A/N: First of all I would like to thank everyone for their reviews and continued support. I know my evil cliff hangers are just that… evil but I really can't help myself; these things have to be done.
Next, I'd like to specifically give a few shout outs to my rabid readers…
Lucyole for continuously sending me sweet treats for inspiration in reviews. Very much appreciated. The title of this chapter is named after words from you last review.
ACupples and Tempest E Dashon for always leaving amusing and flattering reviews.
ZoeyOlivia for having commented on every chapter of every fic I am working on; your loyalty knows no bounds.
And lastly, my two newest frequent reviewers – Slytherclaw Black and R.V .Wells. Your words have been very encouraging and I am very happy to have your thoughts.
Chapter 17 – The Tale of Eileen and Tom
Eileen Prince sighed deeply in resignation. It was time. He was gone now. Her precious son was safe. They were all safe from the emotionless void of darkness that was the presence of Tom Riddle.
"Before I tell you both the truth, I must ask you honey," she faced Severus, "do you completely trust Miss Granger to know what I am about to reveal?"
Severus looked incredulous. Hermione had been more caring to him, more understanding and accepting toward him than anyone he had ever known. She expected nothing from him and gave more than he could ever ask for. Upon being asked by his mother about the level of trust he placed in the young witch he had brought to his safest haven, he realised that he trusted her implicitly; more so than he had ever trusted anyone.
"Mother, I trust Hermione with my life. She has proven more than equal to the task of securing its continuation."
"Oh sweetheart." Eileen said softly in a tone of beautiful motherly pride, reaching out a hand for her son but she pulled it back just as her fingers were about to close around Severus's hand. Hermione had hurled herself out of her seat, quick as lightning and thrown her arms around Severus in a crushing embrace and he heard a strangled sob escape her. He returned the hug without hesitation, wrapping his arms around her as he heard her whisper to him.
"No matter what this is about, I am always, always going to be here for you. Please, never have any fear that I will run from you. Regardless of what revelations may come today or in the future; I am yours, Severus Snape and you are well and truly stuck with me. I couldn't let you go now even if I wanted to."
Severus fought to keep a tear of his own from his eye as he squeezed her tighter for a long moment before letting her go. What on earth did I ever do to deserve such devotion? Certainly nothing seems sufficient to be gifted the heart of such an amazing witch.
When Hermione returned to her seat, they both turned to look at Eileen expectantly.
"Ok, sweetheart… I want to preface this by saying the only other person who knows the entire truth of what I am about to reveal is Minerva McGonagall. She is truly the most amazing friend I could have ever asked for; she has kept my secrets and protected you, darling, better than I could have ever imagined."
Hermione smiled, nodding; expectant but not wanting to push.
Severus's brow dropped into a slight frown as he waited with baited breath but gave a cut nod. The tension was rolling off him in waves, Hermione could feel it.
"Now, where to begin… I suppose it all started in 1938, the year I started Hogwarts, Tom was in his second year by then and it didn't take long to notice he was one of the most popular students… with the teachers and the other students alike; Slughorn was particularly fond of him. Tom received a lot of sympathy considering he was an orphan but he didn't lack confidence or seem in need of the sympathy by the time I was aware of him. There was a little stigma attached to Slytherin at that time but nothing like what it grew into later so the fact that he was ambitious and studious was what shone about him; he was performing NEWT level magic by the end of that year; he was…" she trailed off with a distant look in her eyes.
Severus and Hermione sat for a moment in silence, allowing Eileen to reminisce or collect herself, whatever she needed to do to continue. This seemed to be settling into being a long tale and they would all need to keep their focus.
"He was brilliant." Eileen suddenly continued. "All the girls were enamoured by his abilities, not to mention he was growing into quite the attractive young man; honing his charm, intelligence and power. He never seemed to have a girlfriend though; he'd been seen with a few Slytherin girls but nothing that resembled a relationship. For a boy who looked and acted the way he did, it was quite surprising; all the other Slytherin boys, just as confident and clever as him had girlfriends. I decided, in my infinite wisdom at the age of fourteen, that I wanted to fill that role. So in 1941, I approached a friend of his… Abraxas Malfoy, for… advice."
"That was Draco's grandfather, right?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Yes," Eileen continued. "Abraxas seemed to find my interest in his friend amusing but agreed to help me get Tom alone in exchange for my assistance with his homework for the remainder of the school year. Slytherins!" the witch said in mock exasperation, rolling her eyes. "Never willing to do something out of the goodness of their heart."
Severus cleared his throat.
"Yes, yes, I know dear; you were very selfless and brave." His mother said in feigned dismissal of his accomplishments. "Perhaps you should have been a Gryffindor, sweetheart."
Snape grunted his disapproval.
"I'd have fallen for you regardless of your house, Severus." Hermione whispered to him, blushing. "It's that voice of yours that gets me. I get shivers every single time you speak."
"I was the same way, Hermione. With Tom." Eileen interrupted. "I still don't know how Abraxas set it up; neither of them would speak of it but about two weeks after the initial conversation, Tom Riddle, the Slytherin prefect approached me in the library. He asked me if I would quiz him while he studied for his OWLs. I vowed to myself to make sure he and Abraxas got 'Outstanding' marks in every subject. I was nervous but beyond excited that he was even talking to me."
"Please spare me the details of your… excitement, mother. I don't think my stomach can take it."
"Severus…" his mother warned. "I am not discussing my sex-life. I was fourteen."
He stayed silent. Hermione smiled at his discomfort but put a reassuring hand on his knee.
"For a month, all we did was study together. I quizzed him from my own knowledge and the text books he was studying with. He never stuttered over a correct answer, never hesitated nor needed time to think before giving detailed answers that enhanced the wisdom of the books. I was in awe."
Hermione chanced a sideways glance at Severus. He was looking curious but suspicious as his gaze never left his mother's face and the young witch wondered if he was thinking the same as she was… that the description Eileen was giving sounded a lot like Severus himself.
"It was just after Halloween when he actually asked me out; well, to Hogsmeade, which is as close to being asked out as you can at a magical boarding school. And so, on the 6th November 1941, I had my first date with Tom Riddle."
"Did you have a good time?" Hermione wanted to know despite who Eileen's date had been.
"We did; he brought me a bouquet of quills, stating that they lasted longer than flowers and were more useful. I remember thanking him by kissing him on the cheek and telling him that he made a very good point. I told him that they were beautiful and that I'd make sure to put them in a vase of ink when I got back to the castle. He actually laughed at my silly little joke and I was literally on top of the world in that moment."
"Awwwwww," Hermione cooed in that girly way only women can do when they're thinking of a man being romantic.
"Please remember who we're talking about, ladies." Snape interjected, not comfortable that his lover and his mother were swooning over Voldemort.
"As if I'm likely to forget." Eileen said in a stiff tone, successfully stifling the sweet moment she had been reliving.
Hermione felt adequately chastised for going all gooey over something Voldemort had done on a first date. It was actually quite laughable though, to imagine him holding out a bouquet of feathery quills, all wrapped up in ribbons and pretty parchments.
"Well, the rest of the date went quite well. We visited most of the shops in Hogsmeade, had lunch at the Three Broomsticks with Minerva and the boy she was dating, Charlus Potter actually, if I remember correctly.
"Minerva dated someone from Harry's family? Ooooo, she kept that quiet. Just wait till I see her" Hermione asked rhetorically as she snorted out a very unfeminine laugh.
Eileen and Severus joined in with the laughter.
"So how long were you seeing Tom Riddle?" Severus asked, unable to say 'Voldemort' in relation to someone his mother had spent leisure time with.
"We were together for seven years," Eileen stated in a rush, trying to say it quickly. "We were even… engaged for the last year of that relationship."
"Whaaaaat?" Hermione shrieked, no longer able to keep her calm.
"Calm down dear, the engagement didn't last. When he started to show his true colours, I went to Minerva, and… Albus. They took me into hiding in the muggle world, changed my appearance and my name. Gave me this necklace…" Eileen fingered a Sapphire pendant at her collarbone, "… to keep the glamour in place without me having to keep renewing it."
"So how did you go from hiding in the muggle world to being the librarian at Hogwarts? You told me it was escape father after he discovered you were a witch." Snape said slowly, not really wanting his suspicions confirmed, either than his mother had lied to him or that his father was not Tobias Snape.
Eileen took a deep breath and stared at her son regretfully before she cast her eyes down and whispered, "It was."
Neither member of Eileen's now rapt audience spoke at her confession, waiting to hear more explanation, more detail.
"I successfully hid from Tom Riddle in the muggle world for almost five years. When he found me, I was working in a muggle library just outside of Caithness, where Minerva grew up. Albus wanted me to stay in Scotland which I suppose made sense but with apparition it doesn't really make much difference; Minerva wanted me as far from the young Voldemort as possible, who was operating out of London at the time, still working at Borgin and Burke's or so Albus had told me."
"Yes, he told Harry about Voldemort working at Borgin and Burke's." Hermione confirmed. "So what happened when he found you?"
"Well many things happened. He didn't appear to be angry as I suspected he would be, although having known him for a long time, I could tell he was only being 'nice' to get me back. He never liked to lose things he considered his and in his mind, I was his. He began following me and not at a distance; he was relentless, possessive, unstoppable.
It took six months though for him to finally get me to agree to have drinks with him… I knew what that meant." She sighed. "It may surprise you know, Hermione, as you never knew him before his resurrection, that as a young man, Tom Riddle, as much as he had an unquenchable thirst for power and supremacy, was a man much like any other." Eileen carefully made sure her eyes were nowhere near her son, keeping her gaze firmly on Hermione. "With needs." She finished.
Severus made a gagging sound to which Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Of course he was. I assume an impaired soul doesn't affect…" Hermione cringed as she continued, "… bloodflow."
"Exactly. I went with him willingly; having learnt years before that it was much easier than attempting to fight him and he was much stronger at this point than when I had known him before."
Eileen took a few breaths, steadying her nerves as she prepared to continue. She had dreaded this story reaching her son's ears, had been petrified for years that Voldemort would relay it to Severus in a fit of temper. It seemed though, that he had not; thank Merlin for small mercies, she thought.
"When does my father come into this? It's beginning to sound like he doesn't." Severus asked, beginning to lose his patience with his mother's inability to get to the point. How she kept a lid on her real personality to impersonate a no-nonsense librarian he would never know.
"Ah yes, Tobias Snape. I'll get to that story soon enough, darling. You may want to summon a calming draught for that part."
"I'll stick to the firewhiskey," he replied, gesturing to his glass.
"Ok, darling but don't say I didn't warn you."
"Just get on with it… what happened?"
"I'm getting there…. I'm getting there… now, after that first drink with Riddle, in which he showered me with false apologies and seductive promises, all laced with his personal brand of Slytherin charm, I'm ashamed to say I fell for it and started to see him again regularly. I had not been involved with anyone else since I'd been in hiding and I was lonely. Albus and Minerva had advised against seeing someone anyway but I had no inclination during the time I was hidden. It turns out there was a reason for that… unbeknownst to me, during our initial courtship, Riddle had performed a blood binding between us, meaning I was incapable of becoming aroused by anyone but him."
Hermione gasped, her eyes bulging, her mouth dropped wide.
Severus grimaced, feeling sick.
"I found this out a year into our second attempt at a relationship when I believed myself in love. He kept most of his dark tendencies away from my knowledge; I assume because he wanted to stop me from running again but also because, he told me, he liked that I kept his bed warm for him. I told him one night, in an attempt to soothe him when he was feeling particularly… cantankerous, that I had never wanted anyone else, never been with anyone else, never loved anyone else… that he was everything to me. The only way to get on his good side was to stroke his ego without appearing to be sucking up. He told me that my lack in other partners was his doing, that he had performed the blood rites of an ancient ceremonial hand fasting, that we were, essentially married."
Severus gave no warning before vomiting; something had clicked in his mind as his mother was speaking and he suddenly knew the rest of the story, or at least he thought he did.
"I felt the same way at that moment dear," Eileen continued as she swished her wand to clear the mess from the floor.
Hermione inched closer to him and placed her small hand in his nearest much larger one and squeezed lightly, before leaning to whisper in his ear…
"Severus, you are stronger and braver than you realise; you can face this like you've faced everything else in your life, with occlumency." He could hear the amusement in her voice and very nearly laughed at her impression of how he dealt with things. It was quite obvious to him that she was trying to calm his mood and his nerves. He felt very und, and loved. "Please remember, I'm right here next you and I'm not going anywhere. If you can handle the state of my hair after you've had your way with me, you can handle anything."
He turned to her and smiled a little before placing a kiss on her cheek.
"You're too good to me." He said quietly.
"Not possible." She responded, gazing lovingly into his eyes for a moment before slowly turning back to the other witch in the room whom was apparently Voldemort's wife. "Sorry Eileen, I didn't mean to interrupt your story, as intense as it was getting. I just felt the need to…"
"It's quite alright dear, I appreciate you tending to Severus. You'll make him a good wife."
Both Severus' and Hermione's eyebrows shot into their respective hairlines. It was one thing, to think through the possibilities of a matrimonial future in the hopeful privacy of your own mind but to hear it voiced from your own mother/future mother-in-law was quite different.
"Now, don't get your wands in knots dears, I'm just teasing. I thought it would be amusing to see your reaction, and I was right, you're expressions are highly comical."
Eileen was smiling as she watched her son's shock morph into a glare. When she looked at Hermione though, the smile was mirrored and there was something of a promise in her eyes that she planned to make him a very good wife.
"You'll get used to this side of her, Hermione," Severus said quietly through gritted teeth. "It will annoy you to no end but…" He stopped as he saw the same promise in Hermione's eyes that his mother had seen and he was suddenly breathless.
"But what, dear?"
"Nothing mother, never mind. Just get on with this story so I can get some sleep. It's getting late."
"Ok darling." Eileen placated her son. "Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, my reaction was quite similar to yours although I managed to school my expression and keep my stomach in check. You learn a thing or two about keeping most of what you really feel for Tom Riddle to yourself when he's around. I became the actress of the century to keep him on side – Meryl Streep's got nothing on me."
They all chuckled a little.
"Obviously Minerva and Albus weren't happy that I'd taken up with him again but I also became a rather useful resource as I had access to identifying some of his followers and hearing snippets of his plans. I presented myself as the doting girlfriend/fiancée and though he never truly trusted me, he let me little by little. As you know he'd never been a fan of Albus Dumbledore but things took a drastic turn in their mutual hatred for each other several years later, in 1959."
"1959? Surely my father would have been on the scene by then? It's the year I would've been conceived."
"Very astute, darling. Yes it was the year you were conceived and yes, your father was on the scene."
Severus went very pale at the almost confession of his mother and Hermione gripped his arm tighter.
"Are you telling me that Tom Riddle is my biological father?" Severus asked very slowly, his hand reaching over Hermione's where she gripped his arm.
Eileen nodded, head down, feeling ashamed.
Severus leapt out of his chair and stalked to his mother, towering over her in a fury Hermione had never seen in him. She didn't move knowing it was a bad moment to step into the family drama.
"What were you thinking? How could you let that happen? To allow yourself to be defiled by that… that…"
"Severus please… let me finish before you let your anger get the better of you. You need to hear the rest of the story." Eileen pleaded without looking up at her son.
He growled in response and stepped backwards, returning to the sofa he was sharing with Hermione. The young witch tried to return her hand to his arm, to comfort him but he shook her off. Hermione felt tears burn at her eyes from the small rejection but tried not to blame him, considering what he was going through and placed her hand right next to his between them on the sofa so he could take it if he needed to, if he wanted to.
"Get on with it then." He ground out.
"I found out I was pregnant in the late Spring of 1959 – I was almost two months when I found out and was only weeks away from starting to show. When Tom found out he seemed overjoyed which piqued my curiosity; he had always been so vehement with me about contraception; it was beyond out-of-character for him to want a child but I knew better than to confront him about it and so I said nothing and allowed him to think I believed his story that the potion must have been brewed wrong. A week after he found out, he had disappeared for a few days, I suppose doing whatever Dark Lord's do in their free time… I invited Minerva over while he was gone and we did some diagnostics on my contraception potion; we both suspected it had been swapped out for fertility potion instead but Minerva took a sample of it for Albus's scrutiny."
"Was it? Fertility potion, I mean." Hermione asked.
"Of course it was." Severus answered irritably from her side.
"Severus is right. The morning Tom was due home, Albus came to visit me. He told me that the potion was one of the strongest in the world to increase fertility – a blend of herbs known for their qualities of enhancing reproduction and dark magic with ensured a successful merging of genetic material – he was very clinical in his description which was appreciated at the time."
Severus snorted.
"A plan was devised that I continue to play my role as the devoted wife of Tom Riddle until my eighth month of pregnancy, at which point I would be given a safe location to complete my pregnancy and raise my child with wards specifically designed to keep Tom out. The time passed slowly and I spent most of it very scared or very bored; he would not let me doing anything at all and when the fifth month of my pregnancy hit, I started having a lot of pain in my abdomen."
Now, Severus grabbed Hermione's hand, thankful that she had left it there.
"Tom cast several spells on me, diagnostics and healing alike and the pain subsided but his face was pale and I knew something was wrong. I asked him what was wrong, what was happening and he dropped to his knees in front of me, placed his hands on my belly and said one word… 'twins'."
"Oh. My. God." Hermione said.
"I'll second that," Severus added, "I have a twin? A brother? Where? Who?"
"A sister." Eileen said without showing any expression. "Her name is Tempest but we're not…"
"Tempest? As in Tempest Dashon? Antonin Dolohov's erm…" Severus asked, getting somewhat animated.
"Yes, that Tempest. She is your twin sister Severus."
"But… how is that possible? How did I end up growing up with you and Tobias Snape and she grew up in the Russian pureblood society?"
"Well, as I mentioned, a plan was devised for me to be taken into hiding once more; with Tom knowing I was having twins, we knew I would be too easy to find carting two children around so it was agreed that Albus would arrange cover for me and one child – you, while Minerva arranged with a relative of hers who was married into the Russian purebloods for the other child – Tempest – to be raised there and I would be able to visit."
"So you gave up a child? My sister?"
"I would not say I gave her up; I protected her from becoming her father. You have more of me in you that you care to admit but she is all him, except for her hair, you both have my hair."
"Mother, your hair is a shade under medium brown."
"You have not seen my true face since you were five years old, darling. That is when Madam Pince was created."
"So that's why I had to spend my childhood in the Hogwarts library?"
"Yes, but we're getting off topic. Everything was arranged for the day I reached thirty-eight weeks but just shy of my thirty-sixth week by a day, you and your sister decided to show up early. I sent a patronus to Albus at the school, who picked up Minerva and floo'd straight to me. By the time they arrived, you were on your way into the world, sweetpea."
"So the plan went out the window? Why do plans always do that?" Hermione asked.
"Our plans did not quite go out of the window; they got brought forward a bit that's all. As soon as you were born, sweetheart, Albus checked you over and wrapped you up. I held you for about ten minutes before the pains started again for me to deliver your sister and Albus fled to protect you. I never told you this because you were too inquisitive for your own good…" Hermione nudged him and smiled, "but Albus was your Godfather."
"Shame he didn't act like it." Severus said with barely disguised resentment. Hermione squeezed his hand.
"Now, now sweetheart; Albus did everything he could. He was in a difficult position."
"I was in a difficult position," Severus shouted. "I was playing spy for the order while risking my life under the tyranny and unstable anger of who is supposedly my own father. Speaking of whom, where did Tobias Snape come into all this?"
"Tobias Snape was an invention. He was a name created as part of the identity to keep you hidden from your father. Albus invented a muggle father for the children of Eileen Prince, kept alive by a specific type of memory charm, which built new memories into your mind every night as you slept. It started when you were five and you sat in the library with me at Hogwarts."
"So none of my memories of Tobias Snape are real? The abuse that I remember was not real? His hatred of magic was not real? When I used to creep down the stairs and see him grabbing your wand and hitting you, none of that was real? Did you do this to me? Or was it Dumbledore?"
"The painful memories are not entirely creations of imagination. I had hoped you wouldn't remember but they were altered memories from Tom's visits. He managed to find us, three times before we were finally put under a fidelius charm at Spinner's End. Minerva was secret keeper."
"Why am I only learning all of this information now?"
"Because, darling, as amazing as your occlumency is, I could not allow our identities to be found again, especially after his resurrection. The risk would have been too high."
"What happened with Tempest?" Hermione asked quietly, unable to keep her curiosity at bay any longer.
"Ah yes. Well, as I said, Albus fled and Minerva delivered Tempest but just as she was cleaning my baby girl up, Tom came home. He snatched Tempest from Minerva, ran to me and apparated us away."
"Oh my God. How did you survive? How did you explain about Severus? What did he do?" Hermione asked, panicked and frantic.
"He asked if Tempest was the first or second baby and managed to lie and say the first before passing out exhausted. When I awoke I was shackled to a bed and neither Tom nor Tempest was in sight. I screamed myself hoarse, cursing his name and begging for my daughter. No one came to me. I didn't see him for three days, that's when he attempted to obliviate me but I had been sending every memory I had created over the last week to Dumbledore via a process called bi-location. It works like an outer-body-experience, my soul literally flitted out of my body and over to Hogwarts where my memories were deposited with Albus, so he could restore them to me later."
"How did you escape?" Hermione asked.
"He let me go… obliviated. I had served my purpose, I had delivered him an heir, well, two technically. But to kill me so soon after your birth would have diminished your power, he said, so I was being released and I was never to speak of my daughter. That I would be allowed to raise you and he would raise her."
"Oh Gods, I hadn't even thought of that," Hermione said as she turned to Severus. "You're the heir of Slytherin."
"I assume you returned to Hogwarts?" Snape asked quietly.
"Yes. I stayed at the castle with you for a while as a safe house was set up and protections and then we searched for…"
Knock, knock, knock…
"Are you expecting anyone, darling?"
"Of course not. We are the only people who know of this location."
"Stay here..." Eileen said as she headed for the door with her wand drawn.
Hermione and Severus followed slowly behind Eileen, both with their wands drawn too as they stood near the door to the library. When they heard the words the strange woman at the door had to say, they both stopped breathing…
"You should be more careful Mother. Did Daddy dearest teach nothing about the power of a name?"
A/N: Ok, well there we have it… the crazy roller coaster of Eileen's love life, Severus's parentage and long lost twin sister. If ever there was a story to bring in a long lost sibling, it was this crazy story right here.
About the cliff hanger, I would say I'm sorry but I'm really not and as everyone knows 'I must not tell lies'.
Now, I know there are gaping holes in this story but little things will be filled in eventually. I was trying to keep the chapter under 5k words so I could get it posted before work. If there are spelling errors, my apologies, my fingers have skirted over the keys like lightning today.
Hope you all enjoyed The Tale of Eileen and Tom. As always, reviews, favourites and followers are welcome…
For anyone interested, I have a facebook group for fans of this story, feel free to send a request... groups/681753442260963/
Many blessings x