Hi lovelies! I wasn't planning to add onto this story but when I was writing the scene in The Power He Knows Not where Harry and Hermione find out that Severus is housing Petunia, I couldn't help but thinking of how he would feel seeing her on his front porch again and then I couldn't get their love story out of my head so my brain ended up creating this.
The first chapter is the same, the only change is that that chapter is now called "Before" because it's everything that happened before the second wizarding war (before The Power He Knows Not takes place), this chapter is called "During" because it takes place at the height of the second wizarding war (when The Power He Knows Not takes place), and the last chapter will be called "After" because it will take place after the dust settles from the second wizarding war (and a good chunk after The Power He Knows Not ends). The last chapter for this will be posted at the same time the last chapter of The Power He Knows Not is posted.

This can still be read by itself if The Power He Knows Not isn't your cup of tea but reading the longer story definitely adds another layer of understanding to this one.

Hope you like it!

Love,

Adrien

P.S. I finished this section too late to send it to my beta before I promised I would post it so any mistakes you see are all on me.

Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters or settings, those belong to J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy making things in her sandbox.

During

Severus Snape hadn't been outside of his house in Spinner's End since he'd walked away from the only woman he had ever really loved. Since the day he'd thrown away the only life he ever really wanted in an attempt to protect the two people who meant the world to him. The area outside of his house on Spinner's End, this park in particular, had been his safe haven for as long as he could remember.

It had been rickety and glum even when he was young. So much so that only he, Lily, and Petunia were willing to spend their time there. Him because he had nowhere else to go; Lily because she had always embodied Gryffindor's bravery and brash curiosity; and Petunia because she always worried about what trouble her little sister would get into if she wasn't there to hold her back.

Lily hadn't had much interest in fixing something that seemed so broken but Severus and Petunia had spent hours taking care of the land. When they were children, they'd ask Lily to talk one of the nearby neighbors into letting them borrow their pushmower because Lily had always been the most charismatic of the three of them and the other two had been too socially awkward to ask for help. As they grew older and had jobs that gave them access to pocket money, they bought plants and local trees to further spruce up the area even further. When the trace was finally removed from Lily and Severus, the two had spent hours magically mending the broken equipment and laying down protective charms for any children who may stumble across their safe haven in the future.

Though it had been almost two decades since Severus Snape had set foot on this land, it was the only place that had come to mind when he'd realized that Hermione Granger needed somewhere safe to land.

Though the park was hidden by overgrowth now, Severus could still feel the lingering blend of his and his best friend's magic as he slowly followed a soft creaking sound into the park itself.

He should have known the young Gryffindor would venture past the overgrowth in exploration of the unknown. Just like Lily had.

"What is this place?" Hermione asks moments after he breaks through the treeline, his eyes falling on the young woman occupying one of the two old swings.

"It's the park I used to play at as a child with Lily and Petunia," Severus answers honestly because Hermione hadn't had the honesty she'd deserved lately and Severus didn't want to be one more person who lied to her. Especially now that she had lost everything for the same cause he had given his own future for.

Hermione tilts her head to the side, her curious gaze watching Severus carefully. "You used to play with Harry's aunt? But she's awful."

Severus wants to defend the woman he had known but he found that he couldn't defend her actions. Harry would never share his upbringing with Severus, and Severus recognized that his actions were a big part of that, but Severus had seen how skinny Harry was when he had first come to Hogwarts and how he always seemed to lose weight in the summers spent at Privet Drive. Severus had heard the complaints for various Weasleys about bars on windows, spiders in Harry's bed, and clothes that were many sizes bigger than Harry had ever needed. Severus couldn't defend that as much as he may want to.

"She wasn't always that way," he replies instead, a bitter smile twisting up the corner of his lips.

"I feel like there's a lot I don't know," Hermione sighs, frustration coloring her tone.

"There's a lot that has been kept from you but you changed the game tonight."

There's a lot Severus wants and needs to share with the young witch. Observations he's made. Secrets he's been forced to keep for no other reason than he didn't know who to trust and more than anything, he wanted to protect Lily's boy. But he finally had someone he had the ability to protect and someone else who had proved over and over again that she would do anything to make sure Lily's boy made it through this war.

"Do you have a plan?" Hermione asks, staring at Severus with a look that is equal parts hopeful and calculating.

"No but you do," Severus responds firmly.

"It's not a noble one." Hermione's tone is honest but the way she says it makes it seem like she's waiting for him to tear into her for not being willing to sacrifice everything.

If he were a Gryffindor, that would likely be the case especially if he were one of Dumbledore's Gryffindors. But Severus was a Slytherin through and through. Severus had spent his whole life separating himself from everyone around him and protecting those who were his and Hermione was one of his now.

"Look where nobility's gotten us so far."

A lifelong brand. The love of his life walking away. A double life. The destruction at Godric's Hollow. His best friend's vacant gaze. The inability to protect the last piece of his best friend on this planet.

"Are you willing to trust me?" The question is surprising.

Severus can't remember the last time he truly trusted anyone.

But if there were anyone he could trust, it would be this young woman.

He knew it in his gut.

"Yes."

Hermione's body relaxes at his statement and a bright smile brings warmth to her chocolate eyes. The look is one he recognizes from the young woman but it's not one he's ever seen directed at him.

"Then let's get out of here." The young witch holds her hand out to Severus like it's the easiest thing in the world and maybe it is for her.

But Severus can't remember the last time someone had held their hand out to him without an ulterior motive.

And as he took her hand to apparate them to his true home, Severus found himself silently promising to stand by this witch. Always.

The undetectable extension charm was surprisingly easy once Severus and Hermione had figured out the proper sequence in which to lay the small series of enchantments. The hard part had come in brewing all the potions Hermione may need.

Neither of them thought the young witch would need them right away. Afterall, no one knew where she was currently and no one knew where she was going. By the time they figured out exactly which country Hermione Granger had fled two, the young witch would be well hidden from anyone's grasp.

However, both Severus and Hermione recognized that there were a great many potions that Hermione would need eventually and there were a great many potions that Hermione didn't know how to brew and didn't know how to brew to bring them to their most effective.

Severus had always seen Hermione's ability. Despite her mishap in application second year when it came to the actual transformation, Severus could name the magicals on one hand that would have been able to brew Polyjuice Potion in their second year. Had he been able to, he would have taken her under his wing as an apprentice during her third year instead of wasting her talents in the menagerie of classes she'd had piled onto her schedule. Most of those classes were OWLs and NEWTs the young woman could have passed in her sleep, even at thirteen. They didn't push her and she didn't need them.

Severus never could have expected that working with Hermione would be so easy. When she was waving her hand in an attempt to get his attention in a class of her peers, she had a more quiet curiosity about her. She asked the kind of questions that made Severus think instead of ones that he could respond to in his sleep. When she was asked questions, she thought on her responses for long moments instead of replying in the same second it had been asked. Her answers themselves were creative instead of verbatim.

The biggest thing she had to work on was trusting her instincts. As brilliant as she was, she didn't seem to trust that she actually knew what she was doing in the moment.

"See," Severus slowed his movements, making sure the the younger witch could see exactly how she should hold the knife to swiftly and accurately dislodge the spinal cord of the small mouse that they needed for this potion because a fresh mouse's heart increased this potion's potency by 75%.

Hermione mimicked his motions without hesitation and Severus nodded in approval.

"Acceptable."

Hermione wasn't there when Severus returned from his latest meeting with the supposed Leader of the Light. Severus hadn't expected her to be, he'd known what time her portkey left today, but it was still odd coming home to utter silence and a house with everything exactly as he expected it. It made him uncomfortable in a way that it hadn't before.

When he slowly makes his way to the library, though, there is one thing out of the ordinary: an envelope on his fire place's mantle draws his attention the moment he enters his library,

Dear Professor Snape,

Saying goodbye in person would have been preferred but I had a feeling something would come up. It always does when you least want it to after all so a letter was my next option.

Thank you for giving me a safe place to land. I didn't know what I was doing when I decided to leave and I still don't completely. But I knew The Order couldn't help me and I know that it won't help Harry when he really needs it. After all, it never truly has in the past. It's always been him and me against the world when it really comes down to it.

But I want you to know that it's not just him and me against the world anymore. We include you in that number as well and we will do everything we can to make sure you are safe as well.

I won't make empty promises because this is war and we have no idea what is going to happen but if you need me, write me. I will do everything I can to help.

Always.

Sincerely,

Hermione Granger

It was an accident.

Apparating to the long abandoned park near Spinner's End.

He'd been thinking about too many things when he twisted away from the latest Deatheater meeting and he'd ended up here.

Where everything had started.

A second twist in his magic to take him back to his manor would have been easy.

But instead, Severus found himself sitting on what had once been a tree that he and Petunia had carved their names into. Petunia had been heartbroken when it had fallen during a summer storm not long after Severus turned seventeen but her face had lit up when Severus had turned the fallen tree into a bench. The two of them had spent hours every day sitting on their bench, talking about anything and everything until there wasn't anything to talk about anymore.

Severus was self-aware enough to recognize that he had been avoiding Hermione. There were a million different ways he could have reached out to her since she'd left but he hadn't. He hadn't wanted to. He hadn't known what to say.

And now he didn't have a choice.

Because recruiting Marcus Flint had become Voldemort's latest objective. Marcus Flint's team was in the works of sending him back to Britain and, in spite of the rumors Marcus had so carefully cultivated to make him less of a target for recruitment on either side, Voldemort saw the advantage of having a Quidditch star on his side.

And Severus wasn't about to let one of his Slytherin's get sucked into a war they wanted no part in. Not when he had the means to help them.

He just had to stop pushing his only true ally away.

"I look like shit, I know," Tonks huffs as she stumbles into one of the rickety chairs at his house in Spinner's End.

Severus raises an eyebrow. He never would have said it so crassly, especially to Nymphadora Tonks who had been a thorn in his side as a student with her abilities, but she really did look like shit.

That's what getting the Dark Mark did to you if you survived it at all. There were a lot of people who had lost their lives to that madman's brand.

"Are you going to ask me why I did it? Why I went behind your back and reached out to the Malfoy's?"

Severus doesn't give the younger woman his attention as he rummages in his living room for a quill and parchment. He knows why she did it and as endangering as her decision was…he knows it was one that needed to be made. After all, it's the same exact decision he had made in another life.

But he needs to let Hermione know what happens just in case she is misinformed by someone else and he isn't comfortable leaving the still healing witch alone in his sitting room.

"I had a plan," Tonks continues when Severus doesn't respond, her eyes drifting shut as she holds her left arm tightly to her chest.

"A plan that wouldn't have worked if Draco hadn't finally decided what side he wanted to stand on. He's the only one who could've convinced his mother that you were honestly on the side of Voldemort and, despite Lucius Malfoy's appearance to the outside world, Narcissa Malfoy is the one who truly has a pull in that family. Voldemort sees a power in her similar to, but less erratic than, her sister's. She may not be marked but her information and missions have had the most success of any of his followers and allies. She also happens to be the most accomplished in mind magics behind Voldemort and myself."

"Draco is on our side then."

"Yes."

Severus had promised himself, even before Draco's choice had been made, that he would do everything he could to ensure Draco's safety because that boy deserved to have a future not dictated by the family he'd been born into.

But now he had to protect Tonks as well.

And Harry.

And Hermione.

And he didn't know if he would be able to do it.

After all, he hadn't been able to protect Lily when she was the only one he cared about in wizarding Britain during the first war.

Little wild flowers slowly arise in the ground surrounding Severus, the small flowers braiding themselves into the tall grass, as the older man lays beside the river in the same spot he'd seen a little redhaired girl bring life to a long-dead flower for her older sister a lifetime ago.

Before they'd even known the toll magic would take on all three of them in the next thirty years. Before bigotry had skewed all their world views and taken their choices away. Before they had found everything in each other then lost it all when a war ripped them apart.

The last time the three of them had laid here together, Lily had asked them if they'd ever wanted to go back.

Severus hadn't at the time. As dark as things were getting, he had the love of his life at his side and his best friend's support. His future, their future, still felt bright. They had just had to keep pushing through the shadows.

But now…

The leader of the light was dead and Severus Snape had killed him…and now Severus had to complete his last task for the old coot who had spent the last at least forty years running the least effective resistance to an up-and-coming dark lord that Severus had ever heard.

Harry was a Horcrux. Dumbledore had purposefully put the boy in a home where he wouldn't be raised with support. He'd encouraged friendships that could mold him when he'd returned to the wizarding world. And he had tested him every year to make sure that he would be willing to walk off to slaughter when the time finally came.

Which would break Hermione Granger. Who threw her whole heart at things that she felt she could fix—whether that was the rights of House Elves, a double-spy masquerading as a potion's professor, or a scrawny boy with broken glasses. Hermione Granger had given her whole life to Harry Potter from the moment he'd saved her life from a troll that never should have been able to enter Hogwarts.

And now Severus had to tell her that winning this war may come at the cost of her best friend's, her brother's, life.

That would break her.

The same way that the death of Lily Evans had broken Severus Snape.

A familiar essence triggering Severus's wards around the house Spinner's End had the older man twisting on his feet without thinking for the first time since October 31, 1981.

The sound of a fist pounding on the front door throws Severus back in time as he walks toward the door, feeling like he's twenty-one again and steeling himself for the direction this conversation will have to take.

Severus's face shows nothing as he opens the door to a heartwrenchingly familiar sight.

"Where is he?" Petunia's voice is rough as she tugs her cardigan as tightly around her as she possibly can, her gaze trained on a spot over Severus's shoulder.

It's the same cardigan she was wearing the last time she had been on his doorstep. And now that he's older, more distant, more calculating. He recognizes the cardigan for what it had always been: the last gift he'd given her. The gift he'd surprised her with on her first day at her new job.

She's just as skinny as she was that day almost twenty years ago, almost scarily so, and Severus suspects the thick coating of makeup on her face is hiding the circles of many sleepless nights but her eyes are still the same familiar shade of mahogany.

Petunia had always hated her eyes, wishing she'd had the brilliant emerald of her sister, but they had always reminded Severus of growth. Of the bark they'd carved their names into when they were children and the hearts they'd added when they fell in love. Of the fertile soil the two of the had spent hours messing about in, identifying all their local flowers. Of the home they'd created together as they had grown.

"Who?"

"You are many things Severus. But stupid isn't one of them. You and I both know you would never turn your back on my sister and you sure as hell would never turn your back on her child. Now I will ask you one more time: where is he?"

She's skinnier than Severus has ever seen her before, almost scarily so, and Severus suspects the thick coating of makeup on her face is hiding the circles of many sleepless nights but her eyes are still the same familiar shade of mahogany.

"Safe," Severus's voice is smooth as he replies, his mask firmly in place as he watches one of the few people he had ever cared about start to crumble.

"Don't give me that, Severus! WHERE IS MY NEPHEW?!" Her eyes sparkle with unshed tears as she finally meets his unwavering gaze.

"I can't tell you that, Petunia,"

All at once the tension leaves Petunia's stance and her body begins to sag, her arms slowly wrapping around her middle like she's attempting to hold herself together. But her arms freeze before they wrap around herself completely and her hands clench together in tight fists as she takes a shaky breath, her gaze lifting up to meet Severus's once again.

There is a fire in her eyes that has Severus involuntarily taking in a sharp breath, surprise and recognition swirling in his dark eyes. Because that fire was something he had always associated with his best friend. Lily had always been the one with the fight in their friend group, the one with the sort of righteous fire that made her seem almost invincible, the one everyone gravitated toward because her light shined even in the darkest times. Petunia had been the steady ground in their friendgroup, the peacekeeper between the righteous redhead and the boy had a tendency to be a greasy-haired git, the one who pushed everyone away except the only two people who had always been there for her.

"I am NOT twenty-two years old anymore, Severus. My sister is DEAD and the ONLY piece of her I have left, the only true FAMILY I have left in this world, is in danger. This world took EVERYTHING else from me, and may I let it all those years ago, but I will be DAMNED if it takes my nephew from me as well. Especially when he has no idea how much I love him."

"Tuney," Severus's voice shakes as he reaches out to the older woman.

"Don't," she snaps, her body stiffening as the wizard nears her. "I don't deserve it...The way I treated him...He didn't deserve...I took him in because he needed me...The letter said he was safest beneath the bloodwards...But Vernon...Vernon was livid from the moment I brought his basket inside...When I tried to put together a nursery for him, Vernon tore it apart... When I treated him as my own, Vernon…Vernon treated us both…terribly…And I wasn't strong enough to leave…I've never had the kind of fight you and Lily do, Severus. You know that… So I started treating him the way I treat him and Vernon stopped hurting us…But I couldn't just leave, not now…not when I know he needs any family he can get on his side… Vernon and Dudley didn't see it the same way but...Harry deserves better."

Living with Petunia was as easy as breathing. Even after all this time, they still knew each other like the back of their hands. He knew exactly how she liked her tea on nights when she couldn't sleep, which were more nights than not these days. It was the same way she would make it in her thermos when she'd sneak over to his house so they could go to their park and listen to the river on sleepless nights. She knew how to tend to his herbs when a night with Voldemort had taken too much of his energy.

But they never talked about what they needed to.

They didn't talk about her decision to stay.

His choice to leave twenty years ago.

The loss of his best friend and her sister.

Her treatment of Harry.

His past almost twenty years as a spy.

Her past almost twenty years with her husband.

But he laughed more with her than he had laughed since he had left her all those years ago. She was different now. Her smiles were even softer than they had been back then and they were harder to pull forward than he remembered but they were just as beautiful. Her words had always been sharp and sometimes awkward but now they could cut like a knife and she used that ability to her advantage whenever she needed too. She was still as stubborn as she had always been but she knew when to hold her tongue now. She knew that some things couldn't be argued and that it wasn't worth her energy digging her heels into the ground over unmoveable topics. But that didn't mean that she would change her mind.

Petunia knew where she stood with herself in a way that she hadn't at twenty-two and her confidence was blinding in a way that was equal parts beautiful and broken. Because Severus recognized that she had seen darkness in ways that were different from him but he could also see that Petunia was making the active choice to change her story and that was beautiful.

Falling in love with her all over again was as easy as breathing. Though the realization came slowly because, if Severus was honest with himself: he had never stopped loving her to begin with. The only constant Severus had ever had in his life was his love for Petunia Evans. Severus would love her. Always.

"Presumptuous witch," Severus grumbles, his gaze flickering from the shoe-box sized vanishing cabinet his godson had slipped him as he was leaving Malfoy Manor after ensuring that Miss Lovegood's health was steady enough for the upcoming "entertainment".

The notes explained that allowed for the transfer of more volatile potions and objects than the smaller pouch in their satchels. Including a newly tweaked version of his potion for the Crutiatus Curse that was more potent in its healing properties than his old one because the younger witch had noticed a change in his handwriting due to the near constant trembling of his hand as of late. If she could create changes like that and finish her mastery in the midst of war in which she was a leader, Severus hoped that he would live long enough to see what she could accomplish without outside pressures.

"She's right to worry." Petunia's blunt statement pulls him from his thoughts.

Severus doesn't respond because he refuses to lie to her like he had when they were younger. Especially about something like that.

"Promise me that we'll find a way to keep our family safe."

Her tone is stronger than he has ever heard it and the only honest response he can give her is, "Always."

"That includes you too. Always, Severus."

"How could you?" Petunia sobs, her breath coming in short gasps as she tries to stop the bleeding.

Severus smiles, his bloody lip staining his teeth, and grasps one of Petunia's hands in his.

"It was the best option."

Lucius had been desperate after Draco's betrayal and he had decided to orchestrate a way to throw Tonks to the literal wolves. Severus knew what the twisted men in Voldemort's circle would do to the young woman if she were revealed to the traitor she was (though Lucius didn't know that when he had thought up the plan to frame her). So he had allowed himself to be caught in her place and he'd made sure she could take some of the credit from Lucius to truly cement her spot among the Deatheaters.

"How could risking your life be the best option?"

"If…risking my life…meant…saving yours…and theirs…" Severus doesn't finish his sentence as the world around him fades.

The last thing he feels before everything goes dark is the familiar tug of a portkey.

"She loves you, you know," Hermione states matter-of-factly as she checks the slowly healing wounds on Severus's chest. The marks would scar but at least he had lived. He hadn't thought he would when Hermione's original blood portkey had pulled him away from the torture and back to his manor due to his eventual depletion of magic due to a continued protection of his mind that he forced forward against many brutal attempts to gain his secrets.

"I broke her. This world…Magic…it cost her…everything…And I didn't do anything to try to stop it…I thought she was safer but…" He didn't deserve her love. He'd hurt he over and over again for years. He'd forced her to keep their relationship a secret. He'd promised her a future and then taken it away without once looking back. There's no way she could still love him after all this time. Hermione had to be seeing things. After all, she'd always been better with books than people. Just like him.

"It should have been her choice…I understand wanting to protect her. Hell, before they were killed, I was very seriously thinking about Obliviating myself from my parents' minds and sending them somewhere safe…But that wouldn't have been fair to them. Just like what you and Lily did to Petunia wasn't fair to her…You didn't trust that she knew what was right for her and her life. She knew the risks then just like she knows the risks now. But she's still here and by some miracle, she still loves you. Just as much as you love her."

Hermione's words are passionate, her gaze is hard, and Severus knows that he can't argue with that because it's true. Hermione had lost…everything because people had made decisions for her. It was luck that Dobby had found her letters and that Viktor had held onto his second chance with both hands. Her future would be a bright one but it was in spite of the people who had made decisions for her.

"She's married," Severus replies almost petulantly.

"He's horrid." Hermione rolls her eyes.

"That's an understatement." Severus's voice is cold even to his own ears and Hermione's gaze snaps to his with a dangerous glint.

Petunia hadn't gone into depth but he knew there was no love lost in her current separation from her husband. It was in the downward twist in his lips with every mention of Privet Drive that came her way (though they were few and far in between). It was in the almost indiscernible flinch every time a dish was set down too loud or one of the more burly men stood a bit too close. Her actions wove novels he had a feeling that she herself would never speak and it was a story that Severus himself was all too familiar with from his own childhood.

"Exactly." Hermione's tone is forcefully light despite the danger still lingering in her gaze and Severus has a feeling he won't like the rest of what she has to say…"So do you really think that she will stay with him once the dust settles in our world? Especially if she knows that you're waiting for her on the other side. That you always have been."

"We can't," Severus sighs, resting his forehead against Petunia's and squeezing his eyes shut. He shouldn't have let it get this far but she was wearing his favorite sweater and she'd leaned into him as they'd talked about anything and everything like they had when they were younger and it had been so easy to just lean in…

A familiar set of hands cup his neck and her thumbs brush soothingly against the sides of his cheeks until he looks at her again.

"I love you, can't you see that." Petunia's voice breaks as her eyes beg him to understand.

"It's not right, Tuney…You're married and I'm…I'm branded by a madman."

Severus tries to dislodge her hands and take a step back but Petunia holds firm with more strength than Severus thought possible for the older woman as her jaw sets and her eyes glaze with a righteous anger at his statement.

"That's my choice, Severus. Mine. You never had a right to make it for me but you did."

Severus slumps because he finally realizes that she is right.

He never should have made that decision for her.

And he didn't have the energy to lie to himself about it anymore.

After all…

"I love you, Tuney."

"Always."

"Always."

"Promise me that you will leave him, even if I don't come back." Severus's voice has an almost indiscernible quiver in it as he cups Petunia's face in both of his hands, his eyes locking with hers in a sort of begging silence.

"Why are you talking like this is the last time I'm going to see you?" Tears gloss over Petunia's eyes as she covers his hands with hers. "You're going to come back. We're going to start our next chapter. Together. Like we should have done as soon as we finished school. You're going to open the apothecary you always talked about and if Draco and Hermione's interests are what I've seen them to be, those two will be with you every step of the way. We're going to see Harry marry his best friend and teach the next however many generations with a kindness that he never received. It's not going to be easy. There's going to be therapy and deciding where to live and walking the line between magical and muggle but we'll do it because you are going to make it through this war, Severus Snape."

"I love you," Severus breathes, resting his forehead against hers.

"Always."