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 Deathly Hallows.

Severus came to Margo Smith's house the night after he had left his family at Emily's flat. “There was another raid at the Ministry. The Death Eaters have triumphed. Scrimgeour was killed and Pius Thicknesse is the new Minister. We're in the open, Emily. I can make love to you in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic if I like and no one will say or do anything. I'm to be named Headmaster and no one is supposed to do or say anything against me or my family.” He buried his head into her robes. “Oh, I've missed you.”

Her smile was tight. “I would guess that's what they are officially calling an 'altercation'. I've just been called into the hospital. I need to help with the people injured this evening. Can you wait for me to come back?”

“I need to be at Hogwarts by tomorrow.”

“I'm scheduled for two weeks of late night shifts.”

They looked at each other. He kissed her nose. “It's not as though we haven't been making love at every opportunity over the past several days.”

She smiled up at him. “That's very true. Let's plan for our Anniversary, then. Eighteen years, Severus.”

---

Emily told the Floo to take her to the Snapes' quarters at Hogwarts and was more surprised than she should have been to arrive in the Headmaster's office. A house-elf was standing nearby. The Headmaster had been called to handle a difficulty created by the arrival of the new professors, but would be back soon. Would mistress please come and approve the dinner arrangements?

Mistress looked at the elegant table and dinnerware and approved. Emily complimented the elf so warmly that the pointed ears turned red. She was shown to the bedroom, where her clothes had already been put into a wardrobe, and then into the bathroom. Smiling in gratitude, she dismissed the house-elf and went to work on her toilette. This would be much harder without the help she had received at Malfoy Manor.

When Severus arrived, he beheld his wife wearing the same blue satin she had worn at the dinner party over the summer. Her hair was softer, and she was wearing the delicate necklace he had given her the Christmas after the Dark Lord's initial fall. He walked up to her and moved the pendant to center it better.

“You take my breath away.”

She wasn't breathing very well just then, either. “I had to do justice to your arrangements.”

“Those Carrows are going to be a disaster. Between the other staff hating me and those two with their deadly antics...” He trailed off and looked at his wife again. “Let me get cleaned up and we'll do this properly.”

“I'll be right here.”

He allowed himself a gentle kiss. She smelled much better than the hallway he had recently left.

In less time than she would have thought possible, Severus was standing before Emily again, wearing dress robes and smiling. He guided her to the table and sat her in her chair before sitting down himself. Emily would never quite remember what they ate except she knew it was delicious. She forgot the exact conversation as well, although she knew they had exchanged the stories of what they had done in the last two weeks. She remembered his eyes, that devoured her as though he'd never seen her before and would never see her again. She remembered looking at him in the same way.

Dinner finished and the candles were low. Severus looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Emily, I haven't been back up to the tower since that night. I haven't used the bedroom, either. I don't feel like I can sleep there until I've faced it, but I need you. Could we take a walk up there, tonight?”

Emily nodded. A wrap of soft black wool was brought to her and they took a short walk from the Headmaster's office to the stairway of the Astronomy Tower. As they went up the stairs they passed a classroom where Professors Sinistra and McGonagall were speaking in hushed tones. They stopped speaking to glare at the couple as they passed. Emily's last discussion with Minerva, concerning Hope's finals, had ended in a manner far from cordial. Emily bristled, but Severus squeezed her elbow and they went on, allowing the two women to go back to their conversation.

Severus stopped at the doorway at the top. “This is where I saw it all. He was standing over there and leaning, and Malfoy was there.” He pointed to the spots where he could still see each combatant. “Bellatrix, Gibbon, Greyback, Alecto, Amycus...Potter must have been over there...”

His eyes watered as he took a few steps out. “I was here. At first I could only see him. He was in such pain. The curse from the ring had broken through our potions and spells. All those people were here, so beneath him in every way, laughing and jeering, telling Draco to get a move on. If I had not seen Greyback, I would have turned and left. He had such a horror of Greyback.

“Dumbledore stood there, his very self failing, and discussed the situation as if it were the weather and they were at tea. Then he called to me. My own strength failed me, but he had one last bit of magic left. Somehow he made me do it. My wand hand moved into position almost on its own and when the spell left my lips, it was not entirely my doing.”

Emily didn't speak as he told her about it. She kept her hand on his arm, willing warmth and comfort to her husband, who couldn't publicly grieve a loss he felt as surely as anyone else in the castle that night. He crossed to where the Headmaster had been standing and sank to his knees. “I don't know if I can do this, Emily. How can I accept what I have done and then take his place?”

She came and knelt next to him, not sure how to touch him or what to say. His hands were pressed against the battlement and his head was hanging between his arms. He let out a loud sob and his grief flowed for a few minutes. Emily's eyes became wet as she simply knelt there, offering what comfort her presence gave him.

As his pain eased, a new sensation took hold of him. The stone beneath his hands warmed gently and he felt a comfort flow into him from the castle itself. The magic of Hogwarts mingled with his own and he felt himself accepted as the Headmaster. Somehow he had made peace with the school.

Severus stood and lifted Emily up to her feet. He turned and looked over Hogwarts, at the school, at the forest, and at the way the stars shone on the surface of the lake. He turned again and looked at his wife. “Somehow I feel as though the school accepts me. It will be uncomfortable and difficult, but somehow we will make this work, and somehow we will triumph.” He put his hand at the small of her back and guided her to the door and down the stairs.

At the stone gargoyle, Severus taught Emily the password that would always work for her and they went up the moving stairs. They passed through the office and into the bedroom, where candles had been lit and the sheets had been turned down. Already this room felt more welcoming than it had since Severus had come back to Hogwarts. It looked quite different from his previous glances as he walked through.

The difference was Emily. Severus looked at his wife. She was standing in her gown, looking magnificent and her eyes were full of gentle promises. Finally he took her into his arms. He kissed her where they stood and they recalled the feel of each other. He kissed her again and the weeks of separation were as nothing as the passion between them was kindled. The bed beckoned.

Clothing was a minor distraction. Buttons, zippers and other fastenings were useless against the questing fingers working them. True to his word, Severus studied and explored Emily in her gown. As expected, Emily smiled over Severus's high collar and many buttons. Skin was revealed and kissed as if it had never been seen before. They came together as though they had never been together before, but at the same time with the ease of the years that they had known such bliss with each other.

---

Emily woke to pre-daylight and stretched luxuriously. Severus was sprawled on the bed, still sleeping soundly. His hair spread out over his pillow and she ran her fingers through it, enjoying the feel of his nearness. She was careful not to wake him, although he had certainly waked her as she slept through the night. They had used the time to its fullest, she thought to herself. She got up and took care of certain necessities and then returned.

“What time is it?” He was awake, waiting for her.

“I'm not sure, dawn any minute.”

“I should go check to make sure those Carrows haven't destroyed something overnight. Will you stay?”

Emily nodded. “We need to get the children this afternoon before Mum has a shift at the hospital, but until then I am completely at your command.”

Severus held her close and kissed her ear. “I like the sound of that. I think there are still one or two things we didn't do last night.”

Emily smiled mischievously at him. “Well, then, we have to finish what we started.”

He smirked back as he got out of the bed and quickly dressed. He kissed her nose and said. “I will see you in a little while.

He stopped in the Headmaster's office and cleared his throat. Several portraits opened their eyes and looked at him expectantly.

“I know it's your doing. You're all connected to the soul of the school somehow. Why me?”

Armando Dippet looked down and said, “Really, it's self evident.”

“I don't understand.”

Several portraits looked to Phineas Nigellus Black, who looked annoyed and cleared his throat. “You were the obvious choice, Severus. The current political climate demands a Slytherin, and we demand someone who at least knows and understands the school. We also prefer someone who is loyal to Dumbledore and therefore the school's ongoing best interests.”

“So you're all behind me?”

The portraits indicated their assent.

Severus's hand was on the desk, the white of his knuckles the only indication of the emotion he felt. “Thank you,” he said.

“Oh, Severus,” said Headmaster Black.

“Yes?”

“In dealing with the two new teachers, you might find it best to deal with them as their master regularly does. They are conditioned to respect an occasional show of force.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

Headmaster Snape didn't swirl his robes as he usually did when walking through the school, but his stance was taller and more self-assured than it had been in weeks.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading, and to debjunk for reviewing. Thanks especially to Trickie Woo for beta reading.