Epilogue

7: Epilogue

It was a nice evening in early spring; not quite warm enough to sit outside, but certainly the perfect night to go out for a drink. Harry and his wife Ginny, Ron and his fiancée Lavender, and Luna and Neville Longbottom had arranged a meeting in a small Muggle bar somewhere in Covent Garden. Remus and Tonks would try to join them later, but it depended on Teddy and his new babysitter, Percy Weasley.

"What about Hermione?" Ron asked for at least the fifth time in the past half hour. "You really think she will find the place?"

Harry and Ginny sighed heavily for the tenth time, as Ron hadn't been the only one who had asked that specific question. "She knows where we are," Ginny reassured her brother.

And Harry added, "She was the one who suggested this place, remember? She's back from Paris since yesterday evening, so give her a little time to settle in. When she's ready, she'll turn up."

"Well, I just thought..." Ron mumbled, then turned to peck a kiss on Lavender's rosy cheek. She was just visibly pregnant with their first child, the wedding would be in a month, and Ron simply wanted to tell one of his two best friends about it. He hadn't owled Hermione the news, knowing she was bound to be back from France after half a year of finding and selling potion ingredients. "I just want to see her and make sure she's fine," he said, his arm round his fiancée's shoulder. "Her last letter was a bit strange, she didn't write about books and potions at all but about places she had visited, and I think something's fishy here."

Ginny laughed. "Did you consider the possibility that she's finally met someone? A French beaux, maybe? Someone who snoggs her senseless and takes her to all the places she hadn't found the time to visit before?"

"A tall, dark stranger," Luna said in her dreamlike voice. "With long hair and strong hands. As headstrong as she is and not afraid of her temper."

"Huh," said Harry and eyed Luna suspiciously. "You sound as if you knew something we don't."

Neville took Luna's hand protectively. "She has just a way to sense things," he said. "And anyway, she'll tell us herself – there she is!"

He was right. Hermione had arrived whilst they had been talking about her, throwing her jacket over the empty chair in the midst of her friends and shaking her hair back. "Hi!" she said, and then she was drowned in embraces and kisses and shoulder pats, was covered with "Hello's" and "How are you's" for several minutes.

Finally, she managed to sit down, and someone had organised a glass of wine for her. "Tell us everything!" Ron urged, with a wide grin in his face. "I'm going to be a father and a married man as well, but you must have more interesting news than that. Tell us!"

Smiling, Hermione leaned back in her chair, wine glass in her hand. She had a tan, her hair was lighter than it had been last autumn, and there was a glow on her skin that hadn't been there ever before. "Tell me the gossip first," she ordered. "Neither of you wrote as often as promised, and I haven't got a clue on what has been going on in the last months. Who has married, who is pregnant – apart from you, Ron, Congratulations! – who has died and who has caused a scandal? Come on, I want to know!"

"Well," Harry began. "There are rumours that McGonagall will marry Madam Pomfrey this summer. Malfoy has been left by Pansy and is now a single father – she ran off with a Muggle boy and has left Scorpius behind. I heard Malfoy is quite good at changing nappies by now." Harry smirked at the thought.

Ginny placed her hand on her husband's arm. "You have heard about Remus, Hermione, haven't you?" she asked. "That he's gone wild? And that Snape saved him?"

"What?" Hermione gasped and nearly dropped her glass. "I heard something happened last winter, but that he's really gone wild... but... that means... don't tell me he's dead!"

"Ginny!" Lavender scolded. "Don't scare her. Look, Hermione, Remus is not dead, and he's not wild, either. It's been a hoax Albus told. Remus is fine, he'll possibly join us later."

Harry and Ron said in unison, "It wasn't a hoax!"

"It certainly wasn't the truth, either," Lavender insisted. " Everyone knows that it is impossible to cure a wild werewolf. As Remus is perfectly healthy, teaching at Hogwarts, and living with his family in a nice little house in Sussex, it must have been a hoax. Plus, Snape is fine as well. Remus would have shredded him to pieces if he really had been wild." Smugly, the young woman leaned back in her chair, clearly thinking, I rest my case.

Ron and Harry looked at each other. "Snape went after him," Harry insisted. "He was quite upset by the news, and he left to get a potion he said could cure a wild werewolf."

Ron added, with a somewhat hushed voice, "It's said that Remus nearly killed him that night. That Snape had to spend several days at the infirmary. That he is covered with scars."

"Well, no one will ever be able to prove that," Ginny snorted, "as it would be necessary to see Snape naked to do so. On the other hand, it's said that Remus spends a lot of time in Snape's rooms down in the dungeons." Leaning forward, she continued, "I heard they do more than just talk. Nonsense, of course. So you see what rumours are – a lot of old rubbish."

Hermione smiled, a tiny curving of her lips. "There are rumours that Professor Snape and Remus Lupin are... together?" She picked up her glass and took a sip. "Neville, as you teach at Hogwarts as well, what's behind this?"

The young man, teaching alongside with Professor Sprout, reddened slightly. "Just as you said," he mumbled. "Rumours. Remus and Snape are friends, that's no secret anymore. They are often seen together. Snape even smiles every now and then when he talks to Remus. Scary sight. Makes me think he'll turn around any second and give me detention." Shuddering, he moved a bit closer to Luna, who put a reassuring arm around him.

"Let's stop talking about Snape," Harry cast in. "Remus is married – proof enough that he's not gay. He and Tonks are happy together. Whatever happened last winter, it's over, and I'm really glad that he's back at Hogwarts. How about you, Hermione? How was Paris?"

Hermione's smile widened. "Paris was beautiful," she stated, a comment that caused several jaws to fall open. Usually, Hermione didn't care about the town she visited to purchase goods, and she definitely never cared enough about a place to know about the sights to visit there.

"Don't you tell us you've seen the Eiffel Tower!" Ron managed and placed his hand across Hermione's to check if she had developed a fever.

"Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Sacre Coer, Notre Dame, Montmartre..." Hermione purred and closed her eyes as if she was seeing the places again. "A boat trip on the Seine, dinner in some really exclusive French restaurants, the Rodin museum – my, he did some marvellous sculptures! Several walks through moonlit parks... Anything else you want to know?"

Harry placed his face in his hands and stared at her intently. "Yes. One thing. What's his name?" he inquired and managed not to yelp when Ginny pushed her elbow between his ribs.

"Don't listen to him, Hermione!" she said. "It's none of his..."

Luna waggled her hand through the air. A few tiny little stars dropped from her fingertips. "The tall, dark stranger isn't that strange at all," she mused. "Were you surprised when he turned up?"

Hermione gave her a sunny smile, not in the least intrigued at the fact that Luna knew more than she possibly should. "Quite surprised. And even more when he actually managed not to snarl at me as soon as I opened my mouth."

Ron ran his hands through his already quite unruly hair. It stood out in every possible direction and spoke clearly of his confusion. "What? You... you... erm... I thought you had met someone in France? A stranger? And now you say you knew him beforehand?"

"I never said I met a stranger. But I have met someone, and I guess it's serious."

"What is serious?" a curious voice asked, and Hermione shot up to hug Remus Lupin and his wife Tonks in one go. It took them a while before they were seated, cramped in between Lavender on one side and Neville on the other. Both the werewolf and the Metamorphagus looked more than happy having made it to the pub.

"So, Percy is doing fine with little Teddy?" Ron asked, quite suspiciously. "I would have thought he'd run before the little boy is in his pyjamas. He's scared of children, you know."

"Then why offer to baby-sit?" Hermione asked.

Ron grinned. "Penelope threatened to leave him if he didn't agree on children sometime soon. So he decided to get some practical experience before the real thing turns up." Chuckling, he kissed Lavender, pressing a caring hand on her belly.

Remus put one arm round his wife's shoulder. "Actually, Ron, your brother is hopeless with children," he confessed. "He explained to my son how the Ministry of Magic handles law issues concerning broken cauldrons and couldn't understand why Teddy insisted on showing him his toy brooms instead. And when my boy began to attack him with a lion cushion, he indeed decided to take his leave."

"He ran. Coward." Harry grinned. "Then who's looking after little Teddy?"

"Severus," Tonks said and smiled. "He's quite good with children. Maybe it is because Teddy is yet too young to annoy him on purpose."

Stunned silence fell over the table. Everyone stared disbelieving at Remus and Tonks. Everyone apart from Hermione, who seemed to find a burn mark more interesting than anything else.

"But... Snape might use your son for a particularly nasty potion," Lavender pointed out, obviously horrified at the thought that Snape could look after her child one day. "He might even chop him to pieces, or lose him deliberately, or scare him to death, or...

"...feed him, bath him, and read him a good night story," Remus cast in. "It's not the first time he is babysitting, although we haven't seen him for a while now. He's been in France as far as I know. In Paris, wasn't it?"

Hermione painted circles on the table. "Where he went to the Louvre with me," she said and looked straight into the werewolf's eyes.

Remus laughed. He leaned back in his chair and returned Hermione's gaze. "So he took my advice then! How long did it take him to ask you out?"

"About a week," Hermione answered and grinned. "And nearly a month before he first kissed me. You don't mind then? Given... the rumours?"

Harry and Ron, mainly, but the others as well, followed the exchange of words with open mouths.

Remus shook his head. "Of course not. I pushed him hard to give in to your complaint, and eventually, it seems as if he couldn't stand my constant nagging anymore. Brilliant. I'm happy for you two."

"Erm... Hermione," Ron piped up. "We are not talking of the greasy git, are we?"

Hermione pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and pierced her friend with a terrifying glare. "His name is Severus," she said, her voice dangerously nice. "And because I know you won't stop asking – we've been for dinner, we talked, we took long walks, and yes, there are some quite nasty scars on his body."

"Which I caused, last winter," Remus added. "But have healed well."

"Um..." said Harry.

"Ahm..." said Ginny in unison with her brother, who had paled to an ashen grey.

"Well, but that..." managed Neville and decided to shut up before something wrong came out of his mouth.

"How do you know they have healed well?" Luna asked curiously, nibbling on a crisp. "And I always wondered – is he a werewolf as well? Did you bite him? And how is bedding him?"

"Luna!" Neville croaked, and tried to shut her up by putting a coat over her head.

"I've seen every inch of his body naked, I didn't bite him so he is not a werewolf, and it's wonderful," Remus answered calmly.

That was the moment when Ron shot up and smashed his fist to the table. "Stop that!" he shouted, and Hermione as well as Remus looked at him in surprise. "Hermione, do you sleep with Snape?" he demanded, and his face was as red as his hair. "Do you know about his scars because you actually shag him?"

"Yes," she said simply.

He just stared at her with narrow eyes, several different questions clearly showing in his face. "Is he nice to you?" he finally snapped. "Does he treat you well? Because if he doesn't..."

"Very nice," Hermione assured him. "In fact, so nice that I decided to give our relationship a real chance. I have just talked to Dumbledore – he will order his school supplies from me from now on, so I am financially sorted out and can settle down. With Severus, by the looks of it. He insisted I should stay at his house at Spinner's End. And so I did. Move in with him, that is."

"Right," Ron said, breathing heavily, then turned and accusingly pointed at Remus. "And you – you sleep with him as well?"

"Oh, yes," Remus replied mildly, his fingers entwined with his wife's. "Despite the fact that I nearly killed him, we are still friends. And more. I slashed his chest, his back, and his leg. He saved my life and my sanity, and because of his interference, I could move out of my beloved mother-in-law's house. I am teaching at Hogwarts again. And as my wife does not have any problems with me having a lover – does anyone else?" Maybe there was a tiny threatening subnote in his voice.

Harry raised his hand as if he were back at school. Hesitantly, he searched for a way to ask his question and finally settled for, "Not a problem, but... You all don't mind? I mean... this... you and Snape and Hermione and Snape as well... It seems... erm... unusual!" He sounded completely dumbstruck at the concept of shared love.

"No, we don't mind," Tonks said. "It might be unusual, but it is perfect for us." Then she flashed a knowing smile at Hermione, who blushed slightly and didn't say anything at all.

A/N: Thank you for staying with me through this story and sorry for not having warned you at the beginning that this would turn into slash. I didn't know the time I began writing it.

Again, many thanks to my wonderful betas. I would be lost without you, my dears.