Sub Rosa

A/N - Feeling a litle better today and Kate got this chapter back to me lickety-split. I thank all my reviewers for their kind words and yes, I did mean ante-bellum, not anti-bellum. sigh.

Chapter 48 – Taking Refuge

Severus leaned back against the creaking wicker with a contented sigh. Another cup of café au lait was pressed into his hand by a beaming house elf in a green and gold plaid vest, red trousers and gold coat. A pair of bright, cheerful blue eyes regarded him with an almost proprietary air as he accepted the cup and the strange square donut that went with it. It was tasty and dipped well into the hot brown liquid. Kathryn had dragged Minuet and the other kids off to build the bonfire along the river’s edge and the gleeful cries of young voices mingled with the warning tones of the older.

A very small girl in a red velvet dress, with a now sadly crumpled bow in her jet-black hair, approached him and placed a slightly sticky hand on his knee. He eyed her with some alarm and she broke out into a gap-toothed smile. With no invitation or warnine pre proceed to crawl up into his lap.

Severus froze in indecision. How did one gently disengage a small hand from one’s shirtfront and return her to the ground without offense or injury? While he tried to decide, the child looked up into his face and he realized that her eyes were the same chocolate brown as Kathryn’s.

A quick cleansing charm later and the child was settled against him, telling a long and rather convoluted story about “Kiddy”, whoever that was. He was apparently supposed to be aware of this person, because she never explained. The girl was soon lost in her complex tale of Kiddy and Paw-paw and their adventures and had gotten to the interesting part, where Kiddy was spanking a were-wolf.

He was pleased to have garnered all that, as he had, it seems, been pronouncing it wrong all these years, it was properly pronounced war-woof, she gently corrected him.

He nodded solemnly at her and watched as her head cracked open to emit a hugen ann and then she fell bonelessly asleep against him.

No one paid any heed either to his predicament or the child’s for some time. Not only did these people not seem to mind that the ugly, black bat had one of their offspring, but they were apparently not going to rescue him either.

He studied the sleeping child with some interest. In about eight months he was going to be having one as a permanent addition to his life. He knew that the house elves would be beside themselves with joy to help him with every aspect of the child, but he was hoping that he wouldn’t make quite such a mess of fatherhood as his own father had.

She stirred in her sleep and there was a feeling of wonderment at her perfect trust in him. She lay there still and vulnerable and images flashed through his mind, things he had seen and done. He wrapped his arms around the little girl and held her against him, dreaming of a time when he would never have to kill again.

“Lisle?” Called a woman’s voice. He looked up and saw, a woman standing nearby, her eyes scanning the group. She had the same ebony hair as the child, with green eyes and creamy golden skin.

“Did you lose something?” He called and she turned and spotted him, with the child cradled on his lap. A smile bloomed on her face as she made her way over to him.

“Sorry, I hope she didn’t put you out.” The crisp British English of her words made him smile.

“Not at all, though she fell asleep before I found what happened at the end of the story.” He joked as he handed the sleepily murmuring child over to her mother.

“What story?”

“Something about Kiddy and Paw-paw and a were-wolf.” He replied and watched the woman roll her eyes.

“She is going to be another Auror, I just know it.” The woman said in mock-despair. “Kiddy is Kathryn and Paw-paw is my husband, you should ask Kat for the rest of the story. I’m Eloise Leblanc, Raphael’s wife.” The disjointed conversation was partly because of the limp weight of the child she was adjusting in her arms.

Raphael’s wife, which made her Kathryn’s sister-in-law, as Raphael was the second son, he remembered.

“Severus Snape.” He replied.

“Snape? I think I know your mother.” She frowned in thought.

“I’m sorry.” He deadpanned and watched as a delighted laugh crinkled up Eloise’s nose.

“She was a bit much.” The woman shrugged and then, smiling, carried tleepleeping Lisle away.

The party was soon breaking up as the children fell asleep in little heaps and parents sought out their offspring and carted them off to beds. The adults began to wander off in twos and threes, some into the house to sleep, others to the apparation point to head home. Kathryn returned with Harry trotting behind her, asking her something about the river and the house.

“So what do muggles see when they pass by on the river?”

“Just the muggle houses, this one is invisible to them.” She replied patiently. Severus got up and extended an arm to her. She leaned against him as she took it, weary and probably in pain.

“Off to bed, Potter.” He shooed the young man, with far less venom than he was usually able to generate.
The boy looked at him in surprise and then darted away to find a house elf and get some much-needed rest.

Kathryn directed Severus up the right hand stairs and into a small hallway, the third door downned ned to the password “Pi dagger sign”.

The room was spacious, but rather plain. A huge iron bedstead and a plain rosewood nightstand, a matching clothes press and a couple of shelves with one or two books and some childhood mementos, a rag rug and French doors leading out to a balcony were the only notable features of the room. It was clean-scrubbed and the bed was piled with blankets and quilts. The windows on either side of the French doors were covered with the same lacy curtains as the door and there was a simple painting of a bucolic landscape. It was quiet, unassuming and tranquil. It was a perfect refuge.

Kathryn edged up to him and burrowed into his arms. He held her close, breathing in her scent. She wore no perfumes and her cleansing potions were unscented, so the only thing she smelled of was warm skin, slightly sweet, and the fresh smell of the cleansing soap the house elves used on her clothing. He ran his lips along her throat, savoring the softness of her skin. She sighed in contentment and wriggled against him.

There was peace and safety in her arms, there was comfort and a quiet joy that was somehow incredibly powerful.

It was many hours before they slept.

Christmas morning was herd byd by shrieks and pounding feet, as the children of the house burst from the confines of their rooms and ran downstairs, with a sound like elephants stampeding.

Kyn gyn groaned beside him and he pulled her more tightly against him.

“Ignore it.” He murmured sleepily. The pale light coming through the windows only accentuated the earliness of the hour.

“Won’t work.” She muttered back and almost instantly a pounding on the door followed her words.

“Kiddy!p! Kp! Kissmas!!famifamiliar voice shouted from the hallway.

“Lisle” Severus imagined dropping the child from the balcony and going back to sleep. Kathryn, however, had a greater capacity for cruelties because she grabbed her wand and waved open the door.

A small blur launched itself at the pair in the bed and Severus’ reflexes, honed for decades against Death Eaters and Aurors, now saved him from twenty pounds of hyper child as she landed giggling on top of them.

“You hate me.” He grumbled to Kathryn.

“Good practice fhe rhe rest of your life.” She chuckled and then grabbed the little girl and began tickling her until she screamed with laughter and thrashed her legs.

“Kiddy! Kiddy! No!” The child shrieked. Severus escaped the bed, clutching the shreds of his dignity about him, and fled into the bathroom. If children meant loud noises first thing in the morning then perhaps he should reconsider the whole thing.

Certainly children couldn’t be such barbarians that they would disturb a man before he had his coffee. A tiny hand tugged at his boxers as he was casting his shaving charm. He looked down and saw the huge brown eyes staring up at him in fascination. Apparently he had been wrong.

Kathryn’s timely rescue, as she scooped the child up and ushered her from the room, kept him from hexing the little girl before he quite realized what he was doing. Kathryn was intelligent enough to not speak to him, merely dropping a kiss on his cheek as she moved past him in the bathroom. Once they were cleaned and dressed, she gently led him from the bedroom and towards an unholy noiset wat was rising from somewhere on the ground floor.

Still maneuvering him with extreme care, as though he was elderly or made entirely of gelignite, she led him to what turned out to be a ballroom. It had a huge tree dominating one end of it and underneath were enough presents to give one to every person in London. It was decorated with a bizarre combination of elegant ornaments of spun glass and magic and clumsy concoctions that looked like they were made by drunken house elves.

The whole family was present, the adults clutching caffeine and tottering towards the scattered couches, while the children shredded though the gifts like rampaging hippogriffs.

Harry entered behind him and the look on the boy’s face as he wandered towards the tree was like that of a starving man seeing food for the first time.

Only the sight of a cup of coffee being handed to him by a smirking house elf kept him from making some snide remark to the boy. The pure black liquid however took up the majority of his attention as he cradled it to him and took the first life-giving sips.

Kathryn settled him into a couch and grabbed her own tea, Yorkshire Gold with two sugars and cream, a soft sigh of relief escaping her own lips.

Harry dived into the fray, assisting some of the younger children with their bows and wrapping. Draco sauntered in a few minutes later, with Minuet trailing after him, eyes wide and looking somewhat daunted by the noisy crowd.

Hermione came in later still, fully dressed in jumper and jeans and still in deep conversation with Prue, who was dressed in a Christmas plaid taffeta with her usual starched pinafore and a red mobcap.

All the elves drifted in and out of the room wearing variations on Christmas clothes and Severus was struck by how pleasant it was not to see, for instance, the Malfoy elves, scuttling about in dirty rags cringing. Perhaps, Granger had a bigger point than he had contemplated before. After all, he had grown up with house elves and had really never thought about them before as anything other than furniture.

Marie smiled at him as she entered alone. He realized that while Kathryn had mentioned her Grandfather on a few occasions, he had never seen the man. He gathered, watching Marie make her lone way to the family gathered before the tree, that her husband must have passed away. He still didn’t know the whole story of her and Albus and he wondered if he ever would.

A small clattering noise alerted him to the fact that packages were flying out from under the tree and raining down on the various adults. A group of small boxes and one really large one drifted over to him and he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Kathryn grinned at him as she accepted her own offerings. Minuet was staring open-mouthed as several boxes floated over to her and Harry and Draco were grinning at their loot. Hermione was quite startled as her presents arrived, almost irritated to be dragged away from her conversation with Prue.

Severus picked up the first box, which had Draco’s untidy scrawl on it. He raised an eyebrow at the boy who smirked back with insufferable arrogance. Opening it carefully, afraid it might explode, he discovered a tiny jeweler’s scale in a satin lined box, perfect for measuring the most minute quantities of ingredients. He was touched by the gift, expensive and exquisite, as befitted a gift from a Malfoy, but perfectly suiting the recipient. He gave the boy the tiniest nod and he bloomed into a smile as though Severus had hugged him.

The second box was from Minuet, who had somehow scraped together enough pocket money to buy him a new Slytherin scarf, as his last one had been destroyed in a post game fight between the Slytherin team and bizarrely enough, the Hufflepuff team. He nodded to her as well, getting a pink-tinged blush for his acknowledgement.

The huge box was from Potter, something that made Severus extremely uncomfortable. Sure that it was going to contain bubotuber puss, he opened it gingerly, noting Potter watching him from the corner of his eye. He found within a Nimbus 2002, in jet black with silver writing and Slytherin green bristles. He stared at it for a very long time.

“Remus told me that my father broke your broom in fifth year. I figured you were owed one.” The boy kept his voice casual, but his body was curved in just slightly, as though awaiting a shout or a blow. Severus looked at Harry, really looked at him, from the too big clothes, to the same glasses he had had since first year, to the green eyes that were not his father’s and nodded, just as he had to the two Slytherins.

“Overdue, but since you cannot seem to be on time for anything, I suppose it hardly matters.” His voice had its usual dismissive quality, yet instead of bristling, Harry Potter smiled at him.

, si, sir.” The young man replied and turned back to his gifts. “Merry Christmas, Professor.” He murmured softly.

“Bah.” Severus grumped and with great care set the broom to one side. He ignored the grins of the other students and the soft misty smile of his otherwise sensible lover.

Hermione had given him a book on medieval potion making that he didn’t already have and Kathryn had gotten him a sneak-a-scope and a foe glass wrapped in a green silk handkerchief.

“The more romantic gifts will wait for when we aren’t surrounded by students.” She whispered in his ear and he felt obscurely comforted.

Minuet was staring at the tiny horses and stable with a stunned expression and she looked up at him with teary eyes, despite the fact they were clearly marked as having come from Dumbledore. Not fooled, she settled on the arm of his couch with the miniature foal in her palm.

“Thank you, sir.” She said with a soft smile.

“Thank Professor Dumbledore when you see him.” He waved her gratitude off, but she dropped a kiss on his check before he could evade it. A single “humph” was his only response, but she scampered off happily despite that.

Kathryn opened up her present from him, a Slytherin banner and a book on Salazar Slytherin that he thought she would like. She gave him a little pinch.

“I’m not a Slytherin.” She grumbled, but she was smiling so he knew she was amused, rather than offended.

“You would have been.” He replied smugly.

“She would have been a Gryffindor.” Potter tossed back with a grin.

“Naw, I think she would have been a Ravenclaw.” Hermione added.

“Well, we can all agree that she would not have been a Hufflepuff.” Draco chuckled and they all laughed. Kathryn rolled her eyes heavenwards.

“Damn Brits, just when you think you have had a perfectly lovely revolution and escaped their dictatorial ways, they start bossing you around again.” The Brits in question decided that the revolution was a minor delusion of the silly colonists and proceeded to get pelted with pillows from a room full of Americans.

All in all, not a bad haul, Severus thought, as he looked at the presents in his pile. It occurred to him that it was the first Christmas in eighteen years where he had gotten something other than a whimsical gift from Albus and a practical gift from Minerva.

It was certainly the first Christmas he had gotten a gift from individual students instead of the one card and an impersonal gift from his house.

This year, the usual sacrificial lamb, chosen by lot from the student body and sent trembling and shaking into the serpent’s den to gift him and then run, had delivered it. It had been a cauldron with snake engravings around the rim. He had put it with the twenty others he had just like it.

This year was different. This year, there was Kathryn. He smiled at her and she slipped an arm through his and smiled back. All was fine in the world, even Potter.