Mended

Twenty-Two

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."