Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

Katherine felt rather proud of herself for shedding her embarrassment about being intimate with her husband while her uncle lived in their house. It took a full week and a half, but eventually she could face him over the coffee pot in the morning without blushing. Uncle Sonny found the situation amusing and took advantage of the opportunity to needle her about it in small ways. Severus smirked and chortled into his coffee and neither helped nor hindered the shift in the family relationship.

Then, just as it was starting to feel as though Uncle Sonny were part of their household, he was gone. Severus came upstairs one evening to see Katherine sitting on a blanket in front of the sitting room fire, dinner spread around her. His blood quickened as he came toward her and sat down.

"Where is your uncle?" he asked.

"He got an owl this afternoon, packed up his things, and left. He said one of his associates found something he was looking for, and he was going to get it. His house is ready, and he wants to be truly out on his own." And I want you and your husband to enjoy your time together, he had said. With luck there will be someone else to disturb you by this time next year.

"You will still see him."

"He did say he would stay in touch." Katherine handed Severus a wine glass.

"You'll see him far more than when he was at the hospital, I'm sure."

Katherine put her own wine glass down. "That's well and good, darling, but I have some staying in touch of my own planned for this evening."

"You seem to have planned quite a bit." Severus looked around and realized that she had made the room quite comfortable. He realized his robe was unfastened and that there weren't many buttons left to unfasten on his shirt.

Katherine finished undressing him and reached for a bottle of massage oil. "I believe I've planned everything. Lie down, Professor."

"I may have to do some planning of my own, you know."

"Will you?"

"Yes, at some point—ah, Katherine—" His last coherent thought was that he would need to unfasten her robe... eventually...

Katherine sat unusually straight over her breakfast the next morning. Her husband admired the way she didn't slump over as she often would after the little sleep they had gotten the night before. Then he made his way around the table and saw her face. He pulled a vial out of his pocket and put two drops into her tea.

"Did you run out?"

She looked up, ashamed. "No, I had stopped using it and forgot about it. I guess I'm not used to so much of what we did last night."

"Not on the floor of the sitting room, at least." He smiled down to her. "I should have brought you to our bedroom sooner."

"It was all worth it." She smiled smugly into her cup as she drank it down. After a minute or two she stretched and adjusted to a more comfortable posture. "Mmmm, that's better. I shouldn't have forgotten this potion. Shall we have another go? We haven't done anything in this room in a while."

"Tempting as that is, I'd like to give you a chance to properly recover. I also need to get downstairs. My new potion should be finished in a day or two, and I think this morning will be important."

"How are you doing in your conversations with Harry?"

He groaned. "Always with the difficult questions. I've told him a few things, answered some of his questions..." He trailed off in a funny way, so Katherine looked up at him. "I gave him that picture I had. It was from a letter his mother had written to someone else."

"I thought that picture was important to you."

"It served its purpose. Now I have something real that warms more than my thoughts at night."

Potion or no, the looks they were exchanging started to get heated. They took their time, eating slowly and smiling at each other until a pair of owls flew at the dining room window. Severus stood to let them in. There was one for each of them.

Severus looked at the one he received. "It's from Lucius. The common uncle he mentioned to me at the party has taken another turn for the worse."

"Oh dear. Will you visit him?"

"I'm not sure to what end. He was kind to Lucius, but he never acknowledged me as part of his family. What is your news?"

"It's from my Paris contact. I need to go today. I should be back tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow is the thirty-first." A flicker of something crossed his face, but Katherine didn't notice since she was reading the note a second time for the details.

"Yes, it is." Katherine stood and walked over to her husband, giving him a kiss. "I guess I should gather my things and go. The sooner I go, the sooner I'll be back. Thank you for the potion. I'll be much better with it."

He stood then and pulled her close. "Be careful, Katherine, and come home to me as soon as you can."

"I'll do that," she kissed him one last time and smiled to him before she slipped down the hallway.

Katherine arrived back home forty-eight hours later. She slipped rather stiffly through the front door and found her husband in the sitting room. There was a bottle of Ogden's Old sitting on the table in front of him.

"Ah, the lady of the house graces us with her presence."

"I'm sorry I was delayed. I sent word—"

"I got your owl. I was expecting you."

Katherine's face was very white. "I'm sorry. I just needed a few extra hours to finish..."

His face was tortured. "I needed you, it was the anniversary... the worst day... ever."

Lily's death. Katherine found it hard to breathe and tears stung her eyes. "How very foolish of me. I should have realized." It came out as a whisper.

He didn't look up.

"Let me go change out of this outfit. I'll come back, and you can tell me all about it."

"If you can spare the time."

"Of course I can. I'm sorry, it was thoughtless of me."

"You women are all the same. You all leave me."

"I did come back. I'll always come back." She got into the hallway and pressed her hand against the wall. "You had the paper done?"

"As you can see. I went with my choice since you weren't here to disagree with me."

"It looks beautiful. Are these snakes?"

There was no answer as she made her way to the bedroom. She was feeling sick and lightheaded. If she could only sit down, she would be fine. She would change into something comfortable, take a couple of drops of Severus's potion, and then she would mourn his loss with him.

"Master, wake up. Mistress is needing you."

He lifted his head from the back of the couch and stared at the house-elf. "You have it backwards. Master is needing Mistress. Where is she, now?" He took the potion the elf handed him.

"Mistress is on floor of bedroom. Fern tries to help her and Mistress cannot move. Come Master, help Mistress."

He stumbled up and found that his legs would stay under him. He made his way down the hall. He found where she had stopped to admire the new paper. There was a smear of blood. "Katherine?" His steps picked up speed until he got to her side.

Katherine must have fallen while trying to sit on the edge of the bed. She had laid out some yoga pants and a dressing gown. A long-sleeved tee shirt had fallen on the floor under her. Her face was very white.

"What happened to you? What was it that delayed you?" He gently lifted her to the bed. Her eyes opened, and he got the impression of an ambush, of a Stunning Hex that dropped her on her bottom and caused her to skid across a room, tumbling through rubble. There was a mediwitch who tried to repair the damage and asked her to stay, but Katherine insisted on getting home to her husband.

"Oh, my love, what did they do to you?" He undressed her carefully. It was clear to him that the same bones as before were broken. What disturbed him most was the purplish-black stain all across her left side. Several new bones were broken, and it appeared other damage might have been done as well. He checked her pulse. She would never make it to St. Mungo's.

There was his new potion. It should be able to help her. There were also a couple of drops left of the most precious potion Severus had ever owned. Before doing anything else, he gave her two doses of Blood-Replenishing Potion. He Apparated downstairs and got a vial of the new potion. He took the vial of the other potion out of his inner pocket and carefully opened it. Obtaining one of the two or three precious drops with a hand that shook more than he would ever admit later, he mixed it into the new potion. As it blended, the potion turned gold and emitted a soft hum. He knew that this mixture would work if anything could.

He rushed back upstairs and held the potion to her lips. At first she would only take a couple of drops on the back of her tongue, but as it started to take effect, she was able to take the whole dose. It appeared to be working, but there would be many painful hours before she would be better. Severus carefully wrapped his wife in the sheet and kissed her forehead. He got a chair and sat next to her. He held her hand to his lips and watched her throughout the day.

He was watching her as she opened her eyes. "Don't try to talk if it hurts."

"Water?"

He held a cup with a straw for her, and she sipped it eagerly, her eyes showing gratitude.

"How long?"

"You got home three and a half hours ago. It's just noon now. The potion I gave you will take at least until late tonight before we know how you are."

"So sorry... Lily."

"Don't think about it."

"Love you."

"I love you, too." He gave her another dose of Blood-Replenishing Potion and then allowed her to slip back into sleep.

She woke again, several hours later.

"It feels like Skele-gro."

He gave her some more water. "It works like Skele-gro, but not just on bones. It's supposed to be repairing your other organs, too."

"That explains why it's not entirely that splintery feeling. Some of my insides feel all twitchy."

"Do you mind if I look?"

"I never have, before."

His heart skipped a beat, but he kept a more professional demeanor while he pulled the sheet back and looked at the bruising. It had faded to reds and yellows. He said some simple diagnostic spells he knew and considered the results.

"It looks like the internal bleeding is under control. I need you to take a little more of the Blood-Replenishing Potion."

She went to sleep again.

When she woke the next time, Uncle Sonny was sitting in the chair. Severus was sleeping at the very edge of the bed. Katherine realized she was wearing a nightgown and that it was dark outside. Uncle Sonny saw that she was awake and raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"I was ambushed. Someone knew where to go and what time to be there."

"I'll find out who. We will make that person pay."

"Let the Ministry have them."

"After doing this to you? They will answer to me. Let the Ministry have what's left."

She didn't say anything.

"Oh! I was supposed to offer you some water or even some juice."

"I think a little juice would be good."

A house-elf was summoned. He held the glass so that she could sip it and told her about the past day as she did. "Mistress is looking better. She comes home and sleeps on the floor. Mistress is white, so white. Master is being grumpy, then Master is sad and worried. Wilbur and Fern tells Master to rest, but he worries. Master Sonny comes and watches Mistress."

Katherine sipped her drink slowly. She wanted to savor the taste of it, but she also wanted the full story from Wilbur. There wasn't much, and she was quickly finished. "Thank you. I believe I owe the two of you a great deal." The elf went pink as he left the room.

She looked over toward her husband. He looked so peaceful. She didn't want to interrupt his rest, but she wanted his touch.

"You're supposed to go back to sleep." Her uncle patted her hand, and suddenly Katherine remembered she was exhausted.

"Yes, I think I will. Thank you, Uncle Sonny. I love you."

"I love you, too, child."

She found she could move her arm and slid it across the bed so that her fingers barely touched those of her husband. He shifted in his sleep and moved his own hand, covering hers.

When she awoke the next time, she found that her face was pressed against her husband's chest. He lay close to her, now. When she stirred, his arms tightened protectively around her.

"I love you," she whispered, snaking her own arms around him.

He was awake at once. "How are you feeling?"

"It's all just a dull ache, now. I do have to take care of one thing, though."

"Hmm, do you want to try to walk, or should we use the other arrangements?"

"I think I can walk."

He helped her get up and walked with her to the bathroom. After she managed to handle the necessities, her husband helped her back to the bed. "I'd like you to eat a little, but I would like to look you over, first."

His hands moved to the hem of her nightgown, and their eyes met. Katherine's breathing became shaky. To distract her he asked, "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

"They were waiting for me. I had to fight my way in and then back out. It was when I was coming back out that I saw... I think it's the ash wand that I'm looking for. I've never been hit with a Stunner like that. I don't think it worked at full force, either. It doesn't belong to the person who used it."

Severus pulled her nightgown over her head and gently maneuvered her onto her stomach. He started rubbing a healing potion into her back. "Did you see who it was?"

"No, they had hoods over their faces. Somehow I think it's personal. I don't think it had to do with the wands."

"Are you going back for them?"

"I have them."

"You managed to get the wands in the midst of all that?

"I was attacked after I had gotten them, and there was no way I wanted to go back to that, so..."

"So you kept the wands at all costs. How did you get away?"

"I used a Reductor Curse. Whoever it was saw what I was doing and Disapparated."

He reached the small of her back and couldn't resist a kiss. "What did you do, next?"

"My contact brought me to a mediwitch who did what she could. She wanted me to stay, but I had already changed the Portkey once and I wanted to get back home to you." Her voice became husky. "I'm so sorry I missed the other night, Severus. I should have remembered from last year and dropped everything to get home and be here with you."

"I spent the evening with Potter."

"What?"

"We talked about Lily, and Lily's husband. We went to Godric's Hollow so we could visit their graves, and then I took him to the place where Lily and Petunia grew up. It wasn't as bad as I once feared such a meeting would be, but I couldn't shake the feeling that you had set me up, planning for your trip to go longer." He rolled her onto her right side, and their eyes met again.

"I had no idea of doing something like that. I wouldn't force such a meeting on you."

"I realize that now. It doesn't matter, anymore, anyway. Halloween isn't just the night I lost the love I had always wished for, anymore." Very gently, he started working the potion into the area that had been so bruised.

"What do you mean?"

"It's still the night Lily was lost to me forever, although she was gone from me long before. More importantly, it's the night I very nearly lost the love I have. As bad as it was seventeen years ago, and I wanted to die then, the last two days have been worse." He stopped the rubbing, his hand on her left hip, and he kissed her lips. "I love you in ways I never dreamed possible when I was younger," he whispered into her forehead. "If I lost that, there would be nothing for me."

"Oh..." She pressed herself close to him. He made her feel safe and loved. She found that she was very, very aware of him. "Severus?" Katherine put a hand on her husband's shoulder. "How am I?"

"Hmm? His hand was trailing around her back.

"I want to make love with you."

"You can't."

"After the way you've cared for me? I feel so close to you right now. Isn't there some way?"

"Lie still." He said some diagnostic spells. "You're just about healed, but I fear hurting you."

"There must be some way." She was picking at his shirt.

He put his hands over hers and gently pushed her back down. "If you really want this, we need to do it my way." He started working his own buttons and spoke to her as he undressed. "We're going to be very slow and gentle, and if you feel any severe pressure or intensity, you will tell me, and somehow, I will stop."

"I do believe you just told me not to have an orgasm."

"Be serious, Katherine."

"Yes, I understand, within reason."

He sighed, but started to kiss her. She returned the kiss, and her hands started moving along his torso. He stopped her and murmured, "Don't touch me in such a way that I will lose control, please." She made a sound and he shushed her. "I'm serious. If you won't let me be careful, we will stop."

"Don't stop, I'll be good. Oh, I ache." He stopped and held her away from him. "For your touch, I mean. Please don't stop. I ache for your touch and to feel you."

"Let me do it." He shifted her to her right side again and moved behind her. Katherine's only task was to clasp her husband's hands and abandon herself to his lovemaking. He held her a little longer and she said, "I would never have dreamed that such a man existed who could be so gentle and care for me so tenderly." She moved and let him guide her back into the nest he had made of her pillows. "I want to have your baby, Severus Snape. I want to see you as a father, caring for our child the way you have cared for me today."

"Are you sure?"

She ran a hand over his face. "I'll send that note of inquiry to St. Mungo's tomorrow. Unless you think I should go sooner..."

He looked chagrined. "Actually it's probably better not to go so soon. The, uh, treatment I gave you is not something that has been approved or is even anything that could be made available again in the same form. In any case, there is a particular Healer I think you should see. It may take a while to get in with her."

She smiled. "As you wish."

He re-wrapped her in the sheet and kissed her forehead. "Now I should see about that meal I wanted you to have..."

A/N: Thank you to beta reader Mark Darcy.