After arriving at King's Cross Station, Severus was caught between leaving to Prince Manor straight away or made a short visit to Spinner's End to collect the rest of his possessions. Didn't his mother deserve a proper goodbye, if she wished to stay in the dreaded slums forever? Sighing, he decided to wait for the weekend before using the Prince family's pendant to teleport to the mansion.
The manor still stood tall as ever when he entered the place, with his ancestors merely nodded upon acknowledging his presence. Severus returned the gesture and chose the bedroom nearest to the library and Potions laboratory as his resting place for the night.
Septimus Prince accompanied him when he had dinner later that day, asking for the progress of his project to remove his loyalty bond with Lily Evans.
"I'm about to test it," Severus told the young yet ancient spirit, "maybe around next week; just needed to do a bit more of tinkering and such."
The ghost gave him a weak smile. "I- I don't know whether to be excited or not about your project," he said with a nervous chuckle, "I mean, on one hand, there's the possibility I can get my peace of mind; but on the other…"
Severus only nodded in slight unease. Just what would happen if he actually succeeded in his plan? Besides, he had been friends with the redheaded girl for seven years; that sure would take a lot of time to remove all his memories of her! Would a month be enough?
As he about to enter his new bedroom, he heard someone called his name. Frowning, he looked upward to the rows of portraits to see all of them were empty, except for one.
The portrait of Meredith Gaunt, Septimus' aunt was smiling down at him.
"…Yes?" Severus queried.
To his surprise, she twiddled her fingers nervously before speaking in Parseltongue, "So… you can use it."
He could only nod, wondering how she could know of his recent ability. Could other Parselmouths sense one another?
Meredith laughed softly as she rearranged the books in her frame, "I was so afraid, you know. I was casted away from my family for being a Squib, but I still could speak to snakes. When Titus and his brother invited me to live with them, I didn't dare to scare them with such ability. You know how it is."
Once again, Severus nodded and inclined forward to listen more of her story. Much to his interest, he found almost all Princes after her actually had the Parseltongue ability but it had been dormant within them. So that was why he could choose the basilisk horn as his blackthorn wand's core; Salazar Slytherin's blood had been present in his veins after all.
"I suppose this pendant was created by Titus for you, then?" he asked, showing her the family necklace that doubled as a Portkey.
The woman smiled wistfully. "He did. The necklace was for my own safety, he said and well, I couldn't thank him enough for it. 'Till this day, I just couldn't believe how kind Titus was to me. He and Tiberius cared for practically anything about me. They didn't scorn or sneer at me for being a Squib, all they said was Magic didn't choose people. It had been there since the beginning of time and will always continue to exist."
Severus blinked, that somewhat made sense. "So… what are your stances about Muggle-borns?" he asked carefully; after all, Meredith Gaunt was part of the Scared Twenty-Eight Families.
"Quite a lot of rubbish," she grinned, "I still remember Tiberius saying that those who casted the Squibs out of their family were fools and actually found myself agreeing with his opinion. You are a Parselmouth despite having me as your many-generation-ago grandmother. I do hope you can bring home one of our slithery friends soon. Goodnight, Severus."
As Severus lay on his bed, he thought hard of what Marvolo - Lord Voldemort - tried to achieve and the Prince family's stances. They were fine with marrying half-bloods and Squibs (which was probably the reason they didn't make it to the Sacred List), but never an outright Muggle. Was that why Eileen Prince was casted out?
…Would Marvolo want to listen to his opinions about the so-called Muggle-borns? Severus supposed he could write to the man, but had a feeling it would be better if they were to discuss it face-to-face.
Severus was comfortable living in his new home, occasionally visiting Septimus who haunted the gardens and the house-elves in the kitchen. He spent most of his time dwelling in the library, pouring his thoughts over the memory-storybook project.
By the time the weekend rolled by, he sighed as he put on his decent Muggle clothes. His grandparents, Felix and Lux Prince had given him hopeful looks when he told them he would try to convince Eileen to return home. He had a feeling their meeting wouldn't go well but didn't dare to say it outright.
So Severus walked out of Prince Manor and focused on the bushes near his parents' home in Spinner's End to Apparate there. Upon seeing the grey-walled building, he sighed and knocked on the door.
He soured the moment he saw Tobias Snape opening the door. "Where ye been?" the man asked gruffly with a lit cigarette between his teeth.
"A friend's house," Severus spoke of his lie. "Stayin' there for all summer."
Tobias raised his eyebrow before grunting to let him in. "Thank you," Severus said, briefly bowing his head. As soon as he got into his room, he summoned everything he had and put them all in the expandable satchel after shrinking them down.
Lunch was merely bread and soup, and Tobias left afterward to spend time in the local pub. While the mother and the son cleaned up the mess, Severus decided to break the silence, "Would you like to come with me, Ma?"
Eileen frowned as she rinsed the bowls manually. "Come with you... where to?" she asked, feigning her ignorance of the letter he sent about two weeks ago.
"Don't try to deny it, Ma; you want to go back. I know you," Severus said with a roll of his eyes, hastily wiping the dining table. "This was not what you imagined, right? Your parents were waiting for you; they already told me they were sorry to disown you. Your portrait was restored, what else do you want?"
"This is the place where I was happy once, and I will not back down from whatever you say, Severus," Eileen sighed.
"You were happy once," he mockingly repeated the words, "but not anymore and especially not now. Come on, Ma; I'm begging you. Y- You don't have to divorce him or anything; just stay in the manor with me."
Severus only watched as his mother smiled weakly and swiped some of his hair to look at his eyes before muttering, "You know I can't do that."
Severus was getting frustrated over her stubbornness. "I, as the new Lord Prince order you, Eileen Snape to return to your ancestral home at this instant," he almost growled. He knew he shouldn't abuse his position but how else could he convince her? Why was she so blind over her current circumstances?
The woman blinked before she too snarled at him, "Well I'm afraid I have to decline, Lord Prince. My husband needs me more than ever now."
"I'm trying to help you, for Merlin's sake!" Severus barked, "Fine, then! Don't come running at me if you're in trouble because of him. You want to be a Muggle so bad? Guess I will have to keep your wand away."
"Severus Snape, that's not how I taught you-!"
"I am Severus Prince!" he shouted, "I'd rather honor your side of the family than bearing that man's name for the rest of my life!"
Eileen was in the verge of tears upon hearing his words. "Get out," she spoke through gritted teeth.
"I am going to," Severus sneered, "Don't worry; I will keep it safe." He took her wand and stowed it away along with all of his possessions.
"Goodbye, Mother." With a click of the Prince family's pendant, Severus disappeared from the dreaded house in Spinner's End. He then entered the mansion hurriedly, wanting to hide in his room for the rest of the day.
"Severus?" his grandfather's portrait asked with a worried frown at dinnertime.
He only sighed, absent-mindedly drawing circles on the table with his finger as he said, "I tried my best, but she doesn't want to come back here, ever. I'm sorry."
Lux Prince shared a saddened look with her husband. "But you will keep watch on her, won't you?"
Reluctantly, Severus nodded. Eileen's wand, a slender ash wood with unicorn hair had bowed down in allegiance to him, but he already had too many of them. Still, he put it with the rest of his wands in the arm holster, now was placed in between the beech and the elm.
It never hurts to be careful, after all.
A week passed by, and Severus nearly finished all of his summer homework thanks to the numerous books and scrolls in Prince Manor. Along the way, he also made some progress of his Occlumency trainings and put more spells to the prototype of his memory-storybook project to ensure it would work as he expected.
He hoped he only had to make it once.
It was a week into July when Severus finally felt he was ready to test his new creation. Currently in his room, he had told the portraits to not disturb him unless it was necessary. They all agreed, keeping the family motto in place.
Severus decided to use his beech wand for the experiment since he had read it was good for intricate and delicate spellwork during his History of Magic classes, and he really wanted it to be perfect in one go. With a deep breath, he closed his eyes to remember his first meeting with Petunia and Lily Evans.
It was easily conjured in his mind and Severus quickly pulled it out of his head with the beech wand, putting the silver strand into the grey book he used for the project. He was mesmerized to see small doodles drawn in crayons began to appear on the page, showing him the memory. When he touched it, he could hear their voices and a wide grin broke out of his face.
Severus wasted no time to reel in the rest of his memories with the redheaded girl but after pulling out seven silver strands, he began to have a headache which increased in intensity when he reached ten.
Septimus Prince was right; this was madness! What was he thinking?
Severus decided to stop, gasping for breath as he drew himself away from the grey book. He needed to lie down, to sleep; anything to relieve the terrible throbbing pain in his head and mind.
"Libby," he croaked one of the house-elves' name. He winced upon hearing the loud crack that signaled her appearance.
"Master Severus?" she whispered much to his relief.
"Lead me to the bed," he ordered softly, still with his eyes closed shut. He could feel the house-elf gently guide him to his destination and almost sighed in joy upon lying on the soft mattress.
"Will Master need anything else?"
Severus had a feeling a potion would not work to alleviate the pain, so he shook his head and with a tremble, covered himself in the blankets. He ended up sleeping for the entire day and when he woke up, he was in such a daze he didn't dare to do anything else. For a brief moment, he wondered if his project ever worth the risk.
But Severus Prince was no quitter and he wanted to create history, even if it was only within his family.
And thus, he had no regrets as he pulled out five more memories before leaving his room to have lunch.