Author's note:

Dear readers,

another long chapter for you to enjoy. Thank you so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting and/or following my story. Over 10k views already, I can't believe it. It warms my heart. ;)

Have a nice day,

Vani12

Chapter 13 – Heartbreaks can be mended by your one true love, III!

Living Room, Prince Manor, December 1978

Orion's sapphire eyes flashed with empathy, hope, and determination. He hugged Eileen tightly and expressed in his steady baritone, "I'm sure that Severus won't break all his ties with you, my love. Naturally, he will be livid that you lied to him about his true paternity and couldn't leave your abusive husband earlier, but he loves you despite your mistakes. You are his mum who told him fantastical tales about the Magical world, encouraged him to try out new spells and taught him how to mix potions. He admires you for your brilliance in Potions, your attempts to protect him against Tobias and the love and patience you have shown him in your parenting style. Naturally, I have noticed early on when Severus came along with Regulus to Grimmauld Place in his fourth year that he lived in poverty, had low self-confidence and hated his father. I cursed Merlin that he had dealt you, my own true love and brilliant potions' genius Eileen Prince, such a dark fate – being trapped in the Muggle world without access to your wand, in an unhappy marriage and bothered with financial woes. I wanted to question Severus about you, his hatred for his father and his interests in the Dark Arts, but I feared that Walburga would threaten the boy and forbid him to visit Grimmauld Place again if I showed too much interest in his personal life. Besides that, I had been a jealous, heartbroken fool at the time and ensnared in the belief that you cheated on me with this Muggle creep.

"Severus Snape was the living proof for your unfaithfulness and deceit in my eyes and I didn't want to open this festering wound by bonding with him. With his ebony hair, porcelain skin and onyx eyes he was the spitting image of you and it hurt to look at him and see what could have been mine. Thus, I have only interrogated him about his potions' projects, dueling style and school grades, praised him for his academic excellence and recommended him some interesting books in the Black library. In retrospect, I could beat myself up for not doing the maths, believing in your love for me and getting to know Reggie's best friend. I suspect that the she-devil Walburga did the maths and knew that Severus was my biological son because she tried to talk Regulus out of befriending a poor Half-blood and belittled Severus with hurtful comments about his tattered clothes, poor hygiene, and sour mood. But Reggie insisted that Severus was his best friend and that he would invite him to Grimmauld Place every summer for two weeks to study with him and improve his dueling skills. The boys trained in our dungeon every minute they got, although I could detect that Regulus's statement of honing their magical skills was only an excuse to spend some time with his best friend and have some fun during the hols.

"Since Sirius was spending two weeks every summer at the Potters to escape the animosity of his mum and plot new pranks with his Gryffindor mates, Regulus felt lonely and feared to be at the mercy of his mum's moods. He confessed to me that Severus spent many nights awake in the Slytherin common room training and inventing dark curses to use on his abusive Muggle father to protect his mum against him when he could perform magic outside of Hogwarts. He mumbled in a sad voice that he wanted to safeguard Severus of turning dark and allow him to have to weeks of academic studies, friendship and magical adventures at Grimmauld Place. In retrospect, I know that I should have demanded to get your address, see to your welfare and beat the Muggle bastard Tobias up, but I was too blinded by my broken heart. Besides that, I realize now that Regulus also wanted to escape his evil witch of a mum's Voldemort indoctrination, dark spell experiments and emotional abuse, for she wouldn't dare to utter them in front of a lowly Half-blood.

"When I asked Regulus why Severus hated his father so much he confessed to me that he was an abusive, magic-hating alcoholic who beat Severus' magical mum into submission and tormented his only son with hurtful mockings of his looks, livid rantings against his devil powers and painful kicks to his body. A furious voice inside my head screamed to track this Muggle bastard down and kill him on the spot, but I couldn't go to Azkaban and leave my sons in the care of their insane mum. Besides that, Regulus assured me that Severus' mum was able to protect herself from most attacks with some wandless magic and that she didn't want to leave this mean alcoholic because she deluded herself into thinking that she was in love with him. It broke my heart to hear my son confirm your betrayal to me and some malicious, vengeful part of my heart whispered into my ear to let you suffer in your self-selected hell. Merlin, Eileen, I'm ashamed to admit that some part of me wanted to see you suffer for your deceit. I convinced myself that I couldn't rescue someone who didn't want to be rescued and that you would survive your nightmarish life in the Muggle world. Your magic and my talisman were strong enough to defend you against the worst and let you see reason in the end. Why didn't your talisman work, my love? It should have been able to prohibit Tobias from raising his hand against you." Orion inquired with an incredulous look plastered on his handsome face.

"Oh Orion, your beautiful amber talisman couldn't protect me because Tobias had locked it away into a box with most of my magical items in our cellar shortly after Severus' first performance of accidental magic. He knew that it had been a gift of my ex-boyfriend and represented a pagan belief in magic, thus he ripped it from my neck and stored it into a box with the rest of my obscure, devil-worshipping items. I only gathered the courage to summon it to me via a wandless and nonverbal Accio, when I feared for my life. Thankfully, Tobias hadn't been able to detect it because I could keep it invisible for some hours. But my wandless magic wasn't strong enough to put it under a Concealment Charm forever, thus I stored it back into the box when Tobias was satisfying his alcohol addiction in a pub. In a way, I believe that your talisman saved my life because it softened the strength of Tobias's blows and transferred a new warmth and will to survive into my heart. I can't thank you enough for receiving Severus at Grimmauld Place for two weeks in the summer, for he returned every time with his obsidian eyes sparkling with a mix of determination, pride, and self-confidence. He managed to stand up against Tobias, frighten him with some tales of his newly learned defensive spells and his livid badass attitude so that Tobias only managed to torment us with his alcoholic slurs and meady fits a handful of times.

"I feared that Walburga would detect Severus' true paternity, but I hoped that my glamours would be strong enough to scatter her suspicions. Besides that, I had confunded the Muggle nurses into thinking that Severus was a preterm baby. Thus, his birth certificate states my week of pregnancy when he was born as 35. I thought that Walburga would conclude that I whisked the baby of Abraxas Malfoy away in the Muggle world or got pregnant by my Muggle lover, for you couldn't be the biological daddy of my son if he had been conceived in May. But alas, the wicked bitch knew all about faking the term of pregnancy and the paternity of one child, thus, I bet that she sensed straight away that Severus was your biological son. Salazar, I'm only glad that she didn't kill him on the spot or cursed him with a slow, fatal dark curse, because she feared to end up in Azkaban, break her son's heart and waste the potential of a promising follower of her beloved Dark Lord. I guess that she noticed his fascination for the Dark Arts, hatred for his Muggle father and anger at his Hogwarts bullies and Dumbledore and thought with a sly smirk that it would hurt us the most to lose our little prince to the darkness of Voldemort and his goons. I'm only glad that she is wasting away in a padded cell right now and can't harm Regulus or Severus.

"I thank you for your optimistic forecast of Severus' reaction to his true paternity, but I feel deep down in my bones that he will be absolutely livid with me and shut me out of his life for some weeks. Sure, he has forgiven me for my neglect of my duties as his mother and loyalty to the abusive arsehole Tobias due to his therapy sessions, support of his loved ones and endless ability to love and he is in a good place right now, but he won't be able to forgive me for the glamours I placed upon him and the lies I fed him since his childhood. He somewhat excuses my loyalty to his alcoholic father with my endless love for him, remembrance of our happy times and belief in the goodness of his heart as well as my depression. When he finds out that I never loved Tobias, knew that he was a creep deep down in my heart from the start and changed his true identity out of fear from the actions of an insane witch, he will hate me for the suffering I brought upon him. He will think that every word out of my mouth was a lie and every gentle touch of my hand a joke.

"He is very stubborn, has a quick temper and can hold grudges for some time. When he realizes that I could have whisked him away to his true dad, erased every resemblance out of his face that reminds him of Tobias and offered him a happy childhood full of love, happiness, and magic, he will curse my cowardice. I have robbed him of the chance to grow up with his dad as the Pure-blooded heir to two wealthy magical families and with his true looks. He will never be able to forgive me. But I will have to endure his anger and coldness, for I brought my misery upon myself with my lies." Eileen shed some heart-wrenching tears for her lonely, unhappy and angry little boy.

Orion wiped her tears away gently with his finger pads, cupped her face and uttered in a determined tone, "I will be there for you and stand by you regardless of our son's reaction. I know that we will turn his world upside down with our news and that his feelings of anger, betrayal, and hurt will be mostly directed at you. But I trust he will remember that you love him and that you only wanted to protect him against my she-devil of a wife. Hell, he will most likely be pissed that I haven't been able to detect her Love Potion and send her to hell despite her pregnancy because my love for you should have set my priorities straight. I should have left Grimmauld Place, whisked you away in our newly purchased cottage and married you in a low-key ceremony. I could have finished my training as a curse-breaker at Gringotts and worked there or in your parents' company Prince Potions as an expert for dark curses. I should have begged you to leave Abraxas and marry me instead.

"We both made huge mistakes that broke our hearts, trapped us in unhappy marriages and hurt our children. And we will have to endure our son's ire. But let's not waste our reunion on envisioning dark visions of Severus' reaction to the news of me being his dad. Let's fill it with tales about his toddler mischief, boyish adventures, and teenage shenanigans. I already know that he inherited my stubbornness, bad temper, and love for adventures and your thirst for knowledge, determination to help others and fierce ability to love. But what were his first word and his favorite toy as a toddler? Did he climb trees with his best friends and prank your neighbors? And did he curb his dark bad boy aura to win the heart of his newly-wedded wife, Olivia Fawley?" Orion asked with keen interest.

Eileen smiled at Orion, pecked him on the cheek and uttered in a pleasant voice, "Thank you for your positive energies and your childlike curiosity about our son. It warms my heart to hear that you want to know everything about him and see us in him." She summoned Severus' baby album with an Accio Severus' baby album onto her lap and opened the baby blue Muggle album that had the letters "Our baby" and four doves printed in royal blue on its cover. She tucked her legs under her body, moved closer to Orion and rested her head gently on his strong chest. Eileen smiled at him and opened the album, "As you can see the first page pictures his name, date and time of birth, birth weight and height as well as his place of birth. After Severus changed his name into Prince in his sixth year at Hogwarts, I altered his name in this album. He selected Severus Corvus Prince as his new name because he wanted to erase all ties with his abusive Muggle father and loved his cuddly toy raven, Corvus, to pieces. 'Vus' was actually the first word that left the lips of a giggling, eight-months-old Severus who let his favorite toy fly throw the air with magic. I have erased Tobias from all pictures with some Picture-Altering Spells, albeit he wasn't present in many to begin with."

Eileen turned over the page with a remorseful look and showed Orion the first picture of their son. It illustrated a slumbering newborn with a tuft of ebony hair and porcelain skin in a soft green onesie in the arms of a smiling Eileen. Orion brushed their son's face with a wistful look on his face and uttered in an emotional voice, "You look both so happy and peaceful in this picture. I wish that I could have been there to breathe in his unique baby scent and hold him in my arms with a prideful smile plastered on my face." Eileen squeezed Orion's hand and mumbled, "A nurse took the picture with Tobias' Muggle camera one day after his birth. I was so happy to hold our little prince in my arms, but I missed you like mad. I'm sorry that his baby pictures don't picture him with his true physical looks so that you can't see how much he resembles you." She pointed with her finger to the next picture and commented, "Here is Severus lying in his baby crib and gazing with wonder in his chocolate brown eyes at his constellation baby mobile. I took this photo directly after our stay at the hospital to capture his fascination with the stars. I guess he was a true Black from the start."

The next picture showed Severus lying in his maxi cosi dressed in a royal blue onesie and gripping his cuddly toy raven, Corvus, tightly in his hand. Orion grazed their son's tiny hand with a soft look in his eyes and listening patiently to Eileen's comment. "I bought the cuddly toy raven before his birth in a cozy Muggle baby store and selected it because I loved the name Corvus. In this picture, he is roughly two weeks old and you can detect his stubbornness here. He wanted to hold on to his favorite toy with determination and wouldn't loosen his grip around it. He has the old cuddly toy stuffed into a box in his New York department now and wants to gift it to his own children." Eileen browsed the album and stopped at a picture that pictured baby Severus in a white gown surrounded by his family – a gap erased the presence of Tobias beside Eileen - before an old Gothic church. Severus rested in the arms of his mum who was dressed in a crème midi dress and gazed lovingly at her child. Orion looked at Eileen incredulously. "You baptized our son? We are both irreligious people and pious Christians have hunted many of our ancestors down and burned them alive for their magical powers. How could you christen our little prince in a religion we both don't believe in?" He asked in a sharp voice and startled Eileen.

Eileen shook her head, hugged Orion's torso tightly and replied in a somber tone, "Tobias wanted to welcome Severus into his church and I couldn't deny him this wish. His Catholic belief was important to him and he wanted to teach his son in his beliefs. I confessed to him that I was an atheist and believed only in the circle of nature. But I went along with Severus' christening to blend more effortlessly in the Muggle world and express my gratitude to Tobias' family. In retrospect, I realize that I should have refused to christen him because Christians have hunted our people in the past and still preach that humans with supernatural powers are demons possessed by the devil, but I didn't see it like that in the past. Despite Tobias attempts to purify Severus' soul and turn him into a perfect Christian, Severus has never believed in the Catholic preachings and resigned from the church before he could be confirmed. I'm sorry that I didn't stand up for our magical roots there, but I thought that his christening would integrate our little boy quicker into the Muggle world." Orion caressed Eileen's ebony bob in understanding and focused his gaze on the next picture.

It pictured Eileen dressed in a forest green silk dressing gown and with her long ebony locks descended over her shoulders breastfeeding an eagerly sucking choral black haired baby in a cute light green onesie with little dragons. Severus latched on to his mum's exposed left nipple and played idly with her ebony locks. Eileen gazed at her son in bliss and supported his tiny head protectively. Orion was left speechless by the purity, happiness, and silence in this snap. And he longed to be there beside them, stroking their son's black tuft gently and gazing with love at his little family. Eileen broke the silence by stating, "Severus was such a calm, easy baby. He latched on to my breast without problems and I breastfed him till he turned ten months. He had a healthy appetite and I loved to entertain him with stories of the Magical world during his feedings. He would oftentimes play with my ebony hair or giggle happily and it warmed my heart to see him muster his environment with keen eyes. He smiled a lot and would sleep four hours in a row if you entertained him with magical bedtime stories or old Irish lullabies. Whenever he woke up screaming, you could calm him down easily by rocking him gently in your arms and singing his favorite Irish lullaby to him. It reminded me of my mum for she used to sing me to sleep with it and made me miss my loved ones like mad, but seeing our little prince slumbering with a smile on his face and the regular lifting of his chest, let me look positive into our future. In this picture, he is already two months old. How fast time flies for babies."

Eileen turned the page and laughed happily with Orion at the picture where their son was looking moodily at a cuddly toy tabby cat. He had his little eyebrows squeezed in annoyance and studied the cat with suspicious dark brown eyes. Tobias brushed Severus' adorable face. Merlin, he looked so much like Eileen whenever she spotted an expired potions ingredient in annoyance that it warmed Orion's heart. "Hell, in this picture our little sunshine looks just like you when you are annoyed at some dunderhead. I guess he has inherited your impatience. What did this cuddly toy cat do to him?" Orion asked with an amused chuckle. Eileen nudged him playfully in the side and replied with a happy giggle, "Well, Mr. Black, I don't know if our boy is the spitting image of me in this photo, for your face looks just like that whenever you see an airplane flying through the sky because you can't comprehend how something that big can be faster than your racing broom. I don't know where Severus' distaste for cats comes from, but he wouldn't play with his cuddly toy cat. And whenever he saw a cat as a toddler, he started to glare at it. I guess he is more of a dog person because Olivia and he have a cute one-year-old black Labrador retriever named Leo."

Orion pecked Eileen gently on her cheek and laughed, "Well, let's agree that he looks like a perfect blend of us two whenever we are skeptical about something. Which bad habits of our little Prince kept you up at night?" The Black patriarch asked with a twinkle in his sapphire eyes. Eileen enjoyed to see the happiness in Orion's eyes and replied with a cheeky grin, "Oh boy, Severus terrified me as a toddler with his urge to put everything that he found into his mouth. Salazar, I had to rush him into the emergency room because he had swallowed an earthworm as a sixteen-months-old and wouldn't stop to puke. Thankfully, the doctor could help me with some natural remedies for tummyache and nausea and reassured me that he would digest the earthworm with time. He really inherited your urge to test everything out and love for taking risks. As a three-year-old, he would race as fast as the wind on the pavement of our suburban zone, trip over some uneven stones and scratch his knees. I would hug him tightly to my chest, wipe away his tears and heal his scratched knees with a kiss and some wandless Healing Spell. Severus would kiss me gently on the cheek and whisper in a timber voice with huge, shining obsidian eyes, 'Mummy can heal everything with her magic. She is a super girl.' Well, I guess I couldn't mend everything with my wandless magic." Eileen intoned in a remorseful voice and turned the page to show him a picture where Severus levitated Corvus up and down giggling like mad.

She uttered in a faraway sounding voice, "I snapped this picture when Severus had one outburst of his first accidental magic in secrecy. He was roughly five months old and bounced Corvus up and down with his huge obsidian eyes twinkling mischievously. I had informed Tobias' about the existence of magic and the Magical world some weeks ago and confessed to him that Severus was a wizard. From this moment on, he stopped to be the hands-on-dad to Severus and resented our freakish powers. Our lives turned into hell and I regret till today that I didn't leave him on the spot." Eileen mumbled in a sad voice and shed some tears for their happy boy. Orion soothed her with gentle caresses on her back and whispered sweet nothingness into her ear. She expressed in a teary voice, "There aren't many more pictures of Severus in this album, because Tobias forbade me to snap pictures where our son was doing freaky stuff. Thus, I only managed to snap pictures of his first crawling attempts as a seven-months-old and his first walking attempts on wobbling legs as an eleven-months-old." Eileen pointed out two pictures that showed a chubby baby with a tuft of ebony hair crawling on a grey rug from the back and a happy smiling boy with a sly grin walking on wobbly legs dressed in a midnight-blue stars onesie from the front.

Orion grazed the tiny body of his son and his smiling face with his fingers and couldn't stop the tears swimming in his eyes. "I wish that I had been there to protect him and experience these milestones with you two. Merlin, I have missed so much in his life and couldn't console him when he felt alone and was in pain. I wish that this Muggle bastard Tobias had managed to drink himself into an early grave due to his alcohol addiction. But the bad guys sadly have the uncanny ability to survive like cockroaches." He uttered in a bitter voice, kissed the head of his one true love gently and brushed away his tears. He needed to be strong for his loved ones and asked in a timber baritone, "Do you have a picture of his first birthday celebration? I would love to see him blow out the candles on his cake with happily flashing onyx eyes." Eileen squeezed his torso tightly and showed him the last picture in this album. Severus sat in his high chair dressed in grey trousers and a dark blue jumper and gazed at the chocolate Bundt cake that was light with a single candle with sparkling onyx eyes.

He seemed happy in this picture, but his little face looked not as chubby as a toddler's should look. He seemed strangely grown-up. Eileen commented in a prideful voice, "I managed to bake a simple chocolate Bundt cake – which is his favorite cake till today – and decorate it with one candle when Tobias slept away his intoxication on our sofa. I sang 'Happy Birthday' to him, kissed him on his rosy cheeks and whispered into his ear that I loved him to the moon and back. I had lit the candle with my wandless magic and urged him with little short puffs to blow it out. But he only smiled cheekily at me and extinguished the flame with his magic. I embraced him tightly, took him on my lap and whispered into his ear that he would be a very powerful wizard. We managed to eat a piece of cake in silence and I gifted him with a green bobby car that he used to race through his nursery whenever Tobias was at work. Thus, you see that our little boy is indeed a very special wizard."