Ashes of Armageddon

Epilogue



Seven Years Later



The dawn broke over the island and the sunlight streamed through the window of the bedroom. Harry frowned slightly, stirring in his sleep. Severus, already wide awake, sat up and stared at Harry, enjoying the brief moments of peace before the day began.



The island cabin had been rebuilt into a proper house. There was a guest room, a child\'s room, a lab, and a reading room. Summers were spent on the island, the rest of the year, in Spinner\'s End. The island became a home to all of them, in the full sense of the word, and Neville, Luna, Ron, Hermione, Hugo and recently retired Minerva McGonagall were frequent visitors.



The knock on the bedroom door roused Harry from his sleep.



“Dad! Severus!” Al shouted exuberantly. “You\'ve got to come see! It\'s incredible!”



“What is?” Harry asked, rubbing his eyes, and reaching for his glasses.



“You\'ve got to come see!” Al insisted, and pounded on the door again.



“All right, all right, stop banging on the door, we are coming,” Harry said. A few minutes later, Severus and Harry emerged into the bright morning sunlight.



“Come on,” Al shouted, and sprinted down the familiar, beaten path, running towards the grove sheltering the Cockatrice. Severus and Harry followed him, doing their best to keep up with the energetic, exuberant twelve year old boy. By the time they reached the meadow after a good half an hour of running, Harry was nearly out of breath, and Severus himself was not faring much better.



“We need more exercise, I think,” Harry said. “We are getting old.”



“Speak for yourself,” Severus muttered. “I\'m getting younger every day.”



“Look,” Al interrupted them, pointing his finger at some spot in the grove. “Look!”



Harry\'s gaze followed his son\'s finger. Something small, barely noticeable, was moving faintly under the trees.



“It\'s the eggs! They are hatching!” Albus whispered excitedly. “If you keep quiet, you can hear the shells crack.”



“Well, I\'ll be...” Harry muttered, grinning ear to ear. “They\'ve done it! Mated and laid eggs while we were back in Spinner\'s End.”



“Yes,” Severus mused. “Do you suppose they\'d mind if we watched them hatch?”



“They won\'t mind,” Al said confidently. “I asked them. They said to come and tell you.”



Harry grinned again. “I think I\'m going to walk around and count the nests.”



“Don\'t step on them!” Al warned Harry sternly, sounding genuinely alarmed by the possibility.



“I won\'t.” Harry gave Al a small pat on the back, and walked into the grove, disappearing between the trees.



Al sat on the ground and hugged his knees, and gave Severus a shy glance.



“I\'m sorry,” Al said softly.



“For what?” Severus asked, surprised.



“For speaking Parseltongue,” Al said quietly. “I\'m trying to forget it. Sometimes I almost feel like I could, but then, they speak to me,” Al nodded in the direction of the grove, “and it comes back to me right away.”



“I thought we discussed it,” Severus said softly. “Being able to speak Parseltongue is a valuable and rare skill to have. You can develop it, if you like.”



“It might be valuable, and rare,” Al argued stubbornly, “but it can\'t be good.”



Severus looked at him quizzically.



“Sometimes, when I speak it, or am about to, I remember things,” Al explained reluctantly. “Things that I never saw.”



“What kind of things?” Severus asked, as his heart clenched at the troubled look on Al\'s young face.



“I remember green fire in the sky,” Al whispered, shutting his eyes, and appearing to be lost in his own thoughts. “I remember snakes in dark forests. I remember people crying.” He paused for a moment, and then added quietly, and almost calmly, “it\'s not so bad anymore, though. For a long time, I was afraid to fall asleep. Really afraid. I kept thinking, what if I just... got lost in the dark? What if I fell asleep, but someone else woke up instead of me?”



Severus shook his head, and opened his arms to Al. Al sniffled slightly and crawled into his embrace, burying his face in Severus\' shoulder.



“This won\'t happen,” Severus said with confidence.



“I think my mum thought it might,” Al said very quietly, pulling away and looking up at him. Al\'s green eyes, a copy of Harry\'s, and Lily\'s, were misty and damp.. “She used to cry when she heard me speak Parseltongue. I think she was afraid.”



Severus shook his head again. “Al, your mother may not have completely understood you, but she loved you very deeply. And that\'s one of the reasons you have nothing to worry about.”



In silence, Al listened with his eyes half-shut.



“She was trying to protect your life with her own,” Severus said very softly. “I have been told that love like that doesn\'t disappear without a trace. It leaves a mark on you, and stays with you for the rest of your life. Nobody who has been loved so much can ever be lost in the dark forever. It\'s a fact of life.”



Al looked at him with undisguised astonishment, and something like hope flashed in his eyes.



“Really?” he asked, and his voice trembled slightly, sounding slightly younger, and slightly more vulnerable.



“Yes, really. Those who love you, will find you.”



They sat together quietly, with Al thinking about something. A minute later Al rose to his feet and ran off, disappearing amidst the tress of the grove.



Blissfully, Severus stretched out on his back to lie in the grass. He heard Harry\'s and Al\'s voices in the distance, laughing and talking about the nests and the eggs.



The sun continued to rise in the sky, its merciless glory enveloping the meadow. In the bright, glorious sunshine, the shadows of the dark years did not stand a chance. They fled, as they always did, when morning came.



With his eyes shut, lying on his back, Severus continued to listen to the sound of the waves, the rustling of the wind along the grass, the cooing of the Cockatrice, and the tiny, barely audible cracking sounds, indicating the breaking of the eggshells to admit new life into the world.



For a fleeting moment Severus Snape remembered his old mentor, the one his step-son was named after, the man whose careful machinations resulted in Severus being here. The memory inspired no resentment, and no gratitude, just a small, satisfied smile that continued to linger on his lips.



The End