Little bug
“FOR FUCK SAKE, DARLING, I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE THE SHOES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALLWAY! Can’t even walk inside my DAMN HOUSE without trouble! ” Small and hurried steps approached him while Severus crouched and started picking up the groceries he dropped when he stumbled.
“Uncle Snape! You finally came! I thought you’d never come! ” And she threw her small arms around his neck and squeezed with all her force. Severus almost fell back due to the force of the attack. “You shouldn’t speak like that. Mommy says it’s not good to use bad words.”
“Well, here I am, little bug! I apologize, the words slipped before I could think about it! ”
“It’s okay, just think about it next time.”
“I will, little bug,” He kissed her forehead and struggled to disentangle her arms from his neck. “Now tell me, where is Ana?”
“I’m here, sorry!” Ana said as she made her way toward the two of them. “She was so excited to be here that she ran straight into her room to unpack, and my mind was only focused on catching up with her. I forgot to put the shoes away. ” She helped him stand up and left a chaste kiss on his lips.
“You kiss just like mommy and daddy.” Isobel brought her palms up to her mouth to hide the fit of giggles that started to get a hold of her.
“Now Izzie, I think we were just starting your summer homework when your uncle arrived home. Why don’t you go and start it while I help Severus put the groceries away, and I’ll come to you in a minute. ”
“But I don’t want to..”, she stopped when she saw Ana’s “I didn’t ask you” face. “Fine, but can I at least get my notebook and join you in the kitchen?”, Izzie said as she pulled the classic puppy eyes she was a master at.
“Ugh, okay, Izzie, but I expect you to finish a page from the book like you promised your mother, and then we can play all day long.”
“Yes, I’ll go now. Stay where you are until I come back,” Isobel stated as she motioned her hands in a stay here motion, turning her back to go upstairs and fetch her book and notebook when she suddenly remembered something. “Uncle Snape, did you bring something for me?”
“Isobel!” Ana slightly raised her voice towards her niece.
“I’m going now,” she exhaled, defeated. “But can uncle Snape play with us when I finish my homework?”
“He will if you ask him nicely. But homework first, and no further delays. ” With this, Isobel ran up the stairs, and they could hear the sound of her steps long after she was out of sight, probably distracted by Merlin knew what instead of grabbing her backpack.
Ana turned her eyes to Severus, who was once again crouching and picking up the groceries he missed when Isobel stormed into his arms.
“What do you think you’re doing, Sev?” She pulled her wand out of her dress pocket and waved it at the whole mess. In an instant, all the groceries floated in the air and silently went into the kitchen where they would be arranged and stored in their rightful place by the spell she cast.
“Oh, aren’t you a smart one? What happened to she doesn’t need to see magic until she exhibits signs of it ?”
“What she doesn’t see won’t affect her. Come now, I was about to make some iced tea, and we have lemon cake in the fridge. You must be hotter than usual.” Ana winked playfully at Severus and dodged the slap going for her ass cheeks. “You won’t get dessert if you act like that.” She laughed, and Severus’ face relaxed upon hearing it.
“Would I get some dessert with that little bug around? Anyway, wasn’t she supposed to arrive tomorrow? ”
“It was today, I told you again last night.”
“When? Before or after you fucked my brains out? ” He whispered in her ear, and now it was Severus’ turn to smile mischievously, raising his brow in a silent challenge.
“Language!” She turned as they entered the kitchen, and smacked him in the chest before he caught hold of her wrist.
“If you kiss me, I’ll consider it.”
Ana rolled her eyes but still pressed her lips more passionately than before over his. Her free hand made its way toward the back of his neck and got hold of his ponytail, slightly pulling it, as his other hand cupped her breast.
“I swear you’re acting more like a child than Isobel sometimes,” Ana breathed against his cheek.
“About that little bug, remind me how long she’ll be staying,” Severus said as he planted a kiss on her jaw.
“A week. Her father came home from work after 3 months, and I invited her to let my sister and her husband have the most deserved time for two. ”
“What about my deserved time for two?” Severus almost whined in her neck.
“It’s not like we didn’t make love in every room in this house, multiple times a day, for two summers already.”
“I’m insatiable when it comes to you.” Severus then nipped at her earlobe and drew a silent moan from Ana.
“Let’s stop it before she sees us.”
“One last kiss,” Severus pleaded as he brushed her lips with his, his nose nudging hers, his warm breath filling all her senses.
“Only one kiss,” she whispered, and before she could properly finish the sentence, he dropped her wrist and cupped her face with both his palms.
“You kiss too much.” It was Isobel. “So she really can be silent when she wants to,” thought Severus, and turned towards her after breaking the kiss.
“I am your aunt"s boyfriend, so I get to kiss her as many times as I want. Now, what is your homework? ”
It was dark and the full moon was already high in the sky when there was a soft knock on the door of Sev and Ana’s bedroom. He grabbed a robe from the end of the bed and made his way to the door after gently placing Ana from his chest to the pillow. Anastasia was shifting in bed behind him, searching for him in her sleep.
Severus opened the door, and there, in the unlit hallway, Isobel was carrying her blanket in her arms, eyes half asleep but still far away from any real rest.
“What is it, little bug? Trouble sleeping?”
“I miss mommy!” she whined. “Can I sleep here?”
“Of course, Izzie! Enter, "Severus gestured with his head and stepped away from the door. "You can sleep between me and Ana.”
After she got comfortable under the duvet, her blanket still tightly wrapped in her tiny arms, Isobel turned to look at Severus, who was getting comfortable under the duvet as well.
“Have a good night, little bug!” He kissed her on the forehead, but her eyes were still as open as when he opened the door.
“You look at Ana the same way daddy looks at mommy,” she mumbled in a failed attempt to whisper. “Do you love her?”
“I do, very much by the way.” Severus didn’t know what got him to open up so easily to this 6-year-old child. Maybe it was the ease of having a child with a pure mind to talk to, and to whom the world was still very much white and black, with no grayness on the canvas of life yet. He was entranced by her, not for the first time though, as she seemed to enter so easily into his soul, searching for answers. Severus pondered for the billionth time how she would be an excellent legilimens if she possessed magical abilities, as Isobel, eyes sleepy and slightly wet from crying, continued to fix his eyes with her own.
“Then you should get married. Daddy says he’s happier to have mommy as his wife. ”
“Are you telling me, bug, that I"m not happy?” Severus unconsciously looked over Izzie"s shoulder, smiling slightly at the sleeping form of Anastasia, the silver light from the full moon outside tracing every curve of her covered body.
“You can be happier if you marry her. Then you could be my real uncle. ”
“I”’ll think about it. Now how about we get some sleep before we wake Ana up, and she punishes us both, hm? “
"Good night, Uncle Snape!” Izzie got closer to Severus and nuzzled her forehead near his chest. Severus saw her scrunching her eyebrows together, and all of a sudden, the curtains drew by themselves.
“Did you do that, little bug?”
“Of course I did. I always do it. Too much light. Go to sleep before you wake Ana, "she giggled more loudly than she should.
"Good night, little bug!”, and once more he kissed her forehead as best as he could in the dark bedroom, and enveloped her in his arms. “Sweet dreams!”
They were both sitting at the kitchen table the next morning, both drinking coffee, her smoking a cigarette, lost in small talk about what they were supposed to be doing around the house that day when the subject of Isobel began and Severus remembered what happened the night before. He told Anastasia, and her eyes widened, a single tear making its way down the swell of her cheek.
"We have another witch in the family,” she cried happily. Even though it was taboo in the family, both she and her sister started to think that maybe Isobel was a squib. There was a high chance of this happening since her father was a no-maj; a muggle is what his kind is called here. So the news of Izzie’s magical abilities was something she could only compare with riding her broom for the first time at Ilvermorny, pure happiness mixed with anticipation for what was to come next.
“And she said she always draws the curtains like that?” Severus nodded. “I can’t wait to tell Julia! And to tell Izzie as well! ”
“Tell me what?” It was Isobel, once again moving like a ghost in the house while rubbing her eyes with the back of one hand.
“Stop rubbing your eyes, or you’ll get them all red and infected!” Ana said while getting up from the chair. The bud of the cigarette sat furiously smashed on the bottom of the ashtray. “You can sit here, bug. I’m going to make you something for breakfast.”
“Were you talking about me?” Isobel flashed at them her most charming smile.
“In fact we did, Isobel. Have you heard about magic? ”…