Chapter 3
Spike walked through the children, Severus' trunk in miniature in his pocket.
It was Monday.
It was funny, he had come to the country last week to check the family to find chaos. He knew he had to find an alternative to Octavius as heir and decided on Severus for a few reasons, not at least to stop Peninah's power over the family. Severus grandfather didn't have the idea to delete Eileen Prince-Snape out of the family by himself, he was a weak, not overly bright wizard who listened to his sister in law. The sister in law that wanted to make sure that her children and grandchildren would be the heirs to the family gold, children and grandchildren that were also weak willed enough to let the matron play her little power games.
Not with Spike.
Finding the boy chock full of magic and talent was very promising. He would need to keep the boy safe from Peninah so he had to get him out of Hogwarts. That the boy was so talented that he could go to Vaduz made the safekeeping easier and validated the sense of Spike's choice to others, not that Spike gave a damn what others thought.
Friday noon he came to the school to look over the grades and learn something about the boy by the Headmaster and his Head of House, Friday after classes they had their talk.
On Saturday Severus did his placement test, yesterday he finished the practical NEWTs and today Spike was back in Scotland for the trunk.
The vampire understood that Severus needed a bit time to get over the extreme changes his life was going through at the moment.
When he was happily immersed in his courses Spike would tell the family of his decision, knowing Peninah would be furious but powerless. Her political and social power would sink to an all time low due to the change in her standing in the family.
Spike's plan for today was easy:
1. get the trunk with Severus things
2. inform Dumbledore that Sev will not go to Hogwarts anymore
3. go to Spinner's End and kill the abusive and alcoholic idiot Tobias Snape slowly and painfully
4. change the rights to the general family vault in Gringotts according to your decision and make sure that in the case of Sevs death the Prince money would never be able to go to Peninah or one of her descendants (Spike knew the woman after all)
5. buy a few things for Sev to wear because he really needs them
Spike had already went to Diagon Alley and chosen a few standard things. There would be real shopping in the near future, but it would last a for few days. Everything was in the trunk.
He had already gone to Gringotts seeing that is was on the way. Spike would be interested when the others realized that the vault was not access-able any more.
Now he would inform Dumbledore and Tobias Snape was kept last as the Highlight of Spike's day.
"With what can I help you today?"
The old man sat behind his wide desk and waited. He wore a neon yellow robe with neon green disappearing and reappearing dots and the matching hat, an eyesore Spike thought was more against the laws of nature then the existence of vampires. He was sure the only reason Dumbledore was wearing something like this was because he was a sadist and didn't see the robes as he was wearing them himself.
When he focused on the face to distract himself from the robes and saw the old face he remembered that Dumbledore was younger than him by a few years.
"I'm just here to inform you that Severus Snape will leave Hogwarts. I have already taken everything of his out of the Slytherin Dungeons."
The Headmaster looked surprised but Spike had expected that.
"Do you need anything in writing?"
Dumbledore accioed a form for Spike to fill.
Albus looked at his old acquaintance. When Dumbledore came to Hogwarts as a first year, Will Prince was already a fifth year Ravenclaw.
It was always a bit strange to see him as he know was, frozen in time. It was strange to see him as anything else but the nice prefect who wanted to study classics and arts and lived in the muggle world to get his degrees in Oxford.
He knew that Will Prince was also Spike, but he never realized all that it meant before. Looking like he did know, swathed in ripped jeans without any visible emotion was disconcerting.
A fleeting thought went to the former Slytherin Snape and what would happen to him.
From what he had heard the boy had been promising.
Yes, Spike could decide to take him out of school but what would the boy be able to do without a formal education?