A/N: I do not own Harry Potter
Written for The Houses Competition Term Four
House: Hufflepuff
Position: Prefect
Category: Standard
Prompt: [Event] Meeting long lost family member.
Written for The Golden Snitch Forum
School: Hogwarts
House: Hufflepuff
Challenge: Through the Universe
Prompt: Superior Planet — (character) Severus Snape
Wordcount: 1823
Warning: Mentions of past abuse - no details. Character deaths, with some mild gore and magic related violence.
A Night with the Princes
The front of the manor was grand and far more luxurious than he could ever have imagined. He couldn't fathom this being his life as good as a Malfoy – if not better! The estate was vast with the main house sitting in the midst of beautifully manicured gardens. The old house was built from pristine white stone and was framed by clusters of poplar trees with a large clear lake peeking out behind it in the distance. The name Prince really did seem to fit the stunning view. Peeking through the wrought-iron gates, he didn't waste any time. He strode purposefully through. The seventeen-year-old boy was filled with hope; he might just have found a real family his family.
He was greeted at the door by a house-elf and then shown into a small drawing room. The boy looked very out of place in his tattered robes as he sat in a wingback chair. Severus looked through the large windows, getting a better view of the lake and a far off view of the stables; this was apparently his 'family home'. He sat alone for a good twenty minutes before he heard two people approaching.
The older woman entered the room first; she looked nothing like his mother. Raina Prince, his grandmother, had chocolate brown hair which was all held up in tight curls on her head. The harsh woman had nothing like his mother's expression; his mother had been downtrodden, her shoulders slumped, and her head constantly bowed. Raina, she stood tall, proud, and her face was harsh, and she looked down at Severus where he sat.
The man resembled his mother more so. He had her dark hair and eyes, and a thick dark beard which stood out against his pale, almost sallow complexion. He was a broad and imposing man, and his expression was hard. Duncan did not have his mother's demeanour either; he had an aggressive stance and confident expression. Severus couldn't help but wonder if his mother had been this proud and dignified before she had met Tobias.
"After all this time, you show up here?" Duncan asked.
"My mother would never come," Severus replied awkwardly, as he pulled at the loose threads of his second-hand robes. "I think– I wonder if she was afraid? Maybe she thought you would turn us away."
"Our daughter ran away, eloped with that– that, filth!"
"I came to tell you that she passed away," Severus mumbled.
"Eileen brought great shame upon this family," his grandmother began, "she didn't even have the decency to pick a Muggle of any rank or standing! She stopped being our daughter long ago, boy."
"But–" Severus paused, confused at the expression and the anger. Where was the grief, the pain from losing their only child? "What if she had come back? Left him?" he looked from one harsh face to the other, begging and pleading for something more.
The couple remained standing, staring expressionlessly at the confused Severus. There was a loud silence, the kind that filled the room with so much information. There was an overwhelming lack of welcome, and Severus' hope was starting to fade.
"Did she come back?" he asked, a light frown forming as he looked from one to the other.
"Of course she did!" Raina spat. "But do you think we would help raise our daughters bastard child and the child of a Muggle Plummer no less? She was sent away!"
"Did you know?" he asked, his voice shaking as the anger started to bubble. "Did you know?" he shouted. He glared at his grandfather, Duncan, willing him to answer the question.
"Know what, boy!"
"That he beat her!" he shouted. "Did you know that your daughter lived with a man that hit her and her child daily? Did you know?"
"What did she expect?" came his grandmother's response. "She married filth, and she bore filth."
Severus couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had been abandoned because of his blood, his filthy half-Muggle blood. The rage that bubbled inside him threatened to spiral out of control. They stood proudly, and he realised they didn't see what they had done was wrong. He couldn't believe it. He trembled with his anger, far more than he ever did at the name Snivellus, and he could no longer contain it. The dam of built up emotion and anger burst and his grandparents would feel the full effect of his wrath.
"You're calling me filth?" he spat angrily. "You are calling me filth! The people that abandoned their own flesh and blood, you're calling me filth? You know your daughter, your own child was beaten by her magic-hating husband, you left her at the mercy of a drunken, filthy Muggle whose only way of settling a disagreement was with his fists! He didn't spare his child either, just so you know, this nose is not hereditary! You live here in luxury, you lavish yourselves with fancy robes and decadent jewellery, but your own child was struggling to clothe her son, struggling to get his books for school, struggling even to pay the bills. She was forced to bury who she was, but you sit here in your castle, with not a care in the world!"
He stared at his grandmother, watching as her face contorted into a look of disgust. Her thin lips tightened, and her eyes narrowed on the seventeen-year-old in front of her.
"How dare you, you insolent boy! You bring shame to this family just by being born! Your contaminated blood shames us, and yet we allowed you into our home out of the goodness of our hearts! You dare talk to me about filth, about prejudice! We know who you go about with, consorting with Death Eaters!"
"You abandoned her!" he screamed. The sound was filled with his own heartache, his own desire to make things right for her the one person that had truly cared for him, and was no longer there. "It was all your fault!" he cried.
It was in this moment that Severus realised that he would never gain acceptance from this family, and he knew there was only one family that would accept him now, that much was clear; the Death Eaters. Severus' fury did not dissipate, with each word he spoke, he acknowledged each hurt, each scar, and traced it all back to the two people in front of him. Severus could no longer control himself, and what happened next felt more natural to him than anything else ever had. He wanted to vanquish his enemies, and he wanted the pain to leave, so he raised his wand, his face contorted in an ugly expression of pure loathing, and the wand tip lowered. He aimed directly at his grandmother's chest.
"Sectumsempra," he hissed with all the venom he could muster.
His grandmother screamed out in agony as the spell opened up a fatal laceration. She slumped to the floor, suddenly so much weaker as she lost blood by the pint. His grandfather sobbed, but Severus barely heard his pleas for mercy or his flimsy attempts at repairing the damage. He stood over them, watching emotionlessly, completely calmed despite the horror that he had caused. It was not long before he aimed for the neck of his grandfather, the one that had made all the decisions, the one that was the cruellest, and the one that condemned him to a life of pain and misery. He spoke the incantation one more time, and red sprang from the opening in his neck, spraying the walls, and Severus himself. His grandfather slumped against the wall, his last plea dying on his lips.
Severus Snape stood over the two bloody corpses, speckles of red marked his face as he looked on the faces of the grandparents he had met for the first time this afternoon. The rage was gone. The pain settled to a dull thud in his chest, and he descended into a calm, composed state that he had never had before. Severus would become known for one with intense control, but today was the first time he truly felt the bliss, the numbness created by Occlumency. Once he was sure that they had stopped breathing, he removed a small glass vial from his robes. He held it up in his blood-stained hands—the pristine crystal tainted by his long lost relative's blood—as he focused, carefully removing the memory of what happened. The silvery substance clung to his wand in whispery strands, until gently he deposited it into the vial.
oOo Flashback oOo
Severus walked through Hogsmeade with his dorm mates, McNair and Avery. They had convinced him to come to a meeting for potential Death Eaters. Severus, who had always been in two minds, after all, his affection for Lily—a Muggle-born—was very real, followed. The recent death of his mother left him feeling more and more alone, and though he would never say it aloud, he craved family. They met in one of the darker, more sinister pubs of Hogsmeade, and there he saw someone he remembered; Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius Malfoy had been a Prefect during his earlier years at Hogwarts and had defended him against the Marauders more than once. He was amazed when he smiled and waved Severus over.
"Have you decided to join us?" Lucius asked in a silky tone.
Severus looked away, unsure still if he wanted to join, but more than anything wanting that family.
Lucius extended a flat palm out to the sallow teenager. "You know that we do not allow just anyone to become one of us."
Severus nodded. "I know, and I know I should be honoured. I am... it's just–"
"The price is high." Lucius nodded, understanding the young man. He seemed so sympathetic, so understanding, and it was everything that Severus craved. "I know you plan to seek out your grandparents. They have caused the Dark Lord some problems, but if you want to be part of our family, they could be your price."
"I don't know, they have never done anything to me. They are pure-bloods!" Severus replied, shocked at the prospect of discussing targets, a way to buy his Mark.
"They abandoned you, and they abandoned your mother. They are the reason for everything that ever happened to you, everything that Muggle father of yours did to you."
Severus said nothing, just listening, taking in everything Lucius said, as though it were fact.
"He will want proof, Severus. Proof that you have what it takes and that you yearn for nothing more than to join our family."
Severus' only reply was to accept the crystal vial.
"Bring this back with a memory of the deed. If you cannot, do not come back at all." Lucius' smile told him exactly what would earn him the Dark Lord' mark and the one thing he had always craved above all else.
A family.