Around five in the morning on Harry's birthday, Snape awoke to Aurora snuggling even closer to him. He bit his bottom lip gently to keep from chuckling. If she nuzzled any closer to him, then she'd be lying on top of him. That's not necessarily a bad thing, Severus, the now familiar voice in his head that he had silenced for so long with his Occlumency barriers drawled. Raspberries and ginger wafted up to him as her thick curly dark hair rested just underneath his chin. She smelled rather intoxicatingly right now. Then again, she always seemed to be so stimulating to him. In fact, it was now more so than ever.

Closing his eyes again, he chastised himself for his reaction. He had thought the potion he had drunken six days earlier would be out of his system by now. However, that wasn't the case. If anything, the potion's potency was increasing with time. It was becoming harder and harder for him to control himself around Aurora…and perhaps even Harry…and maybe possibly his coworkers, namely Hagrid.

In fact, just yesterday when all three of them had dined in the Great Hall with a few of their coworkers, chuckles suddenly erupted out of him in response to something Hagrid had said. It had taken him nearly three whole minutes to stop chuckling. It wasn't even that funny. Hagrid had only recited the time when Snape had a month's full of detention with the half-giant. Well, perhaps it was funny because he received that after being in a rather compromising situation with Aurora during his sixth-year.

Pomfrey and Slughorn had thought that something improper had occurred between the two Slytherins because Snape had carried Aurora's unconscious and unfortunately naked body into the Hospital Wing. If either of the two fools had taken the time to ask him what had occurred, though, he would have informed them that he had found her crying in the shower trying to rub off her green-tinted skin. Yet another of Black and Potter's hexes aimed for him, which in this case unfortunately ended up hitting Aurora instead because she stepped in front of him.

So after having to bear the outraged looks from the mediwitch and his head of House for doing something nice, sixth-year Severus Snape received a month's worth of detention and a lecture about impropriety from the headmaster. That talk still sent chills down his back. How a wizard who looked like someone's grandfather could talk so openly about sex, well, Snape knew he'd never forget it.

"Mmm, Severus," Aurora moaned softly against his chest.

Unfortunately, his fiancée had a bit of a habit of talking in her sleep. That habit combined with his lack of control was very dangerous. He glanced down at her and licked his lips slowly. If he stayed very quiet, she'd never know. NO, he shouted in his mind, which seemed to snap him out for a moment. His eyes then darted to the ceiling, which he had charmed to imitate the night sky. The majority of the stars, however, were gone as the sun started to rise. His charming his ceiling was after all the only way he could get Aurora to stop complaining about moving into the cold, dreary, damp, vile, scary, and dozens of other adjectives for the dungeons.

In hindsight, Snape should have realized that she would grumble about living in the dungeons with him. She was used to her tower and seeing the stars whenever she wanted. He knew that. He had noticed that sometimes during their lovemaking—wait—what? Oh, that stupid potion, he grumbled in his mind. We did not make love then, well, not like now. He drew in a deep breath. During their times together, he noticed that she'd glance out her bewitched balcony towards the stars. Stars and Severus Snape seemed to be the two things that brought her extreme satisfaction. Put the two together and her happiness turned into a supernova.

"What are you thinking about?" Aurora softly whispered slowly lifting her head up off his chest.

"You're awake." Lovely, Severus, way to state the obvious, he chastised himself. He then cleared his throat gently. "I was thinking about my gift for Harry."

"Severus, you're not still concerned that he's going to say no, are you?"

He shook his head before sighing. Well, he was worried about Harry saying no, but he wasn't going to tell her that. Then again, he was also worried that Harry's first birthday with him wouldn't be as grand for the teen as Snape had hoped it would be. Fortunately, Aurora distracted him from all these thoughts. She gently started to trace patterns lightly on his bare chest, which made him chuckle softly. He'd deny it fiercely if anyone dared to say that he, Severus Snape, was ticklish, but he appeared, well, to be ticklish to her touch at the very least.

"Harry won't be up for another few hours," Aurora softly said in a singsong voice.

"And my privacy wards are currently active around the bedroom," he replied glancing at her.

"Oh, what to do?" she asked with a devilish smirk tapping on his chest with her finger. "What to do, Severus? Decisions, decisions," she whispered softly. Her dark eyes sparkled with desire in the little moonlight that shone in the room. "Remind me to thank Poppy later," she whispered against his lips.

Only two weeks in Severus's life could he consider the happiest two weeks of his life. The first week was after he had met the fiery redhead green-eyed Muggleborn witch, whom he swore would be his wife at the time someday. This week, even with the forced house arrest from Pomfrey, came in a close second, but it was easily catching up.

He had informed Harry upon returning to their quarters that he had asked Aurora to marry him. Harry was nearly bouncing off the walls with excitement. For a split second, Snape had thought about spelling a Calming Draught into the young man's stomach, but decided against it. Harry needed to recapture all the happiness that the Dark Lord took from him when he was just a toddler. So, Snape instead allowed the jovial Gryffindor to bounce about like a crazed Hufflepuff and ignored his killer headache from Harry's excitement.

Snape vaguely even remembered chuckling at the sight of Harry doing what he called the Victory dance. However, the part of that day that he'd remember to his dying day was when Harry leaned in towards him and whispered, "If you're going to do stuff together, please put a sock on the door or something." How Harry ever picked that line up was way beyond Snape's imagination. He speculated that it was from the Muggles that Dumbledore forced Harry to live with, though.

A few hours later, Snape awoke very well rested with a rather large grin plastered on his face. He tried to force the grin back, but it kept reappearing, though, so he just gave up. Maybe now he could control himself just a little since he gave in. However, he sincerely doubted it because it hadn't worked so far this past week. He gently pressed a kiss against her forehead, which made her nuzzle into him more briefly before she rolled away from him. His dark chocolate eyes watched her for a few moments. She was absolutely beautiful as she slept, and he could see that there was a soft smile on her face too. She then rolled onto her back and turned her head towards him on the pillow. Her eyes still closed. Her breathing was still even and relaxed. With her dark curls spread out above her, she looked a bit like Medusa. He bit his bottom to keep from chuckling at that. No doubt, she'd hex him if he told her that. Then again, her last name did mean 'Serpent Handler' if you used the star group. He then did chuckle very softly after thinking about how fitting her name was. After all, she certainly knew how to handle— UGH, why do I keep thinking like that, he growled in his head. I'll be glad when I've finally metabolized this damn potion. Honestly, he grumbled. At this point, I'd probably beat all of the sixth-year boys in all in terms of hormones. He then huffed in annoyance with himself. Someone should have named this potion The Dirty Old Man Draught. Though, that dirty old man in him had made things a bit more interesting for them. He violently shook his head at the thought. It's definitely high past time that I get up for the day. I don't need any more wicked thoughts.

Before getting out of bed to get dressed, though, Snape lightly touched Aurora's flat stomach. He had found himself doing that more this past week. It always soothed him when he laid his hand on her abdomen. He knew he couldn't feel their child yet, and that it probably couldn't even sense his presence yet, but it was just the knowledge that his child was in there. He affectionately rubbed tender loving circles on the satin sheet that covered her body. A part of him wanted to move the sheet to the side and kiss her bare abdomen, but he decided that he could wait until she was further along for that.

After leaving her and making absolutely sure he hadn't woken Aurora up, he grabbed clean clothes from his dark armoire and walked into his bathroom to take a shower. He had to admit that while under the influence of this potion that his hair wasn't so greasy all the time. Then again, it had been nearly a week since he brewed anything so maybe that was the true reason, not the potion. After all, even if the potion made his hair less greasy, it wasn't really worth his loss of self-control all the time.

His entire shower took nearly three minutes, and he was freezing the entire time. However, if his showers now had to consist of him being frozen nearly to death to keep his hand off Aurora, then so be it. Once he was dressed in a black shirt and loose black sweatpants, he silently walked out and headed down the dark hallway towards his kitchenette. He paused momentarily in front of Harry's bedroom, but continued when he noticed that the young man showed no signs of getting up anytime soon.

Upon walking into his sitting room, Snape scoffed. Albus appeared to have sent Harry's gifts down already. Very silently, Snape glanced over the numerous wrapped birthday presents. It seemed nearly everyone on staff had sent Harry something. He shook his head at that briefly before sighing. It was a bit his fault that they had done that. He was the one who had decided that Harry needed a birthday party, which Albus was more than happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the old man could only keep so many secrets, and the fact that Snape wanted to throw Harry a birthday party just wasn't a secret the old man could keep it seemed.

On the plus side, Snape was rather glad that they had known that he didn't really wish Harry to open presents at his party. Well, that reason was purely selfish on Snape's part. He didn't want anyone except Harry and possibly Aurora to be there when he gave his present to the young man in case it went very badly. After all, everyone knew that the PM initials for his job didn't mean he was a Present Master. In fact, the gifts he usually gave out were potions.

Albus always received a special brew of Lemon honey flavored tea from him. Minerva would receive another batch of Animagus formula for her students. Filius would receive a potion that gave him wings. It was something the small Ravenclaw always requested after he once drank a Muggle drink that claimed it would give a person wings. Pomona would receive a strengthening tonic for her various plants in her quarters. Hagrid would receive a bottle of mead that Snape brewed to make sure the half-giant didn't wake up the next morning with a killer headache. Septima would receive a memory restorative draught so she could remember her parents before they died. Charity and Aurora finally always received a bottle of Felix Felicis respectively.

Snape then scoffed softly. Well, perhaps not always in Aurora's case. He had once brewed as a joke a potion he claimed was a love potion. She took it during breakfast on the day of his famous duel, and he didn't see a single change in her demeanor. She had been rather upset with him over that.

Unfortunately, Snape's claim was in fact true in this case and he had given her a real love potion. He had foolishly switched the real potion with the fake potion during the second-year Slytherin and Gryffindor potions class. No doubt, Harry or Longbottom had distracted him when he made the switch.

No matter what he did, he would never get that horrifying picture out of his mind. That day of his famous duel, Snape had walked into the teacher's lounge to get himself a refill of his tea. He had already been having a rather poor day. Longbottom had destroyed yet another caldron before covering Snape's classroom in a mysterious goop that refused to come off the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately, his day got much worse when he walked into the lounge and found Lockhart on top of some poor witch. He did his best to ignore the two as they giggled sickeningly. After all, he only wanted another cup of tea, not a freaking peep show. However, when he started heading back towards the door to leave, his dark eyes caught familiar dark curly hair.

Now, it was just common knowledge that Aurora positively hated Lockhart. After all, the stupid wizard had tried to molest her once before—well, perhaps not molest, but he had grabbed her breasts in front of the entire staff at a staff meeting once—under the guise that she had been choking. However, she hadn't been choking. In fact, she had been coughing because she had fallen ill from being outside during a thunderstorm. Strangely enough, it was the last time he ever remembered her being sick.

Snape clearly remembered his loud 'oh shit' followed by his cup of tea shattering on the ground when he realized that he had switched the potions and had in fact given her a very real and very potent love potion. He also clearly remembered yanking Lockhart off Aurora. The man had slammed hard against the back wall, but at least Lockhart wasn't on her anymore.

A few hours later, Snape blasted Lockhart off the platform in the Great Hall. However, he hadn't done it at the time because for a second time Lockhart had his grimy little hands on Aurora. No, she hadn't even really registered on Snape's radar at that point. They were acquaintances, possibly friends, but that was all. It wasn't as if Snape had been secretly crushing after her like Lily and decided that he'd send all his rage towards the poor unsuspecting DADA moron because Lockhart had managed to cop a feel on Aurora for the second time now. No, truthfully, he sent his rage towards the handsome bastard because Snape had mixed up the potions and given Aurora the wrong one. No, really, that was the truth. At least that was the truth he was going to admit to if anyone ever asked him. Sure, he had felt strangely protective of her ever since she had seen his Dark Mark, but he hadn't loved her. He couldn't love her.

"Hey, Snape," Harry quietly said as he walked into the room.

"Harry," he replied inclining his head briefly towards the fifteen year old. "Your gifts appear to be taking up most of my sitting room."

"Yeah, I noticed that," the young man said with a laugh. "You know, I could open them, Snape."

"Not until your—not until Aurora arrives," Snape spoke shaking his head softly. Why he had almost said that Aurora was Harry's mother? He then glanced towards the parchment sitting on the island in the kitchenette. That was probably the reason right there.

"Well, we're just going to have to wake sleeping beauty up then, Snape."

The words, unfortunately, didn't register in Snape's mind until after Harry had started towards Snape's bedroom. When the words finally registered moments later, his dark eyes glanced up and watched as the young man crossed the threshold into his room.

"NO, HARRY, DON'T!" Snape roared before sprinting towards the Gryffindor. He tried to send a quick fetching spell towards the young man, but his spell missed. Loud screams from both Harry and Aurora then echoed around the room, making Snape wince. Silently, he walked into his bedroom and noticed that Harry had jumped on the bed as if he were a little kid climbing into bed with his parents after a bad nightmare. However, it seemed that Aurora had suspended Harry in the air in mid-jump. Both looked positively shell-shocked at the sight of one another. While she held the bed sheet firmly around her body, the bed sheet didn't necessarily hide the fact that she was naked underneath it.

Once Harry was back on the floor and the spell removed around him, the young Gryffindor turned around and glanced at Snape with large green eyes. Snape did his best not to wince or redden. The green eyes then darted back to Aurora before resting on Snape once more.

"You two do realize it's my birthday, right?"

"Yes, Harry, we realize that," Snape quietly answered.

"Uh-huh, so why is it that my Astronomy professor isn't wearing any clothes, Snape?"

"Oh, dear Merlin, Potter," Snape said clearly exasperated. "We had sex this morning because that stupid goddamn potion you found for me has turned me into a sex-crazed teenager and I can't keep my damn hands off her." Vaguely, Snape noticed the flush on Harry's face, but he kept on ranting because he had lost what little control he had left. He then started to pace in front of his bed glancing at the floor. "However, to be perfectly honest, I perhaps allowed myself to lose control so that I could stop thinking about what your answer will be when I ask you this morning if it is acceptable if I legally and formally adopt you. So, fine, Potter, yes, because it's your birthday I had sex with your Astronomy professor." He could hear soft muffled sounds coming from Harry and Aurora, but he didn't look up. "However, you should have already realized by now that it's perfectly natural for two people who love each to show affections towards one another. So it should not be a surprise to you at all that I slept with Aurora this morning. Things happen, Potter. You do not plan these things." The sounds increased and vaguely sounded like laughter. "You do not question such things because if you wake up and there is a beautiful woman in your arms, you by god do everything in your power to have sex with her so that you are not like me, ranting and raving like a goddamn Hufflepuff. So, yes, Potter, I had sex with your Astronomy professor. To be perfectly honest, I've had lots of sex with your Astronomy professor this past week. I smell her, and the urge increases. Her hand rests against mine, and I want nothing more than to make her squirm and cry out in pleasure under my hands."

"Severus, please…stop," Aurora said laughing with tears in her eyes. But he didn't.

"If it is hormones, then I'm royally screwed because for nine months that means her hormones will turn me into…Weasley or someone." He was panting heavily now. "Hell, last night at dinner, I nearly shoved her against the wall to take her." His hands went to his hair, and he ran his fingers through it. "She's intoxicating, and no matter how much sex we have, I want more. I need more! Do you understand?" he yelled glancing at Harry. "Your damn potion has done this to me."

"I'm sorry, Severus," Aurora said biting her lip to keep from laughing. "Stupefy." He watched the red jet of light slam against his chest and allowed himself to fade into darkness in his mind. Hopefully, Pomfrey could help him.