I got this idea ever since a reader (you know who you are) told me how they like stories where Snape is a dad. Well, Harry's dad, but while this is sometimes a fun yarn, not only has it been overdone, it also goes against my general clinging to main canon lines, even when I despise it, since fanfiction is to play with someone else's property- you shouldn't twist it out of shape, should you?

So here's a story that will be generally DH compliant, including Snape's infatuation with Lily, BUT, where he IS a dad and has a son (in a legitimate explanation how, too!).

I hope you enjoy! I know I cackled like a witch over her cauldron while hatching the plot. (this is no oneshot, but a story. Not a BIG story, but story nonetheless)

Onwards!

***

It had barely been two years since the great Hogwarts Battle, the downfall of the Dark Lord and the reinstatement of order in the Wizarding World… as much as one could of course claim that there had been order in the first place. Minerva wouldn't quite call it order- the accurate term would be 'quiet'. Yes; it had been barely two years since the downfall of the Dark Lord and the reinstatement of quiet in the Wizarding world.

It had given Minerva time to think and evaluate everyone that had played a role in anything, including herself, and form more accurate impressions than the ones she had had. It had led her down a rather painful path of regret, of understanding, of resolutions for the time she had left upon the earth.

But as she looked at the letter in her hand, she knew that all her resolutions would be severely tested. Things that were supposed to have been safely locked in the past, hard choices which had forever gone by, everything seemed to suddenly be stacked in the future, as a challenge on how much she meant all that changed attitude. All her impressions and decisions about what everyone did, who everyone had been, who was to blame and who should have been apologized to or punished- things easily spoken of when there was virtually nobody left for those decisions to be put into action- would be tested for sincerity, for strength, for courage.

Courage. All the Gryffindor traits she had once boasted, when she had been more arrogant than she had ever suspected.

She read it once over, side glancing at the two portraits on her left and right; one was empty, the other was pretending to be asleep.

To Headmistress M. Mcgonagall of Hogwarts;

My name is Alexandra Geraka, head of the Athenian School of Magick and I am currently writing this letter to you as the late Severus Tobias Snape's plenipotentiary (please see attached power of attorney).

Ever since my wizard debt's creation to mr. Snape, during his brief sabbatical here in Athens for his Potions research in the school years 1984 to 1986, I have to the best of my capacity acted in his stead as the guardian of his only son, who was born in June 1985. I am also attaching the birth certificate, both the Hellenic original as well as a certified translation for your benefit. I am unaware of your knowledge of the boy's existence, as it had been severely made clear to me as well as his mother that not one was supposed to be cognizant of the fact until at least Tom Riddle's downfall and a relative establishment of peace.

I cannot say that the dealings in Britain have given me any sound confidence that indeed, all trouble related to Severus Snape's involvement in the war in Britain has become extinct, but circumstances beyond my control are finally forcing me to take the action pre-agreed upon: I am therefore enclosing, along with the other documents, a transfer form for Severus Snape's son, Rasmus Octavian Snape, to Hogwarts to complete his schooling.

Please feel free to reject the transfer; arrangements have been made to ensure Rasmus will complete his schooling in either France or Italy should his father's homeland refuse him, but I know he would very much wish that you accept.

Yours sincerely,

Alexandra Maria Eleni Geraka

First Hypate of Delphi

Athens School of Magick

"The offer is sincere, you know," the silky voice made Minerva jump.

She looked to the side. Severus had returned to his portrait, and Minerva gulped. "You don't have to accept Rasmus," the portrait repeated, then added with a drawl: "We don't want you to be so ruffled for however long my son needs to complete his schooling, now do we?"

"Severus, did Dumbledore know? How can you have a son?" Minerva blurted out, shaking the birth certificate that had been enclosed in the smooth papyrus-coloured envelope the sea gull from Greece had delivered her. She peered owlishly at the paper and added:

"And-and with a woman! And –on my!- with Aello Berenike Galanou no less!"

"Now, Minerva, that is a daft question. About the how, and it is the norm for procreation to occur with-ah- women, as you so glibly put it. As for Dumbledore, he is not really sleeping, you may ask him yourself," Severus sat back in his painted chair with a flourish that always gave Minerva pangs of longing. The portrait Harry had commissioned on the school's behalf was exquisitely done, so life-like that the frame was more like a window to another reality where the real Severus looked to have been trapped in.

"I knew of it," Albus bragged. "But it was none of my business, and Severus had done everything necessary to ensure that Tom Riddle would never know about the boy; Rasmus had no role to play in this war except as a blackmail chip, and that had been covered beautifully. There was nothing I could do better, and I never fix what isn't broken."

Severus arched an eyebrow and tilted his head as if trying to look around his frame and into the one of his predecessor.

"Now that is a shocking fact; that you allowed me one string you didn't pull."

"Maybe as proof to myself that I was not… what I knew I had become for you, out of pleasure, but out of necessity," the white-haired headmaster said seriously.

"And I, Severus, owe you respect I never gave you. Your son is welcome here." Minerva's voice was forceful and decisive, and in the ambient silence of her office, the quill admitting the last of the Snape line to Hogwarts screeched.

By the time she sent the official owl off, she had also found her more flippant side, especially as Albus exclaimed how interesting it would be to see this Rasmus Octavian in the flesh.

"And in any case, Severus," Minerva teased, "if you won't tell me how you managed to father a son while so infatuated with Lily, I am sure he will enlighten me."

"You don't know my boy," was all Snape's portrait said in smug irony.

And indeed, when a week later, along with the boy's transcripts she got a letter penned in the young man's handwriting using muggle lined paper rather than parchment for his dark purple ink, the acerbic portrait's comment came to her mind again.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

I am writing this on behalf of my guardian Mrs. Gerakas as she is currently indisposed with heavy potion treatments to thank you for accepting me in the school my father taught.

While the Hellenic system of education is different than the British one, father had supplied me with the general trajectories of the coursework as well as the titles of the textbooks and I am prepared to enroll in the fifth year, if your placement test finds me adequate.

Of the date choices you gave me to take the tests required, I would prefer August 10 so that I can have enough time for farewells to everyone here who protected me after mother's death and up to the end of the war.

Respectably,

Rasmus Octavian Snape.

He had signed that way, with a full stop next to his name. Minerva glanced at Snape's portrait on the wall- it was empty again. She sighed and placed the letter in Rasmus' student file.

I don't know you, young Snape, just as your father's portrait said; but I do know that this year will not be quiet.

****

And this is it. Next time we meet young Snape and maybe we get the scoop on who his mum was, and how Snape managed to bed her while still in love (so madly) with Lily. I'd appreciate some reviews, it will help me write this faster, as it's written purely for fun and to get someone to carry on for Snape, and speak for him without being named 'potter'.

That would be nice, ne? Oh, and I'll get to wrap some Greek meditteranean traits in the British demure ones! Fun! (for me, anyway)

Now, for the names: Rasmus is Latin and means 'beloved' (don't tell me severus was not a sap deep down), and is the name he picked. Octavian is… well self explanatory and it's what his mum picked.

Aello (his mother's name) is Greek and means 'whirlwind'… And 'Berenike' is Macedonian (a northern greek province) and means 'bringer of victory'.

Promising, right? Of course right!