2 May 1998

The ghost of Severus Snape did not correctly anticipate what came after. Nor did he care. At first. He expected to disappear, soon enough.

A would-be husband fell, and two children winked out of the web of they called “the future”.

The ghost has remained.

He takes credit for the two lovers of lost loves who found comfort in the company of the other. With a ghost who should not exist endlessly haunting them both, they forged a new love.

Because he could not let either go, he tells himself. He is not displeased.

Until they decide to have children.

31 October 2008

Though formed in a moment of selfish longing, he is not beyond regret. He knows himself to be an abomination, an faint copy of a soul not departed. And the Weasley children were kinder than the young Snapes.

“I’ll make Real Daddy tell Uncle Harry!” Two-year-old Bertrade calls him “Smoke Daddy”, and she scolds him when he sulks. She lives up to her name, brightly bossing her parents about. She believes Harry Potter is the world’s ultimate authority.

Vadhir – barely six months old – is already a fine judge of character. The ghost fears the day the boy learns to talk.

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A/N: This was originally written for the GrangerSnape100 LJ community's Afterlige Challenge. It is a deepening of the story that began with The Only Ones Who Know.