A/N: Here's the promised (first) epilogue. Huge thanks to all of you who read, followed, favourited and reviewed this story! If you came across it after it was already finished – I'm still happy about every comment you might post, and will, of course, reply to it.
Thanks again to my faithful beta, Dreamthrower, who dedicated a lot of her free-time to help me with this! Couldn't have done it without you!
Epilogue
As usual, the owls came flying in when everybody was sitting at the breakfast table in the Great Hall. The nondescript barn owl that was heading for the staff table clearly belonged to the Hogsmeade Post Office. It landed next to the N.E.W.T level Potions and DADA Professor and dropped the tiny, white Muggle envelope in front of the witch sitting right beside him. "It's from my mum," Hermione said, absentmindedly offering the owl a piece of toast with marmalade, and enlarged the letter. The bird ruffled its feathers in disgust and took off without the snack.
"Hopefully no more bad news..." Severus muttered when Hermione opened and started reading the letter. He remembered all too well the last owl that had arrived for Hermione during dinner at Prince House with Irma and his aunt a few months ago. It had been from Harry, informing them that Ginny had gone missing. Two months of worrying and frantic searching had finally found her in a Muggle hospital, suffering from sustained injuries and comprehensive memory loss. Hermione had instantly taken time off from the ministry and had come back to Hogwarts to assist him with the work on his Memory Potion. He had not been treating it with utmost priority up to that point, as Hermione wasn't even sure if she still wanted to use it on her parents should he be successful in completing it. But now Ginny was in dire need of it, and they had practically been working on it around the clock ever since.
"Oh no!" Hermione exclaimed, staring at the letter in her hand with a dumbfounded expression that quickly morphed into horrified. "Oh God – she can't... We somehow have to talk her out of this!"
"How bad is it?" Severus let his cutlery sink and looked with concern at the young, agitated witch at his side. She didn't look like she was about to start crying – just bewildered and slightly guilty. But he was prone to expect the worst if not told differently.
"Well, that depends on definition," Hermione muttered. "Remember that book my mum is writing?"
He nodded. "The fantasy novel about hidden magicians in Britain?" Hermione had taken almost devious pleasure in feeding her mother ideas for the story: An old castle that was a school for young, magically gifted children; a sports game played on broomsticks; hidden villages and parts of town normal people were ignorant of... In many ways, the story seemed to become a recount of her first Hogwarts years – with only minor adaptions. In fact, her mother had taken so well to the idea and had given such detailed descriptions that he and Hermione were convinced that the memories were not entirely gone. They were just in some parts of her mind that she couldn't consciously access anymore. Unlocking memories that were buried due to trauma or Obliviation was what they were trying to accomplish with the Memory Potion. It had been Hermione's idea to find a way to infuse it with actual memories – just like memories dissolved in a Pensieve. Their hope was that the visual of a memory from another person who was involved in a particular event would stimulate the buried memories in the mind of a person unable to access them actively.
"Yes, the very one. It's almost finished now, and she even found a publisher. But he insisted that 'Harriet' and 'Miller' both sounded too mundane for a heroine in a story about magicians. My mum conceded the point. She says she always loved the sound of what she thinks is my name – Harmony – and decided to play on that... and on Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'. So as of now, the name of heroine is..." She gulped. "Hermione Prince!"
He blinked. "You must be joking!"
"I wish I was!" Hermione wailed. "She loved the idea of having a prince in her story, but given that she couldn't squeeze one in, she figured she might as well use it as name for the leading character. She says it has such a regal sound to it."
For a moment, Severus didn't say anything. Then picked up his knife and fork again, shrugged and said: "Well, she is right. You can't argue with that. In fact, I like the sound of it, too. That's why we have to convince her to stick with Harriet Miller. It might bring the Ministry down on our backs if we don't. They'll accuse us of violating the status of secrecy if your full name suddenly features on the cover of a muggle book about magicians."
"My full name?"
"Hermione Prince. Unless you want me tell my aunt 'no' and prefer becoming Hermione Snape instead?"
Now it was her turn to stare at him dumbfounded. "Are you... proposing to me?"
"Well, I'm proposing that instead of letting your mother make you the leading character in a muggle book..." he leaned closer and whispered confidentially into her ear: "we both know you don't like leading very much, anyway..." before continuing matter-of-factly: "we should make it official that you already play the leading role in my life. I can't guarantee a happily ever after, but a life-long opportunity to slay my dragons, with the occasional chance of fighting with a Death Eater ... you know – about such fundamental things as whether the toothpaste should be bought or brewed, whether the living room cushions should be red with silver trimmings or rather green with gold, and about who gets to wear the warm and extra smelly coat."
He didn't really dare look at her. Was she shocked? Did she think it was too soon? Was she really willing to bind herself to a cantankerous, grumpy old wizard? Before he could seriously start getting nervous about her answer, something dropped on his lap, the momentum and surprise giving it more weight than was actually behind it and eliciting a startled 'grrump' from him. He couldn't say much after that, either, because he had his arm and his mouth full of sweet, delicious and over-excited witch.
Down in the hall, the students sat thunderstruck, staring with their mouths agape at the staff table where the still somewhat scary Potions Master was snogging an ex-student of his at the breakfast table. The staff started cheering. Neither Severus nor Hermione noticed.
*'*'*A few months later*'*'*
Severus stepped back to admire his handiwork. Gazing down at his trembling wife, who was tied to the bedposts with leather cuffs on hands and ankles and who probably would have been begging by now if she had been able to, his stern mask slipped. He was still a good actor, but sometimes, in moments like these... when she looked up at him with that intoxicating mixture of excitement, trust and lust in her eyes, his facade was difficult to maintain. His expression softened, and instead of his signature frown, it showed nothing but love and devotion.
Hermione never maintained shields when she was with him like this, which enabled him to slip into her mind with the same ease he would sink into her warm and welcoming body in just a little while. It was a means to assure her comfort whenever they engaged in this kind of loveplay. Severus wanted to make sure that he never took things too far and involuntarily gave her more than she could handle. He had been more concerned about it than she. Not once had he felt anything in her mind that came even close to fear. Yet he always looked, if only to relish in the emotion that always predominated instead. He couldn't help it. It overwhelmed him time and time again, filling him with awe and wonder. It was his personal aphrodisiac. Her trust was addictive.
Drinking in the beauty of his witch, he let his lips and fingers trail over her soft skin, knowing exactly where and how to touch to banish all coherent thoughts from her equally beautiful, but usually always busy mind, to make her listen to nothing but his voice and the urgent demands of her body. He loved nothing better than to see her come apart beneath his hands, to hear how she gasped for breath, moaned and cried out his name in ecstasy. He knew she was getting close again, now.
"The most wonderful thing to peruse and put my hands on ..." he whispered, as he leaned over her and continued the sweet torment that would push her over the edge this time. "Knowledge bound in leather..."
*'*'*A few months later*'*'*
"Hermione! Hello my dear!" Dumbledore's portrait greeted her cheerfully, when she entered the Headmaster's office to receive a welcome home kiss from her husband. She had been away in Egypt for three days, working on a research project with the Egyptian Office for Mythology and Magecraft.
"Uh, hello," she replied distractedly, her attention diverted by the rather giant black bird that was sitting on Fawkes' old perch behind Dumbledore's old desk.
"Severus? Why is there a raven in your office?"
Her husband, who had grudgingly let himself be reinstated as headmaster after Minerva had retired at the beginning of the year, put his quill down and looked up at his approaching wife. He still wasn't given to bold displays of emotion, but a person who knew to read the subtle nuances in his expression wouldn't have missed the lighting-up of his eyes, the softening of his frown and the slight twitching in the corner of his mouth, which for him was almost as good as a wide, happy smile. Still, he quickly got himself back under control.
"As it seems, he now lives here," he said composedly, as Hermione sat down on his lap and put her arms around his neck.
"I was only away for three days... Did you miss me so much that you had to find yourself company?"
"And chose a raven as replacement?" Severus asked back, crooking an eyebrow and stroking a curl out of her face. "Hardly likely. Had it been my intention to replace you with something less talkative, I would have bought myself a Puffskein. They have a lots of hair, too, are tiny and droll, docile and they squeak a lot."
"I don't squeak!" Hermione said indignantly.
"Yes, you do. Always when I do this..." He pinched the soft spot on her left waist, and Hermione squeaked, then laughed when he tickled her.
"Stop that! Severus, please! I'd rather have you kiss me. It's been three days, and I missed you!"
He complied, doing his best to make up for time lost in those few minutes they had left before lunch break in fifteen minutes.
"So, what's with this bird?" Hermione inquired after thoroughly snogging her husband.
He shrugged. "I found him on the Astronomy Tower with a broken wing right after you left. I fixed it. Now he seems to think that he owes me or something. The stupid thing doesn't want to leave."
"He feels like he owes you?" she echoed, wondering if he had legilimised the bird.
"He keeps bringing me gifts – mice, worms, all kinds of dead things. They were piling up on the window sill before I finally relented and let him in."
On his perch, the object of discussion fixed Hermione with piercing eyes. If she hadn't known that birds were not known for doing such a thing, she would have sworn he was smirking, looking rather proud of himself. "He looks as if he understands every word..." she remarked. "You know, ravens are very intelligent animals."
"If he was intelligent, he'd at least bring me undamaged carcasses I could use for potions."
"Well, maybe you should show him what you need. Ravens are adaptive, too – you can teach them."
He snorted. "As if I didn't have enough dunderheads to teach!"
"If you are so set against it, why did you allow him to take residence?"
"What was I to do? Short of killing the damn bird, nothing can convince him that he's not my pet. I tried."
"But you didn't kill him."
"Of course not. He's a raven. It brings bad luck to kill one. I'm not going to risk the luck I was having lately. I might not be a fan of huge, black birds, but I'm not stupid."
"Well, he seems to have bonded with you. That means he's your familiar now."
"He's my what?"
"Familiar? You know – that special kind of animal that witches or wizards keep around? Like cats, owl, rats, toads..."
Of course he was familiar with the concept – in theory. He'd just never had a familiar of his own. His father would never have allowed a pet at home, certainly not a pet that bonded to a wizard. In Hogwarts, he hadn't wanted to risk it. If he had formed an attachment to an animal, it surely would have suffered at the hands of the Marauders. And later the responsibility on his shoulders had been enough without adding another being to the list of those he had to care for. Or which would care about him... that thought had admittedly been nice. But it was exactly why he hadn't ever bothered to get himself a familiar. Every kind of emotional attachment had been a liability at the time. But now...?
"... spiders, Puffskeins, snakes, ravens," Hermione concluded her enumeration. "While I can't really imagine you with a Puffskein, I think a raven would fit nicely."
"Because it's black and a fierce-looking bird of prey?"
"Yes. And because it's intelligent and loyal. Did you know that they live in monogamous, lifelong relationships? They are said to recognize their partner by voice."
"I recognise mine by her hair..."
"Did I mention that a bat would make a good familiar for you, too? Though that would probably be a bit too obvious – like Draco having a ferret."
"A ferret?" Severus raised his brow in confusion.
"Never mind. – So, are you going to keep him? In order to make him your bonded companion, you need to give him a name."
"It seems I have no choice in the matter. He apparently has adopted me. If he has named me, I'm happy to be oblivious of it."
"How do you like 'Odin'?"
"You think he named me Odin? Like the God of war and death?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "If he did, you should name him Hugin or Munin. Those were his ravens."
"You would only nag me about getting another one to make the pair complete. Odin is fine. It will scare the first years. I'll ask Hagrid teach him what a proper gift looks like. Maybe the bird has some use, after all."
*'*'*About a year later*'*'*
"Oh, stop grumbling, Severus!" Hermione chided. "Of course you're going to accept the honour of being James Severus' godfather. Without you, we probably wouldn't be celebrating a baptism with Ginny and Peter today."
"If I had known that it would lead to having another James Potter roam Hogwarts' hallways in eleven years, I might not have developed the potion in the first place," her husband replied grumpily.
"Of course you would have. Because you really are a bleeding heart beneath all that black and spiky armour. Besides, they're still not decided whether his first or second name is going to be Severus. Severus James sounds nice, too. Would you prefer it if they changed the order of names?"
"Heaven forbid! I told Ginevra that she wouldn't be doing the child a favour by naming him after me altogether, but she was adamant. If she really wanted to honour my humble contribution to his existence, she should just not choose James as a name."
"That was Peter's choice. It was his grandfather's name, after all, and he has no clue about your aversion to the combination of James and Potter."
"If there was one good aspect to Draco's and Harry's sexual orientation, it was the presumed fact that neither one would father any offspring," Severus bemoaned. "But then Draco has to get married to Astoria Greengrass despite the fact that he's gay, and father a child to her. And of all the Muggles in the world Ginevra Weasley had to find one whose name happens to be Peter Potter! It's outrageous. I still can't get my head around it."
"Potter is not at all an uncommon Muggle name", his wife pointed out logically. "And you like Peter. Without him, all our friends would be younger than you. As to Draco, you know exactly how his marriage came about. He was just helping Astoria to comply with her parents' demands for a Pure-blood son-in-law. She didn't wish to be married off into a loveless marriage."
"By being married to a man who's in love with another man?"
"She always knew about that. And it's not like she was in love with Draco. They respect each other and have become good friends. And they both wanted a child so badly. They will be good parents for Scorpius, even if she lives at Malfoy Manor and he at Grimmauld Place most of the time."
"And of course they had to make me Scorpius' godfather as well. It's like history is repeating itself."
"Hopefully not. I would like for this particular Potter and this particular Malfoy to become friends right from the start. If you're lucky, James' hair will remain brown like it is now and he won't even look like the other James Potter."
"Yes – because I'm always so lucky with these things!" Severus said sarcastically.
"So you consider yourself an unlucky man?" his wife asked innocently, setting him up for getting his foot in his mouth.
"Stop fishing for compliments, witch! You know very well that I consider myself the luckiest man on the planet in the big scheme of things."
"Do you now?"
"Yes. I have the most brilliant, most beautiful and most impossible wife in the world. Thanks to her, I'm friends with the boy-who-lived-twice and Ginevra Potter, née Weasley, and those other dunderhead that came as a package deal, including, but not counting among the dunderheads, Luna Lovegood. I made it to the top of Hogwarts' most challenging teachers list and our latest potions project will eventually become a huge success. There's no topping all that luck – so of course I consider myself a most fortunate man. I just don't understand why everybody thinks that I'm cut out to be a good godfather."
"Actually, there are some who even think you'll make a great father. I do..."
"What?" Dumfounded, he stared at her.
Hermione smiled. "And I believe I can top your current state of luck... You still have about seven months until then, but you might want to start plotting revenge and decide who we will choose as godparents for our child..."
*'*'*About nine months later*'*'*
"She is so beautiful..." Hermione said lovingly, looking at her two week old daughter who lay nestled in her arms. "I could stare at her all day long."
"Thank Merlin she takes after you! Otherwise you wouldn't want to be doing that."
"Don't be ridiculous. She's so your daughter – everybody knows that just from looking at her. She has your eyes and your black hair. It looks sleek, too, but I swear I saw it curl when she was getting impatient about being fed yesterday..."
"Her hair must be sensitive to her magic then... If it shows this early, she's going to be a powerful witch."
"Probably scary, too. Look at that scowl!"
"Here, give her to me ..." her husband said, taking his tiny daughter into his own arms. "Now, let's see, little princess. Can you scowl like daddy? Look, like this... No, you're not doing it right. That's a smile, sweety. That's not going to scare anyone. It will make boys fall in love with you, though. If you continue with that beyond thirteen, I'll have to lock you in the Astronomy Tower to keep them all away from you."
"Won't work," his wife pointed out. "The Astronomy Tower is needed for classes."
"I'm the headmaster. If I say the Astronomy Tower is off limits and lessons will be held in the owlery until my daughter is of age, then it will be so."
Hermione snorted. "Rapunzel was blond, Severus, and not a witch who will be perfectly capable of flying away on a broom."
"Not if she takes after he mother, she won't," her husband countered with a mean smile in Hermione's direction, then turned back to the gurgling baby on his lap. "We'll have Granny rewrite the story, little one. She'll make you a warrior princess. She did a story about mummy, too. See this book here? 'Harriet Miller and the Stone of Wisdom' by Jean Katherine Wilkins. I'm going to read it to you when you're a little older. I really love the chapter where she flies away on a dragon after stealing the golden cup from a really nasty witch... Though my favourite part is where she unknowingly sets the prince on fire because she believes him to be an evil sorcerer in disguise. Honestly, even a really bright witch can be incredibly silly at times..."
*'*'*A few months later*'*'*
'It's a Miracle!'
Break-through in the field of Potions, Mindhealing and Neurology brings the Longbottoms back
Luna Scamander for 'The Quibbler'
The cooperation of renowned Potions Master Severus Prince and his wife, Unspeakable and Research Specialist Hermione Prince, Herbology Professor Neville Longbottom and his wife, Medi-witch Hannah Abbott, as well as the Muggle Healer, Dr. Peter Potter, has lead to a vital break-through in the treatment of long term Cruciatus victims Frank and Alice Longbottom.
A newly developed therapy combining nerve-restoring potions with a revolutionary appliance of mind-healing has been tested on the Longbottoms during the last three months and has proven a striking success. According to Ms. Hannah Abbot, who was in charge of the Longbottoms' care at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, both Mr. Frank Longbottom and his wife Alice have been released from hospital today to continue their convalescence at Hogwarts, where private quarters have been added to the hospital wing. This will allow all the wizards and witches involved in their treatment to monitor their patients and help them adapt to their new lives.
The renowned Aurors had been attacked and tortured by Death Eaters during the first Volde-War and have spent the last 25 years in the long-term care ward due to the severe damage that was done to their brains.
"It's wonderful, but it's also heartbreakingly sad..." said Ms. Abbot, daughter-in-law to the patients, visibly moved. "For them, it's like they woke up from a coma. They have no memories of the attack itself, and still holes in their memory regarding their lives before. To slowly ease them into their new lives, help them regain lost memories and re-acquaint them with their family is now our priority."
Neville Longbottom, who can't even remember his parents other than as patients in the Llewellyn Ward of St. Mungos, was overjoyed at this success, for which the entire team has worked for over three years. Yet he doesn't want to take his share of credit for this achievement: "The credit goes entirely to Professor Prince, Hermione Prince and Dr. Potter. It was Hermione's idea to use Legilimency on my parents in the first place, which, although it shocked Healers when she first suggested it and made the Daily Prophet claim that she was dabbling in the Dark Arts, laid the groundwork for their therapy. And it was only at her insistence that Dr. Potter, who is a what Muggles call a ... neulorotist – a healer of the brain – was involved in the process, too, and his input was invaluable. I'll forever be grateful to Professor Snape... ehm, Professor Prince, I mean, that he was willing to continue working with my parents despite recriminations and defamations against his character. His expertise in the field of potions and the mind arts as well as his willingness to explore and combine muggle and wizard knowledge in their treatment has brought this change in my parents' condition about, which is nothing less than a miracle."
The Potions Master was not available for comment. "It's mainly his work," says his wife, visibly proud of her husband. "Though Dr. Potter's expertise made the break-through in potion development possible in the first place. The time, determination and devotion my husband has given to this project is only rivalled by Mr. Longbottom's own efforts, not only in providing many of the difficult to grow plants necessary for the potion, but also in becoming adept in Legilimency himself. Had he not managed to make contact with his parents' traumatised minds on a very deep level of their subconscious and managed to gain their trust, it wouldn't have been possible at all to bring them back."
Asked about his experience working with wizards to heal brain damaged patients, Dr. Potter said: "It was positively enlightening. Though I very much regret that it might not be possible to apply the therapy that worked for the Longbottoms on Muggle patients, I am very happy that we were able to foray into a field of healing that might open new ways in the treatment of other wizards suffering from similar ailments. It has been a long and arduous process of trial and error, that came with disappointments, set-backs and impasses, and which required effort, patience and an openness of mind to break the mould and explore new possibilities. I can only admire Professor Prince's and his wife's ingeniousness. They have not only brought two seemingly lost wizards back to life, but also helped me and my wife a few years ago with the same empathy and determination. We will always be indebted to them."
What Dr. Potter refers to is the accident of his wife, Ginevra Potter, née Weasley, the famous Quiddich player, that brought the unusual Muggle-wizard cooperation about. A year after her graduation Ginny Weasely was involved in a tragic accident in Muggle London. Suffering from memory loss due to head injury and severely injured, she was taken to a muggle hospital, seemingly disappearing from the wizarding world without a trace for almost three months. Dr. Potter was the responsible Muggle healer in charge, and the young, unidentified and mysterious woman soon became much more to him than a case. When Ginny Weasely was finally found by her long-time friends, Auror Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, now Prince, Professor Prince and his long-time assistant started immediately working on a potion that would bring back her memory. They were successful only three months later and were thus able to finally bring her lost friend, who had been staying with Dr. Potter the entire time, back home and into the arms of her family. (The Quibbler reported, see issue 9/24. You can also read the entire, romantic and heart-breaking story in a book written by Miranda Midge, that will soon be published and which is based on Mr. and Mrs. Potter's personal accounts).
Cured of Gloomilows and with her memory restored, Miss Weasley got married to Mr. Potter only two months later. Having had the opportunity to visit Hogwarts, the Longbottoms and the team responsible for this miracle at Hogwarts, we are pleased to also confirm that no trace of Gloomilows can be found within the castle or its inhabitants.
*'*'*A few months later*'*'*
"Hush, princess, don't wake mummy up," Severus whispered to the toddler he bent to pick up from her crib. "Your sister has been throwing a party in mummy's tummy all night. We need to let her rest, or she'll be grumpy all day. Let's just grab one of those fancy nappies and go to my office..."
Severus was still fascinated by the convenient Muggle product Hermione had insisted on buying. It was a far cry from what he'd seen Muggle women use back in the seventies. Apparently, science had made a quantum leap since then. The built-in wetness indicator on his daughter's padded bottom told him that she needed a nappy change. Not that the smell wouldn't already have clued him in on that...
Nappy and baby on his arm, Severus stepped through the magical doorway that connected Prince House to his Hogwarts office. He had been reluctant to accept the position as headmaster at first, and surely wouldn't have done so if he'd been forced to live in the castle again. But although Hogwarts teachers and headmasters in recent years had mostly been single, it was neither a requirement nor had it always been the case. And since no one was willing to give up on his private life and move into staff quarters, the castle itself, in those cases, provided a sort of restricted Floo system. It opened a connection between a teacher's office and a single location of his choosing, not via fireplace, but through a hidden doorway. Access was limited to the respective teacher and his family, and it was absolutely foolproof, just like those hidden shortcuts he'd told Hermione about.
Whenever someone requested to see him in his office, he would feel it as a tingling in his body that would even rise him from sleep. But his presence was hardly ever requested at nights - well, not on the Hogwarts' side of the connection, that is...
Dawn was rising when Severus stepped into his office and quickly took care of his daughter's most urgent need. Thanks to the high-tech product, a vanishing and a cleaning charm, a nappy change was nothing he couldn't easily handle. He set Athena on the floor and let her crawl over to the cabinets that lined the walls on the lower parts of the office, those that contained what he had dubbed 'Dumbledore's junk'. He had not yet been able to figure out the purpose of any of the devices and instruments his predecessor had amassed there. Most of them weren't even magical – just impressive and mystifying looking props. Athena had taken a vivid interest in them. With a flick of his wand he opened the cabinet with those items he had judged safe to play with and floated some of them onto the floor. Soon, his first-born was immersed in her research. With a deep frown on her forehead that very much resembled his own she tried to figure out what her father had missed. Admittedly, she employed methods Severus had actually failed to consider, like giving them a thorough, oral examination.
Severus applied himself to the paperwork waiting on his desk. For a long while they were both lost in their tasks, until Athena's excited babbling caught his attention. Looking up, he saw her on all fours in front of the cabinet, trying to see underneath. "Bah – da-da!" she exclaimed agitatedly, a thread of drool hanging from her mouth. She was teething.
"What's the matter, princess?" Severus asked, but of course, her reply didn't really shed light on the matter. "Nee nigh! Mee-ma, ning!" she insisted, looking at him with a hopeful expression that conveyed her urgent need for a second opinion on the matter.
Severus got up and walked over to the cabinet that had caught her attention, crouching beside her. The drool had formed a puddle on the floor. Other than that, he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Athena stretched out her baby hand and a pointy finger, and nearly lost her balance. "Careful there, pumpkin," Severus said and quickly reached out to stabilise her. Then he got down on knees and elbows to be able to bend lower, sticking his bum into their air right next to his daughter's. He still didn't see anything of interest. He turned his face and looked at the baby who flashed him a mostly toothless smile. Or it might have been a mischievous grin, he couldn't be sure. "You tricked me, didn't you?" he accused her, raising his eyebrow at her. She gurgled happily and tried to grab his nose.
"That's it, young lady! I won't tolerate such cheek – you really had this coming, you know?" And with that, he quickly grabbed her and put her on her back on the carpet in front of him. Lifting the hem of her shirt, he blew a hearty raspberry onto her chubby baby tummy. Athena gave a high-pitched, delighted squeak, followed by hefty, gurgling giggles. Severus did it again. Her rich, hearty baby's laughter was the most wonderful sound in the world.
Of course, this had to be the moment the door to his office opened and Minerva stepped in, worse yet, bringing along a student. A Gryffindor fourth year, if he wasn't mistaken.
"Severus..." she said, blinking. "I don't think you heard me knocking... What are you doing on the floor?"
As if it wasn't obvious. "Investigating," he said with as much dignity as his position allowed, and got up – deliberately unhastened, so as not to appear embarrassed. "Good morning. Miss... Bishop?" He picked up his still heavily drooling daughter. Really, her mouth was an inexhaustible spring. He should put her in the hothouse to water Longbottom's plants.
"Good morning, Sir," the girl said, staring at him with wide eyes. As if she'd never seen a baby.
"You came to inquire about your request for leave of absence due to a family celebration, I presume? I have approved it." He picked up the signed papers from his desk and held them out to her. "Here they are."
"Thank you, Headmaster. My parents will be delighted." Smiling, she took the letter and turned to leave.
"Miss Bishop...," Severus called after her, his voice poignant as ever, his eyes narrowed. "If I happen to hear a word about what you just saw in here out in the hallways, I'll know it came from you. Should that happen, I hope you understand that you'll have to be expelled."
"Severus!" Minerva exclaimed, aghast at his threat, which, strictly speaking, wasn't within the rules and guidelines of disciplinary measures he was allowed to take.
The girl suppressed a grin. Oh, if only she could tell! But then – no one in Gryffindor would believe her anyway. "Of course, Sir, I understand. I'll be the soul of discretion!"
*'*'*A few months later *'*'*
"Oh – how lovely! This owl is from Ron! The baby has arrived! Or rather the babies – Lavender gave birth to twins last night!"
"Oh, hurray," commented her husband drily, who was chilling on the couch with his sleeping baby daughter Ophélia on his chest, while Athena was on the floor chasing her Puffskein. "Another set of Weasley twins. I hope I'll not be Headmaster when they start at Hogwarts."
"It's a boy and a girl – Hugo and Lily," Hermione continued reading the letter.
Severus gave a soft snort. "Lily, seriously? Why is it that the entire family is named after flowers? Lavender, Rose, Lily... What comes next? Camilla? Petunia? At least they have the sense to name the boy Hugo, and not Hyacinthus or Huodendron."
"Don't be so spiteful," Hermione chided, picking up both Athena and the Puffskein and snuggling up to her husband and daughter on the quickly enlarged sofa. "Lily is most likely a tribute to Harry. They probably intend to make him her godfather. And given that the girl's second name is Luna, I suspect she will be asked to be the godmother."
"Merlin's Beard! Given that each of them is a godparent to one of our daughters, too, that makes us practically related to the Weasleys! How utterly atrocious!"
"You already entertain very successful business relations with Lavender, so how bad can it be?"
"Don't remind me! It was your idea to have those potions I developed for you patented and to sell them via a franchise partner. If ever word gets out that I'm the supplier for most of 'Lavender's Secrets' my reputation will be forever be ruined."
Hermione couldn't help grinning. After Ron had quit the Aurory a few years ago to work in his brother's joke shop, Lavender had opened a sub branch for incredibly successful beauty potions and other 'Witches' Delights'; among them a potion that not only stopped snoring, but also effectively did away with morning breath. And there were other useful potions that witches – and consequently wizards, too – were crazy for... The store was thriving.
"It won't get out," she assured him. "You made her take a wand oath, remember? That's why she decided to name her line of products 'Lavender's Secrets' in the first place." Hermione chuckled. "Lavender hasn't uttered a single bad word about you ever since. She's really impressed and awed by you. I believe naming her daughter Lily is also a tribute to you."
Severus looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Why would I want her kid to be named Lily?"
"Well, Lavender is still convinced that Lily Potter was your one and only true love. Nothing I say can convince her that the tragic tripe in that biography Rita published about you was mostly just that – rubbish. She thinks I'm your wife of convenience. Why else would anyone settle with me, when her own husband found me lacking?"
Severus snorted. "Just like I said – some people's brains never reach the size and the level of maturity their years call for." He shook his head in disbelief. "Just a good thing that we'll be off to Australia for the summer to introduce our new baby to her grandparents. Just in case naming the newest Weasley 'Lily' is not a tribute to Potter, but to me... I don't want to be the godfather of another red-headed brat that will be haunting Hogwarts' hallways in a few years."
"You know – if that should be the case, us travelling won't deter Lavender..." Hermione pointed out thoughtfully. "She'll simply postpone the baptism until we're back."
"Fine. So we'll resettle and stay. I've heard the area around Brisbane is liveable. Nice people there, too..."
Hermione laughed at his grumbling. "Yes, but I'd still rather stay here with Noria and Irma - our living arrangements have worked out so well. You'd miss them too - and all our dunderhead friends."
"Maybe a little. On Christmas and for New Year's Eve..." Severus conceded grudgingly. "But don't you dare telling Harry and Draco I said that!"
"As all your secrets, this one's safe with me, too," his wife assured him, snuggling closer and putting her head on his shoulder, face to face with her sleeping baby daughter.
Severus buried his hand in her hair. "It doesn't matter to me where we live," he said softly, surprising her with his sudden solemnity. "Here or at the other end of the world, in an old manor or in Hogwarts or wherever. As long as you're with me, I'm home."
A/N: There – another story done! I hardly can believe it, and as always, I feel a bit sad to part with it. Maybe I'll impersonate Miranda Midges and write that story about Ginny and Peter next :)
As to Hermione's parents: I'm still not sure if she ever gave them the memory potion. In any case, she'll stay closely in contact with them so they can be grand-parents to her and Severus' children, no matter if adopted or biological. I'll leave that up to you to decide.
To keep this as close to canon a possible without being illogical, Ginny's firstborn is named James Severus (James Sirius wouldn't really make sense). I think she might have another child in two years, who is named Albert(us) Ernest or Albert Seamus – probably after Peter's other Grandfather. But he'll be called 'Albus' for short. :)
Only after I decided to let Lily be born to Ron and Lavender instead of Ginny and Harry did I realise the private joke surrounding their names: While the females all have names of flowers, the boy is named Hugo – that's what my father used to call some of my pot-plants: those he considered a sorry excuse for a plant that were supposed to look much more impressive, more lush or more straight. But I'm sure that's not true for Hugo Weasley! :)
The line about Australia is a tribute to my beta, Dreamthrower, who helped me so much with her revisions! I can't thank her enough! Her entertaining way of explaining the English language and her brilliant sense humour are reason enough to start something new soon... :)