They Didn't Know We Were Seeds
His mother's quick recovery baffles the healers in charge of her care. They run more tests on her than they ever did while she was in a coma and question her multiple times about the hours and days leading up to her falling into a coma. It frustrates Severus's mother to no end as she recalls very little. While the healers (and Mum) chalk this up to the illness and subsequent coma, Severus, their family, and Demitri know better.
When it comes time for Sage and him to leave for Hogwarts once more, the healers agree to release his mother for a couple of hours to see them off. With Aunt Vesta and Boyd's help, Severus's mother makes it to King's Cross with them. She's too weak from almost two weeks of inactivity to stand long unassisted on her own, but Mum does her best to not let it put a damper on his and Sage's send-off.
"Your grandfather told me he's going to hold a dueling tournament for you students. If either of you wants a clever spell or two you wish to keep up your sleeve, write me." She smirks. "When I was your age, I'd sneak my mother's wand at night and practice spells from some of your grandfather's books he keeps in his study. I even figured out where he kept the books he didn't want me reading and mastered a few from those."
"Hush, Eileen! Don't give the lads ideas!" Aunt Vesta tuts, while smothering a smile.
As for Severus, he grins at his mother. This is the best spirits she's been in a very long time. While he likely knows most of the spells his mother is thinking of, or even better ones, he will still write her. Severus wants to encourage his mother to continue to be like this.
Behind them, the Express gives its warning whistle. Twisting his head around to look at the locomotive, Severus sighs. He wishes he didn't have to go back right now. As capable as Aunt Vesta has proven herself to be these past years, she's also prone to dramatics and swayed by strong emotions. How is she going to handle his mother on her own? While Boyd and Violet have promised to visit Aunt Vesta and Eileen at least once a week for the foreseeable future, that may not be enough if his mother's good mood takes a turn and she starts to become suspicious about how few memories she has of the past year.
"Ah, looks like it's time for you lads to go," Boyd remarks, breaking the uneasy silence that's fallen over all of them. Carefully maneuvering Severus's mother from his arm to Aunt Vesta's, he reaches over to pull them into short side-embraces. "Keep out of trouble, alright?"
Sage smiles at his brother, an impish look in his eyes. "Like we usually do?" he teases.
Boyd playfully puts Sage in a headlock as he lets go of Severus. "That cheek!"
"Boyd!" Aunt Vesta hisses. "You're a grown man, stop picking on your brother!"
The man rolls his eyes and lets go of Sage, who's laughing quietly. "Of course, Mother. Sorry."
Aunt Vesta sniffs snootily as Severus's mum puts a hand over her mouth to hide her smirk. "I recall you used to tug my braid when you saw me off with my parents when I was growing up."
The Montague gapes, scandalized. "I did no such thing!"
Mum only chuckles.
The Express whistles again.
"Hurry along now, you two will miss the train if you don't!" Aunt Vesta exclaims. Despite the urgency of her tone, she insists right after they come close so she may press a kiss to each of their cheeks and that they hug Severus's mother too before they grab their trunks and all but run to the Hogwarts Express to catch it before it leaves.
-o-O-o-
Things are not any calmer at Hogwarts than they were at home. Slytherin is abuzz with gossip about Clara. A fellow seventh year, Felix Carrow, caught her holding hands with Benjy outside the charms classroom just a couple of days after Christmas hols end. When Clara doesn't try and deny or cover up her relationship, everyone knows her and the Gryffindor are serious.
Someone must have written home to their parents, who wrote Clara's, as she receives a howler the morning after the ousting from her father. He yells at her in a low, bellowing voice. He calls her a silly bint, a sneak, a disgrace, and then, ends his howler with the declaration she has a family no more and shouldn't bother looking for him, her mother, or either of her siblings at King's Cross at the end of the school year. She is not welcome in their home any longer.
Severus watches on with deep admiration as she stares straight ahead, not giving even a flicker of emotion away as the Howler carries on. When it is over and it tears itself to pieces, she pulls out her wand, vanishes the scraps of parchment and gets up and leaves the Great Hall. Out of the corner of his eyes, Severus sees Benjy get to his feet and follow Clara out.
Beside him, Sage whispers into his ear, "At least she waited until after the wedding to make a mess of things."
He says nothing to that. Hardly even indicates he heard Sage at all. He sounds so much like Vesta, so much like Pureblood propriety personified it makes his skin crawl in ways that remind him despite everything, all that he's done for Sage so far, the real trial has yet to come. Soon, Boyd will be a devil in his brother's ear, whispering, insisting, persuading Sage to join the Death Eaters like him.
How is he going to convince Sage against it?
-O-
A few hours later, during their first defense class after hols, Demitri reveals his dueling bracket board for their class. He has them paired off to duel one another and then he will pair the winners of those duels to fight each other and then again and again until only one of them is left. After that, they will face off against the winner of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw defense class. Whoever comes out victorious will next face the winner of a different year in a duel. The last two contestants standing will then have a duel in front of the entire school in a couple of months.
As he speaks, he subtly looks from Severus, to Lily, to Severus, to Lily over and over again. He knows not a student in the room has a chance of advancing outside of the classroom, yet Severus has a feeling Demitri isn't quite sure if it will be him or Lily who comes out the winner. If he didn't find it amusing, he may have found it insulting. Severus is going to win. He's almost two decades of experience on Lily.
After he finishes his explanation, he directs them into their pairs and calls the first two, James and Magda Pucey, forward. Severus watches dully as it takes James all of three minutes to disarm Pucey. The next duel, with William Wilkes and Peter, goes just as quickly, with Wilkes coming out the victor. The duel after takes a bit longer and after that, Severus honestly stops paying attention until he's called up to face off against Florence Broom. The children are not interesting in the slightest to watch. It's all brute magic and blunt spells. There's no finesse and little art to their duels.
When he goes up against Florence Broom, he toys with her, if only to let her get a chance to feel what a real duel is like. He ducks and dodges her first two spells. Then, he casts a (rather) harmless toenail-growing hex at her, which hits her directly and causes her to yelp and lose balance. When Severus yells, "Expelliarmus!" however, Florence seems to have caught on just enough to the nature of dueling to roll out of the way and throw a knockback jinx at Severus. He, of course, steps out of its striking distance just in time and casts another disarming charm at the Gryffindor girl. This one works like a dream and a moment later, Florence's wand is in his hand.
Severus is then declared the winner and the next students are called up. It goes on like this for the rest of class. Unfortunately, it's right after Lily and Sirius are called to the front that Lilith Crabbe raises her hand and reminds Demitri class is over.
There's a wave of disappointed murmurs from the Gryffindors and a few Slytherins, while others sigh in relief realizing that they are not going to have to make fools of themselves in front of their classmates today. Severus just rolls his eyes and doesn't waste time gathering his things to leave the classroom. He has a letter to send his mother today and if he sends it now, it should reach her by tomorrow.
As he goes, Sage asks, "Where are you off to so fast?"
He pulls his letter from his pocket. "Going to send this off to Mum."
"I'll come with."
Together, they leave the room. Severus waves the letter at Lily as he goes, letting her know where he's going. She smiles blithely in return before going back to whatever rabbitting session she is having with her fellow Gryffindor girls.
As they walk to the owlery, they make small talk about defense and who they think will advance to the next round for their class. Without a doubt, Sage says he will. Severus doesn't even try to be modest, just nods and adds Lily will move up too. As they round a corner in one of the corridors, they all but run into little Ravenclaw Phyllis Tuft.
The girl's eyes brighten at the sight of them. "Hiya!" she greets.
Sage shifts from foot to foot next to Severus. Amused, Severus returns in a much more subdued tone, "Hello. We are going to send off a letter to my mother. Do you care to join us?"
Tuft gapes at him as if he's just told her he's going to take her to see a unicorn. "Sure! I already sent off my own letter… But why not!" Falling into place on Sage's free side, she bats her lashes and says, "You were loads of fun to chat with on the train, Sage."
Sage's face burns and he mumbles something that sounds vaguely polite.
Holding back laughter, Severus asks, "Have you had defense yet this week?"
"I did!" she exclaims. "Professor Prince had us start dueling each other! I got to duel Mei Wong in Gryffindor. She's really wicked, you know? She used this spell that made birds come out of nowhere and fly at me. It was quite scary in the moment, but I was so distracted she got my wand away from me with no trouble at all! After class, I asked her to teach it to me and she agreed." Smiling broadly at the both of them, she explained, "I'm meeting with her by the Grand Staircase on Saturday morning so we can go outside to practice it!"
Severus nods along and lets the girl natter at them for the rest of the walk to the Owlery.
-O-
Twenty minutes after they manage to shake off Phyllis and find a spot in the library to study, Sage grumbles at him, "I wish you wouldn't have done that. She fancies me and I don't want to encourage it."
Severus smirks. "Afraid of a little girl, are you?"
"That's not it!"
He shoves a hand over his brother's mouth and looks around for Madam Pince. It doesn't take long at all to see her head sticking out from behind a bookcase, glaring at them. If they make any more loud noises, there's no doubt she'll ban them from the library for the rest of the month. "Then what's the problem?" Severus demands in a quiet, measured voice.
"It's just… How can she fancy me? She's eleven." Then, quieter, Sage adds, "I've never fancied a girl."
Severus frowns. "There's nothing wrong with that," he says slowly. "Some just start having strong feelings earlier than others."
Sage sighs. "Do you really think so? Because I'm starting to think there's something wrong with me."
"No," he tells his brother firmly. "You are very normal."
He looks at him, eyes miserable. "You've fancied a girl, haven't you? What does it feel like?"
Severus has to look away. He's only ever really fancied one girl seriously, and that's Lily. Just thinking about those feelings makes his chest fill with a heavy, leaden weight. As much as he might want to, he can't act on those feelings. Not now, not when Lily still yearns and aches for a husband that is all but dead to her. Even so, Sage deserves to have an answer. Quietly, he explains, "The world's brighter when you're with them. The sky looks more blue, the grass greener. They shine with a light that makes them more vibrant than anyone else in a crowd."
His brother is quiet for a moment, seemingly absorbing this. Finally, he says, "Boyd tells me it's like breathing fresh air. When you're with a person you really, really like it's like you're in the country breathing in England's best air. You come away from them feeling better than before and giddy for the next time you'll get to see them."
"It's a little different for everyone," Severus admits. "But you come away from them knowing their special. Somehow, they just make everything better when you're with them."
Sage fiddles with his quill. "When I was little and used to go visit old school chums of my dad with him, there was one, in particular, I liked seeing. He had a son, Todd, who's actually just a year older than Boyd. When we'd go see him and his dad, he always made sure to include me in whatever game he and Boyd were playing – even when Boyd didn't want to, 'cause he thought I was a baby. He… He smiled really nice, you know? His teeth were very straight and white. Like a string of pearls. When he'd grin at me, I'd feel like I was sitting outside in the sun." His brother glances at him. "I'm a freak, aren't I?"
"No!" Severus disagrees immediately. "You're just… Well, hm. You do know it's possible to fancy more than just witches, right?"
The boy's expression turns to one of confusion. "Yes? I heard a story once on the Wireless about a wizard marrying a vampire."
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Severus really doesn't think he's the best one to be explaining the complexities of sexuality to a teenage boy. He kept a purposeful blind eye when it came to his students and their romantic lives while he was a professor in his last life. "While, yes, it's possible to love a vampire, that's not what I mean. You can like wizards. Witches at the same time too."
Sage's eyes bulge. "That's okay?"
"To me, it is," replies Severus. "I can't say that everyone will approve. It's a bit like loving a Muggle."
"Oh," whispers Sage, visibly wilting.
Severus sighs. He hadn't meant to upset his brother. Reaching across the tabletop, he gives Sage's shoulder a squeeze. "Look, it's not the end of the world. Even if you do end up loving a wizard, chances are decent that Aunt Vesta and Boyd won't make much of a fuss about it. They claim me and Mum as family, don't they?" A self-deprecating smile on his face, Severus says, "And we're a blood-traitor and a mongrel."
"You're not a mongrel," denies Sage.
He rolls his eyes. "Right."
"Really!" Sage insists, looking far less dejected than he did just moments before.
It seems (much to Severus's relief) his words have sunk in some. Whoever Sage falls in love with, he knows his family is unlikely to turn their back on him entirely.
This chapter's a bit all over the place, isn't it? What do you guys think? Any scene you liked in particular?
Thank you for reading :)