There was a soft tapping at the door to Harry's room. A second later, it inched open and his mother stuck her head inside. It made him so happy to see the real life version of that face that he had only ever seen in pictures and dreams.

"Hey."

"Hey. Do you have a minute?"

"Sure," he said, putting down the book he was reading and sitting up on his bed. His mother entered the room and sat on the bed next to him.

"I have received an offer of a teaching position from Hogwarts. Minerva Mcgonnogal is going to be the new headmistress, which leaves them short a transfiguration professor. She has contacted me and inquired if I might be interested in teaching. I just wanted to make sure that it was ok with you. I mean, you have your school and your friends and everything and I just thought that maybe you wouldn't want your mother there. I mean, I would like the position, but I'm sure they could get someone else to fill in for a year until you graduated."

"No. I think you should take the position. I'd really like you to be there. All my life, I've wanted nothing more than family, I've wanted nothing more than for you to be alive. Now that you're here, I don't want to go even a day without seeing you. I want to make up for all the years we were apart."

Her eyes shined with unshed tears of happiness.

"Thank you Harry. I'd like to make up for all those years too."

She got up and started moving towards the door.

"So they'll set up a room for you at Hogwarts?"

She paused by the door, back turned towards her son and arm in mid-reach towards the knob. She stayed in this position for a moment, contemplating her answer. Finally she turned around and took a few steps back towards the bed.

"There's actually something else that I've been meaning to speak with you about. Severus has…Severus has asked me to marry him."

Harry stood up.

"Please tell me you said no."

"I said yes."

"But it's Snape."

"Harry, I love him. I've loved him since I was nine years old. He's made some mistakes and so have I.."

"Mistakes? He joined the Death Eaters!"

"That was almost twenty years ago, he's more than made up for it."

"It's not like he's been innocent since then. He…he killed Dumbledore."

"He did nothing I didn't ask him to do. He did what he had to do to protect you, to protect me. I've asked so much of him, more than any man should be asked to do. Believe me when I tell you that he has more than paid for his crimes. He has never asked anything of me. And now he is asking me to marry him. I owe him everything, I cannot deny him this."

"How could you let him be my stepfather. I've told you how he treated me. You've seen how he looks at me, even now."

"I've spoken with him. I've told him that I would not marry him if he did not accept you as his son and treat you accordingly."

"I don't want to be his son."

"You said you've always wanted a family…"

"My family, with my mother and my father, not Snape."

"He's Violet's father. Can you deny her the chance to have her family intact?"

Harry sat back down on his bed.

"No. no, I can't."

She reached down and kissed his forehead.

"I love him, Harry. I really do."

Harry walked into the kitchen the next morning only to be greeted by the sight of his mother with her arm indiscreetly wrapped around his former nemesis and future stepfather. He instinctively clenched his fist. His mother saw him and detangled herself from the embrace. Snape turned around and Harry saw a fleeting smile on his lips for a split-second before it turned into a scowl.

"I'll leave you two alone for a little bit. I think it might be a good idea for the two of you to have a little talk, perhaps clear the air between you a little." She slipped out of the room, letting the door close softly behind her. Neither man moved. There was a static tension in the room that was palpable.

"You killed my father." Harry accused coldly.

"I saved your mother's life," Snape snarled back.

"It's not like that was your only murder."

"I did what I did to protect you, you ungrateful brat."

Harry fingered his wand in his pocket. His magic whipped and curled inside him, threatening to last out. He couldn't let himself be here with this man when he couldn't control his emotions; it was too dangerous.

The door slammed behind him.

Harry stormed across the lawn and apparated to Grimmauld Place. He found it still full of people. He avoided them and made his way for the library to find the one person he needed to talk about this with, the one person he was certain to find there.

Hermione sat reading a book. He saw her hand twitch towards her wand at the sound of the door opening. They might have told themselves that they had moved on from the war, but their unconscious reflexes told a different story. His hand twitched the same way any time he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, every time a noise caught him off guard.

"He wants to marry my mother! The fucking bastard is trying to marry my mother."

She felt his magic ripple and surge around them. The bookshelves started shaking.

"Harry," she said softly, standing up and reaching out to touch his arm. "Harry, you need to get your magic under control." This hadn't happened in a while, not since the war. When his emotions got out of control, his magic dangerously slipped away from him.

"Harry," she said again, stepping closer and rubbing his arm. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The bookshelves stopped shaking. Hermione was the only one who could stop it when he got like that. He opened his eyes again to see her watching him with a concerned expression on her face.

"Sit down, let's talk about it."

He sat with her for hours and recounted everything that had happened over the past few days, everything his mother had told him, everything that had happened between him and Snape.

"Harry, this is not the end of the world. A week ago all you wanted, all you wanted in the entire world was to have a family. Well, you're going to have a family now. Your mother is alive. You're not an only child anymore. You have a sister! What would you have given for that just a week ago?"

"Then why can't he just leave me and my family alone?"

"Because he is as much a part of it as you are. Are you willing to let your personal feelings about him get in the way of your mother being with the man she loves, are you willing your sister to have what you always wanted- two living parents, a whole family?"

"No," he whispered.

"Then get over it."

"What?"

"Get over it. As much as you hated him, he has spent the last fifteen years of his life protecting you. He's gone to hell and back to make sure you stayed safe. You don't have to be his best friend, but you owe him at least this, to not stand in his way as he finally tries to claim the happiness that has been denied to him for so many years."

"But it's Snape."

"Harry, if you just wanted someone to complain about how much of a bastard Snape is with, then you should have gone to Ron." He hadn't, he had gone to her.

"He's such a bastard."

"She loves him, Harry," she said softly, reaching out to touch his hand, "We can't control who we love. She loves him and he loves her back. That's rare. You should be happy for her." He looked up and saw that she wasn't looking at him but staring at the floor instead as she spoke.

The door to the library opened and the immediately pulled her hand away from his at the sight of the long-red hair entering.

"Harry!" the girl screamed, running over to hug him, "I thought you were at your mother's house. I thought you weren't hanging out with anyone this week."

"Yeah Ginny, I'm still staying there. I just needed to come talk to Hermione about something."

"What did you need to talk to her about?" Ginny asked, eying Hermione suspiciously. She hadn't missed the sight of the other girl's hand withdrawing from her boyfriend as she entered the room.

"Just stuff, nothing important."

"I haven't talked to you all week."

"I know. I'm sorry. I've been busy with my mom."

"Not too busy to come see Hermione," the girl said pouting.

"Ginny, it's just Hermione. Don't get all paranoid."

"Maybe I should go," Hermione cut in, standing up. She didn't want to get in the middle of a lover's quarrel.

"No," Harry said, standing as well, "I need to be getting back home."

Ginny pouted again. "You can't even spend some time alone with me before you go? I haven't seen you in soooo long. I miss you, baby."

"I know, Gin, I know. I miss you too. I just need to spend some time with my mother now. I promise, next week I'll come by the Burrow and hang out with you."

The sun that had shone earlier that morning had passed behind the clouds and the day was now decidedly overcast. He entered through the door that he had slammed only a few hours ago. This time he closed it softly behind him. He found that his mother had not yet returned. After finding the kitchen empty, he made his way into the laboratory. He found his professor there, bent over a steaming cauldron. Harry stood in the doorway, not feeling welcome to move into the room any further. Snape made no indication that he had heard Harry enter. Harry watched him work for a few moments before speaking.

"I'm willing to try this, to try to start over….for her."

Snape looked up at him, studying his face for a few moments and then nodded.

Severus and Lily sat in the library, both sorting through their lesson plans for the year. The room was silent but for the scraping of quills and the rustling of parchment.

Lily flipped through her lists of students, recognizing familiar family names, no doubt children of people she had been in school with. She inquired to Severus as to the connections of a few of them. Then another name caught her eye.

"Harry's been telling me about his adventures over the past seven years. The name Hermione Granger seems to come up a lot. What do you know about her?"

"She's an annoying insufferable Gryffindor know-it-all intent on dominating each class for the purpose of demonstrating just how much she knows," he paused and sighed, "You'll love her."

A few minutes passed as they each returned to their work. Then, Lily, continuing the conversation, "More of a know-it-all than you?"

She ducked to avoid the wadded up piece of parchment that was flying towards her head.

She chuckled to herself.

"You think you're so funny, don't you?"

xxxxxx

Draco was guided down a narrow hallway. It was one he recognized, the one that had led him to the interrogation room every day for the past few weeks. He had gone over his story, time and time again, remembering every word that was spoken, every action that was done. With every word he spoke, he felt as if he was pushing a knife further and further into his heart, but every word also set him free. It was only by cutting himself away from his family that he had a chance at a life.

They reached the end of the familiar hallway, put he was pushed right instead of the normal left. They soon arrived at a room he had not seen before. His godfather stood waiting for him. The guard who had led him nodded to Snape and then left. Snape opened the heavy door behind him and sunlight streamed in, so bright it caused Draco to wince and squint. It had been many months now since he had seen the sun. Severus moved to leave, but noticed that Draco did not follow him. Draco was still standing there with a confused look on his face.

"You're free, Draco, let's go," he said impatiently, motioning to the open door. Draco cautiously stepped outside, striving to keep up with his briskly-walking godfather. Snape reached into his robes and pulled out Draco's wand and handed it to him. He stared at it for a few moments before tucking it inside his own tattered robes.

"Are you taking me to Spinner's End?"

"I'm bringing you to your aunt's house. She is your guardian now."

"My aunt?"

"Andromeda Tonks."

"But I've never even met her. Can't I stay with you? You're my godfather."

"She's your family."

"But I want to stay with you." He whined desperately.

Severus stopped walking and turned to face the young man. He had sufficiently wiped out his past, like wiping clean his own slate. All of his former associates were now either dead or in Azkaban. He had broken free from his former self…almost. This boy that stood before him, that bore the same mark as he tied him to that past self, to that past life. Draco reminded Severus of the mistakes he had made when he was Draco's age. This boy reminded him of everything he was trying so hard to forget.

"Draco, I'm getting married next week. I have a child, a family. I need to make this work and you being around would just make that more difficult."

Draco was speechless for a moment.

"Oh, so that's how it is, is it? You needed me, my family, as long as you didn't have one of your own. Now that you have a child of your own, I'm no use to you anymore?"

Severus didn't deny it. It was easier this way.

"What about my house. Can't I just go home?"

"Draco, firstly you haven't graduated from school yet. Secondly, the Malfoy Manor has been confiscated by the ministry,"

"But it's my home!"

"It was your father's house, maintained and financed by decades of corruption and crime."

"But…"

"I'll take you to your aunt's house. You only have to stay there until school starts. I've talked Mcgonnogal into your conditional readmittance to Hogwarts. I'll see you next week; your aunt has an invitation to my wedding, you may accompany her."