Snape and Lovegood to Wed in the Spring

It is with great joy, Mr Severus Snape and Ms Luna Lovegood announce their engagement. Lovegood has previously been attributed by Snape as responsible for saving his life after his near death during the Battle of Hogwarts. Rumors of their relationship have been oirculating since photos of them sharing tea in Muggle London appeared earlier this year. They now confirm their courtship with intention to wed in the spring. They anticipate a small, private ceremony. Snape will retake the Potions Master position at Hogwarts in the fall, and Lovegood intends to continue her work with the Quibbler.

A photo taken by the Weasley girl of the two of them holding hands in the Weasley's back garden accompanied the brief article. Thanks to some clever positioning of their hands, and the long fall grasses in the foreground, Luna's pregnancy was not evident in the photo even if it was hard to deny in person, but her wide dimpled smile and glittering silver eyes were as bright as ever. His own expression was stoic, but not harsh as he stared down at his betrothed.

He placed The Quibbler down in front of him with a sigh. It was done. The world would know. One secret less to keep.

She looked up from The Prophet from across the kitchen table. "What is it?"

"I am sure you will receive some feedback from this." He motioned to the article.

"None I care about."

"Why not, Luna? How is it that you are always so unaffected by the opinions of those around you?"

"Because I choose to be."

"Who needs Occlumency with resolve like that?" His mouth twitched in a brief smile.

She giggled. "Keeps the wrackspurts away too."

"As you say." Did she really believe that sort of nonsense or was it all just some strange metaphor? Either was equally likely with her.

He picked up the paper again and took a long sip of tea.

Hogwarts Repairs Nearly Complete.

Headmistress McGonagall is happy to report that Hogwarts will be welcoming students later this fall as repairs to the historic and infamous castle near completion. While the start of term has been delayed two months, the school will be welcoming back last year's sixth and seventh year students who wish to complete end of year exams and be granted privilege to interview for Ministry of Magic positions and other careers that are making exceptions to the standard Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test requirements. A career fair will be taking place on Halloween in the Great Hall after test scoring has been completed. Those with passing marks will be invited to participate.

"I suppose you will be needing to return to Hogwarts again soon to begin teaching."

He folded the paper and took in her distant gaze.

"Indeed. I've been thinking about that as well."

She sharpened her gaze to him. "Oh?"

"I believe Minerva would make an exception to certain requirements to remain on site. It would be inappropriate to expect you to manage alone."

Her face tightened in thought. "I am sure I can manage. I've got loads of support.." She rubbed her rounded midsection. "But I would certainly miss you, and he will want to get to know his father."

His mouth felt suddenly dry, but he forced a nod. "Yes. That as well."

"Have you considered names yet? I've so many in mind that I don't think I could choose." She took a sip of tea and popped some bacon into her mouth.

"I will admit to avoiding the thought."

She nodded. "I suspected as much. But no matter. I think it will come to us when needed."

He sipped his tea. She was correct that there was an inevitability to the situation even he could not avoid forever, but names seemed like the least of the concerns. "Any response to you posting for an assistant for the Quibbler?"

"No one qualified. But they will come, I am sure."

"Always so optimistic."

"I think I might attend the job fair as an employer and see if I gain any interest there."

He nodded. An unusually practical plan.


"This Little One has been so active lately. I have no idea how I am going to concentrate during exams tomorrow." Luna said as she crawled into bed that evening.

"You are well prepared." He patted the squirming creature within on what he assumed was the backside.

"That does much matter with a crystal ball bouncing on your bladder." She scrunched her face.

"Oh. I see." His lip curled at the visual.

She giggled as she curled up next to him. "Do you really?"

"Not in the least."

She tilted her head up to look at him. "Could you if you were in my head?"

"Understand what it has been like for you to carry this burden?"

She scoffed. "Burden is such an ugly word for what this is. It has truly been magical, and I wish you could appreciate the feeling of creating a new life. To know the incredible connection we have. I don't think words will be enough."

"I promised I would never enter your thoughts again."

"You promised you would never invade my privacy." She sat up and faced him. "This wouldn't be that, would it?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Luna, you are no occlumens. Your mind would be completely exposed."

"You are afraid of it…" she nearly whispered as she invited him within her mind with her wide-eyed gaze.

He swallowed. "I admit to being hesitant to learn things I wish not to know."

"I don't have secrets."

"Everyone has secrets."

"You aren't curious?"

"I would like to say no, but that would be a lie."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and locked eyes with him. "I want to show you. Can I please?"

He took a slow deep breath as he rested a hand against her belly again. "If you promise to tell me if you are at all uncomfortable or wish me to stop for any reason."

Her face lit up with a huge smile. "Yes. Of course. Yes."

He straightened himself up against the headboard and urged her into his lap. He looked into her sparkling silver eyes. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she whispered, her eyes staying on his.

Legilimens. Before he saw anything at all, he felt a profound warmth like that of bright sunshine swelling over him from his core. When the visions came to him, he found his own face staring back at him, a soft tan glow emanating from his form. The auras she speaks of? It was not the him he knew from the morning mirror, sallow and thin with bitterness mapped on his skin. Instead, through her mind's eyes, he saw the sharp dark eyes full of some mix of complex emotions and felt a desire to understand. The tightness in his jaw and furrow in his brow was missing and his thin frame relaxed against the headboard. The lines of his face did not speak of bitterness but of strength and experience.

As last time he had entered her mind, he became suddenly aware of many things simultaneously; the incredible dancing from within her womb, this time more powerful and insistent; a vision of a dark haired infant tucked protectively in Luna's arms; the ache of her feet, her ankles, her pelvis; the fullness of her breasts; the fatigue; the gnawing desire for something both sickeningly sweet and overwhelmingly salty; the black opal catching the light as she worked with Arthur Weasley to set an article for print; his hands scrolling down the pages of one of her texts as he quizzed her; her Gryffyndor peers sitting together at the Wesley's table; all surrounded by the same sensation of warmth; and tucked away behind the images of their recent dinner at Evander's he found the swirling unease without any particular form, like the images that had shifted on the walls of the nursery the day she found her overwhelmed about the cot. As he observed, he noted glimpses of his face, sounds of a screaming infant, images of past due bills, pages of the Quibbler being trampled over in the cobblestones streets, a "D" stamped across her end of year test, tears streaming down Luna's fair cheeks, more screams that sounded like they could be Luna, the black seals of Lestrange's harassing letters, but even this swirling doubt was somehow surrounded by the warmth.

He felt his attention pulled away from the unease as Luna fed him images of the nursery she'd completed with the images of the "Tales of Beedle the Bard" painted on the walls, his old cradle basked in the sunlight from the window, the galloping sounds of the heartbeat from the life growing within, her running back and forth to the loo six times overnight and returning each time to curl into his sleeping form, the plates of food Molly and Kreacher kept available to her in their respective kitchens so she never had to go hunting when the hunger pains hit, the picture of the two of them in their engagement announcement, Pandora Lovegood holding a blond haired toddler to her chest whispering "sleep, My Dandelion, sleep." Luna doing the same with a dark haired boy, "sleep, My Dandelion, sleep."

He searched for the swirling negativity again, but Luna, while no true Occlumens seemed quite able to keep it out of reach. As he fought to free himself from her sanguine deluge, he saw the nebulous spiral of uncertainties in the distance again. Could the lack of clarity to her stresses be because she refused to dwell on them and therefore never gave them form? Could they take hold of her like an obscurus if she continued to ignore them? Or was she really the wise one to avoid worrying about things she could not change or control and keep her focus on the things she appreciated.

She smiled brightly at him as he focused on her face again. "You see?"

He chuckled. "Not exactly. More like feel."

"Oh, yes. That makes sense."

He patted her thigh. "I still don't understand."

"You will," she answered in a singsong tone as she stood. "I promise."