Chapter 47: The Embittered

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{"...Oh his words how they hurt me...I'll never forget it...And as the time, it went by...I lived to regret it...You're no son, you're no son of mine...But where should I go...Please tell me what should I do...You're no son, you're no son of mine...But I came here for help...Oh I was looking for you..."} No Son Of Mine,Phil Collins

Open Sky, Unknown World...

Swooping along the clouds of the stratosphere, Icarus The Leviathan Thunderbird beat it's great wings as it carried a dangerously riding Regulus Snape across the vast deep ocean. The enraged wizard had been occupying his mind with the thrill of flight in a bid to get passed wanting to brutally beat Ronald Weasley into a heap of flesh and bone for what he had done. Hermione had attacked him in defense of her husband and the father of her children despite the freckle faced arse cheating on her every chance he had gotten.

The wisps of clouds had gone by leaving only a glistening wetness behind as Regulus attempted to catch them. He had preferred flying to walking or apparation given the easy calm that had come over him whenever he needed to escape the pressures his rather strange life had put on him.

As a general rule, Regulus did not like to engage in confrontation it only seemed to draw out more of his repressed rage and heartache but Ron Weasley had gone too far insulting his mother.

Icarus' shrill call filled the air and it lulled him into a contented sleep as the cool air seemed to ease the burning of his rage for the time being. His weary mind traveled back to the halls of Hogwarts Castle and how he had not even measured up in the eyes of his deceased father's portrait.

The last time he had seen the wizard alive was the night he shouted about him being a curse...that he had been the product of rape long hidden from him when his father was a death eater. The horror that gripped his mother that night had been as haunting as the words his deceased father had spoken.

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The Living Room, Snape Residence, Unknown World...

Shards of broken glass had stuck out of the hard wood floor like an angry sore toe as Elaine Prince struggled to breathe in the wake of her drunken husband's aggressive revelation. The tears continued to stream down her now pale cheeks as she dared not look into the inquisitive face of her beloved little boy whom had seemingly grown into a man overnight.

Regulus had been thrown through a loop following his return to his home. He noted the blood that had splattered the floor and the spilled contents of whiskey on the floor where his father had stood.

He had never seen the dour wizard so drunk nor so enraged at not only himself but at his wife.

"This is what you wanted." he had hissed at her spitefully. "This is the life you built with a monster!"

Elaine ignored him pleading with him to "stop this" before it was too late. Regulus had entered the room to find his enraged father breaking glass and spilling blood and drink everywhere.

The blood had solely belonged to the dour wizard, he had been injured from whatever occurred at Hogwarts before he arrived. Upon seeing her husband brutally beaten and hardly able to stand, Elaine brought him into the house and attempted to care for him.

Initially, he had been grief stricken. Tears had streamed down his sallow pale cheeks as he reached for his wife with a bloodied hand. He kept apologizing to her for getting her into whatever mess he had made of her life.

Regulus listened unsure what to make of the scene. He had never known his father to shed a single tear in all the years that he had known him. The shock of seeing the normally composed wizard so bloodied had also driven the younger Snape to silence.

Elaine had scrambled to get the necessary supplies needed to clean him.

"Severus." she said looking about as torn to pieces as he had been physically.

"I'm sorry." he apologized gripping her hand as his watery obsidian eyes met hers. "I should never have allowed this to continue..."

Elaine looked at him terrified as he rose to his feet and moved over toward the firewhiskey stash he had hidden among his private desk long ago.

"Severus please." said Elaine visibly upset. "You've had more than enough to drink as it is."

The injured Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor uncorked the top from his elven crystal bottle and turned it up.

"Our association is at an end." he said with venom behind his tone that further shocked his young son. "This is the last time I will ever step foot in this wretched hollow you call a home."

Elaine didn't seem all that affected by how he spoke but she was apparently devastated by the fact that her husband was telling her outright that he would not be coming home again.

"Severus you don't mean that." she said trying to understand what she had done to make him resent her so much.

Unsure of what to do, Elaine had gone to him hoping to ease his anger with her touch. It proved to be the exact opposite as Snape drew back from her not at all wising to have her near him given the amount of blood on his hands.

"Don't fucking touch me." he hissed spiteful. "Don't you ever fucking touch me again."

Elaine had been at a loss for words as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

"Why are you being so cruel?" she asked not understanding his distance in the least.

The rage behind his cold eyes of obsidian had propelled Regulus to at last enter the room.

"Dad you're drunk." he said stepping between his parents unsure what to make of the life he knew crumbling before his very eyes. "And you're injured...let us help you."

Severus Snape seemed slightly amused by his son's gesture of unconditional love.

"Help me?" he spat rather coldly. "What the fuck could you possibly do to help me boy?"

Regulus had wavered for a moment unused to his father's venomous tongue.

"I-I don't know what we did to upset you...but we can fix it dad." he said hopeful.

Severus Snape chuckled rather darkly as he glared into the innocent eyes of his only son.

"Your very existence has been wrong since the very beginning." he hissed still glaring at his son.

"Severus please don't." said Elaine looking fearful.

The soon to be Headmaster of Hogwarts chuckled once more.

"And why should I?" he asked. "He's going to hear about the truth some time woman why not now while I still draw breath...why not have the truth known here and now."

"Severus...you promised you wouldn't..." said Elaine upset as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

"I owe you nothing save for a swift end at the business end of my wand." replied Snape prompting Regulus to take a defensive stance in protection of his mother.

Being told he had been the product of rape had taken some of the wind out of the younger Snape's sails as he visibly buckled beneath the strain the weight of the truth had placed on him.

"W-Why are you telling me this?" asked the stunned Regulus.

"Because you are my son." replied Snape with a coldness in his gaze that Regulus had never known before. "And you carry the same darkness inside you that I have long tried to deny in myself."

"Dad...you're upsetting mom." said Regulus noting his mother's anguish.

"She should be upset." replied Snape without feeling. "She should be reduced to a pile of senders at my feet."

"You don't mean that Severus." she said as the tears continued. "You can't mean that..."

"Do what you will with your new legacy little prince." said Snape before he waved his hand bursting the door into flames and raced out into the night and apparated out of their lives.

"DAD!" called Regulus as chasing after the injured wizard with only the night sky looming above him as the tears streamed down his cheeks.

Now he had been standing in the center of his parent's living room with his heartbroken mother unable to look at him.

"Severus." she said as her anguish seemed to magnify tenfold.

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Open Sky, Unknown World...

Looking back it seemed that his mother had known all too well what was to befall her husband once he returned to Hogwarts Castle. The news of his death had hit her like a stray muggle bullet causing her knees to buckle as she dropped the dish she had been washing.

Taking a breath, Regulus continued to enjoy the clarity that had come from his flights with Icarus with increasing regularity. The threat of Arcturus and his Serpent Brothers Of Destruction had been serious and despite his rather unsavory association with Ronald Weasley, Regulus wasn't going to allow the loud mouthed freckle faced idiot to go off and get everyone killed no matter how satisfying it would be to watch him meet his just end.

"Icarus...set a course for Malfoy Manor." he said with something of a smirk. "No doubt Uncle Lucius has been waiting up for us...I don't know what makes someone a Slytherin but if anyone knows about it he does."

Another shrill call erupted from The Leviathan Thunderbird as he changed his flight path to one in favor of Malfoy Manor.