FIC: A Full Stomach of Happiness (G)
Title: A Full Stomach of Happiness
Type: Fic
Age-Range Category: Two
Character(s): Severus, Eileen, Lily, Mrs. Evans
Author: iulia_linnea
Rating: G
Summary: Severus never wants to forget a moment of the day he's just spent with Lily.
"It's rare for fairies to be found in an industrial place like this, and that one's sick. Let it go, boy. We wouldn't want your da to see it."
Severus usually listens to his mam, but he just can't, not this time. He found the fairy in his place, the place where the trees are green because of him.
"It's my responsibility to protect you. You're . . . you're delicate. You're my fairy." He gently reaches out a finger and traces the edge of one irridescent wing. "Ow!"
Zzzzzzrt, zrt, zzzzz!
"I told you not to be so silly about a mere fairy!"
Severus exclaims. He's been careless.
From the attic's hatch, his mother tells him, her tone heavy, "Just don't get caught-and don't let that Bowtruckle of yours anywhere near her eggs if you want more 'delicate' creatures to play with."
"Eggs?" Severus asks. "What eggs?"
"And clean up your finger," calls Eileen, as her head disappears. "You don't want it getting infected."
Even though the sun has barely just risen, Lily is full of questions. "Did it? Become infected, I mean?"
"Oh, yeah," Severus says, unconsciously sucking the finger in question into his mouth before rubbing it on his trousers.
They're in their place, the one with the very green trees, staring up at the sky. It's nice, well, more than that, really.
"Did your mum find out?" Lily presses.
"She did, and she Healed me with an unguent."
"U n g u e n t," Lily repeats.
The way she speaks makes Severus feel warm and shivery and odd. He'd like to keep listening to her speak about anything.
"I wonder if your mum used Bubotuber pus in it?"
"Ew! Why? That's for acne, you know."
"You said that there were loads of uses for-"
"Sure, Lily, but-"
"And that you'd stop interrupting me all the time!" interjects Lily, sitting up.
Fear seizes Severus; he reaches for Lily. "Please, er, don't go. Don't go, Lily."
"Then stop talking over me and tell me more about the Bowtruckle."
~*~
"I really liked him, the Bowtruckle, even though he did eat the fairy eggs. Mam said he would, and she was right."
"Where were they?"
"Mam gave me an old fern for the attic fort, and the fairy laid a whole huge bunch of eggs on the fronds. There were eggs everywhere-glistening! Actually, that part was gross. There was a smell, but still, they were eggs, and he ate them."
"Where'd the Bowtruckle come from?"
"Mam took him out of some laundry, someone's pocket-a Squib's. It wasn't in good shape. It looked sort of crumpled, but I gave him stuff to eat and water and let him live on the fern and-"
"Severus, I'm not going anywhere, yet. You don't have to mash in all your words in one moment."
"Oh. Well, you tell me something. About your pets."
Lily smiles. "We had an old kitty once. She was Mum's from before the wedding. Her name was Ham."
"'Ham'?"
"Yes, Sev. Ham. Ham loved ham. She was positively hammy about it."
Lily is grinning at him. Severus smiles back. It's nice, wanting to smile. It's better than nice, having someone to smile at, to smile with.
~*~
"-and then she puts the top of the pie on and bakes it in the bottom of a very hot oven for twenty minutes before moving the pie to the center of the oven and baking it for about thirty-five minutes in a medium-hot oven."
"Does it bubble?" Severus asks. "I like it when the filling bubbles."
"Oh, it bubbles," Lily assures him, nodding.
Severus' stomach grumbles.
Lily pushes herself up in excitement. "I know this one!"
"What do you mean?"
"This word!" she answers, though her eyebrows knit together. "I just can't spell it."
"Which word?" Severus wants to know.
"'Borborygmus'," answers Lily.
"Oh! I know that one, too, and I can spell it," Severus asserts, doing just that without feeling embarrassed at all.
They've been talking all afternoon. Of course he's hungry. There's no shame in that.
Lily smiles. "You're very smart."
Severus flushes. No one tells him things like that, well, not usually. Well . . . .
"You wanna come with me for a snack? Mum'll be wondering where I am, and she wouldn't mind company."
"Are you sure?"
Lily nods, and pulls them up off the ground.
The happiness Severus feels is akin to an explosion of warmth in little popcorn pieces. He wonders if Lily can tell. He wonders why he thinks of silly phrases like "little popcorn pieces." It's weird, he decides.
~*~
The miracle of Mrs. Evans is that she always has food, a great variety of it, and once she's done feeding you with it, she gives you more of it to take away for "later." There is always a later at Lily's, and Severus loves that about her house, her mother, her.
"I'm glad you're my friend, Lily."
His admission isn't awkward until it's out of his mouth, but the squeeze of his hand in Lily's makes his mind clear of anything but sunshine.
"I love that you're my friend, Sev."
They are walking out Lily's front door as she just says this amazing thing. It takes Severus-Sev!-longer than it should to start moving again in the wake of such a statement.
~*~
Back in their place, now kitted out with a full picnic hamper, blanket, and "Some books I thought the two of you would enjoy," Severus and Lily are lost in the words. Reading with someone, together, that's a new experience for Severus. He likes it. But he misses hearing Lily speak.
"Tell me about your book, Lily?"
"I chose the fairy tales-because of your fairy. Real fairies and story fairies are quite different."
"Yeah."
"Did you give your fairy a proper burial?"
Lily's questions are endless, and Severus is happy to answer them. "It was sad, mostly because Mam thought I was being silly. When she died-the fairy, I mean-she shriveled up like a bug, but her wings still glittered and littered fairy dust all over everything. I collected as much of it as I could and then . . . ."
"What? Why'd you stop, Sev?"
"Well," he continues, looking up from under his fringe, "the Bowtruckle, remember how I told you he wasn't in good shape?"
Lily nods.
"He died, too. He looked so limp and lonely lying there when I found him."
Lily takes his hands. "You are so kind."
"You don't know what I did," Severus says.
"I do!" asserts Lily. "You buried them together, the fairy and the bowtruckle, so that they wouldn't be alone, right? Right, Sev?"
He nods.
"That was good of you," Lily tells him. "Where did you bury them?"
"In the back garden by the shed where Mam does the washing. The plants back there are mostly weeds, but I think they're pretty."
Lily beams at him, her eyes shining. "Then that was exactly right. We buried Ham with flowers, too-and ham. What?"
Severus, eyes wide, opines, "That was a terrible waste of perfectly good ham!"
"Should we have eaten it and offered Ham the ghost of the ham?" asks Lily.
"I think," Severus says, crossing his arms in what he considers to be a dignified manner, "that you know my opinion about that!"
~*~
"I think I prefer roast beef to ham, Sev. Ham gravy is always so salty."
"Hmm."
"You disagree?"
Severus shakes his head. "I wouldn't know. Mam's never made ham gravy."
~*~
It takes a long time before any rumbling or gurgling noises can be heard to emanate from Severus and Lily's intestines, but eventually, with the stars bright in the sky, Lily stands up and begins collecting everything that came out of the picnic hamper, well, everything but the food, which is long gone.
"Thank your mam for the picnic, and letting you stay out so long today. I, er, I had fun. I did," Severus says, surprised to realise it's true.
"I always have fun with you. You're smart. I like hearing about magical things from you."
Severus wants to tell Lily that he likes hearing her speak about anything, that he likes that she likes, that . . . . He's not sure what he's thinking, not exactly, just that he truly does believe that Lily likes him and is his friend. That is his own private miracle, one he has no intention of sharing with anyone. He's afraid that if he talks about Lily, what they have might crumple up and die. He's afraid.
"You're doing it again, Sev. You're thinking too hard. What about?"
"Stupid stuff."
"No." Lily shakes her head emphatically. "You're very smart. You don't think about stupid stuff. You should remember that, Sev."
And with those ridiculously kind but welcome words, she leaves him with a peck on the cheek.
Severus presses his palm into that cheek and feels filled with an unidentifiable warmth. How can she like him? How?
"How?" he whispers, over the rumble of his stomach.
He stuffs his hands into his jumper pocket and starts at the crackling. It's a sandwich. Lily has left him a sandwich in his pocket.
The tears that fall from his eyes as he eats it are grateful ones, especially because Lily's given him roast beef, which he now knows she prefers.
"Gen'rous t'faul'," he murmurs, of his Lily, both mouth and heart full as he reviews every detail of the glorious day.
Severus never wants to forget a moment of the day he's just spent with Lily; it's brought him a . . . a full stomach of happiness!
And there is absolutely nothing silly about that turn of phrase, Severus decides, no matter what Mam-anyone-might say.
Feeling sated in more ways than one, he looks up and laughs in genuine, shocked delight as the fairies sparkle and chirp in the new-fallen night.