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The Potter estate was warm and golden, alive with the smell of roasting lamb and laughter drifting in from the kitchen.
Sirius had been bouncing with energy all day like a mutt waiting for a treat. Now, as they stood at the door, his arm was slung around Severa’s waist, hand slipping a little lower than polite. She elbowed him lightly. “Not in front of your friends, Black.”
He grinned. “Wait until you meet them. They’re gonna love you.”
Severa gave him a long look. She wasn’t so sure. Her hair was braided and pinned, her robes were black velvet with subtle silver embroidery, elegant, understated, dangerous, Like her. In her hands, a sleek, charmed wooden box.
Inside? A potion set she’d designed herself: healing draughts, anti-hex salves, and a rare perfume variation sealed in black glass. Subtle, but powerful. Thoughtful, but unmistakably her.
The door opened before she could say anything. A flash of red hair. Lily Potter, radiant and very pregnant, beamed.
“Sirius! And, oh! You must be his mystery girl! I’m Lily.”
“Severa,” she replied, stepping forward with a soft smile and outstretched hand. “This is for you.”
Lily blinked at the gift, then laughed as James appeared behind her. “Sirius said you were intense, but I didn’t expect you to look like you walked off the cover of Witch Weekly’s Dangerous Women edition.”
Sirius grinned proudly. “She did. I bought six copies.”
James reached out to shake her hand, hesitated, then took it carefully like she might hex him with eye contact alone. “So… you’re Severa Snape?”
Silence.
Remus choked on his tea in the background. Peter dropped a fork. Lily’s smile faltered.
Sirius’s hand slipped onto Severa’s hip again. “Oh, did I forget to mention that?”
She gave a slow smile, calm as poison.
“You must’ve,” she said sweetly. “But don’t worry, I come in peace.”
~~~
The dining room was glowing with candlelight and the clink of silverware. Lily and James sat at opposite ends of the table, Remus beside Peter, who hadn’t stopped watching Severa like she might pull a dagger out of her sleeve at any moment.
She didn’t.
She didn’t need to.
Sirius, meanwhile, was all smug grins and casual touches, fingers brushing Severa’s thigh under the table, knuckles trailing the curve of her hand, his chin dropping to her shoulder when she leaned in to speak.
“So,” Lily finally said, pouring pumpkin juice with the grace of a diplomat, “we’ve got to know, how did you two meet?”
A pause.
Sirius looked at Severa. She looked at her wine.
Then, without missing a beat, she said, “I basically saved him…”
She paused, just long enough to watch the table lean in.
“…from my father.”
Remus blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
James frowned. “Saved him from what exactly?”
Severa turned to Sirius with a teasing smile. “He flirted with me. In my father’s weapons vault.”
Peter coughed.
Remus buried his face in his napkin.
Lily leaned in with gleaming eyes. “Sirius.”
“What?” he said innocently. “She was gorgeous. I didn’t know her dad was the kingpin of half the Knockturn Alley arms market!”
James looked like he’d swallowed a lemon. “You flirted, with Snape’s daughter, in a vault full of magical ammunition?!”
“I didn’t know she was a Snape either!” Sirius shot back, but he was laughing. “I just saw a beautiful woman who nearly hexed me when I smiled at her.”
Severa smirked. “He smiled like he wanted to be punched. So I considered it.”
Remus, wiping his face, wheezed out, “And now you're dating him?”
She sipped her wine calmly. “He grew on me. Like mold. With dimples.”
Sirius grinned, then leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“But I’m her mold,” he said smugly.
She rolled her eyes, but her hand curled around his knee under the table.
~~~
They’re halfway through dessert, when Sirius suddenly clears his throat and everyone turns to him.
He glances at Severa, who arches a brow as if to say you’re really doing this here? but she doesn’t stop him.
“So, uh... this dinner wasn’t just for fun.”
“...Okay?” James says slightly puzzled.
Sirius flashes a sheepish grin, then blurts;
“We’re getting married!”
Silence.
Peter drops his fork. Again.
Remus chokes on his second drink of the night. Again.
Lily stares like someone just threw a pigs wedding at her feet.
“I’m sorry, you’re what?!” James shouted.
Sirius, suddenly confident, arm around Severa said, “Getting married. You know, bonded. Magically and legally. It’s kind of a thing.”
“You mean like... right now? Soon?” Remus asked.
Severa, calm as ever, said, “The contracts have been under negotiation for months. Our fathers finalized everything last week.”
“Contracts?” Lily asked, “Like... a pureblood alliance?”
“Mmm.” Hummed Severa, “With extra weapon clauses of course.”
James is staring at Sirius in horror. “This is why we haven’t seen you for weeks? Because you’ve been off negotiating your... marriage?”
Sirius shrugs. “I didn’t really negotiate much. I just told them it was Severa or no one, and if they didn’t agree I’d hex the family tapestry and tattoo her name on my chest.”
Severa chimes in, deadpan, “He also said he’d join my family’s side if they didn’t approve.”
Sirius winks. “Romantic, right?”
Lily, blinking rapidly, “Sirius Black is entering an arranged marriage and it’s working?”
Remus finally regains composure and mumbles, “Honestly, this is the most functional relationship he’s ever had.”
~~~
The sound of soft conversation and clinking glasses fades as James yanks Sirius into the hallway by the elbow.
“Are you out of your mind?” James whisper-hisses, closing the door behind them.
Sirius blinks. “Define ‘out’ and ‘mind,’ exactly.”
James throws his hands in the air. “You’re marrying Snape’s daughter, the Snape family, without telling any of us, and we find out over dessert like it’s a bloody birthday surprise?! What happened to reckless bachelor Sirius who swore off family ties and contracts and, marriage?”
Sirius straightens his collar with a grin that’s all teeth. “He met someone with better aim and prettier hands.”
James stares.
“You’re serious.”
“Always.”
James groans. “This isn’t a joke, mate. The Snape family, her father’s the reason half the Aurors walk around with back braces and curse scars. You said yourself they’re smugglers and enforcers and…”
Sirius leans against the wall with that maddening, smugly in love look on his face.
“And Severa’s nothing like them. Or exactly like them. Depends on the lighting.”
James lowers his voice. “Do you even know her?”
Sirius levels him with a rare, sharp look.
“I know she loves strong tea and doesn’t trust wands that glitter. I know she goes quiet when she’s angry because she was raised to weaponize silence, not screams. I know she has a scar behind her left ear from dueling her cousin for insulting her mum. I know she lets me sleep on her chest when I have nightmares. And I know she didn't flinch when I told her I loved her, she just said, ‘finally.’”
James opens his mouth. Closes it.
Sirius shrugs. “I didn’t get to choose my family. But this? I’m choosing her. Every damn time.”
James sighs, defeated. “You’re really in this, aren’t you?”
Sirius nods, a small, crooked smile on his lips.
“Neck deep, and I’ve never breathed better.”
~~~
The tension in the Potter living room is... elegant. Controlled. The kind you get when a lion walks into a tea party and compliments the host's scones.
Lily, voice a touch too high-pitched:
“So! You made these yourself?”
She gestures to the sleek vials Severa brought, their contents softly swirling in muted greens and golds.
Severa, calm and warm says, “Yes. One’s a healing draught, the other’s a potion to reverse hex-damage in skin tissue. The last is perfume. Layered with a light calming charm. I thought you’d appreciate it.”
Lily, blinking rapidly:
“It’s... divine. Thank you.”
Remus, cautiously examining a vial like it might sprout legs:
“And... these are all safe, right?”
Severa, smiling faintly:
“Safer than the wine you’re drinking.”
Remus carefully sets the vial down.
Peter, from behind his glass:
“I like your dress.”
Severa, glancing down at the tailored black fabric, simple but elegant, with silver runes embroidered near the cuffs:
“Thank you. It was my mother’s. She designs dresses and her designs can be a bit… unconventional.”
Lily, trying her best not to picture a coven of potion-making mafia witches sipping bloodroot cocktails:
“Well, it’s beautiful. You look beautiful.”
Severa’s eyes soften just slightly. “You as well. That color suits you. Brings out the gold in your aura.”
Peter, whispering to Remus, “Can she see our auras?”
Remus, in a deadpan tone said, “Don’t ask. If she says yes, you’ll panic. If she says no, you’ll still panic.”
Cue the door opening and Sirius entered with James behind him back into the room, pale and mildly shell-shocked. Severa gently adjusted Sirius’s collar as he sliped beside her again, utterly unfazed.
Sirius, smug as ever said, “Everything alright in here?”
Lily, forcing a smile said, “We were just talking about how lovely your fiancée’s potions are.”
Severa, brushing a finger along Sirius’s jaw, “He smells like lavender and desperation. I told him to try the cologne blend I brought, but he insists on sweating through his nerves.”
Peter, stunned asked, “You made him cologne?”
Sirius said proudly, “She made me everything.”
~~~
The laughter and conversation from the sitting room have softened into background noise. The kitchen is warm, dimly lit, and smells faintly of spiced tea and the roast from earlier.
Lily enters, clutching her empty teacup like it might give her strength. She stops just a few feet from Severa, who’s calmly putting the dinner plates on the counter.
There’s a moment of silence before Lily speaks, her voice quiet, slightly shaky.
"I'm afraid of you," Lily starts.
Severa doesn’t look up. She just waits.
"I had to say that first. Because I don’t know you, and you're... well, you're terrifying. And kind. And lovely. And terrifying," she continues.
Severa finally glances over, one brow arched.
And that causes Lily rush, "But I need to ask you something. Because I care about him. I love Sirius, even when he’s a pain, and I would hate myself if I didn’t ask…"
She swallows hard.
"Are you going to kill him?"
There’s a pause, a long, stunned pause.
Then Severa bursts into laughter, a deep, unexpected, full-body laughter that makes her lean on the counter for support. Lily just stares, mortified and confused.
When Severa finally catches her breath, she wipes a tear from the corner of her eye and shakes her head, and says, "Merlin, no. That’s…wow. That’s dramatic, even for me."
Lily doesn’t laugh.
Severa sobers, her voice quieter, she explains, "My parents fought their entire families just to be together. My father was considered too wild, too brutal. And my mother, she was from an old, quiet line. Brilliant potioneer. Her father nearly killed my dad the night she told them she was marrying him."
She leans back slightly, fingers lightly drumming the counter as she continues, "The only reason my grandfather didn’t go through with it was because my mother stood in front of him, wand raised. Said he’d have to go through her first."
"What happened?" lily asks intrigued.
Severa smiles slightly but continue, "He backed down. My mother didn’t. That changed everything. Her father and mine respect each other now, though they’ll never like each other. That’s the only reason my father’s agreed to this engagement, he knows what it means when a daughter like me chooses her husband. He knows I’d fight him, too. I am my parents’ daughter after all."
She turns to face Lily fully now, eyes level, voice calm, "I didn’t fall into this. I chose Sirius. And I will protect him, not harm him."
Lily, voice soft says, "You really love him."
Severa, simply says, "I do."
There’s another beat of silence before Lily exhales slowly, a little tension leaving her shoulders.
Lily says awkwardly, "Okay... okay. You can stay."
Severa smirks, "How generous of you."
"Shut up, I’m still scared of you."
They both laugh.
Just as Severa finishes laughing, the kitchen door swings open and Sirius strolls in, shirt slightly wrinkled from dinner, hair tousled from his own hands. He sees them standing close and narrows his eyes.
"What’s going on in here? Are you threatening my future wife, Evans?" he says.
Lily, quickly stepping back and forcing a smile says, "Absolutely not. We were just talking about... family."
Sirius, mock gasp says, "Sev, you didn’t tell her about your family, did you? You’ll scare her."
Severa, arching a brow and says, "She already told me she’s afraid of me. We bonded."
"Well, nothing brings women together like the mutual understanding that they could both kill me, I suppose." He says as he wraps his arms around Severa from behind without hesitation, pressing a kiss to her shoulder, then to her neck, just under her ear making her hums.
"You okay?" he asks his bride.
"Lily asked if I was planning to murder you." She says teasingly.
Sirius, unfazed says, "That’s fair." He kisses her neck again, murmuring, "I’d die happy."
Lily, wrinkling her nose says in mock disgust, "Ugh, please take your weird death kink somewhere else. This is my kitchen."
Sirius, grinning as he pulls Severa closer says dramatically, "Your kitchen now belongs to House Black-Snape. We’re claiming territory one room at a time."
Severa, teasing under her breath says, "You’re lucky I like you."
"I’m lucky you didn’t let your father shoot me." He says.
Lily, muttering as she leaves, "If I come back and find potion stains on my counter, you’re both banned."
Sirius, calling after her, "We'll use a cloth!"
Severa, dryly says, "No, we won’t."
Sirius presses her against the counter, one arm braced beside her hips.
He leans in close, too close.
Sirius, voice low and rough said, "You have no idea what it does to me, seeing you in this dress. Watching you charm everyone like you didn’t walk out of a bloody mafia novel."
Severa, breath hitching slightly but keeping her cool said, "You’re drunk on attention."
"No, I'm drunk on you." He said as he kisses the edge of her jaw, trails down to her neck, hands sliding to her waist. She grabs his lapel, sharp but not unkind.
"Not here, not now."
Sirius’ voice drops as he groans, "I want you so bad it hurts."
"Control yourself, Black. You're not a teenager anymore." She teases with a fond smile.
Sirius pulls Severa closer by her waist, thumbs brushing slow circles through the fabric of her dress as he says, "You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m trying so hard not to drag you out of here and make you mine properly right now." His lips are just at her ear, warm breath curling against her neck.
Severa glances up at him, calm but eyes dark, "You're not trying hard enough." She says.
Sirius, groaning softly says, "Then tell me to stop."
Severa whispers, "Stop."
He freezes and she presses a kiss to his jaw, light and precise, then gently pushes him back just enough and says, "After dinner, not before. Don't be greedy."
He chuckles under his breath but listens, hands still resting on her hips like it physically hurts to let go.
And that’s when Remus walks into the kitchen.
He stops just a few steps away, visibly unsure if he should even be seeing this. He clears his throat as softly as possible, already looking a little nervous, "Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just...", he hesitates, then nods, "Could I talk to you for a second, Severa? If that’s alright."
Severa, turning slowly, nods with quiet authority, "Of course," She agrees.
Sirius says to Remus, with a crooked smile, "Be polite, Moony. She bites."
Remus says quietly, "I’ve noticed."
They move to a corner a little away from Sirius, though he stays within eyesight, clearly not straying too far.
Remus, after a pause say, "I just wanted to say… you seem very important to him. I’ve known Sirius a long time, and I’ve never seen him like this." he swallows and continues, "He’s... intense. And impulsive. And I guess I wanted to ask why you, how, you trust him."
Severa, said thoughtfully, "I don’t. Not fully. Not yet."
Remus was surprised by this, so he asked, "Then why agree to marry him?"
Severa, eyes steady on his and replied, "Because I know him. And because even if I didn’t choose him, he would’ve chased me to the edge of the world anyway. At least this way, I’m the one setting the pace."
Remus, quietly impressed said, "He needs someone like you."
Severa, calmly said, "And I need someone foolish enough to flirt with me in front of my father."
Sirius, loudly said from across the kitchen, "You’re welcome!"
~~~
The laughter and small talk continued as the night wear on, softened now into a warm, if slightly uneasy, atmosphere. Plates cleared, wine glasses half full. The tension from earlier had thinned, replaced with a sense of wary curiosity and reluctant admiration.
Sirius leaned in and murmured something into Severa’s ear, too low for anyone else to catch. She arched an eyebrow, amused, and then rised to her feet. The room quieted slightly as Sirius said, "We’ll be off now. Long day ahead... and someone promised me a slow dance before midnight."
A few chuckles rippled through the group. James gave Sirius a look that said ‘we’re not done talking’, but said nothing out loud. Lily offered a polite nod, still trying to sort her feelings.
Remus said, soft and sincere, "Thank you for the gifts, Severa. And... for not hexing any of us."
Severa, with a small smirk said, "It was tempting." she looked toward Lily briefly and said, "Thank you for having me in your home. And for being brave enough to ask the hard questions."
There was a pause. Lily’s expression shifted into something close to respect, still shadowed by caution.
Sirius, ever the dramatist, held out her coat and opened the door for her with a theatrical flourish.
"Let’s go, my future Mrs. Black. Before I forget how to behave." He said.
As they stepped outside into the night, the air crisp and cool, Severa laced her fingers with his and said, "You didn’t behave once tonight."
"Exactly. And they still love me." He said.
They vanished into the night, the heavy door closing behind them, leaving the Potters and their friends in silence, unsure if they’ve just survived a dinner party or witnessed the beginning of something much bigger.
~~~
The moment they apparate into Severa’s condo, the world shifts from cool night air to warm, dusky lighting and the soft hum of wards settling back into place. The second their feet touch the floor, Sirius doesn't waste a breath. His hands are on her hips, his mouth finding that spot just beneath her ear that always makes her exhale like she’s giving in and taking control at the same time.
Sirius in between kisses says "You…. Looked…. So…. Dangerous…. tonight. Do you have any idea what that does to me?"
Severa in a deadpan, teasing tone says, "Clearly. You’ve tried to drag me into four closets and a pantry."
He laughs into her skin, and then lifts her with both arms like she weighs nothing. She lets him, hooking her arms loosely around his shoulders, her eyes soft now that it’s just the two of them.
"You saved me from your father. The least I can do is ruin your lipstick for the third time today." He says.
She smirks and says, "Make it five and we’ll call it even."
He carries her toward the bedroom, boots falling off somewhere in the hallway, and her laughter, low and wicked, echoes behind them. For all the fire and fear people see on the outside, this is their calm, their storm, their secret.
~~~
They’re tangled in the sheets now, Sirius half-draped over her, fingers trailing lazy patterns along her bare shoulder. The city outside hums faintly through the warded windows, but in here, everything’s still.
"James thinks I’m out of my mind." He says in a low tone, not bitter, but more thoughtful than anything else.
"Is that a recent development, or just this week’s concern?" she says dryly.
He chuckles into her collarbone, but the silence that follows stretches just enough for her to glance down at him.
"He’s scared I’ll get hurt. That you’ll leave. Or worse, won’t." he says quieter this time.
She shifts slightly, so they’re face to face. Her dark eyes, always sharp, soften in the quiet as she says, "He doesn’t know me. Not really. But I get it. I’m not exactly... the girl they imagined for you."
Sirius says firmly, "Good. The girl they imagined would’ve bored me stupid."
She laughs once, a short, honest, tired laugh and says, "Tonight was hard. I’ve been in rooms with politicians, gangsters, and hit wizards who smiled while plotting my death. But a dinner with your childhood friends?" She exhales and continues, "That was terrifying."
He smiles at that, brushing her hair back and says, "You didn’t show it. You were cool as hell."
"Only because I kept thinking about how smug you’d look if I panicked," She says.
He leans in and kisses her forehead and says, "You’re not alone anymore, Sev. Not with me. Not with this."
She doesn’t say I know. She doesn’t have to. She just pulls him closer, the weight of the day giving way to warmth and breath and a rare, private peace.