Chapter 47
Almost Beautiful
They had spent the morning back in Diagon Alley. Eileen's only pair of Muggle clothes were beginning to come apart at the seams, and while she supposed she could have easily fixed it – either with Hagrid's umbrella wand or even by stitching and tending to it herself – Hagrid was insistent that he would buy her a new pair of robes at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions before they set off to Prince Manor later that day.
"I haven't worn proper robes in…" Eileen had cut herself off; she couldn't even remember the last time she had worn robes or a cloak… felt like a real witch.
"Yeh don't have ter wear robes, mind…" Hagrid replied kindly as they entered through the fireplace and found themselves back in the Leaky Cauldron. "If yeh feel more comfortable in Muggle clothes we can always-"
"To be honest, it makes no difference to how comfortable I'm feeling right now, Hagrid…" Eileen replied as she dusted herself off – but with how worn the fabric was on her Muggle shirt there really was no need. "I may as well dress myself to match my mother's impeccable dress sense. Perhaps she would consider giving me the time of day if I turn up at her doorstep looking like the pureblood witch daughter she always wanted."
Hagrid looked down and gave her a soft and empathetic glance.
Ten minutes later, she stood upon a stool in Madam Malkin's being measured for robes (this was insisted upon by the pestering shopkeeper who apparently vehemently disallowed selling anything off the rack when Eileen hastily requested it), feeling as if this was the most ridiculous thing in the world to be doing. But, ridiculous as it felt, Eileen could not help but feel an inner warmth radiate from inside her chest as she turned around and faced herself in the mirror.
Being so young when she had left the wizarding world behind, Eileen had always been dressed by her mother, and she had always hated whatever the woman had put her in. Her wardrobe had usually consisted of flowing dresses, pastel colours and unnecessary pearls… her mother worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone who ever looked at her daughter was thoroughly distracted from her plain looks by her obvious wealth and prosperity. But now, now she finally had the chance to choose what kind of witch she wanted to look like – dressed from head to toe in black velvet and lace robes which ran the length of her neck right down to her knuckles and swept the floor of the shop – she felt a power the likes of which she had never felt before. She looked powerful. The contrast of the obsidian black of her robes and her eyes contrasted so well with her skin that that she could almost be satisfied with the way she looked for once in her life…
When the black cloak was finally added to the ensemble, she wasn't just almost satisfied: she almost felt beautiful.
She had never seen a man look so enraptured as she did Hagrid when she finally emerged from the shop still dressed in the robes and cloak recently purchased.
"Oh, Leenie…" he whispered whilst shaking his head. "Yeh look… yeh look wonderful. Not that yeh don' always, mind - " he quickly added apologetically. "- But this, this suits yeh."
Eileen felt her cheeks burn red hot against the slight drizzle that had descended upon the alley once more. She found that she could not meet his eye.
"Thanks to you," she started, looking down at her boots. Suddenly she felt Hagrid's vast and warm hand catch her gently by the chin, and suddenly she was looking into a face full of pure affection.
"s'nothing, believe me," he answered. "s'the best way I can spend me money – making yeh happy for once."
As much as Eileen wanted nothing more than to melt under his words, and his love, the years of endless distance and neglect from those around her had turned her into an emotional anomaly. She craved this kind of affection but she did not know how to process it, to deal with it… she only hoped that Hagrid saw it somewhere, deep down within.
She managed a slight smile.
"Well, I'd best be off…"
"We'd best be off." Hagrid corrected before shaking his head. "And what do yer mean? Yeh don't even have a wand yet!"
"You think I'm going to need one?" Eileen asked, alarmed, as Hagrid began walking toward the other side of the alley.
"No, of course not," Hagrid quickly corrected, giving a slight chuckle. "But yer a witch! And a witch needs her wand don't she?"
Eileen frowned.
"But I can't - " she started. She was going to politely remind him that she could not, in fact, afford a wand as she had no wizarding currency to speak of, before she realised that Hagrid intended to buy it himself.
"Hagrid, you have already spent far too much on these robes!" she objected loudly. "I don't need a wand right this very instant!"
And yet they had still arrived outside Ollivanders… it was here that Hagrid took out his pink umbrella from the inside of his coat. She gazed down at it, and then looked back to Hagrid.
"Remember this?" he asked gently. "This contains the wand I thought was lost ter me forever. Thought I could never use magic ever again I did; it broke me up inside, those few days after all that happ'ned. And then I find this, this umbrella restin' outside my door with a note from you on it… yeh spent the entire night from dusk 'til dawn fixin' it fer me. Usin' magic most could never learn in their entire lives... powerful magic it must have been, and from a powerful witch."
Eileen had to look away yet again.
"… this were the best thing anyone had ever done fer me," Hagrid continued as he reached out and held her hands gently, it was clear that the emotion was rising higher with every word he spoke. She could tell how much he truly meant it. "Yeh didn' need to do it, but yeh did it. You gave me my old life back -"
"Your old life was never lost." Eileen replied reprovingly.
"No!" Hagrid boomed in agreement. "No, it were never lost like the way yours was. Yeh know why? 'cause of you!"
They spent a couple of moments in silence… and all Eileen could think to do was rub her thumb gently over his. She felt him sigh heavily.
"Look at me," he pleaded – and so she did, with difficulty. "I would spend every last penny if I knew there were a wand, or something, anything, on this earth that could make yeh as happy as this does ter me," he shook his umbrella slightly in front of her stunned face. "Let me get yeh a wand. Please? Yeh saved me when I was stripped of mine… let me do the same fer you."
And with an abundantly heartened smile, she kissed his hand with a simultaneously strong and tender dedication.
Walnut and phoenix feather… thirteen and a half inches… supple. This was the new wand that Eileen now held in her hand as she left the left the shop that she hadn't entered since she were eleven and accompanied by her mother.
"Right," she finally said to Hagrid, who stood outside beaming not at the wand but at the newly vivacious expression on her face. "We should get going. You're still coming?"
Hagrid threw out his arms in a mock shrug. "Where am I gonna be tha's more important than being with you?"
His simple affection was almost too much for her to handle, for someone who was so frequently used to love having an ultimatum. For waiting for the affection to falter before the stress and the tension to settle in, in an unrelenting pattern. They walked together side-by-side toward the Leaky Cauldron and to the Floo Network. Eileen hoped upon hope that her mother had not closed off the fireplace in her old home… she did not fancy trying to Apparate again after so many years of using nothing but Muggle transportation – especially as she assumed Hagrid would be just as shoddy at it.
They were just crossing the end of the alleyway toward the pub when Eileen caught the eye of someone who made her instantly forget about Floo's and Apparition. He was a young man, dressed from head to toe in black and silver robes, his long silky blonde hair was tied up with an elegant black bow, and she could tell he had just been muttering his breath to the other man who stood with him just outside the entrance of Knockturn Alley.
The second their eyes met, she felt a deep sense of unease… his cold, blue eyes flicked from one side of her face to the other – and she suddenly remembered that the amount of bruises and cuts on her face must be rather attention grabbing. He also began examining Hagrid in a deeply calculating and suspicious manner. Eileen quickly covered herself with the hood of her cloak, but the man continued to survey her with a furrowed brow.
"Walk faster…" she whispered as quickly as she could to get his attention.
As they reached the sanctity of the warm pub with its crackling fireplaces and clinking noises of various glasses being placed upon tables, Eileen spared no time in hastily crossing the room to one of the empty and abandoned fireplaces, where a jar of green power lay upon its mantelpiece.
"Hold yer Hippogriffs!" Hagrid objected suddenly as he followed. "Jus' need ter pay a visit to the loo."
"Now?" Eileen asked desperately. She did not know why she felt so troubled; all she knew was that she needed to get away from this place this instant. "Can't you wait until we get -"
"To yer mother's house? Yeah, she'd really like that I expect." Hagrid's beard twitched into a grimly amused smirk. Eileen could do nothing but sigh and wave him on hastily.
"Hurry up then!" she barked. Hagrid walked away swiftly, looking somewhat perplexed.
She drew back the hood of her cloak over her face again almost subconsciously… her foot tapped rapidly against the dusty floorboards of the pub. The bell attached to the back door of the Leaky Cauldron chimed once more, and she almost did not need to turn to see who entered through it.
Through one eye, unshielded by the hood, she saw the blonde man and his companion step into the pub; their eyes sweeping up and down the dusty tables with their various occupants until the blonde man found her again, his eyes settled upon hers. Eileen hastily turned away once more, willing Hagrid to get the heck out of the bathroom and into the fireplace. She heard the pairs' footsteps circumventing the outskirts of the room, as if they were trying to be careful not to attract any attention to themselves. Slowly, however, their footsteps began to ring louder and louder behind her, closer and closer…
The footsteps were suddenly drowned out by Hagrid's monstrous ones coming back from the bathroom. Eileen reached out and grabbed his arm.
"What - "
"Hurry up, we need to go," Eileen instructed quickly, as she reached out and grasped a handful of Floo powder. "You come right after me, you hear?"
But it was too late. The blonde man had already reached the same point in front of the empty fireplace.
"Excuse me," he started coolly. "Might I have a quick word?"
"Yeh may not!" Hagrid growled threateningly as the pair both turned to face him. Eileen was surprised at his tone… he sounded like he knew him.
The blonde man was not going to take no for an answer.
"Mrs. Snape?"
It all happened within the blink of an eye. Eileen momentarily dropped her hand containing the Floo powder and turned to face the man who had addressed her. Perhaps he had sought her out to bring her information about Severus, and she was not going to let that opportunity pass her by so easily. Hagrid, however, seemed determined to rid themselves of the pair.
"Yeh leave her alone!" he bellowed so loudly that everyone in the pub was now staring in their direction. His strength obviously no match for the two wizards in front of him, the wizard next to the blonde man had drawn his wand. He brandished it in the air and sent several chairs flying at breakneck speed towards Hagrid's head.
"Oi!" screeched the barman from behind his post, throwing down a half-poured pint of Firewhiskey and skirting around the bar with his own wand raised. But Hagrid merely flinched as if the chairs had been nothing more than several particularly pesky flies. He draw out his umbrella, which admittedly made the two men falter and frown in confusion.
It was this sudden and very slight break in the commotion that snapped Eileen back into her senses. The ship had certainly sailed. She threw the powder into the fireplace, where it erupted in green flames, and stepped inside hastily.
"I'll be right behind yeh! Go!" Hagrid yelled to her, remaining glued to the spot with his pink umbrella still pointed between the second wizard's eyes as if daring him to decipher the powers the umbrella held.
"Prince Manor!" she announced as quietly as she could so as not to draw attention to her destination. She closed her eyes as everything begun to spin around her in sickeningly quick succession; all she could hear was the wooshing sounds of her being transported from fireplace to fireplace… until…
She fell with a clumsy thump upon cold marble tiles. Pain was radiating from the shoulder that had collided with the floor.
Eileen could barely stand to look… she blinked open her eyes and gazed around the room – it was her old home all right, just as immense and just as cold and unwelcoming as it ever had been in her youth. There was no one here, but as it was just one stony room of many in this colossal place, it was not surprising. Her mother had been sure not to connect their Floo fireplace in the middle of their main living area… however, Eileen remembered that any appearance out of this fireplace would have previously called the attention of –
Crack.
Ah, so it still did. Her old house elf had just materialised before her eyes.
"Please states your businesses!" the house elf squeaked officially, before surveying the heaped woman before her and gasping.
"Only Mistresses most closest, most loving, should be allowed to completely pass through the flames!" Missy said, looking completely aghast. "Usually they is only heads!"
"That's because I am family, Missy," Eileen explained, pushing herself up and dusting off the remnants of soot. "Despite how much your dear Mistress wishes I wasn't – I still have Prince blood in these veins."
Missy gasped and clasped her hands to her face.
"Little Mistress?" she asked through her long fingers. "Is it… is it you Little Miss?"
"Not so little anymore," Eileen replied warmly. "And not really much of a Mistress, but yes. It's me, Missy. It's Eileen."
"Oh! Happy days!" Missy exclaimed loudly and joyously into the air, she rushed toward Eileen and was in the middle of a very dramatic bow when a bang, much louder than it would have been when Eileen had appeared through the fireplace, filled the entire room so loudly that it shook the window panes. Missy screamed and leapt back just as Hagrid had squeezed his way through the fireplace (which great difficulty and pushing).
"Can yeh shut this off?" he asked desperately to Eileen. "I think I held 'em off for a while, but if they heard where we were goin'… well, it won't take 'em long…"
"Missy!" Eileen called hastily to the house elf, who was still currently gaping up at Hagrid. "Close the network!"
"Little Mistress can still close it! She is family still!" Missy replied enthusiastically, as if she would wish nothing more than for Eileen to perform the spell herself.
"I -" Eileen started, but decided that she did not have the time to explain that a life of Mugglehood had served her just as well as amnesia would have when it came to remembering the more obscure incantations and wand movements. " – just – just close it, will you!" she shouted a lot more desperately.
The elf quickly skipped to the edge of the fireplace, where she waved both her hands slowly above her head with her eyes closed. The fireplace gave a slight and silent shudder, and the green flames died down into nothing but dust. Both Eileen and Hagrid breathed a quiet sigh of relief, though Eileen was still not sure what exactly she had been running from.
"Lucius Malfoy…" Hagrid whispered dangerously under his breath. "Nasty piece o' work. He were a few years above Severus at school…"
"What?" Eileen snapped, whirling around to face him. "Then why didn't you let him speak to me? He obviously had information about my son!"
"Trust me, nothin' he would say would do yeh any good!" Hagrid argued back. "They had their wands out, for Pete's sake, they wanted to do yeh harm!"
"Don't be ridiculous. What would they want with someone like me?"
"To protect you…"
But it wasn't Hagrid who had answered. It would have been quite the odd reply if he had. The witch, the half-giant and the elf all turned to face the door which was now completely ajar. Just beyond it stood the tall, slender frame of Serafina Prince; her once sleek and impeccable black hair was somewhat disheveled and messier than Eileen had remembered, and there were heavy bags under her eyes. But there was only one person who could look that haughty, and that overconfident… she certainly hadn't lost that.
And after eighteen years of taciturn separation, mother and daughter and their identical obsidian eyes faced each other once again.
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