Chapter 14

Severus had got the attention of Dione's parents and their lovers by the expedient of having them brought to the shared entrance hall of the house where they lived by house elves. Humphrey Parnassus' own house elf Grindly was wringing his hands; and Sirri had told him that this was for the sake of his little mistress so he better stay out of it.

Severus explained, completely and severally what he thought of people who used a little girl at a vulnerable age as a weapon against each other, and who cared more about their petty, childish, playground squabbles then a young life that two of them had managed to create between them some fifteen years before when presumably they had managed to avoid quarrelling long enough to rut like dogs in Obscura Alley in order to conceive.

"And as for YOU" he said to Marianne, with scorn dripping from his voice "Introducing your daughter as your sister, and not even noticing that your ah, pathetically priapic paramour was interfering with her, that is the outside of enough!"

"If she told you that, she's lying!" said Marianne "I punished her for lying when she tried that on me!"

Severus regarded her as though she was the internal organs of a flobberworm, as Sirri later described it.

"Children rarely lie about such things" he said in a low, malevolent hiss "And even had she been, it would even so have been a cry for help, a plea for attention. But tell me, MADAM Parnassus, if she was lying, how did she get pregnant?" he twitched his wand "And I now confirm, by HIS seed?"

Marianne Parnassus gaped like a goldfish, her colour draining.

Humphrey Parnassus launched himself on Kevin.

Severus twitched his wand, and both were bound.

"At last! Some feeling for your daughter!" he said "And didn't you NOTICE how miserable she was? Didn't you wonder why she might avoid going to the other side of the house if she could?"

Humphrey Parnassus groaned.

"You are right, Severus….. I have been lax, I am sorry, so sorry!"

"The one you should apologise to is your daughter, not me" said Severus "And I strongly suggest that a letter of apology to her might be wise. You might try it too" he added to the mother. She tossed her hair.

"It's not MY fault if he behaved improperly because she vamped him" she said.

Severus slapped her. Hard.

"You admit she complained about the interference and then try to make it her fault? What sort of mother are you? Are you incapable of taking responsibility?"

"Well she let him into her bed, didn't she if she's pregnant?"

"Have you never heard the term 'rape' you unnatural creature?" demanded Severus "I do not think I have ever despised anyone as much as you; only the worst and most loathsome women let their own children down! I am a skilled legilimens; and when I saw in your little girl's mind the despair and loathing she felt and the helplessness when even her own mother did not believe her, one reason she has not sought MY help before because she did not see how a mere teacher would believe when her mother did not."

"You BASTARD Kevin Kern!" shouted Parnassus "Severus why did she not come to ME?"

Severus regarded him with hooded eyes.

"Because, Humphrey, you forbade her on pain of punishment to ever even mention her mother or her mother's lover to you" he said.

Parnassus went white and he began to sob.

"Let me out of here, I'm leaving!" said Kevin.

"Let you out? Scot free? For what you did to a little girl who was only THIRTEEN YEARS OLD when you started your foul grooming of her?"

"You have no right….."

"I can call in a couple of aurors you know…that'll mean Azkaban….or you could I suppose accept a curse from me instead" mused Severus.

"All right….cast your curse and let me go!"

Severus grinned.

The house elf Grindly pulled on his arm.

"He shouldn't get off so light!" he squeaked.

Severus knelt and whispered in the elf's big batwing ears. The elf began grinning.

"Moreover" said Severus "If you planned to make a hobby out of Kevin baiting, I somehow do not think your master would disapprove; and really, Marianne is no mistress of yours any more so you can do what you like to her too."

Grindly grinned even wider.

Severus walked round Kevin several times chanting softly in Latin, almost singing; and repeated the walk the other way; then negated the bindings.

"What did you do? I don't feel nothin'" said the wizard suspiciously.

"I have made it almost impossible for you ever to have sex again, Kevin Kern" said Severus, dreamily "Every time you get an erection, thorns will grow from the foreskin of your tool and back into the helmet, causing you excruciating agony. You cannot even enjoy masturbation; or naughty thoughts. It should remind you that there is a time and a place for everything; and that there is never the time or the place for abusing little girls."

"Well I'll have that off soon enough! I know a few curse breakers!"

"Best of luck" said Severus "Make sure they don't trigger the diffindo booby trap when trying, or you'll be peeing at the squat….actually I defy anyone in the world to undo MY curses; I was taught by Voldemort you know and he did know one or two things about cursing. Just because I was working against him doesn't mean I didn't pick up the knowledge. I'm one of the greatest curse breakers in the wizarding world; there's a corollary to that. I'm one of only a handful of people that understand how to use ritual and chanting to full effect; and oh wait, the others are Harry Potter and friends who will NOT be amused at your activities; and if you ask one of them you're more likely to find yourself sprouting more thorns. Now get out; I said you might."

"My things…."

"Grindly will bring them to you. What he does to them first is up to him."

Grindly chuckled evilly.

"Grindly, I order you to make his life and Marianne's uncomfortable in the extreme" said Humphrey Parnassus grimly.

"With pleasure, Master" said Grindly.

"Oh and Marianne… I'm getting a divorce on the grounds that you endangered our daughter" said Parnassus "I'll not pursue the paperwork if you pack a trunk and go within the hour."

"Where am I to go?" she whined

"How should I know? Why should I care? You should have thought of that before you let that….thing….touch Dione! I suppose you let him think she was old enough if you were vain enough to pretend she was your sister? You disgust me! And he only got it up for you by thinking about her, because you're such a bitch you have lines before your time!"

Severus blocked the hex she threw at her still bound husband and disarmed her without even troubling with his wand.

"Madam, you are wasting time; I believe you have some fifty five minutes of the deadline your husband set" he said "After that I expect Grindly will start throwing your things out of the windows."

Grindly, who had not thought of it, beamed.

"Yeah, get out you stupid raddled old bitch" said Lindie.

"I think Lindie" said Humphrey Parnassus "That I can also dispense with your services; you too may leave. If the potions have failed I will pay for any child you may have conceived – once Scarpin's revellaspell proves it is mine – but otherwise, I think I do not want to see you again either. It will be too traumatic for my daughter. You may move out of my bedroom; and take a week about finding some alternative accommodation."

Madam Parnassus meanwhile picked up her wand and went for Severus seriously, in a fury.

Severus just blocked the curses before she even finished pronouncing them; he did not even bother to retaliate.

"I don't play with amateurs" he said. "That's fifty minutes, isn't it Grindly?"

Grindly grinned. With an angry sob, Marianne Parnassus flung away to her half of the house.

"Here, you, help me pack!" she ordered the elf.

Grindly stuck his tongue out.

"Yah, I doesn't belong to you, pack yourself!" he squeaked.

"Hmm, intersting curse idea, getting someone to pack themselves and mail themselves to er, Abu Dhabi" murmured Severus, releasing Humphrey.

"Thank you for finding this out!" said Parnassus "Can – will you brew her a potion to kill the thing she is carrying?"

Severus gave him an inscrutable look.

"I have told her I shall do so if she so wills it" he said "Equally I will stand by her and support her decision if she decides she cannot kill a life within her. It is different for women you know; they feel the life inside them. For her it is both an abomination conceived in pain and terror; and yet her innocent child. She is the only person who can decide which of the two feelings is uppermost and I will not influence her one way or the other. I trust her father will support her decision whatever it is?"

"But… to have to look at the child of THAT if she keeps it?"

"Why not instead, in that eventuality, look upon the baby as your daughter's child – and help her to forget the Kevin creature by just supporting her?" said Severus.

"I always thought you were hard at school."

"At school I was hard. As Dione has been hard. My parents rowed the way you and your wife have rowed. He hit her, she jinxed him. It is NOT conducive to a happy upbringing. That is why I feel deeply for Dione. I have the opportunity to stop for her what was never stopped for me; YOU have the opportunity to have a relationship with your daughter; somehow I doubt she'll ever want one with her mother. I have never had any respect for either of my parents. Try to do better than mine did."

"I shall, Severus; thank you."

Severus nodded.

Now he would get back to Dione and give her a bowdlerised version of what had occurred.

Dione cried a little; and laughed viciously over Severus' curse on Kevin.

"You are sure he can't have it taken off?" she asked anxiously "I don't want him doing this to anyone else ever!"

"My dear girl, have I or have I not won the most unpopular professor award three years running – at least, according to Convolvumort – and am therefore more than capable of casting the most excruciating and irremovable curses?" said Severus, making her giggle a little.

"Truly?"

"Oh yes. Believe me, Dione, if Lucius and I had been whole-hearted supporters of Voldemort, even now you would be bowing to the dark lord and cursing the bones of the Potter boy. Either one of us is a far better wizard than he was; and both of us have ambitions to be as good as Dumbledore some day"

Her mouth was an 'O'.

"Thank you!" she said "Oh thank you! And – and I've decided!"

"So quickly?"

"I don't think it's a decision to make on logic or thought or even common sense; the only decision to make about something so big is a gut decision because…..because that's what the inner me wants BEYOND logic" said Dione.

"That I agree with; what is right – for you. What decision did you make?"

"That it isn't the baby's fault she got conceived; and – and maybe she has a role to play one day; and she deserves to live, whatever. I can't play god with a baby's life. She didn't ask to be conceived; but if you'll truly help me she can be happy."

Severus nodded.

"We certainly shall help you. Now, my dear, I think you should see Elisa Mourne and explain something at least of what's been happening to you; she needs to know why you've been biting at her to hide your own hurt. And when you start to get big, you'll need all the supporters you can get because there will be plenty ready to make ill-natured and misinformed remarks. Krait knows all about that over Lilith. And, if you will give me permission I will tell certain others on your behalf; some big-hearted people who will be prepared to forgive your behaviour on account of the terrible things that have been done to you, and stand by you."

"And who is that?"

"The New Marauders; my older son; and, whoever else you veto, the Head boy and the head girl of Slytherin. Abigail Greengrasse has been through what you have been through; she was used by Voldemort himself. I believe you will have worked that out since Krait told you and Elisa about Salazar being her brother."

Dione shuddered.

"Poor Abigail! I – I hadn't made the connection; I've been too tied up in misery."

"Well, she needs to know. And David. He will need to know truth to field off lies."

Dione hesitated, and nodded.

"Do you really think the Marauders won't make capital out of it? That boy Kinat…."

"That boy Kinat, in the holidays, found a girl who died birthing in Obscura Alley and was thrown out of a window; delivered the baby; and took it home to his mother, offering to forgo his last two years at Hogwarts if it made money too tight. Do you think a boy like that would fail to show compassion?"

Dione hung her head.

"I don't know I could be that big" she said.

"A brave admission to make. Romulus is my adopted son; I know HE will do all he can; Abraxus and Hawke are Krait's cousins; and they live next door to me – for my sins! – and they are good boys."

"Hawke's not really Abraxus' brother though, is he?"

"Hmm, well remembered; most people have forgotten – as the boys encourage them to – about that. Hawke did not have a happy childhood until Wendy and Casimir Malfoy adopted him. HE doesn't even know his own real birthday. He's a Malfoy of sorts somewhere – as you are, through Humphrey – so it's close enough. They look upon each other as twins. It's all that's important. And Willow? Willow's stepmother was cruel to her, and her father hardly less so. There are many, many unhappy children in the Wizarding world, Dione; and one couple can't help them all. If you bring up a happy child who knows she is loved, you will have been more successful than many; and that will make us feel we can make a difference."

"Oh Professor Snape, and to think I thought you were cold and hard!"

"It was a front I cultivated – as you did – to avoid getting too much hurt by my parents; and then my schoolfellows; and then unlike you, at least I sincerely hope so, I had to be cold and hard to pretend to Voldemort, laughing obediently while others of his circle writhed under the cruciatus curse for his amusement. It is not a habit that is easy to lose; and moreover, I find that a cold exterior helps me keep my privacy. I – I am a shy person; and there are those I can relax with, but not all. If you join the MSHG – and I hope you will – you will learn much. About many of us. And you may feel inclined to share your story and throw off more of the burden by so doing. But that is for the future; will you let me tell the Marauders?"

Dione nodded.

"And – and will you ask Elisa to come and see me? If I can make up with her, I – I can face the others" she said.

"I'll do that right away" said Severus.

He did not eavesdrop; though he did monitor in case of trouble.

The making up seemed to go very well, Elisa Mourne horrified, not sure what to say, but ready to be supportive, even if her support was a bit limited to embroidering baby dresses.

Fortunately Dione took that as tacit support that Elisa thought she was making the right decision and thanked her sincerely.

"Poor kiddy" said Krait "Maybe I should have legilimensed her earlier; I thought it would be better for her to spit out what was troubling her on her own."

"You can't know that it wasn't" said Severus "You mean, we might have avoided her getting pregnant if we'd known earlier that he was interfering with her? Maybe. But you were right I think; you gave her the opening but she wasn't ready to take it. This has given her I think an opportunity to be a better person. We can't play the 'if' game love; therein lies madness. We agreed that over Voldemort."

Krait nodded.

"We can only take care of her as best we can poor girl."

David and the Marauders and Erich were much shocked; and agreed readily not to mention it but to be there for the girl! Abigail wept for her; and nodded sagely over her decision.

"I had no choice; being unconscious but I would, I think, have made the same one" she said. "Poor kid…in a way it's almost worse for her. Tom who seduced me was a stranger – and at first at least it was exciting before he showed his….other colours. She's been betrayed by almost a father surrogate."

"Talk to her about it, hmm?" suggested Severus.

"I will, Domine" said Abigail warmly.

Baddock and Pritchard made comments about Dione being out of school of course; they said they thought she'd been kicked out like Isabelle Yaxley and asked where she'd been all this time and was it a really big spanking Professor Snape gave her.

Romulus, Willow and Hawke overheard this and Baddock was hoisted unceremoniously in the air by the ankle while Pritchard became a bouncing ferret before being hoisted in the air by the tail.

The Slytherin Marauders left them there in the passages for anyone passing to taunt.

Juniors might have been too chary to do so, but Peeves certainly felt no such compunction.

The Bloody Baron just walked through them, causing them to shiver and cry out in horror.

So he walked back again.

Peeves was so surprised that he wasn't in trouble from the baron he stared, open mouthed.

"Sorry Peeves, carry on" said the Baron.

Peeves almost fell over himself in surprise. But having sanction to taunt from the Bloody Baron was too much to pass up.

The juniors thought it mightily funny and giggled from cover.

What Peeves did NOT know was that the Baron had caught the pair of bullies plotting to push his favourite, Jade, about.

Severus was glad at least that this troubled girl was on the way to healing, and he would not have to worry about her when the foreign students turned up – as they did shortly thereafter – for the second task.

He would not have to worry about Lionel Dell being flattered by the Durmstrangers again as David had sorted that; and David too was glad that now Ross Tuthill had a very able protector in Lionel.

He was unaware HOW loyal the friendship had become; or how far Dell was prepared to go. With information from Alice Trumball and what he had himself wheedled out of the Marauders Dell had formed the idea of setting up their own Bloodgroup to see if Ross might not gain magical skills thereby. They had convened in a Hufflepuff box room – largely because it was easy to break into from the attic next to it by dint of squeezing through between joists – and were sat on chests drinking pumpkin juice and munching on apples.

"Look, Sephara Yaxley really was next thing to a squib" he said "And she's now close in with the ones with the zig-zag scar; and she got better at lessons awfully quickly, I heard a lot of people talking about it. So as Ross gets a few sparks from Freya's wand and can kinda get a potion to go, why not try?"

"Isn't it dangerous though?" said Mary-Anne

"Yes; that's half the point I think" said Dell "The ones who join risk some to gain a lot; I kinda got the impression that if there's a decent number of you, then it's less risky. And then we'd always know where Mary-Anne is when she gets lost too."

Mary-Anne stuck out her tongue.

"I guess I know more" said Callum "Because of Willow being my sister; sometimes they talk a bit loosely around me in the hols. It was to protect Harry Potter of course that they did it; but cousin Severus and Krait did it first by accident when they did some kind of ritual to give them telepathy while they had to fool Voldemort. Anyway, it's risky for two to be joined, or even three because you feel what the other feels to a greater extent than if it's spread and if one dies, so does the other. But they used it to bounce the killing curse by DIVIDING IT ALL UP among them; and they did that at the duel against Durmstrang too; I'd had one of my drawing things and saw Harry and Draco duelling and I stayed awake to learn what happened, and Harry was tired and he told me how this girl tried the Killing curse on him and he decided to scare Odessa and just seem to take it and share it off among the blood kindred."

"What's Odessa?" asked Tuthill.

"I'm not really sure" said Dell "Callum?"

Callum explained about the wizarding followers initially of Grindelwald using the German Nazis in particular the mystically inclined SS; and how Odessa was to Europe what Deatheaters had been to Britain.

Dell whistled.

"Then that makes it even more important to have another Bloodgroup to fight against these creeps; they spread the sort of lies I believed in."

"I'll do it" said Mary-Anne

"Me too" said Melody "I think they're a bit opposed to blooding any more young ones in because we ARE young – except in an emergency I guess – but I really envy what they have between them. You can tell which ones are Blooded, even without the scar."

"Ross? Want to give it a try?" asked Dell.

"I'd do anything that has a chance of working. Well short of being buggered by Voldemort I guess" said Ross.

"It's a bit….oh all right" said Freya.

"Us in" said Tamsin, looking at Tim, who nodded.

"Cynner?" asked Callum.

"If you are."

"Funny; I was going to ask the same thing" said Callum. "That's yes for us then too."

"Aye, weel, Ah'hll be in too then" said Alice "It's no' likely Ah'll be invited into the other and it's then Ah'll be able tae protect ma faither better. Besides, it does seem like an awfu' guid idea."

"How do we do it?" asked Ross.

"Ah, the difficult ones first" said Dell "We need to be an arithmantically good number I should think….." he counted quickly "Ten… it's not a BAD number; it's not one of the most fortuitous but there's nothing wrong with it. Callum, will you concentrate on drawing what they do? That might help."

Callum nodded.

"Huh, I'm going to ask Jade Snape" said Freya "She has the scar; I'll go and be nosy."

She scrambled up from the ancient chest and hurried off.

"And being Freya she'll even get away with it" said Dell.

oOoOo

Jade shrugged when Freya asked.

"Oh it's just a question of slashing open your palm and sharing blood; a ritual phrase is good, we use Kipling in Parseltongue" she said "It's not dark magic if that's what you're trying to find out, Tuthill; it was considered risky but some of the possible alternatives were worse. They only blooded little kids like we were to be able to track us if we were kidnapped; so don't think we were forced into it to feed Harry power or anything."

"I didn't think anything of the sort!" said Freya hastily "I was just curious."

From Freya that was believable; Jade reckoned – and teased Severus – that Freya was another incarnation of Hermione sent to try him.

Severus had laughed but had not disagreed.

Freya was shocked that Jade should feel defensive about her parents' motives; presumably such accusations had been levelled at them!

She returned to the others with her information.

"What, 'all for one and one for all' or something?" said Callum, who read Dumas.

"As good as any" said Dell. "Y'know, this is a great den, but I don't think it's a good place for ritual."

"What about the dolmen?" said Alice "Under that at a good arithmantic time – that's yours and Ross's work Lionel, the rest of us fall over Arithmancy even Freya."

Dell nodded.

"We'll get on it" he said.

Accordingly, next day as the light faded, the ten conspirators met under the dolmen, slit their hands and murmured 'all for one and one for all' as they shared blood.

Not expecting it, the surge of blood joining was heady!

They sank to their knees as a body.

"Lumme!" said Dell.

"Quick, let's episkayo those wounds before a grown-up comes along" said Mary-Anne practically. Mary-Anne had a strong streak of practicality beneath her dreamy exterior; it kept her father and her alive. When she was in school he had a menu to tear off as he ate each ready meal stored in the chest freezer. Mostly he was on approximately the right day when she got home for the holidays. When things were important to her, Mary-Anne was quite on the ball; but being on time wasn't always as important as making sure daddy was all right. Besides, being vaguer at people than she really was made them mostly leave her alone, as they had left Luna Lovegood alone. David Fraser was all right – more than all right, he was a star – but other people were less so.

And all this Lionel now KNEW; as he knew that Melody had suffered, that Cynner loved Callum and Tim loved Tamsin; and so on.

And Melody loved him; and so did Mary-Anne.

And he could not separate them.

But now that did not matter.

"We are one" he said, grinning foolishly.

"We're also getting wet down here on the ground even under the dolmen; the ground's perishing" said Tim.

"Then let's help each other up….Ross? can you….?"

Ross grinned, held out his hand for his sister's wand and shook out some respectable stars.

"You'll need your own" said Lionel.

"And kit" said Freya "But let's let poor David beat hell out of the foreigners before we take Ross to Diagon Alley; no point letting the grownups know he can do stuff before these cut scars fade. They might ask awkward questions and the less grown-ups know the better in my opinion."

"Well anyway" said Lionel "They can't UN blood us; so it's a fait accompli."

The Fait Accomlices staggered back to school and were promptly given lines for being wet and disgraceful objects – they still had the dust of an earlier box-room visit on them, dampened and smeared across their persons – and told to bath before they went to mix with civilised folk.

They cared not a jot for being in trouble; they were happy people who knew, and loved, and their blood sang!