Chapter 12
Harry had been covertly watching Severus as he ate while they had been explaining the ring story to him. He had seen that sharp look he gave to his brother, when his brother had mentioned the Dark Lord Sauron. This meant to him there were Dark Lords in the magical world. He filed this away. Harry had glanced a Kayden a few times as well and knew Kayden was watching this wizard as well. The only hard thing he could tell about Severus was the wizard wasn't giving away to much. Which in his opinion only annoyed him. Reading expressions on adults faces had been a staple in his and his brother's young life. It had kept them out of plenty of scrapes with not angering the adults to far and appeasing them. Anything to keep from getting a beating made life a lot better.
By the end of there telling the story though, Severus had seemed to have gone into a total blank face that showed no emotions whatsoever. Then Robert had asked if they had lost him and finally his face had taken on more or less a thoughtful expression. Like one who had been trying to solve a puzzle. Harry had found that even more interesting. Wondering if this type of magic actually existed. If it did, that was a very scary thought. Putting your soul into something, well, he didn't want to think about it anymore.
He was still perplexed as to why this wizard wanted to stay around them though. To Harry, all adults had ulterior motives. Figuring out what this man would gain would be helpful. Most of the time, it was always about getting something you wanted. The hard part was they were only ten, so it wasn't like they had a lot that this man could actually gain from them. Yet he knew they had more to gain from him, than the other way around.
"Who was that woman that you didn't like?" Harry asked as he started eating his lunch again. This was the second woman they have seen him with, and since he didn't have a ring on his finger, Harry gathered he was single. But if he was single wouldn't he choose a woman to be with that he liked.
When those black eyes turned on him, Harry immediately looked down to his own plate and stabbed a cooked carrot with his fork.
"She is of no concern, I shall not be seeing her anymore." Severus said.
"Why aren't you here with someone you actually like then?" Kayden asked.
Harry was glad his brother asked that question. So he knew he wasn't the only one thinking about two different women. Harry watched as Severus turned those nearly black eyes towards his brother. His eyes were so dark brown that they actually looked black.
"Maybe because I haven't found someone I actually like."
"Blind date then was it?" Robert asked.
Harry could see black baleful eyes turned towards Robert. "Unfortunately."
Robert gave a nod that looked commiserating, "been on a few of those myself in the last two years. A few of my friends thought it would be better if I went out myself after my ex-wife."
Uh-oh, Harry could hear the venom in Robert's voice when he said ex-wife. Part of the story, that Robert could use was his ex-wife about them. Robert had noticed some things about him as soon as Aunt Petunia had brought him over. One being how small he was for his age, the other about being weary of adults, and that he didn't liked being touched. Aunt Petunia and Robert had concocted a story that would cover any abuse that Uncle Vernon had done. Even though Robert knew the abuse had stopped a year ago. Living for two years for free; well that tended to by silence and not only that, made one lie as well. Harry put his elbow on the table and put his head on his hand. He didn't want to look up. Harry did glance over at Kayden. Kayden didn't look any better than he did right now.
Severus could feel the change at the table as soon as Robert had mentioned the ex-wife. And with the way he noticed Brandon moving his food around on his plate confirmed this to him, this could be the source of the boys abuse. Kayden was slumped back in his chair just staring at the plate with his arms crossed about his chest.
Severus looked at Robert, he could see the anger as the man was trying to reign it back in. "What happen with your ex-wife?"
He watched as Robert closed his eyes, his fist was clenched around the fork he held, the knuckles were white they were so tight. When Robert did speak his voice was so quiet, Severus had to sit up closer to hear the man.
"She took everything, including the boys. Conniving, spiteful, and then she allowed that…. That man she was seeing while we were still married. She allowed…." Severus watched as Robert let out a slow breath.
"Dad, we're fine." Brandon said.
"You got us back this summer." Kayden said.
Severus sat back, he looked over at the two boys. They had to be adopted he reasoned. He looked back over to there father. Lucius had been right, this man was not their abuser at all. His anger was real over the situation. He could only go off the man's emotions because he still hadn't opened his eyes for him to skim the front of his mind.
"I think they are in better hands Robert." Severus said softly. "I can not see you allowing anything else to happen to them. Are they adopted?"
Robert gave a quick nod and then stabbed his steak and took a bite of it and chewed slowly. That explained why the boys didn't look like him. He had gotten some information he needed, and at least from the sounds of it, the boys wouldn't be being abused anymore. This would make things go a lot easier for when they did come to school. Severus glanced back at the two boys, at least they were starting to eat again. Which was good he reasoned. Tension was still at the table. At least it was out in the open, of some sort. He knew the boys were smart enough to figure out he knew about the abuse. As to what extent it had gone to he wasn't sure, but with him reassuring Robert they were in better hands, being Robert's own. It would give the boys at least some measure of comfort that he felt there father would be doing a better job of it than the ex-wife had done.
"What other types of creatures are in Middle Earth?" Severus asked.
"Dragons." Brandon said. "Smaug is in the Hobbit, and he can talk as well."
"A talking dragon named Smaug." Severus grinned over at the two boys. He normally reserved his grins to Draco and his snakes, but at the moment these two weren't in school and it wouldn't hurt them to see he had an easy going side as well. That way when they did come to school, they would at least be able to feel that he would might be approachable, if they ended up in another house that wasn't his own. He did deal with his fair share of abused children in his house at school. Besides once school did start for these two in a couple of years, he could probably even take over the introducing them properly himself. It wasn't as if he hadn't done it before.
"Smaug has a long head, red-golden scales, enormous wings, and gleaming yellow eyes." Kayden said.
"He looks bloody wicked." Brandon said. "But his underbelly is coated with dwarven treasure; rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and gold."
"He doesn't smell good either, he stinks so bad Bilbo said he could taste him on the air." Kayden said.
Severus kept up his grin at the boys. The way the two boys were carrying on about this dragon only reminded him more of how Draco was with talking about them. Draco was fascinated with dragons himself. He never heard of one encrusted with jewels before. This brought up very good images of a dragon sleeping on his gold horde though. He took a glance at Robert, he could see the man's anger was almost totally gone now.
He was given a few more creatures of Middle Earth by the time everyone was finally finished eating then they settled the bill. Severus had insisted on covering the bill, he had after all invited himself along to join their party and it had been the least he could do. They now found themselves back outside on the dirt road as the boys attention was caught by a shop. They had made their way over to it. It was a pewter shop, he did see that it captured the boys attention because of the dragon around the edge of the sign.
Once they entered the shop, Severus smiled at seeing his godson along with his parents. He looked around the shop quickly in hopes that Miss Fawley would not be returning and didn't see her.
Lucius had looked up and saw them as they entered.
"Severus," Lucius acknowledged him as he looked at his company that he was with. "I've seen you made some knew friends. But where is Miss Fawley?"
"She went to go kiss an orc." Kayden said as he grabbed the snickering Brandon and they made a beeline for the pewter chess sets.
"An orc?" Lucius asked.
"I'll explain later." Severus said. He turned towards Robert. "Robert, this gentleman is Lucius Malfoy a dear friend of mine. His wife Narcissa is looking at the pewter goblets with her son Draco. Lucius, meet Robert. He's the boys father. The one in the brown clothing is Brandon, the green is Kayden."
"Ah." Lucius said. "A pleasure to meet you Robert."
Kayden had pulled Harry away quickly. They snickered a little over the orc comment hoping they would stay away for a bit. So he headed over to the chess sets. They needed one anyway.
"This isn't going well." Kayden whispered.
He could see Harry glance back at Severus, Robert and Lucius. "I realize this. We seem to keep picking up wizards instead of ditching them."
"Not to mention Severus now knows at least part of the story that Robert can tell." Kayden said.
"I know. As long as he doesn't bring it back up, I think we'll be alright. Last thing I wanted anyone to find out was sort of what uncle did." Harry said despondently.
"Let's find a chess set. I want one with dragons on it at least." Kayden said.
