December 1976
The sixth-year students quickly realized that the subjects they had to learn at the Nastly Exhausting Wizarding Test level really stood up to their name, for by the time the Christmas break had finally arrived, they were all completely exhausted.
Before boarding the train to go home to enjoy the holidays, the students were going to enjoy a Christmas-themed lunch in a Great Hall that had been beautifully decorated for the occasion.
Lily and Florence stood by the big oaken doors, waiting for their friends.
"Where the hell are those idiots?" Florence growled.
Lily stared at her, confused by her tone. "What's wrong with you today, Flor?"
"There's nothing wrong."
"Bullshit. You've been like that since breakfast."
"Like what?"
"Unhappy, easily irritated," Lily let out a sigh, "What did Severus do this time?"
"He's missing!" Florence finally said, "He disappeared right after breakfast. And so did Eric Travers."
Lily grimaced, "That's really bad," nodding in sympathy.
"Hello, girls. What's really bad?" asked Remus, stopping in front of them.
"Severus is missing. Again," Lily answered.
"Do you guys think he is already a…?" asked Remus, looking at Florence, worried.
"No, not yet," she said, "But I fear he has already made his decision."
James, Sirius and Pettigrew arrived then.
"Where's Snivellus?" asked Sirius, being Severus' absence the first thing he noticed.
"Not here," replied Florence dryly.
"Great!"
And she had to laugh at Black's happiness. Their friendship had slowly developed since the lake duel; she enjoyed Sirius's company now, he was clever, funny and charming.
However, Sirius and Severus still hated each other; Severus was terribly jealous and Sirius never wasted an opportunity to make it clear he had the hots for Florence.
"So, let's go into the Great Hall?" asked James, offering Lily his arm, which she readily accepted.
"Yes. Let's," said Florence, "Severus can go to hell for all I care."
"We can finally agree where he's concerned!" Added Sirius, making her laugh.
They all walked into the Great Hall and Florence decided to sit at the Gryffindor table with her friends.
Dumbledore's Holiday speech was about life-changing decisions - the Headmaster knew that many students would probably be coming back from that Holiday Break with the Dark Mark already on their left forearms.
He looked at Florence and frowned as he noticed Severus was absent.
His speech ended and Severus had yet to show up.
The food came, the food went; still no sign of him.
Florence enjoyed the delicious feast, nodding at whatever her friends were saying, but her attention was not invested in their conversations. She could feel Severus was close, he hadn't left the castle, so it could only mean one thing: he was either brewing or delivering a new batch of potions for Travers to take to her father.
Dumbledore called the end of the feast and wished everyone a safe trip home that afternoon.
As they all got ready to leave the Great Hall, Severus still hadn't appeared.
"Maybe he's already gone home," Lily tried to comfort her friend.
"No. We said we'd go together."
"You can come home with me. Stay the night at my house," offered Lily.
Florence realised that was a very good idea; she could go to Eileen's the next morning.
"Thanks, Lily. I'd love to spend the night at your house! Tomorrow morning I can walk to Eileen's."
"Yay! Do you know what that means? Pyjama party!" exclaimed Lily.
Before leaving to catch the Hogwarts Express, Florence sent Eileen a letter:
Dear Godmother,
Severus went missing this morning. Again. I have an idea where he might be and I fear that what he's doing is nothing but trouble.
There's no need to go pick me up at King's Cross – Mr Evans will give me a ride, and I'll spend the night at Lily's house. Tomorrow morning I'll walk to yours.
See you tomorrow,
Florence.
It was past two in the afternoon when Severus finally finished bottling all the Draught of Despair he had prepared; when he walked into the Common Room to grab his suitcase, there were only a few students there, most had already left to spend the Holidays with their families.
He took his suitcase and went to Slughorn's office, the Head of the Slytherin House always let his students use his fireplace when they needed to leave the castle.
Severus knew Florence had boarded the train, so he'd arrive with enough time to go pick her up at the station with his mother.
Eileen's house
When the green flames fizzled out, Severus opened his eyes to see the living room of his mother's home.
He stepped out of the fireplace, brushing off the dust from his coat and all he could hear was silence.
But one look around the house and he could tell something was different that year; his mother always cared for the Christmas spirit but they had never had money for good decorations – until now.
Severus had sent her half of everything he had earned so far and was glad to see she was using the money on all the things she'd always wanted – like he had told her to.
Also, the house smelled of cinnamon and cherry and was spotless, making him realize that having a house-elf around made a lot of difference in his mother's life.
Maybe by next Christmas he'd have saved enough money to buy her one.
"Mom?" he called, walking into the kitchen, where he could hear noises; but he only found Florence's elf, Tiffany, in there, checking something in the oven.
"Hi, Tiffany. Where's my mother?"
"At work," Tiffany had no words of respect for him. No 'Hello, no 'Mister', no 'Sir'. Actually, she hardly ever spoke to him at all.
"Why don't you like me, Tiff?" he asked, sitting at the table and grabbing a piece of strawberry shortcake the elf had prepared earlier.
"You make my Mistress Flor suffer. Tiffany doesn't like that. Tiffany has been taking care of little Flor since she was a baby. Also... Tiff can feel you are bad news, you want to be like the Blacks and Lestranges," she shivered in disgust, "Tiffany really hates the Blacks and Lestranges."
He frowned at the elf, she was a very perceptive little thing, but most importantly: the little elf only had Florence's best interest in her heart. He finished eating his cake in silence.
"Isn't my mother picking up Florence at King's Cross?" he asked as he finished eating.
"No. A Mr Evans is."
He just nodded and walked out of the kitchen.
Once his mother arrived from work, Severus left his room to welcome her, but Eileen was as happy to see him as Tiffany.
"Hi, mom," He greeted her at the door.
Eileen looked at him, "How come you're here already? Where is Florence?"
"She's riding the train," He replied, a little confused, for according to Tiffany his mother already knew that.
"And why aren't you riding the train with her?" Eileen asked, crossing her arms.
"We kind of lost each other this morning."
"Oh, really? I wonder how did that happen. Weren't you two together at the Christmas feast? Aren't you housed in the same House? Don't you go to the same common room?" Eileen demanded.
"Yes, but…" he tried to think of an excuse.
"Weren't you at the Christmas feast, Severus?"
"Of course I was!" he exclaimed.
"Stop lying to me!" Eileen walked towards him, invading his personal space, "Where were you, Severus?"
"Fine! I was out, working," he admitted.
"Working, right." Eileen replied, nodding before walking to the sofa and sitting down, "Sit with me, Severus."
He sat on the armchair close to the sofa.
Eileen looked at him, "Have you noticed how beautiful our house is this year?"
"Yes. Like you've always wanted," he smiled proudly.
"Yes. Like I've always wanted," she repeated, looking around the living room and then focusing on him, "I truly appreciate the money you've been sending me, Severus, but I worry where that is coming from. You're three weeks shy of seventeen, my son; there are only two types of work someone your age could do to be paid over six hundred galleons within a couple of months. One is prostitution and the other is illegal potions. Knowing you, I am sure it's the second option."
He didn't reply.
"I know why you're doing this," Eileen continued, "You found a way to make money selling Potions to You-know-who."
He didn't even try to deny: "If they don't buy them from me, they'll get them from someone else."
"And is that all you've been making for them, Severus? Potions they could buy from someone else?"
He didn't reply again.
"I knew it!" exclaimed Eileen, "You're a brilliant wizard, my son. Do you think it hasn't reached You-know-who's followers how well you do in Charms and Potions? Slughorn could have told them that himself! He was my teacher, and I had Malfoys and Crabbes and Goyles and Rosiers in my classes. He knows them and he must've told them about you! It's obvious they don't want a simple Invigorating Draught from you!"
Severus kept quiet.
Eileen sighed, "Have they already asked you for something... different?"
He nodded.
"And have you done it?"
"Yes," He replied, pausing before continuing: "Fifteen hundred galleons, mum," He dropped the impressive number, noticing his mother's look of shock, "And that was just the investment fee. They will test it and, if it works as they want it to, there will be three times that number being transferred to my account."
Eileen looked worried, "And what have they asked for?"
"I called it Draught of Despair. It's a dementor in a bottle."
"Does it work?"
"According to the two pigs I tested it on, yes."
Eileen was impressed by his abilities, she'd always known her son was brilliant, but she couldn't tell him she was proud of him, that would be an encouragement for him to continue doing work for Voldemort – and that was a road with no return.
"You'll lose Florence if you keep doing that," She chose to say, "She'll leave you, if you choose to work for You-know-who."
"She won't leave me. The Enchantment wouldn't allow it," he said confidently.
Eileen shook her head and frowned, "The magical connection you two share won't stop her from leaving you, Severus. She can, and she will, live far from you, if you join them."
"But…" he frowned.
"What you have to understand, my son," Eileen continued, "Is that you two will be forever connected through the Enchantment, yes. The love you share is strong because both your magic is strong, and love is the strongest magic there is, so that means the Enchantment makes you two even more powerful. But it doesn't remove free will. If she has to, if you give her a reason, she'll leave you. Florence will try to forget you in another man's arms. Is that what you want?"
Severus looked at his mother, feeling torn between his desire for power and fortune, and his love for Florence. He couldn't lose her, just thinking about her in another man's arms made him feel physically sick. But it was already too late for him, if his Draught of Despair worked – and he knew it would – they were going to schedule one final test before his Marking, he'd probably be one of You-know-who's Marked followers before the end of his seventh year.
Eileen looked at her son's troubled face and spoke, softly:
"Florence is at Lily's. She'll spend the night there. Take tonight to think about what you want, Severus. Don't throw to the wind what you and she have," she kissed his cheek and went upstairs.
Evans' house
9 p.m.
Lily and Florence were sharing cookies and talking in Lily's bedroom.
"Where did you grow up, Florence?"
"Mostly in Hogsmeade, I lived there with my mom until I was eight. Afterwards, I lived in Little Hangleton with my father."
Lily looked at her, seeming disappointed, "That's it?" she asked, making Florence laugh.
"You were expecting some exciting story of how I travelled the world with my parents?"
"Yes. Well, you do sound like you've travelled a lot..."
"And I have, but I grew up in the village. Some weekends my mom used to take me to France – for she wanted me to learn about my heritage. Then when she died, I went to live with my dad and he liked to travel to Scotland, Ireland, the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. And in the summer I used to go to the Blacks' beach house in Italy, like I've already told you."
"I can't imagine growing up that rich."
"I never realized my life was different," Florence shrugged, "I am ashamed to say I only noticed my family is wealthier than average this year, a few months before I ran from home."
"Ran from home?" asked Lily, surprised by that information, "What do you mean?"
Florence realized she'd never mentioned running from home to her friends, "Yes. Well, the day I went to Hogwarts was the day I found out my father is a follower of You-know-who, so I ran from home," That was the story she'd stick to.
"Wow. I'm sorry to hear that," Lily paused to eat a cookie and sip her tea, looking at Florence as she finished her cup.
"What is it?" asked Florence, self-conscious under her stare.
"You're just so different from Severus, he has been so focused on growing up and making money to help his mother, that I daresay money has become everything for him. And here you come, loaded, but money doesn't mean a thing to you."
"Well, it has been pointed out to me that I am hypocrite when I say that money is not important."
"I can totally see Severus saying that," Lily laughed.
Florence stopped smiling as she thought about her boyfriend. Lily noticed the change in her friend.
"What will you do tomorrow when you see him?" the red-headed girl asked.
"I don't really know," answered Florence in a sad voice, "I love him… but I can't accept him becoming a Death Eater."
"Have you two talked about it?"
"Yes, Lily. Many times. And all he says is that he sees them as a goldmine," she looked at the window, "He hasn't confirmed to me yet that he will join them, but I fear he has already made that decision."
"That's not good."
"No, it's not. He's not someone one wishes to have as an enemy. He's too powerful and cunning."
"I meant that his joining the Death Eaters is not good for your heart. But now that you've said that, I think it's really really bad, for all of us," finished Lily, concerned.
Back at Eileen's
Severus went upstairs to his bedroom after his talk with his mother; he had a lot to think about his future.
His Hogwarts graduation was just a year and a half away – that was not a long time to make life-changing decisions.
A few things he knew for sure: Florence was his, she'd be his wife, he would never accept seeing her in another man's arms. Also he was going to keep brewing for the Death Eaters – there was no way out anymore – so his biggest challenge next year would be to make Florence see that he had to keep brewing for them.
He walked into his bathroom and removed his shoes, then his clothes, going to shower and lying on his bed afterwards, fully naked.
He fell asleep thinking about Florence – and he dreamed about her as usual. In this dream he could see her walking in a park, looking beautiful as ever, dressed in a light blue pair of jeans and a loose white blouse that did nothing to hide the round belly underneath it.
She was pregnant in this dream, as she was in many others he'd had. Only this time the dream quickly turned into a nightmare, for it wasn't his the face of the man walking hand-in-hand with her: it was Sirius Black's.