Disclaimer: These characters are the property of J.K. Rowling. No profit made from their use.
Chapter 1
As the last remnants of sunlight shone into the room as it only can do in the fleeting hours on a summer evening Eugenie sat on the edge of the bed she did each night, helping her young charge fall to sleep. As the boy's head lay on the pillow, she noted the strong contrast between the dark, almost blue-black color of his hair and the stark whiteness of the crisp pillow case. She stroked his head, his long hair laid along the elegant lace that edged the end of the case.
"Miss Eugenie?" the young voice asked, "Do you really have to leave me?"
"Yes, Severus, I do." "Remember what your father said? It's time that you began working with Professor Quen." She said in a low soothing voice as she continued to stroke his head. "Close your eyes now and sleep."
Eugenie shuddered as she recalled the conversation she had with Mr. Snape earlier in the day. The house elf brought her a note as she and Severus were working on sums in the school room. As she took the paper from the salver, she noted the crisp, almost rough texture, of the stationery and realized who it was from.
Miss Ermengild,
Please come to my study at once.
There was no signature but she knew that only the master of the house would request her presence in such a fashion. She rose from the desk and smiled down on the boy,
"I must be gone for a little while, Severus. Please continue with the sums and if you finish before return, you may continue with the story of Hannibal and the elephants." He looked up at her with his solemn face with just the corner of his mouth rising slightly, and she knew he enjoyed the task.
As she left the room, she felt a flutter rise in her stomach. She had never been called to the master's study before. Truthfully, the work she did along with her student had almost been ignored during the two years she had been in the house.
She had been the governess for several wizarding families over the past decade. Most of them were interested in their children's life and education. She stayed long enough in most of the homes to teach the basics of education before the youngsters were ready to move onto a private master or Hogwarts.
It was not so in the Snape home. She rarely saw Mr. Snape, whose activities kept him often from the household. The social world was more important to Severus' mother. Parties, the theater, and the social whirl of the south of France filled her hours.
Most parents came to the classroom daily to visit the children. When they weren't entertaining or traveling, parents invited their children and the governess to the dining table.
That was not true here. Each evening their supper was brought to the classroom and the nursery still served as Severus' bedroom. It was almost as if his parents had forgotten that they had a second son.
Soon after her arrival to the household, she realized that the shy sensitive boy had been raised by a succession of nurses and house elves. Sevrerus' first words and steps had not been viewed by loving doting parents but by someone who felt that he was a responsibility not a child.
Maybe because it was because of the lack of caring parents or adults interested in him, Severus and Miss Eugenie had developed a relationship that he had not had with his nurses or earlier governess. They both enjoyed a love for reading and study that for Severus was unquenchable. History was their favorite subject, both that of the wizarding and that of the muggle worlds. They spent hours together just reading about the Romans in Britain, their conquests of western Europe and the witches and wizards that influenced the age.
