Mettle
Closed off in a smaller room that Eileen had begun to think of as her study and private parlor, she poured herself another cup of tea as Quincy's pale eyes darted between her and the stained glass windows to the right of them. It was the one that depicted some point of Prince history from a time Eileen knew she was at least a hundred years too young to know. Some of the people in the scene held swords, one - a lone woman - has a wand and from that wand, a beautiful sparkling rendition of green light flows from it. In pane next to that, a pair of boy-children crouched in on themselves to the back of the woman.
Vaguely, Eileen wondered if it wasn't made in tribute to the woman. A true mother lioness. Not like her...
Swallowing thickly, she lifted her eyes just in time for them to collide with the wide-eyed look of her friend. Her gasp was inaudible, but she knew the parting of her lips gave her away if the shifting of Quincy's brows were anything to go by.
"What you said-" he stopped. Eileen couldn't bear the heartbreak she saw cracking the pale eyes that had always showed a contented satisfaction before.
Eileen almost reached out to lay a hand upon his knee, but she stopped herself. It was far too intimate a thing to do to a married man, she thought. Bringing her hands to her lap, she tucked them there and nodded her head once. "Yes," she whispered. "It's all true. Severus has dreamt of Quirinus's, his own, the Black boys and a number of others' deaths."
Tears gathering in his eyes, Quincy beseeched of her, "Why, Eileen, is such a small boy seeing such terrible things?"
"I wish I knew," she answered with honesty, her voice raw with her own pains.
Clearing away the tears from his eye with his thumb, the man said, "I don't know if a thank you is the appropriate response to what you've told me, but...thank you. I will help you. I'll take that job at Hogwarts - I'll do anything to make sure that doesn't happen to Quirinus. Not to my boy."
Giving a relieved Laugh, Eileen brought her hands to her face and felt the slick wetness of tears on her cheeks. This was going better than she'd hoped. She'd been so sure Quincy would call her a liar or a madwoman, maybe even a bitch. Why she'd thought the worst of her good-humored friend, Eileen did not know, but she was thankful her fears had not come to fruition.
"Oh, Quincy, you don't know how much this means to me!" she told him.
He gave her a rueful smile. "I'm sure the missus is going to love learning about magic and my change in jobs, I'd always figure I'd tell her when Quirinus got his letter..."
"She doesn't know?" Eileen asked, her heart giving a strange twist. "Hasn't your son shown bouts of accidental magic?"
Quincy shrugged. "Sure he has, when he's really good and mad - which happens almost never - things tend to fall over or doors slam shut. Once in a while, I've seen him magic his veggies away, when he doesn't like them at dinner, and he repaired a crying friend's broken toy once. It's all been quite easy to wave away. Doors slamming shut and open, things falling? The house's just settling or a strong breeze did it if a window's open.
"The veggies, I know Quirinus is doing it on purpose, but he only does it when he thinks we're not watching, so there's never been any questions about how they just vanished. As for the toy, I just explained to the lass it wasn't as broken as she'd thought. What, did you tell your husband about magic when you had Severus?" he questioned.
Eileen, pale and trembling ever so slightly, gave a shake of her head and replied, "When Severus was a baby he made his bottle come to him from across the room right in front of Tobias. I had to tell him about it after that."
"I don't think you ever told me what happened to your husband. Was it an accident? Did he get sick?" Her friend inquired as he slowly calmed down from the earlier admissions.
Casting her gaze to the scene of a Prince woman defending two helpless boys, Eileen felt an inkling of kinship. Maybe, she'd been just as weak of will until her sons were in danger too. Maybe they weren't so different after all. The woman may have been silent a bit too long, because Quincy was touching her wrist and murmuring gently, "Eileen? Have I upset you?"
Shaking her head, she gave her friend a tired smile. "No, no," she answered. "I was just thinking. I-" She sighed. "Tobias isn't dead, or he wasn't when we left, anyway."
Pale eyes intense, Quincy questioned, "You left your husband?"
"Yes I did," Eileen confirmed as she met the man's gaze dead-on. "When Tobias learned of magic, he became absolutely disenchanted with myself and son. He thought I was holding out on him. Believed that we could be so much further along in our lives with the help of my magic. You know - I know - this isn't so. But he didn't. He didn't understand and couldn't, no, he wouldn't understand. Tobias resented us through and through and because of this, he drank and we fought. I didn't have the strength to retaliate when he-"
Sucking in several breaths to sooth herself, Eileen couldn't meet the now thoroughly sympathetic eyes of her friend.
"Things escalated. One day, some five years ago now, Severus got in between us and refused to bow out. One of them was going to end up dead and I couldn't believe it would be Tobias. Oh Quincy, if you could have only seen him! He was just recently stricken with his visions and was in such a state! I think, now, mayhap he'd been looking for an end when he stood tall against Tobias declaring he couldn't hit me. Quincy, I think my baby wanted to die!"
And she's wailing. How could she not? She's just realized what's she's done. Her son, he'd wanted to leave for the safety of death's realm and she'd stopped him! She'd stopped her son from ending his pain and he had not a way to end it all these years since they left Tobias! She'd been making her child lead a life of suffering because she'd been too terrified of living without him!
The worst part was, Eileen thought, if he were to try something similar now she'd stop him still. His death would be too much for her to stand and the guilt of not trying to stop it would kill her, even if it were death that Severus wanted.
Quincy was holding her now, rocking her back and forth in a soothing rhythm as he petted her hair back and whispered to her in a soothing litany, "It's okay, it's alright, calm down, everything's okay..."
The two huddle together for a long time and when Eileen's gathered her composure, she gripped at the man's shoulders and told him in a fervent whisper, "He had wanted to die and save himself the suffering, but I stopped him, Quincy. I've made my little boy live in pain all these years because I was too afraid of a world without him!"
His forehead collided with hers with a painful crack and all she could see was the swirling depths of thoughts, emotions and life behind his pupils as she gulped in air. His hand heavy on the back of her neck, Eileen's friend hissed, "Don't say things like that Eileen! Maybe he's been wounded by what he's seen since then, but do you think he'd give up one day he's lived past the day you left your husband? Do you?"
Eileen didn't know the answer and could only continue gazing on in silence.
His fingers squeezed her neck as he murmured, "He wouldn't Eileen, believe me. There are so many things he's experienced since then besides the pain of what he sees in visions of death, he's felt the love of a grandmother, friend, house-elves, and cat. The joys of learning potions, playing like a little boy is wont to with his whole being thrown into the activity, the joys of having a friend and discovering things all on his own in books and gardens and about himself."
Falling back, Quincy asked, "Do you understand? Maybe he wanted to die in that instance, but I know now he does not. Eileen, if he'd died, he would have none of the things he has now and I know Severus adores everything he has and will have. So please, don't blame yourself for stopping him. Praise yourself, if anything, you showed him there's so much to live for since you left your husband. You've given him a reason to live back."
"Thank you, Quincy, you're the truest friend I've ever had," Eileen breathed with true awe as she brought him back for a gentle hug. Letting him go several moments later, she touched his pockmarked cheek and asked with wonder, "How did I ever find myself a friend like you?"
He put a mirror hand to her own face and smiled slow and sad. "I loved you, when we were children. I never told you, though, because I could see you weren't meant for me. You, Eileen, I knew you were destined for things beyond loving a boy like me. I was content with what I had, but you always had your eyes on something ahead of you."
"Quincy..." she mumbled, hand falling away.
He retracted his own and turned his gaze to the Persian carpet beneath them. "I love you even now, in a way, but my wife is who I want to spend my life with and the one I cannot imagine living without. I will probably love you forever, but it's not my guiding force to follow your lead anymore. Now it's because my son, the only soul I'd give my life for, is threatened by this looming 'Dark Lord'."
Lifting his chin, Eileen gave him a single kiss on the lips. It was gentle; it was kind and full of love. "If you'd told me you loved me years ago, I can't say I would have reciprocated, but now? Quincy, I love you too. You are the greatest friend I will ever have and I know this without a doubt in my heart that I will think of you until the end of my days with fondness. Thank you for caring about me, thank you for what you are about to do and I hope someday, when this madman is dead everyone will know your name and know you as a man who stood up for what was right out of love for those closest to you."
Smiling, Quincy brought the two of them to their feet. Both heady with what had transpired between them, they walked from Eileen's parlor and to the library where Severus was taking his studies with his grandmother.
Going in, Eileen called to the older woman, "Mother, we wish to speak to you for a moment."
Severus sent them an inquisitive stare and then, when he saw the looks on their faces and how close they were standing, he met her stare with a serious look. He would want an explanation later, Eileen realized with a quiet chuckle. She knew that look! It was the one her father used to wear when he knew there was a thing he ought to know about, but realized that now was not the time for explanations. It was funny; she'd never mastered the face herself, yet somehow Severus had come upon it naturally.
A Prince trait, perhaps?
It was a lovely surprise and when her mother approached with a disapproving frown, she was too buoyed by this new tidbit to be annoyed at the accusations lurking in the depths of her eyes.
In the hall, Eileen's mother cast a silencing charm on the library and declared quite toward, "I will not condone you marrying if Mister Quirrell divorces his wife."
"Oh mother, " she tittered. "You read too deeply. We have just come to realize how much our friendship matters to one another in the last hour and a half."
The old woman gave a disbelieving sniff and demanded, "And why's that?"
"We've shared our feelings and Quincy has promised he'll help us in our cause to stop this 'Dark Lord' that wishes to murder Severus and kill Quirinus," Eileen explained.
Quincy gave her hand a short squeeze and let it go. "She's right, Missus Prince. Nothing inappropriate has happened between us; it's as she said, we've just reached a new level in our friendship. And from here on out, I will be a comrade in your cause," he told Eileen's mother.
He held out a hand and for a moment, though it did not appear that her mother would take it.
But, just as the man began to let it fall, Eileen's mother snatched it up and gave it a firm shake. "I am pleased to have you on our side," she said.
"Thank you, Missus Prince. Now, if you ladies do not mind, I must be getting home. I have a great deal of things to discuss with my wife and I need to put in my resignation at the library I work at now."
Nodding, Eileen inquired of her mother, "It has been confirmed, yes? The position is open for Quincy's taking?"
"Yes, Horace sent me the letter just this morning. All Mister Quirrell has to do here is write straight to Albus about the position."
Smiling, the man pressed goodbye kisses to both their cheeks and said, "I can't thank you two enough - for everything."
"Let me show you out," Eileen offered.
And together, the two walked toward the tall doors of Prince manor.
Eileen's mother sighed and put a hand to her heart. "Thank Merlin we have one person who believes us," she murmured to no one in particular.
How do you all feel about chapter seven? Good? Bad? I felt like we needed to go a little more in-depth with Quincy Quirrell and his bid in this mission before we wrapped this part up and took another jump through time.
As you can all see, this is getting quite a bit longer than intended, but I'm still hoping I can wrap this up in fifteen chapters or less!
Thank you to reviewers, The Dark One Rising, Saint Snape, Professor Radar, Esrath, Nightmare Prince, KodeV, and J.F.C.! You guys are great :)
Thank you all so much again for reading and please review!
EDITED: 7/7/15