Twenty-One Years Later

The Marriage Law ended once the Wizengamot agreed that it was a rather silly idea in the first place; of course, this was after the population of the Wizarding World had gone up. There was a high divorce rate within the Wizarding World once the law was appealed, but many couples found themselves quite happy with their current situations, opting to stay together. Those couples included Harry and Severus, Ron and Hermione, Ginny and Draco, Neville and Luna, George and Angelina, Lee and Alicia, Anthony and Susan, and Kingsley and Andromeda.

The following September after Harry and Severus were married, Harry gave birth to their first child, a son they named Sebastian Andromedas Potter-Snape. Ron and Hermione's first child showed up the following April, a daughter they named Rose Lucretia Granger-Weasley. Ginny and Draco's son, Scorpius Alexander Malfoy, came along the following winter, and Neville and Luna's older daughter, Pandora Alice Longbottom, arrived just before Luna's next birthday. The babies were seen, quite literally, as new life cropping up within the Wizarding World, and things continued to run smoothly.

Angelina and George welcomed a son, Fred II, shortly after their own marriage, and later had a daughter, Roxanne. Ron and Hermione had a son, Hugo Septimus Granger-Weasley, about three years after Rose's birth. Neville and Luna had another child, Frank Gulliver Longbottom during the spring, while Ginny and Draco later had a daughter, Arabella Charlotte Malfoy, later on down the line. Harry and Severus had a daughter, Lily Luna Potter-Snape, and a second son, Lionel Zephyr Potter-Snape.

It was to great delight of the Wizarding World when Kingsley and Andromeda welcomed triplets, two daughters and a son, who they would raise alongside Teddy. Their birth and later naming ceremony made the front pages of both The Daily Prophet and The Quibbler, and both Harry and Severus agreed that the names were wonderful. Asterope Sirene, Cassiopeia Atabey, and Orion Erinle were born safe and sound, thanks to Severus's fertility potion, and he himself was credited in the articles.

Since then, Severus never had a shortage of potions orders, meaning that Harry could focus on raising the children, and turning to Molly and Arthur on the rare occasions that he did need to go into Sorcerer's Sweets, or to do some intense recipe developing and testing. Over the years, Harry began adding all manners of cakes to his repertoire, as well as expanding his knowledge from French cuisine. He had attended The Culinary School of America to learn about the ins-and-outs of wine; The Italian Culinary Institute to learn how to make gelato; The Culinary Arts Academy – Switzerland to learn about chocolate making; and The Culinary Institute of the Mediterranean to learn all things when it came to Mediterranean cuisine.

Although he had been reluctant at first, Harry had ultimately agreed with Draco that Sorcerer's Sweets could easily be a franchise. They started with Hogsmeade, and bought up property there and quickly, with many of their patrons Hogwarts students. The next place they decided to open up in was the French Wizarding World quarter, with a little help from the Delacour family. Harry had been pleased for the assistance, as well as the notion that Bill and Fleur were still very happy together, having welcomed a second daughter, Dominique, and a son, Louis.

Harry and Severus, meanwhile, had never been happier in all their lives, due to the fact that their respective businesses were booming, and their three children were doing wonderfully as well. It was a longstanding bet when Sebastian started Hogwarts which house he would sort. It was to no one's surprise when little Sebastian sorted Slytherin, never mind when Lily got Ravenclaw and Lionel got Gryffindor. Their home was filled with many animals over the years, and, as a gift for their first Christmas together, Severus surprised his new husband with a Kneazle kitten that Harry had called Ivy. By the following Christmas, Harry had found a Kneazle kitten for Severus, who, in turn, called it Fiorello. By the time each of his children started Hogwarts, each had a familiar of their own; Sebastian had an owl called Desmond, Lily her own Kneazle called Violet, and Lionel a ferret named Jasper.

It wasn't too much of a surprise for anyone involved when Sebastian, an Alpha, brought the lovely and intelligent Omega Rose Granger-Weasley home for the first time to introduce her to his fathers as his girlfriend. The pair were very happy together, with Sebastian now a second-year Auror, and Rose in her Unspeakable training. They had a flat in London, and were frequent visitors to the Potter-Snape household in Berkshire.

When it was their only daughter and Omega Lily's turn, she brought home Alpha Scorpius Malfoy, much to everyone's shock, but Harry and Severus soon realized that opposites did, indeed, attract. With Scorpius doing a potions internship with Blaise Zabini, now the professor of the subject at Hogwarts, as well as Head of Slytherin House, Lily herself was a seventh-year student with her sights set upon wizarding law, and although their relationship could, indeed, be seen as controversial, Harry and Severus knew they were happy. When it came down to the question of whether or not Scorpius was treating their daughter well, they knew that Arabella, who was two years behind Lily, would keep her older brother in line as the first-ever Gryffindor in the Malfoy family.

And then, at last, came Lionel, an Omega, who seemed more than a little reluctant to introduce his chosen partner to Harry and Severus, so they gave it time, as well as the proper amount of support to do so. Callum Finnigan-Thomas had been best friends with Lionel since their ride on the Hogwarts Express together for their first year, and the pair of them been sorted Gryffindor together. Callum was the fourth child of Harry's old school friends, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, who had three older sisters, Kayleigh, Maeve, and Ciara, as well as one younger brother, Aidan. However, when the two fifth-years walked inside the house together at the end of second-term, it came as a double shock to them both when they saw the claiming bite upon Lionel's mating gland.

Lionel had presented that Christmas, and although Harry had had his suspicions of where his youngest son's heart lay, he hadn't known that Callum had felt the same way. It became all the more surprising when Severus spoke to Callum about his plans for the future, and Callum told Severus that he wanted to go into Spellcrafting, and had already been searching at the wizarding divisions of well-known universities at Edinburgh, Oxford, Cardiff, and Dublin. Lionel, meanwhile, flushed at the implications, and informed both of his fathers that he fully intended upon remaining on the Omega Suppressants to stop any forthcoming pregnancies until his commencement from Hogwarts, as he, rather desperately, wished to study wizarding history at any university Callum got into, wanting more than anything to replace Professor Binns, who, for some reason, still taught at Hogwarts.

And then it was Christmas again, which meant that Sebastian and Rose, Lily and Scorpius, Lionel and Callum, as well as Ron and Hermione, Draco and Ginny, Dean and Seamus, Neville and Luna, Molly and Arthur, Bill and Fleur, George and Angelina, and all their children would be coming for the annual Potter-Snape Christmas celebrations. As Harry helped the house-elves in the kitchens, Severus hummed Christmas carols in the parlor, making sure that the tree was straight, the lights were hung, and the halls were decked with just the right amount of holly for the celebrations ahead. The mulled wine, Harry's patented recipe, simmered on the stove, while all varieties of baked goods cooked merrily in the oven, and the various roasts set upon the top of the stove.

Harry's latest project had been a five-star restaurant, located in Diagon Alley's restaurant district, which had already been awarded three Granian wings, the equivalent of Michelin stars in the Muggle World. The luxurious establishment booked out six months in advance, and was truly Harry's latest baby, and had been dubbed as the place for lovers, or for any celebration one would hope to have. Opulenza was a name coined by Severus, and had Italian influences with its fine white tablecloths, chandeliers, and fine paintings of Italy upon its red-colored walls.

"Master Harry's guests will be arriving any moment," squeaked one of the house-elves, Merry, who was their leader. She bounced around the place, quickly finishing her tasks, a red bow tied to one of her ears, garbed in a matching apron. "Oh, I do hope the biscuits haven't crumbled in the oven..."

"They will be hungry for Master Harry's creations," put in Nicky, Merry's husband, in a reassuring manner. In addition to being Merry's husband, he was also the father of their three daughters—Holly, Gloria, and Belle, who were hard at work in the parlor with Severus, assisting him with the decorating.

"It is their favorite holiday after all," Harry mused, piping pastry cream into the fresh batch of cannoli's he'd just made.

"Merry is just hoping that Mistress Molly doesn't take over," Merry said, dashing forward to check on the baked goods in the oven, squeaked, and pulled out two trays of biscuits.

Harry smiled; while the Weasley matriarch and his surrogate mother certainly meant well, she always wished to help out a bit too much, even if she wasn't hosting, or the event in question wasn't being held at the Burrow. "She won't," Harry assured them gently. "Hermione is going to keep her in check."

Merry looked over her shoulder at Harry and smiled. "Mistress Hermione always has a kind word to say to Merry, Nicky, Holly, Gloria, and Belle."

Harry nodded, finishing up his piping; in their years since Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and everyone close to them had been pleased that Hermione truly began to understand that house-elves enjoyed what they did and, as long as degradation wasn't a part of it, she was in full support. Harry had seen that she adored the elves in his and Severus's service, and how much they'd doted on the three Potter-Snape children when they'd arrived, as well as Rose and Hugo. "You know Hermione, always keeping up with everyone's happiness..."

"Mistress Hermione will be wanting to be planning the wedding next," Nicky said.

Harry blinked. "Wedding? Whose wedding?"

"Why, Master Sebastian's wedding to Mistress Rose, of course!" Merry said brightly.

Harry chuckled, knowing that his elves meant well, but he seriously believed that twenty-year-old Sebastian and nineteen-year-old Rose were a bit too young to be considering a wedding. Oh, careful there, Harry, he warned himself, you're beginning to sound just a bit hypocritical. I mean, weren't you a lad of nineteen when you married Severus?

Harry shook the thought away, knowing entirely well that it wasn't up to him to decide when his children got married, especially Sebastian, who lived on his own and supported himself, and was above the legal age in both the Wizarding and Muggle World. Finishing with the cannoli's, Harry placed a food-safe Stasis Charm upon them and checked on the biscuits that Merry had pulled from the oven, before taking a peek at the trio of Bûche de Noël's, currently baking away merrily in the ovens. Nodding, he set a timer with his wand for ten minutes, and went to go and see how Severus was doing.

As Harry ventured out of the kitchen, he heard quick feet upon the floor above, followed by playful growling from Callum, and a giggle from Lionel. Shaking his head in amusement, he walked by the staircase and peered up, spotting Callum and his youngest in a heated-looking embrace. "Careful, there, you two," he said.

Lionel flushed pink and attempted to pull out of Callum's arms, but the Alpha held firm. "Cal, we can't just..."

"I know you're being safe," Harry assured them both, "aren't you, Callum?"

Callum looked down at Harry from the upper floor, a rather mischievous look in his eye which reminded Harry of his days at Hogwarts with Seamus. "'Course, Harry," he told him, nodding. "No babies for us until we've graduated, found our own home, and making our own living."

"That's always what I like to hear," said an intoxicatingly silky voice from behind Harry, and Severus promptly wrapped his arms around his husband. "Do have fun, you two," he informed them both, and whisked Harry away from the base of the staircase, towards the turret on the top floor, which was just off the parlor and up a spiral staircase, and just so happened to be a place where they'd gone a great many times over the years to be alone. "Ah, my little Omega...alone at last."

Harry huffed slightly then, pretending to be put-out as he peered up at his husband. "Oh, hush, you great big Alpha, you," he muttered.

Severus chuckled, leaning down and nipping at Harry's ear. "Ah, exactly what every Alpha wants to hear."

Harry rolled his eyes, but nevertheless wrapped his arms around his husband's neck. "How long have we got, then?"

Severus hesitated for a moment before peering out of the window. "Not as long as we wanted, it seems," he mused.

Harry blinked, before looking over his shoulder, spotting Sebastian and Rose in the gardens, and his jaw dropped as he saw Sebastian, down on one knee, holding tightly to a slightly trembling Rose's outstretched hand. "Oh... Oh, Merlin..."

"Knowing Sebastian, he sought permission from Ron before doing so," Severus said softly. "But I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that he got agreement from me to go through our vaults at Gringotts earlier this week on his day off..."

Harry turned and stared at Severus over his shoulder, just after Rose had seemingly cried out and grabbed at Sebastian, something being slipped onto her finger. "Likely looking at the family jewels to find something appropriate for Rose..."

"Most likely, yes," Severus responded, knowing entirely well that Harry was holding in his emotions, which he didn't do too terribly well when Teddy had asked Victoire to bond with him the spring before. "Are you all right?"

Harry bit his lip. "Yes and no," he said softly. "I know entirely well that it's only a matter of time before Scorpius comes to us..."

"He claimed Lily on her last birthday," Severus reminded Harry gently. "The natural progression of an Alpha and Omega relationship these days is a claiming on the Omega's seventeenth birthday, if they are not of the same age, followed by seeking consent from the Omega's father, and then a bonding ceremony to complete the relationship..."

Harry nodded. "I know," he replied, turning to stare out the window again. Looking down at the gardens, Sebastian and Rose were holding one another, just as snow slowly but surely began to fall around them, leading Rose to giggle, and Sebastian to lift her up and spin her around. "It just seems like only yesterday I was holding them, teaching them their first steps, reading them stories at bedtime..."

"Giving them potions lessons," Severus put in, wrapping his arms around Harry's waist, and pressing a kiss onto his temple.

Harry leaned back into Severus's arms, drawing comfort from the Alpha. "I don't feel any older sometimes," he whispered.

"Neither do I," Severus agreed.

"And to think, a bloody sweet shop brought us together," Harry chuckled.

Severus snorted. "Oh, I think it had to do with a government mandated law... Of course, I'm no coward, and I would have come to you eventually, hat in hand, begging you to have dinner with me..."

"Alpha's don't beg, though," Harry said.

"Oh, you will find this one does, when the incentive is too great to give up," Severus countered, following Harry's gaze to Sebastian and Rose again, who were still dancing merrily in the snow around them. "They'll be all right..."

Harry nodded at him, permitting himself to sink deeper into his husband's arms; he had never felt so safe with anyone as he did with his husband. "I know," he replied, knowing entirely well that no such laws from the Wizengamot would force them into something that they potentially did not want, nor would they ever do so again.

All was well.

THE END