They Didn't Know We Were Seeds

While he and Sage are in his father's study, hiding from Aunt Vesta for the afternoon and working on their charms essays, Demitri comes to loom in the doorway. Face solemn, he says, "It's done." Before he backs off and leaves them alone once more.

Severus immediately begins to organize his school work and put it away. Confused, Sage furrows his brows and asks, "Severus?"

"Put your things away. Demitri and I have something to discuss with you, your mother, and Topper." Finished with putting the rest of his papers in his satchel, he meets his brother's tremulous gaze and explains, "It's about Mum."

Sage jumps to it and rushes through the methodical motions Severus went through just a moment before. "Did Great Uncle Demitri figure out what was wrong with her?"

"…Sort of," Severus answers evasively. "Listen, I promise everything will be answered in no time at all."

His brother's face twists a little around the mouth – not too unlike the way Aunt Vesta's does when she's displeased – but he lets it go. Sage next finishes putting his things away before he follows Severus out of the study.

-O-

Not even ten minutes later the entire household is gathered in family's drawing room. Severus sits beside his grandfather and in front of the handmade Pensieve that holds the fake memory he will implant into his mother's head when she wakes in a couple of days. Across from them sit an identically frowning Sage and Aunt Vesta with Topper standing at attention just within reach of his mistress. Unsurprisingly, Aunt Vesta is the first to speak.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demands, eyes flickering to the Pensieve and then to Demitri.

The old man stands and takes control of the situation (he may know Severus is no boy, but the Montagues do not and it would be strange for him to present this intricate, clever, insane plan). "We need to have a family meeting about what is going to happen when Eileen wakes in two days' time."

Aunt Vesta's mouth purses. "Have you been keeping information from the healers from me? Uncle Demitri, I don't want to sound… disrespectful, but I think the last one Eileen would want to know all about her condition is you."

"No," he answers simply. "I know as it is I who put her in the coma."

The Montague woman shoots up, face livid. "What?" she hisses. Aunt Vesta starts to draw her wand, but before she can, Severus uses silent, wandless magic to rip it from her fingers. Her expression turns to one of horror as his grandfather looks at Severus out of the corner of his eye.

"Hang on to that for me, won't you?" he says. "I'd at least like to explain in full before I let your cousin hex me."

Severus nods. "Yessir."

That earns him a raised eyebrow from Sage, but otherwise, the mother and son remain focused on his grandfather.

Putting his hands out in a placating gesture, Demitri calmly suggests, "Why not take a seat, Vesta? I promise I'll explain why it was necessary."

White and slightly shaky, Aunt Vesta does so. After swallowing a couple of times, she dips her chin in a jerky motion and whispers, "Please do."

"You know she's spent the better part of her time back in our world trying to find out who killed her husband, yes?"

"Yes," the Montague woman agrees.

Nodding, the old man eyes her sharply for a moment before saying, "She found him."

"What?" Aunt Vesta gasps. "How? When?"

Demitri sighs. "A short while ago. With a bit of my help, actually." Clasping his hands in front of him, the old man's expression turns to one of sadness (perhaps it's not even all an act, Severus thinks). "Unfortunately, when she found out who her husband's murderer was she began to plot to kill him."

All of his attention still on his cousin, Severus watches her eyes widen and her hands go to cover her mouth. "Oh, Eileen!"

The old man seems to agree as his shoulders slump and he takes a moment to just stare at his feet. "The murderer was Adam Parkinson."

Aunt Vesta screams, causing both Topper and Sage to jump. Severus winces and looks on as Uncle Demitri steps forward to put his hands on their cousin's shoulders. "I know," he soothes. "I know."

"Don't tell me she was going to do it at the wedding. Please, Uncle Demitri. Tell me our Eileen's not that far gone!"

Severus can see neither of them, but he can see Sage. His brother's head is turned, looking at them. His profile is one of horror. Severus feels guilty all over again. If only he'd never brought up that he had grandparents named Etta and Demitri…

"We're going to fix this, Vesta. It's going to be alright," Demitri reassured.

The old man twists his head around to look at Severus, gaze intense and demanding. Severus sighs and gets up to come place himself on the other side of Aunt Vesta. Sitting down, he pats the quietly crying woman's arm and says, "Listen to Demitri, Aunt Vesta. He has a plan that will make this all go away."

Pulling out a handkerchief, the Montague woman sniffles into it for a moment and then dries her eyes. "Very well," she says. "Tell me what this plan is."

"Severus had quite the interesting idea while we were in the hospital," begins Demitri, looking at him. "He suggested we create a false memory of Tobias's death to replace the true memory Eileen has now." Then, gesturing to the Pensieve, he explains, "It's right in here now, waiting to be placed in her head after we obliviate the original."

"That doesn't change the months of her looking for Adam," Aunt Vesta counters.

He nods. "You're right. We're going to just have to Obliviate it all from her memory and hope for the best."

"You have no false memories for those months of searching?"

The old man shakes his head. "Creating hundreds, if not thousands of moments of mundanity is not something we have time for. She will wake in next to no time at all. That's why I and Severus are informing you about our plan to replace her memory of Tobias's death. While it will stop her from trying to look for a murderer again, it will also cause Eileen to wonder about the gaps in her memory from the last several months. I need you, Topper, Sage, Boyd and his new wife – when they get back from their honeymoon – to not give anything away. I need you to pretend as if she spent most of her time closed off in her room, depressed and mourning for her husband, rather than investigating Tobias's death."

He looks them all over, a tired shadow overcoming his eyes. "It's our only option right now."

Aunt Vesta stares intently at Demitri for a moment, then she sighs. "Alright."

"Thank you."

The Montague woman then shifts to face Severus. Eyes wet and soft, she reaches out to cradle his chin in her hands. "I'm so sorry it's come to this, dear. I wish we could have nipped this in the bud earlier."

Severus looks away. "I don't blame you," he says. "It's not like Mum let on to what all she was up to."

Her hands fall away from his face, only for them to come wrap around his shoulders. Aunt Vesta pulls Severus against her into a strong embrace. "We're going to make this work, Severus," she promises. "You're going to get your mother back."

The words take him by surprise. He's going to get his mother back. Severus never thought of it that way. But his Aunt Vesta is right, if everything goes accordingly, he will get a mother that's nearly identical to the one he remembers from childhood. His mother will still be the imperfect woman he now knows her to be, yes, but she might be more like the woman he once thought her too. The solid, predictable figure whom Severus could go to for a nonjudgmental ear when he was afraid to talk to anyone else. He knows his grandfather is watching (and he still doesn't fully trust the man), but he can't bring himself to care. He's going to get his mother back. Burying his face into his aunt's shoulder, Severus feels every bit of his physical fourteen years as he cries into her robes out of relief and joy.

-o-O-o-

The day mum is supposed to wake according to Demitri's calculations they all go to St. Mungo's. While Aunt Vesta watches the door, Uncle Demitri removes several of the monitoring spells on Severus's mother. Then, for an agonizing hour and a half, they wait. When Mum finally begins to stir, the first thing that happens is her fingers twitch at her sides. Then, her lips part and she gives a small cough.

Severus goes to her side. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, he calls, "Mum?"

Her eyelids begin to flutter.

"Come on, Mum," he whispers, "wake up."

When her eyes open fully, Demitri is right there at Severus's shoulder, wand raised. "Obliviate," he murmurs.

Mother's eyes are blown wide and then they begin to dull. While they are open and unguarded, Severus seizes on his chance. Pulling the false memory out of the specially made compartment in his mind, he keeps it at ready as he sifts through his mother's memories until he finds the moment where his mother is about to walk into their home on Spinner's End and find Dad's body. Carefully overlaying the fake one at the edges of the broken real one that exists, Severus takes the time to pull together more, real memories that should logically follow the discovery. Such as subsequent dealings with the police and emergency personnel who arrive to take care of his father's dead body and make sure nothing nefarious is at play.

When he's finished, Severus closes his eyes and says, "Put her to sleep."

Raising his wand once more, Demitri speaks the incantation for a suggestive sleeping charm. Thankfully, his mother is too weak to fight the spell and falls asleep within moments of it being cast. When she is truly, deeply asleep, Severus pulls away to go sit in the corner of the room with Sage. His head is pounding with the start of a migraine – as it does on occasion when he performs particularly strenuous legilimency. Settling into the seat, he sighs tiredly. Perhaps he can take a kip while they wait for Mum to wake up for a second time.

A hand on his knee makes him crack an eye open. He sees Sage looking at him, expression one of concern. "Are you alright?" he asks.

"Just a bit tired."

Sage's face turns to one of hesitancy, as if he wants to ask something, but doesn't know if he should.

Severus sighs. "Spit it out. I wish to rest."

"You… You placed the memory in her mind. How?"

He nods. "Yes, I did." He tries for a smile. "Mum taught me a bit of legilimency before I went to Hogwarts. Then some more that first summer I went home. I practiced now and then on my own at Hogwarts as well. Demitri figured I'd have better success implanting it without being attacked by her subconscious mind as it'd recognize me as not being a threat."

"Unlike him, huh?" Sage mumbles.

Severus chuckles. "Exactly."

Sage gives his knee a gentle push. "Get some sleep, I'll wake you up if your mum wakes up again anytime soon."

He relaxes further in his chair. "Thanks," he mutters before drifting off into an exhausted slumber.

-O-

A few hours later, it's just him and a dozing Sage in his mother's room. Aunt Vesta and Demitri left just over twenty minutes ago to go to the cafeteria for some tea. Severus's stomach churns with the low burn of hunger. Absently, he brushes a hand over it. Hopefully, they will remember to bring some crisps or biscuits back for him and Sage to snack on.

He swings his legs idly, the heels of his feet thumping softly against the side of the transfigured armchair he's curled in. Severus then returns his attention to the book he took from Sage's lax fingers when the boy fell asleep just over half an hour ago and finishes the paragraph he is on and turns the page. However, just as he's re-immersing himself into the story, the sound of over-starched sheets rustling catches his attention. He looks up at his mother. Severus tenses when he sees her staring over at him.

"Severus?" she calls, voice hoarse.

The book falls from his now shaking fingers to between the cushion and the arm of the chair, Severus swings himself around so he's sitting properly in his seat. "Mum!"

A frown on her lips, she turns her head slowly from side to side. Finally, she asks, "…Am I at St. Mungo's?"

Severus bobs his head in affirmation. "Yes."

"I…" she starts, only to stop. Forehead wrinkling, she questions, "What happened?"

He puts his face in his hands. "Healers don't know, actually," he tells her with feigned casualness. "Aunt Vesta said you became ill shortly before Sage and I came home for holidays and by the time we came to see you, you were in a coma."

She blinks at Severus as if she can't quite believe what he's saying. "How long have I been here?"

Evasively, he replies,"We go back to Hogwarts in a couple of days."

His mum frowns. Real sadness and frustration carving lines into her forehead. "I missed Christmas. And your cousin's wedding." She lets her head fall back against her pillow, dismay in her tone as she mumbles, "Your Aunt Vesta must be terribly upset about that one."

"I think she was more upset no one could figure out what is wrong with you."

She sighs."That poor woman. I've put her through more trouble than she deserves."

"Aunt Vesta has yet to complain," Severus quickly assures. Then, thinking better of it, corrects himself, "Well, very much, anyway."

She chuckles. "That sounds like your Aunt alright." She looks at him then, her gaze scrutinizing. "Severus, why don't you take a seat right here? You look exhausted."

"Sorry," he mumbles, gingerly placing himself by his mum's elbow.

Her hand reaches over to wrap around his own. "I've caused you some worry too, haven't I?"

"Mum–"

"No. Don't 'Mum' me, Severus. Be honest."

After a moment, he admits, "…A little."

She lifts her hand up and touches his cheek. "I'm sorry, love."

"It's fine," Severus lies. "It's not like you could help it this time."

His mother sighs. "I've been quite a poor mother, haven't I?"

"No!" he denies. It's another lie he's speaking, but Severus can't help it. She's still weak and he's messed with her mind and she's been betrayed by not only him, but their whole family.

The woman presses her lips into a thin line. "You had no trouble telling me I was in the wrong when I let Vesta take you from me this summer, why are you changing your mind now? Because I've been ill?"

"…I don't want you to get worse," he admits meekly when her glare refuses to lessen.

Mum's expression softens. "Come here," she says. Reluctantly, Severus presses himself against his mother's skeletal side and lets her wrap him up in a loose side-hug. She sighs tiredly and begins to rub her hand up and down his arm. "You wanted me to apologize," she whispers, a faint note of questioning to the words. Though, why Mum's looking for confirmation, Severus isn't sure. Does she think Severus will have changed his mind since the summer? Or is it the Obliviation spell Demitri used on her blurring the memory?

Whatever the reason, he nods his head silently.

"I've thought about what you said since you told me I should apologize for picking your father over you." She licks her lips, thoughtfulness overcoming her countenance. "I… It's not easy, Severus. Perhaps I should have gone with you. Sage may have been your friend, but you knew Vesta and Boyd very little. Giving you to an all but stranger was a very poor decision on my part and I am sorry I did that to you. I loathe to say it, but my temper got the better of me. Just because we went with your Aunt Vesta wouldn't have meant we had to stay for long at her home."

Severus is quiet for a moment, absorbing and picking apart what his mother has just said to him. "You still didn't apologize for choosing Dad."

"Sometimes, you are far too clever," she grouses without malice. "I'm sorry I chose to stay with him," says his mother. "But you have to understand, despite all he did to us over the years, I still love him. Even now that he's gone, I love him." She places a gentle hand on Severus's cheek and makes him look at her. Eyes warm, she takes a strand of his limp hair and tucks it behind Severus's ear. "He gave me you, Severus. You are by far my greatest accomplishment in life and without your father, you would not be. I can't imagine a life without you. You are why I am alive. That is reason enough for me to love him, to not want to leave him." Hand falling away from Severus's face, his mum sighs. "But even though I stood by him, it wasn't enough to save him from himself."

He doesn't know what to say. Isn't sure if there is anything to say. His mother appears to decide for him as she smiles (though it looks as if it pains her) and lets him go. "I hope you can forgive me.

Severus finds himself nodding. "I do," he croaks. "All I wanted was for you to acknowledge it was the wrong choice."

Eyes drooping once more, his mother yawns. "I know it was," she says. "I regret that I didn't go with you. You are the best part of my life and I gave you up to stay with your father." Lips forming a small moue, she mutters, "Bastard couldn't be arsed to return the favor."

"You're tired, Mum, go back to sleep. I'll let Aunt Vesta and Demitri know you woke up when they get back in a bit."

Her eyebrows go halfway up her forehead. "Your grandfather is here? My, the healers must have been thinking the worst."

"They never said," Severus replies.

She smiles slightly. "More like your Aunt insisted you not be told until all options were run through."

Severus doesn't reply as he slips out from underneath his mother's arm. He then makes sure the hospital sheets are covering his now sleeping mother fully before he returns to his armchair. After settling into his seat again, Severus stares at his mother for a moment before he returns to the book. His chest far lighter than it has been in months, he sinks easily into the story in his grip.

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