A/N: Thanks, guys, for all your kind words! Here now the conclusion of the story.
And once again a huge 'thank you!' to Ouatic-7 for beta-ing!

A Happily Ever After

Hermione stepped into the entrance hall of her home with a relieved sigh. Friday, finally, with an entire weekend ahead of them. With the weather this nice, maybe they could go down to the shore... not for swimming anymore, but surely for a nice stroll along the cliffs.

She took her jacket off to put it on the hanger when her gaze fell on the small side table next to the staircase. Oh good! Severus had picked up the books she had ordered from Flourish and Blotts last week! Just right in time for a nice, relaxed evening in front of the fireplace. The days were still pleasantly warm, but it got chilly as soon as the sun set. In her opinion, this was the best time of the year – spending the day outside and then snuggling up to her husband in the evening with a cup of tea and a good book.

Hermione stepped out of her business heels and noticed the pair of trainers lying rather randomly near the staircase. Obviously, Sebastian was home from school. He never put his shoes into the closet, no matter how many times she asked him to. Well, at least he had remembered to take them off before going upstairs; she counted that as a success. She picked them up and turned towards the closet, nearly stumbling over the toy train Helena must have abandoned mid-play. Shaking her head, she picked it up as well. Hopefully, it wasn't falling on her face again that had caused the distraction. Having only mastered the art of walking recently at a rather late age, she tried to make up for time lost by running faster than her little legs could carry her yet.

It had been quite a surprise when only a couple of months into her second marriage, Hermione had found herself pregnant. The unexpected news had put her in emotional turmoil at first... What would Severus say? They had never discussed children; neither had given much thought to the possibility. Hermione had believed herself infertile, and the likelihood of Severus fathering children had seemed low, considering he was almost fifty. So neither had thought about protection, and, for once, Hermione didn't have a contingency plan.

While she had longed for kids when married to Ron, she now loved the job she had at the ministry – she had worked so hard for it! Back then, everybody had expected her to become another Mrs. Weasley, and somehow, Hermione had never thought to protest the idea. She had been so young, wanting so desperately to find her place, to have a family again. She had never questioned what she really wanted out of life. Only with Severus encouraging her – even pushing her – to pursue her dreams, had she finally found herself and true fulfilment. Having kids had not been part of the plan anymore. While Hermione had felt spontaneous joy at finding herself with child all of a sudden, she just couldn't picture herself as a stay-at-home mum.

Contrary to what she had expected, Severus had been thrilled at the news. And a little smug, too, at having proven his virility and having outdone Weasley once again, as well as a little apprehensive about his own parenting skills. Having her husband's full support had made it easier for Hermione to get used to the idea, and in the end, everything had fallen in place. Severus worked from home anyway and was rather flexible regarding his hours. They had two very enthusiastic elves to help as well, so they were in the lucky position to be able to balance work and children with relative ease. And Severus had turned out to be a much better and more patient parent than teacher. Of course, it helped that their kids weren't dunderheads.

"Severus? I'm home!" Hermione called, when a quick glance into the study revealed it to be empty. At this time of the day, he was more likely to be found either in his laboratory or upstairs in the playroom with the kids.

At the sound of her voice, Teddy, the kid's beloved Kneazle, rounded the corner, rubbing against her calves and purring contentedly when she pet him. "Hello beauty! At least someone is here to greet me. Where is everybody?" Intelligent as he might be, Teddy couldn't answer her question, and wasn't interested in seeing her go anywhere, anyway.

"Topsy? Turvy?" Hermione called, and the latter popped into view.

"Master is being outside with the children," the elf informed Hermione, wringing her hands distractedly. "Missy Sophia fell off her broom."

"Oh my, did she hurt herself?" Like any mother, Hermione didn't even wait for an answer and rushed outside, expecting the worst. There was no need for her panic, though. She found her husband sitting on the swing, a still slightly sniffling five-year-old on his lap. The sight always warmed her heart, or at least it did whenever there were no tears involved and her own heart wasn't beating up her throat.

"Severus! What happened? Is she okay?"

"Relax, Hermione, the little minx is fine," her husband soothed her worries. "She thought she could outrace her brother on her play broom. Well, she couldn't. Tell me, why are all our kids such boisterous savages?" He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears and the mucus off his daughter's face.

"I don't know. Must be my Gryffindor genes." Hermione crouched down so she was on eye level with her daredevil daughter, who always had to prove that she was just as good as her brother in everything. "Hi, honey! Are you still hurting?"

Sophia shook her head. "No. Daddy hexed it all better."

"Making something good is charming," Sebastian, ever the know-it-all, lectured his sister. "Hexing is bad. And cursing is really bad, like when you say the f-word."

"Right", Hermione laughed. "So always be charming like Daddy and don't use curse words." She tousled her son's hair and kissed Sophia, who seemed to have regained her composure. "Now, where's my little angel?"

She threw a glance behind the rose-bushes next to the swing and saw her youngest daughter standing awkwardly next to the sandbox, shovel and bucket still in her hands.

"'Lena peed," her youngest informed her unhappily, looking down at her quite wet pants. Though she was progressing with her potty training, she was still having accidents, and they had obviously all been distracted with Sophia's broom incident.

Severus sighed and waved a quick drying charm at her. "That's okay, button. We'll get you all cleaned up in a minute. Sebastian, take your sisters inside and put away your brooms. Your mother and I will be coming shortly."

Sebastian nodded, grabbing his youngest sister's hand in one hand, his broom in the other. Lena let herself be hugged by her mom, and Sophia hopped down from her father's lap, picked up her own broom and followed behind.

Severus watched his brood wander off and got up to greet his wife. "Welcome home, darling," he said, only sounding slightly ironic. He sometimes wondered if there was less mayhem at the Ministry these days than at Prince Manor. "How was your day?"

"Actually, it was quite successful," Hermione beamed, putting her arms around his neck. "My last proposal for the amendment of the educational decree was met with approval from most of the committee members. I'm positive that they will pass it this time. It was a good idea to meet with Horatia Greengrass first and get her support. Thank you for suggesting it." Hermione gave him a kiss. "How was yours?"

He shrugged. "The usual. The modified base for the Wolfsbane has remained stable over night, even with the Re'em blood added. If adding the valerian root doesn't cause an unforseen reaction, I'm hopeful that this is the right approach to make the effects longer lasting. Sophia and Helena only fell and hurt themselves once each, so altogether it was rather quiet. Sebastian got a poor mark in his last math test – turned out he hadn't understood the principle as well as he thought he had. I went over it with him again, though, and I think the sickle has finally dropped."

Sebastian attended a regular Muggle school instead of being home-schooled like so many young wizards. Hermione and Severus both wanted their children to be familiar with the Muggle and wizarding worlds alike. Harry and Ginny shared their view on this, and Lily had insisted on attending the same school as her childhood friend. With the upcoming term, Sophia and Minnie, the Potters' youngest, would follow. James and Albus, the older Potter boys, already attended Hogwarts.

Severus was happy not to be teaching anymore, with a brood of Potters roaming the castle. Talk about history repeating itself... Lily, the spitting image of her grandmother with her father's eyes and her mother's hair, had been friends with Sebastian since their diaper days. It had been inevitable with Hermione, Ginny and Harry seeing each other regularly and insisting the whole family needed to come along ever so often. Harry and Severus still weren't best friends, but they tolerated each other well enough for the occasional get-together.

"Minnie wants Sophia to sleepover at the Potters' this weekend; Ginevra sent an owl earlier. Oh, and Helena actually made it to the potty in time twice this morning; she was quite proud of herself."

"Sounds like you had a pretty successful day too," Hermione said, smiling at his sun-kissed face. His complexion was healthier than ever now that he spent so much time outside. Running after the kids all day and taking care of the gardens and the greenhouse also kept him nicely in shape. Even well into his fifties, her husband was, in her opinion, a most attractive man. While his customary frown was still etched into his features, there were many laugh lines, too, and he was more relaxed than Hermione had ever seen him in younger years.

"You know what?" Hermione's face brightened thinking of the suggested sleepover. "I have a most wonderful idea: I'm sure Sebastian and Lily would love to hang out as well. Let's see if we can persuade Ginny and Harry to extend their invitation and send Helena to stay with Arthur and Molly."

Thankfully, her ex-in-laws had never ceased to consider Hermione their daughter. They had even adopted Severus into the family, becoming surrogate grandparents which their children otherwise wouldn't have nearby. The Grangers had preferred to stay in Australia after Severus had finally managed to restore their memories, just as he had promised. It still had taken him an entire year and all of his expertise in Legilimency and Potions combined. But eventually, the research, the experiments and the long hours spent in his lab had paid off. Restoring the relationship between Hermione and her parents afterwards had been an equally long and difficult process. They had missed more than ten years of their daughter's life and couldn't easily forgive that Hermione had taken the choice away from them. It had been Severus who had finally set them straight, telling them in no uncertain terms that they owed Hermione their lives, as they had, indeed, been high on the Dark Lord's hit list. That had finally brought them around.

"Foist our little heathens on other people and have a quiet evening to ourselves?" mused Severus. "Sounds wonderful!"

"Actually, I was thinking that the two of us could check into a nice hotel in Dublin and go to that concert we both had wanted to see... We could have a romantic dinner beforehand, and afterwards..."

"Yes...?" Severus was all ears.

Hermione kissed him again, then let her lips trail along his jawline. "And afterwards," she purred into his ear, "you take me up to our room..."

"Mm-hm..."

"... and peel the beautiful new dress I intend to wear for that evening from my skin... it's silk, it should slide well..." She nuzzled his earlobe. "And then you put your wicked mouth to work... and those beautiful hands... until I'm a trembling mess, fully at your mercy."

"How I love to make you shudder..." Severus murmured, tightening his arms around her waist and pressing her to him, showing her exactly how much he liked it. Hermione sucked in her breath. Even ten years into their marriage, her husband always managed to moisten her knickers with a few words and his apparent desire for her.

"Is that a 'yes' to my plan?" Hermione asked, boldly sneaking her hand to where his enthusiasm was most prominent in the confines of his jeans. Severus usually wore jeans and plain shirts when he was home – though nobody outside their family would ever spot him in anything but his formal robes. He had compromised on the black though, and would occasionally wear charcoal or navy to please his wife.

"It's a shouted hurray, wife!" Severus declared, taking her hand away before they could get into mischief. There were kids to attend to. "Send that owl out now."

Hermione laughed and obeyed. She had no doubt that Molly would agree to babysit Helena again. She was only ever happy when there were people around she could dote on, the more the merrier. Thankfully, Molly and Arthur always made sure that neither Hermione nor Severus ran into Ron at the Burrow.

After the fateful incident at the Ministry, they had first seen him again at Lily's baptism two weeks later. It had also been the first time Hermione and Severus made an appearance as a couple in public, and it had caused quite a stir.

On seeing her among the guests, Ron had been relieved, not having noted yet that she hadn't come alone. Up until then, he had still been convinced that Hermione had been held against her will despite Harry's assurances to the contrary. He had apologized to her in typical Ron fashion: blaming his actions on anger, the stupid law nobody could possibly have taken seriously, and the alcohol. He was hopeful that she had forgiven him by now, assured her he hadn't meant it and would, of course, take her back.

Hermione had been too flabbergasted at his audaciousness to even respond. When Severus, who had chosen that moment to appear by her side, had put his arm around her possessively and hinted smugly that it was too late for that, Ron had lost it, causing a scene once again by acting utterly disgusted, accusing Severus of having forced Hermione into consummating the marriage, calling him an ugly git and a lecher, who had ruthlessly taken advantage of the opportunity to get into her knickers. At which point Severus had drawn his wand and Hermione had punched Ron square in the face.

Arthur, bless him, had intervened before Severus could try out the spell he had researched and attach Ron's southern anatomy to his face... after all, there were children present. He had silenced his ranting son and pulled him aside, where Molly, Harry and Ginny had tried to talk some sense into him. In vain, of course – Ron had left outraged and feeling betrayed.

His anger had been even worse when he had been forced to move out of their house. After Hermione had settled her debt by selling it back to Gringotts, the Goblins had demanded a rent from him that he was by no means able to afford. Not able to find anything else on short notice, he had moved back in with his parents. According to Ginny, it irked him beyond measure to hear that Hermione and Severus lived in a fancy mansion while his own life was going downhill fast.

Not able to deal with the public disgrace on top of it all, he had eventually quit his Auror's position and accepted a rather measly paid job as a trainer with the Baknaufer Kreischrecken, a second-division German Quidditch team. He now lived in Freiburg and was rarely back in England to visit his family.

Going abroad had been the most sensible thing he could have done. Nobody there knew of his shameful past, and although he wasn't a celebrity on the other side of the Channel, he wasn't scorned either. He had never married again though. A previous marriage was always made known to a new-bride to be, it changed the magical signature of the groom. And who would want to marry a man who had sold off his first wife in an auction?

Since then, whenever they met, Hermione and Ron tried to ignore each other completely, an approach made difficult by Severus, who far too much enjoyed rubbing it in that she was his now, and that he was the proud and happy father of her children. He was never as openly demonstrative with his affections as whenever Ron was about, hugging and kissing his wife, and basically shouting 'mine' into Ron's face at every opportunity. Seeing them both with their kids and having the public accusation of his wife being barren thrown back into his face so prominently probably hurt even more. Consequently, Ron avoided the Snapes like the plague.

Stepping into the owlery, Hermione saw a foreign owl sitting on one of the perches. It had a rather suspicious, pink coloured parchment attached to its foot that had Severus' name on it, surrounded by hearts. Hermione snorted. Surely, not again?

She relieved the owl of its burden and gave it a treat so that it would take off. Just as she had suspected, it was another fan letter to her husband. He had gotten quite a few of them in the aftermath of the baptism, and the occasional one ever since. A young (and daft – Severus' words, not hers) new journalist at the Prophet, having witnessed Ron's embarrassing behaviour, had been very impressed with the united front Severus and Hermione had presented, especially since Hermione left no room for doubt that she was Hermione Snape now and intended to carry that name until her death.

The witch had made some discreet inquiries among the guests and had subsequently presented a rather romantic take on the events at the ministry to the reading audience. This had turned the tide for Hermione and Severus in public opinion, as she had painted Severus as a knight in shining armour who had selflessly rushed to rescue a damsel in distress. An unauthorised biography emphasizing his bravery, his spying for the light and his protectiveness for the women he loved, had further cemented people's convictions that he was a misjudged and unrecognized hero. Since then, Severus had acquired quite a fan base among young witches – much to his chagrin. The piles of fan mail he received (and promptly burned) would have made Lockhart jealous.

Hermione grinned and pocketed the letter. It was always amusing to watch its reception. Most likely, her husband would refuse to even open it, but she could always read it out to him. He would probably lament again how much he had preferred being the greasy git of the dungeon – someone who was fearfully avoided and left in peace. He grumpily did so whenever they walked through Diagon Alley and people didn't automatically scatter on seeing him approach.

Hermione knew that it wasn't true. Severus, as rarely as he showed it to anyone but his closest family, was happy. Thanks to an archaic law that she had since managed to get abolished, they had both gotten a fairy-tale ending: a happy marriage, three awesome kids, jobs they loved and a good income. Not to forget friends and family and public support.

Strolling back to the house, Hermione's eyes took in the beauty of their home: the blooming wild flowers amid the grasses that were gently swaying in the wind, the abundant fairy rose bushes bursting with colour, the swing and the sandbox behind the now fenced-in pond, the stables that had been made into a lavish laboratory, and the beautiful manor.

The toss of a coin had altered her life, but it had been, in every respect, a turn for the better.