A one time thing {Severus Snape}

Chapter 49: Beautiful

Many thanks to Camille who has once again worked so hard on ironing out my many and varied mistakes. Any remaining ones are all mine!

Oh and before we go any further, I just want to say that I have no legal background whatsoever and therefore the way the Malfoys proceed may not be accurate, but... let's just say it's AU. grins

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"This is ridiculous," Snape muttered in Meg's ear. "I told you we should have come here sooner than this. I'd rather be mauled by a Splinter Wister than fight my way through the hordes of screaming brats!" Snape was thoroughly disgusted and making no bones about letting it show.

"Now where has she gone? Senga!" He turned and was elbowed sharply by a small boy (who undoubtedly would be one of the new first years when term started).

"Opps, sorry!" The boy smiled until his eyes reached the black, furious depths of Snape's eyes boring down into his. "Er..." The boy inched away, anxious to find his mother.

"Watch where you are going, boy," hissed Snape as he glared at the retreating boy.

"I'm here, Uncle," Senga spoke from his other side.

He glared down at her and then looked across to where Meg was stood with Clarity in some strange contraption that was tied around her, leaving Clarity "hanging" in front her of, warm woolly booted feet poking out of the cloth that held her.

"Don't drop her, Megan." He frowned, still completely unconvinced that it was safe enough.

Meg rolled her eyes and, taking Senga's arm, headed towards the Ice-Cream shop.

"We don't need to go in there," came Snape's annoyed voice from behind them.

Meg looked back at him pointedly.

"If we have to suffer you being grumpy all morning, I for one, need to be fortified with some ice-cream."

"Fine! If you feel that way, you can both get on with it yourselves. I'llmeet you both up at three thirty SHARP. If either or both of you are late, you canfind your own wayhome," he growled and stomped off.

Meg watched him go with a shrug.

"Oh well. Let him stew, we'll have fun first, shall we?"

Senga nodded, a worried frown on her face as she watched her uncle storming off, his cloak swirling around him.

"It's okay really," Meg said softly, seeing Senga's face.

"Why do you argue so much?" asked Senga quietly.

Meg was taken aback by the question.

"Senga, you do know that I love your uncle very much, and he loves me. It may seem as if all we do is argue, but we don't, not really." Meg watched Senga's face closely.

"My mother and... father never argued." She almost slipped up over the word 'father.'

"I expect they do," Meg smiled softly, remembering her own parents. "All couples have disagreements, its part of the territory, so to speak." They went into the shop and headed towards the windows.

"Then I shall never get married," Senga announced and sat down at one of the empty tables.

"No, you misunderstand me." Meg lifted Clarity out of the sling and held her against one shoulder as she sat down. "There isn't a couple alive that don't argue sometimes. Differences of opinion, the way each person is brought up, experiences; they all have a bearing on how we look at life. And no one person is the same as the next, so people will always disagree over things. But that doesn't mean that the love for each other is any less." Meg turned Clarity to face Senga and smiled.