#snapril

Sunday, 20 June 1999

The twins were five days shy of six months, and a routine had formed; Severus would attend to them when they woke on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Persephone would do so Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and on Sundays, Abbie took over to allow her parents a morning off.

It was strange, then, that Severus woke to an empty bed. Even when he wasn’t attending to the twins, he usually woke earlier than Persephone anyway. And yet, although the clock read half past five, she wasn’t there.

She had slept, he was certain of that. She’d fallen asleep in his arms, sweaty and exhausted from the multiple orgasms he had elicited from her, and he too had drifted off after lifting the silencing charm from their room.

As he dressed, Severus listened carefully. He could hear movement downstairs, although it seemed he could hear only one set of footsteps.

He was halfway down the stairs when he bumped into Persephone.

“Severus!” she exclaimed, as if surprised to see her own husband in the house they had shared for a little over a year. “You’re up.”

Severus raised an eyebrow as he examined Persephone’s body language. She may be the Ministry’s greatest spy, but any idiot could see she was intentionally blocking his passage.

“As are you,” he commented. “Is it not Sunday? I was disappointed to wake and find you gone, sweetling. I thought some great emergency may have pulled you from my arms.”

“You’re right, we should go back to bed -”

She stepped towards him, but he placed a gentle hand on her chest, stopping her in her tracks.

“No, no, no,” he murmured. “Whatever you are hiding from me - out with it. Now.”

“I’m not hiding anything, Sev -”

“Oh? Then you wouldn’t mind telling me why you’re downstairs, fully dressed, at half past five in the morning, when you should be under the bed covers, sliding your knickers aside to allow me to feast on you.”

Just over Persephone’s shoulder, Abbie appeared at the bottom of the stairs, and Severus thanked Merlin he had spoken so softly - he would probably have to obliviate all three of them if Abbie had caught any of what he had just said.

“Hey, Dad, will you come into the study for totally innocent reasons?”

Severus narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“Because you love me and will do anything I ask?”

…Well, she had him there.

With a sigh, Severus moved down the stairs - Persephone finally allowing him past - and followed Abbie into the study.

It took him a moment to realise what he was seeing. The kitchen table had been moved into the study, and at each place sat a plate of food - full English for each of the adults, and for the twins, a bowl of mashed baby food.

Severus turned back towards Abbie and Persephone, then burst into laughter when he realised what they’d done.

They were each holding one of the twins, who were dressed in tiny replicas of his teaching robes.

“You are both complete imbeciles,” he sighed, although the smile on his face betrayed him.

“We thought we’d celebrate Father’s Day by reminding you how wonderful it is that you have three mini Snapes,” Persephone said. “Abbie didn’t need to dress up, of course, but I couldn’t resist shrinking your robes and putting the girls in them.”

“You shrank my robes?” Severus repeated.

“Oh, please, you never wear them anymore,” Persephone replied. “Besides, they look much cuter on these two beans. Don’t they, April?”

April smiled when her mother looked at her, her big silver eyes widening with amusement.

“Ahh-ah!” Ariadne said, her tiny hand reaching out towards the table.

“Ari’s right, let’s eat,” Abbie agreed.

They placed the girls in their high chairs and sat down to breakfast, expertly made as always by Abbie. It had become something of a Father’s Day tradition for Abbie to cook one of her delicious breakfasts, although Severus has thought she would forgo it this year as it was her turn to look after the girls. But if Persephone had woken early to dress the twins up as him, then they must have shared the load.

They all chatted amicably as they ate - although they often ate dinner together, it was rare for all five of them to share breakfast with their busy schedules. Persephone still had work some mornings, Abbie usually had school, and any one of them could be occupied with the twins.

Once they had finished eating, Persephone waved her wand to clear the plates away, then lifted the girls from their high chairs to change their nappies. Severus moved to stand and assist her, but Abbie’s hand on his arm stopped him.

“One more Father’s Day tradition,” she reminded him.

He looked down to see see held an envelope in her hand. He smiled.

Every year, without fail, she had brought him another card.

At age fourteen, although they were unable to see each other due to Wormtail’s presence in his house, he had awoken that Sunday morning to find a card sitting on his bedside cabinet.

At sixteen, there had been no card, as she believed him a Death Eater and a traitor - but she had made up for it the following year by providing a card that was comically overlarge, and Severus had proudly displayed it on his shelf until the following year’s card came.

Now, at eighteen, she handed him what would be his fifteenth Father’s Day card. The previous year’s card currently sat on the shelf, and once this year’s was displayed, it would join the previous thirteen in their place of honour within his desk drawer.

Severus pulled the card from its envelope. He chuckled to see that she had returned to a handmade card - this one adorned with two tiny handprints made of paint.

Inside, the card read:

To Dad, You deserve all the good things you have. Love, Abbie (18), Ariadne (½) and April (½)

The handwriting was clearly Abbie’s, but the handprints, he realised, were from the twins. 

“Eighteen,” Severus sighed. “How in Merlin’s name are you eighteen, Abbie?”

“I’ll be nineteen soon enough.”

Yes, and then you’ll leave me.

He smirked. “‘All the good things I have.’ I suppose that’s you, is it?”

“It’s whatever you think it is. Which includes me, obviously.”

How did she know? How could she possibly know that that was the thought that kept him up at night, the guilt that ate away at him, the fear that he deserved nothing of the life he had, not compared to those who had lost their lives in the war?

He wrapped an arm around Abbie’s shoulder and pulled her into an embrace. She slid her arms around his torso in response, savouring the moment; she too, it seemed, was all too aware that their remaining time together was running short.

“You are the best thing I have,” Severus said softly. “You always will be, even when you’re no longer mine to keep.”