Mended

Twenty-Five

Severus stands in the attic, a bubbling cauldron of contraceptive potion to his right which needs to be tended in the next sixty seconds or else the entire batch will be useless. On his left is another cauldron, its contents fast approaching a steady roll, which contains a menses drought meant to relieve the drinker of menstrual cramping and heavy bleeding, and needs the addition of chamomile and yarrow before the simmering slivered ginger root darkens the water much more. Behind him is an additional five cauldrons containing Dreamless Sleep, Headache Drought, Blemish Blitzer, Cough Potion, and Lung Clearing Potion which have been completed and left to cool down before bottling for the apothecary.

With children returning to school after Easter holiday, parents flocked to the shop to squeeze in some last minute potions to pack for the snot-nosed children's trunks, leaving his shelves bare but his pockets full. Which meant that today, Monday, the only day of the week the shop was ever closed, was reserved for brewing as much as he possibly could in a short span of time. The more advanced potions that took days, weeks, or even months to prepare, were all being brewed at the shop where he could easily step away to tend to them. These much simpler ones, which he usually taught first and second years at Hogwarts, with the exception of contraceptive and menses potions, were easy enough to brew with a three year old running between your legs and insisting on helping.

Today, however, perhaps sensing his irritation and the sheer amount of potions he needed to brew, Danu kept Lorna entertained in the gardens and greenhouse, away from his simmering cauldrons and pounding head. The child had been an absolute menace since returning from the Quidditch match with the Potter's, and was beginning to drive both he and her mother absolutely mental with her constant talk of the sport. Had they known then what she would be like upon her return, they both had agreed they would have waited a bit longer to allow her to experience the game in person.

Lorna had been beyond enthusiastic, bordering on obsessed with Quidditch since the moment the whistle sounded, according to Potter. He had relay to him and Danu that Lorna did not utter a single word, nor take her eyes from the sky for the duration of the game, which had actually gone into an over-time period of nearly a quarter of an hour due to both teams being tied for points when the Snitch was caught. The following day Potter and his wife had taken both Lorna and Mister Lupin up on brooms and flew them around the Quidditch pitch, which only served to further fuel Lorna's obsession with both Quidditch and flying.

The starter broom Draco had gifted her for Christmas had been a source of great debate in the Snape household since. Lorna believed it to be for "babies" and not nearly fast enough for her liking, as it only lifted her about two feet in the air and could move at half the speed at which her mother walked. Danu had since banned the broom from inside of the house after Lorna had bumped in to the backs of her legs in pursuit of the damned cat, causing Danu to drop the mug of tea she had been carrying, resulting in a drenched first edition copy of one of the numerous Bronte sisters novels of which he had never been particularly fond of, but his wife seemed to favor, and scalding the inside of both of her legs, both of which Severus mended after several moments of wailing from Lorna's end and Danu threatening to break the broom over her knee if he did not "get the damned thing out of this house."

It was finally decided that Severus would be the one to safely, and carefully, teach her to fly, as Danu had never been a fan of brooms herself, and Severus was the only person with whom Lorna regarded when it came to safety instructions. Severus took Lorna bright and early to Splinter and Kreek's one morning before opening the apothecary, and together they picked out a used Cleansweep Eleven, which remained locked in the attic when not in use.

Every evening, just as darkness crept over the valley, Severus would mount the broomstick with Lorna tucked securely between his arms in front of him, and together they would soar through the sky without fear of being seen by a Muggle in the nearby town. Lorna would stretch her arms out at her sides, her fingers dancing in the wind and her head thrown back in laughter.