CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 27- SEVERUS HAS A MINI-ME!

Severus and Alice ordered their favorite meal at their favorite restaurant fully enjoying the food, drink but mostly the company of each other. It was quiet, with no kids around and no problems and no helping someone with homework. Each of them had arrived at a point in their lives where they thought that the idea of marriage had passed them by, and while they were comfortable they were very lonely.

Alice found it strange that Severus had to use the Loo so many times that night. He also had dropped just about every piece of silver on the table. They had to replace his fork three times. This was so unlike Severus as he was usually the model of perfectionism at a dinner table. She was about to ask him if he was Ok when dessert arrived.

Poor Severus felt like he had to relieve himself again but he knew it was just nerves. He had been rejected so many times in his life, in so many areas, that he had come to expect it and most of the time it didn't matter but this time was important.

He couldn't put this off any longer so he took a deep breath, reached over and gently took her hands in his. "Alice" spoke Severus, "We have been through a lot this summer but I have to say that you have brought a whole new perspective on living into my life. Where it looked so dark I can now see the sun and as I used to love hiding in my dungeon, I look forward to taking walks with you in the light. Alice, I know this may seem sudden but I love you very much and want to know, would you consent to be my wife?"

It felt like everything went silent in the room and everyone seemed to be waiting along with Severus for her answer. For Severus it felt like an hour had passed before she looked up at him, smiled and shared with him a simple, "Yes". One word, just one word, but he wanted to dance and he didn't even know how. Instead he leaned over and kissed her gently and said "Thank you!" Then he placed a ring on her finger. He had looked at the heirloom rings in his vault but they all brought back so many bad memories. This relationship, if she agreed, was new and fresh so he wanted the ring to match.

"You do realize Severus that we have five kids, no house, and we are going to get married, how crazy is that" she laughed.

"Well, school will start soon and we will have nine months to work on an answer" he replied. "For tonight let's go to my quarters and just work on us. Mom knew I was going to ask you and said to tell you that she will keep Cassy through the night and bring her to breakfast." She shared another smile with him, grabbed her purse and they walked out the door.

The next morning Severus was up very early. He told Alice that he had some business to attend to before breakfast and since she had taken the day off to go ahead and take a leisurely bath and he would come back and walk to the Great Hall with her in an hour or so.

He knew where the kids would be and he wanted to speak to two of them in particular. He walked out to the front lawn and waited for the students to arrive to start their fitness session.

He let them know that Alice would not be with them but he needed to speak to Neville and Luna. He noticed the looks on everyone's face and added quickly, "Nothing bad, Professor Longbottom is just fine".

The rest of the kids took off toward the lake and the three of them sat down. "I wanted to talk to you so that you were part of the process and would not feel left out of things. I have asked your Mother to marry me and she has said yes. I just want to know, from you, how you feel about it?"

He didn't think that Luna would mind but the last time he had any type of dialogue with Neville, he had been over Severus' lap receiving a spanking. Severus was not sure how he was going to receive the news.

"Do you love her sir" Neville asked.

"Very much so Neville, and I promise to try and make her as happy as I possibly can. I also have come to love you kids with all your uniqueness and special ways about you."

Luna was the first to speak and all she said was, "It's about time, I know she loves you very much." She then gave him a kiss on the cheek and went off to join the rest of the kids.

Neville looked at him for the longest time, then walked over and gave him a big hug, one of those hugs that screamed 'thank-you'. Severus hugged him back and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. Then Severus said to him softly, "You can go back to being a kid Neville, I'll take care of her and you from now on."

"Yes, sir, I know you will" he said with a husky voice. Then he tried to break away and go toward the lake so that Severus would not see he was crying but Severus stopped him and made him look up. "Neville, I have been there, I know what you've been through. Don't be ashamed to cry when you're happy those are the best tears in the world to share with another." Neville hugged him again then smiled and ran off to do his class.

Severus just watched him go, with a smile on his face and a small ache in his heart. A year ago he had picked on the boy without mercy and now he was soon to be his son. Life does have a sense of humor and a way of humbling a person.

The boys were released from the infirmary with hospital port-keys. They could eat meals with everyone else and visit a bit but had to be back in the infirmary by three o'clock for a check-up.

When Alice and Severus walked into the Great Hall they were holding hands and that caught everyone's attention especially the attention of one little six year old.

Cassy literally stood up in her chair to get a better view and watched them walk in. She then climbed down and began walking over to where Severus was sitting. She definitely had everyone's attention.

When she got to Severus she faced him and put her little hands on her hips, and raised her one eyebrow in perfect Snape fashion. Then she crawled up into his lap and looking him square in the eye said, "Can I ask you something Poofessor Snape sir?"

Severus then raised his eyebrow also in perfect Snape fashion and said, "Yes Cassy, you may ask me a question".

"Just a minute" she said. "I saw this on telebesion and you have to have a face". She then worked real hard to make a very stern and serious face, crossed her little arms in front of her and asked, "Are your intentions with my mama honorbe?"

When she said that both Snapes eyebrows went up and about five people spit their eggs all over their plates. Minerva felt like she was going to explode from internal laughter and the kids were turning away because they couldn't hold it much longer.

Then Severus smiled and answered her, "Yes, Ms. Cassy, my intentions are very honorable, in fact I have asked you Mother to marry me and she said yes. Is that Ok with you?"

With that Cassy's stern face vanished and a big smile replaced the scowl. "Does that mean that you would me my new Daddy?" She asked.

"Yes" replied Severus, not knowing where this was going.

Then Cassy erupted yelling...........yehhhhhhhhh, and grabbing him around the neck while she planted kisses on him and hugging him for all she was worth. Then she stopped and turned to her Mother and said with a straight face. "He's honorbe Mom, you can marry him, Ok?"

Cassy then got down and ran over to Harry, yelling, "You will be my brother Harry, isn't that neat?"

Harry picked her up and gave her a big hug telling her that it was indeed really neat to have a little sister.

That did it, everyone lost it and congratulations were shared all around. Everyone had to take a look at the ring and of course give Severus a bad time. It took a good twenty minutes to settle down.

The boys were supposed to meet with Arthur and Severus in the "infamous" study after breakfast. They were not looking forward to it. They knew that they had not been released from the hospital yet so they couldn't get a spanking but they would probably find out when and where along with a lecture.

After breakfast they headed to the study and waited on Severus and Arthur to arrive. It wasn't long before they walked in, both with stern faces. They were not alone, Professor Dumbledore and Tonks were with them.

"Boys" said Arthur, "Professor Dumbledore is here to represent the school as you are students here. We are here as your parents and Tonks is here on behalf of the ministry to take a statement from you."

"We need you to just relax and share with us what happened that night after you flew into the forest. The other kids have taken us as far as the forest, Neville took us up to the time the you were taken. So if you could start there and share with us what happened."

Draco shared the story since he was more familiar with, where they were, and who was with Lucius. He told them about the "Cruciatus" curse and then getting whipped by the "Flagrate". He shared how they finally escaped using the port-keys and ended with their arrival at the hospital.

The boys were looking rather pale so Severus asked Tonks and Albus if they had any further questions as the boys needed to rest a bit. Both said they had enough and congratulated the boys for getting out in time as it sounded like Lucius was set on killing them.

Severus ordered tea and cookies for everyone and they relaxed for a few moments. Then Severus looked at Harry and asked, "Harry, when did you start using wand-less magic?"

Harry was caught totally off guard and blushed. He didn't look at his Dad for the longest time then when he did he said, "I didn't lie to you Dad, really I didn't, I just didn't tell you I was working on it."

"Harry, relax, I didn't think you lied to me. I just realized how the ropes on Draco's hands were untied, although I don't think anyone else has picked up on it yet. No, I am very happy you are working on it as it probably saved your life. But why didn't you share it with us?"

"Well, it's not just me, Neville has been practicing with me. We really weren't sure we could do it so we agreed to wait until we could do a certain amount of magic then let you know. We still had to do one more spell before we were going to come to you. We figured that one more spell would tell us if it was a real ability and not a fluke."

Severus looked over at Arthur then said, "I think you are wise to keep it a secret right now. You can share with the rest of the kids that are here but tell them to keep quiet about it or you won't work with them. Then I want you and Neville to start teaching the others how to do it."

"Harry shook his head in agreement, very relived that his Dad wasn't mad at him. Then he turned and asked, "Dad, we're in big trouble aren't we? Are we going to get spanked when Madam Pomfrey lets us out of the infirmary?"

Severus looked at Arthur and Arthur nodded his head."You know what boys" said Severus, "We dearly wish that we could blister your bottoms for you, but we can't."

The boys really looked confused and Harry said, "I don't understand?"

"Boys we don't spank you just because you do stupid things, we spank you so that you gain a sense of accountability. When you do the stupid thing then you know that along with the stupid thing comes discomfort. For the next few days, after a spanking, you are not going to be sitting very comfortably and can contemplate what you did to earn the discomfort."

"Like when you guys went to Malfoy Manor. None of you were hurt there although you could have been killed. That is why you received probably one of the worst spankings you will ever receive. For the next few days you were constantly reminded of what you did and constantly had to think about what you should have done. Thank God we were able to spank you and not visit you in the hospital or worse."

"If we could turn back time boys, we would gladly spank you to remove every scar you have on your backs, bums and legs. Some of those scars you will wear until the day you die."

"We so dearly wish you had come through this without paying such a price, but you didn't. We feel like we failed you because our job is to raise you in such a way as to avoid that kind of accountability, especially in someone so young. Hopefully, if we can do our job as parents, correctly, then you have a chance to come through life with very sore bums at times but no scars that will last forever."

"That is why we say that we wish with all our hearts that we were able to blister your bottoms today, but we can't, you have already been punished. Not the punishment we wanted you to endure, but it is the one that held you accountable to your actions."

"I am sure you have been told by your friends that they received spankings, detention and their brooms taken away. That is, their, price of accountability, and while it might sound harsh to them it is much better than the price you had to pay with the Cruciatus and Flagrate curses."

"Here are your brooms" and with that he handed each boy their broom. You have no detention and you have a heart felt apology from us that we were not able to get through to you soon enough to keep you from paying such a high price for your disobedience."

"Now, we need to get to lunch, especially you guys or you will have Madam Pomfrey on your case."

With that the boys stood up, still in shock, they walked toward the door. Then, without speaking to each other they all stopped, they looked at each other, then turned around and went back to their parents. They had big tears in their eyes and each handed their brooms over to their fathers. "You keep them until we can earn your trust again Dad." Said Harry and the others agreed.

Then they grabbed their fathers and hugged them, telling them they were so sorry that they hurt them.

Harry said to Severus, "I am sorry I learn so slow, I really will try and be a better son to you."

Severus pulled him into a hug and said, "You are a fine son Harry, I love you very much and we will work together in trying to make sure you never have to pay such a high price for your decisions again."

When the boys had left, Severus looked at Arthur and with tears in his eyes he asked, "How do you do it? They are so vulnerable, so loving, so good, you just want to lock them up until they can defend themselves."

Arthur smiled then replied, "With Bill, our oldest, we tried the 'protect him from everything' method. We soon realized that he had to learn how to navigate in this world and he would take a few lumps in the process. All you can do is love them, be there for them, and hope that the price they have to pay for their mistakes is always just a warm bum."

"Being a parent is hard but worth every moment. I mean look at what they just did. They love flying more than life itself, but because they realized they were not responsible enough to have brooms right now, they gave them back to us. They also accomplished something else that you may not have noticed. There is no time set to get them back as there is with the other kids. They said, 'When you feel you feel we have earned your trust'. They wanted us to know that they trust us as parents and that, my friend, is a big statement coming from a teenager." Then he laughed and said, "Let's get some lunch."

Everyone was gathered in the Great Hall for lunch, everyone except Cassy that is. Alice started to worry but Minerva calmed her down saying, "Don't worry about it. She had lunch in our quarters and now she has some business to attend to then she will be right in to say hello."

Alice looked at Minerva and knew immediately that Grandma and Granddaughter had been locked up all morning and were definitely up to something. So she just smiled and waited.

Toward the end of the meal Cassy came strutting in, dressed all in black. Everyone in the room stopped eating and began watching the show. She walk up to Severus and said, "Daddy, you promised me you would teach me a potion and Mama says you have some time free now, so can we make a potion, please, please?"

Severus just looked down at this small precocious child then stood up, put out a finger which she grasped onto and as they turned to walk away; The Snape cape snapped out in its usual form behind Severus. No one could figure out how he did it. But when Cassy turned around they all noticed for the first time that she too had a cape and when she turned around it also "snapped in very fine Snape fashion" and their jaws dropped.

Harry pointed and said, "She has her own "bat cape" how cute. Dad I think you now have some very stiff fashion competition."

Severus stopped in his tracks, looked down, and turned Cassy to the side saying, "What is this?"

Cassy looked up at him, not blinking at all and said, "If I am going to learn potions then I have to have a bat cape just like my daddy or they won't work, right?" And with that she stuck her eyebrow in the air in wonderful Snape fashion and pulled her Father-to-be out of the hall.

Everyone had tears running down their faces they were laughing so hard. "Do you know" said Minerva, "That little tyke is the only one around here that is not intimidated by Severus."

"In fact" laughed Harry, "She is turning into a little Severus. Did you help her with the cape?"

"Oh yes" replied Minerva, "We worked all morning on it. Looked pretty good didn't it?"

They all just shook their head at how that little biddy girl had that big bad Potion Professor, wrapped around her little finger.

Author Note: Since the summer is coming to a close someone asked if I was going to do a sequel. I was thinking about it but it seems that the story is just not that popular. Some of the chapters don't even have ratings. People read it but didn't bother with reviews. If the interest isn't there I probably won't but thanks for reading this one.