Hi,

I promised last time that I would return to the happenings in the broom closet...

WARNING: this chapter contains child maltreatment (Not Severus or Talkalot). Others have written more horrible stuff, but I think this is disturbing enough. If you don't want to read that kind of stuff, you can skip this chapter. Earlier, I had thoughts of describing it in much more vague way. But on the other hand I needed to get this out of my system.

This chapter was quite long and darker than most I've written. I would love to hear you thoughts about it.

-Every John

Right in front of Severus's eyes, the face of the Teakettle Killer contorted. Candlelight flickered and disappeared like darkness had suddenly sucked it.

"Uh... What is happening now?" Talkalot's voice mumbled. Her bindings had disappeared, when Severus had lowered his mental barriers against the non-being. As soon as the boggart had sniffed a new fear, it had latched on it like a bloodhound catching scent of a wounded deer. While Severus had let the careful tendrils of the boggart probe through his thoughts, he had felt curiosity and deep satisfaction radiating from the creature. Though Talkalot's serial killer nightmare had undoubtedly been delicious, it was still a fear of a child. His fear was complex. It was deep and had lots of shades. Real gastronomic delight to any boggart...

Sudden sense of vertigo hit Severus. The consistence of darkness changed to something almost liquid. Colors, distant voices and blurry figures swirled around him. When everything finally stabilized, he found himself and Talkalot in a long hallway of an old mansion. Several floating candles lit the way with their gentle lights.

Talkalot gave Severus a bewildered look. Around a corner a creaky voice was talking to someone. Wobbly candle light displayed two blurry shadows on the opposing wall of the hallway.

"Lady Eileen is a good Lady and goes to her room now. Lord Prince will come to see her soon."

"Thank you, Rooty", a small, defeated voice answered.

Severus and Talkalot managed to catch a glimpse of a dark-haired girl just as she stepped through an open door into a small bedroom. The house-elf she had been talking to had already disapparated.

"Um, could you please tell us, where we are", Talkalot tried to ask the girl, but she didn't react in any way to her question. Talkalot tried to tap her skinny shoulder and her hand went straight through the girl. The first-year Slytherin backed away from the girl like she had just caught fire and turned her teary eyes to Severus. Talkalot was pale and bit her lower lip. "I think, that we are dead", she confessed sadly, "Teakettle Killer must have done it. Though, I cant recall the exact moment..."

Severus groaned and rubbed his temples. "Don't be foolish, Talkalot. We did not suddenly turn into ghosts. We are in a memory", he stated tiredly.

"In a memory?"

"Yes. Hers." Severus pointed at the girl, whom they had followed into a tidy and feminine room. On a high shelf sat four dolls, dressed in high quality silk and satin. Their hairs were neatly combed and one had a summer hat on it's locks. The color themes in the room were dusty pink, navy blue and natural white. These themes continued seamlessly from the clothes of the dolls to the linens of the bed and to the curtains of the window. On a petite dressing table was a navy blue musical box. The girl sat at the table and reached for the box. She opened it and quiet melody filled the room. Magical flower stem slithered up from the box and developed into a bud, which slowly opened. Inside the flower a tiny leprechaun danced happily in its jolly green little coatee. The girl looked at it and then out of the window. Outside it was snowing. Her own pale face looked back from the reflection of the dark glass. She was dressed in long, white nightgown with lots of dusty pink laces. Slowly she let her ink-black hair free from braids. It was so long that it almost reached her skinny bottom. She let out a shaky breath and hid the trembling of her fingers by closing one hand over the other. "Let father be in good mood tonight", her tiny voice revealed a genuine wish to the starry sky.

"Who is she?" Talkalot asked.

"Eileen Prince", Severus revealed in emotionless tune.

The younger Slytherin frowned. "But who is she? And why is she here? And when did you manage to counter the body-binding jinx?" The girl asked, measuring him with curious eyes.

"She isn't 'here'. To be exact she is not real. I already told you about the boggart. It is a magical non-being, which feeds on the fears of the other beings. Boggarts use illusions and transformations. It seems, that our boggart decided to drag us into dimension of memories. I am impressed that it managed to create an imitation of a pensieve. The reason, why the jinx does not affect me here is because this is not real. Not currently."

"But why did the boggart do this? And what should we do now?"

Severus deliberately ignored the first question and focused on the second. "We just have to let the memory play out. I don't expect us to be able to escape this before the boggart allows it."

The girl looked thoughtful for a moment. Severus supposed that she needed some time to process everything. She must have thought about her own fear of Teakettle Killer, because next she asked: "Is... Is it going to be very horrible?"

Severus nodded tensely. He watched through hazy eyes, how a tall, black-haired man approached the girl. The ice cold pitch-black eyes of the man were nailed on the unprotected neck of the child. The grandson of the man would one day inherit those same unnerving eyes. Years later, when the girl was already an adult woman, those eyes would trigger panic attacks on her despite looking from the face of her own child. Severus knew, what the boggart had found, when it had looked into his mind. He knew how everything would happen. This was not his first time visiting this horrible memory. Still, watching things play out was not any easier because of that.

The girl noticed the reflection of the approaching man in the window glass. She froze on place. It seemed like even her small chest had stopped from moving. She did not turn around or give any indication of recognizing her father's presence. It was like she wished to postpone the imminent moment as long as possible, that way.

Eventually, the man put his large hands on the girl's tense shoulders. He swiped her free hair out of the way. "Eileen...", he whispered.

The girl winced. "Lord Prince", she whispered back.

"Turn around, daughter, so that I can look at you properly."

The girl turned slowly. It looked like she had to force every step on the way. She kept her eyes down-cast.

"Look at me, Eileen", her father ordered with soft but demanding voice.

Again the girl reluctantly obeyed. Silent tears streamed from her wide eyes.

"Do you want me to take you out of the school, Eileen? Is that what you want?"

"No, father."

"Did I not clearly demand you to obey me and keep your distance from the boys and other undesirables?"

"You did, father. I have not disobeyed you."

The man scoffed. "Such a good liar you are, daughter. But you are not that accomplished of an occlumens. Your mother sees straight to your mind and she is incapable of keeping anything from me. Can you imagine, how I felt when she told me that my daughter treats me like a fool and only waits for a right moment to betray me behind my back? Did you really think, that I would not find out, Eileen?" The man clicked his tongue. "I admit that I thought better of you. I thought that I could trust you..." He looked at the girl with cold, calculating eyes.

Her already small frame looked even tinier in front of her father's anger. She tried to control her trembling but was loosing the battle. "You can trust me, father", she tried to assure.

"The problem is, I can not, Eileen. You should remember, that Ladies of ancient families before you have been home schooled. That has not prevented them from marrying well and birthing healthy heirs. I was very disappointed, when your mother birthed you. I had such high expectations... but I have come to accept you as you are, Eileen. Despite you being nothing exceptional, you will carry on the Prince bloodline. One day, soon, you are going to be a woman capable of reproducing. You are not useless to me, Eileen."

The girl fell to her knees. Her voice was hitched to her throat. "Please don't take me out of school, father", she begged with desperation, "I want to finish Hogwarts. I will do anything you want, if you only let me graduate."

"Whatever I want?" The man asked with skepticism, "Would you really be obedient young Lady for me, if I only allowed you to attend Hogwarts until graduation?"

"I would, father. I would!" The girl hurried to swear.

"Would you promise to never talk to those people you've began to call friends, if I told you so? Would you really never oppose me? Never again keep secrets from me?"

"I would do that!"

"Still, time after time you have been keeping secrets from me and lying to me, Eileen... You see, why I can not just believe in you, don't you? I don't think, that you would be able to keep your word." The man measured the girl with narrowed eyes.

"Please, father", she whined.

"There is a way", Lord Prince stated finally, "If you really mean, what you say..."

Something in the way he said it made the girl swallow. She waited for him to continue and feared that as well.

"If you make an oath of obedience to me, I will let you go to school until you graduate."

"You mean... unbreakable vow?" The girl asked with a tiny voice.

The man laughed coldly. "No, not an unbreakable, my darling daughter. You would die, if you were to break it in your foolishness. I will not take such a risk."

The girl listened palely.

"If you break the contract, you will, of course, be punished harshly by the vow. You will not like it, little Eileen. In future, you will find it extremely hard to act against my orders."

"Just... Just like a house-elf", the girl whispered.

The man grinned. "Yes, Eileen, you would be much like little Rooty. Bound to our family."

The girl bit her lower lip in silence.

"It is your decision, daughter. If you refuse, I will take you out of school. You will simply not return to Hogwarts for the spring semester. Your professors and so-called friends will soon forget that you ever existed. It is all the same for me. Then I can guard your behavior myself and we both know that you can not hide your little secrets from your mother." The man shrugged his shoulders.

The girl had now an expression of a hare caught on a trap.

"I... I will do it, father. B-but you must promise me that you will allow me to go school", she begged.

"Of course, I will, if I can be sure that you obey properly. I am a busy man and have other things to do than to keep eye on a disobedient daughter. Hogwarts is as good place as any other for you to grow into a woman. After graduation you will be at the proper age of giving birth and finally of some use to the House of Prince."

The girl knew that it would be all the promise she would ever get. "Who is going to do the binding?" She asked quietly.

"This doesn't require a binder. Just you and me, daughter." The man laughed softly. "First, take off your nightgown, Eileen."

The girl hesitated only a moment before quickly pulling the white nightgown over her head. She quickly folded the cloth on the back of the chair and turned to stand in front of her father.

"Stand properly, Eileen."

The girl straightened herself further and released the arms she had instinctively wrapped around her chest.

Her father looked her through without any hurry, showing only mild displeasure. The girl trembled in the chilly room as she waited for him to finish.

"Your puberty has not began", the man stated finally.

"No, father."

The man took something from his pocket and showed it to his daughter. It was a long and heavy golden pendant, which formed from numerous golden chain links. "I thought that you would be practical about this, Eileen. Therefore I prepared something for you. This is our family heirloom. Once you have put it around your neck and taken the oath, it can no longer be removed. Well, at least it is pretty. It will instill in you obedience for the Master of the House Prince. Will you take it, daughter?"

The girl hesitated. She licked her lips. Then she finally nodded. "I will take it. But you must allow me to go Hogwarts."

"I answered that already, Eileen. This goes three times around your neck. I will do the first and begin the oath. You will do the second and continue with it. Then we do it together for the third, final, time and complete the ritual. It is not complicated."

The man did as he said and put the pendant around the slender neck of the naked girl. "I am the current Lord of the House Prince. She shall bend to the will of mine. She shall take my words as law and accept rightful punishment for disobedience. She shall respect my authority over anything and anyone."

The chain flashed red in acceptance of his words. The girl drew a sharp breath, when the metal burned her neck. The man nodded to the girl.

She put the pendant another time around her neck, took a deep breath and swore with barely audible voice. "I shall bent to the will of his, who is the current Lord of the House Prince. I shall take his words as law and accept rightful punishment for disobedience. I shall respect his authority over anything and anyone."

Again the pendant flashed and the girl whined softly.

"Now, one more time together."

They both touched the golden chain. The touch of the girl was feeble, but through her father's force the pendant was slipped over the girl's neck one final time.

"With this oath my daughter Eileen Prince, volunteers to give up her freedom and accepts her place in serving this house and family."

"With this oath I, Eileen Prince, volunteer to give up my freedom and accept my place in serving this family", the girl repeated after him. She stopped and her eyes bulged in shock. Then she wrapped her hands around her neck. The pendant burned in gleaming red, giving out some grey smoke. It shrank until three loosely wrapped layers were tight as a collar. The girl could not help herself anymore, but screamed and wailed in pain, scratching helplessly the pendant, which formed the seal of her oath.

Her father looked at it with calm indifference. He waited patiently for pain to subside enough for his daughter to be capable of listening him coherently.

"My first order to you is, that you can not reveal the oath or anything that happened tonight to a soul."

The girl was trembling and heaving from the pain. "Yes, father", she whispered.

"And you can neither hurt or endanger yourself."

"Yes, father", she stuttered.

When the man finally walked away the girl collapsed to the floor and cried bitterly.

/

"How could he do that!" Talkalot screamed. "How could he do that to her! Is that how magic can be used? To enslave people? I want to freaking murder him!"

"You can't", Severus hissed, "You can not murder him. You can not even touch him. You can not do anything to save her. Not even comfort her." His thick voice almost broke. "Because all of this has happened already. One can not change past. That man... he destroyed his child. Because he could."

Tears streamed from Talkalot's eyes.

"Tell me, at least, that someone helped her. That she was not left on the mercy of that monster!"

Severus was about to answer, when the scenery suddenly began to blur. Colors swirled, marking a change of memory.

When everything settled, they found themselves still in the same room. The petite dressing table from earlier had changed to a bigger desk. Instead of the dolls the high shelf held now school books. The same music box from the earlier memory was on the desk but the blue paint on it had shed and thinned from the corners from repeated handling. The girl was taller but just as skinny and she had now permanently mournful expression in her eyes. She was dressed in blue silky dress robe, much like one of her earlier dolls. Actually she was already a young woman. This time too the man was in the room with her. He too looked slightly older, having some grey on his dark hair.

"I brought your potion, daughter."

"What potion, father? I am not unwell", the young woman asked with quiet, polite voice.

"This it not for your sake, daughter. This is for all your future children. If all goes as planned, it won't take long after the graduation that your womb is going to be filled with the first of them. This, my daughter, will ensure that their potential abilities will far surpass yours. Maybe even mine", the man stated calmly. He had a hungry gleam in his black eyes, when he mentioned the future baby.

The young woman nodded slowly and took the offered goblet. She sniffed it carefully and looked at it against light. "What is this really? I smell some kind of fungi in it. It could be coalhole cabs or another variant. And if I am right that violet color comes from treason-roots. It also has some berries, which I don't recognize... Already the fumes affect my senses. The ingredients are highly poisonous and have psychedelic properties. Are you trying to finally kill me, father?"

The man snickered softly. "I see, that your professors were not lying, when they claimed that you could make it as a potion mistress after the graduation. Not that it will ever happen." He shook his head. "Please, do you really think, Eileen, that I would allow you to die after all of these years? You will probably be very uncomfortable after drinking it, but, no, you will not die."

Her eyes widened in realization. "You intend to destroy my mind, then."

"What would it matter to someone like you, Eileen. It is not like you are going to need much of your mind in your later years. You need a healthy body, which can carry the powerful next generation of Princes. Now, hurry and drink it, Eileen. And don't you dare to throw up."

The girl hesitated. Then her face twisted with pain and her hand went to her neck. Slowly she lifted the goblet to her trembling lips and drank.

/

"He didn't just do that?" Talkalot shouted in disbelief.

Severus sighed. His eyes were still on the young woman, who would soon begin to feel the physical and mental agony from the poison her father had forced her to drink. He knew it would last hours and feel much longer. Eventually she would recover enough to crawl to bed and cry herself to sleep. But she would never be quite the same person and she would know it.

Severus had began to question his decision to not leave Talkalot in the clutches of her own nightmare. The girl was almost as distressed watching at the suffering of someone, whom she did not even know. These feelings of desperation and helplessness were in danger of engulfing him too. Severus did not know, where the idea came from, but he awkwardly wrapped his arm around the girl's shoulder. It was much like when he had clumsily tried to comfort his mother as a child after a particularly difficult flashback or nightmare. Here in the realm of horrible memories, he could offer at least that little bit of comfort to an annoying but innocent child, who had been unfortunate enough to get stuck in his personal hell. He covered Talkalot's eyes with his other hand. "You don't need to watch, Talkalot. It will not change anything. This is not real. Just a memory. No-one is hurting that girl anymore", Severus spoke softly to her ear, trying to convince himself just as much as the girl. He felt so useless.

"Are you sure of that? That she is not hurting...", Talkalot sniffed.

Severus nodded determinedly. "Yes", he whispered. He tried to ignore the cries and pleas, which the young woman was making and instead concentrated on the soft blond curls of the child in his arms. "She suffered a lot, but not anymore. She escaped him. She somehow did it, even if it seemed impossible."

Talkalot looked up to him with hopeful eyes. "He did not win, then?" She confirmed.

Severus gave out a wet laugh. "That is right. That sorry excuse of a human being did not win."

The girl hugged him relieved of hearing that. As she did that, the memory blurred and twisted again, but instead of a new memory forming, the same room became silent and still as if frozen in time. The wails of the young woman finally quieted.

Severus almost jumped, when he saw Orcus Prince standing right beside him. The man looked straight into him, with his cruel black eyes. "Oh my, what a surprise. I did not think that I would meet the son of my daughter here", he said and grinned.

It seemed that the boggart had decided that it was time for him to properly face the ultimate source of his fear.

Severus used the moment of calm to talk to the girl in his arms. "Talkalot, listen to me. Keep your eyes closed. Block your ears, too. Think about yourself in the broom closet. Try if you can get out of this memory, while the boggert pays attention to me. If you do, put your wand in my right hand. Then you must hit me. You can even bite me, but make sure to cause enough pain to get to me", Severus whispered to the girl's ear.

She nodded.

Severus removed his arm from her shoulder and steeled himself to confront his boggart eye to eye.

/

"Eileen was always stupid and stubborn. I should have known that she would eventually try to do something useless." The man cast a condescending look at his daughter whose mouth was frozen in silent scream of pain. "She hid from me. Even living among the muggles was not below her", the devious man went on. "Despite all her efforts, she never got over the fear of me finding her, did she? She gave up magic rather than returned to me, but could not find peace. Hid you from me. And still in her heart she knew, that one day I would find you all. She must have been a wreck of a mother to you. She feared you and hated you for your looks and your powers. You remind me in so many ways, Severus Prince."

As a child Severus had feared nothing as much as Orcus Prince coming to find him and his mother. Nothing, except maybe that he would grow up to be like his grandfather, one day. Severus reminded himself that he was talking to a boggart, not the real man and that he was much older now. He straightened his posture. "Unfortunate for you, while hiding I grew up to a man capable of defending myself. I am forever grateful for my mother, for keeping me from you. I would never swear obedience to you like my mother did. You or anyone else will find it hard to make me do anything against my will."

The boggart's eyes sparkled with animosity. It pointed it's wand at him and cast a voiceless imperio.

Severus threw the curse off easily even in his weakened state. "Well, if that wasn't pitiful, grandfather. Perhaps appropriate for one, who is but a reflection of old fears." He drew a breath. "Let me tell you something Orcus Prince -boggart. You lost. Years ago, when you and your wife drew your final breaths, the name of the Prince sunk into oblivion of pages of history. You did not leave a heir. The only person, who is still carrying your precious bloodline is a half-blood born from a disgraced daughter and common muggle. Even your tortured daughter lived years after you. Maybe she did never completely heal from what you did to her, but she had a life of her own. There was no Eileen Prince. Even Eileen Snape died over an year ago. There is nothing, that an echo of fear can do to harm her now."

Irritation flashed on the boggart's face. "And yet.. You said that you would never do the same as her, Severus, but still you did go and sell your soul and freedom to another dark wizard? A lot it helped for Eileen to escape and hide you from me", it said in derision.

Severus's hand went on his sleeve. Underneath the cloth an angry skull and slowly slithering snake marred his skin. He shivered in self-disgust.

The boggart smiled slyly, knowing full well that it had gotten under his armor.

Severus tried to re-focus himself. Then he felt sharp pain on his left cheek. It was almost as if someone had hit it hard. Talkalot, that little savage, did not hold back her strength! When Severus blinked through the pain, he saw a glimpse of real world and sensed the girl sitting right next to him. She was putting something in his hand. The vision disappeared almost immediately, but it was enough.

Severus smirked. He pointed the wand towards the boggart almost triumphantly. He was so deep in the illusion that the jinx didn't affect his movements and now there was a working wand in his hand. "I have gotten sick and tired of this discussion and you, grandfather. You talk far too much for a dead sack of dust and bones..." He inhaled. "Riddikulous!"

When the dimension of the memories began to collapse, it was much like someone had wrecked through glass walls all around him. Behind the falling pieces he saw a glimpse of Talkalot. A moment later he was again on the uncomfortable ground of the broom closet, once again unable to move anything but his mouth and eyes. It was also once again dark all around.

"Where did it go? Did it change to something again?" Talkalot asked frantically.

"For the moment it is harmless, but I don't know how much longer it lasts", Severus groaned. "Search for any box, sack... Practically whatever lightproof you can find, is worth the try."

"Severus, I don't know where it came from, but when I woke from the illusion, I almost fell over a trunk on the floor. Could we use it?"

"It will work just perfect", Severus decided. "Now, search around for bone pieces and dust. Don't ask, how or why, but that is currently, what the boggart is. If it manages to change, we are in trouble. Hurry up and put it into the trunk!"

This time, the girl didn't ask questions or dally around a second.

"As soon as you can, close the trunk. Lock it, or sit on top of it, but don't you dare let the boggart out!" Severus almost screamed. He heard hurried shuffling and then a loud bang of something being shut with considerable force. A duller thud followed right after that, when Talkalot flung herself on the trunk. Soon after, Severus could hear scraping and banging from the trunk, when the boggart tried to get out.

"I did it , Mr. Snape", Talkalot reported breathlessly, "I am sitting on top of it."

"Good girl..." Severus praised tiredly. When the relief hit him, the last of his strength began to quickly leave him. He felt faint and knew that he could not possibly go on much longer. He was too battered both physically and mentally. This had been a long night.

"You are safe, Talkalot. I am... I am too exhausted. Don't get up from the trunk. Um, if you need to, um... pee... just let it out. It doesn't matter. It is just the two of us here. There are more embarrassing things..." Severus gave his last instructions only half aware of what the heck he was even trying to say.

"Don't leave me, Mr. Snape. Please, I don't want to be alone", the girl begged. The place was so narrow, that she managed to reach his limp hand from where she sat on top of the trunk. She wrapped her fingers around his and held on for dear life.

Severus was about to say something, but the thought never left his lips. His eyes slipped closed and his tired mind succumbed to unconsciousness.