The Potions Master

Epilogue

Six Years Later

There was his name, clear as day, etched into the tombstone. The sorrow then hit me all at once. I began sobbing uncontrollably as I ran the remaining distance and collapsed in front of it. With what words I managed to get out, I cursed the war, the dark arts, and Voldemort.

When my rage was spent, I reached my hand out and gently touched the stone as I continued to sob. My fingers began slowly tracing the letters of his name, as if it would somehow bring him back to me. After a while, I'd stopped crying enough to be able to speak.

"We have a son. His name is Severus Alexander, after you and my dad. He also has your last name, so there's a little Severus Snape running around in America." I smiled and exhaled a laugh. "He's brilliant. He's only five, but I was not prepared to have a son as smart as he is — I often underestimate his intelligence.

"He looks so much like you too. I mean, I can see both of us in him, but— He has the same black hair and eyes. And sometimes I can see you in the way he smiles, not that I really ever saw you smile. Ha ha.

"The older he gets, the more he asks about you." I grew even more sombre as I continued on that thought. "I answer as honestly as I can, or at least as honestly as I think he can handle at his age. But he's starting to ask questions that I don't know the answer to. I'm starting to realise how little I actually know about you.

"We even wrote each other for three years. You didn't really write much about yourself, or offer many personal details or stories that didn't just happen to happen around you. And I was afraid to ask. Even though you never really rejected me —ever— I still always managed to live with the fear that you might. That's what hurt the most when you stopped writing. I thought I'd finally crossed the line somewhere.

"Maybe things would have been different if we could have spoken after— Well, after. I don't know. Damn war.

"Really, I guess the only thing I regret is that I wasn't braver. Oh, well. Maybe I'll learn from that.

"I sort of feel like I'm rambling now. I don't want to leave yet."

I turned to sit on the ground and lean against the tombstone. I didn't speak for a long time. I just sat there and let myself miss him as my packet of tissues diminished.