Secrets

It wasn't rare for all the girls to be in Sev and Edie's quarters, even now that all of them but Calliope were students. Darla prefered to keep anything that didn't fit in her trunk in their room, so often visited to retrieve this or that, while Eileen liked to pop in for tea with Edie at least once a week, and Essie was always looking everywhere to find her or Darla to share something that had excited her with them. In that way, today was no different than most others. However, in one way it was to be monumental for Eileen.

While in the midst of tea with her mother on the lounge room sofa, Darla walked into the room with whatever it was she came to get that day as the door to Eileen's parents' quarters swung open and revealed a flushed-face Essie with a handful of books. It was obvious to all she'd jogged the entire way here from what Eileen assumed was the library. At the sight of them all, her mouth shaped into a large, elated grin. Hurrying over she said, "Is Sev home? You all have to take a look at what I found!"

Eileen was about to answer in the affirmative, but her father beat her to it by walking into view from the kitchen, fresh pot of tea for her and Edie floating behind him. "I am," he said. "What is it you have for us today, Essie?"

Her sister's smile only stretched further – if that was possible – and moved over to the coffee table where she nudged the plate of cheese and chicken salad sandwiches aside to place down what Eileen could now see was a middle-sized stack of Hogwarts yearbooks. She then started to pick them up and hand them off to them one by one.

"They're old yearbooks!" she proclaimed. "I was talkin' to Wynch after the yearbook committee's–"

Peevishly, Sev broke into mutter, "I don't know why you insist on partaking in that infernal group." Her brother's disdain for the committee was of no secret to their family (or Hogwarts, really). No one could tell Eileen exactly why or when, but at some point when Darla was but a small girl and them infants he started refusing to cooperate with the group and allow them to take a proper photo of him. Since then, it had become something of a tradition for the year-bookers to try to catch him unawares and snap a semi-decent picture of him to use in the year's book. As one may have expected, they were less than successful.

Until last year, anyhow.

For being so young (and Muggleborn to boot!), Colin Creevey seemed to have the skill of a wizened paparazzi-man. Upon joining the yearbook committee the previous year, he rose to meet the group's challenge and attacked her father not once, but twice, while he was brewing in his office with a flurry of camera flashes. After that, Sev had put up a very specific charm on his office and classroom that caused cameras not to work within them. This didn't seem to bother Creevey any, however. Eileen had found out why when she saw the year's book.

In it, above her father's name was a picture of him brewing. It started as a profile with him stirring a potion that turned into a portrait where he looked a little mean, but not cross yet. All in all, a pretty ace photo of a man who preferred to frown over smile at his students. Upon its reveal to Hogwarts populous, the yearbook committee's head, Myrven Wynch had loudly and enthusiastically praised Creevey in the Great Hall, much to the Gryffindor's pleasure and satisfaction.

Eileen hated to admit it, because it would no doubt leave her father seething when it happened, but she was rather curious to see what kind of photo Creevey would manage to get of Sev this year.

She was brought back to the present when Darla flopped down in the armchair nearest the lounge's fireplace. "It's because she fancies Colin Creevey," Eileen's aunt said nonchalantly as she began to flip through the pages of a yearbook with the year 1958 printed in gold on the book's spine.

Edie, who'd been mid-sip in her tea, began to cough, while Sev's brows shot high on his forehead. Eileen looked over to her sister, the girl was gaping at their aunt. "I do not!" she shrilled.

The seventeen-year-old didn't so much as tense at the high-pitched cry. "You aren't? My apologies. You could have fooled me, though," she replied. "You certainly talk about him enough."

Essie began to sputter, face red and embarrassed. Taking pity on her sister, Eileen took up the role of family peacekeeper and redirected the conversation. "As… riveting as this tangent was, would you please tell us how you got these yearbooks, Essie? I'm curious since you don't have all seven for Sev or Grandmother Eileen."

The look of relief her sister sent her told Eileen she had made the right choice. Taking a breath, she told them, "After the committee's meetin', Wynch mentioned needin' to pick some old yearbooks for reference for this year's one an' I asked if I could borrow some. These are the ones I could find. He thinks the rest is probably in the library."

Eileen and her parents nodded, though, her aunt was too distracted to as well. Abruptly, Darla sat up and turned toward her, shoving the yearbook she was perusing in her face. "Look, Eileen!" she exclaimed. "It's a picture of your namesake and she's even smiling!"

She ignored her aunt's jab (she didn't think Eileen smiled enough anymore, but Eileen thought Darla was far too quick to and it made her look like a dunderhead) and accepted the book. She looked over the photo with interest. Eileen's grandmother was holding a trophy, surrounded by other teenagers and preteens. They all looked to be a little wet and when she squinted to read the inscription on the trophy, she realized her grandmother was being honored for winning the gobstone club's yearly tournament. Before now, she'd never seen a picture of her namesake as they'd all been burned up in the fire that killed her and Eileen's grandfather. However, it was often mentioned by her father, and occasionally by professors who'd known her namesake, how much Darla looked like her.

Tracing her grandmother's face, Eileen could see now how right they all were. Except for her blonde hair, pointed chin, and more athletic build, Darla and Grandmother Eileen were identical. She flipped through it a bit more before returning the book to Darla, who was all too happy to take it back. As she opened the one Essie had given her, she heard her aunt ask Sev, "D'you think anyone will notice if I keep this one? I like being able to see pictures of Mum."

"We'll have a chat with Madam Pince, I'm sure she has an extra or two of this one and others stored somewhere."

Whatever else was said, Eileen didn't hear as she was far too distracted by the pictures of her father, a boy no older than Essie, spread across a couple of pages of collages of students. In them, he looked a bit dour, but not too different from how he looked now. There was one where he was with Harry's mum, the pair of them smiling as they sat together and spoke over a book on a bench in what appeared to be one of Hogwarts's courtyards; that one she particularly liked. She would have to see about finding Harry later to show him it. He would surely like the photo too. The more and more she looked through the pages, the more she realized how true it was that Essie was a female-double of their father.

If not for having Edie's ears and short fingers, one would think her father had experimented with cloning himself and Essie was the result. She chuckled to herself at the thought. As her family went about their lives around her, she systematically went through the yearbooks available to her and soaked in the glimpses of her father and grandmother's adolescences. However, the more she did, the more she realized that not one trait of theirs had been passed down to her. In the past, Edie had told her she took after other (her, she always assumed) family, but surely she should have something of them in her?

Troubled by what she was seeing she closed the yearbook and put it with the others on the coffee table. When she looked around, she saw it was just her and her mother again. Edie had her knees pulled up with her on the sofa and was sipping peacefully at her tea. Eileen bit her lip and wondered if she really wanted to wreck the tranquility her mother had found. It wasn't always easy for her to feel peace these days.

Eileen tried to not be selfish, but sometimes she couldn't help it. Softly, she called, "Edie?"

"Hmm?"

In spite of the uneasy feeling eating at her that told her to leave it be, Eileen asked, "Is Sev really my father?"

The air seemed to change. Where it was soft and content, it was now charged and uncomfortable. Edie stared at her. "Wha's brough' this on?" asked she.

She couldn't help herself, she glanced at the yearbooks. Her mother was a clever woman and noticed immediately. She sighed. "Eileen, yeh jus' take after other family–"

"–I have nothing of them in me! Essie, who we've always joked is Severus's clone, still has your ears and fingers!" she shouted, rushing to her feet.

Her mother stared back, eyes large and caught. Eileen's knees went weak and she fell back into her chair. She wasn't her father's daughter. It explained so much. The whispers, the glances, the odd question here and there. "Who is he? Who is my father?"

"I don' know," Edie whispered.

More puzzled than upset yet, she said, "What?"

"There's a lo' Sev'rus an' I jus' don' talk abou' with yeh girls," admitted her mother. "One of 'em is wha' I was doin' fer a side job b'fore I found ou' I was pregnan' an' yehr father proposed."

Eileen didn't like what she was hearing in the least bit. Even though she really didn't want to know, she asked, "What were you doing before you were pregnant with me and Lottie?"

Her mother looked away, arms wrapped around herself. "I was whorin' meself fer money," she told Eileen. "Sev'rus was a store clerk an' didn' make enough ter pay me hardly any, jus' enough ter give me room an' board fer watchin' Darla while he worked."

She was horrified. Covering her mouth, she curled in on herself and attempted to absorb this new information about her mother. Eileen would have never thought this would be one of the skeletons of her mother's past. She knew there had to be some, it'd been told to her why she had no grandparents at all was because Sev's mother and father died in a fire while Edie's had passed when she was small and the family that took her in and raised her wasn't the kind you kept in contact once you left to start your own life.

But she'd always thought… Eileen didn't know how she could have been so dumb. Of course her mother hadn't gone straight from that awful family to nannying Darla. There had to have been in-between work, work she did while nannying… They'd been poor. Poor enough Darla could tell her recollections of sharing a room with Sev and having Edie take her down the hallway to the lav. And what other job could her non-Hogwarts educated mother have found that'd be flexible enough she could do it while Sev was home for a scant few hours between shifts at Mulpepper's? Next to none, that's what.

She was startled from her rush of revelations by a hand on her cheek. She looked up and saw her mother's hazel eyes were that melted gold they often became when she was emotional. "It never mattered," she said. "He always respected me an' did righ' by me when no one else ever had. Sev didn' have ter propose ter me or even be yehr father, bu' he chose ter. He loves yeh, Eileen. He named yeh after his mother knowin' yeh migh' no' be his in blood."

Eileen knew it would hurt Edie, but she asked all the same, "Are you sure you don't know who he is? My father?"

Her mother bowed her head a moment. Then she lifted it, face fixed in a determined expression. "He's the man who saw yeh born, held yeh, fed yeh, changed yeh. Taugh' yeh how ter coun', how ter identify if yeh brewed a Pepper-Up righ', who bough' yeh yehr ca' fer yehr birthday." Edie took both of Eileen's hands in her own. "He's why yehr so serious, yeh learned it from Sev." She chuckled. "Tha' face yeh make a' Darla when she's being insufferable is all Sev'rus also. You smirk like him ter, did yeh realize? Dear, he may no' have given yeh his blood, bu' he's given yeh so much more."

Her lip was quivering and her cheek was warm with tears. Eileen tipped into her mother's shoulder and sobbed a while. Edie held her and hummed something comforting until she could stop her tears. When she did, Eileen sat up and took out her handkerchief to dry her eyes. Once done, she made sure the first thing from her mouth was, "I'm sorry." Sniffling a little, she said, "Of course Sev is my father, I just… I never considered…"

Edie smiled and pushed a lock of Eileen's damp hair from her face. "It's alrigh', dear. It's no' yehr faul'. We did this; we wanted so badly fer yeh an' Lottie ter never feel ou' of place an' now, yehr havin' quite the shock 'cause o' it.

Now composed once more, Eileen nodded. "I'm glad you did, until day, I never once wondered if Sev wasn't my father, " she finally told her mother. "And I'm glad Lottie never knew the truth." Edie's breathing hitched at the mention of her twin. "I'm happy she died thinking Sev was her father in every way." Her voice cracked as she added, "I wish I didn't know the truth."

"Dear, we would o' told yeh eventually…"

Eileen sighed. "I figured as much. I just– I feel like I would have been more prepared for it when you and Sev chose than now."

Edie hummed and took hold of one of her hands once more. "No' everythin' can go accordin' ter plan, unfortunately."

She scowled nastily at her feet. If someone were to snap a picture of her and show it to her, she'd say she looked just like her father after a trying day of teaching. But no one did and the only one who saw just how much she was her father's daughter was Edie. "It's bloody unfair, is what it is," she grumbled.

"Eileen!" her mother scolded lightly.

She huffed irritably and looked over at the tea still waiting for them on the coffee table. "Do you think our tea is salvageable?"

"O' course it is," replied Edie. "Now, wha' were we talkin' abou' b'fore Essie came in?"

Eileen cocked her head in thought a moment. Finally, she answered, "The kids in my year are snubbing Lovegood again."

"Ah, yes," Edie clucked disapprovingly. "Tha' poor dear."

She wasn't so sure if "poor" was the right descriptor for Lovegood this time and to try and prove it, started to tell her mother about the incident that led up to the latest freeze-out of the girl.

It has been revealed, once and for all, that Eileen and Lottie are not Severus's children by blood! What do you think of that? Interesting? Upsetting? Expected as much?

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for the next multi-chap in the "Family Branches" saga, called Always Gold. It's a bit different than the rest in that it's set all the way in next-gen, but I hope you'll enjoy it still :)