In Sickness and in Health

{epilogue}

Black curls, all spun to perfection and hanging elegantly down an eleven year-old's back, bounced gleefully as a small family of three approached Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. They were rather early, but it was the poor girl's first time ever going to the station, so the parents carefully guided her through the barrier and applauded when they made it safe to the other side.

Excitement and nervousness rushed through the gracious girl who seemed to take all of her parents best traits, a vision of immense beauty.

Severus was already worried, unwittingly, about letting his daughter loose in the school he held reign over.

They helped load her trunk onto the train, talking to her reassuringly as she swatted away her mother's diligent hands running through her curls. Her father gave her a look telling her all at once to let her mother do it, or fear incurring her wrath.

So the little girl allowed it, and Hermione smiled as she looked at the Minister of Magic's daughter.

Oh, what a sight she truly was, and she would only grow more so as she gained years and height, time not slowing down in the slightest as much as her parents might have willed it.

The girl had gorgeous black eyes and hair, but it was curly as her mother's, though silky and manageable, much to Hermione's chagrin. Her build was certainly her father's, tall and regal, and her laugh was courtesy of her mum. Though her voice was the definition of music, obviously inherited from Severus. And what intelligence she held was not unseen, for she'd learned more magic than some of the seventh-years before she was even on the train.

Severus of course attributed her mischief and slyness to her mother who had broken more school rules than she could count, while somehow still obeying them the most.

After they said their goodbyes, and she was seated on the train with one of the Potter-Malfoy boys, Hermione leaned into her husband and asked when exactly he planned on arriving at the school to oversee the incoming first-years.

"Well, the sorting cannot begin unless I am there, meaning if my daughter isn't sorted she can't be a first-year, meaning my denial of her growing up will remain!"

Hermione shook her head, looking up at him from under his arm, her hand pressed against his chest.

"You cannot do that! There are many parents here who actually want to see their children learn and succeed in school!"

He narrowed his black eyes in her direction and shook his head, "They are fools. What parent wants to see their child grow?"

Hermione knew that if he was merely a few years younger, Severus would care less about the fact that his daughter was headed on a train for his school. It was inevitable with every magical child, but he was much older than the rest of the parents. It scared him, regardless of how old many wizards were able to live due to their magic and extended well-being.

"Relax, you will be there watching her eat and study. What more could you ask for? I have to suffer only seeing her on holidays."

"And if you'd have accepted the teaching position that I offered you when I did, then there would be no problem. Mr. Potter had no qualms accepting."

"That was just so he could be closer to the other Mr. Potter who was already there at the school. Gods, why does that still sound so wrong?" Hermione said with a shiver racing down her spine, thinking of Draco and Harry married and together. It had been sixteen years, one would have thought she could handle it by now.

"Like everyone took so kindly to us? It just takes time for people to get used to, you happen to just never get used to it."

Severus watched ruefully as the train took his daughter away from him, and they began to gently walk out from the platform, his arm still snug around his wife who hadn't shed a tear. He knew that was just how she handled things, but in a few nights it would hit her that their daughter was no longer so small.

"Well, anyways, I didn't take the position because I can't handle the media like you or Harry can. Imagine what more they could have concocted about your devious potions and wicked spells that allowed you to have me? I could barely listen to it when we went public," Hermione moaned.

"I warned you that it would happen, but I was selfish and let us go through it. Do you want an apology, witch?"

He'd apologized at least a hundred times, guilty for tearing apart her life when the reporters started asking her why she'd leave poor war hero Neville Longbottom for the old pawn, Severus Snape. Of course, he'd been "war hero" too before they started seeing one-another.

"Of course not, you know that, I was just making a point."

He hummed in response, shaking his head at her.

"I guess Professor Norten was a better choice for Transfiguration, anyways, you should really stick to your politics."

Hermione smiled, but put on a very serious face to scorn him, "Very funny."

"I thought so."

"You know what's odd?" Hermione asked, feeling strange as they merely chatted away while their daughter was on a train to Hogwarts, and they were acting like it was another Sunday Stroll.

"What, my dear?"

"That despite the fact that we were married first, all of my friends' children are older than ours."

"You wanted to wait, remember? That was one of the many reasons you ended things with Weasley," Severus replied smoothly, not a single thought or doubt disturbing his response.

"No, I left Ron because I fell in love with you," Hermione told him sternly. "I don't think I ever would have had the courage if he didn't get sick, and I didn't get to know you."

"And thank Merlin for that,"he said in his sultry tone that had Hermione weak in her knees. He'd leaned down to whisper in her ear, and with the biting cold threatening as September seemed to already be welcoming colder days, she welcomed the flood of warmth.

She should have scorned him for kissing her in the car park, but to anyone else they probably looked like a parting couple, one leaving for the train, and the other staying there, and unfortunately separated. Of course, that wasn't the case, and the couple was as happy as ever, for they'd made their vows to love one-another forever, in sickness and in health.