Pursuing the Prince
Chapter II
Disclaimer: I don't own them; I don't know anyone who does. Oh, JK does but I don't know her :-)
Rating: T (to be safe and for later Chapters)
A/N: I hope this is OK…remember to please tell me what you think! Phoenix
The small dingy house on Spinner's End was empty and by the looks of it, had been ransacked. Eileen could only imagine what had been uncovered in her son's house: dark arts books, his diaries of his own spells and potions he had created and perfected. Yet no one had come to question her, which made her think that there was no trace of Tobias or herself anywhere in the dilapidated building.
Trinny was tutting to herself and shaking her head, "Mistress," she squeaked, "Do you think we will find Little Master? I is only saying this because if the Aurors cannot…"
Eileen moved over to the secret stair passage. She had only been here once before, when Severus had first moved in during the first war, when she was equally worried for his life. She had helped him chose somewhere away from the crux of the Wizarding World, in case things turned ugly, which they inevitably did.
Pulling her hat off, she ascended, coming to a hallway at the apex, which expanded left and right. Deciding to first proceed left, her high-heels clicked eerily against the hardwood flooring. She passed a small room that stank of urine and rat droppings, another room covered in books and cobwebs with a rickety desk in the corner.
At the very end of the hall was a door that looked as though it had been physically forced open.
'Severus must have had it very well enchanted' she thought to herself and stepped inside with trepidation, wand out and prepared for anything her son could muster.
What looked like a laboratory met her vision: three cauldrons werelined up along a work bench pushed up against the far left wall, ingredients spilled on the floor accompanied by broken jars and a rank liquid which was sending fumes in her direction. She stepped over to it quickly and knelt beside it.
"Rotting Wolfsbane," she muttered aloud, and pondered why on earth her son had been making that. As far as she knew Severus wasn't a werewolf and the only one she knew he associated with was Fenrir Greyback and it was common knowledge that his preferred existence was under the fullmoon. Narrowing her eyes in thought, she heard the padding footsteps of Trinny behind her. Eileen straightened up and put her hat back on.
"They went right through this room," she said and walked to the other side and peered out of the window down onto the other factories around his house, the smoke drifting over the landscape.
"This is so ridiculous Trinny," she whispered, "I'm his mother for Merlin's sake and I have no idea what he's been doing," she turned quickly and pointed her wand at the Wolfsbane, "Evanesco! And I don't know where he could possibly be…"
The elf stepped forward, "Maybe this would help Mistress," she squeaked and produced a green leather bound book with SS embossed on the front. It looked like it had been growing mould and had been forgotten about for a long time. She strode over to the elf and snatched the book out of her hands and opened the cover.
"It's an address book," she muttered. "Where did you find this?"
The elf twisted her finger around the black pillowcase she wore. "Trinny finds it under a floorboard under Little Masters bed. Trinny remembers how Little Master used to enchant floorboards to hide things. So she says the word and it pops open and this is what Trinny finds…"
"Where's his bedroom?"
"Follow Trinny, Mistress."
Eileen followed the elf down the other end of the hall and entered a large room with an unmade bed, mess everywhere, the signs of a quick exit, as she had always known her son to be meticulous about detail and neatness. Suddenly she felt a rush of pity; he had probably been asleep when he heard them arrive, or had he been tipped off? She shook the haunting thought from her head and knelt where Trinny was already shifting the board.
It was harder for Severus's mother to reach the opening in the floor, so she flicked her wand and the bed flew across the room and slammed into his wardrobe that used to reside at her house. She pointed her wand into the gap, "Accio contents" she was knocked back by all sorts of things, mainly books and stoppered phials without labels. When things ceased to spill from her son's secret hiding place she looked around at what was before her.
What caught her eye was the smallest phial with a black potion inside, swirling a deep purple in the sunlight. Knowing deep down what it was she had to be sure and uncorked it. Wafting the sent of the potion towards her she quickly slammed the cork back in place. Her ability in potions had never left her and she placed the most deadly poison in the inner pocket of her red travelling cloak.
Other items included some of his old text book from Hogwarts, Defence against the dark arts and Charms. She opened the charms book and flicked through, at the back written in cramped hand writing was 'This is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince'. She smiled and found the same inscription on the other book. Long ago she had found that scrawled on his Advanced Potions books and it was one of the things in her life that made her swell with pride.
Nothing else that was expelled from under his bed was of any particular importance except for her father's wand that he had left his grandson: the only thing he left to her family after his death, forsaking her for her choice in a Muggle husband and thus besmirching the name of Prince. She also tucked this away in her pocket and turned back to the address book that before was lying forgotten behind her.
She fingered the pages in quick succession. Apothecaries, shops she knew to be in Diagon and Knockturn Alley, his Gringotts information… she suddenly spied something that looked out of the ordinary.
"Lily Evans…" she whispered and looked at Trinny with her black eyes turned in confusion. "Not that Potter woman? Surely not…do you ever remember Severus mentioning her...?"
Trinny shook her head.
"Oh well, she's no use to us…dead now…" she kept flicking and after a time at staring at one page she slapped her forehead.
"Why didn't I think of that before? The Malfoys, of course! He was with Lucius's son Draco when it happened," her finger moved down the page and her eyes decided their next destination when they locked onto Trinny and gave the elf a wiry smile.
She stood up, brushed herself off, held out her hand and the elf bounced over to clutch the elegant fingers and they disapparted.
Tell me what you think! Its just so easy to push the button at the bottom of the page! Go on, i know you can do it! lol, sorry, i'm being a pushy author...in your own time
Phoenix
