They would have been happy. It would have been a nice life. If only they had known each other under different circumstances—if only they had not been forcibly married during a war. If only he had not been Severus Snape, potions master, Death Eater, Order member, spy. If only she had not been Hermione Granger, the brains of the Golden Trio, the muggleborn who proved them all wrong. There was no coming back from that, no gentle scenes of domestic tranquillity when the roots were such poison. 