Standing with his back to the small island countertop, Snape silently chopped the numerous ingredients for their salad on the large cutting slab. He knew that his adoptive son was sitting behind him setting the table. He could hear the clinking of silverware every now and then.

Normally, they'd ask the house elves to send down their dinner, but he didn't feel like doing so tonight. Instead, Snape requested that the house elves send down his specified ingredients for a light salad and the main course of fettuccine Alfredo, which was Aurora's favorite. It took awhile before the house elves finally agreed to Snape's demands. It was rare after all for a wizard to cook. However, cooking was almost second nature to him since preparing food was practically the same motion as preparing a potion.

In order for the pan of water and noodles to boil properly, Snape had to cast a heating spell on his pan. He kept one ear tuned to the pan as he moved onto making the salad. Carefully, he chopped the heads of lettuce before adding the ingredients into the very large silver bowl. He then proceeded to slice and dice thin slices of tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, cucumbers, and Piedmont truffles, which he soon added to his salad.

Snape outstretched a hand, summoning a bottle of white wine. He felt Harry's eyes on him almost immediately. No doubt, the Gryffindor was wondering if Snape was about to drink. He, however, smirked softly and poured in about a shot amount of the liquor into the salad. Finally, he sprinkled in the pecans prior to tossing the salad together.

"She's not supposed to have alcohol," Harry reminded as he slowly walked up beside Snape.

"I am aware. However, I'm certain that this will have no ill effects to Aurora or the twins. You need not concern yourself, Harry. In fact, if you must know, I consulted Madam Pomfrey prior to cooking. She agrees with me."

"Okay, well, I was just wondering." Harry then glanced into the bowl. "It looks rather good."

"High praise from a Gryffindor," Snape drawled before checking on the noodles.

"What are the little grey things, though?"

"Truffles," answered the Slytherin. He soon grabbed his ladle and gently stirred the pan. Once more, he held out his hand and summoned another large bowl. Tapping his hand against rim, he watched the thin-yellowed noodles suddenly levitate up out of the water before slowly transferring to the empty bowl. Whirling around, he grabbed his already prepared sauce and poured all of it in. "You should perhaps wash up, Harry. Dinner will be done in a few moments," he spoke while stirring the noodles and Alfredo sauce together. He didn't have to glance towards his adoptive son to know that Harry was following his directions. In the distance, he then heard the portrait loudly open.

"Oh, Severus, that smells wonderful."

A kiss to his cheek then made him nearly miss the parsley he was currently chopping and hit his thumb instead. It wouldn't have been the first time he had accidentally cut himself, though. So far, everything looked to be going well. He then grabbed a handful of the chopped parsley and tossed it on top of the fettuccine Alfredo in order for more color.

"How was your class?" he asked quietly.

"Abysmal as always," she joked back. "Seriously, I think some of them are rather glad I'm going on maternity leave soon. Oh, by the way, have you met Miss Edwards yet, first year Slytherin?" When he shook his head, she continued. "Well, I think you're going to need to speak to her, Severus. I mean, I would, but—"

"You believe she's having trouble adjusting?" he interrupted.

It was a common discussion they always had at the start of the year. They made a habit of finding the students in their house who would likely have the most trouble at Hogwarts and attempt to help those students adjust to the changes. Snape usually received the male students, since it was more comfortable for both student and professor, while Aurora handled the female students. However, it was clear that she perhaps wouldn't be able to this year due to her pregnancy. She was becoming more tired earlier because of the twins so it didn't leave a fair amount of time for her to help the female students.

"Well, let me put it to you this way, Severus. She spoke with Miss Taylor in Hufflepuff about running away." Shaking her head, Aurora sat at the island. "Poor girl feels like she's an outcast."

"Every year there are a few," he reminded gently, taking time to glance at his fiancée. "I'll speak with Miss Edwards in the morning before I speak with your father."

"That should be fun," Aurora drawled. "Mother's not going to be there, is she?"

"I am under the impression that she won't be. Would you wish me to wait—?"

"Dear Merlin, no, Severus," she interrupted. "Let my father deal with her. We have other things to attend to, unfortunately. Speaking of which, where's Harry?"

"Right here," the young Gryffindor replied. "Do you think it'd be all right if I stayed down here tonight? The guys up in the Tower need a bit of time to adjust, I think." Harry then laughed. "You know, you were the talk of the tables at lunch today. Ron isn't quite sure what to make of your apology, which is how the other Gryffindors feel. Well, except Hermione, that is. It took me forever to convince her that you're not dying."

"Good to hear," Snape quipped as he levitated the bowls of food to the island. "I suppose I should have anticipated this reaction. Gryffindors aren't known for their sheer brilliance."

"Yeah, yeah," Harry replied with a laugh. "Though, I keep getting swarmed by all the girls. They all want to know what you're going to name the babies, if you're happy about it, and it just goes on from there. It was a bit funny actually. Mione and Ron drew their wands and told them all to back off. Ron's a bit jealous, I think, by all the attention, though."

"Perhaps, but it is rather excellent of your friends to stick with you through this."

The family silently then ate, taking short periods to discuss trivial matters like if Ron would actually study this year, one yes against two nos. Once the food was all ate up, the family then retired to the sitting area. Harry had his Divinations book opened in front of him to finish his essay, while Aurora was sitting on the other side of the sofa reading an Astronomy journal.

Snape, however, sat in his chair with his head leaned back staring up at the ceiling. For the time being, brewing experimental potions strangely enough didn't necessarily hold his interest. He didn't feel like reading any of his latest journals from PM, and Slughorn had offered to grade the students' essay for that night. He had finished just yesterday with the cribs. In other words, Snape was positively bored. It was perhaps his real reasoning for cooking. He needed something to pass the time. Sighing, he attempted to find something he could do. Of course, there was always decorating the nursery some more. It didn't feel quite complete yet to him, but he had a feeling that it never would.

His dark eyes slowly glanced towards the kitchenette. Cooking was rather relaxing and kept his mind off things. Though, they already had dinner. He then snorted when a thought came to him. Glancing towards Aurora and Harry, he decided that both looked like they needed some gooey fudge.

Snape held up a hand and summoned a book from the shelf. He immediately glanced at the table of contents for fudge. His eyes narrowed on the recipe's name, Fudge of Doom. He snorted shaking his head. Well, it at least suited him.

Standing, he quickly walked back to the kitchenette. He summoned a house elf and quietly informed it to bring him several bars of dark chocolate, flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, butter, brown sugar, sugar, egg, and vanilla. The house elf looked at him with wide eyes before popping out of the room. The ingredients appeared on the counter a few seconds later. Gently, Snape set the recipe book down next to the dark chocolate and started. According to the recipe, this would at least kill thirty-five minutes. He then reread the directions.

1. Place a bar of dark chocolate in a small bowl that is able to withstand a Heating charm. Apply a mild Heating charm on the chocolate for a minute. Stir. Cast Heating charm again until the chocolate softens. Stir then until smooth before allowing chocolate to cool
2. Mix a cup of flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, ½-teaspoon baking soda, and ½-teaspoon salt into another small bowl
3. Stir ½-cup butter in large bowl until creamy. Add ½-cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup sugar and continue to stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add a teaspoon vanilla extract and an egg. Stir well. Add in cooled chocolate from step 1 and stir
4. Add flour mixtures from step 2 into large bowl from step 3. Chop six bars of dark chocolate coarsely before adding it to the large bowl. Stir until liquid is smooth. Pour large bowl into glass pan. Apply cooling charm to pan until firm. Cut small sections and enjoy.

Truthfully, the directions weren't that difficult to understand. He conjured two small silver cooking bowls, one large mixing bowl, and a glass pan as per the recipe's instructions. So far, neither Harry nor Aurora seemed to be paying attention to him. He grabbed a bar of dark chocolate that appeared to be from Honeydukes and opened it. His nose instantly drew in the rich scent of it, causing his mouth to water slightly. He, however, tossed the bar into one of the small silver bowls and drew his wand before casting the mild Heating charm.

Snape's dark eyes watched it melt, covering the bowl in a thick dark liquid. It was practically torture only to watch. He then grabbed a spoon and slowly stirred the liquid around the bowl. He watched the dark portions swirl around in the light parts. It reminded him so much of brewing Polyjuice potion. Only he knew that this creation was going to be tremendously better tasting that that potion.

Expertly, he stirred the chocolate until the desired result occurred. Setting aside that bowl, he grabbed another small silver bowl. When measuring out the necessary flour, he suddenly felt a hand brush against his forearm. Unfortunately, he hadn't expected that so the bag of flour went flying up into the air as his hand quickly latched onto the person's wrist. Soon, flour covered the person and him from head to toe as sounds of loud laughter erupted from the sofa in the sitting room.

"Severus," Aurora softly spoke next to him.

Snape could see the badly hidden smile on her face. Out of habit, he nearly snarled something particularly harsh at her for laughing at him. However, he quickly drew in a deep breath to calm himself. He wasn't going to become that man again. There wasn't a need anymore. Since he was rather busy attempting to keep his tongue firmly in check, he allowed his eyes to roam down her flour-covered body, which caused him to snort. He had to admit that she was right. They did look rather ridiculous.

"Severus, what on earth are you doing?" Still hidden was the laughter in her voice.

"I'm attempting to bake," he replied softly.

"Why?"

"I'm not certain. It seemed like a good idea at the time." Staring blankly at her, he felt her gently wipe away the flour with her conjured towel. He soon felt a rather unfamiliar instinct take over. He didn't know exactly how she'd react to it, but the instinct was rather strong. Drawing in a slow breath, he felt his head lower towards hers. He could see the brief flicker of confusion before he gently kissed her lips. They drew apart a few seconds later, which allowed him to place his chin atop of her head.

"You know, if you just wanted me to leave, Snape, you could have just asked," the young Gryffindor quipped from the sofa. At some point, he had turned around to stare at them with a wide grin.

"Oh, shut up, Harry," Snape drawled.

"So, what are you making anyway? Other than making out with my Astronomy professor, I mean," joked the young man as he soon joined them in the kitchenette.

"I was attempting to bake fudge. However, as you can see, that isn't going well."

"Well, how about we help? I have some experience in baking."

Snape only inclined his head before moving the book into the middle between them. He silently pointed to the step he was on before pouring another cup of flour. He watched the three tablespoons of cocoa powder fall in with the baking soda and salt. Silently, he mixed all of the ingredients together, while he noticed Harry dropping a stick of butter into the large mixing bowl beside him. Aurora, however, seemed to be watching them for the most part, but she did measure everything every now and then. Soon, Harry was stirring the half-cup of brown sugar and third cup of sugar together with the added teaspoon of vanilla.

Glancing towards his fiancée, Snape caught Aurora's soft smile as she held out an egg. He didn't really know how to describe it, but he felt like showing off a bit. He grabbed the egg from her and cracked it against the side of the countertop one handed before opening it over Harry's bowl. The young Gryffindor only rolled his eyes at Snape as he continued to stir. Aurora then grabbed the small silver bowl with the cooled chocolate and poured it in with a large smile towards Harry.

"Let's see you mix that together," she said before playfully tousling his hair.

Snape, however, took the large bowl from Harry. He was more used to that sort of labor than Harry was so it made perfect sense that he should mix it. Harry gave him a grateful look before continuing on with the next direction.

The sounds of dark chocolate chopped to bits next to him made Snape silently chuckle. Maybe he should speak to Albus about a cooking course for the first years in order to transition them slowly into brewing. It certainly made some sense now, since he was currently baking with Aurora, the world's worst witch in Potions, and Harry, who couldn't maintain the necessary span of attention to save his life.

Adding in the silver bowl of mixtures into the large bowl, Harry then tossed in the tiny dark chocolate chunks in as Snape stirred again. Soon, the entire bowl was full of rich liquid dark chocolate. Aurora moved the glass pan closer before Snape poured everything into it. A cooling charm later, Snape silently cut the small sections of fudge with a smirk. It certainly looked delicious.

"Almost finished," Aurora said before grabbing the pan of fudge from him and whirling around.

"Almost finished?" Snape repeated in disbelief. "What are you going to do? Dip it in yogurt?"

"No," she replied with a scoff. Aurora then slowly turned back around. "Well, what do you think, boys? Does it look a bit more delicious now?"

Snape glanced towards his fudge in the pan. He nearly chuckled when he saw that she had drizzled white chocolate on top of it. He would admit that his mouth was watering in response, but that was perhaps only because he knew it was fudge and he loved fudge. However, the fudge didn't look like the Fudge of Doom that he had been trying to make now. Drawing in a breath, he decided that he'd poke a little fun at the stain that was on his soul. Magically, he altered the white chocolate drizzle to make a likeness to the Dark Mark. He caught Aurora and Harry's moods drastically shift, which he could understand. He, however, grabbed one of the bars using a fork and glanced at both.

"I think we should call it 'Dark Mark's Revenge."

"That's a bit…creepy," Harry replied as he quietly grabbed himself a piece of fudge.

"I agree," Aurora said, staring at Severus strangely. "However, it's your creation so 'Dark Mark's Revenge' it is then." She popped her small piece in her mouth, which Harry and Snape followed suit. Exactly a second later, they spit it back out into a napkin.

"Dip it in yogurt?"

"Definitely," Snape replied with a grimace. That was positively horrid tasting.