AN: I will not lie. Your reviews on the final actual chapter of Forbidden made me tear up. This has been a truly emotional experience that I will treasure forever-being that this has been the first multi-chapter story that I have ever uploaded and finished. I cannot thank you enough for your support, kind words, and your pushes in the right direction when I needed them. I'd also like to take the time to thank my wonderful boyfriend who is always so incredibly supportive and puts up with me and the hours I spend on the computer. Love you darling! Always.

Here it is. The very end. Epilogue. Hope you enjoy. Some final thoughts and reviews would be really cool-a nice way to cap it off so-to-speak.

SS

Chapter 16: Epilogue, or And In The End

Selwyn Snape, a fourth year student, was exhausted, ad rightfully so given that she was at the end of a very very very long day. With the overactive brain she had inherited from her mother, it was not uncommon to find Selwyn with her head buried in a book at the library…or in the Slytherin Common Room. Yes, she had been sorted into Slytherin. Her mother had smiled and cheered when the sorting hat had shouted out its proclamation and when she'd hazarded a glance at her father, he'd been beaming with pride. Yes, Severus Snape had been beaming, the smile on his face stretching from ear to ear. She had known that they had been making bets on which house she would be sorted into practically since the day of her birth, and she was happy and proud to be in Slytherin, carrying on in her father's footsteps. She and her mother were incredibly close, but she was a daddy's girl, and the two of them had a bond that was she knew that she was growing up, and that thought was troubling her. She had always been athletic and sporty, never into the girly things that her peers of the same gender were interested in. She found Witch Weekly-the magazine that some of her female classmates smuggled in from Hogsmeade boring and sophomoric, and she would rather talk about Potions ideas than the cute boys in her classes. She sighed with that quintssential sound of teenage angst and resolutely forced herself to focus back on her work.

She was now sitting at one of the long desks in the library pouring over some potions notes for the essay that was due in another week and she could feel her eyelids growing heavy. Just as her head was about to drop onto her chest she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into the eyes of her father, Severus Snape standing over her.

"You are just like your mother. If you're not where you're supposed to be, always check the library and there you'll be." Her father smirked at her and took the liberty of closing the book in front of her.

"But Dad, I've only just begun to read about the Grappler's method…"

Severus tutted. "Nonsense. You have a week until this essay is due, as I well know, and it is already ten o'clock. You should have been back at our quarters an hour ago. Devon and Lucy were asking about you." Severus pulled out a chair and sat down beside his fourteen year old daughter. She'd had her birthday three weeks earlier, and it was hard for him to believe that his oldest child was already a teenager, and growing into a beautiful one at that. He knew that in only a few short months he'd be chasing the boys away with a broomstick. With her long, coal black hair that so resembled his, her milk white skin and dark eyes, she was truly a beauty. Regarding her now, he noticed a sadness that seemed to be behind those fathomless eyes and he knitted his eyebrows in concern. "Selwyn, what is the matter? Is something else going on besides this potions essay you are so worried about?"

Selwyn sighed and felt the emotions welling up in her, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Dad…it's really not something that I want to talk about okay? I've already talked to Mum about it and….it's fine okay? You just don't have to worry."

Severus was taken aback. Never had his beloved daughter felt the need to keep something from him. They always talked-about everything, from school to troubles with friends, no subject was taboo between his essential physical, though smaller, copy of his genetic make-up. "Selwyn, I am your father, and you know that you can always tell me anything. Is it school? A teacher giving you trouble? A…" Severus felt his adam's apple bob up and down once as he prepared himself for his next question, "A…boy, perhaps?"

Selwyn jumped up from the table in shock, her dark brows nearly reaching her hairline, nearly a mirror image of an irate Severus. "Oh Merlin father!" She cried as she quickly gathered up her things and hugged them tightly to her chest. Severus felt his heat skip a beat as he heard her refer to him so formally. Normally he was always Dad or even Daddy when Selwyn was feeling particularly affectionate.

"Selwyn, if I've said something…"

"Dad, just….just stop. I've just got my first period okay?" She looked at him, eyes full of fury, her face as red as the Gryffindor banner,and with a sharp turn of her heel and a swish of her robes she stalked out of the library, nearly knocking Madam Pince over in her haste to leave the area.

Severus sat there motionless. He was shocked…and also rather mortified. Her first period? Already? But Selwyn was just a little girl…But then he shook his head. She had not been "little" for quite some time. And, he supposed, this was the average age for her menstrual cycle to start. But that meant….oh so many things that his brain did not want to think about at that moment. He buried his face in his hands, long, pale fingers sifting through strands of his black hair, a few slivers of grey here and there now. He got up and made his way back to his quarters, preparing himself for the onslaught that would be his wife. No doubt Selwyn would have already informed her of his faux pas.

"Severus Tobias Snape when will you lean to mind your own business!" Came the voice of his wife as he entered their quarters. Hermione was standing in the sitting room with her hands on her hips, head cocked to the side, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. He looked around for Selwyn, but neither she, nor his other children were anywhere to be seen. She'd obviously sent them to their rooms, knowing a confrontation was at hand.

"Hermione, love, you have to know that I meant nothing by what I said…" he paused and his brow scrunched in thought, "And come to think of it, I didn't say anything. I merely was asking her what was bothering her. She offered the information up. When exactly were you going to tell me that our daughter had begun to menstruate?"

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and huffed in annoyance, brushing some wayward curls out of her face. He took a moment to appreciate his wife in all of her fury. She really was quite something when she was all hot and bothered. He momentarily felt the stirrings of arousal beneath his robes but pushed those thoughts aside. There would be time for that later. "Well, if you must know," she gritted out through clenched teeth, "As it seems you must, I was going to tell you tonight." She sighed and sat down on the couch, calmer now, and she motioned for him to sit next to her. He acquiesced to her invitation and took his place next to her on the comfortable couch. "Darling, it's only just happened yesterday. She was rather upset about it." Hermione smiled wryly. "She told me that she thinks she'll never be able to be tomboyish anymore. She spent an hour yesterday afternoon sobbing on our bed that she'd have to start wearing glamours and reading some trashy witches' magazine like her other girlfriends who've started their periods."

"I guess I just didn't realize it would happen quite…yet." Severus said quietly, absently toying with a lock of Hermione's chestnut hair. She'd retained all of her color so far, no grey yet, but it had darkened a bit, some strands a dark chocolate brown interspersed with the other colors. It was still as unmanageable as ever.

"She's a young woman now. Fourteen. It's a completely normal age for such a thing to happen. I was surprised it took this long actually," Hermione mused as she wound her hand in with his, enjoying the warmth of his skin. The Snape's were not short on affection, and most of their nights were spent enjoying each other's company in a multitude of ways. Thank the gods for silencing charms.

"You were surprised? Well…." Severus was coloring a bit at this particular subject. Though he wasn't totally out of the loop about the workings of women's bodies, when he'd met Hermione she'd been old enough to have been taking care of that herself and other than a passing mention here or there, the subject had never come up. "How old were you?"

"Twelve." Hermione stated, and she grinned when her husband seemed to stop breathing. "Are you all right dear?"

"You mean to tell me that at twelve years old you could have had a baby?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, yes, I suppose so, but I wasn't exactly in the position of becoming pregnant at age twelve. You have to involve another person in the mix to get babies darling. Surely you know that after all this time. Unless….you don't remember?" She grinned at him and slid her body seductively against his, her lips meeting his in a kiss. She felt his hesitation and she pulled away slightly, looking deep into his eyes. "Try not to worry about it darling. She's going through a lot of changes right now. Just give her some time and she'll come 'round. But…you should talk to her." She said, kissing him deeply again, and this time there was no hesitation on his part as he returned the kiss with fervor.

"Tomorrow…"he murmured as he pressed his lips down her neck, and with a wave of his hand the room was enveloped in a silencing charm.

Clothing was discarded, mouths were occupied, and hands explored the well travelled curves and planes of each other's bodies. They knew each other so well that it was like a well rehearsed dance. Severus knew exactly what made Hermione moan, what made her squeal, what made her scream his name in ecstasy, and he knew what made her cum. He cupped the generous mounds of her breasts that had only gotten more appealing to her after the children she had born. His thumbs brushed over her sensitive nipples and she gasped in pleasure at the sensations. She opened her legs for him and he slid inside her welcoming wetness, groaning at how tight she still was, sighing in pleasure that he had this amazing woman in his life, and surrounding his body. His length was painfully hard and he wasted no time in setting a rhythm, his hips moving against hers, he pushed and she pushed back, their bodies joining blissfully, sighs and groans reverberating around the room. He brought Hermione up from her position across his body and sat her up and began to thrust himself up into her, his mouth open, his eyes boring into hers as they melded together as one, slick with sweat, their breathing matched with each others. In and out, up and down, together they moved, and together they found bliss. She cried out as he angled himself deeper, thrusting harder and more insistently as he felt his own orgasm becoming imminent. Her body exploded and pulsed around his thickness and she rasped out his name to the heavens as her eyes rolled back and her neck released it's tension, her head falling back, hair bouncing wildly down her back. Severus followed her soon afterward, his body shuddering, bursting, pulsing inside of her, filling her with his essence. He clutched her body close to his as they came down from their high, his head resting gently on her damp shoulder, her arms wrapped around his back.

They stayed there for a few moments, silently taking in their surroundings-the home that they had made for themselves and their family. On the mantle were several pictures: one of Devon holding his first broomstick, newly inducted onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team. His sorting had not been a surprise. He was as loyal as anyone and Gryffindor suited him. There was a picture of Lucy getting sorted into Ravenclaw, her face a picture of awkwardness as the overly large hat nearly came down over her eyes. Next to that was a photo of the family shortly after Antony's birth. They were sitting in front of the castle near the fountain, Hermione and Severus were looking at each other, then turning their heads out to the camera. They looked happy and content.

"We should…move….bedroom….children…." he panted as he fought to regain a normal breathing pattern.

"Mmmm. You're right. I love you."

"I love you. Please tell me you have the strength to move, because I don't think I'll get there on my own." Severus said hoarsely and she chuckled in response.

"I think I can manage to drag your old bones to our bedroom love." And after dressing quickly they walked arm in arm to their bedroom and closed the door.

THE END

Thanks to all who have been with me on this journey. This story is now….COMPLETE. I honestly can't believe it. Hope you enjoyed it loves!

SexySloth