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

Hermione took her glass of lemonade and drank it to the bottom. She held it out and Severus refilled it. When she drained it again, she looked up at him.

"The child is Andromeda's... and? How could it be my sibling?"

"It's a long story. Do you mind?"

She played with the tie of her dress. What did it matter, now? If he told his story, at least she could stay near him. She needed information anyway. What exactly did he tell her? "I suppose not."

"I know Potter looked at my memories, did he tell you what was in them? About his mother?"

"That you fancied Lily Evans?"

"Fancied? I suppose you could use that word, if by 'fancied' you mean I couldn't breathe unless I saw her every day. It works if by 'fancied' you mean that the world was a dark hole of despair whenever she wasn't in the room with me. Yes, I fancied her, the same way I fancy having the full use of my arms and legs... In actuality, I lived and breathed her as only an obsessed teenager can do. She was written into every cell of my body."

He sat and thought for a minute. "I first saw Lily and Petunia Evans in the park. There was a bush I used to hide behind and watch the other kids play. Petunia was absolutely ordinary and a little mean-spirited. Lily was—Lily. In my whole life, I've never seen anyone to match her." He turned his head slightly to look at Hermione. "Sometimes you're like her."

He was lost in a memory. She shifted her legs and he shook it off. "For a Muggle, she was almost perfect in every way, and when I saw her perform magic, I realized she was completely perfect. At any rate, after I realized Lily was magical, I spent days planning how I would introduce myself to her. We never would have become friends if it had not have been for the magic, of course. I would have seen her as one of those uphill snobs, and she wouldn't have condescended to be my friend. The magic made all the difference.

"Mr. Potter will have told you my disappointment when his mother sorted Gryffindor. I should have developed other interests, other friendships, but it simply didn't happen. The members of my house were all a bit cliquish as purebloods, but I was overly prickly, too. Some of them tried to be nice. I distinctly remember one of the seventh-years being kind to me. She wasn't Lily, though, so I tossed it off... I guess it wasn't to be, back then..."

He smiled, lost in thought. Hermione guessed who the seventh-year Slytherin was. She didn't want to hear about Andromeda Black, but she didn't want to interrupt Severus and possibly end this moment alone with him. The soft smile on his face faded and he shook his head.

"Has Potter told you what happened after we took our O.W.L.s?"

Hermione nodded.

"And about the werewolf and the rest of it?"

She nodded again.

"I let him think that was more or less the end of the story, but it wasn't. Lily did speak to me again from time to time. I had a gift for teaching even back then, and she liked studying with me now and then until N.E.W.T.s were over. She started dating Potter, but they squabbled and broke it off, often.

"We happened to run into each other, right around Christmas time of nineteen seventy-eight. She was furious over something Potter and Black had done and swore never to speak to him again. I think I distracted her over a nice dinner."

Severus shrugged. "Maybe I shouldn't have ordered that second bottle of wine, but we were enjoying ourselves for once. That evening we had the same easy friendship of our childhood, but we were old enough to really appreciate each other. At any rate, several hours later found us still together, but in one of the rooms of the inn where we had eaten our dinner."

Hermione gasped, causing Severus to look at her and nod.

"You are starting to understand; that's good. When she discovered she was pregnant, Lily panicked. She considered ending it, but finally decided to have the baby and put it up for adoption."

"What about you?" Hermione's voice was a bit squeaky. It was odd to think about this situation, so long ago it might almost be hypothetical, but so real because it was the story of—she almost couldn't even think it—herself. "What did you want?"

He looked up surprised. "At the time, it was put to me that my wishes didn't matter." He looked at her fondly. "I did have wishes, though. I didn't dare hope that I could marry her and be a family with the two of you. I had to be content with being glad when she decided to continue with the pregnancy, but I didn't understand her desire to give the baby up.

"She grew up a lot in a few weeks. She finally knew beyond doubt that she wanted to be with James Potter forever. She was ready to stop the constant bickering and make a life with him. She would forgo his presence just long enough to give birth. I have no idea what she told him about you, if she even did. He was training hard that summer and too tired to spend much time with her. I begged her to let me raise the child, and of course she refused. She wouldn't let a Death Eater raise her precious baby. In fact, she chose a Muggle adoption, hoping that her baby could stay far out of the troubles that surrounded us then.

"I might have succeeded in claiming the child even so. Fathers do have some rights. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was called away for several days at the critical moment." He looked at his arm where the Dark Mark had once glowed with its dark fire but now lay dull and quiet. "By the time I got back, the child, my daughter, was born and adopted.

"There's not much more to tell that you don't know. The Potters were killed, but my daughter was safe. Perhaps Lily's way was better for you after all. I waited out the next ten years, knowing you would arrive at Hogwarts at the same time as your famous half-brother.

"Then you all arrived, and within the first Potions class I knew who you were. No one else in your class—no one else in the world, for that matter—could have that particular combination of intelligence and smugness, of my mother's and Petunia's looks, yet with more than a glimmer of the grace and beauty that was Lily." He reached over and pushed a lock of hair out of her face.

"But... but... you were evil to me..."

"Was I?" She nodded and he sighed.

"I had no idea how to be a father. You have no idea of the worries and expectations I had. I didn't want you to be treated the way I was, and when you displayed your annoying brilliance or social ineptness, I ached. It also seemed so obvious to me what our relationship was that I worried it would be held against one or the other of us. When the Dark Lord returned, he brought stark terror that if it ever became known that I was your father, you would be targeted by him.

"Then there was your choice of friendships. I suppose you can't be blamed for having affection for your brother, even if you didn't know who he was. I'll never truly like the boy because of his father. Maybe I can be civil, for your mother's sake. At any rate, back then I reacted badly, I fear. I hope you can forgive me for that... and the other things."

"I don't know," she mumbled. "I can't think..."

It all made more sense now as it slid into place in her mind... his pride in her abilities... his delight that it was she who had rescued him from the Shrieking Shack... the fondness and interest he had shown her ever since... his kind suggestions about her friends... They were all the things a father might feel and do for his daughter.

Then there was the way the Grangers had been acting. Thinking back, she realized that they had all but told her she had been adopted. There had been a shifting and subtle movement away from them and their world. The year when she sent them to Australia caused a full break. She didn't feel the same about them, and now she understood that they never quite felt the way she thought they did.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Severus looked a bit embarrassed. "I couldn't when there was a war."

"But this whole year!"

"I didn't know how to tell you about our relationship. I wanted to know you personally first. Was I wrong?"

She didn't know how to answer that. "Does—does she know... about me?"

"I never told her until the other day. She wasn't best pleased, that I'd kept it from her, and was furious that I'd kept it from you."

"What about Tim?"

"I think he knows about the baby."

Hermione suddenly understood Tim's scowl. "I'm sure of it. He's brilliant at Arithmancy." The term she had asked about was not Sophy but his mother.

"Yes, he is." They both sat for a while, watching some ducks on the pond. "This is my chance to be to your brother or sister what I was not able to be to you."

"I'm so easily replaced." In every way, she thought.

"Not at all. Hermione, you're my fondest wishes come true. The Grangers have brought you up to be everything I could hope as a father, certainly better than I would have done. I can't undo or redo any of that." He sighed. "I'm ruining this, Andromeda would do so much better."

Hermione snorted. At the moment she wanted as little to do with Andromeda as possible. He tried again. "We want you to be as involved as you want. We want you and Tim to be part of everything."

"One big, happy family." She looked like a lighter-haired version of his mother just then, with her arms folded, eyes snapping, and lips set just so.

He sighed. "Maybe not. Maybe we'll just barely move along. This war has destroyed a lot of things, including the future I wanted as a young man, and the family Andromeda had. It's a mess, but it's a decided improvement. I've found some happiness, for the first time in my life. I'm not glad there was a war, or that so many people died, but I'm happy that it gives me the chance to be with her."

She didn't know what to say. "Do... do you love her?"

"Very much, Hermione." She mentally kicked herself for asking. She hated it when he looked like that. He wasn't her Professor Snape at all, but some lovesick mortal.

"Oh." There was nothing else to say, really. He had dashed her hopes and dreams and yet somehow it sounded... natural. She got up and brushed off her dress. "I'm sorry, but I have to go..."

"That's fine, I know it's a bit of a shock."

Hermione nodded and waved a hand.