Note: The next chapters will let us know what happened from 1981 to 1991 in our lovely couple's lives. I ask you to pay attention to the occasional time-jump. Enjoy!

Monday, December 7th 1981

Snapes' family home

Severus woke up slowly, a sleepy smile in his lips as he opened his eyes and looked at the beautiful woman he had his arms around.

Florence lay peacefully beside him, fast asleep, her back to his chest, and every breath he took, Severus could smell her delicate and delicious scents: clove, cinnamon, a hint of herbal tea, and the strongest of all of them: the sweet vanilla that always had his mouth watering.

He kissed her shoulder and caressed her side, touching the silk nightgown she was wearing. For the first time in days, they weren't naked in bed.

After the roller-coaster of emotions that their week had been, and all their intense love-making, plus the capture of Bellatrix and Rodolphus the day before, not to mention all the attention the twins demanded, when the sun went down Sunday night, Florence and Severus were beat, and they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

He looked at the clock on the bedside table – it was half past four in the morning; he had to be in Hogwarts by seven, so that meant he had time to love on his wife a little bit.

Arising her from sleep with his touches, he slowly made love to her.

Hogwarts

Severus left the house before Florence and the kids had woken up – otherwise, he knew he wouldn't be able to leave in time.

He walked into the great hall to have breakfast and sat beside Dumbledore, as usual. But everything seemed different; the castle looked brighter, the food tasted better.

It sounded cheesy even in his mind, but he couldn't stop feeling like that; he had married the woman of his dreams, he had two amazing kids, and the war was over (for the time being).

He sighed into his coffee cup.

"You look happy, Severus," said Dumbledore, with twinkling eyes.

"And I am, headmaster, as you very well know," he helped himself to a second serving of sausages, realising he was ravenous, the early morning activities had certainly opened up his appetite.

"Why not have breakfast at home?" asked Dumbledore.

"The boys wouldn't let me leave if I had stayed for breakfast. Plus I still fear Tiffany might poison me."

Dumbledore laughed. "That lovely house-elf. She deserves our respect that one."

"That she does," Severus said, "Not sure about the lovely part though."

"Now, I heard all about the capture yesterday, my son. Congratulations."

"It was all Florence's doing, Headmaster. I was there just to help her," he went for a second cup of coffee.

"She's an amazing witch," said Dumbledore, with affection.

"She's an amazing everything," Severus whispered, letting out a love-sick sigh.

Dumbledore looked at him with a smile and wiped a tear that left his blue eye, "I'm really happy for you, my son."

"Thank you, Headmaster."

Potions class

Third-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws

The students were confused.

Snape was… happy?

He didn't take any points from Ravenclaw nor humiliated any Hufflepuff students.

Once the class was dismissed, everybody ran out as quickly as possible.

"Did you see that?" asked one Ravenclaw student to her best friend.

"Yes. I was so scared! What happened to him? Why was he happy?"

"I have no idea. It was creepy," the other girl shivered.

Severus smiled once he was alone in his classroom, the students had noticed his happiness and got even more scared of him.

He took an essay to grade and noticed when Dumbledore walked in.

"Heard you were very weird today," commented the Headmaster.

"Yes. Apparently happy-me is even scarier than unpleasant-me," he finished grading one essay and took another.

Dumbledore just observed him for a few seconds, frowning: "You truly married her. Through blood magic."

"How can you tell?" Severus asked, curious.

"There's something different about your magical signature. It's... interesting."

"If that's all, I have to finish grading these essays, Dumbledore. I don't have an assistant anymore, so if you could, please, leave me alone, I'd appreciate it."

Dumbledore seemed surprised, "Using 'please' now? My goodness, you sure have changed."

"Get the fuck out, Dumbledore!" Severus said, "Is that better?"

The headmaster laughed, "I'll be going, now. See you at lunch," and he left, an idea taking form in his head.

Snapes' family home

Florence was in the living room, reading, when the flames in the fireplace turned green and Dumbledore walked out of them.

"Headmaster! What a surprise! What can I do for you?" she closed her book and stood up.

"Hello, my dear. Sorry for just barging in, but I have something on my mind."

"Please, sit down. What is it?" Florence asked, sitting on the sofa after he sat on an armchair.

"What do you think of being a permanent member of our staff in the castle?"

She frowned, "Why do you ask that? You have Pomfrey, and I know she's not planning to retire anytime soon."

"I know. But I want you around. You can help her in the hospital wing, you can brew potions, assist Severus with his essays. What do you think?"

"Well, I have my own plans to help the people of Hogsmeade, Dumbledore, I'd like to open a small clinic here in the village-"

"You can still help them, Florence. You can offer them house-calls. But I'd like to have you in the castle."

She frowned at him, "It sounds important for me to be there. Why?"

"I just feel you should be around. You can help Poppy and Severus and... I don't know... I just feel it's the right thing," he paused and then added: "Also you'll have my full authorisation to come and go as you please. You don't have to stay in the castle the whole day. If you need to see a patient in the village, you can go; if you have to look after your kids, feel free to do so."

Florence looked at him for a few more seconds.

"Alright," she replied. "You are making it so good that it's impossible for me to turn it down. And I must admit that I really enjoyed grading papers and brewing potions in the dungeons."

"That's great! Do you want to tell Severus or I tell him?"

"I'll tell him tonight."

"Great! You can start tomorrow morning."

"I'll be there," she smiled.

Then Dumbledore left.

Later that day

Severus got home before the twins had arrived and went looking for his wife.

"Florence?" he called.

"Down here!" he heard her reply from a room beside the library, "In the lab!"

"You have a lab here?" he asked going to the door and walking down a flight of stairs, finding her by a long worktable in an incredible, enviable, potions lab.

"Just a moment, Sev. I can't talk right now."

And he just watched her finish whatever it was that she was brewing.

He tried to guess what it was, but he couldn't fully recognise it. It was similar to the Draught of Peace at times, but it had much more complicated wand-patterns than that brew.

Then he saw some similarity to a Memory Potion – but Florence added Fluxweed and Wormwood, both ingredients with healing properties, and stirred slowly for a few minutes.

It seemed like she'd already been working there for a while, for she had tied her long hair in a bun at the top of her head, but a few strands had already fallen and she was sweaty.

He watched her cast a few more incantations and add three drops of Varvain infusion. Then she looked inside the cauldron expectantly and smiled.

"It's done. Finally," and she walked to him, jumping into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him.

"Have you guessed what I was doing?" she asked, knowing he couldn't possibly have known.

"I recognised some things, but the whole concoction made no sense to me. What is it?"

"It's my very special Restorative Draught. I call it the Golden Potion. Its base is a Draught of Peace that I added modifications to after each test."

Severus let her put her feet down onto the floor and walked to the cauldron, looking inside at the beautiful golden colour of her draught, "Is it for the Longbottoms?"

"Yes. Augusta sent me her authorisation to keep treating them even though I'm not at St. Mungus anymore."

"They have improved with this Potion?"

"Well, they aren't back to normal, obviously, but my draught has helped Frank remember his love for Herbology to the point that today he recognised the two plants that I sent him on Friday! So that means he's reading and retaining information!" she was close to tears in her happiness.

"That's amazing for just a month of treatment, love," Severus sounded impressed.

"I know, I'm very very excited about it! I keep improving the recipe after each batch. Feel free to give me some ideas on what to change next time."

Severus looked at the two pages of ingredients and instructions.

"This must take you at least four hours of complete focus to brew," he exclaimed.

"Yes, it does," she sighed, clearly tired, "But that cauldron will last them a month's treatment. Plus the Hospital uses it on cursed injuries as well."

He walked to her, wrapping her tight in a hug. "You're so precious, love," he kissed her, "This draught of yours is absolutely brilliant!"

"I'm just glad that it's helping them. Frank and Alice didn't deserve what happened to them..."

"No, they didn't," he touched her face, admiring her even more.

"Also, I brewed that much because I'm starting a new job tomorrow," Florence brushed his hair off of his face.

"Where?" Severus frowned.

"I'll be assisting a very important professor at a nearby school."

He smiled, understanding what she meant, "Oh, really? I heard he hates assistants."

"Oh, well, if he gets angry, he can just fuck me and I'm sure it'll help him feel better."

Severus fisted his hand in her hair, pulling her head back.

"I'm bending you over my worktable as a welcome-gift tomorrow, wife. I've been wanting to do that since the first day I saw you in my lab."

"I knew I'd love my new job," she whispered, before having her mouth invaded by his tongue, being thoroughly kissed.

Then they heard: "Dad! DAAD!" being shouted in the living room, and he kissed her once more before letting go of her hair.

"Go up there," Florence said, "I'll bottle my draught and clean up here. With you there, they won't even remember I live here too."

"I'll show you that I remember you live here later," he said, looking at her up and down.

She giggled and walked to her worktable, while Severus went upstairs to greet his sons.