Ten vials of Antidote for Common Poisons, fourteen of Antidote of Uncommon Poisons. Those could wait, they were not quite as popular as the other potions he carried.
Four vials of Blood-Replenishing Potion. Severus had brewed more this morning; it was currently cooling in the stockroom. Burn-Healing Balm would need to be replenished by the end of the week, but there was no dire need for it at the time. Pepper-Up Potion, Skele-Gro, Sleeping Potion, and Vitamix Potion were currently brewing. Wideye Potion and Wound-cleaning Potion were each in desperate need of restock, except Danu had not brought the Aconite as she was meant to that morning. Perhaps she had forgotten, or was waiting until the children were down for a nap to travel via Floo. Either way, Severus regrets not grabbing a bundle from the greenhouse on his way out this morning.
Severus removes his reading glasses before slipping them into the front pocket of his robes, and rolls the parchment containing the inventory list, which he places next to the till on the front counter. The shop is still and quiet, the only sound being the repetitive clicking of Raoul stocking the shelves. He makes his way to the stockroom where Gaultier was currently experimenting with the mayapple, sassafras, and pokeweed they had acquired from their recent trip abroad to the America's.
"Ah. Severus. This mayapple seems quite promising." Gaultier announces as the door swings closed behind him.
"Excellent. I am quite interested to see how the pokeweed affects the Rheumatism Drought."
"As am I." Gaultier agrees.
Severus looks around the room for Lorna. Her books lie abandoned on the far desk where he had left her studying for the Transfiguration quiz she was meant to take later that afternoon. Twice a week Severus created a short quiz for her to take in preparation for Hogwarts. Today is her Transfiguration quiz, which she had been struggling with for the last several weeks. Her study, of course, was strictly theory, she would have ample time for practical practice once she began school. She would be prepared, and he would ensure it.
"Where has Lorna gone off to?" Severus asks as he thumbs through the Transfiguration book that had belonged to both him, and his mother.
"Restroom, I believe." Gaultier answers as he stirs the cauldron he had been working over since Severus came into the room.
"I must ask a favor from you, if you are willing."
"Anything, my friend. Anything at all."
"If Miss Fischer is free this afternoon, might I request her presence at my home to examine my wife?"
Roswitha Fischer is the name of the midwife they had used to help test, as well as spread the word of their potions. She had delivered Elspeth, and was the most trusted of their correspondences. It also happened that she had been secretly sharing Gaultier's bed for the better part of three years.
It had been nearly two months since Danu had taken the potion she had found written in one of his mother's notebooks, and foolishly believed there to be no other option, and no lasting consequences. The first two weeks were painful for her, as he knew they would be, though she did her best to hide it. Leaving her that first weekend had been a mistake, one that he still felt immense guilt over, he had, at that time, been so frustrated with her that he needed to get away from her to clear his head. It was not the fact that she had been desperate enough to do so, it was that she had not expressed those frustrations with him before taking the most drastic, and foolish approach possible. If she had felt so strongly about never having another child, there were other options. He would have scoured the globe to find any safe alternative to alleviate her anxiety regarding the situation.
She had been adamant for two months now that she was not in pain, though he could see it etched upon her face each time she coughed, when she lifted the children, and when she sat or stood too quickly. Her nightly baths became longer each day, and he often times found her doubled over, her hand clutching at her lower abdomen and her eyes squeezed shut. Every morning, he offered her a potion in an attempt to gauge what would ease the pain, and each morning she insisted that she was fine, and would not accept them. Inviting Roswitha to evaluate her was his final, desperate plea to allow him to help her. They needed to know how dire the situation truly was, and how to go forward to provide any form of relief from the pain she was experiencing.
Danu often noted that Lorna's stubbornness came from him, as though she were not the most stubborn woman to ever walk the earth; Lorna had no chance to be anything but.
"Ah. Are congratulations in order once more? Perhaps you shall have a son at last." Gautier pauses and looks up from his potion, one hand still stirring the cauldron.
"No. Besides, I have daughters. I have no need of a son."
"You have no desire for your name to be carried on once you are gone from this world?"
"None whatsoever." Severus answers truthfully as he lines empty vials on the back desk to begin filling with Blood-Replenishing Potion.
"Hmm. I've seen men furious at the prospect of only having daughters, and yet, you relish in it. Why is that?"
"There is nothing that a son will do for me that my daughters are not equally capable of. Had I wanted my name carried on, I would have named this shop after myself, would I not? Instead, I named it for my daughter. What I teach them will be carried on long after I am gone, and that does much more good than a name inherited from my father ever will."
"Spoken like a true feminist." Gaultier chuckles as he turns towards Severus and raises his brow. "If congratulations aren't in order, then why, might I ask, have you requested the presence of Miss Fischer?"
"My wife can be rather…impulsive."
"Go on." Gaultier pries as Severus attempts to leave well enough alone.
"She brewed and ingested an untested potion that has left her in a state of agony." Severus sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose as Lorna barrels into the room, slamming the door against the wall and rattling the bottles lining the shelves.
"She is free this afternoon."
Severus nods his head at his friend and begins placing the vials he had filled in to a small basket before exiting the room as silently as he had entered. Once back in the storefront, Severus passes the basket to Raoul who immediately begins stocking. Severus liked Raoul. He is quiet, a hard worker, trustworthy, and always prompt. In fact, most mornings, he was already waiting on the walkway outside for Severus and Lorna to arrive and unlock the doors. Hiring help had been Danu's idea, and as always, she had been correct in believing it to be the correct choice. Once he and Gaultier began to take their weekend trips, he had been forced to ask Danu to mind the shop, and after Josephine came along, was forced to close for days at a time when the work became too much for Danu to manage alone. It was Gaultier who recommended his nephew, so the hiring process had been nonexistent. If only everything in life could be as simple as that task had been.
After checking out four customers, Severus runs his hands down his face as a large commotion from the stockroom startles him. He looks up towards the door just as Gaultier emerges disheveled and smirking. Severus raises a brow at him and readies himself to sprint to the other room should Lorna be in any danger from an explosion or falling shelf. Gaultier shoves a jar of mandrake leaves into Severus' stomach and rounds the counter before standing before him.
"I have never met a more stubborn and strong-willed child in my life."
"What has she done now?" Severus sighs as he places the jar of mandrake leaves beneath the glass counter.
"You had best lock those away." Gaultier warns him with a smile. "Instead of studying for her Transfiguration exam, she was reading up on Animagi, and got it in her head that she is to become one. I caught her levitating this jar from the ingredients cupboard while she sat at her desk. When I attempted to take the jar from her, she climbed my back like a monkey in an attempt to reach it. I narrowly escaped with my life."
"I will ensure that she is punished." Severus sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. The door to the storeroom opens with a creak to reveal Lorna standing there, an innocent look plastered upon her face, batting her eyes up at him at the promise of being punished.
"Nonsense, Severus. She is a determined girl; knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. Do not fret, I gave her a mint leaf to hold in her cheek and told her that I would be happy to assist in her endeavors, just as soon as she is old enough to carry her own wand."
Gaultier smirks down at Lorna with a wink, and transforms into a spotted leopard before their eyes. Lorna gasps and rushes towards to counter to watch Gaultier saunter throughout the spot before nudging the door open and exiting. Once outside, he transitions back into his human form and strides down the walkway with a wave.
"Daddy!" Lorna exclaims as she looks up at him in awe. "Can you do that too?"
"No, I cannot."
"Why not?"
"I never had the desire."
"I want to be a dragon!" She exclaims as she throws her arms over her head and growls up at him.
"You do not chose what you will become. Do not let this distract you form the fact that you now have four hours until your Transfiguration quiz. You barely passed the last one, you would have failed it entirely had Mister Bardot not given you half points for naming three of the five principles of exception to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."
"Can't I just take Potions at Hogwarts?" Lorna whines as he pulls her from the excitement of witnessing her first Animagus transformation and back to reality.
"No, you may not. You will attend an array of classes, some of which we have not even begun to touch on. There is still History of Magic and Astrology that we must get through before you are even slightly prepared for the core curriculum of your first year, not to mention any electives that you may choose to take beginning in your third year."
"I'll have a wand; I won't have to worry about stupid quizzes!"
"Ha!" Severus barks. "There will be next to no foolish wand waving your first year, and you will often forget that you even possess one. You will thank me for this after your first day, when you witness your fellow classmates struggle to comprehend simple instructions. Then thank me once more when you take your O.W.L and N.E.W.T examinations, all because I am preparing you now. You idolize the idea of having a wand because you have not experienced the reality of it. Your education is important, and it is my duty to ensure that it is a successful endeavor. Now, go study. Unless you would prefer to take the quiz without it, in which case I will be happy to allow you."
"Did your dad make you study all the time?" Lorna grumbles as she folds her arms over her chest and glares up at him.
"No, he did not. My mother, however, did, and I am grateful for the dedication she showed to my education, as you will be once you are finished pouting about it."
—
Lorna had been obsessed with Apparating the last several weeks, more so than she had at any other point in her life. She often begged him to Apparate them to and from the shop each day, stating that it was much more fun than Floo. And so, Severus divulged her, as he was known to do. The feel of her arms locked around his neck made him feel secure, even when they were whirling through space and time. Apparating had never been his favorite means of transportation, but it was by far the fastest. He never could get used to the way it made his head swim and his vision blur. It made him feel as if he weren't in control, as though his mind had been altered by drink for several moments after landing at his destination, until his mind was able to clear and his eyes focus. Lorna, on the other hand, always landed with a squeal of delight and a sharp cackle, her head thrown back and her eyes closed, savoring the feeling.
Despite being with him all day, the moment they pass through the kitchen doorway and catch sight of Elspeth barreling towards them on uncoordinated feet as though she were a newborn fawn, Lorna steps in front of her and wraps her arms around Severus' legs to prevent her sister from coming in for a hug of her own.
"Lorna, go upstairs and get cleaned up. It smells as though your mother has dinner nearly ready." Severus instructs his eldest daughter as he pries her arms from around his legs before giving her a gentle nudge towards the stairs.
Lorna scowls back at her sister and stomps up the stairs away from them. Severus squats down to Elspeth's height and holds his arms out for her, inviting her in. Elspeth stands quite still in the middle of the room several feet away from him, fiddling with her fingers, her eyes darting around the room for any possible interference.
Just then Danu emerges from the restroom on the main floor and catches Elspeth's attention. The child turns on her heel and makes for her mother instead, who scoops her off of the floor and offers Severus a warm smile and a peck on the cheek. He watches, still squatting on the floor, as Danu sits their daughter on the kitchen counter and passes her a plastic bowl to play with while she stirs the contents of a pot simmering on the stove. He turns his attention to their youngest daughter sitting on a quilt in the middle of the floor, chewing on a ring to some sort of stacking toy. Severus sits in front of her on the blanket, and she smiles up at him, her three teeth gleaming in the candlelight. Josephine quickly abandons the yellow ring she had been gnawing on and reaches her arms out for him. He takes her in his arms and hugs her tightly to him, but it doesn't take long before she's squirming to be free. Since she had learned to crawl some weeks prior, she had learned to value her independence and refuses to be held for long periods of time by anyone but her mother.
"Dinner is ready." Danu announces over her shoulder to him as Lorna comes barreling down the stairs and scrapes her chair noisily across the kitchen floor.
Danu's voice catches Josephine's attention, and she crawls towards her mother as fast as he little arms and legs can carry her. She reaches her just as Severus heaves himself from the floor, knees popping and protesting at the simple feat. He watches from the other end of the kitchen as Danu expertly scoops the child from the floor with one arm, while simultaneously plating each of their dinners and holding an elbow out against Elspeth's stomach to keep her from falling off of the counter. Severus places a rolled parchment containing Lorna's Transfiguration quiz on the counter to be graded after dinner and steps forward to assist.
"Allow me." Severus offers as he attempts to pry Josephine from her mother's arms, who was having none of it, for she screeches loudly and clings to her mother's blouse.
Elspeth, on the other hand, silently allows him to hoist her form the counter and carry her across to the room to the dining table, where he places her next to Lorna. Lorna snarls at her as Danu reaches across the top of her head to place a plate piles high with mash, sausages, and broccoli in front of her. Lorna quickly forgets her one sided argument with her sister and digs in while Danu places Josephine in a highchair and buckles her in.
"Lorna, I saw that. Stop being mean to your sister."
"You see everything." Lorna mumbles as Danu makes her way back to the counter to fetch the other plates.
"She is your mother. It is her job to see everything." Severus states as he takes his seat next to Lorna and accepts the plate Danu passes him.
"Anyone need anything else?" Danu asks as they all dig into their dinners.
"Milk, mum." Lorna requests between bites.
"Oh. I forgot your drinks, I'm sorry." Danu turns abruptly to go back to the kitchen to fetch their cusps, Severus catches her wrist and pulls her back to the table to offer to go instead, until Lorna begins to bicker about Elspeth.
"Milk, mummy." Elspeth repeats.
"I asked first!" Lorna shouts, causing Elspeth to slink back in her chair and turn her eyes down to her plate.
"Lorna, enough." Severus hisses. "Sit down and eat. I will get their milk."
"She always has to copy me!" Lorna shouts as Severus pours two glasses of milk and sighs at the same fight they have night after night.
"She isn't copying you; I asked a question to everyone at the table and she answered me." Danu attempts to mediate the argument before it progresses, which they both already know will end in a shouting match with Lorna being sent to her bedroom before she finishes her dinner.
"I said that I wanted milk first and she copied me!" Lorna raises her voice at her mother, Severus sends her a sharp look as he places the glass of milk before her.
"Lorna. That is enough." Danu sighs and glances up at Severus for reinforcement.
"Eat your dinner or go upstairs and take a bath." Severus demands between bites of food. "One would think that at this point you would be tired of going to bed before finishing your meal."
"What I'm tired of is Elspeth!" Lorna counters and sends her sister a menacing glare.
Elspeth, the entire time, remains silent, as she does each night that Lorna carries on her one-sided dispute. She never engaged with her sisters demands for superiority, never raised her voice to defend herself, and from what he had seen, had never even started any of the disagreements. He heart went out to her, it truly did, but he and Danu were each at their wits ends with their eldest daughters tongue.
"Last chance, Lorna. Shut your mouth, or go upstairs and take a bath and get ready for bed like your father told you."
"You never send her upstairs!"
"Because she hasn't done anything. It is you who starts this same exact argument every night when all she has done is sit next to you."
"She exists and she's stupid!" Lorna shouts as she slams her hands down on the table.
Severus gently places his fork on the table, wipes his mouth with the corner of his napkin, and calmly stands from his seat. He glares down at his daughters, the younger of which is smearing mashed potatoes across her face while gnawing on a piece of steamed broccoli, the middle is sitting silently before her abandoned dinner with her eyes trained on her lap, and the eldest is locked in an intense staring contest with her mother. Danu is glaring back at her, her mouth locked tight and nostrils flaring, no doubt trying to compose herself to keep from erupting at her child.
"Go upstairs this instant." Severus' voice is low, barely a whisper, yet the ice in his tone caused every head around the table to snap in his direction.
"I—" Lorna begins, no doubt an attempt to plead her case.
"I have no desire to hear another word from you at this moment, you have said quite enough. I will not repeat myself."
Lorna scrapes her chair across the floor loudly as she slams her hands on the table, rattling the dishes and sloshing her glass of milk on to the table. She stomps up the stairs while grumbling about fairness and slams the bathroom door closed behind her. Severus takes his seat, but his appetite had left him.
"Go ahead and eat, honey." Danu gently urges Elspeth, who's eyes remained locked on her lap.
"I not hungry, mummy." Elspeth says sweetly as she glances up at her mother.
Danu pulls Elspeth into her lap and pushes her own plate away, pulling Elspeth's into its place before her. She kisses the child atop her head and smooths her hair behind her ear. Elspeth leans into her mother's touch and Severus can feel the tension leave her body from across the table. He had not noticed the stress Lorna had put her under. Or perhaps he had, and had simply been making excuses for Lorna's behavior. Sibling rivalry was normal, but this was becoming more than that. This was advancing towards a downright hatred on Lorna's part for a child who did not deserve an ounce of what Lorna dished out to her. She was becoming a bully, and Severus would not allow her grandfather's behavior in his house, directed towards another of his children.
Severus pushes his own plate away and watches from across the table. Elspeth clears most of her plate while being soothed by her mother. Josephine continues to paint herself with mashed potatoes but had cleared all of her broccoli and fed all of her side of eggs her mother had prepared for her instead of sausages to the dog. She soon becomes fussy and starts to bang her fists on the tray to her seat, and indication that she was done with her meal. Danu makes to rise to release her, but Severus hold up his hand to stop her and grabs the child himself. He brings her to the kitchen sink, fills it with luke-warm water and soap, and undresses the child before dropping her in. Bathing her in the sink was much more forgiving on his back than being hunched over the claw foot tub upstairs, hoping that the impossibly slick child did not escape his clutches and crack her head on the porcelain.
Danu sends Elspeth upstairs to play in her bedroom as she begins clearing the table. Elspeth, being ever obedient, obliges with a smile and carefully climbs the stairs.
"We need to discuss Lorna." Danu states plainly as Severus pulls the soaking child from the sink and wraps her in a towel.
"I will speak with her."
"You speak with her every night, Severus. It does nothing. She gets worse every day. It isn't fair to Elsie, she hasn't done anything to her, and tonight was the worst Lorna has ever been."
"I will—"
A knock at the kitchen door causes the conversation to end abruptly when Dory begins barking loudly at the intrusion. He had completely forgotten that he had asked after Miss Fischer. Severus sighs, but opens the door while Danu eyes him suspiciously.
"Danu!" Gaultier announces loudly as he makes his way into the house and pulls Danu into a hug before kissing each of her cheeks in greeting. "You become more beautiful each time I see you."
He had not meant for Gaultier to join his…companion this afternoon. He sighs loudly and takes Miss Fischer's cloak with his free hand as she enters behind him with a warm smile. Danu's face reddens at Gaultier's greeting, and offers tea, which both Gaultier and Miss Fischer decline.
"So, where are you whisking my husband off to now?" Danu jests as she directs them to the sofa in the living room.
"Nowhere, my dear. Nowhere at all." Gaultier smiles as he plops down on the sofa and lights a fire with a flick of his wand.
"Excuse me a moment." Severus announces with a nod down at a still towel wrapped Josephine in his arms.
"No, I'll take her." Danu objects before prying Josephine from his arms and disappearing upstairs.
"She does not know why we are here, does she?" Gaultier asks plainly as Severus takes his seat in the chair opposite him.
"I have not mentioned it to her, no."
"Well, if she is as stubborn as her daughter, perhaps that is a good thing."
Severus smirks and turns his attention to Miss Fischer.
"The potion in question was something that she found in my mother's possessions. She recognized the ingredients, and their intended use, and took it upon herself to brew, and ingest. She has been in a great deal of pain since taking the potion, and I believe that we need to know the lasting effects of what she has done to herself."
"What was her intention with this potion?" Miss Fischer asks. "Was she—"
"She was not with child. Her intentions were to keep from becoming so again."
"Can I see the potion in question?"
Severus rises from his seat and retrieves the notebook with the hastily written potion from atop the mantle. He runs his finger over the lasting indention from his mother's writing in the paper before passing it over. Gaultier leans closer and reads over Miss Fischer's shoulder. Her eyes scan the paper before she clicks her tongue on the roof of her mouth.
"I have seen this before. Women, both Muggle and witch alike, have been making a variation of this for centuries. Your mother seems as though she was quite desperate for this potion to work, because she nearly doubled the quantity of herbs necessary."
"She was." Severus agrees.
A chill courses through him as he recalls that night, a lifetime ago now, that his mother brewed this very potion as he stood watch for his father. He recalls the acidic smell of blood, and the bright red color of it as it soaked the mattress beneath her. He remembers the sound of that sheet after he had filled it full of rocks and tossed it into the river. Most of all, he recalls how his mother had never been the same again after taking it. The guilt, the pain, and the desperation had changed her into something unrecognizable to him.
Danu emerges just as Miss Fischer passes the notebook back to him. She rises her brow at him as her eyes dart between the three of them sitting before her. Josephine begins to squirm on her hip, so she places the child on the floor and allows her to crawl towards her toys still on their quilt next to the sofa.
"Danu." Severus begins. "I have asked Miss Fischer here this evening to examine you."
"Why?"
"Because, my love, I can tell that you are in pain, despite your insistence that you are not."
"I'm not."
"I've seen this a lot, Danu." Miss Fischer offers sympathetically. "I know that you are in a great deal of pain. I'm not here to judge you, I only wish to help. Can we go upstairs so that I can take a look?"
Danu nods her head sharply and turns to walk up the stairs. Severus makes to rise to join them, but Miss Fischer places her hand on Severus' shoulder to stop him.
"Perhaps it would be best for you to wait down here, Severus. It won't take but a moment."
Severus attempts to protest, but the woman quickly makes their way up the stairs and close the door firmly behind them.
"How did Lorna fair on her Transfiguration quiz this afternoon?" Gaultier attempts to make conversation.
"I have not graded it, yet."
"Well, let's take a look. Where is it?"
"The last time I allowed you to grade her Transfiguration quiz, you gave her half points on a question that she answered incorrectly."
"Ah, still holding a grudge about that, are you? She is a child." Gaultier chuckles and bends to scoop Josephine off of the ground. "She may have hair before her first birthday."
Severus watches as Gaultier bounces the child on his knee. She gleams up at him, her dark brown eyes dancing in the firelight. Though she is still very much bald, she has recently sprouted approximately four thin, black hairs on the crown of her head. A moment passes in silence before Miss Fischer descends the stairs alone.
"Well?" Severus asks as she stands before them, her face emotionless.
"Well, there is quite a bit of scaring. That is likely the source of her pain. I have a potion that you can brew to help clear that up and ease the pain. I would not say the likelihood of conceiving again were impossible, but it would be highly unlikely."
Despite what she had done, the results she had been left with were not even what she had intended.
Had this been the catalyst that caused his mother to take her own life? The thought springs suddenly in the back of his mind and causes his stomach to flip.
"Thank you, Miss Fischer."
—
After seeing Gaultier and Miss Fischer out, Severus takes Josephine to bed while Danu gives Elspeth a bath and puts her to bed. After which he makes the trek to the attic to Lorna.
The final sentence she had so coldly screamed at her mother still rang in his head.
"She exists and she is stupid."
He heard those exact words about himself from both Sirius Black and James Potter so many times throughout his childhood. Much like Elspeth, he had done nothing to invite their wrath and hatred. He pauses a moment in the middle of the stairs, his fists clenched at his sides. He takes a deep breath, steadies himself, and ascends the remainder of the stairs. Once he rounds the corner of the stairwell, he finds Lorna lying in the center of the bed on her stomach reading a book in glow of twinkling fairy lights strung throughout the room.
"Lorna." He announces his presence and watches as her face hardens and her eyes glare up at him. "Are you aware of the definition of a bully?"
He waits a moment for her to answer, or at the very least, for her face to soften at his intrusion. When she does not answer, he takes a step forward and leans against the banister of her canopy bed.
"A bully is someone who goes out of their way to intimidate someone they believe to be beneath them. You, Lorna, are behaving like a bully, and I will not stand for it."
"I am—"
"You will not interrupt me. You will write lines tomorrow and the day after, there is a barrel full of horned toads that you will be disemboweling each day until the barrel is empty. You will be offering your sister our sincerest of apologies. Furthermore, you will henceforth be banned from your broom until I see fit, and if I so much as witness you cutting your eyes in her general direction, I will break it over my knee. Do I make myself clear?"
"Daddy, please!" Lorna begs as she pulls herself up on to her knees as her eyes well with tears.
"I do not want to hear it. You have been warned, you have been punished, you have been sent to bed without dinner. Clearly, the importance of the matter has not resonated with you. I am at my wits end with this behavior and it will not continue."
"Why hasn't she been punished?" Lorna shouts as she jumps from the bed and stands before him, her fists locked at her sides.
"You will lower your voice when you speak to me. This brings me to my next point; you will not shout at your mother again."
"Elspeth needs to be punished too, it isn't fair!"
"Life is not fair." Severus spits as he looks down his nose at her. "Elspeth has done nothing to deserve your wrath, and neither has your mother. This stops, and it stops now. Believe me, Lorna, you will like me far less should you not heed my warning and continue behaving as such. Go to bed. When I return home tomorrow I will be discussing your behavior throughout the day with your mother, and should there not be an immediate change in your attitude at dinner, I will come up with a much harder sentencing. Do I make myself clear?"
Lorna nods her head sharply as she glares up at him, her eyes cut to near slits as her face begins to redden with anger.
"Good. Now, get in to bed and go to sleep." Severus turns and makes his way to the top of the stairs where he turns to face her once more. "Why do you despise Elspeth so much? You do not treat Josephine the way you do her."
"I don't want her to take you from me." She mumbles as she swipes her hand down her cheek, trying her best to hide the fact that a tear or two had escaped.
"She is my daughter, as are you. You each have me, neither more than the other. The same goes for Josephine."
Severus steps forward and wraps her in his arms, kissing the top of her head in the process. He sweeps his thumb across her cheek to remove the tears from her face, and gently lies her back on the pillow. Despite the anger within him from her behavior, she is still his little girl, and was suffering terribly jealousy surrounding her sister. She spent far more time with him than either of the other girls, and he had never once chosen one over the other. Elspeth had never shown any interest in coming to work with him, she was much more content being at home with her mother. She enjoyed sitting on his lap before the fire as he read, but it was not as though he had ever denied Lorna the same.
"I love you." He whispers to her before kissing her forehead and tucking her in to bed. "Nothing, and no one will ever change that. Your punishment still stands, though we will be continuing this conversation at a later date. By the way, you passed your Transfiguration quiz today."
Downstairs, the sound of running water catches his attention. He opens the bathroom door to find his wife undressing for her bath. He watches from the doorway, admiring the shape of her body, the way her hips and waist had filled out to accommodate their children. She had suffered that for them; for him. He watches as she lowers herself down into the steaming water, and smiles up at him, her nose scrunching the same way that Elspeth's does when she smiles.
"Severus." She breathes, and holds her hand out for him to come closer.
His heart constricts at the sound of his name on her tongue, and he offers her a tight smile before stepping forward and sitting on the floor next to the bath to rest his chin on the cold porcelain. This house they lived in was not his home. His home was, and would always be, her. She had the power to cause every ounce of tension within him to dissolve away at just the sound of his name on her lips.
A loose strand of curls slips from the claw clip holding her hair out of the water. Severus reaches forward and tucks it behind her ear, allowing his fingers to dance across her cheek and below her chin, where he lifts her head to look him in the eyes. Those blue eyes still caused his knees to weaken and his heart to flutter each time they gazed into his own. He prayed that they always would.
Severus' hand makes its way back up from her chin to cup her cheek gently. She leans into his touch and grips his hand with her own. He pulls away slightly and takes her hand in his before spinning the charm bracelet on her wrist and running each of the charms between his fingers. Three additional charms had been added over the years. A ladybird for June, a turquoise heart for Elspeth, and finally, a snowdrop with garnet inlays a deep, dusty red color for Josephine.
"You are so beautiful." Severus murmurs, more to himself than to her as he kisses the top of her head.
Danu leans her forehead against his cheek and hums in appreciation. The need to touch her, to feel her against his flesh became all-consuming at times, especially after a long day. It did not need to be sexual, nor did it need to be intimate, he simply, for his own sanity, needed to feel the heat of her soft, smooth skin against his own to know that she was real, that this was all real. This is his life, he achieved something no one ever believed possible for him. He had stability, comfort, love, and admiration for over a decade now, and yet, it still did not feel real at times. Deep in his conscious, he knew that he was undeserving of it all, yet, he no longer cared. This is what he wanted, what he had missed all of his life and did not even know it. Every choice he had made, every bad decision, every fear he felt in his youth, it all led him here, to this moment in time, with his family surrounding him. He would do it all again, would feel every moment of torment and trepidation if he could go back in time and allow himself to feel worthy of it from the start.
Severus allows his eyes to flutter shut as Danu reaches her hand to the top of his head and lightly scratching the crown of his head, down to the nape of his neck with her fingernails. The feeling sent shivers down his spine each and every time she did it.
"I love you so much, Severus Snape." She whispers against his lips before kissing him gently.