The Pureblood Prince

Chapter XXIII – All In A Day's Work

That morning, he left early. His wife had not been roused as he left their bed. Tobias watched her as he changed… her long black hair had spilled out all over the pillow and her rising and falling pastel breasts, her heavy eyebrows furrowed in concentration even as she slumbered. She looked positively exotic in the morning light; he remembered briefly why he had found her so irresistible once, how she had been so different from the common, dime a dozen women who blended right into the dreary beige town houses that lined the same beige city. Eileen was enigmatically shadowy in contrast. Such contrast. Toby could not help but lustfully ache to see that side of her again.

Pushing self-blame for his wife's suburban demise aside, and the almost torturous enticing temptation to get back into bed with her, Toby let out a small, exasperated groan and forced himself from the room.

The cobblestone alley of Miller Street was a lot like the one of Spinner's End; murky, depressingly uniform with the same identical run-down semi-detached townhouses, the damp pavements strewn with cigarette butts. Though, being a lot closer to the mill than Spinner's End – even by only quarter of a mile or so, it was always infinitely busier here and therefore gave the impression of being at least somewhat looked after… and there were a lot less rats here.

The first lot of shift workers were already making their way to the towering incinerator that loomed above them like some giant, red-bricked overlord… hordes of threadbare men with cigarettes in their hands and colourful language in their mouths waited impatiently at the gate. In less than an hour, Tobias would be doing the exact same thing.

He instead took a turning into alley behind the dingy Lion's Head – a typical northern English pub rank with the thick scent of lager, tobacco and vomit – which also happened to be his third most frequented haunt in the world… actually it could very well have been his second, seeing that spent as little time as he possibly could at home. The man he was meeting was already there… casually leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and looking almost intentionally shifty.

"Ey up, Snape."

"I've told yer not to call me at home!" Tobias snapped, gladly foregoing any greeting.

"By heck, do yer even havea right side of t'bed?" the man smiled, showing an impressive selection of yellow and rotten teeth.

"Yer know how suspicious my wife is, Parker. If she heard any of that..." Toby replied, ignoring him.

"Think she has right to be, dun' you? Anyway - yer the best liar I've ever had t'misfortune of knowin', Snape… and s'not like Eileen can hear through t'phone-" Parker replied in a much thicker Yorkshire tongue.

Toby almost bit his own tongue repressing himself from saying 'well, actually - my wife is a witch, so she can probably do whatever the bloody hell she likes.' He settled, instead, of replying: "don't do it again. Or else."

"Yer know, I'm gettin' quite sick of these endless power trips yer get off on, Snape. Yer have no authority ter tell me when and where I can demand what's rightfully mine Just like yer have no authority anywhere else; yer on the bottom of t'ladder, t'lowest of t'low, 'n always will be."

Not even half a second had past after Parker spoke that he found himself pressed against the wall with his old friend's hand around his neck. He smirked. This only incensed the other man more; the man who knew quite well that he was nothing, that he had always been nothing - in his joke of a career; next to his brother, next to his wife… his son. If there was thing he didn't need, it was to be reminded of it.

"Make yer feel better, does it, Snape? Shovin' people round like yer own them? Bet it feels good to imagine ownin' something, don't it?"

"Why are yer just about demanding to have yer fucking face kicked in?" Tobias spat through clenched teeth, tightening his grip around Parker's neck… but this only seemed to make the man more amused.

"Don't yer think yer should be directin' that question to yer own face?"

"What?"

"I want me brass."

"Brass! Yer call a hundred pounds brass? I told yer, I don't got a hundred pounds, I never bloody will have!"

"Well yer better find it, ain't yeh?"

It was the first time Toby looked at the man with an air of apprehension. "Or what?" he said, subconsciously releasing his grip and taking a step back.

A small incline of the other mans head told him as much as he needed to know.

"Fine." Toby sniffed proudly. "Fine. If yer think it makes yer the better man for tricking someone… someone who yer knew was very, very pissed at the time and unable to make any rational decision about accepting certain… substances… by the way."

Parker threw back his head and laughed. "Blamin' me for yer sad addiction now are we? Don't even s'pose I can let yer blame yerself; God knows I'd turn to t'bottle and 'substances' if I 'ad a misses like yours."

"What," Toby snarled threateningly, taking the step that he had taken away back with a vengeance. His voice was barely louder than a whisper - but it overflowed with poison, "is that supposed to mean?"

"Means I don't blame yeh, Snape. Means I'd also need ter be smashed beyond repair ter fuck a vampires brains out every ni-"

Parker must have known it was coming - Toby knew how much of an ardent antagonist he was, after all – but he was still caught off-guard as the first blow hit him square in the cheekbone. The two men grappled with each other in the middle of the alleyway - punching and shoving and, on one occasion, kicking, as Parker wrapped his hands around the collar of Toby's leather jacket and threw him to the floor. "Ungh!" Toby moaned as he felt the tip of the boot belt square into his abdomen, winding him senseless. Parker stood back a few feet after delivering the blow and rested, bent over, with his hands on his knees. He had obviously thought himself to be the victor, and this incensed Tobias into rolling over onto his throbbing belly and pushing himself up off the wet cobblestone; his knees gave way the instant he tried to stand - the shooting pains piercing his diaphragm was too much to take in one complete movement - and he remained kneeling, panting, on the floor.

After a few seconds, Parker swiped his nose with the back of his hand; Toby watched him take one look at the smeared bloody contents and smirk.

"Touched a nerve, I see."

"Don't yer - ever - insult - my wife – again…" Toby panted, spitting out blood of his own.

"Sorry. Forgot yer do enough of that yerself. How's that poofter son of yours, eh? T'one who yer bitch and moan about every fucking day at the Lion; how he and Eileen are in cahoots ter make yer life miserable?"

"Fuck off."

He didn't even know what he was fighting anymore; he couldn't even refute was Parker was saying… he had indeed said every word of what was being thrown back in his face. He supposed it was the guilt, more than anything, that said poofter son had vanished without a trace (though he was absolutely certain Eileen knew something of his whereabouts, considering how blasé she was being about the whole ordeal) and had left Tobias with his wish… but this granted wish had not made Toby the slightest bit happier, surprisingly.

"Nah, that's more sommet yer would do ain't it, if yer had the slightest chance? Fuck off and leave the both of them the minute any other offer came up, like the coward yer are."

"What? So it ain't bad enough that I've somehow got to pull one hundred fucking pounds out of my arse, yer have ter be a right pain in it too?"

"That's about right, yeah. And if yer can't conjure money out thin air," he leant in close. "I suggest yer start thinkin' fast. I'll be at the Lions every day waitin' fer it 'til I start to get impatient."

Conjure money… that's a thought… thought Toby; though he quickly dismissed it when he remembered that he had actually been married to Eileen for 22 years, and if she hadn't waved her stupid stick and magicked money into existence by now she never would. Then he also remembered that he had broken said stupid stick. He wasn't sure if Eileen couldn't mend it or simply wouldn't mend it, but either way she didn't seem to want it.

"Great," he finally answered. "Have fun waiting there for ninety years then. Now if there are no other knives yer can find to stab me in the back with, I'm going ter work."

"By all means."

Parker stepped aside and allowed his ex-friend to push his way past him. Before Tobias was barely four feet away from him, he shot: "oh, and Snape? Trust me when I say I ain't waitin' there ninety years. Yer'll be a dead man by the time the month's out if I don't see any brass by then… in fact, I suggest yer go home and have one good fuck for the last time; God knows yer'll no longer be physically able when I'm through with yer."

The exiting brunette man stopped dead in his tracks, and allowed himself a nod and a smirk to spite the other. "I'll bear that in mind," Toby called back quietly. He turned around. "Oh, and Parker?"

Tobias suspected that the groan from Ei as he came back to Spinners End that evening could very well be audible from here to the summit of Ben Nevis.

"Who?" she asked in a very unenthusiastic manner.

"Parker." Tobias mumbled as he placed his finger to his still throbbing lip. "N' before yer say anything, he were slagging yer off – okay?"

"He slagged me off, and then he punched you in the face...?"

"No!" Tobias snapped, feeling prickles of anger at his wife's dubious tone. "He slagged yer off, I punched him in the face."

Ei gazed at him, black eyebrow raised, for a good long five seconds for she spoke again.

"And you forgot whose face you were meant to be punching, or…?"

"Ei, for God's sake don't push me." Toby warned with a threatening finger in her direction. He knew that with Severus absent, she was unbound and limitless in letting her true colours show.

"Sorry."

At least she wasn't up for fighting.

With a long sigh, Ei moved into the kitchen as Tobias took a slow seat on the couch – giving a small moan of relief as the pounding weight on his abdomen settled slightly. For all he knew he could've been working all day harbouring an internal injury. He laid back and closed his eyes; the relaxation of his muscles was, annoyingly, not as therapeutic as he thought it would be… every muscle in his face pounded; with pain or rage he was not sure.

A few footsteps later and a wave of respite spread across his lower jaw as an ice cold damp cloth was held to where his stinging lip had split.

"Hold it there and I'll put a plaster on," his wife instructed. "I just hope you won't need those... what do you call them again? … those stitches in your face."

"Can't yer just make 'em go away? Don't really fancy stitches."

"If I were you, I'd just be thankful that I didn't need them where my poor wife needed them once."

Tobias strangely felt both his temper and lust begin to boil… she was acting as pert and insufferable as she did during their first few years of marriage. He hated it, and loved it at the same time. "What t'fuck is wrong with yer today, woman? Yer never this tetchy even when it's yer time of t'month!"

"What? Despite the fact that our son has disappeared and waiting for my husband to come home every day is like spinning a roulette wheel of various incidents and injuries? Despite the fact that I had to go out and get a job that demeans me so much I don't know how I'll ever live it down? No - absolutely nothing is wrong, darling."

Completely skimming over the latter part of her outburst, Tobias laughed bitterly. "Yer know bloody well where he is, and yer not telling me. I ain't a genius like you two blackheads, Ei, but I ain't a dipshit either. If yer miss him so much, go get him back from wherever place yer know he is!"

Eileen had seemingly once again become subdued. She slumped against the wall and folded her arms, avoiding his glare. "I can't."

"I know it's sommet ter do with yer lot. Why can't yer? If yer so against the freaks?"

"I just can't!"

"Why?"

"Because I'd never forgive myself if I turned out like my parents!" Eileen yelled.

Tobias was torn in his desire to find out just what the bleeding heck she was talking about and his ample distaste of discussing anything that might preoccupy his wife's thoughts all day – and, in particular, all night. He certainly needed her affections tonight, after the day he had been through; in the end he settled for a nod. Tobias knew that too many questions about those hoity-toity Princes would open up a floodgate of excessive dramatics that his honest life in Spinners End could do without.

"Oh... well… don't blame yer there."

Eileen watched him intently for a while, as if on edge for a cue to begin a full-blown rant at the gene pool she sorely hated… but as it never came, she simply tensed up her muscles and stormed into the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of water.

"So what did Parker beat you to a pulp for?" Ei asked casually when she came back into the front room for the second time.

"He didn' beat me to a pulp!" Toby scoffed, panging slightly from her slight on his masculinity. "We beat each other to pulps… what?"

Eileen was gaping at him with a magnificently condescending look in her eyes. "Alright…" she whispered as she knelt slowly down on the ground, crossed her arms on his lap and gazed up at him with the hauntingly hollow black eyes that he adored. "Why did you beat each other to pulps then?" For one mad minute, Toby took her sudden turn of tone and position at his lap for an ulterior motive. He was almost ready to unbutton himself before he caught onto the actuality that her true motive was treating him as you would a wayward child.

"Ah, was nothin'" Toby lied like the natural he was. He could lie for England. "Yer know what Parker's like. Goes out of his way to be Prick of Derbyshire… orderin' people around like – wait - yer got a job?"

"I think I did say that about ten eons ago, yes."

"Doin' what?" he asked excitedly. Ei had paid employment? He couldn't believe his luck!

Eileen looked flabbergasted at his expression. "Well, just waitressing." Her expression fell flat. "It's the only thing I'm really able to do. You know the dingy refectory in Derby town centre I used to work at when I was pregnant? When we really needed… well… the money…"

"… Yeah." The shame from that awful period in time was still too much for him to handle; and that was saying something - considering the concept of feeling guilty for anything had long since been completely scratched out of Tobias Snape's personality. But the visions of drug barons pounding on the same door that, on the other side, harboured his very scared, very tired and very pregnant wife had stuck with him still. A loud banging noise from outside was the only thing that finally snapped them both out of their reminiscent state. Toby guessed another cat had toppled over their dustbin in search of the many rats that prowled their street. That or someone had just been shot. He wouldn't put it past this neighbourhood; it had happened before.

"Well, they had a notice in the window for casual staff. I just popped in and explained my history with the place and there you go," Eileen explained miserably, turning back from where she had snapped around to the noise. "It had to be done."

Had to be done? A wave of cold dread swept across Tobias as a horrible thought struck him to his belly.

"Oh God. Yer not pregnant are yer?" There was no way, no way in hell Toby could put up with another one, especially at this very moment. If their first one turned out to be a total catastrophe when he had been carefully planned for, he shuddered to think what an unwanted accident would grow up to be.

"I wish I could say I wasn't, Toby… but…"

"WHAT?"

A shake of the head told him all he needed to know. His head collapsed into the back of the chair and he let out a small, relieved whimper.

"Who do you think I am? I'm insulted that you think I'd be that careless."

"That was NOT funny, woman! Almost had a stroke!" Another full-blown row would've started up once more were it not for the sudden escape rope Tobias had been handed to get out of the deal with Parker. "So… when do yer start?" he prompted her into speaking once more.

"Tomorrow night." Ei replied with a hint of apprehension in her voice. "You're not…? Never mind."

"Not angry? No, I ain't angry," said Tobias. Over the moon that now I don't have to experience the mental torture of asking you to go begging to your family for the extra money required if I want to keep my limbs is more what I am. "I think it's a good idea actually… sooner yer start t'better."

"Really?"

"Who wouldn' want an extra bit of brass around the place?"

Before he could suggest that they head up to the bedroom to celebrate his unsuspecting cash injection, there was a knock at the door. Eileen made a small and barely noticeable intake of breath, and it was clear who she suspected was calling. Tobias suspected it too… and he wanted to be the first one to have a word with the caller – there were things he wanted to say that needed to be kept out of her earshot, else she find some stupid-stick-less way to curse him.

"I'll get it. Might be Parker and I don't want him near yer." He told the lie so sternly and validly that Ei remained glued to the floor without question, looking fairly dispirited.

The small windowpane covering the front door showed no telling signs bar a dark silhouette in the gloomy dusklight; but Tobias could vaguely make out the figureless shape that was common to those types of people… that was, the types of people who felt the need to drape themselves in heavy, unnecessary, melodramatic cloaks.

As Toby opened the door, inches from punching his son's lights out for stealing his mother's thoughts and attentions away from everything else but him for weeks (and also for having the insolence to go parading around like someone who belonged in a coffin in the dungeons of that Dracula fellow's castle), he did indeed meet an individual in a heavy, unnecessary and melodramatic cloak. But it wasn't Severus.

"Oh… hello. I was wondering if -"

"Eileen," Toby bellowed, completely ignoring their greeting and marching back into the front room. He met his wife's curious eyes and violently pointed towards the door. "Deal with this..."

A/n: Sorry sorry sorry sorry I haven't updated in ages and then some. I still am continuing with this story and my others - promise. But Uni's started being a harsh and unrelenting Mistress once more. I thought I'd give you all a nice big juicy chapter to make up for my tardiness in my writing. Hope you all enjoy and please stay with me, the journey's far from over. Thank you SO much to those still reading and especially those reviewing. :)