CH 10 The Pure Blood Prince
Severus found himself dreading the coming of the end of his teaching day, as it meant that it would soon be time for him to journey into Hogsmeade to meet with his Uncle Aberforth. After speaking with Minerva he'd almost cancelled, but then thought better of it, as he thought Albus' younger brother might be able to shed some more light on his parents' relationship.
So, shortly after his last class, he headed towards the tavern. His long legs ate up the distance faster than he would have liked and soon he found himself standing beneath the creaking old sign of the boar's head that dripped blood onto a cloth. He took a deep breath to steal himself against the stench of the place, it always smelled of goats, and pulled open the door.
"Ah Severus, you actually came. Didn't know if you would," Aberforth said with a smile.
"I keep my word, sir," he said, and Aberforth heard the undercurrent of anger in the younger man's voice. He understood it, but decided to ignore it.
"Come, come with me. We'll talk upstairs," Aberforth turned and headed for a stairway that looked impossibly narrow and steep, and yet somehow was not once one stood upon it. Severus was distracted for a moment thinking about the magic involved in the stairs.
"Here we are." The older wizard said as the reached the top of the stairs and opened a door. "It's not much, but it'll make do." The room Aberforth showed him into gave every appearance of being a fine Victorian sitting room, with chairs and couches, a roaring fire and several tables, one laden with food and the other with decanters of various liquors. The room had the added attraction of NOT smelling of goats but of a type of incense which Severus was having trouble trying to name.
'Would you care for a drink? I've got mead and elf wine, and of course fire whiskey," Aberforth mentioned.
Severus noticed that the Fire whiskey was Ogden's so he felt safe asking for a shot of it.
"Yes, thank you I'll have a fire whiskey."
"Good choice," Aberforth said as he turned to fix them both fire whiskeys, Severus looked about the room.
"Sit down, sit down lad, and rest a bit, have a bite of food."
"Alright," Severus sighed, took the glass of fire whiskey his host offered and sat down in a chair opposite the one Aberforth chose. He looked over the plates of food and actually found some appetizers he likes.
"I suppose you are wondering why I asked you to come here? Aberforth asked.
"Not really, I assumed you simply wanted to meet your newly discovered nephew," Severus answered in an insolent tone.
"It's not as though I've never met you before Severus," the older man countered, trying not to lose his temper with 'the boy', as he thought of him
"Indeed but were you aware of our," Severus paused for a moment seeking the correct term, "kinship?"
"No, although now that it has been revealed, I'm not at all shocked. I did know of Albus' affair with your mother," Severus moved uneasily at Aberforth's choice of terms.
"Don't be embarrassed, it was their indiscretion not yours."
"Did Albus ever talk to you about my mother?"
"Ad nauseam, I was the only he could talk to about her. At first he tried to resist how he felt about her because, well Albus had many reasons, but the one he told her was he was worried that the followers of Grindelwald, who were still at large and simply waiting for the coming of a new Dark Lord, might harm her to get back at him for killing Grindelwald," Severus nodded Albus' portrait had told him this story.
"But in truth, I think he was afraid of the prophecies by Cassandra Trelawney that had to do with our family. At any rate his love for Eileen eventually overcame his reluctance to be involved with her, though he certainly did want to keep the relationship a secret."
"What were these Trelawney prophecies about?" Severus asked.
"Oh, it was a bunch of rubbish, something about how," Aberforth changed the quality of his voice a bit so as to sound like a soothsayer as a relayed the prophecies, "a white wizard of the family Dumbledore will sire the Dark Lord's right hand, the rejected son will unwittingly kill his father and fall to the great snake, but not before his betrayal of the riddle," Aberforth paused for a moment, and gave Severus an odd look. "You know in hindsight, I guess that prophecy's not quite so much rubbish I thought. I mean interpreted in a certain way I suppose Albus could be the white wizard after all Albus does mean white and you could be the rejected son. Hmm."
Severus drank a bit more of his fire whiskey and nodded his head ever so slightly.
"It seems that like Oedipus, in trying to avoid the prophecy he made it possible for it to come true," Severus observed.
"So it seems, and so perhaps all's well that ends well."
Severus harrumphed. "You're not the one who has lived the life of the rejected son."
"No, no I'm not," Aberforth said in a tone that said 'I'm sorry', without saying it.
Severus again shifted uncomfortably. He disliked pity in any form, and if his Uncle insisted on becoming maudlin, he'd soon be leaving.
"Don't worry Severus, as a man who despises pity, I'm not apt to give it to someone of a like disposition." At Severus look of surprise he added, "No I did not use legilimens on you, I didn't have to, I've been a bartender for 40 years."
"Glad you cleared that up. I was beginning to wonder if I was slipping," Severus said in an amused tone.
"I'm sure you are still a first rate occlumens," Aberforth reassured him.
"Look, I really did have a good reason for asking you here this evening. After I read about Albus being your father, I realized that he left something here for you," Aberforth said as got up and proceeded to open a drawer in a credenza that sat against one of the walls of the sitting room.
"At least I think it must be for you. I know it belonged to Albus, and so I thought he'd left it for me, but it won't open for me. So I'm assuming he left it for you, in case you ever learned the truth."
He abstracted a wooden box from the drawer and proceeded to place it in Severus hands. The box had five letters engraved upon it, a large D on the box's top and the letters A, P, W and B, one each around the four sides. Though he wasn't to keen on remembering when it was he heard it, Severus remembered once hearing his father's full name, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Severus held the box and found that his hands were trembling slightly, though he wasn't sure he could say exactly why.
"Well try to open it lad," Aberfort urged.
Severus rested the box on his lap and placed his right hand on the lid. He looked up at Aberforth who nodded at him. He applied a slight pressure to the front and back of the lid to keep it firmly in his hand and then lifted, the box opened easily to his touch.
"You couldn't open it?" Severus asked incredulously.
"No I couldn't budge it. I even tried a variety of charms on it. Nothing worked," he answered.
"So let's see what's in Albus' box, shall we?" Aberforth urged.
Severus leaned back a bit, not sure he wanted to share the contents of the box with his uncle or anyone for that matter, but on further consideration he realized he might need his uncle to identify the contents. Severus opened the lid wider and the contents came into view. There wasn't much in the box; just a leather-bound book and a silver ring.
"I've wondered where that ring got to, it's been in the family for ages. It's been passed down from father to eldest son for centuries."
"Here you should have it," Severus said offering it to Aberforth.
"Nonsense, it doesn't belong to me. Weren't you listening? It goes from father to eldest son, that's you, Severus. Albus was the eldest and you are his only son."
"But I'm not a Dumbledore," Severus argued and tried to push the ring on the older man.
"Bullocks your not! Your blood said otherwise. Now put the bloody thing on!"
Severus surprised himself by doing exactly what his uncle requested and as he did he felt the slight tingle of magic.
"See the ring knows, and it will protect you."
"Protect me?" Severus asked somewhat bewildered.
"Yes, it has some limited ability to protect the wearer from hexes. Won't save you from everything, but it can turn aside minor hexes and lessen the severity of others," Aberforth answered.
"No wonder Albus seemed so powerful in duels."
"Yeah, a bit of a cheat if you ask me," his uncle said mater of factly.
"So what's the book? Aberforth asked.
Severus picked up the book and thumbed through it. It was a diary, though not a usual one. The inside page read 'An Account of Important Events in My Son's Life' A. Dumbledore
"Well?"
"It's a book of his remembrances of me," Severus said shakily.
"Ah, well, I'll leave you in peace to read it then, shall I?"
"I don't want to seem rude, but I'd like to leave now. Can I bother you for some floo powder?"
"Of course, and I don't think you're being rude to want to go home to read that. I will however think it rude if you don't occasionally stop in to see me."
"Yes, all right," he agreed. "Goodbye," he paused for a moment trying to decide if he was being overly sentimental, decided he wasn't and continued, "Uncle."
"Goodbye Nephew, be well."
With that Severus threw a handful of floo powder in the fireplace, said "Hogwarts" and stepped into the fireplace.
Author's Note: I didn't expect to have another chapter up so soon but this one wrote itself.