Mettle
Putting Severus's gifts in a pile at one end of the dining table, Eileen let out a quiet, breathy laugh when she heard the running feet of children outside the room. When Katrina had arrived, Eileen had used the distraction to send her son and Quirinus off so she could finish decorating the room for her son in peace. Plus, it was going to be a lovely surprise for her boy when he stepped in to find the windows framed with silver streamers, balloons of all colors attached to the chairs and a big cake with eleven sparklers in the middle of the table waiting for him.
Chuckling louder than she, Quincy remarked, "It sounds like the children are having a ball!"
"Indeed," Eileen agreed with a smile toward the man and his wife who were busy fawning over their newest child - a girl, Denise. It was a downright ordinary name compared to Quirinus, but maybe it indicated her mother's silent hope. A Muggle child.
The woman and her friend had talked about many things as he slowly worked things out with his wife over the past couple years. Dotty had not only been devastated by Quincy keeping the secret, but also by the fact it was this very secret that would lead to her son being spirited off to a world she'd never be welcome or wanted in.
It had taken several months for Dotty to admit that to Quincy and Eileen knew that she'd been told everything in strictest confidence, so she could not reach out and attempt to comfort the woman - no matter how much she wanted to. Sometimes, Eileen wondered, if Tobias had thought along a similar thread. Had he only been hurt? Or was it as it seemed to her then?
Time had made her forgiving toward her husband, she noted with some dissatisfaction. He'd hurt her, he'd hurt their son! But, despite it all, she could not find a single ember of fury inside herself. Eileen had never blamed Tobias for how he'd felt, because, even now, she felt the fault lay with her.
Tobias had been a good man and surely he would have continued to be so if Severus had not showed his magic so early...She wondered if things would have been different if she'd had the courage to use a memory charm on him. At the very least, it would have given them a few more years of happiness as a family.
It would have been false happiness in the end, yes, but Severus would never have had to know. He could have had a father like she had growing up, one that wanted to give him everything he possessed and then some more...
Shaking her head, Eileen finished with the presents and stood up to see her mother staring at her.
"What is it?" she asked the woman.
Her wrinkle-lined eyes sympathetic, she told her daughter, "You could have that too, my dear, if you let me help you find a good man-"
"I'm fine, thank you," Eileen cut in crisply. She was not interested in dating or marrying or merlin forbid - more children. Tobias had been enough. Severus was enough.
Her mother blinked, look souring instantly. Sighing at the sight, Eileen wiped her hands off and turned to Quincy and Dotty, "Think it's time we call in the children?" she inquired.
Bouncing her daughter, dressed from head to toe in a lovely rose-shade of pink, nodded. "That sounds like an excellent idea, Eileen," she replied.
Smiling at the other woman, Eileen stepped out into the corridor and called to the children, "Severus! Quirinus! Katrina! It's time for cake and presents!"
The trio were so quick to heed her call it was as if they'd apparated.
Giving a laugh, she caught her son and brought him close for a quick kiss before ushering the three of them in.
Severus clambered for the chair by the cake and the other two for the ones across as the adults came to stand close and the house-elves peeked in from the other room (Quincy hadn't explained everything about their world yet to Dotty and Eileen was not sure how the woman would react to their presences and so, had asked them to watch from the kitchen).
Clapping his hands, Quirinus said, "Make a wish, Severus!"
Sparklers putting stars in his galaxy-black eyes, her son gave a smile before blowing with all his elven year old might. Several moments later, the sparklers were out and everyone began to cheer.
"Happy birthday, Severus!" Quincy offered warmly as Severus's mates chorused:
"Presents! Open your presents!"
The adults chuckling at the young ones' enthusiasm, they waited with quiet expectancy for Eileen's son to choose his course of action. Tapping a thumb on his lower lip, the boy sent Katrina and Quirinus a sly smile before teasing, "Oh, I don't know guys...cake might be in order first."
"But Severus," Katrina rebuked, "Mysteries are meant to be solved."
Leaning in close, Quincy whispered to Eileen, "I think that one's going to be a Ravenclaw."
Smiling back at her best friend, the woman agreed, "It's a good thing her older brother is already in Slytherin, I can't imagine her parents would be pleased otherwise."
"Too true, my dear," he chuckled with a heavy undertone.
It was sad, Eileen mused, how much house pride carried on past Hogwarts.
Smirking at her, Severus argued back, "Ah, but part of the fun of a mystery is to be left to wonder for a little while first!"
The younger girl crossed her arms and pushed her lip out in an exaggerated pout. Quirinus who'd been letting the two debate between themselves, offered his thoughts in a last ditch effort to persuade Eileen's son, "The cake will be there long after we go home, but if you don't open them now, who's to say we'll get to them before it's time for us to go home?"
And the tow-headed boy sent a furtive glance to his parents and baby sister who was making tiny squeaky noises that Eileen recalled Severus making when he was hungry as a baby.
"That," Severus smiled, "Is an excellent point. Presents it is!"
The girl made an annoyed noise as Quirinus laughed along with Severus. Eileen was reminded once again, that Severus and Quirinus were still very much a pair despite Katrina's introduction to their friendship. She hoped, with time, that this would change and they'd be a strong trio that would shield her son from the terrors that the world inflicted him with.
Katrina didn't know about the visions - not like Quirinus, but she was sure that this wouldn't last. Despite their teasing of the younger girl, it was quite obvious to her that they liked one another. Severus appreciated her interest in his intellectual endeavors and the thoughtful questions she posed, Quirinus had said a great many times he thought she was funny and liked how good at Gobstones she was. Katrina, herself, admired Severus's intelligence and liked how Quincy's boy found her self-deprecating behavior to be funny.
Eileen had to admit, for being Clodagh's and Thomas's daughter, she had a very self-effacing sort of way about her. She didn't mind throwing her own flaws out in the open or about making herself look silly - or at least she didn't when not in her parent's company. When with her mother or father, Katrina became nearly mute and watched her parents with a hawk-like intensity. Eileen felt it was unfortunate how much of the girl was lost in their company; she hated how the girl became little more than an extension of her parents' will.
Someday, Eileen hoped, she could convince the girl things didn't need to be as such. Maybe, with time, Katrina could come to the Prince Manor and find sanctuary among her and her family's company.
Her father had never tried to make her an extension of himself and had always praised her for her original thoughts and opinions - the same as Eileen tried to do with Severus and it seemed Eileen would have to do the same for Katrina if her parents refused to.
Picking up a parcel wrapped in blue, Severus detached the card taped to it and read,
"Happy Eleventh Birthday, Severus, may you have many more. Love, The Quirrells."
Looking to the quartet, her boy nodded, "Thank you all."
With that finished, he wasted no time in ripping away the paper to reveal a book. "The Martian Chronicles," Severus read aloud.
"I read it and lent it many times while working as a librarian in the Muggle world," Quincy explained, "It's an excellent collection of stories and Quirinus thought you would like it too."
Skimming the first page of the book, Severus agreed, "Oh, I have no doubts..." It seemed he'd forget all his other presents too as he turned to the next page, but Katrina didn't let him get away with it for long.
"No! No reading when you still have presents left!" the girl exclaimed as she put one hand on her hip and reached across the table to pluck the paperback from Severus's fingers.
Frowning, Severus proclaimed, "Fine, but I'm opening your present last!"
"Do what you like, I'm already last for everything else," Katrina sassed as Severus picked up his grandmother's gift to him.
Poking the ornate little box adorned with a single green ribbon, Severus undid it and opened the cube. A moment later, he lifted out a silver chain with-
Eileen gasped and looked to her mother. "Father's ring?"
"He might as well have it now," the older woman replied. "I realize the ring will be bit large for him for a few years - hence the chain."
Looking at the family heirloom with entrapped attention, Severus said nothing for several minutes and then, with a slow frown, he turned to Eileen and demanded, "Help me put it on."
Eileen wondered about the serious look on her son's face, but she complied and a moment later, Severus admired it against the gray of his button-up. "The next present, Severus," Eileen whispered to her son.
giving a single dip of his head, Severus grabbed her present. Working away the silver and red paper, he admired the green dress robes she'd given him. "These look handsome mum, are we going some place nice?" he questioned.
"We will be, actually," Eileen admitted. "But, we can talk about that later," she told Severus. Her mother had finally convinced her that having dinner with another pureblood family wouldn't be so bad and so, next weekend, they'd be going to the Selwyn's for the most proper meal she'd had since Eileen was a school girl.
Nodding, Severus folded it back up and picked up Katrina's gift. She'd decorated it with stickers of little wizards that were casting multi-colored spells and Eileen sighed as her son decimated it to shreds in favor of knowing what lay inside.
"I thought you might like a nice journal - especially since you're always talking about inventing your own potions and spells. I thought it'd be nicer if you could write it out in a book of its' own over the margins of your schoolbooks," she imparted to him with an anxious tinge to her voice.
Petting the soft leather, Severus looked at Katrina and gifted her with a truly dazzling smile. "This will be absolutely perfect, Katrina," he told her.
The girl's face glowed with pride.
"Oh! That reminds me, here you are, Severus. It came this morning, but I thought you might like showing it off while everyone was here," Eileen told her son as she reached into her pocket to give him his Hogwarts's letter.
Snatching it from her hand, Severus opened and read it and laughed. "I've been accepted - not like there was any doubt about that!"
But even so, everyone applauded. It was a great accomplishment to be accepted to Hogwarts - no matter how expected.
"I believe now would be the time to start cutting the cake," Eileen's mother remarked as the applause died away.
-v-v-v-v-v-
Dotty, busy with Denise upstairs, and Severus with Quirinus out front playing with a football, Eileen took a sip of her tea before asking Quincy, "Anything to report?"
Drumming his fingers, the man gave a jerky shrug. "Unfortunately, as the things Severus sees are not yet history, there are no records for me to review and because the lad only sees death, the best I've been able to do is study the student population and attempt to guess which youths are the ones that Severus see in his visions. Unluckily, boys and grown men share few similarities.
"Though...there is something interesting that I've heard some seventh years whispering about. They talk about something called "the mark" and if they plan to take it right out of school or if they are to abstain because of their future endeavors. It's mostly been whispered about among the Slytherins, but I distinctly recall a young lady getting cut down to size by her Ravenclaw boyfriend for wanting to take it. And then there was the list of pros and cons a Gryffindor boy left behind by accident," he rambled off.
Sitting up straighter, Eileen demanded, "Do you still have the list?"
"Who do you think I am, Eileen?" Quincy scoffed with a impish twinkle to his eye. Reaching into his shirt breast-pocket, he slipped a folded piece of parchment across to her. "There it is, study it when you get home."
Putting it in her muggle purse, the woman agreed, "I will." Bitting at her lip then, she asked, "Do you feel that this mark business and the Dark Lord of Severus's visions are linked?"
"I'm hoping not, but somehow I don't think we'll be that lucky," her best mate admitted with a weary sigh. "Eileen, those kids, some of them call me a traitor when they don't think I'm listening. The pureblood fanaticism was intolerable when we were going to school, but these days, it's down right unbearable. I don't know how are boys are going to make it through with their blood," he confided in Eileen.
Squaring her jaw, she declared, "We'll give them our support, love and promise them that there is more beyond Hogwarts. We reassure them always and we never stop even when they don't believe us. And do you know why, Quincy? Because we are proof that those beliefs can be left behind. We made our lives in the muggle world, we found our happinesses and learned there is much more here than what the fanatics would lead you to believe."
"You really are something," the man grinned. "Sometimes..."
Touching his hand, Eileen reminded him, "Your wife and daughter are upstairs, your son is playing with mine just outside and my mother would finally disown me if we dared."
He gave a wistful sort of sigh and commented, "If I'd had the nerves before we left school."
"If you'd have had them then, I'm verily sure I would have run all the faster to the muggle world," Eileen returned.
This brought out a low laugh and Quincy gave her hand a short squeeze. "You are the wittiest woman I know," he told her.
"It's a shame you never met my grandmother, my father said she was hysterical - and if I'd been old enough to appreciate her humor before she died, I'm sure I'd have agreed," the woman replied.
Quincy just smiled at her with knowing eyes and turned his attention to the staircase behind them when it began to creak with the weight of his wife.
And despite not wanting a man, Eileen wished someone's gaze would go to her as Quincy's went to his wife.
How did you guys feel about Severus's birthday party? An improvement from the last one you read, don't you think? And what about what Quincy's finding and Eileen's feelings?
To reviewers, SarahAB, Syl, Nymphxdora, Dixie.f.9, Jemennuie, and NightmarePrince, thanks so much guys! I appreciate it :)
Thank you all very much for reading and pretty please review!
P.S. if you got a moment, vote on the poll on my page as well :)