AN: I am so sorry for my absence! It was a combination of a very busy time of year and some family problems we were working out. I'm so glad to be back, and excited to be catching up on reading stories i've fallen behind on as well. I hope people enjoy the bit of a turn the story takes in this chapter. :)
Severus sat in that warm kitchen, watching Teddy with his oversized apron mixing the dough for the biscuits as Ginny slapped away Ron's hands as he tried to sneak some of the warm ones before they cooled properly.
"So did Harry sort you out proper, then, Severus?" Ron asked, laughing as his sister tried to fend him off.
"I survived," Severus replied dryly, a perfect miniature of his older self's dry and avoidant humor.
"I believe the miscreant regrets his misbehavior," Harry laughed. "And that should be enough said."
"Walloped him good, then, did you?" Ron smirked.
"That's none of your business!" Hermione reprimanded him with a smile. "Poor Severus, I'm sure whatever correction Harry gave was embarrassing enough without you teasing him about it. Harry cares about him, and Severus doesn't look overly distressed. I'm sure it's come to a decent conclusion."
"Fine, I won't tease the lad," Ron agreed. "As long as I get some of those biscuits while they're still warm."
"I think we could work out a deal," Ginny laughed at him, winking at Severus. "I want poor Severus left alone as well. That's worth a few biscuits."
"It seems that everyone's on his side against me!" Ron exclaimed, snatching a biscuit.
"What's that?" Severus asked, looking at the window, trying to look away from the obvious affection he was being shown.
"Oh, we've got an owl," Ron told him through a full mouth. "Wonder who it's from."
"It's for you, Ginny," Harry said as he took the envelope from the owl. "This isn't your mother's owl."
"Who's that from, then?" Ron asked.
"Charlie," she replied, studying the envelope. Breaking the seal, her face quickly turned serious. "He got my letter about postponing the wedding," she told the group. "But his schedule has already been set, he can't really change his time off."
"Didn't Bill have the same problem?" Hermione asked softly.
"Yes," Harry nodded. "It's put kind of a damper on the wedding."
"They can just come for the day," Ron sighed, explaining to Severus. "But we were hoping it could kind of be some time together as a family that we haven't had for a while, you know . . ."
"Since the war," Ginny confirmed. "Since we lost Fred."
"You were supposed to be married?" Severus asked, confused.
"We decided to postpone it," Harry explained to him. "With, well, with everything that's happened we decided to postpone it a bit."
"So I ruined your wedding?" Severus asked, horrified, realizing that he was what Harry meant with "everything that's happened."
"In your defense we hadn't told Professor Snape the date because we were waiting to confirm with Bill," Harry told him. "Your adult self didn't know."
"And it's not ruined," Ginny told him. "It was going to be well, altered a bit. But now, I don't know."
"The original date is what, three weeks away?" Hermione asked. "I mean; I know why you changed it originally, but I'm wondering if that still makes as much sense as it did when you changed it . . ."
"We could do it, you know," Harry told them, locking eyes with Ginny. "You game?"
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, confused. "Do what?"
"I'm game," Ginny grinned recklessly, knowing what Harry meant. "People are more important than perfect details, right?"
"And are we wizards or what?" Harry grinned back.
"All we really need is a bride, a groom, a license and an officiant, right?" Ginny asked. "Everything else is just extra."
"I'll help!" Hermione declared. "You already have several of the parts done already anyway. You have the dress, and we can use the tent that Bill and Fleur used at the Burrow. Then it's just a matter of the church and the invitations, right?"
"And the food," Ron grinned, catching on. "Mum is going to have a cow."
"What's happening?" Severus asked, looking at the adults like everyone had gone crazy.
"Your Dad's getting married," Ron told him. "And we have three weeks to get it all together."
"We'll need your help," Harry told him. "Severus, planning a wedding in three weeks is a really big job, and everyone needs to pitch in."
"What can I do to help?" Severus asked, feeling shocked that he could actually do something, let alone how things were unfolding. It was a little disconcerting to go from feeling as if he were being sent away to feeling as if he could actually be part of something like a family wedding.
"We're going to start by asking Mum to come over," Ginny decided. "Invitations have to go out tonight, and we need to see if we can still book the church. Severus, can you help me with Teddy?"
"What do you want me to do?" Severus asked, eyeing the messy youngster.
"Can you give us half an hour without him?" she asked, flicking her wand and shaking the flour from his clothes and hair. "Maybe take some biscuits?"
"He did like me reading to him," Severus told them smoothly, as if he had been reading to children every day of his life and was completely competent at it.
"Great!" Ginny told him. "Give me a half hour to calm my Mum down, and then I'll need your help with invitations, okay?"
Something about they way that Ginny asked him to help her made Severus feel warm in his stomach, as if he were a person that could be helpful and that Ginny could just ask to do things. As if he hadn't just acted in a crazy way and pushed Harry and endangered a small child. As if he belonged in this strange family.
"Could you take him in his room?" Ginny asked. "It has a silencing charm on it, and that might help if mum gets emotional."
"Come on, Teddy," Severus invited. "You can pick out some books from my room, and then I'll read to you."
"Read?" Teddy echoed, suddenly uninterested in anything else as Ginny removed the apron from him.
"Here, take these biscuits with you too," Harry put some on a plate as Ginny was quickly penning a letter to her mother. "Thanks, Severus. I'll come get you when we're ready for the two of you again."
Severus found himself ushering the small boy into his bedroom, his few precious books tucked under his arm. He didn't know how many books he could read in a half hour, but he figured he should give himself enough that he wouldn't have to entertain the youngster without help.
"Biscuits?" Teddy asked as they entered the bedroom.
"I believe your Godfather sent us with some for you," Severus offered him the plate. "Let's sit down and read."
"You too, Sevr's," Teddy smiled, settling down on his bed. "Biscuits for you too."
"Okay," Severus agreed, taking one of the treats as he opened one of the books. "And I've agreed to read to you until the grown ups say they're ready for us."
"Will Gma be mad?" Teddy asked.
"I don't know," Severus answered. "I'm not sure why she would be; she wants them to be married I think. I think they just want to talk to her, and maybe she'll get all mushy and things."
"Read!" Teddy demanded, suddenly uninterested in speculation. "Read story!"
Smiling a little bit to himself that the boy so clearly wanted him, or at least the fact that he could read to him, Severus settled himself down and began to read, slowly and carefully to his attentive listener.
Roughly a half hour later Harry came into Teddy's room, his heart warmed by seeing his son and his godson reading together with an empty biscuit plate. Originally his hopes had been mainly just that Severus wouldn't be overly awkward with the small boy, he had no such hopes that they could actually get along like this. But to see them so cozily ensconced like this – it was beyond his wildest dreams.
"I think it's safe to return downstairs," Harry told them softly, reluctant to break up the moment. "Grandma would love to see you two."
"Is she unhappy?" Severus asked warily, closing the book.
"I would more say surprised," Harry told him honestly. "But not too bad. She's just, you know, extra sensitive because it's her only daughter, and her youngest child. She'll be right, though, she likes me and she does want Charlie and Bill to be here. She understands why we want to do it sooner rather than later, so now she's just in a huge rush to get everything done."
"How many Weasleys are there?" Severus asked, wrinkling his face a bit.
"Seven kids," Harry explained. "And Ginny is the only girl. Of course, there's only six now, after, you know, Fred . . ."
"I know," Severus nodded.
"Teddy, head in to Grandma and we'll catch up," Harry told him. "I want to talk to Severus for a minute."
"I didn't hurt him!" Severus insisted, suddenly worried.
"Of course not!" Harry agreed. "Do you really think I would have left him with you if I thought you would hurt him? No, I just wanted to talk to you a bit about the wedding is all."
"Do I get to go?" Severus asked carefully. He would understand if something like this was for just, you know, real family.
"Don't be silly," Harry told him. "Of course you do."
"Do I still get to live with you after you're married?"
"Of course," Harry answered patiently, trying to remind himself that Severus wasn't actually trying to be insulting, that he really didn't think adults would be kind to him. "Though you are going to stay with Ron and Hermione here at the house for a few days while Ginny and I are gone for a few days on our honeymoon. But don't worry, we'll be back. Do you think that will be alright?"
"I can do that," Severus agreed.
"But when we come back from our honeymoon we'll all live together here," Harry explained. "Ginny won't be here most of the time like now, but all of the time, like Hermione and Ron."
"What do I call her?" Severus asked, confused.
"Well, what do you call her now?" Harry asked.
"I mostly avoid calling her anything," Severus admitted.
"It would be nice if you could figure out how to call her mum," Harry told him honestly. "I mean, I know she's not your real mum, but she's going to be your mum from now on."
"I don't think she'd really like that," Severus told Harry sadly. "I mean, would she? She's never really said it."
"She would," Harry reassured him. "I know she would."
"I could just keep avoiding it," Severus told him. "It seems easier."
"It's a long time to avoid it," Harry told him. "You'll be living with her a long time. But I'm not going to push you, you can do it when you're ready. And there's something else I wanted to talk to you about, the mum thing wasn't it."
"What was it, then?" Severus asked, suspicious.
"Ron is going to be my best man, of course," Harry told him, ignoring the suspicious tone. "But I want you to stand with me when I get married as well. We want to acknowledge that you are part of the new family we are forming."
"What would I have to do?" Severus asked, wondering. He really only had a vague idea of how weddings worked, to be honest.
"It won't be hard, I promise," Harry told him. "Mostly just wearing fancy robes and standing beside me in the ceremony. But I want you to know that you are part of this ceremony too. Ginny and I are making a new family when we get married, and you're part of that new family too."
Severus didn't answer, and looked to Harry to see if he were trying to lie or to fool him. It just sounded too good to be true.
"Grandma is anxious to see you," Harry told him, clapping his shoulder a bit. "Come along. We can talk more details as it gets closer."
"Severus! Darling!" Molly Weasley greeting him as they entered the kitchen. "How sweet of you to keep Teddy occupied while we were planning!"
"Hi Grandma," Severus greeted her a bit shyly as she kissed his cheek and generally fussed over him.
"And you will be standing up with Harry too!" she enthused. "How grown up you will look!"
Severus, thoroughly embarrassed, looked away and smiled a bit to himself. It was embarrassing, certainly, but it also felt a little good to be fussed over like this. Molly Weasley certainly had a way of making him feel as if she really did care about him.
"So did we solve the problem with the church?" Harry asked them.
"The church we'd hoped for is booked," Ginny told him. "When we'd cancelled they'd put someone else in."
"We could just get married in the tent," Harry told her. "You know, where we're having the reception."
"There's also other churches too if you'd rather," Hermione encouraged. "The church at Godric's hollow is mostly in disuse, so I think you could use that pretty easily. We could just expand it a bit to hold everyone, and then port-key back to the reception at the Burrow."
The rest of the wedding chatter went on around Severus, mostly unnoticed, as he watched the main players interact. He thought of the family he had known before, and how rare it was that there was even talking that didn't end in a fight – let alone something cooperative like this. He couldn't remember a single time that he sat in the kitchen with his parents talking and he felt safe like this. But here he was in a kitchen full of people talking – and he realized that he really did feel safe. Nobody here was going to hurt him, nor was it going to disrupt into a dramatic fight that would end up with one of the women cowering and crying in a corner either.
"Severus?" Ginny asked. "Did you hear what your father asked?"
"No?" Severus answered, looking at Harry, trying to look like he'd been paying attention.
"I just asked what you thought about cake flavors," Harry grinned back at him. "Ginny likes the traditional fruit cake, but I really like chocolate. What do you think?"
"Chocolate," Severus replied definitively, even though he'd never tried a traditional fruit wedding cake. In his books, anything chocolate was automatically going to be that much better.
"See?" Harry answered with a laugh. "Chocolate wins!"
"That is neither here nor there," Molly laughed. "Just have a chocolate layer and be done with it. Now, we have to get these invitations out tonight, and we're going to have to ask the Headmistress to borrow Hogwarts owls to do it with, I'm afraid. Now Harry, the original invitation listed Professor Snape as your father, and that gets complicated of course . . ."
"Don't list parents," Ginny told her firmly. "Everyone coming knows whose daughter I am, and everyone in the whole wizarding world knows who Harry is, so let's just keep it simple."
"Simple," Harry nodded gratefully at his soon to be wife. He did feel an expected twang of sadness at not having Professor Snape as his father on the invitation, but he agreed that it would be awkward. And they were moving forward, not backwards.
"I'll owl the headmistress then," Hermione volunteered. "The Hogwarts owls could have all the invitations out in no time."
"George, I know your copying skills are excellent," Molly directed. "Let's see them put to good use now! We need two hundred of these invitations as soon as we can, and I will heat the wax for the seals."
"My obedience is not an admission of guilt," George snickered. "But yes, I am rather good at this."
"Here, Severus, you can help me with the seals," Molly invited. "There will be simply so much to do in the next three weeks!"
It wasn't until Severus got into bed that night that the excitement of the weekend was finally put out of his mind enough for him to realize he faced lessons with his Governess the following day.