Chapter 28: In Which Severus Enters the Lions' Den

Severus was sitting in his favourite chair, staring at an article that he was not reading, wondering how long time could stretch. She was due at his home in a matter of minutes, but somehow the last few minutes had lasted at least three hours, so he was fairly sure the next three would do the same.

Finally the fire in the Floo flared green, and she stepped through.

"Hello Severus."

"Hello yourself." He walked to her and kissed her.

"Are you ready?"

He grabbed his broom, placed his hand in hers, and said, "As I'll ever be."

"Then let's go." She cast the Apparate that landed them in front of the Burrow.

The first thing that hit him when his mind cleared was the noise. There had to be five hundred children behind that house to make so much noise. The second thing he noticed was that there was some sort of pick-up Quiddich game going on. At least ten members of the extended Weasley clan were flying about behind the house. The third thing was Hermione holding his hand, looking at him gently, and kissing him once more. Her touch was supportive, and all too quickly ended.

"Mum! Muuuuuuummmmm! Aunt Hermione's here, with a man, and she's kissing him." A small, high pitched voice carried through the noise of the Burrow. The prettiest little girl Snape had ever seen was staring at him while she held the front door open. Adult voices came from behind the door. He could see a tall blond woman coming toward the child. Hermione walked forward.

"Hello, Victoire. Now that everyone knows we're here, how about giving me a hug?" The girl hugged Hermione, but never took her eyes off of Snape.

Hermione introduced him to the child. "Severus, this is Victoire. She's Bill and Fleur's oldest daughter. Somewhere around here is her younger sister Marie and her little brother Jean. They're easy to spot because they're the only blondes in the lot." The little girl offered him her hand, and he shook it gently, not really sure how to go about dealing with a child this young. He was saved from having to come up with chit chat with a child by said child's mother and her mother-in-law coming to the door.

The last time Snape had seen Fleur Weasley, she had been seventeen and had a different name. She had been intensely lovely back then. In the ten years that had passed she had become even more beautiful. He blinked a few times and quickly focused on Molly Weasley before he did something that might annoy Hermione. Thank all that is good and holy that she can't read minds.

Hermione once again took his hand, smiled at him, and led him into the Burrow.

Molly Weasley spoke first, "Hermione." She wrapped Hermione in a big hug and kissed her on the cheek. "Grab a spoon and lend us a hand. Hello, Severus, good of you to come." If she was shocked by the change in his appearance, she didn't let on. But Hermione did notice it was a less warm welcome than any of the other potential in-laws had gotten in the last few years. Oh well, Molly didn't ban him from the house. It was a start.

"Hello Mrs. Weasley, thank you for inviting me." His posture was stiff, his manners a tad too formal.

Hermione jumped in. "Let me introduce Severus around, and then I'll be back to help." She turned to Snape. "You know Molly. We go by first names here, because there's," she counted quickly," eight Mrs. Weasleys here." She led him to Ginny; who smiled warmly at him. "It's been a while and she's a Potter now, but I think you know Ginny, and I think you've met Fleur." He nodded.

The five women in the kitchen were watching him closely. Ginny had a huge grin on her face.

"Hello Ginny, Fleur." Snape felt like his smile of greeting was lukewarm and ridiculous looking. Ginny smiled back. Fleur nodded and returned to whatever she was cooking.

Hermione started introducing again. "By the stove is Anna, Charlie's wife. They met in Romania, and at the sink is Deidre, George and Angelina's wife. She was a teammate of Angelina's when they played for York. The little girl Ginny is holding is Molly also." Hermione bent down to tickle her niece's chin, and give her a kiss on the forehead. "And this little guy," a small baby with a thick shock of red hair kicked happily in a bouncy chair on the table, grinning toothlessly while Hermione stroked his head, "is Aiden; he's Deidre and George's."

Severus greeted the other occupants of the kitchen. They didn't glare at him, so that was probably as good a start as he could have hoped for.

"Is everyone else out back?" Hermione asked.

Ginny nodded and hopped up, smiling, "Let me go with you." She turned to Severus. "I see Hermione told you about the official sport of the Weasleys."

Snape realized he was still holding his broom. "Yes, she recommended bringing it along."

"What position do you play?"

"It's been an extremely long time, but I used to play chaser."

"So did I."

"I know. I watched your final game with the Holyhead Harpies."

"You watched that game?" Ginny looked amazed. The three of them began to head outside.

Snape shrugged, finding small talk a bit easier than he had expected. "Well, I was sitting on the Cannons side of the pitch."

"You and everyone else. But I suppose it's to be expected when a team gets to the finals after 364 years of finishing somewhere at the bottom..." While they continued to talk about 'The Greatest Upset in Quiddich History', the season where the Chudley Cannons made it to the finals only to be thrashed by the Holyhead Harpies, 670 to 120, Hermione noticed Molly's look softening as her youngest child, and her almost daughter's new boyfriend talked about Quiddich. It's a start. Thank you Ginny!

Outside was chaos, friendly, loving chaos. Small children ran in some sort of a tag-like game, while smaller children toddled about and played with favourite toys. Three men were riding herd on the children, talking with each other, occasionally breaking off mid sentence to yell something about 'no pushing' or 'share that with your cousin…' Two of them Snape readily identified. The black haired one was Harry. The one with the greying red hair had to be Arthur. He looked more closely at the Weasley in between them, and identified George. All three men were holding children. Harry and George's were somewhere between babies and toddlers. The one piggybacked on Arthur looked to be about four.

"Harry, look who's here!" Ginny called when they entered the back garden. Harry turned, and Snape watched his face light up to see Ginny and then fall to see him standing next to her. Hermione walked around them and gave Harry and the other two hugs while kissing the children.

She walked back to Snape, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him the last few steps. "Severus, you know the adults." They all nodded at each other. "So let me introduce you to these three fine fellows. Being held by his daddy is JS Potter," a small red-haired boy, the spitting image of Ginny, looked at him while chewing his fist. "This little cutie is Fred Weasley. His mom is Angelina." The cocoa coloured toddler had absolutely no interest in what was going on around him; he was watching his mum fly about above the fray. "And riding his Grandpa's shoulders is Sean, he's Percy and Penelope's oldest."

Two older children ran over. The oldest had blue, make that green, and now pink hair. He was followed by Victoire. The boy almost tackled Hermione with a lunging hug.

"Hello Teddy, this is my friend Severus," she said when he pulled back from her.

Teddy looked him up and down, and reminded Severus so forcefully of Remus, he couldn't speak for a moment. These days he wished Lupin had made it. They would probably never be warm friends, but it would have been nice to have someone from the class of '77 around. Someone who remembered those days. The child offered him his hand, and they shook.

"Hello Teddy."

"Hello Severus. Are you going to marry my aunt?"

The six adults went quiet. Well, it was likely to happen at some point. A yard full of children who had been to God alone knew how many weddings over the last five years. Who had been introduced to who knew how many 'friends.' Snape looked at Hermione, and raised his eyebrow. She nodded back at him.

"Yes, I think I am." Ginny gleamed. Her twinkling eyes looked like they came right out of the 'Albus Dumbledore Beneficent Looks Catalogue.' Arthur also looked happy. George laughed out loud, and even Harry looked somewhat amused. Teddy continued to look him over.

"He'll do, Aunt Hermione." This time all the adults did start to laugh. Teddy looked hurt. Why were they laughing at him? He started to sulk. Hermione noticed his hurt look before the others, and gathered him in another hug.

"We aren't laughing at you. We're just happy." Which may not have been the entire truth, but was true enough to get Teddy smiling again. Shortly thereafter he and Victoire ran off to chase the dark haired boy (Ron Potter, he was told) away from the swing set.

Hermione looked at Snape, "I'm going to leave you here, before Molly comes looking for me. She'll want me to put at least some work into dinner." She quickly kissed him, squeezed his hand, and then left him, alone, with Harry, George, and Arthur. Ginny followed her back to the house. The four men stood silently, time stretching, getting more and more awkward as each moment passed.

Finally Arthur saved the day by asking, "So what kind of broom is that Severus?" And once more, safe, easy Quiddich conversation began. All the men were impressed that Snape had seen Ginny's final game, and although he didn't follow York, he was impressed with the tales of Angelina and Deidre's careers.

Inside the kitchen, Hermione went to work on a large pile of carrots, destined for slaw. Since the work needed was minimal, and any of the other witches present could have done it in their sleep, she was fairly sure it was an excuse to get her in the room for some 'girl talk.'

"You should have seen it; it was so cute…" Ginny was speaking. "Teddy asked, 'Are you going to marry my aunt?' He looked at Hermione and kind of lifted an eyebrow and when she nodded he said, 'Yes, I think I am.'"

"This is the same man who spent so much time with Karkarov?" Fleur's accent had all but disappeared, but her word patterns were still very French.

"Can you believe it?" Ginny sounded well nigh giddy.

Fleur shook his head. Anna and Deidre looked confused. "So what is with this Snape bloke? He seems nice enough. I was expecting death warmed over to come through that door," Deidre said.

"That's a long, long story," Molly said, "but the short version goes something like this. He used to teach at Hogwarts, and while all my kids were there he was the Head of the rival house. He was a very nasty person then. Then the war started, and he was a spy, a double agent, for the Order, but Ron and Harry never really trusted him, but we did because Dumbledore did. Then he killed Dumbledore, and we were just heartbroken. Many hours of 'How could we have been so stupid? How could Dumbledore have been so stupid…' followed the murder. During the battle of Hogwarts he helped Harry, and let him know he was part of the Order all along. We thought he had been killed by Voldemort during the battle. Then half way through Black June he appeared, and provided information that helped to capture the free Death Eaters. He went on trial and it came out that Dumbledore had ordered Snape to kill him to cement his image of Loyal Death Eater, and to make sure that Snape would be placed in a position to help the schoo, and Harry, as much as possible. But in the course of that long tangled history he managed to alienate just about everyone around him."

"With good reason," Hermione added. "Voldemort had the ability to read minds, and Snape was the only one who could resist being read. But if anyone else who had had any dealing with Snape had been captured, and had any good memories of Snape, anything to show him acting in an Un-Death Eater way, and that would have been the end of him."

"His cover was so good he's the one who cut George's ear off." Molly was angry.

"He's also the man who made sure Ron and I came home from the Ministry alive," Ginny added. "Basically, imagine a huge black bat permanently sucking on a lemon, with a wand shoved up his…"

"Ginny!" Molly looked horrified, shock at her daughter's words rapidly replacing anger.

"Actually, that's a pretty good description of Snape during the Hogwarts years," Hermione added. "But as you can see, he's… unclenched… a bit since then." Ginny and Hermione giggled. "It's like there's two men. I call him Snape when I think of the past, because that's who he was, and now…" She looked out the window at the man talking with Harry, George, and Arthur. "Now I'm thinking of him as Severus."

"So, what kind of wedding do you want?" Anna asked while mixing batter for biscuits.

"We haven't talked about it yet. That episode Ginny described was our entire conversation on the subject. I mean, I know we know we're heading in that direction…"

"No, I mean what kind of wedding would you like?" Anna clarified.

"Ummm… I don't know. I know what I don't like." The copy of Witch Weekly that Deidre had been using a pudding recipe from wafted over. Hermione flipped through it, and held up a picture of a young witch, probably about twenty-years-old, looking radiant, standing in a meringue-like mound of taffeta covered in sparkly beads.

"I don't want that. I really don't want that." She continued to flip through the pages, "I mean is there nothing simple and elegant here? Does everything need lace, ruffles, beads, and tulle?" She flipped to the writing your own vows section, read for a moment, and then continued. "And this, do I really need to be reminded that Weird Sister's lyrics don't make the best wedding vows? I'm a grown-up. I don't need a Barbie fantasy wedding."

The other women looked at her. She gestured dismissively. "It's a fashion doll I grew up with… Never mind. Harry would have gotten it," Hermione added under her breath.

She continued on in her regular voice, "I like that Fleur and Bill got married here. I liked that Ginny and Harry wrote their vows. I liked how Deidre and George and Angelina all married each other, and the matching tattoos. And, Anna, I thought your gown was especially lovely. I want something solemn and beautiful and joyous." She was quiet, and then the words came to her. "I want to celebrate a marriage, not have a big party for its own sake."

"Are you really going to marry someone you don't love?' Deidre asked.

Hermione was very quiet. Molly looked up sharply. "You aren't in love with him? Not yet!"

"No, of course not. It's only been two weeks. But," and she looked back out the window, Severus still talking with Harry, gesturing at the flying Weasleys, "I'm starting to think I could."

Supper proceeded with Snape being introduced to the rest of the Weasley clan. Most of them he was familiar with because of his days teaching, but two of Percy's wives were from the continent, and he had never met Fleur's cousin Pierre before either.

Hermione sat on one side of Severus, Percy on the other, with Ginny and Harry across from him. Hermione was impressed because both he and Harry were working very hard to get along with each other. She wanted to hug both of them. Ginny was also doing an excellent job of keeping the conversation going on safe topics. How to design a Celtic knot took up twenty minutes at least. By the end of which Harry was proudly showing off the knot Ginny had designed for him and placed on his bicep.

During a lull in the conversation Snape leaned to Percy and said conspiratorially, "I think I've figured out your plan."

Percy blanched, how could Snape have figured out the hand he and Dumbledore had in bringing them together?

Severus, who had been trying to make a joke, noticed Percy's reaction and decided this warranted further information. He caught a quick glimpse of Percy and what looked like Dumbledore's Ghost talking. Curious. He'd have to find a way to learn more. Later. Snape decided to continue onto his punch line before making Percy too uncomfortable. "By my count, by the time you make a move for Minister of Magic you'll be related to half the wizarding world by marriage or blood."

Percy smiled, relief washing over his features. "Yes, you see the brilliance of it.

And, with that in mind…" Percy stood up. No one noticed for a few moments, finally he shouted, "Hey!" The rest of the Weasleys stared at him. "I wanted to let you all know that we'll be adding a new member to the family." A roar of 'congratulations', and 'when are you due?' began, but Percy gestured for quiet. "Pierre, will be marrying into our branch of the family."

The kids were still making noise, but the adults had all gone silent. They had gotten used to the multiple wives thing, even though only George and Percy had more than one. They had gotten used to the idea that George, Angelina, and Deidre were a triple, rather than two couples. But this was new. They had joked about Percy and his four wives for quite a while now, but a new husband? Fleur was the first to react; she stood and walked to her cousin, and hugged him warmly.

"Who will you be marrying?" she asked.

"All of the ladies. They've been kind enough to accept me into their home, and I'm happy to join. We're thinking of a Christmas wedding. This time, the DeLacour Family would like to host all of you at our home."

A bubble of tension burst when he said "All of the ladies." Arthur stopped squirming uncomfortably, and Molly started to breathe again. There were some bridges they didn't want to imagine their children crossing. Even if Pierre looked like a male version of Fleur.

Dinner continued with wedding talk from then on. Percy's, and soon to be Pierre's, wives seemed quite excited with the prospect of another wedding, this time in southern France. They were bubbling over with details, and plans, and it was with a sigh that Hermione realized this event would be the exact opposite of what she had been describing in the kitchen.

Molly and Ginny grabbed Hermione for help cleaning up in kitchen. She gave Severus a warm look and left him at the table. Shortly thereafter the meal broke up and talk of another quick game started up. Angelina and Anna began to pick teams. Severus was starting to go fetch his broom when the men approached him.

It was, he thought, rather smoothly done. He had not seen any signal, or hint that they were going to do it. Yet, somehow they all knew this was the time. Set up ahead of time. All of the Weasley men and Harry converged on him in a circle. Much to his surprise it was Arthur who turned out to be the spokesman; he had been expecting Harry. Yes, this was rather smoothly done.

"Severus, we'd like to make it extremely clear that Hermione is precious to us. And that if you hurt her, we will make you wish you had stayed dead."

He thought for a moment, looking for the precisely correct way to phrase his response. He decided to speak directly the Arthur and ignore the others. They were there mainly as a show of strength anyway.

"Arthur, you've been married, what thirty-five years?"

Arthur nodded. "And, I'm sure in that time you've done some things that have hurt Molly. A certain flying car springs to mind." He could see Arthur was about to speak but gestured for him to keep listening. "I cannot promise I won't ever hurt Hermione. But I can promise this: I will never do it intentionally. I will never hurt her more than she will forgive me. And I will never break my vows once I make them." Charlie, who had both been married less than three years, looked like he had just bitten into an orange only to find out it was a dyed lemon. But he noticed the others all looked thoughtful.

Arthur looked at the others; they nodded. "We can live with that. Now off with you, Severus and I have other things to talk about." The younger men dispersed among the crowd of Weasleys. "That was a good answer Severus."

"What did you expect?" He pitched his voice like that of an adolescent boy, "I'd never do anything to hurt Hermione, Mr Weasley."

"No, I did not expect you to be a teenager. I just didn't expect something so thoughtful."

Severus nodded. "So, we have things to talk about?"

"Let's start with the basics and go from there. Your parents are dead?"

"Yes, I am my own man in this matter."

"Hermione's parents are deeply insulted by the idea of a bride price, but I explained to them that at least some sort of token had to be exchanged to make the binding valid. Jane Granger's response was 'let him save his money and buy my daughter a nice house.' So you won't have to empty your account for her, but you will have to come up with something that won't insult her parents and still fits the bill. They do not want anything that smacks of you buying their daughter. Which comes to the next bit, can you support her?"

"Her, any children we have, you, your kids, their kids… I'm better off than most would guess. Draco has a good eye for investment, and I have jumped onto a few of his."

"Any previous engagements that may come up and bite you?"

Severus' expression of incredulity made Arthur choke off a laugh. "You're kidding right?" Severus asked.

"Just checking. All your bits in working order?"

Snape's eyes widened. "How can that be any of your business?" He had not expected Arthur Weasley to ask about his sex life.

"Since that's the only reason a marriage license won't be granted these days. If you can't produce, they won't let you marry a fertile woman. And as the deadline draws nearer, they are looking more and more to see that you and your lovely bride are already on the way to parenthood upon marriage."

Snape gritted his teeth, "To the best of my knowledge, all of my 'bits' are functional."

"Good, good, good. A member of the C of E?"

"I don't attend church, but the church I'm not attending would be C of E."

"That works. This is a two way street, is there anything I can answer for you?"

"There is something I have been wondering about."

"I'll tell you if I can."

"I've seen a picture of Hermione and her parents, but I couldn't really tell from the photo. I am younger than her parents, right?"

"Oh yes… They're in their early fifties. That would be a bit on the awkward side wouldn't it?" Arthur chuckled. Then he grew more serious. "I'd recommend you and Hermione get talking. The deadline is October 31st. That leaves you a bit under five months to get all your decisions made. If you go with a High Magic Ceremony, you need to get the papers in by 1st September. Plus, you may want to think about having the wedding before school starts. If you want time for a honeymoon, that is."

"We will discuss it soon."

"Splendid! Get back over to my boys; they're waiting for you to join the game."

Night fell, and the party began to wind down. The children were growing quiet, and several of the families had left. Severus was sitting in the Burrow's family room, talking with George about possible improvements to the antidote kit. He gazed across the room at Hermione.

She was cuddling one of the babies, Aiden or Molly, both had red hair, and both sets of parents were still here. The infant was sleeping on her chest. Vague domestic fantasies that he was unaware he was capable of washed through Severus. George watched him watch Hermione, a large smirk on his face.

"It's the best sight in the world." Snape jerked his head away from Hermione as George spoke. "Your woman with your child. Granted, with the exception of his brother, that's the cutest baby in the history of the world, so Hermione with your kids might not be quite as sweet…" The words stung for a moment, but he realized George meant them kindly.

"We'll just have to see."

Hermione came over and handed the baby to his father. "We've got to get going. I've got class early tomorrow."

They walked out making their goodbyes. "How was it?" she asked him.

"Better than I expected. Percy surprised me."

"No one expected him to end up with a Harem, let alone another husband to share them with. But he is the one who came up with the Polygamy bill, so what does that tell us?"

"Horny bugger. Speaking of which, will you spend the night?"

"Will we sleep?"

He smiled keenly. "Eventually."

"Lead the way Mr Snape." She placed her hand in his.

A/N: Chapter 29: In Which We Sleep, Eventually is located in A Proper Romance: The M Chapters. Head over there if you like your romance spicy. Head over to the next chapter here if you like it sweet.