They Didn't Know We Were Seeds

Upon reaching the boarding platform for the train home, Severus is stopped from going straight to one of the train's many open doors by Lily stepping into his path and turning to face him. He quirks an eyebrow in question as she smiles at him and asks, "Oh, I nearly forgot to ask— Do you want to pop by for a bit to exchange gifts on boxing day?"

Severus crosses his arms and tilts his head to look at the high ceiling above them. He and his mother are supposed to celebrate Christmas Eve and Day with the Montagues at their manor. His grandfather is also supposed to make an appearance to tell him how his mission with Priscilla went. By Boxing Day, he'll probably be worn out on people and just want to read whatever new books his mother and Aunt Vesta gift him by the fireplace in his and his mother's home. He sighs. Maybe if it's just him and Lily… "I don't know, will it just be us?"

Lily shakes her head. "Well… No. James will be there to see Petunia and Dirk promised he'd come as well."

"Sounds like a brilliant time."

His friend frowns and knits her brows together as she grumbles, "Severus, really?"

Severus rolls his eyes at Lily. "Dirk and I care little for each other and you know I'm not particularly fond of James. Honestly, the one who should be saying 'really' is me, Lily," he chides. "Surely you knew before you asked I wouldn't be particularly receptive to your invitation?"

Lily's whole form droops as she dismays, "Does this mean you won't see me at all over the hols?"

Severus had wanted to wait until closer to the date to ask in case he changed his mind about going, but… "No, actually, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to a New Years party the Fenwicks are holding. I was going to say I was going to your home for a get-together as an excuse either way."

She brightens immediately at the offer and grins. "Yes, okay. I'd love to go with you." Then, voice chipper, she remarks, "The Fenwicks sure seem to like you!"

He shrugs off her comment. "Clara likes that I can tell her how her family is doing in her absence."

"If that was true, she wouldn't be inviting you to a party," smiling even broader now, Lily teases, "Everyone knows interrogations are for dinners, not parties."

"You'd be surprised," Severus mutters in reply as he catches sight of a familiar dark-head bobbing up the steps into the train. "There's Sage," he said. "I'll write you with the details later, goodbye Lily!"

"See you soon!" she yells back at him as he quickly leaves her behind to catch up to his brother.

By the time Severus is on the Express, Sage has already disappeared from the little corridor between compartments, forcing him to peek into windows and slide open doors in search of him. Thankfully, he only has to interrupt one snogging couple before he finds the compartment his brother has cloistered himself off in. Sage stares at Severus with an inscrutable look as he smiles at him and closes the door behind them. Uninterested in sharing with anyone else or being overheard by passing students, Severus waves his wand over the door. A swish and a flick later, the door is locked and the room muted to the rest of the train. Satisfied, he sits on one of the seats opposite of Sage. After a few moments of silence, Severus crosses his legs only to uncross them a minute later to put his hands on both knees and leans in close to Sage to say, "You're the one who wanted to carry on pretending nothing happened, but with the way you're behaving you will give us both away the moment our mothers see us."

Sage frowns and casts his gaze to the compartment's small window. For a long while, he says nothing. When the train finally lurches with take-off, he whispers, "It's just us now, what's there to pretend?"

"I hate to be trite, but practice does make perfect."

His brother looks away from the moving scenery to glare at him. "Why bother perfecting that I don't hate you? In another year, maybe two, three at best, I'll be committing myself to the Lord and you'll be trying to destroy his cause. We'll be enemies then."

Severus stares back, horrified. "You don't mean that," he says. "You can't. After what I told you—"

"—Why would I trust your every word? You've lied for so long." As Severus scrambles for a reply, Sage whispers, "And I've seen you make false memories."

One hand a fist and the other wrapped tight around his wand, Severus snarls back, "They weren't false! That was the memory of how my father was supposed to die before your damn brother decided to take my mother's situation into his own hands and have him killed! Not to mention drive her halfway around the bend!"

"How dare you!" yells back Sage, standing up.

Severus wastes no time rising up to meet Sage and goes toe-to-toe with him. He can see now that Sage has grown a few centimeters taller than him since he was last this close to the teenager, but he's not intimidated. "I have lied," he hisses, "And I will lie again, but don't you dare accuse me of being a liar."

Sage trembles ever so slightly when Severus steps back. Unable to bear the thought of sitting across from the teenager after he's made him so furious, Severus goes for the compartment's door. When he grabs the handle, he pauses. Severus does not look at Sage when he says:

"You are a Slytherin. Slytherins are ambitious, but cunning as well. Use that damn cunning you supposedly have to see there's no benefit to you following in Boyd's footsteps and taking the Dark Lord's mark. It will only lead to your early death."

His parting words finished, he yanks the door open and steps out to find better company to sit with for the ride to King's Cross.

-o-O-o-

Even though Severus makes a point of finding Sage before he disembarks from the train so they can exit together, he knows it won't hide that they are in the midst of a row. They are stiff beside each other as they look for their mothers and hardly spare one another a glance except for the brief moment Sage touches his shoulder and points to his mum.

"There's Aunt Eileen," he says to him.

Severus nods. "Your mother can't be far."

"Yeah," agrees Sage, eyes scanning over the people moving around Severus's mum. They then head towards her as fast as the crowded platform will allow. When they get close enough to catch his mum's gaze, Severus sees something is off even as she smiles at them. And he knows it's not just because she can see him and Sage are cross with one each other. "Boys," she says, opening her arms to the both of them.

Severus and Sage take turns obliging his mother before his brother asks her, "Where's my mother?"

His mum's smile falters as she wraps an arm around each of their backs. "With your sister-in-law," she explains. "There's… Well, she's experienced a rather terrible loss last night." Severus's mother looks around. "But let's not talk about it here. Why don't we go to Severus's and my home have some tea, play with Ichabod a little, and then discuss what's happened before we leave for your mother's to have tonight's dinner?"

Severus bites back a sigh and looks around his mother to see Sage wearing a similarly annoyed look. While they'd like to argue with his mother, Severus and Sage understand there is no room to. His mother will not allow it, especially not in King's Cross. So, with equally unhappy tones, they answer not quite in tandem:

"Yes, Aunt Eileen."

And

"Fine."

The woman keeps her calm, almost pleasant tone as they head for the exit. "Brilliant," she says, eyes focused on somewhere ahead of them. "Thank you, boys, for your cooperation."

-o-O-o-

Under the overcast sky, Severus and Sage stand in the tall frail, dying grass of the field to the north of Severus and Eileen's home. They wear heavier robes than the traveling ones they'd arrived at King's Cross in and Severus has wound a scarf around his neck while Sage now wears a pair of knit-gloves and cap to ward off the cool weather of the area as they play fetch with Ichabod. Though, the dog is taking longer and longer to retrieve the stick they are throwing as the smells of the area distract him.

"Good boy," praises Severus as he takes the stick from Ichabod's teeth after several minutes of watching him dig into a thicket of grass and weeds, seeking out some rodent that likely isn't home. Winding back his arm, Severus throws the stick as far as he can. Once again, Ichabod bounds through the grass at break-neck speed for the stick. Severus rubs his hands together a moment before he tucks them away in the pockets of his robes until the dog's return.

The silence between him and Sage is finally broken when the teenager asks him, "Do you think someone in her family's died? One of her grandparents, maybe? Or an old schoolmate?"

Severus looks at him out of the corner of his eye. He's still quite cross about the things Sage said on the train, but decides to relent to the conversation all the same. "No," he answers. "I imagine she's miscarried."

The teenager turns his head and frowns at Severus with an air of confusion. "Why would she have been in the family way? Boyd's told me he and Violet are waiting a couple of years before they have children."

He rolls his eyes at him. "Don't be daft. Not every preventative measure is foolproof," he tells him. Severus then turns his attention to Ichabod a moment when the dog presses his stick into his thigh, tail wagging expectantly for Severus to take it. Pulling it from the dog's mouth, he flings it through the air as the dog runs after it. "Besides, just because Boyd doesn't want children now doesn't mean Violet wants the same as him."

Sage's tone is sharp as he demands, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugs and keeps his gaze trained on Ichabod as he picks up his stick and begins to root around in the surrounding grass. "I'm not saying it's what happened, but I've seen Violet. She wants to be a mother. Quite badly too."

"You're wrong," Sage says, jaw squared with anger and hands balled up at his sides.

Severus looks toward his and his mother's home. "I hope so," he replies. "But I'm sure we will find out one way or another very soon." Cupping his mouth, he calls out to the dog, "Ichabod! Ichabod, come here, boy!"

The dog's head shoots up from where it was buried in the grass, ears pricked. Severus waves an arm in the air above his head and yells again, "Come, Ichabod!"

Ichabod leaves behind his stick and the smells to race through the grass and attaches himself to Severus's side. He gives the dog's head a pat. "Good boy," he tells him. Looking at Sage, he remarks, "I imagine Mum's got tea together by now. Should we go in and hear the news?"

An unhappy cadence to his tone with a matching frown, he agrees, "Fine."

The dog trotting between them, the two head back to the cottage in silence. Going in through the side door, they take a moment to clean their feet of any muck and take off all of their winter clothing before joining Ichabod in the kitchen where he'd hurried onto the moment they stepped into Severus and his mother's home. Stepping into the kitchen, they find his mother is sitting at the table with a cup of tea in front of her as she feeds a bit of crust from a sandwich to Ichabod. Her mouth curves into a quiet smile when she sees the two of them and she questions, "Did you all have a nice time playing with Ichabod? He rather missed you, I think."

"Yes," Severus agrees as he takes a seat at the table next to his mother. "Ichabod was great."

Sage sitting in the seat across from his mother and next to Severus, reaches for one of the sandwiches in the middle of the table and says, "Thank you, Aunt Eileen, for tea."

"You're welcome," she replies, a pleasantness finding its way into her typically neutral tone. "I remembered you liked chicken," she tells Sage as if it's an accomplishment (perhaps it is. Severus hasn't been near enough to monitor her recall for the past several months and has no idea what state it may be in). "And Severus has never been particular," she adds, glancing at him briefly, eyes impish as he quietly scoffs and pours himself a cup of tea before taking a sandwich for himself.

Sage nods and takes a bite from his sandwich, then another, before he puts it down on his plate. "Aunt Eileen?" he prompts.

"Hm?" she returns, attention a little absent as she pushes Ichabod's nose away from the edge of the table.

Sage fiddles with the napkin he's laid out on his lap. "Are we still going to my mother's today?"

Severus's mother's gaze snaps back to the teenager. "Yes," she replies. "In just a couple of hours, in fact."

"It will be nearly eight by then," murmurs Sage unhappily. "Isn't that late for dinner?"

He watches his mother sigh and steeple her hands in front of her. She presses her lips to her knuckles and stares a long moment at the tabletop before lifting her gaze to meet Sage's once again. "Do you recall how I said your sister-in-law experienced a terrible loss?"

"Yes."

Eyes dewy, his mother, clears her throat and then explains to them, "Violet's lost a baby and your mother is trying to give her as much time as she can to compose herself for dinner with us and my father." In a murmur, likely meant only for her ears, but caught by them all the same, she adds, "Though, I imagine she won't eat with us very long at all in spite of Vesta's efforts."

Expression stricken, Sage only gapes a moment. Then, he looks at Severus, eyes angry, before he brings his gaze to Severus's mother and insists, quite forcefully, "How? Boyd told me not to expect becoming an uncle before I graduated school."

The woman frowns at Sage. "Perhaps he did," she says, "but evidently he or Violet were not as careful as they should have been."

"Truly?"

Severus's mother furrows her brows. "Yes," she assures. "In some ways, it is to be expected. While many of the protections available to witches and wizards are just shy of foolproof, if a couple gets caught up in the moment, or a witch grows busy at an impromptu time and forgets to take her potion…" she trails off then, her cheeks taking on a reddish hue. A moment later, she shakes her head and gets to her feet, whisking her dishes to the sink with a flick of her wand. "I have some last minute wrapping of gifts to attend to," she tells them, "finish eating and please put away whatever is left and your dishes in the sink."

"Yes, Mum," Severus agrees for both of them as she leaves the kitchen and walks across the lounge to her room.

Once she's gone and the door to her room closed, Sage scowls at Severus and asks, "Was this something you forgot to tell me? Time-traveler?"

Severus hushes him, glancing towards his mother's room. While he highly doubts she's paying them any mind and is, in fact, taking care of last minute gifts, he's not keen to test the theory. Voice a harsh hiss, he says, "No! I bloody told you, your family was hardly a footnote in my life." Angrily he kicks at the empty chair across from him beneath the table. "All it is is I'm not fucking blind!"

"I'm not blind!" argues Sage.

Severus rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "Oh, yes you bloody are!" he exclaims. "Otherwise you wouldn't even give a second of consideration to joining the Death Eaters after what I told you about them and your future with the group!"

"You lied first!" Sage snaps. "How can I trust you still aren't?" he demands.

"I'll put my memories in a pensieve for you to look at," offers Severus after a beat. It's all he can think of that will prove once and for all he's not trying to ruin Sage's family and future.

Sage makes a noise of frustration, but relents in the end. "Fine," he agrees, "But I want to see you pull them from your mind with my own two eyes so I know you haven't had time to alter them." The teenager then stands up. "I'm going up to your room," he tells Severus as he gathers his things to put in the sink. "Don't bother me until it's time to leave."

"As you wish," he returns, tone mocking before he sinks into his seat to pick disinterestedly at the partly eaten sandwich in front of him.

The teenager bumps his chair as he leaves the room, making Severus twist in his seat to glare at his back, but, otherwise, he refuses to react. Sage is itching for him to blow up and Severus isn't going to give him that kind of satisfaction.

-o-O-o-

Priscilla can't stop the smile that tugs at her lips when she steps past the threshold of the Rookwood's front door to see her grandma waiting for her by the stairs, as she did when she was truly a girl returning from Hogwarts. As she does now, in this different, but frightfully similar reality. Dropping her trunk next to the door, she wastes no time meeting the open arms waiting to embrace her. Letting herself be enfolded in the soft, lavender-scent arms of the old witch, she murmurs, "I missed you so much, Grandma."

"And I you, Prissy."

She squeezes the short, plump woman a moment longer, hoping the heartbreak that killed her in the other world will not come here and there will be many, many more years of embraces to come instead of a scant few. When Priscilla finally lets the old witch go, it's only long enough for her to take hold of both her hands and give her cold, knarled fingers a soft press between her own before releasing them altogether. "Mother told me we are going to be entertaining Mr. Prince while I'm home for hols," she says to her.

The old witch's dark eyes liven even more as a broad smile brings a new vitality to her weathered face. "Yes," she replies as she pulls Priscilla against her side. Arms now wound around each other's waists, they begin the short walk to the kitchens as her parents and the house-elves take care of her things for her. "Mr. Prince and your grandfather have been exchanging many letters lately. It seems the depression that weighed heavily upon him since Mrs. Prince's passing has finally come to lighten and he's reaching out to many old friends he's neglected in the meantime." A bit of bafflement comes to her tone as she remarks, "He was rather insistent on visiting with us all for a couple of days before you return to Hogwarts. It seems he wants to see how much of a young lady you have become since he last saw you."

Priscilla resists the urge to roll her eyes. Is that really the excuse the wizard has come up with for an overnight visit? Internally, she sighs. If her family believes it… It doesn't matter, she supposes. "He doesn't have a grandson or two, does he?" she asks while very well knowing what the answer is. Though, she shouldn't, she knows, at her age now.

Her grandma hesitates as they step into the kitchen. "Not any I would worry about, dear," she tells Priscilla before calling for one of the house-elves to come and put out the tea for them.

As they sit down to tuck into the pudding laden tea, she smiles at her Grandma. "Then I don't mind him staying a day or two," she declares while piling her plate high with different treats. "Mr. Prince always had a sugar quill for me and would listen when I told him those silly stories I made up about my dolls."

"Oh, they weren't silly, Prissy! They were just lovely," her grandma assures her as she drops a cube of sugar into her tea. "You had the most lovely imagination as a little girl." Now finished with using her spoon to dissolve the sugar into her drink, the old woman waves it at Priscilla. "It's like I'd tell your father, with the right encouragement, you could be the next Beatrix Bloxam!"

Priscilla hides a smile in her teacup. When she feels in control once more, she puts her cup down and starts to pick apart a scone on her plate. "I don't know if I have that kind of imagination anymore," she confesses. "But maybe I could become an author like Selina Sapworthy?"

"Exactly!" her grandma exclaims. Reaching across the table, she takes one of Priscilla's hands in her own and says, "Oh, Prissy, you do us all so proud. You are becoming such a sensible, clever woman."

She scone in her mouth takes on the flavor of ash and turns into a lump of coal going down her throat as she does her best to smile at the old woman. "Thank you," she whispers, wishing all the while she could have truly been what she is now as an actual girl for her grandma.

I do believe this is the first time we've gotten a scene from Priscilla's pov. What did you think?

Also, since my last update of TDKWWS, a new chapter has been added to Always Gold of the Family Branches series where Severus has a little sister and Boy-Snape, my de-aged!Severus multi-chap is still chugging along and has several new chapters.

Thanks for reading :)

Edited: 1/13/19