It has been a few months since Severus returned to Hogwarts for his teaching duties, and sadly, he wasn't able to visit when he said he'd come. He was kept busy with quite a few different things at the time, but he made sure to write letters for Benny to pick up and bring to me. Each one I received made me happy for the remainder of that day.

Now on the topic of visiting, I had secretly planned to go to Hogwarts the day before Christmas break. And today happens to be that day.

I was currently packing up the last remaining things Elora and I needed for our trip to Hogwarts. While I was doing so, Elora was laying on the bed with a couple blankets that she liked to roll back and forth on.

As soon as we were ready, I picked her up and held her on my hip so that I could grab our luggage. I was quite excited to see Severus' reaction once he realizes that were at Hogwarts.

I made my way down the stairs with Elora and walked towards the fireplace so that we could use the Floo system into Professor Dumbledore's Office. After throwing the floo powder into the flames, I stepped in with Elora, who seemed quite intrigued by the green flames. I spoke our destination and within a few seconds, we were in the office.

"Ah (Y/N), I was wondering when you'd show." I heard the calming voice of Professor Dumbledore as I stepped out of the fireplace with Elora.

"It's good to see you Professor." I responded with a smile.

Professor Dumbledore smiled back and spoke,

"(Y/N), you don't have to address me in that way anymore. You can simply call me Albus, although, it is up to you if you wish to continue calling me Professor."

"Oh, alright. Sorry, I guess I'm just used to saying Professor still." I chuckled.

The silence was broken by one of Elora's little squeals.

"And this must be Elora. She's an energetic one isn't she?" Albus asked me as he walked over.

"Yes, she makes up for almost no crying with a whole bunch of energy and laughter." I explained with an exasperated sigh.

"Would you like to hold her?" I offered after Elora began reaching for Albus.

"Of course. She seems to want it that way anyways." He replied with a smile.

As I expected, the first thing Elora focused on was Professor Dumbledore's beard. Specifically, the beads hanging from it.

I heard the door to the office open and turned my head toward the sound. In walked Professor McGonagall. A giddy expression took over her face once she set eyes on Elora,

"Oh goodness! You're already here? I thought you'd be arriving much later?"

"We're here early to surprise Severus actually." I explained to her as she walked over to give me a hug.

Elora, now having seen Professor McGonagall, started reaching for her. Albus carefully handed her over to Professor McGonagall and turned back towards me,

"How long are you visiting for, (Y/N)? At least for the winter break I presume?"

"I'm not quite sure yet to be honest. I was hoping to stay a while and possibly help teach again." I responded.

Professor McGonagall seemed quite happy about my response,

"Splendid! I could even watch over Elora from time to time if you'd like (Y/N)."

"That's so kind of you, Professor." I smiled at her.

"Please, call me Minerva." She insisted as she handed Elora back over to me.

I nodded in response and talked a bit more with them until it was nearly Dinner time.

"Oh, um.. do you think students will stare if I have Elora with me at the table?" I asked them anxiously.

"Dear, even without Elora there students would stare. They all missed you very much. Severus has even been quite hard on his students recently. I believe it is because he misses the both of you greatly." Minerva told me before walking out into halls with me, Elora, and Albus.

I was paranoid about walking into the Great Hall, so I decided to get seated early and enter through one of the doors behind the seats for the Professors. While waiting on more Professors to arrive, I was startled by a familiar voice,

"(Y/N)? What're ye doin' back already?"

"Hagrid! It's so good to see you! I came on a surprise visit actually." I responded to him happily.

"It's good te see ye too (Y/N)! And this er' is Elora I'm guessin'?" Hagrid asked as he pointed down at Elora, who was sitting on my lap with her back against my chest.

"Yes, but how did you know that? Only Albus and Minerva knew." I asked him in a confused state.

"Oh uh.. Professor McGonagall let me know and I uh.. might'a let a few others know.." Hagrid looked slightly embarrassed with his response.

I chuckled at this and replied,

"Oh that's totally fine! That might actually be for the better. Now I don't have to explain to every teacher why I was gone for so long."

Hagrid sighed in relief and told us both goodbye before heading out to, apparently, find Fang.

"(Y/N)!? Oh my it is you! How have you been!? Oh! This must be Elora!" I heard another excited voice say from my right side.

"Callaghan, it's been a while! I'm doing great thanks for asking. And yes, this is little Elora." I replied with a smile.

"You missed a lot while you were away. But I'm so glad you're back now. You've missed a lot of hilarious moments here during these past couple months. After Hagrid let the cat out of the bag about Elora and all that, the Professor's began bombarding Severus with questions. Of course, that only seemed to embarrass him and cause him to have a bit of an elevated temper since the beginning of the term. I feel quite sorry for his students actually.." Callaghan proceeded to catch me up on what had happened while I was away.

I hadn't even realized how much time had passed, because once I was done talking with Callaghan, the tables were nearly packed with students.

I giddily awaited Severus' arrival, which seemed to be taking a long time because Dinner had already started.

A few students were looking at the table curiously because of Elora, but turned back to their food after a while. I turned toward Callaghan to ask him a question,

"Callaghan? Is Severus usually this late to dinner?"

"Yes, he seems to only eat for a couple minutes and then leaves right after without saying anything. Always the last one to arrive and the first one to leave." Callaghan explained while putting another bread roll on his plate.

I sighed and turned back towards my food,

"That's odd. Severus never likes being late."

"Never likes being late for what?"

I spun around in my seat and smiled widely. Severus was standing behind my chair and once I peeked around the corner of it, his eyes widened in shock,

"(Y/N)? What are you doing here with Elora?"

Severus sat down hastily and turned to face me.

"We wanted to surprise you." I explained while trying to keep Elora from reaching for my food.

"Well you definitely succeeded." Severus replied with a light chuckle.

I noticed that a few of the front row students stopped eating to stared at Severus. It must have been quite a shock for them to hear him sound remotely cheerful.

As soon as Severus noticed the stares his expression returned to its stoic state. We continued to eat and talk a small bit until Elora began reaching in Severus' direction.

Severus seemed unsure about holding her, since it would most likely result in many more stares.

"Severus, she's only going to whine louder if you don't hold her and you know that." I told him as Elora became more impatient.

He sighed and reluctantly took her from me to set her down on his right leg. Elora calmed down a bit and resorted to messing with the buttons on Severus' robes. I smiled at this and continued eating.

As expected, many students stared, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Most of them just glanced every now and then and returned to eating after a little while. I could see the relief in Severus' eyes once Dinner was over and all the students left.

I picked Elora up who had apparently dozed off against Severus' arm. We then made our way to our room and talked a bit on the way there. Once inside, I walked into the bedroom to lay Elora on a blanket temporarily.

Upon turning around, I was pulled into a loving kiss by Severus.

"Whoa.. what was that?" I chuckled as my cheeks went pink.

"I just missed you is all." Severus replied while holding both of my hands in his.

My smile stayed on my face as I responded,

"I heard."

Severus looked confused before inquiring about my statement,

"You heard?"

"Yes, both Minerva and Callaghan told me how moody you got while I was at home." I explained as he picked out some more comfortable clothes from his wardrobe.

Severus sighed and responded without turning to look at me,

"I wasn't being 'moody' as you so put it. I was worrying. Which one might say was the cause of my poor temperament."

I opened my suitcase to take some of my own things out for bed,

"Severus. You could have told me this much earlier and I would have been there in a heartbeat. I just thought at the time that having Elora here at the beginning of the term might distract you from teaching."

"You know I'm not the type to show my emotions often (Y/N)." Severus replied.

I stood up from the suitcase, walked over to Severus who had just finished putting on his long sleeve shirt, and turned him to face me,

"I know that. And that's why it needs to change. You bottle up so much rage, sadness, pain, discomfort, and worry to the point where it affects you 24/7. I want to help you release those emotions and focus on the good things in life."

Severus looked down in defeat, to which I responded by lifting his head up with my hand,

"Will you let me do that?"

He sighed quietly and then opened his eyes,

"Alright.. I will."

I smiled and took his hand so that I could lead him over to the bed where Elora was currently. She had woken up from her mini nap and was violently flailing her arms around.

Severus layed down on the bed beside her and propped himself up with his right arm. I mirrored this on the opposite side and watched as Elora looked over at me, and then at Severus. She giggled and attempted to roll over towards her father, but had a little trouble doing so. Severus helped her out a bit so that she could now crawl any which way. That ended up being towards Severus so that she could hold onto something while attempting to stand.

Both Severus and I were surprised when she was able to hold herself up while leaning against Severus' torso. She began smiling and giggling at our reactions and ended up hiding her face in Severus shirt.

Severus chuckled when she glanced to see if we were still looking before hiding her face again. This went on for a few minutes until Elora looked a bit sleepy again.

We layed down normally and pulled the covers up while Severus set Elora down on his chest so that she could fall asleep there.

"She really loves you, Sev."

Severus glanced at Elora and then back at me. He smiled and responded,

"Not as much as I love the both of you."