Closing the Door on Spinner's End

Severus, along with the rest of the family, were standing in front of his old house on Spinner's End.

Erwin had brought along the car to load in the things that Severus wanted to bring home with him.

'Are you ready, Sev?' Lily asked as she stood beside him by the front door.

'I don't have much of a choice, do I?'

He took the key out of his pocket and swung the door open. It was surprising how easily things could get dusty and cold in a matter of days. It had always been a somber home, but at least his mother's presence had been a little ray of light.

Petunia rolled up her sleeves. 'What about all the books, Severus?' She said as she pointed at the bookshelves in the living room.

There was only one bookshelf in the living room, as opposed to the many bookshelves he had when the house had been his. Most of the books were related to magic and all had belonged to his mother.

'I'd like to take those with me. Maybe I can donate a few to the Hogwarts library.'

'Then I'll get to work and put them in boxes,' Petunia said determinedly, as she started pulling out books from the top shelf.

'Arnica and I will go upstairs and see what we can find,' said Erwin, and together they disappeared up the staircase, garbage bags in hand.

Severus and Lily made their way into the kitchen. The bloodstains were still covering the floor and the kitchen cabinets. Lily looked away at the sight of it, but Severus couldn't help but stare.

In the corner, he caught sight of the wand pieces Tobias had broken.

'Lily,' he said softy, 'it's easier to face something than it is to look away.'

Lily opened up her eyes, seeing Severus sitting down in one of the kitchen chairs with the broken wand pieces in his hands.

'The mind tends to make things worse if it cannot see the reality.'

She sat down beside him, looking at the broken wand pieces in his hands. 'I think I understand what you mean.'

'I don't care much for things,' he said, 'but I want to keep these as a reminder how easy it is to break something that you care about.'

Lily looked around her as if she was seeing the bloodstains in a different light. 'I'll go clean up this mess. Maybe you should go upstairs and see if there's anything else from your mother that you want to bring home with you.'

'Good idea.' He put the pieces of his broken wand in his pocket then headed upstairs.

'Look at all these clothes,' he heard Arnica mumble to herself from his parent's bedroom.

'Hello,' Severus said as he opened the door. The entire content of his parent's closet was dumped onto the bed.

'Is there anything of your mother's that you would like to keep Severus?' Arnica asked him. 'I found her wedding dress.'

Severus looked at it as it was spread out on the bed. It was just a simple elegant white dress, the way his mother would've like it. Nothing fancy.

'To be fair,' he said, 'I don't think I'll ever see myself wearing it.'

That made Arnica laugh. 'You think Lily or Petunia would like it? It could pass for a nice summer dress.'

'I don't don't think Petunia fits in it, as it's too small for her,' he raised an eyebrow as he looked at Arnica, 'and I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I've ever seen Lily wear a dress.'

'You make a good argument there Severus. I'll put it on a pile of other clothes to donate. Maybe someone else can be happy with it.'

Arnica folded it up and added it onto a pile of clothes that she had already sorted. 'Are you absolutely sure you don't want any of this?'

He let his eyes skim over all the clothes that had belonged to his parents. 'No,' he said, 'I'll just take the photo albums and leave it to that.'

Arnica nodded in understanding. 'Erwin's in the bathroom. Maybe there's something there that you'd like to keep.'

Erwin was busy tossing old shampoo bottles and toothbrushes into a garbage bag. 'Take a good look around before I toss everything out,' Erwin warned him.

Severus opened up the medicine cabinet. Old bottles of aspirin and dusty cotton swabs were nothing to get excited about. A round tin box however, caught his attention.

As he opened it, a flowery scent traveled into his nose, and he couldn't help but grin.

'Look what I found Erwin,' he said as he held up the tin box to him.

'What is it?' Erwin said as he looked at it.

'Just smell it.'

Erwin sniffed at it. 'It smells good. What does it do?'

'It's an improved version of a healing salve that my mum made. The flowery scent is arnica, and it helps to make bruises fade.'

'So this is what my wife was named after,' Erwin said happily, and handed it back to Severus. 'What are you waiting for, go put some on your eye.'

Severus looked at himself in the toothpaste spotted mirror. His skin was as sallow as he remembered from when he was an adult. The bruise around his eye had gone from purple to yellow. It didn't hurt as much anymore as it did when he was still in hospital, but to be able to soothe it with his mother's salve was a little blessing.

'Anything else you'd like to keep?' Erwin asked.

Severus put the tin box in his pocket and shook his head. 'I'll go clean out my own room.'

Once he stepped inside his room, he opened up his trunk and shoved everything from his desk into it.

In two trips down the stairs, he had his bass, amp, and a trunk filled to the brim waiting by the door to be taken home.

'Severus,' it was Petunia who called him, 'could you come over here for a sec.'

Petunia handed him over a photo album. 'I found a few of those on the shelves. I figured you may want to see this.'

On the inside, there were muggle photos of mostly him and his mother. Somewhere in the middle of the album, he found the same picture that Lily had up in her room. The same picture he had torn up in pieces so long ago.

'Thank you for finding this Petunia.'

'Want me to put it with the rest of the books? I'm going to make a trip back home with it since the car is already loaded.'

'You can drive?' He asked her in surprise.

'Uhm yes, I got my license last year. Dad gave me the keys.'

'Thank you,' he said again. 'I'm going to see what Lily is up to.'

In the kitchen, Lily had managed to scrub off nearly all the bloodstains from the floor and cabinets. 'Wish I could use magic,' she said irritably.

'Maybe it's not so bad to do it by hand,' Severus said to her. 'Waving a wand around all the time tends to make us magic folk lazy.'

Lily looked at him in a way that would've made Professor McGonnagall proud. 'Here's a sponge,' she said as she dunked another sponge into a bucket of soapy water, 'and here's a whole area where you can start scrubbing,' she said as she pointed at a bloodstain on the ground.

'I should've known,' Severus said in defeat.

He sat down cross-legged on the floor and started scrubbing. As gruesome as the stains were, in an odd twisted sort of way it was relaxing to see them disappear. It felt cleansing, to see the scene of the crime dissolve and turn back into the kitchen it once was.

Petunia came back a moment later with an empty car. 'Is there anything else that I need to bring home with me?' She asked as she stood in kitchen doorway.

'Arnica has some bags filled with clothes that are going to be donated,' Severus said, 'and my trunk, bass, and amp. Everything else is staying behind.'

Some moments later, the upper floor had been cleared. Bags full of rubbish had been tossed away and the bags of clothes, along with Severus's other belongings, were stored in the car.

All of the furniture was going to stay behind. The house was a rental, so either the homeowners would put it up for sale or the people that were going to move in here could take it over and use it.

Either way, Severus no longer wanted nor needed to worry about it.

There was no more room left in the car for five people, so Lily and Severus offered to walk back home.

Severus held the door for Lily as she stepped outside. He took one last look around and closed the door behind him for good.

'Will you miss it?' Lily asked him as they walked back home.

'A little bit,' he admitted. 'There's more bad than good that I associate with that place, but It's been my home for a very long time.'

'I'm proud of you, Sev,' Lily said to him with a smile.

'Why would you be proud of me?'

'Because for the first time since I've met you, you've finally started to open up a bit.'

Once they got home, Severus went to work on sorting through his belongings. It was remarkable just how many things a person could own, once you started putting it in boxes.

It took a long time to sort through all the books and photo albums. He kept the albums and a few books for himself. The rest was to be donated to the Hogwarts library.

Arnica promised that she would take care of all the clothes they had collected. With Lily he sorted everything out in his trunk. Now that his clothes were hanging in a closet and his bass was standing beside Lily's guitar, the attic room started to feel a little bit more like his own place.

After dinner, they all sat on the couch, awaiting Dumbledore's arrival.

'How exactly is Professor Dumbledore arriving?' Petunia asked.

That was a good question, Severus thought to himself. 'He'll hopefully apparate from Hogwarts up to the front door and ring like any decent wizard should do.'

'I thought you couldn't apparate and disapparate from Hogwarts?' Lily asked.

Severus raised his shoulders. 'It's Dumbledore. I'm quite sure the old man can do whatever he wants.'

Suddenly Petunia let out a shriek. The flames in the fireplace combusted and rose up high, revealing the bespectacled face of Albus Dumbledore.

'Good evening,' he said with his familiar kind voice. 'Would it be alright with all of you if I stepped through the flames?'