Disclaimer: still don't own anything.

Summary: Mr. Evans, Lilly and Severus visit Diagonalley.

Warnings: Mentions of mutilation and murder.

Chapter 15: Blood and family

"Dragonalley?"

"Its Diagonalley."

"But there are dragons. I mean real dragons. In the bank run by Cobolds, aren't they?

"Yes.", Severus smiled. "They live deep in the dungeons of Gringotts."

Lilly's eyes glistened with excitement: "You think we can see one?"

"I doubt it.", Severus mused. "They are there to protect the vaults from thievery. So, as long as you are not a thief you wont see them."

"What a shame.", Lilly pouted.

The door to Lilly's room opened and light flooded the otherwise dark room. The silhouette of Lilly's father stood in the doorway throwing a shadow at the mattress on the floor where Severus lay.

"I know you two are excited. I mean, I am myself. But you have to sleep now. We have to get up early tomorrow. So no chitchat anymore.

"Yes, daddy."

"Yes, Mr Evans.", both answered simultaneously.

With a last stern look at the both children, Mr. Evans closed the door behind him. Footsteps indicated his depart.

Severus turned around and closed his eyes to sleep, just when...

"Sev?"

"Yes, Lilly?"

"I am really happy we will both go to Dragonalley and to Hogwarts."

"It still is Diagonalley.", Severus corrected her, smiling.

"Sure. Good night, Sev."

"Night, Lilly."

XXX

The next morning started very early at four o'clock. But when the alarm rang, Lilly hopped out of the bed and turned the light on immediately. Severus, still half asleep, only grabbed his blanket and tuck it over his head. Though only for about two seconds, before...

"Get up!"

Lilly shouted cheerfully and pulled the blanket away and out of Severus reach. "Come on, Sev! Get up! I am going to the bathroom now and when I come back, you are up and ready!"

In an answer, Severus shielded his eyes from the light with his hands and blinked drowsily. He heard Lilly's footsteps and the closing door. After this, there was silence. He blinked another time, murmuring something illegible and slowly came to a sitting position. It took him about another minute to realize just what day it was. His eyes snapped open and he hurried to stand up.

Ten minutes later Severus descended the staircase to the living room. Lilly, as well as her father, were already downstairs.

"Good morning.", he greeted both and sat down next to Lilly. The table was already packed with toast, butter, marmalade, a cake, hot chocolate, coffee and a selection of fruits, nicely cut into bite-sized pieces.

When he had first eaten breakfast with Lilly's family, he had not believed how much delicious food had been on the table. He had just stood there, staring at the table, not able to believe his eyes. He remembered the look of confusion on Lilly's face and Petunias hateful remark about him having no manners. He also remembered the look of concern in the eyes of Lilly's father as well as the way her mother had smiled warmly at him and had pulled back a chair to invite him to sit with them. She had given him a huge slice of cake, a sliced apple, some buttered toasts and the biggest cup of hot chocolate he had ever seen. All, without him asking any of it.

When he sat down, his plate was already full of fruits, toast with marmalade and a slice of apple cake. Lilly's mother always loaded his plate before he could even ask for anything. And if he actually managed to eat everything, the plate was full with even more food just a second later. Seriously, this woman must be a witch too.

"We three will drive to London in half an hour. You two should be ready by then. Good thing Tuny is a long sleeper. She wont get up before eleven. But try to be quiet when you pass her room.", Lilly's father said. He only ate two slices of buttered toast and drank a hot black coffee. Just like every other morning Severus had eaten with them.

"I packed you some refreshments and food for the ride.", Lilly's mother entered from the kitchen, holding three rucksacks in her hands. There were two smaller ones in her left and a larger one in her right one.

"I baked fresh cupcakes for all of you. They are in the white lunch boxes. Ah, and remember to bring some souvenirs. And Severus? You will let my husband pay for your uniform as a thank you for helping Lilly."

"Thank you, Ms. Evans. But it really is not necessary.", his cheeks becoming a shade of pink again. After he had intervened Lilly's fall from the first floor, both parents regarded him as a hero and Lilly's personal guardian angel. He still felt awkward for all the thank you and prays he had received that day as well as the following days.

It was still dark when Lilly, Severus and of course Mr. Evans walked through the front garden to the car. Ms Evans kissed her husband goodbye and waved at them until they drove around the corner the first corner.

The drive to London took about four hours and Mr. Evans suggested they should sleep a bit. But neither of them did. Soon the car was filled with music from the radio and a singing father-daughter-duet. Severus, who did not know how to react at first, stared unbelievingly at the two. But after a while, he started to smile, then chuckle and finally laugh.

After thirty minutes into the drive, the duet became a trio and the merry tuned car drove down the streets to London.

XXX

"Sorry Sir, I am not quite sure if we are in the right place. We want to visit a street called Diagonalley."

The old grey-haired man behind the bar looked up from the milky glass he was polishing.

The bar itself looked like it had seen better days in the past. In a past very long gone, that is. The uneven floor creaked loudly with every step, the wallpaper was faded and the wooden tables and chairs looked like they would break as soon as someone had the courage to even think about sitting on them. Some of the stools at the bar even had lost one or two legs in their darker times. Behind the middle aged barman hang an old picture, which was so faded and neglected that it seemed to be completely empty. The barrels and bottles in the rack were covered in dust and spider-webs.

Severus loved everything, the moment he entered the bar.

He wanted to venture upstairs and look at the undoubtedly old fashioned rooms. Unlike Mr. Evans he knew right in the moment they had entered the bar, that this was indeed a place where wizards used to dwell. The dusty air was filled with the unmistakable sizzling odour of freshly brewed potion. The dim light, unnaturally bend by magically lit lamps, reached every corner of the room and revealed a huge birdcage at the end of the farthest corner with a sleeping chocolate-brown owl in it.

"Oh, you must be new, good sir. Its rare to see a Muggle with not one, but with two gifted children.", the man let go of the glass and tipped it lightly with his index finger, causing it to slightly hover to the left, making way for the man to step forward.

It was the only proof they needed.

"Well, well...", the man said with a judging tone, walking towards Mr. Evans, who had stretched out his hand to greet the barman. But instead of greeting him back properly, the humpy old man walked right past and then around Mr. Evans, examining him curiously. After he had finished, he walked around Lilly with the same strange look in his greyish eyes. At last he looked at Severus. Latter, who had expected the odd man to cycle him too, was quite surprised when the barman stretched out his hand to greet him instead of Mr. Evans. Befuddled he shook it.

"It was my fault. Good to see you, young man. My name is John. My younger brother Tom is the landlord of this fine inn. You may want to visit my own little pub some day at the end of Knockturn Alley, mayhaps? I would be delighted to welcome another member of the Prince family. I must say, you are the spitting image of your grandfather. Only younger, of course. But I am sure you hear that often."

Severus black eyes widened in astonishment.

How could this man tell who his grandfather was? He has a pub, he said. Does his grandfather come often to this place? Might he even be here today?

"You know who I am?", Severus asked slowly.

The old man smiled:" Why yes, of course. Although I am...", he glanced shortly at Mr. Evans," a bit irritated, to say the least."

Mr. Evans, seemingly annoyed by this man's behaviour, stepped forward. But the barman was definitely not perturbed by him and continued, now in a much more friendlier tone.

"Your late grandmother – my condolence, young man - once told me that her daughter married a Russian wizard and went there with him. She told me about a grandson years ago. Though I always thought you will go to one of the four Russian schools. Might be, she wanted you to learn in Hogwarts. So... you are staying with your grandfather, I gather? My regards to this formidable man. It certainly is nice of you to help those two to ... ah... accommodate to our world."

Severus opened his mouth to speak. To ask... to answer... he was absolutely confused by now. Did his grandfather know about him? And what about his grandmother? Couldn't she bear with the thought of his mother marrying the likes of his so called father and lied? What did she thought about him as the son of that man? Or did he have an aunt and a cussing in Russia? He realised now, he didn't even know a thing about his own family. Or rather about his mothers family.

Before he could say even a single word, Mr. Evans stepped in, his voice vibrating with suppressed anger: "The boy is with me. You are mistaking him for someone else. Now, will you show us the way to Diagonalley or not?"

The barman turned around and looked up at the much taller red-haired man in disgust. Without a word he walked past him and through an almost invisible door at the back of the room, quietly mumbling to himself. Severus could only gather a few words that sounded suspiciously like "nuisance" and "don't belong". As soon as the man opened the door a bright light fell through it and illuminated the dirt crusted wooden floor Unlike the much darker light caused by the magical lit lamps, it looked natural and warm. Like sunlight.

"We are leaving.", Mr Evans said. His whole body tense now, "You two, go out now!"

But the moment they turned around to leave through the front door, the barman's calls stopped them.

"Diagonalley is through here!"

The angry steps of Mr. Evans echoed through the otherwise silent pub as he walked briskly to the open door and...

stopped right before it. Eyes wide in disbelief.

"Daddy?" Lilly asked, seemingly afraid.

Severus did not wait and ran to the open door. He as well stopped right before it, staring in wonder.

He was right to think it was daylight.

Behind the door was a small, dirty backyard. Nothing was in it except an old wooden chair, an overfilled garbage can and a half broken glass bottle on the ground.

But this, of course, was not what astounded them.

It was the music of a busy street,

the many colourful dressed people,

the glowing and spinning billboards,

the screeching owls,

the flying brooms,

the bickering witches,

the running children

and the laughing huge hairy man in the middle of them all.

It was the whole world that lay behind those ordinary dirty old brick-walls.

Severus took Lilly's hand, who now stood next to him with equally widened eyes, and started to walk forward.

To walk towards the world made of the colours of magic.

XXX

Severus- of course -knew about Diagonalley. He had read about it in several books. But today he had to learn that there are indeed things you have to see with your own eyes to actually know them.

And to see there was a lot.

The plan was to go to Gringotts as soon as they arrive.

Needless to say it took them about an hour to actually reach the towering white building at the end of the otherwise colourful street. It certainly was not a long way though. But, as you might guess, wandering through a new town, let alone one filled with magic to the brim, takes its own time.

They stopped before an ice cream parlour to see a front made of sparkling cool ice, in the middle of July!

Next they watched a few toads in a cage in front of a cute little shop. The reptiles had managed to quack a catchy little song all while hopping over each other, perfectly timed to the melody. A raven on a perch nearby used every pause between the song to announce his presence with an extremely loud:"'am not a raven!" and "'am a troll!".

Next they heard a loud bang, followed by an incredibly foul smell coming from a pharmacy.

Or something like a pharmacy, Severus guessed. There were baskets full of round little objects he recognised as bat-eyes and another basket full of deep-purple squirming worms he did not recognise. The display in the window announce in a screeching voice:

"NEW: Erucivorous Thermo-snails, five for one Sickel. Get your garden protected and your aching joins warmed up or cooled down. They turn blue if you cast a Frigeri-charm on them and they can even cool off the summer heat!"

They only walked a few steps before Lilly squealed in happiness and ran to a green building.

Severus blinked, did the building move somehow?

Lilly was almost at the entrance when something like a green liane suddenly blocked her way.

"What's that?", she asked in wonder, reaching out to touch the plant.

Right in the moment she would have touched it, the liane sprang back and vanished into the green of the house.

"Wow.", she whispered, looking up at the house, "this is absolutely beautiful."

"Why, thank you, young lady," a high pitched voice from within the shop answered.

"Hello?", asked Mr. Evans, who had stepped next to his daughter.

"Hello? Hello it is, young man. You must be the father of this lively young woman. Greetings!"

A tiny old lady stepped out of the shop.

At first Severus didn't even see her between all those green ranks. The first thing he had noticed was the flash of yellow moving at the doorstep.

The tiny woman could not be higher than 10 inches. Her yellow dress was woven completely from St. Johns Wort. The buttons on the side and at the front looked like small dandelions. Two long pointy ears poked out of the white locks of her wild her. The woman smiled warmly at Mr Evans and Lilly. On her back, two almost transparent wings unfolded as she fluttered up to Mr Evans, her little hand stretched out in a friendly gesture.

"Hello and hello again.", she greeted them both with an enthusiastic hand-, or -in Mr. Evans case- finger shake:" Welcome to my store. Welcome! Please come in! Welcome!"

Severus, who had stood away a few feet, now walked towards the entrance to greet the lovely little... being too. But the moment he reached the doorstep, two lianes shot out of the plant-house blocking his way. The kind woman turned around and Severus was surprised to see coldness in her eyes, which had shone with a heart warming light just a moment ago.

"You are not welcome! I don't welcome the blood of that man. I wont greet you. Go away! You are not welcome!", her wings flapped even faster in her fury.

"Excuse me?", Mr. Evans asked in a stern voice:" He belongs to us. If he is not welcome, then we are not as well, come Lilly!"

The eyes of the tiny plant woman widened in confusion. "He is with you? But he is not from you. I recognise the blood. I know this blood and what it did to my folk. How his ancestor chased my kind for a pair of sylph-wings. I cannot welcome him!"

Mr. Evans was already out of the store, Lilly following suit But at the words of the sylph, he turned around: "Blood might be were you come from. But it definitely does not define who you are or will be. He might not be my child but I wish he were. And if you close your door for him, it is locked for me as well. Good day."

And with that he turned around, grabbed Lilly's and Severus hand and walked towards Gringotts, not even bothering to look back at the screaming Sylph.

"Don't listen to her.", Lilly said to Severus as they put more and more space between them and the house.

Although her words got more and more swallowed by the surrounding noises of the busy streets, Severus could hear her last words ringing in his ears all the way up to Gringotts.

He has the blood of evil. He does not show it now. But he will. Someday he will! And if you keep him near you, he will be your demise. Your demise and the demise of your daughter. He will cause her death like his ancestor caused the death of my family! HE WILL BE HER DEATH!

The last words, almost choked by the sounds of the lively street, felt like a huge weight suddenly dropped to Severus' whole body.

HE WILL BE HER DEATH!

Though when Mr. Evans hand clenched around his and Lilly's soft voice whispered the word "lies" over and over again, he knew the weight was not on his shoulders alone.

XXXX

XXXX

It was late in the evening when the red car turned the corner and drove along the Evergreen Street, finally coming to a halt before the house with the number thirteen on it.

The drive back to Cokeworth had been a very silent one. It had not taken a lot of time for Lilly to fall asleep.

Severus, on the other hand, was unable to sleep. To much had happened on that day. His mind was racing through all the events at the same time: the barman, the street behind the brick-wall, the ice-palace with the best ice cream he had ever eaten, the bank with his huge entrance hall and the goblins, the funny jokes Mr. Evans had made at them at Madame Malkins (granted, they had looked funny, when they stood at the stools dressed in oversized robes with their arms stretched out and the young woman ordering them to flap their arms up and down), Lilly's joy and Mr. Evans happy laugh when she first swung her wand and the whole room was suddenly lit in rainbow colours.

And of course, the angry Sylphs' screams.

They echoed in his mind over and over again. Like a sound racing from wall to wall in its vain attempt to leave the room caging it, only to get louder and louder with each reflection from those nauseating walls. And Finally it started to desperately hammer against the walls of its prison. Against the inner sides of Severus' skull, building up to a cacophony repeating over and over again in an absurd canon.

herrrr deeeaaattthhhhh

He wILL be...

hER DeAtH!

Something wet and cold ran down his cheek. But he did not bother to wipe it away. Why did those words hurt so much?

Why should he ever hurt her?

Why does he have the feeling he already did?

"You know, on my road in life I have met many people. Good ones, like my wife. But also people who might not even be bad people at all, but who wished me all the bad things in the world."

Severus looked up and stared silently at the back of the drivers seat. Listening to the soft spoken words.

"What I mean is, you will always meet people who will hate you. Though only a few will hate you, because you are the way you are. Most of them will hate you for other reasons. That can be your grades, your sport skills or jealousy of the friends you have. It can even be hatred against your origin. Just let me say one thing to you: never change who you are because of them. Listen to the ones who love you and care about you and don't give a damn about the words of a stranger."

Silence.

Severus still stared at the back of the seat, only vaguely noticing Mr Evans eyes occasionally looking at him through the rear mirror.

"You are a good person. And you should not question that just because some crazy fairy says stupid things."

The silence continued for a mile before Mr Evans broke it again.

"I really meant what I said. I would be proud to have a son like you. And I think you should be proud of yourself too."

And there was silence again.

Severus did not answer.

He did not want to break the silence.

The silence in the car as well as in his head.

Slowly he closed his eyes and finally drifted into a blissful slumber.

bold talk in 3...2...1...

Hello again.

Thank you for waiting and thanks to PiffyEQ and the guest for the good luck wishes. I really hope they helped. I don't have the results yet. It will still be about a week. But there is nothing I can do apart from waiting.

The chapter turned out a little darker than I expected, but it fits with Severus striving for power which he will develop more and more in future chapters. I wanted a more family-centred chapter with the hinting of the question what family is really about. Severus is still a child and he has a lot to learn and still needs to grow into the independence he was forced into. I always had the feeling that he lacked self-confidence as a child, which was one of the reasons he searched power. In this story, he already has another reason to become strong and powerful. So I want him to become more confident of himself a lot earlier than he had in the books.

I am especially thrilled about the next few Voldemort chapters. I have planned something really evil for him. You will see what I mean by then.

Thanks for reading. Comments would be nice.