The cottage was on an island just off the coast of Scotland.

It was quiet and secluded and afforded the young newlywed couple who lived there the privacy they so desperately craved.

Deceptively small, the cottage was nestled on the edge of a patch of woodlands. 

A small fresh-water lake sitting beside it.

Only a handful of kilometers from it was the small fishing village that had been on the island since time immorial.

The people there were friendly, welcoming, and above all…one hundred percent Muggle.

Twenty year old Severus Snape had insisted upon that when he and his wife had moved into the cottage.

"It’s so beautiful here, Sev," Lily, his wife, said as they walked through the small patch of woodlands on a rather lukewarm August day.

"That it is," he told her, smiling. "I’m really going to miss it come September..."

Lily sighed. "Me, too," she said, quietly.

"We can return next summer, though," Severus reminded her, grinning. "This’ll be our haven after dealing with all those hellions…"

"I can’t believe Professor Dumbledore actually offered me a position," Lily told him, smiling. "Even if is only for one year."

"I can’t believe I actually accepted his offer to take over Slughorn’s position as Potions Master," Severus said, sighing.

"Why not?" Lily asked him, smiling. "You’ve worked hard the last three years, earning your Potions Mastery. And you’re good with children, Severus. I’ve seen you with Molly’s brood."

Severus snorted, rolling his midnight black eyes.

"Those five boys of hers are enough to drive a saint to drink," he told her, grinning. "I don’t how Arthur does it."

Lily nodded, smiling knowingly.

"You can’t fool me, Severus Tobias Snape," she told him, smirking. "You enjoyed yourself swimming with the lot of them."

Severus smirked at that, glancing at her shrewdly.

"You know me too well, love," he told her, chuckling. "After being an only child all these years, I can’t wait to have a large family…"

Lily leaned her head against his shoulder. "Me, too," she told him, happily.

"Have you decided what you are going to do once the year is up?" Severus asked her, curiously.

"You mean if I’ve survived the year teaching kids Defense Against the Dark Arts, you mean?" she asked him, smirking.

"You will," he assured him. "If any of them dare to give you any trouble, they’ll have to answer to me."

She smiled at him, gripping his arm appreciatively.

"I’ll probably either take a crack at being a Charmbuster with the Aurors," she said, quietly. "Or maybe a Cursebreaker with the Goblins…"

"Either choice is a good one," he told her, proudly. "You’re good with both Charms and Defense."

"So are you," she reminded him, smirking.

"But Potions is in my blood," he told her, grinning. "Mum, I think, would have been proud of me."

"What about your dad?" she asked, curiously.

Severus snorted. "He wouldn’t care one way or the other," he told her, scowling.

"Have you even bothered to write to him and see?" she asked him, curiously. "You know he feels extremely guilty for causing the car accident…"

"He was drunk, Lily," Severus reminded her, scowling. "He should never have been behind the wheel of that car!"

"And he is paying for it with seven years of his life behind prison bars," Lily reminded him, gently. "He wrote to congratulate us, you know."

Severus sighed, knowing she would not let this go.

Once his wife got an idea into her head, there was no changing it. He should know.

He’d known her since she was eight years old, after all.

"You really want me to write him, don’t you?" he asked her, staring into her emerald green eyes.

"I do," she told him, sincerely. "You once had a very good relationship with him, Sev…"

"That ended the day he picked up a bottle," he reminded her, scowling.

"He wrote he’s now clean and sober," she told him, "and has even gone back to school while in prison. He’s working towards getting a degree…"

Severus heaved another ‘put-upon’ sigh. "Why is this so important to you, Lils?" he asked her, curiously.

"Because I saw what being alone nearly did to you," she told him, seriously. "I nearly lost you, Severus…"

"But you didn’t," he told her. "I’ll never leave you, Lily. Never. You’re my family now."

"I know," she told him, quietly, "but he’s also your family, Severus. Just write one letter to him, please?"

"I will," he told her, unable to refuse her anything when she asked him like that, but then said hesitantly. "When I have time…"

Lily sighed, knowing that was all she was going to get out of him for the moment.

She wouldn’t give up though, no matter how long it took.

"Didn’t Albus want you to come to the school early?" she asked him, changing the subject to something else.

"Yes," Severus told her. "He said he had something important he wished to discuss with me—something to do with the Order."

Lily sighed, a shadow of anger and bitterness clouding her beautiful features.

"I wish that bloody maniac would just die already!" she said, viciously. "And take his cult with him!"

"As do I, love," Severus told her, quietly. "Someday, he will."

"But at what cost?" she wondered, out loud.

Severus felt a chill run up his spine, as if someone had suddenly walked across his grave.

"C’mon," he said, quietly. "Let’s head back in. I need to check on those potions I left simmering..."

"And I need to brush up on my Defense spells," she said, smiling.

He smiled back, feeling her love wash over him and somehow lift his spirit as only it could.

The happy couple then returned to their ‘honeymoon hideaway’, arm in arm.