Disclaimer: This is all for fun, I do not claim ownership of the characters or anything recognized from the work of JK Rowling. I am only borrowing them.

Warning: Mature themes, subject to change: mild violence, strong language, substance use or abuse, scenes of a sexual nature as well as general innuendo smattered throughout, adult themes including but not limited to death and disease both mental and physical.

Beta Love: doctorhodes

[A/N] 4.8.2016 Hello, everyone! Thank you to all who have reviewed and continue to watch. It has almost been a year since I started this story and I promise, I will not abandon it, but there is no schedule to the posts. There might be one more "filler" chapter after this on this date (8/5/2005) but it will start moving more quickly very soon (story wise). I appreciate all the critiques and comments you leave for me!

Also, in the meantime, as I construct this longer story I am writing a series of shorter stories with different pairs as prompted by my readers. If there is anything you'd like to see (even outtakes from this story, perhaps?) let me know by PM here or on tumblr.

Playlist: Semi-Automatic - Twenty One Pilots | 99 Problems - Jay Z | Psychobabble - Frou Frou

Friday, August 5th, 2005 | 4:21pm | Grimmauld Place

"He's beautiful, Ginny," murmured Harry.

Albus Gideon Potter declared his arrival to the world by screaming loud enough to nearly break the Silencing charms around the bedroom. Hermione had Floo'd in with only a few minutes between Ginny's contractions.

The birth of her second son was smoother and quicker than her first. With a much calmer Ginny, Hermione was able to focus completely on delivering Albus. Trusting Hermione completely and listening to her when it was time to bear down allowed Ginny to reiterate to Harry how completely terrible his idea for a middle name was and how she would personally see to his physical dismemberment if she named their son Albus Severus.

Harry was ready to say anything if it meant that his wife would stop crushing his hand and focus instead on her labor.

Hermione held onto Ginny's arm as she moved further up on the bed. Once her patient was settled, Hermione silently offered a vial of Healing Draught and several other post-partum treatments. Each vial was placed back into Snape's elaborate leather potions satchel once emptied, creating a small chorus of tinkling glass. After hours of shouted instructions, screamed obscenities, and moments of soothing reassurances, the room was deafeningly quiet. It only served to amplify the cooing noises from the baby swaddled in his father's arms.

"I'll leave you three days' worth of potions in the nursery," she said, securing the lid on the bag as she stood from the bedside, "and I want you to send me a Patronus if there is anything else you need, but Padma is someone you can trust at St. Mungo's if I'm otherwise occupied."

"Otherwise occupied?" Harry said, looking up from his son. He blinked a few times to moisten his eyes from staring at Albus so fixedly.

"Honestly, Harry," Ginny muttered under her breath in an indulgent tone. She smiled at her friend with genuine affection and gratitude. "Thank you, Hermione. Really. You're welcome to stay and rest, and I'm sure Kreacher will make you anything you'd like."

Hermione leaned down to kiss Ginny's forehead, a small smile pulling at her features. "I'm just going down to see James and going back, Gin. You'll be fine; you did wonderfully. When I went down for tea a few hours ago Kreacher said there's a letter from Angelina. She'll be up here tomorrow with Molly to check on you all and give you some sleep if you need it."

With a look that implied she wanted to protest further, but didn't have quite enough energy to, Ginny reached out her arms to hug Hermione before she left.

Friday, August 5th, 2005 | 4:48pm | Loch Lomond

"Master Draco and Master Severus will come to dinner now," demanded the voice of a small elf above them. "Master Lucius and Mistress Narcissa will host in the cottage. Now."

"Fuck off," grumbled Severus.

The wards on the table hovering in front of him lay in orderly lines, some a dull grey or brown, after hours of curse breaking attempts. They blurred together into a mass of light and static.

Draco slumped heavily against the wall behind him. A stool summoned from the lab above kept him upright and his arm trembled from the effort of holding his wand aloft. Wiping sweat from his brow with his sleeve, Draco asked the elf to let his parents know they would be along soon.

"We need to stop for now, Severus," Draco said in an undertone. "I don't care what you do, at this point, but I need to stop and eat or I might black out from losing my magical strength."

Severus noted the tremors in his godson's wrist and shoulder as he worked to keep the ward key table aloft. With a curt nod, he brought up his wand to assist in packing away the wards they were unable to dismantle and lower the key back to its seamless hiding place. Using a small burst of magic in the form of a levitation charm, Severus lifted himself out of the underground room. Draco abandoned pretenses and requested assistance up and out, which Severus provided readily.

The trudge from the storeroom, locked securely behind them, felt much longer than the original trip. Cleansing charms wouldn't be enough to clean the sweaty grime away and make them presentable for dinner. Draco notified the elf who harassed them that they would be along as soon as they both had a shower.

One of the luxuries of Severus' tenure at the Manor were the guest suites and waterfall showers constructed after the War ended. Not even the giant stone bath during his year as Headmaster could compare to the rhythmic pounding soothing away exhaustion from his muscles.

Meddlesome elves removed his clothes from the room, presumably to wash them, and replaced them with items deemed appropriate for dinner with their master. He reacted typically with muttered curses and promises to accost the next elf in his path but it barely registered as a mild annoyance. It would not do to waste focus and exhaustion on something so trivial.

He still favored neutrals, black constructing a large portion of his wardrobe, but the only true robes he'd worn in recent months were at the Hogwarts ceremony. The fine cotton and wool blend draped over the four poster as dark as a shadow. Buttoning layer after layer over his arms and torso felt completely unnatural, like donning a shroud. As he left the suite to meet Draco, the realization slowly dawned that these robes were his own, left behind and forgotten in some closet, and not worn or seen since the defeat of Voldemort.

Vaguely unsettled, Severus met the exhausted Draco in the entrance hall, and they strode out onto the lawns towards the mother-in-law suites.