So Now - On with the Story!
CHAPTER TWO1993 – Sunnydale, California
Severus looked at the boy in front of him and felt his usually sharp mind immediately dull. The dark, oily, messy hair. The deep brown, almost obsidian black eyes. The sharp, angular cheek bones and square jaw. He could have sworn he was looking at the ghost of his own past self.
Sure, there were differences. The boy had short, shaggy cut hair and probably an extra twenty pounds on his teenage self (although both could have been a side effect of being an American). Severus had also never owned any shirts with quite so many bright colors. In fact, he'd only ever seen fashion like it once before – on Albus Dumbledore. The boys ears were rounder and his nose (thankfully) smaller than Severus's unfortunate beak. But really, it was such a striking similarity that Severus simply couldn't help but fall into a gasping, floundering silence as the boy pushed off his skateboard once more down the road.
"Bye mom! And don't leave the house after dark!" the boy called over his shoulder to the woman who stood on the sidewalk, now looking in uncertain concern at the still obviously shell shocked potions master.
"Severus… we should talk."
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1976 – Cork, England.
The music was loud and the room smoky, just how Jessica liked it. There were hits of something being passed around the room and at least a dozen pieces of sexy English arm candy looking her and her companion up and down. She smirked slyly at a few of them, placing her hand lightly on her cousins' shoulder and leaning in provocatively under the pretense of trying to be heard over the music. She knew what she was doing to those guys. And she also knew that Lilly would never go for it. But they didn't need to know that.
"Are you sure about this Wallflower?" Jessica practically screamed over the music directly into her normally straight laced little cousins' ear in order to be heard. "This doesn't exactly seem like your type of scene."
Lilly looked uncertainly around the room for a moment, worrying her bottom lip a bit, before straightening her posture and nodding firmly. Jessica just shrugged. Her 'little' cousin wasn't so little any more after all. The girl was only just recently 16 to Jessica's much more mature 17 (18 in two months, as she liked to remind her).
Of the two of them, it was Lilly who had always been pegged as 'The Good One' by their respective parents. Not that Jessica wasn't a nice person or anything, but she was the one most likely to be found at a smoky bar, a cigarette or joint in her hand and a sashay to her hips as she lead on every male lifeform with a pulse. Lilly was much more likely to be found sitting beneath a big tree with an even bigger book in her lap, or volunteering at a church function or saving a baby ducking from a storm drain or something. It was why Jessica's parents had shelled out for the trip to England in the first place. They thought that spending time with her sweet, perfect little cousin would maybe do something to tone down her wild streak. Jessica smirked quietly to herself – if only her parents could see where she was now.
Jessica didn't know what had gotten into her innocent little cousin this summer, but if it meant she was going to get to go to more parties like this, then she wasn't going to question it. Jessica leaned in close again, sidling her body up against her unsuspecting cousin as she winked at a particularly rugged looking guy along the far wall and asked the girl a question as pretense.
"Hey, is your weird, creepy little friend going to be joining us? Cause I like him and all, he's got a wicked sense of humor, but he's seriously going to kill our chances of pulling a hottie."
Lilly leaned back, startled, and mouthed something, but Jessica couldn't hear her over the music. The older girl rolled her eyes and signaled for the girl to lean in closer, not hesitating as she pulled the girl in to continue her conversation / shameless flirting.
"Severus won't be coming around anymore."
Jessica raised a wry eyebrow at that, noting the distinctly tight and uncomfortable expression on her cousins' face as she did before leaning in again. "Really? Cause you might want to tell him that. He's right outside."
Lilly jerked back, looking shocked as Jessica calmly pointed out the front window towards the dark, hunched figure of her cousins' life-long friend as he carefully picked his way across the front yard in order to avoid as many drunk and potentially stoned high school students as possible. He didn't quite make it.
Less a yard from the front steps the young man was being blocked by the large, muscled figure of what Jessica would have assumed to be a football player, given the letterman's jacket and the attractive blond wrapped on the guys elbow. As this was England, it was probably either that sport that looked like football accept with no kicking, just running and lots of tackling, or the one with the tennis ball and the sticks with tiny nets at the end. Either way, the guy looked like he was getting ready to make trouble for the geeky little weird-o. She looked over to see Lilly worrying her bottom lip between her teeth but, for the first time ever and to Jessica's extreme shock and confusion, didn't seem to have any intent to intervene.
They could see the dark haired boy trying to slip by the much bulkier boy as he blocked the way up the stairs. The kids dark hair hung in her eyes as he kept his head bowed and his shoulders slumped, ignoring whatever taunts the athlete was throwing his way as the blond tittered appreciatively at her catch's sense of humor. Jess could see things getting ready to escalate as the dark haired boys shoulders tensed and he once again tried to slide his way past the much bigger boy blocking most of the narrow staircase, but this time the jock shoved the smaller boy firmly back, sending him flying against the ground in what must have been quite a painful landing. Lilly still stood, rigid and unmoving at her cousins' side as the altercation outside began to draw attention.
Finally getting fed up with her cousin, Jess rolled her eyes with a huff and stomped towards the front of the house. If Lilly wasn't going to do anything then Jess most certainly would. Quite aside from the awkward teen having been her cousins best friend for only almost their entire lives, she wasn't about to just let some jerk pound the crap out of a kid because he was smaller and, admittedly, just a little bit wierd. And that was exactly what was going to happen based on the way that the jock was strutting forward, eyeing his downed pray as the smaller kid seethed in the dirt. Jessica could see the raw hatred and barely controlled rage in the kids' dark obsidian eyes, and it made her falter for a moment, scaring her more than she cared to admit. But despite his rage the scrawny little runt didn't stand a chance and he knew it. Or at least, he wouldn't have stood a chance if Jess hadn't interfered.
"Oooh, now that's hot," Jess stage whispered in her sultriest voice, just loud enough to be heard but just quiet enough that the assembled inebriated teenagers would honestly mistake it as a whisper. The big lug in the letterman's jacket grinned stupidly at her as Jess stood with half lidded eyes, licking her lips with a smirk and her hands on her waist. She thought she saw a flash of recognition from the boy on the ground (he had met her several times before after all) as the brute leered drunkenly at her. She smirked, enjoying the feeling of having the boy exactly where she wanted him. Now, to throw the ringer.
"I didn't know you boys swung that way out here."
The thugs brows crinkled in confusion before his face twisted into an ugly expression of disgust and outrage. "I'm no fuckin' poofter!"
"Really?" Jessica smirked sarcastically, casting a dubious look at the guy in front of her and the scrawny teen slowly getting to his knees behind him, which of course just made the guy madder. Now she definitely sensed her cousins presence behind her, but the girl still wasn't interceding on her friends behalf. "Anyone that can make you that hot and bothered? There's gotta be something going on on the side. I bet you just can't wait to get your hands all over him."
Jessica winked at both boys suggestively as the thug looked back at the confused scrawny nerd in disgust.
"Just stay the fuck away from my parents' house freak!" The brute spat out as he strode angrily back towards his (apparently) party, grabbing his no longer tittering blond girlfriend roughly under one arm as they stalked back towards the house. The group of bystanders slowly dispersed, each of them whispering conspiratorially under their breath about the events that had just occurred and, quite possibly, about the athletes presumed sexual orientation.
Lilly still remained silent and passive behind her, complicit in the incident through her silence, as Jessica rolled her eyes in annoyance. So much for the golden girl protecting her friends. Jessica strode over to where the boy was shakily getting to his feet, trying desperately to brush the dirt and dust from trousers that had clearly seen better days. In fact, his whole outfit looked like it had been pulled from the church donation bin back home. Briefly recalling the state of the boys house just a few blocks over from Lilly's, Jess winced. That thought might have more truth to it than anyone present would care to admit.
"Hey, you ok?"
Dun Dun DUUUNN - Aren't I EVIL? ^-^
