Endings
SS
When Hades froze during dinner a day later, before jumping up and starting to change into the clothes he came in. Severus was startled. When Hades said they were coming home, Severus had needed longer than he cared to admit realising what was going on. When he did, he was glad he had put all the potions into the small portable potion kit, which he had used during the war. Therefore, he only needed to give Hades the kit, read him into the protection (which only took a drop of blood from the child and the activation phrase from Severus), and then he was left alone again.
The quiet left hung heavy in the room. On a logical level Severus knew that it was the same quiet he normally welcomed during the holidays. But emotionally it didn’t feel that way.
* *
He is hungry.
They have some lenses.
There are some bruises on his arms.
They stopped hurting.
He’s alone in his room.
Hiding.
Reading.
Trying to shut out the shouting.
The screams.
There is a body.
It’s quiet.
No sound.
He stopped breathing.
With a gasp, Severus wakes up. He’s still in the living room, in his armchair. A book open, but unread in his lab.
He must have fallen asleep here.
He looks around. His eyes finding the couch. For a moment it’s like the child is still here. Still sitting on the couch. Kneeling, with a book open in his lab. But he’s not here anymore.
He’s gone back.
A few more deep breaths and Severus slips into his mind palace. He hadn’t taken the time to sort the new memories he made. Having been busy brewing most times and when he wasn’t he tried to spend time with Hades. It seems like he should’ve come here earlier. A few token, those which he had filled with memories from his childhood have cracks. Some are even broken, the memories swirling around the moment Severus gets close.
Slowly he picks them up. Piece by piece. And sets them back together. Repairing the cracks as he goes.
Once all his old memories are saved in their places again, he begins with the new ones.
First, he needs to decide on where to put them.
He walks through his mind. There is the Slytherin commend room, where he stored memories of his school years. Just some studying in the library alone or with Lily, doing homework, going to lessons. Nothing important, nothing personal.
He walks through the glass into the black lake diving through the water without drowning. There is the giant squid, a replica of the one living in the real lake. It’s filled with the memories of his time as an apprentice. He thinks about adding another being in the water for Hades but decides against it.
The grindylows he had added as protections are swimming below hiding in the sea grass. He dives a little further, towards where he added some gillyweed.
Sadly, there is no gillyweed in the real lake, as far as he knows. He’s not a good swimmer, but he did spend some time looking around in the lake after his first year as a professor.
It was a hot summer, and he wasn’t ready to return to Spinners End. There was nothing there for him. His parents had died while he was still a student. Lily's parents had passed away not long after they graduated, and Lily had hated him until her dying breath.
He had finally decided to visit his childhood home during the winter holidays. He had needed time alone. Away from the students, who were so young, yet had seen, read or heard about the cruelty of live.
The gillyweed is where his most important memories are. The ones about Lily and her parents. The best memories of his childhood and school years.
He swims to the surface. There is a storm ongoing. Keeping calm, Severus lets himself be thrown around the waves, until he is washed ashore.
He doesn’t go to the forest. Knowing there are no important memories. A trick, similar like the seagrass in the lake.
His magical core is hidden in Hagrid’s hut, behind the crackling fire. He is not interested in going there though. If he would open the door, he would find himself inside a replica of his childhood bedroom filled with a few memories of his childhood, but nothing important. The core can only be reached if you enter through the chimney.
He made the original works, while he was younger. He had already met Lily, and her parents had told him about Santa Claus. He hadn’t believed them, knowing that someone like that didn’t exist, but he had wanted to.