Previously on The First Date….

"Marry me," Severus asked abruptly.

"Are you crazy," Molly said, a mixture of light-headedness and feverish coming up to her. She never imagined another man, let alone Severus Snape, would ask her. "…I can't, Severus. Not like this."

"I'll let you think of it, Mols."

—

Molly felt very groggy on waking, but she didn't have the luxury of thinking for even a moment that yesterday had been a dream. Then yesterday turned into the day before yesterday, and that turned into a week, and before she knew it had almost been a month. She hadn't slept a wink since the proposal. But did she really want it to be a dream? Even imagining that occurrence, she felt a lurch of disappointment in her midriff. So Severus' proposal must be something she really wanted, or at least a part of her did. But the fact of the matter was, what she wanted was not the entirety of the matter, no matter what a romance novel might have led starry-eyed teenagers to believe. She had an entire family to think of, and that family was grieving. Groaning, Molly ran her hands through her hair and pushed herself out of bed. She needed to confide in someone. The only question was who.

Molly's first thought was Bill. He was the eldest and the only one of her children married, besides, Molly told herself, Bill does not have any old grudge against Severus. It was settled then. She would make a house call to see Bill and Fleur (and of course dote on her infant granddaughter).

She, then, busied herself in the kitchen (no unexpected house guests should come empty handed!), and almost as if by magic the aroma of yeast and baked goods filled the air. She hummed to herself, wondering what Bill would think or even her younger children. Charlie would be happy, Percy would at least be civil, and as for the others, Molly dread at recounting Severus' proposal.

Meanwhile, Severus was sitting outside. It had been nineteen days since he proposed and Severus was stumped. He had not heard any signs of Molly, nor have she been to class. It was obvious what her answer was and Severus was sad. It was obvious what her answer was and Severus was sad. Sad, not because of a marriage proposal rejection - Severus was never entirely for marriage, he told himself repetitively. He was sad because he truly cares for Molly; she had become something of a good friend. "Lily," he murmured, his eyes sweeping over the gravestone before him. "Why does this always happen? Another friendship... gone."

Little did Severus realize that a pair of very-much-alive green eyes was fixed on him in widened astonishment. Harry had come to visit his parents' graves. It was a private tradition he began after the war ended, to come about once a month. After so many years of not even knowing his mother and father had graves, he found it peaceful, somehow, to be near them. He would sit between them, mostly in comfortable silence. He had tried talking aloud about what was going on – his auror training, Ron and Hermione, his relationship with Ginny, but that had felt too forced.

Now, Harry could not believe what, or rather who, he was seeing. Severus Snape was kneeling in front of his mother's grave, a quietly dejected look on his face. It really shouldn't be such a surprise, knowing what he knew, but Snape had not been heard from in the Wizarding World for more than a year. Harry certainly had not counted on actually having to see him face to face again. He strongly considered just walking away before the man turned around, but somehow he couldn't do that. So he cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Er... Professor Snape?" Dumbledore would have been proud.

Severus closed his eyes at the sound of Harry's voice, "I suppose you come to talk to your parents." He stood up; Harry noted that his once-feared professor looked more human and vulnerable without his black cloak.

—

"Hey, Bill," Molly said, at the same time that Severus responded to Harry but she was standing in front of Shell Cottage, instead of Godric's Hollow cemetery. "How are you, dear, and Victoire? I made scones!"

"Hi, Mum!" Bill said in welcome surprise. He looked every bit the stay-at-home father he currently was, being on a 2-month leave from Gringotts. Victoire had obviously just been introduced to pasta, which was all over her, the kitchen, and Bill. Molly immediately took charge and had the place, her son, and her granddaughter sparkling clean in five minutes flat. While Bill put Victoire down for her nap, Molly set the table for two. Fleur had taken her little sister to London for the day, so it would just be her and Bill. That suited Molly just fine. She had grown to love Fleur, but this wasn't the sort of thing for a three-way discussion. Molly sat down and waited, tapping her wand distractedly until sparks flew from its tip.

Get a grip, Molly, she told herself firmly. It was hard to wait, all the same. Suddenly she was so impatient to get the weight off her chest and share it with someone.

Bill froze at the threshold, eying his mother warily, "Mum? Everything okay?"

"Oh, yes, dear," Molly said, waking up from her stupor and pocketing her wand with mild embarrassment. "Sit down. Do you remember my friend Evan Prince?"

"Your muggle friend?"

"He proposed to me about three weeks ago."

—

At the same time, Harry had just asked Severus where he had been in the past year since the war ended, after he successfully gotten Severus to sit down with him. "Out in the muggle world," Severus mused, his eyes on stone's engravings, "proposing and breaking good friendships."

Harry's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You proposed to my mum?!"

In contrast, Bill handled the moment with more grace. There was a long pause while his eyes widened, narrowed, and widened again before returning to normal. "...Just to clarify, Mum. You mean a marriage proposal, right? Not... I don't know, a business proposal?"

And much like the differences between Harry and Bill's reactions, the news breaker responded wildly different ways.

"She did, the plan was to wait until we were thirty," Severus said with a wry chuckle. "No, Potter, I proposed to your other mum."

"Of course, it was a marriage proposal," Molly said. "Have you ever seen me take a part in business." It was true Molly had no head for business, before Bill came along Molly's plan was to go into teaching which she did for a little bit until she had the twins. At that point, she decided caring for three young kids and twin babies while working part-time was a bit too much.

—

For a moment, Harry's head was filled with horrifying images involving Snape, mistletoe, and Aunt Petunia. "You dated Petunia."

"Petunia, no," scoffed Severus, swatting Harry on the head. "She hates me... more than she hates magic." He shook his head, folding his hands into his lap. He breathed, and then looked at Harry's emerald green eyes. "I proposed to your other mum, the witch."

"My mum," Harry blinked. Severus groaned, hiding a smile at the morbid fun it is to be evasive once again. "Tonks? McGonagall?"

"Seriously, Potter, Tonks and McGonagall?"

"Sirius! You proposed to Sirius!"

Harry dodged Severus' hand narrowly, "I don't know! I don't have that many motherly figures, a lot of fathers like Sirius, Lupin, and Dumbledore but he was more like a grandfather."

"Weasley's parents," Severus said, almost dropping the act.

"Arthur and Molly," Harry nodded. "Yeah, they're like parents to me," he paled, his green eyes brighter by the contrast of his pure white face of terror. "You proposed to Mrs. Weasley? You're Evan Prince!"

Bill blinked owlishly. "Huh. Okay." "Don't sound so surprised, sweetheart," Molly said wryly. "I was once considered quite the catch, you know, but six pregnancies does tend to ruin your figure." "I'm not surprised," Bill said quickly. "Merlin's beard, Mum! You're still a catch. Any guy would be lucky to have you. I just... I didn't see it coming, that's all."

"Neither did I," Molly admitted.

"So, are you going to say yes?"

"I don't know," Molly said, sipping her tea. "It's a complicated matter."

"Mum," Bill said with a frown. He reached over, grabbing his mother's hand into his own. He noted that she looked frail and old, which worried him greatly. "Mum, it shouldn't be complicated. If you're worried what my brothers and Ginny will think, we would be happy, no, ecstatic that you're happy again. Dad would have wanted you to move on."

"You have always been a bright boy," Molly said with tears. "But, I'm afraid it is a bit more complicated. Evan and I never dated, not really, and well, Evan's true identity is that of one Severus Snape."

—

"Well spotted, Potter," Severus said. His enjoyment fizzled back into melancholy. Yet he couldn't help but notice the speed with which Harry connected the dots once he has it nearly spelled out to him word for word. "Molly mentioned me, did she?"

Harry's head was spinning so much that he could barely focus on the beak-nosed face in front of him. He struggled valiantly to shove new images involving mistletoe out of his mind. "Huh? Uh, yeah. She... well, she didn't talk about you a lot, but she obviously really enjoyed talking about you. Er..." Harry took a moment to get a grip on himself. He was an auror-in-training for crying out loud. If he couldn't handle something like this, how was he supposed to handle dark wizards? Part of him was busy shouting: Forget Voldemort! How am I supposed to handle something like this? This is a hundred times worse! But he shoved that away and met Severus' eyes with real concern.

"So...what happened?"

Meanwhile, Bill looked floored. "Are you pulling my wand, Mum?" he asked faintly. Molly tapped her fingers against her cup of tea. There it was, what she had been afraid of. A hopeless romantic might have defiantly declared that it didn't matter what anyone thought as long as she and Severus loved each other, but Molly had never been that sort of person. She could not extricate her life and choices from her family's good opinion. "No, Billy," she said gently. "I can genuinely say that Severus Snape has been my best friend for weeks, and he proposed marriage to me less than month ago. It does change things, doesn't it?" Severus Snape, an accused war criminal. But Bill was shaking his head slowly. "Mum...it doesn't change what I said. Sure, it makes it harder, but it's not really about him. Not to me, anyway. It's about you. Does he treat you well? Do you like spending time with him? Do you feel like a better person when you're around him? Those are the questions I want answered, not what his name is."

—

"What is there to say," Severus said after a long pause, uncertain how to respond to Harry's question (or if he even wanted to answer it). "I became friends with an unlikely redheaded woman, got to know her, said something stupid, and lost a friendship. Sounds familiar, Potter?"

"The something stupid you said this time... was a marriage proposal?" Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Er... have you tried talking to her since then? I mean I know you seem to think it's the same old story all over again, like with my mum, but to be honest, the red hair sounds like about the only thing they have in common. And Mrs. Weasley... I bet she get hold a grudge like nobody's business, but not for something like this."

"No," Severus said shortly.

"Why not, you scared," Harry asked genuinely. "You proposed to Mrs. Weasley. You must've felt something. I'm going to propose to Ginny - don't tell anyone - and believe me it is not easy. I mean, I'm excited and love Ginny, but it's scary. I'm putting my heart on the line and I have never done that before." Harry looked over at Severus earnestly. "Proposals don't really seem like the sort of thing one just blurts out for no good reason."

"I have already ruined enough lives," Severus said flatly. "The whole point of going to the Muggle world was to prevent ruining any more. I will not bring more pain to the woman I -" He stopped himself, unsure of what he had been about to say, but Harry obviously thought he knew.

"So you're just going to cut and run?" he challenged. "Remember what you said to me once? 'Don't call me a coward.' Just think about what you've been doing lately. I meant it when I said you're the bravest man I've ever known, but when it comes to your personal life... You're no coward. You don't deserve to do this to yourself."

"I'm not brave nor a coward," Severus denied. "I left because I was tired of the wizardry world, of people making me out to be some sort of hero. Of course, you and your Gryffindor nobleness won't understand. Molly treated me as a friend, not a Slytherin or a death eater or God forbid a hero. We were friends and I, I will miss," he trailed off, oblivious to his younger companion's grin. He was going to miss Molly desperately, miss the way she blushes at mild embarrassment or the disapproving glares of young girls' attires.

—

"I don't know," Molly said finally. "He was a good friend after your father died, we had both lost someone, and I guess one thing lead to another." She mused, setting her tea down. "He's a change man. I think he... opened up to me, showed a more vulnerable side to him that no one... has seen..."

Bill was watching her closely. "You look like you do when you talk about Dad." She looked far from radiant in either situation, but she had the same solemn, soft shine to her brown eyes. "I don't want to push you toward anything, Mum. I just...I don't want you to miss out on something that would make you happy, because you're worried about what us kids would think."

"I just never thought I will find someone, much less Severus Snape," Molly confided. "I remember when my gran married my grandpa, I was - oh, about nine and barely remember my birth grandfather, I asked Gran if she still misses my grandfather after all of these years. She told me yes, but that my grandpa was... different. That they were soulmates like her first husband and her were too." She chuckled. "I never understand it until now. Bill, your dad completed me in many, many ways. I still love him and I may never stop, no one can replace him, and I can't replace him. I think I grew up finally, and now needed something else."

"I won't say I get it." Bill shrugged. "I can't imagine wanting to be with anyone but Fleur."

"And I hope you never have to, sweetheart," Molly said fervently, looking into her son's handsome, scarred face. He was still handsome; he would always be handsome to her. And so was Severus Snape, she realized with a small jolt of surprise. Somewhere along the way, she had grown fond of his large nose and black eyes, but hadn't there been an increase in… enjoyment... when she watched him do yoga?

Bill watched his mother intently when Victoire woke up screaming. He groaned, began to apologize to his mother, who cut him off with a wave and said, "I raised seven. Go to your daughter," she stood up, shouldering her bag, "and, Bill, thank you, I think I know what to say."

"I'm proud of you, Mum," Bill said, hugging Molly. "So is Dad." He withdrew away. "Now, go get my former professor," he cringed and almost as if on cue Victoire continued her screaming, "and please hurry before I realized how awkward that phrase is and/or before my kid destroy your eardrums."

—

I cannot let her get away, Severus thought, leaving Harry by his parents' graves.

How silly of me not to notice the signs, Molly thought, leaving Bill to calm his screaming infant daughter.