A/N: Hello everyone. No I have not abandoned this story. I am sorry that it has taken such a long time to update, but other fics have unfortunately been taking up my time… I had writer's block for a long while with this one. Please review to let me know you're still reading this. It really pushes me on. And hopefully a new chapter will be around the corner. Enjoy, everyone x

Chapter 46

End of the Spinner

Eileen closed her eyes and used his chest as a rather uncomfortable pillow. He stroked her back and kissed her hair. Their shared enragement asphyxiated any reasoning and logical thought. Soon they were nothing but skin and blood. Their bodies shifted together in unison. Blood dripped methodically from his cut lip onto her breasts…

Tobias lay upon the very same patch of carpet now, only not covered in blood and laying next to a woman that filled him with simultaneous white-hot rage and fanatical, almost obsessional love… now the entire house was void of any light, and he was laying a small pool of his own vomit – struggling to breathe. He didn't know if this was due to a failure of his muscles, or a failure of will, either way it didn't matter anymore. What did it matter if she was gone?

"Sev? What are you doing here?"

The small, ebony-haired child that he had so often struck with his vicious words ever since he could walk scurried away under the table, as he so often had done, and disappeared out of sight. That vision had been repeating itself over and over in his head today.

His head felt like a twenty tonne weight had been secured to his neck and was pulling him with all its might toward the centre of the earth. He couldn't lift it for longer than a few seconds. Was this what sobriety felt like for everyone else? He'd rather be dead. He probably soon would be… it must've been days since he had eaten, or drunk… he couldn't even think of that word anymore.

Tobias knew, somehow, that everything he was seeing wasn't really there. But that didn't stop the visions from terrifying him to the core of his being. The five year-old Sev peaked his head out from under the table where he had been hiding – watching, completely mute… it felt like he had been staring at him for hours and he didn't know what to do to make it fucking go away. Every time his eyes flicked toward his son his heart would race and his hands would start shaking.

He gave an almighty groan as he managed to push himself up. He couldn't bear these visions any longer, and he had a thirst for water that he had never felt in his life; his mouth felt like concrete. Toby staggered up the stairs toward the bathroom and ran the tap over his tongue, letting the sweet nurturing liquid caress his lips as the alcohol had once done. But as soon as his greedy gulping at the facet stopped, the thirst came back even stronger than before… he spun the tap on once more, more fervently this time, and opened his mouth wider to take more in; again, however, when he stopped the unbearable thirst would return and his mouth turned back into a cement mixer. He swore loudly and splashed the tepid fluid over his face and down his back instead. He needed a drink. He needed a drink like he'd never needed a drink before. Water wasn't going to heal like the booze would.

Toby raised his head slightly and braced himself before looking in the mirror. He didn't end up quite getting to that stage, however, as he gave a great jolt followed by yelp of terror at another sight that was caught in the reflection. There was a floating body in the bath; by the looks of the back of her head (and the way the almost otherworldly black hair that entranced him so much seemed to cover the entire surface of the water) it was his wife. He backed away violently against the opposing wall and quickly felt his way out of the bathroom, desperately longing for a place to escape these horrors.

He slung himself down in the upstairs hallway, his legs had completely given way and he feared he would never stand again.

If he didn't feel so hopeless and consumed with waves of dread he would have laughed. If only Eileen could see how he truly fared without the booze – that it would be the lack of drink that would end up killing him.

Even if he closed his eyes tight shut he couldn't escape these hallucinations now. All he could see was her face – and whenever he imagined her face it was never happy, never harbored a smile for him. Her eyes were always filled with sadness, and her face bruised as a direct consequence of her love for him. Toby, a prisoner in his own body, could do nothing but lie upon the carpeted floor on the upstairs and swim in visions of her.

His quiet sobs instantly cut out the noise of the downstairs door swinging open and clicking shut. He would have merely attributed it to another vision, anyway. The footsteps rummaged around downstairs for a few moments before stopping in their tracks… obviously newly acclimated to the noise from upstairs.

The footsteps turned and made their way cautiously up the staircase. They became clearer and clearer until even the sobbing shell of a man on the landing could no longer ignore them. Tobias opened his crusty eyes just enough to see a black blur of an apparition draw closer and closer toward him. Unlike the other hallucinations however, who drifted in and out of the room not unlike ghosts, this one had rushed toward him and pulled him up to a seated position by his collar. Toby's eyes rolled in his pounding head… the blur became clearer as his eyes opened to allow in more light. Instead of the usual seven-year-old Severus his mind had appeared so fond of showing him, a fully-grown adult Severus stood before him… a new founded sort of power radiating from him that Tobias had never seen before. There was nothing but pure loathing and white-hot fury in his eyes.

"Where is she?" he demanded, his voice echoing and muffled as the dim light swam around him… his grasp clenched tighter and tighter around his father's neck.

"Sev…?"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" he screamed furiously at him. "What's happened here? Why has the house been turned upside down? Where is she?" he repeated, his fist shaking against Tobias's jaw.

Toby opened his dry mouth to speak, by the looks Severus's face when he did so it must have been an appalling sight. He had never seen anyone looked so ashamed and humiliated before.

"I…" Toby began, before his more malicious side began to snake its way back into his repertoire. He sneered at his boy and gave a haughty snort. "Decided… ter come back after… all this time, have yeh?" he stammered. "Yeh did worse to yer mother than I ever could, I-"

This time it wasn't like threatening a small, defenseless child. This time - that once small, defenseless child pulled his lifelong tormenter to his feet and threw him through the air across landing, where his head came into swift contact with his old bedroom door. Tobias's body slumped into a heap as Severus came at him again, throwing himself on the floor beside his father and placing his shaking hand upon his throat.

"I'll make it simple - so even a worthless worm of a drunkard like you can understand. If I find out you've harmed her in any way, I will use this - " a long rod which he assumed was one of those stupid wand things jabbed viciously into the crevice of his jaw, his artery pounding hard against it, " – to do the most unspeakable damage upon you. Tell me where she is!"

Tobias coughed and spluttered and struggled aimlessly against the shaking wand.

"She… left… alright?! She left on her own accord – I… I dunno where she's gone! I swear!"

The sharp pressure from the wand eased ever so slightly and he was able to catch his breath.

"Left?" Severus repeated. "Then what have you done to the house, you imbecile? It's in ruins."

Now Tobias was unable to keep even his head upright; it lobbed grotesquely to his left side while he focused all of his effort on merely keeping his eyes open.

"Was angry…" Toby mumbled through clenched teeth. "I need... I need Ei."

"You need a hole in the head!" his son spat, shaking his head between his hands in fury. "What happened when she left? What did you do to her?"

But it was evident that Tobias was too far gone to give any more answers. All of a sudden, he felt Severus's grip loosen on him, sending his head tumbling back upon the door and the floor. He heard distant frustrated clunking and clinking, before a hand cupped his head and something cool was poured into his mouth. It was the most refreshing drink Tobias had ever tasted… sweeter than alcohol, sweeter than life. His eyes blinked back open as the liquid worked its magic on him.

"Thanks, Sev" he slurred in rare gratitude. But he was faced with the same incensed face as before.

"I wouldn't be thanking me just yet…" Severus replied, observing his face as charily as a hawk. It appeared he was right… for just a few moments later, Toby felt a rather odd feeling overcome him; it was as if all of his inhibitions were loosening all at once.

"What did you give me, yeh little shit?" he snarled.

Without batting an eyelid, Severus pocketed the now empty vial and asked casually: "What is your name?"

"Tobias Snape," his words came almost robotically, there was nothing he could do to stop them. "What?" he added – more to himself than anyone else. What on earth did he say that for? And why was Severus asking his name?

Severus merely nodded in approval.

"And where is my mother?" he continued in his interrogation.

"I don't know," Tobias answered, again it appeared he didn't have to think in order to speak anymore. "She took her things and left."

Severus's gaze met his own. He appeared to be thinking very hard on this statement.

"And why," he finally began again, much more severely this time "did she leave this house?"

"Because I found out that she threw me down t' stairs," Tobias answered mechanically. "I punched her."

He was dead. He was sure of it. But there nothing he could have done to stop himself from divulging what he just did… Severus continued staring at him, as calmly as anything given the circumstances. There was something about his breathing that began to set off warning bells for Tobias, however.

"You punched her," he repeated.

"Yes." Toby replied just as calmly and robotically. "I punched her and she hit her head on the door. I told her to hit me first but she didn' listen. She was injured but she could manage to walk. She just left. And I don't know where she has gone."

The blow that followed took a good long while to materialize. Toby lay panting on the floor watching as Severus rubbed his face with his hand and took a deep breath through his nostrils.

"Hate myself…" Toby added, quite truthfully, but it appeared that Severus either didn't hear him, or didn't care. He pushed himself up from where he had been sitting and strolled slowly over to the bannister of the stairs. Then, out of the blue, he stormed back to where his father's body lay motionless and panting on the worn carpeted floor and delivered a furiously potent kick right into the centre of his ribs. One of the wands that he and his long-gone mother had always carried around with them tumbled onto the ground beside him, where it lay quite forgotten. Toby yelped as white hot pain radiated up his side; he looked up just in time to see the tip of another boot swing into him, and again, and again… Severus's face was contorted with disgust and the purest hatred.

"I came back for her!" his son finally spat through clenched teeth when he had run completely out of the energy, and now rested against the bannister, panting in a similar way to his father. "And all I find is you. I should just let you burn."

By this stage it was getting nigh impossible for Toby to construct a sentence simple enough to be able to speak. A thick warm sort of fluid was dribbling its way out of his nose… obviously blood.

"Going ter –" he mumbled and spluttered, "going ter burn – our house?"

Severus took a few strides toward him, where he bent down and drew out his stupid stick thing from his pocket. It took Tobias several moments to realise that it wasn't the same stick as the one still lying on the ground… that one was broken in half… the one on the floor had to be Eileen's: the one that he had snapped not more than a year ago. Severus had retrieved it from whatever place she had hidden it.

"No," he said slowly and deliberately, now pointing the stick directly at Toby's throat. "But they will."

As if he had commanded it – and Toby would have been sure he had if he had been coherent enough – there was a deafening bang from downstairs. Fuck, he must have called in his gang.

But as Toby blinked up into the twisted and distorted face of his son, it was clear (or at least as clear as it could be) that he had not invited them to barge on in after him. He was looking back and forth down the hall and behind him madly, swearing under his breath, as if fighting with himself over what he should do.

Finally, he clenched both his hands and his teeth simultaneously, gave an almighty "fuck you!" underneath his breath as he gathered up Eileen's wand (which hung between his fingers by a single thread) and pocketed it into his robes with his own… and before Tobias knew what was happening his son had latched on to his forearm with a pincer-like grasp.

For a moment Toby thought he had died. He certainly felt close to it anyway. Everything went pitch black and he felt like his body was being torn apart from the inside out. The next very moment he felt himself hit the ground very hard, as if Severus had dropped him from a building. He coughed and spluttered and blinked wildly around him, the pains in his stomach had increased a hundred-fold and he doubled over and vomited all over what felt like grass.

"What yeh gone done?" Toby demanded in between wheezy gasps. The ground was wet and damp and a cloudy sky loomed overhead. "Killed me?"

Unlike himself, his son merely dusted himself off from where he stood and took a few paces toward his father. He shoved him over violently so that Tobias toppled over onto his back.

"A very bad idea to tempt me…" Severus bit back as he emerged above him, blocking out most of the moonlight with filtered through the clouds. "I have just saved your life. Saved it when you deserve nothing more than to rot. I suggest you leave this place immediately, before I come back to my senses."

"Where – who- "

"I don't care," Severus answered before the sentence was completed. His wand was once again trained on Toby's face – and even though it was dark, Toby could see it shaking. "But you will never come back to Spinner's End. And you will never attempt contact with my mother ever again, else you'll me to answer to – you hear? You hear me, Tobias?" his teeth were bared and he grabbed his collar so tight that Toby felt on the verge of passing out once more.

Toby gave one great cough, which made his son wince in revulsion. Leave their home… leave her… even though Eileen had already left him of her own will, he had held onto the hope that she would come to her senses and return to him. She always did.

"I can't - " Toby pleaded pathetically. "I need her – argh!"

A jet of red light exploded in front of his face. Searing pain began to radiate from his jaw up to his ears, where they were ringing so much that he could barely hear what Severus was currently bellowing at him. Sparks were fizzing from his wand.

"Don't make me show you what magic can really do!" he yelled, sounding just as pained and hurt as Tobias felt. "I'm not like Ma, who protected you from her true capabilities all these years. I hate you. I have no qualms in obliterating you to dust!"

"Why don't yeh then! Come on, finish the job! S'not like I have anythin' to live for anymore anyway" Toby fought back with his last fighting breath.

"Because…!" and it was the first time Severus had faltered. He bit his lip and was clearly trying desperately to stop any emotion from flowing. "Because Ma would never forgive me if I did. That is the only reason you are still breathing."

He pushed himself up from where he knelt by Tobias's feeble form and turned away.

"I suggest you run; they won't be far off…" Severus informed him. "I have done as much as I am willing. Stay and die or flee and be forgotten – it's up to you."

"Severus…"

He looked back at his father's final pathetic plea. Their eyes met briefly across the chilly black field just beyond their old home. The older man wanted to say something… anything that would make it all better again – but what could? What could make it all better again after the life they had lived together? What could save him now after the damage he had caused his entire family?

He didn't need a drink anymore; he just needed this all to end.

"Severus, please…" was all he could think of.

The last thing he saw before his son disappeared for good was a staunch shake of his head, and eyes full of angry tears.

He had gone. Now Tobias was very, very alone.

The house was in ruins, even before they had ransacked the place in such of the Muggle and his blood-traitor wife.

Lucius Malfoy kicked a pile of shattered glass out of his way as he surveyed the establishment, light radiating from the tip of his wand as he held it out in front of him. So this dingy little establishment was the place Severus grew up in? Merlin. No wonder he yearned to see the Muggle side of him obliterated. Lucius sneered to himself as he gazed around at the all of the Muggle artifacts around the place… even the prospect of being seen in a decrepit place like this set his teeth on edge. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to get past this and look at Severus the same way again. Pity.

"Homenum Revelio," he murmured into the darkness.

"Looks empty, Malfoy." McNair grumbled behind his mask. "By the looks of it someone got there before us… shame… I'd been looking forward to a good old Muggle torture session and all. Got all my best curses on hand."

"Check upstairs," he ordered to McNair and Yaxley, who was currently flicking the switch to the light in the living room on and off with a simultaneously perplexed and offended countenance. "I think I heard movement up there when we came in…"

The two other Death Eaters did as they were bid, as their group leader continued to survey the downstairs room. There was barely enough room here to swing a Kneazle in… there was no possible way that Snape's Muggle father and his blood-traitor wife could hide well here, even if she had managed to counter his revealing spell. With one swish of his wand all of the doors and windows in the house blew off their hinges… he listened carefully after the initial smashing had died down… nothing. No movement whatsoever. He swiped his wand once more at the walls of books surrounding him – they all came toppling out of their casings and landed in a great pile before him.

"Any sign?" he called to the two upstairs, before making his final move.

"There's no one here, Lucius. They've scarpered." Came Yaxley's reply.

He nodded to himself. It would appear they were correct. The Dark Lord was not going to be very amused when he learned that they had been tipped off somehow.

Well… Lucius thought to himself. Just to make sure…

"Get down here and come with me to survey the surrounds," he instructed McNair and Yaxley. When he heard their footsteps arrive beside him, Lucius jabbed his wand at the piles of textbooks. He became even more adamant that this was the right cause when he saw that many of them appeared to be Muggle science textbooks and encyclopedias… Merlin, how could that despicable blood-traitor live with herself? How could Severus have lived with the fact that his pureblood mother had been such a failure?

He needed to get out of this place poste haste. His very skin was starting to feel unclean.

Flames erupted from the tip of his wand and came fluttering down to rest upon the pages of the books. He stayed just a moment or two longer than the others to ensure that the flames would be adequate to engulf the entire house before he stalked away.

I could have sworn I heard something… Lucius thought to himself as he separated from Yaxley and McNair as not to cause a scene. Someone was definitely upstairs when we entered…

She might have Disapparated with him. That was always a possibility. If that was the case, they could be anywhere by now.

All of a sudden he was momentarily blinded by the lamps of one of those noisy Muggle transport devices as it came blundering down the cobblestoned street. He hastily pulled the hood of his black cloak over his head and strode over near a dark and gloomy lake a few streets over from the house that he had momentarily set alight. He leant against a tree and puffed a colossal amount of exasperated air out from his lungs. How could he go back to the Dark Lord empty handed? What happen to him? What would he do to him? Or worse - to Narcissa?

Someone had definitely tipped them off, of that there was no doubt. A Death Eater?

Severus?

Would he though? After joining them specifically to keep his filthy Muggle-loving mother out of trouble?

Poor, naïve lad, Lucius thought in the middle of his dilemma. I was starting to consider him a friend too.

A sudden rustling in the darkness up ahead signaled to him that he was not alone. Lucius suddenly snapped out of his own worried thoughts and squinted into the unknown. Who on earth would be dwelling amongst dense swamp-like grass at this hour? Pulling his hood tighter around him, he took out his wand and muttered "Lumos" almost silently; it only made his vision marginally better. He still had to stalk a good few yards to reach the source of the crunching leaves.

When he finally got close enough to properly distinguish the unwelcomed intruder, his stomach gave a jolt of exasperated surprise. What looked like a middle-aged Muggle man was dragging himself by one hand away from him, looking very unnerved at his sudden presence, though he did not appear very eager to run away. He was covered in blood from head to toe.

"Who are you?" Lucius hissed from underneath his mask, wand raised to the man's face.

And, as if by some miracle, as if Merlin himself was watching down upon Lucius, the man answered him: "Tobias Snape."

It was spoken so mechanically, and yet the Muggle's eyes widened with shock upon hearing the words escape him. If Lucius didn't know better he'd take a guess that some kind of truth potion had been recently been used upon him. His night had just taken a dramatic turn for the good.

"Are you indeed?" Lucius answered with a smirk that could be seen to no one but himself. "And where is your fine wife this calm, peaceful evening may I ask?"

"Gone." The Muggle replied immediately.

"Gone?"

"Gone away."

"Dead?"

"Might be…" he said with a splutter. Clearly he was on death's door as it was.

"And what, may I ask, has happened to you, Muggle?" Lucius enquired further, taking in all the advantages he could before he killed the man.

"Yer one of them aint' you?" the Muggle suddenly burst; evidently the potion was beginning to wear of.

"Answer me, Muggle, or you'll get this…" he pointed his wand threateningly between the man's eyebrows.

"Don't care," the Muggle answered. "Everything's happened ter me, that's what. Nowt you can do that… that will torture me more than t'torture I've done to myself…"

Lucius sighed. This was turning out to be one his dullest assignments yet. "You are not posing much of a challenge, even for a Muggle," he replied. "Did your son pop in to see you tonight?"

The Muggle looked to be fighting with himself internally… perhaps he wasn't as weak as once thought, though it was still amusing… when it looked like he was about to answer him, the Muggle instead spat at Lucius's mask.

"I ain't telling yeh shit," he said surprisingly defiantly. "I ain't running from anybody anymore and Severus had nowt to do with this, nor my wife. Yeh leave them be. She's a powerful witch, my Ei… my Ei…"

Lucius shrugged. It was useful while it lasted.

"Avada Kedavra!" he spat bitterly.

And, with one simple wave of the wand and a flash of vivid green light, the lights left Tobias's eyes, starring emptily toward the vast dark grey clouds above…

Lucius nodded to himself and pocketed his wand. Without so much as another glance, he stalked away back through the clearing to find Yaxley and McNair and to make their way back to the Dark Lord.

The broken and bloodied body behind him lay empty, cold and quite forgotten.

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