They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
It's surreal being back in Cokeworth, even if he's only here for the afternoon to see Lily. He used to spend most of his summers in this drab town in his first lifetime, even after he was grown. But after a whole year away, it just feels different. Someday not so far off from now, Severus will truly have no reason to come back. His home on Spinner End will soon belong to someone else, in a few years, Lily will leave this place altogether to live in her own flat in the Magical world he'll visit instead. It's an odd realization, but a good one. He's eager for the day he can put this place behind him and forget it and its painful memories.
Unlike some people, anyway. The thought sours his mood. His mother spends a lot of time dwelling on the past these days. Especially on his father's death. Most of her time is taken up by hours of reviewing her memories from that day in a Pensieve and going to their home on Spinner's End looking for "evidence". Currently, she appears to be spinning her wheels and getting nowhere with finding out who murdered Dad. Severus hates to say it, but he's grateful. When she does figure it out, their lives will once again be in a state of flux. Not a good flux either. Severus has a gut-wrenching feeling that the one who committed the murder is far closer to them than his mother realizes.
Severus is pulled from his thoughts a moment later when Lily's long-winded tale about Potter's visit to her home abruptly ends. He frowns. "Lily?" he says, wondering if she's caught on to him not paying her story any mind.
Quietly, Lily tells him, "James fancies my sister."
"I'm sorry, repeat that for me?" Because he must have heard her wrong.
Lily shifts uncomfortably. "James. I think he fancies my sister."
Severus pauses for a moment to take in Lily's words. It's a mad thought she has, but not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. In fact, he can sort of see it. Before Lily, James dated a couple of different girls. Kissed some more. There was a petite blonde from Hufflepuff in their fourth year he went out with for a month, then a Gryffindor a year above them shortly before he started his relationship with Lily. Again, a blonde. Though, unlike the Hufflepuff, she'd been of average height and had an athletic build. Likely from being a part of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, actually.
While Petunia in Severus's eyes has always come up short beside her sister in every way (not just beauty), she's not actually half bad to look at. It'd be strange if she were truly plain, even. Lily is a beautiful girl and will a stunning woman. Petunia also follows the "type" James appeared to have before Lily in their first lifetime. Blonde, slim, pale. He's not sure what he sees in her personality because Petunia is still a bit of a shrew and a negative Nancy most of the time, but, obviously, something has drawn him in.
"What about Petunia?" Severus asks.
His friend begins to drum her fingers along her thigh. "She's flattered, I think. A wizard fancies her. I'm not sure if she likes him back, but I'm certain if he asked her on a date, she'd say yes regardless."
He nods only for a worrisome thought to come to mind. Turning to face her fully, he taps her hand to draw her gaze to his and questions, "You're not upset with either of them, are you?"
Lily's eyes flash with… something before she shakes her head. "I… I wish it was me he was looking at like that instead of Pet, but, no. I'm not upset with either of them. It's not like James knows how weird it is, or as if Petunia seduced him on purpose to steal him from me."
Severus lets go of a breath he didn't quite realize he was holding until just now. It's dumb, but he feared Lily might do something rash to lay claim over her boy-husband. Kiss James, maybe. Tell him she loved him. Something. Severus tells himself the chances of anything more than friendship forming between him and Lily is next to impossible, but it's nice. Hoping, he means. When Lily's not tied to a bloke, he can pretend that something more is on the horizon for the two of them.
"It probably won't amount to anything," says Severus. "Pet's sixteen, James fourteen. She's a Muggle here in Cokeworth and he's a wizard who spends most of the year at a school in Scotland." He smiles a little at Lily who's beginning to look a little less glum. "If they last more than a summer, I'll eat my sock."
The girl giggles. "I'll be holding you to that," she teases.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
-o-O-o-
"Severus! Severus!" Sage shouts as he barges into his bedroom.
Pushing himself out from under his sheets and duvet, he squints at cousin and demands, "What in the bloody Hell do you think you're doing?" He glances at the grandfather clock kept by his armoire. "It's six in the morning," he grumbles. If this is going to become a regular thing with Sage, he's going to have to start locking his door at night. He did not like being woken without warning.
The boy has the decency to flush pink and rein in his excitement. He shuffles in his spot, waiting for Severus to give him a more positive reaction.
Severus sighs and gets out of bed and pulls on his dressing robe. "Come on, what is it?" he asks. "It's obviously good news." Tying his robe closed, he mutters more to himself than Sage, "Merlin knows we could use some."
"Boyd's owl was tapping at my window," he explains, "it delivered this."
He takes the small envelope from his cousin and pulls out the card inside. Sage vibrating with energy beside him as he opens and reads the card, Severus lets a slow smile spread across his face. Handing it back when he finishes, he says, "It took them long enough!"
Sage gives a short laugh. "Yes, they really were obvious, weren't they?"
Nodding, he asks his cousin, "Have you shown this to your mother yet?"
"No."
He grabs Sage's hand and drags him right out of his room. "Come on, I'm sure she's going to be so over the moon she insists we fire call your brother in our jim-jams!"
-O-
While Severus had been joking about the jim-jams part, they do exactly that. Aunt Vesta is so overjoyed that her oldest son is getting married, she has them all squeeze into the fireplace in her room and calls Boyd the moment she finishes reading his and Violet's announcement.
Boyd finds it hilarious that they are still in their sleep clothes and laughs at their expense before settling down to happily answer all of his mother's questions. Yes, Violet Parkinson likes the ring he proposed with. Yes, he asked her father for her hand in marriage first. Yes, he gave his blessing. Yes, they will want her input for the wedding. Yes, they will be holding an engagement party in a week's time and Violet, her sister, and mother will be happy to have Aunt Vesta's help setting it up. Yes, they won't draw this engagement out for too long. In fact, Violet wants a winter wedding just before New Year's Eve. It goes on like this for quite a while and just as Severus is beginning to get bored and his feet cold from standing barefoot on the wood floors of Aunt Vesta's room, Boyd turns his attention to them.
"Will you be my best man, Sage? And Severus, an usher?" he asks them.
They share a brief look before they answered in unison, "Yes."
He seems relieved at their unity. "I want you two to know I don't expect either of you to fulfill the usual duties of a best man and usher. You're both so young and should be focusing on your schooling," Boyd tells them. "You're my brother and good as these days, it just seemed right to give you two the roles over a couple of mates. Especially since Clara is going to be Violet's Maid of Honor."
Sage graciously nods on their behalf. After a few more minutes of talking and Aunt Vesta extracting from Boyd a promise to come around for a proper sit-down dinner with his new fiancée sometime this week before the party, they say their last congratulations and goodbyes before ending the call.
A couple of hours later, when they are all eating breakfast and in good spirits, Severus's mother enters the room. Almost tangibly the light in the room dims. Taking a seat beside Severus, she says nothing as she reaches for the kettle and pours herself a cup. It's likely all she'll have this morning. Severus's mother doesn't eat much these days.
Trying to regain the previous light-hearted mood shared by the three of them, Aunt Vesta says, smiling, "I have some good news."
His mother raises an eyebrow at her and waits.
The Montague woman's smile fractures and Severus swears she sighs with defeat even if he didn't hear her. "Boyd's engaged," she says.
Severus's mother reaches for the sugar bowl and drops a small spoonful into her tea as she snorts none too kindly at the announcement. "To a pretty, priss of a Pureblood, I assume?" she jeers at Aunt Vesta as she stirs the sugar into her drink.
Aghast at her words, Aunt Vesta cries, "Eileen!"
"I'm not wrong, am I?" she demands, expression sour. "You raised your son to be like all the other little Pureblood boys, didn't you? Told him to not make a fool of himself in public, respect the Twenty-Eight's blood and, if they have them, their fortunes. That girl there is beneath you because her mother's a vampire, or worse, a Muggle. Make sure those little half-bloods and Mudbloods know they are never as good as you by hexing them when they turn their backs. Marry up, never down. Public image before family. Blood always trumps love."
As tears begin to swim in the Montague woman's eyes, Severus hops to his feet. "Mum!" he yells. "Stop this! It's not like it's their fault Dad's dead!"
Upturning her cup of tea in her haste to meet Severus's new height, she screams, "We don't know that!"
Holding Sage, who went to her the moment his mother began her tirade, tight in her arms, Aunt Vesta looks between Severus and his mum with fear in her eyes. "You told me the Muggle coroner said it was a heart attack," she whispers.
His mum turns her gaze away from all of them. "I lied." Quietly, she adds, "They never did figure out what killed him. There was nothing there for them to determine a cause."
Shaking, Vesta holds her son all the tighter as she insists, "It wasn't us. Not me. Not my children. We love you. Love you both."
Mum stills. Expression blank, she says, "The ones you hold dearest are the most likely to do the cruelest things to you."
"That's not true!"
Rage lights a fire in the emaciated woman's eyes. "Isn't it, though? My father disowned me for loving a man he thought our lesser. My husband hurt me for being something I could not help." She points at Aunt Vesta with a shaking hand and hisses, "You, Vesta, took my child from me because you thought me an unfit mother."
Aunt Vesta's mouth moves, but no words come out.
His mother sneers. "You have nothing to say now, do you?" Not waiting for a reply, she spins around and leaves them all behind.
In the following moments, the only sound is the drip-drop of Mum's spilled tea as it puddles on the kitchen tile. Looking at the mess, then at his cousins, Severus feels his shoulders hunch around him as he reflects on how quickly the delight of the morning has turned to horror.
It's all his fault too as far as he can tell. In their first lifetime, Severus is certain this was the happiest day in both Sage and Aunt Vesta's lives since the passing of her husband and the boys' father. Now, it will number among some of the worst and there's no way for Severus to fix it.
A lot of stuff this chapter, huh? All kinds of emotions, too. What a way to start the summer chapters, huh? Any scene you were particularly fond of in this chapter?
Also: To any of you who were maybe interested in reading the one-shot Krysania received for being the 525th reviewer of TDKWWS, it is now posted. It's called I Wish You Well (No More Bad Blood).
Thank you so much for reading, as always, I greatly appreciate every view, favorite, follow, and review I receive :)