Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters here and world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling.

January, 2001

The event planners had outdone themselves this time, mused Severus Snape. He was standing in his mother-in-law's back garden, which had been covered by an enormous tent and charmed to stay warm, since it was the Christmas Holiday. Of course, they had considerably longer than a week to arrange this party. His eyes searched for the woman who was easily the most beautiful one present to him. As had been the case the first time, they were standing at opposite ends of the crowd of guests, although this time he was at the back while she was at the front.

Emily smiled to him reassuringly as her arms reached down to quiet the little boys who clung to her skirts. Severus could see a trace of tiredness as well. She was keeping a secret from him. He knew that she was doing so, and he even knew what the secret was. He supposed she would tell him in her own time.

Longbottom—Neville, that is—was now standing with the officiator on the dais at the other end of the garden. He was wearing dress robes and looked as elegant as he had ever been seen, right down to his snakeskin boots. Hope had seen the boots given to her father and insisted that Neville have some, and that they be part of this day. Severus looked down at his own feet and marveled at the workmanship that had gone into making them and the stroke of bravery that made them possible. Trading a daughter for a pair of boots seemed a bit steep, but these boots had been hard won. The young man who destroyed Voldemort's snake and a piece of the Dark Lord's soul deserved great reward.

The boy looked nervous. It wasn't the nervousness that had greeted the Potions Professor for five years in the classroom. That had been closer to terror. This was anticipation and delight with just the slightest apprehension about the unknown.

The past six months had shown Professor Snape a completely different Neville Longbottom than the one he had previously known. This young man was still humble in knowing his limitations, but he had learned a confidence in the abilities he did have. He didn't brag about his activities during the war. His deeds, which had made him a hero, were now well known. He avoided mention of those things when possible, and instead concentrated upon his love of plant life. Pomona was saying that he would be a major force in Herbology when he had a chance to develop his own projects. Severus looked at Emily again and she looked at him, her eyebrows raised as if to tell him something.

Suddenly he remembered the event at hand. He looked over to the side, giving a signal. Music started playing, and a charming young woman appeared beside him. She wore a dress that was somehow both demure and womanly. It was made of filmy organza that floated around her when she moved and settled in layers that fell along her slim frame and accentuated her curves. Severus sighed. He had never gotten used to the idea of his daughter having curves. Her veil was held in place by a wreath of flowers that had been sent by the groom, and she carried a bouquet of the same flowers given by the same source.

The father offered his arm. “Are you ready, Little Girl?” he asked.

“Oh, yes, Daddy!”

They walked down the aisle of well wishers, friends, colleagues, and even some press. The professor's family was still written about, although less frequently than when Hope was dating Theodore Nott. They nevertheless were very interested in this wedding, and the Snapes had grudgingly allowed a minimal number of writers and photographers to be present.

The groom's face caught his eye. Neville was staring at Hope with an expression of rapture. Glancing to his side, Severus saw a similar look on his daughter's face. He remembered Emily wearing the same look on her face more than twenty years before, and wondered what she had seen in his. He could only recall being in awe of the radiant being who had walked toward him on that day.

They reached the dais and his portion was over. He squeezed his daughter's hand one last time and released her. Emily looked a bit blurry as he made his way toward her, but when he blinked his eyes he could see her more clearly. She reached for his hand and settled into his side as he reached down and picked up his youngest son.

He watched the pair being wedded and pondered the young man in whose hands he was putting his daughter's happiness. He pondered the differences he had seen in Neville Longbottom in the past months. Meetings had not been often since the Snapes were in residence at Hogwarts for the school term and the engaged pair was based in London, but they met on weekends from time to time. On some occasions, he had found the pair clasped in a passionate embrace, raising very different high emotions of his own. He was forced to admit to himself that such feelings between the pair were appropriate for a couple soon to be married, but asked himself why one of those people had to be his own daughter.

At another time Snape had come upon the pair standing in the hallway of the terraced house. Hope was nestled in Neville's arms and sobbing for all she was worth as he whispered into her ear. The older man stood and watched, impressed by the tenderness with which the younger man comforted his daughter. On realizing they were no longer alone, Neville looked up with fierce protectiveness in his face.

“She's had a horrible day at work. There was dark magic, and small children were involved...”

Severus could do nothing but nod his head and move on to his original destination. There was a time when the girl would have come to him or her mother for comfort, but she was no longer a girl. It had all passed so quickly. The scene before him today blurred again.

The ceremony was over too soon. The two on the dais gave their consent and made their vows. They were bound to each other and clasped into each other's arms. Severus sighed. His daughter was not his own any more. Emily raised her smiling face to his and hugged his arm. It wasn't such a terrible thing after all, and he smiled down at her.

Much of the evening passed too quickly. He tried to graciously accept the congratulations of his guests. Some of them had not spoken to him since the death of Dumbledore. Emily made sure the little ones got their dinner and then went in to more appropriate activities and bed. He watched as she sat next to Alison Black, who was holding a baby daughter. He knew well the look in Emily's eye as she chatted with the new mother. He wondered where Black had gotten to and finally spotted him with a group of Hope and Neville's classmates, plotting some mischief, no doubt.

He watched the newly-wed pair walk through the garden and greet all of their guests, never more than an arm's-reach apart. They spent a great deal of time sitting with the groom's parents, who were seated in a quiet corner table with a mediwitch from the hospital. They were clearly in awe of the event and all the people and commotion, but they seemed to enjoy being close to their son and new daughter-in-law.

The dancing began and the bride and groom seemed to float around the dance floor together. Today the pair showed the same grace together as they had at the Yule Ball years before. Severus looked around for his own bride and took her hand, guiding her onto the floor with him. They danced with an ease of their own as they looked into each other's eyes.

All too soon the event reached its climax. The bride and groom slipped out the back gate and on to their honeymoon. It now fell to the bride's parents, as host and hostess, to keep the party going. Severus slid his arm around Emily as the band began to play, and swung her into a new dance. He may have swung her around a bit too vigorously, because she suddenly looked distressed. Her face turned a shade of gray-green. He gently slid his arm around her back and led her to the kitchen. Some guests they passed asked if there was a problem.

“She's simply overcome with emotion from the day,” he responded with a smile.

Once in the kitchen, Severus propped Emily up on a chair at the table and went to a cabinet. He found the ingredients for a potion that he hadn't made in more than twenty years. He remembered it perfectly, and soon brought it to his wife, who sipped it gratefully. He sat beside her and looked solemnly into her eyes.

“Emily, when are you going to tell me?”

Her face turned several different shades of color. “I wanted to wait until tonight, after this was all over.”

“You didn't think I would notice?”

“We've been so busy with all our plans. I didn't want anything to keep this from being Hope's day.”

“How long have you known?”

“I realized, just before we came for Christmas. Are you angry?”

He shook his head gently and kissed her hand as he gazed at her. “Do you think we could manage a girl this time? I love the boys, but our daughter is different. I'm going to miss her now, and it might be less lonely with another little girl in our home.”

Emily smiled. “We'll have to see, but I wouldn't mind evening things up a bit, myself.”

“Are you ready to return to the party? It will seem odd if we aren't there.”

“Quite ready, for the party and for what comes later.”

He stood and leered down at her. Offering his arm, he said, “Oh, yes. Dance and entertain our guests, but save some energy for what comes later, Mrs. Snape.” He found a quiet corner and spent several minutes reminding his wife that their own honeymoon had never quite ended.

---

Hope and Neville wasted no time getting to their honeymoon destination. They came to their room and looked around it, then came back to the middle of the floor and looked at each other. Neville awkwardly gave his bride a chaste kiss and then took a step back, clenching and unclenching his fists. She had such trust in her face. If he did something wrong tonight...

“Hope, I don't know how to do this. I've never done it.”

“I've never done it either, Lucky.”

“Somehow I'll hurt you.”

“It will pass, and I cannot imagine that will compare to the pleasure you give me just with your kisses.”

“But what if I... I can be so clumsy.” He looked helplessly at his hands.

“Lucky...” He looked up at her. “Was it fifth year that you got that plant from your uncle?”

He nodded. “Mimbulus mimbletonia.”

“Mimbulus mimbletonia.” She smiled. “I invented reasons to wander through the corridor and peek in your compartment on the train, just to watch you touch that plant. You caressed it, and spoke to it, and loved it. Before I had looked the third and fourth times, I realized that I wished I was the plant. It was the first time I ever felt desire, Lucky, and I felt it for you.” She stepped closer to him, close enough to smell his scent. She closed her eyes in delight. “When I'm near you I think of things growing and living and I feel safe.” She picked up his hand and pressed her lips into the palm, sliding the curve of her cheek into it. “Love me... please?”

Suddenly he couldn't stop himself. His other hand came up along the other side of her face and he kissed her until it wasn't enough. He had worried needlessly, he found. The hands that seemed so inept a moment before knew exactly what to do with this dearest of the living creatures that had ever been in his care. He touched and admired her in her gown, whispering his love for her into her ear as she sighed and clung to him.

He lifted her up and carried her to the bed, where he set her down and unfastened her dress. They kissed some more and he unwrapped her as the gift she was to him, enjoying each new discovery and finding with delight that his touch was pleasurable to her. At some point he realized that she had likewise undressed him and was touching him in ways he couldn't quantify. The pleasure she brought to him, through his enjoyment of her body and her exploration of his, threatened to overpower him. If there was any discomfort, it was a passing moment after all, and they both welcomed what came after.

Later they lay clasped together, enjoying the delicious chill falling over their bodies. They grew cold, but neither wanted to give up the closeness to lean up and reach for the blankets, yet. Hope reached out a hand and quietly Summoned them, and they covered themselves as they continued to kiss and speak softly to each other. After a while their kisses intensified and they continued their discovery of each other, this time with much less uncertainty and worry.

---

September, 2011

The Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sat at the head table of the Great Hall and surveyed the student tables as the older students filled them. At any moment the deputy Headmistress would arrive with the first years and Sorting would begin. He looked up and down the staff table. All but two of the seats were filled. The rest of the professors were prompt. He had carefully explained to all of them the necessity to be here before the students arrived. Two thirds of the staff were now Ravenclaws. He could count on Ravenclaws to be punctual, at least.

The Headmaster looked toward the Ravenclaw table, and now saw his elder sons coming into the Great Hall. Brendon was a cheerful lad, who had excelled in his studies. He would go on after this year to enter the Healer program. He had been chosen as prefect, and gave kind smiles to the younger children as he helped them find their seats. There had been a hope that he would be made Head Boy this year, but that went to a Hufflepuff. In order to avoid partiality, Headmaster Snape had turned the selection of Prefects and student Heads over to the faculty. So far the choices had not all been ones the Headmaster would have selected, yet they had been very good choices.

Albus was a different story. He went straight to the Ravenclaw table and started chatting with his circle of highly intelligent friends. There was no keeping that boy from learning about magic day and night, unless it was telling everything that he knew to anyone who happened past. Severus had muttered something about having a rotten know-it-all in the family into a Firewhiskey at the Hog's Head one night and Aberforth burst out laughing. “Sounds just like his namesake at that age,” he chortled.

So far his family had produced one Slytherin and two Ravenclaws. Upstairs were two who were likely to be Hufflepuffs. Severus thought back to the day they were born. Emily's last pregnancy had not been easy, especially when it became clear she was carrying twins. The delivery had been a nightmare come to life.

Emily spent the last few weeks on bed rest at St. Mungo's, trying to remain calm and cheerful. She missed her sons greatly, and became fractious with the constant inducements to rest and relax. When labor finally started, Severus could see that the pain this time was different and somehow worse. There came a moment when she looked at him and touched his face.

“I love you so very much,” she said. “Take care of the children. Make sure they know how much I love them, too.”

“Emily?”

She sighed and then smiled weakly at him. “I love you.”

Something was terribly wrong. Suddenly, an assistant was holding a vial of potion to Emily's lips and another assistant was putting a chair close to her head and guiding Severus into it. He saw something no husband should have to see and then buried his face in the space between his wife's shoulder and ear.

“If you leave, my love, who will comfort me?” he asked her. The sleeping draught they had given her made it impossible to answer if she even heard him, but he continued to speak quietly of his love and of their plans and the necessity for her to get better and help him make those plans come to life.

It wasn't too much later when he found himself holding two sweet bundles and smiling down upon them. His mother-in-law sat with him and smiled, too. “You scared her half to death the night of the final battle,” Margo said. “Perhaps she was just getting a bit of her own back?”

They both looked toward the bed, where Emily was now resting peacefully. “You're sure Emily will be fine?” he asked, still concerned.

“She will notice some differences, but she will recover.”

They looked at the little girls again and spent some time admiring them. Severus kissed first one little forehead and then the other. There was a sigh from the bed and a wavering voice. “The babies?”

Emily's mother spoke first. “They've been patiently waiting to meet their mama, dear. Let me raise the head of your bed and you can become acquainted.” Margo Smith raised her daughter's head, gently as the younger woman became aware of the pain in her lower abdomen and her eyes widened. The Healer smoothed down the sheets and kissed her daughter on the cheek. “Two lovely little girls, my dear; you have a fine family. I'll leave you to spend some time alone with them.”

She smiled up to her husband. “So who do we have, here?”

She saw the terror and concern that crossed his face. “Emily, if you ever do anything like that to me again...” His voice trembled and broke. The worst had not happened, so he cleared his throat. “This,” he said handing her a baby with a full head of dark hair and dark blue eyes, “is Felicity. I think she's hungry.”

Emily opened her gown and fed her daughter. “Hello, Felicity. I'm your mama.” She looked up to her husband and other baby daughter. Her hair seemed to be a medium brown and her eyes were lighter. “And who is that young lady?”

“This is Letitia. You have given me two beautiful daughters to console me for the loss of our eldest.”

Emily snorted and then winced at the pain in her tummy. “You see her almost as often as when she was a student at the school.”

“It's not the same,” he muttered, “but I understand that she must live her life as we have been living ours. You gave me Hope as the child of our youth, Emily, and now in our maturity we have happiness and joy.”

“It's all been my pleasure.” She smiled up to him and he couldn't resist leaning over to taste her lips.

They went on delightfully, trading the babies as the one became full and the other was hungry. Severus watched Felicity fall asleep in his arms and put her into a bassinet. Then he moved the chair closer to the bed and took his wife's free hand within his own.

“Emily, they had to take drastic measures.”

She winced with the pain again. “You don't think I noticed?”

“There was that, but even after the girls were born, there were problems. They had to do more... and there won't be any more children, Emily.”

She looked at him silently and absorbed what he said.

“The Healers said that there would just be some changes to adjust to, but you will recover and be fine.”

She had smiled up to him. “Do you recall how you comforted me when it looked for all those years as though Hope would be our only living child? You told me that we would be happy together regardless of what Fate chose to do with our family. It seems that Fate has spoken definitively and told us her plans.”

The Herbology professor came running into the Great Hall, smoothing down his hair and straightening his tie. There were two things that might have ruffled the young man's hair, and since he had no smudges of dirt or sap it was clear to see which of the two he had recently engaged in. Severus made a mental note to speak with his daughter even as he looked stern and curled his lip. He knew it didn't have the same effect as when his son-in-law had been a terrified student. The Head of Gryffindor nodded apologetically and took his seat, leaving the Deputy Headmistress's seat as the only empty one.

All of the womenfolk of the family were upstairs in the Headmaster's quarters, along with young Frank, their grandson. Hope was expecting a second child now and discussing plans to switch from the Aurors to Magical Law. The things she saw as an Auror were occasionally too heartbreaking for a young mother. There was talk of an opening on the Wizengamot, but she was currently keeping her options open and weighing them all.

The twins would be ten years old in a couple of days, and would start school in two years. They had always been sweet, kittenish creatures, eager to please and always happy to cuddle and hug. The Headmaster thought to himself that they had Hufflepuff stamped all over them. Kittens grew into sly creatures, though. He had to allow himself a window of hope that one or the other might show more Slytherin tendencies soon.

That left the young man currently walking within the line of first years up to the stool and the hat as the best hope for a second Slytherin. This Severus Snape was not a scrawny, nervous boy, eager to meet his destiny because his life so far had been disappointing. This boy wore robes purchased new for him and although he was slender he looked well fed. He also had the same look of having been adored that the elder Severus had envied in his school mates forty years before. In other ways young Severus seemed identical to his father, except that he had a boldness that had not been beaten out of him during early childhood by a drunken father.

Professor Chang took up the scroll listing the first years and started summoning the children to be sorted. It looked like there was a fair mixture this year. The past couple of years had been skewed slightly to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw but it was starting to even back out.

At last the name “Snape, Severus” was called and the Headmaster watched his namesake come to sit on the stool. The hat was dropped on his head and the child's father knew a moment of misgiving. The boy had that streak of boldness, after all. Being so much like his father, he had to be Slytherin. Headmaster Snape closed his eyes and willed any word but--

“GRYFFINDOR!”

Everyone in the room went silent and looked at the Headmaster. In an instant, a million thoughts passed through his head. He thought of how much he loved his son and would not wish him to relive his own life. He thought of Dumbledore on a cold night saying, “Sometimes I think we sort too soon,” and what Dumbledore had meant. He thought of Emily waiting upstairs and how she would comfort him for this blow. He shifted in his seat as he thought of her comforting him all night. The thought brought a smile to his face, which he shared with his young son, who was looking up at him in uncertainty. Young Severus's face brightened when he saw his father's smile. Then Headmaster Snape lifted his water goblet and saluted his son-in-law as the red and gold table broke into applause.

finis

---

A/N: I leave the rest for others to imagine as they please.

Thank you, very much, to everyone who has read this story. It's been a fun way to entertain myself for the past several months and has stretched almost exactly the same length of time as my other “work in progress.” That will be complete early next week, so you won't see me for a few days. I am quite grateful to receive the well wishes many have extended as I finish this, as well. Thank you.

Thank you to the kind reviewers. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone including the readers and the other authors, whose work I have likewise enjoyed. I've really been made to feel at home, here.

Thank you to the staff here at Occlumency. It's a tireless work to review, monitor, and deal with software glitches all while keeping a professional finish on the site. It's surely a labor of love.

A very special thank you to Trickie Woo, who has beta read and mentored me through an introduction to the world of fan fic. If there is ever a fan fic hall of fame, you will surely be in it.