Chapter Text
Many years later, the bell chimed on the door of Stella et Cervus, the Muggle bookshop in Bloomsbury that had held one man’s stories, his pain, and his slow, stubborn healing.
Hand in hand, the man, his husband and their two children—one lion-hearted boy and one sweet, flowery girl—stepped into the evening light, leaving behind the quiet shelves and the golden letters that had seen it all.
The door closed softly behind them, and his husband’s fingers intertwined with his, warm and sure as they had for ten years now. Even tinier hands tugged at both of them, laughter ringing out into the night as they laughed, the sound like wind chimes.
Somewhere above the cobblestones, the shop’s sign swayed gently, as if nodding in approval, watching over a family who had finally found their way home.
Stella et Cervus.
Star and Stag.
The bookshop remained behind them, keeper of all the chapters that had led to this one, while ahead stretched the unwritten pages of their story yet to be told.