Chapter 16- Holiday
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Severus awoke with the feeling of being watched. Lifting his head, he stared into deep blue eyes.
"Meowrrr…"
The cat lying on his chest rubbed her forehead against his bare skin before pushing off to leap onto the floor. Padding to door, she looked back at him, tail swishing as if to say 'I'm waiting.'
He rose from the bed and raked his hair out of his face. The hand scratching his chest stilled when he noticed the feline's intent gaze. It reminded him of something…
"Me-ow-rrr…"
"Demanding female, your mistress is much more accommodating." Thoughts of Eris made Severus feel almost guilty. For the last two nights, the Siamese had chosen to abandon her owner's bed for his. The girl had sworn that she didn't mind, that she couldn't blame the cat for preferring his company, and enjoyed the way he 'compensated' for the loss of affection.
Still, Elpis was not his cat, although she acted like it. Severus opened the door and watched the cat dart to the staircase. He frowned upon realising that he had never seen Eris with the Siamese or seen the animal in any other part of the house. Impulsively, he grabbed his robe and followed Elpis up the steps. She went through an invisible cat entrance in Eris' bedroom door.
He knocked softly and called, "Eris? It is Severus."
The door opened. Hair mussed attractively, the girl clutched her robe closed at her throat while she smiled. "Good morning. What brings you here so early?" Her eyes widened. "Was Epis naughty?"
He shook his head. "No, she is exceedingly well-behaved, if not as co-operative as her mistress."
Her eyes sparkled. "I have more incentive to be obliging." Leaning forward, she kissed him softly and pulled back to ask, "Did you visit to get a kiss, or was there something else?"
Severus looked over her shoulder. "A trivial matter, but…where is the cat?"
"In the lavatory." Eris saw his questioning look over her shoulder and explained, "That's where her litter box is."
Suddenly, his vague unease seemed ludicrous. There were undoubtedly logical explanations for the feline sequester. He inquired, "Does your father allow pets in the house?"
She paled. Shaking her head, Eris said, "I'm not supposed to have a cat. Father thinks them affectations of Muggle women who have delusions of being witches."
"I see."
Eris pleaded, "You'll keep her a secret, won't you? If anyone found out…I don't even want to think about the consequences."
He agreed, expecting her to throw herself into his arms and give him one of her exuberant hugs. She just smiled, relieved. Severus' lips turned down. He tried to joke, "You hold your robe together so tightly. Are you not wearing anything beneath it?"
Her face and neck turned a shade of pink he had never seen before. Their eyes held. His own skin began to heat. Eris whispered, "I'll…I'll get dressed and meet you downstairs in the breakfast room, okay?"
Swallowing hard, he nodded. She stepped back. His eyes flickered down to the long, bare expanse of leg revealed.
Once the door closed, Severus turned and came face-to-face with Bellatrix. In full makeup and a man's crimson robe, she looked like a femme fatale depicted in one of those mysteries they had been forced to read in Muggle Studies class- the woman who never gets her man…and often ends up dead… He almost smiled at the thought.
"I heard a knock. Imagine my surprise to see you at Eris' door this early in the morning."
Severus highly doubted she had heard his knock. The witch was undoubtedly returning from some tawdry assignation. He tried to walk past her. Fingernails like talons dug into his arm. "So much sexual tension between you and Greyback's little girl. If it's unresolved, I'd be willing to relieve it."
He tried to keep his face impassive. Looking her up and down, he said coldly, "I find everything about this conversation distasteful."
Her eyes flared with anger. Severus pulled away. At the landing, he felt a shiver go down his spine and glanced back. Bellatrix was staring at him in frustration, wand outstretched.
His lip curled in a sneer. Turning away, he descended the stairs, thankful for wandless shielding charms.
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The moment the door began to close, Eris had glimpsed a flash of red. Quickly, she shut and locked the door before resuming her Animagus form. Her hearing as a cat was incredibly acute.
As though Bellatrix were speaking in the same room, she heard the woman's proposition. Reflexively, the feline back arched, fur rising in a band. If that witch were actually in the room, she'd scratch her up one side and down the other!
The urge to hiss subsided when the she heard Severus reject the slag. Bella's incoherent spluttering in frustration was music to Eris' ears.
Once she heard the woman stomp off, the cat transformed back into a girl. Rising to her feet, she looked into the mirror over the dresser. Her fingers rose to touch the silver locket she'd forgotten to remove before opening the door.
If she hadn't clutched her robe like a Victorian, he would've seen.
She smiled regretfully. If she could trust Severus with her secrets, things would be so much less complicated, but she couldn't. Unfastening the ribbon, she hid it in her drawer before untying her sash. As she headed for the shower, Eris resolved to wear more clothing the next time she transformed.
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A half hour later, she entered a chamber that was cosy in comparison to the dining room. Severus sat alone, drinking coffee and reading the Prophet. Smiling, she took the seat next to his. "Good morning."
He looked up and smiled briefly. "Good morning." Dishes began appearing on the sideboard. Standing, he pulled out her chair. While they served themselves breakfast, Eris imagined Severus in Victorian attire. The buttoned-up formality would suit his personality. Of course, undoing those buttons could be half the fun…
"Would you care for a kipper?"
Her eyes lifted and met a dark gaze that widened slightly after meeting hers. Refusing to blush over the image he was 'seeing,' the girl declined the fish, even though her mouth watered.
"My sister has an aversion to kippers, Snape, always has," Erik declared from the doorway. He was partially correct. She'd had an aversion- until last summer.
Her brother covered a yawn as he entered the room, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He sat down at the table and appropriated Severus' paper, leafing through it, grumbling, "Father demanded I show for the family tradition, or I wouldn't even be awake at this hour. Clive and I played billiards with Bella practically all night."
"Family tradition?"
Severus' query caused the other boy to make a face. Eris said, "On Christmas Eve, we all take turns stirring the batter for the Christmas cake, making a wish." She looked curiously at him. "Does your family have any traditions that you observe every year?"
"No."
"Lucky you," Erik muttered. Glancing at his sister, he said defensively, "Come on, don't try and tell me you enjoy stirring that glop while Father tells you what to wish for."
"You don't actually wish for family prosperity, do you?" she said.
Pushing away from the table, Erik threw the paper down, saying, "Some of us do as we're told."
Eris watched stalk out, and then turned to the silent observer. "Would you like to take a walk after breakfast?"
"What about the family tradition?"
"Share the joy with me?"
After considering her request for several moments, Severus nodded. "Very well." The corner of his mouth turned up as he qualified, "As long as I am not expected to stir."
"Merlin forbid," said Eris dryly. They shared a smile. The appetite that she'd lost during the conversation with her brother returned. She picked up a rasher of bacon and took a satisfying bite.
Leading Severus down to the kitchen after breakfast, she noted that the house elves had decorated the centre of the long worktable with evergreen boughs and holly. Vestri and Nordri smiled widely when she complimented them.
At the end of the table, Ulrik stood in front of a large earthenware bowl. On one side of the table, Danica and Ufi waited, smiling. Across from her mother and grandfather, Erik and Fenrir scowled at her tardiness. Not blaming Severus one bit for hanging back in the shadows of the stairway, Eris walked forward.
"You're late."
It seemed the pattern she and her father had developed over the course of her life would remain unbroken. He had told her how she'd disappointed, so it was her turn to apologise. "I'm sorry."
Chiselled features became slightly less harsh. Eris felt like a serf informed by the Viking raider that she wouldn't lose her life, just her crops and livestock.
After a short speech about family loyalty and duty to 'purity,' he nodded to the others. "Let us proceed."
Eris had learnt in Muggle Studies than non-magical traditions were about enjoying each other's company and the holiday season. Hers was about family solidarity. One by one, the others stirred the batter and made a silent wish. When came to her turn, she circled the spoon around the bowl. The wish she sent, to any force in the cosmos listening, had nothing to do with 'glorious victory.'
Afterwards, Mum and the elves retreated to a far corner of the kitchen, discussing plans for that night's feast. Father and Eric left through the back door to go riding. Her brother was excited about trying the latest racing broom Ulrik had acquired. Before Ufi could do more than step toward her, 'Uncle Fenny' stalked around the table and growled, "Tell whoever's skulking to step forward before I drag him out."
She looked from the claws he was extending to the doorway and called, "Severus, come meet my Uncle Fenrir before we go on our walk."
He strode forward.
Eris noted her uncle's assessing gaze and was glad her boyfriend looked elegant in his black trousers and turtleneck jumper. Severus extended a hand. Pale grey eyes in a face that was a coarser copy of his elder brother fixed on the onyx ring as the younger wizard said, "Severus Snape."
The boy's appearance and manner passed inspection. Her uncle bared his teeth in a smile. "Fenrir Greyback. So you're the one that merits an audience with our master." When Severus agreed, he warned, "Try your best not to disappoint him, boy."
"Yes sir."
Eris interjected brightly, "Ready for our walk?"
"You're not properly dressed," Ufi objected.
Nordri appeared before them, cloaks draped over his arm. "Mistress is thinking you is needing your cloaks."
Thanking the elf, Eris smiled her thanks across the room to her mother. After taking their leave, the couple walked the path toward the lake. Once the house was a comfortable distance away, Eris looked at her companion. "So, what did you think of our tradition?"
Severus appeared to consider her flippant tone as much as the question. "What do you think of it?"
His voice slid past her defences, persuading her to confess, "I love it and hate it." His lack of response made it easier to say, "They're disappointed in me, too, so I'm not the only one frustrated every holiday." Her voice was so husky, she could barely speak.
Reaching the ornamental lake, Eris stood feeling miserable, until Severus asked, "May I see?"
Closing her eyes to focus on hiding some memories while exposing others, she nodded. Eris faced Severus and gazed directly at him. The experience was like falling into his eyes. Memories started to flash before her mind's eye.
A group of Muggle children were making a snowman in the park. Their smiles and laughter became terror as a hooded monster with outstretched claws rushed toward them from the nearby woods. All but one little girl ran away screaming. Eris stomped her foot and tried futilely to pull away from the 'monster's' grasp.
Standing before the desk in a library, long brown hair hid the girl's expression as she listened to a fair-haired man who was red faced in anger. Pounding the desk with his fist, he asked a question that his daughter answered with a shake of her head. Taking a wand out of his desk drawer, Ulrik pointed it grimly.
In the kitchen, a sombre looking family assembled around a worktable. They took turns stirring the contents of an earthenware bowl. When the spoon passed to Eris, she reached for it with bandaged hands…
"How old were you?"
Severus' calm query helped her reply composedly, "Eight."
"Why did you seek out Muggles?"
He sounded genuinely mystified. Smiling a bit, she said, "I was curious. My family and all our friends talked of Muggles as if they were filthy creatures, unworthy of breathing the same air we do. So I snuck out one day, after a rare, heavy snow, and flew my broom to the nearest Muggle town." Her smile turned wistful. "They were nice, those children. I had loads of fun until my uncle showed."
"Your father…"
"Was furious," she said, filling in the gaps. "He told me in no uncertain terms that I was practically a blood-traitor, and would never be trusted again."
"The punishment?"
"Verberare." Her heart turned over when he lifted the palms once caned and kissed them.
It skipped a beat when he asked, "Is your uncle a werewolf?"
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She looked down, reminding him of the shamed little girl of memory. "Yes," Eris admitted softly.
Inadvertently, Severus recoiled from the idea of sleeping beneath the same roof as such a creature.
Misunderstanding, Eris cried, "He won't harm you. Fenrir is kept on a short leash. He isn't allowed to touch purebloods." When he started to speak, she placed her fingers over his mouth. "Don't say anything you wouldn't want someone to overhear."
Dark eyes flickered to the stand of trees several metres away. Did she think her uncle was spying on them? Slipping his arms around her, Severus drew Eris into an embrace, murmuring, "Why did your father call you a blood-traitor?"
Eris said, "I'm proud of my family, my blood, but I don't understand why we war against our own kind, or why we can't continue to abide by the laws of seclusion and ignore Muggles, instead of wanting to eradicate them."
"Have you told anyone besides your father how you feel?" His tone was low, urgent.
Severus was relieved when she shook her head, until Eris shared, "But they know. Father never fails to express his disappointment. That's why Ufi taught me Vald. To control and hide my thoughts, so certain people don't get the wrong idea about me…or my family." Reaching up to touch his face, she said, "My grandfather advised me once, that if You-Know-Who ever deigned to meet me, I should cut off every feeling and memory except those of a typical girl. School, friends, clothes, boys…show him whatever he wanted to see that would validate that image."
She looked at him meaningfully. The emphasis she placed on her grandfather's advice conveying that she wanted Severus to prepare himself in a similar manner for his upcoming audience. Since he had already planned to do so, he nodded while slowly lowering his mouth to hers.
Her lips sought reassurance that he still wanted to be with her, even after the day's revelations. His kiss reassured. Severus had already known about Eris' Hufflepuff tendencies, and Fenrir being a monster was no fault of hers.
Slender arms crept around his neck. His hands tightened on her hips, and pulled her closer. Her skin smelt faintly of lavender. After seeing her in a skimpy bikini, it wasn't hard to picture her in the shower, lavender soap bubbles sliding across…
"Eris! Eris!"
Stepping back from the upturned lips that tempted him to ignore the summons, Severus reluctantly looked toward the girl running toward them.
Eris said smilingly, "Dani! What are you doing here?"
"Dad said we were invited to spend Christmas with you, isn't that brilliant?"
The older girl agreed, "Absolutely. Now that you're here, we're bound to get more than a dusting of snow."
"Why is that?" asked Severus, amused by the pair's girlish enthusiasm.
"Because Dani is a snow angel- every time she visits in winter, we have snow."
Wrapping her cousin in arms that lifted and spun the girl around, Eris kissed her cousin on the cheek and laughed when Dani complained.
"Stars and stones, didn't you get enough kisses from Snape?"
Eris narrowed her eyes. "No, and don't you go telling anyone about us kissing, or your stocking from Father Christmas might…just…disappear."
Rolling her eyes, Dani said, "Lucky for you, I'd never tell, because I know you'd never do anything about it." Looking at Severus, she smirked. "Who's the Hufflepuff now?"
He curled his upper lip, which sent both girls into peals of laughter. Severus felt something soft and cold brush his cheek. Wiping it off, he said in disbelief, "It is snowing."
Shrieks of excitement made him wince. After jumping around excitedly, each girl took hold of his hand and pulled.
"There's a faery circle in the woods that you've got to see," said Dani.
Darker blue eyes shone with as much anticipation as her younger cousin's. "When you stand inside it, and watch the snowflakes fall, it's magical. Come on, hurry!"
Severus allowed himself to be dragged off, telling himself that he was not being Hufflepuff. He was merely tolerating the tendencies of others in a moderate display of Yuletide cheer. Standing in the grassy clearing after a march through the woods, he lifted a brow while the girls enthused about the beauty of the snow drifting down. He gazed at the trees dusted with snow, grudgingly conceding the sight…scenic.
A gust of wind blew a flurry of snowflakes in his direction. Without thought, he caught one on his tongue.
"What's it taste like?" Dani asked.
Embarrassed over his childish action, he almost snapped at the girl. Catching sight of the smile curving Eris' soft lips, Severus replied truthfully, "Christmas."
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A/N: C'mon, someone tell me they went 'Aww' at the end! I'm moving across country at the moment, so I added the names of wonderful people who reviewed last chap a couple of days late- better than never, right? Special thanks to♥ 40/16♥ Camillia Vincent ♥ cupcakeswirl ♥ die Loreley♥ ElspethBates ♥ Embellished ♥ FNP ♥ gothic-wildhorse ♥ GraceRichie ♥ Jedi Knight Padme ♥ LiverpoolSoccerfairy♥ Machiavelli Jr ♥ MamaLisa♥ Slipknot-3113 ♥ Slytherin Love Goddess♥ and ♥ sunny9847 ♥