Credits to JK Rowling for Harry Potter characters and world.
Edit 15/1/17: Hibiscus' name changed to Briony. It was mentioned before that Hibiscus is a more than slightly inappropriate name for a woman from a conservative Brittish family. I can also no longer write it seriously within a sentence without cringing. I hope you'll accept Bryony in its place, this is from a vine with green flowers, so still keeps with a flowery theme. It also sounds a little more grounded, thus suites the character better, in my opinion.
Severus glanced at the letter opened on the table. He took another sip of coffee and glanced out the window. Fog obscured the street, frost clinging to the telephone box. A gang of scrawny children raced after a small dog. Their calls echoed down the street, fading into the mist.
It was five days since the letter had arrived. For a while it had perched unattended on the table edge, threatening to topple off and into the oblivion of forgotten thoughts.
Unfortunately it had not.
Severus Snape would not describe himself as a sentimental person. Yet, he had not opened the letter until this morning. All the feelings he had buried so long ago had returned with an unbridled rage. He had neither seen nor heard from Tobias Snape since he was eleven. He had not thought that would ever change, let alone, that he might be affected by it.
The Battle of Hogwarts had been over a year ago. He had been acquitted and sentenced to restoration service and completed a month back. Since then, he barely knew what to do with himself.
Hogwarts was not an option. Not because Minerva or the other Heads had been resentful. On the contrary they had been quite forgiving once the truth came out. But it didn't mean they trusted him, or that they understood. And it certainly didn't mean he had let go of anything that had transpired.
Now he was alone. He could feel the cold creeping back into his bones. All those thoughts, memories, nightmares he had suppressed all those years. Yesterday, solitude was a sanctuary. Today, it threatened his undoing.
And in the middle of this, the letter had arrived. An extension, no, an invitation of familial warmth – the Snape family sought his company at their Sunday dinner. Severus snorted with contempt. After all these years Tobias was extending warmth? More like his old hag stumbled across a poorly kept secret. It was curiosity on their part. It had to be.
Then again, wasn't he curious too? He had his own questions for Tobias Snape. Answers that, even as a legilimens, could not be attained without patience and calculation...
Either way, it was time he confronted the man. Severus certainly had not counted on living. The only logical choice was to continue forward. After all, he had wasted so much of his life already.
Before he could have any chance of a scrap resembling a life he needed to go back. He had to face his demons.