AN: This chapter is long awaited, I hope the length and contents make up for it! I'm sorry about that, but we should start to get some answers here for some things that have only been hinted at so far in this story. MULTIPLE TRIGGER WARNINGS IN THIS CHAPTER AND FROM HERE ON OUT!

When she met his eyes she must've realised that he had noticed her manner, and picking up Rose as he picked up his son, she gestured him to follow her in the nursery. "There's something we should talk about"

And he realised then and there, that as bad as his day had been so far, it was about to get a whole lot worse.

They put the babies down together, and once more he noticed Rose quieting when his son was placed beside her. His gut churning in a way that he was certain was not due to the large meal he had just eaten, but the weight of the words he was sure were about to be spoken.

She told him to sit and he did, on the small sofa. He was momentarily amused that Sacha had done likewise at the same command and he offered a wry smile to the dog beside him.

She didn't move from her position over the crib though, and he noticed that her grip was white knuckled as she watched the sleeping infants with her back to him.

The only sound in the room was the soft breathing of the children and the scuff scuff as the ever loyal dog's tail wouldn't stop wagging.

"When I found out I was pregnant after the war, I think I was still in shock. So much had happened, so many people lost. So much was still going on, you were still in Azkaban, and I was still fighting for your release. There were so many funerals, Ron was still alive..."

She trailed off but she didn't cry, her breathing was ragged though but he remained silent. He felt like he didn't want to hear this, but perhaps she needed to say it, so he remained rooted to the spot.

"A part of me almost couldn't comprehend it. After what happened at Malfoy Manor I'd been convinced that I would probably never have the chance to be a mother, and then here was the proof of the stupidity of that statement staring me right in the face. I almost didn't believe it, it was as though my mind just couldn't take it in...until I felt the movement"

When she paused for a moment, he spoke quietly. "What happened at Malfoy Manor?" He asked with concern, and she looked at him over her shoulder for just a moment to give her answer.

"Bellatrix Lestrange happened"

Severus's scowl deepened, and she turned back to the babies in the cot.

"Ron was happy, I think. Or at least he pretended to be. He married me of course, straight away. I was still in shock, I'd not long since got the news that my parents had been k-killed and I just...went with it I think. It was easier than trying to think too deeply on anything. He spun some tales about how badly it would look upon him if the children were born out of wedlock, blah, blah. I think looking back now, he knew that when I finally came out of the state I was in, I would've never agreed to marry him, pregnant or not. Not after everything that happened. And we were two vastly different people anyway, the war had shown us that in glaring detail"

"When we found out were were having twins..." she paused for his gasp and then carried on "Ron was over the moon, kept talking about how he was looking forward to meeting his sons. His mother's family were known for having twin boys you see, Molly's brothers Fabian and Gideon and then of course Fred and George. So he was convinced that he was carrying the family tradition on with two twin boys. He wanted to go public straight away, was talking about putting an ad in the prophet for Merlin's sake. But I begged him not to. I knew there was so many things that could go wrong with twin births and first pregnancies in general, not just after everything that happened at the Manor. So I persuaded him to keep it quiet, somehow had the wherewithal and played him at his own game... convinced him it would be a better story to present not one, but two babies when the prophet wasn't expecting it, but it worked anyway and only we knew we were expecting twins."

"I still couldn't quite believe it. So I threw myself into my other tasks, getting you out of Azkaban was a priority. And a million other things to do with the rebuilding of hogwarts and so on. I went into labour at just under 8 months. They had warned me that I would probably be early with a twin birth. Gods, I'd wanted to be at London Children's Hospital but Ron wanted his sons to be born in the magical world, and I'd begged for St. Mungos then and he'd told me not to be daft. So I had a home birth as was traditional, with the same mediwitch who'd delivered all the weasley children. And I mean ALL the weasley children. This woman had delivered Molly for merlins sake. But it made Ron happy so I..."

Went along with it, Severus thought with a frown

"Went along with it." She confirmed a moment later. "It was a horrible birth. The labour went on for so long, and I lost so much blood. I had a bad reaction to the pain reliever that she gave me so I had to go without. the pain was...unreal."

"I'd had Sacha a while by this point and he'd always hated Ron with a passion. Especially when he shouted. The midwife was going on about how I just had to keep pushing, that the babies would end up in distress if I didn't deliver soon. To let them tear me if I had to, but to just get them out. Ron went mental, shouting as soon as he heard his sons could be in danger, telling me I wasn't trying hard enough. Sacha had been barely holding on by a thread, but the second Ron went to grab my arm he snapped. Nearly took his hand off. It was my wild magic that finally booted him out of the room. So there I was with Ron screaming in the hall, and this useless senile mediwitch just telling me to keep pushing, and Sacha growling at them both while I held on to him, and I just wanted to say to them all 'can't you see I'm dying here?'"

His stomach lurched in sympathy as he stared at the shaking girl's back.

"Sacha was my rock. I don't think I could have done it without him. I had my arms around him so tight I don't know how I didn't break his ribs, and he never left my side."

"Rose was born first. A big healthy girl. the nurse gave her to me, and then Hugo followed. He was smaller than Rose. But we'd been told that there's always one twin smaller than the other, always one stronger baby that takes the lion's share of the nutrition from their mother but they would soon even out once they were nursing. He was almost half Rose's size though, but a weasley through and through. Bright blue eyes, red hair, freckles the lot." She'd smiled.

"Ron bypassed Rose and went straight to her of course, and as wizarding tradition dictated the nurse gave his first born son straight to him and I had to hold Sacha back just to let Ron hold him. She was about to leave us when Sacha went mental. I was haemorrhaging and she hadn't even noticed. Wouldn't have done, if Sacha hadn't dragged her back. She stopped the bleeding and left me with formula, told me not to attempt to nurse them until the morning as I was too weak. But I was full of milk and my chest hurt and I just wanted to nurse my babies but she forbid me."

Her body trembled.

"We put the babies down. Hugo wouldn't take the bottle she offered and I was so worried but she said it would be fine and he'd nurse in the morning after I'd slept, some babies just didn't want the bottle and I allowed myself to trust her because I'd remembered my mum saying something similar about me refusing a bottle when I was a baby and I was just too exhausted and sore and overwhelmed by it all."

"Sacha wouldn't let Ron in the nursery once the babies were down, but he went straight to bed anyway. Shut and warded the bedroom door out of spite so Sacha couldn't get in. An hour later Sacha woke me up, he was howling and throwing himself at the door. I'd never heard him so frantic and so I went straight to him. Ron was convinced he was just throwing a tantrum to get into the bedroom and ignored him, but I got up even though I could barely walk and Sacha ran straight to the nursery when he saw me."

A vice had gripped Severus's heart as he saw her shoulders shake silently.

"I just knew. The second he ran to the nursery, the second I'd heard him howl, the second he'd woken me up I just knew. And there he was. Rose was crying and he was just silent and still."

"I don't remember everything in detail after that. I just remember thinking that I must have called for Ron because he was there, snatching Hugo up before I could even pick him up. He was shouting at Rose and Sacha to be quiet, shouting at me to be quiet so I must have been crying or screaming or something. I just remember standing there. Tears and snot down my face, my milk had let down hearing Rose cry and there was blood running down my legs and I must have looked an absolute fright and I was begging for him to give me Hugo but he just wouldn't stop screaming at me"

He couldn't remain seated any longer, so he stood and approached as cautiously as one would an injured Hippogriff. But she turned and sank herself into the embrace he offered.

"I begged him to let me hold him but he just ...He took him. Took him and had him buried god knows where and I never...never got to hold him, not even once. never got to nurse him or dress him or anything." The tears came thick and fast then as he held her in his arms offering what little comfort he could.

"It was like Rose started crying when Hugo died and ' . Every day Ron grew more bitter and angry. Told me it was my fault his son was dead..."
"It's not-" he began but she cut him off with a soft look "I know that. Now I know that, but at the time I had postpartum depression, I was hurt, angry and so devastated. I believed all the things he said about me. That I had failed as a mother, that If I'd have just tried harder in the labour, or if I hadn't been so 'dramatic' afterwards so that I could've nursed him that it would've made all the difference."

Sacha whined and pushed himself to his grieving mistress, who patted him lightly.

"And as well as blaming me, he blamed Rose. Blamed Rose for being a girl, for being the bigger twin and 'killing' her brother, his only son. So all he was left with was this stupid girl who did nothing but cry just like her mother. I told him that Rose missed her brother, mourned him. She'd known him longer than either of us, didn't know how to be without him and he just called me stupid."

At a loss of what to do he just rubbed her arms in what could be construed as a vaguely soothing gesture and she just chuckled at his self depricating and chagrined smile as he stood there awkwardly, handing the situation the best he could.

"He was drinking again, really badly like he had when the war had finished. He dried up a bit before the babies were born but he was going through it worse than ever Then he started looking at Rose...and..."

"He got so angry he nearly killed me. But Sacha stopped him, it's how he got the scar on his shoulder. If he hadn't got the urgent patronus from the Auror office about the rogue death eater attack, I think he would have killed us both. Me and Rose. Instead he went to work with the other Aurors, but he was drunk and angry and reckless. And he got himself killed. And nobody knows, but me and now you. They gave me his pension and his Order of Merlin money, set me up with hazard pay and all the benefits a grieving widow of a war hero is allowed, and none of them know that moments before he was called the killing curse was on his lips and he was ready to kill me and Rose both."

With a shudder she pulled herself out of his arms and wiped her eyes.

"The rest of this conversation requires alcohol" She'd said simply, and with that they'd made their way downstairs.

Much to his combined embarrassment and fascination she'd used a breast pump to get some milk before she began to drink. Explaining to him that the alcohol would be out of her system by the time the babies needed a morning feed, but she wanted some fresh milk on hand in case the children stirred in the night.

When that was finished, she offered him a choice of alcohol which he reluctantly accepted a small glass of wine, and she simply shrugged and poured herself a full one.

"Ron saw something in Rose, something that made him so angry that he was ready to kill her, a defenceless child, and me, her mother and his wife. Do you know what he saw in her? The daughter who survived, while his son died?"

He shook his head slightly, but had a feeling she wasn't looking for an answer.

"You've always been a learned man Severus, so hopefully I don't have to spell it out for you. Heteropaternal Superfecundation" She took a large swig of the red wine, and he almost frowned at the ill treatment of what appeared to be an expensive red.

He was quiet for a moment, dark brow furrowed in thought until she saw the moment that he seemed to comprehend, eyes widening and pallor going ashen.

"Heteropaternal Superfecundation... twins with different fathers?" He asked, unable to hide the shock from his voice.

She raised her glass to him, with nothing but a self deprecating smirk as she drank the last of her wine.

"Have you looked at Rose Severus? Truly looked at her? She's so fair isn't she? Fairer even than me, and her skin is like porcelain. None of the freckles the Weasleys are famous for, or even like my own. And her hair? Sure it curls like mine, but the colour is much too fair. Not like Rons, or Hugos or any Weasley for that matter."

Severus's grip was tight on his glass, as he quickly took in her words with dawning unease.

"Forgive me, but you do not seem...I mean, from what I understand which is limited I'll grant you, you would have had to have...interactions with the two fathers, no more than 2 maybe 3 days apart..."

"If you're trying to suggest that I'm not the type, then you're right I'm not. Her hair Severus, what colour are the highlights in Roses's hair?"

He frowned at those words, that made dark thoughts rouse in his mind.

She answered for him though, before he got a chance.

"It's silver. Her hair is ashen blonde, with silver highlights, how many wizards do you know born with silver hair Severus?"

There was only one wizard that sprung to mind, the thought made him queazy and had him putting the glass down before he broke it.

"Then if the son you lost was Ronald's...then Rose's father is...?"

She smiled then, though there was nothing remotely happy about it.

"Rose's father..."

Is Fenrir Greyback"