Amour by FLH

Epilogue

Hermione got up in sunlight, wooden window half open. She overslept, again. Her notoriously messy hair was more untidy than usual, and it smelled terrible. She ran her hands into the mess, trying to remember what happened before she fell asleep. A few scenes flashed over her mind, she contemplated to figure it out. She had hanged over, she definitely drank too much wine last night. The taste of that wine still could be felt in her mouth. Her mouth was dry, she wanted water, desperately.

She closed the book beside her bed, put it on the nightstand. Turning off the light which must have been on the whole night, she cursed for not finding her shoes. She moved around clumsily, hands reaching out for her glasses. Obviously, it was not anywhere near to reach, she kept touching things like someone who's blind.

"Mom, has you got up? Can we have breakfast now? We have made some puddings and orange-juice, do you prefer something else?"

"Alicia, thanks a lot. Would you like to find my glasses for me, I just couldn't find it anywhere."

"No, mom. I'm Cecilia. Alicia is downstairs, doing the crosswords. She got in love with it recently. "

"Sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean that. I wasn't in my mind ."

As Cecilia put her glasses into her hands, they went into the hall.

Alicia stood up, and pulled the chair out of their dinner table so Hermione could sit directly. She murmured a "thank you" and bit a mouthful part in the pudding. She didn't notice that the two girls looked at each other encouragingly and nodded before determined to say something.

"We received the letters from Hogwarts this morning, saying that we need some staff to bring to school."

Hermione stopped to eat, and chewing hardly. She didn't know why she was a little disappointed. It finally came the day they went to Hogwarts. She knew it would come, and they would leave her like Severus did. Like their father. Oh, they would get back every year at least, spending the summer in home( maybe with friends either). After graduation, they would have their own life. They would live in their own world, thinking about her from time to time. She would become the mother who's left in some deserted part of their heart. Visiting her would only be a kind of tradition to keep to behave the manner. Hermione didn't afraid of getting old, she afraid of being left alone.

"Let's go to Diagon Alley after breakfast, you can choose what you like." Anyway, it was the way things needed to sort out. Just face it, Hermione! You are a war hero who defeated Voldemort. She thought.

The twins hold their hands under the table. Coughing, and preparing to continue asking the most important question.

"Mom, we have got some information about Hogwarts. We discovered that there were four houses. We seem to have some similarity of students in Slytherin, would you mind if we are sorted into it?" Their mother had been a famous Gryffindor, her housemates seemed to believe they would be there to somehow "inherit" the "tradition".

"You have the possibility to be there. As I said, your father was one of them, you can follow his steps. He's one of the best students I ever have the luck to know. Every house is one of the best of the world, and they are equal to any extent. No matter which house you might be studying in, I would be proud of you.

She kissed on their foreheads. Their smooth skin let her feel a kind of disoriented, like they were only months old, only, the little angels in her entire life.

Severus, we are living a peaceful and joyful life, can you see it? She wanted her to know that they were alright, the kids would let him be proud.

She excused herself, and came back to her bedroom. She sank in the sofa, touching her daughters' photos for the last time. Murmuring some incantations, she put on a bitter smile. Suddenly, whether it was a right decision wouldn't be so sure.

Later

The twins found a man saying was their dad standing in the room, holding their mom tightly when they came to her bedroom. She was so pale, her warm amber eyes left all the liveness. Wand lying on the bookshelf, wet with blood. Her usual pink cheek turned into a grey, whit colour. Her fingers crossed together with their fathers.

The view of their dead mom was too much for children 11 years old. They got the father they dreamed of, but they also wanted their mother back.

They used to ask their mom, where did papa go? Did he hate them?

Hermione would always say, their father was a hero, a hero worthy all kinds of respect. It was an honour to be his children. It was an honour to have a mother like Hermione as well.

Everything takes something from other things. Love is excepted. There's a way to bring death back, at the cost of the leaving one's life. Whole life. But the most needed require is—love. The most genuine love. If no love involved, it will turn out to be a 'life debt', and will lead to the slave bond…

The wine she drunk and kept a lot was Severus' favorite, the room was furnished in a simple way like he liked it all the time. His clothes was clean in the wardrobe.