"Will you marry me?"

These words made me speechless. These four simple words. I had my hands clasped over my mouth in shock and was unable to respond for what felt like ages, but in reality was a mere 10 seconds at most. Once I finally realized how nervous Severus looked due to my silence, I responded,

"Yes, a thousand times yes!"

He stood up hastily and hugged me tightly as I began to cry a little from the happy moment. He wiped the tears from my cheeks and pulled back to hold the box out in front of himself. He took the ring out and gently grasped my hand to slide the ring on my ring finger. I looked at it, admiring it's beauty and fine detailing. The trouble he must have gone through to get it..

"Severus.. this ring is so beautiful." I smiled up at him, only now noticing the few tears pricking at his eyes.

"I'm glad you like it. I had gotten it polished this morning to look even better for tonight." Severus replied with a smile of his own.

"What did I do to deserve you?" I asked just above a whisper.

"I ask myself the same thing whenever I see you." Severus replied.

I blushed at his comment and twisted the ring around my finger. He then tilted my head up to face him and kissed me softly.

Severus then pulled back and spoke,

"I love every little thing about you, (Y/N). You deserve the world, so this is the least I could do for you."

The remainder of our, quote on quote, 'date' was spent stargazing and talking about whatever came to mind. Then, it became due time for us to pick Elora up from Minerva's classroom.

With the picnic basket all packed up, Severus and I walked back up to the castle, hand in hand. Once we made it to Minerva's classroom, I opened the door and entered with Severus. We peered up toward her desk to see Elora in Minerva's lap watching a cat turn into a cauldron and vice versa. She giggled every time it happened until she saw us and squealed. Minerva looked up and smiled before setting the, now cauldron, aside and walking over to us with Elora.

"How did it go you two?" She asked us eagerly.

I grinned excitedly and showed her the ring on my hand. Minerva held my hand closer to her face and gasped,

"Oh my, what a beautiful ring that is!Severus must've finally propose to you."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion,

"Wait, what do you mean finally?"

She chuckled and replied,

"Oh! Severus informed me that he was planning on proposing, so I offered to take care of Elora on the day he'd chosen to do so."

I turned to Severus and saw his slightly pink face.

"So you both orchestrated the whole thing?" I asked, shocked at the amount of planning that went into this.

Severus nodded at me. Before I could say anything else, we heard the yawn of a particularly tired sounding Elora.

"We should probably put her to bed now. Thank you again, Minerva." Severus thanked her before leading me back to the classroom's entrance.

"Goodnight, Minerva." I said before we left for the dungeons.

°••°°••°°••°°••°°••°

We got back to our room at around 8 in the evening. Elora had fallen asleep already, so I headed straight into the bedroom with her. Speaking of bedrooms, why didn't I think of where she would sleep when we got here?

As if Severus had read my mind, he said something regarding the topic,

"I prepared sleeping arrangements for Elora earlier while you were packing up the picnic basket. Here, follow me."

He walked over to the door of his office space and opened it. It no longer looked like his office, but rather like a small nursery. The crib, and various other things from home were here.

"This is perfect, Severus. Thank you for doing this." I thanked him before laying Elora to rest in her crib.

I pulled her blanket over her small body and watched as she smiled lightly in her sleep. I left the room after a few minutes and closed the door gently behind myself. I then looked over to see Severus sitting against the head board, reading a book. He seemed quite immersed in it because he didn't look up when I walked by. While I was looking through the wardrobe for some comfortable sleep clothes, an idea popped into mind.

Instead of changing in the restroom like I usually did, I decided to begin changing right there, in front of the wardrobe. And just as I expected, Severus seemed flustered by my actions,

"(Y/N).. what are you doing..?"

"I'm changing, Severus. What, did you want to help or something?" I responded in a teasing way.

His face flushed up a bit at my statement. I chuckled at this while removing my long sleeved shirt. Currently, I was only dressed in pants and a bra. Though, I stopped dead in my tracks at the next words that came out of Severus' mouth,

"Come here."

I grinned while walking around the bed to stand in front of him. He then took my hand and roughly, but also somewhat in a gentle way, pulled me down into his lap.

"So you want to help." I smirked at his simultaneously flustered yet calm expression.

"In a way.." He responded nonchalantly while grazing his hand over the waistband of my trousers.

"Well.. I can help you in return. If you want me to that is.." I replied just above a whisper into his ear.

Severus visibly shivered and quoted me from the last time we did this,

"Definitely.."