Disclaimer: All JKR's except for a few OC's
OWLs and NEWTs finished, and a long year of education at Hogwarts finally ground to a close. During the last couple of weeks before Graduation, recruiting agents from Ministry and all types of businesses descended upon the school. The Snapes took advantage of a return owl from the realty agent to escape the castle.
They had made arrangements to meet with the agent at the house they saw on the way. They were stopped by another wizard as they left the castle. "Chief Auror Monroe! What brings you here, today?"
"Well, Severus, Barbara, we have news. We think you're safe now. It would appear that the Death Eater sympathizers have decided that you are working with the Ministry and school until some point at which you will give a signal and they will rise again. Somehow, Barbara, newly emerging information on your family connections has only encouraged this.
"We think, in the short term, that this protects you, Severus, although you need to be careful not to say or do anything that can be misconstrued--
"I know what signal they are looking for. It is neither within my ability nor my desire to produce it."
"So much the better. I still wanted to discuss some details with you."
"If you gentlemen don't mind, I'm going to see a house." Barbara walked down the lane, her husband watching her every move until he couldn't see her any longer.
"Mr. Hammond? I'm sorry I'm late. I'm Barbara Snape."
"Pleased to meet you, my dear. Which would you like to see first...inside or out?"
"My husband should be right behind me. Why don't we start outside and look inside when he catches up?"
"Certainly, certainly." He opened the gate and held it open for her, following her in.
Monroe went on and on about the need for constant vigilance with the Death Eaters. Snape's eyes flashed darkly when he realized that Monroe hadn't mentioned the Lestranges. "When are you going to get to Rudolphus Lestrange?"
"Well, that wasn't what I came to discuss."
"You mean she's not really safe yet and I let her go down the lane by herself with no protection? We have to go!" Snatching the collar of the Chief Auror's robe, he started running down the lane. They saw flashes of light around the corner.
"Here, let me go get backup," said Monroe, preparing to apparate.
"You do that," said Snape as he ran even faster.
"And look at this knot garden! Just the place to grow herbs--" she stopped as she saw the unconscious body of the agent and turned around just in time to see Rudolphus Lestrange's polyjuice potion wear off.
"Or to be buried in, dear Cousin Barbie."
She barely had time to ward off his death curse, and sent him a hex of her own. He parried that and tried again. Finally she was able to avoid a cruciatus and locked him into a body bind. "Why are you doing this? Expelliaramus!" She knelt to take his wand from where it had fallen on the ground.
"For the money, of course. Even if I'm a fugitive from justice, Gringott's will let me have it and I'll find a small island country somewhere to terrorize. Of course, cruciating your parents was a bonus. They told us about your appointment at Hogwarts. All your Uncle Albert knew was that you weren't at the Ministry any more."
"Barbara! Thank goodness!" Severus came around the corner of the house.
"We need to contact the aurors to come get him."
"They're right behind me."
Barbara saw her husband holding his wand and pondering...
"No, Severus, it's not worth it."
"Hmmm?" He kept his wand pointed at Lestrange.
"You haven't used an unforgivable spell since the night Albus Dumbledore died. You're finished with that. Don't be that person...Severus?"
"He tried to kill you."
"But he didn't succeed and he won't succeed."
He used stupefy instead. When the aurors arrived, Rudolphus was covered in ropes. Barbara handed Monroe the captured wand.
"Monroe, make sure this is the end of it." Severus gave him a severe look.
Barbara waited until the auror walked away. "He's a competent auror, but isn't very good at managing multiple things at once. He'll be up for retirement in eight or ten years. I think he's a place holder until young Mr. Potter gets trained and seasoned," she said quietly.
"Is that the job Kingsley tried to get you to take?"
She shrugged. "No, he wanted me to be part of his personal security detail. Like I'd rather babysit him than three hundred students."
He took his wife over and sat her down on a garden bench while some aurors took Rudolphus to the Ministry office and others came to work on Mr. Hammond and wake him back up.
He started looking for injuries. "Are you hurt?" She smiled and shook her head. "Is, is everything fine?"
She smiled and kissed him. "Yes, I'm fine and I'm sure our little one is fine, too. He never laid a spell on me. Nice job with your wand, by the way."
He kissed her back and put his arms around her. "You had quite a duel with him. I could see the sparks from well up the path. Barbara, I don't think I can handle it if you work as an auror very much. My heart stopped when I saw that flash of green."
"Ahem." Suddenly Monroe was standing before them, Mr. Hammond right beside him. "Well, we've got this sorted out from here, now, so we're going back to Ministry. Simpson will stay in town to keep an eye on things." He stepped away and apparated.
"Mr. Hammond, we're so very sorry. Are you feeling okay? Will you still be able to show us inside the house?" Barbara stood and held out her hand.
He smiled and shook her hand. "Oh, I'm fine, I'd be delighted to do so." He rattled his keys and they went around the house to the front door.
Several days later they went to an Order of the Phoenix meeting. Severus stopped to speak with Harry in the hallway while Barbara went on to the kitchen to see if Molly needed help. The others were scattered around the house.
"Molly has stepped outside for a few minutes." Kingsley Shacklebolt was sitting at the table. "So, Barbara, how is married life treating you?"
"Aside from the way our honeymoon ended, it's been a delight in almost every way. I have a most attentive husband. Uxorious, even."
Kingsley looked embarrassed. "So... everything is going well?"
"Chatting up my wife, Minister? It's about time your administration had a scandal." Severus and some of the others came into the kitchen.
"Actually, I've been pondering marriage, myself, lately..."
"Oh, silly me, I thought we were here to discuss the Lestrange thing, but we're actually here to give Kingsley advice on his lady friend." Barbara reached around and took her husband's hand as he sat down.
Molly came back in with her own husband.
"Can I help you, Molly?" Barbara got up.
"I think everything is fine, if you would like to help carry—oh, no, gracious. You just sit down, dear." Molly's eyes twinkled. "We can't have you exhausting yourself."
Dinner was served.
"So where were we?" Arthur asked.
"Kingsley's love life," answered Ginny.
"Actually, I thought we might want to have a meeting to sum up the Lestrange affair," said the exasperated Minister. "Minerva, we should keep up a level of vigilance around the school. I would like to go ahead with that training program, and of course we will need to discuss that in a more official venue, with Monroe and all."
"I'm agreeable to that, and I'm sure the Board of Governors will be, as well," said Minerva
"What will happen to Rudolphus?" Barbara wanted to know.
Hermione was saying, "Hogsmeade is particularly well suited to such a program since so few muggles travel through."
"Exactly," said the Minister.
"Kingsley, what are you going to do with Rudolphus? And Albert Runcorn?"
"Before, they would have been sent to Azkaban for a dementor's kiss. Murder for material gain is pretty cut and dried and of course Lestrange had committed plenty of crimes before that."
"I don't want them killed on my behalf."
"Don't start that again...you are too kind hearted, which is the only real complaint I have ever had about your work."
"I want them in prison for the rest of their lives, but I don't want that life ended prematurely. I want to show some mercy. I want to prove that we're better than that. I'll speak before the Wizangemot if I have to. My present happiness," she grasped her husband's hand, "was due in part to an act of mercy in that chamber."
"That jury held that your husband was not guilty of the crimes of which he was accused and that the lesser crimes were due to his special position helping our side."
"Kingsley, please do what you know is right. It will go further to heal the differences between those who won the war and those who did not."
Harry said, "I think she's right."
"Thank you, Harry, but we can't stop all of the criminals with expelliarmus. You've already been warned about that sort of thinking." Kingsley was somewhat dismissive.
"It was the right spell when he used it before, and it's the correct approach, now." Severus spoke up. "If the discussions between the students in the Slytherin common room reflect the attitudes of the parents, then we need to go out of our way to prove that we're not trying to beat down the Death Eaters and sympathizers, but that we want to bring sufficient justice where it is needed."
Kingsley shook his head. "I don't see how it will go over," he started to say as he realized that Barbara was giving him that look.
He sighed. "I'll consider it and speak with the Wizangemot. Moving on to the Death Eaters and their aspirations..."
After the meeting, Kingsley asked to speak with Severus for a moment. While Barbara watched them go into a different room Molly sat down next to her with a cup of tea.
"So when is the baby due?"
"Poppy says January...How could you possibly know?"
"You're just different today. Are you pleased?"
"Very much so. And Severus...you wouldn't believe. He kissed both Poppy and Minerva the day we found out."
"It's marvelous news. You know our grandchild was born the same day as the graduation. They'll be just a year apart at school...Oh, and there's the proud father! Congratulations, Severus."
Severus' smile did not go all the way to his eyes. "Thank you, Molly."
"What's this? You know I claim firstborn as a godchild." Kingsley put his head in the doorway.
"You know I said I'd have to talk it over with my husband," responded Barbara.
Everyone came back to the kitchen to offer congratulations, which soon became trying for Severus. Taking his wife's hand, he said, "Actually, we need to be going. We'll be seeing you later." He walked her out of the house and pulled her close to apparate before the door was fully closed behind them.
They arrived in twilight in a dingy mill sort of town.
"This is the best time of day, here, when you can't really see the dreariness of it." he sighed, walking her up a hill and onto a cobbled street. "Welcome, my dear, to Spinner's End...my childhood, and occasionally my adult, home."
He brought her into the house, stopping in the library, where he started a fire in the fireplace.
"What a wealth of books!" Barbara exclaimed. She curled up in the chair closest to the fire. He sat across from her and looked into the fire.
"This is the nicest room in the house, where I promised Narcissa Malfoy that I would help her son kill Albus Dumbledore and where I promised that failing all else, I would do it myself, while Bellatrix Lestrange watched and acted as Bonder to an Unbreakable Vow. Peter Pettigrew was probably listening at a keyhole somewhere.
"I sit here and all of the worst things about my life come crashing back down upon me. I look at you and it's as if they never existed." There was something sarcastic in the way he was speaking and yet something else plaintive as well. Barbara wasn't sure where any of this came from nor where it was going.
"Would you like to live here? To raise our little one here?"
"You would, if I asked you, wouldn't you?" Definitely sarcasm.
"I'm sure we could make this our home and fill it with our love and happiness."
"It would be a challenge. As far as I remember, it's known precious little of either quality." There was something in his eyes as they looked into the fire that made her heart break for him.
He turned to his wife. "I've been talking to Kingsley...he's told me about Alice and Howard Prewett... You remember from our wedding? They're Slytherin and their parents were killed by Death Eaters who questioned their loyalties. They're in your club, of course you know them. I knew their parents, naturally, although they never did join the Death Eaters...What if we started with them?"
"They are wonderful children, but isn't that the cart before the horse?"
"No, actually, an owl came this morning. It looks like our offer is going to go through and we can move into the house in a couple of weeks."
"You mean the one in Hogsmeade?"
"Yes." He was smiling now, but again the smile didn't go all the way up to his eyes.
"What about this house?"
"I think I'll keep it a little longer, but it is not really a home to me."
They sat in silence for a while. Barbara waited, trying to read the expression on her husband's face, but he was inscrutable. She had never in the year of their acquaintance seen him behave this way, so distant, so closed off. Finally he stood and put out the fire.
"Let's go home."
Barbara stood and put her hand on his arm. "What is it?"
"Just visiting the past." He pulled her close and buried his face in her shoulder. "The present is far preferable, and what will the future bring?" He took her hand and they left the house.
A/N: Just one more chapter to sort of sum things up. Thank you so much to the reviewers who've commented on this. I really apreciate your thoughts.