Chapter Seventeen: Fairytale Ending

"Mee-tree, wait up!" She screamed from the top of her lungs to her retreating brother. Her long chestnut hair was being blown in the wind across her face.

"Zephyr, this is how you play tag! I can't just let you catch me!" He stopped by the porch of house.

"Why not!" She finally reached him, her arms crossed in front of her.

"Three year olds." He shook his head in annoyance and she shot her tongue out at him.

"Dmitri, be kind to your sister." A deep voice called from the doorway. In his arms was a drooling eighteen month old, sucking on a rubber snitch.

"Yeah, Mee-tree, be kind to me." She went to the rocking swing that her daddy was sitting at, bouncing the baby up and down. "Daddy, I don't like playing tag. He never let's be get him." Severus chuckled lightly.

"That's the point." The tall, lanky, boy with curly dark hair said as he came to sit on the edge of the porch.

"What's the point?" Hermione's large belly came through the doorway far before the rest of her, as she continued to waddle her way to where her loving husband and children were sitting.

"Zephyr doesn't know how to play tag." Dmitri huffed. Hermione took a seat and held onto her husband's hand, comfortingly.

"Hey!" Zephyr battled back.

"Enough, you two." Severus couldn't help but smile at his children's playful banter. "Dmitri, are your belongings packed."

"Already." He whined. "The Hogwarts express doesn't come for another three days." Hermione and Severus would soon be leaving with the rest of their children to inhabit the halls of Hogwarts, as soon as their oldest child entered as a first year at the age of six.

"Everyone else is packed; I don't see a reason why you shouldn't be as well." Severus admonished his son. "I also expect that you have finished reading your texts."

"He's already done that dear." Hermione's hair was gripped tightly by the giggling baby on his Daddy's lap. "Twice."

"Now, now, Roman, don't pull on Mommy's hair." He carefully detangled his small hand and Hermione's beautiful curls. "Well, Dmitri, you should go and pack you things."

"Okay, dad." He walked off the porch and his younger sister followed quickly after him.

"She never leaves him, does she?" Hermione asked, a smile playing at her lips.

"Never." He smiled as the beautiful brown haired boy drooled all over his robes.

"I don't know how she will survive with her brother attending classes." Hermione began to rub her belly fondly. Severus smiled over at her, the two year old in his lap, fast asleep now.

"She'll probably want to attend all of them with him. We'll have a hell of time trying to stop her." He placed his hand over her swollen belly.

"Maybe we can coerce Albus into doing a bit of babysitting for us."

"Perhaps." He kissed her forehead lightly, making sure not to disturb the bundle of joy in his arms.

"I imagine this year will be a bit hectic."

"A bit." Severus agreed.

"But we can do it." She squeezed his hand a bit tighter.

"Of course." She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, happier than she could have ever imagined.

-and they all lived happily ever after-