Disclaimer: These characters, with the exception of my OC, and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling.

“You're joking!” Emily was part way through dressing for a shift at the hospital when her husband dropped a bombshell on her. “I thought we were going to Mum's house for Christmas.”

“Albus thinks that if an attempt is made it will be during the break, while most of the students aren't here.”

“I want to be with you, someplace where you don't have to baby-sit students or that rock. Someplace we can be alone.”

“Under the watchful gaze of both your mother and our daughter?”

“Well, sort of alone.” She sat on the bed and started buttoning her blouse, getting the buttons in the wrong holes.

“Here, let me help.” Severus sat next to her and straightened out her blouse, then handed her the skirt she had laid out.

“I just want to be away from here and feel like we're all safe.”

“There's no place safer than Hogwarts, Emily.”

“It doesn't feel safe, this year.”

“I'm beginning to think that you're developing a thing for Quirrell,” said Severus, smiling indulgently.

“Call it whatever you like, but I can't be within six feet of him without feeling somehow violated.”

“Has he actually said or done anything?” He bent over to button the top two buttons of Emily's blouse, which she had unbuttoned. “Do you never fasten your blouse properly?”

“No, he's never actually said or done anything, and you don't complain about my buttons at bed time.”

“When it's bed time, I'm not sending you out to a world of handsome male Healers and besotted patients who already think you're an angel of mercy.” He was wrapping her robe around her and fastening it.

He spoke again, with a soothing tone of voice. “Why don't you arrange to have Hope spend the day with Margo and you could work a shift so that you won't have to come to the ghastly party Dumbledore has doubtless already planned? You won't have to sit so close to Quirinus that way. I'll work it out with Argus that I won't have to patrol the halls all night and we can spend our evening unwrapping each other.”

“You do realize that you just used your sexiest voice and my shift starts in six minutes. I'll be horribly distracted at work.” Emily grabbed the edges of Severus's shirt in order to pull his lips to her own.

He accepted her kiss and kissed her back. “Maybe we should have Hope spend most of the vacation with her grandmother? You are now down to four minutes.”

“I'll be back in twelve hours,” Emily promised, running to the fire place and getting a pinch of green powder.

“Give or take,” he responded to the dark form as it turned into a puff of smoke.

Professor Snape put on his own robe and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Eleven and three quarter hours later Professor Snape walked back into his sitting room and unfastened his robe. He yanked it off and wadded it up, stepping to the door of the bedroom and throwing the robe at the laundry hamper. He poured himself a drink and sat where he could watch the fireplace.

It had been a horrible day. After spending 30 minutes at breakfast, watching the Gryffindor table stare at him while pretending to be interested in Quirrell's comments about something inane, he had a second year class. The Ravenclaws made acceptable potions, but the Hufflepuffs would surely poison him one day. He spent the following hour sorting through the very few well written homework essays and the pitiful essays the dunderheads had written. He checked on some potions he had in progress and then took a stroll through the castle to check in with Filch. The Caretaker had not seen anything troublesome in the past day and Professor Snape proceeded upon a more thorough check of the hallways.

As usual, he found Quirrell haunting an odd spot. Severus pretended that he had been looking for him and escorted him to the Great Hall for lunch. There he spent another 30 minutes watching the Gryffindor table stare at him while pretending to be interested in Quirrell's chatter.

The reason for the Gryffindor stares became apparent during the third year Potions class he taught that afternoon in which the Weasley twins managed to explode half the cauldrons in the classroom. It appeared that Lee Jordan was also involved, so Professor Snape set them a detention for six thirty that evening. The professor shook his head. There was quite a bit of intricate charm work involved in what the twins had done. If they spent their time learning the course material they would give the Ravenclaws a run for the money.

After the double potions class was over, Professor Snape went out to the greenhouses to chat with Professor Sprout and gather some ingredients he would need. That done, he moved back inside and started reviewing course work for the following day and grading essays from the third year class. By dinner time he was ready to pour the red ink directly from the ink bottle onto the scrolls without bothering to read them nor to actually write any comments. The errors in Potions were hard enough to endure, but what these students did to the English language should be punishable by a stay in Azkaban.

He managed to escape the Defense teacher during dinner but was interrupted to settle a spat at the Slytherin table. Young Snape would get riled whenever certain comments were made about either of her parents. He would have to teach her over the holidays to be quieter and to stay in the background until she was old enough and strong enough to have her revenge. Hope was such an odd combination of her parents. Emily had that same sort of fierce loyalty, but the need to act immediately and definitively was his own.

Checking his watch he saw that it was time to prepare for the detentions he had given. The Weasley twins always posed a challenge. He couldn't have them prepare the plants he had gathered today for use by tomorrow's classes. If they chose to do so properly they would do a very good job, but they were too clever and mischievous for that. Scrubbing desks would have to do. They were particularly filthy after today's class, so it was a fit punishment.

Professor Snape continued to grade the third year essays while the students worked. They managed to transfigure each other's desks into various farmyard animals as they went and the professor was amazed at the level of ability it took, surely far beyond third year. He saw that it was time to end the detention with a sigh of relief, and after making the students clean up the presents left by the animals he dismissed them.

One last look and tweak on the potions simmering away in his private work space and his day was done. He walked to his living quarters knowing that what got him through the day was the knowledge that Emily would be there at the end of it. She would hold him in her arms and listen to his tiresome day and she would comfort him. He sat with his drink and waited for her, knowing that contentment was only a few minutes away.

The face that greeted him as she came out of the fireplace was hollow. He knew what must have happened and mentally cursed. She won. Her day was worse than his, and he would have to comfort her. He fixed her a drink and pulled her next to him on the couch. “Tell me,” he said.

She shook her head. “You first. You had a hard day, too, by the look of it.”

So Severus told her, all about the tediousness of Quirrell, the weariness of teaching incompetent students, the tiresome papers he had to grade. She chuckled when he described the spat between their daughter and her house mates. As he spoke the day took on its proper perspective in his mind and receded. He could see some life returning to Emily's eyes as he finished. “Now you. Who was it?”

“Oh, it was just a day, I guess. I started by arguing with Auror Dawlish over why he can't take an unconscious patient to the Ministry for full questioning. The man had some pretty tricky curses all over him. Then Arthur Weasley brought in a poor soul who had gotten on the bad side of an enchanted bookcase. My assistant has a failed love affair and I had to listen to several rounds of why wouldn't she be good enough for him...” She trailed off.

He took her glass and put it on a table with his own. “That's not what makes you look like this. Who was it?”

It would be insulting to pretend that either did not know exactly what they were talking about. He'd seen her in this mood a handful of times in the past ten years as she had assisted families in Hogsmeade. “Betsy Simmons. Since I had helped her when the Death Eaters injured her so many years ago she insisted that I act as her midwife. The baby was round and loud and perfect and I feel so evil for wishing that she was mine instead of Betsy's. It just doesn't seem fair, Severus. To lose Marcus and then all these years... You should have sons, who would be as smart and as strong as you are.”

“And they would be expected to become Death Eaters whenever the Dark Lord returns.” He began unfastening her robe with the same gentle efficiency he had used to fasten it that morning. He kissed her and put his mouth next to her ear. “Emily, I'm sorry for the pain this brings you. You know I greatly desire to have more children with you, whenever they happen to come. If fate determines that we be as we are now for a while longer, I am happy for that, too.

He held her and she clung to him and they comforted each other. Neither had a good day but somehow in sharing it they both felt better. He pulled her into his lap, removing her robe as he did so, and they sat for quite some time before he spoke again.

“How is it, my love, that some of the buttons on your blouse are undone again?”

She let out half a giggle. “It was too constricting when I was dealing with the bookcase patient.”

“I love that you choose comfort at such times. It's so practical and so much my Emily.”

“And I love that you button all the way up, without skipping any steps, and always make sure that the job is done right.”

They sat for a while longer until Severus could tell that Emily had dozed off. He carried her into the bedroom and set her on the bed, removing her shoes. He should wake her so that she could change to a nightgown. “Emily,” he whispered, and then more loudly said it. “Emily.” She opened her eyes and smiled as she put her arms around his neck and kissed him. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“You can't use the voice you used with me this morning and then think you're going to get out of it tonight. It's all that kept me going today.” Emily's voice could be quite provocative, too.

“Well, in that case,” murmured Severus, kissing her as he unbuttoned the rest of her blouse.

The next few minutes was a flurry of clothing being removed while their lips never stopped touching. After that it was caressing and kissing as their bodies made good on the promises made that morning. The day and its troubles receded further away as they came closer together. They fell asleep that night knowing that they had the solace of their love in the midst of an imperfect world.

A/N: I don't say thank you often enough for all of the lovely reviews and especially for the keen eyes and thoughts of beta reader Trickie Woo. You are all very kind.