~Lady in Black~
Summary: "My mother wore black the day she murdered my father..." Severus Snape/Eileen Snape.
Author's Note: This story is written in response to Hermione's Harmony's Woman in Black challenge.
...
My mother wore black the day she murdered my father.
There was a photograph of my mother in her snow-white wedding dress on the mantelpiece when I was young. I used to look at it often. She smiled in that picture, even though her eyes were already anxious. Her bridal gown looked so delicate and fragile, like a white mist. But it is her black dress I will remember until the day I die.
...
She whirls around when I enter the the small cramped kitchen, and the fluid black chiffon of her dress floats around her like a dark cloud. I have never seen her wear a dress like that before. The night-dark fabric ripples like water, and it glitters faintly in the dim light from the kitchen lamp. My breath catches in my throat. My mother, the pale cowering creature who always tried to make herself invisible in drab, grey clothes, suddenly looks like the pure-blood lady she once was. Her dark hair is no longer pulled back in a tight bun; it falls about her pale shoulders like a cascade of black luminous water.
I had almost forgotten that my mother was a witch. My father beat the magic out of her years ago, or so I thought. But now a wand lies on the worn table, in plain sight. I had no idea that she still had her wand. How in Merlin's name has she managed to hide a wand from him all these years? And there are flowers in the kitchen, too - extravagant blossoms in wild, impossible colors, colors that can only have been conjured up by magic. Her magic. Dark purple jasmines, midnight-blue roses, emerald-green forget-me-nots...
There is no need to ask where he is. My mother has miraculously come to life again after living as a ghost in his shadow for years. He is dead. I know it the moment I see her. Perhaps he has drunk himself to death at last. Or perhaps his wickedness was finally too much for his weak heart to hold. He is dead, and she is finally alive.
Her dark eyes meet mine. "Your father died falling down the basement stairs, Severus," she says softly. A slight flush brushes over her pale cheeks. She is beautiful now, even with the dark jagged scars along the side of her face, where the broken bottles slashed her skin. I tried to heal her scars once, but he ended up making the next one even deeper, just for that. But now that he is gone, I can bring her one of my potions.
I open the door to the basement and peer into the darkness, heart hammering in my chest. I feel a sharp thrill at the nape of my neck. Do I still fear him, even after all these years?
A faint, almost imperceptible moan reaches me though the silent blackness: "Help me... I'm dying..."
I stand there for a moment, frozen. I turn and looked at my mother. More fantastic flowers have appeared in the kitchen now, silver daffodils and crimson bluebells. My mother walks across the floor to find another vase for them. Her steps seem so curiously light, as if she is dancing.
I close the door to the basement and turn the key in the lock. My mother places the new flowers in an old silver vase and opens the curtains that cover the grimy kitchen window. The sunlight falls bright and golden over her flowers and her hair and her glittering black dress.
I take her hand and hold it in mine for a moment. She squeezes my hand and smiles at me.
"You look lovely in black, mother," I whisper.