The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

January 10, 1999

The baby clamped little jaws down hard and started sucking. The child's mother looked down with tears and love in her eyes. If only all of her relationships could be so simple right then. The tears rolled down her face and she lifted her eyes to the window. The sky was quite dark outside. It was the middle of the night, or early in the morning.

"A lot of new mothers have a crying jag just about now," said Poppy quietly from the doorway. "No one would blame you or think less of you if you were feeling let down or sad."

"I love this little one so much," she answered. She rubbed the tears away with the flat of her hand. "Have you seen Severus?"

"Not since the birth," Poppy replied. "If he needs to think, he could be gone for a while."

Andromeda wiped at the tears again and took a deep breath in an effort to make them stop. "I can't seem to get control of myself."

"Of course not. You've been through so much last year. The birth wasn't particularly difficult, but it was hard enough on you."

She nodded and then noticed that the tears were falling on the baby. She Summoned a hanky and wiped her eyes and face. The baby stopped nursing and looked up into her eyes. She looked back for a minute or two, but suddenly couldn't stand it and turned her head away.

"Your eyes are so much like your Daddy's..."

June 1998

The funeral included Ted as well as Nymphadora and Remus. Andromeda somehow made it through the service and then the grave-side rites. Many friends were there. They all had something kind to say about her lost loved ones. She felt numb. It was odd to see people with whom she had been comfortable her whole adult life and not feel comfortable with them.

Severus had stayed at her home, being still unwell and unsure of his welcome among the mourners. However, he was at Andromeda's cottage when those who were invited after the funeral came. As Andromeda received her well-wishers, he stood to the side of the room and quietly watched, but she encouraged him to stand next to her as she greeted those who came.

After the influx of guests paused, Andromeda turned to discover she was standing alone. She took advantage of the chance to slip into the kitchen. She stood in front of the sink and looked out over the garden. It was as good a time as any to let out the tears that were threatening.

"Are you all right?" It was Harry Potter.

She nodded unconvincingly and turned to him. "Yes, Harry, I'm fine."

"Because I wondered if you had gone completely nutters. Why is Snape staying at your house?"

That got her attention. She pulled her weary spine as straight as it would go and looked up at him. "I don't believe that's your affair, Mr. Potter."

"Teddy is my affair, and I don't think he should be raised with a Death Eater in the house."

"A Dea—Are you aware of just what you owe Severus Snape?"

"He called my mum a Mudblood. He believed in pure-blood supremacy. He was the reason she was killed, and everything he did since then won't make up for that."

"You cheeky little whelp! Do you honestly think the Dark Lord would have waited long to learn any prophecy that involved himself? Severus has saved your bacon more times than you can count since then, including the time he went to Dumbledore and asked that you be protected."

"He asked that my mother be protected."

"And as a result you all were. Do you know how Sirius mourned over his own foolishness in that matter? The simple truth is that a great many people worked hard to protect you and your parents, but the will of Lord Voldemort was that much stronger."

"Snape helped Voldemort."

She sighed. "You'll have to take it up with him. I can't believe you would question my credibility."

"You aren't like the Weasleys."

"I'm not—no, I suppose I'm not." Her voice became quiet but dangerous. "No, Harry, I'm not like the Weasleys. I may not be as much of a blood traitor as they are in your opinion. I'm not as outspoken and I didn't actively fight against the Dark Lord. Instead, I actually married a Muggle-born wizard. I gave birth to a Half-blood child. I have just wept over my husband and daughter, who gave up their lives for your cause. Somehow, these aren't good enough credentials to raise your godson?"

Her voice was still quiet but somehow reminded Harry of how shrill her sister was when excited. Harry knew he was skating a dangerous edge, but he persisted. "Snape hated Remus, you know."

"He may not have liked Remus, but he taught me to make Wolfsbane for him. He's a man who spent his entire adult life doing things he would rather not do because they were the right things to do, all because," she turned away from Harry and looked back out the window, "he loved your mother so much."

Molly came in at that moment. "Andromeda, you look completely worn out. Why don't you sit down and I'll fix you some tea?"

"Thank you, Molly."

Harry looked from one witch to the other. Clearly, they were going to form a front against him on this, but he wasn't done. Eventually he would make Andromeda see that she needed to get rid of the interfering presence in her house. He sighed and left the kitchen.

"Even after they're of age they can be so childish. They think they have all the answers, but they really don't understand what happens or how the world works..." Molly kept her eye on the stove and was distracted by the teacups. She didn't see Severus slip into the room and sit next to Andromeda so that he could put his arm across the back of her chair. "It's not as though you became lovers or anything—"

Molly turned to see Andromeda burrowing her head into Severus's shoulder as he put his arm around her comfortingly. The extent of their relationship was clear to see. The teacups smashed on the floor.

"You are... lovers?"

Andromeda looked to her oldest friend, her eyes pleading for understanding as she nodded. "I was lost... and scared to death, and Severus has been so kind to me." She reached for his free hand.

Molly repaired the china and cleared up the mess. She set the kettle to boil again. "I suppose," she started. She thought a moment and started again. "I suppose I can see how it could have happened for you, not that I would ever do that, of course."

"There's more." Andromeda decided to make a clean breast of it.

"Don't tell me."

"I'm pregnant, Molly."

The red-haired witch put the dishes down very carefully and gave up trying to make tea. "You're what? HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?"

"I didn't think I could... You know how hard Ted and I tried... and nothing."

Molly gasped. "So it's Severus's baby, then."

He cleared his throat. "That remains to be seen."

Both witches looked at him. To Andromeda his comment was an admission. Her heart warmed at the
thought. Molly, however, found the comment to be horrifying.

"It might be Ted's? How can you sleep with another man when you're pregnant with your husband's baby?"

Andromeda simply looked at her. There was no answer for the situation at hand, simply the fact that it had happened. It didn't matter that she couldn't answer. Arthur was standing in the doorway.

"Molly, I believe it's time we left."

Molly was just getting started. She looked from one to another of the people of the room, trying to gather her thoughts.

"Molly, we have things to attend at home."

"Our Fred, Arthur. Our Fred died and these two are forgetting all about him."

"They've done nothing against Fred, Molly. It's time for us to go and let them be, here. We have our own loss to mourn."

Molly was unable to stop. She opened her mouth and every hurt of the past thirty years was revisited. She reminded Andromeda of all the things each had lost and told her how forgetful she was. At one point she stopped to take a breath.

"Enough!"

Severus had put his hand out. "You might find this trip down memory lane to be useful, Molly, but not the rest of us. Somewhere between your brothers and her cousin Regulus, she fainted dead away. You'll have to continue at another time."

"Come, Molly." Arthur gave Severus a hard look as he led his wife through the group of people who had come when they heard the commotion. The others quickly left as well, leaving Severus with an unconscious witch half in his arms. Still weak, himself, he would never be able to carry her, but he could levitate her up to her bedroom.

Arabella Figg looked at him in some surprise as he put her in her own bed, but she came to unfasten the witch's robes and get her tucked in. Severus went to the kitchen to make a Floo-call to Hogwarts. He was surprised to see Poppy Pomfrey emerging from the fireplace.

"Madam Pomfrey, I was just coming to ask for you."

"Minerva saw what happened and told me I might be wanted. Has she woken?"

"She hadn't when I came downstairs. Mrs. Figg is with her right now. I'll look after her grandson in the drawing room."

He reflected that he had spent much of his life looking after the children of his childhood enemies as he watched the small form of Teddy Remus Lupin sleep in a cot kept downstairs. Helping Andromeda look after her child would be a pleasant change from that perspective. He couldn't ever consider her his enemy, and Ted Tonks had been the least offensive person he knew.

Something about a sleeping baby was quite soothing, he discovered. As he watched, he found his own eyes drooping. He was still weary from his wounds, and getting the witch to her bedroom had been tiring as well.

"Severus."

He roused himself to focus on the face of the witch in the doorway. "Poppy."

"I was surprised to see her in the room where you've been staying?" It was more of a question than a statement.

He looked a little embarrassed. "She's been staying in her daughter's room with her grandson. That's her bedroom, though. It's where she would be most comfortable. I'll stay somewhere."

"She's been looking after Teddy during the night?"

"Once she felt as though I was out of danger, she's been taking Teddy's night time feedings so that Arabella can get some rest."

"Has Andromeda been resting during the day?"

He saw where she was going with this line of questions and simply asked, "What needs to be done?"

"There was some bleeding when I checked her. Now, don't worry... yet." Poppy held up a hand when he jumped up. "I know where the blood came from and it's a common enough occurrence. The child isn't in immediate danger, but she needs to rest or there could be drastic results. It's all too much on her. She was recovering from the loss of her husband, and now she has these other losses, too. I'm not sure she's fully absorbed the extent of it all."

He asked it again. "What needs to be done?"

"I'll take Teddy to the Burrow. If I know Molly, after today's outburst she'll welcome a chance to do this. He'll be fine for a week or two among them. There are plenty of people there who will cuddle him up."

"And Andromeda?"

"She needs to be cuddled up a bit, herself. Can you encourage her to stay in bed for a few days, just to regain her strength? You need to avoid any exertion, yourself."

"Yes, I understand what you're not saying."

Poppy patted his arm as though he were a child. "Let's get you back upstairs so you can rest, too. You might as well be with her. She's asking for you. Just remember that both of you need to rest and recover."

Poppy puttered around the room, giving Andromeda directions and warning looks to Severus. Arabella brought up some tea and left it on the coffee table near the love seat that faced the balcony doors. Andromeda, herself, smiled wanly when she saw Severus. She held out her hand and he sat beside her.

"We've been given orders to rest. Your grandson is going to be spoiled by Molly for a few days."

She nodded. "This has been your room. Is it all right for me to take it?"

"I thought I might look after you for a while. Do you mind?"

She patted the other side of the bed in answer. Poppy gave her last directions and finally left. Severus got his night shirt and slipped into the bathroom. There was something about climbing into bed and having Andromeda roll into his arms that Severus found soothing. For the first time in a week he felt truly comfortable and as though he could sleep.

June 8, 1998

Andromeda puttered about in her still room, sorting the herbs she had recently cut. Then she looked over some medicinal potions she had recently made. She had left Severus sleeping upstairs. He was still having odd aches from the snake venom. Poppy had opined that the potion used to heal Arthur Weasley several years earlier might be appropriate. They had obtained a draught of the potion and administered it. Severus had begun to feel better almost instantly, but still needed a dose now and then.

Now Andromeda looked up to see him standing in the doorway. She smiled. He was becoming increasingly mobile and his appetite and appearance were improving as well. They had not yet been intimate although they had been sleeping in the same bed for a few weeks. Andromeda hoped it would be soon. The child was not yet showing, but made itself known by the heaviness she felt in her lower belly. She wanted him to get used to the changes in her body gradually.

He smiled in answer to hers. "I feel as though we should talk."

Her heart skipped a beat. This would be it. She had been waiting for weeks, it seemed, to resume the discussion about their future. She wondered if he would give her time to plan their wedding or if it would be done quickly, like the one she had with Ted. Either way, she would appreciate every minute of this marriage. Looking back, she found that there were many moments she might have made more of with Ted.

They sat in the garden, near the pond, on wooden chairs with slanted backs. Uncle Alphard had brought them back from America after a trip, declaring they were the most comfortable chairs in the world. They had a name, but it was difficult to pronounce, so Andromeda had not really learned it. She sat in her chair and looked at the man she loved and waited for the words that would be as magical as any spell.

"Andromeda, I don't feel that I can marry you right now."

Adirondak. That's what the chairs were called. Adirondak. The Americans of a century before had summer cottages in a place called the Adirondaks and they used these chairs to sit outside at night and watch the stars. Sometimes they sat on those chairs on a porch and looked at a lake or stream by the hour. It wasn't such a bad word after all, full of mystery and a magic of its own, certainly much more romantic than what had just been said to her.

"I beg your pardon?" she finally asked when she could re-establish a connection to her tongue.

"It wouldn't be right. I do want to marry you eventually, and I want to help you raise your child. It's the closest I will get to having one of my own. I simply think that a kid should be born with his father's name."

Her eyes were dazed as she looked out over the pond. "In this case, that name would be Snape. I fail to see how my continuing to be Tonks would give the name Snape to the child."

"Please, Anna." He had started calling her "Anna" while he was so sick, finding her full name tiring to say. She had found it sweet, but right now she wished it was a stick she could bludgeon him with. She barely noticed as he continued. "I believe it's impossible that the child could be mine and you think it's equally impossible that it's Tonks's. Given that both are impossible, I've decided that we would wait until after the birth to see if we can make a determination. We can always have the name changed if I'm wrong. Then, I swear to you that we will get married, if you want me.

She stood up then and looked at him, feeling a little crazed. As Severus looked at her, he thought she seemed more like her older sister than he had ever seen her. "You believe. You decided. My opinion doesn't count? This is as good a reason not to get married as any, Severus, so I'll accept it. The real reason is that you don't love me, and you don't think you ever will. Fair enough, but you should just admit it."

"Of course I l—"

"Don't cheapen our already cheap situation by saying that! I know you don't love me. There's only one reason you would still believe the ravings of a teenage girl that you heard twenty years ago. You're far too rational for that. There's only one reason you won't at least consider the possibilities."

He looked at her. Her chest was heaving with sobs that threatened to break out, but she was too determined not to let them out. She took a deep breath and said what she knew was true. "That night—when I brought you here—I cleaned your robe and emptied the pockets first. I found the bottle with my name, but I also found another almost just like it. I know the truth, Severus. The reason you don't want to marry me and the reason you can't love me—it's because you still love Lily Evans."

He forced his face to go blank. "Anna..."

"You still love her, Severus, and as long as you retain this ridiculous notion, that of course you couldn't conceive a child with me because it would somehow be disloyal to her and everything she ever said or did, maybe we shouldn't get married. Don't say what will happen after the baby is born. Until you can let her go, perhaps it's for the best. It's not so bad, taking second place to a ghost."

"I know that at least as well as you do." His own bitterness surprised him.

Her eyes narrowed as she sat down again. "Whatever could you be talking about?"

He chuckled ironically. "You slid me into your life hours after he left it. Wizards aren't like cauldrons, that you can just replace as soon as they wear out. You were shocked and unhappy and made use of my presence at Hogwarts. I understand; I did the same with you. Now, however, you want to resume the—admittedly—lovely life you lived with your husband and you expect me to be just like him. You expect me to be Ted Tonks for the rest of my life."

"How can you say that?"

"Because it's true. I'm not Ted Tonks and I never will be. I'm not going to worship you just because you were kind enough to marry me."

"Of course not. You won't give me the chance to marry you."

"I'm grouchy in the morning, I mutter, and I make hurtful sarcastic remarks."

"I know that, and I love you."

"How could you say that after less than three months together, the beginning of which was almost forced?"

"I don't know. You described it as a golden moment... For me it was the moment in which everything changed. I don't love Ted any less... I just find that you belong. We match each other, somehow."

"I belong? We should also consider the very real animosity with which some of your friends regard me. Potter and Molly Weasley won't forgive you if you marry me so soon. I'm not sure, Andromeda, and until I'm sure, I can't marry you."

She looked at her hands in her lap and nodded. "I'll learn to live with it. My first wedding was less than ideal. I had a suitcase full of the only belongings I would take from my parents' house, and I had Ted. That was it. I didn't get a wedding with my family and friends. It turned out better that way. Ted and I were just as happy without it all because we had each other. Now I just have to lose another girlish fantasy, I suppose. I'll be all right... eventually..." She had to walk fast to get away from him. She didn't want to start bawling right there.

He stared at the pond for a while, considering what she said. It was all the ravings of a pregnant woman, of course, but there was an element of truth. He backed away from that thought. It was not something he would consider until another time. For now, he would find his witch and speak to her.

He peeked into the drawing room. Mrs. Figg was there, putting Teddy down for a nap. He found Andromeda in the bedroom. Her face was red from crying. He took off his robe and shoes and climbed in behind her, sliding an arm around her middle. "Do you want me to leave?"

In an instant, she rolled over and curled into his embrace. "Please don't go!"

"It seems as though my presence could only cause you pain."

"I need you here with me." She leaned her head toward his and started kissing him. The anger she had felt downstairs turned to a different passion, and her kisses became hungry. His kisses in return were more tentative. She tore at his shirt, unfastening it and pushing it over his shoulders.

"Anna?"

"I love you, Severus, and whatever you can give me will have to be enough. There's so little left of the life I used to have. I can't lose this, too."

For some reason he felt his own eyes watering as he undressed her. The new heaviness of her body somehow incited greater passion within him, and her hungry fingers touched him everywhere. He gave her all of his heart that was free. It was more than he at one time thought possible.

She made a breathy-sounding moan as the pleasure seeped through his body. He realized she was right. He couldn't give her up. This was home to him. After two months of living with her as though they belonged together, somehow the pretension had become the reality.

A/N: Thanks to Trickie Woo for beta reading!