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Chapter 25Tallis stumbled out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron but managed, for the first time ever, to remain on his feet. He must have inherited some of his father's magnificent poise and grace. Pity he hadn't gotten more of it. He wondered briefly if his mother was as clumsy as he was but he quickly set the thought aside. He knew that he needed to remain focused for the entire time he was here. As long as he was focused a touch shouldn't unsettle him too much. Taken by surprise though, could have disastrous results.
He jumped slightly as he felt a spell brush over him. He looked up at his father who quietly said "Cleansing spell…for the soot." Tallis nodded and then went to stand beside Bill. Bill noticed how nervous Tallis was and he leaned down to grasp his hand tightly.
A soft ripple of noise went through the bar at this movement as everyone realized that it was not, in fact, a coincidence that Bill Weasley came through the fire at the same time as Severus Snape and a boy who appeared to be a close relative—perhaps even a son. Conversation immediately began throughout the pub to try and guess who the young man was.
Severus didn't say anything but he nodded curtly at Tom and led the way through the bar to the entrance to the alley. Bill and Tallis followed close behind. The three stepped into the alley, immediately looking around them to ascertain if there were any threats present. No one could be seen who presented a visible threat but they were all still on their guard. Severus, after all, had recently been exposed as a spy.
It was rather unlikely that Voldemort would decide to attack Diagon Alley in broad daylight on a busy shopping day just to get to him but it was still a possibility. Severus knew though that the Dark Lord would be unable to amass a very large portion of his Death Eaters in the middle of the day with no warning to wage a full scale attack on such a highly populated area, all in order to find a single man. He would risk losing too many of his supporters all to gain one man to have a bit of revenge. The costs would never be able to meet the benefits and the Dark Lord would lose heavily if he tried to put such a plan into action. Even still, he knew that they needed to be cautious.
He had long since rethought his plan to separate from the students and decided that they would all simply shop together for a while before leaving. None of them could stay long—Hermione's Polyjuice would only last around an hour and a half after she arrived. She had a second dose with her if she needed it but they hoped to not need to use it. The glamour would hold regardless of whether or not the potion was still active but they all felt it was safer this way.
The three immediately turned toward the apothecary to pick up some ingredients. Severus entered the shop first, happy to return to one of his favorite places. He could spend hours in the small shop, looking over new potion supplies and canisters of ingredients. Tallis entered eagerly as well, followed by a slightly reluctant Bill. The shopkeeper greeted Severus warmly, pleased to see his favorite customer and longtime friend. They chatted lightly for a few moments while Tallis and Bill looked throughout the shop. Severus handed his list to the man and he began to look over some of the latest innovations in the field as his friend began to gather and measure out ingredients.
"Who is that with you, Severus?" he asked curiously, hoping that the surly professor wouldn't snap at him for his question. He and Severus got along better than most but he was still cautious of irritating the potions master too greatly. You could never really tell what would set the potions master off.
Severus turned to his son and allowed a small smile to slip onto his face. "This is my son, Tallis Snape. Tallis, this is Milton Jacobs." The shopkeeper's face betrayed complete and utter shock as he shook Tallis' hand in a daze. "I believe you know Bill Weasley" he said, saving Tallis from an endless handshake with the shocked man. Bill pulled Milton's hand away and shook it firmly, returning the poor man to the present.
"I wasn't aware that you had a son, Severus" he said, looking between Tallis and Severus, taking in the remarkable likeness as well as the many differences. The boy was clearly old enough to date the oldest Weasley boy yet he was as small as many third year students. He was also very clearly covered in tattoos—something that he would have never imagined his friend allowing his son to do. Some of the tattoos even seemed to be muggle in nature! Evidently there was much about Severus Snape that he didn't know.
"He has been away for his schooling and will now begin an apprenticeship at Hogwarts under Poppy Pomfrey. He will also work with me to perfect his potions abilities" Severus said proudly to his old friend.
The shop assistant came out from the back room just then and stared blatantly at Tallis, looking his up and down. Tallis was oblivious as his attention was entirely focused on a new copper coated stirring rod but Severus was irked. He was perfectly aware that his son was not only incredibly eye-catching with the amount of tattoos he had but that he was also quite beautiful but honestly, what kind of man would ogle his son in his presence?
"I didn't know you had a son, Professor." The shop assistant was a Ravenclaw who had graduated a number of years prior. Severus had never liked him. The boy was entirely too sly for a Ravenclaw and he always spoke with a sort of oily obsequiousness that turned his stomach.
Severus barely reigned in his revulsion. "You were not alone in that" he snapped. He turned back to his friend. "Please send our packages on to Snape manor. Good day" he said curtly. He nodded once again to his friend to let him know that he would tell him more later but not while the irritating shop assistant was present. Milton looked equally irritated by the young assistant's presence. He too had been shocked by how rude the boy had been to stare at the Snape heir when he was clearly out with his boyfriend and his father.
The three stepped from the dim shop out into the bright alley and spotted Harry and Ron near the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Ron looked over to them and waved to his brother and Tallis, dragging a seemingly reluctant Harry with him to visit with his brother and lover. The crowded streets parted for the Boy Who Lived and his friend, allowing them to make their way easily to the Professor and their friends. Milton lurked in the doorway, trying to see more of the mysterious Snape boy.
Ron shook hands with Tallis in greeting and then greeted his brother. Harry smiled a greeting to Tallis and Bill and then looked down when he caught Snape's eye. Severus glared at the Boy Who Lived for good measure and then gruffly greeted his students. The four young men chatted while Severus glared at any overly curious passersby. Parvati Patil saw the group and rushed over. She wanted to make a good impression on Harry so that he might date her this year. She knew she would look good in the papers at his side. She flung her arms around a startled Harry who quickly but gently pushed her away. She was promptly introduced to Tallis and the group began discussing the upcoming year.
Bill saw that Tallis was being carefully looked after by Ron and pulled Severus a few feet away for a much needed conversation. "I got it."
"You did?" Severus didn't need any clarification. He knew that Bill had managed, somehow, to get a copy of the Potters' will.
"Locked away safe at the manor. We can look it over tonight."
"And the remains?" Again, Severus felt the need to be a bit cryptic. One could not, after all, go asking after the charred remains of a would-be thief in the middle of Diagon Alley.
"No one terribly important or revealing. He was a mercenary of sorts, typically hired by purebloods to do their dirty work. Hopefully something in…the document will reveal what he was trying to get to. Do you have any idea what they could have hidden in there that as worth risking death over?"
"Besides a mountain of gold? No, I have no idea. Hopefully we'll be able to learn something from the papers."
They were pulled back to the rest of their group sparking the rather welcome departure of the Patil girl. Severus looked down at his son. "Is she always like that?" he whispered. He had watched the girl fawn over Harry the entire time, trying desperately to get his attention.
"Usually worse." Severus shuddered. The girl was like a bloody leech, grabbing on to Harry the second she saw him. They were lucky that Hermione wasn't as put off by touch as his son was. He could only imagine what would have happened if it had been his son in the Harry Potter disguise.
The group set out for some more shopping, chatting quietly about Quidditch and Hogwarts. They stepped into Flourish and Blotts to pick up Harry and Ron's books for the next school year.
Tallis stepped over to the healing section and started picking out some books for his apprenticeship. Much of his apprenticeship worked like an independent study. There were a few things that he would obviously learn but for the most part he was allowed to direct where he wanted to go in each field and what texts he wanted to work with. If he ultimately chose a field that his mentor was not practiced enough in then it would be her duty to find a suitable mentor to take her place with Tallis.
He picked out a large stack of books that ranged throughout the field. He wanted to get a general idea of what was out there before he chose a specific area to specialize in. He struggled to carry all of the books before Bill saw his trouble and took them out of his arms to carry them to the counter for him. Tallis thanked him with a grateful smile and turned back to the section one last time and pulled out a few more books and then walked to the counter with Bill. Severus was already waiting there impatiently. Ron and Harry stood to the side, looking nervously at their moody professor, as expected.
"Did you find everything you need?" Severus asked his son, politely helping Bill set the towering stack of books on the counter to be totaled up.
"I think so. I wanted to get a few general healing texts to begin the apprenticeship with and then I got a few introductory texts in various fields of healing, like setting bones, healing wounds, treating dark curses, and a bunch of other areas. I thought I'd also see if Poppy had any other suggestions for me to pick up before the school year."
The shop attendant listed closely. It looked like the Mediwitch at Hogwarts was accepting an apprentice. It looked like that apprentice was a relative of Severus Snape! He couldn't wait to spread the gossip. He finally finished adding up the books and presented the enormous total to the gentlemen in front of the counter. He wasn't entirely certain who would be paying for it. Severus took out his key to give an imprint so that the total could be removed from his vault. The clerk's answer seemed to be given to him. Evidently the boy was Snape's son…but how was that possible? When had Severus Snape ever been married? Or even had a lover for that matter.
Tallis noticed a woman about thirty years older than his father looking at them more closely than most people had dared to. She finally realized that he had noticed her staring and she blushed lightly and then approached the group. "Severus, I haven't seen you in years" she said softly.
"Professor Read, it has been quite a while" Severus said as he reluctantly accepted a hug from the woman.
"And who is this young man?"
"This is my son, Tallis. Tallis, this is Professor Read. She helped to lead my potions mastery when you were still young."
Tallis extended his hand to the woman in greeting but she instead pulled him into a tight hug. Tallis instantly froze. It took all of his power to keep from bolting. When she released him he immediately returned to Bill who wrapped his arms around him to help keep him grounded and aware of what was going on. His large arms also served to mask the light trembles that racked Tallis' frame. Ron and Harry exchanged nervous looks but quickly tried to erase any hint of worry from their faces. Tallis was working hard to disguise his terror and they didn't want to be the ones to give him away.
"Whenever did you have a child, Severus?"
"Quite a number of years ago" Severus replied dryly.
"I can see that, Severus," she said, both exasperated and amused by her surly former student. "What year is he in school?"
"He has finished school and will begin an apprenticeship with Poppy Pomfrey at Hogwarts in around a month."
"I assume he'll study under you as well?"
"Of course" Severus nodded. "Do you really think I would allow anyone else to lead his mastery?"
The witch laughed lightly. "Oh, It was good seeing you Severus! We don't write nearly enough. And it was lovely meeting you dear." She reached out and lightly pressed her hand on Tallis' arm. He smiled hesitantly back to her. He knew that she meant no harm but she was really freaking him out by how much she was touching him. "I must run. Always busy, you know!" The witch stood on her toes and gave Severus a light kiss on the cheek and then left the store with a stern reminder to owl her more often.
Severus looked apologetically at his son who was clearly a bit shaken by the whole encounter. "She's always been very friendly. Professor Read was very kind to me though when she instructed me. She took care of me when I had no one else to. I haven't seen her for years but we do write every month or two." Tallis smiled at his father and he quickly regained control of himself. "You're doing well today, Tallis." Tallis' hesitant smile turned into a grin. His father sounded proud of him! That one small compliment meant more to him than the thousands of empty compliments he had always heard heaped on Dudley had ever done.
Severus returned to the counter and shrunk down the books and placed them in his pocket for safekeeping. They left the bookshop to wander around the alley some, seemingly looking for an interesting shop to go in to. They headed for the tattoo shop in a round about manner, not wanting anyone to know that this was their true destination and the reason for the entire trip. They wanted everyone to hear the end result of the trip but they didn't want to be harassed along the way. Quiet murmuring could be heard all around them, and snatches could be made out. "Snape's son…" "Must be…" "…potion shopkeeper…" "apprentice." Severus smirked. Evidently the plan was going as they had hoped. The gossip cycle had already been started.
They spotted the tattoo shop across the street. Tallis asked if they minded waiting for him to get a quick tattoo done. Wizarding tattoos didn't take terribly long, especially if you were getting something that they might already have on hand, like a family crest. While family crest tattoos were relatively rare they still were asked for often enough that most large shops kept them on hand. The whole process would probably last less than thirty minutes.
Severus nodded his agreement and he escorted his son into the shop. Tallis spoke to a lady who was working in the front taking requests and charging the clients for the work that they wanted done. She took one look at Tallis' extensive tattooing and immediately sidled up to him. "What gorgeous work! You didn't get any of that done here, did you? I'm sure I would remember someone like you" she purred, clearly hitting on him.
Tallis didn't notice her attentions. "No, I got it done at a bunch of other shops but I've never made it in here. I wanted to get my family crest done on my right hand though."
"Certainly gorgeous." Bill barely held in an impatient growl. Tallis might be oblivious to her flirting but he was not. He stepped closer to Tallis putting a possessive arm around his waist as he glared at the presumptuous girl. She looked nervously to the tall Weasley and quickly realized her mistake. She immediately became all business again, especially upon noticing for the first time exactly who accompanied him. It would not do to piss off the head of the Snape family.
"Snape crest, I presume?" Severus and Tallis nodded. "I'll need the head of your family to sign permission for you to get the crest done. We don't want just anyone getting it, you know." Severus quickly signed the requisite forms and handed them back to her. "Follow me, we'll get that done right away."
Tallis motioned to his father to accompany him and they stepped behind a screen to get the new tattoo done. Tallis knew he could have gone by himself but he felt more safe with his father by his side. Plus, he was worried that the artist would feel the need to chat while he or she was working on his new tattoo and he wasn't entirely certain he could answer any questions that came up correctly. With Severus there the artist would no doubt remain relatively quiet. His father could cow anyone into silence if he wanted to.
A heavily tattooed young woman motioned him over to the table and introduced herself. Tallis placed his right hand in front of Audrey for her to work on the placement of the tattoo. Severus looked around him, curious at the whole experience. He had never been in a tattoo shop before. His son seemed completely at home though which made him want to smile. It wasn't often that Tallis was this comfortable somewhere. Clearly, he had long seen tattoo parlors as safe havens of some sort, or at least as places that would eventually lead to safety.
When the woman had the crest positioned to her and Tallis' liking she began the spellwork to mesh the picture with his skin. Because it was not using the potion that Tallis had invented it would not affect his spell in any way. Getting tattoos before had been quite a bit more work because he had to find shops that were willing to use his potion as a base for all of the inks so that they could all be interconnected. He had also needed to find a new shop as often as humanly possible. He didn't want to risk anyone starting to recognize or remember him. He had found a few very discrete shops that he knew wouldn't ever talk about the mysterious man who showed up demanding a tattoo with an unknown substance as the base but for the most part he had visited new shops with each tattoo session. This new tattoo would exist completely outside of his system though.
After about ten minutes of constant chanting the woman paused for a while to allow everything to set. "I always love the crest tattoos. Not many opt to get them anymore" she said, looking at Tallis closely.
Tallis shrugged. "Seemed like a good addition."
Audrey nodded and changed topics. "Your other work is gorgeous. Who designed them, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I did." The woman looked surprised. Severus was shocked for a moment as well before he remembered his conversation with his son in the lab on that first day of their work together. Tallis had briefly mentioned something about drawing his tattoos. He had more pressing concerns at the time so he had skipped by it and promptly forgotten it with all the chaos that had been surrounding their lives recently.
"They're wonderful. Have you ever sold any of your designs?"
"Not yet. I like having one of a kind work. Maybe someday I will."
"If you ever do decide to then please contact me. I'm trying to open up my own shop and need a few more good designs to help me attract customers." Tallis nodded and she handed him a business card with her name and floo address on it. "You can always owl me as well. Just put my name and the floo address on it and any owl should be able to find me."
Tallis nodded and slipped the card into his pocket. Audrey took up her wand again to finish the spells to cement his new tattoo. Although this was a magical tattoo it would, for the most part, not move or change like most wizard tattoos would. This was magical mainly in the way that it was applied without needles. When she finished this time she lightly ran her fingers over the new tattoo to make certain that she had done everything correct. Tallis repressed a shudder at the close contact. Today had been harder than he had anticipated, and if he was entirely honest with himself he had only really come into contact with four people including one he had already known so she hardly counted. He didn't know how he would ever make it through the school year. He had come up with the plan a few days ago to try to do away with his harshest line of defense but now he wasn't entirely certain he could do it. He was glad that he hadn't mentioned that part of his plan to anyone yet. He knew they would be disappointed in him if he had told them of it and then backed out.
"All done. Let me know if you want anything else done. I'd love to do some more work for you."
Tallis looked down eagerly at his new tattoo to see exactly what it looked like. He was pleased that they had gone to a wizard tattoo parlor after all since metal tones were so central to his tattoo. Muggle tattoos could not create true gold or platinum tones the way that a wizard one could. The back of his hand now bore a large deep blue shield. The tattoo was just barely large enough to cover his scar but it did so perfectly.
The shield was edged in a thick bar of platinum with tiny gold stars running down the center of the platinum strip. At the top was a crescent moon that dipped over the top and bottom of the platinum lining. The shield itself was a deep blue that bordered on black in dim lighting. In the center of the shield there was a large and elaborate platinum 'S' that matched the one on his family ring. Twined around it though were black and green snakes that moved sinuously around the 'S'. They were so dark that they nearly blended in with the dark background but when they moved they caught the light, exposing their presence. He'd have to ask his father to explain the crest to him later. Usually everything on the crest was linked to common family abilities.
"Thanks Audrey. I'll keep you in mind." Tallis and Severus walked out of the small room and back out front to find the Gryffindors waiting for them.
"Let's see" Bill said, holding out his hand to inspect the new tattoo. "It looks great. I wish I could get one."
"Why don't you?" Tallis asked, curious as to why he wouldn't get one. He already had his ear pierced and he loved Tallis' tattoos so clearly he didn't have anything against tattooing or piercing.
"I doubt my uncle would permit it. Having this kind of a tattoo sort of implies that you are the heir. I'm quite a few people away from being the heir so it wouldn't be right."
Tallis clearly thought the reasoning was flawed but he didn't say anything. The group gathered their things and got ready to leave. They walked back outside, discussing what they would do for the rest of the day, largely for the benefit of the eavesdroppers who were listening eagerly. It was decided that Harry and Ron would go to the manor for a quick swim in the lake before they went back home. Severus suggested that Tallis portkey to the manor and open up the floo for the rest of them to enter. He knew that Tallis needed to get out of the alley and soon. He had done wonderfully so far but if one more person touched him he just might break.
Tallis immediately twisted his ring and portkeyed back home. By the time the rest of the group made it back to the Leaky Cauldron to floo back Tallis had already opened the connection to allow them through. They all disappeared from the alley, leaving behind a flurry of speculation about everything that had happened.
Rita Skeeter scurried back to her office to write up an article about the new and beautiful Snape heir and his relationship with the Weasley family and the Boy Who Lived. She knew her story would be front-page news. A new pureblood heir to a wealthy family that had been believed to be dying out who was dating the oldest son of an old pureblood family and a friendship with Harry Potter was guaranteed to sell out.
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A/N: Undying gratitude to all of you who gave me suggestions. I am especially thankful for rlmess who actually researched the matter and told me some of the true meanings behind certain things, many of which I ended up using. My original shield lacked the moon but other than that it was very similar…now it just has a meaning beside what I randomly wanted it to mean.
For those who are curious (since I'm not certain if I will fit in a section with Snape officially explaining…we'll have to see).
Blue (the background) relates to fidelity, perseverance, intelligence, peace and contemplation. All good things for our Snape men.
Green (we see it in the snakes) shows the world of senses, liberty, health, hope and honor. Liberty, hope and honor are especially important to Tallis, in my opinion. Guess the others work as well.
Serpents symbolize a willingness to fight.
A moon symbolizes magical strength. The stars are there 'cus I like them. No real reason.
No reasoning behind the silver or gold or platinum. I just always wished that we could actually achieve those colors in our tattoos. I just have one (which I love) but the idea has always fascinated me.
Thank you to everyone for your help! You are all such great readers…your reviews are so insightful and give me an immeasurable amount of help and guidance as a writer. Thanks!