The kitchen table in Harry's modest cottage was piled so high with books that Severus almost missed the largish cage the books surrounded.

"His name is Moonstone, Papa," explained Anna as she stuffed an owl treat between the bars of the cage and reached her finger in to scratch the bird on its head. "It's a potions ingredient—I found it in my new Potions textbook." The white and brown barn owl with its distinctive heart-shape face snatched up the treat and hooted affectionately.

"Owls are useful, Papa," she continued when Severus didn't immediately respond. "It's more than a pet—it's a familiar." She looked at him nervously. "I can keep it, can't I? I told Hermione that I wasn't sure as we'd never had a pet in the house…"

Severus pulled his gaze away from the softly hooting owl back to his daughter and smiled.

"You may keep him. You'll need him to write to me when you're at Hogwarts, won't you? I take it he's already trained to carry letters?"

"Of course, Papa!" exclaimed Anna, her face lighting up. She stuffed another owl treat in the cage—Severus made a mental note to read up on the proper amount of food for a barn owl—then skipped out of the room calling out to her new friends, "He said I can keep him!"

"They're really not any trouble, Severus," said Harry as he admired the new owl. "He'll stay in the owlery at Hogwarts so you'll only have him at your place over the summer." He reached a finger through to stroke the owl's head, much as Anna had done. "I used to keep Hedwig in a cage in my room at the Dursley's over the summer." He paused, glancing over at Severus. "Hedwig was my owl while I was at Hogwarts."

Severus reached into the cage with two fingers to stroke Moonstone's head. "I recall that owl…a snowy white. It was quite distinctive among all the others." He lowered his voice slightly. "You no longer have him?"

"Her," corrected Harry. "And no. I lost her during the war."

Severus continued stroking the owl's head.

"Moonstone is a good name. It fits him," said Harry after a quiet moment.

"Moonstone is an essential ingredient in the Draught of Peace," said Severus. "I have been trying to recall that."

"I see you've met Moonstone," interrupted Hermione from the doorway. She walked in and stood beside Severus. "I didn't think you'd mind if Anna purchased an owl."

"No, I don't mind," said Severus, watching Moonstone begin to carefully clean his feathers. "This one is quite…inoffensive."

Hermione and Harry exchanged an amused look. "Speaking of owls," continued Hermione, "James mentioned that Severus got an owl from Lucius Malfoy…"

Harry quickly filled her in on the situation with Malfoy and the Prophet. Hermione furled her eyebrows.

"We'll probably want to ward Severus' home then," she said. "At least protect him from outside magical intrusion while he's there. Should I go fetch Bill or Arthur?"

Harry glanced at Severus. He could not read the look on his face. "Severus' magic is coming back pretty strongly. It would be better if he helped—it should make the wards more impenetrable." He paused, then smiled at Hermione. "You're the best we have at warding charms. I can stay here with the children while you two go on to Surrey."

"We should probably redirect his owls here or to Hogwarts too while we're at it," suggested Hermione. "We wouldn't want his Muggle neighbors…"

"Dad! Dad! I got my wand!" Lily came running into the room, sliding across the polished wooden floor in her socks. "Look! It's made of holly, just like yours, but only 10 inches, with a unicorn hair core!" She brandished the wand about her head and it emitted showers of golden sparks which glimmered as they fell to the floor.

Harry took the wand from Lily and examined it closely, then waved it in the air and produced a respectable bouquet of wildflowers. He snatched them quickly out of the air.

"Looks like it works," he said, handing her the wand and the flowers then carding his hand through her hair affectionately. She giggled and skipped back out of the room, yelling "Look what my wand made!" as she ran to join the others. Anna was back in the kitchen soon afterward, waving her new wand about as well.

"Make me some flowers, Papa!" she exclaimed, handing him her own wand. Severus took it carefully, running his fingers over the smooth dark wood.

"It's made of ebony," offered Anna. "10½ inches with a phoenix feather core. Make it do something, Papa! All I can do so far is sparks!"

"And that's all you should be doing with it as of yet," assured Severus. He pointed the wand at a glazed clay plate on the counter and transfigured it into a stone. A stone with a shiny glaze on it. Harry smirked.

"Wow!" Anna picked up the smooth rock and looked admiringly at her father. "Just think what you'll be able to do when you remember everything!"

Harry looked at Severus as Anna bounced back out of the room carrying her new wand and the smooth stone with her, as pleased with this evidence of her father's magic as Lily was with the bouquet of flowers. Severus was holding his own wand now, looking at it curiously, rubbing his fingers along the wood much as he had done with Anna's wand. He caught Harry staring at him and sighed.

"The wand chooses the wizard," he said. "I remember that at least."

Hermione smiled. "And it took a long time choosing Anna. I took Hugo, Lily and Anna to Ollivander's while the older children went to George's shop. Hugo and Lily only had to try four or five wands each but we went through about two dozen with Anna. It was really very interesting—Ollivander finally asked Anna her name and of course she said 'Anna Stephens.' Lily—she's always helpful, isn't she Harry?—anyway, Lily piped up with 'She's Professor Snape's daughter.' Ollivander cocked his head to the side and stared at her a moment in that very calculating way of his then his face lit up and he climbed on a stool and pulled down another box. He pulled out the dark wand and she literally let out an 'Ooooh' when she saw it. It was like Christmas for her when she waved it and the sparks flew."

"Christmas in August," said Harry. He looked at the piles of books and other supplies on the kitchen table. "And by the looks of things, I won't be able to afford Christmas this year. What were Ginny and I thinking when we decided to have three children?"

"I would have had more," said Severus as he picked out a Potions Textbook from one of the piles and paged through it.

"Why didn't you, then?" asked Harry.

"It takes two to tango, Harry," answered Severus cryptically. He closed the book and turned to Hermione then gestured toward the floo. "Let's complete this warding process. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a long day."

/

By nine o'clock the next morning, Harry had received more than thirty separate owls, all but two of them carrying messages for Severus.

"Another one, Dad!" called out James. He, Albus and Lily were all sitting on the front porch stairs watching a magical construction crew expand the small cottage across the street. "Oh! Another howler!"

"That's only two though," said Albus.

"Yeah, way more love letters than howlers," put in Lily.

"You don't know they're love letters," said Harry, walking out onto the porch to take the howler gingerly from the common tawny owl. "We're not reading Professor Snape's mail."

"Well, they smell like love letters," persisted the little girl, sniffing her fingers. She's removed her share of parchments and envelopes from the delivery owls since she'd gotten up this morning to find a dozen owls on the front porch along with the morning Prophet, which was delivered door to door in Hogsmeade by a girl on a broomstick.

Privately, Harry agreed. He'd sorted the letters into piles—the perfumed ones, the howler-the one in his hand would be added to that pile—the ones with the seals from several prominent Slytherin families and the official ones from Ministry departments.

"Why don't you kids get your brooms and floo over to the Burrow? Your grandparents are expecting you at 9:30 and I'm sure they wouldn't mind seeing you a bit early."

"But Daaaadddd! We want to see what happens when Professor Snape…."

Harry's glare cut off Lily's whine. She huffed as she straightened her back then tossed her hair back over one shoulder. "Fine! You can just bring Anna over by yourself then when she gets here."

"Anna is perfectly capable of flooing by herself by now," said Harry as he followed the children inside. He stood in the sitting room with them as they flooed one by one to the Burrow, each holding his or her broom tightly against their side, then tossed the most recent howler onto the table where it quivered and quaked in anticipation of being opened. He had just made himself a second cup of coffee when the floo flared and Anna stepped through. She was followed in short order by Severus. He was wearing dark gray trousers with a dark blue shirt and had his black robes on over the ensemble, this time unbuttoned. Anna was sent directly on to the Burrow to join the Potter children while Harry went into the kitchen to fetch a strong cup of coffee for Severus.

"You'll probably want to read the Prophet first," said Harry, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table for Severus and setting the coffee and the newspaper down in front of him.

"First?" asked Severus, sitting down and reaching for the paper and only then noticing the stacks of letters. His eyes moved over them to the two vibrating red envelopes. "Are those…?"

"Ignore them," answered Harry. He sat down across from Severus and pulled two letters from the piles. "These two are next—after the paper."

"Oh Lord," groaned Severus. "Where did they get that photograph?" He spread the paper out on the table and Harry grimaced again at the headline. "Harry Potter's Biggest Secret" was printed in gigantic letters above a photo of Severus that looked like it was taken in the 1990s while Harry was a student at Hogwarts. However, it had been "artificially enhanced" to age Severus. In the photo, he was balding and his long comb-over was streaked with silver.

The article was peppered with half-truths and suppositions. It did accurately state that Severus had been spotted in Hogsmeade with the Potter family but beyond that kernel of truth not much was accurate. The theory put forth by the paper was that Harry Potter had hidden Snape from the wizarding world after rescuing him from the Shrieking Shack and had sent him to the States where he recovered and became the Governor of the State of Chicago before marrying a beautiful American actress named Betty White."

"The Wizarding World doesn't follow American politics or entertainments, I take it?" asked Severus, shaking his head and taking a long drink of the hot coffee.

"Skeeter sent her questions," said Harry instead of answering Severus' largely rhetorical question. He scooted a scroll of parchment tied with a purple ribbon over to Severus. "Well, I think that's what it is, anyway. It has her seal on it, anyway. Maybe I'm wrong—could be a marriage proposal."

Severus narrowed his eyes into a threatening glare but took the scroll, removed the ribbon and broke the seal. He unrolled the parchment and scanned it, snorting in disbelief and amusement.

"Describe your perfect date," he read. He reached into his pocket and extracted a muggle pen and wrote on the parchment. Harry leaned across the table to get a look.

"June 22nd, 2007?"

"Anna's birthday," answered Severus. He looked up at Harry. "My perfect date. May not be the perfect one but it is my favorite…"

Harry grinned. "What's next?"

"What color is your toothbrush? What is this drivel? And listen to this one—do you prefer big-breasted, medium-breasted or small-breasted women?"

Harry had stood and walked around the table to read over Severus' shoulder.

"How about this one? Describe your love/hate relationship with Albus Dumbledore. I should put down that he was my soulmate and my lover." He ran his finger quickly down the numbered items on the scroll. "Aren't there any relevant questions at all? Like 'What have you been doing these last twenty years?' or 'How did you survive that snakebite?'"

"I don't know, Severus," said Harry, "this one here seems kind of important." His finger stopped at a question about half-way down the scroll.

"Do you prefer boxers or briefs?" Severus read aloud. "I think I'll send a pair of my black boxer-briefs to this idiotic paper and I won't bother to wash them first!" he exclaimed, scribbling on the paper.

"Why don't we just move on to the letter from the Ministry?" suggested Harry, taking the pen out of Severus' hand and reaching across for one of the scrolls the Ministry owl had delivered an hour ago.

"The Ministry? You'd think you would have started with those instead of this garbage," muttered Severus, grabbing the scroll away from Harry. He took another long drink of coffee as he broke the seal, running his thumbnail under it expertly until it popped off and the scroll unrolled.

"It's from the Department of Vital Statistics," he commented, scanning down the scroll to the signature.

Harry nodded. "Well, read it," he said. He'd returned to his chair and pushed the pile of scented letters to the side.

"Hmmmm," said Severus as he read. "Seems I need to go to the Ministry to file a petition to have my 'deceased' status re-evaluated." He continued reading. "That's ridiculous. I'm not supposed to use my wand as it's registered to a deceased individual."

Harry pushed another scroll across the table and took the one Severus was holding from his hands. "I'll take you to London after we get through this mail. Don't worry about it. The Ministry is all about red tape and paperwork."

The next scroll, from the Minister of Magic himself, welcomed Severus back and confirmed the meeting Severus had proposed this afternoon at Hogwarts. It was obviously written after the morning Prophet's publication as it congratulated Severus on his illustrious career and high-profile marriage.

"He's kidding, you know," Harry said with a smile. "Kingsley is well-connected with the Muggle world."

"Hmmph," said Severus. He had pushed Kingsley's missive aside and had unrolled a letter from Gringott's.

"Oh, that one's from the wizarding bank," said Harry.

"According to this letter, I was officially declared dead on August 31st, 1998, on the last day of the month three months after I was last seen alive." He read a bit further. "From that point, Gringott's sealed my account for twenty years. My survivors and creditors can claim it after that point. However…" He looked up at Harry.

"However, if you prove that you're alive within the next three weeks, your accounts are yours again," said Harry. "You should do well with that, Severus. The Order of Merlin first class carries with it a 10,000 galleon reward."

Severus stared at him a moment and Harry knew that despite his recovered memories, he was still trying to do the conversion rate math in his head.

"You might want to take a look at the rest of these later," said Harry. "They're mainly from admirers and a few of your old…friends." He looked distastefully at the pile with the ornate Slytherin-themed seals.

A sharp rapping on the door surprised them both and Harry jumped up, wand immediately in his hand. He walked to the window, peaked out and groaned.

"I should have expected this," he said.

"Who is it?" asked Severus, moving up next to Harry to look sideways out the window toward the porch. He could see two shapes, both in profile. "It that Lucius?" He indicated a head with long, straight hair, almost white.

"Not Lucius," said Harry, sighing. "His son, Draco. And that's Pansy Pankinson with him." He moved back toward the table away from the window as the rap sounded again at the door. "Listen, they don't know you're in here. We can put this off 'til later…"

"No, let's get it over with," said Severus. He strode purposefully toward the front door, Harry behind him, and yanked it open. Draco's hand froze in mid-knock and both Slytherins took a step backward.

"Professor Snape…." Draco drew in a breath, his eyes riveted to Snape's face. Beside him, Pansy looked from her old head of house's face to Harry's behind him.

"Nice of you to drop by," said Harry, stepping forward and extending his hand toward Draco, who looked at it dumbly before shaking it loosely. He seemed shell-shocked.

"What? Didn't you expect to find him here?" asked Harry.

"Well, frankly, no," answered Draco. "The Prophet is never right. It's just that Pansy said she'd seen…"

"I told you I wasn't hallucinating," said Pansy, a little shrilly for Harry's liking.

Draco shot her a dark look. For some reason, that cheered Harry up a bit. He frowned, however, when Draco's gaze moved from Severus' face down his body, taking in his muggle clothing under the open black robes.

"Did Potter lend you those clothes?" he asked, looking confused. He assessed Severus again, mentally sizing him. "I'd be happy to provide you with something more…appropriate…" Harry watched him struggle for the words. He would have liked to have let him falter longer but Severus took pity on the boy.

"Thank-you for the offer, but these are my own clothes." He glanced at Harry. They were nearly of equal height but it was abundantly obvious that Harry's clothes, fitted to his much more muscular body, would be too large for Severus.

"Of course. I'm sorry…I only…" Again, Draco faltered. Severus saved him with a smile.

"I am forgetting my manners. I am sure Harry would not mind me inviting you both in for tea."

"Of course." Harry took a step back into the house and Severus pushed the door open wider.

"I'm late for work already," said Pansy, obviously eager to take confirmation of Severus' location in to her employer.

Severus nodded to her politely as she made her excuses before moving a few steps down the walk and disapparating. Draco did not make a move to enter the house.

"I don't mean to be rude, Potter, but might I speak with Professor Snape in private?" he asked.

"Well, that would be up to Severus, wouldn't it?" Harry answered with a smile.

"Severus?" repeated Draco.

"Draco, I'm nearly 40 years old and Severus hasn't been our professor for 20 years."

"Please call me Severus as well," said Snape, directing his statement to Draco. He then turned back to Harry. "Allow me to speak with Mr. Malfoy privately for a few minutes, Harry. We will stay out here."

Harry glanced at Malfoy, who looked uncharacteristically nervous and hardly haughty at all, then nodded to Severus and went back into the house, closing the door softly behind him. He had mail of his own to sort through and lesson plans to create. He had barely gotten through his small pile of mail when he heard the front door open again. Severus sat back down in the chair across from him.

"Well?" asked Harry, pretending to be busy with his bills and not looking up.

"I informed him that I have had amnesia and have been living as a Muggle. He seemed…appalled."

Harry answered without looking up, attempting to sound casual.

"Well, you aren't surprised, are you? Malfoy is a pureblood. They don't…." he tried to choose his words carefully "…appreciate Muggles…or the Muggle way of life."

"Harry." Harry looked up and met Severus' eyes. "I have regained enough memories…and enough awareness…to know that purebloods such as the Malfoys disdain Muggles. What is most curious now is that when I was speaking with him, I both empathized with his position and resented it."

"That's understandable," said Harry. "It's your old life and mindset competing with the new. But really, you didn't hate Muggles. Not all of them, anyway." He looked at Severus meaningfully and Severus felt a sudden tug at his heart as Harry's green eyes morphed into Lily's.

"No. Not all of them," he stated, looking away. He reached across the table for one of the perfumed envelopes and broke the seal. Harry kept working on his accounts but heard Severus' scoff.

"A proposal of marriage. From a Miss…" he squinted at the letter and held it further away from his eyes. "A Miss Hyacinth Doppelburger." He glanced over at Harry. "Do I know her?"

Harry shrugged. "Probably. She sounds old."

Severus crumpled the parchment and sent it flying at Harry. Harry snatched it out of the air easily and grinned.

"Quidditch reflexes," he said. "Do you want to sit there and read your other marriage proposals and listen to a couple of howlers or get on over to the Ministry so we can get back in time for your meeting with Kingsley at Hogwarts?"

Severus looked at the howlers again. "Why haven't they...?"

"Neat little suspension spell I learned in the MLE," he said. "Keeps a howler from exploding in your face until the recipient actually touches it."

The howler on top gave a frustrated little shudder. Severus shook his head.

"Draco had more to say," he began. "He wondered whether I remembered, given the amnesia and all, that you and I were not on the best of terms in my past life. I suppose he thought you might have been less than upfront with me on that matter."

"Amazingly, I can understand that," answered Harry. "We weren't on the best of terms…"

"No, we were not," replied Severus, looking directly at Harry now. "But that, as you say, is 'water under the bridge.' Things are different now, and I told him so. Still, I was touched by his concern. He legitimately seemed to want to protect me."

"He's returning the favor," said Harry. "You did a lot of that for him, back in the day."

Severus stared at Harry for a long moment before answering.

"That I did, didn't I? But in the end, it wasn't me who saved him."

"He told you that, did he?" asked Harry lightly. Severus nodded.

"I may have saved him at the end, but it wasn't me who saved him on the Astronomy Tower that night."

"I…" Severus stopped, realization dawning in his eyes as disjointed memories fell together.

"He's redeemed himself, Severus. He's a good man now. We're not friends, not by a long shot, and he can be truly ruthless when he wants something badly enough. But he's also a true philanthropist. Lucius donates to causes that promote his position or advance his status but Draco donates to causes that promote peace and healing."

"He doesn't sound like a Slytherin," said Severus.

"I think he was adversely affected by having the king of all Slytherins as a house guest at Malfoy Manor."

Severus didn't comment. An odd look passed over his face, but it was soon gone. He stood.

"Let's get to the Ministry and fill out that paperwork," he said.

Harry stood as well.

"Draco would fund your memory research," he said as he pushed in his chair and carried empty mugs over to the counter.

"Would he?" asked Severus. He looked thoughtful.

"I'll put in a good word for you," joked Harry. "Come on, let's go get frustrated proving to those Ministry paper-pushers that you're not quite dead."

Severus rolled his eyes as he followed Harry to the floo.

/

By the time Severus' three o'clock appointment with Stuart rolled around, he was already exhausted. He'd spent two hours at the Ministry filling out a form on a parchment roll several feet long—all to prove that he was alive. The administrative assistant at the Department of Vital Statistics (the DVS—Harry joked that everyone called it the Deviants) had promised him a decision within two weeks. Harry pulled him away from the counter when steam began to pipe out from his ears.

"Kingsley will take care of it," he assure Severus as he pulled him from the room. "This is just a formality—Kingsley won't be able to do anything unless the documents are completed first. Come on."

They went to Gringott's next. Dealing with the goblins proved to be much easier—they were a blood thirsty lot, and sealed their deals with drops of blood. All Severus had to do was give up a drop of his blood to prove his identity and he was handed a key to his vault and trundled up for a precarious trip through the tunnels.

"I'd quite forgotten that part," he said, his face slightly green, as he and Harry stepped out of the cart. He found, to his great surprise, that his vault contained not only more galleons than he ever remembered having, but most of the contents of his old home at Spinner's End. He took out with him only his mother's jewelry box and a sack of galleons small enough to tuck into his robe pocket.

"Pity Gringott's doesn't have credit cards," he said later as he found himself jingling when he walked.

Kingsley had been waiting in the Great Hall, having tea with Minerva, when they arrived at Hogwarts after fighting off a crowd of Severus' admirers in Flourish & Botts. Harry had a black eye where he'd been punched by a limber grandmother wielding a loaded handbag. Severus escaped with nothing but fingernail scratches on his arms, though he'd been assaulted by a very buxom woman of fifty or so who had managed to plant a very wet and serious kiss on his mouth before Harry had pulled him away and side-along apparated him all the way to Hogsmeade.

"I didn't pay for my book!" protested Severus as they both sank to the ground, panting from the long-distance apparition.

Fifteen minutes later, Kingsley had greeted Harry and Severus with a very genuine smile and firm handshakes. Severus and Kingsley had then walked off together toward the lake to have a "little chat" as Kingsley put it and Harry had taken the chance to go organize his books and supplies in his new office. He lost track of time and it wasn't until nearly three thirty that he realized that he had missed Severus' appointment with Poppy and Stuart. He hurried down to the infirmary and found Poppy alone.

"Stuart's already flooed back," she said as she smoothed out the wrinkles on the bed Severus had used. "And Severus went down to his old quarters to sort through his belongings there."

"How did it go today?" asked Harry.

Poppy pursed her lips.

"The treatment is obviously working. Stuart did some general memory tests today and Severus is beginning to remember things that aren't specific to the returned memories—events and such associated with them or from the same time period. Today, though…well, the memory must have been quite upsetting."

"Most of them were," said Harry. "Which one did Stuart return?"

"It was Severus coming to Albus—after your mother died."

"Oh." Harry looked away. That memory, of all of them, had tormented Harry the most. Severus has seemed so lost in it, so close to the edge, ready to promise Albus anything, even to protect James Potter's son. Lily's son.

"I think I'll go down and help him," he said, then left the hospital wing and made his way down to the dungeons. He found Severus in his old quarters, sitting at the old roll-top desk going through papers.

"Poppy said you came back down here," Harry said as he walked through the open door. "Would you like some help?"

"No," said Severus shortly. He turned toward Harry on the chair. "But I would like to tell you about Anna's mother."

Harry stared at Severus a moment, trying to put together the pieces.

"Anna's mother?" he asked. He walked into the room and sat on the sofa. "OK, what about her?"

"She was a waitress at a small pub near my home. I used to stop in for a pint after classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was fascinated by her—the way she talked, the way she moved, what she looked like. She had a boyfriend though, a man younger than me, a good-looking fellow that played cricket and dropped her off at work on his bicycle.

"One day I came in to find her morose, crying. The boyfriend had broken up with her. I invited her out after work, to have a shoulder to cry on. By the end of that evening we'd both had too much to drink and we ended up in my bedroom. I didn't see her again for more than nine months—she quit her job the next day and never came back to that pub.

"But she showed up at my door later with Anna, a newborn of only two weeks, and asked me to take the child. Of course, she had hoped it wasn't mine, had hoped that once she had her ex's child in her arms he would beg for her to come back. She knew when she saw the child that it was likely mine, and the blood type confirmed it could not be her former boyfriend's.

"And that is how I ended up with Anna. Julia would come to see her from time to time, but the visits stopped after Anna's first birthday. I knew nothing about babies and was able to manage it only with the help of a very good nanny and a lot of luck."

"We couldn't have done it ourselves without Molly," said Harry. "I've never been so scared in my life as when the mediwitch handed me James just after he'd been born."

Severus smiled wistfully. "I never thought I'd be sharing parenting stories with Harry Potter," he said. "However, that isn't the reason I told you this story. I just found a photograph of your mother in this desk. I thought, at first, that it was Julia. They look remarkably alike."

"Oh." Harry didn't know what else to say. He looked at Severus blankly.

"Even down to the eyes," Severus continued. "Julia had remarkable green eyes, exactly like Lily's. But Anna didn't inherit those eyes. I suppose it's for the best, really. Julia saw those eyes and knew she belonged to me."

"She's a beautiful child, Severus. A remarkable one, really. You've done a fantastic job with her. And she adores you."

Severus smiled. In this confines of his old dungeon quarters, the environ of the old Severus Snape, the smile looked out of place.

"The memory treatment was successful again today," he said, segwaying into a different topic. "I was very naïve thinking the Dark Lord would spare your mother. I truly expected her to survive."

"Just like you expected me not to," said Harry.

"Indeed," said Severus, looking at Harry for a long moment then turning back to his desk and removing some letters from a small drawer. "But like always, you defied expectations."

"Right," laughed Harry. "Next time I'll…"

But Severus cut him off.

"No, Harry. They'll be no next time."

Harry nodded his head. He could live with that.