Living but Lifeless, August 2047

Gently spraying water from a muggle device onto her licuala grandis, Eglantine barely caught the soft patter of feet approaching her from behind.
"What can I help you with, Sevie?" she asked, pulling on palm leaf down to reach its inner veins.
"I was just curious." he murmured, his eyes wandering about the large garden.

Eglantine had transformed what had been a guest room into a greenhouse of sorts. Magically the ceiling was adapted to allow sunlight, but not rain to pass though. Each plant had its own magically preserved area in which they could thrive and she did not seem about to forget which plants required what.
"About?" Sevie sighed. His mother had a rather sharp manner of cutting straight to the point. Often he wondered what it would be like if she just nodded and smiled.
"What you were doing."

His mother turned to him, her green eyes lit with curiosity and no small amount of surprise.
"Ah..." She moved to the next plant, one that Sevie had always jokingly thought looked a lot like his father's beard. Rhipsalis capilliformis... all his mother's plants were either rare or hard to care for. Except her lavender; that was just her favourite. Once he had asked her why she cared for the plants so much... watering them personally instead of magically and tending them, pruning them... Her answer had hardly been the one he had expected.
'They live; yet have no affections, no heart.' And he was still trying to figure out why that made them special.

He liked plants; okay not deeply, but a flower there and a bush there was nice. It wasn't as if he would fail herbology or anything. But, these were all muggle plants; not even one of them magical. Although he wondered at times if perhaps the Nephrolepis pendulum didn't have a brain... since it appeared to always grow toward the person it wanted to grab. Muggle or not he hated the cactus.

In one month, he'd be going to Hogwarts. At eleven, he was thrilled at the very idea of becoming a student. He had been to Hogwarts before, in fact he had lived there most of his life. But it was different.
"Can you wait until next month?" he trilled, smiling from ear to ear.
"Yes."

Things had been different in years past; he had always returned from muggle school to find his parents grading papers or having tea, prepared to return to Hogwarts... but always happy to see him and prepared to kiss his forehead, give him a biscuit and ask him about school. But now it was just his echoing of the door closing and his footsteps through an empty house and his search to find his mother. Sometimes she was waiting for him, but more often than not, she was too busy to even notice he had come home. His father... his father wasn't there anymore.

"Do you think Papa would come to help get my school stuff and my wand?" His mother's gloved hand froze where it had settled against the aloe ferox's pot. Maybe it hadn't been the best question to ask.
"Maybe... do you want to write him about it?"
Sevie nodded.
"Well then..." his mother set the sprayer down and smiled at him, "You can use my owl."
Elation swept through him as Sevie bobbed his head in thanks and rushed for the door.

Behind him, Eglantine watched as he hurried toward the study. Horatio would come... would smile and laugh, making everything seem as though he'd never left. Tears filled her eyes as she continued to water the small plant.

No... she hissed to herself, she was not going to cry. Horatio was not dead and for that she should be happy. Her long sleeve touched her eyes as she kept the tears back. They were not divorced; although they did not speak. He was retired... and life went on.

Remembering Gwen's sad expression when she had come to her with the news that Horatio had fled, Eglantine closed her eyes. It had been terribly ironic that the woman he had gone to had been the same one he had left her for. Of course she had forgiven him and Gwen for that... but it had still hurt to hear Gwen say that he had asked her to tell his family he was leaving.

With a sigh, Eglantine picked up the nearest pot, it housing a specimen of flowering monolena primulifolia. If only people were as simple as plants... living but lifeless.

"He said he'd come!" Sevie's exclamation echoed through the magically enlarged house. All the McKevin children, save Sevie, had graduated and moved out. There was no Ewan or Ean to laugh along with her youngest, teasing him or playing with him... No Ara to help with a baby's diaper or pass a kind word too... Not even an Ava to worry about... just silence and her no doubt soon to be Slytherin 11 year old.

Eglantine kissed her son's head, tucking the covers around his sleepy form.
"Good-night, Mama." he yawned. She nodded, stroking his blonde head.
"Good-night, love."

Leaving the bedroom, she closed the door and slowly made her way down the stairs. She settled herself in the chair closest the roaring fire and stared into the flames. Thoughts both dark and melancholy filled her mind as she noticed the pipe case sitting on the mantel. He had left it behind, no doubt by accident.

Gently, she pulled it toward her with a levitation charm. The flames nearly enticed her to add it to the burning wood, but she refrained, tucking the item into her robes' pocket. Small reminder that it was, it was still a thought. Horatio had left her this time and she rested in the fact that she had not hurt him.

Ara had suggested she ask for forgiveness for all the years of pain she had caused him; but Eglantine had already done so. The heart did not mend like a torn curtain. There were no thread to stitch only the needles that left bleeding pricks.