Things Better Left Unsaid (Snape love story)

Chapter Twenty Four: Time Goes On

A/N: All I have to say for myself is "don't hate me cause you ain't me and you can't change what I've done". Basically, it all goes downhill from here. There will be a few big climactic points, but I'm towards the end of the book! Just bear with me, here! It's all about to fall into place and get good! Then again, good to me is romantic tragedy! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Chapter Twenty Four

{*+•TWO YEARS LATER•+*}

My hand came down heavy as I stamped the book, giving a mundane and very usual smile to the woman as she whisked away the books. I pursed my lips. Thank Merlin this was only a part-time gig, or else I would go insane. Quiet really wasn't my thing. The little shoppe full of wizarding school supplies, robes and sweaters, textbooks and goblets, shelves of potions ingredients galore; it was almost too much to bear. Everything I subjected myself to giving an employee a day off and not finding a replacement, I was overrun with a terrible an wonderful sense of nostalgia and infliction.

Licking my lips, I glanced at the clock. It was still about an hour before regular closing time, but I couldn't take this any longer. Heaving a great sigh, I lifted myself from the seat behind the counter and closed up shop. It wasn't as if this was my big life career, after all. I had a house and a reasonable amount of revenue stored away at Gringots from my father, so this was really just something to keep me in good hands. Not that I even enjoyed it.

I used to love it, last year when I opened up shop. I loved the way it felt to own my own little wizarding shop, like I always sort if wanted. In control of my own business, and all. However, as soon as I saw the kids piling in, dressed in their school attire, robes billowing behind them as they laughed and spoke of how the new year would ring in, I felt a deep pain in my chest that I couldn't bear. It shook me, rattled me to the very core.

It reminded me of him. Everything about school reminded me of him. Everything I loved so much. School... Hogwarts was my everything, and he soiled it for me. I look back at my wonder pus memories there now, and I feel a painful mixture of both sorrowful remorse, and needy longing. I want to go back more than anything-- after all, Hogwarts was where I called home. It was the place were I became who I was, learned how to be the best I could be, created hundreds of wild adventures, an met my best friends and the man I love.

But it's also where I met the man I thought I loved, which left an undesirable sour taste in my mouth. I couldn't look back and dwell on the wonderful memories at Hogwarts without thinking about it, even after this long. I had such mixed feelings about all of this, it was hard to want to think about it all. Pushing aside my ultimate infliction, I shrugged on my coat and grabbed my purse, locking up the shop doors.

I was glad my little store was located so close to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, so I could simply walk over when I was done with work. It was pretty convenient, considering how often I closed up early. I pushed through the door, met with a jingle of the bell and the enormous sights of the large joke shop. I couldn't help but smile when I came in here-- this was what they always said that they would do. And they did. I never actually discovered what I wanted to do with my life. Of all the things I've considered (being an Aura like my father, in the medical profession like my mother) I never decided. So, I basically just did nothing. I had a pretty good thing going, so for now, I was okay. I'll think of something eventually.

A head popped out from above me, peering down. "Oi!" He shouted, and I looked directly upwards. Ginger hair fell over his face, and I grinned up at the man.

"What?" I replied in a yell, grinning.

The man shook his head at me. "No loitering!" He said joshingly.