My love for my mother, and even more for Berenice, is the fierce possessive kind, the sort only a much older firstborn daughter and sister in a dysfunctional family can understand. But suddenly in my mind's eyes I was seeing the scene again, this time from Snape's eyes.

I must have remained a long time staring at the fire...

"Would you stop daydreaming," Scorpius asked. You'll be giving birth yourself soon enough, if we can get through this evening."

I shrugged. "Not a lot left, really... Mum gave birth to Berenice, and they took us out of the cupboard, and I told-showed them what I had gotten out of Alexandra."

"Why did she want to marry him, though?"

"An estate thing. He's got a huge inheritance, and in order to get her paws on it she needed to be a Snape by birth or marriage, per the will's terms. It wasn't enough to be adopted. So she decided to marry him, but after she celebrated enough, because another of his grandfather's whims was that both spouses take Unbreakable fidelity vows, per the will. So... I showed them her memories of sleeping around with half the population of London's Magical's, and laughing with her lovers as she told them of her old sugardaddy waiting for her in his dungeons, waiting for her to bear his babies..."

"She laughed with strangers about him wanting a child? It's surprising he didn't AK her."

Another thing Scorpius can't understand, is the deep masochistic streak dominating the life of this proud, proud man who can't bring himself to open up to my mother...

"What I wonder," he said slowly, "is how you got her to give you memories? Veritaserum is one thing, but that?"

"Just leave it be," I said. It's not the proudest memory of my life, but I'm not sorry I did it.

An immense advantage of talking about this kind of things to a Malfoy, Scorpius wasn't fazed. Maybe even, somewhere, he esteemed me more.

He gave a small laugh. "And that's how you paved the way for your Mum to get her paws on this estate. Brilliant, dearest."

I slanted him a sidewise glance. "As you saw from our brilliant family and financial situation today. Gnnn... you know us Weasleys. Never mind what deal we have in hand at the beginning, we still end up dirt-poor." Even after all these years, it still hurt. A lot.

"This is not something I'll ever understand, eh?" His tone was subdued, for once devoid of the disdainful lacquer he offered to the word to hide the very insecure boy inside. But he was right. How could he understand growing under the sinking feeling of being, always, on the downside slope?

"I still don't understand. Your mother and Snape should mathematically have ended up together, no? That's what the old tabby must have had in mind all the time anyway."

"Yes, that was her plan. That's why she faked the urgent need for a sabbatical when she saw Snape did intend to marry the Harlot. She'd surmised, correctly, that only my mother would be able to save the day, but... But it went totally wrong. I mean, it did rid Snape of the Harlot -- he shipped her away to New Zealand within a fortnight --arranged a scholarship for her, and she was not in a position to protest anymore -- but as concerns Mum and him hooking up together... nothing. They spent months ignoring each other after the birth. Mum dove into deep post-partum depression, cringed every time she saw him, and he wouldn't look at her. For months. Or he would talk to her from above, as he used to do with us when we were kids...

At this point," I said. "I still had hope. Minerva too. I heard her talk to Poppy one day. For the two weeks Mum and the baby stayed in the infirmary he'd steal in everyday when she was asleep to visit Berenice. Minerva told Poppy that they were both under shock, under the conjugated effects of Alexandra's story, the birth, and the simple fact he'd seen Mom without knickers."

"Minerva? I'm shocked!"

"So was I... Anyway, it never got any better, really, then there was the problem of a place to live, with the baby. We still couldn't afford the flat. Parents would have objected to Mum staying at Hogwarts with a baby. Then Snape stepped in, and he offered her, in his stilted way of his, a business arrangement. She would continue to take care of a research project they'd begun together during her tenure at Hogwarts, and he'd let her have the cottage in Hogsmeade. And that's the way it's been, until right now. He comes in like twice a week for potions work, they split the profits, and he comes in for Berenice's birthdays. He taught her to read when she was four, he takes her to London once or twice a month..."

"Without your mother?"

"Does my mother look to you as a woman with a happy love life and a dark mysterious lover tucked away," I exploded. "No, right? Without my mother.

Oh they spend hours together, bickering in the lab like an old couple. They've managed to cook up two new potions, thanks to which I don't have to rely on you for my wedding gown. No I won't," I repeated for the umpteenth time, not letting him even broach the subject again. Due to the extreme difference in our, well, financial circumstances, I had become very touchy for all that regarded money. Scorpius wasn't going to buy me.

"OK, so I know everything about your mother and Snape being business partners. So all's well that ends well, no?" he asked again, delicately trying to steer me back to the subject that interested him, which was a quick review of our approaching wedding arrangements, and a long, very hands-on review of the physical advantages being married would entail.

No, everything had not ended well. Now I had come to the hard part. I braced myself. "No. They still don't exchange two sentences apart from work conversations, barely look each other in the eye. It used to drive Minerva crazy, but even she had to admit defeat at some point. My mother will stay a widow all her life, or she'll move to London and find somebody, and Snape will die an old bachelor. That's it. And they're both unhappy, and nothing can be done. That's it, Scorpius. And that's why you cannot, in any case, no way whatsoever, until Hell freezes over, and any other frightening expression you can dream of, ask Snape to be your best man, or to come with you to the altar, or act in any way as a figurehead when we get married. You don't have a dad, I know, but neither do I after all. It's going to be hard enough for Mum to get adjusted to our... to us, I can't have her face Snape as her opposite partner during the wedding. I just can't. He'll understand, Scorpius. Actually, I'm sure he'll be at least as eager to stay in the background..."

Scorpius stayed silent for a long time, his long legs balancing themselves on the stool he'd put his feet upon to hear my story. "I see," he said finally. "You should have talked to me before, Rosie. But I understand. I'll explain the situation to Snape."

"Without giving any of this away, remember? You promised."

"So I did. Don't worry, Rose." He stood up, advanced to my own armchair, and hugged me, and behind the kind of shame I felt at the thought of my mother, lonely in the small cottage in the days, and Berenice's only caretaker at night, slaving off her best years over potions and getting old alone, I couldn't help the exhilaration at knowing this blond wonder could make me feel so good, and would do so for the years to come. I resolutely pushed away the thought of the dark solitary man pining for Berenice, and maybe for my mum too, and the image of his hungry begging eyes as he handed the baby to my mother.