Mettle

In a long dining room colored with streamers and balloons of green and silver, three people and a pair of House Elves were gathered around one end of a long table. Clapping her hands, his mother smiled. "Go on, Severus! Blow out the candles!"

Giving her and his grandmother a quick grin, Severus sat up in his chair on his knees and leaned his weight on the table in front of him. Gazing at the six slowly melting candles upon his favorite chocolate torte, Severus squeezed his eyes tight and wished:

Please, no more nightmares about the Dark Lord and Nagini.

Dark eyes popping open, he blew out all the air in his now six-year-old lungs as his mother laughed and the Prince family elves and Grandmother clapped politely. Turning around, he grinned at the women and elves. "Thank you for the party, Mum, Granny. And thank you Tack and Keebler for the cake!"

"You're welcome," they all said with an equally fond sentiment.

Hopping down, Severus asked, "Will I get to brew one of the potions I read about in your old first-year book texts, like you promised, Mummy?"

Sighing, his mother rolled her shoulders back and asked, "What about your cake? I thought you told me torte was your favorite."

"Oh it is," he answered. "But I'd really like to brew a potion – like you said I could." His dark eyes took on a dubious glint as he frowned. "Unless… Unless you changed your mind, Mum? Do you think six is too little now? You said six was important 'cause it meant I'd be a big boy now, remember?"

Biting her lip, his mother said, "Oh, you are most definitely a big boy!"

Severus's face kept its suspicious air.

"Alright, run along to Grandfather's cellar. Get all the ingredients together, I'll be along shortly," Mum told him.

A smile that could have put the sun to shame split across his face and he ran at her, squeezing his mother's middle with a hug, before scampering off to do as he was told.

-v-v-v-

Shaking her head to hide her smirk, Eileen turned to the patiently waiting House Elves and said, "Put the cake away until after dinner tonight."

"Yes, Miss Eileen," they agreed, going at the task with a happy vigor.

Unable to hide another smile, she turned away from the elves and settled her stare on her mother. The older woman looked displeased. Frowning now, Eileen asked, "Oh, what is it today, Mother? What's got your knickers in a bunch?"

"It does so irritate me when you use such common adages," her mother grumbled.

Rolling her eyes, Eileen only crossed her arms and decided to wait the older woman out was the best course of action. And after a moment, Eileen was proven right when her mother broke their gaze and made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat.

Eyes somewhere far off as she gazed into the gardens outside the windows, the older woman remarked, "We used to have real parties when you were a girl. Do you remember them, Eileen? A gaggle of children for you and a dozen adults for your father and I to mingle with."

"I remember them, alright," Eileen agreed. "They were all a dreadful bore. I dare say Severus would find them to be the same if you tried to throw one."

Lined face showing her distaste for her declaration, Eileen's mother primly rearranged her skirt before saying, "At least you got to know who your contemporaries were!"

Giving yet another roll of her eyes, Eileen took a seat at the long table and reminded her mother, "Severus will meet them at Hogwarts. There's really no reason that he must get to know them now."

"You knew your age-mates and you still had trouble making friends," Eileen's mother spat with caustic abandon.

Sitting a little straighter,Eileen narrowed her eyes scornfully. "Severus isn't me, Mother. He'll make friends just fine."

Sweeping toward the window, her mother turned so only her back was visible to Eileen. Her shoulders were set squarely and her back straight as a rod before she pointed out to Eileen, "You know, you are raising Severus the same as your father raised you. He kept you locked away down in the cellar instead of letting me take you on social calls. Now, Eileen, how did that work out for you?"

"I made friends in the end," she whispered as she remembered with sadness her first several months at Hogwarts.

Spinning around, her mother said, "But that wasn't a good time, was it? Do you really want your son to start his schooling the same way? Friendless?"

"Of course I don't!" Eileen argued. "I want him to get off to a good start just as much as any mother would, but truly, I made it out alright. Who's to say he won't as well?"

The elder's hard eyes began to crumble as she came up beside Eileen and took her hand. "You have yet to acknowledge it, my dear, but Severus is far different from you. Those damnable dreams of his are only one reason among many as to why he's not going to have the same experience as you did."

"Fine," Eileen hissed as she took back her hand. "I'll take him to see Quincy's son, Quirinus, they're about the same age."

Face aghast, her mother grabbed Eileen's shoulders and denounced the idea. "Quincy? As in Quincy Quirrell? Eileen, he's married to a Muggle hairdresser and works as a Muggle librarian! That's not a child for my grandson to be rubbing shoulders with!"

Furious with her mother, Eileen got up and began to pace. "Mother, I was just like Quincy up until two years ago! Besides, he's one of the last friends from Hogwarts that I still write regularly."

Stepping in front of Eileen, the lined woman's face took on an expression of stubbornness. "Let me handle it, Eileen. I'll find a good lad or lass for your son to befriend."

The patter of feet caught the attention of both women. Looking back toward the doorway, they saw Severus scowling at them. "Mu-um, you said!" he whined.

"I'll be right there, love. Just go on," Eileen said to her son.

Severus's face gave away all his disbelief, but he was an obedient child and went as she had hoped he would. Narrowing her eyes at her mother, Eileen snarled, "Fine. Find a child, but when it doesn't work out, I'll be taking him to see Quincy's son whether you like it or not!"

"Excellent," the old woman replied with a smug smirk.

-v-v-v-v-v-

The sound of children just a distant hum as Eileen and her mother sip at their tea, she found herself pleased at the awkward silence between them. If Eileen were lucky, it would mean she'd get the first word in when it became time to speak. Setting aside her cup, she let her eyes go to her father's boyhood family portrait. In it, he stood between his mother and father, wearing an expression not much different from the one Severus had used in their family's portrait last year.

She liked now how she could see more of her father in her son than she could see of Tobias. The depthless eyes her son had would always remind Eileen of the man she fell in love with, but as Severus grew… He became more and more like a Prince. He knew how to walk just as she did, how to flaunt his knowledge and soon, she hoped, he'd learn how to smirk as she did. Eileen would feel much more secure about him and his future if he learned how to put that razor sharp edge Princes' were known for into his smiles.

'All in good time', Eileen reminded herself. With time Severus would learn how to ooze danger even as he was smiling.

A particularly loud 'thunk' coming from down the hall, Eileen winced. She hoped that hadn't been her son who took a tumble. Giving her mother a dull glare, she said, "I never did like Walburga and I dare say I dislike her sons equally, if not more so."

Dabbing at her lips with a handkerchief, Eileen's mother raised an eyebrow and set aside her own teacup. "I'll have you know, Eileen, it took quite a bit of convincing to get Walburga to allow her sons for a visit. You should be happy that's she letting her Toujours Pur boys visit with your little mongrel."

"Don't talk about him as if he's some sort of dog! He's just as much your grandson as he's my son!" Eileen snapped.

Lips thin, the older woman said, "I love Severus, but it does not change the fact he's a Half-Blood and therefore my – and your – lesser."

"I can't believe you!" Eileen growled as she got up and threw her napkin down in the armchair she'd been previously sat in. Looking to get away, she told her mother, "I'm going to check on the children."

Rolling her eyes, the elder looked as if she might say more when–

"Take it back! Take it back"

Sharing a glance with her mother, she and Eileen race from the room and down the hall to find the older Black boy pummeling Severus as the younger cried beside them. Pulling the boy off, Eileen demanded, "What's going on! What are you hitting my son for?"

Small face livid, Sirius screamed, "We were playing Aurors and then he started making up stories!"

"What kind of stories?" Eileen asked as she began to maneuver the child to his brother's side as her mother helped Severus up.

"He– He–" the little brother stuttered.

Giving his brother an impatient look, Sirius covered Regulus's mouth and shouted furiously, "He said I couldn't go to the Ministry when I'm all grown up 'cause I'll die there! He said I'd end up on the wrong side of the veil and be dead!" Crossing his arms, the boy yelled defiantly, "I'm not dying like that! It's a stupid way to die! And when I told him to stop fibbing he told me he wasn't! I told Severus to take it back, but he wouldn't! So, I had to hit him."

"You never have to hit anyone," Eileen told the boy shortly as she turned her eyes on her son. Had he just seen how someone else died? How and why? Or, was this just as Sirius said? Just a… story.

Turning her attention to the still sniffling Regulus, she inquired fussily, "I assume he told you of your demise as well, Regulus?" The small boy gave her a confused look as if he didn't quite know what she was saying. Maybe he didn't, she thought. Too impatient to wait any longer, she reiterated her question, "Did Severus tell you how you'd die as well?"

Face screwed up into a truly ghastly expression, Regulus shook his head. "I don't w-want Sirius to d-die!"

"Oh belt up! You'll be long dead before he is!" Severus snapped from where he was simmering in his grandmother's arms.

"Severus!" Eileen couldn't help but gasp. The story of the older black boy ending up on the wrong side of the veil was bad enough, but to hear the little one would be dead before his brother? How much worse a fate could the Black line face?

Clutching her grandson with bone-white knuckles, Eileen's mother remarked, "It might be time for Sirius and Regulus to go home."

"You might be right," the younger sighed. "Tell their mother Severus isn't... feeling well, I suppose."

Nodding as she got up and took both boys by the hand, Eileen's mother agreed. "I will do so," and with that, lead the boys toward their main floo.

Scooting over to her son, who was still seated on the floor, Eileen wrapped an arm around him. "Why did you make up such mean stories about Sirius and Regulus? Don't you know we had them come over so you could make friends with children your own age?"

Sniveling, Severus pushed his face into her chest and muttered, "They weren't stories, Mummy. Besides, Sirius is a real prat. We always have to play games his way and I don't like it."

"If they weren't stories, what were they?" Eileen demanded with her heart palpitating.

Eyes lightless, the boy met her stare and explained, "They're like my nightmares about the Dark Lord and Nagini. 'Cept, it didn't happen while I was sleeping. We were playing – just like Sirius said – I bumped into Regulus pretty hard and then my head, it stung, Mummy. Like a gigantic bee got me between my eyes. I got scared and thought I might fall asleep, like the first time when I was little, but I remember how scared you got and told myself I couldn't."

Curling in on himself, Severus whispered, "Then I saw.I saw that Regulus was so thirsty and he was going to get a drink when a bunch of dead people started eating him as he screamed and screamed, Mummy. Sirius was in the Ministry, I don't know how I know that, but I do, Mum, and I saw him, he – he fell into the veil! But not really, the cackling witch spelled him so he'd fall and the boy with green eyes, he was there too, Mummy."

"Boy with green eyes?" Eileen uttered fearfully.

Her son bobbed his head. Then, shivering, he whispered, "It's after Nagini bites me that I see him. He's there and I know that he's important because I really, really love how green his eyes are, but… I hate him. 'Cause he's proof that I failed, but I don't know what I failed, Mummy!"

Bursting into tears, Severus buries his face in her lap.

Shushing him, Eileen began to wonder why her son was seeing how people died. Had she done something? Had Severus? Or was he just a puppet belonging to fate for a divine purpose she was too insignificant to understand? Eileen didn't know and it scared her badly enough she asked the one person who might have a better idea than she, her son.

"Why do you see peoples' deaths, my love?" she implored of Severus.

All of his six years then, Severus shook his head and whimpered, "I don't know, Mummy. I just see it. I'm scared now, Mummy. 'Cause I didn't know those boys all that well and I saw how they died. Am I gonna have to see how you and Granny die now, too?"

Clutching him to her breast, Eileen stood up with her son in her arms and began to pace with him as she used to when he couldn't sleep as an infant with colic. Hating the thought that he might, Eileen lied right through her teeth. "No, Severus, you aren't ever going to see how Mummy or Granny dies."

"Okay," Severus sniffed with all the trust and hope of boy too young to know not to.

Swallowing thickly as she combed her fingers through the boy's hair, Eileen couldn't help the awful thoughts that surfaced within her mind:

I never wanted to be a mother, I never wanted Severus and I certainly don't want to deal with whatever this is!

(Maybe I should have drowned him).

Well, readers, what do you think of this development? Interesting, no? I hope you liked it and I'll be happy to read what your theorizing after this chapter about Severus!

Thank you to reviewers, Nymphxdora, Jemennuie, NightmarePrince, Marie E. Brooke, Dixie.f.9, Alyssialui, Spidey Legend, Dark One Rising, KodeV, 2sidedstoryteller29995, and Saint Snape! You guys are spectacular :)

Thanks a lot for reading and pretty please review guys!

UPDATED: 4/23/16