My dear readers,

I am so so very sorry it has taken me such a long time to get this last chapter out to you all. I've been working on it. Its been a slow go, obviously. But here we are, I do hope you like it. As always I love to hear your thoughts on it and I hope it won't take me such an obscenely long time to get the next chapter done.

There is a steady rhythm on a train. Its movement side to side follows the same constant pattern, the gentle clacking of the wheels as is passed over the evenly spaced ties. Knowing where it was going and how long it would take to get there. Consistent. Severus leaned his head on the window and gazed out at the passing countryside, for the first time in weeks the comfort of the steady movements lulled him into a trance and he forgot about the constant knot in his stomach of anxiety and uncertainty. He had written to every possible contact no matter how obscure that had anything to do with potions. So far there had only been one return owl with a "not interested" response.

"Severus!" someone yelled. Startled Severus looked over to find Lily, Harry, and James giving him concerned looks. "Are you alright?" Lily asked.

Severus nodded, "I'm fine," and turned to look out the window again.

Lily looked at Harry and James with a frown, she'd never seen Severus isolate himself so completely everyone thought that once finals were over that Severus would snap out of it, but that did not seem to be the case.

Sirius and Peter re-entered the compartment laden with sweets from the trolley. Peter had noticed that Harry had warmed up to everyone else but him, and was desperately trying to win the young boys approval, he offered Harry a chocolate frog, the younger boy reluctantly took it... No one else had noticed Harry's subtle disapproval of the Gryffindor and even Peter couldn't quite figure out why he cared what an 8-year-old thought of him, a now of age wizard going into his final year at Hogwarts. Sirius threw a licorice wand at Severus which ended up hitting him in the side of the head. Severus scowled and muttered under his breath before pulling open the wrapper and shoving the end of the candy into his mouth. The marauders and Harry and Lily laughed. Harry felt nothing but relief as he realized that a year ago the same incident would have resulted in a fistfight between the 5 older boys.

The conversation died down after a while, Severus continued to look out the window lost in his thoughts. Sirius was a bit anxious, he wouldn't be going home this summer and he was thankful for that but even going with the Potter's made him feel a little nervous. Remus and Lily had discussed their grades and who might get head boy and girl, eventually, even that topic was talked out and they each pulled out a book to read. Peter had wandered out of the compartment at some point and Harry fell asleep.

Hours later the screeching of the train breaks brought everyone back to the moment as students along the train began searching for their trunks, pets, and other belongings. Severus pulled down his and Harry's trunks and assisted Lily, although she was perfectly capable of doing it herself he'd grown so much in the last year he could reach easily now.

"Dad!" Harry yelled out when he saw Tobias waiting for them on the muggle side of Platform 9 and ¾. Tobias opened his arms wide for his boys, he was so happy to have them back, he'd managed to see them a few times over the last few months, but a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon just was not the same thing as having them back home. After the long, uneventful, and surprisingly quiet, drive the Snapes finally pulled into the little parking lot their row of townhouses shared and began unloading the trunks.

/

The first weeks of summer went by quickly. Severus started up his job at the market again and spent most of his time at work, on an odd day that he was home he'd taken to working in the basement trying to turn it into a potions lab. Now that he was an adult wizard using magic was no longer an issue and thus spent many hours magically installing a proper ventilation system and potions disposal, transfiguring a work station and store cupboards that he hoped to fill up one day, and adding better lighting and generally just cleaning out the place more than he and Harry had done the year before. Despite 6 years of magical education under his belt, the use of magic for anything practical and usable was still new to the young man and as such there were many failed, often disastrous, attempts made. One early modification to the basement was an attempt to add a ventilation pipe over what would be the workbench, Severus almost blew a hole in the brick outer wall and started a small fire. After the room was again deemed safe Tobias had lectured for no less than 30 minutes about safety and not blowing up the house.

Tobias spent his summer mornings browsing the help wanted adds both in The Daily Prophet as well as The Cokeworth Chronicle and other nearby townships, he'd make calls in an effort to find work, often going on day jobs as a handyman or courier or even overnight for towns further away, if they paid enough to make it worth it. Every penny and knut was counted, it helped a great deal more than he let on that Severus was now able to do some magic, fixing a broken bulb was no longer a financial emergency.

"Dad?" Severus tentatively asked Tobias hated being interrupted when he was going through the paper.

"Mmmm?"

"Can I borrow the car on Thursday?"

Tobias looked up and raised an eyebrow, "I'll need it for work."

"Oh," Severus said a little disheartened "Could I have bus fare then?" normally he would have just used his wages but almost all of it was going towards paying bills these days and he had very little pocket money this year.

Tobias put down the paper and gave his son a hard look "What on earth for?"

"I need to go to London, to retake my apparition exam."

"Didn't you do that around your birthday?"

"Yes, sir."

"So, why do you need to go again."

Severus colored and looked down, admitting failure was never an easy thing, fortunately (or perhaps not) Harry took the opportunity to jump in.

"Oh, he failed," Harry informed Tobias matter of factly.

Tobias looked back at Severus in surprise, then frowned. "You should have told me."

"I was a little busy trying to save you from being possessed by Lord Voldemort, it must have slipped my mind," Severus responded with a sarcastic tone.

"Watch the attitude," Tobias warned his son, " But I'm sorry to say, I don't have any extra money this week. Bus fare to London isn't cheap. You'll just have to wait until I have a day off or I can save up."

Severus nodded and starred back down into his porridge, he had a narrow window allotted to retake the test, if he missed it he'd have to pay again for the exam and who knows how long it would take his father to save up for bus fair or even have a day off during the week. He quickly finished off his meal brought the dish to the sink and headed off to the grocers for his shift hoping to get a few extra hours of work.

Tobias ruffled Harry's hair and then headed out the door himself to his first job of the day, a housing complex on the other side of town was having a roof fixed up and the roofing company had put an ad out for more help. Tobias was eager for the job if they liked him there was a chance at getting called back for more work. Harry was left alone in their little house, it was still early morning but the summer heat was already making the little brick house feel like an oven. After cleaning up the dishes, a chore that naturally fell on him being the only one home, he headed out to the back garden to see if Danny was around to play.

It had become a sort of routine between Harry and Danny, after breakfast they'd go wander the neighborhoods, there was nothing really to do, the other side of town had the youth recreation center, but with the pedestrian bridge still out, there was no way for them to get there. Tobias had made his thoughts about the river quite clear last summer, but on rare occasions, Harry pressed his luck and went into the tempting water anyway.

/

Severus was exhausted, he was working as many hours at the store as Jenkins would give him, most of his pay went to his dad to help with the bills these days. He was pleased that with his first paycheck he had been able to buy himself a new (to him) denim jacket from the local thrift store and had even been able to go with Lily to a movie once. Even if he saved up every penny of the small amount he was generally able to keep it wouldn't be enough to buy a single book for next year or any of the equipment he would need for his own potions lab, even bus fare to London seemed impossible. He kept hoping that something would work out with the apprenticeship, so far no one had responded with intent to sponsor him. He felt increasingly disheartened when each morning the only owl that would arrive was for the daily profit, which Dumbledore had ordered for Tobias last year.

Thursday finally rolled around, Severus' day off. He was disappointed when Tobias left for work without mention of bus fare to London. The teen decided he'd have to figure out his way to get there but as he had absolutely no idea at the moment he headed down to the basement to continue his project of turning it into a lab. Harry had wandered out with Danny already, the boy had said something about looking for snakes, leaving Severus to look around the dingy but admittedly slightly less disgusting basement, his eyes fell back on the trunk he and Harry had found last summer. He had been sure that his father would have moved it elsewhere and that he'd never see it again. The potions book he had taken had proven to be very useful and wondered what other sorts of treasures his mom had left behind. Dad rarely mentioned his mother anymore, his last memory of her being when she hugged and kissed him goodbye and helped him on the train for his first year at school. Severus blinked away a tear brought on by the memory and sat down by the trunk. He set aside the photo album and several textbooks and began to look through the letters tied in a neat bundle.

Darling Eileen,

I've missed you so much these last few months while you've been at school, I look forward to when you've finished so that we can start our lives together as we've talked about so often in the past.

Enclosed is a small trinket to remember me by.

-T

Whatever had been enclosed with the little note had long since been separated from the letter. Severus smiled at the note, he never thought his father had a romantic bone in his body, then again to attract the attention of a witch-like his mother he would have had to put forth some serious effort. Most of the other letters had a similar style nothing very interesting thought Severus, although it did give him a few ideas if he ever did get up the nerve to let Lily know how he felt.