He actually left...

As far as Severus knew, his mother was still crying in the entryway. He had gone up to his room to lay on his bed and stare at the ceiling.

They had gotten what Eileen wanted; insight to what Tobias was upset about. Severus had suspected, but now they knew for sure.

She should have told him she was a witch before they married, but that was an old mistake, nothing to do for it now except move on.

And the suggested unfaithfulness was just an uncalled for stab...

It's not as though Tobias was quiet about his distaste for his son...Severus had been called many things he was not, but his sober father's less than satisfactory opinion of him hurt in a deep place he didn't even know existed.

A ponce though.

Liking to fish and build and tinker with machines did not make a man a man. But the words he chose and the way he said them...that's what Tobias saw when he looked at Severus: less than a man, an unworthy heir.

Severus always had thought himself mentally and physically strong but it certainly didn't show like his father's bulk. He was clever, considered a genius even, though he did not spare a thought for muggle machines, not that he really could do much with them anyway. His talents were focused towards spells and potions...and fishing was just not something that ever interested him.

No, he would never be the son Tobias wanted, and he had no chance from the very beginning. His very existence was what made his father unhappy. Magic just solidified that, and it made his father angry.

Severus was intimately familiar with angry.

Their little whiskey experiment would either push him completely out of their lives, or he would return drunk to his chair approximately two days after his potion wore off and all would go back to their sad version of normal.

He sighed into his pillow.

Tobias leaving was supposed to make him feel better, not worse.

Work was a welcome distraction the following morning. He was even starting to think it would be an okay day until Park arrived for his shift. He wanted to know how Severus made the 'illusions' in the woods and-

would

not

leave

him

alone.

He did his best to ignore the boy, but Park was annoyingly persistent.

Thoroughly tired of saying: no, leave me alone, (and all of its variants appropriate for work) Severus left like fiendfyre was snapping at his heels once noon rolled around.

He didn't want to go home, not yet. He wanted to talk to someone that wasn't his mother. He wanted to talk to his friend.

A pass by the playground held no result.

She wasn't at Firewood either.

No sign of her or any of the Evans' in town.

Severus stopped dead at the end of Hawthorne Avenue.

Mr. Evans could potentially be a problem...

He did a quick check to make sure no one was around and disillusioned himself. After some sneaking, a near death experience with a neighbor's chihuahua and nearly crash landing on one of the lawn chairs in his escape, he discovered the Evans family was not home.

Disappointment tugged him back across town and down to the river. No can nor bottle was safe from his wrath.

After exhausting himself with riverside target practice, he found a nice spot to contemplate setting something on fire. He would have to go home soon and deal with his mother and her...emotions.

Severus hesitated at the front door.

What if she was still crying? He didn't know how to handle a crying woman. The fact that it was his mother just made it worse, he couldn't just sneer at her and walk away.

Well...he could, but that was just asking for trouble.

He steeled himself and entered the house.

She wasn't crying, thank Merlin, that was something at least.

Eileen was sitting in Tobias' chair, watching telly and sipping a glass of something suspiciously whiskey colored.

"Mum…"

"Sev'rus." She replied without turning towards him.

He went upstairs to feed and dose Amun then joined her in the living room. They watched almost an entire episode of M*A*S*H before he decided to start dinner for them, since she did not appear motivated to do so.

He was just about to retrieve her when she entered the kitchen.

"He lef' us…" She said to no one in particular.

"Yes." He agreed. She looked so gutted, he continued. "It's technically only been a day, he still might return."

She huffed a humorless laugh, but he did see the glimmer of hope in her eyes.

While picking at supper, Eileen did a lot of glancing at either Tobias' seat or the front door.

"I...I c'n see why I made th'choice before…" Eileen started.

She must be refering to her suicide in his previous life...Why she loved that man so bloody much, he did not know. Severus wanted to say that Tobias wasn't worth it, but to her...he was.

His mother breathed deeply. "I'm a cow'rd."

"For an act you haven't even committed?"

She choked back a sob. "Bu' I did. In'nother life I did…"

He nodded. "Yes. In another life, not this one."

"You say tha' like 'm a differen' person."

"Aren't you?"

She frowned at that in thought.

Would she leave him alone again? After everything he had shown her, would she still make the same decision? And this time Tobias wasn't even dead, he just left...

"I have been given a second chance, who says you can't have one too?"

Eileen clutched her silverware tightly. "I...I don' know wha' to do...I don'...no' without 'im."

"You can't control him, but you can control yourself. You must keep going, one day at a time."

She scoffed.

"Prince's aren't cowards." He stated.

That got her attention.

"What happened to the witch who defied her own blood because she loved a muggle man? You can live without him, and he may return, but you are not weakened by his absence."

She calculated his words.

"He does not give you value, your decisions do."

"Whid my son b'come a man of wis'om?"

He hesitated. "The day I lost the love of my life."

At her sudden intake of breath, Severus knew she understood.