Mettle
Pouring drinks for herself and her mother's guests, Eileen put them on a tray and was about to pick it up when she shook her head and drew her wand instead. A quick swish of it later, the tray and tea were levitating and she was able to walk to the dining room with ease. Sometimes, Eileen mused, even after years back in the wizarding world she still found herself about to do things the muggle way.
It spoke to how deeply her time their affected her, how much she actually liked the muggle world. Despite everything, Eileen missed the life she'd had there. How she had to walk, work, cook and clean. It'd taken so much time out of her day...Yet, it was also because of this she was never left with enough extra time to become paralyzed with fear as her mind travelled the avenues concerning Severus and what then, seemed to be just a terrible reoccurring nightmare.
Of course, she'd never regret her decision to come home either. It had given her son something she never could on her own. Here, in the Prince family manor, he had a haven. Here, he was safe. No one would doubt the things Severus saw or said, her mother and she did not ever tell him he was wrong or bad or evil. No place was better for her son than here and Eileen knew this to the very deepest thread of her being. But...sometimes, freedom called to her. She wanted that hard won life she'd had in the muggle world. A life built all on her own merits.
Once or twice, she'd brought up the idea of educating herself further so she may find a job among her people, but Eileen's mother was vehemently against it. She thought it was improper for her to work when she had a son that needed raising. They fought about this and as Severus's education at Hogwarts drew ever closer, Eileen felt the need to work all the more. She needed something to keep her busy now that her son was beginning to need her less than he ever had before.
For now, though, Eileen would let it be. Severus's eleventh birthday was a month out and it was better she begin to educate him on the finer points of Hogwarts subjects than to look for work. He needed every bit of help he could get, Eileen felt. His visions and introverted demeanor would be more than enough to slow his social progress at school down.
Stepping into the dining room with a polite smile to the gathered, she set the tea down on the table and apologized, "Sorry for the delay, it seems the house-elves moved the tea on me and it took me a moment to find it."
"Why not just have the elves take care of it all together?" Clodagh Selwyn inquired with a prim crinkle of her petite nose.
Eying her mother's guest, Eileen tried not to show her distaste for the response as she answered, "I find it's more pleasant when I do things myself."
"Hm," the woman murmured with little else to say.
Eileen, bothered by the silence as they sipped their tea, turned her attention to the young girl next to the woman. "So, Katrina, how old are you?"
The child, the spitting image of her father, who was busy drawing up the paper work with her mother to change Severus's name, met Eileen's gaze and answered flatly, "I am nine, ma'am."
Nodding at this, she offered, "My son's only a couple years older than you. If I had known your father planned to bring you and your mother, I would have had Severus stay home for the afternoon."
Clodagh gave a cold smile and remarked, "If I had known you would be here, I would not have insisted my daughter and I accompany Thomas on his business call. After all, what good is it to expose my daughter to traitor like you? Having her meet with a fine lady like Misses Prince is one thing, but you, Eileen, are another!"
Gripping her teacup with enough strength to crack the cup, Eileen replied, "I'm sorry to hear you feel that way."
That seemed to shock the woman and she held back a chuckle when Katrina sneaked a look at her mother, obviously using her as a template for her own reaction to Eileen. Sometimes, Eileen had to admit, it paid not to be petty.
"Mum!" came a call from the kitchen. Standing up, she planned to stop her son before he could be exposed to the likes of Clodagh, but Severus came into the room much too quick. His young face was bright with news and in his hand he held a football.
Speedily walking to her son, she put a hand on his shoulder and commented, "You're home early."
Eyes on the woman and girl, Severus told her, "Misses Quirrell went into labor. Quirinus wanted to go with his parents because he wants to be there for his baby sister or brother, so we had to cancel my football lessons."
"I see," Eileen replied with a smile. "I'll have to write Quincy later."
Putting his ball down, Severus wiped his hands on his pants and stared at the mother and daughter for a long breath. Then, his brows drew together before taking on an astonished curve. Eileen wondered why this was and she was going to pull her son aside when he approached the table. "Hello," Severus said to the girl.
"Good afternoon," the child echoed.
Watching them, she realized what it was her son was experiencing and felt wonder overtake her. Severus very rarely could greet anyone without a vision, but somehow, he was still her bright boy as he took the seat across from Katrina and reached for a teacup of his own.
Hesitant, Eileen called, "Severus...are you alright?"
"I'm fine Mum!" he answered with the largest smile she'd seen on his face in quite a while.
Still looking at Katrina, her son asked, "When you're done with your tea, would you like to come down to my grandpa's potion's lab? I'm making a Blood Replenisher, it's probably about done simmering."
"Um..." the girl mumbled as she ducked behind a curtain of her hair.
Clodagh ended up answering for her daughter, "Yes, Katrina would like that very much."
Severus smiled at her and hurriedly gulped down his own cup of tea and waited with true excitement for the girl to finish. And reluctantly, she did. Once she finished, Severus was up and leading her toward the cellar.
Eying the woman who'd called her a traitor not much earlier, Eileen questioned, and "It's alright that your daughter plays with a half-blood, but it's a true pain to visit a 'traitor' like me?"
Lips curving down, Clodagh sneered, "It's not that poor boy's fault his mother laid down with an ape."
Eileen laughed. This woman could insult her all she liked - it didn't matter to her. As long as Clodagh didn't say anything about Severus, she could care less what someone like her thought.
And for the rest of the visit with Clodagh, Eileen kept up a happy chatter even as the woman attempted to twist it into something else. Who cared if she disapproved of Eileen's life choices? Most people did. No, what mattered now was that her son finally had met a child who did not plague him with visions of death and the "Dark Lord".
-v-v-v-v-v-
When the Selwyns were long gone and their family gathered for dinner at the dining table, Eileen passed her son a cup of pumpkin juice and said, "So, Severus, did you like Katrina?"
Eagerly accepting the cup, her son gave a dazzling smile. "I did! She knew a little bit about potions, so it was fun talking with her about my Blood Replenisher. I think she was impressed that I got to make it all on my own," he told Eileen.
Her own lips curved in pleasure, the woman asked, "And you never saw anything about her and the Dark Lord?"
"What now?" Eileen's mother demanded with interest.
Ignoring her inquiry, Severus bobbed his head and replied, "Not even an incy vision!" Cocking his head to the side then, he remarked in his ever-thoughtful tone, "Though, it was strange. I kept expecting to see something - even if it was going to just be a flash of green or screaming. But, there was nothing and I kept wondering, 'How does she die then? Does she ever die?'. It was strange, but I liked it."
It hurt Eileen a lot more than it probably should have to hear her son talk as he did. He expected to see death, torture and pain when in the company of others and when he didn't, all Severus could wonder about the person before him was what would happen to them. Someday, Eileen hoped he'd find it normal not to see people dying instead of strange.
To do that, though, they had to stop the Dark Lord before he could ever get to the point where he partook in killing of innocents.
Eileen's mother, who'd been fuming silently for several minutes, demanded of them both, "Who did Severus meet that did not cause him visions?"
"The Selwyn's daughter, Katrina," Eileen answered calmly.
Nodding, the old woman's eyes took on a keen glint as she remarked, "Mayhap we should invite them for tea, hm? It would be a nice way to thank Mister Selwyn for helping fill out the paper work for Severus's name change."
"My what?" the boy asked with his mouth half-full with food.
Crinkling her nose, Eileen reached across the table and tapped his mouth close, "Manners, my love," she told him.
Swallowing, Severus asked again, "Why are we changing my name? Why didn't you tell me first?"
"It's not a major change," the boy's grandmother commented. "But your mother and I felt it would be best if we changed your last name. Instead of just Severus Snape, you are now Severus Snape-Prince. It will help you in the future, you see, names mean a lot in this world."
"Oh, I know." Her son scowled, good mood leaving him. "I just wish you'd have let me know before you did it! I mean, I know I'm only ten, but I think I know enough thanks to Mum to have at least been informed earlier!"
Dropping his fork and knife, Eileen's son crossed his arms and murmured, "I might expect Granny to do something like this, but Mum how come you didn't tell me?"
Feeling terrible, the woman reached put down her own utensils and whispered, "I'm sorry. I just didn't-"
"Eileen," her mother broke in. "He's a child, you do not have to give him an explanation for doing what is best! And as a good son, young man, you have no right to make your mother feel inadequate!"
Severus stood up and sneered so cruelly that Eileen was reminded of Tobias.
Voice dark and smooth, he hissed, "My apologies, Grandmother. How silly of me to think that I, who is directly affected by this, should get a say!" And thoroughly disgusted, her son threw down his napkin and stocked away.
"Severus!" Eileen cried, fully intending to get up and chase after her only child.
Face steely, the woman's mother ordered, "Sit down, Eileen. Merlin, child, he's just throwing a fit. In a little while he'll see reason and calm down."
She hesitated, but, eventually, Eileen did sit down, though, she did not touch her dinner again.
-v-v-v-v-v-
A few hours later, Eileen let herself into her son's room and took a seat on his bed. Taking in the space, she smiled at how very child-like it felt despite her son's odd life. Toys were strewn across available surfaces, a number of books were open on his desk and several more were piled up with parchment stuffed between their pages. On his windows, he'd stuck stickers he'd gotten on trips to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley to the glass and she laughed as several little dragons blew fire in-sync.
Shifting on his bed, she looked for a comb in his bedside drawer. Drawing out an ornate silver brush, Eileen wondered if this was something her mother had given Severus, because she did not recognize it and it was far too fancy for her to have picked for her son. Tobias had taught her quite quickly muggle boys didn't need flouncy, pretty things; the basics would do - unless, of course, they were homosexuals (she sensed there was flawed logic there, but seeing as she knew little of them herself, who had she been to disagree?).
It was amusing to her how different the muggle men and wizard men were, where one thought less was more, the other felt more was actually more.
Closing her son's nightstand's drawer, her eyes fell on the picture he kept on top of it. It was of Severus and Quirinus. The two were holding ice cream cones and laughing as Dotty stood behind them with a strained smile of her own.
This was from sometime early last year, Eileen noted. This was before Quincy was out of the doghouse, before Dotty had become pregnant. But this photo was also after Severus told Quirinus about his seeings. She could see it in how attentively the blonde's eyes watched her son even as they laughed.
It was sweet, she thought, how Quincy's boy had stepped up as her Severus's advocate. How he put himself between her son and the world. It also made her fear that her boy would always be in the background, always mimicking Quirinus like a shadow in how he presented himself to the world because he would be too scared to himself in fear of letting his secret be revealed to those who would not understand.
Caressing the picture, she jumped when she heard her son call, "Mum?"
"Severus!" She sighed in relief as she smiled at the boy. His hair was wet and he wore a bathrobe and slippers. Sitting up straighter, she held up the brush and said, "I thought I'd check up on you."
Coming over, her son settled close enough that Eileen could easily reach his head and begin to work the tangles out of his hair. They were quiet for a long time, but finally, Eileen whispered, "I am sorry, you know. I just didn't want you to worry about it, I suppose. The name change is really only for legal purposes, my love, it will making it easier to write you into your grandmother's will and it will make it harder to be disputed when the time comes for inheritances to be divided as you are a now both a Prince in name and blood."
"I'm not mad, not really." Her son sighed. "I just sort of feel empty knowing you and Granny thought to keep this from when I've never keep anything from you."
Pulling the brush through his hair, Eileen put it aside and hugged her son. "Oh, my lovely boy..." Turning him, she smiled a secret grin and remarked, "How about you and I make a pact, Severus? I will never keep anything important from you again and you must never keep anything important from me either."
"I like that idea," Severus praised with a smile of his own. "Shake on it?" he questioned.
Eileen took his hand and swore, "Never will I keep a big secret from you again."
"And I will never hide anything important from you, either," her son finished.
With one last smile, the woman picked up Severus's brush and asked, "Would it be alright if I pulled your hair back?"
How do we feel about this chapter? Are you interested in Katrina Selwyn? Would you like to see more of her?
To my reviewers, Syl, NightmarePrince, Nymphxdora, KodeV, SarahAB, Jemennuie, and 2sidestoryteller29995; thanks you! You're great!
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EDITED: 7/15/15