After Ever After
He stared blankly at the tiled wall of his shower. The once warm water now raining down cold around him, he absently lifted a hand to scratch at an itch on his nose. When his blue-tinged fingers came into his field of vision, Alvin was reminded of his wife's lips. They'd been a similar color when he had seen her at the hospital after being called in to come identi–
"Enough," he told himself. Balling his fingers into a fist, he hit the wall. Wincing at the pain, Alvin turned around to turn off the shower. Leaving the little cubicle, he dried himself and pulled on a pair of sweats. "I guess I should check on the kids," he said to himself after a few moments of just standing dumbly in front of the mirror. Taking off, it wasn't too long before he was in the kitchen. There he found his middle daughter, Laurel, sitting on the table, staring out the picture-window. She looked so very grown up; a cup of tea resting firmly on her knobby knees and a look on her face that Alvin wasn't quite sure what to call. Pensive, maybe.
Though, Alvin really wasn't at his best these days. He could be wrong. It could just be Laurel was wearing a new version of the mournful expression she had been for the past week and a half (but without the tears). Either way, she seemed to have found some semblance of peace Alvin wasn't yet ready to interrupt. Not before he figured out where the other children were, anyway. Backing out of the kitchen, he turned and walked into the living room.
In front of the telly was Julie. Her back was to Alvin and she was hunched forward, staring intently at the screen as Princess and the Frog played out for what surely had to be the thousandth time in a row this week. Even so, Alvin did not have it in him to pull his little girl away. It was the first Disney film Rosemary ever saw. She had gone to see it with her Muggle grandparents at the cinema and fell in love with it. For months after, she'd insisted on dressing like a princess and claimed she was going to open a restaurant just like Princess Tiana when she grew up.
Unlike so many little girls, Rosemary followed through on her claims. Only months after running away together, they had started a food cart called Frog Prince and, together, they made and sold New Orleans-inspired cuisine. Several years later, after pinching every penny and building a strong customer-loyalty base, they traded in their food cart for an actual restaurant with four walls, a kitchen, and wait staff.
When they had opened the doors to Frog Prince for the first time, Rosemary had beamed at him with such pride and joy that Alvin felt his own heart swell with the same for her. She had done it. She had made her dream come true.
'She must be so angry up there, knowing I've let her precious restaurant sit closed for almost two weeks,' Alvin thought darkly. Swallowing back a hot and uncomfortable lump that was struggling to burst from his lips, he refocused on Julie for a moment. Her body was swaying in-tune with one of Princess and the Frog's songs now. Out of all the children, she was the only one who loved the movie just as much as Rosemary did - had. They used to sing the songs together when they watched.
Suddenly, an old memory came to him.
"You gotta diiiig a little deeper!" Rosemary and Julie sang joyfully as they danced around him and the other girls. From his spot between the cheering Laurel and Lynette on the couch, Alvin just clapped his hands and laughed. As his girls twirled before them, Rosemary sent him a wink and suggestive wiggle of her hips. Alvin grinned wider, knowing just what would come after they put the kids to bed.
Nine months later Jack had been born.
Thoughts now on his son, Alvin drifted out of the living room and toward the stairs at the end of the hall. Walking up them, he winced at the squeak the sixth step made. He had promised Rosemary he would fix it before she–
'Tomorrow,' he said to himself, 'I'll fix it tomorrow.'
Once at the top of the landing he went straight to their – his bedroom. Opening the door, Alvin wasn't the least bit surprised to see Jack curled up in a ball on their – his (hishishishis!) bed. Approaching, he gingerly took a seat beside the little boy. Almost instantaneously Jack climbed into his lap. Tiny fingers twisted themselves in the fabric of Alvin's T-shirt.
"Hey there, Jack," he whispered.
Warm tears wet his middle. "Lynette's a meanie," he mumbled. "She wouldn't let me sleep with her in her bed."
Rubbing a hand up and down his son's back, Alvin reminded him gently, "You do wet it sometimes."
"Yeah, sometimes. I went potty 'fore I asked," he grumbled, looking up at Alvin with his mother's sharp blue eyes.
Alvin kissed his son's dark, unruly curls. "Well," he said, "that's not right. How about I go talk to her for you, hm?"
Nodding, Jack let go of Alvin and rolled off him. Curling up in the spot he'd only recently vacated, he whispered, "Love you, Daddy."
His smile wobbly, he said, "Love you too, Jack."
Hurrying out of the room, Alvin had to take a moment in the hallway to gather himself together again. When he felt like his heart wasn't made out of cellotape and broken porcelain anymore, he went and opened his oldest daughter's door. On her bed Lynette was laid out. Her orange-red hair splayed around her and freckled arms thrown out as if she had stopped mid-way in making a snow angle. Standing there, Alvin clutched the doorknob almost hard enough to leave imprints on the palm of his hand.
The rest of the kids were a nice mix of Alvin and Rosemary. Jack and Laurel had his dark hair and square chin; Rosemary's curls and blue eyes. Julie's hair was red and curly, her eyes green, just like his own. Sometimes, Alvin thought she must look quite similar to her great-grandmother on his father's side when she was a girl. Lynette, though… While a redhead just like Julie, her hair was pinstripe straight and several shades lighter. Her eyes were blue (thank God) and she was covered in freckles, just as you would expect from a stereotypical Weasley, and it was already quite clear to Alvin it would only be a matter of time before Laurel, Julie, and Jack were all taller than her.
'Lynette looks like Mum,' some deep, traitorous part of him whispered. His heart gave a deep, piercing ache. He hadn't thought of her in years. Not since Lynette was born. Staring at his still, unmoving daughter for a moment longer Alvin made his decision.
Approaching, he grabbed the towel Lynette kept hung by her closet off its hook and threw it at her. "Get up," Alvin said. "Go take a shower and get dressed. We're going to go see some people."
"Some people?" Lynette repeated, tone questioning.
"Yeah," Alvin replied.
She scowled at him in a way that made his skin crawl. 'So much like Mum,' his mind whispered again.
A gasp drawing his attention away from Rose's neck, Albus looked up just in time to see a flash of Lily's shocked face in his doorway before she disappeared.
"Fuck!" he shouted.
Rose, from beneath him, asked, "What? What's wrong?"
"Lily saw us!" he cried, already scrambling to put a pair of shorts on.
Face ashen, Rose shook where she lay. "No. No, no, this can't be happening…"
Pulling her up, Albus roughly pulled her dress over her head as he snapped, "It is happening! We always knew it could, so stop acting like an idiot and finish getting dressed!"
Eyes welling with tears, Rose dropped her gaze to her knees and whimpered, "S-Sorry."
Albus's eyes stung in response to Rose's quiet weeping. She was just scared, like he was. Any anger he'd felt now gone, Albus dipped his head down to press a kiss to Rose's cheek. "It's fine. I'm scared too."
"Really?"
He gave her his hand to hold. Her eyes widened. "How are you even standing right now? You're shaking so much!"
"Sheer will," Albus answered with the barest of smiles upon his lips. "Now, c'mon. We gotta leave. Our someday here is gone and we have to go find a new one."
Nodding, Rose got up and pulled on her knickers before helping Albus get out their getaway bag from beneath his bed as he took out their emergency portkey from his desk. A moment later, both of them stood at either end of the old-fashioned Muggle map that was their portkey. They looked at each other.
"Ready?" Albus asked.
"Yes," Rose answered.
They touched the map, and with a sharp yank at their bellybuttons, they were gone.
Gone forever to find their new someday.
-v-v-v-
'Except forever isn't as long as I believed it was,' Alvin thought as he and his children drew closer to the house he once called home. Upon reaching the little path that would lead to the red-painted front door of his childhood home, Alvin felt his hands grow slippery with sweat. He was so scared. Every part of him was telling him to turn around, to run, to hide.
('They could tear us apart!')
"Daddy?" Jack said.
Alvin bounced the boy a little higher on his hip. "Yes?"
Little face grave, Jack put his tiny hand to Alvin's forehead. "D'you gotta fever?"
He blinked. "No. I'm fine, Jack."
His son crinkled his nose. "Y'sure? You're all sweaty."
This drew the girls' attention. "What's wrong, Daddy?" Laurel asked.
"Nothing," Alvin said. "I'm just nervous."
"Why?" Lynette asked. Then, suddenly, she shouted, "Don't say nothing either! I'll know you're lying."
Alvin chuckled. 'So much like Mum,' he thought again. Smiling at her, he said, "We're about to meet some people I haven't seen since I was sixteen. I left on not so great terms and I'm a little worried about how this will all go."
"Why haven't you seen them in sooo long?" Julie demanded with her little hands planted on her hip. 'And she's so much like Rosemary,' his mind reminded him, sending him tumbling into the void created by the loss of his wife. Clawing his way out of the jagged-depths that was his pain, Alvin locked his knees to keep them from collapsing beneath him.
He couldn't afford to shatter now. Not with the kids right here. He just had to make it a few more steps and then…
"I don't know," he lied. "I guess time got away from me."
None of the girls looked like they believed him, but Jack gave Alvin's collar a tug and said, "Let's go see them! I bet they miss you like we miss Mummy!"
Alvin's eyes swam with tears and Laurel gave a tiny sob. Reaching for his middle daughter, he hugged her close for a moment. After he let go, Alvin swiped a hand beneath his eyes and said, "Let's go."
He didn't know how much longer he could stay put together.
Walking up the door, he lifted the knocker and let if fall against the solid wood. As the second ticked by, his stomach began to churn and he feared that was going to be sick up all over his shoes when the door's knob began to turn.
One of his daughter's hands coming to squeeze his, Alvin could only stare with wide eyes at the painfully familiar woman who revealed herself on the other side of the door.
"I'm sorry," Alvin croaked before foisting Jack into Lynette's arms and falling to his knees. "I'm sorry," he sobbed.
Cool, freckled fingers caressed his face. "Al? Albus?"
Al ('I haven't been him in so long!') turned his head and kissed one of the hands that the fingers belonged to. "Mum."
Dropping to the ground beside him, his mother embraced him. "Albus, my Albus. Baby. My baby!"
Wrapping his arms around her in return, he clung tightly and prayed that he would never have to run from her again.
Some more RosexAl! Or is it past-RosexAl because she's technically dead in this story? It's a conundrum, no? This connects in as the fourth story in my A Rose For Albus series, which includes a few one-shots (all prequels to this fic), such as Together, In Someday I Believe, and What We Have Instead of God. I'm curious to know what you think of this far-off future set sequel to them. Does it mesh in well with the series or does it kind of come off differently in some noticeable ways?
Thanks for reading and please review :)
