streets. He knew this was impossible, for everyone thought he was dead, but the thought was still there. He opened the door, expecting to see something random, like a mailman or maybe a Death Eater. He opened the door and saw, not a Ministry worker, a Death Eater or even the mailman. It was Miranda. She stood at the door with a large box in her hands. Her boots were almost completely destroyed and she herself looked like a wreck, with her hair a mess and her clothes dirty. Severus and Miranda stared at each other, he looking faintly surprised and she looking like she might fall to pieces. Ron and Hermione exchanged stunned expressions. Molly sought Arthur's hand and held it tight. Remus didn't seem to notice that his glass of Butterbeer was overflowing onto his hand. The room was filled with a screaming silence.
"Severus," Miranda said in a sickly quiet voice. "You were right. I can't leave. I haven't been able to do magic since I left –"
Tonks gave Remus a pointed look at this statement and Remus realized that he was still pouring from the Butterbeer bottle.
"– and I wanted to come back, Severus, but I was too proud and too ashamed of what I said to you. But you were right. I can't leave, Severus, I love you too much and –"
Miranda's monologue was cut off as she found herself wrapped in a suffocating embrace. She dropped the box to the floor and hugged him back, tears falling freely from her eyes.
"And I thought you wouldn't want me anymore," she finished tearfully.
"What?" Severus said in disbelief, his brows furrowed. He pulled away and took her head in his hands, then rested his forehead on hers, their eyes connected. "I love you, you idiot."
"Ah, Sev," Miranda said wistfully, and then he kissed her.
Harry was so elated that things were coming back together that he forgot to be disgusted with his ex Professors, who were kissing in the doorway. Ron looked faintly sick and Hermione had a crooked grin on her face, as if she was trying not to smile. Fred and George exchanged mock lovey-dovey expressions and got a whack in the back of the head by their mother. A loud shriek pulled the reunited couple apart.
"Mummy!"
It was Christine, who had evidently decided that she was sick of waiting in the kitchen. Miranda dropped to her haunches and her daughter threw herself in her mother' arms. Miranda picked up Christine and hugged her tight, then waved a finger at the box, which levitated off the ground and shot up the stairs. Miranda took Severus' hand while holding up Christine with the other and joined the festivities, beaming as she had in her wedding video. Shortly after this tearful reunion, however, the doorbell rang again. Severus and Miranda exchanged quizzical expressions.
"Did you invite anybody?" Severus asked, brows furrowed, and Miranda hit her forehead with the heel of her palm.
"Oh, I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I invited Trish over for Christmas ages ago! She's – uh oh."
Severus and Miranda, as well as Harry, who knew what was going on, jumped up.
"Hide any traces of magic," Harry ordered. "It's a Muggle friend from the town."
Instantly, as if it had been rehearsed, everyone rose to the occasion, hiding traces of magic and gifts that littered the floor. After wrestling a trick wand from a protesting Christine, the house was ready. It had only been a few seconds. Miranda backed off to the door and unlocked it to show Trish that she was coming. She cast a silencing spell on the door so that Trish could not overhear what Miranda said. She pointed to herself, then Severus, and finally Harry.
"Maria Simpson, Seth Simpson, Monty Burns," Miranda said quickly as she pointed to the appropriate people. "We're Muggles from the States and you're all visiting. Got me?"
Everyone nodded and Miranda opened the door. Trish stood there, holding a gift and grinning broadly, but her eyes popped open at the sight of the large crowd. She came inside and stared at Miranda.
"Back with him, are you?" Trish said, nodding towards Severus, who pursed his lips. "Who are all you people?"
"They're friends from the States," Miranda replied, taking Trish's jacket and hanging it up. "They stopped by for the holidays."
Trish surveyed the group for a moment before giving her bony chin a nod of approval.
"So, what state are you all from?"
Instantly, answers came from every which direction.
"California!"
"Puerto Rico!"
"Milwaukee!"
"Wisconsin!"
"Connecticut!"
"Yes!"
"Kansas!"
Trish stepped back, blinking and alarmed. The room fell silent and George gave Ginny a strange look, for she was the one who had said "yes" instead of saying anything that had to do with the States. Then Trish laughed.
"Wow, a diverse bunch, are we? Well let' get this party going, then!"
Everyone breathed again and Trish assimilated. As the party went on, Miranda wasn't sure what was better to see, Fred and George slamming Ron's face into the casserole or Trish recklessly hitting on Ron, all the while being watched by a dignified Hermione while Ron tried to get out of his situation. The best part for Miranda, besides being reunited with her family, was unwrapping her present from Severus. It was a pair of brand spanking new dragon-hide combat boots – combat boots that were the same exact design of the ones she was wearing on her feet at the time, through which her black and red striped socks were clearly visible.
Later that night, when the guests had left and Harry had finished scraping the remainder of the frosting from the walls and Christine was asleep, Miranda and Severus sat together on the bed in total silence. He reached up and pulled a chain from around his neck, unhooked it, slid Miranda's ring off, and threw the chain aside. He took her hand and slid the ring back on in its rightful place.
"You'll be wanting this back, I presume?" said Severus as he slid the ring on her finger.
Miranda smiled sheepishly before whispering, "I got something for you."
She rolled across the bed and picked up the box that she had entered the house with. She carried it back over to Severus and placed it down in front of him. He looked inside and then laughed aloud. He reached into the box and pulled out a pair of big, black combat boots, ones that were a different design than Miranda's but combat boots all the same.
"Of course," he said. "I should have known."
"And this," added Miranda, reaching into the box and pulling out something black.
Severus took it from her and laid it out so that he could see what it was. It was like a jacket, only much longer and more durable-looking. Severus could tell that it was made from dragon hide.
"It's a trench coat," Miranda stated the obvious. "It's the closest thing you'll get to a cloak in the Muggle world, and people wear them, too. Muggles wear them like cloaks, see, and you can wear it until we come out of hiding. See? It even billows!"
She had gotten to her feet and pulled the coat on over her pajamas. She spun around in the coat, which was far too big for her, and laughed as it billowed. Severus leaned back and sighed contentedly.
"Looks good on you," he said, closing his eyes in exhaustion.
Miranda laughed and pulled the cloak off, then threw it into the air, where it magically hung itself in the closet. Neither Miranda nor Severus had been able to do magic in the last few days, which showed a definite mark in the strength of their feelings toward one another. Yawning, Miranda crawled into bed and lay down. She snapped her fingers and the lights went out. They laid there in silence for a while before she rolled over and faced her husband.
"I'm sorry I stormed out on you," Miranda said quietly. "I was stupid."
"No, you were right and I was wrong. I admit it. Locking up Christine from living her life isn't keeping her any safer." There was a pause, followed by, "Come here."
He reached out in the dark and pulled her closer to him, enveloping her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his ribcage and pressed her face against his chest. She listened to the rhythm of his heartbeat before speaking again.
"Do you remember the first conversation we had?" said Miranda.
"Of course," Severus replied. "I couldn't forget if I tried. It was raining. You said that you hoped you weren't bothering anybody – you were so polite."
"And you said that I was bothering somebody, undoubtedly referring to yourself, if I am correct."
Severus laughed quietly and she smiled softly, her eyes closed.
"Undoubtedly," replied Severus, holding Miranda tighter. "I was so stern with you."
"Are you not still?" Miranda said. "Like you said back then, I apparently can't take care of myself."
Severus sighed slowly, listening to her breathing and taking in her scent.
"Happy Christmas, Sev?" it sounded more like a question than a wish.
"Yes," replied Severus, and he was asleep for the first time in days.
o-o-o
A thick curtain of snow was falling past the window as Miranda and Molly sat in the sitting room. Harry was out and about with Christine, playing in the backyard while Severus was working. Molly was attempting to teach Miranda how to knit, which she was proving slow at.
Miranda held up a lumpy-looking piece of fabric.
"How's this?" Miranda asked cheerfully, brandishing her multi-colored sweater.
"You're getting there," Molly replied with a chuckle. "There's only one way to improve and that's to practice."
Miranda looked from the sweater to Molly, who was also knitting, and burst into laughter. Molly laughed, too, and paused to wipe a tear of mirth before continuing her work. Miranda watched in awe as the older woman knitted. Her fingers were moving rapidly with the needles, working with the fabric to form something new. Then again, Miranda thought, with having had seven children, practice was inevitable. Even without Charlie around, which was a subject that nobody liked to mention.
"I wish I could have more kids," Miranda said after a silence, staring at Molly's hands as she worked.
Molly paused in her knitting and looked at Miranda.
"And you can't because of the Progenitor Veneficium?"
Miranda nodded. Molly well knew of the charm, but didn't speak of it often. She appeared to be thinking hard, her fingers looking as if they were flying over the thread and needles.
"Well," Molly said. "Can you adopt?"
"I'm not sure," said Miranda slowly. "Something would probably happen to the kid because of the whole 'one kid' coincidence thing. I wish I could change the spell, or even get rid of it."
"Would you really want to get rid of it?" Molly said slowly. "All that power… gone. I could understand how you feel, of course, having had seven children…"
There was another, more lingering silence.
"How did you manage it, Molly? Raising all those kids."
Molly chuckled.
"Lots of work," Molly replied. "Thanks to magic, we had some help. I wouldn't have been able to do it if I was a Muggle – they have to buy all their food, can you believe it?"
"Trust me, I can," replied Miranda, who had a thing for the deli section of the Muggle grocery store. She paused yet again, deep in thought, and then added, "I think I'll write a Muggle story. It'll be about a woman who can do magic and she's hiding from a Dark Lord. She goes to a magic school and meets this really obnoxious Potions Professor. How does that sound?"
Molly, laughing, replied, "It'll never sell."
Miranda and Molly both laughed together, and then Severus came into the room.
"Did somebody say 'really obnoxious Potions Professor'?" he said, crossing the room and sitting down next to Miranda, who was still laughing. He looked at the needles and lumpy sweater in her hands and sneered, "What the hell is that?"
Miranda poked it with her finger and it turned back to thread on a roll. She handed it to Molly, who was standing and preparing to leave.
"It's nothing," Miranda replied hastily, handing the roll over to Molly. "Here you go Molly, thanks for the lesson."
"Anytime, Miranda," Molly replied, taking the roll and needles. "But now I have to meet Arthur – he said something about a request from Harry."
Molly, whose eyes were sparkling, looked up and saw Harry standing in the doorway, covered with snow. When Harry heard this, he turned red and walked back out into the kitchen and outside into the backyard, where he had been teaching Christine to levitate snowballs and make them fly around to hit people. Miranda and Molly shared an expression.
"Did he ask permission to propose?" Miranda asked, ignoring the expression on Severus' face.
"I think it was more for permission to give her a promise ring," Molly replied quietly, smiling. "He doesn't want to make a commitment in case he – well, in case the worst should happen. But they are crazy for each other. They're still in contact with one another. I'm not sure how, but they are. Has she been stopping by?"
"Not that I know of," Severus interjected calmly. "Though I presume Potter realizes that he's not to have any women over."
Miranda snorted and punched him in the shoulder. Molly rose up, bid her goodbyes, and apparated out of the house. When the Weasley mother had left, Miranda turned to Severus and grabbed his hand.
"Come on, let's see what they're doing outside."
Severus grudgingly obliged, not liking the winter weather. They went outside and the second he had closed the sliding door, Severus was hit in the side of a face with a huge snowball.
"Who threw that?" Severus spun around, seething.
Christine and Harry exchanged anxious looks before pointing at one another, both trying to look more innocent. Severus scowled as Miranda laughed, picked up a snow ball, and threw it. It hit Harry squarely in the face, spattering his glasses with water and snow. Before Severus could say "What the -?" Miranda, Harry and Christine were having a vicious fight. Snowballs were flying everywhere, passing each other in midair and striking the house, the trees, and Severus. After about a minute, everyone had ganged up and was throwing snowballs solely at Severus. Fed up with being the target, Severus waved his hand in the air. A dozen or so snowballs formed from the ground and hurdled themselves at the others. Miranda shrieked and dove behind Harry, who got hit for the umpteenth time in the face. A large snowball hit Christine, who topped over backwards, laughing. Having been satisfied with his handiwork, Severus turned swiftly and headed back for the house. Just as he reached out to grab the handle, he was hit in the back of the head with another snowball.
"I'm going to ignore that," Severus said tersely, not turning around. "Until later, Potter. I recommend, however, that you watch your back."
With that, Severus entered the house. He realized then just how cold he was. Shivering, he headed for the shower.
After he finished his shower, he was running a comb through his unruly hair when he heard movement in his bedroom. He opened the door a bit and poked his head out to see Miranda sitting in bed, writing furiously on a clipboard.
"What are you doing?"
He stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a dry set of trousers. Severus watched her as she wrote, all the while working a belt through the loops. Miranda looked up briefly, a pencil behind her ear, and then went back to her paper.
"Writing," was her reply.
Severus rolled his eyes and strode over to her, hooking his belt through the metal clasp and pulling it tight. After an unsuccessful attempt at reading the paper, for she leaned across it, he rolled his eyes and picked up a shirt from the laundry pile.
"I can see that," Severus said shortly. "What are you writing?"
"My life story," she replied. "I'll make millions."
He chuckled darkly and stood in front of the full-length mirror that stood in the corner of the room, eyeing his pale reflection.
"Am I going to be in it?"
"Of course."
His reflection stared back at him with the same expressionless face. Miranda looked up again from her paper at him and slid from the bed. She walked over and stood beside him, looking at him through his reflection.
"What's wrong, Sev?" Miranda asked.
Severus raised a brow.
"You mean besides you calling me 'Sev' when I've told you a million times not to?"
"Yes."
He shrugged and went back to examining his reflection, taking in everything from his pale chest to his hooked nose. Being greasy and mean had not been easy growing up, nor was it easy now. More respect ensued now, after much hard work, but he never found his appearance to be ideal.
"Are you making said autobiography realistic?" Severus asked.
"Yes." Miranda looked at Severus' reflection suspiciously before she said anything. "Let me guess," she mused. "You don't want for me to describe you as you are – you want to be some buff, tanned, silky-haired guy, right?"
He shrugged one shoulder.
"You're exaggerating," Severus said. "But I wouldn't mind if you failed to mention how greasy I am. I really am sick of being greasy."
Miranda tried not to laugh and succeeded in looking kind of twisted.
"Severus, if we somehow only existed in a fictional storybook and our lives were being moved along by some woman and being continued on the side by an aspiring, cracked-out-on-no-sleep starving artist, I'm sure you'd have a huge fan base."
Severus made a disbelieving noise.
"No, I'm serious!" Miranda said. "You'd be right up there with Sirius and Remus!"
"And why is that?"
Miranda stepped behind him and stood on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck and put her chin on his shoulder. They stared at each other through their reflections.
"You're very interesting," she said. "And sexy."
He laughed and pushed her away.
"Shut up," he said seriously, though a smile was on his lips.
He pulled his shirt on and followed his laughing wife out the door and down into the kitchen.
The next morning, everyone in the house awoke with a frightful cold. The house was filled with coughing, sneezing, vomiting and, of course, complaining. Severus was forced to call out sick from work when he couldn't get up in the morning and Christine didn't posses the strength to call Harry 'Uncle Harry'. Harry had the most violent sneezes, and his weak legs would occasionally give out when he sneezed. Miranda whipped up a cauldron of temperature-dropping potion in the sitting room and everyone had a share of it. Though everyone felt a little better, the symptoms were still there and had to be waited out. Miranda had conjured up three cots in the sitting room so that they could quarantine themselves together, but mostly they lounged around on the couches and chairs.
Two days after the sick ordeal had started, Miranda was sprawled out on an armchair, upside down. She watched Severus, who was wearing his old robes and sleeping on the floor where he had dropped an hour before. Harry was reading, occasionally reaching over and grabbing a tissue from the box, and Christine was at the foot of Harry's bed, sleeping on her face. Christine suddenly lifted her head and looked at Miranda.
"Mummy?"
"Hmm?"
"Can you paint my nails?"
Miranda looked at the ceiling for a moment or two before hoisting herself up and turning around in the chair.
"Sure, why not?"
Miranda slid off the chair and onto the ground beside Severus, who was still sleeping with his mouth slightly agape. He alone had objected to staying in the sitting room because Harry was there, but he had just ignored Harry as usual. Harry wasn't complaining. At the moment, he was asleep on the floor and his breathing was wheezy. Christine got to the floor as well and Miranda conjured up some deep red nail polish.
"What color do you want?" Miranda asked.
"Green," replied Christine, smiling.
Miranda laughed slightly.
"Are you sure?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. When Christine nodded, she laughed, "Heh, alrighty then, whatever you want."
Miranda was through with Christine's nails and had magically dried them by the time Severus awoke. He sat up suddenly, causing the little brush in Miranda's hand to jerk and slide over her finger. She cursed and righted her paint. Severus watched her for a moment before his eyes darted to Harry, who had fallen asleep with his book still open on his lap.
"What are you doing?" Asked Severus, eyeing Miranda apprehensively.
"Painting my nails," replied Miranda calmly, spreading a coat over her thumbnail.
"Oh," Severus said dully, then went back to staring at Harry, who had begun to drool in his sleep. "I was thinking."
"Fancy that," Miranda interjected casually.
Severus chose to ignore this last comment and kept talking.
"And do you remember that potion we made to block the Avada Kedavra?"
"Of course," Miranda replied.
Miranda and Severus had worked together and invented the only potion to ever successfully block the Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. It had taken them a long time and Severus had tested it out on himself to fake his death so that he could live freely. In fact, for a few moments, Miranda was sure that the potion had failed and Severus had died. Severus interrupted her dark thoughts with a most interesting statement.
"I want to try and combine it with the remedy," Severus said, picking up the green bottle of nail polish and inspecting it without real interest; he really just didn't want to look Miranda in the eye for this. "I think that if we combined the two, it wouldn't require another person to manually bring the 'killed' person around." He paused, reflecting on his own words before adding, "What do you think?"
Miranda leaned her head to one side, and slowly to the other, as if she was weighing the information and the possibilities. In her mind she went over the properties and the effects of each potion.
"So," Miranda said, her eyes closed tightly as she was thinking. "So we add them together, right? Wouldn't there be a chemical reaction that gets rid of the protecting part of the potion?"
"Yes," he said slowly. "But I think that I know the correct composition that can preserve both sides, so that the protection comes first and the waking part comes after."
Miranda nodded thoughtfully, then raised a suspicious eyebrow at Severus.
"What's the purpose for this again?"
Severus fidgeted with the hem of his robes for a moment, not looking at Christine, who was now trying to read the dictionary.
"Well," he said slowly. "It's really only a matter of time before we're found out. Potter's in more danger than any of us," his eyes darted to Harry, who was developing a drool spot on his shirt, "and if the Dark Lord gets Christine, then, well…" his voice trailed into nothing.
Miranda snorted.
"Severus, I was thirty-three when Voldemort tried to kidnap me. Isn't Christine a little young to be carrying children?"
Severus looked up, his expression spiteful.
"You don't know the Dark Lord like I do," Severus said in a low voice so that Christine could not hear, though she was currently immersed in her dictionary. "His motto is much like Greyback's: capture them when they're young and raise them to do his bidding. When she's old enough he will waste no time – and by then she'll have probably been brainwashed into a slave or a Death Eater." At Miranda's incredulous face he added, "Trust me. The Dark Lord tells nobody anything, but if anybody knew what was going on, I knew the most. I assure you."
"Daddy?" Christine appeared from over the top of her massive dictionary.
Severus turned his eyes upon his daughter.
"I thought you said babies came from the Stork."
Miranda and Severus shared an open-mouthed glance before turning back to Christine.
"Er," Severus stammered. "They do. What makes you think otherwise?"
Christine prodded the dictionary before her.
"Webster."
Severus opened his mouth to reply when a terrible pain coursed through his arm. He jumped up, clutching his left forearm, and Miranda jumped up as well. The sudden movement and the yelp of pain from Severus caused Harry to wake up, looking alarmed.
"Is it the Mark?" Miranda asked worriedly.
"Yes," Severus replied, pulling back his sleeve and examining the skull and serpent that burned black on his arm. "We must begin work on this potion as soon as possible."
"I agree," Miranda replied, her features becoming dark.
o-o-o
That night, Miranda woke up with another fever. She groaned and rolled out of bed, then hurried off in the direction of the bathroom to get herself some fever-lessening potion. Seeing as the potion was in the downstairs bathroom where Harry could easily access it, she walked down the stairs and into the dark bathroom, which was at the end of the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. She walked into the bathroom and stepped in something wet. She groaned.
"Dammit, Christine," Miranda whispered angrily to herself. "I thought I told her to put the curtain in the shower when the faucet was turned on."
Miranda took another step in the water, slipped, and fell. She stood up, grumbling and soaking wet, and groped around for the light switch on the wall. When she found it she flicked it on, and then stifled a scream. She was not standing in water, but blood. Sprawled out on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the head, was Harry.
A/N: I am so out of here.