AN: This is a Yen tale, crossing two universes together – Button and Snowball. It works because Death is a trans-dimensional being, right? Once again she asked me to post it, but this is all hers. Let her know just how wonderful it is, because it is that - wonderful.
Chocolate
by YenGirl
- Story Start -
Knitting was going to be the death of him, Death growled to himself. No pun intended.
The tangle of grey wool dangling between his knitting needles was proof he needed new ones. This pair was too blunt, the tips poking through the yarn instead of sliding around it.
Pulling the tangled mess from his needles, he was about to toss it into his fireplace when he recalled the smell of burnt wool. He threw it into the wastebasket beside his armchair instead and leaned back in his armchair, glaring at his collection of one and twenty knitting needles.
They were all blunt. Blunt, blunt, blunt. Well, except for the crochet hook, but that was beside the point! No pun intended again.
Death would have sighed if he could. He hadn't had a client who had knitted, whether as a hobby or a profession, for the past five years. He hoped it didn't mean knitting was going out of style. He hoped his next client loved this hobby as much as he did so he could help himself to their basket and finish his latest project - a grey and white striped shawl with a pretty scalloped edge.
A few minutes passed before Death realised something else. He was late for his next appointment!
Cursing, he jumped up. He couldn't believe it - it had been centuries since he had kept a client waiting! He rushed to the door, grabbed the long handled scythe from behind it even though it was no longer needed and left, barely remembering to shut the door.
- o -
Sophia Snape opened her eyes and frowned. Something was different. She lay in bed for a few minutes, allowing realisation to slowly settle on her until she was sure it had happened at last. Then she sat up and looked around her with an expectant air.
There was no one in her bedroom. How strange. She had been so sure she would be met when it was her time to leave this earth, but she was still alone.
Shaking her head, she got down from the bed and left the room without looking behind her. She was never one to look back and in any case, she had lived a long and eventful life (Poppet would say it was too eventful, bless him) with no regrets. Yes, she would miss all the wonderful people she was leaving behind - Poppet, Button, Dearie, Beautiful, Dove, Turtle, Cutie-Pie, Darling and many others - but she also longed to meet the ones who had left her so many years ago - My Own, Sweetie, Baby and almost as many others. She had missed them all so very much!
She walked to her living room and peered around. Still no one around. Frowning, she made her way to the front door and paused by the small mirror hanging on the wall. She could no longer see her reflection so she raised her hands and studied them, noting the lack of prominent veins and age spots, the smaller knuckles. She couldn't remember the last time her hands had looked like this.
She then touched her face and her hair, trying to determine how she looked like now. Her hair felt thicker and fell in loose waves to her shoulders. She held a few locks in front of her face and noted they were once again jet black with a hint of grey. A small smile curled her lips. That was good, she didn't want to be too young. She just hoped My Own would be around the same age as she appeared to be now.
When a shadow darkened the glass panes on her front door, she turned to see it open from the outside. A tall figure robed and hooded in black stood there, holding a long handled scythe.
"There you are," Sophia observed. "What kept you?"
- o -
"Sophia Snape," Death greeted and gave a short bow.
"You are late."
"Yes. I fear I am."
"I don't hold with tardy people." That opinion was expressed in a tart tone, one which brooked no argument.
"My apologies. I was... distracted."
A sceptical eyebrow, once snow white, rose.
"Pray tell, what could possibly distract Death from a new client?"
Death opened his jaw and shut it again, the click of his teeth audible. He wasn't about to mention his hobby to this deceptively sweet looking lady with the ramrod straight back.
"It is of no consequence," he replied instead and gestured with one skeletal hand. "Shall we proceed?"
"Tell me," Sophia insisted. "And I must find a proper name for you as well; I refuse to call you Death."
Death would have blinked if he could. "I am also known as the Grim Reaper."
"Too grim."
"Archangel of Death?"
"Too formal."
"Azrael?"
"Doesn't fit you at all."
Death paused, wondering if Sophia Snape was trying to get back at him for making her wait. He supposed he could humour her, just a bit, while he led her to the afterlife. He gestured again and she acquiesced this time, walking out her front door with nary a glance backward.
"I have many other names," he began after they had walked out her gate and a familiar mist had surrounded them.
Sophia stopped walking, snapped her fingers and swung to him, bright blue eyes sparkling. "I know! Chocolate!"
Death shook his head at once. "No one is allowed to bring anything with them to the afterlife but the clothes they wear."
"Don't be silly," she scolded him. "I meant your proper name shall be Chocolate."
Death blanched and took a half step back.
Chocolate.
Chocolate?
Chocolate?!
Chocolates were sweet and milky! Alright, some were dark and bittersweet, but most were sweet and sinful, filled with nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, liqueur and what else have you. None of which bore any similarity to him.
"I beg your pardon, madam," he said in an affronted tone, drawing himself up to his full height. The wind picked up at that moment and he glanced down at his waist, relieved that he had tied his robes this morning with one of his knitted belts. "My name isn't Chocolate, it's Death!"
Sophia just smiled at him, completely unfazed.
"I am not to be called Chocolate," Death insisted, scandalised at the very thought.
She just reached out and patted his skeletal hand, the one holding the scythe, without batting an eye. "You'll get used to it and it fits you ever so much better than your other names."
"I will not and it does not!"
Sophia just laughed. "That was what the Minister of Magic said when I called him by his proper name at that lovely gala some ten years back. But he grew to like it very much afterward. He even told me as much."
Death stared at her.
"What was his birth name and what was the name you gave him?" he asked almost in a whisper.
"He was introduced to me as Kingsley Shacklebolt, but 'Sugar' fitted him to a tee!"
Death blanched.
"Now which way to the afterlife, Chocolate? I have dear ones I have been waiting a very long time to see."
Still speechless which was saying something considering how old he was, Death pointed the way and they started walking again.
- o -
There was My Own. He was never tardy, bless him, thought Sophia happily. He looked to be about the same age as her as well, in his early forties, and what a sight for sore eyes he was!
Hastening her steps and seeing him do the same with that broad smile on his handsome face, she flew into his arms, laughing in a way she hadn't done in years. It was as happy a reunion as she could have wished for, the decades of separation melting away under their happy smiles and loving kisses.
When Sophia drew back, it was to see Baby and Sweetie awaiting their turn to greet her, and there were more hugs and kisses and laughter. It was a few minutes later before she turned around to see the black hooded figure still standing beyond the gate, watching them. She lifted a hand and waved at him.
"Thank you for bringing me here, Chocolate!" she called. "Look inside the wicker basket beside my armchair, whatever's in it is now yours!"
She frowned when he took a step back and gave her a quick dip of his head before beating a hasty retreat.
"Mother, wasn't that..." Baby aka Tobias Snape trailed off, his eyebrows raised.
"Death? Oh, I told him I wasn't about to call him that so I gave him a proper name," Sophia replied in a matter of fact voice.
Baby and Sweetie exchanged exasperated smiles, but My Own just gave a huge belly laugh and hugged Sophia again.
"My Heart, I never liked the name Death either. I think Chocolate suits him perfectly," he declared and kissed her on the nose.
So Chocolate was how Death came to be called by the four Snapes whenever they met. It wasn't until he learned the respective names of a certain Potions Master and a certain Saviour of the Wizarding World they had left behind that he thought perhaps the name Chocolate... wasn't so very bad after all.
It was also nice to meet a fellow knitter who didn't mind teaching him a new stitch of two whenever their paths crossed, and whose wicker basket had contained three pairs of brand new knitting needles which he happily added to his collection.
- Story End -