***13 September, 1986***

"Daddy, can we invite Miss Lucy?"

"May we invite, Miss Lucy?" Severus corrected.

"I asked you first," Harry responded. He was hanging over the back side of the sofa, facing his daddy who was in the chamber's small kitchen.

Severus looked over at his godson. He was taking Harry out by the lake to play and was readying a picnic lunch.

"Don't be cheeky, Harry… I'm sure Miss Lucy has already made her plans for the day. We can ask her next time…and sit on the sofa properly," he scolded.

Harry turned around and plopped his bum down defiantly, his arms crossed in indignation. How was daddy going to find a mummy if he didn't talk to girls?

His daddy was the only daddy he knew that didn't come with a mummy. Ron had a daddy and mummy, Dudley had a daddy and mummy, even that blonde kid he met in Diagon Alley last spring…Draco Something…had a daddy and mummy. Harry was sure all daddies needed a mummy to help them. It wasn't right that his daddy had to be alone, and he was sure Daddy fancied Miss Lucy. Harry thought she would make a very good mummy to help Daddy, and she was very nice. But how could she get to know how great Daddy was if Daddy didn't talk to her more. Besides, now that Miss Lucy was going to have a baby, it would kinda be like having a little brother or sister. Ever since he had come to know the Weasleys, Harry thought it would be nice to have one of his own. But nooo…Daddy just wouldn't cooperate.

But Harry had made one wrong assumption. Though his daddy did not talk to girls, he did talk quite a bit to one particular woman.

Severus' lips thinned as he spied his cross little godson. Harry had his arms crossed over his chest and kept turning his head to glare back at Severus through his rectangular frames. "Harry, if you insist upon pouting, you may do so in your room. I will not tolerate such insolence."

"I don't mean to be insolent, Daddy," Harry puffed insolently. "I just thought Miss Lucy might be lonely. She's all by herself in a different country and she has no family or friends or anything."

"Harry… you know the Headmaster is her uncle and her grandfather lives in the village, and we are her friends along with the Weasley's," Severus reminded him.

"Well, since we are her friends, it would be nice to invite her. She can always say no if she doesn't want to come. "

Harry had Severus on that one. The child's reasoning was sound.

...And it was not as if Severus had no interest in inviting Lucy.

Severus found Lucy to be an interesting enigma. At first glance, she seemed all at once delicate and demure…but then get to know her, and underneath lay an inner fire and subtle yet rapier wit. She may be irritable at times and loose with the occasional explicative, but Severus found that part of her charm.

Oh…Severus was not in love with the witch but he found it both enthralling and disturbing that he had allowed himself to become so close so quickly. Perhaps it was because Lucy was the first adult he did not have to prove himself to. Though Lucy was not aware of all of his sins, she was more aware of his background than most, at least from a Historian's perspective… which is none too flattering, yet she did not judge him. Due to her lack of prejudice, Severus had unconsciously allowed himself to become as open with her as he had been with Lily. It was strange how Lucy had become so close so quickly…like it had been the most natural thing in the world.

And then again, the woman was carrying another man's child and propriety should be observed. Not that it really mattered to Severus in the grand scheme of things, but it might matter to Lucy. What if Musgrave managed to change her mind again?

Severus chose not to pursue any interest he may have in Lucy despite the fact that she had professed that she would never again involve herself with Kenneth Musgrave. Severus told himself that if he involved himself further with the witch and she were to have a change of heart, Harry would be devastated.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?" Severus was snapped out of his musings.

"Can…I mean…may we invite Miss Lucy?"

Severus thought about it. It might be nice to have some adult conversation whilst Harry played off his energy. "We shall ask, Harry. But if Miss Lucy says 'no' you will not bother her any further…and no sulking or you shall spend the rest of the day staring at the walls of your bedroom. Do I make myself clear?"

"Great!" Harry jumped up from off the sofa and ran over and gave his daddy a quick hug around the middle. "I can bring my broom again…right?

"Damn it…Sorry, Thor." Lucy jumped from her couch as she spilt her coffee all across the side table and the papers she had just been grading. Her pet had been on her lap while she was going over homework and had scampered off to hide amongst her houseplants. "Stupid decaf," she muttered, taking her wand and cleaning the mess before her.

The buzzing of the door alarm had startled her. No one had bothered to darken her chamber doorstep since the day after she moved in.

She glanced around the room. It was as presentable as it was going to be. Her favourite plant was sitting right in the middle of the floor where the sunlight was streaming in through the window and she still had several stacks of books in the corner that she had not gotten around to shelving. She really needed to get those shelved before Thor started snacking on anymore of them. She had various houseplants huddled together in another corner, waiting for a permanent home. How long had she been here? A month and a half?

Next she scanned down at what she was wearing and shrugged. She was in her beige lounge slacks and a brown spaghetti strapped chemise style top. Whoever was at the door was going to have to get over her disorganised abode and her lack of professional attire. She was in her home and she had every right to be comfortable.

The buzzer went off once more and Lucy took off her reading glasses and put them on the side table then answered the door. She was greeted with a pleasant surprise. "Severus …Harry…Please, do come in." Severus was carrying a picnic basket…Harry, his little broom.

Before her guests even had a chance to cross her threshold, a grey and white flash of lightning made for the exit. "Whoa there, Thor," Lucy flicked her wand and the little fur ball froze mid-flight. She bent over and scooped up the would-be escape artist and dutifully reanimated it.

Harry was the first to notice exactly what Miss Lucy's naughty pet was, "A bunny!"

As Severus and Harry finally entered Lucy's sitting room. Severus looked so…comfortable? Casual? Rather than his usual black body armour, he was sporting only a waistcoat over his white linen shirt with black trousers. His long black, 'potion hair', as she called it, was actually combed back out of his face. It reminded Lucy of her daddy's hair when he was younger. She liked this more roguish look on Severus. It suited him.

Severus eyed the miniature ball of fluff she was holding. "You have a rabbit named 'Thor'?" his cheeks flushed just slightly. It was obvious that they had disturbed Lucy whilst she had been relaxing. She was in her lounging clothes and barefooted. Her hair fell down her shoulders in ringlets, as if she hadn't taken the time to brush it out yet.

It wasn't as if Lucy's attire had been revealing, but the fabric delicately hugged her curves. There was only the slightest amount of cleavage showing from atop her blouse, but just enough that Severus could defiantly appreciate the effect.

Lucy noticed Severus' subtle admiration. She too, blushed and quickly gestured for Severus and Harry to have a seat on the sofa. Severus obliged and placed the picnic basket at his feet. Harry was on his toes in front of Lucy, trying to get a better look at the bunny rabbit.

"Yes. I have a bunny rabbit named 'Thor'," Lucy said defensively. Without Harry even having to ask, she knelt down so he could pet it. "She was a gift from an old friend of mine." Chris had given her the miniature Dutch rabbit for her birthday two years ago. It was an inside joke about how every magician needed a rabbit to pull out of the hat.

"She?" Harry giggled. "You named a girl bunny 'Thor?' You're funny, Miss Lucy… May I play with her?"

"I'm sorry, Harry, but she is not used to playing with children." Lucy walked over to the door that led to her bedroom, put Thor down and closed the door behind her. "So…Severus…What brings you and Harry to my humble lodgings?"

Before Severus could get a word out, Harry chimed in, "A picnic! Would you like to come on a picnic with us?"

"Harry! It is not polite to burst out in such a manner, especially when you have not been addressed," Severus admonished. "But Harry is correct. We would be happy if you would join us."

"Well…I do have essays to grade…"

"Please, Miss Lucy?" Harry urged. "You can grade papers outside too…and fresh air is good for you. Daddy always says so."

Lucy thought about it. She had had been feeling a bit run down. Perhaps the fresh air and sunshine would do her good. "Far be it for me to question the infinite wisdom of Daddies," Lucy said, winking at Severus. "Give me a moment to change."

Lucy ducked into her bedroom to change. Harry turned his attention to the rest of the room and spotted a terra cotta flower pot under a glass dome. It was sitting in the sunlight. In it was the strangest plant he had ever seen. "What is that, Daddy?" Harry asked quietly. The plant looked like it might eat one of his fingers if he were to touch it.

Severus arose from the sofa to see what had captured Harry's attention now. Separated from the other house plants stuck in a corner an under a glass dome clouded with condensation, was a Venus flytrap.

Severus knelt down next to Harry and explained to him about the unusual carnivorous plant. It was exceedingly difficult to cultivate healthy specimens such as this one. Severus told Harry that potion quality plants are hard to come by and that they are used in various disease elixirs.

"It really eats insects?" Harry said in a disgusted, but yet admiring tone.

"Yes, she does," said Lucy's voice from behind them. She had emerged wearing a sage green tunic with long bell sleeves, a long brown skirt and sandals. Her hair was done in two long braids. "…And get your mind out of the gutter, Severus Snape."

Severus stood up and stared. He did not think she was a Legilimens. Was she referring to his thoughts when he and Harry arrived?

"I can tell you're lusting over Henrietta," she accused as she picked up a box containing flubber worms from off a sideboard table.

"Who's Henrietta?" Harry asked, looking around the room for another animal. He did not know what 'lusting' meant, but it did not sound nice.

Lucy lifted up the dome of the plant and spooned a flubber worm on to the eagerly awaiting, fleshy pink hinged leaf. "This is Henrietta." Lucy said and looked suspiciously at Severus. "And if you think you're going to use her in your potions…you can just think again, Mister."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Severus said dismissively.

"Liar."

Severus gave a soft snort of amusement as Harry watched in morbid curiosity as the leaf slowly closing over the unsuspecting flubber worm.

"Let me see if I understand this correctly. You have a female rabbit named 'Thor' and a Venus flytrap named Henrietta?" Severus inquired.

Lucy nodded, "I once had Bull Mastiff named 'Sweetums' but I he died last year.."

Severus twitched his nose as he tried to wrap his head around what she had said…A male Bull Mastiff named 'Sweetums.' "Lucy, do your child a favour."

"Hmm…what?" she said as she put the dome back over Henrietta.

"Let Kenneth name the child."

"Will you two get away from that window…someone will see you."

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Pomona." Minerva said irritably. "Why don't you join in on our little wager?"

The elder three Heads of House were having their traditional Saturday luncheon. When Severus had been unexpectedly offered his Head position last year they had made a conscious effort to invite him to their little get-together, but he had continued to refuse. He had excused himself by saying that his responsibilities to his new charge had made it impossible.

The other three heads had even gone so far as to invite Harry along, but Severus still resisted. Pomona had finally come to the conclusion that it must feel awkward for the young man to now be colleagues on equal footing with the very same witches and wizards who where his own professors only a few years prior. Pomona was the next youngest of the group and she was over thirty years his senior. How could Severus possibly find the company of such a bunch of old fogies inviting, she reasoned?

Filius was standing in the window ledge "I'll wager ten Galleons they will be serious inside a month," he said confidently.

"You're only kidding yourself, Filius. The lad will never get over his obsession with Lily Potter enough to ever get close to another woman." Minerva took a sip of tea as she spied over Filius' shoulder to gaze down at the scene by the lake. "Severus simply found someone close to his age to socialise with. It does not make them romantically involved."

It was a perfect early fall day. Quidditch tryouts were underway at the pitch and most of the student body had congregated to watch. Other students were scattered around studying under trees or chatting. Some Muggle-borns had started a pick-up game of something called 'football.'

Off by themselves on an obscured bit of shoreline along the lake were Severus, Lucy and little Harry. It looked as though Lucy was rolling up a parchment and laying it in a stack behind her. The remnants of a picnic were spread out to one side. Severus and Harry were by the lake shore. Severus was leaning over and speaking into Harry's ear, apparently teaching him how to skip stones.

"Ah…you forget, my dear Minerva…Aurora Sinistra started last year. I find her to be an alluring witch, yet I do not believe our young Severus has spoken more than two complete sentences to her since she arrived."

Pomona agreed with Filius. "And since when has Severus willingly socialised with anyone since Lily Evans?"

"I still say Severus won't make a move," Minerva said as if she were being ganged up upon. "He may have be over Harry being the son of James Potter, but I don't think he's willing to 'play dad' again to another man's child."

"I still say it's a sucker bet," Filius said. "It's obvious that Severus is smitten and I think dear Lucy may reciprocate in kind."

Minerva walked away from the window and over to the table to pour another cup of tea. "What makes you think that Lucy has any feelings for Severus beyond friendship? He is nothing like her former fiancé."

Filius turned to face Minerva, "My point exactly."

Lucy rolled up the final parchment. She could understand why Severus found grading so tedious, if she saw another misused 'their', 'there', or 'they're', she was going to scream. Ad this use of contractions in formal papers had to stop. She was also going to have to spend some time teaching her students how to write an essay and cite their sources. Over half of the students had simply regurgitated the text…some of them verbatim.

She took her reading glasses of and rubbed between her eyes. She may only be twenty-five, but the glasses had been a result of a misspent youth reading books under the covers by nothing more than a dim Lumos light.

She looked up at the wizard and his godson before her. She wondered if Kenneth would be as caring a father. She could only hope.

Perhaps Uncle Albus was right. Maybe she was projecting Matt's shortcomings on Kenneth. It still did not mean she would feel any easier around the man, but she was willing to let bygones be bygones and at least be friendly to Kenneth if he would stop trying to control every aspect of her life.

It was obvious that Kenneth did not trust her, perhaps he never had. Lucy's parents had taught her that trust was Love's foundation, and she believed it as Dogma. If Kenneth did not trust her, how could he have ever truly loved her? That little paradox made Lucy question Kenneth's motivations and as a result, she lost trust in him.

In a way, Lucy blamed herself. It was her new found friendship that brought her to that epiphany.

Lucy had never been in a serious relationship before Kenneth. As an academic prodigy, she had been accepted into university at the tender age of fourteen. She had been somewhat bossy and opinionated and her sense of humour often went over the heads of her peers. Too much of a bookworm to foster the interest of any boy her own age and much too young to be involved with the young men in school, she had been somewhat of a loner. Chris was the only boy her age that did not find her intimidating, but there was never a chance for anything beyond friendship. Chris' romantic interests did not include the opposite sex. At the time she thought it a pity. Chris was more than a friend, he was also her first crush.

By the time Lucy finished her first degree…she was too involved with teaching and private research to become entangled in a romantic attachment.

Kenneth had come along at a turning point in Lucy's life. She had decided to slow down after her last book and focus solely on teaching. For the first time in her adult life, Lucy had the time to be social.

When Kenneth had made his interests known, Lucy did not know how to act. Now that she thought about it…she had never given Kenneth her full opinion on anything. She tried to be what she thought a good girlfriend ought to be.

Lucy wanted to please Kenneth, so she would say things that she thought Kenneth would want to hear. She did not lie, she was just overly careful of what she said and how she said it.

On those rare times she did state her opinion or became upset, Kenneth would simply patronise her…so she learned to keep her opinion to herself.

It occurred to Lucy, that Kenneth never saw the real her until after they moved to England. Kenneth would be gone for so long, Lucy's unintentional act would drop and Kenneth had unexpectedly come home to the real Lucy. He found out that his once quiet and eager to please girl was actually an opinionated woman who had a stubborn streak.

In retrospect, Lucy realised she had done just as much wrong to Kenneth as he had done to her, perhaps even more so. Perhaps her relationship with Kenneth was doomed from the start. Even if he had not been the jerk that he became, they would both have ended up unhappy.

It was her friendship with Severus that made Lucy realise this. The comfortable and uninhibited way she felt around him, she should have felt around Kenneth. Lucy was not afraid to speak her mind around Severus from the beginning because when they met, she had nothing to lose.

She was not afraid that if she disagreed or even argued with the man, he would take offence and end their friendship. If she were to be honest with herself, she had not been this close to anyone since Chris. It was strange how Severus had become so close so quickly…like it had been the most natural thing in the world.

Lucy sat up on her knees and was reaching for a banana when two familiar shadows darkened the blanket. "We see you've finished your grading," Severus said as Lucy patted the blanket.

"Have a seat…I'm sure we can rustle up a snack."

"Are there any biscuits left?" Harry asked as he rummaged through the basket.

"No more biscuits, Harry. You may have a piece of fruit," Severus told him.

"But I don't want fruit," Harry moaned in protest.

"If you have another biscuit now, then you shall have no pudding after supper."

"Don't worry, Harry. I know exactly how you feel," Lucy told him.

"You do?"

"Yes…I do. There are a lot of things I would give my wand hand for right now…I'm really missing my mama's cooking."

"What kind of things did she make you?" Harry asked before taking a bite from an apple.

Lucy counted on her fingers and said dreamily, "Well there's her Brunswick stew…she-crab cakes…oh but most of all I'd give anything for Mama's shrimp and grits and sweet tea?"

Harry's face squinched in disgust. "What's a grit?"

Lucy sighed, "'Grits,' Harry. It's plural…and what they are is manna from heaven."

Severus poured himself a glass of the American style lemonade that Lucy had made. "I take it you are having cravings."

"That…and I'm missing my folks a bit," Lucy admitted.

Severus made a mental note to write Madam O'Conner. "Have you asked the house-elves? I'm sure they would be more than willing to accommodate."

Lucy snorted. "They asked the same question Harry did…It was all I could do to keep the poor little things from smashing their heads against the wall."

The next hour or so was spent in companionable conversation about where Lucy grew up on the Ashley River. Severus chose not to speak about his unfortunate childhood in front of Harry. The subject then completely changed to the upcoming trip to the Callanish Stones the fourth and fifth years where taking in two weeks.

By the time Harry had fallen asleep with his head in Severus' lap, the conversation had turned to Kenneth's visit.

"Poppy is giving me a check-up Wednesday after classes. Apparently, Kenneth is joining Uncle Albus for tea before the appointment."

Severus' brow furrowed as he absently stroked his sleeping godson's hair. "Lucy, I cannot help but wonder if you should be seeing someone more adept at obstetrics than a school matron?"

"Actually, Poppy is more than qualified." Lucy assured him. "She was a mid-wife before she came to work at Hogwarts."

That had put Severus' mind a little more at ease. "Are you sure you do not wish me to accompany you?"

"It's not that I do not want you there, Severus…I just think it would be a bit awkward right now…but Uncle Albus will be there. I think if Pawpaw were to come he'd hex Kenneth into oblivion."

Severus was a little disappointed. Lucy would receive her official due date. He would have liked to have been there for her, but Kenneth was the father. It was his place to be there.

"Severus…may I ask something of you…something very personal?" Lucy's voice wavered a bit.

Severus looked at her worriedly, "Ask."

"I know I intend to go back to the States…and I know we've only known each other for about three months. But honestly…you're one of the best friends I've ever had…and I don't know how I'm going to break this to Kenneth…Oh Hell! I'm rambling! Would you consider being the baby's godfather?" She finally managed.

In the wizarding world two godparents could be named. Usually a godfather and a godmother, but on rare occasions there may be two godmothers or two godfathers named. Both parent's had the right to make their own choice and then it was discussed which godparent would be the primary. If something happened to the primary godparent, the secondary one would step in. Severus had been named Harry's secondary godfather. For the life of him, he could not understand Lily's motivation behind that decision. But he was eternally grateful.

Severus knew Lucy would have a fight on her hands over her choice, but to Severus there could be only one answer. "I would be honoured.