The first thing Harry Potter-Snape noticed when he returned home was the rose bushes. They had grown at least two feet and the outside of the house at Spinner's End was painted a nightmare-inducing shade of pink with white trim around the windows and front door. Harry's head fell to one side a fraction as he studied the affect this new color had on his home.

Snape was going to kill someone if that paint was real. Harry hoped for the sake of whomever had decided to prank the potions master that it was merely an illusion charm. He cleared his throat and shook his head. Enough with studying the damn house. He wanted to see his father.

"Dad!" Harry called out as soon as he entered the front door.

He shrugged off one shoulder of his outer robe and was struggling with the other when he found himself enveloped in a tight hug. He hadn't even heard his dad approach. Snape's creepy ex-death eater stealth walk always caught him off guard.

He pulled back from the hug and then blinked, certain his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Merlin's beard, they got to your wardrobe, too?" Harry asked in shock.

His father was standing in front of him in a colorful robe that clashed terribly with the man's pale skin and raven hair. Severus shifted uncomfortably in the bright clothing.

"Melinda's idea. She is convinced that if I stop wearing black I will stop being me," Snape said with a huff of annoyance. "You would think after a year of dating she would know that I'm not the fuzzy-centered Hufflepuff she seems to think is lurking under my robes." Snape looked at the far wall. "My black robes," he said longingly.

"So, the paint on the house...?" Harry questioned.

"Melinda," Snape acknowledged.

"Well, it seems that I have a lot of catching up to do," Harry said with a smile.

Snape put a hand on his son's shoulder, eyes brightening and for a moment Harry wondered if his father would be brought to tears by the emotion of the moment, but then the man sneezed violently. Snape gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry, Melinda loves daisies and I always react to the wretched things."

Harry glanced around his father and it was only then that he noticed how drastically the inside of the house had changed. Lace and frills were draped across every possible surface.

"Severus, I have a question about the potions stores," a woman's voice called from downstairs, barely audible but getting louder, "do you have any unicorn tears in the emergency supplies? I couldn't find any in the cupboard by the - Oh! I didn't know we had company."

Melinda Cartwright entered the hall and approached the two men, a bright smile taking over her stunning features. She reminded Harry a little of his mother around the eyes, but Melinda's hair was a dishwater blonde and she was shorter than Lily had been. Snape dropped his hand from Harry's shoulder and motioned Melinda towards his side.

"Melinda, I would like to introduce you to my son," pride infiltrated Snape's formal tone.

Harry offered his hand and Melinda took it in a firm embrace.

"Welcome home, Harry. Severus has told me so much about you, I feel like we're friends already."

Harry felt a little uncomfortable by this revelation. Just what had his father chosen to reveal about him in the year that he had been gone? Harry gulped.

"Pleasure's mine," Harry replied with a nervous grin.

"Harry, this is my fiancee, Melinda," Snape watched his son closely.

The boy's reaction was instantaneous, he froze, every muscle in his body tensed. Harry felt the room grow distant as the seconds slowed to an impossible speed. Every blink felt like it took years and in that time he thought frantically.

One year, he had been gone one year. Twelve months. Fifty-Two weeks. Three hundred and Sixty-Five days. That was not nearly enough time to get to know someone well enough to become engaged to them. The number grew larger until all he could see was a giant, white number like a Quidditch score post in his mind. One year. One. He had left and in that time his father had found someone else to love.

Harry felt like a rug had been pulled out from under his feet. Everything tilted crazily and then he was back to staring at his father and Melinda Cartwright. Barely a second had passed.

Harry exhaled slowly. Snape's eyebrows drew together in concern, but he let Harry be the first to break the silence.

"I... think... I need to sit down," Harry said after a moment.

Melinda's bright smile reappeared. "Why don't the two of you go into the dinning room and catch up while I make some coffee -"

"Tea," Snape corrected.

"- tea," she amended.

Harry's throat had gone dry and he swallowed. "That would be brilliant, thanks."

Once Melinda was gone, father and son exchanged a glance before heading into the first room on the right where they took their customary seats around the dinning table.

"Fiancee, huh?" Harry asked.

Snape nodded slowly. "Ye-es."

Harry wondered at the hesitancy, but did not question the man. His father would talk when he was ready, so, Harry turned his attention to the real elephant in the room.

"Severus, you are wearing a pony-tie," Harry said matter-of-factly.

The man touched his hair, where it was pulled up out of his face, and the tiniest blush started on his cheeks.

"It helps with potions," Snape explained.

"You do realize that if you marry her then you are marrying everything, right?" Harry asked in a hushed voice, not wanting the woman to overhear if she returned prematurely. "You're marrying the pink house and the weird colorful robes and the pony-tie."

Snape's eyes flashed. "Do you think I did not consider this at length?" he questioned stonily.

Harry felt bad for what he was about to say, but he couldn't stop his mouth from blurting it out. "I think you've fallen in love and you can't see straight, because you think she's the woman you've been waiting for all your life. Loving her won't make her my mom."

Snape's mouth opened and then closed, a wrathful expression burning across his face. Harry wondered if this is what it felt like before you were murdered in a 'crime of passion'. He always thought that term was a bit stupid and useless, but now it was all he could think. Crime of passion.

"I'm sorry, sir," he rushed the apology, keeping his eyes downcast.

He expected to be hit at the very least. Wouldn't any normal human react violently to being accused of something so obviously false? Nothing happened. Harry slowly looked up, his green eyes framed in a grimace.

Snape was considering him with an unreadable expression. "Harry, I would never hit you."

Harry bit his lip.

Snape took a deep breath. "I cherish every memory I have of Lily and I admit that the reason I gave Melinda a chance in the first place was because of the slight resemblance, but our relationship has grown past looks or eccentricities. I love her for her heart and soul and she loves me, Merlin knows why." Snape looked away then.

Melinda entered the room and put a platter of tea and dishes on the table. She leaned over Severus and drew him into a deep kiss. Harry averted his eyes, but kept getting drawn back to the sight. He felt nauseous.

"Of course you know why, Severus," Melinda said softly, staring into his eyes once their lips had parted, "I love you because you are the bravest, most honest man I have ever known."

Harry rejected the urge to gag and instead began to pour himself a cup of tea for something to distract him from what he had just witnessed. It had been a deeply personal moment and he did not relish the idea of seeing more of them after the wedding.

Wedding.

The tea cup fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers, spilling brown liquid across the table. Snape cleaned it with a flick of his wand, rising to his feet.

"Harry, are you alright?" Melinda asked.

Wedding.

The boy wondered if it was still too late to go back on the road. He had not yet told his dad that he was home for good, he could play it off as another short visit and be gone by morning. Except... He had been gone for a year and the only place he really wanted to be was with his dad. At their home.

"Harry?" the potions master questioned softly, obsidian eyes searching.

"I think I need to be alone right now." No, no. What he needed was his dad.

He needed to tell his dad all the wonderful and terrible things that had happened in the past year. He needed to cry in his dad's arms at the heartbreak he had found and laugh out loud with the man who would understand the joys of discovery. The last thing Harry wanted was to be left alone.

"I need do get some shopping in town, perhaps you would like to join me, Severus?" Melinda asked.

The dark-haired man nodded, but said nothing. Melinda quickly cleared the table of the tea and saucers and took Snape by the elbow, walking through the door and out the front hall. Severus had not even resisted.

Harry felt like someone had punched him in the chest. His dad had left him.

Is this how it was going to be from now on? Melinda and Snape with Harry being their troubled adopted son? Did she even want him as a son? He was of age, what if she expected him to live somewhere else? Away from his dad?

Harry heard the front door close and suddenly he couldn't breathe. The walls were closing in on him and he couldn't even move.

* * *

Snape walked away from Spinner's End, arm in arm with Melinda, but his thoughts were still back with Harry at the dinner table. He had told the boy the truth.

Then why do you feel like the same slimy git who used to rejoice over that hurt look he wears so well?

Melinda was chattering away about whatever meal she planned to make for that night. He listened to her voice, but not the words. She sounded like Lily with the same soft, even notes. He suddenly hated himself.

The boy had been right, of course, but Snape did not want to believe it.

Melinda Cartwright was skilled at potions, brighter than most witches Snape had known and very kind, but she had been in Lily's shadow their whole relationship and Snape knew it was time to face that truth head on.

He could not have done it on his own. He would have continued on forever with her at his side, sharing potions tricks and talking about the past - it was amazing how easily he could open up to the woman - but now that Harry had returned, the man realized what a mistake he had made.

His son deserved better.

The ring on Snape's finger, a simple silver band, felt suddenly cumbersome and weighted. He stopped walking.

"Severus?"

"I think maybe I should go back. Check on Harry." He hated to admit even to himself that he might have been too hasty.

Melinda looked slightly deflated, but she nodded and put on a bright smile. "Yes, dear. You go check on the boy and I'll be back shortly."

They parted ways, Snape feeling first relieved and then guilty. He was a terrible fiance.

* * *

Harry was still sitting at the table, staring at its grainy wood, when his father returned. The boy heard the front door open, but he couldn't move. It could have been Voldemort himself at the door and Harry wouldn't have cared.

His dad was marrying a strange, eccentric, potions-loving woman who had already started to tear them apart from each other. It was all he could do to keep breathing.

"Harry?" Severus was at the table and again Harry had not heard him enter.

The dark-haired boy looked up, then. "Dad?"

Wordlessly, Snape reached up and unbound the pony-tie from his hair, letting the raven colored locks fall against his cheeks. It was a statement that Snape hoped his son understood.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

The potions master nodded. "Quite certain."

"Dad, what I said before about mom and... you... I didn't mean it."

"Yes, you did and you were right." His father shook his head sadly. "I didn't want to see it before, but I am using Melinda. She was nothing more than a substitute. For your mother... for you. I missed you more than I thought possible."

Harry swallowed hard. "There is so much I want to tell you about what I've been through, what I've accomplished this last year."

"I want to hear it all, son, but first I need to inform Melinda." Snape did not relish that future conversation.

* * *

Harry watched from across the room, deafened by a privacy charm that left the entire conversation between Melinda and Severus completely silent. The boy could read their expressions though and knew the exact moment that Melinda was told the truth. Snape's face grew pinched and pale while Melinda's grew damp and red. She shook her head and Harry had to look away because her eyes were filled with pained questions.

Breakups were never easy. Losing someone you loved, who you thought loved you, must be the worst of all. Harry looked down at his feet, the boots stained from the weather he had traveled through. They had been a gift from Severus after his last visit home. Those boots had been a reminder of home that he had needed during the worst days.

He needed his family.

Melinda was leaving, then, all tears and red and sadness.

Here was home. Pained, messy, and his.