A Terrible Temptation

A/N - I almost can\'t believe I am done. What a long strange journey it has been. :) Thanks to the omnipresent Kate for keeping this monstrosity rolling kicking me back into line and encouraging me when I felt ike it would never end. For a ten chapter fic I was going to toss off this turned into quite the little epic. :P Now I can finally go read the other PolyLove challenge answer without fear of contaminating my own story! YAY!!! Thank you thank you thank you to all those who reviewed (far too numerous to name here) your threats and cajoling kept me going on this!

Chapter 44 – Epilogue

With a banshee wail, a forty-pound missile landed on Severus’ stomach, waking him from a sound sleep. He woofed and then reached for his wand before realizing that the attacker was his son and heir. He regretfully put away his wand, remembering how Hermione felt about hexing the children and glared at the unrepentant urchin who was perched on him with a huge grin.

“Jacob Alexander Salazar Snape! How many times have I told you not to do that?” He grumbled, but the brown-eyed boy with his mop of curly black hair just grinned more broadly.

“It’s Sunday! Get up!” The boy bounced and Severus rose like a titan from the deep, tossed the child onto the bed, and began to tickle him mercilessly. Through howls of laughter the child gasped for mercy.

“Do you see the clock?” Severus relented and turned the child to look at the timepiece that hung next to the door. “What does it say?” He growled.

“Too bloody early.” The boy read off obediently. “But Uncle Ron will be coming!” He looked up at his father with an expression of pleading. The Snape nose hadn’t skipped a generation with his eldest but the pleading brown eyes and pixie face were pure Hermione and Severus was constitutionally unable to resist them. He sighed and released Jacob whose gap-toothed grin was far too much like Severus’ own for him to be fooled by it.

“Out, your mother and I have to get dressed.” He commanded.

“Like hell we do.” Hermione grumbled from beneath the covers. Jacob turned his attentions to his mother who was far harder to manipulate than his dad.

“But Mum…” He began. Blankets were pushed aside and Hermione glared at her offspring to great effect. Jacob was off the bed and out the door like a shot. Severus looked at his wife and shook his head.

“Are you certain that you can’t run off with a younger man, taking the children with you of course?” The long-standing joke made Hermione chuckle.

“I am sure that there must be some seventh year girl willing to take over for me.” She retorted, her traditional answer making him grab her and pull her tight against him as he kissed her.

“Maybe we could have an affair and run off together, someplace very far away, where they can’t find us?” Severus murmured as he kissed his way down her throat.

“Eeeeeew! Mw! Mum! Dad!” Athena’s prim tones scolded form the end of the bed. “Must you do that all the time?” Severus raised an eyebrow at the six year old with her jet-black hair and eyes and sighed.

“It would have to be really far away.” Hermione grinned up at him and he let the contentment of the moment sink into his soul.

“What made us think children would be lovely?” He groaned and watched his daughter cross her arms and tap her foot in impatience.

“I suspect that Albus spiked the wine at the wedding.” Hermione’s quick tongue had always delighted him and he chuckled as he dragged himself from the bed. With a roar he charged his daughter, who squealed and fled the room with him hot on her heels.

Laughter drifted up from the garden and Hermione smiled as she looked out the window. Severus was playing Aurors and Dark Wizards with the children. Ron and the very pregnant Lavender were sitting nearby and Harry was sprawled on the grass with Luna and their brood. They were at six and still going – lucky for him Luna was so easy-going; after her three Hermione had called an end to breeding. Ginny and Neville had two children of their own and the whole raucous mob was running and screaming in every direction as Severus played Dark Wizard for them. Her parents, who had taken some time to adjust to Severus (and vice versa as well) had forgotten all their objections at Jacob’s birth and were now utterly doting grandparents.

She smiled and breathed out with a gentle happiness in her soul. Hermione had dispatched Severus’ great-aunt and his dissolute uncle with sharp-tongued hostility the one time they had dared show their faces and she had stood dry-eyed at the old biddy’s funeral. She had stood by Severus through times of joy and times of sorrow, laughed with him, cried with him, argued and made-up with him and fifteen years of marriage hadn’t dimmed the glow she felt when he walked in a room.

She knew they had to return to Hogwarts on Monday; Severus had taken over as Headmaster when Albus had retired and Hermione had taken the Transfigurations teacher job when Minerva had joined him two years later. It was hard work and Jacob was a handful to teach.
Thankfully the boy had sorted into Ravenclaw, so there were no House arguments between them, but Hermione knew that Athena was too much her father’s daughter to go anywhere other than Slytherin ahe yhe youngest, Marcus, was shaping up to be a true Gryffindor. She shook her head as the toddler flung himself at his father, bravely defending Lilly Potter from the Dark Wizard.

She stepped away from the window and headed downstairs into the garden. She stepped into the bright sun and walked unhurriedly to join the circle of friends and family. She thought of those who had been lost and those who had been born. She looked at her children and knew that they would grow up in world that had been bought for them in blood and courage.

Her husband grinned at her with his hair tousled and a tiny Weasley clinging to one leg and she was suddenly deliriously happy. She had loved but one man in her life and she would never let him go. With a laugh she grabbed a child and proceeded to join in the game. It really was a beautiful day.

The End