In a very flowery wedding.

Disclaimer: Severus Snape is sitting by me, and poking fun at my inadequate English, but he won't try his hand at writing. I don't know how Rita Skeeter managed to write all those novels.... Oh? Am I not supposed to talk about her real name, either? Shh! Shh, then.

A.N. : Absolutely grateful to amazing WriterMerrin for beta reading the entire story.

SSHG

Luna looked like an angel in her white wedding dress, with her soft, sweet face and her long, blond tresses styled with the whitest flowers in Neville's greenhouse. They had decided on a simple but elegant ceremony with friends and Hogwarts' staff present.

Luna wanted Hermione to be her matron of honor, but she had refused. No matter how much her friends had tried, Hermione would not touch or go near anything related to the wedding. They had argued with her, but she was adamant. At one point of the heated argument, they had found out that she had some sort of Muggle Eastern superstition, which she would not let go and would not even try to overcome.

Her misguided mind believed that as a widow her presence would bring the newlyweds bad luck. Everyone was shocked that she would believe such a pile of bullock and not participate. Luna had insisted, "We will take the chance," while Neville had scolded, "Hermione, you must stop this nonsense."

"I can't, you have to understand... I have read about it. A large portion of Muggles who live in the East abide by it, however debasing it is, I can't... not after knowing about it. You see, if anything bad happened to either one of you, I would blame myself the rest of my life."

"Something could always happen, that won't be your fault." Neville said.

"We are mortal after all," Luna added thoughtfully.

Then she said, "I will go to your wedding but stay far enough away to be on the safe side."

Nobody wanted to listen to her; Harry even threatened to 'tell Snape' about it, which made her angrier, and she threatened to boycott the wedding in response.

So, there she was: not speaking to Harry at the moment, standing far away from everyone. She had come with Severus, but once there, she had wandered off with the feeble excuse of 'needing to be excused for a bit.'

Severus did not know what had happened behind the scenes of this union, so he was expecting her back to her seat any moment. He had been surprised to not see her with Mrs. Potter and the bride. His eyes had searched for her while the ceremony was going on, to stop at the far corner where she was standing. She was looking at the soon-to-be Mister and Missus Longbottom, smiling happily standing off by herself. That puzzled him momentarily, but the more he looked at her, the more he became mesmerized by her.

'She is beautiful,' he thought, then corrected himself, 'breathtaking to be precise.' But why was she standing over there alone? Shouldn't she be with him? Following her gaze, he looked back at the wedding. The bride and groom looked ... all right--overly flowery and equally too cheerful for his taste, but happy, no doubt.

There were unmistakable worlds of joy present in new Mrs. Longbottom's large, dreamy eyes. He looked back at Hermione again. He had seen that exact look in her eyes--the night he stormed off from her office and found out that he was in love with her--in her wedding picture with Weasley. He did not remember seeing it in her eyes since.

Could he bring that light, that joy back into her eyes? In his mind, he pictured her in white, with flowers in her wild hair, smiling up to him with her face alight in joy and love for him. He found himself liking that image, loving it actually. Yes, that look on her face would make it worth dying a thousand deaths.

Hermione looked at him, sensing his gaze, and waved happily, which he acknowledged by nodding slightly with a hint of smile in his eyes, only for her to see.

While everyone was mingling and congratulating the couple, Severus had eyes only for his witch--not his yet, if one chose to be that precise about it, but he had planned to rectify that little...

"Hermione." He had reached where she was standing.

"Hello, Severus. Beautiful, isn't it? She looks like an angel."

"Breathtaking, actually. I caught myself scarcely breathing every time I looked at you."

His deep, seductive purr reminded her of melted dark chocolate. Hermione shivered unintentionally at the intensity of his gaze fixated on her face, and she blushed prettily at his compliment. "Severus!"

Severus' plan went out of the proverbial window faster than the latest addition to Harry Potter's broom collection. Looking at her blush, he had even forgotten the speech he had prepared on his way there from his seat. Severus simply said, "Marry me, Hermione."

DM

Draco Malfoy was watching the wedding from afar, too. It was not like he was invited, but the bitterness he felt was not from not being invited to Longbottom's wedding. A melancholy sigh escaped him as a very bitter and depressed Draco Malfoy contemplated what had become of his life. Since he had been brought back by the Order, he'd become miserable in every way. 'With the Dementors out of Azkaban, Father is having a better time than I am currently.'

Granger... He did not dare to call her Hermione, not even in his mind anymore, would never call her a Weasley; to him it was worse than calling her a Mudblood, for why on earth did she choose... that... that.... Never mind. She was all for the second chance and all that Mugglish, Dumbledorian bollocks.

Potter apparently had learned his elementary arithmetic at last, and he was desperate enough to prove it to the rest of the world by saying, "He had his second chance. Dumbledore gave him that chance in the Tower that night; in the last battle we gave him his third and fourth chances; the Ministry and the Order let him walk away without even a slap on his ferret face. Those were his fifth and sixth chances. Now you are giving him his chance number lucky seven..."

Draco could not help himself. "Good counting, Potty Darling! Now can you say what number comes after seven?"

Granger and Snape exchanged an amused look; then he scowled, and she pursed her lips tightly to stop laughing, while she waved her wand at Draco to cast a nonverbal Silencio.

Then, with products from Weasley's joke shop and Snape's private potions collection, they made him talk about "his daddy's little organization" as George Weasley had eloquently put it.

In exchange for his information, he would fill the empty post at Hogwarts instead of going to Azkaban. 'Wow! Snape must have really loathed teaching if he compared it with Azkaban,' Draco thought.

Potter told him, "Eager to speak, weren't you, Darling? Now you've got your chance."

He agreed to the condition gladly, even though he could not think of a single thing he was qualified or interested in teaching those dunderheads. However, life at Hogwarts was definitely more lucrative than that in Azkaban, and Slytherins were by nature survivors. So, he sang against his father... Oh, he sang better than Fawkes ever could! He knew Father would understand, for he was no less Slytherin himself. He would have done the same thing to save his own skin.

Then came the surprising twist, that he had to work pro bono, and that would be his redemption as Granger suggested. He laughed at her, at all of them. They really had no idea of the depth of the Malfoy fortune!

Draco decided to let them have their fun at the supposed victory, and he signed the agreement into voluntary service to Hogwarts without any financial gain.

The Minister of Magic supposedly came by to visit his old friends. He happened to have, in his robe pocket, the injunction to seize all Malfoy property and to freeze all Malfoy accounts, including the foreign ones, for further investigation of Mr. Lucius Malfoy's alleged Dark and seditious crimes against England. It was a good thing that he had found Mr. Draco Malfoy there because, by serving it this way, the good Minister had just saved the Ministry the cost of owl post.

'What!'

Whoever said lightning never strikes in the same place twice should never come face to face with Draco Malfoy, after uttering that total lie, if he was in his right mind.

The money, the mansions... all became out of his reach! The Headmaster had the audacity to pat him on the back. "Don't worry. Hogwarts provides meals and lodging for all its employees."

When Draco asked him what was it that he was going to teach, his godfather looked at him with those endless tunnels that he called eyes for a moment and said, "You will know about your job in due time."

As for Pansy, they made it mandatory for her, along with Draco, to take the Continuing Education course which was currently offered by Professor Rupert Radcliff of the department of Muggle Studies to build up tolerance towards Muggles.

It was mostly about how great Muggles were doing with technological magic, which was not a branch of magic at all. Apparently, they had made it to the moon when Lucius was merely a boy in Hogwarts, and not a single one of them knew the real use of a broomstick! Since then, they were busying themselves to conquer the rest of the mysteries of the night sky, stars and all.

Silly things, these Muggles, really! What was the point of diving under the deepest sea or climbing on top of the mountains or cruising deep in the jungles along with ferocious animals, and tagging, cataloging everything they could get their hands on when they could not even brew the simplest potion!

'Waste of time,' Draco would say if anyone asked him, which, of course, no one did. Taking these "Tolerant Treatment of Technology: The Muggle Magic" classes twice a week made him feel awful.

He also thought it was rude for Filch to take time off to pursue other interests, which would allow him to spend more time with that mangy cat of his. How much "more time" would they need? They were rivaling the Weasley twins--when the other one was alive.

Draco Malfoy, with his always suspicious, nagging wife by his side as Mrs. Norris with Filch, was magically bound to redeem his offenses by serving the castle, replacing Filch without any sign of getting his inheritance back or receiving any payments for his service.

Pansy did not leave as promised; Merlin knew he had tried to rid himself of her. He had admitted his feelings for Granger in public to humiliate and ridicule his tiresome wife. Perhaps she thought it would be better punishment if she stayed, and it was.

So, Pansy told him that she did not think it was prudent to let him stay alone in a castle with his dream girl.... Never mind the castle was filled with non-negligible amount of others, a few hundred pupils included, or the said dream girl was nose deep in her lovey-dovey relationship with his own godfather. Instead, Pansy tagged along with him to nag continuously about how worthless he proved himself to be, and how miserable her life turned out because of marrying him.

Draco knew who had pulled the strings to get the inheritance out of his hands. He snarled at him, "You are my godfather; you are supposed to protect me, not sell my soul out to the devil!"

The older man snarled back, "Your parents did that already, I am buying you back from the devil."

SSHG

"Are you sure, Severus?" She looked at him with surprise in her big, brown eyes. "I don't want to become your regret as a result of a momentary lapse of judgment due to sudden emotional upsurge."

He entwined a ringlet, which had freed itself from her loosely-piled updo, around his finger before saying, "You could never become my regret, even if you'd tried your best. Have I ever told you about the only thing that brought back the desire in me to wake up, even before those memories were given back to me?"

Hermione shook her head. "You wanted to come back without those memories? I never knew that."

"I did." He was still playing with her hair, and looking intently into her eyes, his voice went even lower. "Your laughter, I wanted to come back for your laughter."

"But, how did you know, I mean you can't possibly remember all your students' voices or laughter. How did you know that it was ... I mean, how did you ...?"

"Recognize? Did I not tell you that at the chateau?"

Hermione remembered he had told her that he'd denied the fact that he liked her since she was seventeen. He saw the recognition in her eyes.

"Yes, I knew. It was my most favorite sound, music to my ears, still is."

"Severus!"

He took her hand in his and kissed it softly. "You gave me back my life, Hermione, and I want you in it, always, in every moment for the rest of my life."

"I am in your life, marriage is not necessary for that." She looked away from him as if wanting to escape from something... Him?

"You don't want to be married to me." The statement was a sudden realization. "Not wanting to be tied up with my name, that is understandable." His mask dropped into its not-so-long-deserted place--on his face--his eyes and voice lost their previous open sincerity.

"Don't be like that, Severus. You must understand... what if it's true? What if I'm a black widow?" She was on the verge of tears.

"Spider? But what does this have to do with your Animag... Hermione! You are not telling me what I am thinking you are telling me? Are you? Where is this stupid Muggle superstition coming from?"

Harry was passing by them; he stopped and asked, "Why are you so insecure? Ask her, Severus, why she missed the entire wedding."

"No, you don't understand!"

"You are right, I truly don't." Harry shook his head and left without looking back.

"Why exactly?" Severus was casting a privacy charm over them.

"Harry won't even listen to me, see? You want to know why? I'll tell you why... Ron would not have died so soon if he had not married me and tried to... to... to impress me by adopting Muggle... things." She was crying desperately. "I cannot let that same thing happen to you. I cannot lose you. What if something happens to you because I was selfish enough to marry you? I can't live without you."

Severus took her in his arms and said, "Silly thing! You could never be some sort of porte-malheur." This definitely was his witch; no one ever would say what she did, and no one ever had. He raised her chin with one finger and smiled to her assuredly. "You don't take away life, Hermione. You gave it.... Look at the beautiful children you'll have, we'll have, if you let me into your life, we might have one or two... or ten between us if you want, none if you don't... I'm not fussy.

"You free lives. Yes, I knew about your championship movement, about SPEW, even then. Your campaign earned the house-elves the right to choose, even if it was against their wishes--you were the only one who offered them the same rights as us.

"You freed me, and not only from my coma--from myself."

"Weasley did not die because of you or for you; his death was Lucius' fault, and only he is to blame... No one else. You have that little rock of Potter's. You go ahead and ask Ronald; he will tell you the same, you could never be bad luck for anyone."

Hermione was still crying. Very gently, Severus took a droplet from her lashes and examined it with open wonder in his eyes, as if he was examining a rare potions ingredient. Smiling, he tasted it and lowered his mouth to her cheek for more as he murmured, "I may have loved before, Hermione, and it came with anger and bitterness. I have never known peace before you brought it to me."

She kissed him back full on the mouth and said, "Ask me again, Severus."

He did. He looked into her puffy red eyes and blotchy face, and all the thoughts of Slytherin subtlety, all the sonnets he ever recited escaped him once again. "Be mine, Hermione, make me yours for the rest of my life."

"Let's go, Severus." It was not the answer he was expecting from her. She lifted the privacy spell.

"Go where, exactly?"

"Over there." She pointed to the stage. "Almost everyone I would want to be here is here now, the priest is here, we are here. Let's go get married."

"Are you sure? You don't want a big wedding of your own? Lots of flowers? Big celebration with too-cheery, bubblegum-pink bridesmaids? Wouldn't you rather speak to the children first? Your parents?"

"Getting cold feet?"

"Me? Never."

"I don't want anything but to be with you forever, too, Severus."

"And the children already know." They startled at the cheery voice of Rose, standing with Hugo and Scorpius close by.

Hermione pulled him towards the stage, passing by Neville, who had no plan to ever let go of Luna's lips. She said, "I have an announcement to make. May I have your attention, please? Thank you. Hi, everyone! We are getting married next, Severus and I."

Harry jumped up and hugged his best friend, the rest of the Gryffindors following suit.

Fleur asked Hermione, "When?"

George whistled and said, "It's about time, Snape!"

Snape replied, "I believe you are correct, Mr. Weasley." He turned to the priest and said, "You heard the man, let's get on with it."

"You don't mean now!" Indignation came in unison from the crowd.

"We do!" They, too, answered in unison.

SH

A "Really Unnecessary" Epilogue:

Hermione had become Mrs. Snape for the rest of her life with Minerva's Transfigured napkin rings as hers and Severus' wedding bands. They later replaced those with real rings, but kept the original ones in the memory box. She had a platinum snake with a diamond for its body and emeralds for its eyes, and Severus had the exact same band, only his snake had sapphires for its eyes. He was all for inter-House collaboration, but thought he had had enough of red-eyed snakes to last him a lifetime, thank you very much.

With four children, only two of them were biologically Severus', but one would be hard pressed to guess which ones by the way their father had spoiled them all rotten. Hermione sometimes thought George might have been a stricter father to Annabelle than Severus would ever be to their children. Growing up, she, along with Ron and Harry, had always thought Severus hated children, but she should have known that was not a fact by the way he treated his Slytherins. Severus not only knew how to love, he loved unconditionally, with all his heart.

Anyway, with four children and a devoted husband, Hermione lived in a magical castle for the rest of her life, happily ever after.

How?

That's another story.

A. N.:

Thanks to everyone who was patient enough for my grammatical errors. Thanks to all my reviewers and whoever put this story on their favorite list....

OUCH! Honestly, Severus, you must find a better writer than I ever would be to write the...!

The writer blushed as SS winked and raised one extremely sexy eyebrow.

Oh! Severus thought that with patience like this, you would have made excellent Potions students, no adequate? What "adequate!" You said "excellent", Severus! Yes, you did!

Of course you did.

Did, too!

Did.

Hey, no one will take your story seriously if you keep on arguing with the writer. And by the way...

You did.