Chapter Seven-The Not So Noble and Not So Ancient House of Filch

Thanks to my betas!

AN: Woops seems I uploaded chapter 37 by mistake, here's chapter seven the way it was meant to be.

Disclaimer-These characters belong to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing…

Toby never told his mother about the incident with the boys. She'd only be angry that he was outside and 'attacked' by Muggles and then she'd never let him leave the house again. He continued on with his home studies, and took a liking to particular magical history book which linked together magical and Muggle history and mentioned notable wizards who lived in the Muggle world. He liked the chapters on ancient Rome and Greece the best. Studying ancient Rome came in handy with his learning the Latin language, after all. Also some of his older potion's books had Greek writing in them, so he became fascinated with the Greek history also. He learned about the Spartan army of 300, the god's and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome, the mythology and what roles magic played in their civilizations. He learned about Nero, Caesar and the fall of Rome. He really enjoyed reading about the gladiatorial bouts fought in the Coliseum. He found it intriguing that Muggles could be so cruel as to have their own slaves murdered for entertainment; killed by other slaves, or killed and eaten by wild beasts. His mother was right, Muggles are indeed evil people. Then again, Emperor Nero was a wizard and just as guilty as other Muggles for enjoying and prolonging such debauchery.

When he asked his mother about it, she said the times were violent back then, and that Muggles are nearly as violent today. She reminded him again of the witch trials and why secrecy was so important. Whenever he asked her why she married a Muggle, all she said was "you can't help who you fall in love with," and left it at that.

He was a very disciplined student who did not need his mother to keep track of his studies. He had taught himself nearly everything he needed to know to live in the wizarding world and looked forward to attending Hogwarts. He would write himself an outline of what he wanted accomplished and when and would pace himself to finish before the designated time. One day he assigned himself the task of writing his magical family tree. Unfortunately in the wizarding world, your pedigree was more attributed to your father's side than your mother's. No one cared who your mother's families were, unless you were a pureblood and even then, it was your father's side that was still more important.

He had no tree on his father's side to go to, so instead he focused on all he could; he focused on his mother's heritage.

The family tree started with Toby at the bottom, and then his mother who he knew had been born in Scotland in the all wizarding village, Hogsmeade. Next he added her father, Severus Prince and his wife, Elizabeth Filch. His mother did not know anything about her father's family or upbringing other than Severus did not attend any wizarding school but his father, also named Severus Prince, did attend Durmstrang. She knew a fair bit more about her mother's side of the family, the Filches .

The Filches were a very old pureblood Welsh wizarding family. They had settled in Wales a very long time ago and in most ways, were unremarkable. The last male in the Filch line, his great uncle Argus, was, of course, a squib. The Filch line would die with him, at least the Filch name would. His grandmother Elizabeth had only the one daughter, his mother Eileen. Elizabeth's oldest brother Abaris was an extremely gifted seer and very powerful wizard but had died in his late teens from dragon pox.

Toby's grandmother Elizabeth also died of dragon pox when his mother was only nineteen.

Elizabeth's father was Hyllus Filch and he married Gwenllion Crouch. Hyllus was a professional Quidditch player but not the best known one. After retiring from the sport at a young age he bought a shop that sold Quidditch supplies in Diagon Ally.

Hyllus was an only child and his wife had two sisters, Matilda and Angharad. Matilda was crippled from a childhood ailment and never married and Angharad married a Muggle and was banished from the family.

Much was known of Hyllus's family as both his parents were quite well known in the wizarding world, but not for the greatest of reasons. His mother was Gladys Diggory and his father was Sinon Filch. Sinon was a great potions brewer who was rather famous in his day for certain 'dark potions' he'd invented.

Gladys was said to be a highly gifted healer and a most beautiful witch. A book written at the time used her attributes in a story written about a young man who loved a woman he could not have. The author of the book was a man named Gideon O'Malley. He was a mudblood from Ireland who had traveled to Wales to work in an Apothecary, and whilst there he met and fell in love with Gladys. She being a pureblood would not consider him and married Sinon instead. One year later, their son Hyllus was born.

But Gideon loved her till the end of his days and told anyone who would listen that the character Christina in his book, "The Loveliest Witch" was actually Gladys. 'Christina' was written to be tall with milky white skin, crystal blue eyes and silky long, straight, raven black hair which was always worn down. In the book, she was said to be an exceptional healer, and of her beauty he wrote she 'could bewitch a man's heart with the wink of her crystal blue eye.'

Sinon did not like that this mudblood had written a book using his wife as a character. The two dueled and Gideon lost. He did not die from his injuries but his pride was hurt. He did receive scars on his face that never healed. The scars were from a potions bottle that Sinon had thrown at him during the duel. Inside the bottle was a green acid that burnt his skin. This was how Sinon won the duel. Upon leaving Wales and returning to Ireland, Gideon wrote another book, "My Lost Witch" where he retold the tale of the duel. Though the names had been changed everyone knew who the book was really about. Gideon died a bitter, homeless wizard, living in the streets of Muggle Dairy, but his books were still read to this very day.

Unfortunately Gladys died several years after the fabled duel. Her husband had a mistress, a Muggle named Anne. Anne bore him an illegitimate child, a son who she named Trevor. Once Trevor was born she gave Sinon an ultimatum. He was to leave his wife or else. Sinon decided to murder his wife instead. He and his apprentice, a young lad named Haurcible began working on various tasteless and odorless potions they could use to poison Gladys with. Haurcible was a very dark wizard and also helped invent the acid potion Sinon had used in his duel with Gideon.

Sinon and Haurcible found a potion they both agreed on and Sinon started poisoning his wife's food. It was a slow process but she began to get weaker and weaker, unable to heal herself she finally succumbed to the poison after two years of ingesting it. Before Sinon could marry his mistress his life took a turn for the worse. He and Haurcible opened a shop in Knockturn Alley and had started work on a new dark potion, and soon many dark wizards were using their brews.

When one such wizard named Olcum Gaunt used a certain potion of Sinon's and Haurcible's to murder the Minister of Magic, Sinon was thrown into Azkaban, where he died four years later.

Haurcible was never caught and continued brewing dark potions until he died of dragon pox some twenty years later.

Anne's reputation was ruined after her lover was imprisoned. She died penniless in a brothel many years later.

Because his mother was dead and his father was imprisoned, Hyllus was raised by his paternal Aunt Bertha Filch who had no children of her own.

Not much else was known about Sinon Filch's parents, other than his father's name had been Merkin Filch and he too was a potions brewer. Sinon's mother was a nameless witch, who could have possibly been a half blood, though there was no proof either way. Sinon never mentioned his mother as she had died giving birth to him. His father Merkin raised his son alone and never spoke about his dead wife. Merkin rarely spoke at all. He was a very private and silent man and with him the history came to an end.

Of course Merkin had parents and so on and so fourth but that was all the information on his family that Toby could gather through the various books and records he had access to. He committed all of their names, ages and professions to memory and presented his findings to his mother. She was pleased that her son and shown such great interest in her family. She really had never cared about anyone but her own parents, and often wondered what the Romanian side of her family was like. She never cared enough to explore them though, and neither did Toby at that point.

"Mum, why don't I have a wizarding name?"

"You know why, you are named after your father, besides your middle name is a wizarding name. It's a Latin name, the name of a Roman Emperor."

"Yes mum, Flavius Valerius Severus, died 16 September 307, was a Western Roman Emperor from 305 to 307 of the common era. He was from the Balkans region and was an old friend of Galerius, the emperor who ordered that Severus be appointed Caesar of the Western Roman Empire, a post that he succeeded to on 1 May 305. But he was not a very good Emperor; he was forced to commit suicide."

"Very good Toby, you committed all that to memory? Why?"

"It's important, and I don't really like the name Toby, it's stupid, no wizard would ever call himself Toby. Can't I go by Severus even though he was not a great Emperor?"

"Your father may not like that Toby."

"My father does not like anything," he quipped.

"It's up to you, I'll have no part of it and if you decide to go by that name, you will tell your father, not I."

"Maybe I should wait until I start Hogwarts and change it then?" he asked, but his mother was heading up stairs for her afternoon potion's induced 'nap'. Toby decided to sit and draw out his family tree on a large piece of parchment and ponder his name.

Toby had started venturing further from the row houses on Spinner's End. On a mild summer day he snuck over to a park that was closer to the middle class part of town. He sat beneath a large tree and watched the Muggle children play. He was far enough away that no one would ever spot him. He carried a book with him and did his studies there for the next three weeks. During that time he could not help but notice a girl, who looked to be his age or slightly older given her height. She had red hair and was wearing pink shorts and white shirt on the day he noticed her appear to fly from the swing set at the play ground. He could not believe his eyes, so he got closer. She did it again, and again and again. The other child with her could not fly off the swings the way she did. Could it be that this girl was a witch? He did not want to speculate and did not want to talk to her if she was a Muggle.

He had asked his mother once if they were the only wizards in Derby and she said yes, since her friend had moved away, it was just the two of them. The nearest wizarding community was a tiny one in Yorkshire, which was not terribly nearby. It was possible since his mother rarely left the house that she did not know that there was a witch in the area. Maybe this girl was a mudblood even, and possibly did not know herself that she was a witch. 'How horrible,' he thought to himself, 'to be a witch and not know it?' He couldn't fathom anything worse short of being a squib. If this girl was a witch and does not know it, maybe he should tell her. It would not hurt, and she had the right to know. 'Perhaps she already knows she is a witch though, in that case, I'd still like to have another magical person to talk to,' he thought to himself.

He pondered for several more days before he finally got the courage to confront her. He'd never really spoken to anyone his age before and never knew any other wizards aside from his mother. He spoke to his father but only rarely. He'd never really spoken much to anyone now that he thought of it. He was shy by nature but something told him to go down there and just talk to her. He decided if he was going to talk to her and tell her she's a witch, he'd have to introduce himself as a wizard, the name Toby just wouldn't do. Severus Snape was much more 'wizard' sounding.

And on that day, Severus made a decision that would change the entire course of his life. Of course, he did not know that just saying hi to this girl would have such ramifications on his life, or he'd never done it. Upon later reflection, approaching her that day was the single biggest mistake he'd ever made, and he made it at the tender age of nine.