"Ah, here you all are," Albus said as he approached their group the same as he had every year now for almost sixty years. He didn't sound surprised in the least that he found them where he had. They were always here, so there was nothing unusual about it. "Master Snape?"

"Albus," Severus said, turning to look at the headmaster. What was unusual today? Albus wasn't alone. That was different, particularly the witch accompanying him.

"You remember Eileen Prince? She was a student of ours in the forties. Her son, Severus, was one of your students as well, and your replacement when you chose to leave us." The twinkle in the headmaster's eye was brighter than Severus had seen it in a long time. Not that the headmaster had anything to fret about this go around, beyond general attitudes and day to day scuffles. Certainly, it was less stressful than fighting Grindelwald and then dealing with the Dark Lord.

"Yes, I remember, Albus. I am not senile yet."

Severus could tell that the headmaster was doing all that he could at the moment to hold back his mirth at the current situation. The other man knew exactly who Eileen Snape nee Prince was. He chose to ignore the man and, instead, focus his attention on his mother. While Albus was surprised at Eileen's appearance here, Hermione nor Severus were not. This was the idea they'd come up with to give his mother a … chance to see their children and grandchildren in person.

"Madam Snape," he said with a polite nod of his head.

"Eileen, please," she said. She was trying very hard to focus on him instead of the several dozen people behind them who were, in actuality, her descendants.

"Very well, Erik. And you remember my wife, Marie. She still works as the librarian."

"I'll leave you in the good hands of the Prins clan while I go and find young master Severus to let him know his mother is here," Albus said. No doubt, the headmaster found that highly amusing yet seemed to know that leaving Eileen here and going off to find Severus was exactly what he should do. The other wizard knew full-well Eileen wasn't here to see that version of her son. Well, she'd likely see him if he'd let her. If he knew Albus at all, it would take him a while to find his younger self.

Soon Eileen had been introduced to everyone. Charlotte had mentioned her middle name being Eileen. He still wasn't sure why years later he had agreed to that, but he could admit Charlotte Eileen did have a nice sound to it.

Thomas remembered Eileen. He'd been a fourth year when she'd started and they'd been in separate houses, but he remembered her gobstones playing.

None of the kids seemed to find it strange that a former student of their dad's, or grandpa's, had joined in on their get together. People always meandered over to say hello and talk to them. She even got to hold young Sterling and Leonard for a while. Severus hadn't thought about it until he saw her holding those two, but realized that she likely hadn't had the reason to hold a baby since he had been born.

He saw a look in her eyes, too, that he recognized. He'd seen it a few times in her eyes aimed at him many years ago now.

She wanted her son to get on with giving her a grandchild.

Eventually, the younger version of himself joined them.

"Professor Prins," he said.

"Severus. I believe I have given you permission to call me Erik at least a few times now."

A few of the kids greeted Professor Snape, none seemed to hate him, which older Severus found interesting. When he'd first started teaching in 1926, no one knew him. He had a completely blank slate to work with. This version of him, though, did not have that. People knew him from his time as a student and, while there was no Dark Lord, Dark Mark, or war, he was still not the most personable person.

"Of course, Sir. Madam Prins."

"And I know that I have as well, Severus."

"Albus told me you were here, Mother."

"I hadn't seen the school for years. I thought I'd come see it. Albus thought I'd be more comfortable out here rather than walking around the entire castle looking for you."

"I wasn't so difficult to find."

His mother was … hurt by that comment. He saw it in her eyes and with the thinning of her lips. No doubt Severus recognized the signs, too.

"Well, thank you for allowing me to join your family for a little while, Erik and Marie. It was a pleasure to meet all of them and see how nice they are. And it was nice to see you both again, as well."

"Anytime, Eileen," Severus said with a polite bow. "It's always refreshing to see what former students are up to these days."

She fell into step with younger Severus to a chorus of salutations from goodbye to nice to meet you.

"What are you doing here, Mum?" Severus asked once they were alone.

"I truly realized I hadn't been here since you became a professor."

He scowled, arms folded over his chest as he regarded her. "I didn't realize you and Professor Prins were so friendly."

"Well, he was my professor, and he was nice to me when others weren't, so I respected him and his wife was always kind to me," she shrugged. He didn't fully believe her, but he couldn't imagine what she could be hiding with regard to the potions professor they'd both had. "I wouldn't say we're friends."

"You were just out there with him and his entire clan, talking with them as if you belong there."

"They're nice people! Really, Severus, you are so paranoid. Headmaster Dumbledore brought me to them so I wouldn't be bored while he found you. I presume he didn't bring me directly to you because he was unsure you'd want to see me. So, to save both of us that embarrassment, he found a pleasant diversion to keep me occupied."

"I see," he said gruffly. He wasn't sure he was buying that, but it was a reasonable assumption. He didn't go out of his way to talk to his mother, but he wasn't sure he'd tell her to get out of Hogwarts if she showed up here to see him. Certainly, he wouldn't do that in front of the headmaster.

"Don't you like Erik?"

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him."

That was both literal and figurative. He was fully aware he had this job because Erik Prins stepped down and insisted to Headmaster Dumbledore that Severus Snape be his replacement. Why? He had no idea. The wizard had been teaching at Hogwarts since before the Depression. He had to have countless students adept in Potions. It was why he'd hesitated at first, assuming there was some sort of trick to it.

He also helped him focus his first and second years when it was very difficult for him to do so. The professor didn't know it, but he'd been floundering when it came to Lily and trying to fit in with Gryffindors.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being sorted there.

His mother, and from her stories, other Princes had been sorted into Slytherin. He had given the house he'd been sorted into a chance, as the headmaster suggested when Severus met with him shortly after the sorting ceremony. By his second year, straying from his mum's path and that of the Prince's held more appeal to him than the feeling that he wasn't sure he was cut out to be a Gryffindor.

He still got top marks those two years, but his heart wasn't in it as he knew it should be.

And then Professor Prins had taken him aside and given him an experiment to work on with him. An experiment that, as it turned out, helped the person who was quickly becoming his best, and only, friend. If Remus had been kicked out of Hogwarts because someone found out he was a werewolf, or something bad happened (which was a distinct possibility). Well, he wasn't sure where he would have been.

Other than completely alone.

Yes, he and Lily mended their friendship to a point, but they were different after that. He'd always assumed she liked him. When she told him she didn't, he'd been crushed. He had hurled some pretty nasty insults at her about her leading him on and such. Nasty for an eleven year old anyway. (He knew some colourful ones thanks to his dad.) Words that he apologized for when she gave him the chance a few years later. He knew, though, first hand that words cut deep. Sometimes he thought the … insults his father had hurled to him over the years had been more damaging, and less easy to heal from, than the physical blows.

Then she'd started hanging around with Potter and Black. They'd been … all right to him. Severus was almost positive it was because he was a fellow Gryffindor and helped their house earn points that made them be at all decent to him. They didn't want to risk losing house points he'd earned for them by doing something against him. There were a few students they'd bordered on being cruel and inhumane to. He had no idea how their behaviour had been allowed nor how Lily could overlook it and think that they deserved her friendship. He'd invented a few spells as a student, certain he'd have to use them against those three wizards.

Time, and age he supposed, had made it seem less catastrophic. Not that he was eons removed from it, but it was easier to look back on those years now, almost a decade removed from them.

By the time she'd officially taken up with James Potter, well, Severus didn't care. It only bothered him that she hung out with Sirius Black. James Potter did seem to love her. Severus observed enough and compared what he saw on James' behalf with other wizards in relationships. When all was said and done, that was all that he wanted for his friend.

Happiness.

Black, though. The wizard just rubbed Severus the wrong way. Cocky, full of himself. Severus was, too, but not in the same way. He wasn't the type to have a different witch every day of the week. His mum had taught him (despite her not leading by example) that women, magical or muggle, should be respected.

He and Erik had a conversation around the time he'd found out Lily and James had gotten engaged. It was the time of the month to work on the potion for Remus, so they were alone in his lab. He was feeling …vulnerable and alone. He'd been over it, but finding out they'd gotten engaged opened the wound again. He knew he'd get over it again. He just wanted to know where his was.

"What is with you this evening, Severus," Erik asked. They'd long ago dropped the formality of Mister and Professor while alone like this.

"Nothing," he said, knowing he sounded sullen and angsty.

"Well, if you care to talk about it, you know that I'm always happy to listen."

He did know that. This man had listened and offered him advice, or none at times when it was clear Severus just wanted to unload, more often than Severus could count. Particularly that first year.

"Lily Evans and James Potter are engaged."

"Oh," Erik said simply, regarding him closely. Severus always felt as if this wizard could see things in him that others didn't. It bothered him at times. Other times, he welcomed it, because he felt as if he didn't have to say too much to get Erik to understand him. He liked that. "And that makes you feel things? Happy for your friend, but at the same time wondering where yours is."

Precisely that. Right there. How did he know that was exactly what he was thinking? He didn't think he was a bad person. He thought he had the ability to love and be honourable if given the chance. It didn't help that there hadn't been any witches while he was a student at Hogwarts that really interested him. Eight years removed from his student days at Hogwarts, he still hadn't met one. There'd been a few females at potions conferences over the years, but most were tiresome.

"Yes," he said, the s extended to sound more like a hiss. No sense denying it. There were times he knew Severus so well it was eerie.

"It may be as simple, Severus, as you haven't met her yet."

"What would you know of it, Sir," he said, the title of respect spat. "You've been married forever, to a witch who obviously loves you as much as you love her."

"You think that it started that way?"

He paused at that. He'd never thought about how their marriage began. Who would so long after the fact? They'd been together for decades by the time Severus got to Hogwarts. They'd found one another. That was all that mattered. Wasn't it?

"Well, it didn't. Our relationship is rather unconventional, and I won't go into details tonight anyway. More importantly, I cannot. I will point out this. You are aware there is an age difference."

"Sure," he said with a shrug. What did a bit of difference in ages make when they could live to two hundred or more?

"All I'm saying, Severus, is that she may, in fact, not be here yet. In your … space for lack of a better word. Give it time. I have no doubt that you will meet a witch who will be everything for you that my Marie is for me."

"How did you two meet?" he asked after a bit of silence between them as Severus processed his mentor's words.

Could that be possible?

Was there a witch out there for him, or would be one day, he just hadn't met her yet? It seemed far-fetched. Who would want him? He came from a poor family, had no grand lineage to offer someone as Potter and Black did, and had been pretty well skipped over in the looks and personality departments. He didn't think he was a troll, but he knew he wasn't a head-turner. He had brains, but he doubted that would mean much weighed against the negatives.

"I am going to tell you something that I've never told anyone else before, Severus. I trust that you can keep my confidence."

"Of course, Sir," he said. The respect back in the title.

"When we first came here I took a deaging potion. We were afraid, given our age difference and her being so young, that people would think … something untoward or illicit happened between us. We were afraid I wouldn't get a job if Headmaster Dippett believed I'd bedded a student. There was a reason she and I were brought together."

"How old was she?"

"Truly? She was sixteen to my thirty-six."

"Oh," he said. He hadn't realized that.

"Nothing happened between us, physically, I assure you. I treated her with nothing but respect."

"How did it happen?"

"I could tell you our story, Severus, but it won't help you. Your story will be different from ours, which is different from Lily and James', which is different from Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and the Weasleys and the Longbottoms."

"I suppose," he said.

He supposed he'd brought the Malfoys up because their wedding had been one of the biggest deals in quite some time when it happened around the same time Lily married James. Severus hadn't cared two wits about how or who Lucius Malfoy married. The wizard had been a pompous, pureblood-loving jerk who, while smart, wasn't nearly as smart as he thought.

"I like you, Severus, you know this, right?"

"I do." He'd never understood why, but he'd always known this man had liked him.

"I'd like to think you are, in essence, part of my family. You are the closest I'll get to someone rivaling me in Potions."

"Your grandchildren aren't done…"

"Oh, I know, but you have a gift. I didn't work with you all of these years for my health."

"I realize, and if I haven't said that I appreciate…"

"Nonsense. I wasn't fishing for gratitude, Severus. I just want you to know that you are cared for. You are loved, if I may be so bold. Not just by me either. I know my wife is immensely fond of you."

"She is nice to me. She always recommends books to me." Even now, no longer a student, she still did.

"Because she knows you'll read them, and get something from them. My grandson Magnus has spoken highly of you as well."

"Has he?"

"Yes, you helped him with an assignment once…"

"Oh, yes," he said, vaguely recalling helping him while in their third year with a Charms assignment.

"He said that you really took the time to ensure he understood, and you didn't laugh or anything at him. He was too embarrassed to go to one of Marie's tutoring sessions, you know."

Severus scoffed at that, but nodded in understanding. That probably would be somewhat embarrassing to have to get help from your grandmother.

"Anyway, he was grateful, and said you have a knack for explaining."

"Thank you," he said. "That's in part due to you, I think, these sessions."

"I'm glad if I'm making a difference."

A few years having passed since that conversation, Severus wasn't sure he bought what Erik had told him. He held onto hope that if someone as smart and talented at, well everything, had to wait until he was thirty-six to find a witch. Well, then he supposed it wasn't out of the realm of possibility she just wasn't in Britain.

Come to think of it, his mum hadn't gotten married right out of Hogwarts either.

"Will you show me your classroom, Severus?" his mum asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure," he said, feeling kind of like a heel if she really had come here just to see what he was doing. One couldn't blame him for being suspect, though. She'd never truly shown interest in much of what he'd done to this point. He was fairly certain she hadn't been back to Hogwarts since she'd left it.

Story ©Susan Falk/APCKRFAN/PhantomRoses.com