Disclaimer: Wasn't me. I didn't do it. Rowling did it. Blame her. The Harry Potter universe and all of its characters? That's all her fault; not mine. I had nothing to do with it. Heck, I don't even get paid for doing this. Can't pin it on me. (whistles innocently; looks shifty)
Eileen and Tobias: Part Two

"Why are you late?" said Eileen, as Tobias walked into the living room. She didn't bother looking up from her book.

"One of the blokes announced his engagement today," he said with a bite of aggravation in his voice, "so we went out for drinks to celebrate."

"And you couldn't call to tell me that?" Eileen closed her book with a snap, and stared at the cover.

"Well, we were making all these jokes about 'the old ball and chain' at his expense," said Tobias sharply, "and forgive me, but my pride wouldn't let me admit in front of the lads that my own ball and chain can't bear the indignity of her husband coming home a scant two hours later than normal without her consent."

Eileen opened her mouth to retort, and then closed it again. Severus had only just been put to bed; he tended toward insomnia, and would certainly not be asleep yet.

"Your dinner is in the fridge," she said, keeping her voice and face as neutral as possible. "Let me go put it in the oven for you."

"I already did," said Tobias sullenly, turning on the television and flopping down on the chesterfield. "Don't bother."

Eileen watched the flickering images for a moment, then set her book aside. She got up and turned off the television, then kneeled in front of it and looked at Tobias. "I need to talk to you about Severus," she said.

Her husband straightened a little, propping himself up on his elbows. "What is it?" he said, looking down at her with his mouth slightly pursed. It occurred to Eileen that he looked very rakish right at that moment - dark-haired, dark-eyed and as swarthy as a pirate - but as pleasant and probably healthy a diversion as that was, what she needed to talk to him about right now was important also.

"He asked me about magic today," said Eileen, and held up her hand when Tobias' eyes began to widen in outrage. "He asked," she said fiercely. "I didn't lead him into it. He asked." That statement wasn't entirely true, but she didn't want Tobias to get defensive just yet.

"And what did you tell him?" said Tobias tightly.

Eileen paused for a few heartbeats. "I told him that I believed in it," she said, "and before you start!" She held up her hand again as Tobias opened his mouth, anger already evident in his cold black eyes. "You've been telling him about science for all these years, so it isn't fair of you to say that I can't also tell him about what I believe in."

"But what you believe in is demonstrably false!" said Tobias, spreading his fingers and making an impatient swipe in the air with his hand.

Eileen gritted her teeth at the statement, and said silkily, "It seems to me that your science demonstrates itself to be false every two years or so. And no, what I believe is not demonstrably false. You once told me that science can say nothing about that which cannot be tested, and witchcraft is certainly something that would confound all of your petty little tests. Don't tell me that you can demonstrate magic to be false. You can only demonstrate that you are insensible to it."

Tobias' mouth hung open for a moment, twitching with outrage, and then he snapped it shut again and stared at her. After a moment he snorted, and said, "You know what that little speech reminded me of? It sounded like some of the conversations we used to have before the boy was born." His mouth twitched again, this time with amusement, and his eyes lightened a little.

Eileen stared at him for a second, then scooted forward to kneel beside the chesterfield. "Do you regret him?" she said, lowering her voice to a whisper.

"What?" squawked Tobias. He lowered his voice also, and said, "How can you imply that, Eileen?"

"I'm just asking," said Eileen, still in a whisper. "I mean, he was an accident. And - we used to make all those jokes. About how much we hated children. Whining snot-caked shorties; remember?"

Tobias smirked suddenly, his body curling up a little with suppressed laughter. "I'd forgotten we used to call them that," he said gleefully after a moment. Eileen felt her own mouth quirk with remembered amusement. Tobias' expression sobered, and he looked at her again. "No," he said seriously. "I've never regretted Severus. I thought I might, at first, but he's turned out to be such a little gift. Maybe if he was a normal kid I'd resent him, but he has such an amazing mind. He surprises me every day."

"You'd love him no matter what, right?" said Eileen quietly, leaning forward to rest her arms on the edge of the cushions.

"Of course," said Tobias firmly.

"Even if he swallowed all his mum's beliefs, hook, line and sinker?" said Eileen, raising an eyebrow.

Tobias glared suddenly. "You shouldn't be talking to him about any of that," he said. "Children can't properly differentiate between fantasy and reality until they're about eight years old; there've been studies. We agreed not to tell him that Father Christmas or the Easter bunny were real, right?"

"But those things are lies!" said Eileen angrily. "Yes; let's not lie to him for our own amusement the way other parents do - I still agree with that. But witchcraft is something that I know to be real! And if you have the right to tell him about...about gravity, then I have the right to tell him about transfiguration!"

Tobias suddenly leaned back on the chesterfield and pressed his hands over his eyes, chuckling. He uncovered his eyes and looked at her. "The day you can show me - actually show me - a transfiguration, Eileen, is the day I'll let you tell my son that magic is real. If something is true, then it's true no matter what, and that means it can be tested. Tested by science. I want a demonstration first."

"He's my son too," said Eileen through her teeth. "I should have a say in what he's raised to believe in."

Tobias stared at her a moment. Then he sat up, and laced his hands around the back of her head, tilting it up so that their eyes still met. "I can prove the claims of science to you, correct?" he said. Eileen nodded tersely. "So for now, let me teach him about what we both know is real. That's enough to satisfy his curiosity for the time being. And when he's at least eight -" Tobias' face tightened. "- then you can talk to him about magic - the thing that we are not both convinced is real. All right?"

"You just want more time to poison him against my views," Eileen said softly.

"No," said Tobias. He pursed his lips into a hard line. "I will not tell him that magic isn't real, all right? I won't 'poison' him against you. In fact, I don't think I ever have told him that magic isn't real." Tobias took a breath and let it hiss out through his teeth. He stroked the hair behind one of her ears with his thumb. "I've tried to teach Severus about the scientific method - about how to take a hypothesis and test it to see if it's true. At worst, I'm going to turn him into an excellent experimentalist. At worst, I'm giving him tools to make his own decisions with." Tobias leaned forward and kissed Eileen. "I am willing," he said sullenly, "to let him make up his own mind about magic. I guess."

Eileen took a deep breath. "That satisfies me," she said. Tobias smiled. "But you'd better be willing to live by what you've just said, Toby," she added. "He will believe in magic. He can't be my son and not believe in it."

"Fine," said Tobias, his smile souring a little, "but just don't try to make him believe in it yet. He's still too young to be trying to sort out what's real and what's not."

"I've already talked to him about magic," said Eileen tightly, "and if he asks me more questions, then I'm going to answer them - the same as you do when he asks you a question, Toby." She frowned slightly. "Speaking of which," she said, "he was disappointed that you didn't get home before he went to bed tonight. He said you'd promised to talk to him about...light bending...or something?"

Tobias grimaced, and Eileen saw guilt flit through his eyes. "I forgot," he said quietly. "I can give him a bit of a lecture at breakfast tomorrow."

Eileen nodded. And I can give him a bit of a demonstration at lunchtime tomorrow, she thought grimly.

Severus lay in his darkened bedroom, his mind crackling with excitement. The image of his Batman mug tap-dancing around on the table on tiny crockery legs was still haunting his closed eyes - not that he was having a lot of success in keeping his eyes closed right now. Everything his dad had ever told him was true, but his mum had just shown him another layer of reality today, one that his dad didn't even know existed. It seemed to Severus that the universe had just gotten about a hundred times more interesting.

Severus rolled over, and listened to his parents' voices coming from the living room. It was nice to hear them just talking to one another for a change. That was two days now that had been pretty good - almost no fighting. He smiled a little at the darkness, and let his thoughts turn back to magic.

Mummy had said that it was all a matter of will and focus, provided one had the ability to do magic in the first place. Severus had lots of willpower, and now that he knew that magic existed, he was sure he could focus on it properly. He didn't have a wand and he didn't know the words, but his mum had said that they were only used for focus anyway; she could do magic without her wand and even without speaking.

Severus frowned at the glowing phosphor hands of his alarm clock. He reached over and turned the clock onto its side, so that it could wobble easily. Then he concentrated as hard as he could, trying to make it wobble. The alarm clock just stared at him, as still as a stone.

Severus sighed; he'd have to keep practicing. Just because he couldn't do it now didn't mean he'd never be able to do it. It was probably like algebra that way. He reached over and set the alarm clock the right way up again.

But he wanted to be magical! As soon as he'd seen Mummy use that power, he had wanted it too. He wanted to make cups dance and plates float, and to be able to hex Ian and Giles and Tom - and especially stupid Bryan, who thought that pretending to be second-best to someone you were clearly better than was okay. Severus rolled onto his back again, discontent stumping around in his stomach like a bowlful of Daddy's dreadful chilli.

So what else had Mummy said about using magic? She had said that Severus would be most likely to show signs of magic when he was very frightened or very angry. So - could he make himself frightened on purpose? Would that let him use the power? What sort of things frightened him, anyway?

Severus frowned up at the shadowed ceiling, his stomach twisting a little. The thought of his parents divorcing, like Clara Finn's parents had: that's what frightened him. During the summer hols, Clara spent alternate fortnights in Spinner's End and in London, but she hardly spoke to her friends anymore, and had dark circles under her eyes all the time.

Severus listened carefully. His parents were still in the living room, just talking. It was nice, and he didn't much feel like trying to work himself into a fit of terror, just when things seemed to be going well for a change. Besides, Severus suspected that he'd have lots of opportunities to worry about how well his mum and dad got along later.

So - what made him angry, then?

Ian did. Severus felt his lips curl a little, into something that wasn't exactly a smile. He thought about the slug that he had shrivelled up and killed with the table salt that afternoon, and wondered what a boy would look like with all of his skin shrivelled off. Yes; Ian was what made Severus angry...

The sun was low enough in the sky that Severus knew his dad was going to be coming home soon, which meant that dinner would be ready and he would have to give up the hunt for the inconveniently illusive Ian.

Severus dawdled home slowly, playing the old game of trying to step only on the cobbles that were pale grey stone. They were in the minority; the rest of the cobbles were dark grey. It seemed very unfair that Ian, who normally turned up whenever Severus wished he wouldn't, should prove to be so hard to find on the first day that Severus had decided to go hunting for him.

Pure gold light suddenly glittered into Severus' eyes, and he looked up at a window that was reflecting the setting sun back at him. He looked over his shoulder and then back at the window in amusement; it was like having two suns shining on him at once. The reflection-sun wasn't quite as dazzling as the real-sun, but he liked them both equally. The abundance of light was preventing him from seeing where he was going, however; anyone could be walking up Spinner's End right now, and he wouldn't be able to tell.

Suddenly Severus heard the voice that he'd been stalking all day.

"Thunderbirds... Are... Go! Brr-thwah-brr..."

Severus stepped sideways, out of the light of the reflection-sun, and looked around with an avid intention toward misbehaviour. Ian was sitting in the Mackenzie's front yard just ahead of him, playing with a toy rocket ship that one of the Mackenzie children had left out.

Angry, thought Severus; he had to get very, very angry for the magic to start working.

Ian had his back to Severus, so Severus watched him for a moment. The bigger boy was swooping the silver rocket ship around over his head, making ridiculous engine noises.

"Brrrrrr...nee-owrrr...brum, brum...ppththth..."

"See if you can spit on it a little more, Ian," said Severus quietly.

He thought about his banged cheek and his bloody nose, about the toy car that Ian had once stolen, and about all the times that Ian and his gang had chased Severus. He let the anger build inside of him, coiling up tighter and tighter like the spring inside of his wind-up helicopter.

Ian turned around slowly, his tongue still sticking out of his mouth. He sucked it back in and lowered his arm.

"What are you doing here?" said Ian, his belligerence a little too hasty to be believable.

"Going home," said Severus softly, pointing to his house two doors along. He could see his mother's face in the kitchen window, bowed over something at the sink. "What are you doing here? Seeing if you can make the Mackenzie's grass grow back by slobbering all over it?"

Ian face went red. "I just didn't feel like going home yet," he muttered, dropping the rocket ship back onto the little patch of yellow lawn behind him.

"Why? Your dad's beating your mum up again?" said Severus in the silky tone his mother sometimes used. Ian's face immediately went from red to white, with the bruise on his forehead showing up starkly. Severus felt a moment's interest at that, but quickly told himself to forget Ian's reaction, and just concentrate on being angry.

"Shut up," said Ian in a voice that sounded almost normal, not like his usual snarl at all.

"Do you like it when he smacks you around?" said Severus softly, taking a step toward Ian and thinking about cuts and salt and stinging pain. "Is that why you smack other people around; you think they might enjoy it too?"

"Shut up!" said Ian, the colour beginning to come back into his face again. "Shut up, or I'll give you another fat lip, Sucker-vus!"

"Do you get your fat head from your dad punching it all the time?" hissed Severus angrily.

Ian's face twisted in rage, and he flung himself at Severus with a yell. Severus stumbled back as Ian's hands clamped onto his hair and neck, but for once he wasn't scared at all. Instead of trying to fight back with his own fists and teeth, Severus tried to lash out at Ian with his mind.

Something crackled along his spine painfully, and it felt to Severus as if his entire body gave a great throb. Abruptly, Ian was lying on the ground and shrieking piercingly - screaming so hard that it felt like a spike being driven into Severus' ears.

"Oh my God!" yelled a man in horror from somewhere close by. Severus blinked, trying to sit up. He felt weird and shaky. Ian was still shrieking and rolling around at Severus' feet. He focused with some difficulty on the other boy, and then felt his eyes widen in shock.

The skin on Ian's face was as red and swollen and shiny-wet looking as a peeled tomato.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" yelled the man, his voice getting higher and higher in pitch with every word. "Oh my GOD!"

Severus looked up, and his stomach lurched horribly. It was his dad standing there behind him, lunchbox still in hand, with his eyes fixed on Ian. His face looked almost green and the whites of his eyes were showing all the way around the pupils.

There was the bang of a door, and Severus snapped his head around to see his mother bursting out of their house at a dead run, her eyes every bit as wide as his father's. She had her hand wrapped around the slim brown wand that Severus had only seen for the first time yesterday.

His mum leapt over a discarded bicycle with superheroine grace, snapping her wand hand forward as she did so, and shouted a string of syllables that meant nothing to Severus. There was a bang, and suddenly Ian took a great shuddering gasp of air and began to wail in a much less piercing tone.

Severus whirled his head around again. Ian's skin looked normal now, although he seemed to be covered in a thin sheen of blood. The other boy's face was still contorted in terror, and he continued to cry wrenchingly.

"Oh my God...Oh my God..." said Severus' dad, his voice still very high pitched, but only a thin whisper now. Severus looked up at his parents, and felt his stomach lurch again. His father was still green, and was shaking so hard that it looked as if someone was electrocuting him. His mother was whipping her head back and forth, staring at the neighbours windows with a look of panic on her face.

Suddenly, she dived down and snatched up Severus. She stuffed him under one arm, and grabbed his dad's hand with the other.

"Run!" she ordered, dragging his father roughly along behind her. "Into the house! Now!"

His dad stumbled once, but then found his feet and did as she had told him. Severus craned his neck around, and saw Ian scrambling to his feet and tearing off in the direction of home, still crying. Whatever waited for him there apparently wasn't as frightening as what had just happened to him.

Severus' mother slammed the front door behind them, and swiped her hand down the wall to turn off the kitchen light. Then she grabbed his dad again, and dragged him with her into the living room, where she finally let Severus down.

Severus immediately dashed away from her, and squished himself into a corner. "I'm sorry, Mummy! I'm sorry!" he said, his eyes suddenly prickling and going swimmy with tears. "I didn't mean for Daddy to see anything! I'm very sorry!"

Severus blinked, and the salt water drained out of his vision and spilled down his cheeks. His mother wasn't paying any attention to him however. She was pacing wildly back and forth in front of the chesterfield, the fingers of her wand hand twined into her hair and her other hand clamped over her mouth. Her eyes were very wide, but didn't seem to be focused on anything that was in the room.

Severus glanced over at his father, but his dad was also not looking at him. Instead, he was partly slumped against a wall, staring at Severus' mother with his face very pale and his teeth actually chattering.

"Eileen..." he said weakly, "what the hell was that? What...what did you just do? What did he just do? What the hell was that?"

Severus' mother slowed down and stopped pacing, although she left her hands where they were, and she didn't look at his dad.

"Eileen?"

Severus' mum lowered the hand from her mouth. "That was magic," she said, very, very softly.

"What?" said his dad, just as softly. His mum looked up.

"It was magic," she said in a firmer voice, although her eyes became even more frightened.

Severus watched his mum and dad staring at each other, the tears continuing to spill down his cheeks. He knew his parents often fought about him - and they always said that it wasn't his fault - but this was one time when it was definitely going to be his fault.

"What," said Severus' dad, in a louder but still shaky voice, "do you mean, 'it was magic'?"

"I'm a witch," said his mum, her eyes growing fierce. "You've always known that. You just thought it was all...silly beliefs, like a religion. You thought it was spirituality. It wasn't. I'm a witch. I do magic. Like a plumber does plumbing."

Severus could see his dad's eyes flickering between his mum's face and her wand. He was looking at the wand the way most people would look at a severed hand.

Severus' mum laughed suddenly, a single harsh noise. "There's your demonstration, Toby," she said miserably. "There's your proof! Happy?"

"What the hell are you?" said his dad. Severus looked over at him again.

His dad pushed himself away from the wall and stumbled a little, then steadied again. "What the hell are you?" he repeated, still staring at Severus' mum with wide scared eyes. "You were this...this...all the time? You've always... And you never told me?"

His mum looked scared again too, but also a little bit like she was going to start crying. "No," she whispered miserably.

His dad went stiff, just for a second. Then he ran across the room, and grabbed Severus' mum by the arm so hard that she hissed in pain.

"You were this...this...freak of nature all along, and you never told me? You always knew that...that...you were a kind of monster, and YOU NEVER SAID ANYTHING?" His dad suddenly shook his mum so hard that her teeth clattered together audibly, and the high-pitched noise she made warbled in her throat.

"Daddy, don't!" whimpered Severus, scrunching down into the corner, his breath hitching in his chest.

His father threw his mother against the wall, and Severus squeaked in panic, wrapping his arms over his head. His mum clutched at the wall, but lost her footing anyway, and landed heavily on the floor. She immediately scrambled back from his dad.

"YOU MARRIED ME, AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU COULD DO THESE THINGS? YOU HID THIS FROM ME FOR ALL THESE YEARS?" his dad screamed, and Severus began to cry in fast, terrified sobs. He'd never seen his father look so insane with rage before. He'd never heard his mother crying in terror like this, or cowering away from his dad like she thought he was going to hurt her. "WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO DO, EILEEN? TEACH MY SON ALL THESE PERVERSIONS IN SECRET, AND THEN EXPECT ME TO JUST ACCEPT IT?"

"He has to be taught about it!" his mother cried, her voice high-pitched with tears. "He's going to be magic too!"

"NO HE ISN'T! I WON'T LET YOU TURN HIM INTO A FREAK LIKE YOU!"

"YOU CAN'T STOP IT!" his mother screamed in a sudden rage, clawing her way back up to her feet again. "It's in his - what do you stupid Muggles call them - in his genes! It's in his blood, Toby! He's going to be a wizard! Today proves it!"

"YOU'RE NOT TURNING HIM INTO SOMETHING LIKE YOU!" his dad shrieked. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! YOU KEEP AWAY FROM MY SON!"

And then Severus' dad did something he'd never, ever done before - he swung his arm up, and then down, and hit Severus' mother across the face with the back of his hand. She staggered, and fell to the floor again.

Severus couldn't breathe. It seemed like time had stopped, except that it couldn't have, because he could see his mother staring up at his father in shock, her chest rising and falling rapidly, a bright pink spot slowly colouring her cheekbone.

His father did not move, not even to breathe. Severus couldn't see his face. His parents just stayed there, for one long horrible moment, staring at one another.

And then his mother's face suddenly distorted with fury. "You filthy...Muggle...animal!" she spat.

"Get out," said his father in hardly more than a whisper. Severus' mum scrambled to her feet, her teeth gritted, her eyes nearly crackling with hatred. She hurtled past Severus' dad, knocking him hard with her shoulder, and raced up the stairs. Severus looked over at his father. The impact had turned him around a little, so that Severus could see his face. He looked dazed - but suddenly pressed both fists against his mouth, and his eyes became stricken. He turned and stumbled away into the kitchen, leaving Severus alone in the living room.

Severus slowly became aware of a series of thumping noises coming from upstairs, and a cold wave washed through his body. He shoved himself away from the wall and ran up the stairs.

His mother was in his parent's bedroom, tearing the closet apart. She yanked boxes and thick dusty books out of it. Some of them she flung onto the bed, where a big cloth duffel bag was already lying, and others she simply dropped uncaringly on the floor.

"Mummy, no," said Severus, standing frozen with horror in the doorway. "Mummy, please, don't go!" His eyes burned with tears again, and he choked out, "It's all my fault! Please! I'll go and explain to Daddy, and he'll come up and say he's sorry, and it'll all be all right! We can go back to -"

"No!" his mother snapped, her eyes suddenly poisonous with hatred, although she wasn't looking at him. "We can't! It's over! I've spent all these years keeping it inside, thinking he was worth it..."

"Mummy, no! Don't go..."

His mother finished dragging the last box out of the closet, and dumped it out on the bed. A few big gold coins spilled out, followed by a wad of dark green cloth. The latter she snatched up, and began pulling over her head. It looked like a nightgown, or a dressing gown, to Severus.

"It's all right, Severus," said his mum, as she began stuffing the various objects on the bed into the duffel bag. "I'm not going anywhere without you."

"But..." said Severus, his eyes widening as the world seemed to lurch under his feet. "But I don't want to go either..."

His mother finished packing the duffel bag, yanked its neck closed, and slung it over her shoulder. Her face was hard, with terrible emotions carving lines all over it. She snatched up the big gold coins and stuck them into the pockets of her strange nightgown, then grabbed her wand from the bedside table. This, she held in her hand, as she beckoned to him with the other.

"Severus," she said, "come here."

Severus took a tentative step forward, and then another, and then jerkily walked the rest of the way over to his mother.

She scooped him up and balanced him against her hip, just as his father said from the doorway, "You put him down, Eileen."

Severus turned to look at his dad, who was wearing a grim expression. His face was still pale, but he didn't look angry anymore; only determined.

"Say goodbye," he said calmly, still meeting Severus' mother's eye, "and put him down."

"You're never going to see your son again!" his mum spat, her eyes glittering with malice.

"You think I'm going to let you leave this house with him?" said his dad, the muscles of his jaw tightening visibly.

Suddenly the world went black, and Severus felt the most horrifying sensation he'd ever experienced in his life. It was like being squeezed into the world's tightest turtleneck jumper, except that the squeezing was happening all over his body. A horrible pressure crushed in on him, and he couldn't breathe. A second later, it was all over, and his mother was inexplicably hurrying up the road of an old-fashioned village with him, the cool night air riffling her hair. Severus sucked in a ragged breath and screamed in high-pitched terror.

"Severus, be quiet!" his mother said, her voice sounding thick and nasal.

"Where are we?" Severus screamed. "Where's Daddy? Mummy, where's the house gone? What's happened?"

"Severus, I said stop it!"

"I want to go home! I don't like this! Where's Daddy gone?"

"STOP IT!" his mother shrieked, coming to a halt. She grabbed his head and pressed his face against her shoulder so hard that it almost hurt. He felt her chest start to jerk under his cheek, and realised that she was crying again - hard. It seemed to go on for a very long time, and Severus didn't know what to do; his mother just kept sobbing and sobbing, holding him tightly against her shoulder. "Just stop it, sweetheart," she finally said, her voice sounding weird and squeaky with tears. "Just stop it. Don't do this. Please - just don't do this to me right now."

"I want to go home!" Severus whimpered, tears dripping down his face and soaking into the funny nightgown that his mother was wearing. One of her tears splashed against his forehead, and began to trickle down.

"It's not our home anymore, Severus," said his mother, beginning to walk again - but slowly, as if she was now noticing the extra weight she was carrying. "We're going to make a new home." She gulped hard, and sniffled a little. "That's just the way it is," she said in a somewhat firmer voice. "And it'll be better. No more fighting. Won't that be nice?"

Severus was quiet for a long moment. "Yes," he finally tried to say, but the word only came out as the faintest hiss.

"It won't be easy," his mother said, and sniffled again. "We won't have a lot of money. But you'll never have to hide what you are, and you'll never have to pretend to be just ordinary, and when you get old enough, you'll go to a wonderful school where they'll teach you all about how to use magic." Her voice began to sound angry again. "And there won't be any more filthy, foul, stupid Muggle boys beating you up, because if anyone ever tries to hurt you again, you can just...hex them to pieces! I'll show you how to; would you like that?"

Severus thought about Ian's peeled-tomato skin, and felt slightly ill. Hexing bullies wasn't very appealing to him right now.

"What's a Muggle?" he whispered, to avoid answering her.

"A Muggle," said his mother, and now the hatred had returned to her voice in full measure, "is a filthy, foul...disloyal, arrogant...selfish...violent beast! And you and I are lucky to not be anything like they are! We're better! And we'll never ever lower ourselves to wallowing around in their muck again!" She suddenly choked on a sob, and Severus felt her chest start to hitch uncontrollably again. "They're not worth it," she said, her voice going high-pitched and wobbly again. "They never were."

She kept walking up the road, crying hard and holding onto Severus very tightly. He didn't ask her any more questions, because he couldn't get anything past the constriction that had lodged in his throat. He wondered if Daddy was a Muggle.

Eventually, Severus wrapped his arms around his mother's neck and clung to her - the only thing in the world still left to him that was familiar.

The End