On a brighter note though, I'm finally caught up with this fic and am written well ahead of my posting, just as I like to be. It helps me to edit it when I can look at five or six chapters in a row like that and make sure that they flow properly and pick up on everything they need to. I find that if I post them too quickly then I make too many stupid mistakes. I haven't written much on Black Prince recently. I'm a bit stuck and this fic just seemed to beg to be written. Guess that's just the way it goes.
Without further ado, here's the Halloween Feast!
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Chapter 47Tallis sat with his Father on one side and Bill on the other, looking over the students below them. It was the night of the Halloween feast and the students were in high spirits. Ron and Hermione were huddled anxiously next to each other at the Gryffindor table, seemingly the only students who were not enjoying the feast. Draco looked a bit concerned to someone who knew him well but very few people could tell it. Tallis looked at his Father closely and noticed the slightly drawn expression. His Father was worried too, although he was able to hide it better than his Gryffindor friends.
They had all been convinced that Voldemort was up to something this year and they had banded together to beg Tallis to stay away from the feast and remain safely in lockdown in the Chamber. He had persevered though, refusing to allow Voldemort to control his life anymore than he already had. Bill hadn't been entirely pleased by his decision but he stood by him when he saw how important it was to his younger lover. He had asked permission to join him for the dinner and was readily accepted. Tallis might not want to curb his life completely for Voldemort's sake but he certainly wasn't about to give up additional protection or a date with his boyfriend for the sake of proving a point.
"How have your lessons with Madam Pomfrey been going, Tallis?" Bill asked. Most of the time that they spent together recently had been focused on the new potion and the two hadn't been able to talk about anything else recently. They also couldn't talk about a lot of topics in the Great Hall but his apprenticeship was one of the few safe topics.
"Much better. I can now call my healing magic to hand immediately without struggling. I'm still working on strength though since I have trouble adjusting the level of my spells. They tend to be too strong or else almost nonexistent. Poppy says that I'll pick it up soon though. She says it is pretty common to have a difficult time with that, even if you get the magic itself relatively quickly."
"I'm sure you'll get it soon. Classes are still ok?"
"Yeah, my kids are great," Tallis said with a grin. "They're learning much more quickly than I had hoped so I think we will have time for a few extra lessons toward the end of the year to help them work ahead some."
"And your kids, Severus?"
Severus glared at Bill. "The little menaces are as incompetent as ever, Bill, as I am sure you are all too aware. In fact, I believe that this lot may be even more inept than the usual. The condition of Britain's students is deplorable. I pity the future of our world if these cretins are anything to judge by."
"Good to see that your vocabulary hasn't failed you in your time of need." Tallis and Poppy snickered quietly at Bill's words.
"Tallis really has been doing well with his healing magic and will soon move on to focusing on healing specific injuries," Poppy said from Severus' other side, leaning over him and making him sneer at her. He loved her dearly but he had an image to maintain. "I was amazed at how quickly he managed to access his magic. I have great hopes for him."
Severus didn't comment but the edges of his lips quirked up into a small smile, making Tallis smile happily. He would never get over the simple joy of making his Father proud. After so many years of indifference from the Dursleys he loved knowing that his parent, his own Father, was proud of his accomplishments.
"You haven't had any more problems with the upper years, have you Tallis?" Poppy asked, remembering the issues that he had earlier in the year. She rarely listened to gossip so she didn't know if anything else had happened. She assumed that if anything too bad happened that she would know about it but she often missed the little things in the day to day operation of the school since she spent so much time in the Infirmary.
"Not really. They are all very well behaved. Father gives them detentions if they look at me wrong. Even without that though they seem to be doing well."
Severus refrained from comment. He had been rather liberal in his assignment of detentions recently. After a week or so the students realized that the detentions were mainly earned for checking out his son. They quickly learned to either look at him more stealthily or else not at all. With the majority of the wizarding world actively bisexual they found that nearly every student, male and female, found Tallis attractive. There were a few young men and one young woman though who were still continually caught lusting after his son. Severus took it as his official duty to teach them exactly why they shouldn't ever bother his son with their affections.
Poppy laughed at his expression, having already listened to one of her friend's rants about how the young men and women of Hogwarts looked at his son. She had no doubt that he protected the young man fiercely in the classroom, especially after the last incident. It seemed that the majority of the students had been horrified at Perry's actions, no matter how much they might be attracted to their Apprentice personally. It was one thing to check out a teacher or even fantasize about him. It was something completely different to try to grope a teacher without his permission. His actions hadn't been supported by anyone.
The feast was drawing to a close without any incident. Tallis was just about to draw a breath of relief when the candles were all extinguished in one fell swoop. The students immediately started to panic, calming slightly when they heard Dumbledore's familiar voice asking them to remain calm while the professors fixed the lights.
A ghostly figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall, seeming to glow from within. The students leaned in, trying to figure out what the figure was. It was definitely not a ghost—that much was clear almost immediately. The figure became more and more corporeal with each breath, finally revealing Voldemort's twisted visage. The students were stunned into silence, most of them seeing Voldemort for the first time. Tallis swallowed hard, knowing that his friends had all been right. He would die tonight.
Voldemort's sibilant voice filled every corner of the Great Hall. "Greetings, Dumbledore," he said with exaggerated kindness. "I am terribly disappointed that I wasn't invited to your little gathering. Not very hospitable of you, was it?"
Dumbledore stood up, addressing Voldemort head on. "What are you doing here, Tom? You know that you are not welcome in my school."
"I came to give Harry a little gift, from one friend to another, on this hallowed occasion."
"As you well know, Harry Potter is not here. Even were he present Tom, you know that he wants nothing to do with you, Tom."
"Ah, but what if he does, my old friend? The world has not been kind to young Harry. Why would he not come running to my side, eager for a friendly ear? When he tires of you and your games, who do you think he will turn to for support?"
Tallis looked nervously to his side for his Father and gasped quietly when he realized that he wasn't there anymore. The professors had quietly surrounded Voldemort while he was talking to Dumbledore and raised their wands simultaneously at him, ready to cast their spells. Tallis' heart filled with dread. Something was very, very wrong about all of this. He felt certain that this would not go well.
"Leave now, you are not wanted here," Dumbledore commanded.
Voldemort merely laughed—a high and cackling noise that set the students' on edge. The younger ones began to cry quietly in fear. The professors all took aim and cast spells to contain Voldemort and imprison him. The flashes of magic hit Voldemort's form simultaneously and then dissolved in a burst of sparkling colors with no visible effect. He looked down at his completely free body and laughed harder. The professors looked at each other in wonder, each one terrified as to how Voldemort had managed to counter their magic without lifting a wand or speaking an incantation.
"I am not currently in Hogwarts at all, my dear Headmaster. I wouldn't want to be rude and disturb your party after all, especially uninvited. I felt the need to come though, to show young Harry something that I have been working on just for him. You see, I spent the past few months experimenting with casting an image of myself into a remote area. That in itself was the easy part—well beneath my skills and barely worthy of my attention. What I did though, was discover a way to do that while retaining my inherent skills, including my magic, and ridding myself of a corporeal form that could be weakened by enemy spells. After all, what is the point of being in more than one place at a time if one of you cannot cast spells or if your enemy could just kill you? The beauty in my new magic comes in my ability to kill two people at once, as it were.
"It is through this new magic, in fact, that I will be able to give my dear Harry his gift. I'm sure that you will see to it that he receives his gift, being the kind and honest man that you are. You see; I have come to realize that we have much in common, young Harry and I. Both of us are talented beyond belief. Both of us used by those around us. Both of us abused by the very muggles who were supposed to protect us. It really is a pity that I didn't find the boy sooner and raise him as my heir," he said contemplatively, mind wandering off to unknown possibilities that he had lost by his simple choice to try to kill Harry rather than kidnap him all those years ago.
He shook himself back into the moment though and continued. "When he receives my gift tell him that he will know how to contact me when he desires to. I eagerly await our alliance. Regardless of my past mistakes in my treatment of they boy whom I wish to be my heir, as a gesture of my goodwill I have decided to rid myself of a traitor while gifting him with the death of his most hated professor. Happy Halloween, Harry," he hissed, aiming his wand at the pale potions master. "Avada Kedavra."
The image disappeared immediately after the spell was cast and the candles lit themselves instantly. Severus' body lay still on the floor in front of the head table. All sight blurred for Tallis down to one point of clarity, the noise of the hall blending to a deafening silence in his ears. It felt for a moment as if the earth itself shook beneath his feet. His Father's pale form lay on the ground, the chest still and eyes closed tightly as if to ward off the curse by refusing to look at death.
"Dad!" Tallis screamed, running shakily toward him, stumbling onto the ground by his side and clutching a still hand desperately, trying to will the very life back into his Father. He was certain that his Father wouldn't leave him, he just needed to make sure that his dad knew that he was needed. His Father hadn't left his side since he learned of their connection. He couldn't possibly leave him now. He wouldn't. "Dad! Daddy!"
He shook the still form, absolutely convinced that Voldemort's spell had not worked. His Father couldn't be dead. It simply could not be. His Father promised he would never leave him alone again.
The students watched in stunned silence as their usually stoic Apprentice fell completely apart, sobbing over his Father's body.
Tallis choked back his sobs for a moment, attempting to wipe the tears from his cheeks even as they still fell. He needed to fix this. He needed to make everything better. How could he be a savior if he couldn't even save his own father? He held out his hands toward his Father's body, willing every ounce of healing energy that he had into the still form. The magic entered Severus with a crackling force but there was no change. It was too late. He was too late.
Bill stepped forward, trying to gently pull Tallis away. He could see that Tallis was barely holding on to sanity right now, and his current grasp of it was questionable given his attempts to heal a dead man. He knew that he needed to get Tallis away to the privacy of their rooms where he could give him some dreamless sleep for a few hours to let him pull back his sanity. "It's too late, love," he whispered, pulling lightly on Tallis' shoulder. "Leave him be."
Tallis shoved him off with an unnatural strength, turning once again to his Father. Tallis knew that he needed to hurry if he wanted to keep his Father. He reached down and ripped his Father's traditional black robes open, the tiny buttons flying across the hall. He quickly wiped the tears from his cheeks once again before reaching out and pooling his healing energy.
He concentrated on gathering his energy into one massive force as he had never allowed himself to do before, previously always holding back for fear of injuring his patient. A hysterical laugh slipped from his lips at that thought but he stamped down the delirium, knowing that he needed to focus on his Father right now. His entire body started to glow as he gathered his strength, visibly channeling it into his dead Father.
"Come away, love. Come away," Bill whispered softly, seeing the madness taking effect more and more in his lover's mind. He needed to get him away from the prying eyes of the students before he had a complete and total breakdown.
Draco stepped up to his side as well, choking back tears of his own as he looked at his godfather, the only true father figure that he had ever known. "It will be alright, Tallis. Come on, you need to leave him now."
Tallis ignored them and continued to attempt to heal his Father. When he saw that it wasn't working desperation finally took true hold of him for the first time in his entire life. He would not lose another Father. He had lost so many parents already he couldn't lose another. He simply refused to survive a Father's death once again.
He had only one recourse left to him. He had no idea what would happen but he quickly decided that the risk was the only option left to him. He reached out with strong, confident hands, knowing that whatever the consequence, it would be worth it. Even if he failed, even if he died in the process, it would be worth it. There was nothing more important right now. He would do it and damn the consequences.
He firmly reached his hands out to his Father's bare chest while still channeling the strongest healing magic that he could, forcing it through his hands with a will that he had never before displayed with his magic. The magic crackled through the air, making the entire school gasp as the excess magic danced off their skin, the air literally snapping with the magic that flowed through it, seeking an outlet.
Poppy stifled a scream as she realized what he was doing, knowing it was too late.
The instant that his hands touched his Father's skin the two men were enveloped in a blinding white light. After a bare second, Tallis' body was thrown across the room, unconscious.
Severus leapt into an upright position, gasping for breath.
The room erupted in chaos.