It's been yonks. I know. :( I'm getting married in two weeks though, so that's excuse I keep telling myself.

Enjoy.

Pureblood Prince 36

Time Turning

Tobias felt like death. That in itself was not all too surprising, given the… current state of things, but he had usually been able to sleep the days off, now he was barely asleep for an hour.

There was a reason there was no clock on this floor. Firstly, the heavy smoke and sheer size of the looms that towered above them would obliterate it from view; but more importantly, it was vital for workers morale that they were not privy to how much time they had left in the day.

He knew he had roughly about five more hours to go, if he worked through the half hour lunch. The looms were thumping his brain right to the back of his skull like they had done in his younger days before the partial deafness had set in. He just wanted to go home, check Ei was still safe and go to bed. The foreman shouting in this direction didn't help things.

"Twenty-two's in the shit, Snape!"

Tobias gave the thumbs up in acknowledgement left the piles of half-woven cotton he was inspecting to head over to the other side of the factory floor.

"Owt up?"

"Bleeding shuttle tension's gone. Just what I needed when I got two tonnes of fibers to get through..."

Toby gave an exasperated groan of acknowledgement before shoving his black, shaking hands into the still-operational machine. "Harness strap's misaligned," he mumbled through the pounding in his face.

"Fuck, 'ow long's that gonna take to fix?"

Toby coughed out the smoke that was slowly filling up every crevice in his lungs.

"Take me about half the day, this."

"Fuck's sake."

"Yer telling me…" Though maybe this might just get me in the good books with the boss, God knows I need it. Tobias thought. He glanced over to the foreman, caught his eye and made a kill gesture; the foreman rolled his eyes and nodded.

"I have ter shut this one down, Wally. Yer done for t'day."

The operator looked at his leather watch, Toby couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. "Drink, I think; yer comin' Tobe?"

"Yeah in a tick," he said, "got sommet to do first."

The first thing Tobias was accosted with as soon as he knocked on and entered the mill managers office was a raised eyebrow and a snort.

"Couldn't have waited for me to summon you in?" he murmured over the pile of papers and ballpoint pen.

"Sorry, Bernie."

The seated man eyed him for a while, paused and then threw down his pen upon the desk and gestured to the plastic seat opposite him. Tobias couldn't help but feel instantly uncomfortable, and consequently pissed off, at how ridiculously small he felt in the presence of this man and his office… it might as well have been a solid gold palace in comparison to his own work station – or lack of work station. He did as he was told, and sat.

"Make it quick, Snape."

And he made it as quick as he could possibly manage. "Can I have my bonus early?"

"Jesus, you don't beat around the bush."

"Yeh told me to make it quick!"

Tobias had to take a moment to remember who he was talking to. He composed himself. Bernie sighed.

"Do you know how many workers I have under this roof? Give one to you and I'd have to do the same to everyone. And Christmas is bleeding four weeks away!"

"I won' tell anyone, I swear. Just…" Toby realised as he said how desperate he was sounding. It was hard not to sound desperate when you had just played host to a loan shark who barged his way through your house and put his hands on your wife. "… please. I'll work overtime for nought for as long as yeh want."

Bernie's expression changed to one of almost pity. "I can't help you, Toby. I'm sorry. You'll get your bonus – but it'll be when everyone else. Get off home, eh?"

It took all of the strength left in him not to let the muscles in his neck completely give way. Toby nodded. "Right. See yeh tomorrow then."

He could not have gotten out of that shithole fast enough. Between the pounding jackhammer in his head and the crippling embarrassment of pleading with his boss for cash, Tobias had had just about enough. The sharp stab of cold air that assaulted his lungs as he stumbled down the steps of the mill was a much welcomed relief. He got twenty meters from the Lion's Head before the visions of her covered in his blood stopped him… he had never managed to stop himself before. He almost tripped over a small kid as he backed off from the thing that had destroyed most of his life, he stumbled as the boy capered away toward an alley and had to grab onto a lamppost to stop himself from falling onto the road.

A wave of nausea washed over him and he watched the boy run away, then his aching stomach completely dropped to his feet when the lad quickly his face toward him before disappearing. It was Severus. Oversized, tatty clothes and all. Tobias began to run down the alleyway after him but there was no sign of his son… he had disappeared just as he had before.

With a sigh of relief, Toby found his wife lounging in their leather chair, turning the page of a book when he slammed the front door and rushed into the living room.

"Is he here?"

Eileen glanced up and frowned.

"Parker? No he isn't. No thanks to you. Thanks for helping me clean up by the way, you lazy arse -"

"Severus. Is he here?"

The book slammed sit and dropped into her lap.

"No… why?" he could almost hear springs in her body readying themselves for release. "Why?" she asked again, more forcefully.

Tobias opened his mouth to explain what he had seen, but he was struggling with the words and she was getting impatient.

"Why?!"

"I saw him running around near the pub."

All of the excitement in his wife's face vanished about halfway through that sentence.

"You saw him running around near the pub." She repeated very slowly, very condescendingly. "… And what exactly were you doing near the pub?"

Beads of sweat began to drip their way down Toby's face – for what reason he was not sure.

"He's a child!"

Saying it out loud was even more preposterous than seeing it. Ei was clearly not amused.

"I don't think Severus has ever been a child, Toby."

"No!" balance was near impossible to him now and he managed to angle himself enough to just fall into the opposing chair, the only thing he could see in the spinning room was Ei and her crossed arms, glaring at him through her curtain of black hair. Yeah, you just sit there in your bubble of scorn while I just lay here and die. Such a kind, caring, nurturing wife you are. "I mean he… is… a child! He looks like he did when he was, I dunno, six or sommet! Thought it could be some magic thing. Could it? I'm sure yeh mentioned about some piece of junk that could turn back time -"

"Idiot! It could be some kid who looks like him!"

"I know what my son looks like: My face. Yer hair. Yer eyes. Believe me, it were him."

Ei had that look on face; her wheels were turning. Like she was running through every single spell or potion or god knows what in her head. Finally her face relaxed, and the wheels came to a halt.

"You listen to me," she said very sternly, "if you go anywhere near that pub again you are going to regret it until to the end of your short-lived days. It's bad enough you've landed us in more debt than we could pay off in a hundred life cycles and it turns you into a violent pig of man, but don't do this to me."

"I ain't touched a drop today, I swear!" For once, he was not lying to her.

"Oh, go to hell Toby, I can't even look at you. Sometimes I wish I finished the job!"

It was clear she was not going to believe him. Despite how angry that made him, he could vaguely understand her; he was even starting to doubt himself. Did he really see the boy, or was it his deep innate desire to antagonize her by using their son as bait that manifested itself into his form?

No. No, he had definitely seen him. And he was sure there was something those folk used to turn back time. It was entirely possible. Anything was possible in this family.

Ah, to heck with them both. He was on the verge of collapse and she didn't care one bit. "Already there, love!"

He didn't even bother trying to figure out the meaning of the other thing she had said, he could barely hold himself against the bannister as he dragged himself up to the bedroom and plonked down on the bed as the ceiling spun around in circles above him.

Why in all fuck did he feel like this? Was this what all the sober people felt all the time? He didn't remember wanting to kill himself when he was fourteen, before the drinking; though he didn't remember much of his childhood at all. Tobias felt his stomach twisting inside him, and, inevitably, the metallic taste in the back of his mouth that he remembered so well. He scrabbled around on the floor for a container of any possible kind, but it was too late. His insides surrendered their content over the carpet - and he probably wouldn't wake up again if Ei came up to bed later on and found it. Toby clasped the windowsill, pulled himself up and came face to face with his very young son again through the window.

He hadn't shrieked like he did just then in… ever since he could remember. He stumbled back through his vomit and hit the back of his head on the bedside table. Sev stared at him pitifully for a moment, before seemingly descending back down into the garden.

Toby ran to the window, shouting his name, but his view of the front of the house was obstructed and he could not see where he had gone. The second last thing he remembered thinking before passing out on the bed, covered in the contents of his own stomach, was Ha! Told you so, Ei. Last time you'll ever doubt me.

And, subsequently, the very last thought was about how much he hated himself for even thinking of the second-last one… and that for years, not a single thought had really been truly spent on his child. Not one.

With the exception of this one.

Perhaps.