Danu had apparated to Clagmar Coast to retrieve Lorna after leaving Harry on the sidewalk across from her mother's house in Surrey, only to find Severus' home empty. She was completely unfazed, perhaps Lorna wanted to go home, or Severus grew tired of her wreaking havoc in his house. It was not the first time she had gone to retrieve Lorna, only to find a note on the door instructing her to go to her own home to relieve him of their child. This time, however, there was no note. Still though, Danu thought nothing of it until she walks through her kitchen door to find Severus pacing angrily in the kitchen, Lorna cradled in his arms like an infant as he pats her back gently. Severus places Lorna gently on the sofa, brushes his lips across her forehead, and drapes a throw blanket folded across the back of the couch across her body. He then stalks towards her, his brows arched in fury as he grabs her by the sleeve of her coat and drags her out into the snow.

"Where were you?" Severus demands as he flicks his wrist to silence the two of them from Lorna.

"I—I was with Harry. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it, Molly—"

"Your daughter is sick, and you were out gallivanting with Potter well past dark, when you were supposed to be off of work an hour ago!"

"She's sick? She was fine this morning when I dropped her off. What's wrong?" Danu turns in an attempt to go back through the door to comfort Lorna, when Severus grabs her shoulder and forces her back around to face him.

"She is burning up with a fever, calling out for you, and coughing for the last two hours. It came on suddenly after she woke from a nap, which is unlike her. I would not be surprised if that abominable creature of yours gave her Black Cat Fever!"

"If she had Black Cat Fever she would have a rash, does she have a rash?" Danu places her hand on the knob once more, guilt brewing in her chest for being late when Lorna was so sick.

"Your brewing room," Severus begins, narrowing his eyes at Danu as his lip quivers with anger. "if one may call it that, is positively abysmal! No bicorn horn, no jewelweed, your mandrake root is appalling, the lavender, asphodel petals, and valerian were all picked out of season, and you will have to scrape the jar to get even a drop of flobberworm mucus! You have no ready-made potions available that will do us any good! Honestly, I taught you better than this. I came here in hopes that you would have anything at all to relieve her symptoms, but I was mistaken."

"I—I—" Danu stammers as her eyes dart between Lorna lying on the sofa and Severus pacing in the snow before her.

"Move." Severus demands as he pushes past her, his black cloak circling her ankles.

Severus stomps across the garden, she watches in the faint glow of the porch light as he apparates away, presumably back to his home to retrieve either ingredients, or ready-made potions. Danu rushes to Lorna's side, drops to her knees beside the sofa, and pulls her small, burning body against her chest as the child moans and buries her face in her mother's chest for comfort. Severus had undoubtedly changed her clothes at some point during the day, as she was no longer wearing the knitted jumper and black tights she had dressed her in that morning. Instead, she now wears her favorite pair of pink pajamas with vertical white stripes and thick woolen socks on her feet. Simon the hippogriff is nowhere to be seen, which is unusual even when Lorna is feeling well.

The truth being, her brewing room is absolutely appalling. She has no time for brewing, and no disposable income for any complex ingredients that she isn't able to forage herself on the property. Not to mention the fact that Molly was only a short walk away and was always stocked up on Pepper-Up Potion, Sleeping Draught, Burn Balm, and anything else she could possibly need to soothe a sickly child.

Danu stands and pulls Lorna into her arms before nestling down on the sofa, Lorna's body temperature causing her to sweat beneath her coat as she wraps it and the blanket around the toddlers body. Severus bursts through the door, snow and his black cloak swirling in the air around him. In his left hand is two vials of potions: one red and the other dark purple.

Lorna shifts in her arms, burying her face further into her chest as Severus' icy hand drifts across her forehead. She whimpers as Danu shift her head once more towards her father kneeling before them as he unstoppers the vials, pinches her cheeks to open her mouth, and simultaneously pours each vial down her throat. Lorna makes to spit them out, but Severus is faster, and clamps him hand down over her mouth until she swallows, her eyes too heavy to even open, her body too weak to protest. Danu smooths the hair from her sweaty face and rocks her gently as steam erupts from her ears, carrying the fever away with it. Lorna sighs in relief, coughs once, and stretches in her arms, the dark purple Sleeping Drought that Severus has given her already taking effect.

Danu attempts to stand with Lorna in her arms but does not get far before Severus reaches out and scoops her into his own arms. He cradles her head in his hands and presses her ear to the center of his chest, just as he did when she was a newborn. Danu scales the stairs ahead of Severus, flips on Lorna's fairy nightlight, and turns the quilt on the bed down for Severus to slip her into the bed. He tucks her in gently, leans down and kisses the top of her head, then backs away from the small single bed to give Danu space to do the same. Lorna groans and turns the opposite direction, pulling the quilt over her head as she goes. A flash of black streams past her feet and Bram lunges onto the bed before curling up against Lorna's back to settle in for the night. Behind her, Severus scoffs quietly.

Once downstairs, Severus leans against the counter in the kitchen, his eyes traveling around the house, taking in every detail. Danu moves around him, heating the kettle for tea, using her wand to put away the dishes waiting in the dish drainer, and sweep the dirt from the floors.

"Thank you." Danu says to Severus with a small smile, Severus lifts one brow at her in response. "For getting Lorna the potions."

"You do not need to thank me for taking care of our child."

"Why didn't you give her something before you brought her here?"

"I did not have any ready-made potions available. I brought all of my stocks to the apothecary in the village to sell yesterday evening after you picked up Lorna. I did not want to parade her through the village in the cold with a high fever. I took a chance, believing that you were smart enough to have these things on hand. I went to retrieve them from the apothecary when I left a few moments ago."

"She doesn't get sick very much." Danu admits as she turns to retrieve two teacups from the cupboard. Severus watches as he places a bag of his favorite tea into his mug and passes it to him. "I'm sorry that I was late. It slipped my mind to tell you because I'm used to Molly already knowing. I won't let it happen again."

"Where were you?" Severus asks as she turns to face him.

"Harry and I have this…tradition. It's private. We aren't late often, maybe once or twice a month. It's just something that we need to do together."

"Touching." Severus mutters as he turns his attention to the mug cupped in his hands.

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes. I cooked while Lorna napped. That was the first indication that she was unwell. She does not nap that late in the day, then she refused dinner. She does not often turn down food."

"Yeah." Danu chuckles slightly. "I like that she isn't a picky eater, though. Would you like to go sit on the sofa?"

"I was thinking of getting Lorna a bicycle for Christmas." Severus announces as they take their seats on opposite ends of the sofa. Danu hugs her knees to her body and leans her back against the arm of the couch, Severus passes her Lorna's discarded throw which she drapes over her legs. "I thought I would ask your opinion on the matter."

"You don't have to ask my permission, she's yours, too. Are you going to teach her to ride it?"

"That was my intention, yes." Severus gives her a small smirk before bringing the mug of tea to his lips.

"Good. Because I don't know how to ride a bike." Danu admits, trying her best to hide the embarrassment at the fact that she is unable to do something that every child learns before they even attend school.

"Neither do I."

"So, two people who don't know how to ride a bike are in charge of teaching a toddler how to do it. A toddler that needs to know how everything works and will ask a thousand questions. Perfect plan."

Danu giggles imagining the scene; Lorna speeding down a hill while she chases after her and Severus hurls spells at her in an attempt to slow her decent. Severus places his mug on the table before them and turns his attention towards her. One brow is raised, the lines on his forehead smooth. The grey hairs peppered throughout his black hair glisten in the firelight, his dark eyes seem lost, sad.

"I missed this." Danu sighs as she leans forward to place her own mug next to Severus' on the table. "Will you ever tell me why?"

"Why, what?" Severus asks, his voice thick with sleep as he stifles a yawn behind his hand.

"Why you left."

"You were not happy."

"What?" Danu bursts far louder than intended. Both of them freeze and stare up at the ceiling, listening for any sign of her outburst waking Lorna. "I was exhausted and overwhelmed, but I was happy."

"I saw the unhappiness on your face every day, do not try to fool me. You would stiffen and attempt to pull away each time I touched you while you were pregnant. I stayed far longer than I should have."

"I hated being pregnant! It had absolutely nothing to do with you, or you touching me. I hated every single moment of it; I hated the feeling of her moving inside of me, I hated the way I looked, I hated the way I felt, I hated that I didn't love her!"

"You never told me any of that. Had I known—"

"Had you known what?" Danu cuts him off as they each narrow their eyes at one another, anger bubbling up inside of each of them. Tears sting her eyes, yet she is determined not to allow them to spill. "I was scared, hormonal, angry. You seemed happy; you seemed like you loved her. I couldn't tell you that I hated it! I was afraid that if I did, you would think that I was a monster!"

"I did not know." His voice seems sincere, almost pained as his gaze on her softens.

"You left." Danu sobs, her emotions betray her as tears stream down her face. "I was so scared, I needed you and you left me. You were with someone else the whole time. Why?"

"I cannot take it back, I—"

"I'm not asking you to take it back, I'm asking you to tell me why."

"To give you a chance." Severus sighs, his brow scrunched as he watches her sob before him.

"A chance for what?"

"I left so that you could be happy, I resigned from Saint Mungo's so that you could have your dream. I left you every ounce of gold I had so that you wouldn't have to struggle. You have a lovely garden to grow anything you want, and you aren't. I set you up for success; I ensured your future as well as Lorna's, and you aren't taking advantage of it. You could be working at Saint Mungo's right now, you could open your own apothecary, source your own herbs, you could stay home all day with Lorna and still live comfortable with the gold I left for you in the vault!"

"What do I have to do to get you to believe that all I wanted was you? I don't care about Saint Mungo's, I don't care about the gold, I don't care about any of it. You and Lorna were the only things I wanted, the only things that I cared about."

Severus doesn't say anything, he makes no movement other than his fingers rubbing the seam of fabric on the arm of the sofa; the nervous habit she had seen him do countless times. Danu's chest rises and fall sharply, tears stain her cheeks. She uses the sleeve of her blouse to dry them, the fabric leaving her skin pink and chaffed.

"You could have come home." Danu sobs, wiping her sleeves down her cheeks once more. "I would have been mad, but you could have come back, I wouldn't have turned you away."

Severus closes in on her and wraps her in his arms. His heart pounds against her chest, his breath ruffles the hair on the top of her head. He still does not smell like himself; he smells of Lorna's lavender shampoo and smoke from the fire. She longed to smell him, the real him; the eucalyptus bar soap he used in the shower, the cinnamon disks he sucked on to keep from smoking while teaching, and as much as she hated his smoking, the smell of his clove cigarettes as well. His arms though are just as strong and comforting, the beat of his heart sounds just the same. Severus holds her tighter as he kisses the top of her head, the warmth of his sudden embrace spreading throughout her core.

"I missed you so much." Danu sobs against his chest. "I just wanted you to come home."

"It is getting late." Severus murmurs against her head, the movement of the hairs on her head tickling her scalp. "I should go."

"No." Danu objects as she snakes her arms around his waist to hold him to her. "Please stay."

Severus holds her until the sobs causing her to tremble stop, then drops his arms from her, but keeps his cheek resting on top of her head. Slowly, Danu rights herself in order to look at him. His face is unreadable, emotionless, but his eyes betray him. They are soft, concerned, perhaps a bit saddened. Without thinking, Danu leans forward and kisses him gently on the corner of his mouth, just as she had during the dark days shortly before the war when he would sit before the fire for hours staring into nothing. He is startled for a moment but cups her cheek in his hand and rests his forehead against hers, his breath hot and warm on her face, the smell of the tea he had sipped permeating through her senses.

Before long he was kissing her swollen lips, his own just as soft as she had remembered them being. At first the kisses are gentle, comforting, but soon become more as each of them struggle to invade the others mouth with their tongue. Danu lifts herself onto her knees, not daring to remove her lips from his should he suddenly decide to change his mind, and straddles his lap, the evidence of their kisses hard beneath her. She grinds her hips against him and reaches up to run her fingers through his hair before finally prying her lips from his and kissing the length of his jaw before finding the sweet spot that he loved so much just beneath his earlobe. Severus moans and rests his head on the back of the sofa as his left hand travels up and down her spine, his right grips her hip firmly.

Danu tugs on his earlobe with her lips before moving lower, her tongue dancing across the flesh on his neck; the skin rough and prickly due to the hairs beginning to push their way out of follicle. Severus fiddles with the bottom hem of her blouse before finally relenting and plunging his hands beneath. One grips the tender flesh of her side, kneading it gently, the other goes higher, his fingers dancing along the band of her bra. Danu drops one hand and undoes the button of her jeans, stands, and shimmies them down to pool at her feet. She steps out of them, her panties following, pulls her blouse over her head, and stares down at Severus, his eyes burning with desire as she slowly reaches behind her back to unclasp her bra. Severus reaches out to her with one shaking hand and trails his fingertips from her rib cage, down to her knees.

"Should we go upstairs? Just in case Lorna wakes up and comes down." Danu whispers, Severus nods his head and the two of them slowly creep upstairs to the master bedroom.

Once in the bedroom, Danu stands before Severus, his tall, dark form slightly intimidating in the soft glow of the lamp on her nightstand. He reaches out to her once more, his hands warm on her bare skin as he backs her up until the backs of her knees hit the mattress. Danu climbs up, her legs dangle off of the edge of the bed as Severus settles himself between her knees and leans down to meet her lips with his own. Their kisses had settled, but only slightly. She fumbles with the button on his trousers for a moment before one hand reaches down to assist her, he released them effortlessly before kicking his shoes and pants off in one swift motion. His shirt is off in an instant, she hadn't even realized that he was undoing the buttons with his opposite hand.

Severus' skin is smooth and milky white, despite living on the coast for the last two years. She trails a finger from his sternum to his pubis, tracing the faint line of hair growing there as Severus' lips find her neck, his teeth bite into her gently, eliciting a faint moan from her lips. He forces her back onto the bed, the heat and weight of his body holding her to the earth.

Danu reaches out and grips him firmly in her fist, causing him to gasp slightly against her skin. He makes his way from her neck, down to her breast, his tongue flicks across her nipple as she runs her thumb over the tip of his erection, spreading the seepage across the head. Severus takes her nipple into his mouth and sucks greedily, causing her back to arch from the bed as a deep moan escapes her lips.

"I need you." Danu complains as Severus palms her opposite breast with his large hand.

Without removing her nipple from her mouth, Severus reaches between them and grips himself, his hand covering her own around his erection. Together, they line him up with her, and Severus pushes in gently. It had been years, his size is foreign, slightly uncomfortable, but not painful. He releases her nipple with a soft pop and buries his face in her neck. Danu grips his shoulder firmly as he slowly rocks into her.

Danu wraps her left leg around his waist, the other, Severus pins to the bed as he grips her thigh tightly in his hand. Just as she begins to grow accustomed to his size, Severus pulls his body off of hers, but remains inside of her. He looks down at her with such a burning desire in his eyes that one would almost mistake it as anger. His jaw is clenched tight, his eyes narrowed. He pries her left leg from her waist and pins it to the bed as he had her other, only this time, he does not grip her thigh tightly. Instead, his thumb travels to his mouth where he licks the pad generously before planting onto her clit to draw tight circles.

Her back arches once more, her head is thrown back and her mouth flies open, a moan escapes her throat. Severus releases her thigh and clamps his hand down over her mouth; both of their wands were downstairs, neither of them had thought to cast a silencing spell around the room. His thumb continues to draw tight circles around her as he picks up pace and slams into her.

A storm begins to brew in her lower stomach, her legs begin to tremble, her hands reach out and grip the quilt on the bed tightly. Severus' hand remains clamped down on her mouth, smothering the scream that comes from her deep within her being as the release washes over her. He gives her a moment, coaxing her out of her orgasm with the pad of his thumb before removing his hand from her mouth and leaning forward, once more covering her with his body. Before she knew it, Severus pulls out of her abruptly, grips himself, and finishes on her lower stomach, the feeling different from anything she had ever felt before as he had always finished inside of her every other time. Severus rolls over and lies on his back next to her, he brings the balls of his palms up to his forehead and breathes heavily for several moments before locking his fingers together across his chest.

"I have no contraceptive potions." Severus groans as he heaves himself from the bed, pokes his head out of the door, and disappears down the hall. The sound of the sink running in the bathroom echoes down the darkened hallway. Severus returns a moment later with a damp rag and mops the mess from her lower stomach.

"Will you stay?" Danu asks as she props herself up on her elbows and looks up at him as he turns and disappears once more out of the room.

Severus returns, pulls his shorts on, and settles himself beneath the quilt on her bed without a word. Danu crawls up the bed on hands and knees, kisses Severus tenderly, and settles beneath the quilt next to him. It does not take long before she drifts off to sleep, safe and secure, enveloped in Severus' long arms.

"Mummy." A small voice wakes her from her sleep, little fingers poke at her cheeks as she attempts to shake her head to make them stop. "Mummy the sun is awake."

"I am not." Danu mumbles and buries her face in the pillow beneath her head.

"Mummy. I can't find Simon." Lorna whines, stomping her little foot on the hardwood floor.

"Where did you have him last?"

"Uh—uh…Mummy, why was daddy in your bed?" Lorna quickly changes the subject, determined to ask the important questions.

"Daddy stayed the night because you were sick."

"Daddies making breakfast!"

"Go help daddy make breakfast."

"Simon's at daddies house!" Lorna gasps before barreling down the stairs towards the kitchen and shouting, "DADDY SIMON'S AT YOUR HOUSE!" At the top of her lungs.

Begrudgingly, Danu heaves herself from the comfort of her bed, ties her robe around her body, and makes her way downstairs to find Lorna sitting cross legged on the kitchen counter while Severus slices strawberries next to her.

"Lorna Eileen!" Danu announces, startling both Lorna and Severus. Lorna looks up at her, a look of mischief plastered on her face as she grins up at her. "Why are you on the counter? You know that you are not allowed up there!"

"Daddy let me!" Lorna giggles as Severus drops the knife and lifts her up and off of the counter. "Daddy is gonna go get us a Christmas tree after breakfast!"

"Oh really?" Danu asks, raising one brow at Severus in question.

"Yeah! Daddy said we could decorate it and have buns!" Lorna slaps her thighs with excitement before scurrying upstairs to busy herself with something else.

"She seems to be feeling much better today. What brought on the Christmas tree and buns?"

"She asked. I agreed." Severus says with a shrug as he turns his attention to the eggs frying on the stove.

"Thank you for being here." Danu says as she wraps her arms around his waist and rests her cheek on his back.