Pureblood Prince 29
Truth Will Out
Severus had spent the better part of the night awake and reconstructing his entire future in his head. Going to Prince Manor was the biggest mistake he'd ever made.
He stared at the slightly off-white tiles of his bathroom at the Sussex Muggle motel contemplating what he should do next, where he should go. He certainly could not afford to stay here another night… his finances were dwindling fast – and by dwindling fast he meant absent.
Slowly, Severus ran his long fingers through his saturated black hair and stepped out of the bath. He realised that he must have been standing there, naked, shivering and thinking for a far longer amount of time than he had actually spent taking a shower. He quickly pulled on his torn jeans and his father's old shirt… Mrs Prince had promised that she would give him everything if he had stayed – the finest robes, the finest education, the finest food, the finest everything – though it was a sort of status he had once dreamed of before, now it all seemed dirty and tainted. Not that Spinner's End was any different. Everything was dirty and tainted.
Maybe he should just move to South Wales and live in a cave for the rest of his life and be done with it.
Maybe he could talk to Aurora… though he fancied his chances more with Lily than with Borealis - and that was saying something.
Faint noises buzzed from outside the door… as he begun to pack his minimal amount of luggage into his Hogwarts chest, Severus knew that wherever he went next, it had to be further away from the general public; the arguing couple downstairs sounded almost as bad as his parents on a good day. The last item he grabbed was his wand, which he shoved into the deep pockets of his jeans.
When he finally got outside his room and into the musky smelling corridor, he came face to face with one half of the arguing couple – and her face lit up in exhausted triumph at the sight of him.
"Severus."
"Ma'am! Ma'am!" the man behind her shouted, running up the stairs after her. He was in a uniform that was indicative of the motel staff. "You can't just-!"
"I think you find that I can, and I did, Mr Muggle."
"Mr. Hartl-"
"I don't care what your name is!"
"It's alright." Severus interjected before his grandmother was sent to Azkaban for Crucio-ing all the Muggles in the building. "I know her."
Mrs. Prince shot a conquering glare back at the staff member behind her, who was gazing back in response to Severus's reply in a manner of extreme pity.
"I told you he was my grandson," she snapped haughtily at the disgruntled middle-aged man. "Can you not see the resemblance?"
The man gave an unamused shake of the head. "Ten minutes and I'm escorting you out," he informed her. "I would have gladly asked the gentleman to come down to talk to you but seeing as you were so…" the look and his face told everyone who could see it that he was itching to say 'intolerably difficult', but he settled for a professional: "… desperate to see him -"
"Yes, quite, now move along," Mrs. Prince said with her back to him, waving a bony hand away as if she were dismissing a particularly annoying fly away from her face. When the motel worker simply gazed at her in disbelief, she turned back to him. "Move along!"
The Muggle's resolve surprised Severus; he doubted many others would have held their ground when Serafina Prince was marginally ticked off. "If she is bothering you, sir, I can have her removed."
Before the younger man could answer, Mrs. Prince's teeth bared through her lips; she had her wand halfway out of the pocket of her dress before Severus grabbed her by the arm harshly.
"No-!"
"How dare you speak to me like that, you good-for-nothing piece of sludge!" she slipped her hand out of her grandson's grasp and twisted her body around to the now terrified looking Muggle on the landing. "Stupefy!"
Severus could only watch as the red flash of light hit him directly in the face - cloaking him in catalepsy. His head hit the bannister hard as he fell.
"That takes care of that little annoyance," Mrs. Prince bit coldly.
"What do you think you're doing?" Severus demanded as quietly as he could in fear of attracting more Muggles to the scene. He pushed past Serafina and grasped the unconscious man underneath his armpits – he dragged the heavy body back towards his door, which he motioned her to open as he got there.
"Alohomora," she said lazily, pointing her slim wand at the lock.
Severus carelessly dropped the body behind the door as the three of them entered the room.
"Brandishing your wand around, picking fights... calling Muggles 'Muggles' in front of their faces! Honestly, between your dress sense and your attitude it's a wonder the whole cosmos isn't aware of our existence!" Severus barked as he leant harshly against the door, locking it back into place.
"Muggles can be Obliviated…" Mrs. Prince said casually.
"He's going to have to be when he regains consciousness! How have you remained out of the top security cells at Azkaban prison with the way you carry yourself in public?"
Mrs. Prince chuckled coldly. "Believe me, I do not come across all that many Muggles in my everyday societal duties."
"Oh, you don't say?"
She moved across the room as if she were walking on faecal matter. Her nose was turned up at every corner, every tile, and every piece of faded wallpaper of the room. He could only imagine what that face would look like if it ever entered Spinners End; this was a palace compared to it.
"How did you find me?" Severus asked.
"I have my ways," Mrs. Prince replied, swiping an elongated finger across the bedside table and glaring in revulsion at what it picked up. "Though frankly the fact that you picked a place like this…"
"You've never been to Derby, have you?"
Mrs. Prince turned to face him. "Oh, I have. I have even sat in your living room, I have drunk the tea from your cupboards – a Muggle brand of course."
There was something different about the way she looked at him… something in her eyes that was more open and vulnerable than before.
"Yes," she continued – obviously sensing an opening. "I did go there once. But it was made clear that I was never welcome again. I was turned away from the house and told never to return when all I wanted was to see my baby grandson, only a few days old."
Severus almost frowned, but decided that would give away far too much. "Doesn't feel all that good, I imagine. Being abandoned by your own family."
"Despite what you may think," Mrs. Prince said, almost tenderly. "I have never abandoned your mother. I need you to believe me on this matter."
It was Severus's turn to issue a cold laugh. "We tried this. I want no part in your lies."
"And you left without me giving you any incontestable proof."
Severus snorted. "You mean you have more incontestable proof than hiding your age and making up some cock and bull story about selling me to the Dark Lord via an Unbreakable Vow?"
Mrs. Prince appeared to think it best if she made herself comfortable, despite how much she looked like she'd rather sit on a pile of rotting troll carcases. She sat.
"Even I was a liar," she began, taking out yet another one of her endless supply of tar in stick form and lighting it. "Is that doubt really worth the possibility of sacrificing a life?"
The arrogance radiating from her was flabbergasting. After all this time, she had the most superlative egotism to assume that he actually cared about her in any form? If there was one regret that was now up there amongst his many other regrets, it was opening up that damn letter…
"Oh, you can trust me when I say that I could care less at present." Severus snapped, uneven teeth bearing in glorious gratification at the thought of hurting her impenetrable feelings… that was if she had any, which was highly, highly questionable. He sidestepped away from the puff of smoke rolling toward him and opened up the pink coloured door, which he coupled with a sarcastic sweep of the hand. "It has been a joy knowing you."
And for once, Mrs. Prince's haughty smile vanished into a frown with the cigarette still placed her burgundy lips. She drew it out slowly and deliberately and paused with it between her fingers – which were surprisingly stain free in comparison with the stick itself, stained with lipstick.
"Oh," she replied with an air of what appeared to be genuine disbelief. "In that case, then, I believe I have nothing further to say to you."
Severus gave a gentle nod of consensus.
With a sigh and an indifferent flick of the cigarette onto the unconscious Muggle still out cold on the floor, Mrs. Prince raised herself effortlessly from the creaky old bed – raising his blood pressure even further when he recalled how frail and feeble she had acted just days before. She was about half a centimetre through the doorframe when she halted and turned back to look him square in the identical black eyes.
"I must say I am surprised however…"
"… You are?"
"Mmm," she murmured airily. "Not caring if your own mother lived or died. You almost remind me of myself at your age; not something I expected."
Severus opened his mouth for a biting retort, but her statement was so out of left field that he stood there gaping with it open for well over a long moment. "My…? But you gave the supposed Unbreakable Vow - she knows nothing about this."
"Merlin's beard boy, I thought you were intelligent!" she replied with a laugh. "You mean to say you thought I was talking about my own safety? As an intelligent woman myself, I would never fool myself into believing you had grown fond of me over the past year. Regardless of my own fate, do you honestly believe that the Dark Lord will let her live if you simply declined his invitation? She is the only leverage he has over you."
This was going far deeper than he ever imagined now. Of course he would come after her… how could he have been so stupid as to ignore that blaring fact?
"He will kill her anyway…" Severus whispered, trying not to let the ice cold drops of horror running down his spine show – else the old woman think that he was finally beginning to trust her words.
"If what you say is true – which I am still absolutely sure it isn't," he added. "The Dark Lord would never spare the life of a blood traitor. And he would never spare the offspring of one."
Mrs. Prince simply continued to gaze over his face, her heavy lidded eyes sweeping up and down as if observing for cracks. Every nerve in Severus's body was aching for her to finally come out and say it was a lie, that all she wanted was for him to leave Spinners End and become the heir that she had always wanted…
"So if you are telling the truth," he continued slowly and deliberately. "Then you have sentenced us to death."
"No, my dear," she said almost softly. "I have given myself a life sentence."
"You!"
"… and…" Mrs. Prince seemed to be biting her tongue to stop herself but it was no use. "… and you - but you must understand that it was for my daughter! He took her from us!"
It was the first burst of apparent true emotion Severus had ever heard from his maternal grandmother.
"And you thought that the only way you could ever bring her back to our world was so sell her only son to the Dark Lord as bait?"
"He would offer you both lifelong protection, despite Eileen being a blood traitor; that is all I wanted! These are dark times, his army is building, she will not stay safe for long. The marriage record is in the Daily Prophet, for Merlin's sake!"
"And I am sure that you would not immediately object to him brutally assassinating my fath… Tobias," Severus queried. Calling that Muggle anything resembling a term of endearment stung him like a wasp on the tip of his tongue.
Before Mrs. Prince could affirm or badly deny, the Muggle motel owner who was previously still out cold on the floor stirred and gurgled something before he began to open his eyes.
"Wha… you… you!" he shouted as he caught sight of the tall cloaked woman towering above him. "You attacked me! I'm calling the police!"
As soon as he began to struggle to his feet (and it was a struggle with the gait he had seemingly achieved from decades of pies and Mars Bars) both Severus and Serafina moved towards him, wands raised. Each catching the others eye as if daring one another to make the first move.
This time, Severus got there first.
"Obliviate!"
The man's eyes glazed over and his head dropped back against the bed at a painful looking ninety-degree angle once more.
Mrs. Prince casually flicked her wand back into her robe pocket. "Can you blame me?" she continued as if nothing had ever happened. "Perhaps if you had a daughter whose non-magical, alcoholic husband beat her every chance he could get, you would not be so judgemental."
"I've sincerely heard enough now," Severus replied, tired of everything about this family, tired of everything at this stage. "Don't ever come after me again, else you hear the exact same reply I tell you now: I don't want anything to do with you and your scheming ever again."
"Please." The desperation in her words could not be anything but sincere; she would have had to possess no soul to speak of if it were not so. Before Severus could reiterate his very firmly made point he found his own ebony wand being tugged from his hand and presented to him; he looked up with genuine curiously.
"So you elect to be ejected from this place by force?"
"Use it!" Serafina spat. "Use it, you stupid boy! Why did I spend these weeks training you in Legilimency if you won't even use it to find out the truth? Or would you prefer to lead a blissfully ignorant life right up to point in which you let your own mother be murdered?"
It seemed so simple coming from her mouth. In some aspects she lived the most uncomplicated, straightforward life one could live… just break into anyone's mind to uncover the truth. Just forcefully extract what you need in order to get what you want. He could do it so easily.
"You taught me the practicalities of Legilimency," he agreed "but not the ethics. That, I learned myself."
"Who concerns themselves with ethics at a time like this?"
"Well, let me rephrase that: I have also come to learn that I cannot trust you as far as I can throw you."
"Memories cannot be so intricately altered," she counted, releasing her grasp on the door. "You would know if I had omitted anything; without Occlumency the minds of others are open books to you." She drew herself in, closer to him, the smell of tobacco on her breath made Severus's nose twitch.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" she said in barely a whisper in his ear. "Prove me wrong, or have closure. Either way, it is the only way that you will know the truth."
Severus looked deeper into her eyes, utilising all his training, consolidating it all at once; he could see a curtain being opened behind them… the truth lurking at the back of the room somewhere, just a few steps out of the spotlight.
"And the truth will out…" he whispered. And he nodded.
A step back and a single sweeping wave was all that was needed, and he was flying into the deep, dark pools of her subconscious.
"LEGILIMENS!"
His mind pierced through the shadowy loch of her eyes and into a memory so clear that he could have simply walked into the adjacent room.
"… you haven't even told him, have you Eileen?"
"I don't care about magic anymore, mother. If I have to give up this whole world for him, I'll do it. I shall have nothing to tell him."
"Idiot girl! Do you not understand that modesty and humility have no place within womankind? We cannot AFFORD it Eileen! You are throwing everything I've worked for right out of the window by running off with this filthy Muggle!"
"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT TOBIAS LIKE THAT!"
"I and your father can do whatever we like in our own house! He is filthy Muggle brute who took away the good sense of my only daughter, my young and strong Ravenclaw, and until you come to your senses you are no longer welcome here!"
The scene ripped at the seams. He was now standing in the living room of his house – the house that had never been a home.
"It is a fine name. A fine name for the fine man my grandson will become, no doubt."
Eileen felt the ache slightly lift from her… hearing her mother utter her sons name so gently as opposed to deciding it was in her power to change his name completely as her father-in-law did… it was soothing.
"Speaking of Tobias - he will be home from the mill soon, I'll need to make him dinner. He's been working double shifts to keep us, you know… I'm afraid you've come at the wrong time if you wished to avoid seeing him."
"Well, I'd best be on my way then."
Severus managed to separate himself from the mind-meld that the spell had created just enough to stand back in awe at the sight of Mrs. Prince standing in Spinners End… it seemed utterly unnatural… morbid… to see her in the same place as his mother together for the first time.
A small cry echoed from upstairs… Severus jolted when he realised it must have been him.
"Thank you for stopping by, mother."
Serafina, ostensibly remembering herself, sniffed harshly. "Very well. Tell him I will be waiting – Severus is always welcome in your father and mine's home." – she apparated without another word of protest.
Another shift. He was back at Prince Manor.
"Did you find him?" Atticus mumbled.
"Yes, my darling" she replied loudly, walking over to him and placing her hand around his shoulder. "He is powerful… the Muggle in him has certainly not dampened his powers; though his face is the splitting image of his fathers."
"He will make his way here, of that I have no doubt," Serafina continued. "It seems I was right about that Muggle. He has led our daughter completely away from magic. I dare say she barely holds any magic ability in her anymore… the Muggle has beaten it out of her. Did you hear, Atticus? Our only child has been beaten."
"She's a lost cause, always has been. What kind of witch allows herself to be hit? And by a Muggle."
"I am positive that her son can make her see the error of her ways, if I cannot. He will succeed where I have failed."
"What makes you so sure, Sera?" Atticus strained. "For all we know he could be as violent and brutish as her animal of a husband. And he is more of a danger to her. He is a wizard… a half-blood, yes, but still a wizard."
"He loves her, I can tell." She explained. "He refused my invitation because he felt he was betraying her."
The scene blacked out for a few seconds but slowly came back into view… when it did, Severus was standing in the exact same place in the exact same time. Mrs. Prince was gazing at a big leather chair as he wheelchair-bound husband looked on.
"We have to do this…" Mrs. Prince whispered as she stared. "I cannot fail her…"
This time the surrounds did change, and he was standing in a different room of Prince Manor. There appeared to be a corpse in the bed across from him, but as Severus investigated further – he realised it was only Atticus Prince, his century old grandfather. He looked down from where he stood, and saw Serafina Prince sitting at her dresser, dipping a brush into a pot of pale powder and twirling it around her cheeks. He watched her put on every piece of make-up she kept in a gargantuan crystal case in front of her in frustration… the downside to Legilimency was that one could not pick and choose which memories he or she observed – it was all the receivers. It all belonged to them.
Finally she did get up, and he apparated with her into a dark swamp, where a cloaked man waited.
"I am Serafina Prince, wife of Atticus and matriarch of the Prince family… as pure a wizarding dynasty as anyone will find."
The man followed her lead and threw back his own hood; through his ivory mask she could spot an unamused smirk.
"Or so you would like to think, Mrs. Prince."
"I can assure you, masked man number five, I did not come here for a casual natter with an infantile adolescent. Especially one who is evidently more engrossed in his hair than creating intruder charms," Serafina bit, with a contemptuous glance over his well-groomed tresses. The blonde man's expression darkened to further heights.
"Ah, yes… I see where your grandson got it from."
After what seemed like hours, they came to a muddy lake.
If Severus had been in his right mind, his heart would have completely frozen over.
"You found our guest in good health, I assume, Lucius?" the Dark Lord murmured from the other side of the small lake.
The Dark Lord…
"Yes, my Lord. She is very eager to explain why she hasn't fulfilled what you asked of her yet."
"My Lord, is it necessary to have such an inconsequential teenager here with us…? Especially one who twists truths in front of your very eyes." She asked of him.
"I'm the truth twister? Why don't you come join the Blacks, your supposed family, for dinner sometime and let them decide-"
"Lucius, your brash words displease your Master," Voldemort hissed, moving further towards them with each slow step. "Leave us. Wait for me at the meeting place… we have initiations to prepare for."
"Yes, my Master." And he was gone.
"Time is running out for you, isn't it Serafina Prince?"
"It will get better, my Lord, I promise."
"And seeing that your promise is a life or death one for you, my friend, I am inclined to let you continue with your mission."
"Thank you. I won't fail you."
Voldemort gave an icy laugh. "If you do, you shan't be around to know, will you? … But your blood-traitor daughter will."
"I am taking a risk Serafina." He continued. "Trusting your words, your promises that your grandson will be of a great asset to your Lord Voldemort's cause. Why, part of me still believes that I should simply murder your petty little whore of a daughter at this very moment… have her worthless existence over and done with – it would be more of a charity than a crime, I believe."
"Does that upset you, Serafina?" Voldemort asked.
"She is my daughter." Serafina replied.
Voldemort's lip curled into a vicious sneer. "Good, good. Remember, you are now bound to me forever, servant! The tie of the Unbreakable Vow you made your Dark Lord will never break. Once Severus joins us, he must remain loyal. I am sure you know this."
"I am…"
"If he strays, if he runs from our world like his coward of a mother… Serafina, you will breathe your last."
"I know."
"And have no reservation, my valued friend – I will slaughter them both after your own demise. I will butcher your daughter in the most painful of ways in front of her only son's eyes as his punishment; and then, after her body has begun to rot away and he can smell her death and his failure - I shall graciously relieve the traitor of his own futile life. The Princes shall be no more."
No… no… Two thoughts seemed to express this at one time. Severus realised the emotions he was feeling at present were also the very same ones pulsing through the cloaked woman in front of him, standing boldly upright and looking Lord Voldemort directly in the eye.
"Severus will not fail you."
"Yes. Let us hope so, for your sake. As a lasting token – remember this: if he refuses your requests, consider my… terminal promises unchanged."
No…
"You already have my word, my Lord. My life, and the lives of my family rest on it."
"Very well. Get out of my sight; I have initiations from willing followers to instigate. I shall be in contact in three months; if he is not ready and willing to become the Death Eater that you promise Lord Voldemort he will, consider the Vow broken. Go."
And Serafina went.
Before he witnessed the memory of her plummet to the floor as he was drawn back, there was the slightest, thinnest thread of vision of two hands entwined… one ivory, delicate and jeweled – the other translucent, waxy and distorted.
"Severus will be eternally mine…" came the hollow voice of the Dark Lord from behind Severus's ears; "… this is the promise that you, Serafina Euadne Prince, give to your Lord, to ensure your families interminable fortification and protection."
"It is, my Lord. I will ensure it."
Strings of gentle flame curled around them from the hands of the masked Bonder who caressed the tips of their fingers with the tips of their wands.
The visions telescoped into blackness, leaving him kneeling at her feet in the physical world, grasping at the table leg to sustain his balance. He mouthed silent words.
"Severus…" Serafina started, reaching out to the person on the floor who seemed, now, so much more a lost boy than a man.
"Oh, God..." Severus croaked. When he looked up to see her grasping for him he took both hands and threw the inviting arm away. "Don't!"
He stumbled to his feet on his own; he could almost feel the cold steel of the chains she and these visions had entwined around him. Every shred of precious doubt he held head been ripped away… she had been right, she had been true through her deception, he had no choice… he had no choice.
"Severus, we can come through on top of this," Serafina comforted. "We can ensure that we all have the peaceful lives that we deserve – that you and your mother deserve. He will give us everything!"
Severus shuddered at her words, collapsing onto the bed.
"Peaceful indeed."
"At least we know he won't do it with our loyalty! Your household would have been targeted eventually – you cannot be so naive as to think that you all would get away unscathed. We are at war."
"Unquestionably," he said in a tone almost as hollow at that of the Dark Lord in Serafina's thoughts.
She allowed him a few uninterrupted moments of deep thought and heavy breathing before once again, as always, she interjected.
"Rest your mind now my grandson," she whispered soothingly "and come back home."
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