Just One More And I'll Shut Up

[teddy_radiator]

I'd like to participate in the timestamp meme, nabbed from lady_rhian:

Give me one of my stories and a timestamp -  sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future. Please be specific if you can. What characters, a question you have, etc.

I'm intrigued by this challenge because I had a lot of reviewers actually ask me questions about the end of As Morning Falls and Black-Eyed Angel, so this gives me a legit reason to drabble a little bit.

Mimi has been encouraging me to brush up on my drabble skills, and this might be just the impetus I've been looking for.

Here are the fics:

As Morning Falls

Spellbreaker

The Black-Eyed Angel

Comments

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

Aw! I'm pleased to know that you're interested in drabbling because of me! It really is fun as well as being a terrific writing exercise!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Well, you encouraged me to drabble way back, and I thought this might be just what I need: a fun exercise to discipline myself to a certain number of words. I'm obnoxiously verbose at times, so it will be a challenge, but I'm really hoping to get some requests and give it a go.

[ayerf.livejournal.com]

Any time after The Black-Eyed Angel... do they ever see the angel/demon again? (I know I'm supposed to think of an actual timestamp, but I figure this way gives more freedom).

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Yea! A challenge. I'll get straight on it. Thank you for being the first to give me something to write about!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Knowing me as I do, I'll probably go back and tweak this a million times. Sorry, Mimi, I tried to keep it short. This is about as short as I can do!

The Black-Eyed Angel - Goodnight

Severus waited until Madam Gineeva finished the last diagnostic charms. As she walked by, she placed a gentle hand on his arm.

“She’s resting comfortably, sir. She’s not in pain.” He nodded stiffly, his heart breaking so profoundly he was surprised the Healer didn’t hear it.

He walked into their bedroom, and lay gently down beside his wife. She was small; the bed looked too large for her without him in it. She turned and smiled at him, her pale face so full of love and tenderness, he wanted to die with her.

“I’ve seen him,” she said.

“Yes,” he answered, taking her in his arms, feeling the snuffle of her nose as she breathed in his scent and smiled in spite of himself. “He told me it would be tonight.”

She pulled away and looked up at him, stroking his face.“I’m not afraid. He said he’d take care of me until you joined me.” A solitary tear slid down her weathered cheek. “I will miss you so much, though.”

Severus rocked and sang and crooned until he felt her relax and sigh. In the seventy years they’d been wed, they were never far from one another. “You will never be far away.”

“I love you, Severus.” She sounded sleepy and content, and he willed himself not to crush her in this last embrace.

With a shaking voice, he whispered, “And I, you, my darling little one.”

The light in the room changed, and the soft glow from the other side of the bed made him look up. For one short moment, he gasped, as the beautiful angel stood before him. He blinked and pulled Hermione closer to his breast. It had fooled him once. He would not let it fool him again.

The air and light shifted again, and stilled, and he slumped with relief. “It is you.” The beautiful angel, robed in shining, perfect white, smiled at him with all the love a child can possess for a parent.

“Father, it’s time.”

Severus looked up into the face of his beloved Cobel, and felt a joy and a pain bloom in his chest. His wondrous Cobel, whom they’d lost only last year. He was shining and beautiful, and then she was there beside him. His wife, his precious Hermione, looking as young and beautiful as the day she walked into his office and captured his heart. They both smiled down at Severus; they glowed with love and peace, and he nodded and smiled through his tears.

“Thank you, son. I will tell Lily and the girls.” His granddaughters, his beautiful, cherished girls with black curling hair and snapping eyes. He smiled. “They pet and spoil me as if I am the grandchild, and not the other way around.” He tried to sound aggrieved, but his angels knew better.

“As it should be, my love. You must live for them now. They love you so.” Hermione suddenly turned to Cobel, as if something or someone had called her. “I have to go now, Severus.”

“Be well in the veil, Beloved. I will see you soon enough.”

“Father, it will be like a heartbeat to her. And when you join us, it will have all seemed like a heartbeat to you.”

Severus closed his eyes and wept. He did not want to see his angels leave. He kissed Hermione’s still lips for the last time, and rose to finish out his heartbeats.

[ayerf.livejournal.com]

Lovely! All the better for being longer than a drabble. So bittersweet and yet happy at the same time. It seems a terrible thing to hope, but I hope it won't be too long before Severus is reunited with his angels.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

And even if it is, he has his two curly-haired granddaughters, Ala and Rosalee, to keep him company.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I'll get on it. Spellbreaker, I think, since it was the first, and my secretly favourite, child.

[droxy.livejournal.com]

He's still alive....

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Is that a complaint, my dear? lol I seem to recall you being a bit put out with me about that in Black-Eyed Angel!

By the way, don't forget, you owe me a challenge!

[andyissadangel.livejournal.com]

The drabble is so bittersweet... Just what I needed for wake-up. I don't do coffee anymore.

I read all your fics. And As the morning fall had more impact on me, because I nearly had a heart attack (you know why). I wondered if Snapes (Mullholands) return to England, and what their friends' reactions are upon their return. We see Harrys reaction. But what about the others? And I'd really like to see if one of the boys will get together with Lily =) It's so funny to read angry Severus.
So... if you can, a drabble sometimes after Mullholands return to England, explaining friends' reaction.

[irishredlass.livejournal.com]

I just read Spellbreaker and what a wonderful piece. I would like to see you re-visit this world go forward and show us Severus and Hermione on Preesa's wedding day? Who does she marry? How does Severus handle it?

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I am so thrilled you enjoyed it. That sounds like a great challenge and I'm up for it! Hmmm.....let me think.....who would be a great/not so great match for Preesa?????

[irishredlass.livejournal.com]

LOL I was actually thinking James Potter, but I will leave that up to you!