Chapter 24: Young And Reckless
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{"Once I was seven years old my momma told me...Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely...Once I was seven years old...It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger...Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker...By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor...Never rich so we were out to make that steady figure...Once I was eleven years old my daddy told me...Go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely..."}7 Years Old, Lukas Graham
The Snape Residence, North America, Unknown World...
The sky had been dark and the stars hung high above a small boy of seven as if they had been diamonds against black velvet. The obsidian eyes of the seven year old had been focused on the large black cloud of thick smoke headed toward their front yard. As he watched the cloud get closer and closer he remained in the front yard. No fear filled him as he watched the cloud land just outside the small gray fence that lined the property.
The smoke faded revealing a tall man wearing ebony teaching robes and black dragon hide boots. His hair had been lengthy going to his shoulders but his face had been covered by what appeared to be an unkempt beard.
His eyes had been as if they had seen life for a thousand years as he neared the seemingly frozen seven year old boy who's heart was beating wildly in his tiny chest. The horribly aged man's sorrowful obsidian eyes met those of the boy and the stranger's identity clicked.
"Papa!?" he said racing over toward The newest named Potions Professor of Hogwarts Castle.
Severus looked down at the boy whom he had gone through great lengths to keep safe. He had been so innocent, so pure despite the darkness from his father and it made all the difference when he'd become a full grown wizard.
"Regulus." said Snape reaching down and scooping the little wizard into his ebony clad arms.
The three years he spent wondering if they'd been safe in the wake of his absence were almost maddening and often contributed to his increasingly short temper in the wake of dealing with everyone else that required his company or assistance.
Regulus hugged him as if it had been for dear life.
"Where have you been Papa?" he asked narrowing his eyes at the grief aged wizard.
"Hogwarts." replied Snape honestly.
Of course he left out the bit about him being imprisoned.
Regulus nodded and took Snape by the hand. He led his father into the house where his heartbroken mother had been busily scrubbing dinner dishes and staring out into space with her mind trying to understand the absence of her beloved husband.
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The Kitchen, The Snape Residence, North America, Unknown World...
Elaine had been lost in her thoughts of the possible fate of her husband when she suddenly felt his arms wrap around her waist and his kiss upon the exposed portion of her neck. Regulus had been amused as his mother reacted to the rough beard that had seemingly dominated her husband's sallow pale face.
"My word..." she said turning around to face him. "Severus...where have you been...what's happened to you?"
Snape made note of her being privy to his apparent rapid aging and the beard. While the aging she could deal with the beard was something she apparently would not be willing to accept.
"I'm home." he replied softly. "That is all that matters."
The two of them shared an emotionally charged kiss and Elaine immediately snapped back into getting on with her wifely duties.
"You look positively famished." she said leading him by the hand toward the table. "Sit...I'll get your dinner."
"That's not..." he began but noted the disappointment behind her eyes. "That will be much appreciated."
Elaine smiled for the first time since he had been gone. Regulus was pleased to see his mother had returned to her usual happy self. He turned his attention to setting up the table for his father and pulled up a chair beside him.
"He's gone isn't he?" he asked meeting his father's rather serious gaze.
Snape nodded not at all wishing to dwell on the out come of the first wizarding war.
"Yes, Little Prince." he replied. "The Dark Lord is gone...but with him he took a good deal of people who did not deserve to be gone."
"I'm sorry you're sad Papa." said the boy taking his father's hand.
Snape sighed.
"And I apologize for yours and your mother's sadness." he said tussling his only son's raven hair. "Have you been studying your tomes?"
Regulus smiled.
"Yes Papa." he replied.
"Good." replied Snape. "Your father is a Professor at a prestigious Magical school it wouldn't do for you not to be on par with my own students in terms of magical study."
"Papa...can I go to Hogwarts when I become eleven?" asked Regulus. "That way I can see you all the time and Mother wouldn't need to worry about either of us."
Snape sighed once more.
"I'm afraid that isn't possible." he replied. "You live here in America so you are to attend Ilvermorny."
It was little Regulus' turn to sigh.
Snape smiled at him.
"Consider yourself fortunate that you are not going to become one of my students, I will be giving you enough direction in terms of your magical education, After all I am your father." he said.
Regulus seemed to perk up at this.
Elaine returned with a shaving kit, Severus Snape's shaving kit to be exact. He had never truly gotten the hand of shaving himself and so the burden of keeping him at least halfway presentable was her doing.
"Before you eat let's make sure you can get through your meal without unruly hairs falling in." said The young wife of Severus Snape.
She had been a beautiful to him as the day he married her, their initial meeting not withstanding. She had only been twenty three but aged to that of quite the mature woman in the short span of three years.
Severus himself was twenty four but looked to be nearing fifty given the grief he'd suffered through following Lily Potter's murder at the hands of the dark lord.
Little Regulus watched his parents as his mother shaved his father's fearsome beard and dried his sallow pale face. To on lookers it would have been nothing more than a tedious task and it certainly looked that way to a seven year old boy but in the precious few minutes that Elaine had shaved Severus Snape's face, there was understanding that passed between them so profound that there had been no need for words.
Once she had his face completely bare she found herself stroking his cheeks as his intense gaze never left her as she moved about. After a long silence and no movement, Severus Snape stood up following his wife's completion of her task and pulled her into his embrace.
Their lips crashed together like ships cast adrift in a raging tide. Elaine smiled as she noted a glimpse of the unsure boy she had married behind the sorrowful man that had taken his place for the passed three years.
Happy tears streamed down the cheeks of Regulus' mother as his father wiped them away.
"Forgive me." he said noting that he had hurt her tremendously.
"Always." replied Elaine without hesitation.
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Knockturn Alley, Wizarding World...
Regulus made his way down the familiar darkened alley as he found himself back to the local pub and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of booze. The memories were always so vivid and brutal during this time of the year. Nineteen years ago he had to face the loss of his father despite the taunting and bitterness that accompanied the knowledge of the fact.
He had been twenty two when his father was declared dead. A fact her learned from his mother given all the misinformation he had to sift through in terms of his birth and what truly went on between her and his father following the drunken wizard's reveal of their union being due to him being her death eater captor.
The younger Snape had been told that his father refused to give him the name Snape, a way to keep the trail to him cold and instead signed his birth certificate as Sebastian Prince. The clever combining of his father's middle name as well as his paternal grandmother's maiden name.
Effectively he was born, Regulus S. Prince.
Drinking down another bottle of whiskey given his mind's replaying of lie after lie told to him since he had taken his first breath in contrast to the life his father and mother had given him in the wake of his twin brother's loss.
That had always bothered him as well.
He had known next to nothing about his twin brother aside from that he had been born and had appeared to be smaller than he was and it possibly contributed to his death. There was a lot of self loathing to go around given the family bloodline and the apparent murder of his twin due to taking up all of the nutrients in the womb had contributed to a good deal of Regulus' issues during his youth.
Like his father before him, he blamed himself for his brother's passing despite not being even aware that he had one to begin with and too like Severus Snape,young Regulus sought answers in the bottom of a bottle.