Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling. This chapter takes place within the time line of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

A few nights later, Emily woke to a presence in her bedroom. She sat up and reached for her wand to cast a lighting spell. She saw it was her husband and relaxed.

There was a pained look in his eyes. “I need you.”

She put the wand down and lifted her arms. In an instant he was within them and they were tumbling on the bed together in a frantic search for sanity. Some time had passed when Severus spoke again. Emily had him within her arms and was fingering the silk of his hair. She was wondering when she would again be able to hold him in this way when she heard his voice again.

“The die is cast, for better or for worse.”

“You mean you've...already?”

“No, not that, not yet.” He sighed. “Sometime before the end of the school year, though. It will have to be him or me. I should never have done such a thing, but what I did tonight... It has to happen, now.”

“What did you do?”

“I opened the door to Spinner's End and let the darker two of the Black sisters in.”

Emily's hands stopped moving. “Bellatrix, and Narcissa, in our home?”

“Oh, yes, it was a cozy tete-a-tete, including Wormtail listening in on everything.”

“What did you do?” Emily's voice was quiet but hard.

“Narcissa was distraught over the Dark Lord's plans for her son. Bellatrix was furious that she had come to talk to me and tried to talk her out of it at every opening she could get in the conversation. I kept thinking, Emily, if you had not intervened in my life, it might have been me so cruelly trapped, and perhaps it might have been my child fed to the anger of the Dark Lord. A Death Eater would have cast them out and told them it wasn't his problem if a woman's husband was an idiot and their only child the cost of that foolishness. What would you have me do, Emily?”

Her voice was now soft and gentle. “What did you do?”

“Knowing that it was Dumbledore's own wish that I take on that task? I made an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa. I promised to look after her son in all of this and to complete the task if he is unable.”

Emily couldn't speak for a moment. She resumed caressing her husband's head as his life flashed before her. In an instant she recalled the shy child who almost never smiled, the angry youth who would never get his heart's greatest desire, and the young man who took on more of his generation's cares than were his share. Now, just when he should be reaching the time of his greatest accomplishments in life, he must again take on more cares than belonged to him. It wasn't right. She sighed.

“Do you think I did wrong, Emily? Should I renege on the vow and take the penalty?”

“Oh, no, Severus, never! I don't see what else you could have done, not with that witch in the room with you, not with Peter listening to every word, not knowing what Dumbledore wants, too. I was simply wishing that it didn't always fall to you.”

“There's not much use in wishing that.”

“No.”

“The rat went to report to the Dark Lord I suppose. I left soon after he did. He will have a fine time gaining re-entry without me there, when he comes back.”

“Shouldn't you go back, then?”

“Perhaps, but I wish to be with my wife. I need an antidote to the unwomanliness of Bellatrix and the desperation of Narcissa.”

“That's a great deal to combat. Do you think I'm equal to the task?”

“Of that I have no doubt.” His hands and lips started moving until she gently pushed him onto his back. He submitted to her ministrations until the point at which he guided her body over his and they moved together. He allowed the contentment to overcome him and a while later they were both fast asleep.

---

A week or two later Professor Severus Snape arrived at his mother-in-law's home as planned for an evening with his family. When he arrived, no one was present except his daughter and son, who were in the sitting room. A house-elf was peeking into the sitting room from the dining room, glancing back at the perfectly set table and wringing her hands. Hope, in particular, looked glum, and slumped over. “You're in the house by yourselves?” he asked, a trace of condemnation in his voice.

“We just Flooed over from the hospital a few minutes ago because we knew you would be here. Mum and Grandma have a patient who isn't expected to survive until morning. Mum says she'll be here soon; Grandma will probably stay for the end.”

“And why is my best Hope sitting here looking so...hopeless?”

“Oh, Daddy!” The girl rolled her eyes and turned away.

“Truly, Little Girl, what's the matter?” He sat next to her and put an arm around her.

“You hate him, anyway.”

“Ah, so I deduce that Neville Longbottom is involved. Do I need to pull the rest out, too?”

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“I don't, actually, have any opinion on the boy one way or another. He's not a very good student and I would have preferred other sorts of companions for you, but your mother keeps pointing out that he's a good, well-mannered young man and he does seem to have emerging talents now that he's had a chance to grow into them.”

“Well...” The girl drew it out, and then dove in. “We've been hanging around together in the greenhouses at the hospital, and now Neville invited Hannah Abbott to join us, which isn't fair because he would never have gotten to go up there if Grandma hadn't taken us years ago, and today when they didn't think I was looking, they were kissing!” It all came out in one breath.

“That's hardly unexpected. Haven't those two become quite good friends in the past year or two?”

“Well, yes, but...” She looked up at her father, wishing Mum were handy. “The night of the Ministry raid I snuck up to the Hospital Wing to give him a note, and I couldn't help myself. I kissed him, Daddy, and it was wonderful, but now I don't know if he realized or not. I thought, maybe, with my kiss there...” It was a stupid thought and she couldn't finish it.

Severus wondered what was keeping the girl's mother. Emily was much better at dealing with these things. He went hot and cold at the same time at the thought of his daughter kissing a boy. She was sixteen, though, and he knew some of the girls started much younger... he suddenly realized what Hope had been thinking. “You thought that if your kiss was there, it would mark him and he wouldn't be able to kiss anyone else, didn't you?” His daughter kept her eyes firmly on the carpet as she nodded her head. He pulled her close. “Ah, little Hope, that's just what I might have tried, too.”

“Daddy, it hurts so much!”

“I know, Little Girl.” The remembered pain of his own disappointments washed over him and he wondered yet again where his wife could be. How could she attend someone else's death bed when her daughter needed her so desperately?

“How can I ever feel better?”

How, indeed? “Your mother... She helped me recover from a great disappointment, just by listening to me. One time she hugged me, like this.”

The girl lifted her head and looked into her father's eyes. “Was there a girl you liked, Daddy, who didn't like you the same way?”

He hated to admit it. “Yes.”

“Was she more beautiful than Mum?”

“At the time, she seemed so.”

“Was she better than Mum?”

“No, but I loved her.”

“Have I ever met her?”

“Not since you were old enough to remember.”

“How did you get over it?”

“Your mother was there, and she helped me, and after a while I knew I loved her far more.”

“You were old by then, weren't you?”

“A bit older than you are now.”

“That's forever.”

“It seems the blink of an eye to me.”

They sat quietly for a while, watching Brendon zoom back and forth between the hall and sitting room on his toy broom. Severus caressed the curly head leaning on his shoulder, wondering absently how she had gotten so tall. The girl was an inch or two taller than her mother now. When did that happen?

A shower of sparks erupted from the fireplace and Emily stood before them.

“Good gracious! Aren't you sitting down to dinner, yet?”

“We had some things to talk over.”

---

Several hours later Severus was holding his wife in his arms, playing absently with the shoulder strap of her night gown. “She really fancies him.”

“She does.”

“Did you know she kissed him?”

“I had wondered. She seemed so elated right after the Ministry raid, and then so dejected.”

“He's demonstrated his fancy for the Abbott girl.”

“She must be crushed.”

“She saw them kissing when they didn't think she was watching.”

“At least they weren't trying to hurt her.”

“I was reminded of the moment when you told me of Lily's wedding. All I could think was that I needed to keep Hope from doing something drastic.”

“That's what I was thinking about you that night. Did I succeed?”

“It was pretty drastic. You changed my life, completely.”

“Was it for the better?”

“Oh, yes. I might have ended up with Pettigrew spying on me much sooner the other way, and the fringe benefits are far better.” He slid the strap over her shoulder and replaced his fingers with his lips.

Emily started working the buttons of her husband's night shirt. “Is this conversation at an end, then?”

“Adjourned, perhaps, pending further developments.”

His lips followed the night gown down her body and she couldn't respond to anything but the feel of him. Words became murmurings which in turn became sighs and groans. Soon there was nothing between them and before long even the sighs wound down to a gentle silence.