The usual disclaimers apply

***

Severus Snape swallowed hard – there was something in his throat, wasn't there? Something that he couldn't swallow, something that was wedged inside his windpipe. He tried again to swallow and tried to cough and all that came out was a weird, strangled, chocking noise.

He fixed her with his eyes, tried biting on his finger, made that weird noise again and felt utterly helpless.

Hermione though, despite the seriousness of the situation, couldn't help but chuckle and sat quickly beside him, clapping his back. “Don't go Emma Thompson on me now”, she said softly and funnily enough – that brought him back.

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind”, she giggled and snuggled to his side, holding his hand.

Now that he couldn't look at her anymore, his eyes wandered and suddenly fell on his daughter, who grinned madly. “Letitia, what are you doing here?”

“School was over”, she explained, “does she get an answer?”

“Do I get an answer?”, Hermione whispered and gazed lovingly up at him.

“You just proposed”, he stated and agitatedly, got up, left her falling to her side. “Hermione...Letitia, wouldn't you like to, erm...”

“Giorgio is probably still outside”, the girl smirked, “can I go for a cup of coffee with him?”

Severus glared at her, then at Hermione, who had scrambled (with a little difficulty) back up to a sitting position. “An hour”, he growled. “And if I find out you're doing something you're not supposed to, I will...”

“Hicks him into next month, yes”, she giggled and before he could even find an answer to that, she was out of the door again, only to throw it open again a second later.

He, of course, had turned back to Hermione and when the odd noise of the door startled him, he whipped around, his wand drawn. Letitia, his daughter, only rolled her eyes and held her hand up in a surrendering motion.

“No need to hicks me but will you please just say yes?”, she grinned and was gone again.

“Damn girl”, he muttered and began to pace the room slowly. He was not used to pacing slowly (was that even possible – somehow, he doubted that, much like it wasn't possible to stride unarrogantly, or probably...no, not important). However, the question had taken him quite off guard – someone had just proposed to him.

No, not someone, Hermione, the woman he loved.

Hermione, the woman he loved had just proposed to him.

And she still sat waiting patiently. Smiling so sweetly.

“Hermione”, he began, walking towards her, “I, erm, I cannot marry you.”

“What?”, she exclaimed and was by his side in a flash. “Why not?”

Hurt was in her eyes – plainly to see. And disappointment.

“Is it because I asked? Severus I mean, you, well, I thought, you know, that probably, erm, you didn't really know and how I and that I, dear me, dear me, I want to say that...”

He smiled and pulled her to him. “Stop babbling nonsense.”

“But, I mean wha...have you, do you, I mean, want to leave and me and I, bloody hell, I'm so stupid.”

He rolled his eyes and put his finger on her lips – it was the second best method of silencing her anyway. “No. I can't marry you not because you asked. And not because I couldn't but there is a reason.”

“Will you tell me then?”, she asked hysterically, tears beginning to shine in her eyes as she pulled away and moved quickly to the other side of the room. “Or should I just leave now?”

“You're overreacting”, he muttered softly. “And no, I don't want you to leave. Certainly not. Not ever. Please. Hear me out.”

She nodded and he walked slowly up to her – and remained standing just in front of her, taking both her hands. “It's not because I'm too macho to let you ask. In fact I thought it was quite nice and I have never been proposed to. But – Hermione – I can't marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I cannot marry you.”

“Why?”, she asked, a tear spilling over – kissed away immediately. “Severus, why?”

“Exactly because of that, Hermione.”

“Because of what?”, she asked frowning.

“Severus Snape cannot get married.”

“I'd get married to Jack Torrance then.”

He shook his head. “But Jack Torrance isn't the man who loves you.”

“Huh?”

“Severus Snape loves you”, he said intently and kissed the tip of her nose. “I love you. And you couldn't marry me, because, well, because I don't exist.”

“But...”, she began and once again, was silenced with a gentle hand on her lips.

“No buts. It would be on paper only, Hermione. Jack Torrance is married to Hermione Granger”, he shrugged, “it wouldn't matter – this marriage would be a lie from beginning to end because I cannot marry you. Because I had to use some other name again, because you would be the wife of a non-existent person.”

“And now I'm the, erm, well, whatever of a dead person?”, she asked shrilly.

He shook his head. “No. Now you're my girlfriend, my witch, my woman. And I am very much alive. Even though nobody knows that.”

She shook her head in defeat. “You don't make any sense.”

“Let's make it simple then. You're mine. Not Jack Torrance's. Mine. And if we should ever get married, I want you to be Hermione Snape. Not Hermione Torrance.”

“We could do that”, she suggested, calmer again.

He shook his head again. “No. I have a fake passport. I could only adopt Letitia because of a little Confounding. Otherwise, she still wouldn't be mine. The passport is fine – as long as you don't examine it properly. But if you do – and any person who would marry us would, they would see that it's fake. That it's not even me on the picture.”

“Bonding. We could get a bonding”, Hermione looked at him.

“We are bonded already, Hermione.”

“We're not.”

“Not in the traditional sense”, he said exasperatedly, “but in so much as that you're a part of my family and I'm a part of your family. And for an official bonding, we have to go to the Ministry. I can see that going down very well.”

“But Draco and Millie...”

“You bonded them alright. Because I think you did the correct, proper paperwork, send it to the Ministry and got a nice certificate back that all went well.”

“Yes”, she nodded.

“Can't do that. Those bleeding certificates know when you're lying. Besides, there is no such thing as a wizard called Jack Torrance.”

“You could be a muggle.”

“Brings back the problem with the fake passport”, he shrugged. “Look, I know you want to get married but I don't see why.”

“Why?”, she asked, pushing him on the sofa. “Why? Because I want to be with you.”

“And we can only be together when we're married?”, he asked with a smirk.

“No but...”

“I think we're doing quite well at the moment, wouldn't you?”, he said softly, “I do want to be with you for as long as you'll have me but as long as I'm, well, what I am now, I'm afraid I can't marry you.”

She nodded and sat down next to him. “Okay”

Hermione hung her head defeatedly and looked at her shoes. “I'll better get going then.”

“Where?”, he asked, leaning forward.

“Home”, she shrugged. “It's, erm, I...”

“Have you not heard me?”

“I've heard you alright, Severus.”

He sighed and went on the floor – on his knees. He pushed her hair aside and tucked it behind her ear, while at the same time, pushing her chin gently up with two fingers. He looked her in the eyes, one hand on hers and the other on her thigh. “I love you, Hermione Granger. I want to be with you. I want to live with you. A common-law marriage, if you will. One without the need to get a ton of certificates and the need to get a thousand signatures from either of us. This is just about us, Hermione Granger – you, me, and to a certain extent Letitia and Jack. I want us four to live together. But not married. Imagine the surprise on all the people's face if you told them that you had married – and I'd have to find a constant source of Polyjuice because I know we'd be swamped by Weasleys and Minerva and everything. If we don't make it official...”

“You're just looking for excuses”, she said softly.

“No, I'm not. Oh for heaven's sake, if you truly want it, I'd come out of hiding for you and marry you as Severus Snape and declare to the entire world that I love you”, he got up heavily and glared into her suddenly shocked face. “You know, it's...”, he huffed and stormed to the window – opened it wide and leaned outside. So wide, in fact, that she was immediately afraid and stormed in his direction.

“I, Severus Snape love Hermione Granger!”, he shouted out of the open window down onto the street.

“Are you insane!”, she shouted back.

“No, I'm not insane. I, Severus Snape...”, he began again and suddenly felt his vocal chords stiffen – and no sounds coming out of his mouth.

“You would be killed in England right now if people knew you'd be alive”, she scolded him, dragging him away from the window. “What with that Ministry and everyone. Have you gone completely crackers now?”

He shook his head and his gaze softened. He pointed at his mouth and begged silently for her to allow him to talk again.

With a flick of her wrist, the window was shut and pointing her wand at him, muttering the incantation, he could finally speak again.

“I've not gone crackers. If you truly want to make it official, then we'll do it right. With the proper papers, with all the certificates and with all the people you want to be there. And for that, I'll go back to being Severus Snape officially. Hell, if you think I'm looking for excuses, fine. No more excuses, no more hiding...”

“If you don't stop, I'll silence you again”, she threatened – her tone gentle, her features soft. “I don't want you to come out of hiding. I don't want you to be alive again. I want you for me. And even if they don't put you in Azkaban for a while, you'd be...no, no, I don't want that. I...”, she pushed him back onto the couch and straddled him. “I love you, too”, she whispered softly in her ear. “And maybe getting married was a dumb idea.”

He breathed deeply. “It wasn't a dumb idea. I would do it in a heartbeat if there was a way.”

She smiled and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Maybe we'll find one eventually. And then you get down on your knee.”

“I promise I will”, he smiled and hugged her tightly.

“Fight over”, the meek voice of Jack sounded through the room. “Babbo Mummy no fight.”

Hermione looked over her shoulder and smiled at her son. “No, sweet, no more fight. And we'll move.”

***

“Have you seen this?”, Hermione asked a week later – a week that had been full of finding a big enough flat (with a cellar, please – Severus wanted to brew again), a week full of nights spent at the embassy or in Severus' flat (depending on his mood – and whether he felt gracious enough to allow Letitia a night or two out with George (poor George didn't know that Letitia had a noli-turbare-meos-circolos-charm on her, which would basically electrocute him if he touched her in any indecent places – and lucky for Severus that Letitia didn't know either)), a week in which Hermione understood his decision. And really – marriage was such an old-fashioned institution.

However, during that week, Hermione had begun to think – and talk – about little Jack and what would happen to him in case something would happen to her.

And Severus had found the solution. Poor clerk at the Italian adoption offices. Being confounded twice in such a short time span. Severus was – at least under Italian muggle law – officially Jack's babbo. And he continued to call him that.

“No, what?”, he asked, a sip of his coffee later.

“This”, she pushed the paper impatiently towards him and pointed at it.

“Daily Prophet? I wouldn't want to read that thing”, he growled.

“You might want to make an exception this time”, she smiled. “Minerva really gets what she wants.”

“Usually”, he muttered, then indignantly, looked down at the page. “Oh my....”

Ex-Minister Shacklebolt imprisoned in Azkaban

Kingsley Shacklebolt, ex-Head Auror, ex-Minister of Magic was taken to Azkaban last night after his short trial. Only a week has passed since we have first heard the accusations of an unnamed civilian who was held in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and was forced to confess to deeds and crimes he had never committed while being tortured by hexes, curses and jinxes on the direct order of the ex-Minister.

Shacklebolt, always thought of as one of the brightest, most shining wizards on the side of the Light during the war against Voldemort, has apparently gone too far in his pursuit to capture dark, or darkish wizards and witches.

He was under Veritaserum during the entire trial and confessed to giving the orders to torture and press for false confessions. He also confessed to the murder of one Michael Parkinson, allegedly a former Death Eater and the use of the Imperius Curse on three Aurors who had been reluctant to use this form of interrogation.

He will serve a 25 year sentence in Azkaban.

His successor as Minister of Magic is none other than the former Hogwarts Herbology teacher Pomona Sprout.

See page 2 for the full article on her and page 5 for a commentary on Kingsley Shacklebolt.

“Pomona? Minister of Magic?”, Severus chuckled.

“Pomona Sprout”, Hermione grinned back at him and took his hand on the table. “I think with her, you needn't be afraid to being taken to Azkaban.”

“Don't be so sure about that”, he winked and pressed a kiss on her knuckle. “No, I like it here. Not so much rain, a lot of sunshine, it's warmer, good for my rheumatism”, he grinned at that, “and besides, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. Anywhere which is not with you.”

***

Okay – first: Thanks for the reviews.

Second: Sorry for the cheesy ending. I had to. Really.

Third: This is, sadly, the end of my story. Well, not quite. There is an epilogue coming up (couldn't do without epilogues...). But, as far as the plot goes (erm, yes I think there was one. Maybe two...), that's it. Finito. Basta.

I hope you liked it. Stay tuned for the epilogue and other stories of mine.

Oh – one more thing: This has got nothing to do with the fact that I thought about taking a break a few chapters back. I honestly was in a sort of dead-end when I wrote this and wasn't sure how I could wrap it up as good as I could – but the solution kind of presented itself.

If there are any loose ends that you found, however, please let me know!