Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading until the end, I hope you've enjoyed.

An End and Beginning

With most sane people it was natural to assume that they would have the sense not to make a huge scene in a shop packed with people unless the situation was so upsetting that they forgotten where they were because they were too focused on the red haze in front of their eyes, but he was dealing with not only a high strung woman to begin with, but a Gryffindor at that with Potter and Weasley blood running through her veins. So yes, Snape realized with a sinking feeling of dread, this was not going to end well for him.

"Darn it, Sev, why the heck did you let me buy those cookies?! You know I'm on a sodding diet!"

Okay…. "What?"

Lily's finger all but drilled into his chest. "I said you know I'm on a sodding diet but you let me buy those stupid cookies anyway! Are you trying to sabotage me here? Do you want a poncy girlfriend who can't fit into her bleedin clothes and threatens to squash you in bed every time she rolls over?" Eyes narrowing. "Or were you planning to dump me anyway? Is that it? Nearly blow you up a couple of times and suddenly you're ready to run?!"

Since they weren't dating, technically, and Lily had never once told him to stop her from eating something, Snape knew that there was a point to this that he was missing, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out what that something was. That being the case he just scowled at her and told her she was being ridiculous, which she was.

"Ridiculous? You're calling me ridiculous? You are such a stupid man! Do you have any idea how big I could get if I don't watch what I eat?!"

"Potter, I've known your maternal grandmother for a long time. I'm perfectly aware of how big you're likely to get over time due to genetics." When it came to that sort of thing Lily definitely took after the Prewett side of her family.

The way Lily's jaw dropped, her eyes bugging out a little, was actually rather amusing, Snape's lips twitching in reaction while he wished for a camera.

"I am…I am…"

At a complete loss of words, Snape judged smugly, though at least part of that was probably Lily not wanting to say that she was never going to get as big as her grandmother. This fight was going to be all over the Wizarding World this time tomorrow and she would think of her grandmother's feelings even as upset as she was. That being the case he decided to take some pity on her, though she really had brought this on herself.

"Lily, you can eat what you want. I honestly don't care."

"You should care!"

"Weren't you the one lecturing me about how much money women blow on their bodies and appearances unnecessarily?"

"Don't throw my words back in my face. That's a girl tactic, anyway. And…and you're missing the point! The point is I told you I'm trying to cut back on my sugar intake and you let me buy these cookies anyway! And…argh, you're a useless boyfriend sometimes, you know that?" Apparently having recovered from her momentary speechlessness Lily snatched the white bag from the tray Snape was holding defensively in front of him and spinning around turned her attention to the small family who hadn't moved, too involved with the drama going on like everyone else to try and leave.

The smile Lily pasted on her face looked fake, but she didn't look like she was about to explode so it was still an improvement when she held the bag out to the mother. "Excuse me, but would you do me a big favor and take these so I don't eat them thanks to Mr Bloody Useless behind me? You'd be doing me a big favor and potentially saving his life in the process."

"Oh well I…"

"Please? Do a girl a favor?" Lily leaned in close, though her voice carried easily enough in the silence. "My cousin is Dominique Weasley, and he sees her ALL the time. Right now all I've got going for me is the fact that we work together and I'm ten times the cook my cousin is. Help a girl out?"

"The…the woman that owns the beauty care shop?"

"Yeah. Imagine competing with that for almost three decades. And he doesn't get why I have a complex. So will you take them? Save my sanity and idiot boyfriend?" Lily looked over at the kids and winked. "They're chocolate chunk, and utterly delicious if I do say so myself. Which is just depressing so please, please take them before I eat them all."

Oh.

Light dawning finally, the puzzle pieces of her plan falling neatly into place, Snape stared at Lily as he watched the both flustered and sympathetic mother cave and take the bag from Lily, the two children all but jumping with excitement at the treat they now knew they were getting.

Shifting his hold on the tray so that he was holding it with one hand Snape moved in closer and quietly thanked the mother for settling the argument, though mentally the argument he was thinking about was one he'd been having with himself. And so saying he placed his free hand on the small of Lily's back and gave her a light shove, telling her that she'd made enough of a scene and they should go sit down so that everyone could get back to their own food and conversation.

"And whose fault is it if I maybe made a bit of a scene?"

"Mine, naturally. Now move."

"I don't know why I put up with you." Rolling her eyes Lily said goodbye to the mother and children and then sashayed like nothing had happened over to a table that had just been vacated, no one having grabbed it yet because they'd been too focused on the action to notice.

Having taken their seats both covertly watched as the children, who'd each been given a cookie by their mother, devour their treat while they slowly made their way out of the shop, the crowds finally shifting a little since the show, so to speak, appeared over.

Once the small family was gone Lily turned her attention to her hot chocolate and brownie, pretending to still be miffed at him since people were still watching them in the hopes on an encore performance. This suited Snape just fine as he too went through the motions of eating and drinking while his thoughts centered solely on the woman sitting across from him like she wasn't aware of the stares and comments being made about her in the shop.

Lily Luna Potter was unlike any woman he'd ever met in both his lifetimes. She was the most confounding, irrational, infuriating, and fiercely alive person to ever enter into his life, and she made every day of his all of those things. He never knew what the next day would hold, trying to plan it out had never worked for him yet, and she defied any logic or set behavior because she seemed to delight in being contrary whenever possible. Every day was an adventure and slowly but surely she'd sucked him into the chaos she loved to live in so that it had become his norm. Around her he was a man he often didn't recognize, the little hellion revealing facets of his character that he'd never known he possessed or might want to have while she behaved like a human firecracker. She was a nonstop fireworks display with plenty of loud booms and too much exposure to people, but so beautiful, dangerous, and completely at home in the dark.

This Lily knew the best and worst of him and didn't turn away, didn't pretend she didn't see. She told him off when she thought it was called for, rightly or wrongly, was unflinchingly honest to the point of brutal when need be, but was just as capable of showing as much care and kindness to a stranger as she would those she loved most in the world. She loved with all her heart, would never abandon or betray, and would give him a home, both literally and in her heart, if he only let her.

"What?" Lily's eyes narrowed suspiciously at him. "Do I have a hot chocolate mustache? Because if I do and you aren't telling me I'll give you a full, scalding beard. Don't think I won't."

"No you wouldn't. You'd never waste your precious chocolate that way."

"Huh. Okay, you have a point." To highlight that love of chocolate Lily took a big bite of her brownie, making very distracting yummy noises before swallowing to continue. "But I do know where you live so is it a mustache, or some evil Slytherin plotting that is doomed to fail and blow up horribly in your pretty face?"

Getting up from his seat Snape moved around the table and then crouched down a little, telling her to turn in her own chair so that she was facing him.

"Okay….you're going to…wipe it off for me….?"

"Lily, move."

Raising an eyebrow, especially since he'd never said her first name that way before, Lily pushed back her seat a little and then turned it so that she was facing him, leaning forward with an expectant look.

Hands lifting Snape very carefully set them on her cheeks, taking a moment to appreciate the way her eyes went wide and that saucy mouth of hers dropped open in surprise before leaning in to place his lips against hers in a slow, gentle kiss that said what he hoped was most of what he couldn't yet bring himself to say in words. That he was going to trust her with his heart. That he'd accepted that for better or for worst, she was the one.

Pulling away after the applause they were getting got to be too loud for him to ignore, Snape watched as Lily's eyes fluttered open, staring at him glassily while color flushed her cheeks a bright pink.

"What…what was that?"

"I would think that would be obvious, even for a Gryffindor." And so saying Snape straightened up and returned to his seat, feeling quite pleased with himself and her, though he hid that through decades of practice as he went back to sipping his hot chocolate.

"Sev…you KISSED me!"

"We're dating, remember?"

"We're…that was because…Sev you KISSED ME. On the mouth. Willingly!"

"If you want to know the reason why…you'll have to ask me again in a decade or so."

Looking twice as confused now Snape could see the exact moment that Lily processed the fact that he'd have to still be around in ten years for her to ask him for an explanation.

"You." A pause and throat clearing. "Are you promising that you'll still be around for me to ask you in ten years?"

"Who else is going to keep you in line?"

"True. True." Nodding her head in agreement Lily's eyes were still watchful and slightly wary as she inched a hand across the table towards his, her intention clear. And that being the case Snape finished the action by reaching out with his own hand to lace their fingers together, allowing them to remain so while he continued to drink his hot chocolate with his other hand.

Not surprisingly, being both herself and a girl, Lily couldn't help but comment after less than two minutes of very heavy silence. "Sev, you're holding my hand in public, you know?"

"I'm aware of that."

A series of curses that were too muttered to understand greeted that statement, then, "You're really confusing me here."

"And so the tables have turned, Miss Potter." And he really appreciated that fact.

Being a Gryffindor Lily was not about to let him have the upper hand, plus she was still confused and wanted some answers as to why the bloody hell he'd snogged her in public. "You know you're going to pay for messing with my mind like this. I'm going to snog you good and proper until your slimy Slytherin brains leak out your ears. In fact, I'm going to do that every day of those ten years or until you explain what the hell you're up to."

"As you wish."

"As I…now you're quoting the 'Princess Bride' to me? Seriously?" Feeling rather like her world had not just tilted, but been obliterated, Lily pushed back her seat and marching over applied herself to giving him the snogging of a lifetime to prove her point, feeling both vindicated and disappointed when he only let her snog him a little before lightly pushing her away.

"There is a time and a place for everything." Snape informed her in his best teacher voice. "That can wait until we get home."

"So you're saying I can snog you when we get home?"

"Yes. Now take your seat and finish your chocolate before it gets cold."

Doing as he suggested Lily slumped back into her seat, shaking her head at him. "I really, really don't get what's going on here. Or you. I'm really, really not getting you at the moment."

"Well it's fortunate then, that you'll have a lifetime to try and fail in true Weasley fashion."

Shaking her head again it was obvious Lily didn't understand, but then she was smiling at him and Snape inclined his head in turn.

They'd never really understand each other…but they'd have many years to try, anyway.

)

Thirteen Years Later

The family of four drew some interested glances as they walked through the busy train station, eyes raising over the fact that the patriarch of the family looked so much like Alan Rickman, to the point where a number of people immediately turned to their companions for confirmation that the famous British actor was indeed dead. Others, who were too young or unfortunate enough not to recognize the man's physical resemblance to the late actor, wondered at the owl in its cage atop the large trunk, thinking it a strange pet. The children, naturally, asked if they couldn't go over and meet the owl, their parents refusing their requests. There was just something odd about these people, though the wife looked nice enough, as did the very mischievous looking little boy.

Looking to be about ten or eleven, the girl walking beside the man was going to be a beauty, some thought, outshining both the adults from the looks of it with her long, raven black hair and startling green eyes. She'd have looked prettier if she was smiling, the way the girl kept looking up at her father an obvious bid for reassurance, which she seemed to get from the sight of him even if he didn't smile at her either.

When the mysterious family disappeared from the view of the Muggles and arrived at Station nine and three quarters the looked the family got were far different, the quartet well known to those of the Wizarding World because in their part of that world this family was practically royalty.

It was Seraphina Prince's first year at Hogwarts, the girl's coloring her maternal grandfather's, those old enough commenting that her face was that of the Chosen One's mother. A beauty to be sure, with her father's cool, contained aura that suggested Slytherin to those who were laying bets as to what house the girl would be sorted into. Her brother, who was four years younger than his sister, well no one doubted the Sorting hat would barely brush the boy's cowlicks before declaring him Gryffindor like his mother.

Many of them shook their heads, as they'd been doing for years, over the fact that Lily Potter had married a man so much older than herself, and such an oddly Slytherin one at that. Not much was known about the man even though many reporters and to the born gossips had tried to find information as to how the man had happened to just suddenly appear in London one day. The family was saying nothing on the matter, not even in the case of Molly Weasley Turnbill, and that girl was one of the biggest gossips in Europe!

But they did make a lovely family, most agreed, though few could put their finger on why that was since in theory it was obvious a clear divide in personalities. Still…when the four were together it was obvious to anyone with eyes that they were a team, a unit that wouldn't break or erode with time. There was much love there, even if it wasn't blatantly advertised.

For his part Severus Snape Prince was well aware of the looks they were getting, but by now he was used to it and had far more important things on his mind. Namely the fact that he was about to put his firstborn on the train to Hogwarts where she would reside, out of his care and counsel, for four months. The idea was as agonizing to him as he knew it was to his baby, even if she was hiding it rather well for a child.

Things would be so much easier if Bunny was still on her reign of terror at Hogwarts, he mused, but alas his now infamous Slytherin niece and Honey had both graduated already and wouldn't be around to watch over his baby for him.

"You'll have Seth and Lisbeth, and other cousins." Severus reminded himself and her, giving Seraphina's shoulder what he hoped was a comforting squeeze.

"Yes…though they'll all be in Gryffindor."

"Liam Charlie Prince, you get back here!"

Both Severus and Seraphina turned their heads to watch Lily take off in the direction the youngest member of their family had apparently taken off in, big surprise. Liam had serious problems keeping still, as well as an overly developed curiosity about everyone and everything around him. In other words, he needed constant supervision and was directly responsible for the fact that Severus was now, in his wife's terms, a short haired, silver fox.

Trusting that his wife would hunt their son down with ease, people got out of her way fairly quickly instinctively, Severus figured it was safe to continue on their way and let the other two catch up.

"Father…Grandpa says that the Sorting Hat will let you maybe pick your house if you really want to go into a certain one. That he'll take your wishes into consideration, even if he thinks you should go to another house."

"Apparently."

"So what if…maybe…nevermind. I'm going into Slytherin, just like you."

Looking at her a number of conversations he and Lily had had over the fact that the majority of the first years Seraphina knew would be going into other houses and not into Slytherin came to Severus's mind. And that, plus the fact that he'd been thinking about his own first day at Hogwarts a lot too, gave Severus a clue as to just what might be going on in his daughter's head. And what she thought the Sorting Hat might discover.

"Sera, I'm constantly surrounded by Gryffindors, so one more is not going to kill me, I assure you." He wouldn't give them the pleasure. "If you want to be in the same house as your cousins, or the Sorting Hat thinks you should be, that's fine with me. Your happiness is all that matters."

"Really?"

"Really."

Face lighting up Seraphina threw her arms around her father's side, burrowing in close when he wrapped an arm around her in turn.

"GROUP HUG!"

All but crashing into them Liam wrapped his arms around his sister, Lily coming up as well to encircle both their children in her arms, making them one big family sandwich.

And laughing over that fact and just his new life in general, which was so completely different even from what he'd thought it would be in their café the night he'd realized he was unshakeably in love with her, Severus smiled just a little at his wife, Lily grinning right back.

Life was Good.

The End