For Cel.
"Crucio!"
He spits the word, and the woman falls to the ground, screaming.
The sun is just peeking over what was once her quiet backyard. Some Muggle. Muggle like his worthless Muggle father.
She cries out again. Her lifeless baby is still on her chest. He had been dressed in a blue onesie.
Bella laughs, and Severus knows Bella loves this.
Mostly Severus just hates himself, and he savors any opportunity to feel anything but self-loathing.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Thank God for small mercies. She had red hair.
For Lily, everything still hurts. And St. Mungo's has the feel of a cemetery these days.
But she's laughing, she is positively delighted, and so is James. And then, for the first time ever, Harry is laughing too.
Harry.
Their baby. Their son. He looks so like his father.
The three of them laugh and laugh.
He stares at the photograph of the young girl, as if something might have changed this time. Of course, nothing has. She waves happily.
Another Muggle family killed…
The Bones's were murdered in their beds…
Marlene McKinnon missing for four weeks...
Really he does not need the picture. So much guilt and pain is already burned into his heart.
A giant dog patronus bounds into the office. "Lily and James back at Godric's Hollow. Harry James Potter is a healthy baby boy! Looks like James. Lily's eyes."
Fawkes chooses that moment to go up in flames.
Albus smiles. It's the first glimpse of happiness in months.
Ariana's blue eyes don't twinkle.
Narcissa runs the brush through Lucius's hair. It's soft and blonde and long, and so like her own. Draco's hair will be like that someday.
The hairbrush is a family heirloom.
Only Blacks and Malfoys have brushes studded with emeralds. Blacks and Malfoys have the best of everything – the purest blood, the perfect son, the strongest love.
She kisses Lucius, and he kisses her back, and she knows there is nothing in the world she would trade him and Draco for. And she knows he feels the same.
Then why are they living through such hell?
Dora's hair turns bubblegum pink, much to Ted's delight. "Want to match, 'Dromeda?"
Andromeda grabs a pillow and aims for her husband's head. Then suddenly the pillow is pink as well.
Dora leaps onto the pillow, her hair flashing as she does so. She slides towards Ted, who levitates her into his arms. "Should I turn Mum blue? Wouldn't that be great, Dora?"
Andromeda thinks of her own mother and father. For the first time, she can think of them and still smile.
Bill puts down his book and sighs. "Checkers, Charlie?"
His younger brother nods from the floor. "Do you think maybe we could go flying again after that?"
Bill says nothing.
They see the faint golden threads that sometimes shimmer around the Burrow. They see the clock with hands pointing to Mortal Peril. They hear the frantic whispers of their parents, the terror over the wireless.
Their siblings are too young, and maybe they are too. But some part of them understands that, without Mum and Dad, even the garden is a dangerous place.
Someday they'll spend all day outside. They'll go flying with dragons.
"I've been promoted, father."
His mother beams, and that still warms his heart. He hates himself for that. He resents how, despite everything, his mother and father still love each other. He resents how sometimes he still loves them.
His father only nods. He's distracted, murmuring about how Millicent Bagnold and Albus Dumbledore are too soft and speculating as to when Bagnold might retire.
Winky is cooking his favorite cookies. Maybe Barty cares about that. Maybe, deep down, Barty still craves a smile on his father's face.
But what he craves most is being the one to put a knife through Minister Crouch's neck. He'd do it the Muggle way.
