Stanis stopped walking as soon as he heard his father's voice.
"It is ours. By our right and our blood, Ry. If you acknowledge nothing else, know that it is our blood that keeps the Snape family involved." His father's voice had never sounded so cold. Usually, when he was angry, his voice would shake the roof. However, the man that Stanis had hated and fear for all of his life was speaking in a low and polite voice. Stanis could feel the anger behind it though.
"We understand your clam on the Snake Clan, Sev. We have always understood and greatly respected the leader of out Clan. However, this is a matter above name of our blood." Stanis did not recognise the voice, but that wasn't uncommon. Father had many nameless and faceless people who he did his business with. It the subject of the conversation that now interested him. He knew that the blood in his family was of the utmost importance to Father, so what could they be dealing with that was more important then blood? After all, no one he knew called his father 'Sev.' And what was this Snake thing?
The kitchen door swung open and through the crack between the hall door and the wall Stanis saw his mother entering. And as she moved out of his line of vision, he saw the back of a man with sleek, long blond hair sitting and a child, perhaps a few years older then himself, standing with identical hair, both in colour and length, close to him.
"Ry? Hello. Do what do we owe you this unexpected visit?" said Mother, offering her hand. The man, presumably 'Ry', took her hand and kissed it. Father pulled her away.
"Where is Stanis?" he asked.
"In bed." She replayed, also quietly, seemingly so that Ry wouldn't here. He heard anyway.
"Your son?" Ry inquired, and, without waiting for and answer, "mine is with me now. See? Just like the mother."
"Indeed." His father's voice seemed to grow colder with the minute. Turning to Stanis' mother, he said, "Nyoka, they want the Snake."
"What?" Mother was shocked, but her face turned to sour indignation as she fully comprehended. She took her chair beside her husband. "You know the rights of our blood as well as we do. Your family has no connection to ours." Her voice was hardened now. She even had her 'don't mess with this bitch' face to complete her ensemble. "What makes you even think that we would just hand over a right that has been in our family for over ten generations."
"Well, we just had a thought," Said Ry, his voice seemed to say that the conversation was coming to a close, "that it was time for a change." And with that, he drew a knife from his pocked. The child did the same. Stanis' parents didn't realize what was happening until the knives were in them. In a matter of seconds, Severino was on the ground with the blood running out of the gouge in his throat. Stanis thought he saw the mouth of his father form his name, but he heard nothing but his mothers screams. The Ry's son or daughter, Stanis couldn't see to tell, had sliced open her stomach and her shill cries filled the room.
"Find the boy," shouted Ry over the noise. Stanis, knowing that Ry planned to give Stanis the same end as he had just give the rest of the Snape family, ran for the only hiding place he could now fit in: the cupboard above the kitchen sink.
He hurried as quietly as he could down the hall to the kitchen and just as he slipped though the door, Stanis heard the child run into the hall and quickly proceed up the stairs. The floor boards creaked as the child moved above him, from room to room. Stanis did not wait for the child to come back down and start searching the lower floor. He climbed onto the counter in the kitchen and into the overhead cupboard, the refuse he used when his father was angry. He could still hear his mother's screams from the next room.
Stanis Severus Snape, the new leader of a Clan he never knew existed, passed out when he could no longer hear his mother's voice.