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

January 10, 1999

He came back during the small hours of the morning. She and the child were both sleeping. The baby was clasped to her breast and wedged there with pillows. Severus slid the baby out of her arms and kissed it before tucking it into the bassinet. He pulled the covers over Andromeda, who murmured in her sleep as he did so. He Transfigured the utilitarian furniture of the hospital into an easy chair and slid it close to her. After kissing her forehead and taking her hand within his, he sat down to sleep, himself.

April 24, 1998

He should have realized that something was going on the night that she came out of the bathroom with a confused look on her face. He later realized that was the moment she must have started to wonder. Over the next several days, as he replayed them in his mind, she had gone from wondering to being sure and then worrying about his reaction.

On that first night, though, he looked at her and asked, "Is anything the matter?" She smiled a sad smile at him. "No, everything is fine."

Before he had a chance to ask again, she climbed on the bed and pressed him onto his stomach. She started at the crown of his head and started rubbing. She worked her way down his shoulders. She massaged each arm down to his fingertips and then returned to his back. Down she went to his feet, after which she had him roll over and she began her path back up to his face. What followed was exquisite.

He played with her fingers as he relaxed afterwards. "Andromeda, I've never known this sort of lovemaking."

She gave him a look that in another context would almost be considered motherly. "Do you mind?"

"How could I mind? I want to know what brought it on."

"Hm... Nothing of any importance." She traced the lines of his face, searching for what he eventually decided was a clue about the appearance of the child within her. "I find that I'm quite tired tonight. Do you mind terribly?"

"No, you've managed to wear me out." He put his arms around her and pulled her tight. His lips held hers for a long moment, and then he settled her against himself, one arm around her, and the other trailing through her hair.

If he had been paying attention, he would have seen her curious look become speculative as she glanced at him that week. He would have understood the ironic smirk she had given the note from Remus. He would have known what the meeting with her family had meant to her. Most importantly, he would not have been taken by surprise when she had whispered the words that would change his life forever.

May 24, 1998

"I've selected Harry and Draco."

"Potter... and your nephew? I would have expected you to choose someone else."

She bent over and picked up some more laundry to hang on the line. "I thought you would have a different role in this household."

He didn't answer that insinuation. He had been thinking hard about her situation and about his marriage proposal in what were the last hours of the war. He looked hard at her and decided that this was not the moment to have that particular discussion. It could certainly wait until the present conversation finished.

The spells that protected the Tonks house had been set when the cottage had belonged to Andromeda's Uncle Alphard. The Secret Keepers of that time were dead, as were several of the people who became Secret Keepers after that happened. When the ministry had been taken over by Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange's first order of business had been to destroy the spells and pay her sister a visit. She had been under strict orders not to hurt her sister, and was only allowed to look for the Mudblood husband and half-blood child. Knowing this would happen, Andromeda had been home alone, and Bellatrix had been too busy to come back again.

The spells would be re-set now that the war was over. Andromeda had worked with the Ministry to return it to Unplottable status and she was going to hide her home from most of the Wizarding world again. "I've lived this way for so long that I would feel far too exposed if everyone knew where to find me," she had explained.

Severus came back to the moment. "I had thought one of the Weasleys, perhaps."

She shook her head. "Molly used to be my best friend. I hope she still is, but she's too angry with me now, and I wouldn't want to put Arthur or the boys in a bad position with her. Besides that, I need to consider widening my circle amongst some of the pure-blood witches and wizards. Harry and Draco will help me bring the two sides of my life together. I've explained it to them, at different times, of course. They'll behave for the purposes of what I need them to do."

She was working through some of his robes and trousers and he stood up to help. "Are you sure you want to do this? You're putting control of so much of your life in their very young hands. In my dealings with wizards that age, I haven't found them to be particularly level headed."

She smiled at him. "They have a great deal of experience due to the war. I believe we can trust them. They know who I want allowed to visit my home and they won't tell anyone else how to get here."

Arabella brought the baby out, and it was time to go back inside. "They'll do well, Severus, I'm sure. I need to think of Teddy... and of..." She glanced down and smoothed her robe over her yet unchanged tummy, and he knew whom she meant.

"All right, then." He patted her shoulder, hoping that these small children would not regret her choices. Given her choices where he was concerned, he was worried.

June 24, 1998

He came into the sitting room after an inventory of her still room. He wasn't sure it was the best idea, but she had convinced him that he could prepare potions there. She was right; he could take on the tasks requested by Hogwarts and easily brew what was needed from her home. He wasn't sure about whether he should stay at her house, but the look in her eye whenever he brought the subject up decided him. He could barely admit to himself that he was hard pressed to think of his life without her. What had begun as two people clinging together in the midst of a war had continued as they tried to make sense of the new world that existed now. Clinging together worked for them, and neither was eager to change that.

"Andromeda, I need parchment to write letters to some apothecary houses. What's all this?" he growled, although he could see what covered her desk. There were several new scrolls that day from wizards who wanted to become better acquainted with the widow of Ted Tonks.

"Oh, I need to answer more of these kind letters."

"Anna, this isn't kindness. Do you know what this one says?"

"Isn't that the gentleman who said he admired Ted's work?"

"Are you kidding? He all but says he wants to ravish you."

"Let me see that, again." She read it, this time paying attention to the wording Severus pointed out. "Oh." Her face turned red. "Well, I've been putting a fairly standard answer in all of these. I appreciate their kind letters and notes, but I'm not going out much except to specific Ministry functions. Do you think that's correct?"

He was scanning others. "You should probably accept this one."

She shook her head. "He's very nice, but I wouldn't feel right. I don't want to lead him on."

"One of these men might be the one you want to be with from now on."

She looked away and answered quietly. "I don't think so."

"Andromeda, you may not want me after all. You should consider who would be the best man to help you raise these children."

"I've made my choice. Teddy would be best off with the man I love, and the baby I carry will be best off with his or her father."

"Who isn't me," he insisted.

"I think I know when and how I got pregnant," she answered.

"I think you're fooling yourself."

A blot formed as she quivered with anger. "I don't want to speak to you any more right now, Severus. Take some parchment and go." He left, but stood outside the door long enough to hear her swear at her quill and then mutter a charm to siphon off the excess ink.

October 31, 1998

"Damn it, Lily, why did you have to do this to me?"

He sat on her side of the grave, contemplating the spray of flowers he had brought. As usual, she didn't answer and as usual it made him angrier. Potter didn't answer either, which was the only good part of the situation.

"She's much better in bed, if you must know. Sorry, Potter," he added snidely. A passing Muggle in a nearby part of the graveyard gasped. He would have to moderate his voice better. He had never come so early in the day, before, but he had never had somewhere better to spend his evenings before, either.

"She knows the same people I know, too. She doesn't just consider them lower life forms and then forget about them; she knows them as people. She grieves with me for them. Even if they were on the wrong side of the war, they were still human beings who lost their lives too soon."

The gravestone still didn't answer.

"She treats me differently, too. She's far more demanding than you ever were. She expects me to be there for dinner or let her know when I won't be. She expects me to sleep with her every night. She expects me to treat her and all who come to her house with respect. I do every bit of it, Lily, because it pleases her. She refuses to write me off, and it wears her out. Are you aware that you took the easy way with me?

"I don't understand it, Lily. I love you, yet I want this life with her. Being with you was sweet torture, but being with her is natural and easy, when we don't quarrel. All of our quarrels these days are because of you. She thinks the baby is mine, when you told me it cannot be. She thinks I still love you, and she's right."

He uncapped the bottle he brought with him and took more than a taste. "I can't see my way, Lily. I haven't had a choice since I was twenty years old, and now I have to make a decision. Yet I can't go in either direction until you get out of my path."

January 10, 1998

She woke up with a shudder and sat up quickly before groaning. Her nails bit into his arm. "Where's my baby?"

"Calm down... right here in the bassinet," he answered. "You were both asleep."

"What are you doing here?"

"I think we should consider the future, now."

"You said I was right to send you away."

"That's not what I meant—"

"I think it might be true. Perhaps you're ready to move on without me. You've spent most of the last twenty years doing what others have demanded of you. I don't want to be one of the people trapping you into a life you would rather not have."

"Anna..."

"If you would just give my baby back to me," she said as she cleared her throat, "I won't keep you any longer. I'll manage."

"How do you know if I'll manage?"

"I know you can't get Lily Potter out of your system..."

"Andromeda." There was something in that tone of voice that made her pay attention to him. She looked into his face. "Our daughter is fine where she is right now. I have something I want to say."

January 9, 1999

"Severus, you have news."

He sneered at the woman who had once been his professor, had later been his colleague and most recently was his employee. "Not for you, Minerva." He couldn't share what had happened to him that night. "If you don't mind, I'll just get what I came for and I'll be on my way."

"Not so fast, young man," she answered. "Poppy was called away and I know it was to attend Andromeda. If you're here, it must be over."

"If your knowledge is so extensive, then you don't need me to augment it," he answered.

She matched his stride as he made his way to the dungeons. "You're going to tell me, Severus."

He made it to his former quarters and was inside before he had to answer her.

"Severus!" He barely heard it through the door.

All of his furniture had been returned to this room, although it looked more like a jumble sale than a bedroom. He managed to wedge the door of the wardrobe open and found the gilt box he had so recently tried to give to Andromeda. She had hinted then that someone else might be a more appropriate recipient. Of course she had already guessed who that person might be. A little further in there was an older, smaller box. Much of the gilt had rubbed off this one.

When he came back into the dungeon hallway, he discovered that Minerva was still there.

"Severus, you must tell me what happened."

"'Must?' That's an odd word to use, when I'm not sure if it's any of your business. Other people are involved, you know." He slid the boxes into his inside pockets and made his way toward the doors out of the castle.

"We'll all know soon enough, anyway."

"Then you don't need me to tell you."

"Severus Snape! You are the most exasperating man."

"That's an unoriginal comment coming from you."

They walked on, he in determined silence, she equally determined to break it. They went down the school drive in darkness and quickly reached the gate.

"Severus." She stopped him with her hand on his arm and he turned to look. "At least tell me whether it was a boy or a girl."

He could barely stifle a grin behind his hand as he summoned the determination to Apparate. "A beautiful girl."

January 10, 1999

He didn't bother to sit this time.

"You were wrong, Lily."

The granite stone had never answered him in the past. It did not break the tradition this time. Somewhere in the distance an owl hooted and a car door slammed. He didn't notice.

"You were wrong." He walked around the stone to the other side.

"I'm not just a Death Eater, I'm not too far gone to the Dark Arts, and I am capable of fatherhood."

With a rueful grin, he pondered her tendency to remain silent. Suddenly he didn't mind. He should have realized long ago how preferable it was to her constant nagging. He didn't want to take any longer thinking about it than he needed right now. He'd already spent far too much of his life on this woman.

"More than that, I'm capable of love, Lily. Not the pained torture of wondering if you would give me the crumbs of your kindness on any given day, either. She and I share..." He spread his arms out to indicate what he couldn't find words to say. "Actually, I'm not sure you need to know any of that. What you do need to know, Lily, my dear—" he said this last with a sneer "—is that it's over."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The air was cold and clean. When he breathed in again, he felt cleaner, himself. It was a lighter feeling than he had ever known. Without realizing it, he was walking out of the cemetery and into the road. He looked around before Disapparating. There was no one, so he quickly turned. He needed to get back to his witches.

A/N: Thanks to Mark Darcy for beta reading!