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Lily Luna Potter-Snape arrives early one August morning, and Snape falls in love again in the space of a breath. Harry reaches out and gently prods her tiny little fist with his finger, and the look on his face when she curls her hand around it makes Snape swallow hard and lean into Harry’s side.
Turning slightly, Severus holds out his arms and offers the baby to Harry. Never short on courage, Harry slowly but still resolutely reaches out, attempting to duplicate the way Severus has done it. Lily is so light, so fragile. It's an unsettling experience and he is sure that he's going to drop the baby - their baby – on his first day as a father, but the moment Lily Luna snuggles into the crook of his arms, a wide grin splits across his face.
Something in him slots into place that Harry hadn't even known was missing.
“Bloody hell, Severus, we’re parents,” Harry says softly, sounding awestruck and more than a little frightened.
“Language,” Snape says automatically, because the last thing he needs is for that to become a part of his daughter’s vocabulary and show up in front of Molly Weasley or worse, Minerva.
Harry rolls his eyes, even as he’s still grinning helplessly, and he says, “Severus, first of all, she's a newborn and isn't going to be repeating anything. And second, she’s our daughter, I promise you she’s going to hear a lot worse.”
Snape looks away from her red, crinkled-up little face for just a moment, meets Harry’s eyes, smirks and says, “Indeed. Particularly from her coarser father and his Gryffindor associates. Just don’t teach her anything she’ll repeat in front of Minerva one day unless you want our daughter losing house points and serving a detention before she can even receive her Hogwarts acceptance letter and be sorted.” There is a brief pause and he adds thoughtfully, "Though presuming she is actually discovered misbehaving, we may assume the loss of house points can be rightfully deducted from Gryffindor." Harry laughs quietly and knocks Snape’s hip with his own in agreement.
It takes a while for Harry to stop holding Lily like he thinks he’s going to accidentally drop her or crush her with his bare hands. Yet for all of Harry’s worrying (and really, everyone just knows Harry is the more nurturing one of the two so why should it be Severus who takes to parenting like a Niffler to gold?) he also takes to parenting as quickly as he took to wielding a wand in Auror training (which might not seem like the best comparison, but with the deadly substances Lily shoots out of, well, both ends, it’s strangely apt).
One night, Snape rolls over and out of sleep and finds Harry sitting on the edge of the bed with Lily in his arms, watching him with an expression of fondness and contentment that quickly dissolves into a wide grin once he realizes Severus is awake. “As a relatively new parent, aren’t you supposed to be watching your child sleep in the middle of the night rather than your husband?” Snape asks, voice rasping a little with drowsiness and strain from his near fatal parting gift from Nagini.
Harry shrugs. “She was fussy and it was my turn to check on her. I tried feeding her, changing her, bouncing her, singing to her - don't even start - and nothing worked. But she stopped crying as soon as I said your name and then started cooing the minute I brought her in here to see you. I think I may be jealous.” He grins down at her as he says it, affection clear in his voice, and Lily makes a sleepy sound of contentment, turns her head to the side, yawns widely, showing her little pink gums, and starts chewing on Harry’s sleep shirt.
Snape watches them without saying anything, chest feeling a little tight with emotion. Maybe being surrounded by Gryffindors is rubbing off on him or he’s becoming sentimental in his old age, but bugger all, there are moments in life where even he’s entitled. Harry catches his eyes, grin turning a little softer, and Severus doesn’t need to say it - with him and Harry, they never really need to say it.
“Severus,” Harry murmurs, and Snape sits up properly to meet him halfway. He kisses Harry with their daughter cradled between their chests, suffused with the kind of happiness he never expected to experience at all and certainly never with this man.
“You’re a brilliant father and Lily is one lucky little girl.” Harry says once he draws back.
Snape reaches out, brushes his fingertips through the black fuzz atop Lily’s head, then wraps his arms loosely around the contents of his very own wizarding world. “We both are.”
-The End-