COUNTESS ZERO (countesszero) wrote in severus_sighs, @ 2010-08-17 11:06:00 |
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Current mood: | amused |
Entry tags: | fic, member: carolinelamb, pairing: severus/harry, rating: pg |
Happy birthday to torino10154, torina_archelda, sillypowers
Title: To Love and Let Go
Author: countesszero
Beta: conzieu
Pairing: Severus/Harry
Rating: PG
Wordcount: ~2000
Warnings: Maybe for the slightest hint of mpreg
Summary: Severus murmured: "They won't know what hit them! She'll be the most Slytherinesque Gryffindor they've ever seen!"
Harry smiled fondly. "Slytherinesque? Is this even a word?"
"It will be." Severus said.
A/N: This is a (coughs) slightly belated birthday offering to torino10154, torina_archelda and sillypowers and all the other lovely ladies and gals whose birthdays were in july or in august!
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe is in its entirety the property of J.K. Rowling. I am making no profit by this story.
2010
"Your daughter beat up another child!" seethed Harry.
"Our daughter, Potter!" Severus gave back cooly, tipping his wand against a cauldron until it began to glow and bubble. "I am sure she merely acted in self defence."
"I saw what happened. Hugo offered her a plastic shovel so she could play with him in the sand box. And she took it and smacked him over the head with it!" said Harry exasperated.
"Maybe she thought he was threatening her? One can never know with these Weasleys. They all have a violent streak." Severus began to check the row of neatly arranged vials against the light, shaking them to judge their viscosity.
"She was laughing! To me she didn't look threatened at all!"
Severus didn't say, "Good girl!" but he might as well have said it, because Harry's eyes narrowed briefly. He shrugged instead. "It seems to me not much more was injured than maybe the young man's pride!" he said, sneering.
Before Harry could stalk out like an offended cat, Severus snatched his wrist and pressed a kiss onto his knuckles.
Harry rolled his eyes, but couldn't hide his smile.
2014
"Your child," said Severus, his lips pressed into a furious thin line of disapproval, "has again sneaked into my potions lab!"
"Our child, Severus," Harry's voice was a bit muffled by the newspaper he was hiding behind. "I think it reflects well on her intelligence that she managed to get past your wards."
"Is it also a sign of her intelligence that she broke two vials of the most expensive potions and ruined my batch of asphodel?"
To that Harry wisely did not reply.
"Next time this happens I'll deduct the damage from her pocket money." Severus said, his voice low and dangerous.
"Lily is only seven. She doesn't even get pocket money yet!"
"It's high time then that she begins getting it!" fumed Severus, irritated by Harry's nonchalance.
"You want me to give her pocket money, so you can charge her?" Harry said from behind the newspaper.
Logic was a weapon he was quite well versed in aiming at other people but nothing enraged him more than when others used it against him. Furiously Severus gathered his robes and prepared to exit in his usual billowing manner, when Harry dropped his newspaper.
"Your neck troubles you again," he said in that soothing tone. "Come here, I'll give you a massage!"
2018
"That's my Lily!" Harry said with satisfaction. "Sorted into Gryffindor!" He smiled proudly at Lily's letter and then at the owl who shrugged indifferently. Severus wanted to throw something.
"Wonderful." he managed to say, his voice heavy with sarcasm, stirring his cauldron with short, snappy movements.
Harry looked at Severus, worried. "Please don't be mad at her! The hat does the sorting!"
Severus stopped stirring. "Didn't you mention to her that the Sorting Hat had listened to you and taken your preference into consideration?"
Harry blushed. "I may have ..."
Severus frowned and bent over his work table. "All your talks about Gryffindor ... You brainwashed her into that house!"
Harry protested: "That's not fair! She is just very ... uhm, impulsive!"
After a while Severus murmured. "They won't know what hit them! She'll be the most Slytherinesque Gryffindor they've ever seen!"
Harry smiled fondly. "Slytherinesque? Is this even a word?"
"It will be." Severus said.
2020
"Your daughter sold Flu potions to the first years!"
Severus merely smirked and turned a page. "Our daughter must have inherited her considerable talent in potions from me. Why shouldn't she help Madame Pomfrey a little? I did the same in her age. And there is a flu epidemic in Hogwarts this winter!"
When Harry remained eerily silent to that he finally looked up from his book.
"There was a Flu epidemic at Hogwarts," Harry told him in a low, soft tone, that Severus had learned to pay attention to, "because Lily made and sold everyone a potion that fakes Flu symptoms. It was in fact so well made that Madame Pomfrey couldn't even tell the difference with a basic diagnostic charm."
Severus nodded solemnly to that, mainly because he could see in Harry's outraged face that this was expected of him.
Inside though he was cheering.
2023
"Your daughter!" roared Severus. "Your daughter crashed her broom into my potions lab! Through the window!"
"Our daughter!" Harry corrected Severus and put his quill down. "Is she hurt?"
"Who knows?" Severus snarled. "She left through the other window!'"
As if on cue a broom, a blur of wild, messy black hair whizzed past the open French doors of Harry's study. "Dad! Dad! Look! I caught the snitch! I caught the snitch!"
Harry hurried to the window and called after her: "Great job!" He whooped enthusiastically. When he turned again he saw that Severus was standing right behind him and directed his most murderous glare at him.
"Ah, and Lily!" Harry leant out of the window again. "Shame on you for damaging Pa's potion lab!"
2024
"My child graduated with Outstandings in nearly all subjects!" Severus announced proudly, having snatched the parchment with the Hogwarts seal from the owl. Harry rolled his eyes and tried to pry the parchment out of Severus' fingers.
"General Behaviour: Acceptable," he sighed resigning himself to looking over his husband's shoulder, ignoring Severus sneer. "Well, at least it's not "Poor."
"She got her brain from me and the behaviour from you obviously," Severus said. "What did you expect?"
He caressed the parchment with Lily's grades with his thin, bony fingers. After a while Harry leaned over and took Severus face into his hands.
"Our daughter." he said. "Isn't she marvellous?"
Severus had to agree.
2028
"My daughter is Quidditch player of the year!" exclaimed Harry, waving his copy of the Daily Prophet wildly in the air.
Severus merely snorted. "Graduating from Hogwarts with one of the highest GPA ever- to become a Quidditch player! What a waste!" He stabbed the front page of the Daily Prophet, where their Lily stood on her broom, holding out the snitch in a brazen gesture of triumph, angrily with his fork. The miniature Lily frowned at the mark that the fork made on the headline but smiled again when Severus murmured: "Apologies," hastily smoothing the front page.
"She can still study for her potions mastery later! Let her enjoy this!" Harry said evenly. Severus grumbled into his pasta.
"Quidditch player of the year, two years in a row!" Harry whispered in a conspiratorial tone. "Come on, Sev ... don't tell me you're not even a little proud of our girl!"
Severus snorted. Lily's picture, all black hair whipping around her face and eyes the colour of the forest, waved at him and showed him the snitch and he couldn't help but saying: "Well done, daughter!"
2030
"Our daughter!" sniffed Harry. And Severus with a stern, grim face sat beside him, holding his hand. "Gone!"
Severus didn't reply but kept Harry's hand in a firm grip. He continued to stare ahead.
So many flowers. So many people. On the saddest day of their lives.
Somewhere between the guests he had seen Ginevra Weasley and Draco Malfoy, and their sons, and Hermione Weasley clutching a handkerchief.
He breathed in deeply.
"What are you moping around, you two?" said Lily from behind and laid an arm on Severus shoulder. "You will be chasing away all the guests if you continue behaving as if you're at a funeral!"
"One day, when you have a child that grows up to leave you, you'll understand!" he said stiffly.
"Is this why Dad is crying?" Lily asked, squeezing Harry's shoulder. "Because I'm getting married? Dad, don't be such a drama queen!"
"I am not crying!" Harry said indignantly. "Your Pa is right, one day you'll have children too ..."
Lily laughed and kissed both of them. "Here comes Hugo, be nice to him! Do not scare him, Pa!"
"What could you possibly mean?" Severus bristled.
Lily opened her mouth to retort something but shut it again, when as Hugo stood beside her and slipped his arm around her waist.
"Hi Dad! Hi Pa!" he greeted them and Severus mien darkened.
"That's still Mr. Snape to you, you .... "
"Pa!" Lily glared at him.
"Best luck to you," Severus mumbled insincerely, his hands clenched to fists. He drew his eyebrows together, trying to find something kind to say and in the end settled for: "A word of advice ... "
"Thank you, Pa!" Lily said firmly. "Very inspiring!"
"But Lily, he hasn't said anything yet!" Hugo noted.
"Don't wake the sleeping dragon!" Lily said and rolled her eyes.
"Modern marriages are said to last no longer than two years." Severus continued smoothly as if there had been no interruptions, turning towards Hugo, whose face was ashen underneath his forced smile.
Lily shook her head in disbelief. "Pa. Not on my wedding day!"
"I just think it is important for you to know you always have an option!" Severus replied. "You will always be welcome to return to your home!"
Harry embraced both Hugo and Lily. "Don't mind Mr. Grump here. It's just his way of saying: 'I love you and wish you all the best for your future!'" he whispered to them.
Hugo nodded. "I wonder how he is, when he really doesn't like someone! Does he just snap their necks?" He looked at Severus who was walking away with his robes billowing around him.
Harry and Lily laughed out loud, but sobered up quickly when they realised that Hugo didn't laugh with them.
"We have to talk to the other guests, Dad! I'll see you later, yes?" Lily dragged Hugo with her.
"I knew I would find you here!" Harry said and put his hand on Severus' hunched back.
Severus continued to pull out weeds by hand. He banished the dust on the tomb stone. Wordlessly Harry bent to help Severus. When Lily's grave was cleaned up, Severus did the same with James Potters grave, and again Harry helped him.
"It's nice that you take care of my father's grave as well," Harry said finally, when their work was done. They sat on the bench opposite.
"He was the man Lily loved." said Severus gravely. "And ... he is your father."
Harry smiled and pulled Severus closer to him.
After a while Harry asked: "Could you not at least attempt to be civil to Hugo? He is your son-in-law now."
Severus looked down at his hands. "It seems like yesterday to me that our Lily beat him up with a plastic shovel ... and now he is taking her away from us."
Harry laughed at that. "Well, I still remember that little girl who flew straight through your window to catch that snitch ... and suddenly she's a Quidditch champion, flying in tournaments."
He took Severus' hand. "You know she will always be our girl. No matter what."
Severus merely looked away.
Harry lifted Severus hand and kissed the knuckles. "It's not him taking her away - it's the other way round! She's got the job offer as a curse breaker in Istanbul, Hugo is merely following her. Don't blame him for her independence."
"You know what I mean." Severus glowered at Harry. He added wistfully: "She wasn't supposed to grow up. She was supposed to always be our little girl."
"I know." Harry said. He put his head on Severus' shoulder. "But hey, you wouldn't really want her to be saddled with her two old Dads, hm? You want her to be happy, to go out into the world and make her own luck."
Severus barely lifted one shoulder and then dropped it again, his version of a shrug. "I suppose you're right."
Harry got up and pulled Severus to his feet. "Come on ... let's get back! I want you to clap Hugo on his shoulder and get drunk with him!"
Severus grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Over my dead body ..." but followed him. They walked until they reached the gates of the cemetery and then Harry held out his arm, which Severus took, his robes fluttering in the soft breeze. For a moment they stood still, looking at each other.
Before they Disapparated Harry laid his hand on Severus cheek and whispered into his ear.
Severus smiled.
-fin-