They say that 'time assuages,'-
Time never did assuage;
An actual suffering strengthens,
As sinews do, with age.
Time is a test of trouble,
But not a remedy.
If such it prove, it prove to
There was no malady.
-Emily Dickinson
Epilogue
Jenny kisses Perdita on her crown and sends her out the door to catch the school bus. She waves to her daughter from the door, wearing sweat pants and a white undershirt with pit stains. It is her day off from Sparky's, and lately, when it happens to fall on a school day, and she's left to her own devices, she finds it difficult to motivate.
She looks at the breakfast dishes on the table and worktop, but decides they can wait and flops onto the couch instead. She is blubbering into a cushion over something on her soaps when she hears a knock at the door.
Jenny ignores it, turning the TV volume up.
When the knocking grows more insistent, she sighs and clicks the television off. Shoving her feet into her bedraggled slippies, she trudges to the door, rubbing her knuckles across her cheeks to wipe off her tears.
She is vigorously wiping her runny nose across her forearm when she opens the door and sees him.
He's tall and slender and immaculately dressed in denims and a blue-striped dress shirt. His fall of coarse, black hair is pulled back in a queue. Silver-framed glasses rest on his nose. He looks like a nerd. He's so beautiful.
"S-Severus," she stammers, her heart beating against her breastbone so hard, she worries it will become bruised.
He steps over her door jamb, using his proximity to push her inside. He stares at her, his black eyes tracing over her hair and mouth and chest, and she feels herself dissolving, breaking apart under his scrutiny.
"Severus, what are you doing here?" She shakes a bit, and she curses herself for her transparency.
"I will not respond to that name."
"What do you mean?" She touches her throat, licks her lips.
"David Amant. Say my name." He reaches out and cups the nape of her neck, using it to pull her close. His lips touch hers, just a brief swipe hello.
"Amant?" Lover?
"Say, 'Hello, David. I've missed you, and I'm glad you're here to stay now.'" His fingers knead her neck.
Jenny begins to shake so hard, she worries she'll fall to pieces in front of him. He's shattered her. She sees what he's done and knows he did it for her.
"B-but, what about your life back in Scotland?" Please, please.
"There is no life without you. Say, 'Hello, David. I've missed you, and I'm glad you're here to stay now.'"
"Hello David. I've missed you, and—," and then his mouth is on hers, and his hands are under her shirt. She's only got a brief moment to regret that she looks so disgusting and hasn't brushed her teeth before her clothes are gone, and he's with her on the floor, rubbing against her, kissing her breasts, between her thighs.
"Say it," he whispers into her hair as he pushes into her.
"I'm so glad," she cries. "I'm so glad you're here to stay."
"Yes, yes," he sighs and kisses her.
#
It's much later. They are lying side by side on the hardwood floor, and she's got a splinter in her ass. She doesn't care, though. Severus is beside her.
"Here, look at this," he says and hands her a wand.
"This isn't your ebony wand." She swishes it and is warmed when it responds eagerly to her touch. "Your wand likes me. I mean that on several levels."
He chuckles, a rough, pleased sound. "You'd be right on several levels." He reaches over and takes the chestnut length back. "This is David Amant's wand. Severus Snape's wand is in Wales."
"Oh?"
"Yes, it's in a cottage tucked up in a remote fold of the Cambrian Mountains. Snape retired as Headmaster of Hogwarts to do research there, you know."
"Mmm, clever," she purrs and rolls to press her chest against his side.
He raises his eyebrows and smirks. "Of course." He turns and slides his bicep under her neck, using his free hand to trace the curves of her breasts. "It took me so long to come back to you because I had to set up a Floo connection between the cottage and the house I bought here in Whitville. I didn't want the Ministry to have any part of it, so I had to figure it out myself. Intercontinental Flooing uses complex magics." He pushes her over and sucks her right nipple into his mouth.
She's too replete to feel anything but lazy pleasure, but she enjoys having him close, so she wraps her fingers in his hair and watches him. "Why do you need a Floo connection?"
He releases her nipple with a pop. It's shiny and red, and he leans down to kiss it. "Even though the entire Wizarding world knows I disdain foolish wand-waving, it'd be straining credulity if I never cast any spells at all. I can pop back and forth easily to maintain the fiction that I'm in seclusion." Severus nuzzles her neck. "Plus, it's so remote, I thought it would be nice for the three of us to spend an occasional weekend there. It's beautiful."
She pulls back and turns her face to meet his sloe-eyed gaze. "This is real, right? After ten years, this is actually happening?"
He gives her a slow smile and says, "Oh yes. It's happening, and I have very long term plans where you and Perdita are involved."
Jenny feels her cheeks heat. "She asked after you for ages, you know. I think you made an impression on her."
He smiles and picks up his wand. "She made an impression on me as well." Severus casts his Patronus. A bright white duck with bushy eyebrows flies out of the tip of his wand.
Jenny laughs. "A horned grebe?"
"Yes, I always seem to end up with terribly emasculating Patronuses." He sighs and then lets his arm flop back to the ground. "I'm serious. I want both of you. Do you think that's possible?"
"I do. Just go slowly with her." She smiles and runs her fingers through the spill of his hair. "Hey."
"Hmmm," he grumbles lazily, closing his eyes in pleasure.
"I love you. I've missed you, and I'm very glad you're here to stay."
A/N: Well, so there it is. I hope you enjoyed it, Curia and fandom! And just so you know, Whitville is NOT a real town, but is based on a real town that really did just recently get its very first library.