Severus leans against the door frame of Lorna's bedroom watching his wife apply makeup at his grandmother, Elspeth's, vanity; the vanity now, of course, belonging to their daughter, Lorna. Danu opens her mouth wide and paints her upper lip a deep red color. The color bleeds slightly in the center and swallows her sharp cupid's bow, he watches closely as she sucks her lip in, stretching it tightly, and uses the fingernail of her thumb to remove the access. She wipes the red on her thumb on a tissue before turning her attention back to a single curl that continues escaping the pin she had used to secure it with. Severus smirks as she pushes out her bottom lip and blows the curl out of her face in defeat. He pushes himself off of the doorway, stalks towards her, and places his hands gently on her shoulders. She smiles up at him in the mirror and passes him the pin, which he expertly separates and neatly pins the rouge curl in place amongst the others.
"Are you sure you don't want to go with us?" Danu asks him for the fourth time that morning.
"I am quite sure. I have far too much work to do in the shop. Besides, I doubt a majority of the attendees would appreciate their former professor sitting beside them at a wedding, no matter how stunning his wife may be." Severus runs his hands down Danu's bare arms and pulls her against his chest, sighing contently at her warmth.
"Don't be silly, Hermione invited you herself. Flitwick, McGonagall, Hagrid, and a few others will be there."
"All the more reason for me to stay put, Darling." Severus says before kissing the top of her head gently so as to not mess up her hair.
Severus releases her with a sigh and makes his way over to the far side of the room where Lorna's frilly pink dress was hanging on a peg; Granger had dropped it off two days prior for Lorna to wear as her flower girl duty. Both he and Lorna had hated it from the beginning, so much so that Lorna was currently hiding in a cupboard in the kitchen as a means to keep from wearing it. Danu had pinned her black curls up in the same manner as her own, pulled thick white tights up her legs, and warned her that she had exactly twenty-five minutes before she tracked her down and forced the dress on her one way or another, she had nearly knocked Severus to the ground in her attempt to flee from her mother.
Silently, Severus makes his way down th stairs and towards the kitchen. He opens the cupboard containing a half-dressed Lorna and looks in on her, she had evidently plucked a banana from the counter in her retreat, as the smell nearly knocked him backwards as a stream of light pools into the cramped space, illuminating half of Lorna's small face as she sits hunched in the corner.
"I will read you three chapters tonight, allow you to eat only bacon for breakfast for two days, and I will play tea party with you tomorrow." Severus negotiates as Lorna's face lights up with each word. "But only on one condition."
"What?" Lorna exclaims, nearly launching herself into his arms in excitement as he narrows his eyes at her, taken aback by the fact that he was on his knees negotiating with a three year old over a hideous dress.
"You wear the dress," Lorna pokes out her bottom lip and furrows her brows at this, "Yes, I know that it is hideous, I did not chose it. You do this for your mother, and for Gran—Hermione, and I will reward you after."
Lorna considers for a moment, her brow scrunched in concentration as she bites her bottom lip. Finally, she nods her head quickly and climbs from the cupboard. Severus reaches out for her hand as he stands, but she steps back from him and places her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes at him.
"I want an owl." Lorna states plainly and furrows her brows tighter together.
"I will buy you an owl when you go off to school, and not a day sooner."
"Fine." Lorna spits before turning on her heel and stomping towards the stairs, she stops on the second step and glares back at him. "But it has to be a black one."
Who taught her to negotiate?
Severus follows Lorna upstairs and watches silently from the doorway as Danu pulls the hideous dress over Lorna's head and zips it up her back. Lorna glares at Severus over her shoulder, daring him to take back his end of the bargain. He smirks at her, daring her to bring up the bargain to her mother. Lorna takes her mother's hand, stands silently by her side as she stands on her toes and pecks him gently on the cheek, then drifts from the room with her before sending a daring look at him over his shoulder before disappearing from sight. He makes his way towards the large window in her bedroom and watches as Danu and Lorna make their way down the path towards the Weasley's burrow.
What would Danu have looked like on her wedding day; had she had the opportunity to have an actual wedding? Would she have even wanted one? He had never even asked her, not once had she mentioned it. Would Lorna want him to walk her down the aisle on her own wedding day? Would he even be alive that long? These thoughts had never plagued his mind before, but now, watching them walk hand in hand towards Arthur and Molly Weasley's burrow to attend Granger and the younger Weasley boys' wedding, he cannot escape them.
He hadn't wanted to go to the wedding in the first place, had only accepted the invitation from Granger as a peace offering. There would far too many people he did not particularly want staring at him in attendance.
Upstairs in the attic, Severus gathers several boxes filled with ready-made potions and treks outside to apparate to the apothecary. It had not been his desire to open an apothecary, of course he had flirted with the idea since he first became the potions master at Hogwarts; working for himself, not having to deal with dunderheads that could hardly make a decent tea squander his time and resources. The idea struck him after spending two years brewing for Clancy Owens, the elderly apothecary owner in a small village outside of Clagmar Coast. Clancy had terrible rheumatism, could hardly see, and the first time Severus had stepped foot inside of the apothecary in search of a ready-made potion for a terrible headache, had caught him nearly about to drop a large bundle of Mugwort into a smoldering cauldron of what was meant to be pepper up potion. Severus had cleaned the mess with the flick of his wand, carefully brewed the potion correctly, and left the shop with a job he had not actually wanted in the first place. It kept him busy, though. Kept his mind off of Danu and Lorna as he rotted away on the coast.
No, this had been what his mother had wanted for him from a very young age, from the moment he had shown an affinity for potions. The first time she had spoken of it as though it was something serious was only a few short months before she had taken her own life. She had taken a part time job at a local library where she had been saving every dime of her pay. She had written to him shortly before Christmas holiday asking him to come home for a few days, as she had something to discuss with him. Severus never replied to her letter, never went home that year, opting instead to stay at Hogwarts to take advantage of the empty library and Slytherin common room. This was after he had stopped speaking to her, after he had broken her heart. Tobias had not allowed her to be part of wizarding world for many years by that point, fearing she would leave him. Severus himself was nearly not allowed to go to Hogwarts, not until Tobias had learned that he would be gone and out of his house for ten months out of the year, after that he couldn't wait for him to leave again. She had no idea what how only child was getting in to, no idea that The Dark Lord had his hand in Severus' pocket, no idea that her son was becoming unrecognizable. Shortly after New Years, she sent him a second owl, excitedly telling him that she had saved two hundred and fifty pounds, hidden under the floorboards in his bedroom, and that she would give it to him to take to Gringotts to exchange for galleons. She had included clippings for store fronts for rent, others for sale, all of which were far more than either of them would ever be able to afford at the time.
You could get an advance from Gringotts, maybe even a Muggle loan, I've been looking in to them for you. You are intelligent, Sevy. Don't squander it. Let me help you. I think you would be great at whatever you decide to do in life, but this could be wonderful for you. I could help you, I could run the front of the shop while you brewed in the back; you wouldn't have to handle any of the customers or anything.
We could really do this, Sevy, we could be better. What do you think? Write back and let me know and I can go to the Muggle bank and see about that loan. We could open up this summer after you graduate. I've been thinking of names, I can tell you my ideas when you come home for Easter, I've written out a whole business plan.
I'm so proud of you, Severus. Don't forget that.
-Mum
He had not thought about that letter in years. Had completely forgotten how she had lovingly called him "Sevy" when she was in a decent mood. He never found out the names she had in mind, nor any indication that she had started a business plan, the money she had saved was long gone, undoubtedly Tobias had found all of it.
Standing before his own shop, the one his mother had dreamed of so many years ago, Severus feels a pain in his chest. His places the boxes on the walkway before the shop and brings his hand to his chest, wincing slightly as he bows forward a bit in an attempt to let the sharp pain pass. The wind picks up slightly then, and Severus raises his head to catch sight of the hanging sign sweeping back and forth.
Primrose Apothecary
"We did it, Mum." Severus whispers to himself as he stands before the small stone building.
Would she still be proud of him? Would she be able to look past every terrible thing he had done? Would she like his wife? Would she love his daughter?
Severus closes his eyes, lifts his head to the breeze, and in the crisp March air, swears he catches a whiff of his mother's scent. Camphor oil for her bruises after a run in with Tobias, clove cigarettes, and peppermint hard candies.
—
Severus watches as Danu removes her makeup with a warm, damp washcloth and removing the pins from her red hair. Lorna was splashing in the bathtub, playing with a small rubber duck that Arthur had given her for her birthday. The cat comes in, rubs himself against Severus' leg, takes one look at Lorna in the bath, and runs sideways from the room before she has the chance to catch him.
The cat had somewhat grown on him since the incident with the boggart, the useless bastard had been the only one to know of its existence and had at least attempted to rid them of the thing. Severus gave his thanks to it each morning by letting it out into the garden, and each evening by filling its bowl with tinned tuna fish.
"How was it then?" Severus asks from the doorway as Lorna sends a plume of water barreling towards her mother's turned back. Severus produces his wand and directs the water back towards Lorna, who howls with laughter the moment the water cascades down upon her head. She raises her arms in an attempt to do it again but stops at smirks at him just as he narrows his eyes at her, then turns her attention back towards the rubber duck.
"It was—" Danu begins as she unclasps the pearl necklace around her neck.
"EVERYBODY WAS DRUNK!" Lorna interrupts, her voice echoing loudly throughout the small room.
Severus raises his brow at Danu as she turns slightly to eye Lorna as she cackles and splashes behind her.
"Don't act innocent, missy." Danu warns as she cuts her eyes at Lorna. "Your Nan got on you and Teddy more than once."
"Nan yelled at me, Daddy!" Lorna shouts as she pokes her bottom lip out.
"Oh, don't pull that! Why don't we tell your dad what it is that you did to caused your Nan to yell at you?" Danu turns and puts her hands on her hips as she glares down at Lorna looking innocently up at them, her bottom lip still jutting out.
"But Ron and George told me to put the Demon Dung under Percy's seat!"
"I'm talking about the sweets that you got from Ron and gave to Mister Granger, and then turned around and shocked him with some….thing you got from George!"
"But Ron told me to, Mummy!" Lorna exclaims as she raises her arms high above her head before slamming them back down against the water, spraying droplets of water every which way.
"I don't care if the Queen told you to do it! Nan had enough to worry about today without you and Teddy going around terrorizing everyone. Just because the adults were acting childish and egging you on, does not mean you get to behave like hellions! You know better than that, Lorna Eileen."
—
Severus stands behind Lorna, one hand on either side of her before the bathroom sink as he helps her brush her teeth. Suddenly, and without warning, his arm begins to burn. He ignores it, to the best of his ability, until the pain becomes so excruciating that he can hardly breathe. The air is stolen from his lungs as he backs away from Lorna and falls to the floor, he rips the fabric of his button down from his flesh to reveal The Dark Mark blazing upon his forearm. Severus stares at it with horror as his heart pounds in his chest and his hands tremble.
"GET OUT!" Danu shouts, he looks up to the doorway to find her clutching Lorna to her chest, terror and anguish etched upon her face. "GET AWAY FROM US, YOU MONSTER!"
Severus sits upright in bed and instinctively pulls the fabric of is nightshirt up to his elbow to reveal clear, pale skin. It was a dream, only a dream.
He looks around, the candle on his side of the bed remains lit. Lorna was curled against his side, her thumb hanging out of her mouth. A Little Princess laid open across his chest where he had fallen asleep while reading the promised three chapters to Lorna. Danu's side of the bed remained empty; the quilt pulled up to the pillow. She had not come to bed. The clock on his side of the bed flashes five-fifteen; Severus listens intently for a moment, no sounds of life permeates from downstairs.
As slowly and carefully as possible, Severus heaves himself from bed, his knees and ankles cracking as he stands to his full height. He pads down the stairs, not caring if he is silent or not. A fire burns low in the hearth, casting a warm glow across the parlor. On the far end of the room, with her knees to her chest and a throw blanket around her corner, is Danu. She had pulled his wingback chair in front of the large window and was staring intently out into the darkness; a mug of tea sits before her on the windowsill.
"You did not come to bed." Severus murmurs into the darkness. She jumps slightly, then turns to look at him, a dazed look on her face.
"I did. I couldn't sleep." Her voice is small and emotionless, void of her usual compassion.
"What is the matter?"
"I just couldn't sleep, that's all." She picks up her tea and brings it to her lips, makes a face, then puts it back down. It has apparently gone cold.
"No, I do not mean only tonight. Something has been plaguing your mind for weeks now. I wish you would speak to me about what is bothering you."
"Why do you want to have another baby, Severus?" They two stare at one another for a moment, he had not expected her to ask this question, nor had they discussed the matter since he had mentioned it in passing weeks before. "Is it because Lorna is growing up?"
"Partially." Severus admits as he takes a seat on the arm of the sofa closet to her, she turns her body in the chair and leans against the arm to watch him closely.
"I can't do it alone again."
"You won't, I assure you. I am not going anywhere."
"I wish I could believe that." She admits as she runs her hands down her face and closes her eyes before yawning.
"Is that what has been bothering you?" She doesn't say anything, only stares at him. "I am committed to you; I am committed to Lorna. I am not leaving you."
"I thought you were before. I never thought you would leave us, and then you did. Now you want me to not only have another, but also trust that you won't decide it's too much if it's like Lorna and cries all the time."
"What can I do to prove to you that I am sincere?" Severus asks, his voice low and as kind as he can manage.
"When are you going to bring your things here? All you have is a few changes of clothes and your cauldron."
"I can move the rest of my belongings over any time, if that is what you want." He hadn't wanted to intrude on her space, hadn't wanted to deal with moving everything again if he was being honest.
"And what about your house? What are you going to do with it?"
"Well, Lorna enjoys the beach, I thought we would use it during the summers for holiday. Although, if you would prefer that I sell it, it holds no sentimental value to me."
"That's the only reason why you're keeping it?" She asks, raising her brow at him.
"Yes. I have no ulterior motives regarding the place."
Danu sits in silence once more, staring at him as though she wished to say something, but does not. Finally, she sighs and turns her attention back to the darkness outside.
"May I ask why the boggart took the form of Sirius when it looked at you?" Severus finally asks, breaking the silence and forcing her attention back to him.
"It wasn't Sirius. It was what he was saying to me." She admits as she looks down at her lap.
"And what was he saying to you?"
"That he couldn't love Lorna." Her voice cracks slightly, a soft clicking fills the air as Severus looks down to see her picking at the skin around her thumb nail. She was becoming anxious.
"You have not spoken a word of Rose since you met her. I did not pry, I wished for you to come to me with the details. Did something happen when you and Potter went there that made you believe that Sirius would say something of this nature to you?"
"Sirius hated you." She states plainly, averting her eyes from him and chewing on her bottom lip and changing the subject. "I was having a truly wonderful conversation with someone tonight at the reception. As soon as he learned my name, he practically ran from me. Wouldn't come near me the rest of the night, even after Hermione and Luna spoke to him. I've never had someone be afraid of me before."
"That is what you are concerned about?" Severus scoffs, a pang of jealousy creeping up his spine and causing his hands to shake. "Someone was afraid of you? By all means, share with me the name of this truly fascinating individual so that we may track him down and question him."
"Neville Longbottom." Danu cuts her eyes towards him accusingly, Severus sneers at the thought of Longbottom catching glances at his wife in the skintight dress she wore this evening. "It was platonic, Severus. I don't go around sleeping with other people the moment I'm out of your sight."
"Meaning?" Severus glares at her, his nostrils flaring as the heat of his anger begins to rise in his face.
"Nothing." She murmurs, turning back towards the window.
"No." Severus demands as he stands and makes his way to the window, so she is forced to look at him. "No. What is the meaning of this? You are an adult, are you not? Use your words."
"You were so cruel to Neville that he was terrified of me, just because I'm married to you. You were cruel to a lot of people. Harry, Ron, Hermione, me. I'd forgotten all about it until tonight. I forgot how scared I was of you. I became blind to it after you started being decent to me." She looks him up and down for a moment, her face expressionless and her eyes bleary from hours of staring out of the window into the darkness. "You're jealous because I said that I had a nice conversation with another man, but you're the only man I've even slept with, and you were with someone else for two years."
Anger seeps from his pores as he grits his teeth and clenches his fists so tightly his hands begin to shake. She stares up at him, those blue eyes so striking in the firelight, so full of unshed tears and questions burning to be asked.
"Would you go back to her? Are you keeping that house filled with all of your things on the coast for when you get tired of being here, knowing that she's there waiting?"
So, this is how it is going to be.
"You saunter around wedding receptions in skintight attire, showing off the curves of your body and then have the gall to accuse me of wanting someone else? I read your dream journal, ah yes, I recall every detail of those captivating entries. The boy you couldn't keep your hands off of, the men who couldn't keep their hands off of you. How about Marcus Belby? He was your date to the Yule Ball, was he not? Oh yes, I recall how you melted on his arm that night as you entered the great hall and every head turned towards you. I see the eyes of men linger on your body as I walk with you on my arm." Severus stalks towards her, leans his mouth to her ear, and whispers the final words he knew would cut her like a dagger. "Amycus Carrow."
Severus leans back against the window smirking, a look of triumph on his face. If she were going to play dirty, he could play even dirtier. She looks as though he had slapped her, which is what he intended to happen, yet it did not fill him with a sense of being even as it once would have. It did not thrill him to know that his dagger like words could wound another, which is precisely why his whit had always been so clear and precise before. No, seeing her lower lip tremble a moment before she clenches her jaw shatters his heart. She slowly stands from the chair, drops the blanket she had been wrapped in onto the floor, and makes her way into the darkened kitchen.
From the dim glow of the fire, he watches as she grips the edge of the counter and leans forward, her head hanging between her arms as her hair drapes around her face. He goes to her and reaches out a timid hand, he places it gently on her shoulder. She jerks away from him and moves several feet away. Again, he tries to reach out to her, and again she jerks from him.
"Don't touch me." She spits, just as she had the night he had left her alone in the darkened grounds of Hogwarts after calling her a coward so many years before.
"I am so—"
"No." She barks. "You're not sorry. You meant every word. And for the record, I didn't do anything with Marcus Belby, I was with you all night after you invited me to your office, and then I went straight to bed! I didn't even want to go with him that night; he only asked me because everyone else already had dates, and I only said yes because no one else had asked me! I didn't…I didn't know that Carrow…I didn't know!"
"You did not…I should not have said those things." Severus begins as she remains hunched in front of the counter, her hands going white from gripping the edge so tightly. Her breathing is quick and choppy, as if she can't get enough air into her lungs. "I often find myself unable to control my temper, and I speak before I think. I do not believe the things that I said, I became angry when you brought up my mistakes, and I chose to hurt you instead of admitting my errors. I am trying to become a better husband for you, a better father for Lorna. I do not have the best model of what either of those should be, as you well know, although this is not an excuse, I often find myself reverting to what I know. I apologize."
She does not speak; she makes no indication that she had even heard the jumbled mass of words he had spewed from his tongue. It was not a lie; he had been attempting to better himself since their spat days before Christmas.
"None of that was your fault. I am not jealous of Longbottom, as you stated, I know that nothing transpired between you and Belby. As for the rest, I had no right to force you to relive any of those things. Carrow stalked you for weeks, though you were not aware of it, he had his eye on you for quite a while. He believed himself important, believed he could take anything that caught his eye. The things that he did to you were truly inexcusable, and for that I am thankful that you have limited memories of the encounter. I do not, nor have I ever, thoughtless of you due to anything that has happened to you. I cannot excuse my relations with Cathleen, nor can I take them back, though I wish more than any that I could undo that chapter of my life. Before her, and I have never admit this to another living soul, you were the only woman I had ever shared a bed with."
Danu rises slowly from the counter, straightens her back without looking at him, and stalks past him towards the small area past the kitchen where the coats and shoes were kept while not in use. She pulls on her sneakers and coat, then stalks past him once more and making her way towards the front door. She is wearing a pair of skintight black spandex pants, a blue jumper with a white D on the front, and a pair of crew cut white socks on her feet. Her hair is not brushed, neither are her teeth. She is in no state to go out, much less at this time of the morning.
"Where are you going?" Severus asks kindly as he could muster.
"I need space." She spits back at him before slamming the front door and apparating from the other side.
—
"Daddy!" Lorna screeches from upstairs as Severus looks out of the front door once more to check whether or not Danu had returned. It has now been seven hours since she stalked past him and apparated away. "Come get your fingernails painted!"
Severus had promised Lorna that he would play tea party with her, which she had been nagging him relentlessly to do for weeks. However, when he made the deal with her the day before, he had no idea that having painted fingernails would be part of the game. He stalks up the stairs, takes one last glance over his shoulder midway, and makes his way towards Lorna's bedroom. Once inside, he finds her sitting on a pillow on the floor wearing a yellow princess dress from a play set her mother had bought her for Christmas, a pair of green wellington boots with frogs on the toes, and plastic pink tiara that was sliding down her forehead. She pokes her bottom lip, and blows a curl out of her face, just as he had watched her mother do a thousand times over. His heart ached for her to come back, to allow him to wrap his arms around her and kiss the top of her head, to tell him that she forgave him.
He takes a seat in the floor before Lorna and begrudgingly holds his hand out for her. She takes it tenderly, places it on her lap, and gets to work attempting to unscrew the top of a jaw of purple nail polish. She passes it to him to open, which he obliges, and sets to work painting not only the short, wide fingernails on his hands, but also a considerable amount of skin around them. Once done, she smiles down at his hand, places hers with the matching purple polish on top of his and smiles up at him.
"We match!" Lorna giggles before jumping to her feet and gathering plastic teacups into a small wicker basket. "Can we play garden tea party?"
"You want to go outside?" Severus asks as he raises his brow at her.
"Can we?" She jumps up and down at the suggestion and barrels down the stairs. She had been cooped up in the house due to bone chilling rain the last several weeks, she was due for some outdoor activities.
Severus gathers the Gobstones he had gotten her for her birthday, a large blanket to sit on, and two mugs of actual tea. Outside in the bright sun and unseasonably warm weather, Severus spreads the blanket before his mother's grave. Danu had explained to him weeks ago that she was actually there, right beneath them, he had no idea that she was never truly buried at Spinner's End. He had always just assumed because Tobias had told him that she was out back the day he had come to take her away.
Lorna runs her long, elegant fingers over the etched letters of his mother's name as he watches on, mesmerized and enchanted once more that she was truly his. Once her fingers get to the final letter, she begins again, as if forging the letters to memory.
"That name is spelled like me." She whispers as her fingertip grazes the first E in Eileen once more. Lorna had known how to spell her full name for as long as he had become reacquainted with her and would often spend hours in the floor tracing over his or her mother's handwriting to spell her name.
"That is because you are named for her. My mother; Eileen."
"Where is she?" Lorna asks as she turns her head and furrows her brow.
"She is not alive, she died when I was young."
"What is died?"
"It means..." Severus pauses, wracking his brain on a way to best explain death to a three year old. "It is when you go to sleep, and you don't wake up."
"Oh." Lorna's voice is frail and full of emotion for a moment as she looks up at him, before she turns her attention back to tracing the letters of his mother's name.
"Would you like to learn a game that she taught me?"
Severus pulls the small wooden box holding the Gobstones from the basket containing Lorna's tea set which she had thrust towards him after he had prepared their tea and draws a large circle in the dirt with his wand. Lorna watches him with interest as he opens the wooden box to display thirty round glass balls: fifteen with emerald green liquid, fifteen with silver liquid. One Gobstones of each color was slightly larger than the others, and made with much sturdier glass, ensuring it did not break when hit against the smaller, weaker stones.
The two of them lie on the stomachs on the blanket before the circle, Severus cradles his silver filled stone in his forefinger as his mother had taught him, and thrusts his thumb beneath it, sending Lorna's green stone flying outside of the circle. As it comes to a halt, it sends a jet of green liquid straight into her face. These stones, however, do not smell foul as the ones of both he and his mother's youth, which somewhat took the enjoyment out of the game, but he figured Lorna would find it much more enjoyable if she did not leave the circle smelling of soiled socks and aged cheese.
Lorna freezes just as the stone explodes in her face. Her mouth falls open, her eyes bore into the spot where the marble had once been. For a split second, he thinks she may begin to cry. Instead, she throws her head backs and burst out laughing. A loud, musical laugh of pure excitement. Severus can't help but smile as she wipes her face on the sleeve of her dress and picks up her own stone. She keeps her hand steady as he places the stone in the correct position in her forefinger and aims it towards his own stone. She flicks her thumb beneath the stone and misses the board completely.
Hours they spend lying on their stomach flicking those stones back and forth. Each time she was hit with the green, apple scented liquid, she cackled. The sound of her laughter, the smile upon her face, the sun on their backs, it healed every ache and pain in his heart. A small pop behind them catches their attention, and they each turn in unison towards the sound.
Time moves in slow motion, the smile etched on Lorna's face, the whisper of a grin on his, Danu standing before them in the hazy evening sun of this perfect, March day. Then, everything changes.
The dark blue jumper she wears begins to darken around her abdomen. Her mouth hangs open slightly, her hand rises from her side to clutch her stomach, her eyes bulge from her head and fixate on a place just above their heads as her face turns a sickly white color. Slowly, Severus rises from his feet. He cannot remember his moving towards her, does not recall the moment he knew that something was amiss, yet he catches her just as her knees begin to buckle and lies her on the cool, damp ground.
"Lorna, go to Mo—your Nan's." Severus orders as he removes his hand from Danu's back to reveal deep red blood. Lorna stares at him, unmoving, the smile vanishing from her angelic face as she too realizes that something is very much wrong.
"NOW!" Severus bellows, frightening both Lorna and Danu. Lorna scrambles to her feet and rushes down the hill towards the path leading towards the Weasley's.
"Shh. Shh, don't move. Just lie still." Severus coos as he smooths the hair from her face as she gasps for air beneath him. One hand grasps the grass beneath her for dear life, the other remains clutching her abdomen. "I'm just going to take a look; I need to see how bad it is."
Severus peels the blood soaked fabric of her jumper up, revealing the extent of her injury. A large chunk of flesh is missing from her stomach, just below the ribs, and extending around her side, and onto her back. If he had to describe the look of the injury, it would be that of a shark bite victim.
Danu had been splinched, and very badly.
Severus produces his wand with shaking, blood soaked hands, murmurs Accio, and waits as several healing potions make their way out of the opened attic window and down towards them. Two drops of Wound-Cleaning Potion, four of Essence of Dittany on the wound, a Blood Replenishing Potion down her throat as she sputters and coughs. Each labored breath she takes reveals the cartilage surrounding her sternum, through the blood pouring from the wound, he can see the off-white color of her lower rib.
"Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur." He chants over her as her as he traces the wound with his wand, though it is not enough.
He removes his wand, sends a silvery-white streak barreling through the sky, and moves behind her to cradle her head in his lap. He continues smoothing her hair from her face, her eyes begin to roll back in her head as her skin pales beyond what he ever believed possible. Suddenly, the hand that had once been gripping the grass beneath her clutches onto his wrist.
"I—I" She sputters through grunts and gasping breath.
"Don't speak, help is on the way, just stay with me, Darling. Look at me, don't close your eyes. Keep looking at me, I'm right here. I'm right here with you."
Charlie and George Weasley are suddenly before him with a loud pop, evidently Lorna had made it to the Weasley home and told them something was wrong. Just as Charlie kneels at their side and produces his wand to attempt to heal her, four healers from Saint Mungo's appear at their side. Severus holds her hand as they load her on to a stretcher, though they leave him behind as they carry her through the house towards the fireplace to use the Floo to the hospital.
Severus stands staring at his blood soaked hands above the spot she had lay only seconds before. His heart hammers in his chest as bile begins to rise in the back of his throat. A hand rests on his shoulder, he blinks rapidly in the sunlight. George was behind him, attempting to comfort him.
"Go." Charlie says sternly. "Go to Saint Mungo's, Lorna is with Fleur and Angelina, we'll tell Mum and Dad what happened when they get back home."
Severus watches as Charlie and George walk back down the path towards their home. For the first time in his life, he was thankful for the two Weasley's that had given him so many migraines during their Hogwarts years.
—
A soft hand on his face wakes him with a start. Severus had sat by her bed for the two days she had lie there unconscious after being healed at Saint Mungo's. He had not left her side for a moment in fear that she may take a turn for the worse and fade away should he leave for any reason. Lorna was safe with Arthur and Molly; Potter had stopped by to check on her and relay well wishes from the Weasley family.
Severus sympathized with Danu every hour he sat by her side, for if this is how she felt week after agonizing week as he lay before her locked inside of his own head, he did not know how she had survived it. He lifts his head from the bed, his back screaming in protest, and meets her eyes for the first time in what felt like years. She is frail, pale, and her eyes blink slowly at the sunlight streaming from the window. Severus stands and cradles her head in his hands before planting a tender kiss on her forehead.
"I thought I would lose you." Severus murmurs as he presses his forehead against hers. "I love you. God, I love you so much."
Her hand is on his face again, cupping it tenderly as he keeps his forehead pressed against hers and smooths his thumbs down her cheeks.
"I love you, too." She croaks and his heart leaps with joy at the sound of her voice. Every ounce of tension floods form his body as he stands holding her face in his hands.
Later that evening Severus allows Molly to sit by Danu's side as he travels home to shower and retrieve an item he had purchased for Danu while shopping for Lorna's birthday gift. It had been his intention to give it to her for her birthday in just a few short months, but now seemed like a far better time. He reaches into the pocket of one of his coats lining her closet and retrieves a small square box. Inside is a ring, which he had purchased as nothing more than a beautiful gift, though now, he had ulterior motives. The ring in question is simple, yet elegant. A silver band holds a large, tear drop shaped diamond in the center, a split in the band on either side of the diamond holds minuscule, milk white pearls. The diamond glistens in the candlelight as he makes his way from the room, still fixated on the ring before him before snapping the box shut and making his way to the fireplace opposite their bed.
Once back at Saint Mungo's, Severus is greeted by Danu sitting up in bed, Lorna on her lap, Molly sitting in a chair by her side, and Potter standing at the foot of the bed. Severus swallows a lump in his throat, wipes his sweaty hands down his trousers, retrieves the ring from his pocket once more, and bends down one knee at her bed side, not caring that they had visitors.
"Danu," Severus begins as he opens the box to reveal the ring inside. "You did not get a choice the first time, nor did I ask your properly the second. You did not get the option, or the luxury of having a proper wedding, nor did you experience a true proposal. I apologize that I never had the chance to court you, and I have only taken you on one date, as you pointed out. However, I would be honored if you would marry me."
Lorna's eyes are as large as saucers, matching her mothers. Danu's face is slightly pink as her eyes dart between Severus, the ring, Potter, and Molly. She stammers for a moment, unable to form words.
"We're already married, though."
"Yes. I would like to do it properly this time, if you will allow it."
"Okay." She whispers as she nods her head in a daze. "Yes, I think I would like that."
Severus removes the ring from the box, slips it on her right ring finger, then stands and places his hand beneath her chin and kisses her deeply on the lips, not caring that Molly and Potter were now standing, gaping at the two of them as if they had never seen anything quite so scandalous.