Chapter 23
1974
A/N: I'm back! So many apologies for my abandonment of this fic - and also for apparently messing up some of the dates on the later chapters. They are definitely both 14 now and haven't had two thirteenth birthdays - can you imagine the horror?!
Lily and Severus had made it to the Easter holidays along with another batch of hastily-completed compulsion potion. Severus felt that they should have stored it in the Room of Requirement over the holidays under a stasis charm, however, Lily showing her Gryffindor stubbornness in forgoing sleep and getting the potion to a passable level of readiness and had presented it to Severus who had merely tutted at her and shook his head in mock-beration for stowing it in the top of his trunk in the folds of his spare cloak. They knew it had not had the full three-day steeping time it needed before trying a slightly higher dose on Tobias but they would get time for that. After all, they had just over two weeks in which to find the perfect moment to add it to his beer - gods knew he drank plenty!
The vast majority of the school made it to Hogsmeade Station to board the scarlet steam train which would take them home for Easter. Students tended to huddle in their year groups and the third years were no exception. They arrived in groups of six dropped off by the self-propelling carriages. Severus and Lily waved goodbye to Frank, Alice, Mary and Marlene before meeting up with Narcissa. ("Come on Lily - if I'm going to sit in a carriage with Mary and Marlene wittering at each other and Frank and Alice chewing each other's faces off then we can share a carriage with Narcissa for the journey home." As always, Lily found it hard to argue with his logic. It was disgusting watching Frank and Alice snog; and Mary and Marlene did witter on about boys - usually Potter and Black for some reason, the poor, deluded things.) As they were peering through the windows on the Hogwarts Express trying to locate Narcissa's beautiful blonde tresses to help them identify which compartment she had secured for them, they passed by the four figures they would least like to see - Black, Lupin, Pettigrew and Potter - hanging out of their compartment window. Black and Potter to whistle and catcall at girls, Peter to join in the hero-worship, which quite frankly made Lily want to throw up in her mouth a little bit but Lupin seemed to be struggling to hold on to his breakfast - he looked pale, clammy and nauseous. Lily managed to meet his gaze before he gave her a tiny, wan smile and waved his fingers as best as he could manage. Sirius caught the exchange and called out to a passing Ravenclaw girl that if she was looking for a seat, he knew exactly where she could sit. She gave him a "V" sign and a sarcastic smile before carrying on with her day. Lily couldn't help her bark of laughter, Sirius turned to her and asked if she was as excited to watch Eurovision tomorrow as he was. Lily gaped at him, "The Muggle Eurovision? The campest phenomenon ever?"
Sirius nodded enthusiastically - his curls and eyebrows waggling in time.
"I'm going to be in the audience - I've got tickets to The Dome in Brighton. You gonna look out for my TV debut?"
"How on Earth have you managed that?"
He tsked and waved a finger, "Ask no questions, hear no lies, Evans. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to keep the kids in order" He gestured with his thumb at the rest of the Marauders and shut the window to their compartment. As he did so, Severus and Lily caught sight of a very fine scar crossing his wand hand and Severus was sure he had seen that somewhere before. It would come back to him.
"Severus, Lily," the call cut through Severus' musings as Narcissa had opened her own door during the surprisingly pleasant conversation with Black a moment ago and was beckoning them into the compartment.
"Regulus, come and sit by me, please. Allow our guests to sit together." Her cousin, Regulus rolled his eyes but did move across to sit at the window on the other side of the compartment so that Lily could sit opposite him, with Severus next to her and Narcissa taking the spot opposite him next to the door. As she closed it, Severus again noticed the very fine scar on her hand that he had noticed on Black's. Now, why would they have made an Unbreakable Vow? Before he could ask her, Narcissa had noticed his eyes lingering and had skillfully changed the subject. "Regulus is joining us as his friendship group currently needs widening, doesn't it cousin?" Regulus sniffed and turned his nose up. Narcissa continued, unperturbed by his show of teenage disdain, "Aunt Walburga has asked that I monitor him closely and encourage him to make the right connections."
As the train pulled away from the station and began the journey south, everyone settled in for a lengthy journey back home. A couple of compartments down the train, the Marauders settled into their seats, Potter and Pettigrew next to the windows vying to see who could draw the crudest etch in the condensation (Potter, as Pettigrew didn't have the imagination to make the witch he drew do that with her wand) while Lupin sat by the door to make as many hasty trips to the toilet as he needed with the full moon being one day away. Black sat opposite leafing through a potions journal. It wouldn't be his choice of reading material but Lily had mentioned a really interesting article on page 16. The journal was originally Sniv - Severus' - he had to try really hard to get this dislike of Snape turned around. He was working backwards from loathing, so it was slow progress. He found the page and gasped at the headline - "Lycanthropy's Latest Therapy" and read the article through a couple of times before passing the journal around he compartment. Why had Lily shown him this? Did she know? Had she worked out Moony's cycle? His brain buzzed with all the possibilities. Lupin was too tired to take it in, Potter had dismissed it out of hand - "it would spoil the full moon fun" (Remus winced at these words - his transformations were the furthest thing from fun he had ever experienced and he had plenty of practice. Every month for the last nine years! - and Pettigrew went along with whatever Potter wanted him to say. Arselick. The journal ended up back with Sirius, who folded it back up carefully and stowed it in his luggage. Potter yawned and stretched loudly announcing he was bored and that they should go and explore the train. "Why? We've got a decent compartment, the sweet trolley will be coming around soon." Sirius was determined to keep Potter in the compartment with him. Narcissa was sitting with Lily and Severus but he didn't fancy dying before the Eurovision Song Contest thanks to his mate making him break an Unbreakable Vow, thank you very much! Lupin vaguely remembered Sirius telling him something about trying to keep everybody contained as much as possible and stretched his legs across the doorway and promptly fell asleep. Potter huffed and muttered about "miserable buggers spoiling all his fun" before drawing yet more wanton witches in the condensation on the school train window.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" enquired the witch with the trolley moving up and down the compartments. Narcissa gave Regulus a galleon and told him to get four of whatever he wanted from the trolley while she had a private word with Severus. Lily's eyes had grown heavy and her head had incrementally made its way onto Severus' shoulder before they were out of the Highlands. Her lost night's sleep had caught up with her.
Narcissa silently closed the door while Regulus was making his order, "Now, nothing gets past you does it?" she questioned and looked toward her scarred hand. "I know you know what this means and I know you know who has the matching one. I also know you want to know why. It's to do with you. I am very fond of you, Severus. You're like the baby brother I never had. It was tough being the third daughter in a family that desperately wants a boy to carry on the family name but Mother struggled so during pregnancy so they decided I would be the last baby - boy or not. I know I'm not what they would wish for, but there we are. My parents have had disappointment after disappointment. The latest being my sister Andromeda - the one between me and Bella - having a baby with a Muggleborn. She got incredibly angry and Blasted them out of the tapestry. I'm sorry, I digress. I asked Sirius to make a Vow to look after you. He Who Must Not Be Named is getting stronger and he'll be looking for people like you - intelligent, talented Slytherins he can use and I will die before I see that happen. I wanted him to sort his friends out, grow up, step in and look after people who don't deserve the treatment those scrotes are handing out. I asked Lucius to have a word, but there's little he can do now he's left school."
Severus was rendered speechless. He thought of Narcissa as a big sister, but wasn't sure that she felt the same. Apparently she did. He felt incredibly lucky that someone would go to these lengths for him. His experiences of the world so far had taught him that his worth was not that substantial. The cosy heart-to-heart was brought to a halt when Regulus returned from his shopping trip, moodily dumped the sweets into Severus' lap which woke Lily up and the young occupants of the compartment turned their attentions to imbibing as much sugar as their bellies would allow.
The Hogwarts Express and its occupants made its way south and wizarding families convened at Kings Cross to meet the train bringing in its precious cargo. Lord Prince was among their number to welcome his grandson and his friend home for the holidays. He was to take them both back to Cokeworth so that Lily could spend some time with her family before she made the journey once again back to the Manor so that Severus could spend some much-loved time with his grandparents.
As the small group reached the Apparition point, it was with a sense of foreboding. Everybody knew that Tobias had been getting even worse. The three-day week was putting pressure on everyone - especially the miners - and Tobias being the worm that he was took this pressure and released it in a steady stream of verbal abuse against his long-suffering wife. With this in mind, Lily was dropped off first. The Evans family had made an effort to welcome her home again - a meal prepared, her bedroom aired and bed made in anticipation of her arrival, the teapot warmed and filled to welcome their youngest daughter, her friend and his grandad. Everyone settled around the kitchen table and enjoyed a cup of tea and a buttered hot cross bun.
"Won't you stay for another cuppa?" invited Lily's mother as Severus stood to leave at his grandfather's signal of replacing his empty cup into its saucer.
"No, my dear lady, I must be getting this young man into the arms of his mother."
Mrs Evans nodded and the adults exchanged looks as worried as the ones passing between the teenagers. Everyone feared the worst about this holiday.
As Severus and his grandfather rounded the corner onto Spinner's End, taking in the unprepossessing view of the canal, as full of rubbish as ever, Severus asked after his parents.
"Well, my boy, your mother has asked him to consider a divorce. I think she wanted to surprise you with the news for when you got back. However, your father has other ideas. He apparently told her that he married her for her money and it was about time he got what was coming to him."
Severus felt the dread settle in his belly. "I'm sure he will," he answered his grandfather and kept his gaze locked onto his front door. As they got closer, they could hear raised voices. Severus looked at his grandfather who pushed his beloved grandson behind him and opened the front door with a force that can only have been through magic, as well as the notion that his only daughter was being berated by her spouse yet again. He stormed down the hall into the kitchen where Tobias stood swaying face red with rage, fists balled, knuckles white, spit flying out of his mouth with every word filled with venom that he spat at his sobbing wife. "...should never have fucking married you. Neither use nor bastard ornament. You want rid of me. No chance - bitch - you'll have to kill me."
During the tirade upon his daughter, Lord Prince had drawn himself up to his full height, drawn his wand and drawn close to his son-in-law (Gods, he hated that phrase for this piece of shit. With a calm he didn't feel he said, "Tobias, shut up and get out."
The younger man turned around with his fist raised ready to attack this trespasser into his house. He dumbly found the older man's face, looked down to see his wand drawn and meekly lowered both his fist and gaze and left his house without noticing his son struggling to settle on an emotion. At this moment in time, he was oscillating wildly between rage at his father and utter despondency for his mother. As soon as the kitchen door shut, Severus moved to his mother and held her tightly. Eileen's father wordlessly went to the kettle to begin making her a cup of tea in the shabby kitchen with the mismatched crockery and sense of despair soaking into the walls.
As evening came around and Eileen knew that Tobias would be back soon, she and Severus locked themselves in his bedroom at Eileen's command. The mother and son spent an uncomfortable night in the boy's single bed listening to Tobias come home drunk and search the house for more booze becoming violent and destructive downstairs. Severus whispering to his mother about anything to distract her and to stop her from sobbing quietly next to him.
Away from Spinners End, the Evans' had continued their evening together by settling down to watch the Eurovision Song Contest. Lily caught a few glimpses of Sirius having the time of his life in the audience in Brighton. When the winners were announced (ABBA from Sweden) a closeup of a joyful Sirius singing along to Waterloo made Lily squeal. This in turn called Artemis to action. Lily hastily wrote Sirius a note to say she had seen him on telly and he looked like he was having a fabulous time. She tied it to the owl's leg and went to bed happy.
The next day dawned bright and sunny. Lily woke to a cooked breakfast (although this was late as cooking for two teenage daughters shouldn't be started too early!) while Severus woke to the sounds of Tobias scrabblling through drawers to scrape together enough for another afternoon at the pub. The mother and son waited for him to leave before getting up and washed and ready to clear up whatever mess he had left for them downstairs. Severus vowed to up the dose of Compulsion Potion to a whole vial for that bastard. They would be so much better off without him. Severus' train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. He quickly descended the stairs so that his mother could finish her bath in peace. He opened the door to Lily, to his surprise and delight.
"I have had to get away. She's had the radio on all day, taping the mushiest love songs for Vernon (bleurgh) and I simply can't listen to her murder "You Are Everything" by Diana Ross one more time - she sounds like a Fwooper in heat..Severus, what's the matter?"
He wordlessly opens the door and welcomes her inside. She takes in the oppressive atmosphere in house, the broken furniture, crockery, and food spread across the kitchen. She pulled her friend into an embrace. "Is your mum okay?"
Severus nodded, "She stayed in my room last night - I'm not sure she slept though. It was difficult listening to that bastard cause this carnage down here looking for beer and money."
Lily nodded. "Why don't you give her some Dreamless Sleep and we can clean up while she catches up on her rest?"
Severus' heart swelled at the care she showed his mother. He nodded and reached into the back of the cleaning cupboard where they kept anything to do with magic - Tobias would never think to look in there. He found a small vial of purple potion. He palmed it and took it upstairs to his mother. Lily heard the soft way Sev spoke to his mum and the tired murmur of her reply. She tied up her auburn hair, rolled up her sleeves and started to fill the sink with hot soapy water.
The teenagers worked for over an hour - Lily in the kitchen and Severus in the living room to clear up the evidence of Tobias' latest drunken rage. Lily had washed the pots, wiped the sides down and had refilled the sink for a third time to scrub the kitchen floor. She was humming to herself while she cleaned - she found it made it easier. She heard footsteps in the hall so looked over her shoulder expecting Severus, or maybe even Eileen having woken from her sleep. She was terrified to see Tobias leaning on the doorframe, licking his lips and leering at her from the doorway.
"Don't stop on my account. I haven't seen an arse like that in a long time. In fact, I might just pull up a chair and make myself comfortable. When you've finished, I can think of another job you can do if you catch my drift. Has my fag son shagged you yet, or do you want his old man to break you in first? I bet you do, you dirty little slut."
Severus became aware of his father's appearance at the same time as Lily. He stopped his work in the living room and made his way into the kitchen as his father sat down.
"Don't talk to her that way."
"I'll talk however I want in my own house, poof. You have had this little filly bobbing on a string all this time and I bet you haven't even got your fingers wet yet. If I had the chance, she wouldn't be walking right for a week." He looked just like her Boggart.
Lily was so afraid, she did something she hadn't done in a few years - accidental magic. The heavy frying pan she had just cleaned "fell" from its hook onto Tobias' head with a loud, echoing clang and knocked him out. Eileen appeared in her dressing gown, ashen-faced, eyes full of tears, "I'm so sorry for the things he said. He turns my stomach."
She levitated him into the living room not taking any care to mind his head on the doorframes and dumping him unceremoniously on the settee. She poured the vial of Dreamless Sleep into his mouth. "It's a good job I didn't take it, isn't it?"
The small family made a start on tea - Eileen knew that when he awoke from his "dream" he would want to line his stomach before going out drinking again. Everyone had had as much as they were willing to take of Tobias' abuse. They all decided to take matters into their own hands.
Eileen made a stew. She added a vial of Severus' new potion to Tobias' bowl.
Severus opened a bottle of beer for his dad, added the whole vial of the potion that had been maturing for months and set it at Tobias' place.
Lily prepared pudding - slices of her mum's easter cake with whipped cream.
Tobias woke up and the family sat and ate together. Eileen made conversation with both Severus and Lily. Tobias stared at his food and ate with the single-minded purpose of someone who has better places to be. Eileen watched as he cleared his plate of stew and even mopped up the gravy with a slice of bread. Severus couldn't take his eyes off the beer bottle that was drained in what must be record time. Lily even managed to persuade him to have a small slice of Easter cake before he went out to the pub. He thought his whipped cream was a slightly different colour and consistency to everyone else's, but down the hatch it went like everything else.
He belched and then sat there looking at Severus with barely contained hatred in his eyes.
"Tobias, are you okay?" ventured Eileen.
He shook himself out of his thoughts and made a non-committal sound.
"I had a filthy dream about her," he pointed at Lily and began to smirk.
"Don't look at her," started Severus more forcefully than he had ever dared to talk to his father before. Tobias hit Severus hard across the face with the back of his hand. Eileen shrieked. Lily gasped. Severus stood up and grinned at his father. Tobias stood too. The two were toe-to-toe, still a clear height difference, a definite weight difference but the character of both strikingly similar and just as strong.
Lily made her way around the table and pushed Tobias away so that she could get some space between them and stand in the middle. "Pick on someone your own size," the petite redhead stated clearly with only a small quiver to give away how afraid she really was.
Tobias' face lost all emotion, he turned on his heel and walked out of the kitchen, down the hall, and out of the front door.
The three remaining people in Spinners End looked at each other in confusion. Eileen spoke first, "Is the potion meant to work that quickly?"
"Well, I suppose the alcohol in the beer may have sped up the potion's effects." Severus answered.
"But he's only just finished the pudding and there was about half a vial in there from last time," supplied Lily.
"You gave him some too?" asked the mother and son together. All three answered, "Yes".
Severus swallowed, "He's had a triple dose, at least."
"Shall we have a cup of tea?" ventured Eileen.
An hour later, as the washing up was finished and the three sat content in the Snape living room, there was a knock on the door. Eileen looked at Severus before opening it up to find two police officers stood on the front door step.
"Mrs. Snape? Can we come in? We've got some bad news."
Lily returned home inconsolable. It took her mother half an hour, a hot cup of tea laced with brandy and the smelling salts to get Lily calm enough to get her words out: "Severus' dad has died. He went to the pub and he started a fight. The man's friends tried to put him outside. He was struggling and fell over outside. He hit his head on the kerb and died right there. Severus and Eileen had to identify the body."
