Epilogue

Albus Dumbledore spent some time with the Flamels and some time alone. Long talks and ruthless introspection enabled him to realise that he made the very same mistakes as in his youth again, mistakes he had vowed not to repeat. He wrote long letters to Minerva, Severus and Harry (to be opened when coming of age) and he retired quietly from Hogwarts. The old mage regained some of his former standing during the thirtythree years he lived quietly in his cottage near the Flamels. He took up new research in Alchemy but kept mum on politics. His relationship with Severus was beyond salvaging but Minerva and he patched theirs up.

Sal was sorted into Hufflepuff when he started at Hogwarts. He grew up to become an artist. At the age of thirty he married Hermione Granger, whom he had despised during their school-days because of her bossy ways. She was working on a history of Britain's magical world, Sal made the illustrations when he was not busy portraying family, friends and clients or designing labels for Urquhart Potions.

Emma Urquhart-Snape noticed before the two young people that they were falling in love. Therefore she urged her husband to research the possibility of curing a werewolf as she did not want her best friend's niece, Nymphadora Tonks, suffer from the toil and prejudice of that curse. At first Severus did not believe his wife's assertions but after watching Lupin and Tonks at the naming ceremony of yet another Malfoy baby – together the two families now had seven children – he had to concede that she was right. As usual. Taking Nymphadora's age and Lupin's shyness into consideration he had a good chance to find a cure in time.

Eileen Prince moved to Nott Manor when her grandson started Hogwarts. She married Theodore Nott Sr. Theodore Jr was sorted into Ravenclaw. He was the forth in a group of friends who changed quite a bit about house-rivalries at Hogwarts: Neville Longbottom of Gryffindor, Theo Nott of Ravenclaw, Sal Prince of Hufflepuff and Draco Malfoy of Slytherin. They sat together for meals, they studied together, they cheered for each other at Quidditch and they fought with each other.

Severus and Emma had four more children: two years after Elizabeth came Jeremy Lucius and after yet another three years the twins Jacob Angus and Joseph Malcolm. A small crisis hit the family when it became apparent that being pregnant and giving birth rekindled Emma's magical core more and more. Severus was prepared to stand by his wife if she wanted to undergo a magical education but in the end Emma decided that she would live her life just as before, learning only spells from her husband if she deemed them necessary or practical.

On June 6th 2001 Severus took his then grown eldest son Sal along, together with Lucius Malfoy and – of all people – Sirius Black, to see ACDC play at Milton Keynes. Sirius had had entirely too much fun going shopping for appropriate clothes with Lucius. Narcissa enjoyed the sight of her husband in tight leather pants and the Malfoy patriarch blamed the existence of Abraxas Sirius Malfoy, born at March 1st 2002, on said appreciation.

Ears ringing and pint in hand Severus Snape thought back to that day in 1987 when he had planned the renovation of his bathroom. With a shudder he tried to speculate what would have become of him had he not met an abused little boy then. This was so much better, even if Black was still a pain in the posterior occasionally.

All was well.

Author's Note: Thank you all for sticking with me during the process of writing this story! It has been a pleasure.