Disclaimer: still don't own anything.

Summary: Severus searches for his mothers wand but gains much more than that.

Warnings: much more adult Severus than just his six years (but I think he could have pulled something like that in cannon too)

Chapter 5: A family gift from a stranger

The cellar was always a bit moist.

A gray mouse set at the far end of the long and dark room. Barely visible behind her was an old door leading to second room.

But that one was so dark, that no light would ever find its way in. Guarded by the grim looking door strengthen with iron bars, it emitted a ghostly unfriendly aura. A rusty lock hindered any unwanted visitor from entering it. The keyhole was crusted with red layers of rust. It was obvious it had not been used for a very long time.

The small mouse scratched its ear and began to groom its fur, not aware of the fact that it was one of the only two living beings who had witnessed the contents of the room behind that old wooden door.

A shrieking sound announced the approach of another being whilst the door to the first floor opened reluctantly sending a small flicker of light down the wooden staircase into the cellar.

The mouse tensed and sniffed the air.

Quiet footsteps reached its attentive ears. They were slow and stopped several times as though the person responsible for the sound feared to be heard by someone -or something- else.

The door closed again and a shadow hushed from shelf to shelf, hiding behind the neatly packed old belongings of house Snape. The shadow drew nearer and nearer to the door.

The mouse squeaked in terror and fled the scene through a tiny hole in the old wood as the small dark figure stepped forward.

Pale light from the streetlamps fell through the only window of the room, illuminating the tense and boyish facial features of Severus Snape.

The child took another two steps and reached for the doorknob just to confirm that it was still locked. He sighed and withdrew a few small objects from his pocket.

Kneeling down before the door, he started to pick the lock with his tools.

It had been a week since his encounter with the red eyed man.

On that night, he had stayed in the gap of the trunk until the next morning, reviewing the conversation over and over again.

He was a wizard and his mother had been –or still was- a witch. That must be the truth, he could practically feel that it was right.

And if he remembered it correctly, the man with the crimson eyes had used a wand to vanish into thin air. His mother, on the other hand, had used a wand to produce those shining animal shaped lights.

It must be a wand or something like it.

In the last few days, he had checked every spot where her wand could be hidden. He had waited patiently for his parents to leave for work before he started his search. He seriously doubted that his mother carried it with her all the time, but he did not dare to check her clothes while she was bathing.

Still he could not find the damn thing.

Now his last hope was this room. He had always dreaded this place but after three days -or rather nights- trying to open that stupid lock, he finally got rid of this fear.

He remembered a day when he had felt very sick and his mother had gone down here for several hours. When she finally returned, she gave him a steaming, foul smelling cup filled with a bogey-green liquid. After he had drunk it – strangely it had tasted like milk with honey- steam rose from his ears and he instantly felt well again.

Something must be in this room his mother had hidden down here to hinder his father from finding it. Maybe she had stored the wand in here to give it to him some day.

A clicking sound tore him away from his musing.

The lock had sprung open.

Severus opened the door with shaking hands, ignoring the shrieking sound it made.

The room behind it was pitch black.

His hands moved along the wall in search of a light switch, but found none.

He plucked up his courage, stretched out his arms and walked slowly into the room. But right after three careful steps, his food touched something solid on the ground.

Carefully leaning forward, he started to investigate the foreign object with his hands. It could be an old case or something like that.

An old case with a lock.

And closed.

His hands fumbled desperately at the lock trying to open it somehow. But he did not need light to know that this lock was much more delicate than the old one on the cellar door. How on earth should he open that?

Suddenly a warm light shone on the old case from behind him.

Severus froze, not daring to turn around, he simply continued to stare at the lock.

"Alohomora."

And the lock opened itself.

A hand from behind grabbed the lid and drew it backwards, revealing its content.

In the old case was only one object. Severus eyed it curious. A black leather belt with a small pouch attached to it, which seemed to be made of the same leather, lay in there completely forlorn. The belt was ornamented with delicate silver threads, which seemed to flow in and out of the ever changing symbols. The threads seemed to flow together at each end of the belt, forming a silver buckle, that was solid and liquefied at the same time. The small pouch, on the other hand, was as black as the night sky with not even a knob to close it, but still holding its content (if there was anything in it at all). Although the object must have laid in the case for many years, it did not look neglected or old.

The boy looked up searching for his mothers eyes, latter was still looking at the belt, transfixed by the sight.

He shifted uncomfortably and she glanced at him briefly, wearing a sad smile. The sight was enough to calm the boy a bit.

"I always imagined this moment to be more festive.", she said in a low voice whilst taking the belt out of the case, which closed as if by an invisible hand. The lock snapped back with the speed of a striking snake.

The woman held the belt in both of her slightly shaking hands tracing the silver lines with her eyes. Expecting any kind of reaction, good as well as bad, Severus watched his mother intensely, always ready to bolt by the slightest sign of another outburst.

But instead, tears started to fill her eyes and when she talked again her voice sounded broken:

"Some part of me always hoped you will be.. like me. Not that it would be bad if you were more like my Tobias. Not at all, of course not... but... Hogwarts, the school I went to,... what I mean is, there is no other place in the whole world more magical, more wonderful than this castle."

Tears fell down her cheeks as she started to sob, her voice only a whisper now: "I'm so sorry, my son. I really am. But when you love someone, truly love, you will do anything for this person. Even if that means to abandon a part of yourself as I did... Some day you might understand."

The child simply stared at his mother, not feeling any kind of fear anymore. She looked at him in expectation of an answer but he did not know what to say to hear. He could not understand the crying woman and he did not want to. For the first time in his life he looked her in the eyes and could not recognize her. She was just a broken sobbing woman.

Had she always been this weak?

The oddly unfamiliar woman wearing his mothers mask looked at him pleadingly and held out the belt to him: " This had belonged to your grandfather, Severus Prince, a great wizard. You were named after him. He gave it to me at my first departure to Hogwarts. He... my father, had high hopes for me... hopes I had crushed when I married Tobias. But I think I could not have met them anyway. I never was a good witch"

A mad sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry came out of the woman's mouth

The child stood up. Ready to leave the crying woman alone with her sorrow, he turned to the door.

"Wait! Please wait!" she shrieked," I want you to have it. I always wanted you to have it!"

The face of the boy was hard as he turned around, meeting the gaze of the sobbing bundle now crouching before him.

"Why should I want anything from you?" the disgusted voice did not sound like that of a child.

The man with the crimson eyes had been right. She was weak. He will not succumb to that weakness of her. He will get powerful like him.

The eyes of the woman widened with shock,at the icy cold stare of her own son. Her body started to shake uncontrollably.

"Severus, my sweet son, this was meant to be yours. You are so much like him, my good and strong father. I always wanted to be a good and protective mother to you. I know I failed in that too."

He approached her until his face nearly touched hers. His eyes two black pools filled with liquefied disgust whilst he took the belt and the pouch out of her hands speaking with a low and strangely calm voice: "There is no need to call me your son anymore."

He turned around and went through the door, not glancing back once at the stranger silently sobbing to herself in solitude as he moved onward.

Hello again.

Real life holds me in a tight grip and I dont have a lot of time, sadly. Actually all my free time is either sleeping or writing this. I am really happy when the exams are done. Until then I will only update once a week ( mostly on Monday).

To the content of this chapter:

I love stories where Sev and his mother get along well, but sadly this wont happen in this one (at least thats what I intend to). It wouldnt feel right. So in the last chapter she broke his trust and now he cant go back to the way it had been before he met our favorite Dark Lord.

Now on to the next one. :)