Hello! A prompt could be drarry with a deaged Draco and his favorite person being Snape. Harry thinking he is adorable. You don't have to do this it's your choice and I'll be glad to read anything you write. You are talented writer🤗
Thank you so much anon! I hope this will please you :) and that i did okay, as it is my first de aged fic (and fic with kid)
***
The day has been long and tiring,and Harry didn’t wish for anything more than a shower and an evening spent infront of the couch, cuddling with Draco. However, fate seemed to has decidedotherwise as a head peaked through his office door.
“Auror Potter? An urgent callfrom St Mungo.”
“As we told you Mr Potter, MrMalfoy’s state isn’t worrisome. It’s uncanny, of course, but not worrisome. Andas soon as his partners will be able to identify the potion he was working on,we’ll be able to find a way to re aged him. It’s only a matter of time.
-So everything’s normal, exceptthat he has the body of a 7 years old boy?
-Not only the body, I’m afraid.It seems like the potion also affected his behaviour and memory. Like an elderwith Alzheimer’s disease, he won’t recognise you as his fiancé, but he willstill know he loves you. Maybe he’ll take you for a preschool teacher he reallyliked or someone older he was closed to, but you won’t be Harry Potter to him,I’m sorry. But as I said, it’s only a matter of time.
-What can I do to help?
-As his next of kin, you shouldprobably take him home. Hospitals aren’t a place for children and the researchcan last for a day or two.
-A day or two?
-Maybe a week. I’ll keep youupdate.”
And this is how Harry Potter,Saviour of the Wizarding World, found himself laying on his stomach on hiswooden floor, watching a young Draco Malfoy plays the potion master with a bowland salad sauce.
All in all, he was adorable. Hehad slept like a marmot and had eagerly cheered as Harry made them pancakes forbreakfast before heading toward the bookshelf, picking a book on Quidditch.
“When I grow up, I wanna be aPotion Master!” the kid stated with firm confidence, rising his nose high inthe air. “Just like uncle Sev! Do you know my uncle Sev?
-Sort of. He was my Potionteacher at Hogwarts.
-Oh! You’re so lucky! I wish hewill be my teacher too when I’ll go to Hogwarts! Do you think he’s a goodteacher? Cause he taught me lot of things! He says I can’t do real potionsbecause I am too young, but that cooking is very similar. You have to followthe recipe, calculate your dose and stir carefully. He says it’s a good exercise.I know plenty of recipes now.
-I’m impressed. Which one is yourfavourite?”
“Um…” little Draco hummed,thinking. Like the older one used to do, he slightly tilted his head on theside. “The ones where we have to beat the eggs white. It’s hard, but now I cando it with only a little bit of help! Maybe we can do it now? Do you have eggs?
-We won’t beat eggs, Draco. I don’tknow how to do, and I don’t want to waste food.
-But if we make a cake? It won’tbe wasting food!
-I don’t know the recipe, I’msorry.
-But we can ask uncle Sev!
-You’re uncle isn’t there Draco.
-Then call him! He says I canalways call him!
-Draco I said no.
-But why? I want to beat the eggswhite! I want to talk to uncle Sev!
-Okay, you know what? We won’tcall uncle Sev, but one of my best friends who’s a pastry chef!
-Yes!! Can I play your PotionMaster then?
-Of course you can.” Harrysmiled, happy he finally distracted Draco. The healers had to find a curequickly. If the kid started to ask after his uncle again, or worse, hisparents, Harry knew he wouldn’t be able to hold on too long.
also available at Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23740198
Warnings: too sweet, Snape is nice in this one, one sad little girl
(Obs.: I tecnhically failed because it´s a page and a half, but I hope it´s still good)
“UNCLE SEEEEEEEV!!”
The moment Lizzie´s scream reached his ears, Severus knew what he had done wrong.
He should have reminded them not to touch any plants he hadn´t shown them before. Lizzie sometimes forgot. Remembering instructions can be a bit tricky when you´re just six years old, after all.
Severus got to his knees and examined her hand, with Alice leaning over his shoulder, concerned as a good older sister should be, but also curious to find out what had caused the injury. Stinging nettle. As a boy, Severus had encountered the little bastards quite often when out in the woods behind the mill searching for ingredients for his mother.
“All right, girls, time to get back inside. Alice, will you fetch me my kit?”
Alice nodded and dutifully ran back inside the house, going straight for the cabinet where he kept his household daily use potions and ointments. At age eight (or rather “eight going on thirty” as Evelyn often joked) she had been showing all the telltale signs of magic for a while, and her vivid interest in science and plants had prompted him to ask her mother for permission to start teaching her a thing or two about potion-making. Soon, her letter would arrive and Severus wanted to make sure her potions professor would have an excellent impression of her on day one.
Severus picked Lizzie up and carried her into the kitchen, her strawberry-blonde head resting on his shoulder as she fought back the tears. Then he washed her hands, wipped the disobedient tears running down her freckled cheeks and sat her on a chair as Alice brought the magically sealed wooden box. He opened it with the right incantation and got a pot of ointment for nettle rash.
“Alice, I´ve got a test for you. Close your eyes and take a good sniff of this” he told his older niece, holding the little pot full of oitnment under her nose. She closed her eyes and inhaled very deeply. “Now go into the bathroom cabinet and bring me one thing that you think smells the same.”
“Got it!” she made her signature 'eureka' facce and dashed across the house.
“Uncle Sev?” Lizzie called quietly, as he started to carefully apply the ointment to her hand.
“Yes, love?”
“I´m not magic like Alice, am I?” Severus looked her face, at her big green eyes still misty with tears and felt an odd pang at his heart. He had seen that look of disaappointment before. He hadn´t cared then. He had been a boy too caught up in his own turmoil to care and Petunia was just a girl who happened to be in the way of his spending time with Lily. He hadn´t thought of her disappointment. But now? Now seeing that same look on Lizzie´s face...Now, it hurt.
“It´s early to tell.” he only half-lied.
“What if I´m not?” she asked, looking down at her hand as the burn started to vanish and the skin became clear again.
“That´s fine if you´re not. You´ll just go to a different school, have a different job when you grow up.”
“But that´s boring when you´re...how do you call it when you´re not magic?”
“If you´re not magic, you´re a muggle. And that all depends on what you call boring. Remember Mr. And Mrs. Weasley? Well, Mr. Weasley thinks all muggle things are very exciting. And he´s a wizard.” Severus caught a little hint of a smile, and something occurred to him “I´ve got an idea: why don´t we visit them tomorrow? Aunt Lyn is taking your sister to the library, and you said you didn´t want to go... so we can go see Mr. Weasley just the two of us, instead.You can tell him all you know about muggle things, I´m sure he will love to hear it.”
Lizzie nodded enthusiatically just as her sister came back running with a bottle of lotion in her hands. Alice put it on the table infront of him as if it was an offering before the altar and stepped back, pushing a lock of brown hair behind her ear, her golden-brown eyes (Evelyn´s eyes, he always thought to himself), sparkling with anticipation to know if she was right. Severus looked at the label.
“Aloe Vera. Excellent, Alie. You got it right. “ Alice and Lizzie smiled at each other, and Severus proceeded with their lesson. “Now, girls, I´ll teach you about something called 'active principle'. The active principle is the main ingredient of any medicine or potion, it´s the thing that makes it work. It´s the soul of it, so to speak. In this case, as Alice guessed, it´s aloe vera. So what´s the difference between these two?”
“This is magic and this is not” the two answered almost in unisson, pointing first at the ointment then at the lotion.
“And what is it that magic does?”
“It makes it better.” Alice answered promptly. Severus eyed Lizzie, who had gone suddenly quiet.
“But say,” he continued. “if I had put the lotion instead of the ointment on Lizzie´s hand, would it still heal?”
“Yes.” Alice answered in that overtly grown-up tone she had when she wanted to impress him. “It just would take longer.”
“Exactly. Magic can speed things up or make them easier. But that doesn´t mean you need magic for everything. This lotion and this ointment have the exact same active principle, so they do the same thing, but in different ways. Like you two. You´re sisters, you have the same mum, and the same family and you live in the same house, but you´re different and do the same things differently and have different talents.”
“Like how I´m good at science and Lizzie is good at art.”Alice offered, and Lizzie finally smiled a little wider.
“Exactly. Now, why don´t you go get the specimens we collected and start organizing them for labelling.” then he added, giving Lizzie a barely perceptible wink. “While you get on with that, I´ve got to send Mr. Weasley an owl.”
Warning: lemon/ n.s.f.w , “uncle Sev” content, Snape being nice to kids
.
.
.
One thing became immediately clear to Severus from the moment he met her: Sophia would go to any lenghts to make sure her grandddaughters were happy, and whatever wish they expressed, no matter how absurd, she would grant it. The fact that in this particular instance, pampering the girls also meant a new opportunity to get on his nerves, well, that was only an added bonus.
As it was, Severus couldn´t trully say he was annoyed by any of it. However rude she might have been to him, Sophia was obviously a doting grandmother, so who was he to feel any kind of way about the girls staying overnight?
If anything, it made Evelyn happy.
She absolutely adored those two little girls, and looking at them interact was downright fascinating. Severus was the first to admit he didn't have much patience for children, and close to no experience in handling them if they were younger than 11, so the prospect of spending the day with a 7 year-old and a 4 year-old was far from his idea of having fun. However, Alice and Lizzie were better behaved than he would have expected any child so young to be, and Evelyn seemed to have them under a spell.
Still, he tried to keep his distance as Evelyn gathered books, papers and crayons, then sat on the livingroom floor to start some impromptu storytelling and drawing stravaganza. Of course the aunt who had written so many books about folklore, myths and witchcrafts would be the the girls´ go-to authority on everything fantasy related. He didn´t want to disturb what seemed like such a familiar little ritual between aunt and nieces.
The backyard would be off-limits for a while, he realized, looking through the windows to see rainclouds gathering. He could hear Sophia in the kitchen, making all the cake and cookies she had promised.
Severus rested against the windowframe, hearing the first drops of the summer shower hit the glass, when he felt a little tug on his hand. He looked down to see Lizzie, holding on to his fingers with both hands.
“Come on, uncle Sev, aunt Lyn is gonna start the story.”
'Uncle Sev'.
Well, there was something he never thought he would be called. It didn´t feel half bad.
“Yes, 'uncle Sev',” Evelyn called, with a grin “come on, I need somebody to read the chieftain of this story, and your voice is perfect for it.”
Without waiting for his answer, Lizzie pulled his hand and dragged him to sit on the floor with them.
“Fine,” he said “but I won't even attempt an Irish accent. Your mother already dislikes me as it is.”
“We can turn the Irish chieftain into an English prince.” She suggested, to the children´s immediate approval.
“What are we reading, then?”
“ The queen of the many coloured chamber.' ”
“I´m afraid I´m not familiar.”
“Here, you take the book. I know it by heart.”
…
It was still rainning by the time the girls grew bored of listening to stories. The scent of freshly baked lavender biscuits, however, gave Alice a sudden inspiration.
“Let's have a tea party!”
Evidently, Alice, being Alice, had to make sure the entire event was properly organized.
They needed invitations, formal ones, of course. A sheet of parchment paper would do. Evelyn cut it up in small cards and wrote in “Miss Alice Sullivan and her sister, Miss Elizabeth Sullivan, cordially invite you to their tea party, to be celebrated as soon as grandma´s chocolate cake is ready. Adddress: the backyard.” Severus was tasked with finding a way to put a small table in the backporch, so they could enjoy the rain while having tea. Sophia, obviously, let them use her tea set painted with small pink roses, and arranged biscuits, sandwiches and the fully decorated cake on the table, along with fresh jasmine tea.
Alice was rather adamant that everybody was properly dressed for the occasion, which meant that the girls got to go through Evelyn´s clothes and make up, and wear her heels. Alice deemed both Evelyn and Sophia´s attire appropriate, but Severus had to at least put on a blazer to be presentable.
“This must feel familiar” Sophia quipped as they sat around the table, engulfed in the scent of rain and biscuits.
“I haven't been invited to that many tea parties, to be honest. But, if I may be honest this is probably the most pleasant to date.”
Indeed, the last tea party he recalled attending had been a courtesy of Narcissa Malfoy, and he would take sitting in Sophia´s backporch listening to the rain fall down on her garden with two little girls who called him 'uncle' over that any day.
“Sugar?” Alice asked, primly.
“No, thank you, darling. I take my tea plain.” Lizzie made a funny face, mortified at the thought that anybody would drink tea without any sugar in it.
Evelyn was too busy helping Alice serve the 'guests' to pay attention to it, but Severus could feel Sophia studying him and the way he interacted with her grandchildren, possibly waiting for any sign that he wasn´t to be trusted, any minor flaw or information she could use against him.
“You don't seem like the socializing type to me. I can't imagine you in a party to be honest.”
“You're not wrong. I´m afraid I´m much more of a homebody.”
“A hermit, you mean.” Evelyn smiled, gently.
“What´s that?” Lizzie asked.
“It's a person who doesn't go out much.” Evelyn answered, unware of her mother's next move. “They just stay in to study and pray.”
“That might be a problem.” Sophia went on, not missing a beat. “Evelyn is such a social butterfly. You´ll have trouble keeping up with her, my lad. She's always been very popular.”
“Tell that to my former schoolmates, mam, most of them would disagree. I´ve only started going to parties and making friends in college.”
“Still, I can't imagine you staying in on a Friday or Saturday night.”
“I´ve been doing it a lot lately, can't say I have any complaints.” Evelyn rested her hand on his.
Mercifully, Alice and Lizzie, tired of the grown up conversation at the table of THEIR tea party, decided to take over the proceedings and start asking Severus questions about his friends and which posh parties he had been invited to.
It was a good thing that Sophia only took his descriptions of Malfoy Manor and the wizards and witches within as elaborate fairy tales. He wondered what she'd think if she knew his wealthy former friends, with their mansion, their house elves and magic wands were real.
….
The Summer shower had prolongued their tea party at least until the backyard was dry enough for the girls to go outside and check on the fairy doors for any damages. Severus was readily informed that the miniature doors decorated with bouquets of tiny dried wild flowers, ribbons and scraps of lace and fabric were a bit of a family tradition for the Blacks.
“Grandma Liz learned to make them when she was a little girl.” Evelyn told him, while Sophia, Alice and Lizzie checked the fairy doors. “then she taught my father when he was little, then Paul, me, Caitlin, and now the girls are making their own.”
“What's the purpose of it, if I may ask?”
“You have to make a little door and decorate it for the fairies to feel welcome, and put offerings in front of it, like flowers, candy, cake. If you do it, they´ll be pleased and not try any mischief.”
Severus snickered. The species of fairies and sprites he knew from persoal experience were hardly fearsome enough that anybody would feel compelled to bribe them into leaving humans alone. But he had heard about the stories Irish muggles told of the so called 'Fair folk', a race of fairies far more dangerous. Not a single Irish wizard or witch he had ever met confirmed the existence of such creatures, and quite a few of them suspected the origin of the legend had more to do with muggles having hostile encounters with wizards. Wether the theory was true or not, the legend was pervasive enough that even after modern life did away with most such beliefs, the fair folk remained a strong theme in Irish literature, art and of course, children's stories, if Alice and Lizzie´s enthusiasm was anything to go by. They carefully made a varied assortment of cookies and cake, cut up in very small pieces, and rushed to the fairy doors under the apple tree to set down the offerings.
“And if you don't pay your respects appropriately?”
“The lore varies quite a bit, but the common aspect is that the fair folk are easy to anger and once engered can be rather malignant and petty.”
'Like your mother' Severus thought, but didn´t say it.
“They´ll spoil the milk, ruin the crops, steal anything pretty or valuable you have in your home...”
“They steal babies.” Lizzie added, with some urgency.
“Because babies are cute, and the fairies like everything that's cute.” Alice added.
“Babies, children, brides on their wedding day, any human the fairies think is pretty enough to steal.” Evelyn smiled, pulling Lizzie to her lap and playing with her hair. “That´s why grandma Liz made a special fairy door every time a new baby was born in the family.”
“The prettier the child, the more decorations the fairy door needs.” Sophia said, taking her seat again. “Linnie was such a beautiful child when she was born that I think my mother-in-law´s offerings may not have been enough. Guess that´s why you were always wandering around the field and the woods, or sneaking out at night to play with the fairies and swim with the mermaids.”
“Did you really?” Alice and Lizzie both asked at the same time.
Severus´amusement at the fantastical tone of the conversation quickly fadded when he noticed Evelyn´s discomfort.
She had gone through life thinking all the magical events she witnessed growing up were at best figments of her imagination and at worse a coping mechanist her mind used to deal with her brother's death. Years in therapy had only taught her to doubther eyes and the pills had clouded her vision. Only now, after Severus had finally found the strenght to tell her about magic, did Evelyn finally see that it was real and she had never hallucainated anything. But the insecurity would still take a while to go away, and the fact that her family didn´t know the truth didn´t make it at all easier.
“She did.” Severus answered with a sly smile. “In fact, that´s why I´m here. Your aunt hasn't told you this, but I´m a wizard and I'm here to keep her safe from these sneaky fairies.”
“You´re not!” the girls laughed
“Or maybe...I was sent by the fairies to kidnap her instead and you've seen right through my disguise.”
“Speaking of your grandmother, Linnie.” Sophia said, cutting through the girls' giggling. “We should have her over for dinner tonight. Why don´t you go get her while Severus and I help the girls clean up their tea party?”
….
Leave it her mother to make her take the car out to go pick up her grandmother only a few streets away, and specifically order Sverus to stay back in the house. Did she expect they´d stop to have sex in the car in the whole 5 minutes the ride would take? Not that the idea in on itself was bad, but surely Evelyn wouldn´t be stupid enough to do it on such a short ride.
“Is your mother behaving?” was the first thing grandma Liz said, upon seeing her show up at her door all by herself an unnanounced.
“You´ve known her for longer than me, gran, so take a guess?”
Liz smiled and shook her head, letting Evelyn in. In the kitchen table there were rolls of fabric and sewing material scattered. Halloween was months away still, but she always got a head start on the girls costumes. It had been the same when when Evelyn and her siblings growing up, she remembered getting her Halloween costume fitter on her birthday in september, just to make sure it would be perfect well ahead of time.
“Funny how things change.” Liz rambled, distractedly, pinning down the pieces of fabric to put them away without ruinning the work already done.
“Why you say that?”
“I married an Englishman, and as a young woman, your mother had no problem marrying our son, now you bring an Egnlishman back home and she's throwing a fuss.”
“I don't think it's about Severus being English. At least not only that.”
“She just doesn't like him, eh? I´ve seen that before. My father didn´t like your grandpa when we got engaged, and your grandpa wasn´t all that fond of your mam the first time your dad brought her home to us.”
“Really? She never mentioned that.”
“Because eventually they found a way to get along. Once Sophia married your father and gave us grandchildren, she became like a daughter to my Marius.”
“Oh, so all I have to do is marry Severus and birth a few kiddos. That´s easy.”
“Don´t worry, Linnie. Your mother will warm up to him soon. You know, before your father married her, your grandfather and I thought Sophia was a little too snobby, a little too conceited. It wasn´t until we got to know her better and see her qualities. I´m sure it will be the same with Severus.”
“I hope you´re right. She´s been unbearable...Can you believe she keeps making up excuses and creating situations to be around us all the time? As if we're not adults, both of us.”
“What does Severus say about it?”
“He's annoyed, but he´s being far more gracious about it than I'd be if I were in his shoes.”
“Good, he´s a worthy contender then.”
….
Alice and Lizzie had helped clean the table and do the dishes of their impromptu tea party, so they were rewarded with an hour of TV. Severus hadn´t been that lucky. As the sole other adult in the house, it fell on him to help Sophia in the kitchen.
“Helping” consisted in doing whatever she wanted, in the way she wanted, which was never quite correct, so she'd just do it over again after he had done it. Severus was pretty confident she was always like this with anybody who had the temerity of doing anything in her kitchen, but it still bothered him a bit that a fair amount of the tasks were hard to execute with his left hand being the way it was. To her credit, Sophia didn´t seem to make anything of it. All of her criticism of him seemed to be based exclusively on him being him and the fact that he simply was there, not on his disabilities.
“Evelyn is a lot like you when she's cooking.” he trailed, just for the sake of cutting the tense silence.”
“Is she, now?”
“Yes, she´ll ask for help, but then just do it all herself.” he smiled “Is like she wants me to try and help just for the principle.”
“When she was little, Linnie would be the only one I let in the kitchen with me. My husband, the poor dear, he tried, but he was a disaster at everything except making potato pancakes and grilling meat. And Caitlin, oh dear me, she eventually learned, but if you expected any method in that madness...Linnie was always the only one who could do things exactly the way I told her.”
“Your daughter adores you. She´ll do anything to make you happy.”
“What are you getting at, young man?”
“I know you don't like me. To be honest if I had a daughter and she brough a boke like myself back home to meet me, I's probably be even less civil than you.”
“Severus I don't know what gave you the idea that...”
“Sophia, come on, who are kidding here?”
“I don't know you well enough not to like you.”
“But what you've seen thus far, hasn't exactly endeared you to me either, right?”
“I can't say it did. But you're not for me to like or not. That´s on Linnie. If she loves you, who am I to say anything.”
“You're her mother. And she thinks the world of you. You're the most important person in her life. So I'll try my best to show respect, at least. We don't have to like each other, but we both love Evelyn, and that should be enough.”
Sophia held his gaze for what felt like an hour, before shrugging.
“Severus why don´t you take care of the vegetables, then? I'll try not to correct you too much.”
...
Evelyn´s grandmother couldn´t be more different from her mother, Severus thought, seeing Liz walk in, to the cheers of Alice and Lizzie.
He knew Grandma Liz was a bit of an exccentric, with her fairy doors, her tarot cards and stories about sprites, pookas and Leprechauns. Seeing her in person, snowy white curls gently framing a plump, smilling face, wearing a shawl with embroidered with big red flowers over a calico dress with a small print of pink baroque roses, Severus immediately felt this aura about her. An air of complete calm and affability,very much what one expects your typical Irish granny to have, and which Sophia conspicuously lacked. Severus had seen pictures of Liz as a young woman, with her long flowery dresses and hair blowing in the wind, and looking at her in person he knew where Evelyn had got her freckles, as well as her stunning golden-brown eyes. Unsurprisingly, Liz was just as charming as the pictures of her youth suggested.
“Took you long enough, Linnie.” Sophia told her daughter for no reason other than to say something, it seemed to Severus.
“And how fast did you expect the poor lass to return taking an 80 year-old woman along with her?” Liz´s crystaline laugh filled the house.
“We lost track of time chatting, mam.” Evelyn explained
“Dinner is almost ready.”
Of course the first thing Liz did was ask the girls to show her the fairy doors, which they did, both swelling with pride. Evelyn pulled Severus aside.
“How did my mother treat you while I was gone?”
“Well enough. Helping her cook was not such an ordeal.”
“She let you help?”
...
Dinner had been surprisingly pleasant.
Evelyn wasn´t sure what Severus and her mother had talked about in her absence, but Sophia was considerably less acerbic. Sure, she had still needled Severus a bit, but nothing to the extent of what she had been doing thus far.
Maybe grandma Liz being there had something to do with it. Her mother always behaved better when she was around. Liz had never been one to mince words around Sophia and was probably the only living person who could get away with criticizing her to her face, which she always did with such sweetness that it was hard for her mother to say anything in response.
After the meal, Evelyn and Severus offered to do the dishes, while her mother got the girls to wash up and get ready for bed. Grandma Liz sat in the kitchen with them, having a cup of her favorite tea that only Sophia could brew to perfection.
“My granddaughter tells me Sophia has been watching you two like a hawk.” she let out all of the sudden, with a mischievous little snicker.
Severus turned around, a little awkward and looked at her, silently asking how much she had told her grandmother. Evelyn just smiled and shrugged.
“My mother seems to think we're a pair of randy teenagers who need to be put on a short leash, even though we´re both closer to 40 than 14. We need to sneak out to hide under the apple tree if we want to even kiss, I swear.”
“Evelyn, I hardly think this is appropriate conversation to have with your grandmother.”
“Oh, that´s malarkey, my lad.” Liz scoffed.”I was young once. So was Sophia, even though she likes to pretend she forgot how it is. I swear she's acting just like my late father, God rest his soul, but back in 1935 at least he was acting according to the times he lived in.”
“My great grandfather didn´t want them to get married.” Evelyn informed him. “He made grandpa Marius work for him as his shop assistant for over a year before he even considered giving them his blessing.”
“He wanted to keep close watch on my Marius, having him work there. He thought if he worked for him, he could make sure we behaved. And still I´d go there at lunch time when my da was back home and Marius and I would sneak into the storage room in the back of the shop when it was all closed down. That's how well my father's vigilance served him. And here´s Sophia thinking she'll do any better with two full grown adults in the year of our Lord of 1999.” Liz picked up her mug of tea and went back to the sitting room, softly laughing to herself.
“Did your grandmother just tells us she used to shag your grandfather in the storage room of her late father´s shop when they were young?” Severus asked, more than a little shocked.
“She very much did.”
“So that´s where you get it.”
“Sev!”
…
“Uncle Sev, we´re gonna make a castle!” Lizzie announced as they came running downstairs in their pajamas, hauling a mess of pillows and blankets with them. “Help!”
“It's been a while.” Severus told her “I'm not sure if I even remember how to build a blanket fort...pardon...'castle'”
Severus had built his fair share of blanket forts as a child. He would usually put a chair close enough to his bed so that he could throw a bedsheet over it and make a sort of loopsided tent, then put his pillow and some cushions from the living room inside of it to make it confortable. Then he'd hide inside with a light, a little magic ball of luminescence his mother put inside a jar for him, and read his 'forbidden' books. Books about magic his father would have confiscated and destroyed if he had ever got a hold of them.
“You'll need some chairs.” he said, getting up to drag a couple of them from the dining room.
Sophia brought out the fairy lights and handed them to Evelyn so she could wrap them around the chairs Severus had positioned so the girls could throw the bedsheets over it all and put a thick duvet on the floor, with all all the pillows and cushions over it.
“Can we watch a film with the lights off?” Alice asked.
“A film may take too long, pet. Let's see what´s on tv, maybe we can find something else.” Sophia suggested.
“Well, I'm afraid I cannot stay for late night tv, my loves.” Liz announced. “Severus, would you be a dear and see that I make it back home safely?”
Sophia looked like she was about to protest, but Evelyn had tossed him her car keys before she could properly object.
…
“I'm so sorry for making you take me home, my dear.” Liz said as he buckled on and started the car.
“It' no problem at all, Mrs. Black.”
“Just call me Liz. Sophia is Mrs. Black” she gave him a cheeky smile.
“Very, well...Liz.”
“My great-granddaughters seem to have taken quite a liking to you.”
“They´re good children.”
“They didn't like Evelyn's last boyfriend at all. Children can be very good judges of character.”
“Their grandmother doesn't seem to agree with their judgment.”
“She'll come around. Sometimes Sophia is difficult just for the sake of it. She's a Leo, they're all like that.”
“I've never had much luck with Leos, to be honest.”
“You're a capricorn, no? Your kind is supposed to be perseverant. And trust me Sophia may put on a front of being so tough and hard to please, but give her enough time and she'll be calling you 'son' and learning how to make your favourite dish to perfection for when you come to visit. She's a kind soul, just doesn´t like to show it. Evelyn tells me you´re a bit like Sophia in that.”
“Maybe that´s how Lynz can stand me. Past experience.”
…
When Severus opened the door the sound of music and laughter floated about in the air around him. He closed the door behind himself, trying to recognise the song, then smiled.
Cole Porter.
The music came from a 1960s record player that Severus thought was just for decoration. Evelyn was teaching the girl's a few steps, while Sophia looked on, with the first genuine smile he'd seen in her face all day. Maybe it was because he hadn´t been around for a while.
He stood by the door, wondering if making his presence known would somehow break the absolute joy of the atmosphere.
“Oh, good, you're back!” Evelyn noticed him and went to pull him by the hand to the middle of room where Alice and Lizzie were practicing the newly learned steps with each other. “We decided to dust off my father´s album collection. Come on, it will be easier to show them the steps with a partner that doesn´t have to stand on my toes.”
Before he could protest, Severus found himself twirling around the room with her.
Severus wasn't the best of dancers by any means, but since Evelyn had come into his life he had learned a few tricks. Of course, dancing in his living room just the two of them after a few too many glasses of wine was much different from having an audience, even if said audience consisted of a pair of little girls and Evelyn's mother.
Somehow he had expected his presence to shatter the atmorphere, but once he found himself immersed in it, inexplicably, he fit. Alice and Lizzie carefully followed his steps as he lead Evelyn across the room in wide circles and lose, easy arabesques and twirls to the tune of 'Let's misbehave'.
…
10pm was most definitely too early of a bed time for Severus, but Alice and Lizzie were ecstactic that they could go to bed 'late'. Evelyn had expected them to stay up, after all the cake and biscuits Sophia had given then, but after a tea party, frolicking in the garden, dinner with great grandma Liz, a dance class and half an hour of the Morbegs, they were too exhausted to even think of staying up for long.
“You can go to bed if you want.” Severus told Evelyn, as she rested her head against his shoulder. The movie they were watching on the lowest volume not to wake up the children was almost over. “You must be tired. I´ll just find myself something to read, then call it a night as well.”
“Not at all, really. I think there are some biscuits left from the tea party. Do you want some?” Evelyn asked him quietly.
“No, but if you're planning on making any tea to go with it, then I'll have some.”
They tiptoed around the pillow fort and quietly closed the kitchen door.
“That went smoothly.” she told him, putting the kettle on the stove top.
“It did, actually.”
Severus grabbed the plate full of biscuits from the countertop and put them on the table, then went to grab a pair of mugs for the tea. When he started to pour the water in them, he felt Evelyn´s arms slide around his waist and her voice crooning into his ear, softly, as her hips swayed against his.
We're all alone, no chaperone
Can get our number
The world's in slumber
Let's misbehave
He tried to pull the lyrics from his memory before continuing, quietly, quietly.
There's something wild about you child
That's so contagious
Let's be outrageous
Let's misbehave
He turned around and pulled her close by the waist, and they spun in little circles around the table carefully not to bump into anything and wake the whole house, trying not to laugh too loud.
“We should..” she breathed out, her lips against his
“We should what?”
“Misbehave.”
“I don't think we can do any misbehaving with the children in the house.”
“Who said anything about the house?”
“Then...”
“I´ve been thinking...” Severus almost laughed when she used those words. It was her mother's trademark code for 'I´m about to put you in a difficult situation'.
“Aha...?”
“You're a wizard...”
“That's correct...”
“So you could just...take us somewhere. You´ve done it before.”
“We still have two little girls fast asleep in the house. We can´t just leave them.”
“My mother is home. The girls will be fine if we´re gone for a little while.”
“Very well, miss Black. Where to?”
…
The Summer sky above them was nothing short of breathtaking. Framed by the tall spruces and beeches, their branches silhouetted agains the brilliance above, the stars looked like glittering diamonds scattered all over a purple-black cut of rich velvet.
The last time Evelyn had come to Gragan's wood Alice was 4 and Lizzie 2. Evelyn and Caitlin had brought them for a picnic in one of the open areas of the forest, among heathers and bracken. She had no idea why she hadn´t brought Severus here yet.
Somehow he had managed to bring them precisely to one of those small clearings, where the light of the moon and the stars bathed every leave and blade of grass in soft silver.
Before she could properly get her bearings, she saw fine strands of translucent, glittery white leave the tip of Severus wand like water from a fountain, then stretch along in fragile lines, like a spider web, surrounding the clearing. The ground under her bare feet became soft. She looked down to see the dirt replaced by a carpet of very thick and soft grass. The smell of wet earth and rain seemed to thicken into a neraly dizzying fragrance.
“Sometimes I feel like I´ve fallen asleep one day and woke up in one of Alice's fairy tale books.” she smiled at him. “Prince and all.”
“I´m afraid none of the things I´m about to do to you can be considered very...princely.”
The feeling of finally being able to kiss him without worrying that they´d be interrupted was electrifying.
As fun as the little game of sneaking around behind her mother´s back had been, it was really nothing compared to knowing she had him all to herself without not a soul around for miles and miles. Evelyn wanted to keep her eyes open, she loved how Severus stark features looked under the moonlight, severe and intense, with something wild about his deep black eyes. But the scent of his skin and the taste of his lips was too overwhelming.
Behind her closed eyelids she noticed a golden glow surround her. Evelyn opened her eyes and looked around. There were dozens, maybe hundreds spheres od light flowating around them, shedding light into the night.
“I´m quite done having to hide in the dark to get to have you for a few minutes.” Severus drawled, sinking his teeth on her neck.
“Somebody on the road could see all this light...” she protested weakly.
“Nobody will” his fingers grabbed a fistful of her hair and she felt her bare back rest against the trunk of a spruce, her robe and nightgown sliding along her hips down to the grassy ground. “I made sure.”
So that´s what the transparent web was for. A protective spell.
Evelyn´s head rested on the tree trunk behind her, and her eyes looked up to the stars above, beyond the light surrounding her. Severus lips were everywhere, his hands on her hips, holding her in place as if she would ever try to evade him.
She could barely stand upright when he dropped to his knees and parted her legs. She grabbed at the tough bark with one hand, while the other dug into his hair, pulling him close to her, one of her feet was barely touching the ground, while Severus raised her other leg over his shoulder. If not for the tree behind her and his grip on her hips, she would have collapsed righ there.
The warmth that pooled where Severus lips and tongue were on her spread gently trhough her limbs, making her float in a cloud of think, soft pleasure. It ran trough her, faster and faster, like milk slowly boiling and boiling, until it overflowed and spilled.
Evelyn didn´t see when he had got rid of his clothes, but she could feel the sweat and the drag of his skin against hers as he got back to his knees and kissed her.
Before she could come down from the high, both her feet were lifted from the ground, and her trembling thighs were around him. She held on to him, her head on his shoulder, feeling the pressure of his body pushing into hers...inside of hers.
...
Severus had no idea how long they had been in that forest, in that clearing under the stars, but he couldn´t be bothered to care. He could be there all night. The adrelnaline rushed through his veins, on and on, and he felt like he could do this forever.
Laying flat on his back on a bed of grass and heathers, it felt like the world outside that wood had vanished into nothingness. There was only the canopy of trees surrounding them, the sky above and Evelyn pessing down on his body, riding him into another climax.
He looked up at her, her hair wild, tangled with leaves and tiny flowers, skin glistening with sweat, muscles taught and hips driving down into him, relentlessly. Her fingernails were digging into his flesh, her voice cracked in hoarse moans. As her tight, wet heat pressed down on his sex, all he could think about was how much her freckles looked like the constelations above them, how much her eyes looked like a pair of twin suns glowing into the night. How utterly stunning she was, and how desperatly he loved her.
He held on, to her thighs as they flexed above him, and watched as she spent herself, crowned with stars and leaves, feeling his own release catch up to him.
…
Sophia never really figured out how Severus had managed to finish fixing the chicken coop all by himself in less than an afternoon, but she had the courtesy to thank him.
Maybe she didn´t really want to know why Severus was feeling so energetic in that particular morning. Or why some random spruce leaves and twigs had mysteriouslt turned up around the house, when there were none such trees in the close vicinity.
Alice and Lizzie had slept through the night, and Sophia hadn´t heard any suspicious noises, but she could tell something was different when she woke up so find breakfast already on the table, Severus working the yard outside and Evelyn idly singing Cole Porter in the kitchen. Evelyn insisted they took the girls to meet up with Caitlin and treat her to a well deserved lunch when her shift was done, while Severus finished the coop.
To Sophia's utter shock, he had the whole thing done and repainted by the time they were back.
Like magic.
“Gran!!” Alice, called from the window just as everybody had finished admiring Severus nothing-short-of-miraculous handywork. “Uncle Owen is here with the chickens!”
…
“She really bought that nasty little rooster?” Caitlin asked to no one in particular, as Owen unloaded the crates into the backyard.
“Do you know her at all? Uncle Owen even gaver her a special discount on it.” Evelyn rolled her eyes.
“Severus, you're a saint. Any other man would be out the door after a rooster attack.”
“Can't say it's the first or even the worst time I've been attacked by an animal” Severus smirked.
Sophia and Owen walked up to where they were, once the chickens had been properly accomodated. The sumatra rooster was still in his crate, for safety.
“We wouldn´t want him to be all over you again, Severus.” Owen quipped. “He seems have taken quite a liking to you, lad.”
“Can't quite say who loves me more, the rooster or your sister, Owen. I trully feel welcome.”
“Well, Severus, if you're so fond of the bird, maybe we should name him after you.” Sophia told him, with a hint of venom. “You wear enough black that I could easily mistake the two of you.”
Alice and Lizzie, unaware of the provocation implied in the suggestion, seemed to love the idea. Evelyn was quite done trying to get her mother to be civil, while Caitlin and Owen just preferred to pretend it was in good fun. Severus shrugged it off. If he could handle Sophia, then he doubted the rooster would be an issue.
“I´m actually starting to like the little bastard.”
With Owen gone to tend to his work, the children got immediately distracted playing with the new chickens and trying to figure out names for them all. The moment Evelyn and Caitlin stepped away to make sure the girls were gentle with the birds, Sophia came closer to him, with a self-satisfied smile on her lips.
“I wonder which Severus will stay in the family for longer.” she let out quietly so nobody else would hear.
“I hope you know how to make coq au vin.” Severus smirked. “It's one my favourite dishes, and I can´t wait to find out how a sumatra rooster tastes with a good wine and some potates.”
He started to walk away before she had a chance to respond to his dig.
“Severus...” she called as he made his way back inside the house.
“Yes...?”
“I'll have you know I happen to make the best coq au vin outside of France. It was my husband's favorite.”
“I didn't expect any less of you, Mrs. Black.”
“Just call me Sophia. It doesn´t seem like I´ll be seeing the last of you for a while, so might as well drop the formalities.”
