Welcome Back, Professor Snape!

A.N.: Thanks, everyone, for reading. Thank you, Writermerrin and Annie Talbot, for beta reading.

There it was...he thought he heard Potter and Longbottom talking. For a moment, he thought he heard Granger, too. This time he paid attention...she was saying something about wanting someone alive very much... What did these troublemakers get themselves into this time? He almost forgot about his hell and wished to get up thinking, will they never leave me in peace?

Then a rush of memories, once lost, filled him. These were the memories he was missing that left him a hollow, shell of a man. He was whole again. Shouldn't he go after Granger and her comrades in crime?

Oh, but these were his times with Lily! He had somehow found them again...the playground, Hogwarts. Granger's reading seemed to be fading away... Granger! Don't... don't go. Lily again...smiling, walking with him by the lake. Why was Granger going home with Potter?

~*H*~

The next day, Hermione brought Albus and Rose to the castle, and Harry was to bring Lily and Hugo later. They would stay in the castle until Hermione's parents arrived from Melbourne, Australia. Like Hermione's own children, Lily and Albus were very fond of her parents. The Grangers thought it was wonderful that Hermione chose Australia to settle them in at the time of the war. The only thing Dan Granger complained about regarding Australia was their world champion cricket team. Hermione was smiling to herself, remembering her father's fondness for the game, as she walked down the steps towards the dungeon to seek out Rose.

Hermione needed to know about the detention Neville had assigned to Rose for talking back to him. Why Rose was becoming more and more difficult each day, she did not know. Hermione was trying her best to get to her. But in her anger, Rose was pushing back every effort her mother was making. She used to respect her elders; Hermione raised her that way. She used to like Neville as she liked her other uncles. The smile vanished from Hermione's face. She didn't think she could do it alone anymore; the most difficult thing in this world probably was being a single parent to angry and grieving children, more difficult than defeating Voldemort. She felt like Harry... he too was trapped to his duty by fate.

~*S*~

"Auntie Herms! Auntie Herms! Aunt Mione! This is Al, are you in here?"

A child has lost his aunt and ventured into my hell... That couldn't be right. He opened his eyes to see what sort of hell let a child in.

It's not a hell after all...Severus told himself, looking at the standard Hogwarts' issued hospital robe on his person, Well, it is; what else would you consider to call lying on a Hogwarts' hospital bed? Merlin, how I hate to smell the artificialities of this distilled sanitization! Poppy knew better than to... Where is Poppy by the way?

Instead of Poppy, he met the owner of the young voice...a first-year, that much was obvious, with a mop of untidy black hair and a pair of big green eyes...Potter! Oh, God! I am back in time!...was his first impression. Then he took a deep breath, which cooled him enough to take a second look. He was slightly reassured that it might not be the case, after all. Potter wore glasses, and there was no sign of a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on this boy's forehead.

Maybe he had slept a few more days than what he would have guessed, a few months probably! Yes, that certainly would explain why he had never met this boy before. The school year had started, and standing before him was a new first-year student. Lots of people have green eyes and black hair; it's hardly rare, right?

As he steadied himself, he turned his head and found that the boy was approaching the bed with a curious look on his face.

"Um... hello... who are you?" the boy asked.

"I'm Severus... water." He needed water to soothe his long unused voice before he dared to talk anymore.

"You, too? Me, too! Hello, Mr. Water. Nice to meet you."

"No, I am not Water. I want water." An annoyed Severus shook his head as he spoke in his raspy voice again.

"Sorry about that." The boy waved his wand and Conjured a glass of water.

Pretty advanced for a first year, Severus thought as he sipped the water, then asked, "What do you mean by 'you, too'?"

"It's just... I am named after him, too," the boy replied as if it were clear as daylight.

"Named after whom, exactly?"

"Severus Snape, the bravest headmaster my dad ever saw, he told me so."

That left more questions unanswered, so he had to ask, "I thought you were Al."

"I am. I am Albus Severus Potter, named after two of the greatest headmasters that..."

"WHAT!" He almost jumped up. Looking frantically everywhere around him, he hoarsely shouted, as much as he could manage in his condition, "What sort of joke is this? Potter! Potter!"

Albus Severus Potter was smart enough to understand that the Potter the man on the bed was looking for was not him. Even though he was frightened by Severus' antics, he was brave enough to say, "No, sir, no joke, I really am named after two of the greatest headmasters of this school...Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. And... and my dad truly told me Severus Snape was the bravest man he had ever seen, even if he was a Slytherin like me. Why are you so angry? Don't you like Headmaster Snape?"

"I am Severus Snape," he wanted to say. He wanted to say a lot more than that, but the one particular voice from his sleep was back, now with the face of one Hermione Granger.

"What's going on in here? Al! What are you... Oh, God! Professor Snape! You're up! You woke up!" With that, she rushed towards him and hugged him fiercely in his half-sitting position, sobbing incoherently. She raised her face and said, "You are awake!"

Astonished at her behavior, he asked, "What's going on, Granger? Am I in some other reality? You look... different." He had enough presence of mind to not tell a lady that she looked older even if he had been out for quite some time. Instead, he bombarded her with questions, as she used to do in his class. "Why are you embracing me and sobbing over me? Are we married? Is this our child? You have the audacity to name him..." He pointed to the now saucer-eyed child.

"No! That would be Harry, seeing as he's the father, he named him." She looked embarrassed as she moved away from him. But he read her face wrongly, and he caught her hand firmly...well, as firmly as he could...

"What kind of world is this? You married me and had a child with Potter, who named him with a combination of my name and..." He sounded highly insulted.

"Stop saying that. It's the same world as always; I didn't marry you, nor have I ever cheated with Harry. Ew! He's like a brother to me. Albus is Harry and Ginny's youngest son; their oldest one is James and they have a daughter named Lily. Yes, he is named after you as a sign of his father's respect for you."

He snorted at that. Then looked at her again. She's not a girl anymore. He had to know. "How long?"

"Nineteen years and a few months."

"That long!" Severus was out of words. He let go of her hand. That long! he repeated in his mind, then asked her, "the Dark Lord?"

"Voldemort's dead forever. We destroyed all the Horcruxes, including Harry's scar. Neville got Nagini."

As he took in the information, Granger seemed to recover quickly. She sent the Potter to the Headmistress after swearing him to secrecy. Then she sent two Patronuses to who-knew-where, stating urgency.

Then she started checking his vital signs. "What are you doing? Where's Poppy?"

"She's no longer here, and I am doing my job. What else did you think I was doing here?"

"Oh, I don't know. The way you embraced me, I would have guessed, in some bizarre reality, I went out of my mind and married you." Why do I like embarrassing her so much? Is it because how beautifully she blushes... what am I doing?

"Stop acting delusional on purpose...you haven't married anyone..."

He cut her off. "So, you hug all your patients?" Merlin, why can't I stop flirting with her?

"Of course I don't! We were worried about you; I had almost given up any hope of your recovery, so I got a little carried away. It's no big deal." She flushed as she protested, and he decided that he liked the color on her for some reason unknown to himself.

He asked, "Who else is included in this 'we'?"

She told him the whole story as she knew it. When she finished, he was so overwhelmed he could only say, "Longbottom? Why?"

"I don't know, Professor. The way you scared him throughout his childhood, one would think he'd be happy to see you gone; instead, he saved your life. Neville did what he wanted to do for his own parents; he cared for you as any son would. Harry had your memories; they are the reason you're awake today. Also, Minerva provided this place so that you could have a decent treatment until you're well, in the privacy we all thought you would like."

"Where do you fit in, Granger?"

"Nowhere. I just work here, and by the way, my name is Weasley, as it has been for more than fifteen years," she replied.

He suddenly felt somehow betrayed that she had gone off and married that Weasley boy. What a terrible waste! He did not know why it angered him so much; he did not want to know anymore. So he did the one thing he did best, he lashed out at her.

"So where is our esteemed Mr. Weasley? Or did he come to his senses and run out on you with Lavender Brown?"

Hermione looked as if she had been slapped in the face. She looked at him for a moment, then smiled a strange smile, saying more to herself than to him, "Sometimes, I think, I would have preferred if he had done just that... he would have still been alive, then."

Then she looked in his eyes and said, "If you'll excuse me, Professor. I have some other patients to hug," and left the room.

Her strange smile, her wistful melancholy voice and the faraway look in her eyes tightened something in his chest. All of a sudden, he wanted to hold her close, comfort her, and say how extremely sorry he was for his thoughtlessness. He wanted to take away all her sorrow and erase that strange smile to put a happy one on her face instead... one that would befit the girl who used to laugh like a zephyr over a midday river.

That in itself was very strange. He didn't think he even liked Hermione Granger... um... Weasley? He couldn't possibly call her that! No matter how sorry he was.

How was he to know? He had never thought of any of his students dying, not even Ronald Weasley and his friends, not even when they were fighting the Dark Lord. They had always somehow managed to survive.

No, he did not like her any more than he used to. The only Gryffindor he liked was his Lily; he respected Dumbledore and tolerated Minerva. Then why was he thinking about her? Maybe because, just like him, she had lost the love of her life―even if it had been Ronald Weasley―and he not only had injured but also insulted her about it.

Things had changed in this world while he had been sleeping... his personality hadn't. He had lashed out in the same pettiness, showed the same immaturity, and the victim was only at fault for helping him.

Severus decided to change his ways, to be more receptive to the world of good that came with the Dark Lord's demise, to apologize to... um... his Healer!